The Doomsday



  THE DOOMSDAY

  By Ashwini Nambiar

  Copyright 2013 Ashwini Nambiar, Penkraftbooks

  Contents

  Divya’s Birthday Gift

  The School Tour

  The Ancient book

  Research Center

  Doomsday

  The New Space

  Visit to Gianta

  Human Robots

  Back In the Solar System

  Chapter 1: Divya’s Birthday Gift

  It’s quite late in the night. Divya is in her balcony. City is calm and quite below with clear starry sky above. She loves the stillness of the night which adds more thrills to her quiet passion ‘sky watching’.

  “Wow! What a blissful sight! I wish I could go there someday. I will, I surely will.” Divya murmurs, watching the sky through the telescope.

  This is the best gift she has received so far. Her dad, a scientist himself, always encourages her towards astronomy and space. He has gifted this telescope on her 14th birthday. She was so thrilled to see it that she waited patiently for the birthday party to get over so that she could peacefully enjoy the view through her telescope.

  She is as if lost in the universe, in the stars, one amongst them. Someone pats her on the shoulder, startled; she realizes that she is nowhere among the stars but in her room. She turns around astonished to find her dad.

  “Come back to Earth!

  “I shall rather assume you liked your gift?” he asks beaming.

  “Oh! I loved it, thank you dad,” Divya replies merrily. “I was almost lost among the stars. I wonder if I would ever achieve my dream.”

  “Yes, hard work is the key to success. And your dream is now just a step away.”

  “What do you mean dad?” He smiles and puts his hand on her shoulder. “Your first step towards your dream is the NASA talent test.”

  “Oh, yeah, that’s right. I will appear for the test with full determination. I’m putting in my best efforts.” Divya replies looking at her quiz books kept on the study desk.

  Divya has taken the test very seriously. She engages most of her time preparing for it. The other thing she is crazy about is, watching the sky through her telescope. It has become her favourite time off activity now.

  A few days later, as usual before down, while observing the sky through the telescope, she notices a strange thing in the sky. She focuses the lenses to watch carefully.

  “Wow! It’s a COMET!” She yells with excitement.

  She had studied a lot about the known comets and was very much convinced that this was a new one.” She runs down to discuss about it with her dad.

  “Oh, so you too have spotted it? You are right; it’s been seen for the first time. It has been named as comet Z14.” He replies calmly sipping his morning tea which he usually enjoys without any disturbance.

  “Please tell me more about it. I want to know everything father.”

  “I cannot tell you much about it. We are still studying it. It’s the largest comet ever seen. Maybe, by today evening I can tell you stuffs in detail. You better get ready for school or else your mother will chase you around with the broom.” Divya smiles her way to kitchen to give her mother a tight hug.

  Z14 has become a topic of heavy discussion among the classmates. Thanks to Divya and her knowledge, everybody right from the teachers to fellow student is keen to figure it out. All her friends stride back to her house after school to get a glimpse of this wonder Divya had been talking about.

  Meanwhile, several miles away, at the Space Research Centre, her dad too is watching through the telescope and simultaneously looking at the satellite images of the comet. His team has been credited to be the first to discover it.

  Now, looking at the images and reports, he is certain of the plausible danger.

  “Mr. Roy!” he quickly calls his subordinate.

  “Yes, Dr. Ahuja!”Mr. Roy comes in running.

  “It’s now confirmed that this comet consists of dreadful gases. And it is heading towards earth with a speed beyond our estimations. We must discuss the matter with other research centres and act quickly.”

  “But Sir, nobody is taking it seriously. They are of the opinion that it is harmless and moreover it is not going to collide with the earth.”

  “No!” he fumes.

  “The satellite images are misleading. It is not giving the complete picture. The comet has a huge wagging tail of poisonous gases, which is bound to brush with our planet and cause disaster. Very soon it will be known to all. Let us not waste our time in convincing others but instead start working on ways to fend it off.”

  He and his team, without more ado, start working to find out a solution. They find a very unique way to repel the effects of gases. They plan of using highly powerful magnets to dispel the comets long disastrous wagging tail off the Earth’s atmosphere.

  Within hours they are all set to implement it even if it meant no international support. They are now about to begin the process when out of the blue they the green signal for their plan from Florida Research Centre.

  Within no time, all the space centres world over began working together on Dr. Ahuja’s plan. Everybody is very impressed with Dr. Ahuja. They are glad that someone could come up with a solution and so act on time. Dr. Ahuja had become the hero of the day! The heartbeat rises as the comet approaches.

  There was only one question in their mind; will the world come to an end tonight?

 

  Its evening and Divya is still glued to the telescope. The comet is more bright and clear now. It has a reddish glow around it. She runs down to the living room and switches on the T.V.

  “They are showing the satellite image of the comet”. Divya calls out to her mom.

  Satellites are being programmed to push the comet away from the Earth. It has been hours and the whole world is watching.

  “This could be our last breath on this planet.” Divya murmurs.

  Divya keeps on tracking the progress of the operation via news. She keeps dozing in between and then waking up herself again.

  “Divya, go to your room and sleep.” Her mom tries to convince her to be calm.

  “No! I want to watch for some more time please.” She sat up straight again listening to every detail the news provided.

  Suddenly, she heard loud speakers shouting outside, “Wake up! Get alert everyone!

  The comet has gone, but it has left behind a big ball of fire which may land anywhere near our city.”

  She steps outside in her garden and sees people standing on their respective terraces with binoculars. Then all of a sudden there were shouts, “it’s coming down here.” everybody runs inside.

  Divya looks up. She sees some giant red hot ball coming down towards her. She wants to shout for help, but her voice is choked. She looks up helplessly. It is coming right towards her. She can feel the heat of the fire. She closes her eyes to meet her end.

  THUD!

  It falls few metres away from her. It has made a huge pit in the ground and is flaring like molten lava inside it. She sits there shocked. The heat is making her faint.

  Soon, she hears fire-engine bells coming to her rescue. She closes her eyes and folds her hands to pray. She then faints because of the smoke. The ringing is becoming louder and louder. She is sure she is going to die!

  Oh!

  To her relief, it is the doorbell that is ringing. She realizes that it is only a dream. She opens the door. It’s her dad carrying a weary look on his face.

  “Good morning dad.” Her mom comes in with hot tea.

  “Divya was awake all night listening to the news.” Her mother complains.

  “What did your telescope show?” her Dad smiles, sipping his hot tea.

  �€
œThe comet seemed very close and reddish in colour. Are we still in danger? I had a very scary dream regarding it.”

  “No, there is no danger now. It will not collide with earth. We have successfully changed its path. The red colour is due to the chemical reactions within it. If it had collided with earth, everything would have burnt to ashes!”

  Divya gave a sigh of relief. “Thank god it did not happen so!” dad switched on the T.V. Live satellite pictures are being shown. The comet is moving away from the solar system. Mr. Ahuja is relaxed as usual, after completion of any challenging project. Divya thought it was the right time to ask his permission for school tour. And rightly so, to her delight, he agreed.