When the bright red glow of star A touched his fair face, William smiled and opened his eyes.
Before he opened his eyes, he felt that someone kissed him. It felt so different from Photon's propeller hub and Natalie's air inlet grille that he opened his eyes curiously. He found a familiar figure standing before him. Pink dress, lipstick, and light perfume.
"You...... So soon..." Stuttering, he sat up and looked at the woman in front of him in disbelief.
"Ah, yes." She smiled.
"So Larry did the programming... ?"
"You're absolutely right." She replied, "He thought through every sentence for me, marked every variable, and tested me over and over again."
He still couldn't believe it. It was only nine hours before she came out. Yet he had to believe that she had indeed grown out of that breast tissue.
"Yes, she's out." Said Larry, who had just come upstairs and saw the scene.
William put his arms around Ranran and kissed her deeply on the cheek. "Thanks a lot, Mr Larry." William said. The lamp bowed in greeting.
Today was July 17th, 2135, and according to satellites and telescopes, the dark matter hurricane would reach planet D around 23rd. So for the next few days, they did similar things every day. William flew Photon through the air, experiencing a blistering speed of 750 km/h and a super-long range of 2,300 kilometers; William drove Natalie around the undersea ring track, but he didn't seem happy with her performance: she had trouble picking up speed at around 280 km/h. William was even a little tempted to argue with the robot who introduced him Natalie, but the car eventually stopped him by explaining that it wasn't her real ability, though that didn't remove all of William's disappointment.
The meals these days were also quite delicious. They were roast duck, steak, bacon and etc grown from tissue cells of animals they had previously carried, as well as plants grown from tissue culture, such as eggplant, cucumber, corn, and potato.
In the attractive aroma of food, pleasant laughter and cool sea breeze, 23rd finally came.
"Hey, we're setting out," William said excitedly as Larry methodically prepared breakfast.
"Good!" Cried the others in unison.
"So the ship is fully charged?" The plane asked.
"It's already ready. It's always ready." Replied the lamp, "I checked it every day for these days to make sure it can set out in the best condition."
After a meal of toast and steak, they rose to the sea level and boarded the ship. "My journey needs to go on." William said, looking out at the clear blue, calm sea, "But I'll surely come back."
Star A in the distance shone bright red, covering the white clouds in the sky and the waves on the sea with a bright and ethereal veil. Ranran's black hair was also dyed by that watercolor-like glow into light red, gently fluttering in the breeze. William's fair face was tinted with a ring in the mixture of red and yellow, as if star A were wishing him a safe return.
He smiled, started the ship's engine and turned up the throttle. It was like a shuttle, dragging a bright blue light and flying into the sky.
This planet wasn't that big, so just three minutes later they were already at the height where the dark matter hurricane would come. Alert Photon sensed something unseen in the distance hurtling toward them.
"Come on," William laughed. He took out the energy core from his pocket and adjusted the ship to head straight for the hurricane.
For some reason, as they rode through the hurricane, they could not help feeling that they were as light as swallows. With the energy core charged, William sped out of the galaxy.
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Behind them, star A receded, replaced by a deepening darkness. Only the faint light of distant stars could guide them. Strangely enough, a deep and strange smell began to surround them, but then it disappeared again.
"So strange. This is very similar to what I met last night." William thought to himself and said,
"Now it’s time to try this thing."
Because he thought their ship was being sucked in by a huge black shadow, which was the black hole they needed, the massive black hole 15-light-year away from galaxy α-3665.
The ship inched closer and closer to the shadow. The process was smooth. But after they passed a point, the gravity suddenly became very strong. The car watched as the solid hull of the ship began to crumble. A small ball on a table was shaking violently, then flew up and fell to the floor, where it rolled back and forth.
But William kept quiet -- he knew that point was the event horizon, beyond which gravity would increase so dramatically that negative energy would be needed to resist it. So he activated the energy core and was excited to see that it seemed to be shooting out something invisible. The intense gravity had faded away, and at last they felt just like they were on Earth.
"It seems to be a good thing indeed." He cheered secretly.
The light of stars outside were getting fainter and fainter, and the darkness and unknown inside were "warmly welcoming" these unexpected visitors. Natalie watched the light of the farthest star from them, a giant blue star, fade until darkness closed in on them like a huge cauldron.
"Yeah!" The moment all the starlight faded, the ship boiled. "We're in a black hole! In a black hole!" The plane danced excitedly.
It was a sight they had never seen before: now and then, as the ship zoomed along, they could see bright beams of high-energy particles zooming up and down in the darkness, as well as some gas that were part of a cloud of dust the voracious black monster had swallowed. They also saw small flashes of lightning nearby, caused by collisions between protons and electrons. What attracted them most was the biggest object they saw five minutes after entering. They were huge balls of material from a white dwarf, incredibly hard. But in a place where gravity was so strong, they should have fallen apart. However, the opposite was true. Instead of getting apart, they were getting bigger. It was certainly enough to attract their strongest attentions. In fact, they began to be alert.
"All we just saw was antimatter, folks," Said William, looking worried, "but that ball was matter. So when passing through that place, the energy core released a lot of negative energy all of a sudden. Now it's less than 60%. I don't know exactly where this black hole will take us, but I'm beginning to suspect that we're in danger of being torn apart."
The atmosphere became oppressive at once. The party began to look carefully at what was out of the window. Another ball came into view, but much smaller than the previous one. Yet they dread the sight of it most.
For a few minutes after that, the scene was similar to that they saw when entering the black hole. Their nightmare was about to begin, however.
As the ship sped past a small flash of lightning, they saw, with despair, ahead of them a regular array of balls. "This is the end!" William growled in despair. In order for the ship to safely fly out of the black hole, the energy core needed to always emit negative energy. And these balls left the energy core with only 5% of negative energy. As a result, the gravity began to grow stronger again, and this time they could no longer resist it. The black hole was stretching them thin and long, like a giant noodle maker. The ship's alarm grew more rapid and higher in pitch.
"Help!" They cried desperately.
Suddenly all the pain was gone, as if nothing had happened. There was a void around them -- yes, a void. Nothing. There was nothing but darkness and this lonely ship. The brilliant starry sky and the magical interior of the black hole just now seemed never to have entered their minds. Even if they tried, they could not recall anything of what had happened.
"What's wrong with us? Where is this? Where were we just now?" Asked the racing car puzzled.
"How do I know where this is? I don't even know where I was!" Cried William desperately.
"What? Oh, God! You don't even remember the undersea villa!" Cried a silent robot.
"The undersea villa... ? Oh, that's right! You remind me like that, and I remember! Have you forgotten that we had toast and steak before we set off? And we've seen what it's like inside a black hole, but those terrible balls..."
"Stop saying! My head hurts so much!" Suddenly Ranran fell to the ground, crying in pain.
"What's the matter, Ranran?" William immediately jumped out of the driver's seat and threw himself in front of her.
"Ah... Why am I so sleepy..." Ranran said weakly.
"Is it still hurting you?"
"Not anymore... I really want to sleep now..."
Oddly enough, sleepiness swept over everyone this time. The eyelid of the plane began to fight, and the car lurched around. The robots were all lying on the ground, struggling feebly; William needed to pilot the ship, but even so his body clock would not allow him to be awake any second longer.
Then he heard the deep voice again, "Go to sleep... Baby... You will have an unforgettable and dangerous journey..."
He struggled to squeeze out a few words, but his tongue stiffened and his head grew drowser. He let go of his hand, which had been clinging to the steering wheel in the cab, and fell asleep.