The Colored Hole
(This story was meant for a new challenge I spotted about writing a cliffhanger but for some reason would not post on it. The 100 word limit may have something to do with it but seriously, I really couldn’t compose a decent, readable cliffhanger in only 100 words. Shame, that. I suppose I’ll have to wait and see what others have come up with to get a better idea. Still...I think this little scene ended on a pretty decent cliffhanger. Which was the whole point of it.)
One day Traveler was in his studio occupying himself by mixing up some fat new beats. He had spent the better part of his day smoking pot and playing around with sounds, creating short but awesome little tunes then beaming them into space across a variety of frequencies. As he was rolling himself up a fresh joint he got a call from Rædis who was on his favorite bridge of his worldship, just chilling and watching the space ahead of them on various displays. He had Traveler’s new music playing across the sound system and was sitting in comfortable chair sipping soda as space passed by on their way to their next destination. Before retreating to his sound studio Traveler asked him where they were going. All Rædis told him, however, with an enigmatic smile was that it was a surprise. Cool with that, Traveler went off to do what he was doing. Suddenly Traveler got a call from his friend.
“Hey man. You should come up here and take a look at this.” he said over the studio’s comm line. “Sure. I’ll be right there.” Traveler replied. Rædis, knowing his best friend, knew he had at least forty minutes or so before the man would appear so he simply sat back and watched what had just appeared in the space in front of them on the huge screen at the front of the bridge. Since Rædis’ worldship was so big, he avoided traveling along the established galactic space lanes opting for more rural, off the path routes to their destinations. This led them through some of the stranger, less explored sections of the galaxy and it was on their current route where the thing he had never experienced before appered. He brought the ship to a sudden stop. Forty-four minutes passed and Traveler was still not on the bridge. Rædis switched on the ship-wide intercom and hailed his friend. “Are you coming or what? There’s a weird thing in our way that you really should see.” he said. His voice echoed throughout the rooms and corridors of the ship. The small population of inhabitants that also called the worldship home such as their racing team members and a few space wanderers that would occasionally hitch a lift on it had learnt to ignore these calls for Traveler to join Rædis. They weren’t very frequent but the people knew to disregard them when they were made. Traveler walked to a comm panel and pressed a button on it to open a channel to the bridge.
“I’m on my way, okay! This vessel isn’t exactly small you know. I’m boarding the second tram now.” said a slightly irritated Traveler. The trip from his studio to where Rædis was actually involved three tram rides and a short drive to the bridge in a small but fast little coupe that was left there for just such a purpose. “What’s the rush anyway?”
“Some sort of hole has appeared in the fabric of space/time and would be drawing us into it if I hadn’t stopped the ship. The engines are holding us away from it but it’s putting a bit of a strain on them.” came Rædis’ answer through the comm. “Right on. I’ll speed it up a bit.” said Traveler and boarded the second tram. He sat down and buckled himself in then the pill shaped transport shot him through a tube like a bullet. He exited on slightly shakey legs, got into the final tube tram which brought him to a bad-ass looking little coupe he designed special for this part of the trip to the bridge Rædis was on. He shoved a helmet down over his head, buckled himself in and with the instant acceleration of an electric car, took off with barely a squeak of its wide tires on the smooth decking of the ship. Ten minutes later he burst onto the bridge holding his helmet. “A hole in space you say.” he said. What kind of hole? “Black? Worm?” Rædis pointed to the huge view screen. “More of a...colored hole, it seems.” Traveler stepped fully onto the bridge and looked at the screen. On it was a large, swirling vortex that changed colors like a kaleidoscope as it spun. At it’s very center was a tiny black dot. “Wow! You never saw anything like that?” asked Traveler.
“Nope. You?” said Rædis as he stared at the psychedelic vortex as if hypnotized by it.
“How far away is it?”
“Two and a half thousand miles from us. It’s been there for an hour and three minutes now.” answered Rædis.
“Did you ask the computer what it was?” said Traveler. He looked at Rædis like he already knew the answer.
“No. Why would I ask that piece of junk anything?” Rædis said, narrowing his bright eyes. Rædis hated the ship’s computer. It was an irrational thing for him to do. The computer had been programmed with a billion years worth of his races’ knowledge and was a terrific resource for learning about things exactly like they were faced with at this very moment. “You ask it.” he told Traveler who loved using the thing. Traveler cleared his throat and moved to the center of the bridge in front of the view screen.
“Computer!” he called to it.
“What’s up, Traveler.” it responded. Its voice and personality were currently set to imitate a Twentieth Century rap artist Traveler liked, especially when working in his studio. The rapper was a member of a group called The Wu-Tang Clan and spoke with a heavy Brooklyn accent.
“Do you know what the colored hole is out in front of the ship?”
The computer scanned it and thought for half a second.
“Nah dawg. I ain’t never seen nuthin’ like dat before. It ain’t no wormhole or Einstein/Rosen bridge or anything like dat. It emits only a mild magnetic field, low gamma radiation and this sound on the following frequency.” It then said what the frequency was. “Want me to play it?”
“Hells yes!” Traveler said excitedly, now anxious to hear the sound. A moment later the computer broadcast the sound the colored hole was making over the bridge speakers. It sounded like a choir singing a madrigal and was beautiful. Traveler’s brown eyes opened wide and Rædis’ electronic ones lit up an even brighter silver.
“Computer. Record this!” Traveler told it excitedly. It began doing so. The boys looked at one another each one knowing what the other was thinking but it was Rædis who posed the question.
“Wanna go into it?” he asked.
“You know I do.” answered his friend.
“It could take us anywhere, maybe even kill us.” cautioned the robot.
Traveler briefly pondered this then asked the ship’s computer a good question.
“Computer. Can the ship withstand passing into the colored hole?”
The computer thought about this for a second then returned an answer.
“Well, it’s not anything that would atomized us or effect us like a black hole would. Perhaps launch a probe into it first.” it suggested. Rædis snapped his fingers.
“Good thinking. Do it.” he said. After a few moments they saw a small metal ball of a probe appear from the bottom of the view screen and continue forward towards the colored hole. Telemetry from the probe appeared framed around the image on the big screen. As the probe approached the colored hole, nothing about what it reported was out of the ordinary. At the speed it was moving it reached the anomaly within twenty minutes. Both Rædis and Traveler’s eyes were fixed on the screen and the probe’s information. Then, as it entered the colored hole, it was gone. Both watching blinked. Traveler watched the telemetry that they were still receiving only now with a short delay.
“It made it through. Or, into it, at least.” he said. They looked at each other again. Rædis then tried to obtain some visuals from the probe but no imagery was returned. “Wow. I wonder what’s in there?” he said, stupefied.
“Or on the exit side.” Traveler added.
“If there even is one. I know you really want to go into it now and so do I but there’s no guarantees of anything after that, pal.” said Rædis. His eyes still shine bright with excitement. “What do ya say? Should we risk it?”
Almost without hesitation Traveler answered.
“Hells yes. We definitely should.” Rædis was slightly more cautious, however.
“Man, I’m not as enthusiastic. What if we get stuck in...well, whatever that is? That would be really bad. And boring.”
Traveler scoffed at his best friend.
“Rædis. How many times have we thought we were stuck or doomed and yet with our typical style, bravery and skill have gotten ourselves out of weirdness and/or doom? Remember the ‘alternating universe’ or when we discovered how the Ikdid works just before crashing into that city building machine?”
Rædis thought back, remembering these things.
“You make a good point. So...we should take the worldship into this colored hole, huh?” he asked as he adjusted a sleeve on the fine suit he was wearing. The image of the colored hole on the screen reflected off the seamless shiny metallic skin of his face as his fiber optic hair turned an excited pink.
“Yes. We should.” Traveler said with no reservations.
“Well then. Computer!” he called to it.
“Rædis.” it answered.
“Take us into the anomaly.” he ordered it. And so in they went. What happened next was extraordinary.