I have a hypothesis... but first I want to ask you some questions. What if you could travel through a black hole? What if somehow you found a way to survive a trip through it? What would you find? Forget the "it cannot be done" comment that immediately comes to mind and the "you would be torn apart" thought that comes second. Just assume that you could... What would be there?
This is the story of how I found out the answer to these questions. What started as a mission to save the Earth end in so much more...
This is the story of how I went beyond the horizon.
* * * * * * *
Red lights flashed and siren blared! The sound of groaned and creaking metal made it sound as though I were in the belly of a massive magnesium alloy beast.
"Doctor Wade! We can’t shut it off!" Chess called out.
The ship was shaking violently. Outside the port holes stars flew by as white streaks of light. My space suit suddenly felt tighter. My heart raced. Sweat beaded on my brow. My vision blurred a little. The LEDs on the consoles - even the shine from the metal that was the interior of the ship - was becoming too bright to bear. Another episode was coming on. This is not the damn time for this shit!
"What do you mean we cannot shut it if!?" I yelled out. "Scott?"
The pilot responded loud over the shaking ship, "the controls are not responding!"
"There seems to be a malfunction. The warp drive will not deactivate." Chess added.
I found the engine room comms button. "Earnest, report. Why can we not turn off the warp drive?"
First there was static. A crash. Then he spoke. "The regulator is damaged. Connection to the main bridge has been cut off. I tried to throttle down manually but the mechanism is broken. Throttling down won’t be possible."
What malfunction could possibly disable our ability to throttle down? Is our luck that bad?
"Can we cut the power from the warp drive directly? Remove the power couplings? Or shut down the reactor?" I asked, suggested anything that came to mind.
Earnest responded immediately. "Removing the couplings would cause a reaction that would annihilate the ship. Same thing with shutting down the reactor if we don’t throttle down first. Our only choices right now is to wait until the fuel cells burn out or find a way to repair this damn thing."
An explosion ripped through somewhere in the ship. If I had not been strapped tight to a flight chair I would have been flying. I could hear the pelting space debris puncture the aft haul. Loud sirens blared from every speaker. Smoke began billowing into the main bridge. The ship’s crew members were trying to stabilize themselves while trying to stifle the blooms of flame that shot out of panels.
I called out into the comms, "Earnest, are you alright?"
"Yes, the crew and I are busy trying to patch up the haul. We are lucky that didn’t rip through the reactor core," Earnest said, trying to catch his breath.
"Sir..." Scott said forebodingly, "if we keep up this course for another three minutes we will fly right into the black hole!"
My jaw dropped. Shaking myself out of the shock I pressed the engine room comms button on the panel in front of me and called out as loud as I could over the alarms. "Earnest! What is the likelihood that we can stop the ship in three minutes?"
"Not likely... Why?" He responded, obviously scared about where this was heading.
I pressed the all comms button that accessed the whole ship. "Everyone brace yourselves. In three minutes we will be plunging headlong into the black hole. We have no way of stopping the ship in time." I could hear the screams of terror coming through the comms. "However we may yet survive! If we cannot go around it then we will go through it!"
"Are you serious!?" Chess screamed with a look of disbelief and horror.
Still speaking into the comms I continued, "Earnest, go full throttle! Put everything the ship has into the warp drive! Max it out! To everyone else, if you do not believe in God now might be the time to find religion. To everyone who believes in something, it is time to call in a favor."
The few seconds that passed felt like an eternity. If I was right. Maxing out the warp drive will allow us to pass through without being torn apart. If not...
Earnest finally responded. "All power is allocated. Ready at your command."
I grit my teeth and balled my fists. My fist slammed down on the comms button. "Punch it!"
Immediately there was a jolt that shook the ship. Chess was now screaming. I was screaming. Our lives were on the line and my hypothesis was the only thing guiding them.
"We are approaching the event horizon!" Scott cried out.
A massive black spot was fast approaching. A void in space surrounded by the light of consumed stars. The future destroyer of our world.
Scott counted down, "contact in, five, four, three, two, one!"
"God save us." I whispered under my breath.
The stars bent around us. The sensation of being crushed from every direction was unbearable. It lasted less than a second.
Blackness.
* * * * * * *
Five years earlier...
When we received the news the world was too shocked for a mass panic to ensue... At least for the first hour or so. Humanity’s tolerance for bad news has always been rather low.
I was teaching a class on astrophysics when I first heard it. I had called on a student to see if he was paying attention. He most definitely was not.
"Daniel? Are you still with us? Or did you fly into space too early?" I had said with as much humor as I could to mask my slight annoyance. His not paying attention I could ignore, but his watching a video on his phone while drawing the attention of other students however did irk me. The class responded with laughter. Daniel did not even flinch.
I walked over. My white lab coat billowed behind me. I did not need to wear it at the moment but I liked the way it felt when it was on. Besides, it was a gift from an old friend.
"Daniel, whatever you are looking at better be very important. We are talking ’end of the world’ important." I said, with a little less humor this time.
Daniel slowly looked at me. It was like he moved in slow motion. And then I saw his face . A terrible feeling gripped the pit of my stomach.
"What is it?" I asked. I would have assumed death in the family but I doubted that would have drawn the attention of the students around him, or that he would still be sitting in class. My thoughts immediately went to war or some environmental catastrophe - things of that sort.
"Let me see." I held my hand out.
He handed the phone to me without question. Then he stood up and - leaving his belongings behind - walked out of the classroom without saying a word or looking at anyone. The class began to murmur.
I looked at the phone. Apparently I was able to rewind the live feed so that is exactly what I did. My marvel at technology lasted very shortly.
It was a news room. People were running back and forth. The camera was not even solely focused on the stage. I could hear the commotion. It was pure fear. The anchor looked sullen and as though he had not slept in a week. With what he was about to say I assumed later that might just have been the case. I put the headphones in my ear to listen. The news anchor shifted in his seat and seemed to compose himself.
"Breaking news from NASA. We finally know when and how our world will end... And dear God. It is coming a lot sooner than we all thought." I thought that maybe this was some sort of sick prank to get news ratings but the panic around him looked far too real.
The class started to talk among themselves. A few clusters of students started to pull out their phones and computers. They looked like they were searching for whatever Daniel handed to me.
"Everyone quiet down." I said not too kindly. The hush was immediate and most of the students froze in their seats. I was never firm or commanding in my class and the tone of my voice must have sounded alien and foreboding. I turned my attention back to the phone.
The news anchor continued to speak. "To put it as simple and plainly as I can. Scientists a week ago discovered a new black hole. The closest ever. When asked why they didn’t see it earlier it was because it was not as close as it was before."
It felt like the ground below me sudden gave way, the psycho-physical equal of being hit on the top of the head by a rather large hammer.
"This black hole is moving at an alarming rate. The scientists at NASA partnered with scientists and astronomers all over the globe have confirmed its projected path."
The news anchor swallowed hard. I could not help but mimic the action. I could vaguely feel sweat drip down my brow. Someone somewhere was trying to get my attention but it was though I heard them from across the street in heavy traffic. The world around me lost color, dimension and sound. All my focus was on the device that spoke of our doom.
"In seven years’ time, this black hole will reach our planet. Scientists believe that we may be able to feel the gravitational effects six months earlier than that." The reporter said, becoming slightly choked up, finally breaking down into sobs.
My hands suddenly felt clammy. They began to shake ever so slightly. Daniel’s phone dropped from the grasp of my fingers while the headphones were pulled from my ears. The sound of the phone hitting the floor was utterly absent. My heart raced. My head spun. I sat down in Daniel’s seat. My students started to get up and surround me.
As though being pulled out of a well, sound and color began to return to the world.
"Professor? Are you alright?" Said a student, Lindsay I think her name was.
I swallowed hard. My throat felt as dry as sandpaper. "Yes, I-I am fine."
My mind raced. I should not stay here. There is so little time left. There is so much I wanted to do. Too much left unresolved. There is not enough time left! The world felt heavier as though gravity exponentially increased in an instant.
My mind froze for a moment. Time... Gravity... That’s it.
I got up slowly. My thoughts turned to my experiments. I knew what I had to do. Nobody had to die. The world did not have to end.
"Professor?" Asked maybe-Lindsay.
The sensation of my mind working out problems and calculating solutions in my head was almost physical. Numbers and ideas followed through my vision. But first...
"Class you are dismissed early and probably for the remainder of the semester. You will be given a final grade of whatever your current score is in my class plus one letter grade." I knew off the top of my head that this would make every student in my class at least passing. The cheers were joyous. The more intuitive students looked at me with suspicion, some with fear. Did they know too? It did not really matter. They will all know soon enough.
I ran to my desk and gathered everything I needed into my satchel. I ran from the classroom before any students could waylay me. I ran through the white painted halls of the university.
The news had not completely broken through yet. Everywhere I looked I saw people going about their routines. In the corners of my vision I spotted here and there people who must have heard the news. One girl was sitting against a wall sobbing while others around her gathered to comfort her. Another person was standing against the window staring out blankly as though this was the last time he would ever see the sight again. I caught the sight of someone else frantically sprinting down the halls just as I was.
It was starting.
I ran up the stairs to the highest floor of the sciences building. I passed up another professor who stopped to greet me but I did not even pay him a first glance let alone a second. I all but tackled my door open. Slamming it closed, I pressed my back against the door and slowly slid down. My pulse pounded in my ears and my breath was shallow. Desperately, I fought to control my thoughts.
Then I took a deep breath. In slowly. Then out slowly. Clear my mind was. My task I knew. Time to engage.
I walked to the phone with a new sense of purpose. Flipping through my Rolodex I found all the numbers I needed to call. Yes, I still used a Rolodex. I dialed the first number. The ringing seemed to go on forever.
I looked around my office at the organized mess of papers, books, and other knick-knacks. I swiveled in my chair and looked out the window and down into the parking lot in front of the building. The news was spreading - and with it the fear. People were scurrying around like ants from an ant colony that was just stepped on. Someone got in their car and pulled out so fast that they smashed into the parked cars behind them. They drove off without a moment of hesitation.
The phone made a sound as though someone was picking up the line. "Hello? Who is this?" A voice came from the other end.
I paused to order my thoughts and began to speak. "Hello, Troy. It is me Wendell."
"Wendell?" He stammered a little. "It’s great to hear from you my friend but do you have any idea what time it is here?"
"Yes, I am well aware. And trust me you are going to want to get up for this." I said, lacing my words with as much urgency and foreboding as I could muster.
I could hear shifting and shuffling on his end. He must have been moving to another room.
"What is it, my friend." Troy said, getting serious.
"Remember when we were kids and we used to watch science fiction shows on the television?" I asked, still sounding very serious. Troy must have sensed it because he reciprocated the tone.
"Yes, I do. What is this about?" He had replied, clearly wanting to get to the heart of the matter.
"Check the news." I answered simply.
I heard shuffling again. It sounded to me that he was getting to a television. "What channel?"
"Any channel."
There was silence from his end. A moment later I heard the high pitched buzz of a television turning on. I could hear talking but I could not make it out from my end. I continued to look out the window. People were running in the streets. There were already three traffics collisions within my view. Smoke rose from the cars and one of them even started an engine fire. Everyone cleared the area fast enough. Thankfully no one was hurt. There were a few moments of silence before I heard another buzz indicating he had turned the television off.
"My God. Wendell... This... How... Is this real?" Troy responded shaken.
"I am afraid that it is." I breathed deeply. "How would you like to save the world?"
More silence. "You are serious." It was not a question.
"Unquestionably."
There was a short silence. "Elaborate, my friend."