Lost In Space

I checked the computers one more time. Yet the same message comes up.

Location Unknown

I could feel the blood retracting in my skin, my heart sank into my gut. My bones felt weak and brittle.

"Guys," I called out.

The others came with some level of hope, it broke my deflated heart to break it to them, that "we were lost in space."

"Check it again," Mark insisted.

"I did alright! I checked it a hundred times. I do not know where we are!"

"Let's fling around the black hole," Kim began, "Fly to the nearest planet or star. The computer may not of detected the black hole, its hard to see one."

"No it..." I let out a deep breath, "It doesn't know where we are, but it knows where we've last been."

"And?" Mary came forward to me.

"The radius from the portal i-i-it's umm," I stumbled on my words. I went to my chair, not as comfy as the one on the USSKR, "That radius is," I put my hand over my face, as if I was ashamed.

Kim looked at the computer screen and read the distance out loud.

"We are... 1 googol light years from Earth. The boundary of the infinite universe."

Mark rushed forward, "What! What do you mean boundary, and Google?"

"Where we ended up, we touched the egde of the universe, before dark energy expanded it even more. And it's googol not Google. It's a one with one hundred 0s following it. And a light year is," She thought for a second.

I gave the number, "About 9.46 trillion kilometers, or about 5.88 trillion miles."

"Thank you Swindon."

"So," Mark stood up straight, "That number times a googol is..." He tried to the maths in his head, but it just caused him to hurt his brain.

"There isn't a number for that, too large. It's 9.46e add 112 killiometers." Mary gave an answer.

I was silent all this time, unable to compute the reality. Unable to lead the remaining crew. This wasn't a military operation but I need to lead the team. I knew the most about the detachment ship and space. The true reality of the situation, they don't know the truth, I can't tell them. It will kill them slowly like its killing me.

I listened to Kim speaking, "Okay so even if we use the gravity of the black hole, going back home would take quintillions of years if not a sextillion at least."

"How about the nearest planet to us?" Mark asked.

"We don't know if it's habitable. Even if it is, I want to get back to Earth."

Mary questioned, "So what do we do? We have one chance when we fling ourselves from the black hole."

Hopeful people in a hopeless situation. What to do?
I got up and left. The others looked at me but didn't say anything. They struggled to keep their emotions in, let alone mine.

I went to my room and grabbed a grid book and a pen. Just like in maths..

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3rd person
Mark came up to Swindon in his room. He was working tirelessly on a side project.

"Dude, the teacher said for this to be a group project, Mary already did her bit, and I finished mine."

"Superstates huh? The idea that a particle can be two things or locations at once?"

"You just dumbed it down."

"Im on something more important," He said as he crossed out a week's worth of work, "And I also just spent a week doing the wrong thing. The original calculation shouldn't of had iπ, it should of been eπ." He breathed heavily and threw his book. "Stupid"

"Put a pause on black holes, work on Superstates."

"Fuck Superstates, black holes are what I need to be doing."

Mark laughed for a second, "Like that's going to be needed in the future."

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1st person
I took out my university book. I kept it as a reminder of my younger self. When I met the 11 most intelligent and kind people in the world. All apart of my crew. But 11 goes down to 3 pretty fast.
I need sleep, food and maybe sex. Then my mind would be clear. Clear enough to crack black holes.

Chuckles