Gravity (Dark Anomaly #1) - Marina Simcoe Page 0,57

and ventilation system expanded into it. If it’s a smaller one, like yours, we just cut openings in a way that ensures the best air circulation inside it.”

“What happens to those that crash outside of your sector?”

“We use the spacesuits to travel along the outer edge of the Anomaly and collect whatever we can salvage from them.”

“So, the gravity doesn’t squish you on the outside?”

“Not if you’re on the surface, no. Only if you build up some distance from it, it reins you back in with a vengeance.”

“Do you know exactly what distance that is?” Even if I never fully explained the mystery of the Anomaly, I couldn’t stop trying to solve it. I kept collecting every bit of information I could find.

“I believe there is no exact distance.”

“What do you mean?”

“From the data we have from the crashed ships, not all of them travelled at the same distance from the Anomaly when they got sucked in. Some were fairly far away.”

“I know I was.” I believed I was safe even as the crash happened.

“Right. The Anomaly’s gravity acts in a similar way to a star’s energy, with flares that reach out into space at irregular intervals.”

I’d had the same idea myself. Which meant the reach of the Anomaly’s gravity field was even wider than my research team thought.

“So, this...mass is sitting there, like a giant squid deep in the ocean, and it throws out tentacles to capture unsuspecting travellers.”

“Not exactly a squid, more like a whirlpool in space,” Vrateus said. “It spins, drawing the spacecraft in, compacting them into a disk in the center of its force field. The ships crash along the edge. They then get compressed closer together over time. See?” Vrateus placed the paper in his hands over another similar drawing on the wall. “This one was made by one of the earlier dwellers of the Dark Anomaly, someone who died way before my ship crashed here.” I could see the older drawing through the paper of the newest one, backlit by the Anomaly’s lights. Vrateus circled a few shaded sections with his finger. “The cavities within the ships have been getting smaller with time.” He moved his finger along the radius down to the peak of the segment on the map. “Closer to the center of the Anomaly, all spaces between the walls eventually disappear completely. The ships end up being squished together with no cavities left inside or in between.”

He glanced my way.

“I suspect the middle of the disk is compressed so hard that all materials merge. Particles of all substances squeeze between each other, creating a homogenous mass of a high-density material which may be in a liquid state.”

“Have you ever gone that way? To the center?”

“Not too far. But when I was little, I climbed through the cavities inside the ships and between them as far as I could squeeze through. At some point, I remember hearing the metal groan, as the Dark Anomaly crushed and compressed the ships deep inside it. I felt the vibrations through the walls, too.”

I stared at him, imagining the little boy wiggling his way through the metal body of the Anomaly. It was a miracle he didn’t get trapped somewhere.

“And on the surface?” I asked.

“When we go outside, we only travel along the edge.”

“You’ve never explored the rest of the surface of the disk? To see if you could travel to the center from the outside?”

“No. You can see from the edge that the middle is not flat like the rest of the Anomaly. The center of it is bulging out like a sphere. If the material there is liquid, it could also be hot and dangerous. Life around here is all about survival. I can’t afford to send people exploring just for the sake of exploration.”

“I understand.”

He ripped all drawings off the wall. “We better take them all with us, no need to leave Crux a map on how to follow us.”

He rolled the drawings together then took a tablet frame and gathered a few opaque inserts from the desk and the bed.

“These, too.” He retrieved a long leather bag from a trunk by the wall, packing everything in it, then added a coil of thin rope and a change of clothes. “I’ll get us some water.”

With two canteens in his hands, Vrateus went to the bathroom.

“Can you grab some blankets, please?” he shouted over the noise of running water.

“Sure.” I looked around in search of them.

The fur spread on his bed was soft and