Signal out of space.

SIGNAL OUT OF SPACE  

Alexander Semenov,  

translated by Yelyzaveta Kashyna  

The events described below began on August 4, 2018.  

Shortly, no asteroid, meteorite, or a satellite that has exhausted its resources but even a particle of cosmic dust, will be able to fall to the Earth without the attention of scientists, journalists, and simply inquisitive people. Everyone is looking at the sky. Only romantics and astronomers looked there before. Now everyone is watching because the most unpredictable phenomena and incidents that are not subject to people are expected to be there on which scientists and fantasy authors occasionally warn of. Moreover, it is such a flashpoint so that, apparently, the author will not finish writing this story, as something will fall on the ground. Journalists emotionally write about this more regularly, catching up with readers on any occasion of the appearance of information about asteroids from scientists. But journalistic fails have probably created an atmosphere similar to the paroemia about the shepherd boy, who screamed from time to time for fun – a wolf, a wolf! The inhabitants stopped responding, and then a real wolf came. And haha. So, if now something flies from space into the sky and burns there with a roar or without it, then this does not particularly surprise anyone. If curious people approximately determine the place where the alien fell from the outer space, then, of course, they try to find at least some remnants of space material. And here it is not only a matter of curiosity but also of mercantile interests. Depending on the cosmic origin of the substance, the cost of the 1 kilogram can reach thousands of US dollars. This and also many other things about the space Simon, a young scientist involved in non-linear optical media at the Kharkiv Research Institute, knew. On this day, he and his friends rested on the banks of the Saltivskiy reservoir. And somewhere in the evening, when the sun was going down to the horizon, they witnessed the fall of some burning cosmic fragments, with the thunder of jet engines piercing the natural silence of the forest and calming down, in the forest, as it seemed to them, about a kilometer from their tents. Simon was just about to take pictures of the sunset and stood with a camera in his hands. He was lucky because he held the camera in the direction where the cosmic fairy show unfolded, which lasted no more than 3 seconds. But Simon managed to make only 5 shots. The crew vividly discussed the incident at the night campfire, telling various stories on this matter. The fellows were slightly excited about the conversations about space and went to bed late. That night Simon could not fall asleep for a long time. He saw either burning cosmic jets or fantastic stories about the aliens and their ships, inspired by stories around the fire. The remaining two days of active recreation on the water did not betray the vivid impressions of the space event. Moreover, a couple of photos turned out of pretty high quality. Simon decided to take some time and go to the forest, where was the space debris. He wanted to do this on his own, without the haste and fuss that would have arisen, if he had been campaigning for the search the crew. Shortly they returned to Kharkiv, Simon had a surprise. Two other pictures of the fall of this asteroid made by various people were published on the Internet. For Simon, the most important thing was the different camera angles rather than the thing that other people were shooting. He managed to make a map of the geolocation of the shooting and determine the position of the object. It was also possible to distinguish a rather small area of the probable landing of space guests – 100 meters in diameter.  

This weekend, Simon got into his car and went in search of one, not knowing what. The forest was not dense, but overgrown with young shoots and thoroughly covered with plant garbage. Simon was already wandering for more than 4 hours and was thinking to end the search and possibly continue it the next time. Suddenly he caught sight of several fresh, neatly cut thick branches lying along one direction at a distance of 10-15 meters from each other. Simon immediately understood what this meant. He found the places of their cuts on the trees and with his eye he approximately built the ballistics of a knife that cut off these three branches. Soon he lively wielded a spade, tearing apart the recently loosened soil surface. Simon did not feel tired, he was excited by the expectation of something unusual. And the fate took pity on his curiosity and diligence. The sunshine was already gone in the forest, and Simon started feeling tired that was a certain sign of disappointment when suddenly a line from the Bible got into his mind: “Look for and rite”. At the bottom of a dug ditch, he saw two small pieces lumping with a bluish glow. As it turned out, there were three of them, transparent, similar to melted glass, rounded in the size of a frutescent cherry. They were flickering, just flickering with an alternating bluish glow. Simon put these balls on his palm and looked at them fascinated. It was a minute full of magic. Simon drove home and sang all sorts of words with a sense of unusual relief and pleasure. It was as if he had successfully completed a very complex experiment.  

The next day, Simon made an analysis of composition at the institute and found out that the pieces are made of pure carbon, which means it is a diamond since this is the only transparent form of carbon. But why is this diamond continuously glowing, speaking in the physical language luminescent? The optical emission spectrum could not be measured on a conventional spectrometer, since the sample was continuously luminesced with variable intensity. Simon has measured the isotopic composition of carbon, and his hunch was confirmed. The diamond contained up to 30% at. percent of the radioactive isotope of carbon14C, the radiance of which was a constant source of a photoluminescence excitation in a diamond. This isotope has a half-decay of more than 5700 years and, during radioactive decay, emits fast electrons, which excite cold emission in the diamond crystal – photoluminescence. In natural terrestrial diamonds, the 14C content is extremely low, just traces, and here there are 30% at. percent. “There must be a reason”, thought Simon. But why the emission is inconsistent? Simon could not understand that. In academic studies, as in other production areas, a lot of things can be done by personal connections. Therefore, Simon handed over one sample to his familiar Ph. D. student Solone, who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Boston, to measure the luminescence spectrum on a high-resolution spectrometer. Solona became interested in an unusual sample and promised to measure the temporal characteristics of the luminescence spectrum with the highest resolution. Two weeks passed. Solonа was silent, but Simon was burning with impatience, slept poorly and ate badly, lost weight, and became irritable. Friends and relatives could not understand what was happening to him. Some advised to see a doctor, but Simon laughed it off. Something like, he fell in love. He decided not to bother Solonа, since she is a responsible girl and promised to notify immediately as soon as she gets the result.  

Finally, Solona sent a brief measurement report. That report and her explanation made Simon even more excited. Overwhelmed by conflicting feelings, Simon read Solona's message three times to make sure that he understood everything correctly. So, a brief summary of Solona's email. She measured the time sweep of the luminescence spectrum of this unusual diamond, which had one narrow emission line with a wavelength of 415 nm. Actually, this is a well-known center of diamond luminescence formed by nitrogen complexes. But what happened to the instability of the signal over time was a mystery to Solona for several days. The radiation line intensity changed in a second, namely, in every second the 415 nm line intensity was different. Solona measured more than a dozen spectra sweeps until she accidentally noticed, looking at the printed spectra on the table (by the way, looking at the spectra on a computer, she did not notice this, since she could not see the general view) that some time sweeps were repeated. She began to examine the spectra more closely and became convinced that the areas of sweeps of 186 seconds in length were repeated, almost identical, except for the last 16 seconds. Solona processed the spectra, normalizing their intensities to the maximum, and received a temporary scan of the spectrum in the form of a set of 93 digits. The long numerical row also contained spaces, one or two, since there was no signal in these seconds. She printed 5 sets of rows of 93 digits, in which only the last 4 digits were different. These rows of numbers lay on her table the second day, periodically Solona examined them for a long time, trying to see at least some consistency or just any sense. But she did not have any ideas.  

While Simon was burning with impatience in Kharkiv, in Boston Solona, who thought that she is smart at solid-state physics, irritably moved away from the spectra laid out on the table. And it is unknown how this story could end if Solon was a bluestocking, who often smart physical (from the “physics” word) women are. But Solona had good relations with many physicists at MIT and not only. So one of them came over for a cup of tea to Solona’s place. Dr. Hwang, that is the name of the physicist, works at the NASA department on the search and analysis of potentially dangerous cosmic bodies for the Earth. They had some tea with pizza that he brought and chatted sweetly. Solona was glancing at the annoying lists of the obscure numbers on the table. Hwang noticed this, came up to the table, and started looking at the rows of numbers. Solon distracted him, saying that it did not worth his attention. But after some time, Hwang came up to the table again and said confidently:  

– “I saw these digital rows somewhere. ” I saw them for sure. ”  

But he could not add anything else. Now, not only Simon was sick with expectations in Kharkiv, but Solona was also nervous and excited after the conversation with Hwang in Boston. Smart Chinese do not talk to the winds. A day later, Hwang called and indifferently said that he needed to meet. But this unusual indifferent tone of Hwang made Solona excited to her limits. It’s just that she never heard such a voice from Hwang.  

Therefore, she realized that something unusual happened. Solona rushed to the Hwang’s department that was on the second floor of the next building. But she entered in the Hwang’s office calmly, not in a hurry, demonstrating indifference, as she came over by chance. But when she saw on Hwang’s desk a printout with numbers in rows, her peace of mind has vanished. She took out her piece of paper with measured and processed rows of numbers and laid it down.  

Both bowed down the sheets and Solona even began to move her fingers, comparing the lists of numbers. Both numerical series were identical, except for the last 4 digits, which were not on the Hwang’s list, but were not repeated in the measured intensity spectra, and if the last digits are recognized as a number, it successively decreased. Also, it became clear that space in the series of numbers in the Solona’s list corresponded to a comma that separated the order of the number, and two spaces separated the numbers.  

After examining the lists on two sheets, when it became clear to both physicists that the series were identical, Solona asked calmly:  

“Well, and what are these numbers for? ” Have you copied them from me? – She tried to joke.  

Hwang in response, silently put down another piece of paper with numbers that were written in a column indicating their designations. Solona began to read unfamiliar words -  

Efialt  

Eccentricity (e) 0, 231  

The semi-major axis (a) 414. 835 million km  

Perihelion (q) 319. 008 million km  

Aphelion (Q) 510. 662 million km  

Orbital period (P) 2555, 643 days  

Average orbital velocity 17, 645 km / s  

Inclination (i) 34. 838 °  

Longitude of the ascending node (Ω) 173, 132 °  

Argument of perihelion (ω) 310, 257 550 × 516  

Median Anomaly (M) 327. 974 °  

Diameter 322 km  

Weight 8, 11•1019 kg  

Density 3, 0 g / cm³  

Rotation period 37, 81 h  

Albedo 0, 1587  

She was reading and periodically comparing with her list of numbers 0, 231 414, 835 510, 662 2555, 643 17, 645 310, 257 550 × 516 327, 974 112 2, 11 • 1020 3, 0 7, 81 0, 1587 29, 49 40, 92 731, 05277  

– And what does it mean – suddenly in a fading voice, asked Solona, guessing what she would hear now.  

"These are the parameters of the asteroid Efialt, " Hwang began to say somehow bored — he got into our field of observation about 4 years ago. It has an unknown origin, burst into the asteroid belt from another galaxy, and immediately attracted our attention with its size and trajectory.  

– You see, its diameter is more than 300 kilometers, and the calculated orbital period is more than 7 years. But, – Hwang paused – the calculated orbit of Efialt turned out to be very dangerous for the Earth since at the very first turn it could collide with the Earth on the opposite courses. Of course, we adjust the Efialt orbit every week, but there is no relief. Although many major experts believe this is too early to panic. More precisely, the calculation of the orbit can be done 1 year before the space meeting.  

But the information that is contained in the codes of your measurements suggests that a collision will happen, and it will happen – Hwang looked at the last row of Solona's numbers – in 731, 04377 days. The last 8 digits indicate the time of the meeting in days. Therefore, the last 4 digits in each your measurement decreased, because 1 hour between measurements corresponds to 0, 041 days. I don’t know where did you get this data – Hwang took a piece of paper and marked with pencil another 8 penultimate digits – even the place of the asteroid’s fall to Earth is indicated here. This is the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with coordinates 29, 49 0 north latitude and 40, 920 west longitude.  

– And what could happen? – asked Solon with a trembling voice.  

– I think a global catastrophe will happen, and maybe even the last in the history of the Earth planet, – Hwang answered thoughtfully.  

– Please tell me where did you get these numbers – and Solona, depressed by the catastrophic picture of the near future, told everything she knew. But she knew just a little. So at the end of her message to Simon, she wrote that he urgently needed to come and make an official message to NASA experts. Hwang had already made a brief report to his boss, and he admitted that the information is serious and said that the case is urgent. Simon realized that his forebodings on the unusual effect of the cosmic sample were justified. Even though he was a young scholar, who was not very good in jurisprudence, he realized that he had some legal issues with the state of Ukraine. Firstly, everything that is located under the ground belongs to the state, and secondly, such a valuable example as a diamond crossed the state border without any formalities. He honestly wrote to Solona that he still does not know how to resolve these issues. But Hwang’s chef has already spread the information on an unusual timer for the Earth’s existence that has already launched the American national security machine, which can solve any issues if they are a real threat to the US national security. Therefore, when Simons’ problems got into that machine in chain order, there was an answer a day later:  

“Simon will receive the answer from his government himself. ”  

The American government machine can solve and settle any issues even in other countries. In a few days, Simon has summoned to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) regional department. At the appointed time, Simon was sitting in the office of the senior SBU officer, who was looking at Simon with an interest – what is this a kind of a guy about whom he received instructions from the SBU top-down, and which have to be carried out immediately. The officer started asking Simon about the sample that he transferred to the United States.  

Simon told everything honestly, using the term “carbon” instead of a diamond for the name of the material so that SBU officer would not be distracted from the topic of conversation, since the word “diamond” is a different and hot topic for all security officials who are not burdened with the knowledge of physics. The officer asked to indicate the location of the sample on an electronic small-scale map. It was only about one sample since Simon did not tell anyone that he had found 3 meteorite samples. The officer asked why Simon transferred the sample to the United States and received an answer that in Ukraine there are no such instruments for measuring luminescence spectra with a high time resolution.  

Then the officer asked Simon with an inquiring voice if he understood that he had seriously violated the law by taking the possession of the sample and sending it illegally to another country. There was a bad pause and Simon's mouth went dry, and his back muscle ached after a workout. But the officer, having strict instructions not to do anything on his own, said with regret:  

– Fortunately, the question has been removed by your high patron at the government level. Sign the paper on the transfer of the sample to the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.  

Simon did that with great relief. Finally, the officer asked why there was so much noise around this sample. Simon honestly said that he did not know, but everyone would find it out soon. The officer felt that Simon was hiding something, but again, following strict instructions, said goodbye:  

“Perhaps we will still need you. ”  

On the same day, Simon received a message that he got a visa to the United States. The packing was short. Simon received a business trip assignment on a joint study of a space-based carbon sample with NASA scientists at his institute, which was signed by the astonished director after a call from the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The director was trying to figure out what all this meant. But Simon could escape from the questioning on a plausible ground.  

In 3 days, the plane with Simon landed at Logan Airport near Boston. In another 3 hours, he was sitting with Solona and Hwang in an Italian restaurant eating pizza and discussing the latest news related to the information from the cosmic diamond. The news was expected. Cosmic diamond luminescence has been measured every hour. And, consequently, the number of hours before the asteroid collides the Earth decreased. While Simon was on his way to Boston, the 6th figure corresponding to the day also changed. 728 days were left on the day of Simon's arrival. That is for two years and 7 days. Simon was invited to a meeting at the NASA laboratory in the afternoon, where Hwang actually worked. There Simon was listened very carefully and got a lot of questions, some of them, as Simon noted, did not seem to be directly related to the cosmic sample. But he also understood that at the meeting there were not only scientists but experts from other areas of the US national security. The experts of the CIA, the FBI, and the NАSA had a question that was burning their minds – who and why is transmitting the information about the end of the world. Without an understanding of that, it was impossible to evaluate the truthfulness of the information. But scientists put the question differently. Since the information sent coincides with the calculations of the Efialt parameters made on Earth, this information can be trusted. Then the main question becomes simple and clear even to a schoolboy or a housewife – a catastrophe is approaching the Earth and it needs to be prevented. At the meeting, it was announced that NASA created a working team of a large number of scientists and specialists in various fields to work on the Efialt project, having the biggest material and organizational support. It also turned out that at the first stage only one foreigner was included in the lineup of the group of physicists – Simon, a citizen of Ukraine. In his turn, Simon knew only Solona and Hwang from the present group. When Simon heard that he was included in the Efialt group, he mentally praised himself for not being lazy and had been improved his English skills to the good spoken level with his American colleagues. At the first stage, the Efialt team had to urgently prepare a full-fledged report for the Executive Office of the President for the extraordinary UN session on the discussion of the situation and making a common decision to prevent a global catastrophe. Although the origin and motives of the information sources, and even the technology of recording and reproducing photoluminescence spectra in real-time, were not known, the reproducible data was assigned the highest degree of reliability. The pioneers of space information Solona, Simon, and Hwang got an assignment to constantly monitor and measure the sample. The photoluminescence of the sample was measured automatically every hour, processed, and transmitted to the analytical department of the team. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, the more detailed information on the Efialt parameters was obtained. The asteroid had an irregular shape, similar to a flattened ellipsoid with dimensions of 240x115x45 km, which someone aptly called "flatbread". It was unusual that the flat sides of Efialt had different, very different albedos. One side had an albedo of 80, the opposite of 5, that is, the one side was white and the other black. Due to the different reflection of sunlight by the opposite sides, the Efialt was either clearly visible or not visible through the telescope in the optical range under the rotation period. Also, due to the different albedo, Efialt made oscillatory movements along the trajectory due to the different pressure of sunlight on the sides. In one of the common rooms of the Efialt project team, apparently, to stimulate activity, a display showed the countdown to the collision of the Earth with Efialt. A few days later, psychologists who were also on the team noticed that many members of the team were under the hypnosis of changing timer numbers. People came silently, looked at the scoreboard, and silently left. Some came into the room several times a day, hoping that everything could change, that the damned Efialt would deviate from the orbit, and that the same damned diamond would report it. But the miracle did not happen. Diamond steadily and without stopping reduced the time of the earthly life. It sounded, or maybe it just seemed that it sounded, Europe’s track “The Final Countdown”. Before the report at the UN session, the Executive Office of the President decided not to disseminate information about Efialt to the media to avoid unhealthy rumors and useless panic.  

The direct members of the Efialt team, mostly young people, felt most sharply how the time of existence of planet Earth was going by. Most of the scientists and experts were so pessimistic about the approaching cataclysm. This opinion was already expressed at the first meeting that a collision with Efialt would be disastrous for the Earth. It was the younger generation who always at all times left a bright, oozing, and emotional coloring of any disturbances in the countries or societies in historical memoirs. It is these colors that writers and poets then use, artistically describing revolutions and wars, to show all the depths of the falls and the heights of the rise of the human soul in the era of fractures. And the construction of a multifaceted objective perception or flat space of understanding of historical events was the destiny of the servants of the ruling elites and dictators. This has always been the case.  

The historical events of the 20th century are close to the author of these lines, and they can be used for the illustration of the latest statements. World War II claimed tens of millions of lives of people around the world. A lot of documentaries and analytical literature has been written about the war, which the bloody dictators Hitler and Stalin formally started on September 1st. It was written scrupulously and mercilessly in all the countries involved in this massacre (83 countries), in which casualties and human victims were calculated to the last man. It is written so that it is clear what happened and how, and to learn from this tragedy and never repeat it again. The Victory Day over Nazi Germany is celebrated on May 8th as a day of remembrance and reunion. It is noted in all the countries, except for the main injured participant in the war, Russia (the successor to the USSR), in which the number of casualties has not been fully calculated, and so far (2018) has only been estimated with an accuracy of several million people. In a country in which people died millions at the fronts and camps of Stalin. In which the man has always been countless material. As one of the bloody marshals of Stalin said: “Women will give birth to a big number of people”, and sent tens of thousands of people to unjustified, senseless death. Women will give birth. And the history of World War II has been replaced by the mythical history of the Great Patriotic War to please the ruling general secretaries and presidents of Russia. But in the memory and hearts of the living participants of the war, the real war was a terrible tragedy that even the Victory Day could not soften. Therefore, they began to celebrate Victory Day as a holiday in the USSR only 20 years later in 1965, when most of the soldiers with crippled souls and bodies left to a better world. And now the further this day goes to the past, the more strange form and content take on this holiday in Russia. It became a political show in which the population, in fact, is pumped up with calls for a new war. But there will certainly never be a new war, because the ruling clan of Russia has another purpose when advocating the ideas of the Russian world for its population, which is rising from its knees and is ready to repeat everything, "grandfathers fought" – inscriptions on imported cars from defeated countries (they do not have their own car models and cannot count the dead grandfathers). Moreover, the understandable brand of the past years of memory and respect for the fallen heroes "no one is forgotten, and nothing is forgotten" has been replaced by the brand of war "grandfathers fought, we can repeat it. " This is because everyone and everything is forgotten, and the truth is that no one is actually interested in war. Religious and mythological show. And the ruling round-faced, glossy, elite people themselves have long lived in the rotten west or in America, they have money, real estate, they take treatments and rest there, their families live there and children study, they did not earn money (steal) to lose them. Therefore, they will never allow a big new war to happen. But for the unity of its zombified poor population for the fight with enemies, the idea of Victory Day, rather than the real Day of Victory, fits very well. And the enemies are needed constantly so that the people have no other thoughts, for example, about the grounds of their problems. Since propaganda alone is not enough, you need to periodically make bloody shows on TV to better unite and scroll through a local meat grinder, for example, senseless wars in Georgia, Ukraine, Syria, and the Central African Republic. Thus, in Russia, the space of understanding and emotional perception of such an event as the World War II has been replaced by a theatrical mythological political show that preaches hatred for all enemies of Russia. And around there are already only enemies. Therefore, the Victory Day show is only for internal use in Russia. And for better pumping, barbarian politicians, servants of the president of modern Russia use artistic descriptions of the emotional experiences of people who fell into the meat grinder of World War II, whose personal tragedy is not visible, or the bloody concept of claiming Stalin’s world domination with his oprichnicks is hidden. This is a distraction from the plot, for which the author asks readers for understanding, but which is relevant and fits into the further development of events.  

According to the analysis of NASA scientists, the scenario of the fall of Efialt to Earth in terms of the expected consequences will be more significant and important for earthlings than World War II. The only difference between a natural cataclysm and war is that this catastrophe is not controlled and does not obey to any crazy dictator rather than Earth. And therefore, no one can directly use the fight against the enemy for their propaganda or ideological purposes. It is a rare case when the space of understanding and emotional perception of a global historical event should be adequate. The US President made a report at the UN emergency session on the situation with the asteroid Efialt 12 days after the start of work on the project with the same name in the country. If we say that the report caused a shock among the UN parliamentarians, then this will not be strong enough. The entire report was broadcasting online to all countries and immediately commented on by local experts. Although the president's report did not contain categorical statements, experts of all levels, both scientific, religious, and mystical astrological, said in unison – That is all, that is the end of the world. The ability of people to hyperbolize unusual and incomprehensible events quickly played their role. Within a few days on Earth, life has changed. A new, somehow desperate stage of life has begun. It was as if they dramatically reduced the lighting on the whole Earth and said that in 2 years they would turn it off completely and forever. In the meantime, the UN has begun the continuous work and discussion of the Security Council Panel of Experts on the solutions to prevent a catastrophe. While opening the discussion, the UN Secretary General said that for the first time the planet was faced with such a serious threat, and the concentration of efforts of all countries, not just countries with space powers, will be required to protect Earth. He also added that he strongly asks all speakers to move out of the discussion with all their political, corporate, and personal interests. We have a little time left, and we have no right to spend it on the outside issues.  

Further, the author will give a biography of the activity of people of different layers of human society, which usually exist independently from each other according to various criteria: active and spectators, rich and poor, those in power and workers, honest and thieves, smart and stupid, etc.  

At an expanded meeting of the UN Security Council, the projects on Earth protection were reviewed on the following criteria: efficiency, feasibility, and the possibility of implementation within one year. The main speakers were scientists from countries active in space, and where the departments on cosmic bodies control had existed for a long time. Unlike ordinary international scientific conferences, where participants patiently listen to a lot of useless messages, at the emergency Security Council meeting, all the speeches were in line with a joint constructive approach to changing the trajectory of a stellar body. The existing by this time ideas on displacing cosmic bodies by the engine of a space tug, phased by radiation from powerful lasers, setting sail for the solar wind, bleaching the surface to increase light pressure, and finally landing on the Bruce Willis asteroid were not discussed due to their lack of adaptability. The situation was like a fire accident, so a more reliable and feasible way is needed. Such a method has long been known, discussed, and theoretically developed. It is about transferring to the cosmic body the energy of a powerful explosion perpendicular to the direction of its motion, which will lead to the deviation of the trajectory of the body from its orbit. The unresolved problems that existed at the time of the discussion of the shock technology of deflecting Efialt from orbit were the main subject of the discussion by scientists and specialists. Firstly, the energy of Efialt, rushing at a speed of approximately 24 km/s, is very large compared to the energy transmitted by a nuclear explosion. Therefore, an asteroid should be given a nuclear injection as early as possible, so that even the slightest deviation at the beginning of the path with change its trajectory from the Earth’s orbit when they meet. Tentatively, the necessary reserve of time before the collision with the Earth was determined as 1 year. Given the flight times of the nuclear carriers deployed by the nuclear countries of the world, to meet the required time, it is necessary to launch rockets in 3-4 months so that they would reach Efialt in 8-9 months. In this case, the option of the complete destruction of the asteroid was not considered, since it is impossible to grind the asteroid to harmless sizes, and instead of receiving one body, the center of mass of an uncontrolled number of parts of the asteroid will only worsen the consequences of the collision. In addition to the preparation of nuclear charge carriers, there was another fundamental problem of the detonation of a nuclear charge on an asteroid. When a rocket and an asteroid collide at speeds of several tens of km/s, the nuclear charge simply does not have time to explode, it will simply be mechanically destroyed. The only affordable way to overcome this issue was previously proposed by NASA in the form of a tandem rocket system (Hypervelocity Asteroid Intercept Vehicle concept), in which the head part is a non-nuclear blank. When a rocket collides with an asteroid, it will hit it first at a speed of about ten kilometers per second, leaving behind a small funnel. It is that funnel, in which the second part of the rocket should fall – a warhead with a capacity of several megatons, which should explode in the funnel without touching its bottom, and the bulk of its energy will be transferred to the asteroid. Such a tandem concept by this time was developed only theoretically, and only countries with great potential and experience in space rocket science could implement it. Therefore, all countries, including countries with developed space industries, without any objections supported the UN decision to assign to the United States, Russia, and China the preparation of tandem missile systems as soon as possible. 13 research centers began to independently prepare ballistics calculations and missile guidance on the target, after which calculations the optimal flight option will be chosen. The timing of the preparation of missile systems was set to an unprecedentedly short – 2 months. In the USA, which has the largest fleet of rocket systems, NASA Corporation began to prepare tandems based on heavy carriers Delta IV Heavy, in the SpaceX campaign of Ilon Mask based on Falcon 9 Heavy. In China, the Changzheng-5 heavy rocket was taken as the basis. Russia undertook to modernize the proven Proton-M carrier. The latest developments in heavy media in these countries were not taken into account, since it would take more than one year to complete them. Given the great uncertainty as a result of the asteroid attack, it was proposed to launch all prepared carriers by the time of launch. It was immediately announced that the United States plans to prepare 4 rockets, China – 3 and Russia – 2 carriers. The heroic work of scientists and space industry specialists around the world began, and they were the first who felt an unprecedented responsibility for saving the Earth. On the Internet, the Efialt website posted an on-line schedule of the implementation of the missile preparation plan by the participating countries. This site immediately became the most popular in the world with daily views by tens of millions of excited earthlings.  

At the final stage of the extraordinary meeting of the Security Council, an unprecedented decision on an absolute ceasefire on the planet was made, which related not only to international conflicts but also to armed confrontations in some countries. This was something like a truce among animals in jungles during the great drought described by Rudyard Kipling in the fairy tale "Mowgli". Proposing this resolution, the UN Secretary General emphasized that to save the Earth, it is necessary to combine all the intellectual, spiritual, and material resources of earthlings. And no one has the right to distract peoples from the fight against an impending threat. Any violators of this resolution will be promptly and severely punished without any warning. For this, an operational group with maximum combat capabilities based on the most advanced aviation and missile weapons was created. A day was allotted to bring this UN resolution to the attention of all interested parties. The information on violators of the resolution should be prepared by ground and space secret service. Over two months, the UN task force has identified and rigidly eliminated 4 violations of the resolution in various parts of the world. The first devastating stroke was inflicted on a militant camp in the Central African Republic, which did not react to the UN decision at all. The second stroke destroyed an important base camp of a group of ISIS militants in northern Syria, for which the UN decision is also not the law. The third chronological missile attack destroyed a column of militant tanks in Donbas, which, continuing their aggression against Ukraine, approached the demarcation line in violation of the temporary agreements. But only after the fourth crushing retribution, the shots on Earth practically became quiet. Because the most cynical and arrogant criminals understand well only one language, the language of power. The fourth stroke, the most powerful, was inflicted on a command post in North Korea, which completely or permanently beheaded the North Korean army. This happened after a demonstrative launch of a ballistic missile by the country's leadership after the announcement of a complete ceasefire on Earth. All, all the villains on Earth have calmed down after a reverent retaliation for the hypocritical and arrogant behavior of the DPRK high command.  

And at the same time, unusual projects began to be implemented on Earth that would have been difficult to imagine in a quiet time of life on Earth. According to official data from 2018, about 2, 000 billionaires live and work on Earth, or just do not work. Most part of these people has a closed lifestyle, without wide coverage of their personal lives and their money. The exception is a small part of the super-rich people who have grown their capital in recent years on the fertile ground of information technology. Despite a little fame, the society of billionaires closely monitors the climate of the society on Earth and, if necessary, has a significant impact on key decisions in countries or public organizations. For example, the election of heads of state. After all, cash does not like uncontrolled social changes. But in this case, the money men had to discuss and decide on their own to save not only their fortunes but also their lives, without waiting for the result of a space technological experiment. Billionaires are not used to expecting, they always acted themselves and received results. At an emergency meeting of the richest people convened on one of the islands in the Pacific, two options were considered. The first is Noah's Ark. Namely to build several large spaceships and to enter low Earth orbit to wait there out a possible Earth catastrophe for several months. Theoretically, such a project has been developed for several years by the richest man in the world, Jeffrey Bezos, who promised by 2020 to start relocating people to the moon on his own huge heavy New Shepard spaceships.  

However, according to the most optimistic calculations for the construction of space Noah's Arks, there was not enough time, especially since the main resources of space enterprises were used under the UN project. Therefore, without much discussion on the space theme, a decision was quickly made on the construction of underground towns that could withstand the most severe blows and ensure the livelihoods of residents for several years. Many rich people, of course, already had experience in building individual underground residential buildings. But in the current circumstances of frightening suspense, most elite founders have decided that public life support systems underground are more reliable and efficient than individual ones. A few days later, the grandiose design and construction of three Noah underground cities began on three continents in places significantly rising at sea level: in North America in Wyoming, in Europe in the foothills of the Alps in the territory of the Principality of Liechtenstein, and in Asia in northern China in Sichuan Province. Each underground city was designed for 7-10 thousand inhabitants. But when designing Noah cities and agreeing on a list of their inhabitants, problems arose with the future forced communication and moral compatibility of the city people. The fact is that the super-rich people can be conditionally divided into two groups. The first group is large, they are billionaires with legal capital, mainly residents of developed countries. And the second group is comprised out of the fast billionaires with the criminal origin of their wealth. Basically, these are immigrants from the countries of the former Soviet Union, who, with blood, have torn the national heritage of a crumbling country and dotted their way of enrichment with corpses. To keep the stolen wealth and not to go to jail or stay alive, criminal billionaires were forced to organize criminal groups and even seized power in several countries. To illustrate, this happened in Russia. Therefore, criminal super-rich people who were not accepted into the White Noah cities began to design another Noah city, as they say, in black, in the north of the Urals. Observing the traditions of the life of billionaires, both projects and construction were not widely covered. In a halcyon period, such freaks of rich people would be the main top topics of all media resources. However, in the context of the countdown of the lifetime on earth, the interests of ordinary people changed dramatically and the greatest attention of the inhabitants of the Earth was caused by the information related to the preparation of the space operation, forecasts of all kinds of experts, recommendations of the rescue services. And every morning the population of the Earth began its day looking at the number of days remaining until the end of the world.  

At the same time, military heavy tandems-carriers were built with a frantic pace on the rocket enterprises of the three countries. Besides the urgency of launches, the tacit competition influenced the work of the national missile industries. The United States space industry was the best prepared, which has been successfully developed not only at NASA's federal corporation but also during three private campaigns over the past twenty years. Therefore, the country did not experience a lack of technical solutions, technologies, and specialists. The assembly and preparation of 4 heavy rockets went smoothly and on time. Therefore, the business situation was consistent with the well-known proverb about the American mentality – harness quickly and go quickly. A similar proverb on the first part about the Russian business mentality – harness for a long time, also corresponded to the situation, but the second part – go quickly— remained in patriarchal Russia with the trio of horses. Modern Russia, which has been mired over the past twenty years in "getting off its knees" by force, has begun to fulfill its part of the space project with problems. There was a shortage of technology, specialists, and even components. Usually, in crisis situations of the high-tech projects, Kremlin gave the command to execute the project at any cost, and through the third countries and agents, it was possible to solve many technological issues. But in this situation, there was no one to pay any price. Everyone was busy with their projects. And there was no time for additional operations. But on TV, the Russian people saw optimistic pictures from a comic shipyard. But sometimes these were pictures from the past years or photoshop from other countries, but people accepted everything at face value since they did not know another source of information. They were accustomed to living on television. In Russia, the leading group fully exploited the monopoly on the media. Least of all messages came from the Chinese space agency. The Xinhua Central News Agency of China regularly reported that the Chinese missile forces clearly implemented the plan. And experts had no doubt that China would complete its part of the project on time. Indeed, for the Chinese, the worst shame is to lose face, even in the face of a possible disaster.  

According to the preliminary calculations to displace Efialt from the trajectory of a collision with the Earth, the launches of military missiles must be completed no later than the second half of February 2019. The first missiles should arrive at the starting positions for pre-launch preparation in December – January. The hot autumn of 2018 came to Earth.  

As the time approached the end of 2018, negative emotional stress people have has increased. Statistical data began to register social deviations in the population of the Earth from the parameters of slow-paced life. The first signals of changes came from the most sensitive indicator of people's lives – trade, which by the end of the year always showed the greatest revival. There were clear trends in the decline of population purchasing activity in the countries of the Big 20. Demand for durable goods and expensive goods, including real estate, fell sharply. Sales of all non-essential goods fell down, except for building materials. Apparently, people began to build individual shelters. The trend of a slight increase in demand for alcoholic beverages was outlined. This is also understandable. Then macroeconomic activity indicators in leading countries fluttered. There was a tendency of reduction of the growth of labor productivity not only in the manufacturing sector but if it is possible to draw an analogy, in the financial sectors: banks, exchanges.  

The recession of the main stock indices began. Earthlings were mentally and physically gradually distracted from business, their life prospects narrowed to two years, and therefore the arrow of the mood barometer began to move toward panic emotions. And such mood is the best soil for spiritual pastors of all ranks from major faiths to sects, astrologers, shamans, voodoo, and other foretellers. Their period of harvesting of human souls and bodies has come. This was facilitated by a certain confusion of the central media, which did not receive clear directives and instructions from government bodies to cover the situation with a possible catastrophe.  

No one could and did not want to take responsibility for predicting the results of the space operation. But forecasters of all levels in unison voiced about the end of the world, which is visible from their writings, bibles, stars, prophetic dreams, maps, signs in the sky. What else did Nostradamus say about this, and then Wang? Even before the first missile launches, half of the world's population was so charged, or rather discharged, by preachers and spiritual pastors that as a result of life disorientation and loss of optimism on Earth, a large increase in suicides began. Going into another world was for many the best way to a brighter future. Cases of collective suicides of whole sects became known. The largest case of the voluntary death of 340 people of one of the sects caused a great resonance in the world. At the meeting of the UN committee (now all issues were considered by UN committees), a decision was made to strengthen the promotion of a positive orientation and optimism among people. The ratings of popular entertainment shows of the TV industry have rolled down. The most rated programs on TV were programs with detailed instructions on how people behave in the event of a serious disaster on Earth. These programs with the play of all possible situations to save people on all channels were repeated regularly throughout the day. In some countries, where TV and other mass media were instruments of preserving power and suppressing any dissent, propagandists had a period of some confusion.  

The concepts of fooling the population that was built on the search for enemies and inciting hatred for them collapse. First, you cannot flood the cosmic enemy with streams of lies and you will not blame it for hatred, for example, of the Russian world. Secondly, when you speak and show the truth, the problems of your own country and the vices of your own power become apparent, and life looks different. The people may not understand and not forgive, and some governments may not live up to the space alien. If the contradiction between television and reality reaches a critical magnitude, then top propagandists and politicians clowns, and the national guard will not help.  

Time on Earth from the end of September began to flow much faster under global stress compared to the pre-period. And now, the launch sites of Space-X spaceport in Texas, NASA spaceport in Florida, Russian Baikonur cosmodrome, and Jiuquan cosmodrome in China rolled out first rockets for prelaunch. According to the official information reports the work at space shipyards was going according to the plan, although unofficial sources spoke of emerging problems in the manufacture of tandems in all countries. Since the maximum reliability of control systems and mechanisms for the operation of shock rockets was required. News from cosmodromes in popularity was as the news about football matches.  

Thanks to journalists, many specialists and engineers working at spaceports gained worldwide popularity. Many members of the Efialt project team have also gained fame, including timer keepers, as reporters wrote, Solona, Hwang, and Simon. The PL signal of the diamond was measured continuously. Therefore, scientists went on shifts and saw each other on shift changes. However, they often remained in each other's shifts, discussing common issues. Thanks to fame, now I had to answer the questions of a large number of users of social networks and just my friends. Especially everyone was interested in the mysterious story of the appearance of the cosmic model and the no less complicated story of Solona's relationship with Simon. The journalists tried hard here and therefore the relations of young scientists in various messages looked romantic. It should be said that the joint unusual work, responsibility, some mystery brought Solona and Simon closer and the romanticism of their relationship invented by the journalists approached reality over time. They were on friendly terms before that, but over time, both began to feel physical warmth when they met. At the end of the year, before Christmas, an event occurred that really brought them together. But it was not connected with the Christmas holidays.  

One day, Solona called Simon, who was on a daily shift of measurements and excitedly asked to come. Simon felt something was wrong and hurried to the lab. There he saw the tear-stained Solona and the guys from the security service. Solona immediately said that the sample was missing. Everyone was shocked by what had happened. The story instantly became resonant. The story instantly became resonant. Someone immediately wrote on the networks that the timer was turned off and the Earth was saved. The FBI began to work out two versions of theft. First, someone was looking for a gem, still a diamond. It turned out that this is unusual, but the real version. Since the building was crammed with cameras, it quickly established a trespasser, namely a female trespasser. On the camera records in the laboratory, it was clearly visible how one of the cleaning ladies, taking advantage of Solona's minute absence, went to the spectrometer, opened the hatch of the measuring unit, and pulled out a diamond. The cleaning lady was quickly found and questioned. She confessed. The girl was a member of one sect in which the devil's diamond was declared the cause of the cosmic apocalypse. And the salvation of the Earth is possible if this evil is destroyed. She managed to transfer the diamond to her pastor, and that very evening, under the collective prayer of the flock, he burned the diamond with a gas burner (the pastor has graduated from a chemical college). The good news of saving the earth quickly spread among cities and the planet’s axes among religious fans. And even the official release about the incident, reported that there was no connection between the measurements and a possible catastrophe, convinced only a few. Meanwhile, Simon called his 12-year-old younger sister in Kharkiv, who knew the best what and where was in her brother’s working table. He asked her to find a tin box of cigarettes, open and tell him what she would see. The little sister joyfully reported that she sees two round glass pieces that seem to shimmer in blue.  

"Thank you, darling, ” said Simon. “Put them in their place. I will come in a couple of days. What should I bring you? ”, he said to preoccupy his sister and distract her from the samples.  

He informed the project coordinator about the backup version with the sample, and the surprised boss, with some distrust, gave him three days to travel. In the evening, Simon went to Solon and told her about the second sample. They went for a walk along the snowy and brightly illuminated streets of Boston. It was Christmas Eve. A walk distracted Simon and Solona from big and small issues for a while and brought their state of mind into a long-forgotten calmness. Solona gladly agreed to have dinner at the restaurant and before entering the restaurant they kissed for the first time, it just happened. They were enveloped in a loving atmosphere, which dissolved for a couple the barrier into the world of a beautiful relationship between man and woman. Flushed up passion shortened their dinner in a restaurant to the limit and now they are in Solona’s apartment hugging near the door and undressing each other. Amorous admiration of each other lasted almost all night.  

“And why didn’t we have this before? ” Simon asked relaxed Solona.  

“This is probably due to the theft of the sample, ” Solona answered smiling, falling asleep on Simon’s shoulder.  

In the morning, Simon flew to Kharkiv. Three people knew about the purpose of his trip. Three days later, in the evening, he watched as Solon set up a new sample of diamonds and turned on the spectrometer. They stood there and watched with some tension at the monitors of the Hwang spectrometer and the project coordinator. The photoluminescence spectrum turned out to be identical, and its processing showed a decrease in the time of the meeting of Efialt with the Earth by 178 hours, which fully corresponds to the time of absence of the sample in the spectrometer. The data of the first and second diamond samples turned out to be completely synchronous, which testified to their common origin.  

The timer has been restored and additional safety measures have been taken. Out of sheer joy, Solona and Simon kissed each other, and Hwang realized with surprise and regret that the couple kissed not just in a friendly way. But he endured this news bravely like a man and even offered to continue measuring with his shift. Solona and Simon joyfully and gratefully accepted Hwang's offer. And they even promised him a festive bottle of wine. After all, it was New Year's Eve. This night, filled with hot kisses and passionate hugs of lovers, flew even faster than at the first meeting. In the morning they ran to college together. The couple was very well together, and they decided not to leave each other either day or night. It was necessary for them. Their love was like some kind of compensator for global stress, squeezing people out of the Earth. Such symptoms of overcoming the depressed state of the impending catastrophe were felt by many young people, regardless of race, religion, and social status in different places of the globe. Moreover, inner salvation was not brought by sex itself, naked sex, but by a love that elevates sex. TV did not tell about this, this subconsciousness itself included the social instinct of self-preservation. Social networks were filled with romantic messages. The world threw itself into arms.  

On February 6, 2019, NASA announced a launch of its first Delta V1 Heavy military heavy rocket on February 13, which has to meet with Efialt in 9 months. The warhead of the rocket carried a charge of 6 megatons. 3. 5 billion people watch the launch live. Although the tandem rocket did not manage to pass the full cycle of tests on the ground, the launch was successful, but everyone was worried about the finish of the Delta at Efialt, which should happen in 244 days. Many people set timers for this period. The second Falcon 9 Heavy rocket of Elon Musk, after a short delay, was also successfully launched in 3 days. The combat charge on it was the same – 6 Mt. Without prior notice, in 5 days, two Changzheng-5 missiles in China were successfully launched in a row. The announced carrier charge was 10 and 15 megatons. And on February 25, the Russian Proton-M was successfully launched with a charge of 4 megatons. In early March, all launched rockets exceeded the second space speed of 11. 2 km/s and laid down on the combat trajectory, forming a caravan of about 10 thousand kilometers in length. In addition to telemetry signals from missiles received by ground stations, the only active Hubble space telescope observed the flight of carriers. This telescope, in fact, a space observatory, was the only source of information about a detailed image of a space enemy in the UV, visible, and IR range.  

It was Hubble who gave information about the shape, light contrast of the asteroid surfaces, and its kinetic characteristics. And it was Hubble who checked the space timer diamond. The images of the asteroid taught by Hubble began to be periodically displayed on NASA websites and on TV. Hubble was in Earth orbit, which later played a fateful role in the space epic. After the launch of the first series of missiles in the countries of the launchers, no less intense work continued to launch the second series, as necessary as the first. The fact is that the estimate of the probability of a productive strike on the asteroid, taking into account all the problems, gave a value in the range of 10-15%. Therefore, it was necessary to launch at least 10 missiles. At the end of March, two more rockets rolled out to the starting positions of the USA, the first was NASA Delta V1 Heavy, and the second one belonged to Ilon Mask – Falcon 9 Heavy. And on April 1, this pair of missiles with the same charge successfully launched. Following them at the beginning of April, the carriers in China – Changzheng-5, and in Russia – Proton-5, took their starting positions. Both missiles successfully launched on April 10, and after 2 days, having made several turns around the Earth, they had to leave the combat trajectory. All the missiles flew is a such way. The Russians could not resist the pathos and reported that this launch was dedicated to the anniversary of Cosmonautics Day, which they celebrated by launching a special carrier with an increased nuclear charge – 8 MT. This was the last positive news in the space project. At the last accelerating orbit revolution around the Earth, malfunctions occurred in the Proton control system. At the Russian Mission Control Center, missiles went crazy trying to restore the Proton system. But, for unknown reasons, Proton turned into a space terminator. His guidance system turned on and he began to search for the target of the attack. While people on Earth were discussing the issue of Proton's self-destruction in orbit, complicated by a large amount of nuclear material, Proton discovered and captured the target – the Chinese carrier Changzheng. But this was not yet known on Earth, since rockets were separated by about 1000 km. But when Proton began to draw closer to the Chinese missile, they decided on the self-liquidation of Proton, which did not lead to anything. As it turned out, the self-destruction on Proton did not work, because it was disabled. Apparently, the enemies did not intercept the rocket. The Chinese tried to maneuver their rocket to avoid a collision, but Proton successfully carried out the attack, and on April 12 at 8 am in space at a distance of 600 km from the Earth, a double nuclear explosion with a total capacity of 21 Mt. It was cool. From the place of the explosion, an intense wave of electromagnetic radiation swept in all directions, affecting all electronic devices in its path. Many earthlings in the eastern hemisphere saw a bright flash in the sky and those who did not see it felt the consequences of interruptions in mobile communications, the Internet, and television, which were broadcast via satellites. The interruptions were significant, as more than 50 communication and navigation satellites in the line of sight of the nuclear outbreak failed. On Earth, the control stations for the lines of power generating enterprises have shut down. There were huge interruptions in the management of air and surface transport. In several countries, air defense and missile defense systems automatically announced an air alert and issued a message about an air attack. A little chaos arose on Earth, about which one journalist wrote that the Almighty decided to conduct a small rehearsal before the end of the world. But nevertheless, the greatest trouble awaited earthlings in space. The only cosmic eye was disabled – the Hubble telescope. Only the IR channel, and even that with a lower resolution, remained a working observation channel. If ground technical problems can be restored within a few months, the issue of the timing of repair or replacement of the Hubble Space Observatory was not even discussed. So this problem was complex and uncertain. A possible solution to Hubble's malfunction was to replace it with a Chinese space autonomous orbital module with a Xuntian optical telescope with similar characteristics, which the Chinese were planning to launch in 2021. But in the new conditions, when the Earth lost its only cosmic eye, the Chinese said they would try to launch their observatory a year earlier, in 2020, before the possible collision with an asteroid, which was expected on September 1, 2020.  

The world press made a big fuss about the nuclear accident, and some ardent journalists and politicians directly accused Russia of sabotaging the space project and the huge losses on earth, estimated at tens or maybe hundreds of billions of dollars. The Kremlin Glavkomos answered the accusations in the usual style – this is not us, we were not there, this is sabotage, it must be proved in the court. Well, Russia knows how to litigate well, pouring millions of dollars into the right people in Europe. And thus, dragging out any obvious business for years. Apparently, based on a short human life and the absence of judgment in heaven.  

The electronic chaos that arose as a result of a space accident and a nuclear explosion was a catalyst for negative processes that exacerbate stress among the inhabitants of the Earth.  

The data of dispassionate statistics, objectively measuring the parameters of micro and macroeconomics in the leading countries of the world, continued accelerated movements in different directions. Indices of leading stock exchanges dived non-stop, forcing exchanges to stop trading more and more often. At the end of 2019, the seven major exchanges of the world made a joint statement on the suspension of trading for 9 months, due to extremely low activity and the continued decline in bidders. In the ocean of retail trade, only the flows of food trade and basic necessities remained unchanged. Trade-in manufactured goods have fallen sharply, forcing them to slow down to the enterprise producing them. An especially painful slowdown in production affected the Chinese economy, producing all groups of goods for all markets of the world. Hundreds of millions of Chinese were gradually unemployed. Similar processes took place in other countries. In the social sphere, extremely negative phenomena have begun that change the demography of the planet. The number of marriages and divorces has decreased. The birth rate has fallen dramatically and the mortality rate has also increased significantly. If in calm time the average ratio of fertility to mortality was 2, 1, by the end of 2019 this ratio was 0, 8. The saddest thing is that the moral foundations of society have faltered, crime has begun to increase, accompanied by wild robberies and showdowns between criminal groups. In the former CIS countries, this reminded the beginning of the 90s, filled with the corpses of innocent people and bandits.  

More and more rabid preachers erupted to the ethers, calling for crazy actions, either without waiting for the end of the world to die, then burn everything, then sacrifice people to the Almighty, or go to the desert or the ocean to everyone. Meanwhile, a caravan of 5 heavy missiles with combat charges was already approaching an asteroid along the calculated trajectory. At the beginning of October, the Delta approached the Efialt trajectory at a distance of about 10 million km. But since the Delta trajectory was at a great angle to the Efialt trajectory, the rocket cameras did not capture the image of the asteroid. But on the ground at the rocket launchers, the time of extreme excitement came, at a distance of about 10 thousand km in autonomous mode, the Delta should capture the target, clarify the course and hit exactly in its body, the projection area of which is more than 600 sq. km. But the problem was not the size of the body, but at the mutual speeds of Efialt and Delta, about 20 and 15 km/s. The tasks of meeting the target and the projectile at such speeds on Earth were not solved in principle. If Delta misses, there will be no second case. While the reader read the last line, a huge cosmic body already flew by him, or the reader flew by.  

The Delta parabola aligned its trajectory parallel to the asteroid soon and began approaching it, combining its course with the opposite direction of motion of the cosmic body. Finally, on Earth, they saw an image of an asteroid in the past, which was 15 minutes behind the real one. The appearance of the asteroid was very similar to the image of "pita", which was transmitted by Hubble. The light and dark surfaces of the asteroid were clearly distinguishable. NASA broadcast the Delta attack video on its website online. And on Earth, everyone who could, holding their breath, watched an approaching asteroid, which, perhaps, would approach the Earth this way. The delta was approaching, and in the last 15 minutes, people saw a detailed image of the dark surface of Efialt, which increased until it disappeared, not thinking that they had seen his past condition. Сonsidering the fact that at the last moment the camera showed a middle part of the asteroid, the rocket hit the target. The combat component of the attack remained unclear. Did they succeed in the detonation of a nuclear charge on the surface of Efialt? Over the next 10 days, earthlings saw that two more missiles, Falcon and Changzheng, reached Efialt, but the main question whether the warheads of the missiles blown up remained unclear. As the rockets were approaching in different phases of its own rotation, the surface images were different, and it was impossible to understand if any changes had occurred. Hubble was silent, only he could detect EMP flashes from nuclear explosions at such a distance. But when Proton approached the asteroid, it became clear to everyone that at least one explosion was accurate. The asteroid got a small satellite, about 2 km in size, which flew the same course. This meant one of the nuclear explosions separated part of the asteroid. This information caused conflicting forecasts and emotions of experts. Firstly, it was not clear whether Efialt received enough impulse to change its orbit. If it received, then the cosmic body of 2 km, rushing at a speed of 20 km / s, also threatens disaster. If Efialt has not received an impulse, then nothing changes. Hubble was silent. But the timer keepers Solona, Simon, and Hwang discovered large changes in diamond readings. The sets of numbers increased, and the frequency of their repetition was disrupted. Scientists could not identify the evidence. Oddly enough, only one mystical diamond signal revealed changes in the Efialt parameters. But while the information was not allowed upstairs, since it was not clear what these signals jump meant. But everything became clear a week later, after an asteroid attack with the last pair of Delta and Falcon rockets. The processed diamond signal began to stably give out other parameters of the cosmic body. The parameters corresponded to a fragment of an asteroid with an average size of 1970 m, weighing 260 million tons, flying at a speed of 21, 7 km / s, while the place and time of the meeting with the Earth did not change – September 1, the Atlantic Ocean. This meant one thing that Efialt сame away and would fly past Earth. However, its debris can bring devastating consequences.  

The information that the Earth will not die immediately, but will suffer for a long time, oddly enough, caused a surge of great optimism among many people. They felt a chance of salvation. In November 2019, Efialt with his satellite was at the peak of its orbit relative to the Earth at a distance of 60 million km and could already be observed well by ground-based telescopes, especially when Efialt turned with a shiny surface. But ground-based telescopes did not separate the small satellite from the asteroid, since they flew very close. Moreover, the asteroid was moving away from the earth at perihelion and was supposed to return to Earth in August 2020. Since the data obtained from the diamond spectrum did not have objective confirmation, the Efialt project team could not develop a further action plan. On Earth, negative phenomena continued in anticipation of the doomsday, but with a certain amount of euphoria. By the end of 2019, Noah cities were mainly built and their settlement began, which turned out to be no less difficult than the construction itself. Demand and prices for gold and diamonds soared. Conscious of the paralysis of fear, the rich rushed to save their money. In many countries rivers of alcohol flowed, which barely had time to fill. The preachers did not let up, and collective exits to heaven continued. But somehow the people stopped perceiving the deaths of others. There were too many around. Something has changed in the relationship between Solonа and Simon. At Christmas 2019, she informed Simon that she was pregnant. Their small world was filled with new feelings that strengthened their faith in life. When they calculated the date of birth of the child, they realized that on these days two events, the birth of the child and the death of the planet, might coincide. Simon hugged Solonа, kissed, and said that everything would be fine. Solona snuggled up to him and answered – I believe so. In April 2020, the asteroid turned to Earth and went closer. With ground-based telescopes, it was already visible that the trajectories of Efialt and its fragment were divided and calculations showed that Efialt would not touch the Earth, although it would pass very close. But his companion is going exactly to meet. After heated debates in the Security Council Committee and the Efialt project team, they decided to launch a very powerful nuclear charge to try to fragment the asteroid satellite. Only the United States and China had such a ready-made missile resource. At the end of April, Delta –V1 and Changzheng –5 were launched with enhanced charges of 20 and 25 Mt, respectively. They were supposed to attack the satellite at the end of June. And according to optimistic calculations, they will have to crush the asteroid into small parts, if its strength is calculated. After their launch, the UN Security Council Committee made a decision, without wasting time, to stop all large energy, chemical, and metallurgical enterprises around the world in August to avoid a man-made disaster. The stress of waiting for the denouement of the space epic compressed time, and it flew, as they used to say, at the speed of a courier train. At the end of June, the rockets attacked the satellite, but not successfully. Both missed. As rocket specialists explained, a possible reason for the unsuccessful hit was an unusual property of the satellite. Its rotation period, i. e., the change of the shiny and dark surface of the body in missile target identification systems coincided with the period of the information processing cycle by the onboard computers of the missiles, and they were redirected to other bright space targets. Glory to the Almighty that the Earth does not shine – much thought.  

In July, obligatory rules of behavior for the population began to be distributed in all countries, so that people would minimize the risk of suffering from a space strike. All recommendations began with the requirement to leave the city at the end of August and settle in places free of high-rise buildings and city communications. Solona was by this time in the eighth month of pregnancy and was a little nervous. At the courses for expectant mothers, she met a girl named Nichkhi, also a future mother with the same term. Somehow, they immediately became intimate emotionally, and when the question arose of a temporary evacuation from Boston, Nichkhi, whose parents were Seminole Indians, offered to leave for her parents' village, which is located on the border of Oklahoma.  

“Velvoth, the village, is the quietest place on Earth, ” she persuaded Solon.  

Simon agreed immediately. On August 27, when it was already clear that collisions with a satellite the size of ten football fields could not be avoided, there was a blackout at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and all employees were left to go for a week. Simon, Solona, and Nichkhi got into the big Chevrolet and drove to Velvoth. It took a long time to drive, but they were not in a hurry, the main thing was that they were outside of the city. Halfway through, expectant mothers got seasick and asked for a stop. They spent a night at a motel. So they slowly, with overnight stays at motels, arrived at a real Indian village, with wigwams, with a cacique, and the ritual ceremonies of the Seminoles and the absence of mobile phones and the Internet. They arrived on August 31 in the evening. The next day in the morning of August 1, Solona, like clockwork, felt the onset of labor. Simultaneously she took hold of the stomach and Nichkhi. They were placed in a large wigwam on the bench, and an elderly American Indian woman began the nativity ritual by waving a large green leaf over them. А smiling cheerful red-skinned girl was helping her. Simon walked around the wigwam and listened to the sounds inside. All the Indians in the villages were joyfully revitalized, awaiting the celebration of the new addition to the human race. Simon looked at them and thought how good they were, they did not expect anything bad from nature. At the same time, he glanced at the news on the Internet.  

And then at 11 am he heard the first one and immediately the second child's voices started crying in the wigwam, and immediately the Internet was gone. His heart was pounding – it began. His heart was not mistaken, the bulk of Efialt did not crash into the Earth, it flew past at a distance of 20 thousand km, having demolished almost all communication satellites in geocentric orbit. And his little relative met the Earth in one and a half seconds. Piercing and burning the atmosphere, the Efialt splinter, without slowing down with a roar like the roar of thousands of jet engines, crashed into the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. The Apocalypse began on earth. The satellite pierced a three-kilometer thickness of the ocean and crashed at its bottom into the Mid Atlantic Ridge, which is the site of tectonic plate fracture. The energy of the collision was such that a kilometer-long wave was formed on both sides of the ocean, which hit the east coast of the United States and the west coast of Europe. Even Boston disappeared underwater. Billions of tons of water instantly evaporated, forming dense rain clouds over a vast area of the atmosphere. But the moisture did not have time to return to the ground. The impact was so strong that it caused shifts in lithospheric tectonic plates on all continents, and massive earthquakes began along plate faults. Giant tremors occurred along the eastern coast of North and South America, along with the mountain ranges of Eurasia – the Apennines, the Alps, the Carpathians, the Crimea, the Caucasus, the Himalayas, Tibet and further in Japan and Oceania. Shock waves propagated along with lithospheric plates and interfered bizarrely in the most unexpected flat places. This abnormal amplification of the shock wave completely destroyed many cities in Eastern Europe, including Moscow. Many large and small ships and vessels, waiting for the tsunami in the deep waters of the Indian and Pacific Ocean, were sunk by sudden anomalous waves, due to the intensification of shock waves at the bottom of the oceans. The earth breathed with volcanoes, more than two hundred vents of various calibers began to throw out red-hot lava, ash, and gases. Gas and dust emissions of volcanoes into the atmosphere closed the Earth for two long months from the sun. Partially evaporated moisture, mixed with volcanic gases, formed concentrated acid rain. The earth was shaking, high-rise buildings and structures were crumbling. When Simon felt the first shock, which almost knocked him down, he tried to enter the wigwam to Solona. But the Indian “midwife”, although she was frightened, blocked the way and said that men were not allowed here. But he managed to see Solona with a small lump and hear:  

– Everything is all right, Simon, there are three of us now.  

In order not to stagger from the tremors of the earth, Simon lay down on the ground near the wigwam and began to look at the sky darkening with ash. In the village, worried residents gathered at the wigwam of cacique. He came out to them in a warbonnet. Simon did not hear what the cacique was saying but saw that several young guys began to prepare a large fire, the rest were sitting around. Simon looked at them and thought about the oddities and vicissitudes of life. He studied high physics, in his research he touched upon the deepest and most subtle secrets of physical phenomena, tried to create new knowledge and new nature of matter. But the Seminoles probably know nothing of what has accumulated in Simon's head. Although they already work and dress like ordinary citizens of America, they have not become detached from their land, from their wigwams, from their cacique, from their gods. And now, he Simon, to whom the primitive fear of an unknown natural horror has stirred, will, together with the Indians, participate in a ritual appeal to nature and ask them to stop shaking the Earth, and the black sky will turn blue again. Also, somewhere deep in Simon's brain sat a small thought, a question with hope:  

– After all, someone sent us a diamond with a timer signal, what for?  

When the fire broke out, all the inhabitants of the village gathered around the cacique, and under his words in the ancient language of shouts and the beat rhythm they began to shift from foot to foot, periodically raising their hands up.  

The earth has experienced incredible destruction and casualties in cities and towns. All transport communications, air, and railway communications have been disrupted, except for road transport. The generation and supply of electricity were interrupted. No connection. During the day, especially in the first days, the sun did not break through to the ground through a layer of dust and smoke. Therefore, it was twilight day and night. The cooling of the earth and the air began. The central administration was disrupted in many countries. Looting and plundering began in the destroyed big cities. Only darkness held back the rapid growth of crime. The most paradoxical situation happened with Noah's cities. They were designed by specialists in the construction of military facilities (there are no other specialists), for whom the main requirement is to protect the facility from impact from above. Here the calculations were performed flawlessly. And the reconnaissance of the land in the mountains was done correctly. But the trouble came to Noah's cities from where they did not expect, from below. The avalanche of earthquakes stirred the mountain ranges, which were essentially formed on the fractures of the lithosphere, and the spirit of the earth – volcanic gas – began to seep through the cracks and pores in the mountains. Volcanic gas consists of a mixture of toxic and flammable gases, in which there is absolutely no oxygen. Therefore, a person dies either from poisoning or lack of oxygen. This is how all the richest people on earth died, with their families and helpers. Before the attack, Noah's cities were hermetically cut off from the outside world, with a life support reserve for 1-2 years. What had happened there, and that everyone had died, and then that the financial elite of the world economy had disappeared, they learned 2 years later, when the earthlings began to restore urbanization. Virtually no destruction occurred and there were no casualties on flat land in villages and single-storey towns. Since the rural population was already preparing for the winter, traditionally stocking up food, people with some strain were able to survive the extended winter that began in September due to the dust screen in the atmosphere. In some countries, as a result of a violation of centralized control, against the background of large human and material losses, a space catastrophe led to a change in the forms of government and the structure of the state. The contradictions that had existed for many years between the center and the region in some countries were resolved during the cosmic winter. Power in the regions was seized by ethnic groups that had fought for secession from the metropolises for many years.  

All this and much more that would happen, Simon, Solona, and the inhabitants of the Seminole village did not know. Simon rocked without stopping in a ritual dance for the sixth hour, he did not feel tired, but his body demanded rest. He went to Solona. She and Nichkhi did not sleep, listening to the rhythms of the dance. Only Solona’s boy and Nichhi's girl were sleeping. Solona showed Simon the watch – it's already 8 o'clock and she asked whether it will always be dark now, their baby needs sun.  

“No, honey, the Sun will return soon, ” answered Simon.  

The people of the tribe danced without interruption, replacing people who had fallen without strength, who, having rested, returned to the circle. Already no one could say how long this dance lasted – a day, two, three. And suddenly a gap appeared in the movement of dark brown clouds, into which the sunlight burst, unusually brightly illuminating the village, it was not long, the clouds again covered the sky, but not so densely. But these few minutes of the sun were enough, the tribe rejoiced, Simon rejoiced along with everyone. The cacique said that the gods heard us and returned the Sun. And exhausted everyone fell to the ground, in a minute everyone was asleep, the fire went out. And only two thin voices were heard, which demanded everything, air, water, food, and the sun.  

A few days later, Simon and Solona decided when to go back. But their plans changed. A guy from New York returned to the village and told what was happening in the cities, from where he could barely come on a motorcycle. They decided to spend the winter in the village. Three long, difficult, dark months have passed. And in January 2021, the Sun shone in full force. The atmosphere was freed of volcanic dust and became transparent again. Solona and Simon decided to name their son Osceol, in honor of the famous leader of the Seminole tribe, who gave them shelter and shelter in difficult times. And Nichkhi named her daughter Aifat, so she broadcasted the name of the terrible space alien Efialt, which she heard in the conversations of Solona and Simon. At the end of January, on the long radio waves of the receiver, Simon picked up a signal from a radio station from Washington and gradually learned the news around the world. It was clear that a difficult way lay ahead of restoring the destroyed world economy. Simon once told Solona that now the main task in the world is to restore agriculture, and in Ukraine has the most fertile land. Let's go to my homeland. Solona smiled and reminded Simon that there was no transport connection yet. They have to wait.  

Civilization on earth continued to develop in a spiral. The catastrophic consequences of a cosmic strike can be viewed as a lever that has moved the development spiral by one turn. But the future will show it up or down. If we simply count the human casualties and material losses, then this is a downward spiral. If overcoming the consequences of the catastrophe makes people stronger in spirit, smarter and wiser, and most importantly, kinder and more tolerant, then this is a turn-up. There, where there will be an era of mercy, which the Weiner brothers dreamed of.  

So thought Simon, embracing Solona and Osceol in a snowy meadow, where they met the long-awaited winter sun. He also remembered that he had a third sample of diamond that shone in sync with his two twins. Simon took out a diamond and he and Solona looked at it. The diamond did not flicker but luminesced with an even bluish light.  

“Everything is calm in space, ” said Simon.  

– For now, calmly – added Solona, and when little Osceola pulled his handles to the sparkling diamond, she added more  

– And for you sonny it will be useful.  

And suddenly an unusual thought struck Simon, and he said thoughtfully:  

– Maybe we received a signal not only about space?