PLEASE READ THE NOTE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE CHAPTER
TWs: Feelings of anxiety/nervousness, implied altruism, mentions of death, brief coronal mass ejection/melting. Stay safe :)
"What's the deal, Proxima? Why are we gathered here of all places?"
"Yeah, I thought we weren't allowed near this part of the Milky Way."
"Well," The red dwarf started, "Someone asked for our presence; a planet that goes by the name Nine."
"A planet?" Gliese raised her eyebrows, "Are you serious?"
"He seemed reasonable enough." Proxima squinted their eyes at the other. Gliese scoffed, yet said nothing.
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Prox?" Alpha spoke beside them.
"Of course." Proxima nodded, "I wouldn't have gathered us here if it wasn't."
"Speaking of, where's Spica?" Sirius questioned, spinning around to look for the other Star.
"As we all know, Spica resides farther out than us." Proxima briefly explained, "She should be on her way."
Gliese sighed, "Well, we have nothing better to do, so might as well meet this 'reasonable' planet."
The other Stars agreed, albeit reluctantly.
Fwoosh- fwip- crack!
A dark blue sphere came from within the Kuiper belt, greeting the Stars at the edge of the Oort Cloud.
"Hello, great Stars from beyond. It's so nice to officially meet you all." The planet spoke.
"I assume you're Nine?" Gliese raised an eyebrow.
"That's right." X nodded.
Gliese huffed, not impressed, "What makes you think we'll help you?"
"Gliese." Alpha glared.
"I'm serious. Planets don't just come up demanding things from us! What makes Nine here so special?"
"...She has a point," Sirius spoke.
X merely smiled, feining an innocent expression, "I completely understand, and you're right not to trust me, but... I would like all of you to hear me out if that's alright."
Gliese squinted her eyes, analyzing the planet before her. She let out a huff, "Fine- go ahead."
X smirked.
One step closer.
« × »
"Luna, what's the brightest Star in the solar system?" Earth asked, his eyes focused on something in the distance.
"I dunno." The moon spoke, "I'm pretty sure Jupiter said it was Sirius A, the Star in the Canis Majoris constellation. It's actually one of your nearest neighbors and is gradually moving closer to the solar system."
"Huh..." Earth frowned, "I don't mean to alarm you, but there's-"
"Everyone gather around for a planet meeting! NOW!" The Sun's voice rumbled throughout the atmosphere.
Earth glanced at Luna, who shrugged, "Must be important. Come on."
...
"That's weird..." The human uttered, "Should this be flashing red, Computer?"
"I'm picking up on some other energies entering the solar system." The AI spoke, "They appear to be moving closer at a rate of 6.68459e-9 Astronomical Units or one kilometer an hour."
"Well, can you tell me what they are...?"
"Look outside and find out."
Astrodude scoffed, "You just said these things were outside the solar system. We're nowhere near the Kuiper, holy shi- what are those things!?"
As soon as he looked out the side window, his eyes widened upon seeing bright flaming lights beyond the asteroids and debris.
"Those aren't... what I think they are, right?" He took a step back, glancing at his monitors again.
"Judging by the components I'm picking up on, they're exactly what Stars are made of."
"Wha- wh- whe- how!?" Astrodude flailed his arms, "How is this possible!? I knew the planets here could move and talk of their own volition which is concerning in itself, but I never imagined it was possible outside of this solar system! This is..."
"Weird?"
"Exactly!" Astrodude collapsed in his chair, "I-I have to do something l-like, uh... Computer, call Houston!"
"Calling Houston..."
...
"What's up, Sun?" Jupiter spoke, "You sounded very..."
"Anxious." Mars interrupted.
"Is everything okay?" Saturn questioned.
The Sun's eyes twitched through his grinning expression, "Oh, yeah! Everything's great, hahahh, except we have a bit of a problem... I don't mean to alarm anyone, but if you look behind you-"
Everyone turned around as soon as he said that.
"Don't turn around, you idiots!" The Sun hissed, prompting everyone to turn back around with fearful faces. The Sun resumed a fake smile on his sphere, "We appear to have unexpected visitors..."
"You mean the Stars?" Earth spoke, "I'm pretty sure me and Luna saw the brightest one there; Sirius, I think?"
"Ah, yep- that's one of them." The Sun nodded.
"Do you know them, Sun?" Saturn asked, "Can you tell us who they are and what they want from us?"
"It's not any of you they're after, I don't think..." The Guardian uttered, "I'm the one they're most likely targeting."
"What?" Mercury raised his eyebrows, "What'd you do, Sun?"
"Let's just say... a lot. A lot I'm not proud of." The Sun broke his grin to frown at the small planet, "I would say out of all of them... Proxima, Alpha, and Gliese are the most upset with me."
"And who are they?" Mars asked.
"Proxima Centauri and Alpha Centauri B- they're brothers." The Sun replied, "I bet Jupiter can tell you more than I can about their properties."
Jupiter's eyes lit up as he took the figurative stage, "Well- they reside about five lightyears away in the constellation, Centaurus. Proxima is a red dwarf, one of the smallest kind of Star types while 'Alpha' - or Toliman - is an orange dwarf, known for being 'Goldilocks Stars,' and may be a candidate for supporting extraterrestrial life."
Earth perked up at that, "That's a thing?"
"Of course! Toliman is just another example that anything can be possible in space." Jupiter nodded, "He's a bit smaller than the Sun by fourteen percent."
"What about the others- Sirius and Gliese?" Mars asked.
"Sirius is the brightest Star in the sky- it can actually be seen from Earth's surface."
"How do you know that?" Earth frowned.
"Reading. I have a lot of free time." The Gas Giant shrugged, "Known as the 'Dog Star,' it resides about 9 lightyears away in the Canis Majoris, or Canis Major, constellation. Within a few hundred thousand years, though, it's expected to become fainter until Vega takes its place of being the brightest Star. Sirius A is about twice as massive as the Sun."
"His twin, Sirius B, used to be bigger than Sirius." The Sun cut in, frowning as he looked down, "Until Sirius B consumed his hydrogen fuel and became a Red Giant before shedding his outer layers and collapsing into his current state as a White Dwarf around... 120 million years ago, I think."
"So, Sirius' twin is... dead?" Mercury muttered. The Sun said nothing, averting his eyes away from the small planet.
"Unfortunately, no one or thing can stop a Star once it becomes a Red Giant." Jupiter spoke, "It's inevitable that all Stars will die out one day. We should be glad that it's not anytime soon."
The Star and planets didn't utter a single word. Neptune looked around at everyone's gloomy faces, a frown settling on his own. He looked towards the Kuiper belt, seeing the bright Stars beyond it. He furrowed his eyebrows, blinking one eye, then the other. He took a deep breath as he turned back to the others.
"Jupiter is right!" A smile formed on his sphere as the others looked at him, "We should be glad!"
Uranus raised his eyebrows, "Are you alright, mate...?"
"I'm more than alright!" Neptune grinned, "But, instead of focusing on the inevitable, we should focus on the possible."
"What?" Venus quirked an eyebrow.
"Care to elaborate, Neptune?" Saturn asked.
"Gladly!" Neptune bounced on his axis, then looked at the Sun, "I'm assuming whatever happened was a long time ago?"
The Sun hummed, nodding his sphere.
"Whatever it may be, they're no match for you, the most powerful being in the Solar System!"
"Hahah, that may be true for planets, but it's a different story for Stars." The Sun smiled, "I'm only one Celestial- I can't take on four Stars alone."
Neptune frowned, raising an eyebrow, "And I thought I was the forgetful one."
"What?" The Sun blinked.
"You're not alone." Neptune gestured to the other planets, "We can take them on."
"That's-"
"He's right." Jupiter nodded, smiling, "We're not letting you do this alone, Sun."
The others gave their own comments, agreeing with the statements.
The Sun looked upon his planets, his mouth quivering as his eyes started burning.
"Are you okay, Sun...?" Saturn questioned.
"Yeah, I just-" The Sun coughed, "You all might wanna move-"
Everyone's eyes widened as they quickly scattered away from the flaming sphere just in time as a fiery mass of plasma was ejected from his mouth.
"Oh-!"
"Agh-!"
"Careful-!"
Once it was over, Mercury was the first to fly up to him, "Feel better?"
"Surprisingly, yes." The Sun laughed.
Neptune smiled, going over to Uranus, "You okay?"
Uranus grunted, blinking, "We should return to our orbits. I think I'm starting to melt."
Neptune could feel the liquid dripping from his sphere, "Good thinking! We can regroup at a later time- I just need to talk to Titan to see how the plan is coming along."
Uranus nodded, "See you later, mate. Be safe."
"You too!" Neptune grinned, making his way over the asteroid belt. He spotted Titan immediately, watching as he marked down a plan on a whiteboard as the other moons listened intently.
"Neptune." A voice spoke.
"Ah-!" Neptune reeled back, looking around, 'Wait, Messier? Where were you? I thought you said you were only checking on X?'
"I was until something went wrong."
'What happened?'
"It's... a long story."
Neptune looked on at the moons, backing up until he turned away from them, 'I have time.'
« NOTE »
Gliese IS NOT based on the exoplanet and Sedna IS NOT based on the Planet ARG :)
A LOT OF RESEARCH GOES INTO WRITING THIS
Sedna is about 700-1100 miles in diameter. It was suggested that Sedna did not originate in the Solar System, but was captured by the Sun from a passing extrasolar planetary system, specifically that of a Brown Dwarf about 1/20th the mass of the Sun or a star 80 percent more massive than the Sun, which, owing to its larger mass, may now be a White Dwarf. In either case, the stellar encounter had likely occurred within 100 million years after the Sun's formation. Stellar encounters during this time would have minimal effect on the Oort cloud's final mass and population since the Sun had excess material for replenishing the Oort cloud.
Gliese 229B was the FIRST Brown Dwarf to be confirmed. It orbits another Star called Gliese 229, which is a Red Dwarf in the Lepus constellation. Although too small to sustain hydrogen-burning nuclear fusion as in a main sequence star, with a mass of around 40 to 60 times that of Jupiter (0.06 solar masses), it is still too massive to be a planet.
I gave a few facts about the other Stars within the chapters, so hopefully this clears things up.
I don't know anything about the exoplanets, but I have seen them in fan videos and edits. I also don't know anything about the Planet ARG, and I'd rather not know, since I'm not a fan of any of the Space ARGs I've seen so far...
No offense to anyone reading this lmao
This is probably the longest chapter I've written in this series. I hope you enjoy it so far :)
Comments are appreciated 3