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Authors Note: New Yaut'ja's POV and Matt's descendant.

My apologies for the faulty math and the "i"s and "/i"s. This was intended to be posted on deviantART, where HTML coding is necessary. ^^; Those little odd end "i"s are just for italics if I've missed any. :)

~Merty


Chapter 1: Approach

2109

In the dead space between planetary systems, hardly any of the light from the local star made it there. The bright pinprick was almost indistinguishable from the vast number of stars. Dormant comets moved slowly at the solstice of their orbit around the star, dark and silent. Among them, one artificial body stood out. Just as silent as the comets, the lone ship coasted on autopilot, scanning the nearby system idly.

Inside the dim cockpit, a solitary Yaut'ja dozed in the captain's chair. Just as his head was starting to loll back, a low frequency alert went off and brought him to attention. He tapped a few keys lightly and the nearest star streamed to the visor screen dangling in front of him.

Clicking in a few commands, he brought the focus of the representation out to the alert source. On the third planet, his ships scanners were picking something up. Something that shouldn't have been there at all.

His black eyes widening, the pilot tapped a command and he began sending a message back to his superiors. A few seconds later he received a question as to the extent of the damage.

He replied with exactly what he saw on his scan. More than enough.

The reply confirmed his information and it listed off the standard procedures he needed to take.

Closing down the connection, the lone Yaut'ja changed his small ship's course.


Prof. Jack Okinaw stood in the main observatory, staring in rapt anticipation at the holographic map of the solar system with several other scientists. "Current speed?" he asked the computer.

"186,000 miles per second," replied the smooth electronic voice aloud for everyone to hear.

A collective murmur echoed around the room. It was impossible, and Jack agreed with them. But there it was. A foreign object that nobody had ever seen the like of before was shooting through the solar system at the literal speed of light. They'd first spotted it coming through the Oort Belt from the unmanned sensors on Sedena at around 8:09 am. Word had spread through the entire research complex. It was blasting through the system, bound for Jupiter.

One of the older scientists next to Jack was murmuring to his PHC furvently, gathering all the sensor information they'd retrieved so far. There wasn't much because of the object's sheer speed. They couldn't get a solid fix on it.

"Allen, you've got to give me something here. I'm a biologist, not a physicist," pleaded Jack.

The older man glanced at Jack. "I...I haven't the foggiest idea, mate. It can't be a comet, it isn't leaving a trail of particles as far as we can see. And there aren't any records of any asteroid ever reaching this speed."

An alert sounded on the overhead projection. "Warning: foreign object now entering Jupiter gravity."

Everyone looked up again, watching the white representation as it neared the gas planet. Jack absently wished he could be there in person. It would be quite the sight to see the impact.

But such a thing never happened. Before the object even reached the planet's moons, it changed its trajectory and used Jupiter's gravity to slingshot it straight for ithem./i. Straight for Earth.

Everyone was silent. Jack was stunned as they were. That was no asteroid or comet. "...Bridget... Have you gotten the mass of it yet?" he said, his solitary voice sounding loud in the quiet room. When he got no answer, Jack turned toward the sensor station. "Weismann!"

The woman sitting at the desk snapped her gaze to him. "Pardon?"

"Have you determined the mass yet?" he repeated.

Looking down at her station, she brought up her estimates for everyone. The object was roughly the size of an old-fashion space shuttle, but as Bridget's data clarified, it was still difficult to get an exact measurement. With any luck, it would incinerate itself in the Earth's atmosphere quickly. Then again, nothing that fast had ever hit the planet before.

Jack did a simple calculation and determined that it would reach them within a few hours...

The ever present Weyland-Yutani board member Luc Kitz came up to Jack from his spot in the back of the room. "Okinaw... Do I need to send this on?"

Jack didn't answer, hesitating. The official was thinking the same thing Jack had been suspecting. Was this what he'd been hoping and praying would happen? Or was it what Kitz was hoping and praying wouldn't happen? He desperately wished it would be the former.