"Should we try doing that tonight or are we going to take it easy tonight and start doing serious stuff in the morning?"

"Hmm. I think I'd rather do it in the morning."

Alex nods. "I'll go back to my reading then."

"Okay."

Emily, Claire and Riley each walk off to do their own things.

Somehow schedules get arranged so that everyone who wants a shower can get one before the end of the night.

And some later than others everyone finds their way to bed.

Dave is an early riser, at least today. He decides to watch some TV. He fiddles with it until it comes up. Turned to a news channel.

" ... 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 doctor." 

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.

Well.  this looks ominous. Time to find out what the hell they are on about.

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 AM Eastern Standard Time tomorrow, but the new data has dropped that by about twenty minutes. Solar impact is now estimated at 6:10 AM, 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."

Well fuck. He will stay a bit longer to see if there's any more information forthcoming and then go see if Alex is awake or can be woken up.

There isn't much more in the way of details, the professor explains that The Intruder is something called a neutron star and that it's only being observed because of something called gravitational lensing.

Well then. He goes to find the physicist of the group.

Alex is still in his bedroom, it's early. If someone comes to the door he'll toss on some clothes and call out "Just a minute."

He will wait a minute then.

And shortly Alex will open his door and frown a little at seeing Dave. "What's up?"

"Uh, I was fiddling with the TV and we are getting a news channel, and they were going on about a neutron star headed for the sun. They were saying it would be fine but it seems sort of ominous."

"Well, that's bad. You said you saw it on the news?"

"Yeah. Do you want to go see if they're still talking about it?"

"Yeah, I probably should."

"Yeah, you'll understand more of that science talk than me. I'm just a music major."

Alex nods but otherwise just walks, occasionally he'll mutter about gravity and gamma rays.

Dave isn't in a particularly talkative mood either so that's cool.

Thankfully it's a short walk. Alex starts flipping channels until he find one with the information he's looking for. "Alright, I think I understand everything they're saying. If I had like a week or access to their data I might be able to check what they're saying against the improved physics this place has on offer. As is, I don't really see a way to. Maybe there's some sort of stellar mechanics exhibit that explains it all at a science museum or in some piece of software in the mall. Otherwise, I can tell you that if they're bullshitting it isn't obvious."