The Edge of Darkness

Chapter Ten: The Black Hole

When I opened my eyes, I was no longer on the bridge of the transport ship. I was floating in space. It should have been freezing on my skin and utterly destroying my inner circuits, but I seemed to be OK. I wasn't even breathing in the non-oxygen. I was just kind of hanging there.

I looked around. Above me, below me, and on all sides, I saw solar systems, spinning stars and planets and satellites and asteroids. Where was the Eden? Where was the black hole? What had happened to me? How could I possibly be outside of the ship, and why wasn't I dead?

I couldn't believe my brain was still working. I tried firing off some wireless waves, but no one was in range.

I was truly alone, lost in space and not even dying from it.

After a few moments of non-breathing and twitching my limbs, I grew a little disorientated. I tried to breathe deeply – my lungs expanded, but no oxygen entered them. And yet, I was functionally alive. I felt no pain.

Maybe I was really dead.

The calm I had been trying to keep suddenly crumbled, and I started thrashing my limbs. Then I realised that I was, in fact, moving. It was so hard to figure out how fast I was moving, because my nearest point of reference was a star, and I couldn't feel anything at all on my skin. It was almost complete sensory deprivation. If I had lost my eyesight, I think I might have gone mad. As it was, unable to feel, smell, taste, or hear anything, my eyesight was my saving grace.

It seemed I was moving very slowly, until I came upon the planet.

The planet was blue and green and swirling white, and it took me a moment to realise, as it turned from east to west, that I was hurtling towards Old Earth. There was the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, the sun shining onto the little landmass of New Zealand, the big continent of Australia and the Asian countries above her, Japan and Indonesia.

I was coming home, minus a space ship.

As I zoomed ever onward and the planet grew larger in my vision, I realised that with a slight twitch of my limbs I could direct where I wanted to go. And then all sorts of scenarios coursed through my brain.

What if the black hole had ripped apart the ship and I was hurtled out of it in the resulting explosion? Undamaged, I was sailing towards my ancient home, undying, unbreathing... it seemed unlikely. Surely some kind of projection from the space ship would have left its mark on me.

What if the black hole had decided it didn't want to eat us and instead had flung us all out in various directions? I rolled onto my back and tried to look the way I had come. I didn't see anything else moving out there. All I saw were the slow stars hundreds of light years away. I was alone in this endeavour. I rolled back on to my belly and continued my flight. I pretended I was the ancient comic book superhero Superman: it was easier to direct where I wanted to go when I was pointing with my fist.

My hair moved! Something cold touched my cheek! And from beyond the massive view of Old Earth, I realised the Sun was streaming solar radiation right onto the planet itself! I could see the radiation, the solar winds, flowing outwards with greedy fingers to caress the helpless Earth, helpless in the Sun's grip. I saw the streams whipping over the poles, both north and south, and flickering into the Aurora. It was fascinating to watch, even if I was hurtling towards a very solid Earth with no way of knowing how to stop. I was terribly afraid I was going to crash and all they would find in the landing spot would be a giant crater and a mess of melted metal. Either that or I would disintegrate once I passed the outer atmosphere and fall into pieces and burn like a shooting star. I vaguely wondered what colour my tail might be.

Something lashed out at me and my instincts took over, swerving me out of the way. When I opened my eyes and lowered my arms I realised that it was my mind driving me, not the movement of my limbs, and that I had just avoided being whipped by a solar flare ribbon. It was invisible to my human eye, but to my optic it was a hot yellow and orange with blue as well. What a sight. I only hoped the astronauts had once managed to record this, because it was beautiful. I didn't want it touching me, though. No way. I had no idea what it would do to my skin or my organs or my circuits. Fry me completely, more's likely.