“The last transport flight launches the day after tomorrow from Baikonur. This means I will have to make a decision today.”
“Tomorrow morning. If you are not there, we will have a drawing for the last spot, from the group of substitutes.”
March 26, 2072, Kiska
Four more days. Doug sat in the commander’s chair and tried to understand what was displayed on the monitor. The black hole, which the crew would soon get very close to, weighed about as much as Jupiter. But, they could not see it at all. If they were only four days away from Jupiter, the gas giant would be looming before them, practically taking up their entire field of view. What if Watson made a mistake in his calculations and they flew too close to the hole without noticing it? He felt uneasy, as if Kiska were racing toward an abyss.
“Could someone help me with the ladder?” called Sebastiano from below. Doug stood up.
“Sure. I am right here,” Maria replied, and Doug sat back down. Since they were decelerating with the engines aimed forward, Sebastiano had to struggle with gravity again. Luckily, the deceleration phase was not as long and strenuous as the acceleration phase.
First, they had needed to pass Object X on a course outside its gravitational field, and now they were dropping into an orbit around it by slowing down. On the 30th they should have matched their speed perfectly. Watson was responsible for the rest, and today he was supposed to inform them how to coax as much information out of the black hole as possible.
Doug watched Sebastiano climb the ladder. He was always impressed at how much strength the cook had in his arms. Once they had tried arm wrestling, and Doug quickly found out that he had no chance of winning.
Five minutes later they all sat around the table.
“Watson, you can start,” Doug said.
“Yes, tell us your dirty thoughts,” Sebastiano interjected.
“I am sorry, I don’t understand,” the AI said, confused.
“That’s okay, Watson, it was only a joke,” Doug said to apologize for his colleague’s offbeat humor.
“Doug asked me to develop a strategy for examining Object X,” Watson said. “That turned out to be a surprisingly complicated task.”
“Is it because the black hole is so dangerous?” Doug asked.
“No, because it is so heavy. Therefore, it tries to pull us into its potential well, of course.”
“It sucks us in like a vacuum cleaner?” Maria asked.
“It attracts us, but not like a vacuum cleaner,” Watson continued. “To escape the pull of a vacuum cleaner or a whirlwind you would try to hold on to something. In a gravitational well that would be useless. There you need to do something quite different: You move around the object as fast as possible. That way, the Earth manages not to fall into the sun, and the moon doesn’t fall to Earth.”
“Would the moon fall down if someone stopped it?”
“Yes, Maria, that is ‘as sure as death and taxes.’”
“That phrase sounds strange coming from an AI, Watson. But go on,” Maria encouraged him.
“We have to get into an orbit around Object X, as if it were a planet, even though we won’t see anything. A circular orbit would give us the best opportunities for observations and experiments. But that is out of the question. The black hole has a diameter of only six meters, approximately. Therefore we would have to get pretty close to it. And the closer we got while in a circular orbit, the faster we would have to be going. According to my calculations, we would have to move at about 15,000 kilometers per second in order to achieve an orbit around the black hole while maintaining a radius of one kilometer. We could never do that. The fastest space probes reach around 100 kilometers per second.”
“So what kind of distance would be realistic?” Doug asked.
“By my rough estimate, 15,000 kilometers would be doable,” Watson replied. “And—just so you are not disappointed—if we were really dealing with Jupiter, that radius would bring us close to the core of the planet.”
“So we have to observe an object with a diameter of six meters from a distance of 15,000 kilometers?” Doug asked. “That sounds like we could have saved ourselves the trip.”
“That is true. It is like investigating a bacterium measuring 0.4 micrometers from a distance of one meter. But that is not so unusual, because microbiologists do exactly that by using a microscope instead of the naked eye. And we do have a few helpful instruments on board. Most of all, this calculation applies only to circular orbits. However, if we follow an elliptical course, like practically any body in our solar system, we could get closer to it. Then our orbital velocity would change relative to our distance. The farther away we were, the slower we’d be moving, and the closer we approached to the black hole, the faster we would become. If we got too close, of course, the black hole would not let us escape.”
“How will that affect our sense of balance?” Maria asked, “Won’t we feel dizzy all the time?”
“Not at all,” Watson explained. “We are moving in free fall. You will be weightless.”
“So there are no drawbacks?” Doug asked.
“Only one, Doug. Because we are so fast when we are on the orbital point closest to the object, we have to hurry up with our investigations, particularly those that require being within a close vicinity to it.”
“Good plan, Watson.”
“By the way, we will also set a new record. We are going to be the fastest ship in the solar system. No one will be able to take that record from us within the next thousand years.”
“You mean, during the next four months, because after that point, nobody will exist who could challenge us.”
“Yes, Doug, I understand, but I am assuming we will be able to solve the problem somehow.”
“How do you intend to do that?” Doug asked. “Where does your optimism come from?”
“It is quite simple, really,” Watson answered. “Whether I am optimistic or pessimistic does not change the outcome. But it makes me feel better to remain optimistic until everything is decided.”
March 28, 2072, Earth Orbit
Karl Freitag strapped himself in next to one of the few portholes in the technical section. In his right hand he held a tablet displaying all the blueprints for the Ark. It was his second day in space, and his second inspection. Freitag was checking whether the blueprints were accurate. In addition, he wanted to get to know the entire structure so well that he could find his way around if all systems failed.
Next to the sleek Ark, the Russians’ supplementary engine looked like an elephant strapped to a sports car. This ugly hump, attached to the spaceship’s side via a metal framework, was the only means of providing the necessary thrust to escape the reach of the radiation storm in time. The Ark was going to start the day after tomorrow. Then the fusion reactor would provide maximum energy to a monstrous engine for as long as possible, using up all the helium-3 mankind had harvested from the moon during the last decade. Afterward it would turn off by itself, and then they might actually leave it behind. However, if this piteous remnant of humanity managed to find new fuel for it, the reactor might serve as a reliable energy supply for their first 50 years.
Freitag decided to take a closer look at the metal structure. He already wore a spacesuit, because the technical section of the Ark was not pressurized. One of the most important rules was that spacewalks should always be performed by two people, but the security director could override any rules. The others present were currently busy with preparations for the soon-to-be launch. Therefore he did not want to divert anyone from more important activities for his little inspection.
Freitag pulled himself down along the railing, moving toward an exit located close to the engines of the Ark. It was in the form of an airlock in case they ever wanted to pressurize the technical module. For now, he could simply open the two hatches and walk out without much preparation.
Below him shone the giant blue orb of the Earth. Freitag tried to memorize the image, since he would on
ly be able to see it for a few more days. There would come a day when Earth would look like a dry rock. He imagined it looking much like the sunburned Mercury, only with fewer craters and more rounded features. Without an atmosphere, how long would it take before Earth was indistinguishable from Mercury?
Freitag’s thoughts moved into the future. How would the grandchildren of the last humans see Earth? By then the sun would be extinguished. In infrared view the Earth would still glow, because its core would still be storing energy. Perhaps it would look like a dark brown, craggy-faced specter, under a pitch-black sky.
Freitag sighed. He really had not wished to experience this future, yet in the end he had decided to take over Maribel’s place. He had the feeling he was really needed here, and his partner understood this. They might have spent another four months together, but then Karl would have died carrying a heavy load of guilt. He looked for the typical shapes of North and South America, but right now Africa, Europe, and Asia were below him.
He reached for the controls of his suit’s backpack. With two sticks, one for his right hand and the other for his left, Freitag could maneuver freely in space. It was a fantastic feeling. He slowly approached the ‘elephant’ that would accelerate their spaceship. One could clearly tell that the Ark and the reactor had not been made for each other. The engineers had belatedly constructed a metal corset for the Ark, in the pocket of which they had fit the reactor, but the connections looked rather fragile. Freitag had nonetheless checked them and personally assured himself that they would withstand the predicted stresses. In spite of this he felt uneasy when he watched the structure. In the bottom section, near the engine nozzles, a technician was busy with some final tasks.
Freitag approached him. The man wore a spacesuit by SpaceX, and he had probably gotten on board in the contingent of deserving workers. He held a welding apparatus in his hand. The security director drifted into the man’s field of view and raised his hand in a greeting. Then he pointed at his ear to signal that the man should open an audio connection.
“Karl Freitag,” he said, introducing himself via radio.
“Oh, you’re the security director,” the man said. “Nice to meet you. I am Mike Oldfield.”
The name sounded vaguely familiar, but Freitag could not quite place it. He floated closer until he could see the name tag on the suit. It read ‘M. Oldfield.’ The man’s face was pale, but maybe this was caused by the stark contrasts in space.
“What are you doing?” Freitag asked him.
“Just checking a few welding seams,” the man replied. “You never know what kind of quality the Russians will provide.”
Probably a good idea, considering how late the reactor module arrived in orbit, Freitag thought. This man was probably doing the most important job of all right now. If the connection did not perform as promised, the spaceship would lose the reactor, like a truck losing cargo that was not secured properly.
“You need help?” Freitag asked.
“Thanks, but I can manage, since I’ve still got another 24 hours,” the man answered. “I think I am about half done.”
“Just contact me if you need anything. And remember to take a break now and then.”
“Yes sir, Mr. Freitag.”
Karl floated away again. His old ways of thinking returned.
“Control center, I need some information,” he requested.
“Yes, what is it?”
“Do we have a Mike Oldfield on board?”
“Are you referring to the musician? That guy has been dead for fifty years. No, sorry, I am checking right now. Yes, Oldfield, there he is. Comes from SpaceX. Should I connect you to him?”
“No, thanks. Freitag, over.”
Freitag adjusted the thrusters so that he was drifting toward the Ark again. He moved slowly upward in the direction of the capsule. The ship was truly beautiful, like the spaceships people had imagined in his youth. The capsule, which would transport the 100 passengers away from danger, had an elegant, shark-like fin on top. It could even land on a planet with an atmosphere. However, four months from now there would no longer be a rocky planet here with a layer of air around it.
What about Venus, though? Had the scientists calculated what would happen to that planet? Maybe they were going to be lucky. The radiation storm would tear away part of the dense atmosphere, and because the central star would lose mass, Venus would move farther away from it, deeper into the habitable zone. Could Venus change from a place of infernal heat into a paradise? No, Freitag realized, I’m forgetting something. At some point the sun would provide no more heat. What was left of the Venusian atmosphere would freeze out in the form of carbon dioxide snow.
He had to accept the fact that the future of mankind in the solar system looked icy cold. Perhaps under these circumstances it would be better to start traveling to another star, as a kind of generational spaceship. They could capture a large asteroid to start their relocation, using its resources to survive as long as 10,000 years, and hope for a better long-term solution in the meantime. After launch he would suggest this plan to the others.
March 30, 2072, Object X
“There is nothing there at all!”
“If nothing was there, Maria, we would not need to be accelerating all the time,” Doug said.
Watson had invited all of them into the command module, because they had finally reached their destination. Until three minutes ago, Kiska had still been decelerating in order to get captured by Object X. Now they were in a strongly elliptical orbit around the black hole. The closer they approached it, the faster they traveled. In spite of this, they were weightless the whole time, because they were moving in free fall.
“And when will we finally see something?” Sebastiano asked.
“Probably never. I am curious myself,” Watson said, “whether it will actually remain invisible from a close distance.”
“And what is your prediction?”
“In the optical range, maybe nothing will change, but it should be detectable in other wavelengths.”
“So can we go back to sleep?”
“Yes, Sebastiano. I just thought we all might discuss the structure of the black hole.”
“You, as a genius, want to talk to us blockheads about areas of physics you don’t even understand yourself?”
“Well, then at least we are at the same level again,” Watson said, once again displaying a wry sense of humor.
“To be honest, I forgot about half the stuff you explained to us last time,” Sebastiano admitted. “Couldn’t we rather talk about new recipes?”
“Oh, I assumed saving mankind was of greater interest to you than new recipes,” Watson replied.
Watson clearly won this one, Doug thought, though he too could not imagine how they might be able to help Watson.
“We have arrived at a dead end concerning the energy debt problem,” Doug heard Siri’s voice say. She still sounds a bit more artificial than Watson, he thought.
“You want to replenish the negative energy the black hole left behind while coming into being,” Doug said.
“In order to make the object disappear, yes. Even though Einstein would be spinning in his grave at the term ‘negative energy,’” Watson explained. “Normal matter is also energy, but throwing it into the hole would not help, as it would simply swallow that and get slightly bigger.”
“I have an idea,” Sebastiano interjected. “My microwave oven also adds energy to food without adding matter.”
“That is a good approach,” Watson said. “Microwaves are electromagnetic radiation. They are also affected by the gravitation of the black hole. If we aim properly, they will be absorbed by the object.”
“And if not?” the cook asked.
“Then, either the black hole deflects them, or they will orbit it eternally.”
“But that does not solve our problem, does it? Otherwise you would have come up with the idea yourself, wouldn’t you, Watson?”
“That is true, but it was
still a good suggestion, Sebastiano. We are currently looking for practical ideas, since we already checked all the appropriate equations.”
“How about using a sledgehammer approach?” Doug asked.
“You’re the specialist for that,” Sebastiano laughed.
“You have to explain this,” Watson said, confused. “We don’t actually have a sledgehammer on board.”
“That’s okay,” Doug said. “It’s an old-fashioned way to say, ‘using brute force.’ I was thinking of mechanical energy. Could we somehow get the object to vibrate, or deform it?” Doug imagined a hammer with a long handle smashing the object until it burst.
“We’ve got very little time to transfer the energy,” Watson said.
In Doug’s imagination the hammer dissolved into thin air. Air? On Earth, storms transfer a lot of energy when blowing down utility poles and houses, he thought. “Could we unleash a kind of storm in space?” Doug asked, as he imagined something like a tornado swallowing the black hole.
“Without a medium for the storm to spread in? But wait,” Watson said, “you gave me an idea. A black hole possesses an accretion disk, where matter is constantly rotating. The substance of the disk could be considered a gas, and that gas should be able to propagate mechanical vibrations. If we talked about air, you would know this as sound. Perhaps we can transfer energy into the black hole this way?”
“You mean we yell at the thing to make it finally disappear?” Sebastiano said, forming a megaphone with his hands. “Like that?” he called into it.
Doug did not know whether to laugh or cry at this.
“You might not believe it, but your comparison comes pretty close,” Watson said. “However, we are not going to use a megaphone.”
“Object X is not very large, and only captured a small amount of matter on its trajectory, so this disk is relatively thin,” Siri interjected. “Perhaps it’s too thin for our purposes.”
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