Homage to A Beast

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. “They”, being the people on Earth and what “they” know is very little compared to the vastness of the universe. The most concrete information they have is entirely fundamental and the rest is all speculation to some degree. Of all the things that are speculated black holes remain largely a mystery. True, with the advancement of technology comes the advancement of knowledge, but all speculation remains just that until a solid interaction is made. When that occurs it would remove the speculations… And everything else from existence. Once it grabs onto its next meal it will not let go, not even light can escape the consuming darkness. Not even the sounds of a billion screams would ever be heard. To reiterate, nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space. Ladies and gentlemen, that in itself is a speculation as the people of planet Earth don’t know the truth. “They” don’t know that there’s a being that can hear everything in the universe-be anywhere in the universe. Is it God? Putting the fire of religion to rest it is not God or the Devil. What it is is, well, to put it best, it is… And it is awakening…

A pair of glowing red eyes open with a sense of shock. All the eyes see in front of them is blackness save for the white stars and nebulae in the distance. “What is this? Where am I?” It asks itself. The voice in its head is multi-toned with high and low pitches speaking in unison. Looking down at its body it sees shadowy limbs forming, first the legs and then arms. With its newly formed hands it felt its face which it found to be devoid of a mouth, nose, or ears. It knows it has eyes however, as it is viewing the space above it. Another thing it knows is that it is hungry. A hunger that it never knew before. Usually, hunger would leave a person feeling drained, but instead this hunger feels as if an uncontrollable power is rising within. It tries to quell the feeling and hold it back, but it is painful to do so. “What am I?” it asks itself wishing it had a mirror. With that wish comes an octagonal crystalline pattern erecting in front of it from seemingly nowhere. Acting as a mirror, the entity can see what it is with its two luminous eyes. From head to toe it is shrouded in the deepest black, darker than a silhouette. Its entire self is a void giving off a sense of hopelessness. A normal being seeing this would feel frightened and perplexed by the sight of it, but fortunately for this living darkness it did not know how to feel. It isn’t frightened, it isn’t perplexed. In fact, it doesn’t feel anything besides the growing hunger pains. It knows it should feel something more, however, but it doesn’t remember how to. The study of itself is cut short by a low rumbling. It hears this despite the being not having any visible ears as well as it being the vacuum of space. The cosmic mirror collapses as the being looks to the right. Its field of view is filled with a ginormous sphere covered in swirling white gasses. All the being does in that moment is study the unknown planet. The hunger grows stronger within it the longer it looks. It feels like it is about to explode with the amount of power surging through its body. There is nothing it could do except release, and so it does. It had never done so before, but still knew what it needs to do as if it is an unconscious thought.

It let out a roar so primal, so fierce. A roar so loud it rumbles throughout nearby galaxies. The roar is just the beginning, however. It’s red glowing eyes is replaced with an ominous dark purple. The beings thought process ceases as it slips into a fugue state. The white gaseous planet stops in its track as if it is audience to what is going to happen next. The being’s body and limbs become indiscernible from one another as it blends into a hungry darkness. It lost the shape of a humanoid and starts to appear as a hole in the universe. As its mass increases so does its effect on gravity. With that, the gas planet starts to gravitate towards the void with its trajectory being unescapable. The black hole grows and as it does streaks of white outline the edges of it. Spacetime starts to distort with the light surrounding it. At this point it is massive compared to the gas planet that was once giant to the cosmic being. A low ominous hum emits from the hole. It locks other cosmic objects further away in its orbit, for the time being. The gaseous planet, however, has the unfortunate pleasure of being this cosmic horror’s first meal. As it continues to get closer to the blackness, the white clouds start to get pulled away from the planet. The gas molecules stretch nearing the black hole. The term for this phenomenon is known in scientific community as “Spaghettification”. An observer viewing this show from a safe distance would see this white planet turn red. Not only that but it would appear as if it was frozen in time, but in reality, it is moving at intense speeds closer to the darkness. The white gas passes the event horizon further solidifying doom. Once the first gas molecule entered the darkness a blinding jet of radiation shoots from the center of the hole. The white clouds on the planet strip away revealing a second layer of brown tinted gas which that too starts stripping away. Layers of gaseous rings form perpendicular to the black hole which is now making a menacing crackling sound which of course wouldn’t be audible in the vacuum of space, but it would make these sounds if it were. In time what was a gas giant is now a stripped-down shell of what it once was. Only the solid core remains and that too is passing the event horizon. The core explodes in a gaseous blaze as it stretches out effectively tearing it apart. Then the planet ceases to exist as is passes through the blackness.

Thinking that that is the black hole’s only meal would be a mistake. It is still hungry, and so it continues to grow in size and mass. The objects that are trapped in a dance revolving around the black hole change course. Now they are all heading towards the darkness as well to meet the same fate as the gas giant. It takes what would be three Earth days for the black hole to fully consume all the nearby cosmic bodies which include asteroids, planets, and a total of two stars. It is then that the feeding stops. The supermassive black hole, while short lived had consumed at a rapid rate.

The black hole shrinks in size at a rather fast rate with its luminous beams of light fading. It disappears, but what remains is the cosmic being that it started out as. It has no knowledge of what had just happened. Its eyes return to a flaming red and its violent appetite fully quelled. With that, the being gets two visions. They are fleeting images, but valuable. It sees a planet, mostly blue but with green land. This would be Earth. The next image is a lab coat that has a gold nametag on it. It reads “Doctor Zolan Zero – Head Scientist”. Is this a vision of the future? No, but of the past…

“I remember! That’s my name!” Zolan exclaims to himself. This time the voice in his head settles on a masculine voice. He doesn’t remember much else besides what was shown to him, but what was shown is enough for him to form a basis on who he is and where he came from. A slight panic forms deep within Zolan. “This can’t be… Am I even alive?!” Zolan thinks. As he does, he continues to listen to the music of the cosmos. “I shouldn’t be able to hear things out here! I shouldn’t be able to breathe! What happened?! What am I?!!” Zolan wants to run from the area but seeing as there is no solid floor to run, he continues to float. With the acceptance of his current situation, he looks up at the universe and gazes at the stars and distant nebulae. He takes the time to admire the beautiful colors he can see in the far distance taking note of his improved eyesight. Zolan observes the multicolored cosmic gases that surrounds twinkling red and blue stars. Shades of green fade into shades of yellow and red. It looks as if it is expanding outwards but in reality it is stagnant. These are sights that scientists can only dream of seeing is a reality for Zolan. It's quite beautiful if you don't mind me saying so myself. Even the high-tech fancy telescopes that are worth millions in taxpayers currency don't do it justice. The colors are more vivid and detailed than technology can ever produce.

It is after the admiration that he thinks about two things: The image of the green-blue planet he saw, and the lab coat with his name on it. It dawns on Zolan that the planet he saw was Earth. Zolan thinks to himself, “I must be dreaming. This is impossible, right? But it feels so real.” Zolan knows regardless of if it is real or not, he is in this situation and there must be a way out of it. “All situations can be solved.” He tells himself. “I’m a head scientist on Earth, I’ll start there.” He knows what he needs to find to help him solve his predicament. He plans his end goal, his last destination, his mission. Earth.

But this begs the question, how will Doctor Zolan Zero get there?