Twin Earth

Half an hour later I was clambering into a military helicopter at some remote airbase in Wiltshire and presumably making my way towards North Africa. My night so far couldn’t seem stranger. Only a few hours ago I had been sat in my miserable flat eating fish and chips from the local chippy and complaining that I was almost out of fizzy pop.

“You okay?” Rachel asked looking at my bewildered face.

“I think so,” I mumbled.

“Robert tells me you used to work for him. Why’d you leave?”

“Long story,” I whispered, glancing over to my old boss who was leaning over and discussing directions with the pilot. Awkwardly smiling, I could tell Rachel had picked up on my reluctance to talk. “So, you’re from UCL?” I asked trying to dissipate the sticky atmosphere.

“Yes, the department of space and climate physics.”

“Cool. So, you’re the guys who built the Euclid telescope to search for dark matter?”

“Well, some of it,” Rachel smiled. “It’s a collaborative effort.”

Smiling, I nodded.

“I hear you’re rather good with space rocks,” Rachel continued.

“You could say that. I specialise in distant planetary systems and space objects.”

“Weren’t you on the team who first discovered this asteroid? Or rather meteorite now should I say.”

“Yes, before I left, but I’ve been following it privately too through various means.”

“That’s cool,” Rachel smiled. “So, what made you get into this field? I hear you turned down a job with NASA?”

“You seem to know a lot,” I remarked surprised, raising my eyebrows.

“I like to know who I’m working with,” Rachel joked.

“I did turn down a job with them yes. They wanted my help on the international space station, but you know, astronaut stuff isn’t for me.”

“Why? I would love to go into space. Don’t you think it would be exciting to actually see what you study and visit some of your discoveries?”

“Just not my bag. I prefer looking at space from the comfort of Earth thank you, with the help of your amazing space telescopes that is,” I praised, trying to get off the subject. The last thing I needed was another woman trying to persuade me to go into space.

“I hear you’re also pretty good with developing new technologies. I’m surprised you didn’t go work with NASA regardless, not that the UKSA are bad or anything, but you know, it’s NASA,” Rachel winked.

“Hmmm..” I muttered, unconvinced, wondering how much exactly this woman did know about my life.

“We’re almost there,” Robert remarked re-joining us.

“Where exactly in Morocco has it hit?” I asked, glad for the interruption.

“About twenty miles East of Zagora, in the South East of Morocco. It’s landed in the desert. We’re going to be one of the first arriving there, bar the local military and a few locals no doubt so we need to be vigilant.”

“Was anyone hurt?” Rachel asked.

“At this moment in time, amazingly it doesn’t seem to have caused any major damage even though the seismic activity registered about 5.7 on the Richter scale. The blast was pretty loud however and there are some reports of a few casualties and damaged buildings. It’s thankfully because of where it has landed and the fact the object was slowed on entry, but unusually it seems the object landed in a single fragment, although I find this hard to believe. Even if it’s not composed of rock, some of it must have broken up on entry.”

“Do you think it’s because of its unusual shape?” I asked intrigued.

“Maybe, but even the crater is reported to be fairly shallow. It must have skidded in. Very odd.”

“I’m just relieved no-one was seriously injured. Imagine if it had landed on London,” Rachel replied.

“So, it must be iron then, and nickel based?” I suggested with Rachel frowning at me for ignoring her comment, but I couldn’t help it. I was too excited about the science to think about the what-ifs.

“I’m assuming so. What there is of a crater is spread over a mile wide,” Robert replied.

“Geez…” I wheezed.

“Now are you glad it didn’t hit London?” Rachel repeated.

“Yes Rachel, I’m glad it didn’t hit London, but mainly because it means we will possible get some clear and clean samples from what sounds to be a very interesting object from space!”

Frowning Rachel folded her arms and leaned back.

“Oh, come on, where’s the scientist in you?” I snarled.

“Okay, maybe there is a part of me that is thinking the exact same thing,” Rachel grinned, ’but at least the disaster scenarios can be laid to rest now.”

“Regardless, I need you two to concentrate. There is going to be a lot of interested people wanting to get to this lump of space rock, so pay attention. We’ll be coordinating with Trevor Simpson from NASA and a Fiona Willis from the European space agency. We’ll take as many samples as we can, but the Moroccan government will no doubt want us out at some point,” Robert retorted.

“It’s so frustrating,” Rachel replied. “Why have they only given us a few hours?”

“What will they do with it afterwards?” I asked.

“Like they always do. Probably make a tourist trap out of it or stick it in a museum and make it incredibly hard for any scientist to get to it. I would imagine it will be quite hard, if not impossible to move from where it is now though so it will probably be drilled down to nothing and sold. Just do you best. I want to know what happened out there when it hit whatever it hit in space before the looters get to it. Hopefully we will find something.”

“I’ll do my best,” I replied.

“Make sure you do,” Robert stated looking me in the eye, but I knew what he meant.

‘Don’t fuck this up more like,’ I thought.