LETHIFER
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
"Dammit John, I say it's time to tell the politicos what we know. It's a miracle that we've had so few leaks and that no one has taken them seriously. Anytime now the media will find someone who thinks it doesn't matter and who will give them enough details to start a panic. We have to give the governments a chance to prepare for this." John Howard sighed. "I suppose you're right, Bob, but we'll have to put it to a vote at the assembly. I was hoping we'd have more information before we had to go public. You know how people are. They'll hate the uncertainty of it. We'll be under constant pressure from the government and the press to give them a positive schedule of events. We won't be able to do that until a few weeks before the end so they'll all hate us and blame us as if we caused the situation. Ridiculous, I know, but I feel so helpless." "Now John. Don't you get depressed. You've been the backbone of this whole enterprise and we have a lot of work ahead of us. Let's go over the agenda for this afternoon." Professors John Howard from MIT and Robert Saxon from Harvard were meeting in Howard's hotel room in Washington, D.C. to review the details of the upcoming annual meeting of the Special Committee of the International Astronomical Society on Non-planetary Orbitals. That was an innocuous name to disguise the central interest of this particular gathering of physical scientists, mostly astronomers and astrophysicists. It was now July 14, 2155 and with the official establishment of the committee in 2151 a much smaller group had been told of the discovery the previous year that a celestial body between the size of Jupiter and our sun with some self-generated illumination was on a path that intersected the solar ecliptic - the approximately common rotational plane of the solar system - and would pass near the position of the earth.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
This is a story that takes place in the future during the years 2155 to 2159. The world is populated by societies that have the option of saving their personalities for re-emergence in the distant future - eternal life. But nature interjects a threat into the lives of those who inhabit the planet Earth that challenges the fulfillment of that promise and threatens the destruction of the planet itself. A small, errant sun is discovered that is moving toward our solar system and will pass near the earth. Named Lethifer after its deadly potential, each new discovery about it seems to add greater terror to its approach. First, it is found that it will come close enough to wrench the earth out of its orbit around our sun, Sol. Then, it is discovered that Lethifer has two satellite planets that whirl about it with the threat of impacting the earth like the weapon after which they are named, Bola I and Bola II. The peoples of the world unite to form and activate desperate plans to cope with the terrifying consequences threatened by the relentless approach of Lethifer. The progress of their activities and the events during and after the passing of Lethifer are described through the experiences of Steven Jacobson and Angela Rodriguez. The couple who culminated an experiment on human hibernation in Hide Me in the Grave were separated when Steven gave up his body to store his personality for future retrieval. In this book, they are reunited to join in the efforts to save the earth and its fragile human occupants.
About the Author
William Rothwell lives in the Sierra foothills of central California and is married to a professional artist. He has worked as a teacher, research scientist, and most recently as a consultant in physical science. Author of The Vocabulary of Physics and many scientific publications, he turned to fiction with novels of suspense and science fiction. Writing stories as a vocation first tempted Rothwell when he resigned from the U.S. Navy and returned to school to prepare for an alternative career, but he chose to study physics to improve his and contribute to our understanding of the natural world around us. Now he is taking time to give substance and form to the plots of stories that have accumulated in the writer's part of his brain.