The sun shined in through the window, warming the feathers of Kalvar's facial disk. He leaned back in his chair, listening to the Beyton national radio station. He had his talons resting on top of the desk, and wings dangling off the sides of the chair. It wasn't always exciting to be operating a radio telescope at the Large Beyton Radio Telescope Array, but hey, he got to be paid for sitting back and doing nothing most of the day. Kalvar was about to rest his eyes when a rapidly repeating beep on the radar detector caught his attention. He sat up, and saw what was happening on the holographic monitor.
"Approximate Mars solar distance origin…artificial signal…satellite relay." He recited to himself, reading of the data of the transmission. "Mhm, definitely satellite Scavenger."
A moment after he finished his sentence, another beeping noise began, this one coming from the video call alert. Kalvar pressed a small, lit up yellow button on the desk, turning on the video call. The live holographic image appeared, on the other end was Helnik Marken, the Head of Technology for the International Animal Space Administration.
"Good afternoon Kalvar!" Helnik greeted cheeringly over the video call.
"Oh, good afternoon sir!" Kalvar raised his left wing to the side of his head for a moment and lowered it as a salute.
"So," Helnik started, "we're getting the satellite transmission you're sending us just now, and we want to check on a few things."
"Go right ahead."
"First of all, is the relay in non-encrypted form?"
Kalvar quickly leaned and glanced at the monitor. "Yes sir."
"Any data loss?"
"None sir."
"Good, and what is the time delay between transmission receiving and sending?"
"About 80 milliseconds."
"Alright then, Kalvar," Helnik replied, "everything seems to be in order. Thanks for cooperating."
Kalvar grinned. "No problem." With that, Helnik ended the video call. Kalvar, once again left to waiting, sat back in his chair, and tuned on to the radio again.
Meanwhile at IASA Headquarters, Helnik was busy. The place had livened up a bit since they received the satellite signal from Beyton. He nodded his head to side, turning on the headset over his ear. A microphone dismounted from the earpiece and stopped in front of his beak.
"Hello, simulation department? This is Helnik. I want to transmission run through the simulation programs, and send the finished product to conference room number 9." He ordered.
"Yes sir." Someone replied.
Helnik once again nodded his head, and the microphone whirred back into the earpiece. He started moving down the corridor towards the elevators. While walking, owls were moving in and out of rooms, making sure they got the signal properly. Helnik finally found himself at the elevator doors. When they opened, he stepped inside and dialed the number 10 on the number pad.
"Identification please." The automated voice asked. In response, Helnik stepped up to the eye scanner. A light flashed, and then was replaced by a green approval signal. The elevator rose to the tenth floor.
When the doors opened, Helnik now walked down another corridor. It was less busy up here, as only higher-ranking employees were permitted on this floor. Helnik scanned the walls as he moved down the hallways, then stopped when he reached the ninth conference room. He pressed a small button next to the door, and it slid open. Inside waiting for him at the end of the conference table was Femic, an owl, and Lyta, a wolf.
"Ah, Helnik Marken!" Femic boomed. "So nice for you to join us!"
Helnik smiled. "Always a pleasure working with you two. And I'd say this is quite the important meeting."
"I'd say so as well." Lyta added. "Let's get this started. My nerves can't take it."
Helnik nodded in agreement. He stepped back, and waved his right wing over a senor on the conference table. Overhead, a projector came to life. After pressing a few more buttons, Helnik started the simulation. It lit up on the screen in front of them.
The simulation showed an asteroid, approximately 10 miles wide, orbiting the sun on an elliptical orbit, travelling from the solar distance of Venus all the way out to Mars. Its inclination was very similar to Earth's.
Months, then years pasted on the simulation. The asteroid orbited the Sun around and around. Eventually, however it caught up to Earth. The simulation stopped just as the asteroid intersected the Earth. The two owls and wolf gasped at the results, then looked at each other in shock. They said nothing to each other for a few seconds.
Finally, Lyta broke the silence with, "What do we do?"
Femic, a chatty owl, said nothing. So Helnik replied. "I say we get Jackob up here as soon as possible."
"But he's down south in Tyontian for an important meeting. There's no way we can get him anytime within the next two weeks. Femic exclaimed.
"Well," Helnik replied, "if we have only 25 years to prevent that asteroid from colliding with Earth, I'm sure the meeting can wait."