Chapter 6: One Small Sacrifice

"Houston, we've made contact." The radio cracked with silence while Emerson waited for a response. At over nine million miles from Earth, it would take nearly two minutes to respond. But a response wasn't needed. Emerson pulled the metal cylinder free from his Zero-G pack and began a dance he rehearsed thousands of times on Earth.

Magnets in his boots kept him locked to the ferrous rock while he drilled. Any peace one could feel deep in space was swallowed whole by the void. Billions of light years of nothing surrounded Emerson, yet the vastness of it crushed him in his suit. Earth, merely a blue spec at this distance, returned his call, "Good luck, Emerson."

The woman's voice was somber—distant, not in miles but in a despair only those part of this mission could understand. Emerson focused, his transponder would have to suffice for his own response. After hours of drilling, he keyed in the arming code, placed the cylinder deep into the hole, and pushed off the asteroid. Emerson pulled himself into the cramped vessel and removed his helmet. "The bomb is planted."

As he drifted away, he watched the asteroid fade, swallowed by the abyss that also awaited him. It was the sixth interstellar object aimed directly at Earth. He shifted his gaze to the stars, the same stars he watched on Earth, the ones that led him to become an astronaut. The ones that have drawn him to his death.

Earth replied, "this is one small sacrifice from man, and one giant loss for mankind."

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