Under Four Months

President James Wilton hadn't lied about his health issues, it turned out. Furthermore, the fact that he was not seeking reelection was irrelevant. He died from a massive heart attack, and surgery was unable to save him.

James Wilton, the vice president, was thrown into office completely unprepared for the crisis. Advisors hurried to inform him of the circumstances. He became enraged.

"I stand before you today, people of America, to right the wrongs of others," he said. Your former president withheld information from you and me that everyone should know for reasons that may never be known. We were safe, he told you. There was nothing to be afraid of, he assured. He was dishonest. Right now, a piece of Maris is flying in our direction. It is predicted to occur in less than four months—

A national clamor of rage and disgust drowned out the last of his speech. The memory of the departed leader who had once led the nation was beset with curses.

However, the speech was heard by people outside of the United States, including those who had been kept in the dark about Maris and those who had made sure they were unaware of it. This new president was damned by the architects of secrecy. While leaving the others to fend for themselves, he was dismantling their painstakingly constructed plans to save themselves. The protected communities they had been defending were in danger because of him. However, there was still hope.

People from all over the world rushed toward the shields in a desperate attempt to join the survivors. Humanity's best and worst sides were exposed by the crisis. In the mad dash for safety, some were killed, trampled underfoot, or hit by cars. Extremists destroyed portions of the shields, exposing and endangering entire towns as terrorism flourished. In exchange for keeping the frantic masses at bay and stopping additional shield sabotage, the military was sent in and promised refuge inside the fortified cities.

They eagerly obeyed. Fearful citizens were shot dead all over the world for making too much of an effort to get to safety. In an effort to break the military's firm hold, terrorism intensified. The fight for survival resulted in the slaughter of entire regiments.

Those who were too scared to fight stocked up on canned goods and bottled water, hoping to survive the impact without the shields.

And Maris got closer and closer.

The science of physics is complex. Those who have taken a course in it are aware of the mental toughness required, particularly in the absence of computers. Its complexity is demonstrated by the numerous formulas, applications, angles, dimensions, forces, and counterforces. Large calculations can be completed by computers much more quickly than by humans. They are indispensable to good physicists. Neither did Martin Wilkerson.

Early in life, Martin Wilkerson was diagnosed as paranoid delusional, indicating that he was clinically insane. Besides, he was incredibly smart. Although that was a reasonable suspicion, he had never received a formal diagnosis of autism. He most likely ought to have been.

He watched with interest as the world descended into chaos. Space—space colonization, space exploration, and space travel—was his favorite topic. He had been particularly fixated on Maris, a puzzle he had devoted his life to solving, unlocking the secrets of the enigmatic red planet. He was still fascinated by it, but for different reasons now.

Math was his passion. He was better than most math teachers at it. Math is physics. Attitude is physics. Maris sticks to a path. Math is Maris's forte. People watch Maris with interest.

When the truth about Maris came to light, Martin Wilkerson was overjoyed. He didn't think a planet could be split in two by accident. He had watched video of the aftermath of the explosion. It wasn't a coincidence. Erath had been in its closest orbit around Maris, and the timing couldn't be more ideal. According to Martin Wilkerson, coincidences don't happen. It had been purposefully planned.

He was consumed by the revelations. He did calculations by hand, burning through sheets of paper. He figured out where Maris would strike in a matter of days, and he came to the same conclusion as computer-aided experts: Central America. Even the protected cities in the majority of the United States would be devastated by the impact at its current magnitude.

Martin Wilkerson asked for a transfer right away. He submitted an application to move to one of the three shields of northern Canadia. At the same time, the Ivory Tower was preparing the same preparations, knowing full well that the collision of the planets would bring about a calamity.

Martin Wilkerson, however, had a bigger picture in mind. Two fragments of Maris now floated through space, he remembered. He was interested in the bigger piece, the one that was not headed straight for Erath. There was meaning in that composition.

Being one of the few to successfully switch between shields prior to Maris's impact, he performed additional calculations as he prepared for his move. Before starting his calculations, Martin Wilkerson was pretty sure that the second chunk wouldn't hit Venus, but he needed to be sure. Though he questioned whether Erath's attackers had made a mistake in their calculations, there would be no use in aiming for Venus or Mercury. Although it would come close enough to be marginally affected by Mercury's gravity, it would not strike the planet either. Adding this to his calculations, he calculated that the sun would completely cover it in about four and a half years. However, why the sun? How about aiming both pieces at Erath? As he moved to safety, that question continued to bother him. He never stopped to think about why his move between mental hospitals had gone so smoothly, and he never had any suspicion that someone might be making sure he survived.

Maris was gone for a month. Leaders from around the world gathered and decided to work together to stop the planet from coming. If only to keep up appearances, they had to do something. They needed to prevent Maris from hitting Erath.

They came up with a plan after a heated debate. It would be nuked. It was the most effective and straightforward method of slowing the planet's momentum.

The nuke was launched three weeks later. Now everyone could see Maris, a second moon in the sky. Cloaked in the red rock of what was left of the planet, it was death. Its advance would not be stopped by a simple nuke.

At first, everything went without a hitch. On a perfect trajectory, the nuke sped toward Maris. It appeared that a weapon that had so far only caused destruction could bring salvation. They hoped, anyway.

Something exploded from Maris's surface when the nuke was 90 miles away. There was still a living person. And that whatever had been deployed had been built by someone using scraps from the destroyed ships.

The Marisian missile's proximity sensor was set too close, and it exploded too late. Beyond the nuke, it exploded. The president cheered from Canadia, his makeshift headquarters.

Then Maris launched another missile. The mission that had started sixteen months earlier was in danger as the nuke got closer and closer. This missile was calibrated; the detonator went off just right. The nuke, however, was too close. The ensuing explosion slightly shifted the planet's course. Was it sufficient?

With a stack of papers by his side, Martin Wilkerson watched the live feed. Physicists kept an eye on their computers. Desperate to find out how much the nuke had changed their destiny, both jumped into action.

Martin Wilkerson came in second, but the computers did the calculations first. He estimated that the fragment would now hit somewhere in Africa after taking into consideration the gravitational pull of Erath, the moon, and Maris itself.

Unfortunately for Erath, physicists were not unique to them. The planetary harbinger of doom was shaken by another explosion eighteen hours before Maris was scheduled to be struck. The physicists from Erath and Martin Wilkerson came to the same conclusion as before. Maris was headed straight for Central America and had returned to its original course. Much of the United States and all of Mexico would be destroyed by the impact. Only Canadia would remain in the Western Hemisphere after South America was split off. Martin Wilkerson was glad he was out of there.