The Veiled Universe

by Rob Garnet

  Skani jumped from screen to screen waiting for the moment to arrive. His hands twitched intermittently as he swung between glee and anxiety. He needed to calm down if he was to be of any use in this caper.

  “You are getting on my nerves,” I snapped. “If I tell you how we will escape, will you sit down and be quiet?”

  “Yes. Yes. Yes.” He looked around, found the co-pilot’s seat and sat down. His fingers tapped an incessant pattern on his knees.

  “We will collect whatever diamonds we can find during the next flare. You need to fill our holds as fast as possible. No more than thirty seconds, understood? Based on my understanding of the Baxu’s response, that will leave us with fifteen minutes to make our escape.”

  “Fifteen minutes. Yes. Yes. Yes.”

  Maybe this whole scheme had been a big mistake. Skani was coming unhinged.

  “I found us an escape route. There is a black hole, eighteen light years from here. Our ship can cover that distance in twelve minutes. That black hole has a rotating accretion disc which spews out jets of plasma at relativistic speeds. Now, I have mapped out the timing of the jets and there is one scheduled in exactly fourteen point five minutes. So, you collect the diamonds, we hightail it to the black hole and ride the jet. This jet ride will last just a few hours. We will be gone by the time the Baxu reach the black hole. Even if do reach in time, they will never be foolhardy enough to try to follow us. Everyone knows these relativistic jets of plasma are a one-way ticket. They can spit you out so far, you will never have the fuel to return. Even if they do follow us on another jet, they will find the landing spot empty. We will be long gone.”

  The plan was elegant. I had installed sixteen shields on the ship, enough to withstand the superhot plasma and the travel at hyper-speed. We would be halfway across the galaxy, and the Baxu ships would be eating our space dust. I had even charted the course based on the direction of the last few jets, and by my calculations, the jet would take us all the way to the Morle system, two thousand light years away. From there it was a hop, skip and jump to Rohini V. I was exceptionally pleased with my plan.

  “Ride the jet? Ride the jet! That’s your grand plan? That’s like riding lava being spewed by a volcano and hoping it will not fry you! Oh great! And you were accusing me of having a death wish!”

  “It will work. Trust me.”

  “Yeah. Yeah. Like I have a choice. We are already in the cauldron, what’s a little more heat.” He continued to mutter to himself, but like I had hoped, my plan had shocked him into docility.

  ◆◆◆

  We raced out of the Konai system at the speed of light, our cargo hold full of diamonds. At least half a ton of them. SOB, we were rich! Stupendously rich!

  The automated defence systems had kicked in almost as soon as we entered, but we managed to dodge the worst of them. The wide-span radar showed six Baxu ships coming after us, but we have a decent head start.

  We reached the black hole exactly as planned. It was a medium-sized black hole, and our scientists had determined that with the jets being given off at regular intervals, the black hole was unlikely to grow any further. The accretion disc at the event horizon, a swirling mass of gas and plasma, was a delight to look at.

  We saw an upheaval in the disc and got ready. The jet was forming. I kept my hands on the throttle. I needed to match the velocity of the jet precisely so our ship could stay just in front of it without being destroyed. We had to ride it much like a surfer rides the waves at the beach. Nice and easy.

  I accelerated just as the jet exited the accretion disc, took up position just in front of it and…whhhoooosh! The ride was brilliant. Space twisted around us as we broke the light barrier and then some. The ship was buffeted horribly and we held on for our dear lives. With no way of fixing our position, I prayed my calculations had been correct. There was nothing more to do but wait.

  Two hours later, I put the ship into a steep dive and accelerated away from the jet.

  “Where the hell are we?” asked Skani.

  I looked through the portholes and then at my instruments and then through the porthole again.

  “I… I… don’t understand. I worked everything out. We should have been at Morle. But…”

  The space outside was empty. It was bereft of stars, planets and any type of celestial body. I got up and squinted through the porthole. There were some points of light in the far distance. Going back to the console, I adjusted the long-range telescopes. The points resolved into galaxies. Unfamiliar ones.

  “The jet must have changed direction. Inside its sphere of influence, time and distance have no meaning. We have been thrown clear of the Milky Way. Thousands, maybe even millions of light years away. There is no way we have enough fuel to go back. We… we are lost in space.”

  “We are lost in space. Lost in space. Lost in space.” Skani stared at me blankly.

  I looked out into the dark void. We had no supplies whatsoever. I had insisted we travel light. After all, I had figured, we would have more than enough shards to buy all the food and supplies we wanted in Morle. Now, all we had was a cargo hold full of diamonds. Except, we could not eat diamonds. Nor could we run our ship on them.

  Skani’s hands were twitching again. This time I did not reprimand him. My hands were shaking, too. He had been right about one thing: we would not be working again. Ever. This was our last heist.

  ◆◆◆

  The Ninth Planet

  The ship lurched as it struggled against another onslaught of gravitational waves. Andrew held on to the console with both hands, waiting for the ship to stabilize. There had been no warning as usual, and he had not managed to fasten his restraining belts in time. On his left, his second officer, Cristina, was more composed, securely held in her seat.

  “15% stronger than the previous one,” Andrew muttered. “I still cannot locate the source, dammit!”

  “Boss, these readings just don’t make any sense.” Cristina showed him her portable screen. “Look at the intensity of the gravitational attraction in this area. It has been strengthening over the last few days, yet there is nothing out here.”

  Andrew scratched his head, poring over the data presented. It was this same gravitational mystery that had initiated their mission in the first place. The orbits of the planets in the solar system had consistently indicated an influence other that of the sun, the planets, their moons and other celestial objects. Pluto was too small to cause this effect and had already been classified as a dwarf planet. No other candidate had been found till date to account for the observational anomaly or to hold the distinction of being the ninth planet of the solar system. Every mathematical model had agreed that there had to be more mass than observed for the solar system to be stable, yet, there it was—a stable system with eight planets and a yellow sun.

  Their ship was the first one to venture beyond Neptune in search of the mysterious mass which surely must exist to account for the anomaly. So far, they had found nothing but for a few large boulders adrift in space and everlasting emptiness. Now, there were these cursed waves all from a seemingly invisible source. He walked over and peered intently through the large, reinforced portholes. Nothing. The space outside was empty and featureless.

  “I just don’t understand it,” he replied. “All of these lines are intersecting at this one point 55 million miles away and yet there is nothing out there. At least nothing that our instruments can detect…” his voice trailed off as he branched off in another thought.

  The door opened and Sara entered the operations centre.

  “Lee’s been injured. He hit his head when the last wave hit us. Kevin’s with him.” She met Andrew’s eyes. “You gonna continue this foolhardy mission even after six of your crew are lying in sick bay? This is foolhardy.”

  “Careful, Sara,” said Cristina in a warning tone. “That’s the mission commander you’re talking to.”

  “Not for long, if this continues. You will destroy the ship. We should turn around now.
This search is pointless.”

  “Oh yeah?” Andrew retorted. “Then I am sure you have found the source of these gravitational waves. Do let us into the secret, will you?”

  They should never have brought Sara along, he reflected, ruefully. A computer system specialist, she was clearly out of place in a deep space mission. But his boss, the mission director, had been adamant about including her. She would help them chart out the best paths and mapping solutions, he had insisted. Andrew had been forced to acquiesce despite his deep misgivings. And he had been right. Sara had been petulant and disruptive throughout the ten-month journey, getting on everyone’s nerves. Maybe throwing her out the airlock, as some of the crew had suggested, was not such a bad idea after all.

  “I don’t understand why both of you are obsessed with this useless mission. We have already established that this region of space is empty. There is no ninth planet hidden beyond Neptune. This whole journey was just a colossal waste of time,” said Sara, making a face.

  Andrew bit back a cutting response. Fortunately, Cristina came to his rescue.

  “Calm down, Sara. The absence of planetary bodies does not mean this region is empty. We still cannot explain the level of gravity, can we? Get down to mapping the graviton flows we have seen yesterday. The fate of the crew and the ship may well depend on it.” Cristina was calm but firm, and her voice brooked no argument. As Sara moved off to her station reluctantly, Cristina turned back to her readings. It had to be out here, the planet they had come to discover. But they were fast running out of time.

  Suddenly, alarms blared across the cockpit and amber lights lit up every console. Even as Andrew gave rapid instructions to the piloting crew to control the violently bucking ship, he noted from the console that the mysterious forces had increased tenfold in intensity.

  “Warning! Warning!” the disembodied voice of the computer called over the cacophony of the alarms. “The ship is exceeding the stress safety threshold. Reduce velocity now.”

  “What the hell do you think we are trying to do?” Andrew finally exploded. “Cristina! The force is too strong. We are being pulled in. Cut the engines. Deploy Mayday beacons and send a distress signal back to Europa station!”

  “Roger,” she acknowledged. As the engines turned off, the ship visibly quietened down. “Sara, get me the latest flows, now!” The squiggly lines on her display reminded her of a spider’s web. They were caught like flies.

  “Boss, The ship is being pulled towards the convergence point of the waves.”

  “I can see that, but it does not help us, does it? Get me some data I can use. And reverse the engines. We are still moving forward!”

  “Engines reversed. Forward motion down to five hundred mph.”

  “Warning! Warning!” the computer called out. “Fuel burn rate is 125% of recommended maximum. Reduce speed now.”

  Then, a moment later: “Warning! Warning! The ship is exceeding maximum stress levels. Reduce speed now.”

  “It’s no use, boss! We can’t fight it. Stopping all engines!” Her display showed that hull stress was continuing to build.

  “Warning! Warning! Imminent hull collapse! Prepare for evacuation!”

  Cristina wiped the sweat from her brow and looked outside the porthole. “There! Did you guys see that! Oh, wow!”

  “What? What do you see?” Andrew ran to the porthole. The space outside was empty as ever.

  “There is something out there. Something gigantic. Like a…a planet. Only, it was like… a shadow. Ethereal. I saw it only for an instant.”

  ◆◆◆

  It grew silent again. It had been a mistake to allow its attention to drift. Unfortunately, it could not always control its actions. Like now, when gravity was increasing, and the ship was in danger. It had made the mistake and the human ship was caught in its gravity and were in grave danger. It had to make things right and protect the humans. They were fragile, much like the planet on which they had been raised.

  ◆◆◆

  “I can’t see a thing.” What was this dark planet nonsense? Their sensors still could not detect any solid objects.

  “Boss! It was out there. Believe me!”

  “Cristina, focus! We need to find a way out of this! Sara, prepare the crew to head to the escape module!”

  “It’s changing!” exclaimed Sara. “The flow lines are changing. I need your help, Cristina!”

  “Oh man! These lines are emanating from the point where I saw the object. Look at this new flow. It’s completely changed configuration, as if... as if…” Cristina’s voice failed her.

  “As if what, Cristina!” shouted Andrew as the computer called out another warning. They were out of time.

  Cristina turned towards him, a wild look in her eyes. “As if it changed orientation in an instant. It is not possible. That… that object was monstrous. Nothing can move that fast!”

  She was being delusional, concluded Andrew- invisible objects in space indeed. But she was still their best bet. “Does this new orientation of gravity help us?”

  “What? Oh… yes! Yes! Give me manual control of the ship. I think we can bounce off using the waves and escape.” Andrew authorised the controls to be released to her.

  “Increasing forward thrust, both engines at fifty percent. I’m gonna bounce the ship off like a pebble off the surface of a lake. Hold on, everybody.” Her eyes reflected her manic belief.

  “What? Are you crazy?”

  “No. I am not. I know this will work.”

  “You know this will work? How? You will get us all killed!”

  “It… whatever is out there. It told me!” screamed Cristina, her lips pulled back in a grimace as the ship picked up speed and bucked forward like a racehorse released from its paddock.

  ◆◆◆

  The ship skimmed over an unseen surface, and then its direction changed again as it was cast away with enormous force back towards Uranus.

  Cristina watched the speed indicator climb into the red zone. This was so much faster than their engines were capable of pushing the ship. I hope we stay in one piece, she prayed, as G-forces kept her pinned to her seat scarcely able to breathe.

  They zipped towards Uranus, got caught in its gravity and were catapulted again, this time towards Jupiter, two billion million away.

  She could barely see the display through her half-closed eyes, but her mind registered that the ship’s computer had extrapolated their course. They were going back to Earth. Finally, she passed out just like the rest of the crew

  ◆◆◆

  It watched them leave as it resumed its standard position and found a new course for itself to follow. It did not know its own age. Time did not pass the same way for it as for humans. But asked to hazard a guess, it would have said a few billion years. It did not know how it came to be, but it had seen the formation of the solar system. It could see, smell, and observe every change in the solar system. It could capture light and radiation and interpret them. Now, when the humans had come so close, it found that it could sense their emotions and in turn affect those too.

  Over millions of years, it had observed evolution on three planets. On one of them, the third planet, life had progressed faster than on the other two. It was, however, compelled to stay hidden in the farthest reaches of the system. If it tried to come any closer to the planet called Earth, it would have destroyed the delicate forces which held the solar system in gravitational equilibrium. It liked the name the humans had coined for the invisible, mysterious mass which made up much of the Universe and its own self—dark matter. But the humans did not know that it was organic. It was alive.

  ◆◆◆

  Origins

  There are a hundred thousand million stars in the galaxy with new ones being born and older ones dying every day. The galaxy also has countless number of planets. Over the course of billions of years since the Big Bang, across thousands of light years of space, life should have evolved across thousands of planets.

  J’ron had
studied evolution for over three hundred years, working her way through the limitations imposed on her research because her species was isolationist, abhorring contact with other races from other planets. They had not always been so, but having interacted with beings from other planets over thousands of years, they had learnt that though such contact brought them a wealth of knowledge, over time it also brought assorted complications. Handling politics across hundreds of planets meant squandering precious resources in the pursuit of transient peace. After a time, it became easier to deny further associations and be content in their own world. This approach had worked well for her planet for over four centuries.

  J’ron was living in an age of contentment. Resources were plentiful and the people were happy, pursuing arts and leisure. Scientific curiosity was not discouraged, but people of T’ref’ker believed they had discovered everything there was to know about the Universe. There were no more secrets left in physics or chemistry. They could harness limitless clean energy, turn rock into gold at will and had proven that it was impossible to travel through time.

  However, J’ron struggled to come to terms with the final unanswered question of existence. How did life come to be? Science explained the building blocks of living organisms, but it never explained their origins. After centuries of futile search, and with the growth of isolationism, this problem had been largely forgotten. With no means to go back in time, investigating the origins of life had been deemed too difficult after a point and all efforts on this front had been abandoned on T’ref’ker.

  However, J’ron had persevered with her research. She had devoted her adult life to studying all databases and ancient texts regarding contacts with alien races. She drew up a chart of the galaxy mapping every single point where intelligent or basic life had evolved.

  The result was a painstakingly drawn-up map with details of evolution, further classified by time, location and type of civilization among other parameters. Detailed examination had revealed a pattern. There seemed to be a common element, a common point. At first, she had not believed her own findings. Modern people on T’ref’ker had evolved over time from less-intelligent species; this was something even the youngest child on T’ref’ker knew as a given and never questioned. However, her research seemed to point in a different direction, to suggest an alternate origin of life. She had thrown away her notes, refusing to give credence to results that conflicted with such deeply held beliefs. It simply could not be! She had to have made some mistake in her research. Yet, the results had continued to haunt her till, finally, she had returned to her studies once again. It was many years later that she had finally concluded that she had been right. There was a pattern to the origins of life!