Star Trek: Corp of Engineers - 036 - The Demon - Book 2 by Loren Coleman;Randall N. Bills

Author:Loren Coleman;Randall N. Bills
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, High Tech, Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9780743476102
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2004-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

“What’s going on? That can’t be right.”

“Of course it can,” Tev said.

Everyone looked toward him and for just a moment he felt irritated. Had they not been at the briefing? Did all humans have such short-term memory?

He snuffled. “We are passing through the photon sphere. The very name should explain what we’re witnessing.” He paused and another wave of irritation swept through, like the gravimetric waves that continued to increase in severity and duration, at their blank faces.

“Light. The photon sphere is the distance above the event horizon when the force of the black hole’s gravity bends light into a perfect circumference. Our ship is sensing our ship; the forward sensors are picking up the visible light bent around the perimeter of the black hole, showing us the rear of our own vessel. If you stood outside at this moment, you’d look forward and only see the back of your head.” A look of strangeness glazed most of the bridge crew’s faces.

The ghost-image of the da Vinci disappeared. The stars continued to be eaten up from beneath by the encroaching black.

“Aft screen,” Gold ordered. His voice was solid.

The screen switched viewpoints. Above them, the visible universe filled a shrinking hole, with outer darkness stretching across the da Vinci’s side and in front. Tev turned back to his sensors.

Magnificent.

Most of the bridge crew only attempted to assimilate this experience with the weakest sensory input at their disposal. Vision would never scratch the surface of what he experienced. Looking down at several monitors, he could see the full glory.

The gravimetric waves were pulled in from every direction, across unimaginable distances, to crash and thrash. He normally did not give in to such imagery, but Tev admitted that the rage of lines on his monitor reminded him of nothing so much as living tentacles, thrashing, stretching, attempting in a futile frenzy to save themselves from the inevitable plunge into the event horizon.

Another screen glowed almost incandescent with a fountain of energy that shot millions of miles out into space from the direction of the black hole, cascading out in every direction. Hawking radiation blazed as though it desired to create a sun to compensate for the destruction occurring on such a fantastic level.

Yet another screen showed the Einstein Rings, along with measurements depicting how much relative time occurred outside the photon sphere, compared with their current position; at each forward movement, the time dilation increased.

Commander Gomez would appreciate the mathematical perfection of this event.

That last thought troubled him for a moment. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and felt the pull of his uniform across his chest. Tev didn’t like emotions and thoughts he could not pinpoint. After a moment, however, it became painfully obvious. His irritation at the crew had nothing to do with their inability to grasp the splendor around them. Of course they’d be unable to. What irritated him was that he wished Commander Gomez were here. Not simply so that he could impress her, to show that “this” is what he’d done for her lately.

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