Chapter 1 – Landing

 

The static of the comms unit in my ear buzzes as a signal comes in. “Phae, can you hear me?” Kai’s voice sounds in my earpiece.  My console beeps, alerting me that I’ve gone by another light-year.

“Yeah, I can hear you. I am now 22 light-years away from Earth.”

“Okay, you should be approaching the Black Hole soon. In about 10 light-years.” Kai’s voice buzzes again.  The nerves start building as I watch the numbers count now till destination arrival.

10 light-years.

I’ve been flying since I was born. Everything will be fine, I’m the flyer most capable for this mission there is right now.

9 light-years.

Breathe slowly Phae.  You’ve done similar missions 100s of times.  You know what you’re doing. Trust in the ship.

8 light-years.

As the nerves build so does my excitement.  I’ll be the first human to ever come in contact with a Black Hole.  I’ll be more famous than Paricel Bryce! Finding life on Titan does not compare to this!

7 light-years.

Kai’s voices is more static this time, “Phae, are you ready for this?  This is going to do wonders for your career.  You might even get a movie made of you.” I laugh off his statement, I know he’s just trying to get me to calm down.

6 light-years.

I take a deep breath as the gravity of the Black Hold starts to have an effect on my spaceship.

5…

“Phae, breathe.  I’m right here with you.” Kai soothes. I breathe.

4…

“Initiating engine breaks.  Preparing to stop and circulate.” I report in.

3…

“Pilot 237.  You are exciting light-year speed.” The commissioner tells me over the comms.

2…

This is it Phae.  The biggest moment of your entire life is about to happen. No pressure.

1…

“Engaging breaks completely.  Entering orbital distance from Black Hole.” I say over the speaker.

0.

“Houston. We are in orbit.” I look up at the window for the first time since stopping.  Everything is black but not at the same time.  It’s funny.  In the textbooks and lectures they tell that there will be no light when you reach a black hole because it absorbed all the light from the star around it.  But it’s almost like the Northern Lights.  There’s little fabric like streaks of color here and there.  It’s beautiful, like a watercolor abstract painting on a completely black canvas.  It seems as though the lights are dancing with each other.  Slowly waltzing around one another as the move across the black sky.  The Black Hole itself is nothing more than swirling vortex, black cotton candy.  It’s moving so fast that it looks almost like it’s moving in slow motion.  Little flickers of pale blue light here and there appear in it.  Lightning maybe.  But it’s the colorful lights that make the Black Hole seem like something more.  Like something bigger, more beautiful than what we ever imagined.

I don’t realize that I’m holding my breath until I hear Kai’s voice in my ears. “Phae? Are you there? Can you hear me?”

“Huh? Oh. Yeah, I’m here.” I tell him distractedly.

“What do you see?” The question itself is so simple but the answer is so complicated.  How do I describe to him that everything we’ve learned has wrong.

“I…wow.” Is all I can say for a moment, “I’m sending over pictures and videos of it.”

Over my headset I hear everyone’s reactions to the information I sent.

“I’m going to try and get a little closer, the wind isn’t as strong as we anticipated and the gravity units aren’t pulling as hard as we thought it would either.” I say.

“Okay, but just be careful Phae.” Worry is thick in Kai’s voice.

As I get in closer to the Black Hole, my dashboard notifies me that I have completed an orbit.  This mission is only supposed to be 5 complete orbits long. I chuckle at the thought.

“What?” Kai asks.

“I was just thinking it’s a little ridiculous to be spending over 37 trillion Eathens on a trip where I only orbit 5 times.” I scoff.

“Yeah, well.  You know how it is in this field of business. That was the less costly option too.”

“I’ve completed 2 orbits as of now.” I inform him.  I’m suddenly sad thinking that I won’t be able to look at the lights anymore.  When I get back I’ll be stuck with only holograms and pictures that will never compare to the real thing.  I try to engrain the images in my brain.  Committing every detail of this to memory.

On orbit 4 a stray rock collides into my ship.  I look out of the window facing my back.  There’s a cloud of rocks or asteroids headed toward the Black Hole.  From my distance they don’t look much bigger than my spaceship.

“There’s a storm of asteroids headed my way Houston.”

I wait for a response but all I hear is static.  The rocks are interfering with my signal.  I turn on the engine to my spaceship, switch it from idle to moving and try to move so that I can reach signal again.  I hear crackling in my ear, as I move my ship more I can start distinguishing the buzzing and voices.  I hear Kai’s first.  It’s frantic.

“Phae?” he says anxiously, “Phae, can you hear me? Please respond. Please.”

“Yeah, yeah Kai I can hear you now.  What’s wrong? There’s an asteroid storm here.”

“Phae. Listen. You need too get out of there. The Black Hole is beginning to things in.  You need to engage you fuel blaster and slingshot yourself out of the Black Hole’s orbit.”

I angle my engine blaster away toward the epicenter to the Black Hole, preparing myself to leave when an asteroid about half the size of my ships collides with me.  I’m able to dodge it before I get too close to the Black Hole but soon there are more asteroids headed my way they get bigger and bigger the more I pass.

“Kai? Kai?” I say frantically.

His voice comes in but it sounds distant, scratchy.  “Y-ah? Pha…an you…ear…?”

“Kai you’re breaking up.  I can’t catch everything you’re saying. Kai, the storm is getting bigger. I’m having trouble sailing through them all.”  More ricks hit my ship.  There’s a sharp being coming from my dashboard.  I look down to see my red warning light flashing.  I look at the radar scan and see that an object twice the size of my ship is headed directly toward me.  I look up to my window but it’s too late, I’m not going to be able to dodge an object that big without getting nicked.  It hits my right wing, bending it.  My flight become irregular, I begin to spiral out of control.  Kai’s voice finally breaks through the static clearly.

“Phae, you’re right wing has been hit.  It’s damaged.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” I snap at him.  My jaw hurts because I’m grinding and gritting my teeth too hard.

“Oh God you can hear me now. Thank you.” He sighs.  “Phae, do you think you leave the orbit?”

“I hope so.” I concentrate on weaving through the asteroids.  Kai does his best to guide me through the storm.

“.” I hear his voice crack in my ears.  Then I see it.  The asteroid is bigger than anyone I’ve seen up close.  There’s no way around it.  Everything is silent.  No one talks.  No one breathes.  We all just watch.

“Phaelyn…” Kai begins at the same moment that I say his name.

“Yeah?” my voice breaks. I clear my throat as moisture falls down my cheeks.  I’m unsure if it’s sweat or tears.

“Phaelyn.” He breaths into my ears.  The asteroid is so big it looks like it moves in slow motion.  Time stops for a minute as I hear Kai whisper into my ears, “I love you.” My breath hitches.

I barely got to whisper, “I love you too,” before the asteroid is right on top of me.  It doesn’t crush into my spaceship; it rolls into me before pushing me into the center of the Black Hole at an alarming speed.

At first, there’s only a loud ringing sound.  The type that is low and makes you think there’s airplane flying your way.  Then the pitch rises and it turns into an insistent buzzing, the types buzzing you hear from a fly.  It stays that way for a while as darkness engulfs me.  The turbulence is to extreme that even in my reinforced harness I thrash around in my seat me.  I hit my head against my dashboard and black out for a bit.

I’m not sure for how long because I awake to a bright white light and the urgent high-pitched beeping from my spaceship.  After my eyes adjust to the light I see that I’m flying by lines of light.  I assume that those are stars.  I look at my speedometer; it says that I’m ay warp speed.  I take control of my steering handles and try to slow myself down.  I don’t have enough fuel for a complete stop.  I slow down enough though to actually get a look at my surroundings.  I’m headed towards what seems to be a planet.

The beeping picks up space and my dashboard notifies that at the speed I’m going if I hit the planets gravitational pull the atmosphere will burn up spaceship before I land.  I try to turn so I that I don’t hit but the steering on my fuel blasters aren’t working anymore.  I look again at the radar system on my dashboard.  The blinking dot is getting closer and closer to the center.  I hit the first layer of the atmosphere.  All sound stops and the wind currents push against my ship.  The lights seem to get brighter, almost blinding.  I close my eyes because they hurt and brace myself for impact.  I know that I’m about to die.  Now whether it’s from the heat of the atmosphere, the landing itself, or the type of air that this planet has is a mystery.

I hit my head and black out again. 

I’m woken up the feeling of being whiplashed against something.  I’m on solid ground.  I can hear a clutter of sounds around me.  I take a deep breath, too groggy to realize where I am or what’s happening.  I reach my arm up to touch my head because for some reason it feels like a thousands boulders have been thrown at it.  I feel something gooey and slimy on my head, I open my eyes only to be blinded by the light.  I close one eye and squint the other, trying to focus on what is on my hand.

It’s red.  My entire hand is red.  A terrible gagging noise reaches my ears.  A minute later I realize that I made that noise myself.  My lungs start to hyperventilate.  There’s too much oxygen.  Too much light.  Too much everything.

Something touches my shoulder and tries to press me back down onto the ground.  I fight it.  I don’t want to lie down.  I’m dying, or I’m already dead.  I need to get up.  I hear something that sounds like gurgling as my body gives up the fight and does that the pressure wants me to do.  I try to say something but my lungs are still not working.  As one of my eyes adjust to the horrifyingly bright lights I look to see what’s touching me.

My over oxygenated lungs lurch, “Kai?” and before I get a response everything goes numb and black.

 

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DUN DUN DUUUUUUN!!!

What do you think of the name Phaelyn? I could not decide on a name for her at all. I literally went through 3 names already. First she was Hinate because I was originally wanting to create as a version of Hinata that I think should excist. But then I was like nah, I don't want this to be a fanfiction, I want it to be an actual novel. Plus, I don't like the fanfiction website and I don't know where else to post things about Naruto. After I decided that, the name Kai was purely a coincidence! But then I decided to name her Coney. I got to the end of the chapter and decided I didn't like that name. Then I spent like 2 hours going to baby name websites only to decided to make my own names (but it already apparently exists) and I still don't like it! Help....