by Kumar L
“They were, but you were snoring,” she smiled. “Just a little.” Manisha didn’t mention she had used the opportunity to sneak off for a quick moment with Kevin in the corridor outside Ops. It had felt awesome, that stolen kiss and a hug in the midst of all this chaos, like they were cocking a snook at the dire circumstances they were in. She had never felt more alive.
Anara grunted. “My apologies. I don’t seem to have control over this sleep. How far have we travelled? Have you found something?”
“I’m not sure. Time and speed calculations indicate we have travelled 45,000 kilometres. Narada is running an analysis of our camera footage. We observed a flash of light. It was momentary. It might have been glitch in the vision system, or I might even have imagined it, but I thought you’d like to know.”
“You did not imagine it, Lieutenant. It was a burst of light. I have checked, the camera systems are working at optimum resolutions,” reported Narada. “I estimate the distance to the phenomenon to be approximately seventy-five thousand kilometres.”
“A flash of light?”
“Yes, a very brief flash, but it was there.”
“Then let’s get to it. Plot a course.” She felt around for the communications control and failing to find it yet again, she asked Narada to connect her to Engineering.
“Madhavan, we might have something. I need the power for some more time.”
“Captain, we are literally running on fumes!”
“Something? Anything. Buy me some time.”
“Another hour,” Madhavan capitulated. “No more than that, please. Though I might have some good news. I have found a way to channel our EM field. We might be able to collect some antimatter. However, I need the ship to be perfectly still and the concentration of particles to be at least fifty thousand per cubic centimetre. Let me know if you find some, will you, ma’am?”
“Highly unlikely, Madhavan, but I will keep it in mind.” She couldn’t help smiling at his request. Find me some antimatter, indeed. “Narada, keep the intercom to Engineering open at all times. He needs to hear our every move and respond without wasting time waiting for instructions.” Narada acknowledged the command.
“We are moving forward, though it will take at least another twenty minutes to reach the place,” Manisha reported.
There was silence for some time. Then, Manisha exclaimed excitedly. “There! Another flash. Did you see that?”
“Yes, Lieutenant,” acknowledged Narada. “A second flash. Much clearer than before. I estimate its distance to be less than fifty thousand kilometres.”
“Theorise, Narada. What can it be?” instructed Anara.
“Based on the fact that there are antimatter particles in this space, and the explosion proceeded like a chain reaction very similar to our own experiment earlier, I would conclude that the flash was caused either by matter entering our baby universe and annihilating in contact with the antimatter, or it can be antimatter particles moving at relativistic speeds giving off photons as they lose energy and slow down.”
“As they would if they were exiting a black hole! Brilliant! Narada, theorise again. Why are we able to see this now and not earlier?” There was no time to lose.
Narada had multiple options worked out in the background. “Two possibilities, Captain. One, we were simply facing the wrong direction and were too far away. Or two, the amount of matter absorbed by the black hole has suddenly seen a dramatic increase.”
“Explanation?”
“Something big just came in through the black hole, possibly in a manner similar to ours, because the object did not join the mass at the singularity. Instead, it disintegrated part way through. The matter of the object collided with antimatter in phases.” Narada was becoming more and more certain of his findings. They had more visual data than ever before.
“Sounds reasonable, right guys? And there was only one other object behind us in that region of space. We forgot all about the French ship. This may be them entering our space,” observed Anara.
“The CDG! Let’s find them. Maybe we can end up helping each other!” exclaimed Manisha.
23
One-Way Trip
"Captain, the flashes of light are most likely explosions. Whatever object that was, the CDG or something else, it has been destroyed.” Narada reported.
Anara did not give up hope. Even a dead ship could help Antariksh. She would pray to God to rest the souls of the CDG’s crew, but right now she had her own people to save.
“How much further do we have to go, Manisha?”
“Twenty thousand kilometres, ma’am. Narada, set up a countdown for every thousand kilometres.”
“Done.” A voice counted down the distance in the background.
“Also, display video on main holo.”
The holo came alive.
“Any more flashes?” asked Anara.
“None so far,” Manisha replied. She paused, then looked up perplexed at the reading she saw on her screen. “Narada, are you seeing this?”
“Yes I am. Let me try for a higher resolution.”
“Ten thousand kilometres.” The countdown continued.
“What is it?”
“It’s difficult to make out the details, but there are multiple objects ahead. Whoa!”
“What?” cried out Anara.
“Multiple flashes. Distance approximately five thousand kilometres.”
Antariksh lurched violently catching Anara off guard. The auto-activated safety belt kept her from falling, but she was sharply pulled back in her chair.
“More explosions. Intensity is increasing,” Manisha kept calling out the visual images. “We cannot survive them with the present state of our shields. We need to keep our distance. All stop!” The AI took control and brought Antariksh to a halt.
“Five thousand five hundred kilometres,” Narada reported.
“Reverse engines!” shouted Anara. That seemed to be the prudent thing to do. She cursed her blindness again for slowing her down.
Antariksh moved backwards.
“Ten thousand kilometres.” The intensity of the explosions decreased but the ship continued to be jolted by shockwaves.
Madhavan rushed from station to station trying to keep the ship functioning against the repeated assaults. “Captain! What is happening? The screen took a huge hit. It could barely absorb the last explosion. One more like that and it will fail.”
“Stand by, Madhavan. Manisha?”
“We are being battered by some sort of highly energised particles. The electromagnetic screens is repelling most of them or absorbing the impact of their energy. That’s all I can make out from what I see on my screen. The initial explosions we encountered were massive, but they’ve significantly decreased in intensity...Wait...”
“What now? Manisha, you have to keep describing the scene to me.”
“Yes, yes. Now I can see are multiple luminous trails of light.”
“What do they look like? Tell me.”
“Like fireworks in the sky! So many colours. And they keep blinking in and out.”
“Those are highly energised standard subatomic particles moving at or near the speed of light,” agreed Narada. “The explosions were probably the result of matter-antimatter annihilation. The Lieutenant is right. Some of these bursts are the particles impacting our EM screen.”
“Are none of our sensors working now, Narada?”
“None that can detect antiparticles.”
“Can you at least make out where the particles are coming from? Can we trace them to the entry point into our universe? That would lead us to the black hole, won’t it?”
“Captain?” Madhavan was calling her again.
“Sorry. Yes, Madhavan?”
“Whatever you’re planning to do, I implore you, don’t take the ship into the chaos outside. The screen cannot hold out much longer.”
“But that may be our way out! We need to get to the singularity. It can pull us back into our own normal universe.�
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“We will never survive past even a few kilometres in that sea of particles. Not even a few. Please. You must understand.”
“Madhavan, if we miss this chance, with the amount of time available, we will die a cold death.”
“Captain, even if I could give you enough power to get to the black hole, how will we ever generate the reverse gravitons to get through it? Why can’t you understand?”
“What you cannot understand, Madhavan, is that there are ninety-six people on this ship whose lives depend on us getting out of here! What would you have me do if not try?” What a choice in front of me—death by asphyxiation in the deathly cold of space when power runs out, or a mercifully fast death by riding into an ocean of antimatter without the protection of an electromagnetic screen. “Like I said earlier, one step at a time. We have found our entry point. We will try and get into the black hole from this side. The alternative is to die here. Quite frankly I prefer taking my chances with a beast we defeated once before.”
No one spoke up. It is going to be my decision. This will probably—no, certainly—lead us into a violent death. Madhavan is right, it is a bad choice. We have already thought this through earlier. Even if we get through, we will be pulled back into the black hole. The infinite loop that Ryan was talking about. No. That is not the way. But isn’t there something else we are missing?
She took a deep breath. “You’re right, Madhavan. I wasn’t thinking straight. We can’t go back, but we still have the white hole?”
“What white hole, ma’am?” Manisha was lost.
“You remember, we worked out that there is a white hole exiting a baby universe and the only way to find it may be by following the flow of particles? Well, didn’t you just say, Manisha that we have streaks of light outside? Won’t that indicate the paths being followed by the particles of antimatter?”
“It might,” agreed Narada, trying to work out where she was going with this line of thought.
“We were not able to detect the flow so far because the detectors we have cannot be placed in the antimatter field. And now? Now we have a field of energised particles out there practically showing us the way! It’s a fully lighted highway! It’s our way out!”
“Captain, I must warn you.” Narada had started working on some simulations with the available parameters. The results were not encouraging. “We may be able to locate the theoretical white hole, but we do not know how far it is from our position nor is there is any guarantee it will lead us out of here. My analysis shows that there is only a twenty-two percent chance that we will find it.”
Anara sighed. “I know I can’t see anything and yet I am asking you to take my word for it... but does any of you have a better idea?” She paused for an answer. “No? You, Madhavan? No? If we have no alternative, then I say we follow this path.” She pulled off her restraints and staggered to her feet. “However. I can’t ask all of you to put your faith in a blind woman’s instinct, so what say we have a vote? Narada, can you ask the Colonel, Kevin and the medical team to come up here as well? They need to weigh in here. Fine with you guys?”
They nodded, then Manisha spoke up. “Sounds fair to me, though you know I will follow you come what may. You have gotten us this far. I am sure you will get us out of here.”
“Thank you for the vote of confidence.” It felt good that someone still believed in her.
“Me too, Captain,” Madhavan put in. “Just one thing though, at the cost of sounding negative and repetitious. We can only make one trip. Towards what we can see in front of us even though it may destroy us in an instant or, towards that white hole which is so far only hypothetical. Either way it is going to be a one-way trip.”
24
Yin And Yang
The seven people and one AI awake on the ship assembled in Ops. Anara sensed them gathering around her.
Will this be the last time we will be together? Alive that is.
“Before we get on with the vote, I want to thank each of you for your extraordinary courage and patience even though this is one journey I would not like to undertake again.”
Madhavan found her blind eyes unsettling as they swept the room, open yet unfocussed.
“I have even lost count of the number of hours or days we have spent in this place. At any rate—and it seems I have been repeating this far too many times in the last few days—we have a choice to make.” She ran a hand over her tired face. “We are down to the last hour of fuel, and we have to choose one of two paths ahead. Like I said it is only fair all of you get to participate in this choice.”
“What about the people in stasis? Who speaks for them?” asked the Doctor.
“The burden of leadership will be ours, Doctor. Our decision will be binding on those who are absent and mute. We must act swiftly. Both the choices are perilous. Do we go towards the black hole, or the white? There is no way of knowing which choice is correct. Narada, you want to elaborate further?”
“The probable entrance to the black hole is surrounded by a field of antimatter. Our EM screen may not withstand the explosions which are still taking place. It is also not known if we will be able to enter the black hole from this side or if doing so will lead us to our normal universe or to another baby universe. On the other hand, the existence of a white hole, another possible exit route, is theoretical. It may or may not exist. The distance to such a white hole is also unknown. However, if we can reach it, it is most likely to provide us with a navigable route home. Based on all known theories, of course.”
“Any questions, people?” Anara asked.
“I thought we would find the Charles de Gaulle,” Fraser said. “Where is that ship?” The poor sods.
“In all probability these antimatter particles and the explosions we encountered are all that remains of the CDG, if it was the CDG at all. That ship was smaller and is unlikely to have survived the entry into the singularity.”
“Nor did it have the exemplary crew of Antariksh on board. Anyway, I believe the white hole is our best chance given our fuel status. My vote is for the white hole,” declared Madhavan.
“What about harvesting some antimatter from what is outside?” asked Kevin.
“I checked up on that. I can collect enough particles, but I do not know the type of these particles outside. Matter-antimatter reactions require the particles to be mixed in precise masses. If the particles outside are antiprotons and I try to make them work with our positrons, we will get unequal, or worse, uncontrolled reaction rates. And I won’t have any way of knowing about the particles till I get them onboard. Just the process of collection will take several hours. We will run out of fuel much before that.”
“So even if we manage to cross the barrier, we will still have no fuel left to travel back home. We can still die in normal space from an empty fuel tank, can’t we?” asked Manisha.
“Not necessarily. I can continue to use our fusion drives. It will be way slower, but it will get us close enough to Earth to send a signal and wait for rescue,” answered Madhavan.
Anara allowed herself a brief moment to contemplate the one thing they were all ignoring for now.
We may get to Earth only to be swallowed by the black hole when it consumes our entire solar system. We are only buying time. Can a whole solar system fit into this baby universe? What a fascinating thought. How big is this zero space anyway?
“One thing at a time,” she said, more to herself than the others. “We need to decide now. Show of hands?”
Five hands rose, almost in unison. Everyone looked at the two JITF officers, who stood with their hands by their sides.
“Narada, what’s the count?”
“Five to two, ma’am. The Colonel and Major Kevin are not in favour.”
She gave a small sigh of relief. It was an acceptable ratio.
“It is all right, Colonel. None of us will hold this against you.”
“You misunderstand me, Captain Anara. I may not understand much of the science that you people have be
en discussing, but I understand you. I understand your drive to succeed. I understand your loyalty to your people. I understand that you have kept us alive despite all the obstacles we have faced. I trust you as a leader. Major Kevin and I will follow your lead.”
And with that their bond was sealed. Anara bowed her head in acknowledgement.
“Then it is settled. We proceed towards the white hole. Manisha, maximum possible speed ahead. Madhavan, can we continue with two hundred thousand kph?”
“Yes. I will fire up the fusion reactors. I’ll link them to the dome. Even if the M-AM drive fails, it will keep the people alive for some more time.”
“No,” replied Anara as the ship eased forward and reached its peak velocity. “We will have to turn off the dome once we enter. That is what worked for us on the way in.” Become one with the universe. One had to allow oneself to be swallowed and claimed by the cosmos. That was the secret to travelling through a black hole.
“Okay. I understand,” said Madhavan.
“But not till the last possible moment. You will have to do it manually just at the right time.” Anara felt for and sank back in her chair.
“Join me again?” asked Madhavan.
“By all means. Right behind you.” He turned towards Anara. “Break a leg, Captain Anara.” Fraser saluted, turned and walked out behind the engineer. Kevin looked at Manisha, finding the same concern in her eyes. He closed his eyes briefly as if capturing her image in his mind forever, smiled wanly, gave her a small wave and stepped out.
“I want to check your eyes one last time, Captain. Do you mind?” requested Dr Khan.
“Sure. We have a few minutes. You need to be near the dome with Madhavan.”
“Yes. I will be there. Now open your eyes wide,” said the Doctor. He peered closely using a few instruments. Once again, there was nothing wrong physiologically. He was stumped.
“Well?”
“No change. I can’t find anything wrong with you or with any of the other people.”
