PLANET X
By Eduard Joseph
Published by Eduard Joseph
© 2016 Eduard Joseph
Front cover design by Eduard Joseph
Where to find Eduard Joseph online:
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This is a work of fiction. The events and characters described herein are imaginary and are
not intended to refer to specific places or living persons. Any resemblance to any person or
persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All Rights Reserved
The right of Eduard Joseph to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him under the South African Copyright Act of 1978 (as amended).
ABOUT THIS STORY
This story was inspired not only by a dream I had, but also numerous articles and videos I’ve seen about the hypothesis of a mystery planet at the edge of our solar system, Planet X which could account for the apparent discrepancies in the orbits of the giant planets in our solar system, particularly Neptune and Uranus
The theory is that Planet X has an elongated orbit around the sun, almost like a comet, and that it’s supposedly heading back into our solar system; nearing the completion of its 3,600 year orbit around our sun.
Though NASA denied the existence of this planet, many scientists and doomsday conspiracy theorists believe that NASA has been aware about its existence for almost forty years and will be forced to make the doomsday announcement within the next few years when Planet X will be visible to the naked eye.
The theorised orbit of Planet X:
PROLOGUE
The first time the world heard about the notorious and illusive Planet X it sounded like far-fetched science fiction at the time, and sometimes still does, but it doesn’t make the threat any less real or imminent: a star or rogue planet on a collision course with earth.
Just like every year, new doomsday prophecies and conspiracies surfaced back in 2014 and none of them sounded more intriguing and unreal as the theory of a rogue planet that may or may not collide with planet earth in 2017.
The topic of Planet X was on everyone’s lips by 2015 when NASA and world leaders all denied the existence of this supermassive earth-like planet and its elongated orbit around our sun that reportedly took 3,600 years to complete. What NASA didn’t realise at the time was that the best way to convince the public you’re not telling the whole truth was to deny it. It was proven time and time again by famous denials; such as the one by Bill Clinton and his intern scandal.
During 2015, the internet group Anonymous gained notoriety and fame by hacking, cracking and sharing all sorts of top secret files, plots and other shenanigans of world leaders, the wealthy and everything in-between.
It was on August 2015 that Anonymous uploaded another viral video about a government cover-up; this time about Planet X. The conspiracy theory was that NASA sent a Voyager to the limits of our solar system back in the early 2000’s in an attempt to “study” Pluto, but the real reason for this mission was to establish whether or not the theorised Planet X, also known as the Biblical Wormwood or Nibiru, truly existed.
The mission was abandoned in 2010 with NASA claiming that they’ve concluded their study of Pluto, but the truth was that they found the theorised Planet X and were scurrying to devise some kind of contingency plan after studying its orbit – an orbit that slingshot it from trillions of miles beyond Pluto, through our solar system and around the sun every 3,600 years – narrowly missing earth each time, but causing havoc every time it entered the inner solar system.
Anonymous hacked the NASA systems and shared the vital need-to-know information with the world so that we all may have a fighting chance.
December 2016: With the cat out of the bag, the first images of Planet X approaching Jupiter were released by NASA and it finally hit most people; something was heading our way that we couldn’t understand and couldn’t stop. Though we couldn’t see it with the naked eye in the night sky, we knew it was out there – heading our way with nothing to stop it.
The effects were undeniable. The gravitational pull of the approaching Planet X not only disrupted Jupiter’s rotation, but also caused enormous weather anomalies like hurricanes and superstorms on Jupiter’s surface. It would graze Jupiter at just under an astronomical unit; roughly half the distance from the earth to the sun.
January 2017: Images released by NASA of Planet X side-by-side with Jupiter as it approached showed the unimaginable size of the rogue planet – though it was dwarfed by Jupiter, it was nearly ten times the size of planet earth; causing a lot of concern as to what would happen to earth if such a small rogue planet could wreak havoc on a giant like Jupiter.
August 2017: The rogue planet passed through the asteroid belt; sending hundreds of asteroids our way as it approached Mars and new calculations showed that a collision wasn’t eminent, but rather that it would be a near-miss in astronomical terms as the planet would propel itself past earth at just over half an astronomical unit on its way to slingshot around the sun.
We were warned, however, that the close encounter wouldn’t be without unprecedented effects; some people heeding the warning while others ignored world leaders’ pleas. At the end of September 2017, a downpour of asteroids and meteors ravaged Europe and Asia – killing millions of people. Those who didn’t die during the initial impacts died soon thereafter in the flash-fires, earthquakes and tsunamis caused by the impacts.
Tsunamis and earthquakes ravaged the coastlines of every continent – washing sea waters inland for fifty miles. People living in the now new coastal cities moved closer inland in anticipation of more tsunamis, but those were the least of their worries.
After the tsunamis came the collapse of technology and the riots; making the governmental evacuations a daunting task. Technology was no more as solar pulses from the approaching planet short circuited most items with a motherboard or hardware and those who remained had to rely on relics of the pre-modern world to communicate.
CHAPTER ONE
Present day
Though later than predicted, the rogue giant slowly approached earth and the effects became more drastic. Sweltering heat waves caused most people left behind to flee from the cities. Those who couldn’t afford the underground refuge constructed by government or didn’t want to leave the cities were the first to die due to the elements.
The days were excruciatingly hot while the temperatures plummeted to below zero at night. When Planet X finally revealed itself from behind the night sky clouds like a demented dream, those brave enough to withstand the wintery nights ventured out with old Polaroid cameras and took the very first images of the monstrosity in all its intimidating grandeur, but the novelty soon wore off at it became an image everyone saw every day after that.
Stephen was one of the brave ones who stayed behind the city – not that he wanted to, but rather because he couldn’t afford the underground sanctuary and did what he had to do to survive. Life wasn’t what we were used to – it was take what you needed and survival of the fittest.
The city he lived in was mostly abandoned, but was home to about six or seven thousand other expats like himself trying to stay alive long enough to wave goodbye to the rogue planet.
Stephen stood next to the rustic Land Rover with his one arm resting in the ajar door as he stared at the sunrise. He had about two hours before temperatures became unbearable and getting supplies became a daily scurry and was what kept them alive.
The warm morning air was already causing him to break a sweat and he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand as he brought the Walkie-Talkie to his bearded mouth.
“Sam… come in.”
There was a moment of st
atic before a voice responded over the handheld device from an era gone by.
“Sam here.”
“It’s gonna be a close one today.” Stephen said, “Summer is approaching and sunrise is earlier each day.”
“I know.”
“Are you ready?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be in this nightmare we call life.”
Stephen nodded, “Over and out.”
He got back into the car, put it in gear and sped down the abandoned street like a bat out of hell; changing gears like a drag racer. Abandoned cars and crevices in the street left behind by the rolling earthquakes from long ago sped by as he cut through intersections that no longer caused traffic jams.
Twelve city blocks later and he got to his destination; along with about fifty other cars that caused an instant traffic jam outside General Lee’s General Store – the only store for miles that still traded.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Stephen sighed as he geared down towards the traffic jam.
The car that idled in front of him had a sticker in the rear window of a dead stick-figure family with the words, ‘Planet X killed my stick family’ above it; making Stephen wonder whether it was just a smart joke or whether there were any truth to the sticker.
He knew he couldn’t do anything except be patient, so he waited in the queue of cars until he could pull into a parking bay. As he switched off the engine, a woman and her daughter scurried pass hand-in-hand towards the store and it brought back memories of his own wife and daughter as they were hurried along by the military on the day the military ushered his wife and daughter into the bunker. He had just enough money to pay for their passage and though it was the most difficult thing on earth to watch them being escorted underground, he knew he did the right thing.
He pushed their faces to the back of his mind with all the other warm, fuzzy family memories as he gathered his strength and got out of the car just as an obese man shoved past him and scurried off to the store.
“Hey, watch it!” Stephen called out after the man.
“Sue me.” The man said uninterested.
“You made it.” He heard Sam’s voice behind him.
He greeted his friend with an embrace and a smile as if they haven’t seen each other in years.
“What’s going on here?” Stephen asked as he glanced at the crowd pushing through the front door of the store.
“Word got out that Lee’s running out of water.”
“What?” Stephen was worried.
“Don’t worry. I got here early enough to get bottles for the both of us.”
Stephen let out a sigh of relief and watched through the window as people on the inside fought over the last bottles of water. The obese man from earlier on shoved a woman aside and she fell to the ground as everyone started pushing and grabbing at the last three bottles of water.
“Things are bound to get ugly.” Sam said, “Mind joining me for a beer?”
“Beer?” Stephen was confused.
“I know a place.” Sam winked at him with a smile.
CHAPTER TWO
Sam kicked in a boarded-up door and they climbed through the wreckage of the long forgotten Club Zero21. The air was stuffy and dark, but Sam knew his way around from his wild nights back when life was still normal. He put the boarded-up door back in the frame and led Stephen over to the bar; stepping behind the bar while Stephen sat down on one of the high-chairs.
“What will it be?” He heard Sam from beneath the bar.
Sam fidgeted with something and then the white fairy lights dangling from the top of the bar lit up. He straightened himself out and smiled at Stephen who seemed impressed to be in a seemingly functioning bar.
“This place has a generator.”
“And it’s clearly a well-kept secret.” Stephen added.
If the hordes of people in the city still fighting to stay alive should learn about the generator they’d tear the place down to find it. In the dark world they called home, generators were in high demand and in low availability.
“I used to come here often before…”
“Before the world ended?” Stephen joked.
“The world is far from ending. We just need to adapt to our current circumstances.”
Sam took out two whiskey glasses and poured them each a glass of 20 year old imported whiskey. He handed Stephen one glass and gestured a toast with his own glass before taking a sip.
“Never pictured you to be a whiskey drinker.” Stephen said.
“You gotta make do with what you have.” Sam’s face contorted. He wasn’t used to the strong taste.
Stephen took a more sophisticated sip and toyed with the glass; looking deep in thought. Sam pulled the barman’s chair closer, sat down and leaned in closer – pretending to be a barman.
“What’s on your mind?”
Stephen chuckled and shook his head at Sam’s silliness.
“Barmen are qualified therapists, you know.”
Stephen chuckled again and took another sip of whiskey which went down a little warmer than the first sip. He glanced at Sam who seemed very serious in his pose as a barman. He had so many things that bothered him or haunted him, but nothing really mattered anymore with the end of days knocking at their door.
“I heard Melissa died of heat stroke yesterday.”
Sam shifted a bit uneasy and uncloaked his barman persona; taking a sip of whiskey.
“That’s… I’m sorry to hear that.” Sam said, “She was a nice girl.”
“She wasn’t meant to die.” Stephen said drifting away in his thoughts, “She never did anything to anyone and didn’t deserve to die such a horrible death.”
“Neither did any of the other thousands of people who died over the last couple of months.”
Sam took a sip in thought; he used to love Club Zero21 and mostly returned for the fond memories he had, but the fond memories were also what haunted him. He usually went there on his own and drowned his sorrows, but it felt good having Stephen with him for company.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m good.” Sam said, “Now let’s finish this bottle of shit. We deserve a boys’ night!”
Sam raised his glass confidently and clinked it against Stephen’s.
They kept drinking until the bottle was empty and the room started spinning. The dark, cool bar was the perfect hideaway from the heat and they kept drinking until six that evening when the sun normally sets.
As they staggered out into the street, clinging to each other to stay upright, they immediately broke sweat in the heat. Sam stared up at Planet X in the distance as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. His drunkenness made him a very loud, but unwise prophet – much to Stephen’s amusement.
“I hate that bitch up there.” Sam mumbled, “She’s the reason for all of this. I had a good life before she came and ruined it. I had it all and now…”
Sam stumbled and Stephen helped him regain his footing.
“Careful, buddy.”
“And now look at me.” Sam yelled at Planet X, “I’m drunk and left behind by society because of you.”
“Let’s get you home. You clearly don’t handle your alcohol very well.”
“I’m fine.” Sam insisted as he stumbled forward.
“Come on.”
Stephen wrapped his arm around Sam’s waist and the two of them walked down the twilit street towards Sam’s apartment building that was further on down the street. The building he called home was completely deserted and he turned the basement into a cosy little home. One of the secrets of surviving the intense heat was to stick to basements or any other low laying areas.
Sam collapsed onto the bed; falling with his face into the pillows and grunted as his body came to rest.
“I’m never drinking again.” Sam moaned as Stephen shut the door and locked it.
Stephen walked over to the bed; taking great care not to fall over and then sat down on the edge of the bed. He helped Sam get out of his sho
es and then lay down next to him on the bed.
“I needed that.” Sam said from inside the pillow.
“Me too.”
Stephen stared up at the ceiling mould that spun above him and then turned onto his side; staring at the framed photo of Sam and Alex on the nightstand. The photo was taken about a year earlier and they seemed happy. Sam never really talked about what happened to Alex, but it was always evident that he never got over the loss.
CHAPTER THREE
Fourteen months earlier
Sam stood in the shower with his head bowed as the water streamed down his body like waterfalls. He had his eyes shut and tried to make sense of everything that happened in the last couple of weeks, but couldn’t wrap his mind around the undeniable truth that felt more like a bad dream he couldn’t wake up from – a recurring dream he had ever since news broke about the impending disaster that nobody could run from.
It has been only the two of them for years. Sam’s parents were both dead and he’d never met Alex’s family. He had a fallout with his parents years ago and they’ve never spoken since – not even to tell them that he was planning on proposing to Sam.
Alex sat on the bed of their bedroom ten storeys high and watched news coverage of the approaching rogue planet. He was completely mesmerised by the story as if hearing it for the first time, but it was the only story on TV for the past month.
A diagram of the solar system came on and he turned the volume up.
“Here you can clearly see the eight planets and the dwarf planet Pluto orbiting our sun in a perfect circular motion. It takes our planet exactly twelve months to orbit the sun and the further away the planet is, the longer the orbit takes. Pluto takes a staggering 248 years to orbit the sun once and when it was discovered back in 1930, it had not even completed one third of its orbit.”
The diagram of the circular solar system changed to include an elongated oval path of Planet X reaching well beyond our solar system.
“Like many other rogue celestial bodies in outer space, Planet X doesn’t conform to the normalities of circular planetary orbit, but rather an oval orbit reaching thousands of astronomical units into outer space before finally looping around the sun. Scientists have long speculated the existence of such a planet and it was finally discovered in 2014 by NASA’s Voyager as it entered our solar system for the first time in over three thousand years.”