The next day, Allison told Russell and Frank that she thought she had discovered a way to stop the ship.
“Frank, you know that final minute before each jump, when the ship produces so much gravity that it starts attracting light?” she asked.
“Yes,” he replied, “that’s when the ship is on the verge of turning into a black hole and creating a wormhole.”
“Is there any way that you could adjust the parameters to make that minute last three minutes?” she asked.
“The accelerator’s parameters are pre-configured. I would have to access a really sensitive part of the controller software to make the change. And changing that would mean we would be operating with parameters that have never been tested. How is this going to help us stop the ship?” Frank asked.
“As soon as we get to the correct location, we’ll have to turn on the engines to escape the orbit we’re in and thus distance ourselves from the black hole, traveling toward the jump point. When we do that, the gravity of the singularity will help us lower our speed, because it will try to keep sucking us in. But it won’t lower our speed enough, because we’ll have the engines on. However—and here’s my idea—when we activate the accelerator to create the wormhole, the ship’s exterior gravity will increase, distorting space by manipulating dark matter. For a short time, our mass will increase exponentially,” Allison explained.
“I see what you’re getting at. The longer we generate that huge gravity, the longer the ship will represent a “mini black hole,” meaning that the singularity will exert a much stronger force of attraction, which will help us slow down. Allison, that’s brilliant!”
“Yes, but it won’t bring us to a complete stop. We would still be going pretty fast when we arrive in Draco. But, then, following the same principle, we would lose speed again when attracted by Valkiria,” she explained.
“Allison, have you managed to calculate whether this deceleration would be bearable?” Frank asked.
“Yes, that’s why we would need to increase that final pre-jump minute to three minutes. That’s how long we’d need for a safe acceleration between eight and ten ‘Gs’. Some of us will likely lose consciousness, but nothing that won’t be reversed a few minutes later,” she concluded.
“It seems like a good idea. Frank, can you make that adjustment and increase the final minute of the algorithm that creates the wormhole?” Russell asked.
“Yes, I’ll start working on that right now,” he responded.
Over the next few days, he made the adjustments. The three astronauts began discussing their return to Earth. If everything went according to plan—if they were actually able to jump back to the Draco Galaxy, and were then lucky enough to jump back to Earth’s solar system—they wouldn’t have enough fuel to make it back to Earth, and might not even have enough to get to the Space Station. They could always aim the ship toward Earth and let gravity do the rest... but reentering with only two parachutes was out of the question.
This was, without a doubt, a problem they would have to address later on. For now, they were focused on the next leg of their journey.
Chapter 15
In the end, Allison’s initial prediction that the trip would only take them eight days was incorrect. In fact, it only took them seven days. By the last day, they were all ready for the escape procedure.
They would have to turn the engines back on, escape the black hole’s orbit and move away from the singularity, navigating through open space until arriving at the spot where they would have to perform the jump.
“All systems operational. Fuel at 22%, oxygen at 58%, batteries at 10%,” Frank reported.
“Activating engines,” Russell commanded.
The entire ship was overcome by a strong acceleration. The comfort of the orbit began to disappear. They gradually started to feel an acceleration opposite the direction the ship was traveling in. They started slowing down as the gravitational force of the black hole began attracting them again. After some time, they turned off the engines; they had officially escaped from the singularity. They advanced toward the target as planned. They would arrive at the jump location in approximately 13 hours.
At one point, an alert appeared on one of the monitors. Their fuel level had reach eight percent, which was much less than they had predicted. They had been required to spend a lot of fuel both entering and exiting the black hole’s orbit.
“Frank, it’s time to reposition the rings and prepare the dark matter accelerator. We’re 30 minutes away from the target,” Russell said.
The engineer was clearly tense. There was no way to know if the ship would be able to correctly reopen the rings. They had been stowed at the beginning of this part of the trip, something they weren’t designed for. Something could have been damaged in this process. They had also been subjected to extreme gravitational force during this leg of the journey, which could have bent or damaged the engines responsible for reopening the rings.
Allison and Russell look on apprehensively. After Frank initiates the procedure, the rings start to move. They slowly start returning to their original position.
Then, one of the engine alarms goes off, signaling an overload. Frank immediately increases the voltage, contrary to the obvious solution, which would be to decrease the load, not increase it. He knew he wouldn’t need that engine again, he just needed to accomplish this final mission: fully positioning the vertical ring.
Another three alarms go off. The other engines are also experiencing overload. The ring only needs to move a few more inches to be fully aligned.
Finally, the alarms fall silent.
“The rings are in position. Confirmation that the system is operational. You just have to tell me when,” Frank responded, relieved.
They all smiled. The ghost was gone. The ship was still working and was ready for the next jump.
A few minutes later, Russell asked Frank to initiate the procedure. Once again, the countdown began. This time, instead of ten minutes, the clock read twelve. They had added two more minutes to the final pre-jump time.
As the countdown got closer to zero, the crew started to feel a strong acceleration pulling against their trajectory. They were manipulating the gravity around them, which was causing the force of attraction between the ship and the black hole to increase. The ship really started slowing down.
And the countdown continued. The gravity generated by the accelerators increased exponentially, causing the ship to slow down even more.
They finally arrive at the final minute, which would now last three minutes. They are all pressed against their seats as the lights outside begin to become distorted.
“Pray that we jump the first time around. If we end up on the negative side of the 50% probability rate, we’re going to find ourselves in a very tricky situation,” says Russell.
A sharp acceleration presses them against their seats, much more so than anything they had felt up until this point. At the end of the three minutes, the green light on the dashboard lights up. The astronauts are immediately thrown in the opposite direction. They had stopped slowing down; the jump had been successful. They had managed to jump through the wormhole, meaning the black hole was no longer there to pull them toward it.
But they didn’t know that yet. They were all unconscious. Russell gradually began to wake up. He didn’t know how long he had been unconscious.
“Is everyone okay? I think we jumped,” he said.
“Frank, can you please give us the systems readings?” the commander requested.
There was no answer.
“Frank? Frank? Can you hear me? Allison?”
Allison slowly started to wake up. She and Frank had also lost consciousness during the jump due to the intense deceleration the ship had experienced.
“Did it work?” Allison asked as she began to recover.
“Yes, it seems like it did. Can you confirm if we’re back in Draco?” Russell asked.
“Yes, we are, Russ,” Allison said, pulling her
self together. “Valkiria is behind us, I can see it on camera.”
“Huh? Where? When?” asked Frank sleepily as he slowly opened his eyes.
Russell and Allison looked at each other, laughing.
“Frank, are you okay?” asked Allison.
“Did I pass out? “Am I the only one who passed out?” he asked.
“Yes, just you. When we get back, I’m going to put something in my report saying that you need to do more G-force training,” said Russell smiling, as he winked at Allison, encouraging her to follow along with the lie.
The astronomer started collecting data from the telescope, cross-referencing it with the data from their first jump.
“Russell, we need to modify our trajectory 15 degrees. If we do that, at the speed I’ve calculated, we’ll arrive at our destination in five hours,” she said.
“Okay, I’m adjusting the course. Prepare for engine activation.”
A few minutes later, they were on the right path. Their fuel level was critical. They were at just four percent. And, given the data captured by the telescope, Allison predicted that they were still traveling at a very high speed. This wasn’t too far from what they had predicted, but considering that the fact that they only had four percent of their fuel left, they wouldn’t be able to slow down completely in the solar system before returning to Earth. For the first time, she decided not to share her concerns with the team.
Just over four hours later, they were close enough to the jump point to activate the accelerators and create the wormhole that would take them back. They were all overcome with a feeling of confidence. They were more optimistic than ever.
“Russ, Frank, we can go ahead and activate the accelerators. We’re in position,” Allison said.
“Are you sure, Allison? We’re not going to end up in another bizarre place?” the commander asked.
“I’m completely sure. This is the spot. The computer compared our current position to the location where we first arrived by aligning at least nine different stars. This allows for extreme precision. When we jumped the first time, I was working with a greater margin of error. I’m confident this time,” she concluded.
“Okay. Frank, activate the accelerators,” Russell commanded.
The monitor displayed twelve minutes. When the countdown reached the final three minutes, they all felt another intense deceleration, though this time it wasn’t as strong as the last, since Valkiria’s force of attraction wasn’t as great as that of the black hole.
They were all pressed against their seats again, as if something were pulling them backwards. And that’s exactly what was happening. The gravity of the star was pulling them. They hadn’t been able to perceive this the first few times, since that force had only been exerted at the end of the final pre-jump minute. But since that “final moment” now lasted three minutes, the gravitational force was quite clear.
The light from the stars outside started to become distorted. By now, this was a familiar process. All they wanted was to jump the first time. They still had enough energy for two jumps; if the first one failed, the second one would almost definitely work. Nonetheless, they weren’t in the mood to play with the odds. They all wanted a successful first attempt. They all wanted to see that star disappear. They were also extremely scared of ending up back in the Andromeda Galaxy, and having to deal with that giant black hole again.
And if their plan didn’t work, if they didn’t jump back to the solar system, they wouldn’t have much energy left to jump again or continue traveling. It would be the end of the mission.
These were the thoughts that crossed their minds during that final minute. The distorted light from the stars outside, the huge blur visible through the window, the last few seconds of reflection... and the uncertainty of what was to come.
That’s what transpired inside the Orion-II during the final three minutes before what would probably be the ship’s last jump. In the distance, a small, white dot in space went out.
Inside the capsule, the green light lit up once again. The jump had been completed.
Image 13 – Orion-II with its rings stowed, orbiting the black hole, a singularity bends both time and space.
(credits and details on the final page)
Chapter 16
Tensions were running high inside the Orion-II. They had jumped; they were no longer in the Draco Galaxy. They were no longer near the black hole in Andromeda. And they were no longer in that immense void, far away from any galaxy, millions of light years away.
It seemed that they were home. “Is that the sun? We’re back!” Allison exclaimed.
Inside the ship, they all celebrated, unfastening their seatbelts to hug one another. They shouted with joy; they had finally made it back to the region close to Earth. They were overcome with happiness and moved to tears when the telescope, operated by Allison, projected an image of Earth on the main monitor.
After the first few seconds, they remembered they were still traveling at a very high speed. Allison started calculating their exact position, scanning space and using the stars to triangulate their location.
“Houston, this is Commander Scott Russell, Orion-II. Do you copy?”
He smiled as he waited for a reply.
“Houston, this is Orion-II. Do you copy?”
Silence.
“I repeat, this is Commander Russell, Orion-II, Stellarium-12 mission. Do you copy?”
Five minutes later, still no response from NASA.
“Is there a problem with our radio?” Allison asked.
“I don’t think so,” Frank responded. “The computer analysis says it’s working. Plus, I’m getting a reading from the Communication Module that we left here before the first jump.”
“Is the module close by?” Russell asked.
“I doubt it. I can’t get a visual on it... and that module was made to communicate with Earth, so it has a long range. I’m sure it’s lost in space by now, but we’re still getting readings from it. That means that our systems are working,” Frank clarified.
“Houston, this is Orion-II. Do you copy?” Russell tried once more.
“Guys, since we can’t get them to respond, we better focus on reducing our speed. We're moving away from Earth. We’ve got to do this fast,” Allison said.
“How fast are we going?” Russell asked.
“Twice as fast as we were when we got here. Almost 50,000 miles per hour,” replied Frank.
“Okay, we don’t have enough fuel left to change directions,” said the commander, looking at the crew.
They were all silent for a moment.
“But I have an idea,” Russell said. “I need you to listen and let me know if it’s too crazy.”
“Get on with it,” said Frank.
“This is what I’m thinking: when we created the first wormhole and jumped for the first time, our Communication Module—which was 300 yards away from the ship—had to activate its thrust so it wouldn’t be pulled toward us, right?”
“Right,” the other two answered.
“I think we should activate the accelerator and create a new wormhole,” Russell said.
“What? You want to jump again?” Frank asked.
Allison remained quiet and pensive, as she started to understand what Russell wanted to do.
“No! I think we should activate the accelerator and then disconnect the module. Since the module with the rings is much heavier than the rest of the Orion-II, due to the conservation of momentum, it would start going a bit slower than us. Then, after traveling a certain distance, which I hope is sufficient, the countdown would get to its final three minutes, transforming the ring module into a mini black hole. That way, again, due to the conservation of—well, you guys get it—the other module would practically come to a halt, pulling us in with its gravity, just like the asteroids were pulled toward us. And that would cause us to stop,” Russell explained.
“That’s true, Russell. That could actually work,” Allison responded. “We just ha
ve to do the calculations to make sure that we won’t crash into it, and to see if that will be enough to make us stop.”
“But what will happen with the Accelerator Module after that? Is it going to jump somewhere?” Frank asked.
“That doesn’t matter. We don’t need to jump again, nor do we need to create any more wormholes. We’re just going to travel home. It doesn’t matter whether the module jumps somewhere, or whether it’s simply left floating in space,” Russell emphasized.
“Okay, and the module only has enough energy for one more jump, anyway. We just need it to create a mini black hole that will give us enough time to stop,” said Frank.
“Guys, I did the math. I’ve calculated the Orion-II’s mass without the module, as well as the mass of the module itself. I still have to check everything on the computer, but it seems like if we increase those final three minutes to five, we should be able to bring the Orion-II to a complete halt,” Allison announced.
“Allison, that’s perfect! Check the calculations so we can proceed. Meanwhile, Frank, we’re going to need you to reconfigure the module’s algorithm again, adding on an extra two minutes,” said Russell.
For the next 20 minutes, they all focused on their respective tasks. During that time, Russell continued attempting to communicate with NASA, in vain. He wasn’t able to get a single response.
Shortly thereafter, everything was set and ready to go. They initiated the procedure. The first step was to start the countdown, which would now start from 14:00, since they had added an additional two minutes.
As soon as the timer began to tick, Russell initiated the undocking process.
“Confirmed, Accelerator Module disconnecting and moving away. I have a visual of the rings on camera two,” the commander said.
They all watched as the countdown got closer to zero, while simultaneously checking the camera to see what would happen with the module.
There were five minutes left. The module was approximately one and a half miles away from the Orion-II. The camera was operating at maximum zoom, allowing them to see the distorted light around the rings. They all felt relieved that they weren’t trapped inside the module, and that they wouldn’t be jumping through any more wormholes. A few moments later, they started to feel a strong deceleration. Russell had turned the ship so that they would be able to use their backs and thus endure the force better. They were being attracted by the rings, a force which was slowly stopping the ship.
Stellarium (Origins): A Space-Time Adventure to the Ends of our Universe Page 9
