Charles got off work

at the Fishypiggy by the freeway offramp, out in the middle of nowhere....the usual cluster of filling stations and fast-food on the long section of desert interstate....well, it was desert before climate-change had started dumping more rain out here in the Mojave .....now it was pretty grassy, with lots of quick growing shrub.....Charles palmed open his old Fiat Jeepster, and the satdio came on when he punched the starter....more chaos down in Mexico, where things had been really nasty since the total meltdown of what had passed for government down there....millions more pushing over what was left of the border, into what was left of California Norte....Charles said "rock me", and the carbrain switched the station to Radio London, and some retroglam group started pounding a slick pulse through the sound panels integral to the roof and door .....Charles headed away from the lights of the freeway, off down the old two-lane towards the decaying buried habitat where the rent was dirt cheap....the old joke, dirt cheap underground habitat....he smiled a bit, and lit up a roach he had been saving....the stars were starting to come out....dimmer now than when he was little, as moisture, chemicals, and light-pollution pushed into the once clear desert air....he could see the verticals dropping down from the orbital industries, bright spots of flame falling towards the big spaceport that used to be Edwards.....but what the hell was with that one that was getting bigger and bigger....crap it looks like it's coming down over here, sixty miles away from the landing field.....something is fucked up here.....the 12 ton rocketship hits Earth with a mighty crash and a huge ball of flame, the sound rolling across the flat land, the light turning the dusk to dawn....Charles pulls off to the side of the road, and tells the car to call 911.....the dispatcher asks for the type of emergency, and Charles says..."Um, spaceship down, I guess."