The test

I stared, fascinated, at the dark piece of black swirling and steadily expanding inside the box, emitting a cold blue glow. “This is so cool.”, I breathed softly.

Ewin’s lips twitched as he watched me from his spot next to the desk. “What’s so cool about it?”

I glared at him, and he raised his arms in surrender. “Hey, sorry. It’s just that you’ve seen these before.” There was no apology in his teasing tone or mischievous grin.

“Yeah, but I’m actually using it this time. It’s different.”

Ewin shrugged. As a third year, he was well past the initial awe that came with seeing the machine.  He cleared his throat and coughed loudly, obviously bored. I ignored him, trying to focus on the machine.

“You know, you could try small talk sometime.”

I glanced up, distracted. “What?”

“Small talk. Normal people do it? Its also called a conversation?”

I threw my pencil at him, confident in the knowledge that I had about seven more hidden in the lapels of my jacket. “I’m working, Ewin.”

He waved dismissively. “Oh, there’s nothing to do there. Its going to be like that for the next few minutes.”

“I know.”

“Well, talk then!”

I rubbed my forehead. “Why? Can’t you just-“, I gestured wildly “-Play a video game or something?”

“I mean, technically, but it isn’t as fun as chatting with the ickle first years. So tell me, how was your first year at College?”

“Fine.”, I muttered shortly. With barely a couple minutes left to go, excitement was fast being replaced by nervousness. Enjoying using a particle accelerator was one thing- using it well enough on my first try to do well in my end-of-the-year exams, on the other hand, was another thing entirely.

“Oh, come on. Fine? That’s all you have to say?”

“Yes, that’s all I have to say, Ewin!”, I burst out, then glared at him. “Unless you have anything useful to tell me about how to operate this thing?”

“Just click the button and put it in the right place, you should be fine.”, he said, leaning back in his chair and letting his curls fall backward in absolute confidence.

“Easy for you to say.”, I mumbled, poking the accelerator gingerly. It was cold and hard, much as I expected it to be.

“Dude, calm down.”, Ewin told me, rolling his chair so he could face my back. “It’s just a test. You’ll be fine.”

“It isn’t just a test, it’s the one exam that will dictate the course of the rest of my career!”, I exclaimed swiveling around to face him.  “How can you expect me to calm down about it?”

“It isn’t that hard an exam, really!”

“Yeah, well, considering you could pass it, you may just be right.” I snapped irritably, before glancing at my watch.

Three minutes left before process completion, the box announced in its metallic voice, and I felt panic engulf me. My wide eyes found Ewin.

“What am I supposed to do?!”, the question was mostly rhetorical- I knew there was nothing to do until the process was actually over- but it helped release some of the stress. Ewin rolled his eyes.

“Use some of that bookish knowledge of yours, maybe?”

For once, I felt no answering impulse to break his nose. Instead, I wrung my hands, twisting them together and abusing their helplessness shamelessly. “In the next three minutes, there’s going to be an actual black hole in that thing!”

“Wow.”, sarcasm dripped off the words and coated me.

I threw another pencil. It helped with the stress, and I closed my eyes and breathed in as I watched the tiny timer on the box move to a minute.

A minute. That’s all I had until I would be doing the greatest task of my entire life.

Process complete. Black hole created.

 I whipped around and stared at the now completely black box, amazed that something so small should hold so much power. My fingers shook as they curled around the box and I attached it to the tiny rocket which would take it to its intended destination.

“Ready?”, Ewin’s voice was challenging, bored, unimpressed. Clenching my fists at his lack of empathy, I stalked over to the desk and stared at the computer. The computer blinked a small, cold message at me.

Initiate test?

“Um, okay. I’m ready. We can start the test. Uh, initiate test”, I added, a little louder.

Initiating test…

Processing planet statistics…

Converting…

A moment later, a set of numbers popped up on the screen. Frantically pulling my notebook closer, I began to calculate. As I slogged through the formulas and equations and coordinates, the timer seemed to zip by so fast I wondered for a moment, if the black hole was affecting it. Then I realized I didn’t have the time to wonder about these things.

When I finally finished, half my time was up. Frantically, I input the data and the computer promptly threw up a small, spherical model that was a soft, artificial shade of blue, a red dot on the coordinates I had entered.

“Give me camera, please.”

The blue model disappeared and was quickly replaced by actual video. A blue-green sphere spun into view, a red dot marked , for my convenience, on the coordinates I had entered. This, now this  was the truly hard- and, if not for the pressure of a test, truly fun- part. I picked up the rocket, along with the particle accelerator attached to it, and hooked it onto the launching part of the machine.

“Better shoot perfectly, Ara..”, Ewin singsonged next to me. Ignoring him, I put my eye to the hole- the sight, it was called- and focused. My fingers scrabbled among the arrow keys, searching to point the missile just right.

A moment later, I stilled. The perfect angle, at least according to what every textbook said. My fingers tightened on the trigger.

Boom.

The shot wasn’t half as momentous as I had assumed it would be. The sound did not burst through my ears and make my head ache, there was no dazzling flash of light. Just a soft boom, a sound as soft and sharp as the snap of a finger.

A moment later, the rocket impacted the planet- Earth, according to the computer. Once again- no crash, no bang, no blinding light. Just silence.

A moment later, the tiny white numbers on the screen, indicating the planet’s current mass, began to decrease. I watched in stunned silence as the numbers steadily dropped lower, turning from white to green, green to yellow, yellow to blue, blue to red, and finally to black as the crust exploded and promptly began to circle the tiny black hole in the center.

“Wow.”, was all I could think of to say. I had just destroyed an entire planet. Wiped out an entire race of people. “I just killed somebody.”

“Somebody might be a bit of an underestimation.”, Ewin commented helpfully.

I didn’t bother responding, feeling the fight drain out of me as I slumped on the uncomfortable chair reserved for first years on the spaceship.

“Anyway,”, Ewin smiled. “Welcome to the Society for Armed Intergalactic Protection.”

“Someone should really throw a ‘secret’ in there.”, I suggested tiredly.

“Eh..its pretty obvious. The Ministry would throw a fit if it heard about protecting the universe by blowing up the species that pose a threat.”

“We only blow up the really bad ones, though.”

“Eh..”

“What do you mean, eh?”

“Well..blowing things up can get sort of addictive. But don’t worry! The first years only get the really vicious ones.”

“I wasn’t worrying, I get what you mean. It’s fun. But the, um..”, I checked the screen. “Humans are that bad?”

Ewin shook his head. “You don’t even want to know.”

“You’re right. I don’t.”

A comfortable silence prevailed for approximately a minute, before Ewin broke it.

“Hey, I think I have a spare particle accelerator.”

“Of course you do.”

“Want to go blow something up? I have a file on the Kooks. I guarantee you, they are the worst.”

“No. We’re supposed to get permission from the society head, at least. If we’re breaking the law, let’s do it right.”

Another short silence. Ewin raised his eyebrows, a grin forming on his lips, as if he knew what was coming next. I slumped.

“Okay, fine! Lets go! Only once, though.”

Ewin gave me an innocent smile. “Of course.”