The God Experiment

Chapter No.75. Heavy lifting.

Chapter No.75. Heavy lifting.

Robert heard the landline phone ring and teleported to the kitchen to answer it.

"We have a rather wild project for you if you're willing to take it on," Jason said.

"Okay, I'll be there."

He teleported to the JPL mission room where he found Jason and a Japanese woman with a nice smile. Her tag revealed that her name was Onuki Takuya.

"Are you familiar with the asteroid Bennu?"

"Not really."

"It's a 1600-foot-wide carbonaceous asteroid with a high rating on both the Sentry Risk Table and the Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale, which means that it has a fairly good chance of colliding with Earth."

"Do you want us to move it out of the way?"

Jason smiled. "Actually, we were thinking of something more spectacular. We've sent a probe to obtain a sample of it, but what we would like is for you to bring it down to Earth so that we could study it more thoroughly."

Robert smiled. "That is a wild idea. Where do you want it?"

Jason and Onuki exchanged glances before Jason turned back to Robert. "We have a large hanger in the Marshall Flight Center that's large enough to store it."

"Where is it now?"

"It's about twelve million miles away traveling about sixty thousand miles per hour," Onuki said.

"Good. We'll do it, hopefully without too much damage to it."

He vanished.

"If they can do this, they are unbelievable," Onuki said. "Not only do they have to slow it down they'll need to move it into Earth's atmosphere and lower it down to the location."

"I've seen them do things that I thought were impossible, but they did them without any problems."

Onuki shook her head.

When Robert returned home, his family was there waiting on him.

"They want us to capture and asteroid by the name of Bennu and bring it back to a hanger in Alabama."

"Is that all!" James said.

"Hopefully, we can do this without messing it up," Janet said.

"That could be a problem," Sylvia said. "Carbonaceous asteroids are very common and they're composed of accumulated rocks and dust that are not all that solid."

Robert smiled. "We'll just have to handle it with kid gloves."

"How far away is it?" James asked.

"Just a hop, skip and a jump," Robert said. "Twelve million miles."

They changed into their superhero outfits and teleported to a location just a few hundred meters ahead of it.

"Let's use our powers to change its trajectory for a close approach to Earth," Robert said.

"Where's Earth?" Janet asked.

"I think It's over there," James said, pointing to a small blue object.

"Close enough," Robert said. "We'll have to teleport it some of the distance, otherwise we'll be out here for days."

They teleported it to within a few thousand miles of Earth. The asteroid began a slow arc that put it on a course to Earth's atmosphere. As it approached the planet, the superheroes slowed it down to match Earth's spin.

"I don't think it would be a good idea to take this thing down through the atmosphere," James said. "The stratosphere winds would screw it up."

"Yeah, you're right," Robert said. "Let's teleport it to just below the cloud layer."

When they appeared, people on the ground gathered. Some were pointing up at an unbelievable sight. Others were recording the amazing event. The superheroes lowered the asteroid to near the ground. People were getting out of the way, assuming they were going to sit it down on the ground.

"Where do you want us to park this thing?" Robert shouted.

Two technicians looked up at him. "Can you put it in the hanger?"

"Will do."

The superheroes slowly backed the asteroid into the hanger and gently lowered it to the floor.

People rushed into the hanger to get a better look. Many of them recorded the superheroes standing near the asteroid. After a sufficient time, the superheroes exited the hanger and flew off into the sky.

The internet exploded with this latest stunt. It was the latest new superhero caper in some time, and it satiated the public's appetite for more.

Back home, the Steris family decided to relax after a day's work. Robert and James decided to shoot baskets, while Janet and Sylvia enjoyed the pool.

"I'm surprised that NASA came up with the crazy idea of having us actually capturing an asteroid," James said. "It's almost as if they're trying to find out what wild things we can do."

"Perhaps, but it also makes their job easier. They can study the asteroid as much as they wish without really spending a lot of money."

"I think they're just trying to determine what outrageous tricks we could do," James said. "It's a game they're playing."

Janet and Sylvia strolled over to where they were sitting near the basketball court.

"You guys look too relaxed," Janet said with a subtle grin.

"We were discussing our latest NASA caper."

"They keep coming up with crazier stunts for us to do," Sylvia said. "You would think that they consider us a way to promote their institution."

"That could be the case," Robert said. "But it's also a way for them to complete projects that would be impossible without us."

"That's probably true," Janet said. She turned to Sylvia. "Let's hit the showers while these guys are slumming."

Sylvia grinned before she and Janet strolled away shaking their bare cabooses.

"Women!" James said.

Robert smiled. "Yeah, I hear you."

What they didn't realize is that something was coming that would complicate their situation.