The Ninth Hour

Nine hours until an asteroid hits. A scientist has to help decide who can still be saved.

• Countdown thriller racing an undetected asteroid strike
• A scientist thrust into a global evacuation effort
• Impossible choices as the clock runs down to impact

“Dr. Priya Nakamura had built her career on early-warning systems, seismic and atmospheric sensors scattered across the globe designed to catch catastrophe before it caught the people living beneath it, and none of that career had prepared her for the moment the asteroid tracking array she consulted for flagged an object that shouldn't have existed on any of their models, closing on Earth at a speed and trajectory that left, according to the first frantic calculations her team ran, a window of nine hours before impact. She stood in the observatory's control room at three in the morning, watching junior analysts half her age go pale as the numbers refused to improve on a second and third calculation, and made herself do the thing her entire career had trained her for: think clearly when the instinct screaming loudest was to panic.”

Format: Instant PDF download after purchase.

Length: A full short story — about 25–35 minutes to read.

Works on: Any device with a PDF reader — phone, tablet, e-reader, or computer.