Hundreds of years ago, we believed that the earth was the centre of the galaxy, and that every other planet circled around us. Gallileo proved us wrong.

Hundreds of years ago, we believed that earth was the only planet capable of sustaining life. The scientists proved us wrong.

Hundreds of years ago, we assumed that the human race would never become extinct like the dinosaurs.

NASA headquarters, Washington DC

27-12-1999

The time was 2:56am. David Lorenzo was the only person awake. His colleagues were all asleep on the numerous tabletops. David was scanning the radar in hope of something interesting when he came across a horrific sight.

He shook the guy next to him to wake him up.

" Harry, the earth is moving." David shouted to his friend.

" Dave, mate, lay off the X-files!" Harry said tiredly.

" This ain’t no joke mate, we’re moving straight Into the sun!" David replied.

This time Harry got up. He examined the radar and it was true. The earth seemed as if it was moving into the sun.

" Oh my god, Dave, there’s got to be something wrong with the radar." Harry said in shock.

They went around examining all the radars in the building. They were all showing that the earth was heading straight into the sun!

" Crap, man, we gotta phone the White House!" David said, while picking up the phone.

" Hello, this is the White House, how may I help you?" A voice asked from the other end of the phone.

" I need to talk to the president NOW," he shouted urgently.

" I afraid he’s asleep, sorry sir." The voice said.

" Well wake him, and do it quick!" he said angrily.

A few moments passed and then somebody picked up the phone.

" Hello, this is the president, and if this is some prank call then I’m gonna send my men to kick your ass!" the president said grumpily.

" Mr. President, this is NASA. We’ve discovered something terrible. The earth seems to be moving." David said quickly.

" No, you don’t say!" the president said.

" Sir, we’ve drifted away from our orbit and it seems that we're heading straight into the sun. Our radars show that we should hit the sun in approximately 4 days." David informed the president.

" What kind of destruction are we talking?" the president asked.

" We’re talking the total annihilation of the earth. The blast would send huge firing chunks of the earth that would destroy all the planets in our galaxy." He replied.

Later that night the president put down the phone after having explained the situation to every major city in the world. There were so many more calls to be made. By then, the world was only just waking up to a horror. A horror that like many others, the US government wanted to keep from the public.

The SOD had called David to the White House. He was NASA’s best and the only one who may be able to help.

David had arrived at the White House in a limousine. He had been told that he was to stay there and try to find a way to stop earth’s destruction.

The president was tired. And busy. He had heard that this man, David, his name was, had just arrived at the White House and that he was to assist in stopping this tragedy.

The world was in shock. They knew that the earth had only 4 days to live and this could be the end of all mankind. Every human on the planet was scared and every one of them knew that the hopes of the human race lay in the hands of one man (a genius, they hoped).

" An American!" the British mused.

" A white man!" the Asians complained.

" A hero!" the world prayed.

David was busy at work, studying thousands of books and databases. Skimming for something that would indicate this sudden change of course. An hour later he had an answer:

The White House, Washington DC

28-12-99

" Every few hundred years, the moons path curves slightly. 90 years ago, a piece of meteorite hit the moon and broke a segment away, which came down onto the earth. The disaster would have made a deep impact on our surface. I take it that we have not explanation for what happened in Siberia 90 years ago? (Heads nodded) Say that the impact was so great from that crash, that it turned the earth to an irregular angle from the sun. Not a big enough change to explain our current position, but say there were more crashes, the earth would be moving closer and closer to the sun. We reported a crash last night in Sri Lanka. Maybe it was that crash which triggered us to move into the position we are now!" he explained to the president of the US, the Prime Minister of Britain and a room full of other officials.

Some people looked confused so he drew a diagram:

Once the people in the room saw the diagram they understood that they had to take action immediately.

" What have you got that would help us?" the British Prime Minister asked.

" I honestly don’t think that there is much that we can do!" David replied.

" What, we have three days till the destruction of our planet and all you can say is that? Why don’t we hire somebody who has a chance of saving us!" The Iraqi president shouted! " Listen to me, you son of a bitch, I’ve worked my flipping guts out to save this shit-hole of a planet and I ain’t taking no slack from crap heads like you!" David shouted.

" What repulsive language, with a mouth like that you could get us into big trouble!" The Indian official said.

" Listen, this isn’t Armageddon, and David ain’t Bruce Willis, but cut him some slack!" The U.S president shouted over the row.

That silenced the room and gave David a chance to make a quiet exit.

The federal Bureau of investigation, Washington dc

28-12-99

David had been allowed into the federal building by the president. He had a theory that if any situations like this had occurred in the past then they would be on record in the archives of the FBI.

When he entered the file storage system he was amazed at the number of cabinets around in the rooms. In the bottom left hand corner of each room, there was a gigantic computer with seven CD-ROM drives, a 900000 baud rate modem and lots of other hugely advanced aspects of the computer.

Soon David’s tour guide abandoned him and David was left alone.

As soon as he discovered that he was unsupervised, he sat down at a computer and started looking for some clue as to what to do.

Federal bureau of investigation databases

Please enter your id:
> G-U-E-S-T
Sorry, wrong id

" Damn!"
Please enter your id:
B-I-L-L C-L-I-N-T-O-N

SORRY, WRONG id
Please enter your id:
F-o-x m-u-l-d-e-r
Please enter your password Mr. Mulder:
T-r-u-s-t-n-o-1

Access granted
Accessing database

" Yes!"

Please enter the topic that you are searching for:
Comets

Please enter access code for the astrology division:
Meaty or rite

Access granted
Then suddenly a man burst into the room.

" What the hell is going on!" the man asked.

" I’m David Lorenzo, I’ve got the president’s permission!" he said

" The guy from NASA? My name’s Fred Punt." The man said.

" Yes, agent Punt, I’m from NASA and I’m trying to work, so could you leave me alone!" David said.

Then the computer suddenly started emitting a long ‘bleep’ and that made Punt look!

" Mr. Lorenzo, you are under arrest for hacking into official systems!" Punt shouted over the racket.

" Cut the crap, I’ve got the presidents permission, so shut your mouth if you wanna keep your job!"

" I’m afraid you are wrong, Lorenzo, you are breaking into military systems and I can override even Clinton’s orders! Besides, after Lewinsky, I don’t think he’s got any power in this city anyway!" Punt said. Punt handcuffed David and took him away!

Meanwhile, David’s laptop lay on his bed, turned on, and David’s clock ticked away.

56 Hours 16 Minutes 56 Hours 15 Minutes 56 Hours 14 Minutes

To be continued…

- DKMulder Comments, Suggestions? Please send them to fmulderdk@hotmail.com If you have an would like to write an ending, or have any ideas, also send them to the address above. fmulderdk@hotmail.com