Dark Matter

by S. W. Ahmed

  “Starguzzlers.” Marc uttered the name silently several times, trying to make sense of it. The literal meaning would be: “something or somebody that consumes a star”. But what did that really mean? What could possibly have the ability to consume an entire star, especially something that was only 3 feet in diameter? Then again, they were growing like crops. But how big could they possibly get? And what good would it do to consume a star anyway?

  “In any case, there’s no doubt Wazilban is behind it,” Sharjam said. “That was why his subordinates Ozwin and Ruminat were there – he sent them to monitor the growth of those Starguzzlers.”

  Raiha frowned. “I dread to find out how many other such Starguzzler fields there might be across the Dominion.”

  Silence followed, during which everyone appeared to be deep in thought.

  Marc thought too, trying to make sense of it all and to figure out what to do. After a while, he was the one to end the hush. “We must stop this as soon as possible,” he said.

  Sharjam shrugged. “Marc, that much is already certain. But the question is how.”

  “We must stop the meeting between Wazilban and the Imgoerin. No, better yet, we must show up at the meeting, and expose the truth in front of the Imgoerin!”

  “You mean publicly reveal to the Imgoerin that Wazilban is an alien?” Dumyan said.

  “Yes! We will convince the Imgoerin not to combine forces with Wazilban, and simultaneously reveal the conspiracy to both the Mendoken and Aftaran people.”

  Raiha didn’t seem convinced. “But how can we possibly do that? The meeting will be heavily guarded by Wazilban’s forces. Wazilban will take no chances, since he knows you’re still on the loose and with us. And even if we do get in by some miracle, how do we show the Imgoerin and everyone else what only you can see?”

  Sharjam looked pensive. “There may be a way. I’ll have to do some research in the Holy Scriptures first.”

  “Can’t we just do something similar to what we did with your two prisoners?” Zorina asked. “Confronting them directly with the truth? It worked with those two, after all.”

  Sharjam sighed. “Direct confrontation of truth over falsehood only works on minds that are weak to begin with. I doubt we’ll find Wazilban’s mind to be as weak as those of Ozwin and Ruminat. He is the leader of these aliens, after all. It will undoubtedly require a lot more strength in us to confront him directly.”

  “Furthermore, showing the Imgoerin the truth does not necessarily mean that he will believe you,” Sibular pointed out. “He may think you are performing a magic trick, something you Aftarans seem to be quite adept at.”

  “Ah, but that’s where you come in, Sibular!” Marc said. “Given your function in the Mendoken hierarchy, I presume the Imgoerin knows who you are, right?”

  “Yes. I have met him on several occasions.”

  “And he trusts you?”

  “Naturally. We Mendoken never lie. All Mendoken trust each other without question, and help each other out without fail.”

  Marc grinned. “Well then, my friend, it looks like you’ll have some storytelling to do.”

  Chapter 31

  Bara Dilshai was the most famous holiday resort in the entire Aftaran Dominion. Not that there were many resorts in the Dominion to begin with, considering how Aftarans generally abstained from entertainment or leisurely activities. Whatever resorts there were usually catered not to Aftarans, but to tourists or official visitors from other species. Bara Dilshai, however, was different. Aftarans and others alike flocked to this location every year.

  There was a valid reason for the resort to be so popular, and it was not the size of its facilities, the variety of amenities it had, or the fact that it was perched atop the rocky surface of a large asteroid. No, its claim to fame rested solely on one criterion – its location in the Glaessan galaxy. Situated right in the heart of the Aftaran Dominion, it provided the closest, completely unhindered, crystal clear view of the very center of the galaxy itself. Specifically, it provided the closest view of the supermassive black hole that made up the center of the galaxy.

  Black holes had always been revered by Aftarans as gateways out of the known universe, perhaps even to the realm of the Creator. That was why so many Aftarans came to Bara Dilshai, to witness this wonder for themselves. Of course, nobody had ever dared to travel into a black hole or even get close enough to one to determine if that was really true or not. Anyone trying to do so would have ended up with a very painful death, for the tremendous gravitational pull of the black hole would have literally ripped that individual’s atoms apart as it sucked the body into its dense mass.

  Efforts by Mendoken scientists to send probes into black holes had always resulted in failures. The probes had without exception ceased to communicate upon nearing the black holes, and had never been seen or heard from again. So, while a number of scientific theories did exist, the exact nature of black holes still remained a mystery to this day across the galaxy.

  From a distance, it was not easy to see a black hole with the naked eye. The only way to really spot one was to look for a dark patch in the sky. Its gravitational pull was just so strong that not even light could escape from its clutches. In fact, the most significant measure of how large a black hole was, a quantity known as the event horizon, was the distance from its core within which light could not escape. On Earth, humans called this radius around a black hole the Schwarzschild radius, named after the famous German scientist who had worked extensively on the theory of black holes.

  The supermassive black hole at the center of the Glaessan galaxy was called supermassive for a reason. It had a mass about 10 million times that of Earth’s Sun, and a Schwarzschild radius of about 19 million miles. Most other black holes in the galaxy, of which there were no small number, averaged a Schwarzschild radius of only 3 miles. This was by far the largest black hole in the galaxy, dwarfed only by supermassive black holes in the centers of other, larger galaxies in the universe.

  Marc stared at the center of the Glaessan galaxy through the cockpit window of the Boura-class vessel he was on. One of the few interstellar spaceships the rebels had in their possession, it was the same ship Dumyan and Sharjam had snatched from Ozwin and Ruminat during their journey from the planet Droila. Marc was standing right behind Dumyan, who was sitting in the pilot’s seat and controlling the ship’s functions with his mind. On board were also Sibular, Zorina, Sharjam, Raiha and three other Aftaran rebels. They had all slipped away from Meenjaza with a short range Shoyra-class vessel stolen from the Aftaran military, and made it to the moon Medonis around the planet Soondaza. There, they had transferred over to the Boura-class ship, dutifully watched over by Raiha’s friends at the monastery of Mt.Lina ever since Dumyan and Sharjam had left it there earlier.

  Four days later, they had arrived in the center of the galaxy. The supermassive black hole, more than 125 million miles away from their current position, was a huge ball of darkness covering much of the sky ahead, like a gigantic circle that had been cut out from the middle of a starry canvas and thrown away. The space around the outer edges of the ball appeared warped, and multiple jets of matter appeared to emanate from the ball in different directions.

  “Incredible!” Marc whispered. It looked both beautiful and foreboding at the same time.

  “That’s nothing,” Sharjam said, standing next to Marc. “Try this.” He handed Marc a pair of goggles with large lenses, clearly made for the large eyes of Aftarans.

  “What are these?”

  “Spectacles that make electromagnetic waves of all frequencies visible to your eyes. We use them on Meenjaza to track the planet’s magnetic field as we move from crater to crater. Try them.”

  Marc brought the goggles up to his face. They immediately snapped over his eyes, and automatically adjusted to his vision and focus. What he now saw caused his jaws to drop in amazement. The whole sky around the black hole was awash with brilliant colors, displaying waves that stretched out in concentric rings
in all directions. Blue, purple and white were the dominant colors of the rings. It was an absolutely terrific sight.

  “This is why so many come here to witness this wonder for themselves,” Sharjam said, smiling as he saw the look of astonishment on Marc’s face.

  “It’s unbelievable! It’s a… a rotating black hole, isn’t it?” Marc had studied black holes quite extensively in college, and knew about the theory behind them. The moving patterns of the waves seemed to indicate that the dark mass in the middle was rotating.

  “Yes,” Sibular replied, as he entered the cockpit. “All supermassive black holes in the cores of galaxies are rotating black holes.”

  Marc was about to ask Sibular what current Mendoken science said about why these supermassive black holes existed in the cores of galaxies, but was interrupted by Dumyan from the pilot’s seat.

  “There!” Dumyan raised his hand and pointed out the cockpit window towards a cloud of tiny specks to the left. As he pointed, a section of the cockpit window automatically zoomed in on the cloud, magnifying the image several hundred times.

  Marc took off the goggles from his eyes, and saw that the cloud was actually an asteroid field. One of the asteroids, the one the window was focusing on, was larger than its neighbors, and had a number of buildings spread across its surface.

  “That’s Bara Dilshai?” he asked. It looked like a surprisingly vulnerable spot to have so famous a resort.

  “Yes,” Sharjam said. “It’s as close as you can get to the black hole. Go any further than that and you run the risk of being sucked into its gravitational field, with no hope of ever returning.”

  “But look!” Dumyan pointed out. “Just as we feared.”

  The asteroid was completely surrounded by Aftaran military ships, mostly long range Gyra-class vessels, but also a number of smaller Boura-class and Shoyra-class vessels. They were spread apart in a gridlock fashion, allowing no access to the resort without a direct confrontation.

  But this Marc and his rebel friends had been expecting. No doubt, Wazilban was going to take no chances with this meeting. He would have arranged for the tightest security possible around Bara Dilshai. The rebels had already come up with a plan to avoid this security dragnet. Upon arriving at the resort, they were going to try to make direct contact with the Mendoken delegation, which, according to well publicized Dominion news transmissions, had just arrived a few hours earlier. Once the Mendoken delegation found out that Sibular was on board the rebel ship, they would undoubtedly listen to the rebels and offer them protection. This much Sibular had assured the others – no Mendoken would ever turn his or her back on another Mendoken, regardless of the circumstances.

  The plan, however, had one flaw. It relied on the assumption that the Mendoken delegation’s ship would be parked in space outside the wall of Aftaran ships, giving the rebels direct access to the Mendoken ship. Sibular had pointed out that the Mendoken never depended on the protection offered by foreign hosts during their visits to worlds of other species, and therefore always parked their ships at a fair distance from the meeting points. But now, as the rebels gazed upon the asteroid in front of them, it was all too clear that the Mendoken vessel at Bara Dilshai was well inside the wall of Aftaran ships, parked very close to the asteroid’s surface. With its inverted mushroom shape, the Aima-11 transport liner was a giant compared to the much smaller submarine shaped Aftaran ships in front of it, but direct access to it was cut off nonetheless.

  “This is most peculiar,” Sibular said, keenly eyeing the barricade around the asteroid. “The Mendoken never do this.”

  “It can only mean one thing,” Sharjam said. “Wazilban must have insisted the Mendoken comply with his security arrangements. He’s obviously expecting that we’ll show up and try to get help from the Mendoken.”

  “I can’t say I’m terribly surprised,” Marc said, frowning. He felt frustrated that their primary plan was ruined, and could only hope that their backup plan would work. He also began wondering how long it would take for their presence to be detected by the Aftaran vessels.

  He didn’t have to wonder for too long. A hailing sound suddenly blared through the cockpit, followed by a message read aloud by the ship’s computer:

  Rebel heretics, surrender immediately and prepare to be boarded. Attempt to attack or even move from your current position, and you will be destroyed immediately.

  The message was clear and to the point. But nobody on board was in any mood for surrender.

  Dumyan turned from his seat to look at Sibular. “Did you make all the necessary adjustments?”

  “Yes,” Sibular said, “your communication controls are ready.”

  Dumyan closed his eyes and focused extra hard on the ship’s controls. Seconds later, a message written by Sibular went out from the ship towards the asteroid through a bosian layer, encrypted using technology only decipherable by advanced communication equipment on board Mendoken ships. It was short and sweet, stating the following:

  This is Sibular Gaulen 45383532. I am alive and on board a Boura-class Aftaran vessel, with a group of Aftaran rebels and the Earth human Marc Zemin who helped us develop consar technology. We have critical information about Lord Wazilban that the Imgoerin should know before signing the covenant. Wazilban’s forces will try to prevent us from reaching you. Please open the lower gates on the Aima-11 vessel to permit entry.

  Dumyan then sent out another message, unencrypted and intended for the Aftaran ships in the barricade. It was shorter, but not quite as sweet:

  Greetings, puppets and mindless submissives of Wazilban the tyrant. Your ignorance is only surpassed by your stupidity.

  “Did you have to send the second message?” Sharjam exclaimed. “It will only further inflame the situation!”

  “Does it make a difference?” Dumyan said with a smirk. “As if our chances of survival are better one way or the other?”

  Within seconds of the transmission, several Aftaran Gyra-class vessels began moving out of the barricade and accelerated rapidly towards the rebel ship.

  Sharjam moved to the wall of the cockpit and pressed on an intercom button. “Zorina, are you ready? We’re progressing with the backup plan.”

  “Yes, Sir!” Zorina’s voice crackled over the intercom speaker. “But just remember, we can only zap enough power from the kilasic engines to do this once for a ship this size, and the effect will last no more than a few minutes.” She was located in the ship’s engine room, along with Raiha.

  “Hopefully that will be all we need,” Marc thought. He knew it was going to be tight.

  The Aftaran ships closed in on the rebel ship. Watching through the cockpit window, Marc could count 20 of them, but perhaps there were more behind the front line. The ships began flashing red and blue lights, the colors of battle. No quarter would be given, that much was for sure.

  Everyone in the cockpit was dead silent, intently watching the ships approach. Just as the approaching ships began firing their first shots, Dumyan raised his hand. Immediately, Sharjam yelled into the intercom, “Zorina, now!”

  Marc noticed a wave flash over the surface of their Boura-class ship. Then Dumyan maneuvered the ship to avoid the onslaught of enemy fire.

  “It appears to be working,” Sibular observed calmly.

  Marc heaved a sigh of relief. Zorina’s cloaking mechanism was indeed working. The enemy ships, evidently having lost all sight of their target, began firing blindly around them.

  Dumyan skillfully piloted the ship around the armada of approaching enemy ships and headed straight for the asteroid. More Aftaran ships dislodged from the barricade around the asteroid and started blanket firing every which way. The Aftarans were obviously hoping that at least one of the shots would hit the rebel ship and break the cloak.

  The Mendoken vessel was still a good 3 to 4 minutes away. Dumyan accelerated the ship as much as he could, while trying to avoid the barrage of deadly shots. But it kept getting progressively more difficult. The enemy ships they had
bypassed were turning around and firing from the rear. Evidently the Aftaran military had guessed the trajectory of the rebel ship, even though they couldn’t actually see it.

  “Why aren’t the Mendoken doing anything?” Marc said in frustration, watching as the view outside was completely lit up by continuous streaks of weapons fire. “Surely they can blast all these Aftaran vessels to smithereens with their superior power! Have they even responded to our message?”

  “No,” Sibular said, “and I would not expect them to. They are on foreign territory, and thus have no authority to interfere on our behalf. They will not reply, and will take no action until we actually enter their territory. Only once we are inside one of their ships can they protect us.”

  “The principle of non-interference applies, since the Mendoken and the Aftar are not at war with each other,” Dumyan added.

  The rebel ship edged forward silently, passing the Aftaran military barricade and closing the gap to the Mendoken vessel. As the massive Mendoken Aima-11 ship appeared ever closer, Marc noticed that the ship’s lower gates had been opened, just as Sibular had requested. So the Mendoken had received and accepted the message! His hopes began to rise. It was so close now, literally no more than a mile away.

  But then, one of the blindly fired shots hit the rebel ship, causing an explosion in the rear of the craft. The cloak immediately collapsed, and the ship was once again visible to the enemy. Within seconds, the first direct shot hit, followed by another, and another. The ship shook violently, causing both Marc and Sharjam to lose their balance and fall to the floor.

  Sharjam immediately got up and rushed to the intercom on the wall. “Is anybody hurt? Is anybody hurt?”

  “No!” Zorina replied, her voice crackling through the intercom. “Nobody here in the engine room. But I’m not sure how many more shots we’ll be able to take. One of them barely missed the rear left kilasic engine.”