by R. E. Weber
‘I guess it’s my upbringing. My grandma was quite strict. She brought me up on her own so she had to be. She taught me right from wrong, though, that’s for sure. She was a good person.’
‘As are you, mate. But I don’t think it was just your grandma. Something tells me you were born that way.’
Cristos smiled warmly at Ruby. ‘Maybe. Anyway, do you understand him now?’
Ruby turned away and stared into the distance.
‘I don’t think I’ll ever understand Theo. I mean, I lo… care about him dearly. But I’ll never understand him.’
‘Complicated beings, us men.’
‘You’re not, Cristos.’
‘Are you trying to say I’m simple, Rubes?’ he said, grinning.
Ruby just smiled and nudged him in the arm.
‘Anyway, I just wanted you to know why. I wasn’t going to do anything stupid.’
‘I was a nervous wreck when I saw you up there. I was so glad when I found you were safe.’
‘I wouldn’t have blamed you for thinking I was going to do something though. Although I had my reasons, it must have looked crazy if you didn’t know what I was thinking.’
‘Not at all.’
‘I know you’re just being nice to me, Cristos, but let’s face facts. It isn’t normal, is it? I know I’m not behaving normally at the moment. Everything just seems to make me angry. That’s why I had to get away, on my own. Whenever I’m around people, I just get myself into a state, especially when I’m around Theo. Maybe it’s my hormones, I don’t know.’
‘You’ve never been angry with me, Rubes.’
‘You make me calm, Cristos. You’re the only one who does.’
‘Thanks. Promise me one thing though, will you?’
‘What’s that?’
‘If you ever want to be on your own, tell me. I won’t be offended.’
Ruby leant over and kissed him on the cheek. Cristos smiled back at her.
‘Interrupting something, am I?’ said Weng as he looked down at the two of them sat together, their arms around each other.
‘Never normally stops you,’ said Ruby sarcastically, pulling her arm away.
‘Yeah, well anyway, I just came over to tell you we’re nearly there.’
Cristos stood up. ‘Thank god. I was beginning to think this trip would never end.’
‘Yeah, well it was the only way we were going to get to see it. The quantum portal was built at the outermost edge of the solar system. It’s something to do with the way x-rays affect wormholes. That’s why it’s taken us nearly a day to get here.’
Cristos tapped the deactivation panel on his bed and it quickly folded itself back up into a small cube, which he then packed away in his rucksack.
‘Can we see it yet – the black hole, I mean?’ said Cristos.
‘Yeah, but it’s best to wait until we’ve docked with the observation post. They’ve got a state-of-the-art viewing centre, with ultra-zoom, virtual tours and the strongest gravitational shielding known to science.’
‘I can’t wait to see it,’ replied Cristos.
The rest of the group packed away their beds, gathered up all their belongings and made their way towards the spacecraft docking port. They waited until the light above the docking port door had changed from red to white, then proceeded through, down a long corridor and through another doorway. They were now inside a flattened spherical room about fifty metres across by about twenty high, with no distinguishing features, save for a circular light on the ceiling and five glowing hoops on the floor.
‘Proceed to the points marked and remain still,’ said a disembodied voice.
Cristos looked at Ruby, excitedly.
‘I can’t believe we’re actually doing this. We’re going to see a reallive black hole. We’re the first humans ever to see one. Theo would love… Oh, sorry, Rubes.’
‘Don’t be,’ said Ruby. ‘You’re right. Theo would love this. It’s a shame he’s not here.’
Once they had positioned themselves in the hoops, a context point appeared in front of each of them. Then the lights in the room faded into nothing.
‘OK, close your eyes everybody,’ said Weng. ‘It’s about to happen.’
Once they had all closed their eyes, the curved wall in front of them started turning transparent.
‘OK, you can open them now,’ said Weng.
As the five friends opened their eyes together, each of them gasped at the sight which met their eyes. Across their entire field of vision, an enormous, glowing, swirling disc of gas and dust was visible, stretching as far as the eye could see. The structure of the disc was incredible. There were swirls, clumps and lumps of gas, seemingly twisting and turning into each other like flames in a fiery vortex. The colours were mainly yellow, orange and red, with occasional wisps of pale blue and grey around its outer edges. On the far side of the disc was a brilliant yellow star, seemingly connected to it by a twisted strand of gas, which seemed to be feeding into its outer edge. Although the disc was not visibly spinning, the swirls and clumps of gas gave the clear impression of movement. And at the centre of the gigantic disc was an ominous deep black sphere, beyond which lay the singularity. A black hole.
‘Are you seeing this?’ whispered Abs.
Ruby wanted to answer, but she couldn’t find the words. It was the most astonishing thing she had ever laid eyes on.
‘It’s unbelievable,’ said Cristos. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’
‘The structure of the accretion disc has a depth and complexity that I did not expect,’ said Lara, transfixed.
‘That… that’s putting it mildly,’ said Weng, stunned.
Tearing her eyes away from the incredible vista, Ruby looked down at the context point to see the list of options:
Scientific summary
Spectral filtering
Ultra zoom
Virtualised viewpoint
Structural analysis
Further options
She selected scientific summary:
Solar Mass: 12.3 multiples of Polisian primary
Diameter of accretion disc: 7.09 million hotah
Diameter of event horizon: 19.2 hotah
Age of singularity: 11.9 million standard years
Mass of companion star: 0.39 multiples of Polisian primary
Ruby looked back at the disc. There were now flashing symbols all over it, indicating points of interest, the largest of which was a red square around the magnified image of the black hole.
‘Whoooaah,’ said Weng suddenly wobbling as he stared at the view. ‘Did anybody feel that?’
‘I did,’ said Cristos. ‘I don’t know what it was, but it was strange. For a split second, I felt like it was pulling me in. Was that the black hole?’
‘I felt it too,’ said Ruby, finally able to speak. ‘But it was weird. It was like I was being stretched, then squeezed.’
‘It is impossible for you to detect any gravitational pull from the singularity,’ said Lara. ‘Our orbit forms a perfect equilibrium of gravitational forces. There would be no…’
‘I felt it too,’ said Abs. ‘It was weird. I can’t describe it though. It was like, well, I don’t know really.’
‘Like somebody walking over your grave,’ said Weng. ‘It pulled me and I felt dizzy for a moment. Then my stomach flipped over. It was really odd.’
‘I believe,’ said Lara, ‘that your imagination is misleading you into experiencing sensations that do not exist. Your mind is having difficulty processing the multitude of inputs and appears to be malfunctioning.’
‘So how come we all felt it then, Spock?’ said Weng.
‘I am… unsure,’ replied Lara, stuttering a little.
‘It’s OK,’ whispered Abs quietly in her ear. ‘You do not have to explain this.’
Lara glanced at Abs and smiled weakly. ‘I am sorry,’ she whispered.
‘Don’t be,’ replied Abs, smiling.
For a minute or so, they all stared si
lently at the stunning view in front of them. Then Ruby looked back at her context point. ‘What’s a virtualised viewpoint?’
‘It is a simulated journey around the singularity and accretion disc, via points of scientific interest,’ said Lara.
Ruby grinned and then turned to the rest of the group.
‘OK, anybody wanna come?’
‘I will,’ said Cristos.
‘OK, I’m not sure how this works – you know, whether we can do it together or not. Perhaps if you take my hand, it’ll know what we want.’
Gingerly, Cristos reached out to Ruby and lightly squeezed her fingers.
‘Properly,’ said Ruby smiling.
Smiling back at her, Cristos took a firm grip of her hand.
‘OK, I’m ready.’
Ruby looked back at her context point and selected the option. For a moment, nothing happened and Cristos looked quizzically back at her. ‘What’s going on? Nothing’s…’
Suddenly, both Ruby and Cristos found themselves outside the station, staring at the view as if they were floating in space. Cristos turned to look at Ruby. She appeared to be encased within a transparent sphere. Then as he looked forward again, he could sense movement. The disc started getting rapidly closer, and suddenly they were skimming through the clumps and swirls of glowing gas, looping up, down and through the eddies of the rotating disc. The sensation was dizzying.
A few seconds later, the disc dropped away beneath them, and they rose rapidly upwards until they were hundreds of thousands of kilometres above it – far enough away to see it in its entirety. Then, as they watched, they could see movement. The disc, which had appeared stationary from the observation post, was now spinning, faster towards the centre but much slower towards the outer edge, like water draining down a plughole. Time had been artificially speeded up for them. Then they raced downwards again at unbelievable speed and for a moment they had to shield their eyes as the bright yellow star on the outer edge of the disc swung into view.
They hurtled around behind the star and then back towards the disc, racing along the river of glowing gas and plasma, which was being torn away from the surface of the star. Racing past the edge of the disc, they looked directly ahead to see the ominous black hole itself looming into view – a completely black sphere from which no light could escape: the event horizon. The light from behind the sphere was distorted into a halo around its outer edge as if it had been bent and twisted by a gigantic black lens.
For a moment, it looked like they were about to plunge through the sphere, but then they stopped just above and in front of it. As they stared past it, their vision became tinted blue. Then a massive plume of what looked like gas burst from the top of the sphere and raced away into the dark recesses of deep space; Ruby guessed that they were seeing it in a different wavelength of light. Then the colours turned back to normal and they shot up and over the sphere towards the edge of the disc, and within moments they were back in the observation post. For several seconds, they both felt dizzy at the sudden lurch back to reality, and Cristos almost fell forwards before regaining his balance. Ruby then checked the time. Their virtual journey had taken over seven minutes, yet it had seemed like only seconds.
Ruby rubbed her eyes, then looked back at Cristos, who was staring out into space with a glazed expression.
‘Worth it?’ said Ruby, grinning back at him.
‘Oh my god, yes,’ said Cristos, still in shock.
‘You’ve all got to do that,’ said Ruby. ‘It’s something else.’
Ruby and Cristos sat down and watched Weng and Abs as they took the virtual trip. Weng appeared to be wobbling around, occasionally ducking, while Abs just stared silently forward, swaying every so often from side to side. Lara had decided not to take the tour and was instead studying reams of scientific data from a screen above her context point. A few minutes later, they’d all finished what they were doing and had gathered together in the centre of the room.
‘I think,’ said Weng after a prolonged silence, ‘that it’s fair to say that it was worth coming here.’
‘I have learnt a multitude of facts regarding the singularity that are not present in the central database on Polisium Prime,’ said Lara.
Abs just looked at her and smiled. He knew that had been Lara’s way of saying that she had enjoyed herself.
‘Just incredible,’ said Ruby, winking at Cristos.
Cristos beamed back at her.
‘I could just sit here all day,’ said Weng. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’
‘Yes, I know,’ said Abs quietly. ‘You can watch all the vids you like, but nothing prepares you for the real thing, does it?’
‘Theo would have found this visit highly stimulating,’ said Lara. ‘I cannot understand why he did not choose to join us.’
Cristos glanced over at Ruby, concerned, but she just smiled back at him and mimed the words, ‘it’s OK’. Cristos smiled back at her, relieved.
*
‘The reconstruction team have done exceptionally well to restore the vessel to working capacity, so quickly,’ said Commander Nalhas Mah as the tiny observation pod drifted slowly above the massive Navy Warship, berthed on the asteroid.
‘I am gratified to hear this,’ said the voice of the cloaked figure standing next to him.
‘Is the vessel now operating at full capacity?’
‘Within limitations, yes. Command of the vessel will be formally passed to you once a full regime of testing has been completed.’
‘And will you approve my choice of target for the weapon’s test?’
‘Although the preliminary test on a passive target will be at your own discretion, I must insist on the selection of the first active target.’
‘As you wish. Have you made your selection?’
‘Yes, here are the details.’
A small flashing symbol appeared on the commander’s companion indicating the arrival of an information packet. For a moment, the commander stared at the packet, which contained the designation and coordinates of the target. Then he looked back at the cloaked figure, whose wrinkled features were faintly visible in the dim light.
‘This is a high-risk target,’ replied the commander.
‘I disagree. Its defences are limited. It will be no match for the cruiser.’
‘You… misunderstand me,’ replied the commander. ‘While it is true that we will destroy the target with ease, the repercussions of the selection will be enormous. An entire fleet of Affinity Navy cruisers will be dispatched as soon as word of the attack reaches Polisium. You are aware of the target’s true purpose, I assume?’
‘I am. That is, in part, why it was selected. Do you have an issue commanding this mission?’
‘I do not,’ said the commander. ‘I simply wished to remind you of the risks involved.’
‘And I would remind you of the underlying purpose of this mission – that our enemy will be seen as the perpetrator of this assault. This will take us a further step along the path that I have laid out for you. Do you understand what is being asked of you?’
‘I do,’ replied the commander formally.
‘In that case, can I ask that once this inspection is over, you begin tactical preparations for this mission. Every possible outcome must be planned for. This mission must not fail. You will succeed.’
‘By your command,’ replied Commander Nalhas Mah.
*
‘Penny for them,’ said Cristos as he looked at Ruby sitting silently on the edge of her bed.
‘Oh, I was just thinking about the singularity. Wasn’t it amazing?’
‘You can’t fool me,’ replied Cristos as he sat beside her.
Ruby took a deep breath, then stared back at him.
‘OK, you got me. I was thinking about…’
‘Theo by any chance?’ said Cristos finishing her sentence.
‘Actually, no. Well not directly, anyway.’
‘Go on, tell me. I’m a good listener.’
; Ruby smiled warmly back at him.
‘Truthfully, I was thinking about why I’m here – you know, on the Ascent, with you all.’
‘And what was your conclusion?’
‘Well don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved spending time with you. But to tell you the truth, I think it’s over for me.’
‘Over?’ said Cristos visibly disappointed. ‘It’s only just begun.’
‘Well I came out here to, you know, get away from things – to clear my head.’
‘And has it worked?’
‘In a way, yes. My head’s been all over the place for a while now. But when I nearly… when we nearly lost Theo at the cascades, I realised something. I was being selfish. I always thought of him as just my friend, but he’s not. He’s everybody’s friend. You, Weng, Abs, Lara and… and Larissa. He belongs to us all and we nearly lost him. When I saw Larissa on the ground, crying, I felt sick. I realised how much we’d all miss him if he weren’t here.’
‘He’ll always be your friend, you know that, don’t you?’
‘Yeah, I know. I’ll always be there for him, just as he will be for me. But we have to follow our own path through life. He has a new path to follow and so do I.’
‘And what is your path, Rubes?’
‘The H’th’hka.’
‘The H’th’hka?’
‘Yes. Do you know what I was thinking about when we were staring at the singularity?’
‘No, what?’
‘I was thinking that we’re all out here, sightseeing – you know, flying around the Universe, having fun. But the H’th’hka are suffering. They’re in pain. Do you know what I realised then?’
‘Go on.’
‘I realised that I’d finally found my reason for being here, in the Affinity.’
‘You’re saying the H’th’hka are the reason you’re here?’
‘Well, yes. When their homeworld was attacked, I really felt it. I felt it so hard it was overwhelming. Then, when I attended the conference, I made a connection with them. I can’t explain it, but it was there. I think they felt it too.’
