Part 1,Part 2,Part 3,Part 4,Part 5,Part 6,Part 7,Part 8,Part 9,Part 10,Part 11,Part 12,Part 13,Part 14
"Flag At the Edge of Space" page, Athena Home Page, Other Stories Home Page.
One hundred and fourteen days into the journey to Rigel, and the viewscreen showed the big, white supergiant was getting more pronounced and brighter. The engines were running perfectly, and the Atlas was able to sustain a steady warp six. Already, ten days had been shaved off their estimated arrival time at Rigel, and as far as Abuna thought, that was a good thing. The crew was feeling restless again, especially since they had been on this ship for virtually all of that time. After the disaster at Uniworld, the starship had detected only one other class-M planet within reasonable distance, and the indications were that it was occupied by an advanced race. They did wonder about that race, but travelled on.
Abuna, heading to the bridge to begin her shift, was stopped outside the lift to the bridge by one of the astrophysicists on board, Cal Jayapposodorum. "Commander," the dark-skinned man said, getting the attention of the first officer. "We have picked up something that might be of interest, something worth a look."
"Yes?"
"A collapsar, a black hole, about three point two light years off of our current course."
Jayapposodorum handed a padd to the first officer, who looked it over. She, like the astrophysicist, knew that an Earth ship had never studied a collapsar up close, simply because given the size of space and the limited number of ships, almost all of which had assignments and missions to carry out, they never had the opportunity. "I see," Abuna remarked. She was intrigued. This was not merely a black hole, but one that was in close orbit with another star. The radio signals that the collapsar was emitting was what drew the notice of the astrophysicists in the first place. "We could get some valuable science from a closer look at this."
"That was what I was thinking. It's not terribly far out of the way, and we might only lose two days or so on our journey to Rigel. Considering that we're ten days ahead of schedule, I think it's worth the time."
"I'll have to take it up with the captain."
"Fair enough, ma'am."
Abuna took the padd from the astrophysicist and headed to the bridge. She was wondering if this was how starships worked, or would work. For the past decade or so, starships had been involved in military missions, and had little time for exploration or science. In a military mission, the captain got his orders from command, and had the crew carry out those objectives. On the other hand, would the captain on an exploration mission be more receptive to suggestions from the crew? Did they listen to the advice of the junior officers and pick their missions that way? She honestly did not know.
When she arrived on the bridge, Hall was already there, occupying his familiar seat. Hearing the doors open and then close, Hall looked back, and said, "Good morning, commander."
"Good morning, sir," she replied.
"We missed you at breakfast this morning."
"I slept in. Besides, the so-called ‘scrambled' eggs don't always agree with me."
"I see. Unfortunately, the food choices at breakfast are getting monotonous. I should put in a recommendation for pancakes one morning."
"That would be nice."
After several seconds of awkward silence, Hall continued, "Commander, I need your advice." She looked up and nodded a little, before the captain said, "Sensors have picked up a collapsar, in a binary system with another star. It's three point two light years away from our current position and not a significant deviation from our present course. Given the last time we diverted from our course, and what happened, do you think that you, and the crew, would be prepared for another?"
Abuna was quite surprised to hear Hall talk about the same thing that she was planning to talk about. It struck her as a little curious since Hall seemed like the military type, and was interested only in making the straight-line run to Rigel and getting their business there done. She had to think about the matter for a moment, and finally said, "Sir, I believe that we are. This'll be a different type of mission. We'll be on the ship, not walking on an unknown world. There might be some danger here, but we should be in good shape to handle the risks."
"I would tend to agree. This would be a rare opportunity to see something up close that no other human has seen before. We'll alter course, then..."
* * *
"Coming out of warp," announced pilot Gordon Weisser. "Exit speed is twenty-three psol." As he worked the controls that forced the Atlas to disrupt the warpfield, Weisser saw how the image on the viewscreen shifted from a computer-generated view to that of real space. The stars that were in front of them were slightly blue-shifted because of the speed of the ship. On the screen was one rather bright star, an upper-F yellowish-white star, and beside it was something that was lost in the glare, except for two streams of what looked like light coming out in opposite directions.
Hall was tentative about the approach to the collapsar. Like most, he was familiar with black holes as something where the gravity was so strong that not even light could escape. A starship caught within the gravitational field of a black hole could not escape either, even if it did try to go to warp. On the other hand, from a distance, a black hole was no more a presence in the overall gravitational field than the star that it once was. Nevertheless, he asked, "Distance?"
"Four hundred million kilometres," Weisser added. "Gravitational fluctuations appear to be within normal parameters."
"Can you get an image on the screen?" the captain asked.
"Working on it," Abuna said from the science console to the right of the captain. "Okay, got it." The image on the screen changed to show a closeup view of the collapsar. What they saw was a disk of matter surrounding the black hole, and it was shining with energy that was radiating through it from the area around the event horizon. They also saw the twin jets of ejected matter rising above and below the accretion disk. The only problem was that they were seeing this more or less head-on.
"Helm," Hall ordered, "take us above the plane of the accretion disk, to give us a fuller view."
"Captain," the first officer spoke up, "need I remind you that the jets of ejected matter is extremely hazardous."
"I have no intention of getting that close."
"How close can we safely get?" Yuniki asked.
"A black hole is mostly gravity," Hall answered. "We're basically four hundred million kilometres from a large star, like Rigel. When Rigel is done, it'll likely end up with a supernova explosion and the remnant could well be a collapsar."
"On the other hand," Yuniki said, "We're not likely going to get that close to Rigel. Any inhabitable planets could be well away from the star."
"But planets containing dilithium could be much closer. That's what we're looking for."
Weisser spoke up, saying, "Sir, we're in position, fourty-five degrees above the plane of the system."
"Adjust the viewscreen angle."
Those on the bridge just sat there in silence at what they were seeing. Theoretical analysis had predicted what this would look like, and probes had gathered some data, but no ship crewed by humans had ever gotten this close. The disk of matter drawn off of the star was formed into a disk that was more than a million kilometres in diameter. The thin matter as it came into the disk was mostly invisible, but the disk itself was illuminated by both internal friction and by excitation from radiation coming from the black hole itself. They could actually see the matter move close to the black hole, and the flashes of light when it was destroyed on the edge of the event horizon. The jets almost seemed to pulse as larger clumps of star matter were dissolved and the electrons, protons, helium nuclei and other subatomic particles were jolted around by the powerful magnetic fields and ejected at high speeds through the magnetic poles.
"Incredible," Abuna remarked. "Yet, the bridge viewscreen is so limiting. Imagine if the Atlas had some kind of observation dome, and we could see this thing in its full glory."
"We'd have to get awfully close," pointed out Yuniki. "I've been mapping out the magnetic fields. They are quite strong, especially pointing away from the star. Our best approach might be between the main star and the black hole, if we can stay about a million or two million kilometres above. The main star itself is quite stable, and is not a danger."
"How far is the black hole from the main star?"
"Fifty-three million kilometres."
"That's closer than Mercury is to the sun."
Yuniki added, "The hull and our shields can easily contain that radiation. We should not feel that hot getting that close to the sun. Because of the radiation and effects of the magnetic fields, we can't get the best data from our current distance."
Hall had to ponder his decision. This was not one of those decisions that required an immediate decision, so he had the time to reflect on it. Meanwhile, Weisser was doing something similar, and asked, "Okay, lets see if I got this straight. The collapsar is the remains of a very large star, something like Rigel."
"Judging by the gravity," Abuna added, "I'd say the original star had about thirteen to fifteen times the mass of our sun."
"Okay, if something that big blows up that close to the other star, then how come that other star survives?"
"Two possibilities," Abuna remarked. "The remaining star could have been somewhat larger, and saw most of its outer layers blown off by the supernova--but then a spectral analysis of the star should indicate that, but I haven't done that yet--and it is possible that the collapsar could have been moving through space and was captured by this star, or more likely, the black hole captured the star. It's harder to test for that, since the presence of the black hole would have destroyed any planetary system that was present."
"Imagine the scenario if one of those planets was inhabited. Imagine the feeling of doom and helplessness in that society knowing that they were doomed."
Yuniki added, "Well, that's a disaster scenario I've never heard posed for Earth."
"An interesting turn that this conversation is taking," Hall said. "However, if we're going to get a better look at this collapsar, we might have to get into an advantageous viewing position. Helm, take us to a position between the stars, but be aware for any of the matter transfers. I'd imagine that away from the star, it would be in a diffuse stream, but nevertheless, monitor it. Commander Abuna, we might have to use some of our probes to get a closer look at this. I don't want to bring the ship too close, but I'd like to get some up-close data. Given the implausibility of this kind of system, they have to be rare, and we might not come across another one any time soon."
"There's always this one," Weisser pointed out. "It's between Earth and Rigel, and it's not going anywhere."
"Except," the captain remarked, "that regular trips between the two locations might use the chronometric displacement drive to cut down on the travel time, and so this won't be a regular stop. Nevertheless, we are here and we might as well do it right."
"Sir," the first officer spoke up, "it'll take a little time to modify the probes for extra shielding, especially given the magnetic fields and the particle densities that they might encounter."
"Do what you must."
Abuna got out of her seat, and said, "Lieutenant Gerthe, I'll need your help on this."
The two officers left the bridge, while Weisser piloted the ship towards the main star--or at least the functioning star, since in all likelihood, the collapsar was more massive and controlled the system. Yuniki continued to monitor conditions, and had the shields raised and set so that their maximum blocking strength was at the frequencies of electromagnetic radiation that this star peaked at. Nevertheless, the star loomed ever brighter on the viewscreen, and was almost blinding, even with the brightness of the screen stepped down so much that the background stars were all washed out. "Look at all the activity," the operations officer said. The star was heavily spotted, and the brighter spots marking solar prominences and flares were obvious. Only one word described that star in Yuniki's mind, agitated. "Maybe we should rethink the stability of this star."
"The surface is deformed in this manner because of the black hole. We should be able to detect gravitational effects too, even if we can't feel them directly."
"Monitor that," the captain ordered.
Weisser just had a feeling that getting into this position was not a good idea. He had seen the diagrams, and how the magnetic fields and the various bands of radiation around the black hole were deformed by the solar wind--several orders of magnitude more intense than the solar wind off of the sun. The shields had to run at almost battle strength to deal with that amount of incoming solar particles. The fields extended for a considerable distance away from the collapsar on the other side, but were absent on the sunward side. What they did see was the glowing accretion disk, which now looked brighter since it was set against the blackness of space. "This position is about the safest," the pilot said. "We're fourty million kilometres from the sun, just twenty million from the black hole. Down below, the stream of solar material could overwhelm the shields in the long term, and above, the high-energy radiation in the jets could challenge our shielding."
"How are we holding up?"
Yuniki answered, "Shields are holding. Hull temperature is within norms, and should remain so. Hull sensors indicate no abnormal rise in radiation."
"Good."
Weisser looked up, saying, "We're twenty million kilometres from a black hole. Amazing."
"Can we hold this position?"
"Ship is at station-keeping, sir. Our use of propulsion is minimal."
"Then there's nothing to worry about."
"I'm not worried."
"Deep down, we all are. Afterall, black holes were the basis of much bad speculation and bad literature. They were almost portrayed as monstrous entities that could suck spaceships right out of space and crush them against the event horizon."
Weisser said, "I don't believe that we should be governed by ‘deep down' fears."
"Of course not." Hall saw that the comm signal light was flashing, so he tapped the button to activate the unit, and said, "Hall here, go ahead."
"Sir," came Abuna's voice. "We have two probes ready to launch. I've programmed them to make one run around the black hole, getting no closer than one million kilometres. At low speed, they should be able to pass through the accretion disk at that distance with no harm. We could get useful data."
"Very well, proceed."
Moments later, the probes were launched from the forward tubes. Those on the bridge could see for a few seconds the glow from the engine emitters at the rear as the probes moved forward and then separated. Abuna had returned to the bridge, and had displayed on one of the secondary screens the courses that had been programmed into the probes. One would travel through the accretion disk, and the other would make an orbit perpendicular to it. At the closet approach, the probe that was travelling perpendicular to the disk would approach to within twenty-five thousand kilometres of the event horizon.
"Is that safe?" Hall asked.
"Given the gravity we can expect at that distance, and the other factors as detected by the sensors, the probe should be able to survive the journey. Then again, it is a probe. If something goes wrong, all we lose is the probe. The ship is not at risk."
"I see."
Moments later, the Atlas started getting telemetry from the probes, including visual images, which the science officer displayed on the main viewscreen. She alternated the views from the two probes so that the officers could get a more complete record of the phenomenon. The probe that entered the accretion disk was providing more consistent images, showing a murky yellowish haze in which some of the background stars were still visible. At the centre was a band of yellow light, which became intensely white at the core. That marked the black hole, which was still around a hundred and fifty thousand kilometres away. Occasionally, ripples of light travelled through the accretion disk, especially along the central band of light, and on those occasions, the image degraded momentarily or was entirely lost. It reappeared within seconds. Abuna was monitoring a number of other readings, including radiation. The levels of radiation, including gamma radiation, in the disk was high enough to be lethal to living beings, but the probes were armoured and protected, and the equipment on board was designed for environments of high radiation. Occasionally, Abuna shifted the image to what the other probe was transmitting. It showed the accretion disk in real light, showing it to be an eerie, translucent blue, except near the core, where the black hole was blazing white. The probe passed within ten thousand kilometres of the jet, but since the particles were so accelerated and so constricted in their direction of travel that the probe recorded no significant high-energy particles coming off of it. The disk itself was showing structure, mostly bands of material as if some type of sorting process was underway. Only within a couple of hundred kilometres of the black hole was the material constricted enough to fuse through a fusion reaction and emit light.
"I'm getting quite sophisticated data on the magnetic field and how they interact with gravity," Abuna said, as the information flowed across her monitors. "I really can't interpret what all of this means, though. The collapsar does complete one rotation every six point six seconds."
"How big is the event horizon?" the captain asked.
"The best estimate I'm getting is seven hundred and fourty metres. The entire mass of the former supergiant star is contained within that tiny dimension." As the perpendicular probe continued its approach, Abuna switched its imaging sensors to a more parallel view, and got a spectacularly clear and detailed view of one of the jets. They could see no structure in it. It was like light itself had become visible. It did not significantly waver or change shape, but near the base, which was very narrow, they could see slight variations in colour. "Incredible," Abuna remarked. "To be so close..." She was momentarily distracted by an alert tone from her console.
Hall recognized the sound, and said, "What's the problem?"
The first officer called up the data on one of her monitors, and reported, "Sir, the perpendicular probe has picked up what appears to be a solid object, near the event horizon, and close to where the tidal forces become most intense."
"Can we see it?"
Abuna adjusted the image display on the screen to show the location where the solid object was detected. Against the bright bluish swirls of the accretion disk they saw something that looked like a speck of black, something that would have been easily missed had Abuna not altered the display to highlight it.
"Magnify and enhance," Hall ordered.
Abuna sent new instructions to the probe, so that it would concentrate its sensor ability on that one particular point and magnify and enhance to the best of its abilities. The new image took several seconds to transfer to the main viewscreen on the Atlas, and it came up in strips. However, when the image was clear, the outline was unmistakable.
"It's a ship," Yuniki remarked. All they could see was the outline of the vessel, set against the increasingly bright background. The vessel consisted of three sections that were circular in outline, although it was unclear if they were spheres or disks. The three sections were connected by a series of thick tubes, with one on each side and one through the middle, or on top. Beyond the basics, the bridge officers could not see any further detail on the ship. "How big is it?"
"Around five hundred, perhaps five hundred and fifty metres," Abuna reported. "That's big."
"But what is it doing there?" Hall asked.
"That I cannot say."
Weisser added, "Are there people on board? Are they supposed to be there?"
"Again I can't say. I can't see why anybody would put themselves at risk at getting that close, when probes would do the job just as well."
Hall was just thinking about that ship, and how it could have gotten there, and the fact that it was moving around the black hole seemingly totally under its control. He was pretty sure that the tubes, if they were engines, were not working. The ship should have been emitting an energy signature that they could have detected earlier. That it was not was a troublesome sign. "Can you scan for lifesigns?"
"At this distance, I could not get reliable readings. However, if we enter a course correction for the parallel probe, it could come within a thousand kilometres of the ship, and at that distance, we might be able to scan for lifesigns. However, that course correction introduces a not insignificant risk that we might lose the probe to the gravity of the black hole."
"Do it," Hall ordered. He did not have to ask that the cost of the probe would be insignificant if they learned the beings were on board that ship, perhaps trapped, and certainly doomed.
Gerthe was thinking along the same lines, as he said, "If we do detect lifesigns on board, then what?"
"I don't know," the captain admitted.
Abuna spoke up, "Sir, if there are people on board, we should attempt a rescue."
Without turning to look at the first officer, he asked, "And how do we accomplish that? William, could this ship survive a passage through the accretion disk to approach that ship?"
The engineer replied, "Not in its current configuration. The shielding, and the hull plating would need to be reinforced. We'd also need to boost the structural integrity field strength to handle the tidal stresses, especially considering this is a rotating black hole. It would take a lot of work, work I can't do in the field."
"I understand."
"But sir," Abuna remarked. "If there is even a chance..." She let the words fade out.
"Commander," Hall started, speaking more firmly. "There was one thing I learned during the war. Being a hero is nice. Performing heroic acts is wonderful, but it is only heroic if there is even a small chance that the hero can survive the mission to rescue the otherwise-doomed. In this situation, we'd have no chance of pulling off the rescue and of surviving. To me, that's not heroism. That's suicide."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm confident of the information that my chief engineer has provided me. He knows the ship. He knows what it can and cannot do. If we enter the accretion disk and get that close to the mysterious ship, we won't survive."
"In addition," Gerthe continued, "docking would be impossible. Given tidal stresses and the simple fact that the docking systems would be incompatible, the two ships would be torn apart as soon as they docked."
"So you're giving up?"
Hall said nothing. Instead, he watched as Abuna entered instructions to alter the course of the parallel probe to bring it within a thousand kilometres of the unidentified vessel. It would take fifteen minutes to bring the probe within that range, and during that time, the bridge was mostly in silence. Hall just wondered about the ship, about where it came from and why it was there. It seemed quite large to be a simple probe, especially considering that no other ship was around. He found it difficult to believe that any race would actually take a chance and take a manned vessel that close to the collapsar. During those fifteen minutes, the Atlas had difficulty maintaining a strong lock on the probe. The image and the data flows dropped out and were distorted on occasion.
"Can you do anything about it?" Hall asked his science officer.
"Sir, the best recommendation is to get closer to the probe. If we move above the accretion disk, we can get fairly close, and the amount of accretion-disk material it would have to transmit through would be greatly reduced."
"That could get us close to the jets."
"Given the data from the perpendicular probe, the jet material is so one-directional and so fast that virtually none is travelling off the main column. It's safe."
Hall still had his doubts, but he did have that probe data to back up the opinion that Abuna gave him. He was still thinking about the alien ship and anyone that might be on it. Perhaps all they needed was just a warning that they were too close, and they would wake up and move away if they could. He finally said, "Helm, take us to the position that Commander Abuna has suggested." Hall could just sense that Weisser was about to protest, and inform the captain that the location was dangerous, but he did not. He simply took the ship to the desired location.
The images transmitted from the probe became clearer, but they did not show very much. It was like flying through a fog that seemed to be internally lit. Sensors on the probe were able to locate the mysterious vessel, and the imaging sensors provided some detail. However, even from a thousand kilometres out, they could see little detail on the ship. All they did learn were that the three main sections were spheres, and were connected to each other in a line, and were braced by thick beams above and below, and to each side. The spheres and the tubes were featureless, without anything like engine emitters or windows or anything else.
"Lifesigns?" Hall asked.
"Sensors are inconclusive," Abuna reported. "That means that lifesigns could be on board, but it's unlikely. Good scans are tough to get because of interference, and what appears to be the rather solid construction of the vessel. Sensors basically can't penetrate that hull."
"It sounds like it was built to be there," Gerthe added.
"I suspected as much."
"But why is it there?" Hall asked.
The engineer provided the reply, "It is structured more like a barge than a ship. The only possible engines I could see in use would be a gravitonic induction drive, and that would never get that vessel to that location. If it is a probe of some kind, or something similar--or something in an alien mindset we can't comprehend--then the support ship should be here somewhere. It isn't."
"Someone brought that vessel here, put it where we found it, and then left?"
"It's possible."
Abuna added, "It's also possible that it might have completed its purpose, and was abandoned because in that location, it could not be recovered."
Hall said, "So the likelihood that anybody is on board is rather small?"
"Small, but not zero."
"I see."
Abuna hesitated for a moment, thinking it through, before she said, "Maybe we should attempt to contact the vessel, just in case, as a last thing we can do."
"Very well. Use common frequencies, transmit in analog using the Preserver code. If they're out here from a nearby world, they likely can understand that."
"Understood, transmitting Preserver code now, seeking identification and situation, identifying ourselves as a United Federation of Planets vessel on a mission of peaceful exploration. Transmitting now... no response."
"It is getting through?"
"I believe so. The probe is receiving it clearly."
Seconds later, they got a response, but it was not a response that they were expecting. Yuniki reported "Sir, the vessel is... turning. I'm getting an energy reading in agreement with a GID, but... it's turning towards the black hole."
"What the hell?" mumbled Hall. On the screen, he and the others could see as the vessel, nothing more than a dark interruption to the bright blue of the disk, turn and move ever closer to the collapsar.
"At its present speed, it'll reach the event horizon in... fourteen minutes."
"If it survives," Abuna said. "In that orientation, the tidal stresses are extreme, and could be too much. I'm reading internal stresses already... got a clearer scan now. Oh my god!"
"What?" asked Hall hurriedly.
"A massive energy spike, of a very specific frequency and formation, that of trilithium."
"Helm, get us out of here," Hall yelled out. "Best speed you can manage."
Everybody on board understood what the trilithium and their current situation implied. It was a byproduct of some types of warp drive, where the builders sacrificed dilithium for greater power. Using the dilithium in a particular manner converted some of it to the rather unstable trilithium, and after a certain quantity of the material had been built up in the dilithium, it had to be removed. Humans did not use this style of warp converter simply because they did not have dilithium to spare. Each crystal was precious and could not be abused. The trilithium was distilled from the dilithium, but it was essentially a waste material. It had only one use, to chaotically convert large amounts of power into a more random arrangement. Although this had applications as a weapon, the material was too dangerous, and Hall and the others on the Atlas could not believe that anybody would actually handle the material. Then again, disposing of the stuff in a black hole might have been the safest means to do it.
The impulse engines strained to pull the Atlas away from the accretion disk, and the two probes that they were forced to abandon. "Can you track the vessel?" Hall asked.
"Barely," Abuna said.
"Why did it turn into the black hole?"
"If there is trilithium on board, I suspect that someone put the vessel into the accretion disk so that in time it would be sucked into the black hole, giving the ship that planted it enough time to leave. However, this material might be extremely desirable to other individuals, since with technological expertise, it could be converted into quite a powerful weapon. If the vessel is detected or approached or contacted by anything, it might be programmed to turn into the black hole more directly, disregarding any level of safety that the original course might have had."
"And it could also take out any ship that attempts to steal the trilithium," Gerthe pointed out.
"Sir," Weisser spoke up, raising his voice above the din of the straining impulse engines, which had to struggle against the gravity of the collapsar and the giant star that they were still close to. "Given my understanding, the effect of the trilithium would be most pronounced along the accretion disk. I recommend that we move in a more perpendicular direction. That would reduce the intensity of the effect, should it happen."
"It'll happen," Abuna said. "Tidal stresses on the vessel are increasing. It's already breaking up."
"Range?"
"Not nearly enough," cut in the science officer.
Hall asked, "Warp?"
"Not too likely, sir, not in this gravity well."
"Nevertheless, go to a more perpendicular course." Hall looked up, and saw that the viewscreen had been set to a rear view. The accretion disk dominated the view, and just offset to one side was the collapsar itself, as a brilliant white sphere. The jets, distorted by the viewing angle, were still somewhat visible. The display indicated that they were about two hundred thousand kilometres above the disk and travelling at about two thousand kilometres per second and accelerating.
"It might not do any good," Gerthe added. "I've heard that trilithium, in sufficient quantities and properly arranged and set off, can destroy a star by altering its energy structure sufficiently that the radiation pressure exceeds the gravity, and the whole upper layers just blow right off. Fortunately, setting up the configuration and the timing is very tricky."
"But can it destroy a black hole?" Yuniki added.
"I doubt that."
"Sir," Abuna remarked, without looking up from the displays. "The vessel is breaking up. Energy levels are surging, and... there it goes."
Hall looked at the viewscreen as Abuna spoke. He saw a flash of light fairly close to the collapsar, although that light had taken almost a second to reach the image sensors. At the same time, a ring of light spread outwards, with ripples of energy flowing at ever greater speeds until they overwhelmed each other in a massive display of light and energy. The effect was so pronounced that behind the most intense wave, the material in the accretion disk simply vanished. It had been pushed outwards by the shock wave, heated and destroyed by the energy released. The shock wave was mostly confined to the disk, spreading outwards ever faster until it was moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light. Only once the material had been consumed and the wave was travelling through empty space did it begin to dissipate. The Atlas rolled and swayed with some energy washing over it, but it was not even strong enough to force the crew to grab onto something.
"My hunch was right," Weisser said. "Speed now five psol. We're really struggling against this gravity. We might have to adjust course to one that's more friendly with respect to local gravity."
"Do it," Hall ordered.
Abuna, still monitoring the sensors, remarked, "We might not be out of this one yet. I'm detecting some rather strange readings from the collapsar itself. As hard as this might be to comprehend, but the collapsar was forced to absorb more mass and more energy than it was capable of handling. It was overwhelmed." On the viewscreen, the black hole had lost its accretion disk, so it faded rather rapidly into the background. It was invisible, as even the jets vanished as the material feeding them was cut off. In time, the black hole would draw off more star material from the neighbouring star, but right now it was mostly invisible. However, as Abuna watched, the black hole became bright again. Its brightness was stepping up seemingly by orders of magnitude every second. "It's going to release that energy." The collapsar was shining with all the intensity of a supergiant star.
"Range is four hundred thousand kilometres, accelerating under full impulse." Weisser had taken advantage of the disappearance of the jets to turn the Atlas basically upside down relative to their normal flying orientation, which was respect to the galaxy, in order to move into gravitational fields that were less intense. Even so, they were far too variable and steep to allow a stable warpfield to form.
"Shock wave!" Abuna remarked. The collapsar shone like a blue-white supergiant, and then it shone like a nova. The light was so bright that the imaging sensors, in order to show it, stepped down everything else to blackness. That light was starting to expand rapidly. "It's spherical, all directions, coming at us at one hundred thousand k.p.s."
Four seconds, Hall thought. They only had four seconds as the shock wave was expanding at one third the speed of light. He was not completely sure what he could do. He could not tell if there was anything he could do to avoid what was going to happen. All he could do was to tap at the controls on the small panel to his right, bringing up the klaxons to blare out a fast beat of short sounds. That indicated a collision was imminent. Through the ship's internal address system, Hall shouted, "All personnel, brace for impact... now."
The sensation was like something hit the ship from behind. The shock wave gave the ship a little momentum, enough that they were all pressed into their seats and could feel the pressure on their lungs and their bodies. Hall almost felt like he was going to black out. Somehow, he managed to hold on. All around him, power relays snapped, and the metal and the very structure of the ship groaned. The lights went out, as did all the consoles and the monitors, leaving them totally blind in space. Smoke filled the bridge, while the life support system momentarily blanked out. Hall could even feel the artificial gravity cut out as well. Others on the bridge screamed. The metal groaned some more, and that tangy, acrid smoke became more pronounced.
The whole thing had lasted perhaps two seconds. The stresses on the ship stilled, leaving the bridge in darkness and silence, except for the sounds of life from the crew. Battery-powered emergency lighting came on, but the viewscreen and the consoles remained dark. Looking around the dim bridge, the smoke forming slowly-diffusing balls as it erupted into the air, and with some debris still floating, Hall focused on the crew. Gerthe was holding on to the armrests of this chair, while Weisser was struggling to get into his seat again. Yuniki was holding on to the console tightly, almost hugging it. Hall looked right, and saw Abuna trying her best to regain some measure of composure. Her nose was bloodied, with droplets coming out and floating away. "Mary, are you alright?" the captain asked.
"I think so. The pressure on me might've burst a blood vessel in my nose, but I'll live." She looked up, and saw how the blood droplets were drifting away and seemingly going into a circular motion while drifting towards the walls. In fact, the smoke and the other debris were all moving in a roughly similar direction. "I believe we're spinning."
"You're right," Weisser said, as he finally got back into his seat. Of course, that did not do him any good since on the helm console, all the displays were out and none of the buttons and knobs actually worked.
Turning to the engineer, Hall asked, "William, how long until we get things running again?"
"I don't know. We appeared to have survived. I don't think any hull breaches occurred here." He eased himself out of the chair and expertly propelled himself towards one of the equipment lockers at the rear of the bridge. Like many engineers, he had plenty of experience working in zero gravity and was at least moderately comfortable in it. At the small locker, he opened the cover and removed a communicator. Being a portable device, it was completely independent of the ship and its systems. He also knew that in the case of a general failure like this, his engineers were to equip themselves with the communicators. If main engineering was still intact, he had no doubt that these procedures were in effect. Tapping in a code on the small keypad, Gerthe said, "Bridge to engineering."
"This is engineering," came the response. Gerthe heard the voice of his assistant chief, Janet Hart.
"What's the situation? When can we have power restored?"
"Sir," came Hart's response, as she sounded rather harried. "Both internal reactors shut down automatically to preserve them once that collision imminent alert sounded. We're working on restarting them now. That should get power going, but the power transfer system has suffered damage. First we'll do life support and get gravity working again. Then I'll look at the impulse engine system to make sure it can work again."
"Very good. Try to get the gravitational induction drives to work. We're spinning."
"I thought so. I keep wanting to drift towards the outside walls."
"Same here."
Several seconds later, Hart said, "Okay, reactor number one ready to come on-line. Brace yourselves since we're going to have gravity soon." Even as she spoke, some of the lights came on. Elsewhere, the damaged conduits sparked and briefly flamed. The gravity system, being as it was hard-wired into the floor, was more robust, and the pull of gravity slowly increased, allowing those who were floating to move slowly to the floor and giving them time to shift into a more shock-absorbing position. Hall kind of liked the way the pull of the artificial gravity field held him down in his seat.
"Gravity restored," Gerthe said. "Life support appears to be functional here, but we've got electrical damage. The only console working is Mary's."
"Helm does not respond," Weisser said.
"Our priority is to cancel that spin. I'll go down to engineering and handle the GID's manually to cancel the spin."
"Very well..."
* * *
Nine hours later, Hall was in his ready room, reviewing the damage repair logs. Pretty well everybody who had any skill whatsoever was involved in the cleanup and the repairs. The good news was that nobody was killed or seriously injured, although Dr. Torres and the small medical staff, mostly the nurse and the field medics among the marines, were treating all the minor cuts and bruises and scrapes. The bad news was that the Atlas had been damaged somewhat. The basic structure of the ship was sound, but it had been distorted enough that the warp nacelles and the entire warp engine system was slightly degraded. Now, they would be lucky to get ninety-five percent efficiency out of it and would have to settle for ninety on most occasions. Gerthe knew that there was nothing he could do about that. He lacked the manpower, the tools and the training to handle the repairs in the nacelles.
Another problem that they had was that the starship simply lacked the spare parts to replace all the damaged conduits and systems. They had to prioritize and take functional components elsewhere in the ship and use them in more critical locations. Perhaps in time the engineers could use the materials at hand and rebuild or repair the damaged components, but most of the damaged conduits were beyond repairs. The cargo bays and some of the unused areas on decks seven and eight had to be sealed off and power and life support shut to those decks. It would be another two days before Gerthe and his engineers were ready enough to bring either the warp engines or the impulse engines back on-line. Therefore, they were moving strictly on inertia and the gravitational influence of the star and the collapsar that orbited it, travelling at about five psol outwards from the star. The course was somewhat curved, so at this time, the star was between the Atlas and the black hole.
Hall heard the door chime sound. He said, "Come," while reaching for the switch that opened the door. Abuna walked in. She was wearing coveralls, as was most of the crew as they were getting dirty doing some of the repairs and cleaning up. She looked to have been right in the middle of it, and had the appearance of somebody in need of a shower--except that the water purification system was not running at full power and so showers and other unnecessary water use was out. "Sir," she reported, "at least one piece of good news. We got the galley repaired and cleaned up, and also cleaned up the mess in the mess hall. You should've seen that place, food on the walls, the floor, everywhere. It was like a food fight in there."
"If only it was," the captain said.
"I know," Abuna said, in a more subdued voice. Without being invited to do so, she sat down in the chair across the desk from the captain. "At least we can eat more than just rations and water again."
"Good."
"Other repairs are on-going, but now, I'm starting to sense something else."
"What?" asked the captain.
"What of the mission to Rigel? Do we continue, or do we head back to Earth?"
Hall pondered the idea for a moment. Of course, he had been thinking about just that question for a long time, and as he read various reports, talked to members of the crew and even just thought about it, his resolve varied from being committed to the mission to turning around and heading home. However, he had one more angle to explore. "What is your opinion, Mary? If you were in my position, what would you do?"
Abuna had strong views on this, but suddenly found it difficult to express them. She had to remember that, despite the way Hall had phrased the question, he was really looking for advice. "I think the crew is a little discouraged," she started. "The incident with the trilithium had made it clear to us how vulnerable we are to be out here, so far from home. We can't get assistance, or help. We've encountered no other ships, no other space-going races, this far in the journey--excepting that trilithium vessel, of course. Now, the ship has been damaged. We can't fully restore it. Our function is impaired, if only slightly. I'm sure that Starfleet Command will accept our reasons if we return without fulfilling the mission plan. Even they might realize that we had to venture too far."
"But in your estimation, the ship is sufficiently functional that we are in no danger if we return to Earth?"
"Yes, I'd say that."
"But not to continue the mission?"
"We don't know what's out there, sir. We don't know what other dangers we might encounter. If the ship is not fully ready, if the crew is not mentally prepared, then those encounters might be disastrous for us."
Hall looked down at the padd still in front of him, and then up at the tired-looking and even dirty first officer sitting across from him. "If I tell you that my decision is to complete the repairs and resume our mission to Rigel, how would you feel about that?"
Abuna answered immediately, "Whatever you decide, sir, you know I'll fulfill my duties and whatever orders you give me to the fullest of my abilities."
"Yes, but what would you think about the decision?"
"To be honest, sir, I'd have to question it. Of course, if I understood the reasoning behind it, I might not question it so much."
"Okay, the reasoning. I don't believe that the non-repairable damage to the ship is sufficient to impair our abilities at Rigel. Sure, the engines cannot be fully restored, and that'll add a few days to the mission, and we have some sections of the ship we had to close off, but the Atlas is a big ship, and even in the sections that are still accessible, a hundred and twenty-four people can still easily get lost. The crew is still intact. We came into this knowing it would be a long mission, and that we would be far from home and without any kind of support. We were totally on our own. This crew understands and accepts that. The incident here might have shown the potential dangers in being so far from home, but at the same time, it showed our strength. I see a crew going about its task of completing the repairs purposely, getting the job done to the best of their abilities."
"But they wonder if we continue, go even further into the unknown, all the way to Rigel, can they still do that? Can they still perform?"
"In truth, that was a question I asked myself the day the Atlas left Earth. I had faith then that we could do it, that we were prepared for this mission in all ways possible, and I still have faith that they can do it now. Nobody explicitly asked you if we were turning back, did they?"
"I don't think anybody wants to admit it, obviously. It was the impression that I got, the doubts, the uncertainty."
"Well, maybe we should erase that uncertainty. Inform the crew that as soon as we have warp drive restored, we will be resuming our course to Rigel. I'm still confident that we can pull this off, reach that star and assess the availability of dilithium there."
Hall noticed that Abuna was not fully committed to believing the announcement that she was going to make. He had to wonder if she was now scared in space. She had been involved in both incidents, and might have blamed herself for both of them. She had to question her training, and her lack of experience in long-term missions like this one. However, Hall knew that it was not good to be scared in space, especially in the situation that the Atlas found itself. He would not bring that up now, but would watch her more carefully to see if there were any signs. He had hoped not. Until that trilithium in the vessel exploded, she had performed very well during the investigation of the collapsar. He needed her.
The first officer finally said, "Very well, sir. I'll make that announcement as soon as possible."
The two stared at each other for a few seconds, before Hall asked, "Any questions?"
"No, none that I can think of right now."
"Dismissed, then. Maybe they'll get the water-purification system up and running soon..."
Part 1,Part 2,Part 3,Part 4,Part 5,Part 6,Part 7,Part 8,Part 9,Part 10,Part 11,Part 12,Part 13,Part 14
"Flag At the Edge of Space" page, Athena Home Page, Other Stories Home Page.
