After a deep breath, Ajda stated, “The Council, by majority vote, decided the most humane thing was a quick planetary sterilization.” Philip jumped to his feet and bounded around the room. “Would you rather have them all starve to death?” Ajda asked.

Philip grabbed her by the shoulders. “There had to be a better way.”

Ajda’s eyes switched from Philip to his screen. She pointed at it with her chin. “Look.”

Philip turned his head to see the Earth’s image split by a blinding light. He could not imagine anything brighter. Then the asteroid hit. The explosion was hundreds of times brighter than the fireball.

As the cloud of debris rose above the first impact site, there came a second, and third, and fourth.

Philip did not know how, or when, but he had let go of Ajda and returned to his seat. He heard her say, her voice choked with an emotion he would never have suspected, “Now, it is all academic.” She left, leaving him alone in the darkness.

The asteroids, and Philip’s tears, continued to fall.