The Destroyer

Chapter Thirteen

The white hole research team's first wave now plunged into the kettle, vaporizing instantly, but gathering critical data to the very end. Bethany had the next waves organized and after the data was partially analyzed, realized that one more sacrificial run would be sufficient. It was now confirmed, a massive energy output coming from out of nowhere. It could only be the case, that the EMs were streaming in from the adjacent universe. Within seconds, the data was received by others, across the universe, no matter the distance. Ahmad Badi and Lola, along with Abby, Laszlo and others, plugged the numbers into a massive computational model they had been working on for decades. They only had two sets of detailed data points, one from the white hole and one from the black hole, but other observations at a distance provided overall estimates of the numbers of each of these objects sitting on the universal boundary.

It was a starting point. They were able to formulate the first crude estimate of the net energy balance. This would in turn, be compared to gravitational behavior, to see if there was reasonable alignment. Even with the phenomenal computing power at their disposal, it would still take days to crunch the entire simulation. Meanwhile, there was time to celebrate and enjoy the moment for many. But Bethany and her team, in the spirit of completeness and precision, readied themselves to burn another wave of replicates in the name of science. As the wave started to move in toward the kettle, the new measurements initiated and the data started to transmit. But, very early into their descent toward the inferno of light, they took note that the data didn't match what they had just seen, less than a day earlier. This is odd, thought Bethany. "What do you make of it?" She asked one of her science advisors.

"The energy levels are dramatically reduced. I wouldn't have expected this kind of fluctuation."

"Yes. Agree. And the levels are dropping rapidly."

"You see? The reduced energy is causing the dome to pull back. It's resetting to a new ignition radius. What should we do?"

"Keep going. This might be a rare opportunity where we could be witnessing the end of a white hole. We might even get to the boundary."

The energy level was normally invariable. There was something causing this fluctuation and Bethany, along with her team, and millions of remote spectators watched and puzzled. What could cause the death of a white hole? They all pondered. No phenomenon they were aware of, could cause such a dramatic yet peaceful withdrawal of this mighty object. That is because no such phenomenon existed in nature. Only an act of free will could account for it. Sala. He was in the process of rapidly sealing off the flow of EMs from the other side.

Now, the wave of probes chasing the dome inward, tried to catch up to it. But it was decaying so rapidly, that the dome pulled away faster than they could advance. Soon, it had vanished. The white hole was no longer there, and they stared into a boundary, where a mere trickle of inflowing EMs passed through, nearly nothing. It brought on an excitement within the team. They had witnessed something unusual. By their reckoning, this was presumably a natural phenomenon.

The phenomenon did have a side effect. The curtailment of inbound EMs was so abrupt, that it caused a temporary rarefaction event close to the white hole. The flow of space away from the kettle had a kind of momentum. And when the supply of new EMs stopped, it left a rarified zone in its wake. This caused an immediate slow down in the workings of any matter that was trapped in this zone. It was a situation that would only require a matter of hours to equilibrate. But it left the team that was observing from a distance,  to watch in awe as their own replicates nearly ground to a halt, as if suspended helplessly in time. It was entertaining in a way.

Meanwhile, another observer lurked not far away. He was pleased by his little experiment and the convenient availability of human subjects, allowing for a more definitive result. But the fun was now over and it was time to launch a new experiment. Even Sala had been surprised to learn years earlier, that his new replicates, constructed in an adjacent universe and comprised entirely of septaquarks, were stable in his native universe. He had wished for this to be the case, theorizing that the mechanism for energy consumption, which dictated the nature of movement, would allow his extra-universal replicates to move freely and unimpeded by fluctuations in EM density. In fact, the less dense the EMs, the faster his replicates could move.