Love in the Time of Asteroids

“Surprise!” She whispers coyly like Marilyn Monroe on stage for Mr. President. Alex was, in fact, surprised that she remembered his birthday. They had only been going out for two months, he felt touched.

Ava had gotten a birthday reminder notification on Facebook the day before. She moves aside with a graceful sweep to reveal his present.

He gasps like a child discovering his first bicycle. It’s not a bicycle, though, it’s a telescope. A Bresser Space Explorer, to be exact. He’s speechless. “How did you..” 

“Get it here?” Ava finishes the sentence for him. “I just asked Bill to bring it and set it up while we went for a walk.” She said with a nonchalance only rich people can have. Bill was her butler, but the Montgomerys never called him that. He was just Bill and he was just there, a mole-like man instructed to sniff out all the dirt inside the house and out of it, and the Montgomerys had a lot of it - a family with old money and a lot of new connections.

“This.. is amazing.” He touches the smooth black surface of the telescope. "But it’s too much, I can’t.” He fumbles.

“Don’t be silly, it was worth the reaction.” She smiles at him and it's contagious, he smiles back. “Besides, now we can try and get a closer look at the asteroid deflection, the single greatest event in human history.” She flops on the sofa and crosses her legs beneath her excitedly.

“I think it’s a really bad idea by the way, so much can go wrong”, he sits next to her and switches on the TV to the news, where a middle-aged reporter with curly hair and fresh makeup is standing outside a building.

“We’re coming to you live from outside NASA’s headquarters in Washington D.C. where for the first time in history, world leaders have come together to save Earth from a catastrophic danger. An asteroid with a diameter of approximately 590 miles is on course for Earth. This news was first reported about a month ago from just inside the building behind me, and since then States Parties have been deliberating behind closed doors for the best course of action. The asteroid nicknamed by people as “The Rock'', is predicted to make an impact with Earth in less than a week…”

Ava chuckles, “I love how they named it after Dwayne Johnson.”

“Probably to dull the terror of imminent death. Nothing breaks society quicker than panic”, he says.

“Were you always this cynical?” She asks not maliciously but with genuine curiosity.

“Not always.” He smiles. “There was a time when I believed in the beauty of this world but then I grew up and found out that in reality; humans are just greedy, selfish, and violent. Taking what they can and giving back very little. Using recyclable straws while serving veal, vowing righteousness while raping children, and turning their logos the color of pride while running sweatshops in Bangladesh. Maybe humans are the parasites. Maybe this is just Earth’s chance to cleanse itself.” He finishes suddenly realising he might’ve said too much.

She’s looking down, “It’s kind of sad that you feel that way. I think there’s still a lot of beauty in the world but more importantly, there’s hope. I know it’s easy to think that you’re just one person and you can’t change the world all by yourself but there are people out there doing just that. How else do you explain Dr. Jane Goodall, Greta Thunberg, and…” she looks up at him with her eyebrow raised, “Keanu Reeves.”

Alex laughs, it’s not that she was unable to see his point, she did but she looked at it through her admirably rose-colored glasses and he loved that. The reporter cuts in:

“We are now joined by Derek Wang, the Director of Communications at Space Technology Mission Directorate.” The enthusiastic reporter is standing next to a stone-faced man in his forties. “Can you tell us more about the plan of action?” She puts the mic in front of him.

“Uh, yes. The idea is to alter the asteroid's trajectory away from Earth by imparting a change in its velocity. Hitting an asteroid with a missile in an attempt to deflect it is a concept known as a kinetic impactor, and it's proposed by the state representatives as the solution we need. We plan to carry out the strike at 2100 hours. In approximately twenty minutes. We have received invaluable insights from scientists all over the world and have no doubts about the success of our mission. We urge everyone to stay indoors and stay calm. We’ve got this.”

With that, the classic news music cuts to the live coverage of the asteroid being streamed. A supermassive, shiny rock capable of mass murder. And yet, holding within itself secrets of the universe. Beautiful and deadly. Just like us.

“Are you scared?” She asks, her voice wavering at the end.

“A little.” He admits. “Are you?”

She laughs nervously. “A little, yeah! But I know what we should do.”

“What?” He asks.

“Discuss scenarios. So we can be ready. I’ll start. The missile hits the asteroid just right, at the sweet spot, it steers far away from us where it belongs, and everybody sleeps safe tonight. In that case, I would love to see you tomorrow for dinner.” she grins.

“Or” He raises his finger in mock seriousness. “They miss it, the asteroid destroys half of the world and the rest of us fade into extinction. Either way..” He pauses and looks straight into her deep, green eyes, “I’m really glad I met you.” He leans in as her lips curl up in a smile to meet his. 

They are interrupted by the muted beeping of the countdown on TV, the screen shows a ray of intense yellow light of the missile rising to defend the fate of all humankind. Alex holds Ava’s hand, perhaps a little too tight. The heavy silence between them is palpable and so is the mutual understanding that nothing they say right now will make any difference to what was about to happen. 

The numbers on the screen are dwindling, “3..2..1.”

“Housten, there is impact.” says a static voice from the TV as Ava cheers loudly, but Alex sits unmoving, his face pale.

“What’s wrong?” But he doesn’t answer. His eyes are glued to the TV.

As Ava turns to look, the words quietly escape her disbelieving mouth, “No… It can’t be.”

Instead of deflecting the asteroid, the missile has broken it into pieces and those big, jagged rocks are flying in all directions, fast. 

The screen glitches back to the reporter who has now lost all her luster and looks visibly shaken. “This is an emergency announcement. It seems that uh, the missile has created some debris too big to be burned by the Earth’s atmosphere... which is now... heading towards Earth. An initial assessment from NASA shows that the following areas might be affected.” She holds her finger to her ear to listen more closely. “Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, large parts of the United States of America” — Her voice breaks, and she takes a moment to collect herself. Taking a deep breath, she carries on: “Algeria, Libya, Spain, France, and Germany. The nearest rock is predicted to make contact as early as tomorrow evening. Everyone watching this is advised to take cover in safe houses and underground facilities.” She pauses and looks straight at the camera. “May God be with you all.” The screen goes black.

They both jump at the sudden sound of her phone ringing. 

“Hello?” She answers. “Hi Dad… Yes, I saw… I’m with Alex… He’s gone? Where?... I know… I can meet you... Okay, I’ll be there.

She hangs up and looks at him. “Bill’s gone.”

“What do you mean?” Alex asks.

“I guess he saw what happened and went to his family. Also, he stole the car.” She tells him matter-of-factly. “Okay, I’m about to say something privileged but also something that might save our lives.” She pauses. “My dad had an underground bunker built a couple of years ago, I thought he was being ridiculous but now I’m kind of glad that he did. He has a helicopter waiting for us outside the city. There’s space for one more person. It’s yours if you want.”

Alex can already hear the chaos building outside. People yelling, cars honking, the sounds of society disintegrating into madness. He didn’t have a family to run to. He looks at her and realizes that maybe, she could be it. 

“Alright, let’s go.” He says with a straight face.

She hugs him. “He sent the location here.” She shows him the maps on her phone. The place was an hour away. They hear the sound of glass breaking outside. Things were getting worse. They needed to leave now.

“Okay here’s the plan.” He throws her a backpack. “Fill this with food and water, whatever you can find, whatever that will last, then go to the bathroom and get all the medicines in the mirror cabinet.”

He grabs a backpack for himself and safely tucks the telescope in. “They were going to need this more than ever”, he thought. Moving quickly to his bookcase, he opens a drawer that contains his knife collection. Something of a hobby. He puts his stiletto knife in his pocket. Sharp point, slender blade, used by the military as a combat knife. He picks another one, his favorite, the Karambit knife, a multi-purpose curved blade used both as an agricultural tool and a self-defense weapon in 11th-century Indonesia. Next, he grabs all the cash he has and stuffs it in his bag.

“Hey, you ready?” Ava asks, with a full bag.

“Yeah... Wait!” Alex stops. “We can’t leave Steve.”

“Who’s Steve?” She asks, confused.

He points towards the bowl on his desk where a small, bright goldfish is swimming, completely oblivious that the world is about to end. 

He grabs a flask from his desk, fills it with water, and puts Steve lovingly inside it. “Don’t worry, buddy. I’ll keep you safe.” He sticks the bottle in the side of his backpack.

Ava feels herself falling in love a little bit. 

“Alright,” Alex says, extending his hand toward her. “You and me till the end of time?”

She nods and grabs his hand, “You know what we should call ourselves?”

“What?” He asks.

“Doom-mates.”