Meteor Page #3

- I'm sure you are.

Listen, I think I have a solution

to this problem.

- Where will you be this evening?

- We're flying to New York.

Make sure you hear

my broadcast at 8.00.

That's all, gentlemen. Thank you.

You'll ask

what steps have been taken

to make sure that this meteor

never comes near the Earth's surface.

I'm happy to tell you that realising

that such an emergency

as this could arise,

your government,

in collaboration with the best

scientific brains at its disposal,

developed a project

to deal with this emergency.

That project has been named Hercules.

What is Hercules?

Hercules is an armed,

orbiting satellite

its nuclear weaponry

aimed toward outerspace.

Right name. Wrong direction.

What can Hercules do?

It can send, at the press of a botton,

enough power to destroy any foreign body

on a collision course with our planet.

But, in this case,

a special circumstance has arisen.

The meteor is of such size and velocity

that even this powerful weapon...

...cannot do the job entirely.

Fortunately, the Russians, with

the same foresight that we possessed,

mounted their own defence weapon.

We do not know what the Russians

have called their weapon,

but we know it exists.

And we are going to ask them to

combine their nuclear power with ours,

so that together we will

be able to deal with the meteor,

to strike it with irresistible force

and to end forever

its potential danger to us all.

I will, myself,

be speaking with the Russians

Immediately after

I finish this broadcast.

- The game is on.

- Good night.

And God bless you.

Hello?

- Do you have a pass for Dr Bradley?

- Good morning, sir.

- General Adlon come in yet?

- Half an hour ago.

- How far down?

- Right next to an old subway station,

a section that runs under the Hudson.

It made it easy for us to bring

the equipment in and it saved millions.

Why not some sensible place,

like Houston?

Mm-mmm.

This has easy access to a total

telecommunications set-up above us.

Nobody in their right minds

would put their most important

emergency striking power

under the busiest city in the world.

This is Dr Bradley.

Can I see your pass, sir?

Would you mind signing it sir?

Thank you.

Command to Internal.

Central Control, call 8-1-2-4.

General Adlon, most impressive.

Thank you. A message for you.

Normally we work with 25, but since it's

an emergency i brought in the full crew.

Good news.

The Russians are coming.

I consider allowing the Russians

to come into this centre a grave error,

which one day the United States

may bitterly regret.

- I'd like to meet the staff.

- Of course.

General, may I use your office

for a moment?

Certainly. This way.

This is our chief technician,

Rolf Manheim.

- Rolf.

- Dr Bradley.

You have been teaching my nephew at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

- Ben Manheim.

- Yes.

He's a bright boy.

He'll be teaching me in a couple years.

All stations give status now.

This is our trajectory analysis officer,

Jan Watkins.

- Hello.

- I suppose you're tied into 1180?

No. At 360,

with a custom-designed memory.

Like I said, I'll be asking you

and your computer a lot of questions.

- We'll give you prompt answers.

- Triple-checked.

My assistant, Alan Marshall.

Dr Bradley, I've got Sir Michael Hughes

from the Jodrell Bank Observatory.

He'd like a word with you.

Excuse me.

I'm Bill Hunter, in charge of tracking.

What else are you linked with?

Hong Kong, Arecibo and New South Wales.

- Good morning, Michael.

- Good evening, Paul.

I didn't expect to see you

until Wimbledon.

Assuming there'll be a Wimbledon.

What have you got?

Expect the first splinters in 24 hours.

Doubtful if we can track them unless

they're in clusters. We'll do our best.

- Anything else?

- No. I just wanted to make contact.

We'll keep in constant touch.

Until then.

Paul, the Russian astrophysicist

you asked for?

- Dr Dubov?

- He's arriving at 7.30 this evening.

Dr Dubov, are we glad to see you here!

Thank you.

Twenty-two, 47, colon, 56 point 55.

He assumes this is an accurate

representation of the satellite.

Or is the direction

of the rocket just accidental?

I am not prepared

to volunteer strategic information.

- Is that what I said?

- Yes, sir.

- Please.

- Thank you.

What striking power does it carry?

I'd prefer you got that

from Dr Bradley.

Good morning.

Fourteen rockets,

each carryng a 100 megaton bomb.

Welcome to New York Dr Dubov.

- Everything in duplicate?

- It's a procedure.

How else do we know we're

being interpreted properly?

I think we could all start

by trusting each other.

Otherwise, what's the point?

If it's a matter of choosing,

I'll take the pretty one.

The pretty one

is Tatiana Nikolaevna Donskaya.

- Did I say it right?

- Very good.

Astrophysicist

and Dr Dubov's English voice.

- How do you do?

- How do you do?

The captain

is General Adlon's Russian voice.

- Sir.

- Hi.

Since it appears we are redundant here,

if you'll excuse us.

Mr Sherwood.,

I'd like to see you outside.

I'll see if I can't calm him down.

He thinks General Adlon

is not pleased to see him.

- I know this is difficult for you...

- Mr Sherwood!

I spoke to the Secretary of Defence,

who seems more aware

of the complexity of the situation.

- But...

- His orders are, and I quote,

"No change in the direction of rockets

until the Russians admit they've got

their own and agree to realign them. "

- Is that understood?

- Look.

Why don't you Xerox

pass them out among

then organise

By that time the meteor will have hit

and we won't have any more problems.

He doesn't mean to criticise,

but you will not find it easy

to hit a meteor

with your warheads

pointing toward the USSR.

We call ours Hercules.

What do you call yours?

How can one give a name

to that which does not exist.

Then who put up this thing

called Peter the Great

its warheads pointing

at the United States?

Chinese, perhaps.

Dr Dubov, we've gota slight problem.

If Peter the Great does not exist,

we are out of business.

But if it does exist,

I'd have to know what weapons

it would be carryng...

...where it was...

...and what frequencies we would

have to use to align it with Hercules.

Now, for purposes of discussion only...

He understands

the importance of your questions.

If he had been involved in construction

of such an illegal weapon...

...he could then, of course,

theoretically, answer those questions.

Then would you be prepared,

theoretically, of course...

...to work out the details with me

as to how we link the satellites?

Yes, he would be ready.

Before that,

what would you have designed

your striking power to be?

Sixteen rockets, each carryng

mega-tonnage, the same as yourown.

That gives us a billion plus.

Theoretically.

Theoretically.

I give the floor

to the first speaker on my list,

a representative of Canada.

We have information thata

disturbance of earthquake proportions

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