Into The Void (23 page)

              “Yeah, sounds like a blast. Next problem, why is it- wait, did you say that these could form black holes?” Captain Steele asked.

              “In theory it is possible,” Jamie said.

              “I don't like this at all. The star also looks like its vibrating. Any idea what this means Jamie?”

              There was a long pause on the com.

              “Jamie?”

              “The star could be collapsing,” Jamie finally whispered.

              “Collapsing? Like dying? Like going supernova? Like going super massive black hole supernova!?”

              “Yes...” Jamie replied.

              “Well fu-”

              “Hurry John!” Jamie said.

              “I'm moving as fast as I can.”

              Captain Steele got back to the engine. He continued to repair the engine as fast as he could. He removed another nozzle as lightning struck next to him and jumped to him. He wasn't sure how much more he could take of that. He climbed back in the nozzle to fix another gimbal. He removed and detached the engine and had cables hold it onto the ship while he replaced the gimbal. Just as he pulled it out the star let out a terrible shock wave from its quake. His suit picked it up with the force of 25 gigatons of energy released: equivalent to a Hydrogen bomb.

              The star quake caused the energy to fly out in all directions striking the ship and Captain Steele. Captain Steele was hit causing him to rocket around inside the engine nozzle. He was about to be ricocheted from where he was working when he was able to grab hold of something. His DSSM was able to help him hold on to it. He knew he needed to get the ship in top gear and get the heck out of here. He quickly moved onto reattaching the engine. He then looked at the star and tried to time its waves for the next pulse. He tethered himself to the ship and braced for another impact.

              Captain Steele saw the star quiver again and it released another quake of a slightly bigger magnitude. The ship was jolted around and he hung on to the ship by flying around by the tether, with lightning bolts striking all around him. When the ship stabilized he grabbed on to it, untethered himself and started to climb around the ship. He crawled fast and made it into the ship. Only one more engine and they would be out of there.

              “Get ready Jamie. When this next one is good to go we are pushing the engines hard. We can't be anywhere near this star when it goes supernova. If we even survive the explosion the gravity of the black hole it creates will swallow us.”

              “Only one engine to go John. Engines could reach 75% maximum speed.”

              “We need 200% Jamie. That's minimum. What else do I need to do to help get them to 200%?”

              “The coolant and plasma drive need repairs.”

              Captain Steele looked out the hole in the hull at the star and waited for another quake. He didn't know how many times the star would quake before it went supernova but if he was climbing around the ship when it hit it would send him flying into the storm. He saw that it was about to quake and he prepared himself. The quake hit but the result wasn't nearly as bad being inside the ship. He quickly exited the ship and started to climb around as lightning hit the ship. He removed the blockages, fixed the nozzle, electrical systems, and started to head inside one of the main burners to work on the coolant. He detached himself from the ship, fixed the engine and started to move back towards the hole he had made when the star gave a quake- one that didn't match the pattern he had been relying on. The quake hit the ship with close to 1 teraton of TNT. Several million times stronger than what was used on Japan at the end of World War 2. He felt the impact like a bug getting hit by a freight train. It cracked his ribs, tore organs, and cause internal bleeding. His suit tried to remedy what it could.

              Captain Steele lost his grip and was flown off into the storm. He used his DSSM's zero g flight system to try and stabilize his flight path. He could see lightning flashes and bolts everywhere. He was flying at a speed of mach 15, trying to navigate his way past lightning bolts and around in zero g. He could see his ship quickly fading away. He turned his body and used his zero g flight system to navigate his way back to the ship. He was flying too fast for the lightning to reach out and onto him but he still had to worry about flying into a bolt that was already shot out of the storm.

              Captain Steele knew that Newton's 2
nd
Law of Motion stated that an object in motion stayed in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. He knew that if he kept moving fluidly he wouldn't loose much speed. If he was careful how he moved he could continue to dodge lightning bolts and make it back to his ship. He continued to fly back towards his ship, but he flew right past it. He tried turning around by making a wide upside down loop followed by a swooping downward motion but missed again. This was a lot harder than he remembered.

              The star let out another quake causing his momentum to be thrown about. Captain Steele had to compensate for it for a minute before he was able to glide through space without loosing speed. He again tried to loop to his ship and missed. He knew he was going to need to just hit his ship hard enough blow a massive hole in it to get into it. He slowed his speed by making some tight turns and slowed himself down. He then went for a wide upward loop and a quick turn downward. His ship approached with incredible speed. He slowed down as much as he could by using his zero g flight system.

              “Ten seconds to impact,” He told Jamie.

              Captain Steele braced for impact. He looked at the star again and could tell it was about to quake again. If it did, he would be propelled toward his ship at such a speed it would shear him and his ship in half.

              “Five!”

              Captain Steele slowed his decent more. He knew if he slowed down too much he would get hit with lightning but if he went too fast it would do serious and irreparable damage to the ship.

              “Two!”

              Captain Steele slowed his decent to as slow as he could go and still breach the ship's hull. He could see his DSSM systems reacting to a preemptive lightning strike, which means the lightning is about to strike him.

              “One!”

              Captain Steele saw the ship right below him. He looked up and could see the outline of a black bolt of lightning coming right for him. He felt his feet hit the hull of the ship, and the heat of the lightning strike him. As he entered the ship, the bolt of lightning jumped to the ship's metal hull, but not before he hit most of the electricity. His DSSM shot the bolt of lightning straight up and he felt himself hit the floor of the ship. His suit started to melt to his flesh. He hit the floor of his ship hard with enough force to break his one remaining leg. The DSSM suit's system was having a hard time dealing with the bolt of lightning that it struggled to deal with anything else.

              Captain Steele's DSSM's neutron star fiber flew off from the combined force of lightning and him entering his ship with such force. The lightning bolt's energy caused him to black out, his heart to stop, his right ear drum to burst, and burns throughout his suit. His suit gave him a shock call and awoke him.

              “Punch it Jamie!” Captain Steele yelled.

              Jamie pushed the ship's engines into 125%.  The ship's engines kicked it into high gear just as the star set out another quake. The ship entered FTL drive just before the blast hit causing the ship to just miss the shock wave from the star quake. Jamie took several more scans as they flew away, then transported Captain Steele to the med bay for yet another surgery.

Chapter 18

Annihilation

              Captain John Steele awoke from surgery.

              “How long was I out this time?” Captain Steele asked Jamie as he looked himself over.

              “Only one day,” Jamie replied.

              “That's good. It's also nice to have my leg back. I missed it. Thank you for returning it to me.”

              “You are most welcome.”

              Captain Steele got up and put weight on his leg when he noticed something was different. He rocked back and forth on that leg, slowly applying pressure until he was standing on it then removed the pressure by rocking back off it. He did this several times before turning to Jamie.

              “Uh... Jamie... what did you do to my leg?” Captain Steele asked her.

              “I fixed it,” Jamie replied.

              “Somethings... uh... you know... it uh... feels... a little... odd,” Captain Steele said.

              “That was the second or third time it had been removed. It won't function the way it was. We are using equipment that is over a century old. The equipment is also simply used for field surgeries not complete human reconstruction.”

              “Yeah, but this ship is top of the line at launch. So it should only be like 40-50 years old right?”

              “Your leg was blown off again John. I'm sorry. The bone was beyond repair. You have metal rods in your leg now. Muscle tissue was also removed so your movement is impaired as well until it rebuilds itself. It was damaged so bad that it may never do that though,” Jamie said.

              “Awesome. I'm on light duty again,” Captain Steele said as he rolled his eyes. “Well in any case it is nice to have my leg back. Have you ever seen your leg just floating there next to you? I have, and its not as much fun as people think it is.”

              “I'm glad you find humor in a floating leg John. Your innate appeal to make overly morbid comments never ceases to amaze me.”

              “Hey, sounds like your finally getting the hang of it too,” Captain Steele said.

              “I learn from the best John,” Jamie replied.

              “I'm glad you do. I wouldn't have it any other way. Well, I'm off to do some light duty stu-” Captain Steele started to say when the ship shook.

              “AAAAAAAAARRRRRGH! WHAT NOW?!” Captain Steele yelled.

              “I have good news and bad news John,” Jamie said.

              “Can't I just have just one fricken day when nothing goes wrong?” Captain Steele shouted angrily.

              “You have plenty of those John. Which news would you like?” Jamie said.

              “I know I do, but I mean one day after surgery. Give me it all at once,” Captain Steele said as he hobbled to the bridge.

              “You know that green star we escaped from? Well its decided to return as something much worse.”

              “Like what? Some kind of black hole?” Captain Steele sarcastically remarked.

              “Yes,” Jamie replied.

              Captain Steele paused for a moment.

              “Yes? You don't really mean...?”

              “Yes, I do. And no, I don't. Simply put, it's affecting us. We need to divert course or else were going to get killed,” Jamie said.

              “Rotate the yaw down 15 degrees, the roll 5 degrees, then hit engines at 250%,” Captain Steele said settling into the captain's chair.

              “Done,” Jamie said.

              “Why didn't we plan for this probability?” Captain Steele asked.

              The ship took off before being jerked back around so its facing the star.

              “Jamie, what is this? I can see that. I'm not supposed to see black holes.”

              “It's not actually a black hole yet. It was just a starquake before and I thought it was going supernova. The only difference was that I was wrong. It's going Hypernova.”

              “Well ain't that just peachy. We gotta get outta here Jamie. I'm tired of fixing my ship.”

              “John, this is going to be a cataclysmic event for this part of space. This is a supernova this will produce more energy than a supernova.”

              “Hence the name, 'Hypernova'. I get it. Lets push the engines to get out of here.”

              Captain Steele took the ships helm and started flying it manually. He dropped the nose, floored the engines, and rolled the ship away from the hypernova. Captain Steele pushed the ship hard with the metal creaking under the stress of overcoming the star's gravity. Another burst hit and Captain Steele fell to the ground and started having seizures.

              “John! I need you to get into your DSSM suit. Use the last one!” Jamie yelled.

              Captain Steele was out cold. Jamie told the bots to help him into his suit but after the ship shook again they stopped responding. Captain Steele came back to and was groaning while on the ground. He got to his hands and knees when he violently vomited. He started to get back up then fell to the ground seizing again. After he stopped seizing he came to and vomited again.

              “John! In your suit now!” Jamie screamed at him.

              “I'ma... I can't... I...” Captain Steele said before falling to the ground and seizing again.

              Jamie looked at Captain Steele and saw that he threw up while seizing. She knew his air way could now be blocked. Captain Steele would suffocate soon if she didn't do something. She tried to get the droids back online but they wouldn't respond. She knew what was going on. She knew that the hypernova was shooting out gamma radiation. This ship should be protected enough to block most of it however the doses must be truly lethal outside the ship if Captain Steele is getting borderline lethal amounts in the ship.

              The symptoms of radiation poisoning came on Captain Steele almost immediately. He was seizing, vomiting, and it was only a matter of time before the severe diarrhea kicks in and before his body systems couldn't regulate the basic body functions needed to survive. Jamie measured the amount coming into the ship and saw it was about 250,000 gray, equivalent to the energy of a 1,000 pound truck moving at 50 mile per hour. Each time the ship shook, Captain Steele shook, and he moved away from the direction of the hypernova due to the power of the gamma radiation shoving him.

              “John, stay with me,” Jamie yelled.

              Jamie could see him laying on the ground having full body seizures. She could see the physical effect of being hit with so much gamma radiation. It was hitting Captain Steele like a truck, burning his skin and probably breaking his bones. No one had ever taken that much radiation in a direct ray like he was. She wasn't sure if they had enough radiation medication to help him this time. The electronics on the droids were not responding. They should be able to withstand up to 50 times the amount of radiation currently coming into the ship without any problems. She knew that something had to be wrong with the sensors.

              Jamie tried to drive the ship away but another burst of radiation hit the ship rocking it. Radiation shouldn't be causing physical effects because it was a wavelength and therefore should just bounce off. If the ship is being physically hit by the bursts of radiation the amount hitting the ship was an astronautical amount. She looked over at Captain Steele and she knew that he would be dead in a couple of hours. She couldn't help him right now. She wanted to but knew she had to get the ship out of this area before the hypernova became a black hole. She took one last look at Captain Steele. He was laying there seizing violently, skin burned dark, the outline of bones showing on his skin, laying down in a pool of his own vomit, liquid stool, with burning vaporizing flesh, that was starting to cause his image to be burned into the floor of the ship.

              Captain Steele got onto his hand and knees and crawled towards the captain's chair. He couldn't think straight. He knew he needed to get to his DSSM suit. He knew that he needed to leave the area but couldn't. He felt on fire. He was able to crawl a couple feet before violently seizing again. He came to as he was laying on the ground. He felt like he was hit by a freight train and then thrown about. He couldn't see clearly, and didn't understand what was going on. He vomited again, got up on his hands and knees to move only to started seizing again. He tried to drag himself to his captain's chair when he vomited then passed out.

              Jamie knew she had to get the ship to safety. She started to push the engines harder than she had ever pushed them-far beyond max capacity. She had to save Captain Steele. She had too. She then remembered what happened last time she pushed the engines so hard. It had almost cost them the mission. She had to try though. If she didn't push the engines hard they would be destroyed by the hypernova's explosion. She pushed them hard one last time.

              Another burst of radiation hit the ship shoving it around. Jamie continued to keep the course stable for as long as she could. She could feel the ship shaking more now because of the stress on the engines and less because of the hypernova's gamma rays being spread out. She knew that the hypernova had exploded shortly after they left. The radiation was just finally reaching them. If only she had thought about things a little more. She would have known that she should have continued to fly the ship before fixing him. She felt like she was responsible for the pain Captain Steele was in.

              Jamie floated over to where Captain Steele laid. She looked at him knowing that he needed immediate help. The sensor said he took 250 times the lethal dose. He didn't look like he was responding. She activated the droids to carry him into med bay and they were finally working again. She had to do something.

              Jamie saw the broken bones, tore muscles, burned organs, and lots of missing skin. She took life signs and saw that they were faint. She immediately went to work using advanced methods to remove radiation, put medical devices into him to keep his organs in place, cut off more tissue, and remelded the bones into shape. She did everything she could for him, but with his internal organs exposed to the radiation like they were it was extremely bad. Small parts of his body had been vaporized onto the floor of the ship with large parts of his heart, lungs, and skull had taking the most abuse. She took readings of the amount of radiation that was in his body and it was equivalent to 250,000 grays, more than some workers got at the Chernobyl incident in the 20
th
century on Earth. She gave him as much radiation medication as possible and waited by his side until he awoke. She scanned the ship and saw that the ship was being hit with radiation level of over levels of 10 trillion grays at a time. She knew that with that level of radiation the hypernova had turned into a black hole.

              Jamie flew the ship as fast as she could. After getting Captain Steele on the operating room table she slowed the engines down to normal FTL speed so as to not put too much stress on the engines. She knew that a black hole wasn't far behind them. She also knew that they were far enough away they wouldn't ever see it again. However, she also didn't want to remain any closer to it than she already was. She knew the dangers of a black hole and knew that at speeds faster than light they will outrun it's growth like a cheetah compared to a snail. They had been lucky before due to Captain Steele's ability to survive in all situations but a black hole is a power that she didn't want to contend with. She knew no amount of skill could save them from that.

              Jamie glanced at Captain Steele. She knew they were both lucky. Her friend almost died again. She needed to be more careful. For an AI, she sure was making bad decisions. Maybe her programming became corrupt. She ran a diagnostic check on her programming and it came back all clear. She wondered if her diagnostic check was wrong. She guessed she would need to ask Captain Steele about it when he awoke.

              Jamie was amazed at how much they had done and seen. Worlds that no one though could exist, scientific anomalies, and theories that would forever change the galaxy. So much would change in the scientific community because of what they found. All within 130 years. She began to ponder on it all when she noticed Captain Steele waking up.

              “How are you feeling John?” Jamie asked.

              “I feel half dead,” Captain Steele groaned.

              “You were about there.”

              “That makes it about 2 dozen times,” Captain Steele said as a smile came across his face.

              “That numbers a little high but we really need to be more careful.”

              “I think that last time was your fault, not mine.”

              “Okay, I'll give you that,” Jamie said.

              “Come to think of it, I think you've done more damage to the ship and to me more than anything I have ever done has.”

              “That's not true at all!” Jamie said defensively.

              Captain Steele sat up and rubbed his eyes.

              “Yeah, what about that time you were heading to that destroyed planet you left me on? Huh? That was rather big. I don't think I could have ever done that much damage in such a short time.”