The Rogue Missile
Raymond Daley
Copyright 20/2/12 by Raymond Daley
Smashwords Edition
When the attack started, three hundred thousand missiles were unleashed in the first strike.
The incoming tracking circuits had malfunctioned. There was no attack. The recall was sounded, self destruct buttons were rushed for.
Buttons were pressed. Many times to make sure. Fingers were even broken in the panic that ensued.
Every launching station reported a one hundred per cent success rate of detonation.
This, however, proved to be less than accurate. By one percent.
This solitary missile refused to detonate. It was moving far too fast to be shot down.
All ideas were suggested, something radical was implemented.
The Temporal Fugue.
It was easy to use but incredibly new and insanely untested. The principle was simple, it focused temporal waves around the target and simply relocated it to another, hopefully much safer place and more isolated in Space/Time.
Right now the airspace over the Greater New York Metropolitan area was not the place for a two hundred mega-tonne nuclear warhead.
The target had already been locked, The Temporal Fugue was fired.
Just in the nick of time.
The warhead had been less than fifty metres from impacting into Liberty Island.
For the citizens of this point in the Space/Time continuum the danger had passed.
The final telemetry received from the warhead before a complete loss of signal indicated the warhead had fired its final fuel injection and its impact detection circuits were close to triggering.
It is possible we will never know where or when it detonated. I hope no-one got hurt.
Matthew 2:1--2: In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage."
Matthew 2:7--10: Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.
" When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.
"O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect Light"
The End.
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Authors Notes:-
This week the subject of religion has not been on my mind, despite the fact this is the second religion related story I have written in the last 3 days.
I had this crazy idea about a nuclear missile that couldn't be recalled, I squarely blame that on the fact that I have been trying to watch "The Day The Sky Exploded" for the last 3 days..
I had a choice in this story, I could kill millions of New Yorkers by dropping a nuclear warhead on them. Or I could poke fun at religion. Again.
Initially the warhead was zooming towards Los Angeles. Then I realised I had a very bad geographical knowledge of L.A.
In case the ending is unclear? That nuke was the Star Of Bethlehem.