Sorry for the extreme lateness and typos, school’s been holding me at gunpoint.
Singularity
One of the funny things about black holes is that they aren’t black. Indeed, how could a dimensionless point of infinitively dense mass have color? Well, visible color at least. All black holes radiated some form of energy, whether it be the natural thermal energy that they naturally emitted, or the gamma and X-Rays that the holes ‘belched’ out after consuming a nearby clump of matter. They had been mere theory since the idea was first conceived in 1783. Several other people came to the same conclusion, but the concept wasn’t too widely known.
About two centuries later, black holes entered the public. Ideas about the singularity, or center, of the black hole, and new theories about them and the universe as a whole caught the public’s imagination. By the first years of the third millennium, many writers, artists, and everyday people used the black hole as topic for dinner table discussion, science class debates, and novels. However, speculation and stories could only go so far. Years passed with expanded theories, new views on the laws that govern the holes, but nothing groundbreaking, nothing new. Stephen Hawking, at one of his final seminars in 2013, said, “Even the imagination can only take us so far.”
His words echoed in the minds of those who kept looking, even as humanity left its cradle and began to spread out among first the planets, then the stars themselves. Black holes became just something you were taught in school, and never really thought about. Sure, there was the occasional ‘Are we just going to sit on our hands and do nothing about them?’ guy, but no one really paid attention to them. At least they wouldn’t until they found one, which some people were saying that it was inevitable.
The ‘inevitable’ finally happened, and all it took was three ships, each loaded with refugees from an inter-planetary war, to disappear completely. Now, they didn’t exactly disappear, per se. They made the jump into hyperspace, and came out about two light-years to the left of their destination. Unfortunately, they came out virtually next to a red giant, and burned up, but not before sending all the log and ship data to the nearest ship that could receive it.
After analyzing the data, three separate organizations came to the same conclusion; All the data: the spike in radiation exposure, the dimensions of the curve, it all pointed to something with a super-strong gravitational pull. Some of the people in the investigation immediately put forth a black hole as the culprit. Everyone else was skeptical at first, but when a scouting ship went to go inspect the ‘scene of the incident’, and subsequently vanished, the doubt began to wilt away.
Scientists confirmed that it was a black hole after a few observations with unmanned probes and telescopic observations. ‘Huzzah’ and ‘I told you so’ rang through the solar systems, but were quieted when they discovered that the black hole was moving. Toward one of the most densely populated planets in the Orion Arm of the galaxy. And was going to collide and destroy the planet and the rest of its solar system with it.
Not good, they said. Now what?
We stop it, we said. How? Simple
We build a very special cage.
***
“Hey, Taylor! Stop daydreaming and get your ass over here!”
Jack Taylor opened his eyes and sighed inwardly. What the hell was so important that his boss had to come and discipline him for closing his eyes for… thirteen minutes, according to the time-strip on his left wrist. Gabriel Bell, a less intimidating name than most, wasn’t someone you wanted to get angry. 6 foot 1, muscular with a buzz cut, mustache and extremely short fuse, he wasn’t exactly a people person. This often puzzled the staff who worked under him, since when he wasn’t managing the Technological staff of the Project, he was helping the new PR guy out, since that was his prior job.
“Yes sir?” Jack said.
“Gabriel sighed, cleared his throat, and said, “There’s been a security breach.”
Jack’s eyes widened, but he tried to keep his composure. His mind was reeling. Security breach? How? He was the head of the security team, how had he not known about this?
He was about to voice these questions when a young man carrying an infotablet walked up to the two. “Excuse me, Mr. Taylor sir,” said the man to Jack, “I have the report you wanted me to get.”
Jack turned and looked at the man. “Uh, yes, thanks Tom.” He took the tablet from his ‘apprentice’, Tom Paterson. Tom was a shortish man, around twenty seven, if Jack remembered right. He had jet black hair, and a face that you could forget easily, like the cousin that no one seems to remember at family reunions. He took off the jumpsuit to reveal a clean, pressed suit. He hung the suit back on the hook where it belonged, then turned back to Jack and Gabriel. “Do you need anything else, sir?” he asked.
Jack smiled. “Not at the moment. You could get started on the report for the chairman, but that’s not needed until next week, so…”
“It’s okay,” Tom said, “I’ll get started on it right away.” He headed back to his computer. Jack watched him go. Twenty seven, a graduate of the Global College back on Earth, near the top of class with a major in physics, Tom was one of the best apprentices Jack had been given in his own twenty plus years here. What struck Jack was that Tom seemed to know exactly what to do, and when to do it. He did what he was told, and to the letter. He had a generally cheerful mood, but it wasn’t the creepy kind. He had made friends with some of the other apprentices, and had even found a girlfriend. Janice? Jane? Something like that.
His thoughts turned back to the matter at hand. His heart began to race again. “What’s wrong with the cage?” he asked. He was shocked to find that he sounded scared.
“Nothing’s wrong.” Gabriel said. “At least, not yet.”
A puzzled look came over Jack’s face. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“Well Jack, I just got off the phone with someone who supposedly is a member of the ASG.”
Jack nodded. The Anti Singularity Group was a movement that started almost immediately after the plans to trap the black hole in a special cage. The main reason for this was that some people believed that some political group, or planet, would try to take over the Station and use the black hole as some sort of weapon. Scientists dismissed this idea, saying that the only way you could use this as a weapon with any degree of accuracy was if you could throw it at your enemies. That would prove problematic because there wasn’t anything with enough pull to move the thing, except for another black hole. “What did he say?”
“He said that another member of the ASG had posed as a job applicant for the security team of the Project. This man was supposed to weasel his way in here to help his friends.”
“Help his friends do what?”
Then the lights went out.
It was pitch black, and judging by the dead silence, everyone seemed as shocked about it as Jack did. The cage and the Station were both powered by the black hole, and the power system was almost completely automated. That left two ways for the lights to go out. The first was that the black hole disappeared, which was impossible unless the cage malfunctioned, which was option two and highly more likely. But if that happened, then all sorts of alarms and batteries would have gone off. So someone must have manually cut the power. Why?
Jack heard someone moving in the darkness. His eyes were adjusting quickly, and he could see the faint outline of someone walking up toward him. He squinted. It looked like a man. He was holding something. As the man took a step, Jack saw that he was wearing night vision goggles. There was something about him, something familiar.
“Tom?”
The figure froze, then swung the object. Jack felt something heavy and hard him on the top of the head. His knees gave way and he hid the floor hard, emitting a cry of pain. Something was slid over his mouth and nose. A gas mask. What the hell were they doing? As he slipped in and out of consciousness, he could hear people talking. He heard his name a couple times, then a hissing sound coming from the ceiling. They must be spraying some sort of knockout gas, and he was needed for whatever the ASG wanted.
The pain in his head was getting worse, and he was getting light headed. He felt four hands, two on each arm, pull him away from the probably-unconscious body of Gabriel. He wanted to let go, to fall asleep like the others, but the pain was keeping him awake. He felt something sharp enter his left arm, and began to feel sleepy. As he lapsed into unconsciousness, he put all of his remaining strength into lifting his neck. He saw two beefy guys holding onto his arms, and… was that Tom talking to them?
The last thought Jack had before he went was: Tom’s the traitor; Tom’s the traitor; Tom’s…
***
The first thing Jack felt was a needle coming out of his arm. He couldn’t see anything; they probably mixed a temporary blinder with whatever woke him up. He didn’t feel any pain in his head, and feeling was coming back into his body. Jack tried to stand, and got to his knees before a restraint of some kind stopped him at the wrists and ankles. They didn’t stretch, so this was as far as he was going. Where am I? he thought.
He tried to listen to the chatter going on around him. Not a lot of talking, but a lot of typing and working sounds. Suddenly, four hands grabbed him, and he felt the bonds on his bands being cut loose. They snapped off, and he was dragged to another part of the room, presumably. He heard a door close and was shoved into a chair. Someone sat down in a chair in front of him and said, “Give him the anti-blinder.”
A pain in his arm again, and his vision cleared up quickly. The sudden onset of light blinded him for a few seconds, but his eyes quickly got used to it, and soon he was able to see where he was. He apparently was in one of the senior exec’s offices. Tom was leaning back on a black swivel chair, looking like he didn’t have a care in the world. Jack looked around. There weren’t any windows, so he couldn’t see what was going on. Two beefy guys with guns stood in front of the only door in the room. Jack turned to Tom. “So, are you going to tell me exactly what the hell is going on?”
Tom smiled. “I was wondering when you were going to say that. Well, since you’re going to be dead soon anyway, I figure now would be a good time to explain myself.
“Every seven-year-old already knows what a black hole is; it’s basically a piece of mater that’s been crushed down to a certain size by its own gravity. This piece of matter is infinitively dense, and you would have to go faster than the speed of light to escape from its surface. Because of that, no one knows what the center of the hole, the singularity, looks like because the light can’t get to an observer.
“Fewer people know how this Station and the cage work. Basically, the cage is a huge, sphere-shaped magnet that holds the negatively charged black hole in place by applying its own negatively charged field on all sides. Both are moving at exactly the same speed, and the intense gravitational pull of the hole keeps the shield in place. Simple, yet extremely efficient and beautiful, in a way.
“Now, this Station right here,” He spread his hands out, “This Station is like an extra appendage to the cage. Now, this Station orbits around the black hole, also, albeit at a further distance for safety reasons. From this Station, we monitor the cage and make sure it won’t fall victim to the black hole, and conduct tests and experiments on the hole. Most importantly, the Station is designed to overcome any attempt to control or ‘hijack’ the cage. This would be very disastrous for the rest of the Orion arm, since the hole has the power to destroy anything it wants and is virtually impervious. Also, the hole’s natural radiation is all across the spectrum, and is a potentially indefinite power source that could power the biggest man-made Doomsday weapon humanity’s ever seen.
“Because of this, the Station has been made and improved to become virtually self-sufficient. It’s powered by the hole, almost completely automated minus the control room and security centers. The Station also has full housing for all the staff, and full communication with the outside world for any emergencies, which, until recently, have been almost noon-existent. It’s made of damage-resistant metal and plastic, and is, according to various press releases, ‘almost impossible to enter without permission.’ So the only way for the outside to get in and to control this magnificent piece of human innovation is from within, as I have quite fabulously demonstrated.
“It was all quite simple, really. I never really liked the black hole in the first place; thought of it as too much of a danger to the rest of humanity. I wrote about a couple times while in college, but never really got any supporters. Then the ASG contacted me, told me what they were about, and I decided to join them. With their help, we were able to figure out a way to rid humanity of this black hole once and for all.”
“So how do you plan to do that?” Jack asked. This was one of the main beliefs of the ASG; that the black hole was a potential threat to mankind, and had to be destroyed. However, the main ‘owners’ of the hole were scientists, not politicians, and it was used for purely scientific reasons. That didn’t mean the hole was evil, but some people didn’t seem to understand that.
Tom smiled. ‘We’re going to put it where no one can use it against humanity. The center of the galaxy.”
Jack started, “Why would you put it…” Then stopped. The center of the galaxy was supposed to have more stars per square light-minute than anywhere else in the galaxy. It was also thought that a super massive black hole was in the center, sucking up stuff nearby and pulling in everything else towards itself. That was why there were such things as spiral galaxies. His eyes widened as he realized exactly what Tom was saying. “You’re going to use the Station to move the hole to the freaking center of the galaxy?!”
Tom nodded. “Not entirely, though. We had to add our own way get the cage to follow the Station through Hyperspace, otherwise we’d be taking tens of thousands of years dragging the thing behind the Station moving just under the speed of light. I’d like to be alive to see the absorption of the hole.”
Jack thought about what he said. “So we’re going to survive this?”
“Not all of us.” Tom said. He looked a little sad. “We’ve run through it so many times. Either you come out of the Jump too far away, and it’s super likely that you get burned to a crisp by a star, or you come out too close, and the Hawking radiation fries us before we give the hole the nudge into the big black hole. We’ve decided to come out of the Jump within light-seconds of the lethal zone of the Hawking radiation from the big hole, and will have just enough time to see our friend out there.” He jabbed his finger in the general direction of the cage, “get absorbed before we all die of radiation poisoning.”
“Wait, you said ‘you’, and not ‘we’,” Jack pointed out. “You’re going to leave us here?”
Tom answered, “Unfortunately, yes. Someone has to stay to explain everything to the public when word of this gets out, and since this was my idea, it was decided that I couldn’t stay. Some of the more… extremist of our group have been trained to stay here and makes sure the wrong people don’t get off.”
“And who are the wrong people?”
“The scientists, the ones who put the shield up and kept the hole here, when we’ve had the ability to get rid of it. This… thing gives whoever wields it infinite power, more power than any one human, or group of them, should be allowed to use.”
“But no one has use this for malicious purposes, only for the advancement of science. Only good has come from this until now. You say that the hole is evil, and it should be destroyed, yet the way you plan to destroy it is evil. Why? And,” Jack continued, “Who gives you the authority to make a decision like that? Who gave you the authority to kill dozens of lives because of something you believe in?”
Tom sat up and gave Jack a look of total seriousness. “My authority comes from God. Where does yours come from?” And Jack understood everything now.
Tom looked at his watch. “There isn’t much time until the Jump, so I suggest you start to record your farewells now.” He got up and left the room, leaving Jack with the guards.
He started to get up, then fell back down on the chair and wept.
***
“Hi everyone. Mom, Dad, Janice, Sarah, by the time you get this, I’m going to be dead. I’m sorry about this, and first off I wanted to say good-bye. Mom, Dad, thanks for everything. Please take care of Janice and Sarah after the rest of the Orion arm gets word of this. Janice, you were a hell of a wife, and I’ll try to get in a good word for you to whoever’s up there. Sarah, be a good little girl, okay? Help mommy get through this.”
Jack paused the recording and wiped the tears from his eyes. He knew he was getting old, but he never expected he would die like this. He resumed the recording.
“It’s not long before we jump to the center of the galaxy. Jumping’s a fairly recent breakthrough in space travel, and even I don’t know exactly how it works. If I remember right, Jumping is essentially travelling in a fourth dimensional straight line, which ignores the limits of moving in three dimensional space, like the speed of light. Gravity has an amplified effect, however, pulling anything that has a trajectory that gets relatively close to the source. Remember the three ships that Jumped into that star? Well, the ships’ trajectory passed within millions of kilometers to the right of the center of the hole. In galactic terms, that’s almost touching. So black hole pulled the ship really hard, causing it to curve to the left and into that star.
“Janice, you’ve heard me talk about the ASG before, haven’t you? They’re the ones who are doing this. They’ve taken hold of the Station and are planning to use it to take it and the black hole to the center of the galaxy, where it will absorb the black hole, and us with it. Only the scientists and ASG extremists are staying; everyone else is either getting off in the escape pods or regular ships. Janice, they’re religious fanatics; their leader was talking about some God of theirs and how they had the right to do something like this. It’s crazy, and…
“Wait, what are you doing? No, I’m not done yet! Stop, stop, let me just…”
***
“Gentlemen,” Tom said, “in 10 minutes,” a timer appeared in the window behind him, superimposed over the cage that filled almost all of the view, “you’re evil will be purged from the universe forever. Let me explain how this is going to go down.
“Outside the window is the cage. You who work here will notice that there are some additions to it. Those additions are anti-matter rocket engines, specially designed for their task. You may also see the mile-thick titanium-diamond alloy rope tying the cage and the Station together. When the Station Jumps, the boosters will help the cage to get up to the necessary speeds and keep the cage from losing its way. Simple and elegant.”
One of Tom’s underlings walked up to him and whispered something in his ear. Tom nodded and gave him a small memory card, about the size of his index finger. Jack watched as the man walked up to the nearest console and inserted the card. A screen popped up, and he touched an option. An email window popped up, and the man turned back to Tom.
“Okay everyone,” Tom said, “It’s time to send out your farewell videos. Please line up in front of the console and send it to your next of kin.” He smiled.
Jack sighed. Nothing else to do, might as well go ahead. He got in the line, and turned to the window. The cage, with the engines on the sides, looked very silly at the moment, and Jack vision focused on the timer. Eight minutes, thirty-seven seconds. Eight minutes, thirty seven seconds until the ship gains enough energy to make the necessary speed for Jumping. Give about fifteen minutes for everything to get up to near-light speed, and that was the end. He would cease to be, along with all of his co-workers.
Why the hell am I not doing anything about this? he thought to himself as the line moved up. Why isn’t anyone doing anything about this? He had to do something, anything, to save everyone, but what? They probably disabled the Station’s Net connection, but then how are they e-mailing the videos? He leaned to his left to get a better view of the screen. Three people separated him for it, and the person in front just selected her video, typed in the e-mail address, and sent it. The ‘Sending…’ window popped up, followed by a ‘Message Sent’ window. So we were still connected, which means that he could try to send an SOS. All computers in the Station had a panic button, a certain key combo that would send an e-mail message to anyone listening. The message would then resend itself, and would keep doing so until it got to someone who could answer it. Very useful, and only employees knew it. Hopefully none of the ASG whackos knew about it.
Finally, he was up at the desk. He scrolled down until he found his video, set it as an attachment to the e-mail, and typed in his address. He pretended to screw up a couple times, and waited until the guard turned his head.
He did, and Jack quickly entered the combination. Nothing confirmed the action, but a red dot, barely visible, popped up in the taskbar. Jack allowed himself an inward smile. Hopefully they would find out, and help would come in the next – he looked at the countdown – five minutes, twenty two seconds.
Jack walked over to a section of the window that didn’t have the timer on it. He looked out into the nothingness, dotted with tiny points of light, slowly moving as the Station orbited around the cage. He clasped his hands behind his back, soaking in the view. There was Sirius, and Beetlejuice, and… what was that?
There were several points of light, and all of them were visibly getting bigger. Could that be help? Nah, it couldn’t; he had literally just sent out the SOS. Unless they were waiting…
The lights had grown to the point where they were clearly ships slowing down from coming out of a Jump. Jack counted three, and they looked like military-grade… war ships? What else was out there that he hadn’t seen yet?
He was knocked to the floor by Tom, who had run up when he first noticed them. Jack got up and was pulled back by the guard from the computer. He saw Tom mutter the word ‘How?’, and smiled when he saw how angry and scared. Tom turned to the computer, and ran toward it. He took a glance at the screen, then turned to the guard standing there. “I told you to look out for that.” He pointed at the red dot on the screen. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“I didn’t see anything, sir” the man said, looking like he had just crapped his pants.
“Well now what are we…” Tom began, but his eyes lit up. “We’ll start the jump now. I’m sure we have enough energy. Yes, we’ll just jump a few minutes ahead of schedule.” He pulled a walkie-talkie out of his pants pocket. “Jim, Jump now! Yes, now, we’ve got company.” He pocketed the walkie-talkie, and turned to Jack. “You did this, didn’t you? Well it doesn’t matter now, because you all are still going to die, and I have the pleasure of seeing that happen.”
Jack was about to respond, but he felt the floor begin to vibrate. No, it can’t be happening now! He spun towards the window. The ships now dominated the view, and were super close to the Station. Why didn’t they do anything? He looked down. The vibration was getting stronger, and now the Station was visibly shaking. They were actually going to do it!
The vibration spikes, and Jack, along with several others, was knocked to the ground. Jack got onto his hands and knees, and crawled to the window. The timer was gone, and a ‘Current Speed’ display had taken its place. Jack looked at the ships. They weren’t doing anything, just sitting there, watching the Station. Jack waved his arms, trying to get their attention. Still, they sat there, idling away.
Jack gave up, and tried to stand up. This proved to be near impossible, as the Station was shaking so violently that anything not bolted to the floor was on the floor, usually in pieces. The Station was never intended to Jump, and unless they did some serious enhancements, the Station would shatter long before it got to the necessary things.
For a fraction of a section, the Station stopped vibrating, and there was complete silence. Everyone looked around, not daring to get back onto their feet. Jack could see that several people were bleeding, but for the most part everyone seemed fine.
Then the Stations engines started up.
The initial burst was enough to smash Jack’s head, and several other unfortunate scientists’ various body parts, against the window, nearly rendering him unconscious. Everyone else slid toward the window, and Jack nearly got crushed by another body.
Jack stood on his knees and looked around. Everything was settling down, and most of it was in pieces around the room. Wait, that computer over there was still in one piece, and on by the looks of it. He started to crawl towards it, head still throbbing, but the engines sputtered, and the Station ‘bounced’. Jack flew forward and landed in a heap on the floor. Fortunately, the computer slid within arm’s reach, and Jack logged in with his thumbprint.
A dialogue box popped up on the screen. “Respond if you can.” It said, a text box appearing underneath. “This is Jack Taylor, head of the security team of the Station, who is this?” Jack typed. He hit Enter. A couple seconds later, a video conference screen opened, and a man’s head filled the screen. “Mr. Taylor, this is Lieutenant Jones of the Interstellar Police Force. We are in the ships currently following you, and have a way to stop the Station. We will be deploying a little sooner than we thought, thanks to the link you gave us to the Station’s network. Please brace yourself against something, as the deceleration might be a little rough. Ending transmission.”
“Wait, what are you…” Jack began, but the Lieutenant was replaced with a countdown. Twenty seconds. Jack looked at the display on the window. It was a little obscured, but he could still make it out. Seventy percent of the speed of light. That number was increasing quickly. Please hurry, Jack thought. He put his hand to the throbbing part of his head. It came back bloody. Very bloody. Jack already felt a little light-headed. Still, he looked around. One of the tables the computers were on was still upright, probably bolted to the floor. He looked at the timer. Fourteen seconds. Yeah, he could make the ten yards on his hands and knees. Jack crawled over, and collapsed on the ground just as the timer hit zero. He turned just in time to see several green streaks of light head right to the Station. Probably to take out all of the engines, thought Jack wearily as he lost more and more blood.
But the Cage is being dragged by the Station. The Cage, because of the black hole, has more ‘weight’ than the Station, so even if they take out the engines of both at the same time, the Cage will decelerate more slowly, and smash into us! Jack watched as the bolts of light made their connection, and watched explosions dotted the Cage. The power went out, and he grabbed onto the table as the Station slowed down, and watched as the Cage moved to the… left? They must’ve shot the station just right so it would short out not all at once, but on one side first, then the other, causing the Station to curve. So we won’t all die thought Jack, and he collapsed on the ground, face down. He tasted the blood flowing out of his head, onto the rest of his face and the floor. He dipped dangerously out of consciousness, but barely came back. I helped save everyone else here. He thought as his vision blurred for the last time. I was a part of the greatest scientific undertaking of mankind to date. My life is complete; there is nothing I regret. So many questions have been answered, Now to find the answer to the biggest question: What’s beyond death?
***
Check back tomorrow for more content. See you then!
-Chronoslayer
Edit: 10/14/08 – Post-Story Thoughts
First off, sorry about the story being late, it kinda got neglected with homework, extra-curricular activities, and the general disorganization that is my mind getting in the way. But it’s finally done, and out on the webernets for your enjoyment/unenjoyment. Anyways, onto the story. Long story short: Meh. I like that it was an actual story, I enjoyed the topic and thinking over how the ‘climax’ was going to work out, and the ending I chose grew on me after looking it over a couple times. The length (almost 5,000 words) made it the longest single thing I have ever written, but I feel I could’ve expanded on some aspects, and more fully explained others. Also, I sound like a 7th grader in some parts, and more professional-like in others. I’m sure that will go away with time and practice, but it still bugs the hell out of me…
The next couple of stories are going to be released on an experimental scale. Basically, I’m going to see how long it takes me to write a decent story. My guesstimate is 10 days, but I don’t know. Check back here every so often in that time for possible news, or follow me on Twitter @chronoslayer. If you have seen me cruising around on forums (Ninjaslayer on the WiiDS forum, and Chronoslayer on the Sarcastic Gamer forums), my signature will tell you when the latest update is.
Please comment with criticism, constructive or otherwise, or tell a friend if you think it was a good read. Thanks, and see you soon. (Insert witty closing comment here,)
-Chronoslayer
