THE NINTH PLANET
EPISODE 1
Surface of Pluto1750 GMT - Wednesday, December 23, 2111
The spacecraft Persephone settled down onto the barren surface of Pluto. This ship had left Earth months ago and had been designed to make the long, arduous journey to Pluto and back with a crew of three. Captain Wladyslaw Kowalski set her down gently on a smooth plateau while his crewmates prepared to step outside. The captain performed the final scans of Pluto. Satisfied, he transmitted his findings back to Earth and let them know that they had arrived safely on Pluto. It would be several hours before the message got there.
The copilot, 2nd Lieutenant Maria Carvalho, waited for the captain's nod before getting into the airlock with the engineer, Sergeant Mohammed Kassim. Though Wladyslaw would have liked to be the first to set foot on Pluto, he knew that his duty required him to remain at the controls in case anything unforeseen happened. He kept his eyes on the instruments and the radar screen. After a couple of minutes, he noticed a cluster of dots on the radar screen approaching the ship. "Lieutenant Carvalho!" he said into his radio. "We have several unidentified contacts incoming to our position!"
"I don't see anything," her Brazilian-accented voice replied.
"They're coming in from your blind side, using the ship as cover! Get back inside, Lieutenant!" He watched with horror as the dots converged on Persephone, and then the instruments picked up something else. "I'm getting some unusual energy readings! Do either of you read me? Hello?!" Panic filled his voice and terror his heart.
After an agonizingly long minute, Wladyslaw heard the airlock begin to cycle. "Oh, thank God!" He rose from his seat and walked over to the airlock entrance. "Are you two okay in there?" There was no response, but then the inner airlock door opened. He gaped in shock. "You're not- No! Stay back!" His madness-tinged screams echoed throughout the ship as something reached out for him.