"Damage report!" Rishond screamed from the center chair. He had a front row seat to the event that was transpiring before him, but needed to know what his ship was doing.
"Shields are down to 65," Habas called from the security station.
"We don't have enough power to sustain the shields. Once they fall, the masses will move towards the hull. I see that we have about six minutes to make a call," Basalik said from the science station. His concern was projected throughout the bridge.
"Stun, move us away from the being. Lay in a course 183 mark 3. Three quarter impulse," Captain Rishond called out.
"Aye sir," Stun replied and pushed the coordinates in to the system. The view screen showed the ship spin around and run from the masses.
Asprey watched the sensor readout and saw that the center mass wasn't moving fast enough to lay in pursuit. He signaled to Stun to come to a stop about 350,000 kilometers away from the outer mass.
"Why are we stopping?" Rishond asked.
"We're far enough away from the object," Asprey said. "If we stayed here and ready everything to fire, we will enough time to complete our mission."
Captain Rishond thought about the solution to the problem. "Are you sure that we're going to rip a hole in space that will encompass all of the objects in front of us?"
Numbers flashed through Asprey's mind. He fought with the calculations that came in. He looked up at the view port and saw the center mass had been fully ignited and burned like a star. "We will collapse the center mass."
Basalik spoke first. "We're going to what?"
"Say that again Commander," Rishond ordered.
"If we collapse the center mass, we should be able to draw everything in. I think that it's burning hot enough to match a star or sun. If we hit it with the modified photon torpedo, then we can collapse it and turn that in to the black hole. We'll fire the second torpedo and seal it up."
Basalik ran over the calculations and agreed with Asprey. He nodded over to Captain Rishond and said, "Commander Asprey has a valid point. If we were to send the center star in to collapse, then all of the other masses would soon fall in to it. That would give the crew time to initiate repairs on the ship while the remaining masses are pulled in to the event horizon. Once all of the masses are inside, then we can fire the second volley and be done with this nightmare."
The captain showed a brief moment of apprehension and gave the order. "Ready the first photon torpedo."
Asprey paid close attention to the rotation of the orbiting masses. The timing had to be perfect to pull this off. He also noted the speed in which the star was moving towards them. "Sir, if I may have the honor of giving the command of fire?"
"Habas, on Commander Asprey's mark."
"Aye sir," Habas said with a growl. He didn't like taking orders from the little book worm that was in front of him, but this was a time that everything needed to be perfect. "Torpedo ready."
The rotation of the orbital masses steadied and Asprey called back to the Security officer. "Fire!"
The torpedo launched with a bright red fury. Small tentacles of light reach out from the center as it moved towards the star.
"Impact in seven," Asprey started. "Six," the orbital picked up speed. It missed the projectile by a mile. "Five," the second was even closer. "Four," the planet couldn't catch up. "Three," it was just space and the center mass. "Two," almost there. "Impact," Asprey called out. He watched as the star turned from a magnificent orange to a bright blue. The bright blue core faded in a black emptiness. It seemed like an eternity as the first planet was drug in to the black hole. It was followed by second. Soon, there was only two remaining.
"Ready the second torpedo," Rishond called out.
"Launcher is ready," Habas said.
"Fire on my mark," Rishond said. "Fire," he said.
The second torpedo burned a little brighter than the first, but exploded shortly after was launched. The cloud drifted over to the black hole. The singularity soon disappeared in to space.
"Captain's log Star Date 44425.6. It's been nearly six hours since we've opened and closed the black hole. Our scans have come back several times over that we've effectively closed the hole. We will deploy a transponder noting the events that have gone on here. I hope that our research will return us to this location and we can run further scans in the future."
