The Black Hole Read Online Free PDF Page A

orbit around either the star or the collapsar. She's just sitting there."
    Holland considered. "That's crazy, Alex. If it's not orbiting the star and its drive isn't functioning—and I can tell that it's not from our readouts up here—then the ship should be reacting at least marginally to the effect of the gravity well. You sure she hasn't been put in a functional orbit around it?"
    "Sorry, Dan." Durant sounded apologetic. "She's not orbiting anything. Might as well not be a black hole there, for all the effect it seems to be having on her. Or not having on her. It's almost as if she's somehow managed to anchor herself to a point in space. Or found some way to negate gravitational forces other than by pushing against them with her drive.
    "If it's safe for the Cygnus , we can assume until shown otherwise that it's safe for the Palomino "
    "You're stretching supposition, Alex."
    "Maybe. But I don't have any explanation for her stability. Just the fact that she is."
    "How could a lifeless derelict," Booth put in, "defy that kind of steady gravitational pull? If her engines aren't functioning, she ought to be sliding down into the well."
    "I don't know how she's doing it, but that's reason enough for investigating her." Durant directed his voice back to the pickup. "That's my main reason for advising a closer look, Dan. If the Cygnus can somehow negate gravity waves without using a drive, it's incumbent on us to try to find out how she's doing it. And, Harry, we don't know that she's lifeless. Not showing her lights or a drive isn't sufficient evidence of lifelessness."
    "Well, she looks lifeless," Booth harrumphed.
    "It could be a natural phenomenon, Alex," said Holland.
    "I know that. That's equally worthy of investigation."
    "No, no. You're missing my point, Alex." The captain stared indecisively at his instruments. "The Cygnus may not be frozen in space voluntarily. With a sun on one side of her and a massive black hole on the other, there's enough electromagnetic perturbations running through here to do funny things to the fabric of space."
    "Space isn't nylon, Dan." Durant sounded impatient.
    "You know what I'm getting at. If it is a natural phenomenon, we might find ourselves unable to break free of its influence. The Cygnus may be sitting where she is because she has no choice. Pull alongside her and the same effect might trap us out here also."
    Durant knew he couldn't just ignore Holland's hypothesis. "All right, let's do this: as scientific leader of this mission, I formally advise carrying out a closer inspection. We'll have all our standard grav-wave instrumentation primed to alert us the instant any kind of gravitational abnormality is detected, and I'll program corollary scanners for backup. At the first hint that anything bizarre is affecting us, we'll maximize the drive and move clear."
    Holland's thoughts were still on the side of caution. "I don't know." It came down to the fact that ship and crew were his responsibility, even though at such moments he was supposed to follow Durant's and McCrae's directives. "It might be an instantaneous effect. We might not be able to break free no matter how quickly we detect something out of the ordinary."
    "Now you're trying to overrule me on the basis of an implied dangerous effect for which we have no supporting hard evidence, Dan.
    "We're preparing to return home. Let's take this one last risk, and then it'll all be over except for collecting our back pay. We've been gifted with the chance to answer an awful lot of old questions—about the Cygnus , about her mission, and about inconsistencies in gravity-field theory that have plagued physicists since Einstein. There's no telling when another ship might get out this way, and by that time the Cygnus may be swallowed up."
    Holland weighed all the evidence and all the arguments. "My instincts are still against it, Alex."
    "Maybe, but that's hardly sound scientific grounds for not investigating more closely."
    "I know, I