Ramifications

"Do you realize what this could mean?" Mitch asked excitedly.

"I know, man; I know. I had no intention of--"

"This could be an act of war. 30 years of mindless expansion, paying no attention to us what-so-ever; and now--if this data means what I think it means--one of those fuckers throws a fucking asteroid at us!"

Convinced the situation was still his fault, Timothy started, "Maybe, but it only did that after I--"

"It's an X-Ray, Tim... If that was really an alien ship, I'm sure they're well versed in radiation a hell of a lot stronger than that. You did what any explorer anywhere would have done--tried to figure out what the hell that thing was. I won't go around flaunting the details, but the intel itself could prove immensely useful in determining what we're dealing with."

"Mitch, you make it seem like it's no big deal that my actions could very well be putting the entire colony at risk." Timothy couldn't rationalize his actions, however rational they may have been. "I can't stop thinking about it. That ship didn't even seem to care that I was there until the moment I switched on the X-scanner. What if I never would have gone out there? We wouldn't be getting kicked out of our damn homes again, for one thing!"

Mitch unintentionally rolled his eyes a bit. "Well, you did go out there. How the hell could you have known? Don't be so hard on yourself, man. You didn't contaminate Earth. You didn't tell the aliens to take over our planet. You didn't change the course of that fucking--uh, thing. Now can you please help me finish compiling the final two result sets from the last long-range scan analysis? If we combine these results with your findings, we at least might be able to figure out what kind of danger we're in."

Almost as if on cue, the station alarm began sounding, and all wall screens started looping an 'Imminent Danger' warning message instructing of evacuation procedure. "Shit!" Timothy exclaimed. "There's no way it's here already. Not according to your--" He was cut off by a jolt that nearly knocked him off his feet, followed by an almost-deafening rumbling and the panicked sounds of civilians not ready to die.

The 'Imminent Danger' warning had now updated itself to 'Hull Breach'. "I took a transport," Mitch stated wide-eyed.

"Follow me!" Timothy yelled back. Although the instructional voice was being drowned out by the screams of the scientists and civilians on board, he knew all too well what to do in this situation. Mitch ejected and pocketed several small hard disks and grabbed what loose paperwork he could, and they both ran for the hangar where Timothy's ship was docked.