The Impossible Planet

Posted on 15 Jun 2026 @ 2:29pm by Lieutenant Ryan Collingway
Edited on on 15 Jun 2026 @ 4:42pm

470 words; about a 2 minute read

////CEO's Office////

Ryan's musings had been interrupted by new reports. A new problem that demanded immediate attention. Ryan stared at the data, before taking another sip of coffee that was getting colder by the moment.

A sun that didn't change. That didn't make any sense in any known laws of the universe. The only way it was even remotely possible is if one piece of the planet simply decided to stop rotating. And if it did, natural disasters would instantly claim it. Winds at 670km/h. Radiation spikes. Massive earthquakes large enough to bury the settlement into rubble. All or at least some of this should have shown up by now.

It did not. The data was showing something that was impossible. The only explanation was that Sherman Oaks operated outside of those rules. Ryan stared at the data, thinking. But every possible theory he had was refuted by the evidence below. This simply should not exist. And the anomaly itself did not give any indication that it was the cause.

How was he supposed to make a containment module out of that?

He knew on some level what the psychological affect would be on Sherman Oaks. Earth history had proven that much by multiple examples. Cracks would likely form. The general population would start turning on each other. Dislikable people would be blamed. Possible show trials, interrogations. People expected to give answers they possibly couldn't give. Executions soon after.

When science could not provide an explanation, fear and panic would quickly offer alternatives.

They had to figure out a solution before then.

But the physical aspects eluded him. How could he write a stress containment on a world that refused to show the symptoms of stress it logically should have by now? That was far more difficult to chart. On a basic level, crops would begin to die. Water systems would dry up. It was still catastrophic, if maintained indefinitely.

Unless Sherman Oaks decided to ignore *those* rules, as well.

Ryan sighed a little. This was frustrating him. He knew some of that was tied to his own eagerness to prove himself in his new role. To prove to the senior officers that they had made the right choice in him. Would Commamder Harlan have figured this out any easier? Heck, Harlan would have probably made some crazy device to make the sun work again for Sherman Oaks by now.

No, he told himself firmly. That wasn't fair. The whole senior staff was stumped by this as well. They were all operating by the same set of data.

Sherman Oak's sun wasn't working. There *had* to be a reason for it.

They would figure it out.

Ryan went back to modeling stress projections on an impossible planet that refused to be stressed.

Lieutenant Ryan Collingway
Acting CEO
USS Arawyn

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