What Happens When You Forget To Carry The One...

Scott Kim walked into the Director's office almost hesitantly, carrying a portfolio and an iPad under one arm. NASA Director Kathryn Garrett was behind her desk, mulling over papers and it took a moment for her to look up over her reading glasses at Kim standing opposite her. She was a no- nonsense administrator known as a stickler for details, and the arrival of her PR attache meant another of a series of figurative brush fires for her to put out. This was not going to be pretty, she thought.

“Madam Director...”, Kim began, as he reflexively bowed a bit, “...I have the preliminary report on the incident with the solar panel on the ISS. You're not going to believe this...”. He offered the Director the portfolio and the iPad across her desk. Garrett gave Kim a long stare that made him very uncomfortable before she replied. “What exactly does “you're not going to believe this” mean? The initial reports were that it was a meteor strike, were they not? I can believe that, I just have a hard time with the fact that the sensors didn't pick it up in time.”

“Madam, you had better read the report. After reviewing the classified hi-res video feed and the black box data, the forensics team determined the object that punched that hole in the panel was of organic origin.”

Garrett had dropped her eyes to the iPad, but perked up at Kim's statement. She felt a migraine coming on, and her stomach suddenly developed a knot. This was worse than she thought. “Organic? Did I hear you correctly? Did you just say organic?”, she demanded with rising incredulity.

Kim pointed at the iPad, beginning to become unnerved by his superior's reaction. “It's all there in the pre-lim report, Madam Director... The mass that struck the solar panel, well actually the solar panel struck the mass, it was a two hundred pound... “, Kim gulped, “body...”

Garrett's migraine doubled as she felt some buttons being pushed in her psyche. “A... body...” she paused and took a deep breath. “Is this some kind of sick joke, Kim? Did your department lackeys put you up to this, because this is NOT funny!” Garrett practically yelled at him.

Kim took a deep breath, and centered himself. He knew this wasn't going to be easy. “I can assure you it is not,” he explained. “Astronaut Missimo performed an EVA to assess the extent of the damage, as you know, but what you don't know is that he found a good amount of pulverized flesh that was subsequently sent back via Dragon supply capsule. It contained plenty of DNA to test. It was... human DNA.”

Garrett was somewhat confused, as she was normally well-informed about investigations that concerned incidents involving NASA property, but had not heard this particular detail before. She knew the video feed had been shut down and all available copies either immediately classified or destroyed, but she also knew the UFOlogists of the world had a field day with grainy, lower resolution clips that escaped the information lockout, claiming the ISS had been under attack by aliens. She was not used to being kept out of the loop, and the veins protruding on her forehead evidenced her displeasure . She had to stop for a moment, looked down to read the report on the iPad, while Kim fidgeted nervously across from her. He started to open his mouth to speak, but she held up her hand as she read the report.

“Why does this name sound familiar?”, Garrett eventually asked, still looking at the iPad. “Professor Benjamin Cox, the DNA identified as being Professor Benjamin Cox?”

“The nuclear incident at Oak Ridge, ma'am,” Kim replied. “He was the nuclear scientist killed in that freak explosion in his lab.”

The mention of the Oak Ridge incident brought immediate recollection to Garrett. “But, no trace of his body was ever... Ohhhh...”, she halted for a moment. “That happened the same day as the ISS strike, did it not?” Kim answered, “Yes, ma'am. In fact, the two incidents occurred literally within seconds of each other. “

Garrett's demeanor had softened somewhat, but her migraine was doubling by the minute. She did not like where this line of inquiry was going, and her stomach was leading the way to a very sickening awakening. She read a bit more, then scrolled through page after page of very exotic-looking formulae, her sickened feeling not abating one bit. “I am looking at all this data. I'm not familiar with this area of physics.”

“No ma'am, neither is practically anyone else.”, Kim replied.

“What is this?”, she asked.

“Like I said when I came in, you are not going to believe this...”, Kim said. “Professor Cox called this research 'physical chronological displacement'. He was trying to perfect...” Garrett interrupted Kim rather gruffly. She point her finger at him. “Don't! Don't you say it! Don't you dare!” Kim shook his head. “Sorry, ma'am, I have to inform you that Professor Cox was attempting to commit an act of time travel. And...”, he paused. Garrett knew what came next, and knew why. “He succeeded.”

Garrett's migraine felt as though it was about to graduate to an aneurysm. “I see it here in the report. I must inform you now, this does NOT leave this room. One whiff of this to the press, and I will have YOU up on charges so fast, you will feel like YOU got hit by the ISS!” Kim winced at the outburst, but knew she was correct. Even though he had his Non-Disclosure Agreement on file, he knew this was huge and it could be prison time for anyone involved to let the proverbial cat out of the proverbial bag. “Yes, ma'am!,” he replied a little too enthusiastically.

“How did your investigators make this connection?”, Garrett asked.

“Our lead has friends inside the DoE, and when the DNA came back as Cox, he wheedled some info out of one of his contacts. There is a classified report from the DoE in your packet, describing how Professor Cox had surreptitiously designed and built from parts found in the facility itself a 'displacement generator'. It required something like 1.2 gigawatts of power...” Garrett gave him the dirtiest look over her reading glasses, “I know, ma'am, that's no joke, that is close to the amount he used to power up his generator. He was able to make his body go back in time, but only for 1.36368 seconds.” Garrett had already worked it out in her head, as Kim continued, “...The exact amount of time necessary for the Earth to move 250 miles in space, which in turn made Cox's body appear in orbit, just in time for the solar panel of the ISS to splatter his two hundred pound mass and punch a hole in the panel for good measure."

Kim spoke up. "Forensics believes he was still alive when he was struck by the panel. Evidence shows he didn't have time to freeze to death nor even for his lungs to explode from the depressurization of his body suddenly appearing in space unsuited.” Garrett thought for a moment. “Oddly enough, this reminds me of the Chinese satellite killer incident.”

“Actually, our investigators likened it more to the Borscht in Orbit scenario,” Kim admitted. Garrett groaned. Yes, here comes the aneurysm. She sighed, looked back down at the iPad in her hand as she made an assessment of the report. “So, we have a world-class nuclear scientist slash physicist secretly developed the theoretical and practical application of 'chronological displacement', then, without being caught mind you, built a machine that successfully transported him back in time 1.36368 seconds, placing him into low Earth orbit at the precise moment and position for the International Space Station to come along at a speed of 17,500 mph and swat his body like a fly with a fly swatter, and all this mess is on my desk because Cox failed to account for the movement of the planet Earth as it travels around the Sun. Is that correct?”

“Yes ma'am,” Kim replied. “You could say he figuratively forgot to carry the one...”

*

“And that,” Kim told the disciplinary board, ”Is when she struck me in the head with the iPad.”