Planet Nine Affair

Chapter 1 Arrival

Planet Nine Affair

NASA launches a manned mission to Planet Nine, a large trans Neptunian planet that is believed to harbor an Earth sized moon. What the crew finds is beyond their wildest imaginations and presents an existential threat to Humans. Pure science fiction!

Story and illustrations Copyright © 2023 by John Shirey. All rights reserved.

Some photos are the property of Google.

Locations and Names are fictional even though they may be real. No offense is intended to any person, place or institution.

Chapter 1. Arrival.

James T. Kilroy wasn't happy with his present situation. He's a thirty-two-year-old first-class astronaut who had been traveling for five months in a NEXT Thruster space craft to the edge of the Kuiper belt on a wild goose chase to examine a candidate ninth planet, which up to now had been considered a theoretical concept based on the clustering of extreme trans-Neptunian bodies beyond Neptune. Observations using the Large Galilean telescopic array indicated that it was 510 AU's out in the space boonies, putting it at the most extreme distance journey ever attempted with a manned crew.

Fortunately, he had two humans to commiserate with, including . . . 

Leonard Madison, a thirty-three-year-old astronaut engineer who didn't really want to be on a long mission beyond the Kuiper belt but assumed it would further his career. He knew that this mission was launched to catch the so-called ninth planet at its perihelion which would take the least amount of time to get there and back. All he cared about was that it would happen without any equipment breakdowns.

Janice Warren, a thirty-year-old astrophysicist who specializes in Earth-like exoplanets, was assigned to the mission because there was evidence that the ninth planet had an Earth-sized moon which might have evidence of having life at one time in the past. Finding that evidence would be a feather in her professional hat.

The rest of the crew consisted of androids, human-like robots that took care of serving the human crew, a NASA practice that reduced the need for the extra oxygen and food to feed and service a larger human crew. This concept would eventually eliminate a human crew entirely in future long-distance missions, but it had consequences.

Two androids remained on the bridge to make sure that everything was working correctly and that there were no physical threats to the ship. They were designated Flip and Flop by the crew. Flip, a male android, occupied the pilot's chair, while Flop, a female, sat in the astronomical station which controlled a powerful telescopic array.

The androids appeared perfectly human except for a small red dot on their foreheads that identified them as the ultimate accomplishment, or disaster, of AI.

Tip, a male android, and Tap, a female, functioned as assistants who served as cook and bottle washers. They stayed on the crew quarters deck and took care of cleaning and maintenance, but they were as technically proficient as Flip and Flop.

Flop hadn't been able to get a view of the Ninth planet until now, which prompted the human crew to come to the bridge to check it out.

"There it is," Janice pointed to the screen showing the latest telescopic images. "You can just barely make out the moon orbiting it, but it's just under Earth size. It's incredible that the James Macon infrared space telescope found that. It has a magnitude of 20 and a temperature of 47K, making it very difficult to find, especially this far out.

"Why do they believe that this moon has signs of life?" Leonard asked while rubbing his chin. "It's too far out here in the Kuiper belt to foster life."