CHAPTER 1 THEY CAME FROM GALAXY X Galaxy X was a dark place on the edge of the universe It was so far from Earth that none of humanity’s astronomers had any idea it even existed But the aliens who lived in Galaxy X knew plenty about Earth’s solar system The creatures from Galaxy X were called the Intellex Twelve of them had made the trip from their home world to Venus The Intellex aliens looked at Venus’s clouds of sulfuric acid and barren landscape
What makes this planet so perfect one Intellex asked It doesn’t look so great to me You’re just not looking at it in the right way insisted their foreman or leader the Supreme Frank Use your imagination This planet’s 850-degree temperatures are perfect for a liquid metal ocean Once we install one we can charge a fortune for the luxury homes we’ll build on its shores And installing a liquid metal ocean will not be a problem for us Frank reminded the eleven other Intellex in front of him Because we’re the best crew of terraformers in the universe There’s no planet we can’t alter or adapt am I right
The other Intellex agreed except for one Yeah but boss this planet has no moon the smallest one said Without the pull of a moon’s gravity the ocean we create won’t have any tides or waves That doesn’t sound like much of an ocean tome He’s right said another Intellex It takes forever to build a moon from scratch If we don’t open our development before the Junoans open theirs on the planet N’Cron I know I know we’ll be out of business said Frank But see that’s why this planet is so perfect Because there’s a moon we can use right next door Frank pointed to the green and blue planet next to Venus A bright white moon hovered near it
