[Verse 1 ] Survey caught a smear at 3 AM Software flagged it, flagged it again Long-period ghost off the Oort shelf Fifty klicks a second, coming in by itself Every new arc shrank the error bars down Impact probability climbing in every town Torino hit ten, the room went quiet One year on the clock — and the clock don't lie [Chorus] One year to nudge it, one year to move a mountain made of ice One year to nudge it — shove it once and pray the math was right A centimeter a second, bought a year ahead of the line One year to nudge it — one year, one shot, one time [Verse 2 ] Radar pinged the spin state, spectro read the frost Porous as a snowbank, half of it already lost Outgassing jets shoving every which way Non-gravitational — the numbers won't stay Gravity tractor? Too slow — scrap that plan Kinetic fleet or a standoff flash in the black Committees in a bunker under bulletproof glass Voted for the hammer, and they voted fast [Chorus] [Bridge — the desperation] Budgets unlocked overnight, blank checks signed in red Retired engineers pulled back from the nearly dead Rival flags lit up on the same tracking screen Sharing ephemeris like they'd never been enemies Pads burning 'round the clock, three shifts, no sleep Schoolkids doing delta-v in the street Preachers and physicists in the same damn room Both of them praying at the same cold moon [Verse 3 ] Oberth burn deep where the gravity's cheap Fleet went out to meet it in the black, in the deep First hit walked it, second hit shoved Dust plume blooming like a fist from above Then the worst part came — the waiting, the crawl Watching decimals move, barely moving at all Impact corridor slid off the shore, off the land Slid off the map — into empty sky [Final chorus] One year to nudge it — and it passed wide in the dark Close enough to rattle every window, every heart A centimeter a second was all it ever took One year to nudge it — and the whole world held its breath
