The piece of the moon had broken off hours ago, and they'd been tracking it as best they could. Its orbit was decaying rapidly, bringing it down towards Ko in a spiral of death.

The moon splinter was not huge in comparison to its parent; not the massive piece, almost a quarter of Omen's mass, that was still in the process of separating. This piece was only ten kilometers at its widest, an oblong chunk of silicates and iron that would soon lodge itself into the planet below. It was the tenth-such monster to break off, but it was predicted to be the first to hit.

"Models show that it will impact near the Western coast of the Western continent," Cenz said. "It may strike in the water or partially on land."

"So it will be far from where Excom Urle and Captain Brooks are located," Jaya said.

"Yes, Acting-Captain," Cenz replied. "It will give them a little time."

It was bigger than the asteroid that formed the Chicxulub crater, Jaya thought.

It was an alarming prospect, to think how much damage that asteroid had caused, yet this one was only a prelude. The only thing that might keep it from being the end of all life would be that it was moving far slower than a deep-space asteroid.

Ji-min Bin's head shot up. "We have a fix on a shuttle! It's the Executive Commander!"

A cheer went up on the bridge, and Jaya felt a little relief. Their two senior officers were the only remaining personnel on the surface.

They should have been evacuated days ago, she thought. But they both had called for more time. They needed as much as possible to complete their missions, and had the rank to authorize it.

"Establishing automated contact," Shomari Eboh called. "The Executive Commander is all right, and he has . . . seventeen !Xomyi on board."

Jaya hesitated, surprised. There had been 259 !Xomyi in the group he had been sent to help. They had been considered challenging, but not that challenging. Why so few . . .?

She could not draw judgement until she knew the facts, and accepted the number without question. "Very well. If he is ready to dock, bring him in. We will transfer his !Xomyi to the diplomatic carrier later."

The much-more massive carrier, along with all of the other ships in their entourage, had pulled away to a safe distance already - farther out than from Earth to its moon. Even there, they were not totally safe from flying debris once the impacts started for real.

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"Piece Ten is beginning its descent," Cenz said.

Jaya could see the projection on the screen; piece ten had hit that critical threshold of depth into the atmosphere where its course plummeted. The atmosphere was bleeding it of energy, and now it was simply in a dive.

She watched; in only a handful of seconds, they registered its impact.

"Analyzing," Cenz called. "We register crust penetration . . . we don't have a good signal. Predicted depth is 18 kilometers with a width of 51."

"Jesus Christ," she heard someone mutter.

"When will this affect Brooks?" she asked.

"The shockwave will take nineteen minutes to reach his location. It will register as a 9.5 magnitude earthquake."

"That's insane!" someone snapped.

"Quiet," Jaya said sternly.

The officer looked abashed and shut up.

"With that energy, it will destroy all of our science stations, unfortunately," Cenz said. "We will no longer see or hear anything from ground level." He paused a moment, then continued. "Ejecta will begin to fall on their position in approximately thirty minutes. The wind blast will be noticeable, but non-damaging, at only eight meters per second."

There was quiet again for a few long moments. "How close are they to reaching their escape ship?"

"I do not know their exact position," Cenz said. "We have lost the ability to communicate with our grounded drones without the satellites. But based on their last known position . . . I would guess that they are at least three hours from launch."

"Will the ship survive the earthquake?"

Cenz took a moment before answering. "The platform it is built on is extremely durable - it has to be to survive the relatively hard drop in. But it also has to hold up to launch. I cannot say for sure if it will survive the shockwave, or for that matter if the ground beneath it will still be intact. If both have survived, I cannot say if the structure will survive the firing of the launcher's thrusters - if they are damaged and buckle before the ship achieves lift-off, it could tip and explode. And even if all of those have survived, the shuttle itself could have sustained damage and not be able to survive escape velocity."

Jaya was quiet for a long time.

"However," Cenz added, breaking the silence. "I hope."

On the screen, the ejecta from the impact was entering space, circling the planet. The majority of it that would come down the six-thousand kilometers distance of Brooks's position would mostly be dust. But it could also be larger fragments that could kill. And not long afterwards, larger fragments, heating up from their fall back through the atmosphere, would begin to warm the atmosphere itself.

There were far too many to even attempt to intercept. And, she saw, another piece of the moon would begin its own fall in just a few short hours.

"Then let us wait," she finally said. "And be prepared for when his shuttle escapes the world."