Into The Void (24 page)

              “What about that alien you killed with you hands on the derelict ship? Did you really have to kill him? Was that really necessary?” Jamie asked.

              “Yes,” Captain Steele said.

              “No, it wasn't,” Jamie replied.

              “Yes, it was.”

              “No. It wasn't.”

              “Yes. It was.”

              “How? How was it necessary?” Jamie asked.

              “It was an intergalactic dick wagon contest.”

              “What?” Jamie replied confused.

              “It's a guy thing. You wouldn't understand.”

              “Try me.”

              “Well, you see, guys have this thing. It's a macho thing. An ego thing. Who's better. Mono a mono.”

              “You sure it was a male alien?”

              “Doesn't matter. I came, I saw, I conquered. I'm the toughest thing in the universe. That's a title no man can claim but me,” Captain Steele said.

              “That sounds like an incredibly stupid thing to do. Indefinitely getting yourself killed for the soul purpose of proving your the best in the universe.”

              “See, I told you you wouldn't understand. It's a macho thing, a man thing. A delicate, classy lady like you wouldn't get it,” Captain Steele said.

              “Now I see why men are so hard to communicate with. Their incredibly stupid at times.”

              “Just now figuring this out?”

              “No, I have been very aware of it for a very long time,” Jamie said.

              “Hey, just cause I got bravado doesn't mean you have to hate me for it.”

              “That's not exactly a quality many sane people would want.”

              “Who in the galaxy is sane enough to get stuck in a small tin can with a single woman for 150 years and to fly from the edge of said galaxy into the void between galaxies in pure hopes of making it to another galaxy only to die there without ever seeing another person?”

              “Point well taken,” Jamie said, “However, I do admire your bravado, even if it does come off, at times, as extreme arrogance.”

              “And I do admire the class you bring to the ship. Thank you.”

              “You are most welcome.”

              “So back to the question. Are we still on course?” Captain Steele asked.

              “We are.”

              “You sure? Everything just looks like white and blue dots way off in the distance. This is uncharted space. It would be terrible to be lost out here. There are no stars to guide us. It's just dots that are whole galaxies. All is completely unidentifiable from here. Galaxies also move so if we were off course we will get lost out here,” Captain Steele said as the memories of the coldness of the void came over him from when they first left the Milky Way close to 130 years ago.

              “Yes I am sure,” Jamie said.

              Captain Steele paused for a moment before speaking.

              “Boy, time does fly by.”

              “Yes it does.” Jamie said

              “Well, I'm headed back to bed. Thanks again for everything you do Jamie.”

              “Your welcome.”

              “I'm tired and going to bed. You have a great ni-” Captain Steele said as the ship violently shook backwards.

              “Bad news John.”

              “Let me guess, super massive black hole.”

              “Yes.”

              “Pulling us in?”

              “Yes.”

              “Nothing really phases me at this point Jamie. You happen to have a game plan by any chance?”

              “Push the engines harder. Hopefully we will overcome the force of the black hole. As long as we can outrun its pull by pushing the engines harder we will be fine. As long as its not growing and we don't hit the event horizon we should be fine.”

              “The event horizon, a point at which nothing can escape the gravitational pull of the black hole...  I do like a challenge.” Captain Steele said smiling.

              “You are absolutely insane...”

              Captain Steele got into one of his damaged DSSM suits that was still operational. He was going to need the last suit intact to build the Instant Teleportation Device. He jumped into the captain's chair and pushed the engines. The ship shook and accelerated forward but not at the rate he expected. He scanned the holoscreens and noticed that the gravitational pull of the black hole was pulling them backward so hard that they were only going at about 85% forward speed.

              “Jamie, are we going fast enough to escape the growth of the black hole?”

              “Unknown. I can't see the black hole and I'm not getting any readings on the size of its growth. We are going to need some kind of visual. If we could be able to see any light from the stars behind the black hole warping around the black hole and we would get a visual.”

              “Alright, so, droid out.”

              Captain Steele ran over to the portside exterior airlock and opened it to drop the droid out of the ship. When he did he could feel the gravitational pull of the black hole. It was extreme, unlike anything he had ever experienced. It felt like there was wind was reaching out and grabbing him and pulling him toward the black hole while also feeling like his entire body was being crushed inward in all directions. He let the droid go and then shut the door and went back to the captain's chair to view the visual feed from the droid.

              As Captain Steele looked into the visual feed, he could see the light from far behind the black hole bending around it. It looked like a dot of light was becoming an “O” shaped with a hole in the middle. He could see multiple dots becoming “O” in shape. He could also see what appeared to be a two stars nearby that the black hole was pulling light from. He knew that the black hole was growing because the dots in the back ground that served as reference points were fading from view as the black hole grew bigger.

              “It's growing Jamie. We need to push it.”

              Captain Steele pushed the engines to full capacity as the ship shook against the pull of the black hole. He looked at the holoscreens and saw that the ship was only moving at 80% forward speed.

              “We also have two stars feeding the black hole. I thought the only star out here turned into a black hole. Are we still on course?”

              “Yes we are. What exploded may have been just one star in a binary star system with three stars. The star we were dealing with may have just been the one having trouble and was brighter and bigger than the other so we didn't see the others,” Jamie explained.

              Captain Steele scanned the holoscreens again.

              “John it is absolutely vital we get out of the pull of the black hole as soon as possible,” Jamie said.

              “I know.”

              “No, listen.”

              “Not now.”

              Captain Steele pushed the engines even harder knowing that if they gave out him and Jamie would be goners. He weighed the options and decided to try his luck.

              “John, we need-”

              “I know!”

              “John, there is a major problem.”

              “What is it?”

              “The theory of special relativity says that the stronger the gravity is, the slower time passes. This means when we get closer to the black hole time will slow for us but time will remain the same outside the reach of the black hole's gravity. This means the more time we spend closer to the black hole the slower time will pass for us, but time will pass normally for the rest of the universe. We will age slower than the rest of the universe,” Jamie said.

              “How is that possible?”

              “The theory of special relativity says massive objects curve space time. In this case it slows down time. Time passes slower in higher gravity.”

              “What about the black dwarf I was in? Why didn't time change then?”

              “The gravity was strong, and the time you spent on it was a bit slower than on the ship. It wasn't enough to make a big difference. You spent about a day and a half there, I spent about one month up in the ship.”

              “Why didn't you tell me this when I was down there?”

              “Because it wasn't that big in the grand scheme of things. Besides, you needed it. You enjoyed it.”

              “Okay, so about how bad is the black hole then?” Captain Steele asked.

              “Depending on how close we get we could be looking at weeks, months, or years passing for the Milky Way while only several hours pass for us. If we pulled out of the gravitational pull the rest of the universe could have aged 5 years and we only only a 4 hours. It just depends on how close we get to it and how long we remain there. If we were too close to it for too long a time we could only age several weeks and the rest of the universe would age decades.”

              “The Milky Way doesn't have that much time. We still have about 25 or so years to go at lightspeed for us to complete the mission and we have been gone for almost 130 years total. We are behind schedule and don't have time to add decades,” Captain Steele said.

              “But this could be a great time to learn all about black holes as well. Like the black hole information paradox! What happens to all the stuff a black hole consumes? Where does it go? Or to learn about the point of no return! Why does it appear the way it does? Is it even remotely possible that we can see out from beyond it? How deep is it? Or even about black hole thermodynamics-”

              “Yeah, I'll just make sure to stop off at the drive through window and ask the black hole to produce some samples.”

              “Sorry,” Jamie replied.

              Captain Steele checked the holoscreens again and saw that the droid had been pulled into the black hole and was no longer reporting anything. He figured the gravitational pull was so strong the signal couldn't get away from the droid.

              “How is this thing growing so fast Jamie? Aren't we going faster than light? Why did we slow down in the first place?”

              “I had no way of knowing it would be growing faster than the speed of light. It should not be growing that fast. It is scientific anomaly that may be the norm. Or maybe gravity reaches out at well beyond FTL speeds,” Jamie said excitedly.

              “Your excited about us being crushed to death by a black hole?” Captain Steele said while pushing the engines harder.

              “Not exactly... I just marvel at the chance to understand why it's growing so fast.”

              “I don't. We need a game plan other than what were doing. Maybe it's pull is weaker in some areas. Do some scans. I need something Jamie.”

              “Scanning.”

              Captain Steele used both hands to pilot the ship. He was directing the ship's speed while monitoring the holoscreens for all the readings. The ship felt like it was being dragged around by the gravitational pull of the black hole. He saw he was going just a bit faster than the growth rate. He pushed the engines a bit harder when there was giant explosion that came from the back of the ship near the engine compartment.

              “FUCK!” Captain Steele yelled as the ship started to decompress, “Seal the bulk head and man the ship Jamie. I've gotta do some major repairs.”

              Captain Steele ran off toward the back of the ship to check the engines. He climbed into the engine room and saw engine parts floating everywhere along with a giant breach in the hull where an engine was supposed to be.

              “Most of the engine is gone Jamie!”

              “We should have two complete spare engines in the cargo bay.”

              “I'm going to need help with this one Jamie. I need some droids.”

              Captain Steele ran to the cargo bay and grabbed a cart that should help him carry the engine to the engine room. He found the engine and put it on the cart as the ship shook violently.

              “The black hole is gaining on us,” Jamie yelled.

              “I'm working on it! Get some of those bots to reinforce the ship's hull with anything they can find. Beams, spare parts, lab equipment, anything.”

              Captain Steele put the spare engine on the cart and moved it towards the engine room when the ship shook again knocking him over and having the spare engine pin him against the wall of the ship. The black hole was pulling all objects on the ship in its direction. He pushed against the engine but couldn't get it moved.

              “Jamie I'm stuck. Get one of those bots over here to help me move this engine.”

              Jamie sent a droid over to him to help move the engine. Both he and the droid couldn't move the engine.