JOON'S MANUAL

BLACK HOLES are places of unimaginable gravitation. A mass of three times our sun or more is pressed into one single point of space (A point*! Not a sphere!). This causes not only matter but even light to be pulled into the black hole by the enormous gravitation. And once you cross the so-called horizon of the black hole there is no way back. If not even light with its speed can escape, you can imagine that a space ship, or matter in general, can't either.

This is a picture that shows how different masses bent the spacetime. Of course, spacetime is not just 2D, but it gives an idea. The black dot s the size Earth would have, if it was a black hole. But Earth is much too light to become a black hole.

The next GIF shows how bending spacetime looks for 3D.

*For interested people: The point idea is nice, but it's always bad when a physical equation delivers infinity. In the point case, the equation delivers infinite density, plus it's no longer imaginable for us humans. That's one reason I prefer the string theory. The string theory says that it's not a point, but a very very very small sphere where all the mass is concentrated (what makes way more sense), warded by a string sphere that vibrates in nine dimensions of room and the time dimension. Yup, there is the problem with imagining string theory, but if someone's interested, I gladly include a chapter at the end where I'll try to explain the basics of string theory.

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Yoongi focus

"Oh my Jupiter," Jimin's velvety voice breathed.

Yoongi stared at the black planet, and then he turned towards Taehyung. His colleague had come to his feet and stared through his monitor onto the cold battlefield in pure shock.

"How is this possible?" the deep voice whispered barely audible. The boy looked like he had lost his own planet.

"Never watched Star Wars?" Yoongi replied.

That seemed to be the wrong method. The tanned young man stormed over to him and pressed him down into his seat by closing one of his big hands around his neck. In the black military uniform, he looked even more intimidating than in the gray turtleneck. Those eyes were damn intense.

"Are you fucking kidding me! There's a dead planet out there and you talk about some fucking movie? What's wrong with you?" the ash-haired shouted into his face, his expression a mask of hate and fury. This V-temper...

"I didn't like the 25th movie, too. No reason to get mad at me," Yoongi mumbled.

And this was what made the first pilot snap. Before Jungkook and Hoseok could pull the raging man back, he landed a punch to Yoongi's temple that made him see stars. Hell, this boy was strong. But to be honest, he would like to know what was wrong with him, too. For some reason he felt nothing. There was a destroyed planet that once had bloomed with life, but he felt nothing, not even pity. He was confused by his own reaction. And whenever this happened, he tended to say stupid things.

Some liquid wetted his cheek. Taehyung must have hit him really hard.

"Officer Seokjin, go treat him," Hoseok said in a slightly annoyed tone while Jungkook still fixated Taehyung's arms with his iron grip. The raven stood like a rock, unbothered by the moving man in his hold.

"Later," Yoongi replied and gestured Seokjin to stay where he was. The physician as well as the diplomat had teary eyes, and he once more questioned his humanity. Was he really a cold-blooded monster? Even the captain looked like he fought with some nasty emotions.

But of course! Jung Hoseok had lost his planet, too. It was destroyed in a battle of the USS against planet Hope whose corrupted government had worked on illegal weapons. The commanding captain of the USS troops had been imprisoned after the obliteration of a whole planet, and the USS had decided to restrict weaponizing as powerful as they had been using. He wanted to feel pity for the brunette, but there was nothing. Why was it that he sometimes felt emotional and sometimes not? He should see a doctor, or maybe a psychiatrist.

"What are we going to do now?" Taehyung asked calmly and Jungkook released him from his firm grip.

"We'll search for the most likely next target and follow the enemy," Hoseok answered determined and stood up to come closer to the piloting stations. The man seemed to hate his captain seat. "Bang!"

"Yes, captain."

"We're searching for the closest solar system with planets of the USS. Given the enemy has spared Pride, I assume we're facing someone who's up against USS members."

"The closest targets are solar system AE 0212.14 and SI 0502.16," Bang answered.

"Fuck," Taehyung spoke everyone's mind.

Well, almost everyone's mind. Dr. Park apparently had no clue. What did this guy even know apart from sweet-talk? "What's wrong?" the psychologist asked alarmed.

"AE is Earth," Namjoon stated. This man was a strange one, too. He sometimes was more of an AI than Bang. But no wonder, he was a Brain. Yoongi still wondered why they always chose those as commanders. They were annoying.

"What are the other planets?" the captain asked.

"There is only Eos," the AI clarified.

Hoseok sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. "I need something to eat. I had nothing after cryostasis and I can't think straight with an empty stomach. Everyone who had nothing either can join me in the kitchen. And, Bang? Send me all information on Eos to the kitchen."

With that he left and Jungkook, Jimin and Seokjin followed him.

"I already ate," Namjoon answered the questioning looks of the pilots.

"Which planet will we head to?" Taehyung asked with a concerned voice.

"I guess earth," Yoongi commented. "It's more important to the USS than Eos."

The first pilot frowned.

"I agree with officer Min," the commander supported him. "But what concerns me the most is the fact that someone has been building a weapon of this power without the knowledge of the USS. Since the incident at solar system HP 0612.13 back in 1031 AE weaponry of this kind is prohibited by not only USS law but by the whole galaxy."

Yoongi rolled his eyes at the walking library, but the blonde was right. Some craze-head with a caliber of this power could bring great damage to the stability of the USS. Most nations were unarmed and had no army to defend themselves, not to talk of a space force.

"Get us out of this asteroid field and wait for the captain until further notice," Namjoon said and left the pilots alone.

With a sigh, Taehyung sunk into his seat and placed his hands on the controller panel. The man had saved them quite impressively some minutes ago.

"You're a talented pilot," Yoongi admitted.

"Thank you," the younger said with a tired voice.

Slowly the ship started to move through the bricks into empty space.

"We should inform Pride that Ancient no longer exists," the boy said after some minutes and took his hands off the glass panel.

"Why are you reacting so strong?" Yoongi asked. His own reaction was not normal, too. He knew that. But the boy seemed exceptionally attached to the dead planet.

Suddenly, the tan man brought his hand to his eyes and silently started crying, his muscular frame shaken by sobs. Yoongi would have expected anything but this. Unsure of what to do, he stood up and walked over to the V. He knew that those people tended to have strong emotions, a side effect of the increased reception, but he never had seen someone's mood change this fast. It was terrifying. He stepped behind the first pilot's chair and squeezed the taller man's shoulders reassuringly.

"Hey, little alien. It's not your fault," he mumbled, and after some seconds the ash-brown head leaned against his chest. Led by instinct, he slung his arms around the boy's shoulders and pecked his head. His mother had always done this when he was a child and, as weird as it was, it seemed to help. Slowly, the shaking body in his embrace calmed down.

"She asked me to save her," the deep voice of Taehyung rasped, stained from tears.

"Who?" Yoongi asked. Had Taehyung friends on that planet?

"Velocity. She wanted me to save her sister," the boy said, not making any sense to him. "She even smiled at me. She just wanted me to save h-h..." A new wave of tears shook the young pilot.

"There was no way to save her, Taehyung," Yoongi said calmly while cradling his colleague softly. This was the first mission for all crewmembers except him, and he felt sorry for them to experience something like this so early. Damn, why could he feel sorry now? Why had he been unable to feel sorry some minutes ago?

The hiss of the hydraulic door signalized the entrance of another crew member and Yoongi let go of Taehyung to turn around. The captain and the commander entered the bridge.

"We'll head to Earth," Hoseok announced after a slightly confused look at the pilots. "I talked to commander Kim and Bang and we concluded that Earth is more important than Eos."

Taehyung and Yoongi nodded. They had expected this outcome after the blonde's words from before.

The missing three members had entered while the brunette had been speaking, and Dr. Park looked anything but happy.

"Is there nothing like a trace they left in the hyperspace, or something?" the small man wanted to know frowning.

By the face the commander was making, Yoongi knew they would get a lecture about something.

"Once again. We're not in Star Trek. A gravitational engine like our QGCS does not leave traces. It's too weak*. What we physicists call space is, to speak metaphorically, like a membrane made of rubber. If you put something onto it, a dent is formed into the membrane at the place of the body and smaller masses are influenced by the curvature of the material. But when you remove the mass that made the dent, the membrane is even again. No stretch marks, no trace. The gravitational engines work in an equivalent manner. They produce a massive gravitational force to bundle up the room in front of the ship, just like a woman does with her stockings before slipping in, and behind the ship the room can expand to its normal size again. That's what uninformed people call moving faster than light, but, in fact, we're not even close to the speed of light, we just artificially shorten our way by using gravity, or to be simple, by using black holes."

The psychologist sighed. "You're so sexy when you show your smartness," he growled, apparently not caring that Namjoon was deaf to sarcasm. "But how can we be sure that Earth is the next destination?"

"We cannot," Hoseok answered before his commander could say something about probabilities. "We assumed that it's the more likely target."

Jimin turned towards the captain. "And what about sending Eos a notification, so they could at least prepare," he insisted. God, this man was stubborn.

Taehyung chuckled.

And one second later, Yoongi knew why when he heard the blonde's sand-voice again.

"Did I not make myself clear. The enemy's ship most likely has a gravitational propulsion. Our notification will not reach SI 0502.16 in time. The ship is faster than any signal we can send. Not to speak of information loss over such a distance."

Wow, AI-boy was the closest to agitated Yoongi had ever seen on a Brain.

"But, commander,-" Jimin started.

"Don't," Taehyung tried to hold him back, but the man just talked on.

"-you just said that space ships aren't faster than light." Dr. Park seemed confused, and Dr. Dr. Kim looked like he could not believe that someone had no idea of Einstein's theories of relativity.

When the science officer opened his mouth to respond, the captain cut him short. "Enough. Give him a special lesson later. Now we have to set a course and move. I'm not in the mood to lose my second home planet."

The sound of sucked-in breaths filled the room. Apart from Namjoon and Yoongi, no-one seemed to have remembered the incident with planet Hope. The captain looked like he had intended the reaction.

"Flight officer Kim, set our course. Officer Min, send a message to Pride that Ancient no longer exists. No, wait. Let me do that." Yoongi was glad he did not have to do this. He was not good with words.

Jimin stormed out of the room with a deep frown on his face, Seokjin following him after some seconds.

"I didn't know Charmers were this exhausting," the brunette captain said and sat down.

Yoongi opened the channel to Pride and turned around again to signalize the man he could send his message. From the corner of his eye, he saw the Jeon-boy. This one was especially quiet. He could not remember hearing him speak. He must be either very shy, very smart or very dumb. Yoongi was not sure. The raven had a pure military history, so it was hard to tell. The only thing he knew was that Jeon definitely was attractive.

"Kook," Hoseok said after finishing his message, "You may leave. Go wherever you like, find some distraction."

Their youngest saluted and left the bridge. For a moment Yoongi was confused as to why the captain called their youngest by a nickname, but then he remembered reading something about both having served in the AESF.

"It'll take 15 weeks again to fly back to Earth," the brunette continued, "I'm against cryostasis. We're facing a war, and we barely know each other. We need to become a real team, a group that trusts each other."

The other three nodded in agreement.

"Bang, take over the ship. The rest, follow me," Hoseok commanded and left the bridge.

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*For those who might have heard of GRAVITATIONAL WAVES: That might sound like a way to find traces in hyperspace, but those waves of spacetime are reserved for very strong gravitational happenings like two black holes unifying.

By the way, the unification of two black holes looked really cool when it's made visible: