THE ARK

Day 936

Professor Rupert Mallox was the head of the Astronomy program at the University of Washington. Mallox had been teaching astronomy for eighteen years, ten of them at the U of W.

The discovery of the comet’s properties, by two of his student,s a few months ago was by far the most significant discovery in his department’s, if not the world’s history.

He had forced them to rerun their calculations four times before he would accept their results.

Rupert had tried several times to get someone to look into and confirm the comet’s apparent radioactive properties. There had, over the last few years, been several false alarms about asteroids and meteors that could hit the Earth. These had all finally been proven false after causing quite a bit of anxiety in the public.

After several unsuccessful attempts at getting anyone to take his comet claims seriously, he gave his brother-in-law a call.

Rupert’s wife, Deborah was originally from New York and her brother, Martin, was the aide to the senior US senator from Florida.

Martin knew the people to talk to and in no time at all, the good folks at NASA had reluctantly agreed to look into the matter for him.

Rupert suspected that there would be a good explanation as to how this threat was no more serious than any of the others. Nevertheless, this seemed so definite that it certainly needed checking out.

Armed with a phone number that Martin had gotten him, Rupert called weekly to see if there was any information about the comet study. So far there had been no word other than to say that it was getting looked into.

Rupert Mallox was starting to think he was being blown off and it was time to come up with a new strategy. Possibly informing the media that something was found but that its criticality was undetermined and that NASA was looking into it would get something moving. He certainly did not want to start a panic or state something that would later be proven wrong; his reputation would be destroyed if he allowed that to happen.

As if that were not enough excitement in his life, last week he had been contacted by the Pentagon. Apparently, there was an opportunity for someone with his background to be involved in a classified project dealing with suspended animation and space travel. There were many other details, all classified. Rupert had declined the offer immediately. He admitted that the project sounded fascinating and that it would be a great opportunity. However, Rupert had spent four years in the Marine Corps after high school and had seen first-hand the inefficiency and waste of time and resources that inevitably occurred when the government was involved in any project. He had sworn he would never deal with that nonsense again.

Three days ago, he was contacted again. He was asked to reconsider and at least hear what the details were. They assured him that if he knew all the details he would definitely be glad he was on board. At the same time, he was informed what the starting pay would be if he were to take the position. He promised to consider the offer and to call them back.

He discussed the situation with his wife and while doubling his current pay would be wonderful, she pointed out that if he was miserable in his work, no amount of money would be worth the price.

Rupert returned the call and declined the offer again.

Earlier this morning Rupert had decided to call back and talk to them again, he would at least hear what they had to say.

He doubted seriously that he would take the job but his curiosity had been peaked. He had sent himself an Email reminder at work. Monday morning he would call back and make plans to hear them out.

Rupert and his wife were now on their way home following a busy Saturday. They had spent the day doing yard work and then had decided to go out to a nice dinner of steak and lobster followed by going to see a showing of Macbeth that the University drama students were producing.

There was heavy traffic leaving the campus and it took twenty minutes more than usual to get home. By the time they got home, the rain had increased and there was thunder off in the distance.

The garage door opened as their 2017 Suburban approached. Rupert skillfully backed the large vehicle into the open spot next to his own 2016 Lexus. He opened the door, careful not to bump the other car and headed to Deborah’s side of the vehicle.

They went into the house and Rupert pushed the button by the door to the house that would close the garage door, but the door did not move. Rupert and his wife exchanged confused glances. Rupert pushed the button a second and later a third time, but nothing happened. Finally, he went to the Suburban and opened the door, reached in and pushed the button on the remote. The motor engaged and the door closed in its normal fashion. The Malloxs exchanged confused looks as Rupert returned to the house.

Rupert looked up the phone number for the garage door company and wrote it down on a sheet of paper. He would have his wife call the number Monday in the morning.

He removed his shoes and dropped into the recliner in the family room.

He decided to read the Seattle Times before heading off to bed. His friends often teased him about still reading actual newspapers instead of the electronic version. However, he liked the feel and smell of the actual paper. He could already hear the water as his wife got into the shower. He usually read the paper before dinner, but with all commotion involved in leaving for their night out he just did not have time.

On page two of the paper was an article about a local drug raid. Apparently, police and federal agents had raided the apartment of two local college students and seized several thousand dollars worth of cocaine, and two firearms. At the end of the article were the names of the two students, Derek Kline and Robert Walsh.

Rupert Mallox was stunned, he immediately felt mildly nauseated. Both of these students were in one of his classes. In fact, they were the ones responsible for finding the radiation coming from the comet. He knew them both and he never in a lifetime would have suspected either of them to be wrapped up in something such as drug dealing. They were excellent students who always put one hundred percent effort into every assignment.

After reading this article, he folded the paper in his lap and just sat in the chair thinking. He was extremely surprised and disappointed.

Finally, Rupert got up and headed to the kitchen. He threw away the newspaper without looking at the trash can. His aim was good, but if he had looked into the trash he might have seen the three nine volt batteries lying at the bottom of the can.

Rupert headed to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, and undressed. He could not stop thinking of his students. He was truly bothered by this, he had been quite fond of them and now he felt betrayed.

He climbed in bed, he really needed to discuss this with his wife, but she was gently snoring and he would never wake her just to talk.

Even though he was tired and had a long day, he still needed about forty-five minutes to get to sleep.

Some time later, exactly how long he could not be sure, there was a noise, like a heavy object falling, which woke him.

He started looking around and, immediately knew that something was wrong.

He could not see, his breathing was painful and his eyes were burning. Instantly he was coughing. In seconds, his head cleared enough to allow him to realize what was going on. The whole room was full of thick smoke.

He jumped out of bed and was immediately shouting his wife’s name. There was no response. His panic rose, she was a severe asthmatic and smoke caused her to have severe attacks.

He quickly climbed back onto the bed and felt for her. She was not there. He climbed off the bed and ran for the doorway. His breathing was extremely labored now the coughing was continuous.

As Rupert ran he tripped over something and he fell, his head struck the doorframe quite hard. The pain in his head and neck was severe and he was aware of blood running down his face. He felt around for what he had tripped over. His hands found hair first and then the rest of the head. He felt until he found the arms and struggled to lift her. He could hear her wheezing as she fought to breathe.

As quickly as possible, he headed for the door leading to the garage since it was the quickest way out of the house. He opened the door; the smoke seemed even heavier in here. He felt the wall until he found the button for the garage door. He pushed the button repeatedly then remembered that it was not working.

He knew that it would take longer to get to the Suburban and find the remote rather just run for the front door of the house.

He grabbed for his wife again and as he dragged her towards the front door of the house

His breathing was worse and he was getting very weak. There was a pounding in his head which was getting more intense by the second.

The crackling sound of the fire and the glow of the flames were getting closer.

Finally, he could go no further. He released his wife of twenty years swearing to come back as soon as he had the door open. He started crawling; his motions were more and more difficult. Eventually, he reached the door and grabbed the door knob. He reached up and fumbled with the deadbolt and finally it opened. He knew unconsciousness was moments away. He twisted the knob and yanked the door open. He had made it. However, after only about two inches of movement, the doors motion came to a crashing stop. He shook it several times and realized that security chain was hooked. It took an extra moment to process this because in the twelve years that they had lived here they had never used the chain. He tried to pull himself up to release it but was far too weak; he fell to the floor with a crash. Now he was so weak he could not even raise his head. The last thought he had was that if just one of the three smoke detectors in the house had gone off, they would probably have gotten out.