e-Ghosts of Rogue Planet

Chapter 7

I watched Marie walk toward the command section with her left arm in s sling.

“How do you feel? I asked.

“A little weak, but I’ll be all right.”

I flicked my eyes at the screen. “The telescopic images of the rogue planet are clearer now.”

She sat down next to me and looked at the main screen. “Those clouds look as if they’re mostly high altitude. You can see the surface; although, it’s difficult to make things out.”

“I believe that the fact that the clouds are mostly of the high altitude variety means that there is limited moisture in the atmosphere.”

“I can see some oceans,” she said. “Why would the atmosphere be dry?”

“I have no idea. I’m not a planetary expert.”

“It could indicate that there is little in the way of vegetation on the planet,” James said as he approached. “In fact, there may not be any life down there at all.”

“Or, it was all destroyed when the planet was kicked out of the solar system it was created in,” I said.

“There is another explanation,” James said. “If we assume that those oceans are not filled with water, it could mean that the chemistry of this planet is quite alien compared to Earth’s.”

“What could they be filled with?” I asked. “Water is the most common substance in the universe that remains liquid at normal temperatures.”

“What if the star that this planet formed under condensed out of a cloud that contained more deuterium?” James said.

I rubbed my jaw. “I thought that the reason that hydrogen is much more prevalent than deuterium is that most deuterium didn’t survive the big bang.”

“That’s true, but we have seen comets with a higher concentration of deuterium. There is a possibility that this planet got bombarded with higher concentrations of heavy water comets and that’s what we’re seeing here. Heavy water is denser than ordinary water. Ice made from it sinks, instead of floating. This alone could account for the absence of life as we know it.”

I smiled. “Well, I suppose we’ll find out the truth when we go down on this planet.”

“How long until we get there?” Alisha asked as she approached.

“What I want to know is: are we there yet?” Marie said with a playful grin.

“No,” I said, smiling. “And that’s a good thing.” I changed to a more serious expression. “We need you to get better so that you can go down with us.”

“I’m going down with you no matter what,” she retorted, sounding upset. “I will not miss this historic occasion.” She smiled. “Besides, I’m just as curious as you are about this so called rogue planet.”

“I have a suspicion that this planet’s not what it’s cracked up to be,” James said. “For one thing, there’s no way it could have penetrated our solar system and settled into Earth’s orbit on the opposite side of the sun without anyone seeing it.” He pointed at the screen image. “It has a moon, and by the looks of it, its moon is a small planetoid that it picked up from the Kuiper belt on the way in. Unless this rogue planet came here thousands of years ago, even the ancient astronomers would have noted its arrival before it settled in Earth’s orbit behind the sun.”

“You’re right,” I said. “And, if it came here millions of years ago, its orbit would have perturbed well enough for it to be visible from Earth.”

“What does all of this mean?” Alisha asked.

“I see only two possibilities,” James said. “Either it’s an extremely unlikely accident or it’s being controlled.”

“By whom?” I asked.

“By a higher intelligence,” James replied.

“How could any intelligent creature control the movements of a planet the size of Earth?” Marie asked.

“I’m only offering suggestions,” James said. “No matter how it got there, we must remain alert to the possibility that this is a trap.”

Marie’s right eyebrow shot up. “A trap?”

“I think that we’re jumping to conclusions here,” I said. “Let’s wait until we’re in orbit and able to send probes down into the planet’s atmosphere.”

“Fair enough,” James said.

His comment about the planet being a trap concerned me. There were many things about this rogue planet that didn’t make sense, and by its very nature should be considered an invader from another star system. Could this be an alien Trojan Horse?

I keep remembering those science fiction stories about aliens coming to Earth or capturing humans because they consider us as food. That idea is ludicrous because it would be equivalent to going all the way to Timbuktu for breakfast.

After a few days, Marie was able to ditch her sling. The wound was completely healed and she had full use of her arm.

“Thank you again for saving me,” she told me with a beaming smile on her beautiful lips. “I owe you again.”

“You’re worth saving,” I said, grinning to let her know that I was teasing her.

“I hope we don’t have to go out on an EVA again. It seems that every time we do, we get into trouble.”

“Space is an unforgiving hostile environment; at least that’s what I tell my budding junior astronauts. I tell them that they must remain constantly vigilant. Most of them think I’m crazy, but they had better listen because it’s very easy to get into trouble, as you put it.”

“Why are you lecturing me, Mr. Taylor? I’m not a junior astronaut.”

“You’re right about that, Mrs. Taylor. We’re considered veterans despite our young ages.”

“Hopefully, we’ll live long enough to be old veterans.”

“We are the pioneers,” I said. “They’ll be reading about us in textbooks.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Space Nuts are us.”

She laughed.