by Ryan Frieda
As the creature was moved toward the black hole the animal started ti panic. It cried out and tried to get away. The creature was slowing getting crushed and ripped apart as it got closer and closer to the black hole. The creature cried out in pain as it was changing colors, disappearing and reappearing, and as it's bones became crushed and blood and organs were ripped apart. These were disappearing and reappearing to a flashing blur of clearness.
“What we see here is much like our ability to disappear and reappear but we shift both the way light reacts to our bodies and our bodies to light. In this instance when the creature disappears it is simply because our eyes don't have the receptors to see the correct color and therefore it appears to disappear but in reality is still there.”
Captain Steele looked at the video and wanted to throw up. The animal in the cage struggled to get away but couldn't. Each time the color of the animal would change it would scream. The animal tried to move away from the black hole but to no avail. Captain Steele could hear the bones of the animal being crushed into a million pieces and saw its organs being exploded and imploded with various parts disappearing into a flashing blur. Captain Steele could see the very molecules being ripped apart, changing colors, disappearing in a flash of blur, being crushed and expanding, all as the animal cried out in pain. It reminded him of the atomic bomb videos back on earth, only these were much more dramatic.
“As you can see the black hole ate the animal but did not grow in size. We have yet to find out where the remains went.”
Captain Steele hit play button for the next video hoping to see something not as bad. The next video was even worse. The next video showed the black hole growing unstable and devouring the lab sucking everything into it. The alien scientists broke the same way the animal did, the lab equipment destroyed, with the light being fractured. Scientists tried to run away but got sucked in anyway. The black hole became bigger and bigger with more object being pulled into it.
This video was a compilation of videos; news casts and home videos of families, families with kids.
The black hole grew larger an larger as it consumed more things. It grew so large that eventually buildings were being warped and ripped apart. The sky was changing colors, vehicles were being pulled into the center of the black hole, and people were also being pulled into the center of the black hole before being ripped apart at the molecular level alive. The video showed families trying to hold onto each other only to be torn away before being ripped apart molecule by molecule. Multiple cameras were shown being pulled into the black hole along with buildings and people. The sky would turn green, then blue, then brown, then orange, then red, then black, then it would turn into a flashing blur only to return to the normal color. You could hear kids screaming for their parents and parents screaming for their kids. The camera showed whole multitudes of creatures being torn apart at the molecule level along with the changing light.
The video then showed the ground breaking. The black hole was sucking whole tectonic plates into it. Whole mountains where being pulled in, continents were being destroyed. Space ships tried to escape the black holes gravitational pull but were pulled into it. Videos were shown of people in space ships panicking. They grabbed for police weapons and killed others and themselves. They broke windows of the ships in hopes of letting the vacuum of space kill them before the black hole. Families of hopeful people that were evacuating were being murdered by frantic people destroying the space ships.
The video then showed the planet's core being ripped apart, molten lava becoming rock hard as it entered the cold vacuum of space. It showed the atmosphere of the next planet being pulled away from the planet. A lot families were lucky to suffocate from the lack of breathable air while freezing to death. Most families were not so lucky. Most families were pulled away from the planet with the atmosphere intact, much like in a bubble. The black hole's gravitational pull was just enough to keep the atmosphere intact in small bubbles, just enough for people to have enough air to breath as they froze on their way to be torn apart alive. Those families screamed helplessly.
The star of that system was being pulled into the black hole. The plasma of the star was burning and melting planets as it was pulled towards the black hole. The video showed families pointing at the sun as the sun was pulled in the direction of their planet. It then showed families being melted alive-but not before being set on fire as the plasma of the star came near their planet. The planets were being broken apart as it was being burned and melted. Whole mountains were burning and melting into liquid because of the star's plasma as they were being torn apart by the black hole.
As the black hole devoured planet after planet, star after star, there was mass panic across the galaxy.
Then the same video showed a group of scientists creating another black hole at the other end of the galaxy hoping to learn how to control it. That ultimately failed which lead to them unleashing two black holes upon their own galaxy.
Captain Steele sat there and watched the video for several hours before it came to an end before he threw up on the ground next to him. He had seen people melted, burned alive, vaporized, electrocuted, murdered, slaughtered, all innocent people, but he has never seen such gross negligence on such a scale.
“The fear in their eyes...”
“There is another you need to see John.”
Captain Steele pressed play one last time.
It showed a large group of people in the middle of the galaxy building something large. As he looked closer he released it was the object he was just on. It had lots of details on how to construct it. The creatures constructing it called it an ark. When it was completed, armed guards were around it and large armored vehicles were there as well. Several different creatures went onto the object then a large mass of several different creatures ran toward the object before all the armed personal guarding it opened fire on them slaughtering them in the streets.
Captain Steele looked at those going into the object and he noticed a creature similar to the large creature he had fought entering it. He also noticed creatures that looked just like the various diagrams he saw on the object entering it. After they entered it multiple armed personal deserted and ran toward the ark. One of the creatures like the one that Captain Steele fought ran out the door and tackled many of them and held off about 100 armed personal as the ark took off. The large creature took out several large armored vehicles as well.
The ark took off outside their galaxy with the mission to wait out the black holes path. After several millennium of observing their galaxy the engines were sabotaged which catapulted it at FTL speeds to an unknown location. The engines exploded as they were in FTL speeds causing massive damage to the ship and the creatures on board. They started to run out of resources and entered sleeper pods in hopes to be revived by another culture. They remained there for several hundred million years.
“If they were in sleeper pods when we entered the ship what was watching me?” asked Captain Steele.
“It is unknown, however, the long sleep in the sleeper pods drove them mad.”
“Well, I'm glad I got to kill one. With the freaking retards thinking they could control a black hole after loosing control of one and all.”
“I'm glad you see it that way.”
“I'm glad I got an awesome trophy out of it too. The guys in my squad would have killed for something like that.”
Captain Steele put his feet up on his desk and leaned back enjoying the thought that he was now the best of the best of two galaxies and was looking forward to it being three if need be.
Captain Steele woke up and walked over to the cargo hold to check on the equipment. He checked all the spare parts, the parts for the Instant Teleportation Device, the robot aids for building the gate in his old age, and all the other miscellaneous things.
“Jamie these robot aids are supposed to do what again?”
“When we reach the Overlapping Galaxies you will be very old. They are to help you build th
e gate by gathering parts and handing them to you. This should cut down on travel time to and from the ship which will help you not be so tired.”
“Why didn't they just send them on their way without me?”
“Because they can not build a good enough gate that will make at least one indefinite safe transport through it. They may be able to build an unstable gate that is able to have three ships pass through it but the probability of the gate breaking is very high. Last time a gate was destroyed while a ship was in transit through it the ship was lost. No one knows what happened to it.”
“That's right I forgot. It's been so long since I've started this mission that I forgot about some of this crap. By the way, did you know that there is a cheese grater back here? I could have used this like 5 years ago.”
Captain Steele then walked over to the kitchen. He prepared himself some bacon and eggs and made some waffles. After making his food he walked over to the recreational room decided to watch a movie. He wanted something good, something action packed. After finding a good over the top movie he sat down and ate his breakfast while watching the movie. He was only a few years into his assignment but life was good. He poured some more syrup on his waffles and ate them. He took the bacon and dipped it into the remaining syrup.
Life was good. He had some good food, a nice place to live, an awesome assignment, and an epic trophy, that decked out his epic manship. Every day he woke up he would walk over to the dead creature and just smile knowing that he had had the best fight of his life. He knew that he could take on a creature so advanced in it's evolution that it bends the rules of time and space, a creature that was at the top of the universe's food chain, a creature so advanced that mankind would not be able to kill it with it's current technology for another 10,000 years, yet he did it by himself. And he had the awesome video footage of how he brought it down. He knew that the video sent back to the Milky Way would be the number one video in all of galactic space for a long time to come.
The video was probably picked apart by some wannabe critic who couldn't believe such a creature could live or that a human could take it down. It didn't matter though, the point is he kicked it's ass.
“Jamie, pull up that video of me kicking that thing's ass.”
As Jamie pulled open the video, Captain Steele kept thinking how he would love to fight it again. He wondered if he could bring it back to life and kill it again for fun.
“Jamie, any chance I can bring that thing back to life and kill it again?”
“Certainly not! Even if you could bring it back to life I would not tell you how to.”
“Okay okay. Just thought I would ask.”
Captain Steele wasn't a scientist but he thought he would ask the most technological Artificial Intelligence in the universe anyway. Now that he thought about it he wondered why there were no scientists brought along with him. He was trained for the science stuff, but he was a solider. He followed orders and didn't really think about quantum physics.
“Jamie, why am I the only one on this mission? Why not have scientists?”
“They needed a soldier. They needed someone who would follow orders and not hesitate. The survival rate was calculated at an astounding less than 0%. If they hired scientists they would realize this, and automatically theorize that the mission was impossible. A soldier who followed orders and who did not fear death and had stared death in the eyes and fought it off was the only one who could do this. They trained you for the science part of the job because only a soldier with the will to fight and desire to follow orders was the only person who could complete the mission.
“No one knows what is out here. Only a well trained soldier could survive what unknown horrors await out here. They need someone who has always thought, but acted without a second's hesitation. With the amount of resources and risk going into this mission only a soldier could do it.”
“What do you mean 'at an astounding less than 0%'?” Captain Steele asked.
“Your five DSSM suits make this extremely costly. Not to mention the facilities on this ship. Then there is food, scientific gear, cost of building materials for the ship, fuel, and me. It all adds up to a cost that will impact Earth. Not to mention the Instant Teleportation Device you have in the back of the ship. If you fail this mission all of mankind has a 75% chance of going bankrupt. The odds are you will fail and the galactic economy will die as mankind's economy dies.”
“Great, no pressure at all,” Captain Steele said, “But why am I the only one? Couldn't they send me with someone else?”
“No. The costs would be increased to an unacceptable level. The cost of failure would be 90% chance instead of the current 75% chance of galactic economy collapse. The odds are 100% that you will fail. The money spent on this mission caused an incredible debt that will cause serious problems on a galactic scale. If you successfully complete your mission that will increase exponentially the amount of money being exchanged because of the exploration that will happen. This will causes the deficit to be fixed in five years after you complete your mission.”
“But this mission is like 150 years or so. 150 years of deficit only to be fixed in five if I succeed?”
“Yes John, you will be a hero. Your face will be on lunchboxes.”
“Awesome. I'm on a lunchbox because of a suicide mission. You really expect me to believe that second part about economic collapse?”
“No. It was a joke. The real reason is because they couldn't risk having two people talk each other out of it. It was possible to have two, but the chance of failure went up. The odds are already 0% and if odds for failure went up whatever calculation error in the success of the mission with one person, would mean indefinite failure with two.”
“That part I do believe. Your getting better at jokes Jamie. Now play back the part of me killing that creature again.”
Captain Steele watched the video several times knowing Jamie was probably lying but he didn't really care at the moment. He watched the video again before getting up and working out. After that he played a game with Jamie, then worked out some more, then ran some tests on the things he collected from the object, then watched a movie and went to bed. As he laid there he wondered what other treasures he would find out into the void.
General Vaas was getting ready for another press conference about mankind's plans. Most humans had it hard and they hadn't even picked a candidate for the mission yet. Captain Steele was looking like the best one but there was still a ways to go. Everyone was still in training. Every since the press conference with NASA and the plan to move to another galaxy humans were ostracized. Lots even lost there job. Several hateful bandwagons were created and the many races jumped on them. They were taking everything out of context. Humans were seen as hateful, destructive, warmongering, even evil. Some, however, saw humans as thoughtful, creative, ingenious, even as saviors. But most saw the first option.
General Vaas saw the way things were and knew it was going to happen. Not to the degree that it did, but he knew it would happen. Jobs in the galactic fields such as the medical field, law enforcement, customer services, and even in sales saw mass firings in the human population, but fields such as lawyers, scientists, the military, and even the arts industry sky rocketed. Most people didn't trust humans but some commended humans for their ability to think outside the box and come up with new solutions. Humans who had profitable businesses hired humans first before the others races for help because of the mass discrimination. This just increased the problem.
The galaxy saw a schism. Humans verses every other race. Some people were quick to judge, but others to advocate.
General Vaas stood there and answered questions at the press conference. He stood their as they hurdled questions and insults at him.
“You want to move to another galaxy and suck their resources dry? What if other races live in that galaxy?”
General Vaas knew that people were going to be angry with mankind's plan on how to solve the resource problem. He knew tha
t as soon as NASA's president made that press conference that mankind would be ridiculed. He just wished that the mission would begin already so that he wouldn't have to see the ridicule he was getting. General Vaas also knew that until the mission was finished mankind was going continue to be ridiculed.
“Let me make something very clear here,” General Vaas said, “All other races are creating more resourceful ways to harvest resources. Mankind is too. However, that still does not solve the problem of us running out of resources. One race is finding way to harvest the gravity of protostars so they can then turn it into energy, another to collecting the energy of the black hole in the center of our galaxy. We are looking for alternatives as well but no matter what we do, or how long we prolong our use of these resources we will still have to leave our galaxy within the next several millennium to completely stop the problem. That is why we need to leave.”
“What about if the next galaxy has races living on them? Are we going to kill them?”
“We will cooperate with them to make sure they do not put their selves in our current situation-”
“What if their civilized and not primitive? What if they don't want our help? What if they are already running dry of resources themselves?”
“Mankind has been watching this galaxy for a long time. We know that resources are plentiful based on the signals the galaxy sends out indicating a strong presence of newer planets and stars.”
“What if the races of that galaxy are not happy with our intrusion? You think they will just sit back and let us waltz in?”
General Vaas knew what almost everyone else didn't know. He knew that there was no advanced civilized life in the Overlapping Galaxies. No spacefaring race existed in the Overlapping Galaxies that could go between solar systems. Humans had been watching it for a very very long time. Mankind had developed some powerful technologies that would bring a lot of fear to the galaxy if they knew about them.