Sanación "The Black Hole Mission"

Sanacion

The Black Hole Mission

A Novel

by

Mary Louise Davie

Published by

Brighton Publishing LLC

501 W. Ray Road

Suite 4

Chandler, AZ 85225

BrightonPublishing.com

Copyright © 2012

ISBN 13: 978-1-621830-41-2

eBook

Smashwords Edition

First Edition

Cover Design By: Tom Rodriguez

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Dedication

To Mary Elizabeth Davie, my mom

"Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy."

~ Eskimo Proverb

Chapter One

The Nerd Meets the Plan

Steve was half-nerd, half-dreamer, and a whole lot of push-the-envelope. Steve Jensenn, Colonel Jensenn, had been appointed by the Environmental Status Agency (ESA) commander of the ship the Sanación, and his new post would involve every facet of his character. The nerd would run the calculations over and over to be sure the scientists got it right. It wasn’t his job to double check their work; but he would have the lives of hundreds-of-thousands in his hands, and he felt that morally the responsibility fell to him to be sure. Of course, the dreamer believed it was possible as long as he was able to push the envelope, keep making the impossible, the practical.

The ESA had become the new world power and was made up of the Navy, the Marines, Army, and each country’s own individual groups of military. There were scientists and think tanks that were part of the ESA. Civilians now existed in two classes: the civilians who were involved in the mission as mission specialists and the ones whose survival, while they didn’t know it yet, rested on a simple lottery ticket that their individual government would hand out to them. Some would receive the ticket based on their merits, some on their social security number, and others would be lucky enough to receive them because of the individual visits from ESA personnel. The lottery ticket was the chance, but the drawing was the hope.

The plan was developed by a consortium of the world’s great physicists, and implemented by everyone on down the chain from engineers to contractors from every country. Dr. Edenstein was the one getting the credit with regard to the bold mission of the Sanación. Each plan involved some interesting theories, but they were only theories. Steve was trying to prove the major concept on his own before he was due to take over his post on the ship Sanación.

The curtain was about to close on Earth, and the lucky lottery winners would soon be making way to one of three ships via shuttles. The earth had been through growing pains that increased with each decade. In part, nature’s response to the unilateral taking of its resources, and in part from the giving back of unwanted pollutants. Now, in 2265, each person was required to wear oxygen masks and protective outer clothing. There were so many individual things wrong now that it was hard to point to just one and try to fix it. From the climate shifts that had northern America facing a mini-ice age and Europe becoming a desert; to the magnetic pole reversals, the greenhouse gases, and intensive atmospheric changes—all had made the earth the harsh environment they now knew.

When the ESA had first been formed, its first problem to tackle in the early 2200s had been the attempt at re-oxygenating the oceans. In oceans, oxygen normally got dissolved from the atmosphere, but the atmosphere could no longer support that need. The water life started dying out. Slow at first, but then worldwide. The solution, they had thought, would be a large filtration plant to try to manage the situation in a small area first. Cuba and its coral reef area were selected for the trial. But it failed. The oceans died a slow death; the whales were among the last of the sea life to die out.

From there came the disease, coupled with the crop failures and subsequent famine. When the solar storms became frequent, travel was inhibited and communications were challenging. The earth might have millions of years left, but mankind did not. It was out of this necessity that the plan was developed and the new technologies were perfected.

So here Steve sat, playing with equations and plotting graphs to make sure the people who were counting on him, the future residents of the Sanación, weren’t facing certain doom. It was a creative strategy that Dr. Edenstein had developed, traveling across the solar system, into another galaxy, and down a black hole; but any plan deduced from theoretical physics was derived from a science based on educated guesses; the proof would be in their trip into the black hole. If the singularity—zero volume and infinite density—didn’t crush them, and if the bomb made of star material that the singularity would crush into an explosion didn’t kill them, and if the bomb blasted out the side of the black hole and showed them a doorway to a new galaxy…if, if, if. He was tired, but he needed to see that this all worked on paper.

On paper. Funny word, paper. Long before Steve had been born, paper was considered to be something made from a tree. Now, everyone understood that paper was little more than a thin, flat sheet that once was made from plant fibers; and prior to that, rags and other fibrous materials. Now, plastics and other strictly man-made sources were utilized. People rarely needed paper. Computers came in every size, shape, and means of communication. You want it to read to you fine, you need it to be shown in braille, Portuguese, maybe Swahilli. What do you want; a virtual monitor or the solid sort or maybe the old projection types? Everything was digital or streamed from a site on one of the webs—the pay one was the safest, but there were others. The only things that came in a digital or non-digital format were the scientific or mathematical texts or history books.

So Steve sat researching in non-digital paper books and when he heard a knock on the door.

Colonel Jensenn? a young boy asked quietly as he stuck his small head in the door to Steve’s quarters. Colonel Jensenn, he repeated, with a little more confidence.

Yes, Paul? Your name is Paul, right? You’re Admiral Goodman’s kid. Paul was much shorter the last time Steve saw him.

Yeah, that’s me. Paul pushed his way into the room, happy to be spoken to. My dad is having me round up everyone who is due at the orientation.

Okay, I’ll be right down. Which auditorium?

Paul looked at the clipboard he was carrying. Auditorium C. I need to see six more people on this level, so I’ll see you there.

You’re on our shuttle? Steve asked. I thought families would join us later.

They will, but my dad said somebody will need an assistant. Do you think you’ll need one? His eyes were hopeful.

I can’t think of anything offhand, but I’m sure I can use your help. We’ll have a lot to do when we get up to the ship’s launch site. Anyway, I don’t want to hold you up and I need to get ready…

Paul smiled and left; Steve smiled and closed the door. The enormity of it began to sink in. His calculations had better be right—families were counting on him to save their lives and the lives of their children. Besides, who was this Dr. Edenstein who had designed this crazy plan? Steve had no intention of getting crushed into the singularity.

"Hello everyone. Please take a seat. My name is Admiral Isaac Goodman, and I’m here to orient you to the mission. This is the more inclusive orientation, the once we are up on the ship we will have another where you will break in to your individual groups by your assignments. Then you will be briefed by your individual commands. Each of you here today is important to this mission in one way or another. Not everyone can pilot the ship, but there are other contributions and each one of you is making some form of sacrifice for the future of mankind.

"You may have heard that Colonel Jensenn is your commander and while that is true, I am Colonel Jensenn’s commander. I have complete authority over the mission and all three ships and that authority comes direct from both the ESA worldwide and the president of the United States

"According to the Environmental Status Agency, at one time on Earth we needed to wear masks in order to breathe; then later protective suits with oxygen tanks in tow to combat the acid rain and lack of oxygen. Now we have reached the point where mankind’s only option of survival is to seek a new home, a new planet.

"Pilots, please bear with me as I explain some things to the general populace. About ten years ago, when the countries of Earth finally agreed on that our planet was becoming hostile to humans, governments united to find out what could be done. Given the rapid deterioration of the earth’s atmosphere and the resulting drastically shortened life expectancy to whatever life forms had survived this far, the ESA realized Earth would not remain inhabitable very long, even though its final destruction would not occur for a million or so more years. So we have continued to live here on Earth while on the moon and in the space surrounding it, in the low-gravity environment necessary for assembling something of this size, we have worked together and built three ships to ensure our very survival. Prior to these ships we didn’t have any rockets powerful enough to lift any one of them from our orbit, and the mass of the Sanación alone exceeds half the mass of the earth and would wreak havoc on an already distressed world. So we decided to use the moon site as a weigh-station of sorts. Each of the three ships is engineered to negotiate space travel differently with the hope that one—if not all—will allow mankind to exist somewhere else. Groups of scientists, biologists, chemists, physicists, and medical doctors have been assigned to each, allowing for a new civilization to be established once at its destination.

"Now the details. The three ships—the Sanación, the Clinton, and the Memnoch—have the capacity to carry hundreds-of-thousands of people. Once you, the pilots, the personnel, and civilian members of our team, have been taken to the launch site via the ESA’s moon base, there will be a worldwide lottery for billets on the ships. Every person will have a chance to win a ticket to survival. Literally every single human on the planet is being given a ticket through use of various tracking numbers that the government might use for door-to-door and sidewalk-to-sidewalk and in-person visits. Once they have been given a ticket, the numbers of the winners will be announced.

Now, about the ships. The Clinton utilizes fission-based thermal rockets and is planned as a generational ship. It is the one we consider least problematic as it is not built for speed, but for slow and steady travel. The generation that leaves on this ship will not necessarily be the one that locates and populates a final destination. We have no way of knowing which generation it will be that comes across a planet where mankind can continue life. Those chosen for this ship are mostly families, though there are scientific minds and medical support on every ship. Mankind will have everything it needs to continue on; we have all but guaranteed it. From the different forms of vegetation to whatever animals we have rescued, to the many forms of DNA we saved from many species before they died out, manufacturing plants onboard ship for the comfort items as well as those we can’t live without. And, of course, the medical needs either for surgery to remove a part or part replacement for that lost arm or leg or lung. We will not only come out of this as survivors, we will be winners. We will be better than before.

The Memnoch is mostly a product of Russian scientific advances. This ship uses nuclear pulse propulsion, a previously untried form of rocket where small directional nuclear explosives are directed against a large steel pusher plate attached to the Memnoch with shock absorbers. We are unsure how long it will take to reach an inhabitable planet, but it will likely arrive within the lifetime of most of its passengers.

The third ship, the Sanación, will take a more dangerous route and will face more risks. Its mission is not to just to set out in search of a new home, but to travel a black hole to get to what we imagine will be a new universe filled with plants we can select. Because of this additional risk, its travelers are allowed to opt out of travel and take their chances on Earth. The Sanación will be traveling into a black hole, V4641, in the constellation Sagittarius. Just before the ship hits the singularity, it will blow a hole in the wall of the black hole using a star material bomb, which is basically the same elements, carbon and oxygen with some radioactive isotopes, that are found in a super nova. Individually they do not form anything dangerous and, in fact, are currently kept from reacting together; but once they hit the singularity, the pressure will cause these elements to fuse uncontrollably and a thermonuclear detonation will occur. The Sanación uses theoretical technology—our best guess, and by no means guaranteed. This ship has been specially designed with six rings of a titanium alloy and a sort of scaffolding between each layer followed by a series of dampeners to absorb the gravitational pull—the deformation of space-time creates an event horizon which has a gravitational field so strong that nothing that enters can escape, not space junk, dust, or even light. The vessel is designed to maintain gravity close to what we have become used to—somewhere around 9.3 m/s^2, even though we will be experiencing an intense downward acceleration coupled with downward weight force and the external tidal forces of the black hole.

"Each ship will have its individual challenges—from the radiation that one will find anywhere in space in varying amounts, or the severe gravity of a black hole, another space object, perhaps a Nebula. We have taken each of these into account, as well as daily comfort of the crew and passengers. The three ships are essentially flying cities, equipped with malls, restaurants, pools, gyms, and other amenities. And there will be schools which will have the best instructors—our esteemed mathematicians and scientists bound for the final destination.

"That’s the review. When you get to the moon, you will receive orientation to your ship and learn what’s available. Please take the form packet and fill out and sign all the paperwork. The last page will be sent to your Smart Device and will act as your pass onto the shuttle, as well as your ship assignment. From this point on, there is a moratorium on communication until Earth has initiated its lottery. The plan is to do so in thirty-six hours in the United States—forty-eight worldwide—so your patience is requested and appreciated.

The same personnel will collect your forms when you have completed them. Thank you.

As the talk concluded, Steve was relieved that he was part of the mission and already knew the information that had just been given. He wasn’t sure what the point of it was, except to hand out assignments. Dr. Goodman didn’t do much to quell any fears.

Hey, Colonel.

Steve looked up and saw Lenora, a pilot on his crew and someone he genuinely liked.

Major.

Smiling, he stood and she saluted; he returned it quickly. His mind went to the memories of the course he was teaching where she was stationed. He was instructing a class on the better ways to handle flying in the skies that were no longer clear and friendly, but turbulent and dangerous. Often he would run into her at the bar off base. She’d be scribbling physics equations on a napkin while drinking a beer. She was intent using Bernoulli’s principles to face the changing