Prodigy (Complete)

Chapter Forty-Eight

The escape hatch opened, revealing the vast abyss of the universe. Alex did her best to get acquainted with the controls, but had no idea how to operate the pod. As was the case with many modern devices, Alex suspected it relied heavily on voice-activated commands.

"Go," she instructed, but nothing happened. "Move – power up – start." She tried all sorts of commands, but nothing seemed to work. Most voice commands were programmed to be very logical. Maybe there's a release mechanism somewhere here, she thought. As soon as the thought entered her mind she looked up confidently and said, "Release."

The small craft dislodged from the mothership and drifted aimlessly into space. Like a little honey bee leaving the hive, Alex was sent adrift into the darkness. Her nerves almost incapacitated her, but she summoned the courage to keep it together. She took several deep breaths before giving her next command.

"Activate thrusters," she said. The pod's twin thrusters engaged, causing the pod to jolt forward.

"Destination – Earth," she said, gripping tightly onto her seat. The thrusters kicked into hyper-drive and accelerated away from the mothership.

Despite its size, the mini exploration pod had a lot of power. It rocketed toward Earth at a blinding speed. When she became closer to Earth, Alex unfastened herself from her seat and climbed to the rear of the craft. She attempted to activate the access pod, but was having difficulty. It appeared as though Milo's access pod had run out of power or hadn't survived the transportation.

"Come on you stupid thing," she said as she unhinged it from the particle accelerator. She looked around for some other timer mechanism, but could not find one. With frustration mounting, she looked down at her wrist and discovered the access pod Aris had given her. A smile came across her face as she immediately took off the pod and attached it to the device.

After triple-checking all the connections to ensure the device would work properly, she placed the device in the release hatch of the craft and returned to her seat. The first timer activated the device, but before it was fully enabled, Alex needed to get very far away from it.

"Open release hatch," she commanded.

The small hatch sealed off from the rest of the ship to preserve the pressure and prevent contamination from the outside. Then, the device ejected safely behind her as the timer counted down. If Alex's calculations were correct, she would be far enough away from it before the timer reached zero and activated the device.

Alex continued to accelerate toward Earth. Her feelings about Earth's beauty were replaced by more important thoughts such as how she would safely land the craft. She considered it a reckless mission and was prepared to sacrifice herself for the greater good. An alarm sounded as she breached the ionosphere. She looked around the cockpit and saw a series of lights and switches, but did not know what any of them meant.

"Analysis," she said in a frantic voice.

"Entering Earth's atmosphere," a voice said. "Preparing for auto-deceleration."

The craft rocketed toward Earth at over 1,000 kilometres per hour. Just then, something hit the pod, causing a loud crash. Alex rattled violently in her seat as one of the thrusters had clipped a nearby satellite, smashing it to bits. Lights and buzzers sounded, elevating the chaotic tone in the cockpit. A long streak of smoke trailed behind her as she whizzed across the sky at mind-warping speeds.

With only one thruster, there was not enough power to adequately reduce the speed of the runaway pod. The remaining thruster reversed its position and did what it could to counteract the tremendous speed the craft had generated upon re-entry. The auxiliary thrusters attempted to keep the craft stable. Even with the auxiliary thrusters in effect, the craft still tilted heavily to one side and slowly began to spiral toward Earth.

It was at this time that the timer on the particle accelerator counted down to zero. The dielectric oscillator began its process of taking in bismuth particles and feeding them through the rigid cylindrical septum and into the main accelerator. With the microfarad capacitor enabled in conjunction with the sync pins, the particles accelerated near the speed of light in a complete loop. When the second timer went off, it triggered the alpha particles to accelerate in an equal and opposite direction. The two sets of particles were fed into the same tube and collided with each other at the cathos uranium hub. The sophisticated science and human ingenuity came together in a cataclysmic explosion as the accelerated particles released a hotspot of energy that tore a hole in the fabric of space. In its wake, it created a small black hole. Drawing energy from the sun, the device continued to feed a steady stream of power into the components, causing the black hole to grow exponentially.

The immense pull of Earth's gravity swallowed Alex's tiny craft. As she plummeted toward Earth, she continued to gain speed. Alex braced for an impact that would surely kill her. It would be a noble death, provided the device did what it was designed to do. In her final thoughts, she prayed to her mother.

As the ground fast approached, the excessive g-force was too much for her body to handle. The blood drained from her brain, causing her to enter a state of cerebral hypoxia and black out. She slumped over, remaining pinned in her seat from the five-point harness.

Overhead was a magnificent swirling vortex. It was a shame Alex was not conscious to see her handiwork. The vortex grew to become quite large, encompassing the entire sky, affecting Earth's natural weather patterns. The sky turned black as multiple storms emerged from nowhere. Tornadoes and hurricanes decimated cities as tidal waves wreaked havoc on unsuspecting shorelines. Lighting discharged from the sky like pulsating veins of energy. The crackling thunder that followed roared with the ferocity of an angry god.

Anyone who was outside at the time the mega-storm hit ran for shelter in a hastened panic as the debris-cluttered sky was being swallowed by a massive black hole. The people of Earth had no idea what had just hit them and were certainly not prepared for it.

Directly beneath the epicentre, Alex's ship was being sucked up along with everything else in the vicinity. The craft was still travelling toward Earth, but the gravitational pull of the black hole had slowed her momentum considerably. It was enough to allow her pod to approach at a safer speed.

The exploration pod raced a few metres above the ocean, occasionally touching down like a stone skipping across a pond. In its wake, the craft left behind a massive rooster tail and a mist of steam as the red-hot metal made contact with the cold ocean water. When the momentum of the craft was no longer able to keep it airborne, it plunged into the churning waters, where it bobbed up and down from the powerful waves and was sent adrift.