Time dragged and dragged by. Finally the satellite terminal showed the bus as a spec on the display near the asteroid. It arrived at exactly the right coordinates. The accuracy of this technology was incredible.
It seemed like it was close enough to have an effect on the asteroid, but the computer needed a second point on the path to see if it had changed enough to miss the Terra Durom. For this I had to wait a few more hours.
I tried to stay occupied to keep from getting too anxious, but that was very difficult. I tried to stay away from the terminal to keep my adrenaline down. I continued to take photos of the various terminals, but the quality of my notes had dropped significantly due to my preoccupation.
Finally after about 2 hours I went back to the terminal. The path seemed the same to the naked eye. I had the computer show the path prior to the transport of the bus. It looked the same. Then I realized I was looking at the asteroid, any change would almost be insignificant. I fast forwarded the simulation to view the point where it would either strike or pass by Terra Durom.
Here I could definitely see a change, but it didn't look like enough. It appeared that the asteroid would still strike somewhere in Europe instead of north america. This was still going to be a problem!
It was great to know that we could use gravity to move the asteroid, but it wasn't enough. We needed something that we could control so that we could coax it further off it's path, but there wasn't anything in this facility designed for that.
Then I remembered our space craft back in Washington. It had the maneuverability to do what we needed. The only problem was I would have to confront the crew and somehow get them to bring the craft down here.
