In the latter half of the 21st century during a survey of some of the objects orbiting the Alpha Centri system, it was discovered that a small planetoid was made up of almost 80% mineral essential to industrial processes of the time. This mineral was extremely rare on earth, and since the industrial process had become so important to the activity of several GlobCorps, discussions immediately started on the possibility of retrieving some of this planetoid and eliminating the supply shortage.

Proper surveys were made of the regions of space between the sun and the Alpha Centuri system to plan a route. During these surveys, it was discovered that the entire image of space which had been assumed to be accurate for several hundred years was in fact an illusion. This was due to pockets of intense gravitational and electromagnetic radiation. These pockets were found to be numerous and had the effect of distorting the line of sight for electromagnetic waves reaching earth.

The question of why no-one had noticed these before has become an obsession with people ever since. In some ways it led to the new space age 200 years later.

Anyway, Alpha Centuri turned out to be much farther away than expected. At the time most people thought it was 4.2 light years away instead, as we now know, it's almost 8 light years away.

The prospect of abandoning the quest for this planetoid was not reasonable, however. The populous had been fired with dreams and ambitions of how life would change once products became cheap and plentiful. None of the GlobCorps wanted to risk disappointing them, allowing regional governments an excuse to impose controls on their activities.

The problem was to design vessels that could travel these distances.

Space exploration had all but been abandoned by this time and the transporters to the Earth orbiting platforms were rigid and established.

A number of ideas were pursued. A robot vessel was generally thought to be the most feasible proposition.

Warping space had been somewhat of a tradition since the science fiction stories of the previous century. No-one took the idea very seriously for obvious reasons.

The distance could not be reduced and, as several cynical thinkers of day pointed out, it seemed to be increasing. Stopping the expansion of the universe was not a viable option either although a number of papers were published proposing it.

Travelling faster than 10% of light speed was not possible. Extensive research simply couldn't find a way around the problem of increasing mass. The quest for higher speeds was not a serious proposition.

The need for a sustainable fuel source for 10% light speed travel was though. At 10% the vessel would require an almost infinite supply of fuel. Even 100 years after the development of the P cell which had done so much to alter everyone's lives such a supply seemed an unrealistic dream.

Nevertheless, a huge supply of fuel would be needed. Research was concentrated on this area.

After the suppression of the southern rebellion in the early years of the 22nd century, a professor of Mathematics at the South Pole University revived a postulate which had been made in 1980 by a group of early particle physicist that an artificial singularity could provide an infinite source of power.

The principle is commonplace now but at the time was quite revolutionary - especially when we consider that it came from a professor at a recently discredited university; that the professor was in fact a biologist and that he was, in any case, insane.

The proposal was taken on board and all research was directed into this area.

The advantages of using an artificial singularity seemed to entirely fulfil every need for deep space travel. Infinite power source, almost unlimited size of space craft, artificial gravity. The talk was of bringing the whole planetoid back to the solar system in one go.

Every detail was examined. Containment would be by means of G waves. These had recently been discovered and were found to block gravitational particles and so eliminate gravity within a field. These G waves were, and are, extremely exotic concepts of 3 dimensional waves which as every schoolboy knows use dimensions 3, 4 and 5. The G waves would be produced by a series of emitters placed precisely around the singularity.

The one detail which was left out for much of this early research however was how to make the artificial singularity.

The existence of 'mini black holes' had been established as a principle culprit responsible for the 'parallax distortion hoax'. Most people assumed that one of these would be harnessed when the time was right. However, this could not be done because of several rather practical problems. First, the position of these mini black holes was not certain. Second, their size was not certain and to survey them would almost certainly mean destruction of the observer. Thirdly, capturing one would require an amount of energy similar to that which it was hoped to be produced by capturing one in the first place.

Finally, the amounts of energy required to travel the distances to one of these mini black holes was also similar to the amounts of energy which the singularity was hoped to produce.

An artificial singularity would have to be made.

The concept at the time was mind boggling. Nothing like this had ever been attempted before and the arguments of how it could be done together with the effect on our region of space raged.

In the latter half of the 22nd century, the 100th anniversary of the discovery of planetoid 'D', as it was known, was looming. Almost all the details of building the artificial singularity had been worked out. An area between the orbit of Mars and the asteroid belt was deemed the best place for the experiment since the orbits of Mars, the asteroids and any comets would leave it vacant for about 40 years. It was thought that once the experiment had been completed some asteroids could be pushed into the singularity effectively sealing it up. All that remained was the courage and the will to start.

This was no easy task. The whole venture was begun as a contribution to the welfare of mankind and mankind had responded by concentrating much of its thinking for the past 100 years on this one subject. This was not another commercial venture which the larger GlobCorps could simply go ahead with, suppressing information and opposition. The world governments had used the debate to recapture some of the status which they had lost in the 21st century and while the GlobCorps were still very powerful, they didn't want to risk a confrontation with world governments. They knew that they would win of course but their entire strategy since they were first established was based upon encouraging and propping up these remnants of political life.

One of the smaller GlobCorps took matters into its own hands. This was Assend GlobCorp. They had been primarily concerned with the running of the transports to the orbiting platforms. They had always resisted expansion into other areas since, as a Globcorp their principal business was a monopoly. In any case they were widely regarded as being extremely efficient. Their record of safety was almost perfect and like all the GlobCorps, they concentrated on their speciality.

Why they should wish to break ranks and launch themselves into such a risky and untried venture is not known. However they announced on the eve of the anniversary of the discovery of planetoid D that they had secretly transported all the equipment necessary to the space site and were ready to begin experiments.

Outrage burst out among world governments. Several GlobCorps also broke ranks and voiced their opposition. Court cases were started in several regional courts and some courts even began issuing court orders forbidding Assend from proceeding.

Ascend countered that courts didn't have jurisdiction in outer space. The arguments became heated. The courts claimed jurisdiction over the people in outer space since they had originally come from earth. Ascend countered that courts traditionally only had jurisdiction over people in their immediate area. Once someone moved out of that area they became subject to the jurisdiction of another court. A number of courts begun issuing orders to seize the assets of Ascend. Several Ascend transport sites were seized and chaos began to ensure on space platforms when their inhabitants started to panic over their communications.

Ascend then announced that if their assets were to be seized, they would have no business left in any case. They started the experiment.

The containment was set up, and the singularity was created. Initial experiments demonstrated that the technology would worked exactly as predicted. After initial reluctance and reticence gradually everyone began to marvel at the achievement.

The Singularity was the pinnacle of human achievement. Ascend wisely refuted all attempts to apportion credit to them and insisted that this was an achievement for mankind as a whole. Pamphlets were printed detailing the history of the singularity from its first theoretical beginnings to the opening of the experiment. Everyone was to share in the glory. Supporters for their drive and commitment, opponents for their modulating effect.

One unexpected result was the discovery of time distortion. The tremendous gravity generated by the singularity had been predicted to distort time but the manipulation of time distortion wasn't expected and was seen as a remarkable effect. With time distortion long distance space travel could be achieved in short periods of time not by travelling faster but by distorting time itself.

After about 30 years the singularity had become commonplace. Everyone knew about it. Most were familiar with many of the details since learning these had become something of a necessity for the passage into adulthood in much the same way as we now learn about the heroes of the new order. However, little more was needed to be said and discussion became unfashionable.

The time had come to shut the experiment down. The asteroid belt would be coming near and suitable chunks had long since been selected for annihilation as a means to 'filling the hole'.

The containment beam was switched off and simple explosive charges were detonated on the selected asteroids with a view to diverting their orbits.

All appeared to be going well. The asteroids vanished into the spot.

Then something went wrong.

As soon as the asteroids had begun to disappear into the singularity the G wave grid was suppose to switch back on. Out of the thousand or so emitters surrounding the singularity, one malfunctioned. All of the emitters were almost immediately pulled into the singularity joining the asteroids in annihilation.

It has been claimed that the malfunctioning containment beam emitter was somehow unexpectedly displaced and since further information is not available that is the only conclusion any sensible person can reach.

The singularity began to expand. The orbit of the entire asteroid belt began to deviate and several more small asteroids were annihilated.

By now the entire population of earth was awake and panicking. What had been the pinnacle of human achievement had turned into the greatest potential disaster since creation.

The world would be coming to an end. There was no escape. This was it. Some people tried to riot but surprisingly, according to most reports of the time, and there aren't many, most people tried to come to terms with their fate.

We have to remember that almost everyone had an expert understanding of the singularity in those days. Everyone knew what the consequences of this disaster would be and that there really wasn't much they could do about it. No one could approach the singularity since to do so would mean annihilation. So everyone waited for the singularity to come to them.

However they weren't particle physicists. There were a large number of particle physicist around at the time. Interest in the singularity had encouraged many students to take up this discipline.

A group of senior physicists proposed that if the right number of beam emitters could be placed around the singularity in precisely the right position and switched on at exactly the right moment then there was a slim chance that the containment might be restored.

The size of the singularity was calculated together with its rate of expansion. By a complicated set of formulae the number of been emitters was also calculated. This number was rising at an exponential rate so if the idea was to work it would have to be done soon. A second problem was that the emitters would have to be placed by hand. Firstly the bulk of space ships would have an unpredictable effect and secondly the emitters would need to be calibrated in position. It was felt that automated positioning systems were possible but since the number of emitters was rising all the time to wait until the automation had been perfected would make the venture pointless.

A conference of particle physicists was quickly organised on the Net. This wasn't going to be a discussion on the merits of singularity containment. This was a call to particle physicists to sacrifice their lives, their existence so that humanity and the solar system could survive.

The procedure was quickly laid our together with the necessary level of knowledge required to carry out the tasks. 15,273 volunteers would be needed. Each would leave almost immediately, each would cease to exist within 139 hours.

Now at this point information is a little unclear. We know that there were enough volunteers, but not how many in excess of the required number. We know of course that they succeeded. But the only information we have about the specific procedure is that when the 15,273 were on the space platforms waiting for transport to the singularity each one stated that no monument to them as individuals should ever be constructed. That their names should be stricken from all records as if they had never existed. That no-one should ever boast of their deed.

This wish was granted.

0ne year later 15,273 glass spheres - each one meter across were placed between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. 800 years later, those spheres are still there. Many don't understand their significance as they pass by rushing around to wherever they happen to be going. But after 800 years, to the best of my knowledge no one has ever disturbed any of them.

EUG #44

Gus Donnachaidh