It was quite accidental really how the Timothy found quasi space. They were testing the Graviton Chariot design which might someday allow them faster than light travel. But the circuits overloaded for some reason which scientists at the time could not understand. A surge in power followed and a brilliant flash of light, visible from ultraviolet to infrared.
Luckily, the plasma which expanded ahead of the anti-gravity cone was directed away from living beings and was far away from Timothy 3. This was intentional. Altering the fabric of space-time was very risky, they knew, even though they had never attempted it on such a scale. Therefore they had spent two years taxiing into a vacant orbit between the terrestrial and Jovian planets in their system at very sub-light speeds.
The flash of visible and invisible light wasn't what scared the scientists. When the graviton shield overloaded, just after the flash, all the stars around and behind it took a sickening shift outward as the sudden extreme gravity bent the beams of their light. It appeared, for this was really the effect, that space bulged suddenly. It was as if a fish eye lens the size of Pluto appeared in space. It brought into question what space really was, whether real or illusion.
The scientists were all frozen in horror. It wasn't fear for space-time nor fear for the lives of their relatives at home. It wasn't even simple fear for their own survival, though that was part of it. It was fear that they would live knowing what lay behind the curtain of reality, fear that they would outlive their own sanity.
But that fear was needless. Each of them recovered their wits and momentarily returned to a reality of blinking computer monitors and wailing emergency sirens. They recovered their wits just in time for the next shock. The blackness of space rushed at them, as they accelerated toward infinity.
Surely, thought the captain, we shall be dashed against the proverbial rocks. Surely we can't accelerate to infinity. But he was wrong.
Stars became streams and then disappeared, only to reappear in a tighter sphere.
Had the ship grown infinitely? Had space contracted? "Heavens ... what have we done?!" Tears welled up in the captain's eyes as he thought of a world which would never be the same, of his grandchildren who might never exist even to hate him for captaining a ship that destroyed their world.
He glanced around at stunned bridge officers. He realized he must act. Now was the time for a leader to step forward. Step forward and what? Step forward and at least keep them busy until annihilation. He swallowed hard. "Status report?"
Luckily, the plasma which expanded ahead of the anti-gravity cone was directed away from living beings and was far away from Timothy 3. This was intentional. Altering the fabric of space-time was very risky, they knew, even though they had never attempted it on such a scale. Therefore they had spent two years taxiing into a vacant orbit between the terrestrial and Jovian planets in their system at very sub-light speeds.
The flash of visible and invisible light wasn't what scared the scientists. When the graviton shield overloaded, just after the flash, all the stars around and behind it took a sickening shift outward as the sudden extreme gravity bent the beams of their light. It appeared, for this was really the effect, that space bulged suddenly. It was as if a fish eye lens the size of Pluto appeared in space. It brought into question what space really was, whether real or illusion.
The scientists were all frozen in horror. It wasn't fear for space-time nor fear for the lives of their relatives at home. It wasn't even simple fear for their own survival, though that was part of it. It was fear that they would live knowing what lay behind the curtain of reality, fear that they would outlive their own sanity.
But that fear was needless. Each of them recovered their wits and momentarily returned to a reality of blinking computer monitors and wailing emergency sirens. They recovered their wits just in time for the next shock. The blackness of space rushed at them, as they accelerated toward infinity.
Surely, thought the captain, we shall be dashed against the proverbial rocks. Surely we can't accelerate to infinity. But he was wrong.
Stars became streams and then disappeared, only to reappear in a tighter sphere.
Had the ship grown infinitely? Had space contracted? "Heavens ... what have we done?!" Tears welled up in the captain's eyes as he thought of a world which would never be the same, of his grandchildren who might never exist even to hate him for captaining a ship that destroyed their world.
He glanced around at stunned bridge officers. He realized he must act. Now was the time for a leader to step forward. Step forward and what? Step forward and at least keep them busy until annihilation. He swallowed hard. "Status report?"
No comments:
Post a Comment