Planet X

By Eduard
Joseph

Published by
Eduard Joseph

Smashwords
edition

© 2016 Eduard
Joseph

Front cover
design by Eduard Joseph

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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.

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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 static 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.