Excerpt: Exodus

Some time later, Mary raised her head and stared out the window to the blackness beyond. Something had caught her eye. Again she saw a sparkling light flash across the window. She turned to Star and woke her up with a smile like a kid at Christmas.
"There's a meteor shower going on over Earth. Want to watch for a while?"
"Sure. Let's just put it on the screen instead, we'll see more."
Mary came back with some drinks, and they lay back to watch the show.
"How long do you think this will last?" Star asked as she finished the drink.
"I don't know, but it can't be much longer."
"Wait! What's that?" Star was pointing to a prolonged flare that was visible as a band across the Earth.
"That must be a larger meteorite. It's burning up slowly as it enters the Earth's atmosphere. The observatories in Earth orbit will be ecstatic. GIve me a moment, I have to get Einstein to monitor this. There'll be some great data about meteors from this shower." Mary collected Star's glass and went to the main room. Star heard her voice as she contacted Einstein and arranged for the shower to be closely monitored.
"I hope you didn't offend Aphrodite when you got her to call Einstein."
"Aphrodite is a computer interface, Star, same as Einstein. They don't have feelings."
"Sometimes I think you are a computer, too. You only feel things when you want to."
"Star, that's just not true. I love you, and think about you a lot when we are not together." Mary let her voice trail off as she heard Star's sudden intake of breath. She turned to look at the screen, following Star's gaze.
The image of the earth was changing from a blue globe covered in swirling white patches of meringue, to an agitated one being bombarded by orange flares. The sky above Africa was almost incandescent. Her eyes locked with Star's in a mutual sharing of the horror being witnessed.
"Einstein. Tell me what is happening to Earth. Access all resources, using Administrator override G47521."
"Acknowledged" The view screen in front of them split into six large images, with each of them reflecting a different version of hell.
"What's happening." Mary's voice sounded timid, afraid to hear the answer.
"The images on the left are from the main observatories on the Earth's surface. On the right, the images are from three main geostationary sattelites. Data confirms there have been several meteor strikes on earth. I am still calculating the location of some of them but there have been verified strikes on the North and South American continents, Africa and Europe. There are indications that these strikes have triggered seismic activity along the Pacific rim, and the North American Pacific rim is showing signs of severe stress and imminent instability."
"The planet is turning brown!" Star exclaimed in horror.
"The meteorites that have hit the planet have the combined impact of a small sun. The brown colour is the debris of the multiple explosions casting itself adrift within the atmosphere. There will be millions of tonnes of debris. The planet is going to cool, rapidly. Shortly it will not be able to sustain human life, or many other forms of life."
"What? Einstein, what are you saying?" Mary sat abruptly on the end of the bed. She pulled a swaying Star down next to her and kept a firm grasp on the gentle hand she held.
"I am running analyses to confirm, but a meteor strike of this magnitude is believed to have happened many times in Earth's history, and the profound climate change it causes has brought about the extinction of many species from the planet. The most widely known case was the extinction of the dinosaurs. This time the quantities of debris that is being recorded by the atmospheric sampling monitors is already in the extremely high category, and it has not even finished rising. To put it quite simply, the Earth will enter another ice age. Very little will survive."

Mary and Star sat in a kind of anesthetised silence. Their eyes were fixed on the images that assaulted their minds. To see the horror unfolding yet be so remote from it was almost unendurable. Mary turned to Star and saw each single tear being shed as a brief reminder of the globe being destroyed before their eyes.