The Tenth Photograph(Nathan Van Devender) Markus Shlavonski was a brilliant man. At age seventeen he entered a top-dollar college, and at age eighteen, he submitted his first essay on the effects of starlight on distant planets. He became a renowned man and was very famous in the fields of astronomy. But, as all people do, he aged. We now look back at him when he was fifty-eight, and had settled down into a nice new techie-style beach house with a 3500x zoom telescope, which he used for his job, but since he is retired, what was his job became his hobby. He owned a TV studio, and, of course, had his own Astronomy for Beginners show. This show was designed for children between the ages of five to one hundred and five that were interested in astronomy. He had fun experiments for the little children and very scientific stuff for the big children and adults. But this story is not about his show, or about how he loved making children laugh and teaching children things; no, this story is about an amazing discovery that Markus made late one winter evening.

"My show starts in half an hour, I can't be late this time!" Markus Shlavonski says to himself as he looks through his high power telescope. "Last time I didn't even have time to talk about the possibility of life on other planets!" Which, of course, was the topic of last week's show.

"Hmm, it seems that Vindemiatrix is giving off a tiny bit more light than usual, I'll have to note this." If you were around Markus as he did his hobby, this is usually the kind of things that you would hear. "It seems that Chara from Beta Canum Venaticorum has moved 0.000024 light years to the right, could be the gravitational pull from a closely passing asteroid, I should probably look into this some more later."

Markus observed more of "out there" for a while, looking at his favorite stars. "Looks like Helios is burning as brightly as ever!" Helios was his favorite star, some seventeen million light years away. Why it was his favorite star, nobody knew, but to him it was amazing, simply because it never changed. Since he first saw it when he was twenty-seven, he looked at it every day, if he could, and unlike all the other stars, this one never dimmed or brightened, changed size, or moved, except for rotating. He also admired it because this star had the most planets and moons orbiting it, exceeding in number over any other star he had seen. There were two planets in particular orbiting this star that were in the exact same orbit, and Markus would imagine that if you stood on one of those two planets, you would never, not in a million years, see the other one! However, Markus was never able to get a good look at either of these planets, because of their distance from the sun and the placement of the other planets. However, by his calculations, Markus would be able to get a short, just a few seconds, glimpse of one of these planets. This was why he was pushing the time limit for his show as much as he could.

As the time for the glimpse grew near, Markus made sure that the computer he had hooked up to his telescope was on and in check. Then he checked his printer. This printer had recently been giving him trouble, sometimes jamming for a bit, sometimes printing two pictures on the same page, and sometimes not even printing at all! Markus was going to replace it, but he was so excited for this moment that it slipped his mind, and by the time he remembered there was not enough time to run out and get a new one, much less hooking it up. So Markus just hoped with all his heart that it would run smoothly.

Markus set his computer to take ten rapid-succession photos, as he wanted to get many pictures, but there wasn't much of an opening. He looked at his watch. Fifteen seconds. Markus made sure that the telescope was focused correctly on the spot that the planet would be appearing at. Then he put his eyes to the telescope and waited in anticipation.

ten...

nine...

eight...

seven...

six...

five...

four...

three...

two...

one...

And there it was. Markus's calculations were dead-on. The planet's beauty took his breath away. It was so entrancing that Markus almost didn't hear nine pictures print out of the printer. He didn't know what happened to the tenth, and he didn't care, as long as the other nine were good. Then, as soon as it had begun, the glimpse ended. The planet had drifted behind another planet. Markus didn't know when he would see it again; he figured that it wouldn't be possible for another thousand years or so.

Markus tore his eyes away from the telescope, and put them on his priceless photos. It was a miracle that the printer had worked. The pictures were high quality, no mess ups, no smudges, they were crystal-clear shots of the most amazing planet Markus had ever seen. He very carefully, as if they were made of leaf gold, slid the pictures into an envelope. Markus knew that this planet would be the biggest discovery that anyone had ever made, and he was going to reveal it tonight at his show.

Thinking of his show, Markus looked at his watch. He had plenty of time to get there. Markus put on his coat and, envelope in hand, he opened the door.... To find a lady in a black, neatly pressed business suit, and dark sunglasses. She had blond hair, just reaching to her shoulders, and she wore a very serious look.

"May I come in Mr. Shlavonski?"

Markus wore a very confused look. No one ever bothered to visit him this late. "I'm sorry, but maybe some other time, I have to make it to my studio on time."

As Markus slid past the woman she put a hand on his chest and pushed him back in. "No, I insist Mr. Shlavonski, it's not a request anymore."

"O... Okay... as long as it doesn't take too long."

The mysterious woman walked into the house and sat down. "Nice place you have here."

"Uh, thanks. May I ask..."

"You may call me Jen."

"You have a lovely name."

"I never said it was my name."

"Oh..." This wasn't the type of woman you could really talk to much. "Well, would you like some tea?"

"No, if anything, coffee, but I'd rather get this over with. Sit down Mr. Shlavonski."

Markus slowly sat down, very confused at Jen's serious tone. Usually people were jolly around him, he looked like he could be a giant stuffed bear. "Please, you can call me Markus, or Mark, or... something."

"No."

"Oh... Well, what do you want then?"

"We've been watching you lately, Mr. Shlavonski."

"Who are 'We'?"

Jen took off her sunglasses. "That's not important. What is important is what you saw tonight."

"Saw? All I saw were the stars..." Markus wasn't sure if this was the type of person that he could tell about his discovery.

"Oh please Markus! Do you think we're stupid? We know about the planet, and the nine pictures you took, and the envelope you just hid behind your back."

Markus let out a sigh. "So what do you want with me? Am I going to jail? If so, let me do one last show."

Jen let out a small laugh. "Nothing will happen to you, as long as you hand over those pictures and don't tell anyone about this."

"I... Is that a threat?" Markus was starting to get scared by now.

"Only if you take it as one, Mr. Shlavonski. Now give me the envelope."

With a melancholy look, Markus handed the envelope to the woman known as Jen. Jen stared at him for a few moments. Then she held out her hand. "The pictures too, Mr. Shlavonski."

Hesitating, Markus handed over the pictures.

"Now go catch your show, you have just enough time." Markus shuffled slowly to the front door. Jen grabbed his arm and said, with a softer tone, "I feel sorry for you Mark. I really do. Please, for your sake, don't tell anyone about this or the planet." Then she let him go.

During the show, it was plain and clear that Markus's mind was elsewhere. He was making mistakes, forgetting things, tripping and falling. Then a sudden look of determination came over his face. "I have an important announcement to make. Tonight in my lab, I saw-"

One shot was all it took. No one ever figured out where it came from, or why it was shot in the first place. One police officer had it figured out, but he quickly retracted his claim. Two days later, Markus Shlavonski's house mysteriously burned down. The police claimed that it was from a cigarette that Markus dropped, catching flammables on fire. One person found several flaws in this theory, such as that Markus didn't smoke, and he was already dead, and pointed them out. This man was arrested for supposedly smuggling drugs, and, without a trial, was put in jail.

Markus's former house, his lab, his favorite place to be, was gone, diminished to a pile of rubble and ash. However, one thing did survive. Deep inside a box, which can be barely distinguished to be a printer, was a piece of paper. But this was no ordinary paper. This paper was the tenth photograph, a photograph of a planet, with striking blue colors, mixed in with a little green. If seen with it's back to the sun, you can see a web of yellow lines. It is the most amazing planet in the universe, a planet that someone, somewhere, calls Earth.

---