Read Online 2084 The End of Days by Derek Beaugarde - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Derek Beaugarde
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the photos.
“Fairly excited, Ewan, I thought we had a world exclusive on our hands?”
Gary gushed in.
“Jill, Ewan is more than fairly excited. He is abso – fuckin’- lutely over the bloody Moon about this! For Christ sake, tell her, Ewan?”
Ewan continued, still the deliberating scientist, slow and deadpan, but inside his heart was pounding with the adrenalin surges shooting through his body.
“To be honest, the two minutes eleven seconds of footage was rather on the short side to allow me to compute a complete calculation and because the SH2 was supposed to be looking way into deep space the focus wasn’t super-perfect. However, let’s look at this first shot…?”
Ewan directed them to the topmost photograph by pointing his finger.
“Right, Jill, what the Israeli scientist captured was a shot of an area in the solar system known as the Kuiper Belt, the co-ordinates identifying its location are printed on the bottom left of the photo.”
“Okay, I see that, Ewan.”
“What I have done to the photos is effectively black out any objects further away than the Kuiper belt, i.e., I have removed all distant stars and galaxies. Right, well, look just above the co-ordinates. Can you see anything of any significance?”
Jill peered at the almost totally black photograph with some difficulty.
“All I can see is a little white speck.”
“Good, Jill. Well that little white speck is actually Pluto. It used to be classed as a planet in the solar system when it was first discovered, but we really just class it as one of the larger asteroids or dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt. Other dwarf planets there include Haumea and Makemake, although they are not within this photo’s range. The Kuiper Belt, otherwise known as the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt is basically a ring of debris, mainly hundreds of thousands of orbiting ice particles, which forms the outer ring of our own solar system. Close inspection of the photos show some of these ice particles.”
Jill screwed her eyes tightly and squinted at the photographs.
“Hmmm. Maybe to your eyes but I can hardly make out anything. Anyway, so the photos show Pluto in the Kuiper Belt. So what? That’s hardly earth-shattering…”
Ewan drew an imaginary circle with his finger over the photo.
“Look again, Jill. Look at the top right. See anything there?”
Jill looked hard for a few seconds and then it dawned on her.
“Oh, yeah - looks like a little white dash. Is that it?”
Gary blurted out in excitement.
“My God, she’s got it Ewan.”
Jill looked at Ewan as she struggled to see the significance. She was beginning to get a little agitated as she felt that this was all developing a little sluggishly as the sort of global exclusive Ewan had made it out to be on the phone. She caught a quick glance at the time on her laptop. 09:15. Jill was due to meet Ruthie down at Tilbury Docks at 10:30. They had an important interview with a notorious East End gangster, Alfie ‘Dinky’ Budge, who was willing to spill the beans on his crime-lord boss, Nesto Petrianni. Alfie, well-known in the underworld as a hit man got his nom-de-plum for his preference to, as he called it, ‘dink’ his targets with his old .357 Magnum fitted with an ultra-modern silencer. That interview was beginning to look much more important than her current one and time was now starting to run out for Jill.
“Ewan, look I know this must be important to you, but I’ve got another vital meeting to get to and my time is running out.”
Ewan showed more urgency in his pace of speech.
“Okay, Jill, I’ll make this fast. That little white dash, as you called it, is actually a brand new comet. As far as I can tell its composition is rock and ice. For some unknown reason it has just recently been sucked into the solar system from who knows where. It is currently passing its way through the Kuiper Belt.”
Jill was now showing a bit more interest.
“Mmm, now that is more like it. So not only did
“Fairly excited, Ewan, I thought we had a world exclusive on our hands?”
Gary gushed in.
“Jill, Ewan is more than fairly excited. He is abso – fuckin’- lutely over the bloody Moon about this! For Christ sake, tell her, Ewan?”
Ewan continued, still the deliberating scientist, slow and deadpan, but inside his heart was pounding with the adrenalin surges shooting through his body.
“To be honest, the two minutes eleven seconds of footage was rather on the short side to allow me to compute a complete calculation and because the SH2 was supposed to be looking way into deep space the focus wasn’t super-perfect. However, let’s look at this first shot…?”
Ewan directed them to the topmost photograph by pointing his finger.
“Right, Jill, what the Israeli scientist captured was a shot of an area in the solar system known as the Kuiper Belt, the co-ordinates identifying its location are printed on the bottom left of the photo.”
“Okay, I see that, Ewan.”
“What I have done to the photos is effectively black out any objects further away than the Kuiper belt, i.e., I have removed all distant stars and galaxies. Right, well, look just above the co-ordinates. Can you see anything of any significance?”
Jill peered at the almost totally black photograph with some difficulty.
“All I can see is a little white speck.”
“Good, Jill. Well that little white speck is actually Pluto. It used to be classed as a planet in the solar system when it was first discovered, but we really just class it as one of the larger asteroids or dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt. Other dwarf planets there include Haumea and Makemake, although they are not within this photo’s range. The Kuiper Belt, otherwise known as the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt is basically a ring of debris, mainly hundreds of thousands of orbiting ice particles, which forms the outer ring of our own solar system. Close inspection of the photos show some of these ice particles.”
Jill screwed her eyes tightly and squinted at the photographs.
“Hmmm. Maybe to your eyes but I can hardly make out anything. Anyway, so the photos show Pluto in the Kuiper Belt. So what? That’s hardly earth-shattering…”
Ewan drew an imaginary circle with his finger over the photo.
“Look again, Jill. Look at the top right. See anything there?”
Jill looked hard for a few seconds and then it dawned on her.
“Oh, yeah - looks like a little white dash. Is that it?”
Gary blurted out in excitement.
“My God, she’s got it Ewan.”
Jill looked at Ewan as she struggled to see the significance. She was beginning to get a little agitated as she felt that this was all developing a little sluggishly as the sort of global exclusive Ewan had made it out to be on the phone. She caught a quick glance at the time on her laptop. 09:15. Jill was due to meet Ruthie down at Tilbury Docks at 10:30. They had an important interview with a notorious East End gangster, Alfie ‘Dinky’ Budge, who was willing to spill the beans on his crime-lord boss, Nesto Petrianni. Alfie, well-known in the underworld as a hit man got his nom-de-plum for his preference to, as he called it, ‘dink’ his targets with his old .357 Magnum fitted with an ultra-modern silencer. That interview was beginning to look much more important than her current one and time was now starting to run out for Jill.
“Ewan, look I know this must be important to you, but I’ve got another vital meeting to get to and my time is running out.”
Ewan showed more urgency in his pace of speech.
“Okay, Jill, I’ll make this fast. That little white dash, as you called it, is actually a brand new comet. As far as I can tell its composition is rock and ice. For some unknown reason it has just recently been sucked into the solar system from who knows where. It is currently passing its way through the Kuiper Belt.”
Jill was now showing a bit more interest.
“Mmm, now that is more like it. So not only did
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