Waves: The Collapsing Universe

by Thomas Edward Savage

  “You really have a flair for this.” Basta replied. “Both of you. Nari? French? What are your opinions on this?”

  “My vote is with Henry.” Nari replied. “I have long learned to put not just my trust but my hopes on him as well. If he wants to go to the center of the universe, then I am excited to go with him.”

  “We will be busy regardless.” French replied. “As Winter said, some of us are explorers, some of us are builders. I thought I was one, but turned out to be there other. Leave Atlas to the builders, and go see what else is out there. I am sure this world is not the last thing out there, just waiting to be found.”

  “Alright.” Basta said with a nod. “I will admit I have felt the call of open space calling to me as well. Even when we fought the raiders, even when we thought we might be stranded here I admit that it made my heart race.”

  “You have the heart of an explorer.” Henry admitted. “That is why you are such a good captain.”

  Basta laughed. “You have done much with this technology. I admitted that before it came to me I thought I was just an old solider with his glory days behind him. However, now that I am out here, doing what we are doing I feel young and more alive than ever before. You are right Henry, there are questions to be answered and secrets to unlock. There is about three weeks left on my defined timetable. After that we will leave Atlas and go take a look at the center of the universe.”

  “Thank you.” Henry replied. “I can only begin to imagine the advances that are still ahead of us.”

  -

  Eight

  As the crew got ready to make the jump they realised that it was something that would be a monumental historical event, among historical events. There was really no way of knowing what was in the center of the universe and in that there was no way of knowing how to prepare. To combat this, Henry put out the call to other specialists would be able to lend their help in this new endeavor. Henry did not think he was really in dire need of the help but he found that he had been taking on a little too much at once and he had no way to anticipate the level of unforeseen possibilities and complications that might come their way by himself. There was no shortage of people that wanted to be on the Endeavour but Henry had to make sure that he got people who were qualified to help him. He settled on three specialists and made all the preparations that he could in wait for them to join him on Atlas.

  Henry walked down the hall of the command facility. He caught himself impressed in how much they were able to build in the little time they had been on the planet. It was funny to Henry how a place could go from one thing and then change to something entirely different altogether. Earth had been a place that was reduced to a pile of scrap and lost dreams and within years turned nearly a hundred eighty degrees around. Space had been mysterious and inhospitable, and now was a highway to the future for mankind. Mars used to be a barren ball of red sand that was now a home for hundreds of thousands. Even Atlas, that was an untamed world with no complicated structures, was now a home to so many.

  He met up with Nari and went to a boardroom where the three new specialists awaited him. Henry looked around and nodded.

  “I thank you three for coming out to our new home so far from earth.” Henry began. “I am so glad that you all decided to join me. You all know who I am. This is the main pilot of the Endeavour, Nari, and we should start with you all introducing yourselves.”

  A tall young woman with dark skin and long curly hair stood first. “My name is Professor Izari. I am an engineer and professor of astral physics on Mars. I am here on sabbatical from my duties, hoping to anticipate unforeseen special phenomenon in a sector of space we can only imagine.”

  “A pleasure.” Henry said with a nod to Izari. “We hopefully won’t keep you too long from your school and send you back with a treasure of new things to go over with your talented students.”

  “I have no doubt.” Izari said with a smile.

  A thin Asian man stood, bowing politely to everyone gathered. “My name is Doctor Kuromoto, I am a specialist on gravity and black holes. It will be my job to avoid and protect against things that not even the magnetic wave drive can protect us against.”

  “Be a short mission if we jump into a black hole.” Henry said with a nod.

  The last of the newcomers stood up, a thin man with light blonde hair, he adjusted thick glasses as he looked around. “I am Doctor Haverstain. I am a jack of all trades I suppose. Though my early skills were in engineering I have become rather proficient in magnetic energy reactors…second only to it’s creators.”

  “I look forward to seeing what you can do with it.” Henry nodded. Before he could say more Basta entered from a side door.

  “Don’t let me interrupt.” Basta said. “I have been briefed on all of you…please continue.”

  Henry nodded then turned back to the others. “We will make the jump in three weeks. Though the universe has not technical center, like a sphere, there is an area that would best be considered as the perceivable center of everything. It is called the initial singularity and it is the mass in which where all matter in our universe existed. When it was met with an opposing force of antimatter the big bang began. We are going to find where, according to the magnetic wave map…is the place where the initial singularity existed.”

  “Do we have any idea what we might find there?” Haverstain asked. “Like a theory?”

  “Not particularly.” Henry said with a laugh. “This is a place where only the wildest theories could exist. We are doing this mission precisely to find out.”

  “Has the wave map revealed anything?” Izari asked. “It should be capable of showing definitive masses or phenomenon in space.”

  “Not as of yet.” Henry replied. “Though the waves are very efficient of mapping three-dimensional space it is a nearly infinite place. In order to combat the massive space mapped the wave is very small. It mostly just maps stars and black holes and we can fill out more detail by gong to a sector. For example, we are still compiling and analyzing information from the system of Atlas. Winter herself is building a detailed model of this system we are calling Tyson one.”

  “So, would the plan be to jump closer to the center?” Kuromoto asked. “Not close enough to see the center completely, but enough to get a more detail map of the area?”

  “Precisely.” Henry replied with a nod. “That has been decided as our best bet in order to proceed to the center.”

  “I am excited to proceed.” Kuromoto said with a smile. “This will be an unprecedented exploration and I am proud to be a part of it.”

  “We all are.” Izari added. “We can only hope that we prove to be the best minds to make this discovery.”

  “What do you mean?” Haverstain asked. “Are you insinuating we might not be up to the task?”

  “I am confident that we are.” Izari added. “I just hope that we have the necessary creativity in order to put what we discover into ways for humanity to understand. This will likely be a place that very few humans will ever see or perceive, we need to make it real so generations will feel they were there as well.”

  “I have learned something in my years and discoveries.” Henry commented. “That you rarely get to be prepared to present history when you are making it. It is hindsight that enlightens history and we will have to worry about that afterwards. We have so much work to do now.”

  “Agreed.” Basta said with a smile. “I can admit that most of what you all are about to do will be a bit above my head. But you can be sure that the Endeavour and her crew will be at top form to assist you.”

  “Of that we have no doubt.” Henry said with a smile to the captain. “We have a lot of work to do and I have no doubt everyone is excited to get started. Let us begin on the next phase of this journey together.”

  -

  Nine

  The next weeks went by in a blur, finding ways to try and be ready for the jump and taking what would best be described as educated guesses on to what had to happen next.
The best plan was to use the wave generator to create a kind of bubble around the ship. It would serve as a pocket of predictable universe that would protect the ship just long enough to jump out if there was a problem. The group worked tirelessly and soon were convinced that even if worst case, they did go into a black hole, they would be prepared to survive it and jump back out.

  There was of course no way to test the field without purposely endangering the ship, but Henry and the others were convinced the field would hold and they preferred to hope that the shield would go wholly untested. Soon, the ship was ready in orbit and about to make the test jump.

  “Do we have the co-ordinates put in?” Basta asked, sitting in his chair, a mix of trepidation and excitement on his tone.

  “We do.” Nari added. “It is an area that shows to have no significant celestial bodies, no stars, no black holes, just wide open and empty space.”

  “There is likely not all that much to see where we are going.” Haverstain commented. “If there was a party there so close to the center of the universe we have very much missed it.”

  “What do you mean?” Basta asked.

  “Well the center of the universe is where the first stars were born, the first of everything. Stars may seem to be infinite but they are noting of not finite. They are rapidly combusting balls of compressed gasses and they will not go on forever. Though we can see the lights of stars so very far from home, that light is the only thing that survives, the sources of many long since having gone out.”

  “So, like an old neighborhood the city has left behind?” Basta asked. “With nothing left but memories and ghosts.”

  “In a manner of speaking yes.” Henry confirmed. “Though we have no idea what a derelict system would be like, being so dark there was literally no way to perceive it.”

  “Well I suppose even if there is nothing there, let’s go take a look.” Basta commented. “Prepare to make the jump!”

  People moved around as the calculations were checked and preparations were doublechecked. Within moments all was set and Nari looked back to Basta. “Ready for jump Captain.”

  “Do it.” Basta commanded, bracing himself.

  The ship shook, the field firing up just before the drive went off. It was a smooth transition, only those knowing the sounds of the systems able to tell much had happened other than what was on the view screen. One moment it displayed the bright vistas of Atlas and the next moment there was nothing.

  “Did we do it?” Basta asked. “Did we jump to the test co-ordinates?”

  “We did.” Henry replied. “We are precisely where we intended to be.”

  “What do we see?” Basta asked. “Or lack thereof?”

  “I have literally nothing on scanners.” Haverstain replied. “No planets, no stars, nothing. I can see distant ones on long range but they are old stars that are either dead or dying.”

  “It is like the center of a war zone.” Basta commented. “There are remnants but there is nothing left standing.”

  “You are not far off.” Henry added. “This is close to where the big bang happened. This is close to the place where the largest event of energy happened in the history of anything we have perception of. Matter met antimatter and it caused a calamity on a nearly unmeasurable scale. We now need to use the wave systems to map where we could not map before.”

  “The system started the second we completed the jump.” Kuromoto commented. “It is compiling now and working quite fast.”

  “What about our protection?” Basta asked. “Did it hold?”

  “It did.” Izari commented. “There is nothing here really to protect against but the field did hold after the jump. I am confident that it will be stable even if we found something more…troublesome.”

  “Is there much to be discovered here?” Basta asked, seemingly happy about the status of the field.

  “Not particularly.” Haverstain replied. “Once the map completes we should just jump again.”

  “Alright then we will do so shortly.” Basta commanded. “Henry do you need anything?”

  “I think we should get the others cataloguing as fast as we can.” Henry replied. “And make preparations to jump again.”

  Haverstain, Izari and Kuromoto eagerly left the bridge, wanting to get to more powerful analytical equipment to go over what there was to see. Henry stood as his station, scrolling through a wealth of telemetry and trying to see what could be estimated of where they would go. The map was only beginning to come together but he found watching it as compelling as any book or movie.

  Within three hours the map was roughed in and Henry was beginning to figure things out.

  “I think we might have something here.” Henry said, turning to Basta.

  “Explain.” Basta asked.

  “Well we still cannot be sure what is there.” Henry began. “But for certain, there is something there. It is like nothing I have ever seen before or anything we have on record. The scanners literally cannot map it beyond the fact that there is something there.”

  “Will we be able to figure it out when we are closer?” Basta asked.

  “If there is anywhere that it could be figured out it would be there.” Henry explained. “It is literally why we came here and this is where the answers lie.”

  Basta sighed. “I find myself often worried in the face of one of your discoveries. However, If I have learned anything, it is that the risk usually proves to be worth it for the rewards. Let’s do it. Put in the preparations.”

  Again, the crew prepared for the jump, it was like countless jumps before, a delicate ballet of efficiency where everything went off as it did many times before. However, this time, something was different. The ship entered the wave fold but as it came out there was a painful lurch. The bridge, though mostly immune to gravitational force and motion pitched violently. Basta went flying off to the side, tossed from his chair and striking a console nearby. Henry managed to hold on, his console stable enough and his grip holding. As the initial lurch stopped the bridge seemed to be sating, the artificial wave gravity having issues. Henry looked up to the view screen, seeing it black and sparking with static.

  “Report!” Basta said as he struggled to stand, blood dripping from a wound on his forehead. “Is the shield holding?”

  “The shield is holding!” Henry replied. “I am not seeing any fluctuation in the shield though it seems to be holding against some sort of radiation. Most sensors are down.”

  “What happened?” Basta asked as he staggered over to his chair. “Did we hit something? Was it from the center?”

  “Neither.” Nari replied as she manipulated the controls, seemingly trying to get a diagnostic while keeping the ship stabilized. “It looks like the wave field failed a fraction of a second before the jump ended. It is stuck in some kind of feedback loop.”

  “Henry?” Basta said as he looked over. “Give me some answers.”

  “I can’t explain it yet.” Henry replied. “It is like the ship got hit when we jumped to Atlas. The countermeasures to protect us from this seem to have failed at the last second.”

  “How can that happen?” Basta replied. “I thought we were protected against that exact thing happening. We have jumped so many times since.”

  “There are not answers up here.” Henry explained. The ship is in rough shape, more than two thirds of non-essential systems seem to be offline.”

  “Let’s go to engineering.” Basta said as he went to stand, his legs seeming to go jelly.

  “You need to stay put sir.” A young crewmember said as they came forward with a med kit. “Until we can reach the ships doctor you need to stay still. I think you have a concussion.”

  “Well given the circumstances no one should go alone.” Basta replied. “Nari?”

  “I need to keep on the ships systems.” Nari replied. “I am manually resetting the NAV controls to keep the ship from pitching and aggravating the pitch we are having. I am practically glued to the controls.”

&n
bsp; As if to illustrate the point the ship pitched and rolled like it was a sea vessel in the waves of a tumultuous sea. Though the large ship was protected against most astral forces it did not seem to placate the chaos of the maelstrom around it much. Henry moved around to other consoles seeing if he could get any to connect to the systems in engendering.

  “Any news from engineering?” Basta asked. “Can we reach them?”

  Henry shook his head. “No one is answering and query that I send through the system.”

  “Could they have been hurt?” Basta asked. “In the pitching?”

  “Possibly.” Henry commented. “Though I cannot reach anything. Medical, mapping, crew quarters. It might just be that the system is offline that regulates inner ship communication. The ship is protected with several redundancies to protect main power, life support and other essential systems. Things like communications and sensors are not as well quarantined in events such as this.”

  “I need you to go down there.” Basta ordered. “Take crewman Mancoff with you.”

  “Aye.” Mancoff responded with a nod as he finished placing a bandage upon Basta’s injured head. “I will do my best sir.”

  “Alright we need to make haste.” Henry added. “We might literally be staring at the center of the universe and we can’t afford to sit here too long without knowing what is ahead of us.”

  “There’s something out there.” Nari explained. “It is like when we were in the gravitational pull of Atlas. I cannot explain it, but these sheers of gravitational force are not normal. I cannot begin to offer why but it is as if there is something out there and it is trying to get a hold of us. The field might be the only thing protecting us and if we don’t find out what’s going on it might get a grip on us yet.”

  “Could it be a black hole?” Mancoff asked. “Could it be trying to pull us in?”

  “If we were in the grip of a black hole we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” Henry replied, stepping in to face the young lad. “The pull of a black hole is so strong that not even light can escape it. You don’t kinda get pulled by a back hole, you get pulled and crushed. Whatever is out there, we seem to be able to hold it at bay. But for how long is anyone’s guess.”