Abby knew she should be working but decided, all work and no fun was not always a good thing. She had spent the afternoon with Dan showing him how the telescope worked and watched as his eyes lit up when he actually got to see KA5.
“That thing is huge. I mean, I knew it was big but until you actually see it… it’s huge.”
“Amazing isn’t it?”
“Amazing and frightening. If that hit the Earth it would wipe everything off the planet. We would go the way of the dinosaurs,” Dan said wide-eyed.
“Yes we would. No way could Earth survive a direct hit from something that size and survive. Actually, it couldn’t even survive a glancing blow. It would certainly be the end of mankind as we know it. There would be a good chance that it would even knock the Earth out of its orbit.”
“I don’t think anyone in Washington understands the magnitude of what you are talking about here. I honestly thought it was just one of those things that scientist got excited about and didn’t really mean much to the rest of us,” Dan said.
“Gee thanks a lot,” Abby replied.
“You know what I mean. Come on. The Mars Rover finds something that once may have been water and everyone goes nuts. There was once life on Mars people start saying. No, we are actually Martians someone else says. A few months later, no one cares except scientists. I’m not saying it isn’t important but to the average Joe Blow on the streets if doesn’t help him in a way he can see in his everyday life.” Dan replied.
While not particularly flattering, he did have a point. Scientists did have a tendency to live in their own little abstract world. Was she like that? Probably, Abby decided.
“When do you need to head back to Washington,” she asked as she was showing him around the campus.
“I don’t have a departure time scheduled. I will have to let them know when I want to go back.”
“You came on your own airplane?”
“Not mine. Uncle Sam’s.”
“Look Dan, I’m not very good at this. Would you like to have a bite to eat before you go back?” Abby said blushing.
“Actually, I was going to ask if it was okay if I invited you to dinner,” Dan replied.
“Damn, I should have waited a little longer,” Abby said.
“The only reason I didn’t ask earlier was that truthfully I am just a tad intimidated by you,” Dan said.
“Me? Whatever for? Why would I intimidate anyone?” Abby asked astonished.
“You’re so damn smart. You put that with looks like yours and it’s a pretty intimidating package.”
“And here I was trying to watch my step with you. You talk directly to the President of the United States. Talk about intimidation,” Abby replied.
“Well then, if we are over intimidating each other, I guess we can have dinner and enjoy each other’s company.”
“Now that sounds like an excellent plan Dan Fowler.”
“Yes it does Abby Montgomery.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
CNN NEWS SPECIAL REPORT –
Doctor Abraham Lindquist of the Darden-Leggit Observatory in Idaho announced today that his team now believes the asteroid KA5 will pass closer to the sun than Earth.
Doctor Lindquist announced their findings at the observatory during a news conference earlier today. Lindquist, along with members of his team, outlined the flight path of KA5 and according to their findings the huge asteroid will not come closer than 450,000 miles from Earth.
“Earlier calculations did not take into account several factors and have been grossly miscalculated,” Lindquist told reporters.
He went on to say that the calculations were based on the gravitational forces of Jupiter and Saturn and even Mars to some extent. His team feels that far too much deviation is being factored into the projected path.
He added, “We will be able to observe KA5 from Earth but it poses absolutely no threat. It will be almost twice the distance from us as our moon. It will most likely have a very small impact on tides for a short time, but once it passes Earth, it will no longer affect us and will spin off into outer space.
When asked about the possibility of it being pulled into the sun he dismissed the idea saying, “no more so than Venus or Mercury being pulled into the sun.”
If Doctor Lindquist is correct, we can all breathe a little easier.
Abby had introduced Dan to her entire team and he spent over an hour just talking to them about what they wanted to do with their lives and what it was like to work on such a monumental project.
They quickly warmed up to him as he sat on the floor with his legs crossed talking to them. Abby was amused at Ruth. She kept inching closer to Dan as they all sat there and talked. It was obvious she was smitten with him, but she could hardly blame the girl. Just so she didn’t get too friendly.
She stopped and did the V8 thing with her forehead mentally. What was she thinking? She didn’t really know one thing about Dan Fowler and here she was starting to get protective. She needed to have a long talk with herself, she decided.
“Nice group of young men and women,” Dan had commented as they were leaving.
“They are aren’t they? James is a hoot isn’t he?”
“Definitely a corker. They certainly seem to get along well as a group. I didn’t notice any egos getting in the way and that is pretty unusual with eggheads.”
“Eggheads? Eggheads. Well Mr. Fowler, we can’t all be Neanderthal men,” she shot back.
“Neanderthal? Do I look like I have a club? If I did, I would conk you over the head with it,” he replied.
“And then what? Drag me back to your cave?”
They both stopped and looked at each other. She was slightly smirking and he was at a loss for words. He was trying not to say the wrong thing. It was kind of like when a woman asks if she looks fat in a dress. If the man says yes, he is cooked, if he says no, he’s lying.
“I haven’t picked out a cave I like yet,” he finally answered and they both laughed.
“Okay, you dodged that pretty well.”
“Yes, Yes I did,” he said.
“So, what would you like for dinner? Anything your favorite?” Abby asked.
“I’m easy to please. Just about anything is good for me,” Dan answered.
“Sushi,” she asked.
“Well… I kind of like my seafood cooked. I mean if I wanted sushi I would just go to a pet store and stick my head in a fish tank,” Dan replied.
“Thank goodness. I can’t understand the attraction. Paying for a bunch of raw fish just seems wrong on every level,” Abby replied.
“How about something Southwestern? Washington isn’t exactly the Mexican food capital of the world.”
“Great. I know a really good restaurant. It isn’t classy at all but the food is the best in the city. I just hope more people don’t find out about it and it goes big time,” she informed him.
“Then that’s sounds great to me.”
They went in Abby’s car rather than Dan’s rental since she knew the way and the city. Even though it wasn’t all that far from the campus it took almost forty-five minutes to get there with the traffic.
“Wasn’t that horrible?” Abby asked as she was locking her briefcase in the trunk of the car.
“What?”
“The traffic.”
“Oh. Is that what you call traffic? I sometimes have time to read ‘War and Peace’ waiting for traffic in D.C.” he told her.
“Do not.”
“Okay, just the old testament of the Bible. I always get lost on Numbers,” he quipped.
“Very funny. Now, I said it was kind of a dive but just don’t think of the décor and wait until you taste the food,”
“You have a deal.”
True to her word, it wasn’t much to look at but Dan had certainly eaten in worse. Much worse. But she had been dead on about the food. It was some of the best he had ever had. He seldom ever drank beer but this time he had three Coronas with lime. Abby had two Margaritas with salted rim and was just a little giddy by the time she finished her second one.