{"id":2092,"date":"2017-07-16T16:20:39","date_gmt":"2017-07-16T16:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=2092"},"modified":"2020-12-04T16:09:57","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T23:09:57","slug":"blackhole-grind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=2092","title":{"rendered":"Blackhole Grind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Nobody thinks about how it\u2019s done anymore. I\u2019m out on the line for twelve hours. I\u2019m tired. I\u2019m beat. I\u2019m in The Suit, and it\u2019s charged up and buzzing in my ears. I can feel the energy crawling on every inch of my skin like a bunch angry ants pouring out of a nest that some kid kicked over for fun. I\u2019m about to kick over my own nest by firing an Xray laser into the cookie.<\/p>\n

The cookie. That\u2019s what we call the atomic cocktail that the orbital factory spits out about once a month. Let me tell you, it\u2019s big. It\u2019s a roundish blob about three kilometers in diameter. That\u2019s the target.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m in the suit, so everything is harder to do. I\u2019m nervous as hell working with enough energy to destroy a planet. That\u2019s why they have us so far out in space. The sweat is mingling with the ants, and it\u2019s just amplifying the effect. I\u2019m twitchier than normal this time, and my hands don\u2019t feel secure on the controls. I triple blink my eyes. The helmet fan comes on and I get some relief from the sweat dripping into my eyes. I can feel it evaporating away.<\/p>\n

I concentrate on the controls and watch the power levels on the laser. I\u2019m in the specially shielded part of the ship, in my suit, got it blaring full power, and hoping to God that it\u2019s enough to keep the radiation from frying me up. It hasn\u2019t yet, but sometimes the reaction isn\u2019t as accurate as the math. There\u2019s still some unknown variable, but that doesn\u2019t stop the line. The holes still have to be made for the ships because that\u2019s what makes them go. That\u2019s what takes humans to the stars.<\/p>\n

The power levels look good. The distance is locked; the ship\u2019s retros have stabilized us exactly eight kilometers away. The \u201csafe\u201d distance. It never feels safe, because I know too much. It was better when I was stupid.<\/p>\n

When they first figured out they could make molecular sized black holes with a laser, it went completely unnoticed by the media. It was just a scientific curiosity, lasting only thirty femtoseconds \u2013 millionths of a billionth of a second. That was because after it stripped all the electrons from every neighboring atom in the targeted molecule, it didn\u2019t have anything else to feed it. But given the right fuel and conditions, it could grow into a tiny hungry monster. The three kilometer ball in front of me would shrink into an invisible sphere the diameter of a human hair, and keep on sucking in everything around it.<\/p>\n

I flip up the safety cover on the firing switch, wait a second, check the vitals, and then turn the switch. The ship vibrates with the released energy. Then there\u2019s a bright spot on the cookie. The tiny molecular sized hole has been made in the middle of that blob. The focal point of the laser is set for the center of the mass. It takes a bit for the beam to burn through, but when it does, the hole gets made right in the center of the cookie. That\u2019s the only way it works, and why everything has to be so precise.<\/p>\n

The coral started it all. Those little sea organisms that became living reefs visible from space. In our technological race to learn and grow we\u2019d heated the oceans just enough to kill them all off. That had created a cascading die-off of other lifeforms, up to, and including humans. As food sources from the sea became scarcer, and the ecology collapsed from climate change and pollution, it became critical that we find another earth. Some way to insure that our species would survive and not become a casualty of the damage we\u2019d caused.<\/p>\n

It happens fast, like an explosion in reverse, as the cookie collapses in on itself. A flash goes outward like a blast. All that energy has to go somewhere. It smacks me in the face, washing over my ship, and overloading everything. A split second before it hits, my ship goes dark, protecting itself by turning everything off, grounding every circuit together to prevent burnouts. The only thing left running is the tiny nuclear power plant in my suit. It keeps the angry ants crawling over me, the electomagnetic shield and the water in the thick walls of the room I\u2019m in are the only things keeping me alive right now. The only things keeping my cells from being torn apart by subatomic particles.<\/p>\n

I give it the standard delay, as the glow dissipates out there where the cookie used to be. By the time five minutes is up, the glow is gone and it\u2019s pitch black. Then the ship comes back to life. The lights and instruments boot up, and I turn off The Suit. The crawling ceases, and it feels great. I take off the helmet and head for the bridge.<\/p>\n

The bridge is just like I left it, four seats for crew members are empty and I take the one for the pilot. I fire up the thrusters and guide the ship toward something I can\u2019t see on the cameras. The only thing that\u2019s guiding me is the highly tuned gravity sensors. A three dimensional map shows the space being warped in front of the ship. There\u2019s a tiny black hole punching a dent in spacetime only eight kilometers away. I move forward slowly and the distance shrinks until it\u2019s just meters. Then I fire up the fields and guide the ship so that the big magnetic hand slips right around the hole and closes it in. The fields bring it into the core of the ship, or rather drag us so that we\u2019re centered on it. The ship\u2019s mass is dwarfed by the little monster.<\/p>\n

I activate the parabolic reflector in the core and it slips around the front half of the hole. The hawking radiation gets bounced out toward the rear of the ship and we start to move. Slowly at first, then rapidly accelerating toward the docks. Another starship is born.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nobody thinks about how it\u2019s done anymore. I\u2019m out on the line for twelve hours. I\u2019m tired, I\u2019m beat. I\u2019m in The Suit, and it\u2019s charged up and buzzing in my ears. I can feel the energy crawling on every inch of my skin. Like a bunch angry ants pouring out of a nest that some kid kicked over for fun. I\u2019m about kick over my own nest by firing an Xray laser into the cookie. The cookie. That\u2019s what we call the atomic cocktail that the orbital factory spits out about once a month. Let me tell you, it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2105,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.keithbphillips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/goodbyebigba-e1500222979620.jpg?fit=373%2C317&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p32u0F-xK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1884,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=1884","url_meta":{"origin":2092,"position":0},"title":"The Golden Shoes","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"January 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The shoes are grandfather\u2019s, and most unusual. When I first set foot in them I was twelve. I didn\u2019t know what they were. They had been handed down, I was told, through generations, and I should be honored to wear them. I wanted to ask Granddad why they were so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.keithbphillips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/jan5.jpg?fit=648%2C486&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.keithbphillips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/jan5.jpg?fit=648%2C486&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.keithbphillips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/jan5.jpg?fit=648%2C486&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1136,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=1136","url_meta":{"origin":2092,"position":1},"title":"And All the Other Things","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"September 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Don't forget the other things.\u00a0 You know those things that are important to you, but you just don't have time for them anymore. No, you're too busy working, getting ready for work, getting to work, coming home from work, thinking about what happened at work, thinking about what you need\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2835,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=2835","url_meta":{"origin":2092,"position":2},"title":"History Lesson","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"December 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Prologue Despite being new to humanity, Hellas Planitia had a long and very violent history. 3.9 billion years ago a large asteroid had slammed into the Martian surface, vaporizing it, and spreading debris seven thousand kilometers in every direction. The impact was so severe that it affected the core of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3047,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=3047","url_meta":{"origin":2092,"position":3},"title":"The Villain I Made","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"March 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I've not been good at villain creation. I've known many of them in my life, but I haven't ever made one. I guess my storytelling child author just assumed people are good or bad. But in reality people are all different shades, moving in and out of these shadows, transforming,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1309,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=1309","url_meta":{"origin":2092,"position":4},"title":"The Making of Villains","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"February 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"How do you make a villain that feels credible? Meet Baxter Hickman. Part man, part monster, and totally being used.","rel":"","context":"In "My Thoughts On Stuff"","block_context":{"text":"My Thoughts On Stuff","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":185,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=185","url_meta":{"origin":2092,"position":5},"title":"The Flying Saucer-1950: SciFi Movie Review","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"April 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"[rating:.4\/5] The Flying Saucer. Sounds pretty exciting doesn't it? This movie is not. I couldn't even finish watching it; it was so boring. I got about halfway through and gave up. I know that sounds as if I just don't care, and that's probably about fifty percent correct, but it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/keithbphillips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/220px-Poster_of_the_movie_The_Flying_Saucer.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2092"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2703,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2092\/revisions\/2703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}