Chapter No.39. Way out there.

The Steris family returned to their normal lives for a few weeks. James was on summer break from school and Janet had some vacation time coming up from her job at the credit union. Robert had nothing but time.

They were at home one evening when NASA called them.

"NASA wants to discuss something with us," Janet said after she hung up the land line phone.

Robert and James got up from the couch. James turned off the TV. They were ready for action.

They appeared in the JPL Mission room and found Jason there along with a Chinese woman. Her nametag identified her as Sing Lu, the director for deep space missions

Jason introduced them to Sing. She smiled and then got serious. "How far can you go?"

"I believe it's unlimited as long as we can visualize the location," Robert replied.

"We have a Kuiper Belt probe that's now about 40 AU from Earth that we've lost contact with. When last contacted it was orbiting a planetoid that's at least three times larger than Pluto, which puts it into a special category as far as Trans Neptunian objects go. In fact, it violates several power laws concerning the masses of Kuiper objects."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that an object that's nearly seven thousand kilometers in diameter shouldn't exist out that far."

"I assume that you want us to locate the probe and repair it," Robert said.

"If you could. It might be difficult to find that far out in the Kuiper Belt."

"Show us the diagrams and the projected course and velocity of the probe and the location of the planetoid."

She began typing commands into a computer and after a pause the information began to display. The superheroes studied the information carefully.

"Provide us with the expected components that you think may have malfunctioned."

After twenty minutes, a bag with the parts were brought into the mission room. James grabbed the bag.

"See you later," Robert said before he and his family teleported to the last known location of the lost probe.

"Wow!" James exclaimed. "The sun looks like a bright flashlight this far out."

"I don't see the probe," Janet said. "Maybe we're not in the right location."

"I think it might not have made it this far," Robert said. "Let's fly back on its course and maybe we'll find it."

They flew back on the probe's last known course but failed to locate it."

"Okay," Robert said. "Let's head to the planetoid. Maybe it got further than they thought it would."

They arrived at the planetoid and began a search.

"This planet has an atmosphere," James said. "Look at the glow."

"It's mostly nitrogen with some methane."

"That would suggest that this planet might have had some life at one time."

"It's too far out for that. If it does have life, it might be a captured object."

"What's that down there?" Janet pointed to a large structure on the surface.

"What in the hell is that doing here?" James asked.

"Interesting," Robert reacted. "Let's go check it out."

They flew down to the surface near the large rectangular building with a curved roof.

"This is at least a thousand meters long and three hundred meters wide." Robert said. "it definitely is not a natural artifact."

"Who put it here?" Janet asked.

"Well, it wasn't NASA or Chimes," Robert replied. "It could only be alien, unless it was put here by demons."

"Hey!" James said. "I can see the probe. It must be orbiting this planetoid."

"We can deal with that later. Let's see if we can get into this structure."

"It appears to have sizable open locations," Janet said.

"Yes," Robert said. "Let's go in there and find out what's going on."

They appeared in an open area near the center of the structure. The walls and ceiling came to life with a uniform blue light.

Large machines of unknown purpose were situated around the floor of the structure. None of them appeared to be functioning.

"These don't look like anything created by humans," Robert said. "I believe we've found evidence of alien intelligence."

"I wonder where the aliens went," Janet said. "I'm not sensing anything alive here."

Robert sighed. "I suppose we should record everything we can see here. Maybe NASA can figure it out."

Janet and James began a thorough recording of the machines and associated equipment. Robert used his powers to probe for any evidence of alien life.

He didn't locate anything.

They teleported outside the structure to photograph it from on the ground and above it in the planetoid's sky. After they completed that task, they flew to the orbiting probe and completed a repair of its radio and antenna's systems.

They appeared back in the JPL mission room.

"We fixed your probe," Robert said. "We found what we think is an alien structure on the planetoid's surface. James will download all of our photos to your system."

Jason and Sing examined the photos before they reacted to what they saw.

"If this is an alien artifact, It's the first real proof that there is intelligent life out there," Jason said.

"That's for you to determine. We're not experts when it comes to that."

"How do you know it isn't the result of demons?" Sing asked.

"It didn't smell right," Robert said.

They stared at him with confusion written on their faces."

"What do you mean?"

"If it were demons the odor would be there. We didn't smell anything."

"How could you smell something without much of an atmosphere?"

"Oh, the atmosphere on that planetoid is about half that on Earth. It's mostly nitrogen with about a few percent of methane."

Jason and Sing exchanged glances before Jason turned to Robert. "It's possible that this planetoid was captured. In other worlds, it came from another solar system."

Robert shrugged. "It could be, but you'll have to determine that."

"Thanks for repairing our probe," Sing said. "It evidently lost contact when it achieved orbit."

"We're here to help," Robert said.

The superheroes returned home.

Sparky ran into the living room and jumped around with some barks as a welcoming.

"Ever since you cured him, he seems to be like a young dog," Janet said.

"Maybe he's got superpowers," James said.

Janet threw a treat up into the air, and the dog jumped up and caught it at its highest trajectory and landed without any sign of stress.

"Yep, he has superpowers," James said.

They laughed.

"Let's check that out," Robert said. He took a treat from the bag that his wife was holding and headed out to the back yard. Janet and James followed Sparky out there.

James threw a treat up a thousand meters into the air and Sparky flew up to grab it and land without stress.

"Holy hell!" James exclaimed. "He can fly like us."

"Yes, it appears that he has some of our powers," Robert said.

"How is that possible?" Janet asked. "He's old."

"I guess he's not old now. I think he's one of us now."

"I think he needs a uniform," James said.

"That's crazy!" his mother reacted.

"Maybe it's inevitable that he will join us," Robert said. "If nothing else, he could sniff out demons even better than we could."

James laughed. "Sparky the super dog!"

Little did they know it's a new reality that would come in handy.