"Well, that was enlightening." Rogers said after the call ended.

     "Is two hours enough?" Morgan asked, slightly worried. "Are we going to make it out in time?"

     "We've got plenty of time." Rogers said as he fired the engines again. "It will only take thirty minutes to get to the station. Two hours should be enough time for us to get clear before all hell breaks loose."

     "I can't believe it!" Morgan said with a stunned look on his face. "You lied to the President!"

     "I exaggerated," Rogers contested. "I just wanted to make sure we had some spare time in case those international astronauts slow us down. We're going to need as much as we could get."

     "Fair enough," Morgan said as he watched them shuttle thunder towards the station, which was now breaking orbit and moving away from the Earth. He could only imagine how some of them would respond to the idea of what was really going on at Lunar One, but that wasn't a priority at the moment. They needed to pick up their fellow astronauts and haul ass before the nukes started to fly. If they weren't clear of the blast zones, the EMPs could take out their ship and leave them floating to the moon rather than flying. Rogers had ever reason to try to wean as much time out of the President as he could. Their very lives depended on it.

     As promised, they had reached the space station in less than thirty minutes and once they successfully docked, Rogers put on him space suit and got Morgan to do the same. "I'll help you carry these spare suits to the station, after that you're in charge of making sure everyone gets into the shuttle as soon as possible. Help them bring whatever luggage they want within reason. We can't overload the shuttle if we want to make it back to Lunar One. Understood?"

     "Alright." Morgan said as he fastened his helmet. It took the both of them about ten minutes to carry the extra suits to the door that locked with the station. Morgan stayed inside while Rogers floated off to fuel the ship. Once both doors had locked and air was restored, Morgan took off his helmet and knocked on the door. "Let's get going!"

     The door opened up and there was a woman and two men staring at him. "You must be Doctor Morgan?" one of them said.

     "Yes, and we need to get going." Morgan answered. "I brought the extra suits. Please put them on and get ready to go."

     "What if we don't want to go?" the other man stated.

     "Then you stay here and die." Morgan answered as brutally as he could.

     "They might destroy the asteroid." The other man insisted.

     "Even if it was successful, the debris from the asteroid will destroy this station." Morgan said as he couldn't believe he was arguing with astronauts. They should have been smart enough to think of this on their own. "We need to get out of here now! No more talking and put on your suits."

     The lady who was there started to put the suit that Morgan had brought. The other two were more hesitant, while the five remaining were already in their suits and ready to go. Many of them had packed stuff they assumed would be helpful at Lunar One such as extra rations, spare parts and some personal items they would want to take with them. As she was putting on the suit, the lady looked back at Morgan.

     "Are you sure this is necessary?" She asked.

     "Best case scenario: if the station is undamaged, we'll fly you back and drop you off." Morgan said with a soft smile. "But staying here is a big gamble and Lunar One is the safest place to be right now. So Ma'am, please, hurry up."

     "I will." The lady replied. "And it's Elizabeth."

     "I'm sorry?" Morgan asked.

     "I'm not a Ma'am... I'm Liz." She said as she was going through the check of her suit as quickly as possible. "We have about four hundred pounds of stuff we'd like to bring with us, is that all right?"

     "Weight isn't an issue." Morgan answered. "It's time. They're going to launch missiles at that asteroid in less than ninety minutes, whether we're on our way or not. I'd much prefer not to be here when that happens."

     One of the men not in the suit floated over to Morgan. "I'm not going."

     Morgan was stunned. "Why not?"

     "I want to stay, to try to save the station." He answered. "I am going to use the thrusters and whatever fuel your friend leaves behind to try to move the station as far away from the Earth as possible. If I am successful, there is enough here on the station for one man to live for quite a while. I'll be fine."

     Morgan responded by tossing the leftover spacesuit in. "Just in case you change your mind. We're leaving in a half hour, with or without you."

     "I understand." He replied. "But I'm staying."

     Morgan took some of the bags from the other astronauts and slowly they all floated one at a time to the hanger bay of the Lunar Shuttle. Morgan went in first and then one at a time he watched each of the six remaining astronauts enter the vessel, remove their suit and buckle into the nearest empty seat. One everyone was onboard and their luggage was stowed away, it was only a matter of time before Captain Rogers came floating back in. Once he was back in, he removed his helmet and did a quick head count. "Morgan, why are we short a passenger?"

     "We have someone who wants to stay behind." Morgan answered. "He's going to use the thrusters and whatever fuel is left to move the station out of danger, if that's possible."

     "We've got less than a half hour, so we have no time left." Rogers said as he floated back to the bridge and too his chair. "Everyone buckle up because this is going to be a bumpy ride."

     As Morgan was floating by to take his spot beside Rogers, he stopped for a moment and helped Elizabeth strap into her chair. "You alright?"

     "I'll be okay." Elizabeth answered. "Are they going to be all right?" she gestured to the planet Earth, clearly worried about what might happen.

     "I don't know." Morgan answered. Before she could ask any other questions, Morgan floated up to his seat and strapped in. "We're ready to go, Captain."

     "Then let's make like a tree and leave." Rogers said as he fired up ship and used small thrusters to depart from the station. Once he managed to get a decent distance from the station, he fired the rockets and started to hurtle the shuttle away from the station and the planet Earth. Morgan could tell that Rogers didn't like leaving the Earth and everyone down there to fend for themselves, but there was nothing he could do to stop the asteroid and all he could do was hope that the missiles were not as useless as Morgan had earlier suggested they'd be.

     The shuttle had a full tank of gas and Rogers knew exactly how exactly much he needed to safely make it to Lunar One safely. He would burn the rest putting as much distance between the shuttle and the disaster that was about to occur. About twenty minutes after they had departed the station, there was a bright flash, and then another, and another. The missiles were detonating when impacting with the asteroid. To avoid any of his passengers from being blinded, he ordered all the windows to be closed. Rogers put on some shades and closed his window as much as possible, not wanting to take his eye away from potential meteors that could come into his path. Over the next several minutes, there was one flash after another... dozens of them to the point where Rogers had no choice but to shut the window.

     "Dammit," Rogers cursed, "They're giving it all they got."

     "Use'em or lose'em." One of the astronauts from the back called out.

     "They don't seem to be concerned about radiation down there, Morgan." Rogers calmly pointed out.

     "That's a sign of how worried they are." Morgan said as he sighed. They must have come to the same conclusion as he did and realized if they didn't hit it as hard as they could, the entire planet was doomed anyway to the point where radiation wouldn't matter.

     Since the ship hadn't lost power, Rogers was content enough to believe they had managed to make it a safe distance from the multiple blasts. Rogers turned off the rockets and allowed gravity to do the work for a while to conserve fuel. They were at a safe distance from the Earth, so there was no point wasting fuel. The ship had plenty of supplies to take a normal trip to the moon without burning off every drop of fuel they had. Morgan took the small blackberry out of his pocket and looked over at Rogers.

     "There's no point," Rogers told him, "The EMP from all those blasts probably knocked out every satellite out of the sky."

     "How many flashes have you seen, Captain?" one of the passengers from the space station called out.

     "Honestly, I lost count." Rogers answered. "They're not holding back so we'd better wait at least another ten or twenty minutes before looking outside. The last thing we need is anyone getting blinded by the blasts.

     Everyone wanted to look outside, but Rogers was right. They had to be sure the rockets were done before even trying to look back. Thirty minutes passed by and to the crew waiting, it felt like three hours. Morgan finally cracked one of the shields up and looked through. "It's over."

     "Then get back there and tell me what the status of that bastard is." Rogers ordered as he didn't want to look himself.

     Morgan unbuckled himself from his seat and started to float to the back of the ship. He opened one of the windows that was closed and started back at the home they left behind. The sight that was before him was caused him to drop his head and cry. As predicted, while the missiles had damaged the surface of the asteroid but its core remained intact. Its trajectory hadn't changed either and it was still screaming towards the earth.

     "It didn't work." Morgan called out.

     "It really is the end of the world." Elizabeth said as unstrapped herself from her chair and floated over to the nearest window to look for herself.

     "No." Morgan said as he couldn't take his eyes off the massive rock that was still bearing down on his home planet. "The Earth has survived impacts like this before. The planet will be fine. The real thing that will end today is mankind."

     "Not if I have anything to say about it, Morgan." Rogers called from the front seat. He didn't turn to watch what was going on and didn't have to.

     Despite his confidence, Rogers couldn't help but wipe a tear from his eye. There was no longer any doubt. The asteroid was going to collide with the earth and wipe out every living thing on the surface. Life as he knew it would never be the same as the human race was about to become an endangered species.