—Chief, can you come here a sec. We lost the sun.

—What?

—I lost the SXI.

—What do you mean, you lost it?

—What I just said. It’s gone. I’m not getting anything from the Solar X-Ray Imager on GOES-13.

—There’s no signal from the satellite?

—Nothing.

—Are you sure it’s not your station?

—My station’s fine. The satellite just stopped transmitting. Problem’s up there, sir.

—Scoot over. I wanna check someth—What is it, Clara?

[There’s a problem.]

OK, well, we’re a little busy here. Go back to your station and I’ll come see you when I’m done here.

[I lost the signal from my satellite.]

You lost…Which one do you have?

[I’m on GOES-15. There’s something wrong, sir.]

No shit, there’s something wrong. The problem’s gotta be down here. Two satellites can’t malfunction at the exact same time. Check the receiver.

—Sir, it’s all of them. We’re not receiving anything, from anywhere. Nothing on microwave. Nothing on VHF either.

—All of them? There you go. It’s got to be our equipment.

—It’s not. We’re receiving. We’re getting all kinds of static.

—This is nice. I’ve been here for a month! What am I supposed to do now?

—Hold on, sir—

—I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.

—Hold on! NASA wants to know if we’re getting JPSS data.

—Dammit! That doesn’t make any sense. I’ll check with Defense, see if they’re still getting their feed.

—Europe is down too. They lost MetOp. No one is receiving any signal from orbit anymore. We’re getting calls from everybody.

—Could it be solar flares?

—Space weather was fine a minute ago, sir.

[Check this out!]

—What is it this time, Clara?

[That’s a live stream from Mauna Kea.]

The telescope?

[Yeah. I asked them to track my satellite. Should be right here.]

I don’t see anything.

[That’s right.]

Are you saying the satellite is physically gone?

[I don’t know, sir.]

Well, can you see it or not?

[I can’t, but—]

But what?

[It’s not the only thing we can’t see.]

What do you mean?

—Sir, she means the stars are missing. We can’t see the stars.

FILE NO. 1604

INTERVIEW WITH EVA REYES

Location: Shadow Government Bunker, Lenexa, KS

—You asked to see me, Eva.

—Yes, Dr. Franklin.

—What can I do for you?

—I wanna do it. I want to pilot Themis.

—I don’t think that’s a good idea, Eva. Besides, this is something you should talk about with your father, not me. I know you haven’t had a lot of time to get used to the idea but, technically, he is your dad, he’s responsible for you.

—He won’t do anything. He doesn’t even want me to try.

—That sounds pretty reasonable to me, Eva. You’re still a child, I’d want to keep you safe too if you were my child.

—You don’t understand! He can’t keep me safe. No one can. I’ll be dead in a few days. You’ll be dead too.

—I know you’re afraid, Eva. We all are.

—I’m not afraid. I’m telling you, we’ll all be dead soon.

—No one knows what’ll happen, Eva. Things look pretty bad right now, but we’re working really hard to find a way out of this.

—I know!

—How do you know, Eva?

—I just do. Just trust me, OK?

—You can tell me. How do you know?

—You’ll just think I’m crazy.

—Eva, I don’t know you well enough to make that kind of judgment. From what little I’ve seen, I think you’re an extremely brave and intelligent young woman. Nothing you tell me will change that.

—I saw it.

—You…How?

—I see things. I saw Kara die.

—You s—

—Yes! I saw her die. Months ago. I saw this too. I saw it happen.

—Tell me.

—Rain. I saw black rain. It fell from the sky, not just here, everywhere, and we all died. I died.

—I’m sorry, Eva. There’s—

—I told you you’d think I was crazy.

—I never said that. I just…Did you also see how to stop it from happening?

—No.

—Then how do you know things would be any different if I let you inside Themis?

—I…I don’t. But—

—Like I said, Eva. It isn’t up to me. You should talk to—

—He won’t listen! He doesn’t understand!

—He’s your father.

—STOP SAYING THAT! You don’t get it, do you?! He’s gonna die too!

—Eva, come back…

FILE NO. 1605

INTERVIEW WITH BRIGADIER GENERAL EUGENE GOVENDER, COMMANDER, EARTH DEFENSE CORPS

Location: Shadow Government Bunker, Lenexa, KS

—Goddammit, Rose! It’s three in the morning!

—You need to see this, sir.

—I’m tired. I’m jet-lagged. Make this quick.

—We lost all signals coming from orbit. We’re not getting data from our satellites. No one is. It’s a complete blackout.

—They’re not transmitting?

—Maybe they are. But something’s blocking it.

—Like a jamming signal?

—It’s not jammed, it’s blocked. We can’t hear anything from up there. Take a look at these.

—What am I looking at?

—These are from telescopes all over. What do you see?

—I see…What’s this dark spot over here?

—Exactly. There should be stars there. I think that’s where it’s coming from. Whatever is blocking our satellite signal, I think it’s stronger there. It’s blocking everything, including light.

—Where is it?

—It’s…all over. We spotted eighteen of these dark spots so far, all around us. There could be more.

—How big are the dark spots?

—I don’t know. Hundreds of miles…Thousands. Depends on how far they are.