Old Spacewatch could pick up six hundred moving objects on a clear winter’s night, and overall twenty-five thousand asteroids a year. Out of all that, fewer than twenty-five were Earth-crossers. The rest were main belt. Now with all thenew systems combined the detection rates are fifty times higher. But that means we have also fifty times more junk to be sifted through. With the CCD mosaics you people are talking about I reckon we need to interrogate about a billion pixels every ten seconds. We have nothing like enough computing power on site to handle the data.”
Noordhof attempted a smile. “We have the Intel Teraflop at Sandia. It makes your hair stand on end. That too is yours, a personal gift from a grateful nation.”
Judy said, “That’s Wow, but how do we transfer the data over? Ordinary cable transmission can’t handle the flow.”
“We have satellites that will.”
“In that case,” she replied, “problem solved. I’ll download the CCD processing software from Spacewatch and transfer it over to our magic machine.”
“We have orbit calculation packages at the Sorel,” Sacheverell said. “I’ll pull them over to your computers. I presume it’s all Unix-based?”
Noordhof nodded. “All communication between here and Albuquerque must be secure. I’ll get a key encryption package installed when I’m fixing access to our computers. Judy, work at it through the night. Let’s be operational by dark tomorrow. Herb, when can you give me a damage profile for Nemesis?”
“Two or three days, if I can access the Sorel.”
“Have you been listening, Herb? At that rate we might as well wait for the field trial. I want a report over breakfast. O seven hundred sharp, all present, and nobody feeling fragile.”
Webb said, “We’re doing this all wrong.”
Shafer said, “Oliver, I was joking about a psychic.”
DAY TWO
Eagle Peak, Tuesday Morning
The smell of scrambled eggs and coffee drifted into Webb’s room, and sunlight had found weak spots in the heavy curtains’ defences. He reached for his watch with an arm made of lead, focused on the little hands, and knew he was in for another of Noordhof’s special looks. He rolled on to his stomach and looked longingly at the laptop computer and the crumpled sheets of paper scattered over the floor, which had shared his journey from Glen Etive. But there was no time. He skipped shaving and made it with minus two minutes to spare.
Breakfast things were laid out on the kitchen table and Shafer was dithering around the microwave oven. Judy was in an easy chair; she was into a severe white blouse and black skirt, a plate on her lap, and she was using her sharp, red-painted nails to carefully peel a hard-boiled egg. Sacheverell sat next to her with a plate on his lap. He was also pouring her a coffee and she flashed him a smile. McNally, Leclerc and Kowalski were at the window, sipping coffee and looking out over an expanse of desert from which the occasional tree-covered mountain protruded like an island in the sea.
Noordhof was busy on a croissant. A row of cigars protruded from a shirt pocket. He made a show of looking at his watch as Webb entered.
Webb poured himself coffee from a big percolator, heaped a plate with sausage and scrambled egg, and settled down at the farmhouse table. “You’re giving me a hard stare, Colonel.”
“Please God, deliver this man unto my sergeant,” Noordhof prayed.
A screen on a tripod had been set up and an overhead projector on the end of the kitchen table was throwing white light at it. The soldier nodded to Sacheverell, who had a stubble and looked a bit ragged.
Sacheverell put fork and plate aside, wiped his fingers with a handkerchief, took a pile of transparent overlays to the projector and moved them on and off the machine as he spoke. The first one showed three teddy bears of different sizes, with bubble text coming from the mouth of each, like a comic. One bear was saying
10 4 Mt
, another
10 5
Noordhof attempted a smile. “We have the Intel Teraflop at Sandia. It makes your hair stand on end. That too is yours, a personal gift from a grateful nation.”
Judy said, “That’s Wow, but how do we transfer the data over? Ordinary cable transmission can’t handle the flow.”
“We have satellites that will.”
“In that case,” she replied, “problem solved. I’ll download the CCD processing software from Spacewatch and transfer it over to our magic machine.”
“We have orbit calculation packages at the Sorel,” Sacheverell said. “I’ll pull them over to your computers. I presume it’s all Unix-based?”
Noordhof nodded. “All communication between here and Albuquerque must be secure. I’ll get a key encryption package installed when I’m fixing access to our computers. Judy, work at it through the night. Let’s be operational by dark tomorrow. Herb, when can you give me a damage profile for Nemesis?”
“Two or three days, if I can access the Sorel.”
“Have you been listening, Herb? At that rate we might as well wait for the field trial. I want a report over breakfast. O seven hundred sharp, all present, and nobody feeling fragile.”
Webb said, “We’re doing this all wrong.”
Shafer said, “Oliver, I was joking about a psychic.”
DAY TWO
Eagle Peak, Tuesday Morning
The smell of scrambled eggs and coffee drifted into Webb’s room, and sunlight had found weak spots in the heavy curtains’ defences. He reached for his watch with an arm made of lead, focused on the little hands, and knew he was in for another of Noordhof’s special looks. He rolled on to his stomach and looked longingly at the laptop computer and the crumpled sheets of paper scattered over the floor, which had shared his journey from Glen Etive. But there was no time. He skipped shaving and made it with minus two minutes to spare.
Breakfast things were laid out on the kitchen table and Shafer was dithering around the microwave oven. Judy was in an easy chair; she was into a severe white blouse and black skirt, a plate on her lap, and she was using her sharp, red-painted nails to carefully peel a hard-boiled egg. Sacheverell sat next to her with a plate on his lap. He was also pouring her a coffee and she flashed him a smile. McNally, Leclerc and Kowalski were at the window, sipping coffee and looking out over an expanse of desert from which the occasional tree-covered mountain protruded like an island in the sea.
Noordhof was busy on a croissant. A row of cigars protruded from a shirt pocket. He made a show of looking at his watch as Webb entered.
Webb poured himself coffee from a big percolator, heaped a plate with sausage and scrambled egg, and settled down at the farmhouse table. “You’re giving me a hard stare, Colonel.”
“Please God, deliver this man unto my sergeant,” Noordhof prayed.
A screen on a tripod had been set up and an overhead projector on the end of the kitchen table was throwing white light at it. The soldier nodded to Sacheverell, who had a stubble and looked a bit ragged.
Sacheverell put fork and plate aside, wiped his fingers with a handkerchief, took a pile of transparent overlays to the projector and moved them on and off the machine as he spoke. The first one showed three teddy bears of different sizes, with bubble text coming from the mouth of each, like a comic. One bear was saying
10 4 Mt
, another
10 5
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