Black Hole Oblivion

by Kumar L

  “Now we need to restart the fusion generators. Take me to the main station. Centre of the room.”

  S12 worked rapidly under her instructions to get one fusion generator started up.

  “I want to thank you for coming to my assistance. I couldn’t have done this without you,” she said as she waited for the robot to finish its work.

  “That is not necessary. I was just following orders. This is my duty.”

  “You may have just helped save this ship and ninety-six humans. Duty or not, the crew of Antariksh may owe their lives to you.” With the environment controls up, she allowed herself a sigh of relief. “What does the energy indicator show?”

  “Twenty percent of capacity.”

  “That’s good enough. You can initiate the start-up sequence now to bring the ships controls online.”

  The robot figured out the sequence to be followed.

  “So, how is it, R12, that you were not impaired by our last trip through the white hole? The entire crew and every system on this ship was affected.”

  “I really could not answer that question, but it may have something to do with the fact that the Colonel disconnected me from the central server and placed me in full autonomous mode. I turned off my power supply when we entered the hole and went into unitary status. That means completely inert. Perhaps that protected my circuits?”

  “Lucky for us. Okay, how’s the M-AM fuel chamber?”

  “45% matter, 15% antimatter. Holding steady.”

  “Say again? 15% antimatter? That’s not possible!”

  “It says so right here. 15%,” S12 confirmed.

  The Lord taketh away and the Lord giveth back. Anara said a silent prayer. They had fuel, it did not matter how.

  ◆◆◆

  The bright lights of the dome revealed a different sight than earlier. Some of the crew had woken up. They sat holding their heads, their legs dangling over the sides of their capsules. Sounds of people in pain filled the room. But they were awake. The effects of the transit through the white hole seemed to be passing.

  S12 described the scene to her and led her to where Ryan was sitting on the floor. He looked up as they approached.

  “Looks like we made it out, Captain, but you look like something the cat dragged in. What happened to you?” He looked drawn out. His eyes seemed to be sunken yet as sharp as ever.

  “A little bit of this and a little bit of that, Ryan.” She reached out and found his hands, squeezing them tight. He stood up with her support and pulled her into an embrace. She held him close. It felt good.

  “It’s probably inappropriate for senior officers to embrace in full public view.”

  “I don’t care. I am ready to hug every person on the crew, including the Colonel. Just don’t tell him that.” She giggled at the thought. “It has been a rough day, but I’m glad to have you back. How’re you doing?”

  “Much better, actually. I don’t know what happened to me. My mind just snapped.” Ryan shook his head, as if to dispel a fog, and shivered. “I don’t remember much of what happened, only that I was in a really dark place. I could not think clearly. Something seemed to be screeching inside my brain. It felt as if it would explode. I lost total control. I felt as if my mind was being torn from my body. My body was on fire. I believe I screamed? Scary as hell.” His voice reduced to a whisper. “I… I thought I was going to die.”

  Anara stroked his arm, comforting him. He gained strength from that small gesture.

  “But I am back now, so let’s get this sorted out and figure out the next steps. Give me a few minutes and then you can brief me fully. In the meantime, let me just check on our people. If they have suffered what I have, they will need help. You wait here. I will be back.” He walked off purposefully, gaining strength with each stride. There was work to be done and people to be cared for. Just come out of forced coma and yet thinking first about the people under his command. In the past many years of preparations and the last two missions, she had understood his quiet strength and his mental toughness. Anara was proud of him.

  ◆◆◆

  Just about an hour later, having organised care for the people still in need of it, Ryan found his way back to Anara, who was now surrounded by a few members of the crew. From the tone of their words floating toward him and the smiling faces, he gathered that the crew was recovering rapidly and enjoying their respite from the hellish events of the last few days. He himself felt stronger with every passing minute. The conversation stopped at his approach.

  “Ok, folks. Back to your stations. I need your Captain back in command,” he ordered, smiling. As the crew broke away, he took Anara gently by her elbow. “You’re going to see the Doc now. We need to get those eyes checked again, and also see if there are any residual effects of our journey through the white hole.”

  They walked slowly, Ryan acknowledging the greetings of the crew they met on the way, on her behalf. S12 followed behind them.

  “What’s our status?” she asked.

  “We have almost forty percent power back on. I’ve asked Madhavan to hold it at those levels till we decide our next course of action. Systems are coming back online.”

  “And the crew?” She asked the dreaded question. “How many more have we lost?”

  Ryan did not reply immediately.

  “The Doc is checking on them right now. We may have been fortunate since most of us were strapped into the capsules, including your truly. We still have three people in coma, but most of the others have recovered.”

  Anara said a silent prayer of thanks.

  “Except you, of course. The ones who had lost their sight earlier have recovered partial vision. Doc wants to check why it is different with you.”

  “Yes, about that. There is something you need to know.” She told him everything.

  ◆◆◆

  Dr Khan sat Anara down and started his work. Ryan had explained to him what Anara had admitted to have done. He was seething with anger at her irresponsible behaviour and had finally exploded, spending quite a few minutes telling her his opinion in the choicest of words. Eventually spent he had managed to calm down enough to become clinical.

  “I will be checking out your corneas, retina and optic nerve and we’ll check out your brain centre—the occipital lobe, okay? I’ll compare the results against the previous tests I’d done and against the baseline tests conducted when you came on board. Then let’s see if we can find a cure. You’ll have to be patient.” He chuckled at his pun. “I really don’t know what you were thinking.”

  “I know, Doc and believe me no one is more sorry than I am. It will not happen again.” She managed to keep a straight face while the Doctor shook his head in exasperation.

  “Ryan? You still there?” Anara called out.

  “Yep. Right by your side.”

  “Who’s in Ops?”

  “Manisha, the Colonel, Narada. Everything’s under control. Don’t worry.”

  “Have you figured out where we landed up this time?”

  “First thing I checked. We are back in normal space. Our normal, run-of-the-mill universe.”

  Anara smiled in elation. We are back! We’ve escaped another nightmare.

  Ryan patted her shoulder. “Yeah, we can start plotting our next course.”

  Dr Khan came back and started checking her eyes. All that these astronauts could think of is their next adventure. He continued his examination. A couple of minutes later, he put down his instrument and sighed. “Just like last time. There is nothing wrong with your eyes physiologically.” He attached a small apparatus to her forehead, then turned to a workstation to monitor the signals. He muttered to himself. “Completely mental. Incredibly irresponsible and… and…”

  “Stupid?” she offered, meekly.

  “Yes, stupid!” He glared at Ryan, his good humour evaporating, as if holding him responsible for her stupidity. “Now sit still and let me work.”

  Anara wanted to smile but restrained herself. She changed tack
. “Ryan? How’re you holding up?”

  “Uh,” he glanced around to check if anyone else was in earshot, then leaned closer to her. “Quite shaken up, to tell the truth. That time when I collapsed, was one of the worst experiences of my life. I would not want to go through that ever again.” He held her hand and squeezed, “But it’s over now. We’re safe.”

  “Are we, Ryan? Are we really safe? The black hole is still out there, right on the solar system’s doorstep.” It was now her turn. As she accepted the reality her mood changed just like the Doctor’s. She was quiet for a moment, but then anger welled up, too strong to contain. “You know, for a time back in there it felt as if the entire universe was conspiring against me. Me, personally! I questioned my choices. I questioned every decision I had made. We took a step forward and two back. There were new obstacles whichever way we turned! We barely made it, Ryan. Barely! And we lost a few good people on the way.”

  “Calm down, Captain,” he said urgently, squeezing her hand reassuringly. He glanced around but no one else seemed to be paying attention to the two of them. “Calm down, please.”

  Dr Khan walked over. “Everything all right?”

  Ryan nodded. “We’re fine.” He grinned and added, “She didn’t like that you called her stupid.”

  Anara frowned at Ryan, then said to the doctor. “What I did was foolish and as I told you I am genuinely sorry.”

  Dr Khan dismissed her apology. At least she is alive. “All right then,” he said. “There is nothing wrong with your brain's ability to interpret the signals being transmitted by the optic nerve. You were right, it just seems as if the signals are being scrambled somewhere along the way. I need some time to figure out what should be my next course of action. I have enough data on hand now. You are free to go for now.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Nothing more I can do, unless you want me to hook you up to a prosthesis? I won’t recommend that. I still believe we can restore your sight. Okay with you?”

  “Sure, Doc, whatever you say. Help me up please, Ryan.”

  ◆◆◆

  “About what you said earlier,” started Ryan as they walked down the corridor to Ops, “it would be supremely arrogant to assume the universe is interested in punishing a single individual. I don’t believe you are arrogant, Captain, and no one is out to get you. Everyone on this ship has gone through trauma, and you have saved them all. The black hole, the baby universe, even Rawat’s death—none of it was your fault. You have done well. I believe in you, but I also need you to stop beating yourself up and focus on getting better and completing this mission.”

  He is right.

  “Yeah. I have been bitter. There will be more to come our way. So might as well buckle up and be prepared, right?” She gave his arm a small squeeze. He was her closest friend and ally.

  I can work through this.

  29

  The Causal Loop

  "Good thing you can’t see the state of the ship right now,” laughed Ryan.

  “That bad, huh?”

  “Yeah. Remember all that pain you put us through—cleanliness, organisation, efficiency? Well, I’m happy to report all that is out of the window for the next few days till we settle down again. Commander’s orders. But seriously, we can’t afford to release people to clean up right now. There are much more critical things to be dealt with first.”

  He guided her inside Ops. “Just don’t move around too much and step over this part carefully. There you go.” He made frantic motions to Manisha to clear out some of the debris lying conspicuously around. The Colonel smiled at the little pantomime show. He was the only other person in Ops besides Manisha.

  “Walk me through the status report, Manisha,” Anara ordered. It is good to be back in my chair like it’s just a normal day. “Where did the white hole drop us?”

  “Uh. We are around one AU away from our last noted position outside the event horizon. Looks like the white hole spewed us out more or less on our previous course.”

  “Your analysis, Ryan?”

  “Depends on which news you want to hear first. The good, the bad or the ugly?”

  “Three options? Even ugly? We are still not catching a break, are we? Alright then, let’s start with the good.”

  “Antariksh is in pretty decent shape, all things considered. We have sufficient power and Madhavan is confident of getting the main engines online in a day or two. He also figured out that the antimatter tanks were not really emptied out when we entered the black hole. Our sensors must have been unable to detect the particle levels.”

  “The sensors malfunctioned? That’s it? All of them? At the same time?”

  “Yeah, it would seem so. In any case, the antimatter did not mysteriously reappear on our return. However, a bulk of it drained out due to reasons unknown, probably leakages from the emergency purge manifolds, and since the space outside already had antimatter, our particles just mingled with the rest. In normal space, that much particle leakage would most likely have destroyed us. All of this possibly happened within the first few minutes of us entering the baby universe.”

  Anara considered this. The emergency purge conduits were used to expel antimatter fuel from the M-AM drive into space outside the EM shield in case of loss of the magnetic fields which kept the particles suspended in vacuum. “I’m not convinced, but if Madhavan believes that is what happened, then we should see what he uncovers. Tell him to keep digging.”

  “Will do,” said Ryan. “Now to the bad. The black hole. It’s still out there. We have been able to take some measurements on the basis of the gravitational lensing, and it is more or less the same size as when we entered it.”

  “And the ugly?”

  Her crewmembers looked at one another.

  “We seem to have been thrown back in time. The on-board chronometers are off by twenty-seven hours. We checked our position against known star chart markers and locations. The last location buoy we left just outside the Oort cloud? Its chronometer reads twenty-seven hours, nine minutes ahead of us.”

  “Twenty-seven hours...” Anara said. “Isn’t that...”

  Ryan nodded. “About the same time that we seem to have spent in the baby universe.”

  “Imaginary time,” said Anara, with a flash of understanding.

  “Yeah. When we were inside the baby universe, we actually moved into what physicists call imaginary time, which runs perpendicular to real time. And now that we have come back and joined the real timeline, we are almost at the same instant as when we entered the event horizon.”

  “So, time for us continued to run as we perceived it—linearly. But outside, here in normal space, time flowed on a different path.” Another physical theory proven. Imaginary time is not actually imaginary or merely a mathematical property. It exists, if only in another dimension. “We did not time travel, right? We just sort of stepped off our normal time onto another path, and now we are back.”

  “You’re right,” agreed Ryan. “However much time we may have spent inside the baby universe, outside it was less than an instant. That might also explain why, while we humans remember every detail of our little jaunt, there is no data in any of our recorders of the entire journey starting from the instant we entered the hole till we came out. Every single record is blank. I suspect that is because time continued to flow linearly in our minds, but the instruments can’t work in imaginary time.”

  It took a minute for Manisha to process this. “Are you saying we have no way of proving we were inside a different dimension except our own collective memory?”

  “Yes,” said Ryan, “and not just that, it means that others may enter a wormhole in the future using our methods, but they will never be able to bring back any data, any images. Ever. Except, as you say, their collective human memories. The perfect vacation spot, if you ask me. No one will waste time on cameras!”

  “Even so, how can we have moved back in time?” asked Anara.

  “Theoretically, the stronger the gra
vity, the slower time moves for an object. As we entered the event horizon, time slowed down for us as compared to an observer who was outside the event horizon. I am guessing that when we exited the white hole and away from its gravity, time speeded up, bringing us where we are, at exactly a moment before we entered the event horizon in the first place.” Ryan’s mind was clearing up. He was ready to tackle these multiple mysteries of physics.

  Manisha’s eyes widened. “But that would mean…”

  Ryan nodded grimly. “That means there are two of us in this space and time right now. Two Antarikshs and two of every one of us on the ship.”

  ◆◆◆

  There was a long moment of stunned silence in Ops.

  Finally, Ryan spoke in a soft voice. “We have not shared this data with the crew. You and the Ops team are the only ones who know about this.”

  Anara shook her head. “You were not kidding. This is really ugly.”

  “I don’t understand why you call this ugly,” Manisha interjected. “I mean, let’s just get over there and tell the… the other Antariksh to back off. If they don’t enter the black hole, then none of this would ever happen, right?”

  “It’s not that simple, Manisha,” said Anara. She collected her thoughts. How do I make time paradox explanations simple? “Do you remember your temporal mechanics classes? Grandfather’s paradox? Right? The Colonel may not.” She turned a little. “You see, there is a thought experiment. Suppose you were to invent a time machine, then you go back in time and kill your own grandfather. That means you will not be born in the future. If you are not born, then how can you invent a time machine and go back in time to kill your grandfather? So, your grandfather stays alive. Which means you will be born and go back in time. Ad infinitum.”

  “Wha—? That doesn’t even make any sense!” Fraser exclaimed.

  “Lots of things about temporal mechanics or time travel don’t make sense. Classical physics is simple—every cause has an effect. But in relativistic terms, cause and effect may not flow in one direction. The effect can precede the cause if information travels faster than the speed of light. That is why we travel inside our dome whenever Antariksh accelerates beyond the speed of light,” explained Ryan. “In simple words we cannot assume that our actions in this time will not disrupt the normal flow of events.”