The God Experiment

Chapter No.39. Way out there.

Chapter No.39. Way out there.

The Steris family returned to their normal lives for a few weeks. James was on summer break from school and Janet had some vacation time coming up from her job at the credit union. Robert had nothing but time.

They were at home one evening when NASA called them.

"NASA wants to discuss something with us," Janet said after she hung up the land line phone.

Robert and James got up from the couch. James turned off the TV. They were ready for action.

They appeared in the JPL Mission room and found Jason there along with a Chinese woman. Her nametag identified her as Sing Lu, the director for deep space missions

Jason introduced them to Sing. She smiled and then got serious. "How far can you go?"

"I believe it's unlimited as long as we can visualize the location," Robert replied.

"We have a Kuiper Belt probe that's now about 40 AU from Earth that we've lost contact with. When last contacted it was orbiting a planetoid that's at least three times larger than Pluto, which puts it into a special category as far as Trans Neptunian objects go. In fact, it violates several power laws concerning the masses of Kuiper objects."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that an object that's nearly seven thousand kilometers in diameter shouldn't exist out that far."

"I assume that you want us to locate the probe and repair it," Robert said.

"If you could. It might be difficult to find that far out in the Kuiper Belt."

"Show us the diagrams and the projected course and velocity of the probe and the location of the planetoid."

She began typing commands into a computer and after a pause the information began to display. The superheroes studied the information carefully.

"Provide us with the expected components that you think may have malfunctioned."

After twenty minutes, a bag with the parts were brought into the mission room. James grabbed the bag.

"See you later," Robert said before he and his family teleported to the last known location of the lost probe.

"Wow!" James exclaimed. "The sun looks like a bright flashlight this far out."

"I don't see the probe," Janet said. "Maybe we're not in the right location."

"I think it might not have made it this far," Robert said. "Let's fly back on its course and maybe we'll find it."

They flew back on the probe's last known course but failed to locate it."

"Okay," Robert said. "Let's head to the planetoid. Maybe it got further than they thought it would."

They arrived at the planetoid and began a search.

"This planet has an atmosphere," James said. "Look at the glow."

"It's mostly nitrogen with some methane."

"That would suggest that this planet might have had some life at one time."

"It's too far out for that. If it does have life, it might be a captured object."

"What's that down there?" Janet pointed to a large structure on the surface.

"What in the hell is that doing here?" James asked.

"Interesting," Robert reacted. "Let's go check it out."