Into Dark Matter
Short Story.
“We’ve found a disturbance about 139 light-years away”, said Dr. Martin just as Yana entered the Lab, “near the star Achernar.”
“Disturbance?” asked a bewildered Yana.
“That’s why you’re here. We’re not sure yet. Seems like a space-time distortion. We can measure the emission of cosmic radiation but can’t see the source.”
Yana felt a current run down her spine. She knows why she’s here. She had been preparing for this day for a long time. A drop of sweat started avalanching down her forehead anticipating the inevitable.
“It could just be a wormhole. But the readings are strong, much stronger and erratic than any other wormhole we have observed. Our current theory suggests dark matter morphing into matter. Some of the simulations do fit, but we don’t know much about dark matter to be certain,” said Dr. Martin.
He felt his hand stiffen as it did every previous time. The sorrow of losing his friends gloomed over him. A cost to pay for human survival, he thought.
Yana had already started packing a mental bag of memories for her one-way trip. The Earth was in terrible shape. She had already traveled to several settlement missions to Moon, Mars, and Europa. But she always came back. She came into the limelight by creating a controlled nuclear fusion reactor for the Europeans of Europa using Jupiter’s hydrogen, keeping the moon warm and the settlement alive until the Earth is restored. A hundred and forty years was the estimation.
“Yana, you’re the only pilot and physicist capable to study this phenomenon. Our best ship Akritis is ready for you. The International Space Agency needs you. Humanity needs you,” continued Dr. Martin.
Yana gave a silent nod. Her mind was racing back and forth, from good to bad, from happy to sad. She had always wanted to discover something that no one has ever done before. A dirty secret of the universe that hid in plain sight. However, she made a point to go back to Earth every time she completed a mission on one of the settlements. The nervous tick in her forehead returned thinking of never coming back to the only place she called home.
“Make sure you fill Akritis with a lot of peanut butter,” Yana relented to her mental struggle.
A screeching sound pierced Yana’s ears. She had just been woken up after 278 years of cryo-sleep. Yana was groggy but strong. It took her a few minutes to collect her thoughts. Yana moved ahead to the ship’s control room. A tear developed in the corner of her eye. Her friends, her family, Dr. Martin are probably long gone.
Akritis was carrying 200 skilled people and 5000 frozen embryos just in case they find a settlement. Akritis, however, would not wake up her other residents until they find solid ground, whatever that meant in space travel.
“Good morning, sleepyhead! Finally, someone to talk to,” Akritis said chuckling. AI with a sense of humor.
“You know sleep is good for your skin. Look at me. 278 years of sleep and I haven’t aged a day,” Yana amused the AI. She knew Akritis was her only mate in a 139 lightyear radius.
“Well, you look radiant. Not as “radiant” as the thing in front of us though,” Akritis replied while displaying the data and images she took during the last hundred years as they got closer.
“It looks like a wormhole but isn’t one. The data is way too off. The cosmic radiation is off the charts,” said Yana.
She peeked out of the control room window. Akritis had decelerated as they got close to it to bet better observations. The void in space-time glowed like a jellyfish underwater with a bluish hue. Just like the jellyfish, Yana was anticipating a shock when they enter this void.
Home. She missed home. And she knew there is no turning back now.
“Don’t worry sister. I am strong enough to handle it. Take us home!” Akritis interrupted Yana’s thoughts.
The closer they got, the brighter it glowed, and the stronger was the gravitational pull. Yana didn’t anticipate it. Instead of a flyby before entering, they were being pulled towards the chasm. Akritis cannot reach escape velocity after the deceleration earlier. They were slowly falling into a bizarre blue hole in space.
Yana’s heart started galloping. This was not how it was supposed to go. This was not how she was supposed to go.
“If there is any positive, time is actually running slower for us due to this gravity,” said Akritis. Yana shrugged. Nothing can make her laugh in this moment. Two hundred people on the ship had no say in their impending doom.
A few seconds in, Akritis registered massive abrasion on her exterior. Akritis fell spiraling into the blue abyss. There was no stopping. Yana slowly slid her hands off the controls and closed her eyes. The curiosity in her eyes dried up. Spring was her first thought. Freshly cut grass, the smell of the moist soil. She wanted her last thoughts to be of home.
Out of the blue, literally, Akritis stabilized. Yana never thought she would open her eyes again but she did.
The darkness behind her eyelids was now replaced blinding light. This was no wormhole. It was a gateway into dark matter. But the only problem was, dark matter isn’t really dark. She saw tiny holes in space as far her sight could go spurting out cosmic heat and matter. Blackholes, she thought. Dark matter is the vent for every black hole in the universe. She was looking inside every blackhole that ever existed. A universal singularity.
After all, she did discover something no human ever did, or ever could. She let out a smile. Back and forth, from good to bad, from happy to sad, she counted down the seconds before a pie of cosmic radiation slammed onto Akritis reducing her into elementary particles.
