"Yeah, hard to know. Anyway, I'm going to go check the news." Zahn walks out the door and down to the movie room. Once he arrives, he fiddles with the TV until it starts showing the news. 

" ... and joining us now is Dr. Whitaker, visiting professor of physics at Yale University. He will interpret the latest data for us. Thank you for joining us Dr" 

Without waiting for a question the professor starts talking,"As you can see from the diagram here, The Intruder is just over four billion kilometers from the sun right now. To put that into perspective, that's sixty percent of the way to pluto. And as you can see from the diagram, it's coming in almost perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic. Earth is actually closer to The Intruder right now than any of the outer planets." There was a large diagram of the solar system behind him, with a straight line shooting through the sun from the bottom up.

Zahn stares in confusion at the screen.

The professor continues. "The new data from NASA is giving us a much cleaner estimate of Intruder velocity compared to what we had this morning. The original estimates are confirmed. The Intruder is moving 7.7% to 7.8% of the speed of light relative to the sun. The best estimate for impact is still between 6 PM and 7 PM Eastern Standard Time tomorrow, but the new data has dropped that by about twenty minutes. Solar impact is now estimated at 6:10 PM, give or take a minute or two. That's the time impact will be observed on Earth. Actual impact will have occurred eight minutes previously."

"Is there any hope Professor?" the newswoman asks.

The man gives a beaming smile. "Yes! The new data is strongly suggesting The Intruder will miss the core areas of the sun. If this new orbit holds up, The Intruder will penetrate only the outer solar layers and not to the radiative layer and definitely not the core. It might not even touch the convective layer. We'll know more in a few hours. Best estimate now has it exiting the chromosphere twenty to thirty seconds after penetration. I think the Earth can survive that, and survive it very well."

Zahn swears. A sinking feeling in his chest.

"Tell me Professor, how was it possible for The Intruder to get this close to our solar system without being observed years ago? How?"

"Well, a neutron star is..."

Zahn's eyes go wide in shock and he curses again. Then he says one word: "Omega." Zahn watches the rest of the news report, but despite the professor's apparent optimism, he find himself increasingly convinced that the professor is wrong. It's too perfect to be a coincidence. Whoever built this place, whoever set up the elevators had to have known this was coming. He takes a minute trying to collect himself, and finally he stops shaking. He walks over to the library. He tries to find any mention or suggestion of what he just saw in the encyclopedia or anywhere else but he fails and makes his way back up to the lounge, unable to hide the frown from his face or the slump from his shoulders.

Joe is starting on a pretty sizable dose of breakfast. Hash Brown seems to be the base. Plus eggs.

"...Oh hey, are we not on the news yet?"

Zahn swallows hard and shakes his head. "There's only one thing on the news at the moment. According to the news, there's a Neutron star on a collision course with the sun. The people on the news seem to claim that this is worrying but ultimately safe, but what with where we are, I think they're either wrong or just blowing smoke to stop people from panicking too badly. Apparently, there are people panicking and doing other stupid stuff because lots of them think they literally won't see next week."

"Ohhhhh shit." A pancake flops to the floor. "Aren't neutron stars, like, the next worst thing to a black hole?"

"They're pretty similar, which is to say they're really heavy, and super dense. This one is about half-again as heavy as the sun. I'm no astrophysicist so I really have no idea what'll happen. Like I said the guy on TV, a Yale professor is claiming that it'll all be fine, but nobody on Earth knows for sure what's going to happen. I think whoever brought us here might though."

"It sounds like... Some of the aliens trying to save humans from the rest of the aliens trying to kill us. If we're in a Sci-Fi novel already that doesn't sound very far-fetched..."

"That's certainly one possible explanation, a neutron star happening to be on a direct course for the sun is a hell of a coincidence if it's a natural phenomenon but um, I really hope that part is just a coincidence. I can't imagine ever being able to fight against someone who can create Neutron Stars and if someone is willing to go to that kind of effort they aren't going to let things go, if they ever find out it wasn't successful."

"Yeah, well," He sets down cooking implements, "Neutron star headed towards the solar system. Once is bad luck." He flicks stove burners off with badly shaking hands. "It's headed for the sun. Twice is really bad luck. And we've been kidnapped by someone with lots and lots of tech, probably aliens. Three times is enemy action."

And he oh so calmly walks out, shuts the door softly, and keeps walking.

Zahn goes after him. It wouldn't do for Joe to hurt himself.

"Buddy. I just learned that 'bout everyone I know - my girlfriend, my parents, my grandmum, my aunt, my other drinking buddies, my professors, my sister and her baby, are gonna die. I'm gonna go break some things." His voice is cheerful to the point of breaking. "And maybe you wouldn't want to be nearby."

"Maybe so, but we're all in this together to a degree. If you end up hurting yourself someone should be there to make sure you can get to the clinic, and I'm one of the people that can make the clinic do stuff if it comes to that."

"Not gonna off myself. Eliza wouldn't want that. Leave me alone."

"Alright, I won't force my company on you." Zahn sighs.

He walks down the ramp, gripping the handrail very hard.

Zahn stands by the rail and looks out across the floor. A part of him wants to do things downstairs but he doesn't want to appear to be following Joe.

He's gone outdoors soon enough.

After giving him some time, Zahn goes to fiddle with the television some more until he determines that they're receiving satellite television. That feels like a hint, he looks up a couple stores in the Library then ventures out in search of a satellite phone. Eventually he makes his way back to the lounge, having made no progress at activating it, but carrying it anyway in the hopes that someone else will have an idea.

A few more people have woken up and come to eat. Someone posted a sign on the bathroom door saying "WOMEN ONLY UNTIL 8:30 AM"

Walta and some other random guy are explaining the situation as they know it to Glamour Girl, the one who arrived after most everyone else had gone to sleep. Walta even offered her a set of clean clothes fetched from the mall.

Zahn, walks in and takes in the faces there. "Hi Walta, everyone. I think I found out why we're here. It's pretty bad though, not so much for us, but for Earth."

There are some curious murmurs in the general shape of "What did you find out, and how?"

"Apparently we're getting Earth's news channels here, and satellite TV in general. Top story this morning is that there's a neutron star on a collision course with The Sun. The people on the news are saying that everything will be fine, but it's a really suspicious coincidence in timing."

"Well, there goes the feeling of hopefulness."

The room erupts into discussion. Several people quiz Zahn for more details. Several more scatter downstairs toward the TV room. A couple start crying and otherwise breaking down, while others seem to think that no, everything might still be fine.

Zahn provides answers to what questions he can, and suggests people go join the group that went to the TV room if they want to know more. He also volunteers his idea of getting the satellite phone working.

Nobody seems to know how to do that. "Have we tried the encyclopedia again?"

"I've tried a few different searches but it's possible I missed an obvious one. Also, one of the ports on this thing looks unfamiliar. Maybe that's significant, somehow."