The God Experiment

Chapter No.80. Surprise adventure.

Chapter No.80. Surprise adventure.

It was a typical Sunday afternoon, but that was about to change. Robert answered the landline phone this time and it was NASA with a new mission. He assembled his family and they teleported to the JPL Mission room where they found Jason and a young Korean American by the name of Kim Wu.

Jason wasted no time in explaining their problem. "We've lost contact with our Venus probe."

Robert smiled. "Ah, another repair mission."

"Yes." Jason gestured to Kim. "Kim is in charge of the Venus mission. I'll let him handle this mission."

"We think it suffered a computer shut down," Kim said.

"Show us the engineering drawings and provide us with the necessary replacement parts, and we'll be on our way."

Kim looked at Jason, who responded by gesturing to a computer screen. "Display the probes design images. They only need a few minutes to memorize them."

Kim did what Jason commanded and Robert and Janet looked them over. It took a bit longer for technicians to collect the circuit boards and other components that were candidates for replacement.

As soon as the superheroes had them, they vanished.

Kim turned to Jason. "Are they for real?"

Jason wanted to laugh, but he decided to play it cool. "They are, and it's because of them that NASA is still in business."

Ku just shook his head.

The Steris family appeared near Venus and began a flyby search for the probe.

"We found it," James announced, pointing to a tiny spec a thousand meters away.

"You, Sylvia and Amy can go check out the planet and see if there might be ways to improve it. Your mother and I will repair the probe."

James saluted before Sylvia, Amy and he flew into Venus' depleted atmosphere. Robert and Janet flew to the probe. They began by opening up a plate that led to the electronics. A quick visual and mental scan of the innards yielded a prognosis.

"It looks like both the processor board and the camera module failed," Robert said.

Janet pulled out a new processor module and handed it to her husband when he removed the damaged module. After installing the new board, he removed the camera module and handed it back to his wife. She found the new module and handed it to him.

James, Sylvia and Amy flew down into the planet's atmosphere and flew around to survey the new Venus.

"It's still too hot," Sylvia said. "And I'm not detecting an adequate magnetic field."

"I think it's probably because there's no convection in the core. Start that up again and let's see if the magnetic field improves."

Sylvia used her powers to see inside the planet's core, which was not only stagnant but not really spinning well. She increased the spin and the convection flow of the core.

"I think that's causing the magnetic field to improve," she said.

"Let's try to see if we could make this big slug spin faster," James said. "It's like in low gear."

They merged their powers to increase the planet's spin.

"That should help," James said. "Although, the real problem is that what's left of the atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, which is trapping heat."

"Maybe that'll change with time," Sylvia said. "There's lots of water in the top part of the atmosphere and it's being split into oxygen and hydrogen by the solar wind. Once the planet cools it should rain down."

"Yeah, you're probably right. Let's go see what Dad and Mom are doing."

They flew back up to where Robert and Janet were just finishing up repairing the probe.

"How's the planet doing?" Robert asked.

"It's hanging in there. We tripled the spin and repaired the core so that the magnetic field is better."

"Good. Maybe we can eventually terraform it."

"Actually, early astronomers thought it was an Earth twin," Sylvia said. "They had no idea it was a hell hole."

"Aren't we playing god when we alter a planet?" Amy said.

"Not really," Robert replied. "It's our fault that Venus lost most of its atmosphere when we deflected the gamma ray burst to avoid Earth."

"Besides," James said. "We might be able to save humanity by terraforming a planet."

"Let's go back and tell them what we did," Robert said. "Maybe they'll have some ideas of how we could do that."

They reappeared in the JPL Mission room. Both Jason and Kim were surprised to see them back so soon.

"We repaired the probe," Robert said. "We also made some improvements to the planet."

Kim frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, we tripled its spin and increased its magnetic field by repairing its core."

"How could you increase its spin?"

"It's not all that difficult," Robert replied with a smile. "What we're thinking is that the planet could be terraformed."

Kim and Jason exchanged glances before Jason replied. "We never considered that. Venus is probably the last planet that anyone would consider terraforming. It's too close to the Sun."

"How about placing a large shield to block sunlight?"

"That would require a very large object that would have to be kept in precise alignment. I doubt such a mission would be approved."

"Well, think about it," Robert said. "We're always happy to try anything to help."

"We appreciate that," Jason said before the superheroes vanished.

"I'm beginning to see why NASA has gotten more attention of late," Kim said. "We're able to control them to a point."

"Yes," Jason said. "We're considered one of their handlers."

Kim smiled.

As crazy as that was, a conversation was taking place between diplomates from China and the US that would change how both countries would deal with one another when it came to the superheroes.

Xing Cho and Hamilton Feder were having a secret meeting to hash out the situation with the superheroes. The Chinese were not happy with the fact that the superheroes were Americans and seemingly under the control of the US government.

"The truth is that we don't have any real control over them," Hamilton said. "No one could ever have power over them. They can be in more than one place at a time or invisible. Their powers are off the chart. We tried to contain them, but it's impossible. We even tried to destroy them. They can't be killed, and they could bring any military force to its knees. No, we've discovered the best way to control them is by keeping them busy helping us."

"What do you mean?" Cho asked.

"We give them things to do like solve crimes and help NASA with difficult missions. They seemingly love to help us without demanding anything in return other than to have their identities kept secret."

"If they possess superpowers, why haven't they taken over?"

"They don't want to. They are perfectly happy just helping save humanity."

"That doesn't make sense."

"I agree, but so far that's what the situation with them is."

"Would you be willing to send them to us for projects?"

"Yes, as long as you agree not to try any attempts to control them. To do so could lead to a major war, and that's not what any of us wish."

"We agree," Cho said.

Hamilton realized that Cho was speaking for the Chinese government, and it represented the beginning of a new phase in the superhero saga.