h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I offered my condolences to Joseph, the oldest of Cosmo's children. He had been the best-liked member of the family until he joined a strange religious cult a few years earlier. He and his wife were standing in front of a wall mural depicting the solar system.

"This is shamefully inadequate!" he told me, pointing to the area beyond Pluto. "They should have discovered the tenth planet by now."

"Tenth planet?"

"Yes. Marduk. It's a shame Dad died when he did," Joseph sighed. "Another few months and he would have seen Marduk for himself and joined our cause."

"So Marduk is a planet?" I said.
"Yes. It's all explained in "The twelfth planet?" he said.

"I thought you said Marduk was the *tenth* planet."

"Read the book," he said, giving my shoulder a friendly pat. "It's about ancient Sumerian tablets and the likelihood that 'gods' from another planet came down among them, bringing a high level of scientific knowledge with them."

"Interplanetary astronauts?" I asked.

"Yes, exactly. Plus, the planet is named after the god Marduk, who is the deity that my religion worships. We only have 16 believers now, counting my family, but by this time next year, adherents should number in the millions, if not billions"

"This sounds like science fiction."

"It's actually true, and it's going to happen again, next September," said Joseph's brother, who had been listening in.

"This is my brother Peregrine," Joseph told me as we shook hands. "He built a time machine and went to next September and met the delegation from Marduk as it arrived in Iraq."

[Amy P]