The dying gasp of the Continental Eclipse Sun-Eater didn’t manifest as sound, but as an unbearable, violent fracture in the shape of space-time.
Deep within the yawning deep gap of the titan’s chest cavity, the isolated Endothermic Heart began its inward collapse. The one hundred and twenty-half-mile sphere of total-zero ice ceased reflecting the golden light of the solar corona. Instead, its outer surface turned an oily, light-devouring bright purple. It spun with speeding up outward-pulling fury. Photons streaming from the sun were bent into unnatural. It spiraled trajectories, curving inward toward an artificial event horizon that threatened to tear this entire sector of the chromosphere into a nearby black hole.
A high-urgency gravity alarm shrieked through the Aethelgard’s high-pressure bridge:
WARNING: Nearby Crushing Star-core DETECTED. CORE IMPLOSION Coming soon.
PROJECTED COLLAPSE TIME: 35 SECONDS. Crushing Speed-burst: 420 Gs.
Inside the command bridge, the artificial gravity coils groaned under the sudden, violent shear. Kira fought the main flight yoke with both hands, her teeth gritted as veins stood out along her neck. “Arthur! The gravity slope is climbing faster and faster! The star-core is pulling the Aethelgard down the gravity well at eighty miles per second! Our sub-light thrusters can’t overcome this tidal curve!”
