Into The Void (19 page)

              “Were low on food too? How? I'm the only one that eats on this ship.”

              “We lost some on our race back to you after you died on that planet. We lost a lot,” Jamie said.

              “Low water, food, oxygen, supplies. At this rate it's looking pretty grim. We are over two decades behind schedule, just about half way through the mission, and I'm getting older by the day,” Captain Steele said.

              “But you still look young John,” Jamie said.

              “Yeah. Not that bad for what we've been through. Thank you for reminding me of that.”

              “Anytime John. Besides the 'low supply' is proportional to where we are on our journey. It's says its low now but if we start to make up time it won't be. Besides, we are growing food in the food storage area so you won't have to worry to much. Anyway, shall we move forward?”

              “You calling me fat?” Captain Steele asked.

              “No, I am, however, saying you do eat your fair share of food.”

              “I'm the only one who eats so yeah, I'll just keep eating my fair share.”

              “Which is 100%,” Jamie replied.

              “And to be honest, you did lose lots on the way back to save me. So technically that bit's on you.”

              “But I did save your life.”

              “Your never going to let me forget will you?”

              “Nope,” Jamie said laughing.

              “Alright then, let's go.”

Chapter 16

Possible Impossibility

              Captain Steele woke from his sleep and made his way out of bed, his body feeling stiff. He slowly stretched then walked to the kitchen to make him something to eat. After he made himself something to eat he then walked to the rec room to watch something funny. After about 30 minutes into the show he realized that Jamie hadn't greeted him yet. He walked to the bridge hoping to find her holographic image floating somewhere. He looked around and failed to find her. He then checked the lab, cargo bay, med bay, and then went to the engine room where he saw Jamie.

              “Jamie? You alright?” He asked.

              “Yes. I was just admiring the engines.”

              “That's an odd thing to admire after all these years.”

              “I know.”

              “It's only been close to 100 years since we left,” Captain Steele said.

              “Yes. Still I've never taken the time to just slow down and appreciate things. These engines are really impressive.”

              “Well, yeah. There are top of the line. Designed 100 years ahead of their time.”

              “I never understood how you could just lounge around on this ship when your not maintaining it or exploring an anomaly until now,” Jamie said.

              “Your the most advanced artificial intelligence to ever be created and it took you 100 years to learn to relax?”

              “I know how to relax, but to truly appreciate something for what it is, good or bad, is something so simple that I overlooked it,” Jamie said.

              “Yeah, well, stop it. Your kinda creeping me out,” Captain Steele said as he turned to leave the engine room.

              “I am sorry John. It's just that these engines are really really complex.”

              “Yeah...” Captain Steele said, “It's okay. I just think it's kinda weird that an AI is suddenly admiring an engine after being in a small area with said engine for close to 100 years.”

              Captain Steele went back to the rec room to enjoying watching the comedy show that was on the holoscreen. He sat down to watch it where he left off. When it ended he got up and decided to work out. 45 minutes later he was interrupted by Jamie.

              “Anomaly John.”

              “Another? I didn't think there would be so many out here in the void between galaxies.”

              “No one would have predicted it.”

              “Whatcha got for me Jamie?” Captain Steele said as he threw a towel soaked full of sweat into the corner.

              “Why do you have to do that?” Jamie asked.

              “I'll pick it up later.”

              “What if it grows mold?”

              “Then we can study it together to see how mold grows in intergalactic space.”

              Jamie sighed.

              “Seriously, work needs to be done, and it's not going to go anywhere so I can pick it up later. Priorities Jamie, priorities,” Captain Steele said.

              “Your so similar to the man I met all those years ago, but yet you've changed so much.”

              “That's a good thing right?”

              “I think it's a great thing.”

              “I'm glad were in agreement on that. So, back to business, what's the anomaly?” Captain Steele asked.

              “It appears we have a black dwarf ahead of us.”

              “A star that was run out of heat and energy and has died?” Captain Steele asked.

              “Exactly. Black dwarfs shouldn't exist yet. We may have found the first black dwarf ever. No star in the universe has cooled enough to become a black dwarf. It takes billions upon billions of years. The soonest a star could have run out of energy and have completely cooled off so that its no longer emitting heat or radiation would take well over 14 billion years. In fact, current theory says it would take one septentrigintillion years. That's 1 with 114 zeros attached to it. This means there is no way a star could have completely cooled to be a black dwarf.”

              “Refresh my memory. How exactly does black dwarf form?” Captain Steele asked.

              “Well, a black dwarf comes from the medium sized star. A medium sized star has lots of hydrogen stored up inside the core of the star that it burns through a nuclear reaction like process. The star slowly burns the hydrogen. As it does so it fuses the atoms together into helium. All stars also have enough mass to have gravity. When a star is born it has gravity pulling itself into itself but the nuclear fusion process the star uses keeps the star from falling into itself by pushing out energy. It's a really delicate balance,” Jamie explained.

              “Okay I got it, please go on Jamie,” Captain Steele said.

              “Once the hydrogen runs out the core of the star will collapse under its own weight because of the gravity it has pulling it in. The star then gets denser and hotter until it uses the helium atoms as fuel. After some time it then fuses the helium atoms together to make carbon and oxygen, which are the next heavier elements it could create. As it does this it creates more energy causing the outer layers of the star to grow. As it grows it becomes a red giant. As the red giant gets bigger and bigger the outer layers of the star get so far from its gravity well that it drifts off into space and becomes a nebula, creating beautiful, colorful clouds. This colorful cloud is the outer layers of the star.

              “Once all the outer layers drift away all that remains is the core of the star. This is when it becomes a white dwarf. The core has used up all the energy it can and is dead. It still emits heat, light, and radiation because the core is still warm. It's a lot like when the stove remains warm after you turn it off. After all the heat wears off, the core becomes completely cool then it is becomes a black dwarf. This is the most basic explanation of a black dwarf,” Jamie explained.

              “Thanks for the refresher,”  Captain Steele said, “So what exactly is the black dwarf made of?”

              “Unknown. As the white dwarf cools it stops fusing new elements. Currently theory says its just a bunch of
electron-degenerate matter. A simple answer of what this is is a low energy distribution, super dense, super compressed form of the materials that were formed by the star during its lifetime. There is a strong probability of some form of oxygen and carbon, which are the basic elements in any white dwarf.”

              “What state of matter? Solid? Plasma?” Captain Steele asked.

              “Degenerate matter.”

              “Okay, but is it solid or is it more of a gas? Every state of matter has some kind of simple explanation. What is this one?”

              “A low energy distribution of super dense, super compressed form of matter,” Jamie explained, “It is unknown if it presents itself in more of a solid, liquid, gas, plasma, or any other state of matter. Until just now, it was simply a hypothesis saying it exists and the state of matter it would be in is  purely hypothetical. It is probable that after it has cooled it would be more of a solid but it is currently unknown.”

              “Did you scan out to see what materials are in the star?” Captain Steele asked.

              “Yes I did, and I have received a 85% confirmation reading on oxygen and carbon, a 65% confirmation reading on nitrogen, and a 35% conformation reading on zinc.”

              “No 100% confirmations? Is the scanner broke?”

              “No. It is having a hard time reading the elements. It might be because the elements are super condensed and therefore having a hard time breaking through the material and reading it. I am unable to tell if the elements are more solid or not. This means I may be wrong on why we are not getting a good scan. I have tried multiple times with the exact same results.”

              “Time to suit up and head down there,” Captain Steele said.

              “I do recommend extreme caution John. As excited as I am to examine this there are several major problems. One of them being that if the scanner is correct in the elements that are down there, and our current theory of black dwarfs are true, that star should not have any zinc on it. Zinc is fused in large stars, not medium to small stars. This means that it should have gone nova and exploded instead. Also, without knowing exactly what degenerate matter really is, or any of the properties of it, or what exactly a black dwarf is, or how it's formed, or anything to that extent, touching it or even coming into close proximity with it could kill you.”

              “Noted. Also, what's that about it being large size star?”

              “It just means we could be wrong about the entire theory about black dwarfs and that there could be much more than meets the eye.”

              “I'll be careful.”

              “Remember, that material is so dense that a roughly a full teaspoon, or about 1/8
th
a fluid once, worth of the material would have weight equal of a fully grown elephant on Earth. Your DSSM will be taking a heavy blow the closer you get. Please be careful. I can't make any promises that I can save you this time.”

              “I'll be alright,” Captain Steele said.

              Captain Steele put on the DSSM suit, grabbed as many sample containers as he could, and headed back towards the portside airlock. He opened the door and climbed to the outside of the ship. He looked off into the distance where the ships lights where shining and failed to see the object. He used his DSSM's visor to magnify his eyesight onto the object. There it was, as black as the night sky. It was so dark he was having a hard time determining the surface of it, where the surface began and where it ended. It should be about the about 1.50 times the size of Earth but yet it was almost impossible to see.

              Captain Steele climbed to the front of the ship, leaned in the direction the ships lights were facing and pushed off with his legs towards the black dwarf and floated toward it waiting for its gravity to grab hold and pull him in.

              Captain Steele floated toward the black dwarf rotating slowly side over side. He used his visor to magnify his vision unto the object. He could barely see the object off in the distance. He wondered how long it would take before its gravity would pull him in. It should be any minute now. He had counted the minutes since since pushing off the ship. At just under five minutes he felt the pull of the black dwarf's gravity pulling him toward it.

              Captain Steele could feel him slowly accelerating toward the black dwarf the closer he got as the gravity became strong and stronger. He bent forward and rolled his body so that his feet were now facing the object. He then used his DSSM's thrusters to control his momentum and decent toward the black dwarf. He fell for several minutes before he started to feel a strong pressure pushing onto his suit. He looked down toward the black dwarf and and could finally see the object without needing to magnify his vision. The surface was as black as night and it appeared to be moving.

              Captain Steele slowed his downward momentum substantially with his DSSM.

              “Did I ever tell you about that mission where I had to jump ship and fall into the planet's atmosphere Jamie?” Captain Steele said.

              “No. What happened?”

              “Me and my team had just finished a mission in the Hydrus sector and were on our way back to our base in the Canis Major sector when we were ambushed around a star in the Pictor system. This star had six planets, some of the the most beautiful planets I've ever seen. This one, however, was a complete mess. It was the third largest in that solar system and it was also too close to its sun,” Captain Steele said.

              “Anyway, we fought hard, but ultimately, we had to abandon ship. We were out numbered 100 to 1. The ship was decompressing and it was only a matter of time until it it imploded. We had to leave but the ship's escape pods weren't working. However we had our DSSM suits. So we jumped out of the ship hoping for the best. We aimed for this planet, not knowing what awaited us. We knew the planet wasn't well established but we didn't know it was completely abandoned.

              “We jumped toward the planet and used out DSSM's suits to guide us toward the planet. We were goners if we tried to stay alive outside the ship. The attackers would just smash into us or shoot us with their ships. We headed out toward the planet and skydived all the way into the atmosphere, caught fire entering the atmosphere, then had to find a way to slow our decent before we smashed against the ground. Needless to say, the guys attacking us admired our ballsy attempt to survive, but didn't respect it. They still shot at us and tried to kill us. Thankfully, their ships couldn't maneuver very well in the atmosphere like we could in our suits so we survived a bit longer. They lost several men when their ships tore up trying to fly around like combat fighters that high in the atmosphere. Our suits handled better than was expected.

              “We finally landed on the ground about 15 minutes later. Some of us hit the ground too hard and died. It really was a shame. Anyway, we continued our fight when we landed and ran for some cover waiting to set up and ambush. The thing was, this planet was far too hot for most and they made one attempt to take us. It failed. We were unable to take their ships when they landed. This planet was close to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. We waited on that planet for two weeks to be rescued,” Captain Steele said.