(Page 1 of 3) Emily Saves The Universe by Michael AaronSUMMARY: May Flash Fiction Entry - 1521 words - 1.The Beginning - 2.The Middle - 3.The End 1.
The honour of piloting the probe fell to the Collected Thoughts of Tau-B8, who had completed the tie-breaker in ten words or less. Their latest backup copy now inhabited the tiny vessel, and would be responsible for guiding it along the unfathomably complex path into the hole.
The launch was near. Such was the precision demanded, the countdown was measured in Planck units. To ensure the platform was stable enough, four planetary systems had been crushed into one super-giant sphere. Objects of any decent mass within a light-year had been moved or destroyed. Half the galaxy's anti-matter production was now so much background radiation, after the greatest fireworks display in recorded history. It made the calculations easier by a factor of 10 to the 13th. Even so, the Unified Agglomerate's combined analysis could only say that the experiment's chances of success were "pretty good".
There were many who complained about the outrageous expense of the experiment, and pointed out the extreme unliklihood of there being any such thing as a hole in the space-time continuum, much less a way to fly through it, and what would be the point anyway as no meaningful information could be sent back even if such an impossible thing could be achieved. So bitter was the disagreement, the entire galaxy had gone to war over it. The Pro-Hole Alliance was almost beaten, until they successfully cut a moebius strip in half along its length and the No-Holites were forced to concede.
It was the most exciting thing to happen for at least eight galactic revolutions. In an event second only to the Big Bang, a rogue super-massive singularity was on a collision course with the giant black hole at the centre of the galaxy. When they met, enough energy would be released to keep the Agglomerate going until the heat-death of the universe. Gravity waves would be generated with enough force to create locally-visible spatial distortion as they rippled away at light speed. A good portion of the spacecraft present were adorned with graviton sails, ready to hitch a free ride.
There were two competing theories as to what would happen when the behemoths met. One said they would act like two balls of jelly, stretch towards each other and merge, wobble for a bit, then settle as one mega-singularity. The other theory, which was so confident it had laid a large bet on itself, stated that the smaller of the two would be sent zinging outwards at high relative velocity. There was a third theory which claimed the collision would signify a new age of peace and understanding across the known universe, heralding an era of utopian bliss for every sentient being in existence. This theory was no longer invited to parties.
What the sensible theories had in common was this: just before the instant when the two event horizons came into contact, the forces pulling in opposite directions would reach infinity. At this point, which would only exist in a very small place and for a very short time, a stable hole in the fabric of space and time would be torn open.
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