Just a Little Technology

Book excerpt: I am commander, Bob Sutton, Sue Costco is my first officer, and Lieut. Joseph Franks is the third member of our team of astronauts that make up our crew. We have just departed earth on our first manned mission to Mars. To date is 2025 and it's our second day out, I have just laid down for a short nap when, "Hay guys" Sue says abruptly, "according to this read out the ship has increased its speed from 15,000 to 20,000 mph in the last few minutes. "That's a possible," I exclaimed, jumping up to double check her figures. "Since we left Earth orbit our engines have been shut down, if anything we should be going slower, not faster." But after checking the ship's instruments, we concluded that she was right. "What the hell is going on? I replied, as I started to recheck the instruments again. About 15 to 20 minutes had gone by; Sue was busy as a bee trying to calculate our speed again, as I frantically looked over at her figures, suddenly! Her eyes widened, "holy mother of God," she screamed, "our speed is now increased to 41,000 mph and is still climbing." Joe yelled, "I have just picked up a large mass of something, a couple of thousand miles ahead, on an intercept course. I don't know what it is, but every minute it's growing larger, I believe it's pulling us toward it. "We will have to do an emergency burn," I commanded, sliding into my seat and fastening my seat belt. "Are you guys strapped in?" I yelled. Not waiting for an answer, I fired our right steering rockets, as I felt the seatbelt harness start to cut into my shoulder, I knew that we were into our turn. After I had turned the ship about 45° I shut the engines down, but within a few seconds the ship seemed too turned back to its original course. I then fired our left steering rockets, but the ship didn't turn at all, as we all stared helplessly at the ship's Main monitor, we realized that straight in front of us was a large mass. Minute by minute the mass grew clearer until we were able to see this large gaping black hole. "Oh no," Sue screamed, covering her eyes with her hands. Within a second or two we felt ourselves being sucked into it as we passed the holes outer edge, the ship seemed too changed directives immediately heading down into the hole. I felt my seat belt drastically cutting into my shoulder, and I was on the verge of blacking out, "I'll see you both in our next lifetime," I remember saying, and then everything went black.