Happening at Msirt 2

All happenings and people in this story are fictional and any relation to real people, living or dead, or events is purely coincidental.

I would like to thank Angel Love for editing this story

MSIRT

: Multi Stage Interlaced Radio Telescope

NASA Personal

Director: Neville Fortice

Assistant Director: Orlando Gilmoreson

Head of MSIRT Station 2: Susan de La Man

MSIRT Station 1 Technician: Michaela Davies

MSIRT Station 2 Technician: Scott Shaun-Michaels

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It all started a t MSIRT Observatory Station 2, at 3:27am with the final test before the Official Opening of the complex.

Scot Shaun- Michaels sat looking at the LCD monitor showing an image of Saturn. Its ring glinting in what little sunlight reached it, when he noticed a blurred streak in the image above the ring...

He looked at the phone sitting on the side of the desk then at the clock. Seeing the time he thought about calling the effect in. "nah, she'll be asleep. I'll call the Florida observatory and find out what they can see."

After a tap on the speed dial, Michaela's voice answered, "Florida MSIRT Obs 1, how may I assist you?" Scott loved the sound of her voice; it made him think that she was a woman who enjoyed sex and plenty of it. Her voice was in a low pitch for a woman, and had the feel of velvet to his ears.

"Michaela you sexy wench. I need a favour from you. Can you double check Saturn for me. I'm getting weirdness over the Ring, upper right equatorial. High on the Ring can you check for the usual."

He then started several other work stations for the tests he was going to have to do. Then he went into the store for the zap drives. After mounting them for the recording of all the things he was about to have to do. He also started them monitoring the anomaly.

After getting everything set up and starting the recordings, he called her back "hi girl, I got you on the speaker so I can work with holding the phone." He noticed a small thumping sound that wasn't normally on the line when talking to Florida

"I got your 'weirdness' ooonnn my own monitor, and yyoouurrr rright it is a weird one. I'll ccaalllll my boss soon.". "Oh sshitt" then the line went dead and the thumping sounds stopped

Scott realised what he had interrupted, and chuckled to himself. He double checked the monitor and whatever it was it was now in front of the Rings.

After a few minutes he hit the speaker and speed dial, after a minute or so his boss Susan de La Man answered "wha' ya want..."

"Suzie get that rear of your down to work, I got something you're going to want to see"

"Shaun-Michaels, you slime based shit, what the fuck is so important that you have to disturb my sleep at... oh fuck... four in the fucking morning, you cocksucker!!"

How about an 800 mile diameter chunk of rock on collision course for Earth? That good enough Susie?" came back to her over the phone.

"I'm coming down now, see you in three" as she reached for the hem of her nightgown. She then dressed in jersey and jeans, not bothering with a bra or panties. She then jogged down to the observatory from her trailer, located on the hill above the observatory

Susan checked all of Scott's math, the computer models and trajectory that were ready for her on three workstations. "Three stations, was that entirely necessary Scott??" she asked, rubbing her eyes when she came in.

"Suzy," Scott appeared at her side with 2 steaming cups, the smell of coffee hitting her noise as he did.

"Thank God for life giving java." Smiling her thanks, she reached for the phone and dialled two numbers.

"Morning guys," there was the sound of four people grumbling, "Sorry to disturb your wives, but the shit has destroyed the fan and is now working on the office. We got an 800 mile rock heading for Earth at a speed that will give the system a second asteroid belt." There was more grumbling, a pair of "go back to sleep dear, I've got to take this call." A couple of minutes later there were two voices almost in sync

The first asked "have you got a hold of Neville yet?"

The second asked, "have you got a hold of Orlando yet?"

"Yes that's why we're on a conference call. Now I've gotten your attention. My technician Scott Shaun-Michaels was doing a final test, some star watching and general check on all systems, like I instructed him to " she didn't, but it saved him thinking of an excuse for any inquiry that might happen, and from any of the accountants that would be checking the expenditures.

"In his checking out of the DSIS (Deep Space Imaging System) he caught an anomaly when checking out the Ring of Saturn. He powered up two secondary stations, so he could map its trajectory, speed, mass etc. He also called MSIRT 1 to collaborate his findings. She is still investigating what he found." There was the sudden sound of a phone ringing in the office. Scott ran to answer it. "Hang on, we may have collaboration."

Scott pocked his head out of the office, pointed at the phone" Florida, want me to patch her in?" with a nod in his direction.

"Mic, can you tell me patch the office phone into main phone for a conference call?" With directions for Michaela, Scott managed to patch the call in to workstation network.

At this point I want to introduce you gentleman to Michaela Davies" there were murmurs from the three of them "what's your report Mic?"

Well, this thing is coming in quick. It should be here in a month or five weeks. It's made up of rock and metals... the spectrograph is having a spaz attack and coming up with unknown metal signatures. So my interpretation is that this thing is made by intelligent beings. It's almost a mathematical sphere as far as I can detect, so who knows. We'll be able to get better readings in 2 – 3 weeks, so who knows what will happen till then. My recommendation is to stay quiet, at least till someone in the public discovers it."

"Thanks Mic, you go back to what you were doing".

"Thanks Susie, I will definitely do that" with a little laugh, then a click as she hung up.

Susan looked at Scott, who with a wiggle of his eyebrows, a small smile and a nod, he said without saying a word told Susan what Michaela had been up to.

"Well bosses?? What do we do? Do we stay silent? Do we go to the press? Do we alert the world to our doom, or do we stay quiet and let it come?"

"What do you say Orlando?" asked Neville

"Well I want to tell everyone, but the wisdom is to stay silent in the interests of safety." said Orlando.

"So we stay silent about what we found?" asked Susan.

A sigh came from over the phone, "keep records and send them to me personally Susan" said Neville "I'll warn my secretary to except parcels from you without looking at them. I want one parcel containing the records of this... ummm what are we going to call it? a rogue moon?"

"Might as well Neville" Orlando said" I'm off back to bed before I fall back to sleep, night all." There was a click as he hung up.

"Well Susan, I'm going to tell the bean counters to back off from your station. You guys are now considered an Eye of God station, so that should shut them up..."

Another sigh "oh god, now I have to brief the President, the Joint Chiefs, and all their staffs as to what's coming", there was a third sigh "time to wake my gracious employees. God their going to be... ready to hang me by my heels, then they'll want to skin Scott and you. But frightened by the news then they might get down and work its going to be a long week. I'll let the two of you get back to work. Night." There was a click as he rung up his phone.

"Scott, get Michaela on the bone. She's coming here... contact Engineering to set up 2 temp sheds for you and Michaela. I hope you like overtime because you're going to be earning it... while the earth still exists" Susan sighed "fuck I'm tired, I'm going back to bed... oh phone engineering now and to get their fat fucken arses out of bed and get to work on the sheds they're to be outfitted with smart turtles for the pair of you. You need real-time connections, full mounted stations, progressive tracking, all the bells and whistles..."a full bodied laugh "the pair of you isn't going to see much in the way of a bonus from this. The bosses WILL do this, and its going to cost them

BIG

, you're going to be 24/ 7 till the end. So it's going to cost... ¼, 1/3, ½... I think the better of a half for the sheds. I'm going to make the call from my trailer, night Scott." She walked away chuckling to herself.

As she walked away Scott's face showed his confusion. He was thinking 'what the hell was she talking about ¼, 1/3, 1/2...' then the answer hit him, millions, she was talking half a million for a shed... "Holy mother fuck" half a million a shed... then that rock will hit and all the fucken work will be for fuck all reward... 'Oh well its going to be fun for a while anyway.

The next day was the media blitz for the opening of the MSIRT Facility. Everyone, except Scott, was on display for the cameras and members of the public. The astronomical displays were working perfectly, the DSIS posters were rolled up and ready for sale.

The Engineering dept. was setting up two new prefab sheds, feed lines from the main building to the sheds were being laid down, and they were installing a lot of computer equipment. The technician dept. was installing all the other electrical equipment, from air conditioners, to fridges and washing machines.

Once the press had gone and everything was mostly back to normal, Susan called all the MSIRT staff together.

"Ladies and gentleman, I've got some news fro you. Scott found something last night, during the final tests and MSIRT 2 is now reclassified as a result. We're now on Biblical. That's right Eye of God Watch. We have Michaela Davies arriving tonight. We're also cleared for ALL necessary expenditures to keep a watch on this. Scott's watch point commands have override on all other traffic. This standing is not to be made public. If it does go public there

will

be an inquiry and all those people on the watch of the person responsible WILL LOSE THEIR JOBS, there will be no warnings or anything else. This meeting is considered three written warnings. There is also a possibility that you will also be imprisoned as well. This site is now considered to be a military installation in term of laws, a High Security Installation in terms of security. Your phones now have a permanent tap on them. You will be staying here tonight while the security details are redone and you are issued with your new security IDs. Your cars have been returned to your houses and you will be given new vehicles that are to be driven only by you. They have a petrol account card, that you will be given. This circumstance will be in action for the next three months, due to extraordinary circumstances. We have moved all online services to another server, and the system hasn't changed otherwise except this facility is no longer connected to the outside world in electronic media. The phones and fax are also tapped and monitored by military personnel. Ladies and gentleman we are in a very unusual situation please be patient for the next quarter and it will all go away after then. Thank you for coming. If you wish I can arrange for a transfer for those of you who don't like the idea of all of this. Please come and see me this afternoon if you want a transfer. There will be a pay drop for those of you that are on a special contract, or your contract will continue as before except that it will be at a different facility. Again thank you for coming, for listening to what I have to say. I will be in my office all afternoon" with that she turned around and left the room, apparently heading for her office

Everyone broke out into question about who, what, where, how, why, what's going on, where will we stay, am I staying or going? After 10 minutes everyone went back to work