AB (The Blake Reynolds Chronicles Book 1) Read Free

any.”
    Ottah’s nerves had calmed now a bit,
and he continued with the report.
      “With the little time we have had to gather
information, we first know that the meteor does not have a solid iron core like
most meteors. This is a very good thing because it lessens the impact. It has
an outer layer that could best be thought of as dirty ice. The center of the meteor
seems to be made up of a solid nonmetallic-type material that we have not yet
identified.
    “From the trajectory and its
composition, we expect that most of it will burn up in the atmosphere. And the
rest, if any, will fall harmlessly into the ocean. There could be a small tsunami,
but it is estimated to be very small. Unless we have missed something, this
should not be a major incident. There may be a large explosion high in the
atmosphere, but not much else. We believe that this is how the Earth got all of
its water to begin with billions of years ago.”
    Ottah could see some relief come on
the faces of some of the participants in the meeting.
    Not knowing what else to say, Ottah
sat down on the small stool next to the podium, put his hands in his lap and
looked at the president.
    President Fisher gave a nod back as
if to say, “Well done.”
    He stood. “I recommended that any
nation with a scientific interest in the event sends ships to monitor the
impact and, if need be, to render aid.”
    As the two men left the room,
President Fisher leaned over to Dr. Kuhn and whispered, “Well done, Doctor.”

Day 3: Blake

 
    After spending the night on the base,
Blake awoke at his normal 06:00. After a quick jog, he quickly showered and ate
breakfast. It had been a while since he had done any shooting, so he decided to
head to the gun range and get some practice in. Once he made it to the shooting
range, he started shooting in tight groups on the targets. After his second set,
something on the western horizon caught his eye. It was high in the sky, and he
had to squint to see it.
    He assumed it was the meteor that he
had heard about the day before because it had an exceedingly long contrail and
seemed to be on fire on its leading edge. All the men on the range were now
looking to the sky, following the streak with their eyes. It was nearly a
minute before it disappeared below the western horizon.
    Blake ran to stow his rifle then headed
to the mess hall. When he walked inside, he noticed several Marines gathered
around the TV watching a news report.
    “What’s going on?” he asked the
nearest Marine.
    “They are saying something about a
meteor that they have been tracking for the last several days. It has just
entered the Earth’s atmosphere.”
    “I just saw that thing fly overhead
a few minutes ago. It was huge! Did they say anything about it doing any
damage?”
    “They didn’t say. They think it is
just going to burn up in the high atmosphere.”
    Blake stood there watching the news
reports for a few minutes then shrugged and walked out of the room. “Well, at
least it won’t interfere with the days activities,” he thought to himself.
    The sunlight felt warm on his face
as he strolled across the base to a building on the far side where he needed to
turn in his reports. Halfway across the grounds, he crossed paths with a young female
Marine who looked similar to Tara. She gave a quick salute and continued on.
    Once she was out of sight, his
thoughts wandered to Tara and their brief life together. How she wanted to
follow in her family’s footsteps, become a Marine and be one of the first
female helicopter pilots allowed to fly into a combat zone. How they had met
when Blake had sent out a call for an extraction when his platoon had come
under fire. They had wounded soldiers who needed to be picked up, including himself.
Even though he had been hit and was bleeding excessively, he was instantly
attracted to her appearance and courage.

 
    Early in the afternoon, Blake was
assigned to teach a class in hand-to-hand combat with his high school