CHAPTER 1
When it showed up, some called it Nibiru; Scientistsreferred to it as Nemesis; everyone else called it TheEnd.
It was late 2012 and the world had been throwninto doomsday fervor. December 21, 2012 was theday the world was supposed to end, after all. TheMayans had predicted it and so had Nostradamus.Yet something different had occurred.
It began early in 2011 when long range surveyorsdetected an anomaly in the Ort Cloud. Somethingwas disturbing the comets and planetary bodiesthat orbited the sun nearly a light year away. Theprimitive instruments, high-tech by the day'sstandards, couldn't detect what it was at the time.It had taken our civilization the better part of twoyears to detect what it was and even then we didn'twant to believe it until we finally sent a probe out tomeet it.
It had turned out to be a rouge planet; a planetabout the size of Mercury that had apparently beenknocked out of the orbit of its parent star andsentenced to wander the cold depths of endlessspace before reaching our doorstep. The date of thisdiscovery: December 21, 2012.
Miraculously, the rouge planet had wandered intoour solar system. It was the equivalent of knockinga bullet out of the air with another bullet whileblindfolded. What was the real miracle was whathappened next.
With the addition of a new planet into our solarsystem, the biggest fear was that it would eithercollide with one of the planets already occupyinglocal space or that it would come close and fling itselfand the local out of its stable orbit. Many feared thatit would be the latter, but neither was to be the case.
Instead; Nibiru, as the common citizens had taken tocalling it, avoided all planetary bodies on its entry.It caused no new comet activity; it didn't sling anyother planet out of orbit; and it certainly didn't collidewith anything.
Instead, it came in precisely on the orbital plane.And as if by intelligent design, caught up with planetEarth and settled into a stable orbit which kept thestability of moon, planet, and planet spin/wobble andall other functions we take for granted.
The Earth had gained a new daughter; Nibiru hadbecome a new moon.
CHAPTER 2
By the time Nibiru had taken on its orbit aroundEarth, nearly one hundred years had alreadyelapsed. A whole generation had grown realizing thattheir demise was nigh. Economies had tanked andrebuilt themselves and superpowers had fallen. Thegreat nation states that were the norm of 2012 hadno place in the world of 2112. In the aftermath ofthe Brink, the great socio-economic collapse whichfollowed the discovery of Nibiru, corporations hadseized control of entire nations. Forging alliances witheach other, there had never before been such a timeof peace and prosperity as the great Reformation ofNations, as it was called.
Corporations were now in control.
Apple had absorbed North and South Americas andthey took control of the British Isles, as well as theformer European Union. Goldman Sachs had takenAustralia, New Zealand, and most of Africa, whileSony-Toshiba conquered Asia Major and Minor, whichincluded the middle-east and the former SovietUnion.
Realizing that Nibiru was on a collision course withEarth, the three great corporations set their sightson the heavenly bodies. Since the moon was inthe Earth system, it was widely acknowledged thatit should be neutral territory. So the Corporationspooled resources, and constructed Doorway Outpost;the stellar doorway, as it was, to the rest of theplanets.
Apple struck out first laying claim to Mars and itstwo moons, Phobos and Deimos. As the only knownplanet in the solar system that had once been ableto support life, Apple began the massive undertakingof terra-forming the planet, pumping trillions of tonsof methane into the atmosphere to raise the planet'stemperature to a more habitable level.
Goldman Sachs followed closely, striking furtheroutward then anyone had ever been in the solarsystem, and staked claim to Europa; the ice bearingmoon of Jupiter. The thought process behind theirclaim: if it has water, it would become the mostvaluable planetary body in the solar system next toEarth.
Sony-Toshiba trailed the other two as they decidedto construct massive shipyards orbiting Luna, Mars,and Europa. These shipyards employed millions ofcitizens and became essential to Earth's space faringempire as they brought in all resources that couldnot be grown or mined from the planets themselves.
As Nibiru closed in on its rendezvous to Earth, therewas a mass exodus. It has been estimated thatnearly sixty-eight percent of the Earth's populationevacuated the planet in order to avoid the oncomingdisaster. The remainder were either unable to affordthe tickets off world or simply resigned to the factthat they were about to meet their end.
Once it was apparent that Nibiru posed no threat tothe human race, it was decided among the Boardsof Directors of the corporations that it would also bedeclared neutral territory.
And this is where I come into the story. My nameis Dr. James Calloway. I have a PH.D in TheoreticalPhysics from Massachusetts Institute of Technologyand I am employed by Apple as the Director ofExtra-Solar Activity. I don't like to brag, but I'm Sol'sforemost expert on Nibiru. In all of humanities fortytrillion number, no one knows more about the rougeplanet than I do.
CHAPTER 3
In the hundred years that Nibiru has been a partof our lives, we have learned a lot about it. Westruggled at first to determine how a rouge planethad managed to survive, completely intact, throughthe cold darkness of interstellar space. It becameapparent when we trained our telescopes on it tostudy it.
Barely being able to see it with the aided eye througha telescope, you could see a slight shimmer to theplanet. Using different remote sensors we wereable to determine that there was an energy shieldin place. As far as we could tell; Nibiru was beingprotected ... but by whom? Instead of the impendingdeath scenario that was playing out for most ofmankind, we were experiencing first contact.
As usual, though, most of academia concocted theirtheories about what it could have been, trying togive it a natural explanation. The theories rangedanywhere from highly radioactive deposits ofuranium reacting from the sudden heat from thesun to the surface being covered in glass due to theconstant bombardment from deep space radiation. Isecretly formed my own theory about it being firstcontact, due to the fact that we had been playingthe "naturally occurring" game for well over the pastcentury. I believe in Ockham's Razor: the simplestanswer is usually the correct one, and nothing getssimpler than just saying aliens did it.
As I stated, I kept my theory to myself. I valuedmy position within Apple. There weren't many otherthirty-three year olds who were able to secure aDirector's position straight out of the Doctorateprogram, let alone retain it for the amount of timethat I have. I couldn't let my employers know what Itruly believed. So I agreed with the general academiaand with more persuasion, was able to persuade myemployers that a mission to the rouge planet wouldbe wise, so that we could lay claim to it before theother corporations did.
This was before Nibiru slowed and became a moon.
Realizing what was happening ceased ourpreparations for a mission. We watched in awe asthe two planets and moon danced for weeks. Wedetected the subtle slowing of Nibiru months aheadof the final approach. By the time it was all said anddone, Luna and Nibiru orbited Earth in such a wayas to allow equilibrium to exist. The Mercury sizedplanet orbited further away from Earth then Luna,yet stayed on the opposite side of the planet at alltimes. If you were to compare the two satellites asseen from Earth, they would be identical in size andorbit.
Realizing what had happened accelerated the missionpreparations afterward as well as opened the missionto the other corporations. Sony-Toshiba haltedconstruction of their trade ships at Luna Yard, as theyconcentrated on helping Apple engineers completethe starship needed for the mission. Goldman Sachsdonated their brightest scientists and linguists, whileApple took care of planning, training, crew, andsupplies. I was a part of that crew.
As the mission preparations progressed, Earth andher colonies trained every device they had acquiredover the millennia of technological improvementon the newest moon of Earth. Telescopes mappedthe surface of the new moon while amateurs andthe corporations alike flooded it with radio signals,trying to establish contact. None of which wereacknowledged and no signs were made to show thatanyone was taking any interest to the messagesbeing sent ... Probes had also been launched to reconthe new moon to see exactly what conditions werelike on the surface. Another unofficial reason for theprobes was to see if solid objects could pass throughthe energy shield. Although each probe successfullylanded on the planet, none had transmitted backanything after passing the barrier.
After months of silence, Nibiru was about to give upher secrets. The starship, now christened, had beencompleted and was docked to Luna Station. Designedas a mobile mission command as well as transport,was built using state-of-the-art technology.
Its large carousel in the middle of the ship spunleisurely, creating approximately three quartersof a G at the outside. Extending from both sideswere pods which held the supplies for the missionas well as the specialized vehicles the expeditionwould need to survey a large area. Towards the aftof the ship; two of the ten meter long pods wereconnected to the engine compartment. After thatengine compartment were the large ion drives whichpowered Shakespeare with its four large cylindricalports and nozzles jetting from the back. Towardsthe fore, two other pods connected the bridge to thehabitation carousel. Along the top and bottom of allof the pods connecting engine bay, carousel, andbridge, were access tubes. The pods were designedto separate from the ship and drop to Nibiru's surfaceonce they were in Command Orbit. These landershad everything they would need to explore andcontact the Nibirans. Once the mission had ended,the Command Pod had enough fuel to launch backinto orbit, and return the crew to.
CHAPTER 4
I would be lying if I said I didn't have someapprehension about my upcoming mission. We wereexploring the first world we had ever encounteredthat had definitive proof of extraterrestrial life. WhenI say extraterrestrial life, though, I mean complex,intelligent, life ... and apparently life that had theability to move a planet.
Training had lasted the better part of a year, we hadhad no idea what we were going to get ourselves intoand everyone had a specific job that they had to do.Our captain and commander, Commander WilliamLaird, was from Turkey; despite his Scottish name,bright red hair, and very fair complexion. Accordingto him, his parents had migrated there when Applehad terminated their contracts. Contract terminationsweren't rare; often time's entire families wouldhave to move across the world in order to beginwith another one of the corporations. He had beenrecently hired on by Apple for this particular mission,leaving behind his rather lack-luster career as aMerchant Captain on the Mars/Europa run.
Our Executive Officer, Anna Cho, was employedby Sony-Toshiba, but contracted on with Apple forthe expedition. Being from Southern China, Annahad also been a Merchant Captain. Her ship, "Firesfrom the Heavens", was credited with being thefastest merchant transport in the system. Her list ofaccomplishments rivaled my own and far exceededthe Commander's; one could only guess why shehad been chosen as the Executive Officer and not theCaptain's Chair.
Our expedition team was led by none other thanme. I had vied for the position before Apple hadeven posted the opening. Once it had been posted,it had immediately been removed thanks to mycontact in the Board. My team consisted of linguists,archaeologists, and symbolists, along with a platoonof heavily armed marines for "complications", as itwas explained to me after my objections. Severalscientists also accompanied the expedition, as theirmain purpose was to locate and acquire technologythat could prove useful to humanity.
I had separated my group into several teams withtheir own leaders. For the science team, I hadappointed Professor Gregory Hastings as the leader.An average height gentleman in his mid-forties,Greg had been an instructor in one of my doctorateclasses at MIT. I remember the passion in which hespoke and lectured; but most of all I remember hehad nearly failed me due to a piece of work I hadwritten being remarkably close to one written by anauthor writing for the Daily Science. It had taken menearly a week to convince the man that the workwas genuinely mine, but afterwards we had forged afriendship that had lasted.
The "Contact Team", as they had gone about namingthemselves, was led by none other than Dr. JesseAzikiwe. The tall, slender, West African was theworld's foremost linguist and sociologist. He hadmastered at least eleven different spoken languagesas well as the ability to interpret several deadlanguages. He had gained most of his fame due tobeing the only teaching Doctor of Linguistics at theWorld Institute of Technology who had gained tenurefrom Goldman Sachs.
Last but not least, was Major Thomas Breitbart;Commanding Officer of the platoon sized Marine unitthat was sent to accompany us on our expedition.The tall, muscular, man was a native of eastern Texasand had taken part in so many black ops missionsthat it was a surprise that he had any ribbons todisplay on his dress uniform.
Even though there was peace and prosperity formankind, there really was no true peace. Eachcorporation still held onto its own private standingmilitary that would occasionally be tasked to raidlaboratories and compounds to extract defectingpersonnel or "liberate" technology that would be ofuse to the host corporation. The Major's rule of the"Hell Dogs" was absolute; allowing for no leniencyfor any infraction that was made by his soldiers. Thisheavy handed leadership style made his men neverdoubt his orders or know who was in charge.
Once training had been completed, it was time tobegin the most anticipated expedition in humanhistory: the first contact with an alien civilization.
CHAPTER 5
With Nibiru being in Earth orbit, it didn't take us longto reach its orbit. We took up a geosynchronous orbitover what had become known as the "Capital City".From orbit you could tell that it was a sprawlingmetropolis with concentric rings radiating out froma central point. The very center, from what wecould tell, was some sort of courtyard surroundinga perfectly circular palace. Detailed surveying ofthe site from space based telescopes and imagingequipment also showed that the circular structurewas cylindrical in nature, jutting from the courtyardat well over five-hundred feet tall.
Surrounding the cylinder, the courtyard looked tohave once been a well-manicured garden paradise.Fountains arranged around the entire circumferenceof the tower and butted up against the walls of it,had long sense become overgrown with the greeneryand shrubbery that had once been trimmed away.Radiating walkways stretching the four cardinaldirections from the tower were also overgrown withdense patches of grass and weeds.
Each concentric ring consisted of outer wallswhich sunk them below the surface of the watersurrounding them. This allowed the central tower tobe the tallest structure inside the metropolitan area.Each sunken ring was approximately two miles inwidth and was tightly packed with what looked tobe buildings. The only difference was that the innermost ring looked to be completely solid with theexception of the space between the middle and theouter retaining walls. Further detailed surveys of theinner ring saw that the space between the retainingwalls and the solid structure was a road of sorts.
Since Nibiru had arrived in orbit, all attempts atcommunication with whoever lived on the planet hadfailed. It was because of the lack of communicationthat we had chosen our landing site; the very centerof Capital City. It was the largest of the cities we hadnoticed on the planet, and also the only one withany form of prominence. The other city areas had allbeen a jumble, somewhat akin to our own cities onEarth.
With the Commander and XO keeping the ship inorbit, the rest of the team and I loaded into thepods.
Each team had their own assigned pod. The HellDogs had their pod; fit with the latest in militarytechnology. Several powered suits as well as enoughammunition and weapons to launch a tiny invasion.
