One Moment
Captain Silvers gripped the armrests of
his consoles so hard that his fingers ached. His spaceship, the
"Eagle," was approaching a rift in space. It was an exploratory
mission from which three other Class A.A. vessels had failed to return. It was
the responsibility of the veteran voyager to find out why.
"What exactly is happening?"
called out the commanding officer. His frantic crew scrambled through data to
process information. The ship was physically shaken as if a ship upon an ocean.
"We are approaching a hole in
space," screamed Lieutenant Connors.
"A hole in space, do you mean a
black hole?" Captain Silvers was highly concerned.
"Perhaps," said Science
Officer Boggles. "It appears to be so, but without anywhere's the similar
mass."
"Can't we reverse our
engines!?!" screamed Captain Silvers.
"Negative," replied Lieutenant
Connors, "we shall be making contact in four seconds."
"Damn it," screamed the
commanding officer, "I always wanted to go down in battle with some
hostile enemy force. At least then, I might get mentioned in a history book."
"Wait just one moment,"
interjected the Science Officer Boggles.
"What is it?" demanded Captain
Silvers.
"Four seconds have already
transpired," replied the scientist. "It would take a good four
seconds just to say the words that I am presently speaking."
"Negative," screamed
Lieutenant Connors, "according to my computer, we have three point five
seconds until impact."
Captain Silvers sat back and relaxed for
a brief instant. "No Boggles is right, for once."
Science Officer Boggles' nostrils flared
in anger, but he remained silent. For far too long, he had been getting no
respect from the crew on the Eagle. Still, his lack of rank prevented any
retaliation or even honesty.
"Perhaps there is a problem with my
computer," Lieutenant Connors surmised. "Maybe the clock isn't
working properly."
"Or maybe time itself has slowed
down," offered Boggles.
"How the hell can time slow
down!?!" screamed Captain Silvers.
"I don't believe you have ever
studied Sirjay Reid, a most excellent theoretical mathematician and
astrophysicist."
"For the sake of the whole ship
Boggles, answer the question! We don't have any time for this nonsense."
Captain Silvers was furious.
"Actually, sir," said the
science officer softly, "we have all the time we need."
"For the sake of the rings around
Saturn, Boggles has gone insane!" screamed Captain Silvers. "Lieutenant,
what is happening to my spaceship?"
"We are approaching the edge of the
space rift," answered Lieutenant Connors.
The Eagle continued to rattle and shake.
The nonessential crew strapped themselves in preparation for collision. It was
a futile effort. A collision in outer space would, of course, undoubtedly lead
to a piercing of the hull. This would bring twofold destruction. The first is
the loss of all air and oxygen. The second would be the extreme cold of that
vacuum. None of the crew would survive. However, regulations were regulations,
and none of the crew wanted to risk receiving a demerit.
"Ah, it's all so clear now,"
said Boggles, "how could we have been so foolish?"
"What are you talking about, you
blithering idiot?" shouted Captain Silvers. "Can't you see that we
are about to enter a rift in space? Let me hear if you have something that can
save our lives."
Boggles began to chuckle. Then he
laughed like an insane man on a manic high.
"I told you to replace
Boggles," screamed Lieutenant Connors, "we all knew that this was
going to happen, didn't we, Tony."
Captain Silvers was shocked at the
breakdown in protocol from his subordinate officer. "You'd better watch
yourself, or you will be the one getting tossed off the ship. Maybe some desk
job on a planet with massive gravity would serve you well."
"Get over it, you egotistical
moron," screamed Lieutenant Connors. "Can't you see that this time
you royally screwed up? Why this is so bad that the crew can't save you just
like every other time."
"Well, if you're such a genius, why
haven't we been blown to smithereens yet?" demanded Captain Silvers.
"I
don't know, captain, I don't know," screamed Lieutenant Connors, "but
we should have been crushed by the massive gravity that created the space
rift."
"There is no massive gravity, you
fool," screamed Science Officer Boggles. "You are forgetting your
fundamentals in astrophysics."
"Go ahead, Boggles," said
Captain Silvers waving his arms in frustration. "Explain it in a way that
we all can understand."
"Velocity is a vector that
calculates one's change in distance with time. Now, if this is a hole in space-time
as we know, it would be defined by the dynamics of this universe and not
ours."
"Are you proposing that the laws of
physics are not constant throughout the universe?" asked Captain Silvers
in shock.
"Not only physics, you arrogant,
pompous, opportunist," declared Science Officer Boggles, "but it's my
belief that the laws of psychology have also changed. I'm sure even a dimwit
like you can see the obvious."
"Well, good Lord," screamed
Captain Silvers, "exactly how long will it take for us to travel through
this space rift."
"Only one moment," offered
Boggles.
"And exactly how long would that
correspond to our normal time per the universe we had just left?" inquired
Captain Silvers.
"Far too long," answered
Boggles and Connors simultaneously, "far too long!"
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