Ghost's Embarrassment

Ghost flits from asteroid to asteroid, stopping briefly to geologically assess whether or not the body is or has in its surface composition a large mass of gold/platinum. She wastes many minutes surveying numerous asteroids this way, then decides to simply head off to 16 Psyche. It's only a couple of minutes out of her way and is almost certain to have what she needs.
 
Arriving, she orbits several times, surprised at herself that she has not yet bothered to check this place out. It is really a very pretty asteroid! She can see several places of sufficient density she could take a chunk out of that would do the job but resolves to take a chunk that would disturb the beauty the least. She plays tourist for several more minutes before pulling out a nugget nearly two meters in diameter, something she is certain she can control. She examines it closely to verify that it is indeed sufficiently contiguous in density to survive some re-entry forces without breaking up or exploding.
 
She pushes the bolder ahead of her, calculating orbital intersectional paths at various velocities. At the speed it will be incoming, it will look much like an extra-solar asteroidal visitor. She hopes that is how it will be identified as it approaches Earth, assuming deep space radar sees it at all.
 
She approaches cislunar space and is about to start slowing down the asteroid when she gets hit with a radio communication. An alarmed voice transmits. "Object moving at C fractional towards Earth, please identify yourself!"
 
Ghost hesitated as she thought furiously. Should she respond? What should she say? Not to mention, how on Earth did her plan fail so prodigiously?
 
"Please identify yourself and your intentions!" Said the voice on radio.
 
Ghost kicked herself (metaphorically). Of course! A highly radio reflective object moving at C fractional wouldn't just reflect radar, it would likely emit! And here she'd thought herself reasonably adept at least at understanding the science of Earth. So far to go yet.
 
Well, she's been detected. So much for that ruse. The 50-ton nugget can't continue on its current course unaltered lest it strike Earth at this speed with a gigaton blast. She has to start slowing it down and whatever she does or says, it will be a dead giveaway.
 
"If your flight path and intentions are not confirmed immediately, you will be considered a hostile approach!" The voice was almost shrill in its intensity.
 
Except for the fact that Ghost is in a vacuum and doesn't breathe, she sighed... "This is an asteroidal material retrieval mission."
 
"No such mission is authorized! Hostile approach!"
 
Dagnabbit! Well, nothing to it now. She gets in front of the boulder and starts to slow it down. Whether she takes it in or diverts it, the ruse is up. She briefly considers just diverting it back again into deep space and coming back in alone later under darkness with no radars watching, but she's sure this cargo of hers will somehow be useful to her team. So she carries it down, slowing all the way to a North Atlantic Ocean touchdown.
 
From close orbit, however, it being clear sky below, she could see the contrails of fighter jets on afterburner racing to an intercept course. She's been on a nice, easy to calculate trajectory, complacent with her speed. Except now she's 'not' being speedy, she's planning a soft touchdown, giving forces time on Earth to react.
 
She moves to one side of the now superheating bolder and with all her strength starts pushing its trajectory towards the equator. When halfway down from that point, she gets back in front and with all her might slows it down to a feather's touch on the water, then she drops below.
 
She swims it down, and obliquely to one side. It's a long way down. She finds a very recognizable undersea mountain peak and leaves the bolder atop it at a depth of a few kilometres. She starts to head back to the Americas, or at least in that general direction, staying fairly deep underwater for a few hours to avoid likely aerial search radars.
 
Coming out of the water she stays low, flying nape of the Earth to stay under radar cover. She's very alert to radar scans now. The whole world seems to be scanning for her. At this height, she has no choice but to remain subsonic, so it takes her many hours and several detours around military radars to reach the portal entrance under Lake Erie that had been so generously built for her.
 
She gets to Homestead and rather sheepishly addresses Socrates. "Sorry, Socrates. I thought I was being clever. I only recently realized that maintaining your operation must require many resources and thought I could easily help. I failed to anticipate how easily a metal asteroid would be detected when approaching at speed. I've left 50 tons of asteroidal gold and platinum for you deep under the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. Perhaps we can come up with a plan to securely retrieve it at a later date when the alert has died down."
 
Changing the subject, Ghost continues, "By the way, I think I can no longer rely solely on a low radar signature to be anonymous with my flying. I have been lax with my development in that regard, all the more so because I know it is within my potential to be far more stealthy. I will meditate on this with the hope that in the future, I can be less of an embarrassment."