Into The Void

by Ryan Frieda

  “Jamie what is our exact location?” Captain Steele asked while moving toward the engine.

  “En route to the Overlapping Galaxies.”

  “And what year might it be?”

  “The year is 4130, standard Milky Way Year. Why John?”

  “Because I'm looking at a green colored start vibrating violently.”

  “A green colored star? Such things don't exist.”

  “Yeah? Well I'm looking at one,” Captain Steele said.

  “I'll scan when were out of here,” Jamie said.

  “I'll just keep repairing this ship then. Keep me protected.”

  Captain Steele worked around the ship. He could see lightning all around him. Jamie was doing the best she could trying to keep the lightning from striking him by rotating the ship so that lightning would strike it instead.

  Every time the ship was hit with lightning Captain Steele could feel the electricity move across the metal hull. Each time it hit him it hurt. The pain was the worst where his leg had been blown off. He kept releasing spare pipes to use as lightning rods. The lightning would strike them then jump to the ship. He knew this was a very, very, very dangerous situation.

  Captain Steele was not only trying to dodge lightning strikes, but remove external parts of the engine while it was still in use. That was a very dangerous situation without the lightning. It was generally not allowed under most standard operating procedures except in extreme emergencies. If they turned the engines off the ship would not be able to properly rotating as needed to help dodge the lightning strikes and it would make him even more likely to be struck. Without the ship rotating he would be like a tall tree in the middle of a flat plain during a thunderstorm. Except the storm wouldn't be above him, but it would all around him in every direction, including directly to his left, right, and below him.

  Captain Steele was removing the blockages and then used them as lightning rods. Each time lightning struck one it would cause a blinding flash nearby and caused the object to explode. After removing one piece of blockage from the far left bottom engine he started to replace the gimbal. The gimbal was a ball and socket joint that allowed for the rotation of an object along a single axis. It essentially helped keep the engine in place and accounted for the shaking of the engines during times of extreme thrust. Without it, part of the ship's engines would be broken off.

  For Captain Steele to remove one he need that section of the engine to be off. If it was off it would make the ship harder to maneuver but as long as the rest of the engines stayed on the ship could maneuver.

  “Jamie, turn the far bottom left engine off.”

  Captain Steele saw the bottom left engine turn off then went an reached into the hull of the engine where the gimbal was. He tethered the external part of the engine to the ship with some cables and removed the broken gimbal, replaced the gimbal, then reattached the engine.

  “That's one down Jamie. Were solid to use it again.”

  Captain Steele crawled along the ship's hull again back to the hole where he could grab more parts. He reached the hole and entered in and floated to the storage area. He grabbed some more parts and headed back out. His Geiger Counter was off the charts. He slowly moved along the ship's hull back toward the engine. He came near the back end of the ship when a bolt of lightning struck right in front of him. The bolt jumped and struck him straight in the helmet.

  Captain Steele felt the intense heat all over his body, felt his heart stop pumping, heard ringing in his ears, and tingling in his fingers and toes. He came to a second later. He quickly oriented himself and grabbed back onto the ship.

  “Jamie! That was too close.”

  “I'm trying John!”

  Captain Steele moved back to the engines. He started to get near the top left engine nozzle when another bolt of lightning struck near him causing similar effects on him. He came to and grabbed the ship. He knew he had to get back inside. Each time the lightning struck it left strong traces of radiation. He was essentially swimming in a pool of radioactive electricity while working with plasma fire.

  Captain Steele saw the top left engine turn off and he started to work on replacing the nozzle. He had to completely let go of it and let it float freely in space. As soon as he let it go it was struck by lightning causing it to explode. He started to replace the nozzle when he noticed that one of the connectors holding the four sides together was broken.

  “Great...” Captain Steele thought.

  Captain Steele was going to need to go back into the ship to grab another. He left this one out where it was, partially attached to the ship.

  “How can a star be green Jamie?”

  “It is most likely the heat of the star. It would have to be at an astronomical level. The higher the heat of the star the whiter they become. Why it is green is odd. We have never noticed such a star and nothing like that exists in the Milky Way or any other galaxy that we know of. It's temperature would have to theoretically be over 250,000 Calvin, or 629,540 degrees Fahrenheit. It would be the first ever Population 3 star discovered. Those are thought to have died out shortly after the Big Bang,” Jamie said.

  “The Population 3 stars have never been observed. They are only thought to exist because some elements that could not have been created during the big bang are seen in the emission spectra of quasars. A quasar is matter that is shot out of a super massive black hole at the center of a galaxy. A super massive black hole is required to make a quasar, and because a super massive black hole would require a very large star to collapse so it could become a black hole, it is theorized that some of these super massive black holes were once older stars that ran out of fuel and collapsed causing them to be the super massive black hole we see today,” Jamie said.

  “So in layman's terms, black holes are just really large stars that have died and these elements that are found in their quasars mean they are also found at the centers of every super massive black hole. So because of that, super massive black holes must have been around for a long time and because they have been around for a long time it means that they might have been the first stars in the universe. Am I in the general area?” Captain Steele asked while climbing around the ship.

  “Yes. You seem to be reaching but that answer will work for me,” Jamie replied.

  “Well why didn't you put it like that?” Captain Steele said.

  Captain Steele entered the ship and went to the storage area to see if there were any spare parts that would hold the pieces together better. He looked around and didn't find any. He grabbed the next set of repair parts he needed and headed out.

  “If that's the case, why is this star out here?” Captain Steele asked.

  “It may be that these Population 3 stars still exist. Stars that are very hot are difficult to detect because their color is sometimes shown in ultraviolet rays. Ultraviolet rays are often invisible to the human eye, so the only way to detect them is by pinpoint scanning the night sky looking for certain light waves. Sometimes ultraviolet light can appear as a whiteish violet color when your close to it. My theory is that these Population 3 stars are shooting out so much ultraviolet light that they are shooting out ultraviolet light rays at a much higher frequency than what we are using to look for them. I bet if we move away from the star it would change colors until it no longer becomes visible. We could only then detect it by finding it's ultraviolet rays,” Jamie said.

  “Yeah, sounds like a blast. Next problem, why is it- wait, did you say that these could form black holes?” Captain Steele asked.

  “In theory it is possible,” Jamie said.

  “I don't like this at all. The star also looks like its vibrating. Any idea what this means Jamie?”

  There was a long pause on the com.

  “Jamie?”

  “The star could be collapsing,” Jamie finally whispered.

  “Collapsing? Like dying? Like going supernova? Like going super massive black hole supernova!?”

  “Yes...” Jamie replied.

>   “Well fu-”

  “Hurry John!” Jamie said.

  “I'm moving as fast as I can.”

  Captain Steele got back to the engine. He continued to repair the engine as fast as he could. He removed another nozzle as lightning struck next to him and jumped to him. He wasn't sure how much more he could take of that. He climbed back in the nozzle to fix another gimbal. He removed and detached the engine and had cables hold it onto the ship while he replaced the gimbal. Just as he pulled it out the star let out a terrible shock wave from its quake. His suit picked it up with the force of 25 gigatons of energy released: equivalent to a Hydrogen bomb.

  The star quake caused the energy to fly out in all directions striking the ship and Captain Steele. Captain Steele was hit causing him to rocket around inside the engine nozzle. He was about to be ricocheted from where he was working when he was able to grab hold of something. His DSSM was able to help him hold on to it. He knew he needed to get the ship in top gear and get the heck out of here. He quickly moved onto reattaching the engine. He then looked at the star and tried to time its waves for the next pulse. He tethered himself to the ship and braced for another impact.

  Captain Steele saw the star quiver again and it released another quake of a slightly bigger magnitude. The ship was jolted around and he hung on to the ship by flying around by the tether, with lightning bolts striking all around him. When the ship stabilized he grabbed on to it, untethered himself and started to climb around the ship. He crawled fast and made it into the ship. Only one more engine and they would be out of there.

  “Get ready Jamie. When this next one is good to go we are pushing the engines hard. We can't be anywhere near this star when it goes supernova. If we even survive the explosion the gravity of the black hole it creates will swallow us.”

  “Only one engine to go John. Engines could reach 75% maximum speed.”

  “We need 200% Jamie. That's minimum. What else do I need to do to help get them to 200%?”

  “The coolant and plasma drive need repairs.”

  Captain Steele looked out the hole in the hull at the star and waited for another quake. He didn't know how many times the star would quake before it went supernova but if he was climbing around the ship when it hit it would send him flying into the storm. He saw that it was about to quake and he prepared himself. The quake hit but the result wasn't nearly as bad being inside the ship. He quickly exited the ship and started to climb around as lightning hit the ship. He removed the blockages, fixed the nozzle, electrical systems, and started to head inside one of the main burners to work on the coolant. He detached himself from the ship, fixed the engine and started to move back towards the hole he had made when the star gave a quake- one that didn't match the pattern he had been relying on. The quake hit the ship with close to 1 teraton of TNT. Several million times stronger than what was used on Japan at the end of World War 2. He felt the impact like a bug getting hit by a freight train. It cracked his ribs, tore organs, and cause internal bleeding. His suit tried to remedy what it could.

  Captain Steele lost his grip and was flown off into the storm. He used his DSSM's zero g flight system to try and stabilize his flight path. He could see lightning flashes and bolts everywhere. He was flying at a speed of mach 15, trying to navigate his way past lightning bolts and around in zero g. He could see his ship quickly fading away. He turned his body and used his zero g flight system to navigate his way back to the ship. He was flying too fast for the lightning to reach out and onto him but he still had to worry about flying into a bolt that was already shot out of the storm.

  Captain Steele knew that Newton's 2nd Law of Motion stated that an object in motion stayed in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. He knew that if he kept moving fluidly he wouldn't loose much speed. If he was careful how he moved he could continue to dodge lightning bolts and make it back to his ship. He continued to fly back towards his ship, but he flew right past it. He tried turning around by making a wide upside down loop followed by a swooping downward motion but missed again. This was a lot harder than he remembered.

  The star let out another quake causing his momentum to be thrown about. Captain Steele had to compensate for it for a minute before he was able to glide through space without loosing speed. He again tried to loop to his ship and missed. He knew he was going to need to just hit his ship hard enough blow a massive hole in it to get into it. He slowed his speed by making some tight turns and slowed himself down. He then went for a wide upward loop and a quick turn downward. His ship approached with incredible speed. He slowed down as much as he could by using his zero g flight system.

  “Ten seconds to impact,” He told Jamie.

  Captain Steele braced for impact. He looked at the star again and could tell it was about to quake again. If it did, he would be propelled toward his ship at such a speed it would shear him and his ship in half.

  “Five!”

  Captain Steele slowed his decent more. He knew if he slowed down too much he would get hit with lightning but if he went too fast it would do serious and irreparable damage to the ship.

  “Two!”

  Captain Steele slowed his decent to as slow as he could go and still breach the ship's hull. He could see his DSSM systems reacting to a preemptive lightning strike, which means the lightning is about to strike him.

  “One!”

  Captain Steele saw the ship right below him. He looked up and could see the outline of a black bolt of lightning coming right for him. He felt his feet hit the hull of the ship, and the heat of the lightning strike him. As he entered the ship, the bolt of lightning jumped to the ship's metal hull, but not before he hit most of the electricity. His DSSM shot the bolt of lightning straight up and he felt himself hit the floor of the ship. His suit started to melt to his flesh. He hit the floor of his ship hard with enough force to break his one remaining leg. The DSSM suit's system was having a hard time dealing with the bolt of lightning that it struggled to deal with anything else.

  Captain Steele's DSSM's neutron star fiber flew off from the combined force of lightning and him entering his ship with such force. The lightning bolt's energy caused him to black out, his heart to stop, his right ear drum to burst, and burns throughout his suit. His suit gave him a shock call and awoke him.

  “Punch it Jamie!” Captain Steele yelled.

  Jamie pushed the ship's engines into 125%. The ship's engines kicked it into high gear just as the star set out another quake. The ship entered FTL drive just before the blast hit causing the ship to just miss the shock wave from the star quake. Jamie took several more scans as they flew away, then transported Captain Steele to the med bay for yet another surgery.

  Chapter 18

  Annihilation

  Captain John Steele awoke from surgery.

  “How long was I out this time?” Captain Steele asked Jamie as he looked himself over.

  “Only one day,” Jamie replied.

  “That's good. It's also nice to have my leg back. I missed it. Thank you for returning it to me.”

  “You are most welcome.”

  Captain Steele got up and put weight on his leg when he noticed something was different. He rocked back and forth on that leg, slowly applying pressure until he was standing on it then removed the pressure by rocking back off it. He did this several times before turning to Jamie.

  “Uh... Jamie... what did you do to my leg?” Captain Steele asked her.

  “I fixed it,” Jamie replied.

  “Somethings... uh... you know... it uh... feels... a little... odd,” Captain Steele said.

  “That was the second or third time it had been removed. It won't function the way it was. We are using equipment that is over a century old. The equipment is also simply used for field surgeries not complete human reconstruction.”

  “Yeah, but this ship is top of the line at launch. So it should only be like 40-50 years old right?”

  “Your leg was blown off again John. I'm sorry. The bone was beyond repair. Yo
u have metal rods in your leg now. Muscle tissue was also removed so your movement is impaired as well until it rebuilds itself. It was damaged so bad that it may never do that though,” Jamie said.

  “Awesome. I'm on light duty again,” Captain Steele said as he rolled his eyes. “Well in any case it is nice to have my leg back. Have you ever seen your leg just floating there next to you? I have, and its not as much fun as people think it is.”

  “I'm glad you find humor in a floating leg John. Your innate appeal to make overly morbid comments never ceases to amaze me.”

  “Hey, sounds like your finally getting the hang of it too,” Captain Steele said.

  “I learn from the best John,” Jamie replied.

  “I'm glad you do. I wouldn't have it any other way. Well, I'm off to do some light duty stu-” Captain Steele started to say when the ship shook.

  “AAAAAAAAARRRRRGH! WHAT NOW?!” Captain Steele yelled.

  “I have good news and bad news John,” Jamie said.

  “Can't I just have just one fricken day when nothing goes wrong?” Captain Steele shouted angrily.

  “You have plenty of those John. Which news would you like?” Jamie said.

  “I know I do, but I mean one day after surgery. Give me it all at once,” Captain Steele said as he hobbled to the bridge.

  “You know that green star we escaped from? Well its decided to return as something much worse.”

  “Like what? Some kind of black hole?” Captain Steele sarcastically remarked.

  “Yes,” Jamie replied.

  Captain Steele paused for a moment.

  “Yes? You don't really mean...?”

  “Yes, I do. And no, I don't. Simply put, it's affecting us. We need to divert course or else were going to get killed,” Jamie said.

  “Rotate the yaw down 15 degrees, the roll 5 degrees, then hit engines at 250%,” Captain Steele said settling into the captain's chair.