The Meteor Shower

The next morning, Morgan met up with Captain Rogers and a few other people from the base who were all eager to get outside and do a little golfing. Not only were they eager to hit the ball around, some of them wanted to do it at the exact same spot where past astronauts who visited did as well. It was something of a historic pilgrimage and to these people who were not only fans of history but of the game as well. Morgan wasn't an avid golfer himself but his Dad was so he wanted to go out there to so his old man could see pictures of his son playing golf on the moon. He could picture his Dad taking a blown up photo of that and putting a framed copy of it up on his wall. The fact that he was in space at all made him proud but that Morgan was going to play a round at the same spot on the moon as other astronauts did before made his old man incredibly jealous. It was something he had been looking forward to ever since Rogers suggested it on their trip up.

It took the lunar buggy about a half hour to drive out to the same spot where the first lunar landings took place. They had stationed the base near that historic location just so other astronauts could visit the same spot for nostalgia's sake. When the arrived near the site, it was so easy to tell they had arrived. Small bits of equipment, an older buggy and even the flag that was planted into the moon's surface were still there. Morgan had been instructed not to touch a thing and not even get within fifty feet of any of them as they preferred the space remain undisturbed. They were a sacred part of history but to stand there and be less than a hundred feet from them was enough for Morgan to swell up with pride as he looked back to the Earth, which seems so far away.

Rogers parked the buggy and anchored it to the moon so that it wouldn't accidentally drag away from their position. He brought out his custom gulf set that were inside a custom made golf bag that wouldn't allow any of the clubs to accidentally float away. One of the other astronauts that came along had a camera to take pictures of their little exhibition. Rogers pulled out a club and then placed a golf ball on the lunar surface. Rogers had a little practice as this wasn't his first tee time on the moon and he gave the ball a pretty good whack, sending it off into space, in Earth's direction.

"So Morgan," Rogers called out, "How long do you think it will take the ball to get home?"

"Considering that it never loses its current velocity." Morgan guessed as he did the math in his head. "A few days, maybe a week. Aren't you afraid that it might kill someone upon impact?"

"Relax Morgan." Rogers said as he let out a soft chuckle. "If this little ball is even lucky enough to make it that far, it will burn up on reentry. So there's no need to panic, everyone on Earth is safe from our tee shots."

"That's good to hear." Morgan replied. "But even if the ball was lucky enough to make it through reentry, odds are it will hit water rather than land."

"That's true as well." Rogers agreed as he made another shot. He then held out the club for Morgan. "Your turn, big guy."

Morgan came over and grabbed the club from Captain Rogers who then put another ball on the ground for him to hit. They got a picture of him with the Earth in the background, and you can see his name tag on the side of his spacesuit so you knew who was going to make the shot. It was the picture that Morgan hoped to get that his Dad would be proud to hang up in his den. Then he made a swing but it was a terrible one. He barely hit the ball and instead of going straight ahead, it went left and away from the direction of planet Earth.

"Hooked it." Rogers said as he watched it float away. "At least you hit it."

"True." Morgan said handed the club back to Rogers and let someone else have a turn. If his father asked, he would just use the awkward suit as his excuse for the poor shot. Morgan started to walk back to the buggy, preferring to roam around a bit and take in the sights rather than play more golf.

The guys all seemed to be having a blast and there was only four of them because they still had to keep appearances of only seven people on the lunar surface. Morgan was looking back at his home planet when something odd happened. There was a small puff that occurred less than fifty feet away from the buggy. Morgan was going to investigate what caused it but he didn't need to as another puff of dust came up less than twenty feet from the buggy. Morgan then realized what was going on and turned around to see that the shit was about to hit the fan.

"Rogers... get back to the buggy!" Morgan called out.

"What's going on Morgan?" Rogers quickly asked as he looked up at Morgan who was running back to the buggy.

Morgan stopped for a moment and pointed towards the danger that was making him run for cover. "Incoming!"

Rogers looked up and his eyes grew as wide as saucers. "Everyone back to the buggy! NOW!"

All three of them started to hop as quickly as gravity would let them, moving towards the buggy. The pilot then activated his com link.

"Rogers to Lunar One! Rogers to Lunar One!"

"Rogers, this is Lunar One. Are you alright?"

"Lunar One, we have incoming objects!" Rogers said as he looked again over his shoulder. "A lot of them!"

"Define incoming objects?"

"Meteors and lots of them!" Rogers answered. Hundreds of space rocks were flying towards the moon. Some of them were the size of baseballs while he could tell that there were some the size of a small pickup. If any of those buggers hit them, they would be killed instantly. "We are taking cover underneath the buggy, but there is no guarantee that will keep us safe!"

"Remain there until storm has passed, we are locking down."

"Understood." Rogers said as he finally reached the buggy. "Rogers out."

"What do we do?" One of the other astronauts asked.

"Under the buggy." Rogers ordered. "It's our only chance."

"How does that help?" Morgan asked.

"The base is made out of titanium." Rogers said as he pushed Morgan underneath the vehicle which just happened to be high enough to fit all four men and their large suits underneath. "It can handle an impact up to two tons."

"There are rocks a lot bigger than that out there!" Morgan said as he watched with amazement as some of the meteors that impacted with the moon were varied in size. "We need to get back to base."

"We can't move." Rogers insisted. "The buggy is anchored down and has to stay that way. We don't want one of the meteors to knock us off and have us float away. I'm sure it's more dangerous up there than it is stuck down here."

"I'm not so sure about that." Morgan retorted.

For what seemed like a very long time but was only mere minutes, dozens of small and even larger meteors crashed into the surface of the moon. Luckily for the four astronauts underneath the buggy, they were only hit by the smaller rocks and as Rogers had indicated the buggy's tough frame kept they safe. When things started to die down, Rogers was the first to step out and look around. "I think we've come to the end of..."

"What is it?" Morgan asked as he could tell Rogers saw something that scared the shit right out of him. He got out from underneath the buggy and gazed in the direction that Rogers was looking. It was more than just another meteor: it was an asteroid. "My gaud, how big is that thing?"

"Is it going to hit us?" one of the others asked.

"I don't think so." Rogers said as he kept looking at it. "We're looking at a near miss here people."

The four astronauts watched in sheer amazement and horror as the enormous asteroid flew right by the moon... missing it but less than a few miles. Morgan seemed relieved until something finally dawned on him. "Oh no."

"Relax Morgan." Rogers said as he took a deep breath. "It's over."

"It may a near miss for us, but not for them." Morgan said as he pointed in a different direction.

"What the hell are youtalking..." Rogersstopped mid-sentence when looked up and realized what Morgan was pointing atand gasped in horror. The massive asteroid was on a direct collision course withEarth.