The Writer. Danilo Clementoni

        Washington – Oval office

        Ethiopia – City of Aksum

        Ethiopia, Aksum – The Ark of the Covenant

        Aksum – The Epafi

        Unknown place – The Writer

        Area 51 – The return

        Tell-el-Mukayyar – The farewell

        Bibliographical References

      Introduction

      The twelfth planet, Nibiru (the planet of the passing) as it was called by the Sumerians, or Marduk (king of the heavens) as it was referred to by the Babylonians, is actually a celestial body orbiting our sun with a period of 3,600 years. Its orbit is significantly elliptical, retrograde (rotating around the sun in the opposite direction to the other planets) and distinctly tilted in relation to the plane of our solar system.

      Each cyclical approach has almost always caused huge interplanetary upheavals in our solar system, both in the orbits and the conformation of the planets it consists of. It was during one of its more tumultuous transitions that the majestic planet Tiamat, located between Mars and Jupiter, with a mass approximately nine times that of the Earth as it is today, rich in water and endowed with eleven satellites, was destroyed in a cataclysmic collision. One of the seven moons orbiting Nibiru struck the gigantic Tiamat, effectively splitting it in half, and catapulting the two sections into opposing orbits. In the following transition (the “second day” of Genesis), the remaining satellites of Nibiru finished off this process, completely destroying one of the two parts formed in the first collision. The debris generated from multiple impacts created what we now know as the “asteroid belt”, or “hammered bracelet” as it came to be called by the Sumerians. This was partly swallowed up by the neighbouring planets. It was Jupiter, in particular, which captured most of the debris, thus noticeably increasing its own mass.

      The satellite artefacts of this disaster, including those surviving from Tiamat, were mostly “fired off” into outer orbits, forming what we now know as “comets”. The part that survived the second transition then positioned itself in a stable orbit between Mars and Venus, taking along with it the last remaining satellite and thus forming what we now call the Earth, together with its inseparable companion, the Moon.

      The scar caused by that cosmic impact, which occurred approximately 4 billion years ago, is still partially visible today. The scarred part of the planet is now completely covered by water, in what is now called the Pacific Ocean. This occupies about a third of the earth's surface, extending over 179 million square kilometres. Over this vast area there is virtually no landmass, but instead, a large depression extending to a depth of over ten kilometres.

      At present, Nibiru is very much like Earth in its conformation. Two thirds of it is covered in water, whilst the rest is occupied by a single continent that stretches from north to south, with a total surface area of over 100 million square kilometres. For hundreds of thousands of years now, some of its inhabitants have been taking advantage of the cyclical close approaches of their planet to our own, making regular visits, each time influencing the culture, knowledge, technology and the very evolution of the human race. Our predecessors have referred to them in many ways, but perhaps the name that represents them best has always been “Gods”.

      Background

      Azakis and Petri, the two lovable and inseparable aliens who are the protagonists of this adventure, have returned to planet Earth after one of their years (3,600 earth years). Their mission? To retrieve a precious cargo, they had been forced to hastily abandon on their previous visit, due to a fault in their docking system. This time however, they have found a very different terrestrial population to the one they left behind. Customs, traditions, culture, technology, communication systems, weapons. Everything was very different to what they had seen on their previous visit.

      On arrival, they came across a pair of terrestrials: Doctor Elisa Hunter and Colonel Jack Hudson, who welcomed them enthusiastically and after countless adventures, helped them bring their delicate mission to an end.

      But what the two aliens would have preferred never to have to tell their new friends was that their own planet, Nibiru, was rapidly approaching and in just seven earth days would intersect the Earth's orbit. According to their Elders' calculations, one of its seven satellites would come so close as to almost touch the planet, causing a series of climate disruptions comparable to those of its previous passage, which had been summed up in a single definition: The Great Flood.

      In the two previous books ("Back to Earth" and "Intersection with Nibiru"), despite countless difficulties, the protagonists of this adventure managed to save the Earth from disaster, but now a new adventure awaits them. Azakis’ and Petri’s return journey home has been sabotaged and an even more terrifying threat is about to befall the entire solar system.

      In the last book we left the occupants of the majestic Theos grappling with the sudden activation of the spacecraft’s self-destruct sequence and that is where we will resume the tale of this fantastic new adventure.

      Theos spacecraft – The evacuation

      "Abandon ship" shouted Azakis desperately.

      The Captain’s peremptory order spread simultaneously over all the levels of the Theos. After a brief initial hesitation, the few crew members automatically followed the evacuation procedure they had simulated so many times during emergency drills.

      "Eighty seconds to self-destruction" announced the warm, calm female voice of the central system again.

      "Come on Zak" shouted Petri. "We haven’t got much time left, we must get out of here."

      "But can’t we do absolutely anything to interrupt the sequence?" replied Azakis incredulously.

      "Unfortunately, no, old chap. Otherwise, don’t you think I’d already have done it?"

      "But it’s just not possible," said the Captain as his companion in adventure dragged him along by the arm, in the direction of internal communication module number three.

      "Well actually we could try to manually interrupt the procedure, but it would take at least thirty minutes and we only have more or less a minute left."

      "Wait, stop!" exclaimed Azakis, yanking himself free from his friend’s strong grip. "We can’t leave it here to explode. The wave of energy the explosion generates will reach Earth in just a few minutes and the exposed face of the planet will be struck by a gigantic shock wave that’ll destroy everything in its passage."

      "I’ve already set up remote control of the Theos from the shuttle. We’ll move it once we’re on board, as long as you get a move on,” scolded Petri as he again grabbed his friend’s arm and bodily dragged him in the direction of the module.

      â€œSixty seconds to self-destruction.”

      "But where do you want to move it to?" Azakis continued, as the internal communication module door opened on the shuttle’s bridge, on level six. "A minute won’t be enough to make it reach a sufficient distance to..."

      "Will you please just stop babbling on?” Petri interrupted