Flat Spin

His lingering on the control stick didn't matter anyway. All was lost. All he could do now was to sit in his craft and watch as he circled slowly ever deeper into the spiral grip of the black whole. He was already traveling close to the speed of light so he knew this was going to the longest ride of his life. All he could do was stare at the center as it inched closer at what seemed a snails pace but the interments told him in only 11 months earth time he would be know more. Of course it would only seen like a month to him. He had plenty of food and water so he would not suffer until the black hole stretched him a couple miles long before finally ripping him apart. He wondered how far he would make it before the lights went out permanently.

Ten days later he realized his interments were off a lot. No one had ever been this close to this kind of gravity before so they had no proven math on how much it would affect time. Of course it was still going to be about the same for him but now earth time would take 7 years. He could tell that the integrity of his craft was already in question and longer by about two feet. One thing he had was time to think and now he wasn't sure he liked that. He eyed the weapon on the council but he knew he would never use it. He had never opted out of any experience no matter how unpleasant it was. Lucky for him he wouldn't have to feel the pain for long, he had 5 slashers in his hip bag giving him enough pain killer to last 5 times longer than what he would need.

His lights where starting to blink on and off. He had set up life support for his chair but now he couldn't move around hardly at all because the centripetal force was pulling him one way while gravity was pulling the other and his craft along with his body was longer and thinner. he saw something close in on him from the left and then all hell broke loose he heard the giant crash as he struck some kind of debris suddenly he was slammed into his chair and his craft was put into a flat spin. He could hear the craft creaking as it spun around three more times slowing quickly and then the nose passed the black hole and wobbled back in forth until it was dead center again. The ship was heavier in the front and it was like a magnet for the black hole. then he noticed that the font of the craft was getting longer again and he checked his interments. He was closing distance fast instead of circling the black hole He looked down for a split second and when he looked up the light that circled the collapsed star with him was now streaking by on all sides. Luckily he had already took the slasher but that wouldn't keep him from passing out and that's exactly what he did when the blood was pulled down into his body.

when he woke up he thought he was dreaming. No black hole no flying debris but standing in front of him was a ship he had never seen holding him in a tractor beam. He stood up slowly and opened the panel. The block was still elongated with spider cracks all over it. The main bridge had came out and with drought he slid it into it's slot. Power came back. to his basic operations one of which didn't include flight. He didn't know who was in the ship but after facing a black hole he didn't really care if they were bad or good which he was sure he would find out soon.

The beam pulled him in and before he knew it he was amongst other humans. Well he didn't know for sure but they were pretty damn close. Too close for a new life form. they were thinner taller and more muscular then the average human. He would have thought somebody had just ran a model search for the perfect crew except their faces were slightly different also. No one seamed too alarmed but more curious then anything. someone pulled the escape cable and the canopy blew strait into the air then crumbled into a shiny glitter snow. Since none of the systems seemed to be working correctly they raised a hover disc to the side and he stepped off the craft and stumbled. The disk flew up at a angle and he actually touched it with his outreached hand and that stopped his forward motion before the disc corrected it's self until he was perfectly balanced in the middle. No wonder they didn't need rails on this thing. it lowered to the ground and he walked up to the front of his aircraft

They all saluted and one said "Welcome to the ship general."

"General? General, I'm not a General, hell I'm barley a captain."

"Not any more sir. that was eleven thousand years ago, now your a General Max."

"What is a General . . did you say eleven thousand. How in the hell do you even know who I am."

"Sir We have been monitoring you the whole time. I'm actually related to you sir but even today we only live about two hundred and seven years so if I put all those greats In front of grandfather we would be still talking about it when you died. speaking of lets get something to eat then we will start on your paper work."

"Oh god you all still call it that. Yes sir from what I understand it had something to do with tree pulp and a lack of assistance uh . . . . I mean computers. You have a lot to catch up on."

when he had been feed, cleaned and bandaged which the normal person used assistance to do all this of course he needed assistance with the assistance because he had never done any of it before. Also they used a type of telepathy which he didn't possess so doing everything manually took longer.

He soon found out that he was the second highest ranked officer in the military. He also figured out soon after that he could retire right now because they owed him eleven thousand years of back pay and all he had to do for it was almost die in a black hole. He looked younger then most of the officers his junior and in reality he was, even with their longer life span. The commander had already laid his worse fears to rest. He wouldn't be asked to make any decisions until he understood their systems a lot better and even if that didn't work out he would be protected from any embarrassment

He went into the slider formally known to him as the chow hall. Sat down at the table and immediately a tube popped up and opened in front of him and there it was as beautiful as ever. A Bacon Cheese Burger and fries. How in the hell did that happen and simmingly on cue one of the officers winked and held up one of his own. "I heard this was pretty popluar in your day so I ordered for you. I hope you don't mind sir."

"No, not at all Colonel Sparks." and at that he picked it up and took a bite and be damned it tasted exactly like he remembered but better. "Thanks." he said as he wiped his mouth with supper thin tissue that sucked up moister like a sponge. he flipped up the key board and within a few key strokes two small containers full of mayo popped up and he slid it to sparks. "Try this on your fries and you'll have the full picture of why we didn't live but a buck twenty in the old days."

"Sir? A buck?"

"Oh short for a hundred."

"Oh."

"Can you all read each other minds?" he said to sparks turning slightly red with embarrassment for not knowing what was what.

"No, most can't but there are a few."

"What about the computer uh I mean assistance?"

"Oh that's more of a relationship between technology and evolution. Kind of like your craft but accelerated a thousand times more. Almost like it's flying you instead of the other way around."

"Wow that sounds great."

"It is, I never get tired of it."

"I know what you mean, I always like flying even though it was more manual."

"Yes sir we stopped using eye controlled weapons systems, well before your life would have played out, excuse the reference."

"No problem, this is weird for both of us."

"Yes sir but I'm glad you survived."

"We would have saved you sooner but you were moving so fast it took us this long for the technology to catch up to figure how to do it safely."

"Save me. You guys saved me?"

"Yes sir we affiliated your collision. It was still risky but we figured we had about a 70% chance so we took it."

"Wow, I don't know what to say. I guess thanks."

"No sir thank you. You are a living legend. everybody has studied your case since it happened and all died before saving you except us. It's truly a honor to be talking to you right now."

David chocked up a little at this and didn't say much more until his burger was eaten and all that was left was three cold fries. He didn't like the warming shield. He preferred that his food to cool off just like the old days.

He stood up and everyone at the table stood at attention and held a salute. He mumbled at ease and saluted back and they all dropped their saluted and sat down. I could get use to this he thought as he started walking across the chow hall, ah slider. he corrected himself mentally

It happened so fast he didn't even have a chance to react. He sneezed and a cone slammed down around him and a pink mist fogged the air. everybody ran up with terror in their eyes. When the mist settled he banged on the field around him "Let me out of here Master Chief!" was the first rank he saw.

"Sorry sir I can't do that."

"What are you talking about?"

"Sir we haven't had a cold in seven thousand years. That's how we extended our lives."

"You knew this was going to happen didn't you."

"Yes Sir but we were hoping later rather then sooner."

"What now?"

"Sorry sir you will be well taken care of but never without a barrier between you and us. Since I don't see you wearing a full suit we will make accommodations for you." He was escorted to a large room with a field and that's were he spent the rest of his life It wasn't bad and had all the best assistance you could want but he never got to fly again.