Hi there, I know it took a while. I wanted it uploaded over a week ago, but my trip to Rome made things a little compicated and I had less time then I thought. I apologize! Next one will be up sooner!

A conference room in the space centre, Houston, Texas

"What about a big solar sail?"

"How do you want to get a big solar sail into space?"

"I don't know, a space shuttle maybe?"

"And where do you want to get a solar sail from in the first place?"

"This is the NASA; I think they should have stuff like that!"

Voices. Too loud. Uh... headache. Need them to be quiet.

Let us silent them, father.
We could make them quiet.
Let us do it.
We can help you, father.

No...
I can deal with them...

Office of the General

General Falkins was not a very patient man. He did not like to wait and for the umpteenth time he glanced at the big wall clock. The light in the room was dimmed, but he could still make out what time it was and he did not like it. Barely two minutes had past since he had checked the last time. His fingers tapped to the rhythm of the second hand on the wooden desk. He was waiting for over an hour now, but the man he was waiting for had not bothered to show up and it was driving him mad. He did not like to wait.
It knocked on the door. Finally.
Falkins leaned back in his armchair and stopped tapping his fingers.
"Yes?" He said in a calm voice, although he was boiling on the inside and ready to explode, but he would not have become a General, if he had not learned to control his temper.
The door opened and the head of a small woman became visible.
"Mr. Truman is here, Sir." the woman said.
"Send him in!"
The head of the woman disappeared and Dan Truman stepped into the room. He closed the door behind him.
"Take a seat." Falkins offered firmly.
"I rather stand" Truman said, stepping closer with his hands behind his back. "And you don't have to be so polite. I know you want to yell at me."
For a moment a smile crossed Falkins features, but it was gone as fast as it has appeared.
"You underestimate me, Truman. I want to do a lot more than just to yell at you." He leaned forward, looking straight at Truman. He struggled to keep is voice low, he wanted to yell at the man, but this was neither the right place nor the right time.
"You disobeyed a direct order; you know what consequences that has."
"I did what I thought was right." Truman said calmly.
"Huh, racing to New York with two helicopters and a plane and looking for a wanted criminal is what you think is the right thing to do in such a situation?" Truman's calmness infuriated him even more and he was not able to keep is voice down.
"Yes!"
Falkins inhaled deeply and let out a loud sigh. This man was not worth getting upset and he had to think of his blood pressure, he was not the youngest anymore and he did not want to cause the heart attack of his doctor during his next visit, when he sees that the data had become even worse.
He managed to bring a smile to his lips and said as calm as he could: "Well, I assume you didn't find him." For Falkins the conversation has just ended and he beckoned Truman to leave but the other man did not move.
"Is there something else?" He asked and he already felt the blood rise to his head again.
Truman shifted his weight with unease from one leg to the other.
"Well, I – uhm...", it was obvious he did not want to say the next words, "I found him and I brought him here!" Now that the words were out of his mouth he visible stiffened.
For several moments the ticking of the wall clock could be heard then the silence was interrupted.
"You did WHAT?" Falkins yelled as he jumped up.

Truman knew this had to come. He was prepared to face the anger of the General and so he just closed his eyes as Falkins continued to yell and tried to blend everything out.
"You brought a very dangerous man into a federal institution. What did you think? He is a wanted criminal. I want you to tell me immediately where he is so we can arrest him and take him into custody."
Truman opened his eyes and looked in the face of the General, which could now be easily mistaken for a tomato.
"No!"
Truman watched not without pleasure that Falkins was shaking with rage.
"Listen!" The General pointed a finger in Truman's face, but he stood unimpressed.
"No, you listen!" Truman interrupted Falkins. "You will not arrest him. Maybe I did not make myself clear, but he is the only one who can help us. There is a huge meteor racing towards us!" He made a rapid movement and pointed to the ceiling. All the weariness suddenly fell off and his body was bursting with new energy.
"It is going to hit us in about 17 days and we need somebody to control the armadillo so we can drill a hole in this gigantic thing and blow it up."
Falkins looked a little dumbstruck at Truman, it was obvious that he was not used to situations where the other one is shouting and not him.
"Octavius invented the AI, he is the expert, if not him than nobody can control it."
"He is a wanted criminal, I am not going to tolerate him in the space centre, there has to be another solution!"
"There is not! The armadillo attacked three men yesterday, as they were trying to readjust some parts...one is still in coma." With that Truman turned on his heels and stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut in the process and leaving a perplexed General behind.

Outside the space centre

Harry was relieved as the helicopter made contact with the asphalt of the airstrip. After having changed from the first helicopter to a small airplane and then back to another helicopter and being airborne for half an eternity according to Harry's sense of time he felt slightly sick and had the strong urge to kiss the ground as he awkwardly climbed out of the shopper with Grace right behind him.
"Oh thank God!" He let out his breath as his feet touched the ground.
"What's wrong with you? You didn't mind flying before." Grace asked a little concerned.
"I don't mind flying; I can deal with 3-4 hours. I even could handle the eight hours to Europe but we have been off the ground for like 15 hours or what?"
"16 hours and 15 minutes to be precise." A deep voice suddenly said.
"What?" He looked around and was caught by surprised as he found a man standing right beside him.
"You were in the air for exactly 16 hours and 15 minutes."
"Nice to know", Harry eyed the man curiously. He wore a grey suit with a white shirt and the tie slightly out of place as if he had tried to fix it real quick but had not quite succeeded.
He smiled but his grey eyes looked worried and showed that he had not slept in days.
"I hope you are the one in charge here." Harry crossed his arms in front of his chest. "'Cause I really want to complain about the crappy treatment."
"I apologize for the circumstances of your journey."
"I don't want apologies, I want an explanation! Why are we here?" Harry snapped.
"I can understand that." The other man said calmly. "but before we go inside and I explain, I want to introduce myself. I am Dan Truman and as you already guessed, I am in charge here."
"Whatever you say!"
"Good!" Truman beckoned to follow him and started walking to the nearest building.
Harry used the time as they walked in silence to look around.
There were several different buildings that partially surrounded the airstrip. To their left was a large office building next to several buildings that seemed like they accommodated the workers and scientists of the space centre.
Harry's gaze fell on the large hangar and the even larger air traffic control tower.
"What are we doing here?"
"A little patience, please." They entered through a side entrance and Harry could get a quick glance at the inside of the hangar through an open door before they climbed up the stairs and entered a room that looked like a small conference room to him.
"Before I start you have to agree that you will not tell anything that you are about to hear anybody. Not your closest friends, not your family, not even your dog!"
"I don't have a dog."
"Uhm..." Truman blinked several times before he remembered what he wanted to say.
"Well, you have to sign these contracts." He pulled two folded papers out of his inner pocket of his jacket along with two pens.
"Why?" Grace suddenly asked. Harry whirled around and starred at his daughter. "Where did you come from?"
"I've been here the whole time; you were just too busy to complain that you did not notice me."
"Oh..." Harry still looked confused.
"Sorry to interrupt your little conversation, but I am going to leave you alone for a little while, so you have time to read the contract. It's just an issue of formality, please sign them." With that he turned around and left the room.
"Don't you think this is so exciting, Harry?" Grace gripped a pen and quickly signed the paper without reading it. "I wonder why they brought us here, but it must be something really big, since they have us sign these things." She looked up at her dad. "Aren't you going to sign it?"
"I wanna read it before I sign; you never know what they put into such a contract. Maybe you just obligated yourself to help them to test their newest rocket, as a test pilot."
"Come on, Harry, don't be such a killjoy."
"How often do I have to tell you to call me Dad?" Harry said annoyed.
"Read it and sign it. I am too excited to wait any longer." Grace said and waved her pen in front of his face impatiently.
"Alright!" He snatched the pen from her hand and started to read the paper quickly. When he was done he sighed and said: "Looks fine to me!" He signed it and glanced at his daughter. "Satisfied?"
"Yes!" She grinned.

In the room next door.

Diego de Neravario let out a contemptuous hiss and stared angrily at the man in front of him.
They were in this room for almost two hours and they had been arguing since this man woke up. The other two scientists had been no problem to persuade that he was the boss here, they were little fish compared to him, but this man was getting on his nerves since the first word came out of his mouth.
"Why do you always have to say something against my ideas? We are supposed to be a team, we should work together!"
"Your ideas are crap!" The man said simply, he did not even look at De Neravario. He just sat there and rubbed his temples and De Neravario could not stand it anymore. This man was the complete opposite of him and he wondered how the NASA could hire somebody like him. The messy appearance of the man grossed De Neravario out and he unintentionally stroke over his slick black hair that was combed back and hold in place by a huge amount of gel.
He let out his breath to get his temper back under control. He had one idea left and was not going to give up.
"Okay, another idea. Why don't we just blow it up? Send a few atomic bombs up there and it's gone."
He heard the other man chuckle and his body suddenly shock with rage.
"This meteor has the size of Texas; it's going to do much damage even if we launch the complete atomic arsenal of the United States at that thing."
De Neravario crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"Well, if you think my ideas are crap, why don't you suggest something yourself." He said annoyed. "Always complaining but never saying anything useful. Oh wait; you have a headache, right? So you can't think." He said full of pity.
"Right." Either the man had not noticed the undertone of De Neravario's voice or he ignored it, but he continued to rub his temples.
De Neravario stepped forward and hit the table hard with his right hand right in front of the man.
"You -!" He growled but was interrupted by one of the other scientists who stood completely forgotten on the other side of the room and on the other end of the table.
"Uhm...We have an idea." One of them said timidly.
De Neravario was about to growl at them as well when the other man, who he did not even know the name of what he just noticed, said: "Well, then tell us. Every idea is needed since our friend here", he gestured at De Neravario, "has no idea what he is talking about."
He now looked up for the first time and grinned at De Neravario.
"Well, uhm...we think the idea with the...uhm... atomic bomb ...uhm...is not so bad", the nervous scientist stuttered, "uhm...I mean, as you said, it is not going to do anything if we send up some missiles, but if we could get a big bomb inside we should be able to blow it up...what do you think?" He looked expectantly at the man and so did De Neravario, who was hoping that the nervous scientist was going to get a snappish answer as well.
After several seconds the man nodded and said: "I think that would work."
That was the point were De Neravario exploded.
"WHAT?? You turn every idea from me down and now this nervous wimp has one and you approve it? What's wrong with you?? I can't believe the NASA turned to somebody like you for help. Who are you anyway? Oh no wait...", he eyed him with acted curiosity, "I know who you are! You are freaky, little half wit, who can't think for himself and therefore has to comment everything that others say. I guess your life is stamped by misery and failure and you just can't handle it." He continued to tease the man and suddenly three different things happened at the same time. The gasping of the two scientists in the corner and the screaming that followed only seconds later was probably the least interesting of the three followed by the sudden call "Octavius, what are you doing?" from Truman who had just entered the room to see the last thing that occurred. After De Neravario had stopped teasing the man and started to enjoy watching the consequences of his little speech, four snakes like metal things appeared behind the man and before De Neravario could scream one already had closed its claws around his neck. De Neravario stared in horror at the man as he suddenly realized who that was.