Opportunity Cost

Property

"The fear of the unknown has plagued the minds of creatures for as long as they have existed and to a certain extent fear has bolstered the species evolution. The date and time remained irrelevant to you all as well, freedom is a concept that you long ago surrendered to me. The simple fact is that you all hold a gift, the gift of evolution, and also the gift of imprisonment, which means whatever I say you do", explained the Warden with a ominous grin on her face.
     Times have advanced not only for technology, but for humanity, too. The date and time is unknown, since these days prisoners like us have no access to the outside world. Our crimes are murder and grand theft between other things so feeling sorry is not an option. The Thraller a.k.a the warden is a women of strict regulations and less than ethical punishments for those unlucky inmates that cross her. I am not one of them, but still receive punishment not for misconduct, but for scientific purposes. You see humans have always evolved as other species on this earth. I come from a family of astronauts which have lived in space stations orbiting a black hole for decades. V404 Cygni is that black hole located 7,800 light years away from Earth.
     The experiment and space station are named Evolutionary Discovery series Accretion or EDsA for short. It is a landmark in engineering with the capability to open wormholes in the fabric of space which transport the craft from point A to point B in 15 to 30 seconds. Somehow though, air pollution and climate change are still unsolvable problems on Earth.
     The astronauts living on the ship are all from long family trees of laboratory guinea pigs. The purpose of the EDsA is to help humans evolve and adapt to the immense gravity of black holes. It not only does this through gravitational orbit, but also with the addition of chemotherapy. Subjects are exposed to monthly chemotherapy that kills cells in the body which later reproduce, but with evolved resistance to greater gravities. The process is also enhanced by an intravenous liquid formulated from soursop extract and a chemical that rapidly increases evolution.
     I am Omen, the daughter of the last couple to be part of the EDsA experiment. My reason for imprisonment, I killed the three guards assigned to prevent me from escaping governmental facilities, since I am government property. My body is the outcome to countless decades of genetic evolution meaning I am one of the two only humans to be able to enter a blackhole and live to tell about it, if not killed by other unknown variables.
     Lucas is the second human able to enter a blackhole. Lucas was incarcerated for being stupid and shooting a security guard who wasn't even aware that Lucas was hacking and stealing money from an ATM outside 7-eleven. Even though Lucas has a much less impressive backstory then me, I met him due to his family being another of the EDsA project guinea pigs. He is not forced to participate in the latest EDsA project because he was bribed. The warden herself made him the deal of freedom if we both are able to accomplish the first mission of Evolutionary Discovery series Conundrum, EDsC for short.
     Today is launch day for mission EDsC. Lucas and I are being briefed on how our spacesuits recycle carbon dioxide and through an extensive process convert it to breathable oxygen. We also receive a more than basic tutorial on the auto pilot capabilities of the spacecraft and other of its smaller interesting controls. Adrenalin begins to pump, thoughts began to scatter the countdown has started. Rockets began to burn and roar in excitement as soon they will be free of earth's invisible shackle named gravity. Zero is the last echoed number I hear as my body is forced into motion by the departure of the spacecraft. Earth slowly releases us from her grasp as she can no long constrict us to her surface. Our rockets propels forward piercing the atmosphere with dead precision. Serenity fills me realizing that gravity is no more.
     "Proximity to earth 40,000 km. Clear for wormhole," Lucas firmly announces. "Wormhole generator to full power. Wormhole created and expanding to appropriate size," I say feeling joyfully overwhelmed. The wormhole resembling a rabbit hole reaches its adequate size and the craft enters as if with no fear. Once inside the mesmerizing colors of blurry stars and quasars fill our vision as quickly as they vanish.
     V404 Cygni greats us with its beautiful accretion disk filled with millions of breath taking ornaments from crystals of ice to rays of glimmering light. No place on earth holds such beauty and danger simultaneously as V404 Cygni. "Omen. Lucas. Your mission as discussed before is to pass the event horizon and venture to unexplored terrain. You must film the whole venture for documentation purposes understood. Good. Now don't discover new horizons discover what's beyond the horizons". The Thraller passionately said over the holographic projector as if we were friends.
     The travel through the accretion disk was difficult to navigate as ice, carbon, stars and nebulas were constantly being ripped apart making obstacles covering our path. Once through though the event horizon was upon us. To the outside world we were frozen in time while we lurched closer to our doom. Our bodies began to feel a tension from foreign origin as we thought of how we would be compressed into an immensely small particle size. We instantly felt a wave of impact while somehow V404 Cygni had teleported us outside of a different black hole.
     The unexplainable conundrum located at the heart of a blackhole was no universal gateway or pit of no return but rather a condensed and confined wormhole. The gravitational force of a black hole was enough to bend the fabric of space to connect to different areas. The riddle was a riddle no more and now freedom awaited Lucas while longer confinement awaited me.
     On return entry we were greeted to a new terraformation of Earth's surface, 1000 years
had gone by since we departed. We were welcomed not as criminals, but as valuable explorers of our time. The media and news plastered our faces all over the world. A lavish dinner was organized at a government banquet hall dubbed The Journey. Instead of Lucas and I eating, we were subject to a news conference full of ravaging reporters each jumping, kicking, and clawing their way into asking their dieing question directed at us. Our past crimes might have been buried, but after the dinner we were locked up since before, now, and forever more we are government property. We are project Evolutionary Discovery series Conundrum.