memorable moments
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page 3:
"And the one message that the satellite wasn't transmitting was the most important - perhaps the most important message in the history of mankind.
'I'm coming back, I'm coming home.. and I'm not coming alone.'"
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page 5:"It was the middle of the night and there were no signs of activity. The street lamps cast isolated pools of light onto the road, but the houses were dark, the residents quietly asleep in their beds."
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page 9:"The only visible light came from the dim glimmer of the thousands of stars that filled the night."
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page 10:
"Sleep did not come easily, and it did not last. Over the next seven hours of the flight he was repeatedly shaken awake by his captors. Each time he managed to close his eyes, he was again roughly shoved and startled back to consciousness. The line between reality and fantasy became increasingly blurred."xxx
page 11:"...and in a rush he remembered the unreality of his situation."
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page 13:"He contemplated just standing there, going nowhere, but for how long? And ultimately, what good would it do?"
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page 16:"'Sorry if I find your death humorous. Once you've been dead for a while yourself you'll see the comedy in the tragedy.'"
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page 31:"'The end of life is probable, but not definite."
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page 50:"'It appears that there is little to no probability that we will be able to fully counter the announcement. The genie is out of the bottle and we cannot put it back in.'"
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page 62:"'Perhaps we should mark this as the beginning of the beginning, rather than the announcement of the end.'"
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page 102:"Her voice was so calm, her expression so friendly - except. of course, she was still holding a gun."
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page 103:"'He just tried to kill you!'
'No,' he said. 'He didn't try to kill me. He threatened to kill me ... and he didn't. He could have, but he didn't.'"
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page 112:"Instinctively he began to size up the situation - his survival depended on being able to see where danger lay, determining what he could use in his defence, or failing that, finding a way to escape."
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page 125:"'You have been chosen.'
'Chosen for what?' Billy asked.
'Chosen to live. For you, there is not just a before . . . there will be an after.'"
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page 149:"He hadn't really hurt the guy, just knocked him down, but who knew? Maybe he was delicate."
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page 156:"'It's an unwise man who does not provide a backup plan,' Fitchett said.
'But two backups?' Billy asked.
'That's because I'm a very wise man. I build in a certain redundancy in everything. I always have a backup plan...'"
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page 165:"In the end, sentiment gave way to scientific reasoning. Humans were a detriment. Humans weren't necessary. How ironic - people in the ships weren't necessary to save humanity on the ground; they could only get in the way."
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page 170:"'This level of synchronization is necessary to allow all the ships to travel in a coordinated manner toward their destination.'
That was a lie - although the guide didn't know it. They could have launched the ships weeks apart and adjusted speeds to allow them all to arrive at the asteroid at the same time. The launches were being done simultaneously because the large powers wanted to see their traditional enemies send warheads up at the same time. No nuclear countries - least of all the United States and Russia - wanted other countries to possess warheads when their own capacity had been launched into space. They didn't want to have the asteroid destroyed and the planet saved if they couldn't dominate it once again. Any country with even a few nuclear bombs left, if others had none, could simply erase an old enemy from the face of the planet.'"
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page 171:"He was either a complete believer or an incredible liar, because his words didn't even hint at the possibility of failure."
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page 177:"Ironically, there was really nothing for him to do now. It was if he had invented the internal combustion engine but had no idea how to drive the car . . . actually, he really didn't know how to drive."
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page 189:"'In its simplest form, the law of unintended consequences states that when we attempt to seek one end, we can create results, either negative or positive, other than those we initially sought. In practical terms, it refers more to the negative consequences.'"
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page 202:"If the external threat could be ended, it wouldn't take long for the old policies, practices, and hatreds to resurface.
Even now the old rivalries were festering just beneath the surface. Already world powers were planning how to thrive and eventually dominate in the new order, once the world had been saved. It would be a different world, but not necessarily a better one."
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page 207:"He couldn't help but chuckle to himself. In the shadow of the disaster that would end the world, he was wondering if a girl liked him."
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page 229:"Best guesses were more 'guess' and less 'best'..."
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page 233:"Sheppard suddenly laughed, catching everybody by surprise.
'Sorry, I was just thinking about a joke,' he said. 'A woman is waiting outside the operating room for the surgeon to emerge and tell her how the operation on her husband went. The doctor says to her that the surgery was successful. She is overjoyed, thanks him, and asks when her husband can come home. He says, 'You don't understand. Your husband is dead.' Confused, she says, 'But you told me the operation was a success,' and he replies, 'Yes, the operation was a success, but the patient still died.'
Nobody else seemed to find Sheppard's joke funny, and he realized it really wasn't that funny after all."
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page 235:"'That's a very good question,' Fitchett replied.
'And are you going to give me a good answer?' Billy asked.
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page 241:"'I't not a true backup plan if you do the same thing twice,' Fitchett said. 'That way you are only leaving yourself vulnerable to the possibility of failing twice.'"
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page 241:"'...Have I ever talked to you about chaos theory?'
Billy shook his head in frustration. He wasn't in the mood to get a lesson or a lecture. He wanted answers.
'It's also known as 'the butterfly effect.' In its simplest form, it says that the fluttering of a butterfly's wings on one side of the planet can influence the weather half a continent away.'
'That's just stupid!' Billy snapped.
'Not stupid, just simplistic. The idea is that a small difference or error can result in a chain of events leading to ends that are completely unknown and vastly different from those that could be predicted.'"
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page 243:"What he was saying made sense - it was strange, dangerous, hard to believe, fantastic, almost unbelievable, but it did make sense."
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page 250:"Of all the theoretical things he understood, humour was one that seemed beyond his grasp."
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page 316:"'Billy, what do you see?' Fitchett asked.
'I see it happening . . . the fragments hitting.'
'Can you describe it?'
'It's almost beyond words. I'm watching the end.'
'No,' Fitchett said. 'Not the end . . . it's the beginning.'"
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