The Citadel and the Wolves (7 page)

I peered over my comic, which I wasn’t reading, curiously. The speaker was the younger one in the group, blonde hair and blue eyes. Wendy, who noticed, blinked her eyes at me over her pop paper. I ignored her. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m simply not interested in boys yet, though the other wasn’t a boy. He was a man and good-looking too. I bit my lip. What was I thinking? I blushed self-consciously behind my comic.

“Passing close to the influence of Mars has now increased the velocity of the comet by perhaps up to 1.2 kilometres per second,” answered Frank…daddy grimly.

One or two in daddy’s group whistled. They seemed impressed by his figures, though 1.2 kilometres per second didn’t seem very fast to me till I did some simple mental arithmetic in my head. I realised astonished that 1.2 kilometres per second was over 4000 kilometres per hour. I almost whistled too. The thought also frightened me. That was only the increased acceleration point of the comet.

“So, how fast is the comet travelling now, Frank?” wondered another in unscientific terms.

It was a question that was on my lips too.

“The comet is now travelling at almost 15 kilometres per second,” replied daddy as a matter of fact.

About 54,000 kilometres per hour, I thought. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I tried not to think about such fantastic speeds. The comet hitting the earth at that speed was a nightmare vision. It was almost unimaginable.

“Frank, what is the comet’s mass?” someone else.

“A comet is a pretty small thing in space compared to a planetary body, so it’s extremely difficult to calculate its mass from such a distance.”

Daddy is right. I’ve observed the comet through his telescope. It’s little more than a pinprick of light in the vastness of outer space. It seems harmless enough, yet I and daddy know that it isn’t. Daddy had the answer because he had worked it out with the help of his computer. He was being too modest again, I thought.

“Hazard a guess, Frank,” urged another.

Daddy lit his pipe thoughtfully before he answered the question: “Although the science isn’t an exact one, we now know that the radius of the rogue comet is about 2 kilometres, so the mass must be in the order of many megatons.”

ZOOTWOSOME! Many megatons? My mind boggled. I knew the figure was almost astronomical. When I was 7 or 8 as I recall, a rock from heaven (daddy called it a meteorite) crashed into our garden greenhouse, breaking one of the glass panes. But that was a tiny pebble compared to ‘Robinson’s Comet,’ which was the size of a minor planet!

“Frank, what sort of destruction would a comet of this size cause?” another.

“It would probably wipe out most of Western Europe.”

Most of Western Europe? I went cold inside.

Daddy added, “The comet would leave a crater many kilometres deep and wide, cause giant tidal waves, trigger earthquakes and volcanic eruptions throughout the world, and the impact of the rogue comet would throw up billions of tonnes of rock and ash into the upper atmosphere, blocking out the sun for decades, even centuries, which could lead to a new ice age.”

Dad was painting a very gloomy picture indeed for the future of mankind. But what would it mean for me?

“I’ve been studying the behaviour of our rogue comet too, Frank,” said one, “and it seems to me that it could be made up entirely of ice and water and would evaporate harmlessly anyway as soon as it had entered the outer layers of the earth’s atmosphere.”

A few murmured in agreement.

Perhaps the speaker was right. I hoped so. We’d all worried for nothing. The end of the world wasn’t around the corner.

“Metals and rock,” insisted daddy.

“Frank, do you seriously believe that this fragment of the Icarus 9 Comet is going to collide with the planet earth sometime in the near future?” queried the first dissenting voice in the group of believers.

I was surprised. Who was it? I peered over my comic. It was an older head, which didn’t surprise me. It was someone who couldn’t accept that such a catastrophe would ever be visited upon our world, yet it had in the distant past. I thought of the dinosaurs again.

But daddy threw the question right back at the sceptic: “John, you’ve been tracking this thing for sometime now yourself, we all have, through your own telescope. What do you think?”

Daddy is always saying that attack is the best form of defence.

“I-I think that it will remain in a harmless orbit around Mars,” answered the other hesitantly. He was unsure.

But one or two murmured in agreement.

Was daddy starting to lose the argument? I didn’t think so.

Daddy sighed. “I wish that were true, John, how I do, but you’ve seen it with your own eyes. You know in your heart that I’m right. The comet remains on a collision course with the earth. The velocity of Mars has simply accelerated its progress, which means that it will be here sooner rather than later.”

“Frank, is there any way that we can stop the rogue comet from hitting the earth?”

Daddy shook his head. “In science fiction, the boffins usually have all of the answers. They might suggest blowing it up with A-bombs.”

I saw the film on DVD, I thought. It starred…his name was on the tip of my tongue. He saved the world for mankind, but it isn’t like that in real life.

Daddy continued, “Even if the latter were possible, it wouldn’t stop the comet from impacting with the earth.”

“You’re painting a very bleak picture here, Frank,” commented someone at the back.

I agreed.

I suddenly saw a very bleak future ahead of me. I didn’t want to hear anymore of this. I covered my ears. Wendy glanced at me curiously.

Daddy began: “The situation is bleak for the whole of mankind, and we-”

“No, I don’t want to hear this!” I cried. “I don’t want to hear it.”

The others looked around startled when I leapt to my feet and fled from the room.

I’d calmed down by the time that I threw on my anorak and slipped outside in the back yard. I shivered as I gazed up at the cloudless, night sky. The stars sparkled like diamonds in the unchanging, dark heavens. It was a fine night for star and planet watchers. How would it all change after the comet? Although I tried not to think about comets, it was very difficult to do. Somewhere out there in deep space something big, dark and evil was approaching our world at over 50,000 kilometres per hour.

I fed Fred and Tessa, my pet rabbits. They are wonderful, charming and amusing, helping me to relax after a stressful day at school. Tessa, who’s a beautiful, snow white rabbit, is pregnant. Her litter is due any day now. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve promised a friend at school one. I opened the cage, letting Fred out for his run. He’s getting a bit plump, so he needs his regular exercise.

As I was putting away the rabbits’ feed stuff in the shed where daddy also keeps his tools and things, someone tapped me on the shoulder, making me jump. I looked around.

Wendy, who wore her pink ski top, grinned. “Did I make you jump, Sis?”

“No,” I lied.

She put her arm around me in an affectionate and sisterly kind of way.

“What’s up, Jade?” asked Wendy.

“Nothing,” I answered.

“You bolted out of the living room like a startled gazelle just now. Truth time, Jade Robinson.”

“I was feeling depressed listening to daddy and the others talking about the comet,” I admitted. “Wendy, doesn’t it bother you too?”

“Sis, I don’t let that sort of talk get to me. It doesn’t bother me. Perhaps because I don’t really understand what they’re talking about…most of the time.”

“You had your eye on the young one though, Wendy,” I remarked.

We laughed and forgot the comet briefly. Maybe Wendy was right.

After I’d rounded up Fred and put him away, Wendy and I went indoors. We vanished upstairs with a bottle of Coke, playing vid pop disks in her room to take our minds off things. Wendy painted my nails.

“You were eyeing up blondie, Jade,” said Wendy after awhile.

I was puzzled. “Who?”

“One of daddy’s astronomer friends.”

I shook my head. “Unlike you, Wendy, I simply am not interested in boys or men.”

“Yeah?”

We bubbled with laughter.

“Why did you invite Sir to daddy’s meeting?” quizzed Wendy.

“Sir?”

“Mr Whitehouse.”

“Oh, Simon.”

She smirked. “Simon?”

“Simon-Mr Whitehouse is a believer too, and he has something in common with daddy. They are both scientists.” I admitted that I was a little disappointed in Simon-Mr Whitehouse. I was hoping that he would have taken part in the debate on the comet, but he remained an observer instead. Still, I was rather pleased that he had turned up. “Mr Whitehouse and I are good friends.”

“Good friends? I think it’s rather unnatural to be friends with a teacher, Jade…if that’s all it is,” she commented slyly.

What? My sister could be so unbelievable sometimes.

When the others had left later, leaving poor, old mum to clear up after them, I made daddy some cocoa. I took it up to him in his attic observatory. The scene was a familiar one by now. He was behind his telescope again, tracking the rogue comet. He didn’t notice me here as I put his drink down by his computer. My mind was a lot clearer now. I was upset earlier. I remained scared but calm.

He spoke, “Jade, you were behaving strangely tonight. Is everything all right at school?”

“Fine.”

When he looked up, drawing on his pipe, he saw the truth in my eyes.

“The comet?”

I nodded.

I wanted to run into his strong, reassuring arms. I didn’t. I was confused. “Daddy, what will become of us after the comet?” I asked.

He smiled reassuringly. “That won’t be our problem, sweetheart. The comet won’t collide with the earth for at least another one hundred years or so.”

But he was wrong.

4. THE ALIEN VISITORS

When I woke on that Thursday morning, which would change our lives completely, in early November, I felt extremely happy because it was my birthday. It was my birthday. (I liked repeating it.) I was 14, and I’d be 14 for the rest of the year. I was almost an adult. I am an adult. There was only one dark cloud on the horizon that could mar my extremely happy day, school, pity. If only my birthday fell on a Saturday or a Sunday every year. That’d be great! Still, you can’t have everything in life. I’m only kidding of course. I do love school, my friends and everything. I remained happy nevertheless, pushing all dark thoughts into the back of my mind.

When I‘m feeling extremely happy, I’m usually wide awake instantly. I sat up in bed and opened my scrapbook. I turned over a page or two until I found it again, smiling. I fondly ran my fingertips over daddy’s picture. Daddy’s comet story had finally made it onto the front page…of the
Science First
journal. A full-length article appeared inside. Someone was starting to take daddy seriously at last. I had cut out the story and stuck it into my scrapbook needless to say.

I looked up when someone outside started scratching on my door. I grinned. He couldn’t get in because I’d started locking my door in the mornings.

I looked on the window briefly. The post girl was new. She was quite young, almost pretty (but wearing too much make-up, I thought) with short blonde hair and a slim figure. She had my birthday cards in her hand. I smiled when she dropped them in our letterbox. Then she looked up and caught me.

As I crossed the landing in my dressing gown with my bathroom things, I bumped into Wendy who stepped out of her room in her pyjamas.

“Many happy returns, Jade.”

We hugged and kissed.

“Come into my room a minute, Sis,” requested Wendy.

It was an offer that I could hardly refuse. I followed her into her room.

She gave me my present and a big birthday card. Wendy had something else on her mind.

She bit her lip. “Jade, I…”

“Wendy?”

“Jade, would you invite Kevin Willis to your birthday party tonight?” asked Wendy in one gulping breath.

I groaned inwardly. I still couldn’t believe that my beautiful, elder sister had a crush on Kevin (the monster from the deep) Willis.

“Pretty please,” she begged.

I sighed, giving in easily on my special day. “All right.”

She hugged and kissed me again.

“Thanks, Sis, you won’t regret it.”

Oh, yes, I would, because I knew that Kevin Willis still had a crush on me, and that’s more than double ZOOTWOSOME!

When I returned to my room, I didn’t open Wendy’s present and card straightaway. I put them on my dresser.

After my quick, early morning shower, I dressed.

I remained extremely excited, for I knew what was waiting for me downstairs in the hall. It was tall and oblong in shape and covered in brightly coloured gift wrapping paper. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t find where the others had hidden something so large! Even bribes didn’t work. Wendy remained unmoved, and I’d even promised to do her maths and science homework for the rest of term, but no, she wouldn’t tell me where it was hidden.

As I sat in front of my dressing table mirror in my school uniform, I put on my school tie. Then I noticed her for the first time in the corner of my mirror. Wendy stood by the door with an odd look on her face, puzzling me.

“Wendy?”

She stepped behind me without saying a word. She touched my hair briefly. My world was suddenly plunged into darkness as she blindfolded me with a scarf or something.

I was a little worried. “Wendy?”

“Trust me, Jade.”

She took my hand and led me to the door blindfolded.

I was standing on the edge of a precipice. In reality, I was standing at the top of the stairs. I remained a little apprehensive in my purple world. But I trusted Wendy implicitly as she guided me downstairs. Of course, I could’ve simply removed the blindfold, but that would have spoilt the game. I took one tentative step at a time until we reached the bottom. I usually fly down the stairs, taking two at a time. Mum has warned me often enough about it, telling me that I’d break my neck one day. I dared not today. When we had finally reached the bottom of the stairs, Wendy removed my blindfold, and I blinked.