Dr. Timothy Grey and his team build a large telescope and interstellar spaceship in the asteroid belt to escape a brutal one-world government when a rogue black hole is discovered coming to destroy the solar system.

SYNOPSIS:

The story starts in October, 2147 and spans 30 years. Dr. Timothy Grey is a Nobel Prize winning astrophysicist at Stanford. He’s a natural leader and popular instructor. He teaches doctoral students about astronomy. In class, he tells them about the small chance that a rogue black hole could come close enough to endanger the solar system.

Meanwhile in Russia, Vladimir Komarov, a teenage amateur astronomer, notices stars missing from a star field and other stars’ light displaced. At first, he thinks it may just be a problem with his telescope and takes 2 nights to examine and test his equipment.

Vlad’s family includes his father Yuri, his mother Alexandria, and his sister Olga. He explains the difference between magnetic levitation and electromagnetic gravitation, or anti-gravity, to his sister as they take the family’s peat bales to the maglev train.

The next night he notices that different stars have moved, and some stars have reappeared. He calls his teenage astronomer friends Nikita and Joseph and they discuss the possibility that it may be a black hole. They decide that they need to get Dr. Timothy Grey’s team to verify the phenomenon.

Tim asks Dr. Peter Chan, a colleague of his, about what Vlad has seen. Peter is married to a doctor named Dr. Suzy Chan, a medical doctor and tissue engineer, and they have two children.

Tim and his wife, Gloria take a space shuttle from San Francisco spaceport to London Heathrow spaceport for Tim’s appointment as a fellow in the Royal Astronomical Society. On the trip, they discuss how far humankind has come. They enjoy a magnificent view of the earth and a smooth ride. They also discuss the propaganda coming from Unigov. Tim does not look forward to meeting with the members of the Unigov ruling assembly at the awards ceremony.

Tim has been lobbying for an appointment to the Unigov General Assembly. He feels that if he is appointed, he can enact some changes for a better life for the world’s population. The global population is currently 9 billion and growing from being down to 7 billion from 12 billion after a world-wide civil war that brought Unigov to power. After they arrive in London, the next day Tim receives a fellowship for his accomplishments in astrophysics, in particular, rogue black holes.

Back in Stanford, Peter has the same observations as Vlad and reaches the same conclusions but asks a colleague in Oxford, Dr. Christine Harris to verify the observations. Chris is a sweetie who is cute and funny. She has two little shelties and lives in Oxford near her office at the university. Chris and Peter find that the black hole is indeed a rogue on a collision course with the solar system. Chris calculates that humankind must leave the solar system within 81 years or be annihilated. They tell Tim in London who must leave shortly after the ceremony for Stanford to discuss what their next steps are.

Flash back four years earlier, Tim talks with the team about how pervasive Unigov is in their lives. Tim’s team decides they must find an exoplanet to travel to in order to escape the brutality of Unigov. Dr. Bill Tanaka, a part of Tim’s team leads a project to build a telescope array in the asteroid belt. Bill speaks with Frederick Williams and Dagmar Messerschmidt at BMW mining about building a telescope near their main mining facility hidden behind Ceres that Unigov will not be able to detect. Dagmar and Frederick agree with William Barnes, the third partner of BMW Mining to help Tim’s team build the telescope.

They find an exoplanet that is almost earth’s twin but it is 1435 light years from earth. It is slightly more massive with a little more oxygen than earth. They determine that the voyage will require that length of time to design the evolution of their future generations to be able to survive on the new planet.

Once they identify an exoplanet, they plan to build an interstellar spaceship together with BMW Mining but they know that if Unigov discovers it, Unigov will want to commandeer it.

Two BMW directors, Shawna Dogara and GERALD McDermott, meet Bill’s crew when they arrive to start the telescope project. They discuss work hours, transmissions to Earth, and microchips in their necks. They also talk about their excellent security team and system. Robospiders are used to move asteroids. BMW miners will be working alongside Bill’s crew. They also work with BMW engineering expert Dr. Felix Ruto and Dagmar’s husband, Wilhelm Messerschmidt (Willy) who owns a monopoly that builds shuttles for Unigov and private businesses.

The groups begin their orientation on the comshuttles in the large, rotating atrium cylinders where they will live while mining, refining and manufacturing the raw material they extract. The atriums are as close to living on earth as they could make it. They have the same gravity and progress through the four seasons, just like Earth. Everything they could possibly need is on board, and provided by BMW Mining free. Bill and his crew move their families to the main mining facility and do not have to worry about Unigov’s intrusions while living and working there.

The telescope, called Eagle Eye, is built and deployed over the span of four years. Bill’s wife, Kiko, is an MD and moves to the facility to work in family practice at the mining medical center. Willy and Felix devise a plan to move the 12 mining facilities together to build the ship’s core in order to save time. They also begin to build the control module and thruster module. They plan to use Eagle Eye as the eyes of the ship on its journey. Two men lose their lives working on the construction, which unfortunately is a possible hazard of working with massive asteroids in a gravity free environment in space.

Tim is briefed on the particulars of the black hole. They discuss the need to let Unigov know about the situation. They also need to get Vladimir on board. Vlad is thrilled. He will take classes and work as Dr. Grey’s assistant. He will be there for the next twelve years to earn his doctorate in astronomy. Vlad is given a rundown of the logistics of his situation and is introduced to his room at Stanford and given his personal robossist. He tells everyone at Stanford about his family and about where he is from. He even gets the opportunity to talk to his father and the rest of his family in Udmurtia Russia.

While at Stanford, Vlad meets Sarah Cummings, a cute young redhead. She plans to get a degree in astromedicine. Vlad tells her that he plans to study astronomy. He talks with his friends JON and JEAN and tells them about Sarah. Vlad is introduced to everyone on Tim’s team including BMW Mining and is officially on the team. He again tells the team the story of how he noticed the missing stars. They name the rogue black hole “Bellus”.

The crew tells Vlad about the telescope they’ve built and about the exoplanet Keplar-452c that has a biosignature like earth. They also talk about the ramifications of the rogue black hole and how they must hurry to complete the ship. Bill gives a presentation about Kepler-452 and the exoplanet Kepler 452c and they decide to name their possible new home “NeoEarth”. They talk more about Eagle Eye, which will serve also as an early warning system as it will be at the front of the spaceship.

Peter mentions that the Earth will collide with the Sun in the year 2244 which means there is only eighty-one years for humankind to save themselves. Bellus is roughly the size of 327 sun masses. They also are hesitant to tell Unigov about Bellus. Once Unigov and the world discovers the rogue black hole, Tim says that he does not want to be on the same planet as rioting and looting will begin. Security is of utmost importance. The gang decides to name the ship “Ziusudra” after the earliest known ark. Dagmar assures Tim that their vetting process for bringing people with the needed skills to populate the spaceship is very good and thorough. They have the “best of the best” with Gerald and his security troops.

Chris and Gerald find themselves growing closer to one another, and Gerald proposes to Chris after they spend a week in Jackson Wyoming. Everyone is very excited for them. Peter and Suzy take their kids on a safari in the orbiting African Preserve. When they arrive back on Earth, Peter is put under arrest by a Unigov robotrooper for not wearing his Unicom brooch. Tim tries to help Peter, and he is eventually released after a week of torture at a Unigov reeducation camp in South San Francisco.

Shawna gives an orientation on the building of the ship to new recruits and their families. Gerald recruits and trains even more security force. The control module is completed and Eagle Eye is connected and tested. NeoEarth and Bellus are both being monitored in the meantime by Bill. They also build a school in the ship, which they call Ziusudra University. Peter accepts the position as the director of the physics department.

Vlad and his friends receive their master’s degrees. Everyone and their families are in attendance, except two students who were taken by Unigov. Tim plans to tell Unigov about Bellus in 2172 when the ship is ready to depart.

Vlad and Sarah wed at his family’s peat farm in Udmurtia. Everyone has a great time, but the fear of future destruction is still in their minds, and Sarah expresses her worries. Vlad comforts her and she feels better. As they move to the ship everyone congratulates them on their marriage. Soon after, they begin the process of acquiring their doctorate degrees. A little while later, Gerald and Chris also get married.

Eventually, a disgruntled BMW miner informs the vicious Unigov security chief, ZHANG YUEN, of the spaceship that is being built by Tim and his team. Yuen does not want to take control of the ship until it is closer to its completion. They send spies and plan to sabotage the ship’s construction to slow it down to give him time to build an armada to commandeer the ship. The seventh facility explodes from a bomb planted by a suicide bomber. After the consequence, the gang talks about possible spies in each of the facilities being moved to the ship. They find another on board the main facility and arrest him. Felix is murdered by another of Yuen’s spies and captured.

Chris tells Gerald that she is pregnant with a boy and chooses a due date. She has the baby on board the spaceship. Everyone is happy for them. Later, another marriage occurs, this time it is a non-traditional Muslim ceremony between Shawna and Bruce Jones. Tim and Gloria are unable to make it, as they still have business on earth in Stanford.

The gang re-iterates that although Unigov has found out about their ship, they still have not found out about Bellus. However, the time frame must be moved up to notify Unigov because the effect of Bellus is beginning to be felt. Some asteroids have hit the earth killings hundreds of thousands of people. They plan to announce Bellus to the world in May. Tim theorizes that should Unigov not be able to commandeer the spaceship, they will build their own spaceship to travel to the nearest exoplanet that can sustain life. They make the announcement from Tim’s Stanford office and DR. SUJINDER SINGH, Unigov’s dictator Chairperson General, is furious that they were notified 25 years after the black hole was discovered and orders their arrest.

Unigov troopers grab Tim and Bill. Gerald explodes a pulse bomb which disables the Unigov robotroopers. Chaos and panic ensues after the explosion. Gerald and his robotroopers arrive shortly after and manage to kill the Unigov troopers. Tim and Bill are able to escape while Gerald had his arm blasted off from a Unigov laser gun. Yuen, in New Zealand surveying the damage from the asteroid hits, hears about the attack and thinks of Gerald’s distrust, as they had worked together years prior. Suzy regenerates and reattaches Gerald’s arm after returning to the ship. They talk about how Unigov will attack their ship but the BMW security forces plan to do everything in their power to defend it. They take the attack to the Unigov armada before it can get near the spaceship with many Ziusudra casualties. They ultimately defeat the first Unigov armada. Unigov ends up losing many more troops and ships than Gerald’s forces.

Gerald tells the ship’s population that they have won the battle. He warns that Yuen underestimated his forces and is not through. They will attack again. The Unigov second wave’s shuttles catch up with the spaceship as it departs. Another battle occurs but Gerald’s forces win again. As Bellus grows closer, anarchy ascends on Earth. Unigov starts to build an interstellar spaceship for the Unigov elite as more asteroids hit the Earth.

After the spaceship is safely away, Tim and the team chose the last Thursday of November of every year to be celebrated as a Thanksgiving memorial to those who were lost in battle. Years later, Gerald tells Chris that he believes God threw The Rogue Intruder at them to humble and teach them how truly fragile they are as a species within the scope of the universe.