Evgeniya travels to HIP 63835 with Countess Ganeva
25 May 2017Evgeniya Asimova
“Shit!” said Asimova.A huge burning white disc filled the view through the canopy. She cut the thrusters. The ship was still creaking as it came out of the jump. It soon came to a near-stop. They were still slowly falling toward the sun, but at such a relatively low speed that there was no immediate danger. The slow breathing of the ancient star could be heard, its sibilant whispering a language no human could ever hope to understand.
The silence was soon broken. “What's the matter?” said Countess Ganeva through the earpiece from the cockpit beneath.
Even through the filtered screen, the glare was intense. Asimova looked down on the pulsating purple-tinged waves beneath them through her squinting eyes; she had rarely seen a sun of such an immense size before. Without taking her eyes from them, she began setting up her scanners so that she could get a reading of the system. She had spent so much time in her ship, that she could perform several task at the same time. “Nothing. We came in a little fast, that's all. I don't think I'll bother scooping for fuel, we have enough for now.” There was also too much risk that they could get sucked down by the gravity.
“Good, let's not waste any more time,” came the reply. “Take me toward the black hole.”
“Which one?”
“Which one? The one down there!” said the Countess as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Dutifully, Asimova powered up the thrusters again and swung the ship away from the sun. The ship arced smoothly through space and came back in again toward the black hole that circled around it.
“It's just a tiddler, don't be afraid,” said the Countess, talking about the black hole. “A little faster, please. The galaxy is large, and life is short.”
Asimova continued at the same speed and pulled to a stop about 2,000 kilometres from the black hole. “Here we are,” she said.
“Closer, please. My instruments won't work at this range. The thing is too small. Come on, I thought you were a hardy space-farer?”
“We can't go any closer.”
“Come on, just a little. This is important. You're not scared of black holes, are you? Been reading too many fantasy novels?”
Asimova touched the accelerator, and the ship began to edge forward.
“Okay I'm getting a reading...” said Ganeva, pressing buttons on her Pale Matter Resonator. “Did you see that?”
“See what?” Asimova could see nothing but a weird distortion of the glare that came from the sun. She was more interested in the ship's temperature gauge, which was rapidly rising.
“That's interesting. Interesting,” continued the Countess.
A shroud of steam began to obscure the view through the canopy. “We're going to have to...” Asimova began to say, but she was interrupted.
“Warning. Temperature critical,” came the unexcited voice of the ship.
Asimova immediately flipped the ship around and began to accelerate.
“Where are you going?” shouted the Countess.
“Warning. Ship is under attack!” came the ship's voice again, with a half-note of extra urgency.
“Where...” the Countess began to question, but the large cooling vent just outside her canopy let out a vicious jet of steam and she was silenced. Sparks began to dance on the display in front of her.
They soon died down as the ship moved away from the black hole. The Countess was not silent for long. “I'm in charge of this expedition!” she snapped. “What's wrong with you? Where are we going?”
“We we're about to die ma'am,” the ice-cool Asimova replied. “The Prince was explicit, ma'am. 'Do everything she tells you to do, unless-'”
“Exactly-”
“'Unless it leads to either of you dying'.” Besides this is my ship, she thought.
“Okay fine,” said Ganeva. She crossed her arms. “Let's go further on into the system.” She muttered something that Asimova did not catch.
“Yes, let's,” agreed Asimova. “It looks like an interesting one.” She checked her readings to make sure that no serious damage had been caused to the ship, and then fired up the Frame Shift Drive.
+
“Gonna need a new paint job,” said Asimova. It was her turn to speak under her breath. She slowly shook her head. Her scanners had finished getting their readings. “There are two more black holes. Co-orbiters.”
“Yes,” Ganeva said, “fifteen suns in all... That's a strange formation. Hmm... Those black holes are even smaller than the last one. Does that mean we can go closer this time?”
“What? No, it doesn't. But we can take a look if you want. We'll scan everything.”
Asimova accelerated toward the twin black holes, turning her icy blue eyes towards the heavens around her. The ink was dotted with an assortment of reddish suns, dimmed by the brightness of the big blue star that dominated the system. Her eyes flashed as she noticed something on her HUD.
“Where are you going now?” said Ganeva as their course changed.
“There's some kind of signal.”
“A signal? Out here?”
“Yes. And I'm eager to find out what it is.” The engines spoomed fumes from their blue-burning jets as she accelerated toward the mystery.
+
In the vast emptiness of space, one could chance across almost anything: broken down ships, slow moving ancient technologies sent out into space generations ago, even non-human artefacts. Asimova often imagined finding alien technologies – a super gun, an unlimited fuel source, or a drive that could jump hundreds of light years. She had a Commander's curiosity and superstition, and she could not let an opportunity like this go by.
She pulled her ship out of cruise as they approached the signal.
It was a shipwreck.
“Spooky, huh?”
"Yes. Be quick will you?" said Ganeva. She was annoyed at this delay, but even she knew better than to try to come between a Commander and her salvage.
It was a large ship, of a type that was no longer produced. It was badly damaged and had almost split in two. It was almost unrecognisable as a ship, and slowly deteriorating into dust. But Asimova had an experienced eye, she recognised certain characteristics of the shape and some of the remaining markings. She estimated that it was about fifty-years old. Bits of its former cargo floated around the broken shell, still intact in the hull powder that surrounded them, some of them still spinning from the original explosion. The wreck loomed pitch-black as they approached, burnt as if by the fires of hell and reflecting little light. Darker than space, it might have been guarding some primordial secret.
"I wonder how it got destroyed?" said Ganeva.
"Who knows?" replied Asimova.
Asimova opened up the cargo scoop, and sent her ship looping around the wreck and back again in a fluid motion, efficiently gobbling up everything of interest that her scanners and eyes could detect. As her ship analysed the haul, her imagination marvelled at the scene, and she wondered what treasures she might have found.
“That's quite enough, Dame Asimova, let's move on,” said Ganeva, grown impatient and eager to probe the remaining black holes.
Never more than at this moment had Asimova missed her little single-seat Imperial Courier. “As you wish, Countess,” she replied, and they glided on through the system, leaving the lonely wreckage behind.