Starship 17

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Something more, might have to correct this later.
Hope I didn't make too many mistakes, spelling, etc.

(Sorry, made horrible mistakes here, corrected though, well, hopefully so.)

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=

They were still falling, somehow it seemed to never end. Jeff felt as if they had been there forever now, but it had only been some days ship-time. And as they no longer seemed able to measure their speed relative that shell, as all pings seemed to disappear? The suits seemed both to have fallen silent now, possibly communicating he thought, not involving him though? Suddenly he noticed, but thinking of it he realized that it must have been building up for some time. It was as if he was being dragged to a corner, but as the feeling increased it also corrected itself to become the floor, and suddenly he realized that the gravity was back, weak, but back.

“Suit.”

“Yes Jeff, we’ve noticed.”

“What is it?”

“Can’t say yet Jeff, so far the best description would be a anomaly. It may be more that one gravity well acting on us.”

More than one? What would that do to them?

“Shouldn’t we be torn into pieces if it was that way?”

“Yes, no. We are still computing.”

Still computing?

“Let me through to Royal Suit”

“Sorry Jeff, he’s busy.”

Royal too busy to talk? It didn’t sound good to Jeff.

“Okay Suit, just give me a view of where we’re going and I’ll let you to your computing, please?”

As the sensors came on he only saw the same impenetrable blackness that he had gotten so used too. But as he kept on watching he got this feeling that it wasn’t as black as he first had though. Something had changed, although he couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

“Suit, is there some light there? Or is it me imagining?”

“Computing” was the only answer he got, remembering his promise Jeff kept his quiet after that watching that bottomless pit, that their descent had become, fascinated. There was definitely something there, even though he had no idea what it was. It wasn’t as much a light as something he could feel, like a warmth of some kind?

“Are we getting radiated?”

He suddenly had this vision of them getting fried in a heatbath. His question seemed to wake up Suit at least.

“No Jeff, there is no radiation coming on our sensors, but yes, we too feel something is amiss.”

“You ‘feel’?”

“Yes, it’s a anomaly. We are now both in self check mode Jeff.”

Perfect, not only Janelle, but the suits too?

“What does it tell you then?”

“We seem to be functioning adequately, although we have no explanation for the anomalies we experience. It might have to do with us coming through a portal, possibly?” If now a Suit could sound hesitant his surely did.

But Jeff felt a little better all the same. To be left alone, with two malfunctioning Suits, one of which he was inside and the other being Janelles, would have been a nightmare.

“So we wait.” He asked finally.

“Yes, and we compute.” Answered the Suit.
==

A portal is a strange thing, all light disappearing, just as with a Black Hole, but there is no gravitational attraction. Somehow the gravity in front of a portal always seems correlated to the gravity where it exist, with no gradient towards its opening. Measuring, as close that you can come to it, you will find that light wanders as normal, giving no preference to that portal. But there are still no reflections from it, nothing, leaving that ‘hole’ in your visual field as you looked at it.

There was one hypothesis he had found though, in where they speculated about so called ‘naked singularities’. The idea was that if you somehow could create a stable configuration of singularities, all infinitesimally close to each other, you might be able to create something in where you could be at the center, although still finding it calm, no ‘tidal forces’ ripping you apart. And as the center of a Black Hole were where all normal physics broke down, only giving you infinities as you tried to count on it?

Jeff had called up the library directly as he had learnt about the anomaly this inner space represented, trying to find something similar. The closest he had come was just those Black holes, and now he once more started to wonder.

“Can we stop our fall Suit?”

It should be possible, shouldn’t it? If they were in a gravitational field they should be able to hover?

“No, we dare not test. The gravitational field is fluctuating Jeff, although macroscopically stable it behaves almost as if we were measuring it at a quantum level.”

“Zero point energy?”

Jeff had read about that, it was another weird thing with that empty space that existed around us. If measured at a quantum level ‘empty space’ seemed to have all sort of possible energies, and so also a radiation. Although taking itself out macroscopically, leaving us a absolute nothing we called 'space', containing no resistance at all. And there was also some debate to if it was correct calling it 'fluctuating', as at that quantum level where the 'radiation' existed even ‘the arrow of time’ became a disputable thing.

“Yes, but maybe more of a tidal field acting on us.”

“How do you know it fluctuate then?”

“Royal see it, but only when measuring at small scales. The effects are rearranging all there is, still able to leave us be macroscopically.” The suit almost sounded excited as it said it, and as Jeff started to wonder about it he felt himself getting more and more intrigued, and uncomfortable. It was not a altogether pleasant thing finding himself existing only at a macroscopic plane. Still, they did exist, and as far as he could find he was just as normal as usual. He pinched himself just to make sure.

“Ouch, so maybe it’s true then?” he muttered.

“What is true, Jeff?”

Jeff couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed as he explained, since the idea was more of a philosophical one, coming from an old science fiction.

“Well, it’s just something I read once, someone suggested that there was two ways to describe the universe. One statistical in where you can predict the future, as well as define the past. Another being the individual, as macroscopically, in where the future always is unpredictable, with only the past defined.”

“like free will you mean?” That Suit sure was a quick learner.

“Yeah, I think that was involved somewhere too.” Jeff admitted feeling himself redden.

“Interesting.”

The suit stopped talking, Jeff now becoming half-afraid that it was relaying his musings to Royal.

“You mean that the reason we still exist would ground itself on us becoming a statistical approach?” Came Royal’s voice.

‘Damn, I was right.’ Jeff thought, wishing he had kept his mouth shut..

“Yeah, it’s just a thought though, nothing measurable Royal.” He quickly pointed out, all to late realizing that it was measurable, even though not looked upon that way normally.

“Interesting.” Was the dry reply, and then the suits became silent again.

“Echooes” thought Jeff, feeling slightly smug. Maybe there was something to the idea after all?

“Heh, who’s the daddy now?” Muttered complacently as Jeff leaned back, unflinchingly staring into the black void, waiting, for what he did not know.

===

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Comments

You can't predict the

You can't predict the future, because you'd need to predict the whole universe... I doubt that it is possible, since the computer would need to predict itself. It would need to be able to simulate something way more complex than itself, the universe has to be since the computer is part of the universe, faster than real time.

That can't work. That means there is free will, since nobody can predict the future. That might mean free will is nothing but the forces of natures working in an arcane way, but then what is the difference between the unpredictable forces of nature and god giving a soul?

Thank you for writing this interesting story,

Beyogi

fun, isn't it :)

A very valid point. If you look at it from a geometric stand point it would involve a very small box (Computer) inside a infinite box (universe), it now somehow 'describing' and so 'covering' the infinite box. Which then with some imagination now could describe a situation in where the small box (C) covers the box it is in (U), which then imply that this box, as it still should be inside something, now has created a infinite procession of boxes (C) in boxes(U) in boxes(C) in Boxes(U) add infinitum ....

But then you have equations, and Chaos theory. Both are descriptions of just that, something seemingly simple (The equation) giving birth to something inherently (intrinsically?) complex, containing infinities.

It's a weird universe.