On the distant planet Noolon there was
a civilization which had only recently developed atomic power and
space travel. The civilization was making excellent technical
progress, and the inhabitants of Noolon were becoming more and more
prosperous. The nations of the planet had united to form a single
world government. But one day scientists discovered a horrifying
truth. A giant asteroid was heading for the planet. Scientists
projected that in a short time the giant space rock would hit the
planet, killing everyone.
The world president Oros Kuelos
announced the startling fact, and also announced a plan for dealing
with the threat.
“The rumors you have heard are true,”
said Oros on television. “The giant asteroid is heading for our
planet, and if we do nothing, we will all die. But I have developed a
plan that will save all of us.”
“We will organize a giant world-wide
'prayathon' to beg the gods for their mercy against this threat,”
said Oros. “We will also sacrifice 100 million large animals to
appease the angry gods. Together these actions will cause the gods to
divert the asteroid, so that it does not hit our planet.”
The servile world-wide press was almost
unanimous in praising the president's plan. But a young man named
Datus was very skeptical.
“We're doomed!” said Datus to his
lady love, the beautiful Mora. “Giant space rocks can't understand
prayers and sacrifices.”
“Maybe there's some way we can save
ourselves,” said Mora. “Let's think of every possibility.”
The couple telephoned all their
friends, asking for ideas. They eventually got a promising tip. There
were rumors that a spacecraft was secretly being prepared at a remote
location. Datus and Mora got in their vehicle and drove to near the
rumored site.
They came to a road leading into the
secret base, but were blocked by a locked gate guarded by a man with
a weapon. The man refused them entrance.
“What do we do now?” asked Datus.
Mora pointed to an alternate way of
getting into the base. The base was surrounded by a high fence, but
there was a gap in the fence near the back, at a spot where a high
cliff served as a natural barrier to entry.
“Let's wait until darkness,” said
Mora. “Then we'll climb that cliff, and try to sneak into the
base.”
The climb was very dangerous, but the
plan worked. In the morning, the couple found themselves inside the
base. They could see a huge rocket was being prepared there.
The couple was soon arrested by a
security guard, who brought them into the base's headquarters.
“Please, let us go in the rocket,”
pleaded Datus. “We're doomed if we're still here when that asteroid
hits.”
“We are preparing a rocket that will
take a small group of astronauts on a risky trip to the fourth planet
in our solar system, to build a colony there,” explained an
official at the base. “We regard this as the last chance of our
race. But the payload of the rocket is limited. We can't add new new
astronauts.”
Mora started weeping. The couple asked
if they could at least stay and help the effort, and the base
official agreed.
The giant asteroid came closer and
closer to the planet. The day before the scheduled rocket launch, the
base official called in Mora and Datus to his office.
“Something unexpected has happened,”
said the official. “It turns out that one of our older astronauts
has cancer, so we've excluded him from the space mission. Another of
our older astronauts died of a heart attack, perhaps from all the
stress and fear. I guess that asteroid is already starting to take
its toll. So we have two empty seats in our rocket. You interested?”
Mora started laughing, but Datus was
still worried. Perhaps the hastily prepared rocket was unreliable.
Perhaps it would explode in flames at liftoff. But after a moment's
indecision, both he and Mora agreed to go on the rocket.
The next day the rocket blasted off. It
shook violently on liftoff, and the young lovers were almost
convinced that they would die right then and there. But somehow the
rocket made it into space.
The rocket went into orbit around the
planet. On the same day the giant asteroid struck the planet. Mora
and Datus watched the collision sadly from a window of the
spacecraft.
“That's all for the third planet,”
said the captain of the spacecraft. “Now let's get going to the
fourth planet. We know there's life and water there, so at least we
have a chance.”
Mora and Datus held each other's hands,
marveling at their unlikely escape.
“They say that when you fall in love,
it's a whole new world,” said Datus, tenderly kissing Mora. “And
that's what it's going to be for us literally – a whole new world.”
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