The Last Light

What's in the inside of a black hole?

The Last Light

“Sir!” called a uniformed man from the bottom of the stairwell. His expression indicated that something was wrong.  “We are confirmed to be in the gravitational pull of Sagittarius.” 

I ran down the stairs to the main control board of the now shaking Zeus-17.  Oh, no, I thought, I didn’t think we would be in any kill-zone anytime soon.

Unless . . . no, we can’t be there yet. Nevertheless, at the speed we are stopping isn’t possible.

I Loosely gripped the railing as I sprinted down the stairwell. My navy-blue uniform seemed to not agree with me.   I grimaced in annoyance. When I looked at the instrument measuring the years on Earth, I was met with a surprise I stared down at it: 3503 . . . 3504 . . . 3505 . . .3506 . . . 3507 . . . .  Why is Earth time moving so quickly? I know the speed of the ship could minorly effect time, but how could time be so . . . distorted? Then it hit me: the black hole. That’s what distorted it.

The emergency sirens were singing like an old bird at crack of dawn. “Warning, large gravitational increase warning.” the clear, synthetic female voice called from a computer.

I then looked at the at the screen that had footage from a camera. In red on the top left corner, it showed that it was from a couple of seconds ago; and it was of the black hole. The event horizon, which marked the edge of a black hole, gleamed with a colorful light that looked like one of the Aurora Borealis in the United Democracy of North America; it was like this from

all the gas getting sucked in, slowly. Then I found the monitor that said where we were. I watched it, and we were in the center of the Milky-Way galaxy.

Uh-oh. Turns out we are it is Sagittarius. It’s here. The one that is in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The one that has a mass of 4.3 million of Earth’s sun. The one that we’re being pulled into.

The crew of the ship was panicking. Sometimes over the siren, I could hear commanding shouts from the crew. It was getting crazily hectic. All sorts of crew members were running in and out of the main corridor; A dozen pilots�"including me�"were at the main control-board; five other crew members were preparing the evacuation-dock. It was kind of like organized

Chaos.

“Sir,” the first man told me, “we are awaiting your orders on the matter.”

He had been watching me look at the screen on the main control board in panic.

Just then a crew member ran to our position, breathing hard. “Sir,” the man called to me anxiously, “we are awaiting your approval for evacuation.”

The other pilot and I exchanged glances. From what I could tell he wanted to get out of here immediately. But me, on the other side, wanted to find a way to stay. Hmm . . . . The odds are stacked against us, evacuating might be smart, but there has to be another way. We can’t give up now. What about the emergency thrusters? Wait no that won't work, there’s no way we can match its gravitational pull to our measly emergency

thrusters. I know! We can try to tilt our speed to a different direction. Find something with a large mass other than a black hole. Then its gravitational pull would pull us away. That’s a great idea!

“Approval denied,” I said. We can’t stop now; not when we are this far.

“But, with all due respect, Sir, if we do not evacuate we’ll all die,” He told me. It looks like he, too, wanted to get out of here.

“I know a way we can all get out of here alive. You know when the attempt to fly to the moon was made they decided that they would go in figure eight.”

“Yes, sir. Of course, sir.”

“I wasn’t done, Lieutenant Jack. Anyway, so they decided they would use the gravity of the moon. First, the ship would be launched in a diagonal line to the moon. When the time came the gravity of the moon would pull them in orbit. And then when they finished circling the moon the ship would the force of the gravitational pull to shoot them back to earth.

“Well, we are going to do something similar. We are goin’ to double our speed. And then tilt, direction wise. We will go past the black hole. We may get sucked in. But that is a risk I’m willing to take. Anyway, we then find a Planet or Star get hooked to its orbit. Then circle a couple of times and, voila, shoot in the other direction.”

“Sir, you are willing to risk the crews’ life for exploration? That isn’t your job to decide if they will stay or not. It’s their choice.”

“They are mine to command though, correct?”

“Yes, but, sir�"”

“Alert the crew.”

“Yes, sir.”

He sorrowfully walked away and down the Main-corridor. The man disappeared behind the door of the room that operates the intercom.   Doubts started to seep into my mind. What if I was sentencing them to death.  What if they gathered together and declared mutiny? 

“Attention all crew.” called the man voice over the intercom. “Report to room-A1 for an emergency meeting.”

The crew all stopped what they were doing, and, seeming hopeful for a plan, started to flood into room-A1 or the meeting room. I followed the anxious crowd. The meeting room was packed. There were two crew members for every chair. Many, if they couldn’t find a seat, stood up either beside or behind the chairs. There were nervous whispers throughout the crowd. Then Jack stood up into the table, getting everyone’s attention, cleared his throat, and held his chest, shoulders, and head high, and spoke.

“Men of Operation-Deep-Sky or ODS for short, we have come far. We have seen much: asteroids, comets, moons, stars, novas, nebulas, new solar systems, and even set up a planet base on Mars. But now we are in trouble: we have been slowly going near Sagittarius for the past three hours, and are way off course, not to mention in the path of the black hole.”

He went on to explain what my plan was.

“But sir,” burst out a crew member, “haven’t we explored enough? Can we not return to our families back on Earth? We are all tired. We all want to go home!”

The crew repeated his speech in agreement.

“You do realize,” I said, ”that the black hole has distorted our time so much that now your grandchildren would have great-grandchildren.  In the next hour, you’ll now no one on Earth and recognize nothing in your towns. The best thing you can do for your unknown descendants is to continue exploration.  Find other homes for them, more materials and food for them, and, finally, more knowledge for them.  

“Your names will be written in the books that tell of great explorers.  Your names will be on the lists of the honored most high. You, men, will be recognized as the people who, beyond doubt, gave the most information and knowledge to the people.  

“If you give up now, we will die.  The escape pods: where would they go?  If this ship, with much more fuel and speed than the pods, can only escape with everyone possible, how will measly escape pods go much further than the exit docks?  But if you decide to continue moving forward, you will be known as the men and women who escaped the supermassive black hole! You will be legends.

“Now, you knew the dangers of this mission when you signed up; be men and women of your word.  You’ve heard the plan. Now, let’s leave this thing and go on. Execute the plan immediately.

“Yes sir,” they said in unison.

We all left the chamber. I knew that, no matter what the outcome, I had just decided the entire crew’s future.

I ran over to a crew member at a screen, who was tapping

furiously at it.

“All plans on course?” I asked her.

“Yes, sir. We just got the coordinates of the closest star, TSH-3425. Thrusters heating up, almost ready to move into hyper-sound-speed-boost.” She said all this with a nervous hint in her tone. She thinks we’re not going to make it. Oh, but we are. Hyper-sound-boost was a speed that is faster than sound but slower than light.  My dad had invented the use of it during a flight. But that doesn’t matter right now. All that matters now is escaping from the black hole, Sagittarius.

“Thrusters ready to make the exertion to hyper-sound-speed-boost,” said a man running up to me. “Permission to use hyper-sound-speed-boost?”

“Yes.”  We are gonna make it! I know we are. I sprinted over to Jack, and said, “Make sure the crew as their suits on, just in case.”

“Yes, sir.”

I had started to hear the roaring noise of the thrusters starting up. Then the terrible, antagonizing screech of tearing metal. I thankfully had my suit on, otherwise, I would have slammed into the side of the ship, hard. See, the black hole’s gravity had created such a significant force, it was like gravity on

earth. But a billion times more so. I kept being immeasurably pressed to that wall. Then the wall broke off the ship.

I felt like there should have been an explosive sound as the ship blasted apart into many pieces, only to get sucked in faster towards the black hole. But there wasn’t. 

I realized I should be dead. The only thing that had kept me alive was me being the first one to get pulled out of the ship. The entire crew is dead. Because of me. I wanted to break down and cry, but the sight of all the beautiful, colorful formations of gas around the black hole made me calm. I was being sucked into a black hole, into that void, and about to die. I should be scared. But, I wasn’t.

The closer and closer I moved towards the inside of the black hole time slowed down for me but sped up for everyone else. That was the law of black holes. That was the law of time. The law of void.

My suit creaked.  It would break soon.  I needed one last breath.  As I opened my mouth to take a breathe, it happened.  My suit ripped apart. Yet I stayed intact.

I realized after what felt like ten minutes, that the Earth was probably gone now. Time had passed so quick for them. Now time was going faster. Now faster. And now even faster. Now I could see the stars and galaxies move around, collide, die. I saw fifteen galaxies die. Now I couldn’t count. So fast.

Now all light was becoming to become a rainbow-like blur. So fast. Now it’s probably been another couple billion years. So fast. Now the universe is at its peak and has probably stopped expanding. So fast. Now it’s dying. So fast. Now it has only a few seconds left of my time. So fast. Now the light--it’s gone.

Nothing now exists except for me and the black hole. There is no more light, no more anything�"only the void. The void trying to take me. Trying to take me away.

Resist.  I must resist the void.  The void: the empty, yet infinitely dense void. 

I will soon be taken away by the groping arms of the black hole. In the arms of the void. The void beckoning.

My thoughts drew me back to a poem my mother had made me memorize as a child.  I had forgotten about the poem.

“All things come, all things go

All things turn from life and leave

All but the Void”

I started to rattle and my breathing was only drawn in deep, heaving motions.

“Some try escape from sleep

But no one succeeds, they all fall in a heap

All but the Void”

I was having trouble breathing now.  I had the confusing feeling of being stretched, slowly and surely stretched as if they were being ripped.  It was agonizing.

“Kingdoms will all rise and fall

All only attempting to rule them all

All but the Void”

I looked up, but I still couldn’t see anything.  My legs had lost the feeling of being ripped apart.  They had lost all feeling in fact. I felt nothing now.  The Black hole was beckoning to me. I needed to succumb.  To let it control me.

I watched my legs stretch and contort.  My head started to shake. My breath started to lengthen even though it felt normal. 

“They cannot know, they cannot understand what they cannot deem

Infinite knowledge and infinite presence is for them all but a dream

For all but the Void”

The light of the time was gone forever.  The light of life was gone from this universe.  I started to mourn silently for the loss. But then I realized a fact that shook my whole being.  

I was, I am, I will always be, the last Light.  I was wrong. I do not have to listen to the Void.  The Void had been trying to sedate me into thinking it always had to get its way, but it doesn’t.  It cannot control me. I belong to the Light, and the Void cannot rule over the Light.  

The universe began with a bang, an explosion of light.  It will end with the last thought of life and of Light. I am the last Light of this world; the last bit, the last thought, the last memory of Light.  The Void cannot take me because it knows that it cannot destroy the Light. The Light will always be and will always rule over the Void. The Void was the expanse between the clusters of galaxies.  

The Void has been prowling the universe in the form of black holes.  It has been seeking a way to destroy the Light. Yet it can’t. The rules of space-time will not allow it.  A light will always have to exist.  

The rules of space-time knew that the one person willing to constantly explore the Light of the universe will encounter the Voids.  It created the rules of space-time so that when the Void seems to have won, when it has in reality eternally lost. The Light has chosen me.  

I suddenly felt a feeling of despair.  How was I supposed to defeat the Void? What could I do against this giant in front of me?  I thought back to the poem. Didn’t the poem say nothing could defeat or rule over the Void?  Then a thought hit me, seeming to have come out the recesses of my brain. The poem was all wrong.  The Void had tried to lead the human race, the trophy of the Light, astray. It wasn’t the Void that ruled, it was the Light.  I thought back to the poem with the new corrections in mind. 

“All things come, all things go

All things turn from life and leave

All but the Light

“Some try escape from sleep

But no one succeeds, they all fall in a heap

All but the Light

“Kingdoms will all rise and fall

All only attempting to rule them all

All but the Light

“They cannot know, they cannot understand what they cannot deem

Infinite knowledge and infinite presence is for them all but a dream

For all but the Light”

I sighed in contentment.  This was the truth and the Light. 

As of the moment my last thought was complete, an explosion of Light surrounded me.  It popped and flowed. It glowed and shimmered in all sorts of colors. But was only contained to me.  I gained my feeling back into my legs. The Void no longer can fight me.  

I took a step forward, and Light started to branch outward from where my foot had stepped.  The Light was guiding me, showing me the way, and creating a path for me. I took another step.  The Void seemed to be shrinking. It was a door I needed to go into. I needed to go into it to let the Light fill the Void.  Only then would my job be completed. My job was to pass on the Light and fill the dark places. I knew not what would come to pass when I will step into that room of evil, but I do know that the Light will protect me.  The Void seemed to yield a door handle. Do not lead me astray, I thought to the Light.  

With that previous thought in mind, I took the knob firmly in my hand, twisted it, and stepped forward.

    

Author's Note

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