The stars on the outside were moving very quickly, streaking outward. The black center was expanding.
"Why is it empty like that in the center, Harry?" Beth said.
"I don't think it is empty."
"I can't see anything."
"No, but it's not empty. In just a minute we should see - There!"
A dense white cluster of stars suddenly appeared in the center of the screen. The cluster expanded as they watched. It was a strange effect, Norman thought. There was still a distinct black ring that expanded outward, with stars on the outside and on the inside. It felt as if they were flying through a giant black donut.
"My God," Harry said softly. "Do you know what you are looking at?"
"No," Beth said. "What's that cluster of stars in the center?"
"It's another universe."
"It's what?"
"Well, okay. It's probably another universe. Or it might be a different region of our own universe. Nobody really knows for sure."
"What's the black donut?" Norman said.
"It's not a donut. It's a black hole. What you are seeing is the recording made as this spacecraft went through a black hole and entered into another - Is someone calling?" Harry turned, cocked his head. They fell silent, but heard nothing. "What do you mean, another universe - "
" - Sssssh."
A short silence. And then a faint voice crying "Hellooo ..."
"Who's that?" Norman said, straining to listen. The voice was so soft. But it sounded human. And maybe more than one voice. It was coming from somewhere inside the spacecraft.
"Yoo-hoo! Anybody there? Hellooo."
"Oh, for God's sake," Beth said. "It's them, on the monitor."
She turned up the volume on the little monitor Edmunds had left behind. On the screen they saw Ted and Barnes, standing in a room somewhere and shouting. "Hellooo ... Hel-lo-oooo."
"Can we talk back?"
"Yes. Press that button on the side." Norman said, "We hear you."
"High damn time!" Ted.
"All right, now," Barnes said. "Listen up."
"What are you people doing back there?" Ted said.
"Listen up," Barnes said. He stepped to one side, revealing a piece of multicolored equipment. "We now know what this ship is for."
"So do we," Harry said.
"We do?" Beth and Norman said together.
But Barnes wasn't listening. "And the ship seems to have picked up something on its travels."
"Picked up something? What is it?"
"I don't know," Barnes said. "But it's something alien."
"SOMETHING ALIEN"
The moving walkway carried them past endless large cargo bays. They were going forward, to join Barnes and Ted and Edmunds. And to see their alien discovery.
"Why would anyone send a spaceship through a black hole?" Beth asked.
"Because of gravity," Harry said. "You see, black holes have so much gravity they distort space and time incredibly. You remember how Ted was saying that planets and stars make dents in the fabric of space-time? Well, black holes make tears in the fabric. And some people think it's possible to fly through those tears, into another universe, or another part of our universe. Or to another time."
"Another time!"
"That's the idea," Harry said.
"Are you people coming?" Barnes's tinny voice, on the monitor.
"In transit now," Beth said, glowering at the screen. "He can't see you," Norman said.
"I don't care."
They rode past more cargo areas. Harry said, "I can't wait to see Ted's face when we tell him."
Finally they reached the end of the walkway. They passed through a midsection of struts and girders, and entered a large forward room which they had previously seen on the monitor. With ceilings nearly a hundred feet high, it was enormous.
You could put a six-story building in this room, Norman thought. Looking up, he saw a hazy mist or fog.
"What's that?"
"That's a cloud," Barnes said, shaking his head. "The room is so big it apparently has its own weather. Maybe it even rains in here sometimes."
The room was filled with machinery on an immense scale. At first glance, it looked like oversized earth-moving machinery, except it was brightly painted in primary colors, glistening with oil. Then Norman began to notice individual features. There were giant claw hands, enormously powerful arms, moving gear wheels. And an array of buckets and receptacles.
He realized suddenly he was looking at something very similar to the grippers and claws mounted on the front end of the Charon V submersible he had ridden down on the day before. Was it the day before? Or was it still the same day? Which day? Was this July 4? How long had they been down here?
"If you look carefully," Barnes was saying, "you can see that some of these devices appear to be large-scale weapons. Others, like that long extensor arm, the various attachments to pick things up, in effect make this ship a gigantic robot."
"A robot ..."
"No kidding," Beth said.
Chapter 7
"I guess it would have been appropriate for a robot to open it after all," Ted said thoughtfully. "Maybe even fitting."
"Snug fitting," Beth said.
"Pipe fitting," Norman said.
"Sort of robot-to-robot, you mean?" Harry said. "Sort of a meeting of the threads and treads?"
"Hey," Ted said. "I don't make fun of your comments even when they're stupid."