Chapter 94 - 94 - A Different Strand Of Virus
At the same time in G city a small group of scientist suited up.
Qian Wen hurriedly wore his hazmat suit and prepared all the equipments needed to reach the crash site.
"Mister Wen! We have a problem. The N*asa is on call and something is going badly," his assistant Gan came shouting from the hallway.
Qian paused. "What do you mean?"
He hurried over to the computer trying to get in contact with the team, but the connection was glitching.
"Check the connection!" he ordered a few of his technicians.
Soon he was able to get a feed. The N*asa official who was working with this project appeared on the screen with snot running down his nose.. He was sobbing silently. "We have done a mistake. It was not meant to happen. This was not meant to happen..." he cried, not notching the camera in front of him.
"Mister Fred, I need you to calm down. Tell me what\'s going on." Qian Wen did his best to calm him down.
"Mister Wen, we have made a huge mistake. It\'s my fault. I did not predict this. It was the wrong one...."
Qian lost patience after this. Time was running out. If the samples got running with his dilly, dallying his superiors will only blame him. "What didn\'t you predict?"
"We hit the wrong one! The wrong meteor!"
"There was only one..."
"No, there were two. From our satellite\'s we were only able to see one. The other bigger one was hiding right in its shadows." The man sobbed, wiping his snot with a tissue.
"So what does that mean? Will the samples be compromised?" Qian glanced at his team behind him.
"No! I don\'t care about your samples!! This meteor is too big. It won\'t be able to break apart in the atmosphere. It will come down in large chunks." He sent him a video predicting the new pathway the meteor will be travelling.
The bigger one broke down into five pieces, hitting major countries. The meteor that they were planning on shooting down would deviate from its path route around earth for a while and land in about a month.
Qian gasped loudly. The meteor chunks were too big. It can damage a lot of properly. He quickly got his emotions under control. "Mister Fred, I need you to contact every government you know of and inform of this upcoming danger. We have to warn them."
"No use.. no use. It has already set forth its path."
The screen crackled, and the call went out of focus once again.
Fred moved closer to the camera and whispered, "we are doomed. Our human kind has done too much damage..."
The screen went static once again.
"Get the technicians to work and get me a signal. I need to know when the other meteor chunks will land on other sites. Gan, do a time estimation of their landings now!\'
"on it, mister Qian," his assistant ran about, trying his best.
Qian removed his oxygen mask and the hazmat suit with a deep form. According to the new calculation, a small part of the meteor must have already landed in some part of their country.
"Which is the closest crash site to us?"
"H city and another one is estimated to strike our G city in about an hour or so. After that comes a huge chunk that crashes in S city in about three hours."
Qian Wen loudly panted. "Shit, that is worse. Can we evacuate everyone? Is it even possible?"
"We can give orders, but don\'t think evacuation would be possible given the time crunch we are in,"
Legs weak, Qian sat down on the seat holding his head. "Try calling everyone you know of. Tell them to leave G city...maybe try the local new station call then inform them,"
Gan sat next to him, holding his shoulders. "We lost all connections. We... we don\'t have anything,"
"See if we can send any message to the military through Morse code. They still have that machine."
"I\'ll check if the lines are working sir," Gan ran out the room.
Qian went tossed his suit down and walked out in complete disbelief. The plan was safe and secure. The meteor was supposed to break down into sand while entering. They only planned to find small segments of the sample that survived the crash.
But now huge chunks of it were crashing into cities damaging thousand of human\'s life.
He walked out of the facility, taking deep breaths to calm his anxious mind. With a shaking hand, he pulled out his phone from his pocket and called his dad. The line did not connect.
"I.. I should drive home... maybe one of his friends can help evacuate this city....."
He mumbled, but suddenly he noticed something. Small flecks of ashes flew down from the sky.
He swiftly threw a coat over his head and caught one of it with a spare glove he had.
His original idea to go back home vanished. His curiosity to research this specimen overruled everything.
Qian ran back into his facility and swiftly placed the ash onto a small petri dish. "At least we have the all virus strand. With this, we can help a lot more people. I\'m sure..." he mumbled, as if trying to talk away the guilt he felt.
He carefully placed the Petri dish under a microscope.
"Mister Qian.." Gan came in slightly panting. "w—what are you doing.." he said, leaning against the walls tiredly.
"The virus. It could be our only atonement." He whispered, but as he peered into the small microscope, all hope left his face. His skin turned so pale that appeared grey and lifeless.
"Did it get destroyed upon impact? Sir.. I\'m so sorry... I know it was your life\'s work.."
"No..." Qian pushed his rolling chair away from the testing area. "This one is different. It\'s not the same strand of life form we have been testing. This is... completely different."
"That\'s great! We can definitely find a great use for it."
Qian shook his head, glancing at him. "No.... This virus.. I believe it\'s air borne."
"we really are doomed."