Alpha Rising (41 page)

“
Like what?” Lynch
asked.

“
I built the E-module to
fly independently of the mother ship.”

Lynch hollered, “Bingo!”

“
As soon as we get back to
Dura and you guys are mainstreamed, we’ll put our heads together,”
Bach said. “The E-module’s just temporary quarters for those we’ve
picked up, so our first move will be to integrate them into the
Skyprisms. It might require constructing another Skyprism with the
different environments, but I think we can pull off whatever it
takes in six months. Then we’ll need to secure enough fuel to take
us all the way home.”

“
Whoo.” Kaz let out a
little yelp. “Outta here in six months?”

Star listened from the cockpit, but said
nothing.

Bach continued. “I spent long hours
refurbishing that module to withstand the trip to Earth. We’ll have
onboard food from the hydroponic gardens, and all the elements we
need to sustain life.”

“
Let’s do it faster than
six months,” Lynch added.

“
By the way,” Deni
interjected, “has anyone kept track of time? I’d be interested in
knowing what month this is—Earth time.”

Kaz said, “My insides tell me it’s around
Christmas. Doesn’t it seem like it should be Christmas?”

G.R. rubbed his belly. “Ho, ho, ho.”

Kaz ignored him and asked the others, “If
you could have anything you want for Christmas, what would it
be?”

Lynch laughed. “Three more wishes.”

“
That’s a boring old one,”
G.R. complained before offering, “I’m an old-fashioned guy. A
conformer bed, popcorn, and plasma video with voice-remote for
me.”

“
Security,” Deni said. “I
hate indefinite things.”

“
A safe landing at Dura,”
Bach said.

Star leaned over and asked Bach, “What is …
Christmas?”

He shook his head and smiled, again reminded
of her alien status in a group of earthlings. “Christmas…,” he
replied, gesturing with his hands as if talking to a student,
“well, it depends on your beliefs. It began as a celebration of the
birth of the Creator’s son. The Son was given gifts, so people give
each other gifts.”

“
Our Creator has a son?
Does his son live on Earth?”

“
He did once, but not
anymore. He sacrificed himself for the deliverance of mankind, then
returned to his Father, our Father, in heaven.”

“
Where’s
heaven?”

“
It’s—” Bach started to
reply, but Lynch cut him off.

“
Let me explain it,” he
said. “It’s not a place on a map. Heaven is the Creator’s dwelling
place from where mankind and all good things have come. It’s not
tangible to mortals. Heaven and the Creator’s energy encompass the
infinite bounds of space.”

Bach said, “Star, it’s where the tunnel of
light originates … where our Creator lives. Our hope and eternal
home.”

Lynch continued in his warm, southern drawl.
“Now, back to Christmas. Over time it’s lost its meanin’ and people
turned it into a commercial event.”

G.R. smirked. “Yeah, everyone gives each
other presents they don’t want, and then they all complain. Only
part I like is gettin’ holiday time off from work.”

Kaz rolled her eyes. “Oh, G.R., it’s not
that bad. Think of all the happy kids and Santa riding in a sleigh
drawn by those cute, flying reindeer.”

“
And the one with the
flashing red nose.” Lynch laughed. “Hey, Bach, on the subject of
animals and people, y’all sure picked up a great
selection.”

Bach let out a sigh. “It’s been a challenge
getting ’em all aboard.”

Star nodded. “While in the animals’ module a
while ago, securing Shushan’s sea life, I had an interesting
experience with two of the larger mammals. They were friendly, in a
human-like way, and seemed to enjoy my attention. Even responded
affectionately to my touch.”

“
Those are Dolphins,” Deni
replied. “At one time, long ago, they were human
species.”

Bach stopped what he was doing with a shout,
“What?”

“
Dolphins,” Deni offered,
“are an example of reverse evolution. With the shortage of land on
Ashkelon, long before population control became mandatory, people
had no choice but to slowly adapt to living in the
water.”

Kaz added, “Nowhere else to go, it became a
way of life.”

Deni continued, “As time went on, living in
and under the water, they eventually evolved into sea
dwellers.”

Bach said, “You’re saying dolphins were once
human, and not the other way around as some believe?”

“
Pretty much bears out the
theory,” Lynch said. “Think about it—little babies are birthed
under water, they surface for air, and the cycle begins. But it
didn’t happen overnight, now. It took eons of evolvin’.”

“
Give me a minute to digest
that,” Bach said.

G.R. added, “Well, in my opinion it’s
perfectly logical, and the planet’s history and stories handed down
through the generations bear witness to what could be called a
reverse evolution process. You know, even with all my biology
training, I never did buy into the man-from-microscopic-organism
thing.”

“
Bach and I discussed
something similar. That perhaps the apes began as man, but reverse
evolved to adapt to their toxic environment.” Star said. “They’re
certainly an interesting combination of animal and man.”

“
I love pondering
unexplainable scientific oddities,” G.R. said.

“
Oddities are one thing,
but I really hate that the mermaid was experimentally made,” Bach
said.

“
And Varuna probably hates
being a mermaid,” Deni said. “Can you imagine how lonely she is,
caught in the middle?”

“
Varuna? Beautiful name.”
Bach shook his head. “Why can’t man leave well enough alone? First
a pegasus, then a mermaid.”

Kaz’s eyes enlarged almost twice the size.
“You saw a pegasus?”

“
As beautiful as you would
imagine.”

“
Is it in the animals’
module?”

“
No. There was just one, a
result of nuclear testing and experimentation on Troas.”

Lynch shifted in his seat. “I’m beginnin’ to
understand this ark-like mission. We may be the only ones left
who’re safe.”

*****

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

With a precious cargo of Arkmates,
Arkriders, and animals, Bach carefully allocated the small amount
of fuel and burned only the bare minimum as they headed to planet
Jenesis.

Star spent a little time
trying to reconcile the roster her father had put aboard, then left
it at a mid-ship workstation and headed back to the cockpit. “I
can’t figure out why my dad made that roster,” she stated. “There’s
no one else to pick up, but we still have five empty
letters—
a, e, p, q
, and
x
, and
there are three duplicates—
s, t,
and
y
.”

Kaz looked it over. “So
whose name would start with a
q
or
x
anyway?”

“
Maybe you picked up a few
wrong ones,” G.R. said.

Star moaned, “Oh, don’t say that. Our
searches were challenging, but everyone had the sign.”

“
Why don’t you just forget
it?” he added. “Too late to do anything about it.”

Lynch sauntered to Kaz’s side and plucked
the roster from her hands. “Here, lemme see that.” He studied it
for a minute then drawled, “Maybe Rooks?”

“
No,” Bach stated. “I don’t
think there are Rooks on board. I just don’t have that
feeling.”

Star suddenly cried out, “Bach! Gravity
lensing detector picked up an occurrence!”

Bach zeroed in on warnings flashing on the
viewpanel and yelled, “Oh, God!” at the same time.

Deni, Lynch, Kaz, and G.R. rushed to the
cockpit and pressed in behind Bach and Star to see what they were
looking at.

“
The spectrometer’s showing
a change in the galaxy’s composition,” Bach announced. “All space
matter is collapsing toward our Ark, not just the planets, but
distant stars as well.” He nervously pointed to the panel. “Look.
The images are steadily growing larger with a trajectory straight
toward our ship.”

Star’s voice wavered. “My father predicted
something like this.”

“
What are you saying?”
Lynch shouted. “How could he know this was coming?”

“
Our entire galaxy has been
on the verge of instability for two generations. He said it was
inevitable that one day an extraordinary external disturbance would
be the catalyst that tipped the zone into collapse—precipitate an
implosion that creates a black hole that consumes all. Zarephath’s
exploding must have triggered it.”

Lynch grumbled, paced, and looked from
window to window. “Nothin’ gets out of a black hole—not even light.
We’ll disintegrate into atoms.”

Kaz cried out, “God, help us,” and clasped
her hands under her chin, whispering a prayer.

Nobody spoke for a time as second by second
all matter in the surrounding galaxies zoomed toward the helpless
ship. They would soon be surrounded and consumed along with all
matter contained in this galaxy in space.

Deni stepped over the bench seat and sat
next to Bach to get a better look at his viewpanel. “Doesn’t seem
possible … watching a black hole form.”

“
Worse, we’re heading into
it,” said G.R.

Bach stared fixedly at the approaching
cosmological bodies, then grabbed a handheld device. “This is a
crazy idea, but I’m going to monitor the light of an adjacent
galaxy to see how it’s being deflected so I can calculate where the
mass is being collapsed.”

Deni watched over his shoulder. “Doesn’t
sound crazy to me.”

Kaz’s voice cracked. “Bach, what’s going to
happen to us? If the planets are destructing, that means Jenesis is
gone!”

He turned to speak, his face more determined
than they’d ever seen. “I’m remembering theories of Hawking and
Penrose, and there may be a way to survive.” He swung around and
handed the portable computer with downloaded data to Lynch.
“Compute the intersection point and time of collision.”

Lynch sat nearby with the computer in his
lap. “Intersection point,” he mumbled, typing feverishly.

“
Deni, Kaz, and G.R.,” Bach
ordered, “shut off all lights and unnecessary equipment. We’re
going to need all the power we can get.” He turned on warning
systems and safety devices in the modules while the crewmates
hurried to complete their tasks.

Lynch watched the computer
screen, his body as tense as a cat’s when it stalks its prey. When
the first results appeared, he let out a whistle that carried
through the cabin. “This thing is
huge
. One hour, seventeen minutes to
Doomsday.”

“
The intersection point!”
Bach said impatiently. “I need the predicted point of
impact.”

“
Barely ten thousand miles
away,” Lynch replied. “Not far enough by a light year for the
explosion to miss us, or the resulting black hole not to suck us in
like a piece of scrap metal pulled by a giant magnet.”

“
We’re going to beat this,
and everyone will help!” Bach left no room for debate. “Lynch,
calculate the precise reading, log it into navigation, then work
with Star to minimize the power consumption of less critical
systems. We’ll need every last joule of energy to help control our
destiny.” He paused for a moment, then continued, “Deni, you, G.R.,
and Kaz will manually control the directional thrusters.” He
pointed to four viewscreen touchpads on the control panel. Each
showed what looked like a small digital spacecraft with directional
arrows on it. “Here. These controls guide the Ark up, down, left,
and right.”

“
What are we doing with the
thrusters?” G.R. asked.

“
You’re navigating.” Bach
pecked like a madman on his touchpad. “We’re going through the maw
of the black hole.”

Kaz gasped. “What? Through the opening?”

Bach’s eyes stayed riveted to images on a
laser panel. He spoke without looking up. “Exactly one hour before
impact, there’ll be enough mass in the event horizon around us to
produce a singularity. That’s where nothing can escape its
boundaries. Yet a conglomeration this size will not have congealed
enough to produce a black hole in the purest sense. In that state,
we should, if I interpret Hawking and Penrose correctly, and if
their theories were right, find space/time so warped that the
forces around us will thrust us beyond the singularity into another
dimension—like passing through an instantaneous worm hole before
the final galaxial collapse.”

“
I’m not sure we should do
this,” G.R. warned.

Bach slapped his hand on the padded bench.
“Sit here, G.R.”

Deni and Kaz automatically followed.

Lynch buckled in at Star’s side.

Now Bach had the early image of the
accretion disk preceding the event horizon in focus on the
controller panels. “Everyone keep your eyes dead-center on the
disk.” He placed Kaz’s right hand on a thruster touchpad. If we’re
high, Kaz, you bring us down. He pointed to the touch control in
front of G.R. “If we’re low, G.R., you bring us up.”

Deni already had her hands on her
controllers. “Bearing left or right, that’s me,” she said.