CHAPTER 1

It began as a mere pin prick of light in a part of the sky thatis normally reserved for the deep infinite darkness of space. Witheach succeeding evening, this pin prick gradually grew in intensityuntil it equaled the glow of a distant star. At first it drew absolutelyno attention from anyone, to include the banks of telescopes andsatellites that look outward into the heavens searching for theobjects that could well have the earth in its sights. Instead, it wouldbe an old retired astronomer who would finally point out this newanomaly. As the old man gazed through his backyard telescope,he noticed that not only was the light growing in intensity, itappeared to be wavering on its track. Assuming he'd discovereda new phenomenon worthy of reporting, he contacted several ofhis old friends at NASA. Shocked and amazed, they then pointedall of their resources towards this new object that was now clearlyhurtling towards us. Unfortunately, their efforts would be too little,and far too late, for us to avoid the inevitable events that wouldchange our lives, and the lives of our children, for generations tocome.

When the news broke, it was just another little blurb,something hidden in the SciTech portions of various news outletson the internet. For most, it was just another newly discoveredanomaly in our skies which, while interesting, was not somethingso unheard of to spark any foreboding or even significant interest.As a society, we were far too busy following our social media,the endless reality TV shows, and the 24/7 news cycles about thevarious wars and conflicts that always seem to circle our globe. Itwould seem that very few of us were interested enough to peer intothe dark void, or even show any curiosity about what was coming.This oddly shaped light with the wobbling track was just onemore light in the night sky. How could it compete with whethera star wore a certain bathing suit as she frolicked nearly nude onthe beaches of the Riviera, or with the latest marriage or divorceof another celebrity? No, we knew we were the masters of ouruniverse and, therefore, life was simple and devoid of any threatbeyond what we already knew about. As with most things, we werewrong.

The first real sign of trouble came when the light appearedto grow significantly in size to the few of us who chose to beobservers. I can recall standing out on my back deck, sipping ascotch and gazing into the sky, wondering at the power of theuniverse. Being somewhat curious, I was looking into the portionof the sky mentioned in an online article, with the hope of beingable to see this marvel of science. As I looked up, I would watchthe light and ponder what it could mean. I noticed that the intensityof the light seemed to change, and there was just a slightlyominous cast to it. For some reason, that to this day I can't explain,my observations triggered a small feeling of concern or sense offoreboding. Assuming it was just paranoia, I made it a point to startwatching this thing every evening. That first night, it was just thesize of a small star at a great distance, but I began to notice thatover the next several days, it seemed to be growing. While it grewis size, I would stand on my deck, sipping my scotch, and justmarvel at the show as this thing would almost "wink" at me in thedark sky.

That last evening, as the world slipped from its blissfulignorance into stark terror, I specifically recall that the light wasso eerie looking that I hollered for my bride to come see "thisdamn thing". It was much larger in the sky and had a rather oddcolor to it. While reflected light is one thing, this object seemedto be emitting its own color. As we both watched, it appeared toalmost change direction, as if it were being manipulated by someunknown force, and then return to the original course. We bothlooked at each other in an attempt to confirm what we had justwitnessed. Looking back on it, we were completely mesmerizedby what we were seeing and hardly noticed the incessant ringing ofmy cell phone.

I guess here it would be a good place to digress a little tomention our respective backgrounds. My lovely wife, Leah, is anEnglish teacher. Extremely academic, she is one of those specialpeople who can excel at anything she wishes to pursue. Her skillsin her "primary" field are easily eclipsed by her skills in bothmath and science. Skills that, over the course of the next few days,would serve us well and probably save our...