Shatters in Space: Stories about Scientific Horrors and Cosmic Threats

5. They Say Space is a Strange Place

On July 14th 2014, an unknown object was spotted by the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA scientists discovered that the object was heading directly towards the solar system, but at an exceedingly moderate speed. They calculated that at the rate of speed the object was going, it would take approximately twenty weeks for it to reach Earth. The object was on a collision course with the planet.

When the world learned of the upcoming apocalypse, it fell into chaos.

Around the globe, governments fell through either direct cause or by hysteria in their ranks. Religious leaders declared that the end of the world was upon them and millions fled to churches and to places of worship to pray. Violence rose up in the populations and millions more either killed others in cold blood or were killed themselves. Many families committed suicide and the president of the United States disappeared alongside Congress and the Department of Defense, rumored to have been relocated to an underground bunker.

During the panic, NASA finally managed to receive a view of the object. They discovered that the object wasn't a comet, or an extraterrestrial craft, or an asteroid. Rather, the object was a planet, which was the size of the Earth. When they discovered what the planet looked like, they kept the revelation a secret from the panicking masses.

On the day of impact, December 1st 2014, the world held its breath as the planet approached the Earth.

Its gravitational force was so powerful that as it moved closer to the planet, the tides of the oceans were distorted to the point that massive tidal waves were created and coastline cities were wiped out. The remaining survivors looked up at the now globally visible planet and went mad as it came into view. They screamed in horror, along with the inhabitants of the planet itself, as the Earth collided with the Earth.