The Plutonian Empire
“Rutherford, wake up.”
A mysterious person next to Rutherford’s side keeps poking him.
“It has been 100 thousand years, Rutherford”
His vision keeps becoming clearer. He can see a familiar person next to himself, repeatedly saying, “The journey has been successful.” Rutherford woke up to see himself in a large concrete block, stretching endlessly, with a glass window revealing a blue atmosphere stretching across the horizon of Pluto. He looked to his left and light, all he could see were cryo-chambers that look like iron beds. He woke up and had the best stretch of his life in what seemed like an eternity. He saw a scientist next to him, saying “Seems like you forgot what happened. We rescued you from earth in the year 5000002020 Anno Domini. The sun kept expanding and we could only rescue some people, which included you. Earth is now gone, as we couldn’t save it.” He stood up and asked, “Where are we, and who are you,” to which the scientist responded, “We are on Pluto, in the city of Pisces Centauri, and I am Professor Bienvenida.”
Professor Bienvenida explains to Rutherford, “Oh, by the way we don’t use Anno Domini anymore. We use a megayear dating system from the start of the Plutonian Empire,” and then quickly adds in, “We also have a slight problem. The mirrors we have orbiting Pluto caused the orbits of all of the moons of Jupiter to destabilize and unless we find a new planet to colonize, Humanity as a whole will die.”
She walked him out of the institute and showed him the directions towards the government building that houses the entire government of the Plutonian Empire. Rutherford stumbled through the towering skyscrapers and homes that spread across the horizon of Pluto, with its lithosphere being indistinguishable, except for the remaining construction sites that remained from the construction of Pisces Centauri and the massive oceans. He would eventually encounter some people using their odd paranormal abilities so they could make a living, and eventually encountered a parade, reenacting King Eugene’s coronation as the first king of the Plutonian Empire.
Eventually he reached the gigantic government buildings that make up the bureaucratic heart of the Plutonian Empire as a whole, seeing the many bureaucrats run to the other buildings in a very streamlined process. Rutherford at one point reached a vast building, which read “MINISTRY OF INTERSTELLAR COLONIZATION” and he entered the building, as he believed that was where he needed to go. He saw a large bureaucratic complex filled with incomprehensible forms of transport to make the many bureaucrats arrive on time for their work. He eventually found an office that works with operations and planning for colonization projects, and entered it.
As Rutherford walked into the office, he saw a primitive, 21st Century style room with a calendar that read 2,499,999 PT, 6th of King Rupert’s Month. He sees an average height man wearing a black suit, and says, “Come on, Rutherford, take a seat here,” as he gives Rutherford a sheaf of papers. “So, you know the deal, all of Jupiter’s moons will fall into it because of the giant space mirrors we installed. And we cannot save humans from this, so I ask you to hop into a rocket with the 101 best people we have as well as the king, with an even ratio of male to female so you can all populate a planet and save Mankind,” and Rutherford nods his head, and asks, “Where to, though?” The suited man then replies,” To a star system with nearly the same mass as our sun, but much younger. Around 15 Gigayears old. It has 5 Planets, One is a Hot Jupiter nearly crossing the threshold to become a star, there are 3 habitable terrestrial planets and 2 roughly Pluto-Sized planets.” The suited man then points to another room and tells him that he has an hour left to reach the spacecraft.
After 45 minutes of stressful speed walking, during which he tripped 3 bureaucrats and almost caused the second worst power outage in the history of the Plutonian Empire when he almost stomped on a cable, Rutherford arrived at the spacecraft. The Ark Ship was vast, wider than Rutherford and almost the whole Ministry of Interstellar Colonization building. 4 security guards showed Rutherford the way to the entrance, as he was almost late, and he arrived just 156 seconds before the launch. He entered the Ark Ship and saw that the whole thing wasn’t that crowded, but he was forced to quickly take a seat due to the countdown starting.
“10”
“9”
“8”
“7”
“6”
“5”
“4”
“3”
“2”
“1”
“Ark Ship out of Pluto’s Orbit,” the captain yelled on the intercom, and just as the countdown finished Rutherford was in awe of the beauty of Jupiter, and their blue moons, and Uranus, the other gas giants, and the dying sun. It took barely a second to reach the icy bodies of the Kuiper Belt, and Rutherford looked at Pluto for the last time; a small, blue planet mostly obscured by mirrors that orbits a roaring gas giant ready to devour it and its step siblings. Eventually the ship reached the Oort Cloud, an icy realm devoid of everything except icy asteroids and proto-planets. Eventually, they reached Belle Hades, a blue planet renowned for its lavender sunsets and a race of blue elves who helped King Eugene rule the Plutonian Empire. Rutherford turned to his left, seeing a bookshelf full of human history books. He began to read one of the books just as he missed the nebula that used to be Betelgeuse, which is now a Neutron Star. As Rutherford read the book tears dropped from his eyes. “My God,” he whimpered as he read about all the accomplishments of humans, and the fact that they will be soon gone.
He shuts the book with a loud slam and turns to look back. Binaria, Cancer Centauri, all the star systems of the Plutonian Empire flashed before his eyes as he stared outside the window. Eventually, the Star that the suited man mentioned was staring into the Ark Ship, and the Ark Ship went past the enormous Hot Jupiter, which was named Joan, after the current Queen of the Plutonian Empire. Next, they came by the 3 habitable planets; 1 named Rutherford, 1 named Rupert and 1 named Asmund. They landed on Rupert, in between the 2 other terrestrial planets, but the others named the remaining 2 planets Sargon and Messier. However, when they landed, Rutherford saw an image of Jupiter.
It’s too late.
“What now,” Rutherford asked.
