Taking Space 2

- Aftermath -

Daniel and the others watched as the black spherical void expanded swallowing the empires entire fleet then in an instant flickered out of existence leaving only a small star no larger than the smallest of moons in its wake.

Daniel leaned back clasping his left hand over his eyes and letting it fall slowly down over his mouth that still hung open in disbelief. "That didn't really happen did it?" he asked.

"This is a direct feed from one of Alf's long-range cameras," Steven said. "At this distance, the view is at least five to six minutes old, but it is without a doubt real."

"Okay..." Michael said. "What was that thing and how did it come into existence?"

"I believe it was some form of black hole, as for how it came about.." Steven shrugged. "I haven't a clue."

Daniel reached out with his left hand and twisted his palm to the left rewinding the view on the main view screen. They all watched again as Adolph and his entire fleet were sucked into what Steven had concluded was a black hole.

"I have a hypothesis on how it formed," Catherine said as they watched the black spherical void vanished again leaving only a small sun where it had been. They all turned to look at her.

"Steven, you originally called your dimensional doors Octagonical trialic graviton matrix continuums, correct?" Catherine asked.

Steven nodded.

"You called it that because it uses eight separate gravitational forces to cause space and time to fold, correct?"

Steven nodded again.

"Normally when the dimensional rift collapses it is because the energy fluctuations cause those gravitational forces to become desynced and your failsafe system turns the three graviton matrixes off. I believe this time your failsafe system failed and the power from the star flooded into them amplifying their effect by affinity," Catherine hypothesized.

Steven frowned and shook his head. "No that doesn't work the trialic graviton matrixes would burn themselves under that type of—."

Stephanie waved her hand cutting him off. "I don't really care how it happened what I want to know is what happened to Adolph and his fleet?"

Steven shrugged. "I don't know they could have been sucked into the star the dimensional door was connected to, or the remnants could be what makes up that small star. For all, we know they could've been spread across the entire galaxy like what happened in the great exodus, but unlike in the great exodus, one thing is for sure. With that great of gravitational forces, every last one of them ships are nothing more than tiny crunched spheres."

"So, they are all dead?" Stephanie gasped.

"Without a doubt," Steven answered without really thinking over his answer.

Stephanie's eyes grew wide with horror.

Steven frowned. "What's wrong?" He asked.

"What's wrong?" Stephanie exploded. "Do you realize how many thousands of crewmembers are on one battleship!"

Steven's face paled. "Oh," he muttered.

"And we just destroyed over a dozen not including the empires flagship," Daniel said realizing what Stephanie was getting at.

"We now have the blood of tens of thousands on our hands," Stephanie said raising her hands and staring at them.

The command deck fell silent, and they all just sat there staring down at the floor.