The Light and the Black
07 Feb 2018Jellicoe
Sagittarius A*Three men gazed through the canopy in awe struck wonder at the sight before them. The Big A, the heart of the galaxy, vast and ancient, the force that held everything together. To stand at the point that the entire galaxy revolved around and look on as light itself was absorbed by the blackness, the very star field warping and twisting around the massive expanse of all consuming nothing was a strange, even uncomfortable experience.
The 'Iron Duke' held position a safe distance from the Event Horizon, no one knew how long they sat, doing nothing but stare, dumbstruck by the wonder of the spectacle. Time seemed to have no meaning here, words even less, the very term 'black hole' seeming pathetically unworthy, a dry, sterile piece of descriptive terminology so hopelessly lacking in the poetry or grandeur the spectacle deserved, but then how could any mere words possibly do justice to the soaring, almost spiritual majesty of the scene before them let alone the sense of awe wonder and terror that each of them felt?
"A man could spend his life doing nothing but gaze at that and not have wasted it," Vik finally broke the silence giving voice to something close to what all of them were thinking," If this were to be my last moment of life I would be content and think myself more blessed than any of my forebears."
"Makes a man think how small he is and how small his demons are." Jellicoe muttered to himself remembering his conversation in Jacques Bar and understanding exactly what the old man had meant.
"What's that Skipper?" Claude asked in a far away voice, his eyes still gazing in rapture out of the canopy.
"Nothing," Jellicoe replied and was about to lapse into silence when a memory from his childhood came unbidden to mind, seeming entirely appropriate, "When I was a child my mother used to tell me this story about a man who was born blind, this was in ancient times long before cybernetics so he lived his whole life in darkness until some saint or other came to his village and healed him, and for the first time the man opened his eyes and saw light, colour, sun and sky. I have always wondered what that must have felt like but today I think I understand a little. I feel I have lived in my own darkness, so worried about credits or whose flag flies on some tiny spec of rock that I've never opened my eyes to what's all around me, and today I feel like that blind man, finally able to see the wonderful things that are everywhere. Anyway, what I suppose I'm trying to say is this; we have a good ship, a mountain of rations and a whole galaxy before us, let's see what's out there.