2026AG-2

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Maybe the ears cannot hear the scream, but the mind most certainly can. Some of us know this for a fact.

It was lonely up here these days. After the Russians got pissed, packed up and took their toys, scientists and half the space station back to the Motherland, it didn't leave much in the way of company. Though a replacement was being cobbled together a little at a time, it was a slow process and until it was complete, nobody felt comfortable sleeping in the new section of the station. Because of the reduction in living space, crews came and went with the transport ships but the only current fulltime residents were myself and Shauna, a petite red-head on temporary assignment. Granted, the Russians and Chinese weren't always the best company, but they had been someone to talk to and Gregori had managed to figure out a way to make a pretty decent vodka given the limited selection of raw materials we had to work with. Now the vodka was long gone, Shauna hadn't said more than four sentences in as many days and it was quiet, way too quiet, except for the periodic check-ins to NASA and the occasional video chat with my son.

Shauna was up here studying a newly discovered asteroid. Shauna's preoccupation with the asteroid is supposedly related to her dubious claim of Druids somewhere back in her distance geneology. According to Druid legend a huge rock from the sun would visit destruction and plague on the earth in the near future. With the recently discovered 2026AG having started it's loop around the sun, Shauna was now in the best place possible to observe it's pass just outside of the moon's orbit and, hopefully, gather some samples of it's gaseous tail.

Shauna's mood bounced between excitement at her observations to a rather morose fatalism when she studied the ancient texts related to the asteroid. Apparently, the texts hint at the asteroid being the agent of mankind's demise. Scientists are saying the asteroid will pass the other side of the moon, but the Druids claim that the asteroid is going to actually hit the moon and knock it into the earth; much like a billiard ball is banked off the wall of a pool table and into the side pocket. Shauna takes this seriously and spends most of her day studying first the asteroid and then rereading the notes she's taken for the manuscript.

The day 2026AG appeared from the far side of the sun she was especially tense. A deep frown made her face seem twenty years older than she had appeared yesterday. Her shoulders were drawn tight and she flexed them frequently.

"No, no, no, no no!" She stared at the screen where the asteroid no longer appeared to be a single big rock but had instead calved and now had a smaller twin flying somewhat behind and to the side. Her fingers flew over the keyboard. "No!"

"No! Please... This can't be happening. We were in the clear. It was going to miss the moon. It was going to be close, but it was going to miss it. We were going to be ok." Her voice was broken and sobs filled the room as her shoulders began to shake.

Eventually, she stopped figuring and I crossed the room and touched her shoulder. She jerked around, her eyes wide.

"The second one will be a direct hit to the far side of the moon. The moon will bounce straight into the earth ... our planet, our home. The prophesy was right. We are done. The whole planet is done - animals, people, everything."

Tears streamed down her face, but she turned back to the keyboard and began to type her findings to send back to NASA and her government.

That was about three months ago. A ship had launched and tried to change the trajectory of the asteroid by exploding a bomb on one side, but it had failed. A last minute launch of a ship to Mars was loaded with what supplies they could shove in and was supposed to be followed a week later by a ship of scientists and about six dozen children in hopes of being able to set up an emergency colony on the red planet. They were working on getting another ship of supplies together and hoping to launch it before 2026AG-2 hit the moon and destroyed everything. It was a long shot, but seemed better than doing nothing.

We had been offered the option of going back to Earth or trying to use parts of the space station to reach Mars but had opted to stay where we were and document the end of the earth. Shauna had become sadder and quieter by the day.

This evening I found her standing in front of the door in the airlock and staring through the window into space.

"We could just open it, you know." She spoke softly but firmly. "It would be quick and we wouldn't have to watch it happen."

I gently led her away from the airlock and gave her a shot containing a mild sedative. I undressed her and put her to bed. After I sent an update to NASA I stared at the approaching asteroid until I fell asleep.

I awoke with a start when the airlock clicked shut. I knew before I reached it that it was locked. Shauna stood inside without a suit or helmet. She blew me a kiss and reached for the handle of the outside hatch.

They say that a scream is silent in the vacuum of space. And maybe it is. All I know is that the sight of Shauna's open mouth as the breath was violently sucked from her lungs is burned into my retinas and the sound of her scream continues to echo in my mind Maybe the ears cannot hear the scream, but the mind most certainly can.