them as they can. There are several they are actively tracking, so those they photograph every night. The photos go directly into the main computer to be analyzed. These are the printouts from the evening of the twentieth. By comparing this data with the photos we’ll take in a few moments, I hope to be able to tell you all what exactly is happening.”
“I hate to break it do you, Doc,” Ferret said, looking up at the telescope eyepiece. It was ten feet off the floor. “But we didn’t bring no ladder.”
Loeb flipped a switch on the base of the telescope and the entire floor rose up toward the eyepiece. “Gentlemen, I give you the largest elevator in the city of Washington, D.C.”
Loeb set the telescope to view the first double star, took the high-speed photos, and left them to get the printouts from the computer room. When he returned with the new data, he was preoccupied and refused to speak with anyone. He checked and rechecked the settings and took another set of photos. He even moved on to the next double star on the list and took several sets of that. When he returned from the computer room the second time, he slumped in a chair with the papers in his lap.
“Well?” Bowen asked.
“I was wrong.”
Bowen drew his gun and ran his finger down the barrel. “So I can shoot you now?”
“You may as well. It doesn’t make any difference.”
“Dr. Loeb, what did you see through the telescope?”
“The end of mankind, Cameron. A gloriously ignominious sight to behold.”
Bowen holstered his weapon. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Back at Camp David, I knew something was wrong. The stars weren’t right; more specifically, Mars wasn’t right. In the night sky, it should be visible in Aquarius until February at least, but it wasn’t in Aquarius.”
“Where was it? In Uranus?” Ferret laughed. “Get it? Uranus.”
“Somehow, that seems a fitting last joke for the human race.”
“Mars has moved?” Cameron asked.
“It appeared so, but it was impossible to tell without this data. I thought it more likely a distortion of the reflected light striking the Earth.”
“A distortion? Caused by what?”
“By the one thing possessing a strong enough gravitational field to bend light — a black hole — and this data proves that out. At exactly 12:21:12 p.m. on 12|21|12 our futures were forever altered by a black hole.”
“Wouldn’t we see something that big coming?
“Not necessarily. All black holes resolve to a point without dimensions, the singularity, and the event horizon, the area of space within its gravitational pull, could be millions of miles across or as small as our planet or much, much smaller. And if it were traveling through the galaxy at a sufficient rate of speed, we might never see it, even when it was upon us.”
“But we would have had some warning. The government would know, right?”
“This isn’t the movies, Cameron. We aren’t constantly watching the skies for objects on a collision course with Earth.“
“So where is it?” Bowen asked.
“It’s gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean gone?”
“The Milky Way is traveling through space at about two million miles per hour, Bowen. Light, about three hundred times that fast. Even assuming the black hole was only going the same speed as our galaxy but in the opposite direction, it would be beyond the sun in a single day. This data indicates it was traveling much, much faster than that, but it came so close that we were within its event horizon for a brief time. Fortunately or unfortunately as the case may be, it could not entirely overcome Earth’s inertia before leaving the solar system. Otherwise we would have been sucked in immediately and obliterated, and we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”
“So you’re saying this black hole sucked six billion people off the planet?” Bowen laughed.
Ferret whistled. “That’s a powerful lot of sucking, Doc.”
“Idiots. Obviously I’m not saying
“I hate to break it do you, Doc,” Ferret said, looking up at the telescope eyepiece. It was ten feet off the floor. “But we didn’t bring no ladder.”
Loeb flipped a switch on the base of the telescope and the entire floor rose up toward the eyepiece. “Gentlemen, I give you the largest elevator in the city of Washington, D.C.”
Loeb set the telescope to view the first double star, took the high-speed photos, and left them to get the printouts from the computer room. When he returned with the new data, he was preoccupied and refused to speak with anyone. He checked and rechecked the settings and took another set of photos. He even moved on to the next double star on the list and took several sets of that. When he returned from the computer room the second time, he slumped in a chair with the papers in his lap.
“Well?” Bowen asked.
“I was wrong.”
Bowen drew his gun and ran his finger down the barrel. “So I can shoot you now?”
“You may as well. It doesn’t make any difference.”
“Dr. Loeb, what did you see through the telescope?”
“The end of mankind, Cameron. A gloriously ignominious sight to behold.”
Bowen holstered his weapon. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Back at Camp David, I knew something was wrong. The stars weren’t right; more specifically, Mars wasn’t right. In the night sky, it should be visible in Aquarius until February at least, but it wasn’t in Aquarius.”
“Where was it? In Uranus?” Ferret laughed. “Get it? Uranus.”
“Somehow, that seems a fitting last joke for the human race.”
“Mars has moved?” Cameron asked.
“It appeared so, but it was impossible to tell without this data. I thought it more likely a distortion of the reflected light striking the Earth.”
“A distortion? Caused by what?”
“By the one thing possessing a strong enough gravitational field to bend light — a black hole — and this data proves that out. At exactly 12:21:12 p.m. on 12|21|12 our futures were forever altered by a black hole.”
“Wouldn’t we see something that big coming?
“Not necessarily. All black holes resolve to a point without dimensions, the singularity, and the event horizon, the area of space within its gravitational pull, could be millions of miles across or as small as our planet or much, much smaller. And if it were traveling through the galaxy at a sufficient rate of speed, we might never see it, even when it was upon us.”
“But we would have had some warning. The government would know, right?”
“This isn’t the movies, Cameron. We aren’t constantly watching the skies for objects on a collision course with Earth.“
“So where is it?” Bowen asked.
“It’s gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean gone?”
“The Milky Way is traveling through space at about two million miles per hour, Bowen. Light, about three hundred times that fast. Even assuming the black hole was only going the same speed as our galaxy but in the opposite direction, it would be beyond the sun in a single day. This data indicates it was traveling much, much faster than that, but it came so close that we were within its event horizon for a brief time. Fortunately or unfortunately as the case may be, it could not entirely overcome Earth’s inertia before leaving the solar system. Otherwise we would have been sucked in immediately and obliterated, and we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”
“So you’re saying this black hole sucked six billion people off the planet?” Bowen laughed.
Ferret whistled. “That’s a powerful lot of sucking, Doc.”
“Idiots. Obviously I’m not saying
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