Ladies And Gentlecolts, We Are Floating In Space

by PeaceColt112

Act 2, Chapter 2: How Little We Know

Seven and a half hooves

Two claws

One destination

Asimov walked quickly, the clatter of his rapid steps making the hallway seem like a busy train station. Aeris limped behind him, her front hoof dragging about, any attempt to stand on it resulting in a shotgun blast of pain. They turned a series of corners rapidly, the metal floor beneath them shaking as they did. Phaedra went first, rifle loaded and ready to fire on a moment's notice.

The doctor stopped abruptly, his muzzle facing a small pair of holes in an otherwise indistinguishable wall. Something beeped and a green light illuminated the stoic, gray face. Another beep sounded, followed by a mechanical hissing, akin to a sudden release of air. The wall split open in the middle, revealing a passageway barely a meter and a half in height. Asimov stepped inside, his scientific demeanor perfectly unchanged.

They wound another series of corners, albeit slower this time, Phaedra straggling on the rear f the group, making sure that nobody followed them. They came to another doorway, this one not concealed, a console sitting to its right. Asimov typed quickly and the machine scanned his face once again. The wall to the left of the group suddenly disintegrated, fading into nothingness, behind it a huge laboratory filled with all manner of instrumentation and tubing, some of it hanging off the walls and ceiling.

Aeris's mouth opened and closed, yet produced no sound. She was left speechless once again. This was the first laboratory since she entered stasis, and that was over a century ago. Her mind ached for scientific release. Asimov entered trough the newly formed hole and turned around to face his guest. Phaedra remained in the hallway, the wall fading back into existence, leaving the two scientists alone in a nirvana of discovery.

He turned away, his attention slipping to a rusty table situated in the middle of the room, it's work surface littered with mechanical parts.

“Make yourself at home, miss” said the scientist “I do not know if you are a scientific mind or not but for the time being I shall presume that you are utterly confused by the recent string of events.”

Aeris just rolled her eyes and silently pointed at her cutie mark, a single mathematical X with a square sign above it, both colored white. Asimov's eyes lit up at the sight of a fellow scientist.

He just nodded, giving her a friendly look over his shoulder “I'm terribly sorry, but a gentlecolt does not look where his gaze is not desired”

Aeris's face turned a bright red. That was the nicest thing anyone had said to her ever since she awakened from her induced slumber, the very statement surprising to her. After a moment of startled silence, she turned back to the doctor, who was now welding something using a small multitool, the likes of which she had never seen before. She stood behind him, silently watching him work.

“So, what's your name again..?” He put a hoof onto his forehead, trying to remember something he never knew, mainly because he forgot to ask about it.

“Aeris” said the red-haired pony, finishing his sentence before adding “Aeris Skye, theoretical physicist”

“It's a pleasure” He replied, the warmth of his voice almost palpable

Suddenly, he turned and walked over to another table, this one located in the far corner, an old worklamp illuminating the surface below. On it, a blueprint of something that Aeris could not make out from afar. She followed the now rambling doctor, who was apparently locked into a mental debate with himself. Aeris knew the feeling well, sometimes getting absorbed into her work even when she was not working.

The two scientists stood over the blueprint, curious eyes going over what was on the paper, silence covering the whole room. Asimov sat down facing the table, and took out a notebook riddled with all manner of book markings and other written notes. He flipped trough it vigorously, occasionally smiling at his own genius.

“What's this then?” asked Aeris, not lifting her gaze from the blue paper in front of her, carefully analyzing some of the writing on it “It looks like some form of quantum portal. But-”

“Where does it lead?” said Asimov calmly, finishing her sentence “Interesting question, not a surprising one either. I have been asking myself the same question and after quite some research, I believe that I have reached some form of coherent explanation. If I may demonstrate”

In the blink of an eye he got up and walked across the room. A metallic clang sounded as Asimov flipped one of the switches located on the wall, causing something else to buzz. Aeris's eyes shot upwards, looking for the source. It was the projector that hung from the ceiling, connected to the other instruments by a set of wires. The wall opposite the desk lit up before blackening again. A picture of a circular, hole like apparatus appeared, followed by a series of mathematical equations.

Asimov sat down and cleared his throat “This is a so called quantum looper, the portal depicted on the blueprint. It's the product of nigh on twenty years of engineering, the first one manufactured over one hundred and thirty years ago on Earth. With the activation of the portal came the discovery of something called “the webway”. It was the greatest scientific breakthrough since the wheel, the portal allowing us to access a series of astral networks. Energy strings, if you will, all of them forming the vast expanse of the webway, the information superhighway of the universe. Soon, scientists discovered the possibility of moving larger objects across the webway through the medium of light.”

The doctor paused for a second, shifting a bit on his chair. There was an air of anticipation in the room. The slide changed, showing a photo of the vessel they were in.

“This ship, the N.L.R.S.S. Eternity, is equipped with one of these portals. It contains a non-standard version of the portal that was assembled on the journey by the skeleton crew and the attached service bots. Its construction marked the begging of the Eternity’s official mission.”

“Official mission? I’ve been informed that we were being sent to the TXS 33 cluster.” Aeris said remembered her orders, signed and sealed, that she had received in a folder on launch day “There’s a ‘Earth like planet’ in the system, one that we were supposed to colonize”

“You have been lied to, I’m afraid. There is no planet. You were sent out here to mobilize the portal in order to access the pre-programmed destination. But something doesn’t add up”

The doctor moved once again, this time towards a dusty console in the corner. A hatch opened, revealing a tiny keyboard that Asimov utilized with startling ease. The floor beneath them lit up. A star map appeared with a single glowing red dot. The doctor pointed towards it.

“This is the N.L.R.S.S. Eternity, alone in the middle of the great cosmic dark. And here…” Asimov pushed some more buttons “Is the portal’s destination.”

It took some time before Aeris realized what she was looking at. The probes of the Alliance mapped a large part of the galaxy using a number of massive telescopes and electromagnetic satellites.

Including the centre of the galaxy.

That little green dot, now glowing on the map beneath Aeris’s hooves.

“I…I don’t know what to make of this” she said, her head spinning at the implications “The centre of the galaxy is a gas cloud with a black hole in the middle! There’s nothing there!”

“No, newer investigations, most of them performed just before the launch revealed that there’s something in there” Asimov coughed before continuing “Something that no visible or invisible wavelength of light can penetrate”

“We have been sent to colonize and exploit...” the scientists spoke in unison, slowly, taking in every letter and every word

“The very basis of all creation”