The meteor was nearing the end of its journey.
It had travelled distances unimaginable to a human mind, had been travelling longer than the human concept of time. It had borne mute witness to marvels inconceivable to human imagination and was now destined to end its adventures in the atmosphere of the planet humans called home. Not by intention. After all, does a seed know its destination when it is lifted by a warm summer breeze?
It could be expected that it would end its journey in the grand finale of so many others of its kind -a flash, a brilliant streak in the sky. Its wonder observed by a privileged few who would be inspired, would wish, would dally in a moment of fancy or would be lost in an excited flurry of calculations, extrapolations and predictions. Did it anticipate this wondrous end? Is a rainbow aware of its magic as it glows briefly through sunshine and rain?
But it was not to be. Its flaming trail was lost to human observation in the spectacle of a thunderstorm raging in the skies above New York City. Its flash a paltry moment against the cords of lightening twisting and sparking in darkened skies. Instead of being consumed by fire, burned to ashes, obliterated to atoms, it was split asunder by a bolt of electricity. Did it regret? Does a parched flower mourn the lost opportunity to bloom when the rain fails to come?
The shards release their secret cargo, made potent by the energy ripping through the heavens. And this hitherto unknown phenomena bathed the building below, seeping through crevices and poorly fastened window frames, invading ducts and vents with its invisible sub atomic radiation. Why One Police Plaza? Does a tornado select which structure to destroy, which structure to leave intact?
The occupants were unaware of this intrusion as they went about their business. They were ignorant - as they answered phones, typed reports, conducted interviews, interrogations, post mortems - of the insidious invasion that was seeking out the particular combination of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen that was so attractive. Why so attractive? Does a compass needle know why it is compelled to swing towards magnetic north?
On encountering the complex combinations of its preferred elements, the radiation begins its work. A bond broken here, a new bond formed there – a subtle reshaping of the basic building blocks of human life. Secrets buried deep in genetic coding, only to be revealed later when conditions were right. Energy spent, the extraterrestrial force fades away. Was there any plan to this interference? Do the waves design the rearrangement of pebbles on the shore? Do the tides predict the series of impact it has upon the earth?
No. It is merely observed in the changes wreaked upon the landscape...