Divine Providence

NASA's 900 million dollar super probe, the Mars Observer, becomes the space agency's greatest triumph, yet the public is told that the mission is a total failure. Ushering in a new era of "cheaper, faster, better," NASA pushes the memory of Mars Observer into obscurity. Designed from the beginning as a covert operation, the deceptively titled Mars Observer functions perfectly as it passes right past the red planet on its way to its true destination. Since 1947, the U. S. government has concealed its discovery of a tenth planet invisible to ground-based observatories. A new spacecraft is unveiled to a shocked world revealing a collaboration between nearly all the nations of the planet. Radio signals reaching the Earth reveal an alien intelligence that sounds like it is about to follow a disastrous path that will take the Earth with it.