Out of the Black, Into the Blue

On the bridge stood Ninjara, arms spread wide as if to embrace the entire scene. "I'm just left breathless. I don't think I'll ever get used to all this--crossing the universe, being in a spaceship..."

"Yeah," Raphael broke in with a snort. "Sure beats being in Cudley's stinky mouth." Leonardo rolled his eyes toward the ceiling of the bridge as Raph leaned against the transparent viewing window, feigning boredom with everything, as usual. "But I'm curious, bros," Raph said. "Where are we headed...and who's that four-armed dude driving this thing?" Raph hated being left out of the loop, and right now he was feeling pretty clueless.*footnote*

Leo moved closer to whisper to Raph, still loud enough for Ninjara to hear, "His name's Sarnath. It's a long story, see, he's a blind artificial being--"

"What?!" yelped Raph as both he and Ninjara jumped with surprise. "BLIND?! There's a BLIND guy at the wheel?!"

"Keep it down, Raph," Leo growled impatiently. "He's not deaf. He might hear you! Now here's the scoop." Leo cleared his throat and prepared to tell the story. "Sarnath and his seeing-eye dog Qark came to Earth looking for his three eyes, which were stolen by his one-time master, that little alien we buried in Central Park a coupla years back....*footnote* During our battle with Sarnath, Qark fell into the hands of one of April's competitors, who was gonna unveil Qark on live TV.*footnote* Don was able to kill the power at the TV station...And we had just freed Qark under cover of darkness, when the lights came on. The cameras were rolling, sending our handsome mugs onto TV sets EVERYWHERE. Millions of people could have seen us!" Raph grinned at the thought of Leo screwing up, but Leo just glared at him and went on. "When Sarnath told us he was heading to Dimension X, we figured it was a good time for a vacation, just in case things got too hot for us in New York. Master Splinter decided to stay home."

"My friends," Sarnath's called from his seat at the main control board, "We have entered Dimension X. However, sensors indicate an enormous gravitational anomaly up ahead....we should make visual contact in a few moments..."

Donatello almost ran over to Sarnath, shoving Qark out of the way. "An enormous gravitational anomaly?" he cried with excitement, eyes wide. "You mean--?"

"Yes, Donatello," Sarnath said. If he had a mouth, it would have smiled. "A black hole." And it was there, looming in front of them. A huge, black pit. A chasm of nothingness. All the turtles were awed by it.

"Awesome."

"Huh."

"A black what?"

"Hole. A black hole."

"Explanation please, Don."

"The theoretically predicted final stage in the life history of a star, of a sun." He grinned to himself. "Guess this proves the theory."

"Keep going," said Raph.

"Stars are powered by their own nuclear energies which support the star against the compressive force of its own gravitation. Stars eventually use up their power. If a star is massive enough, its evolution won't stop...Nothing will prevent it from collapsing without limit to an indefinately small size of indefinately large density." Don cleared his throat, ignored his brothers' blank looks, and continued. "Um, since space is curved around matter, the greater the density of the matter, then the greater the curvature of space into matter. This extreme curvature of space seals off the collapsed star from contact with the outside world. Energy and matter get permanantly trapped by the collapsed star's enormous gravitational pull. Light can't even escape, and since nothing can travel faster than light *footnote*, then nothing can escape the pull of the collapsed star...The star has become a black hole, a one-way entrance to--who knows."

"ALERT!" Sarnath warned as the ship jolted and they were sent sprawling.

"Alert?!" Mike gasped, jumping up to race to the viewscreen. "No kidding! We're under attack!"

"Prepare yourselves, my friends," Sarnath said grimly, reaching for a lever. "This is highly unusual!"

A strange voice crackled over the comm. "Nova Squadron! This is Ki'rec of the Imperial Aerwyl Fleet! Surrender your vessel!" Sarnath banked sharply to evade the laser blasts of the four yellow ships which were pacing them, and various turtles were sent hurtling through the air in the cabin.

"I think I'm gonna lose it!" Mike groaned.

"Nova Squadron?! Aerwyls?!" Raph yelped as he slammed into a wall. "I think we've walked into the wrong movie, bros!"

"I never even heard of the Nova Squadron!" Leo protested.

The voice now seemed to answer him: "The Nova Squadron was last seen in this quadrant...And none but they would fly so close to the black hole. Once more: surrender your vessel...or die!"

Despite the wild bucking of the ship, Don managed to make his way over to Sarnath where he still crouched at the controls. "Can we take 'em, Sarnath?"

"Perhaps," Sarnath mused. "This may not be a warship, but we can still defend ourselves. It would be prudent, however, if you all were to put on pressure suits..."

"Nova Squadron!" barked the impatient voice over the comm. "What is your response?" The sentence was punctuated by the explosion of the nearest Aerwyl ship. "OPEN FIRE! DESTROY THEM!" the Aerwyl leader screamed with fury. Sarnath's ship shot off with the Aerwyls in hot pursuit.

As the ship continued to twist through the immense asteroid field, the turtles climbed into pressure suits. "I don't like this," Ninjara muttered. "The ship's trembling...like it's about to come apart..."

Raphael nodded agreement. He could feel it too. "We're taking a serious beating! Sarnath--time to give 'em a taste of their own medicine!" In answer, Sarnath fired the ship's guns.

"Pull up!" cried one pilot on the open comm channel.

"Look out!" The two ships collided, the first edging the other into the black hole as it was struck by Sarnath's lasers. "No!" the one pilot cried. "Too close...the black hole..."

"Cool!" Mike exclaimed. "One of 'em bit the dust and the other is...."

"Disappearing?" someone else finished.

"Awesome! There's only one left!" Mike cried again.

"Not awesome," Sarnath said grimly. "We've lost our shields...Life support is failing..one more direct hit and we're f--" Sarnath didn't even get to finish his sentenceas the force of an explosion sent half the bridge, along with the now fully-suited turtles, spinning into the asteroid field, away from the black hole.

"Abandon ship!" Mike bellowed.

"Like we've got a choice!" coughed Raph, narrowly missing colliding with a large chunk of rock.

Suddenly they could hear Sarnath's voice in their suit speakers... "The ship...getting caught in the hole's gravitational pull..."

"Sarnath!" Mike cried frantically. "GET OUT! Eject! Do something!"

Sarnath's voice was weak, defeated. "No time for us both...Please take care of Qark for me...my friends." Sarnath's voice was small as he drifted into the hole and disappeared.

"SARNATH!"

"Ut-oh." The turtles' focus was brought back to the present...to the final Aerwyl ship which was now approaching them. "The other ship!" Ninjara cried.

"We're not out of this yet!" Mike realized. He suddenly discovered that the pressured suit included a laser pistol...

"For Sarnath!" Raph cried. He raised his pistol to fire again and again at the ship.

From the cockpit, the Aerwyl fighter roared with mirth. "LASER PISTOLS? You think LASER PISTOLS can pierce my shields? HA!" He dove into the group, scattering them.

"Quick! Find some cover! Get behind these rocks!" Mike cried, ducking behind one asteroid. "Yeowtch!" The laser blast meant for him exploded a nearby rock instead. "Okay--bad idea," he ammended as another rock exploded, its hot force sending rock shrapnel in all directions.

"This is going from bad to worse!" cried Ninjara. "What can we do?"

"Man!" Raph warned. "We're running out of rocks to hide behind!"

SHRAAAAAAKKKKKKK!

"No...we've run out of rocks! There goes the last one!" Leo exclaimed.

"And these guns ain't worth jack!" Raph snarled, shaking his with frustration.

"Aw, man, the dude's swinging around for another pass at us!" Mike moaned. "I never thought it would end like this."

"I never thought it would end," Leo murmured.

But there was a loud ZZRAKK! of laser fire, and the Aerwyl ship was missing half its cockpit. "Whoa! What the--"

"Who--"

Another blast destroyed the rest of the ship. Someone was drifting next to the turtles. A large, pink...winged thing? It was wearing a pressure suit and a smug grin. "You owe me one."

"Yeah..." said Don. "But who are you?"

"We're Nova Posse. Come on aboard..." The turtles saw the giant starship looming over them now, much larger than any ship they'd seen yet....except maybe Maligna's hive-world, if that counted.

They all climbed into the airlock, then the bridge, removing the helmets of their suits. The pink alien bared his fangs and stretched his wings as he introduced the five people in the bridge. "Mett the gang," he said. "I'm Zebulon. This here's Trip, Luna Azul, Rave, Grotto, and Exeen." He gestured at each with a gloved hand, and the turtles took in each of the strange creatures.

"Um, hi," said Raph.

Trip was the only human-looking one there. Luna Azul had blue skin and wide features. Rave was purple. Grotto was a hulking yellow mass, and Exeen was small, with huge ears, four arms, and a tail. All had an air of calm and confidence, as if they could do anything they wanted, and do it well. They all wore blue uniforms with yellow piping, and Luna wore a brown vest over hers. She gave them a small smile, and they turned back to her. "Welcome aboard the Freedom One. Do you always play so close to black holes?"

Donatello answered her while the others gaped at the huge banks of equipment and controls all over the bridge. "I'm Donatello. These are my brothers Raphael, Leonardo and Michaelangelo, and our friend, Ninjara. Um, you wouldn't happen to have something to drink?" Exeen returned to her controls and steered the ship back out through the asteroid field, away from the black hole.

Trip produced a glass from somewhere and handed it to him. The liquid in it was green. Don didn't think he wanted to know, so he just drank it quickly. "Thanks."

"So," said Raph. "Someone wanna tell us what the heck's going on here?"

"Sure," Trip said. "How much do you know about black holes?"

"Next to nothing, but my bro here knows plenty," Raph snorted with a glare at Don. He muttered, "Just don't give us another lecture. Okay, Don?"

"I know a little about them," Don said, gesturing with his half-empty glass.

"Then you should appreciate this: this particular black hole didn't exist six months ago. In fact, there wasn't anything there. No star, no nothing."

"But that's impossible!" Don exclaimed, narrowing his eyes. "Black holes don't just appear out of nowhere."

Trip shrugged with a lopsided little grin. "This one did."

"It's true," Luna broke in, frowning. "And no one knows why...or how."

"Worse, it's getting bigger every moment," Rave put in.

"Too big. Too fast," Exeen agreed. "Devours everything. All things."

The silence was broken by the POK! as Raphael slammed his helmet against the deck of the bridge. "Man, we NEVER get a break! If it isn't one thing, it's another! 'Let's go to Dimension X' sez Mikey! Sure. Just in time for the whole place to be swallowed up..." Then in a quieter voice, he said, "Just like Sarnath."

"Luna," Trip suddenly said. "We're coming up on Stump Asteroid. Just in time to join the armada. We should make contact in a moment." As her voice trailed off, they could see the Stump Asteroid *footnote*, with its huge stadium, just below them. All around it were hundreds of ships, all different kinds. And Cudley *footnote* floated among them, with a fiercer look on his face than the turtles had ever seen.

"Hey there's Cudley!" cried Mike. "HEY, CUDLEY!"

Leo put a hand on his shoulder with a sigh. "Like he can hear you from in here, dude."

Trap's face appeared on an overhead monitor, cigar clamped in teeth as usual.*footnote* "Luna Azul. Been a while, commander."

Luna Azul looked up at him. "Too long, Trap. Request permission to land."

Trap grinned at her. "Granted. Put 'er down in the stadium."

Trip and Exeen both went to work, and soon the ship touched down in the center of the enormous stadium. On the floor, Stump and Sling watched. "Here they are, Sling," Stump said to his partner. "Just like we knew they would be. We'll make a mint off these guys! And don't forget to bill them for parking!"*footnote*

The crew secured the ship and stepped smartly down the ramp with Luna in the lead and the Turtles trailing behind. "Commander Luna Azul and crew, formerly of the Imperial Aerwyl Starfleet, Nova Squadron Division. We've gone freelance. We call ourselves Nova Posse. We're at your service."*footnote*

The serious mood was gone as Stump yelled, "Thank goodness you're here!"

"$!" Sling cried.

"Huh?" said Luna is surprise as Stump and Sling pushed past her crew to meet the turtles. "Boys, it's been too long!" Stump bellowed. As the Posse looked on in shock with gaping mouths, Stump babbled away. "Love the suits, boys. I can see it now: Space Turtles. Love it. Nove let's schedule your next wrestling match--"

Raph glared at Stump with obvious dislike. "Forget about it, ya weed-whacker. Nova Posse said they're offering their services--services for what?"

"Oh, that," Stump said, rolling his eyes in boredom. "The battle against the Imperial Forces."

"Hey dude," Donatello tried to say quietly. "You have a bathroom around here?"

"Second door on your left," Stump answered, and Don took off.

"Don't take too long, Don."

"Gimme a break, Leo!" Don exclaimed. "It'll take me an hour just to find my--" He broke off as he entered the bathroom, then continued, "Zipper. Whoa, funky." He stared at the various peculiar commodes designed to accomadate a variety of bizarre life-forms. "Hmmmm..." he said as he studied on strange contraption. "Hey, that light...." A blue light washed over him out of nowhere. In the glow, two strangely familiar hands reached for him. "So bright...."

Leo pushed open the door and came in. "Yo, Don, man! Whadja do, fall in?" In mid-chuckle at his joke, he saw something that made him freeze in shock. Donatello's pressure suit was lying on the floor. It was empty. "D-Don?! DONATELLO!" Up to da top, where you can get to the next part of the story!

*footnote*--I missed issues 46 and 47 of Archie, so I'm not sure exactly where Raph was during all this....But I saw a preview for something called "Fox Hunt", issue 46, I believe. If that's true, then Raph and Ninjara were off in Japan or wherever, dealing with some kind of problem with the Fox People, so they missed this whole incident.And now, back to our regularly scheduled story...

*footnote*--Fans of both Archie comics and the TMNT cartoon will remember this incident. An alien ship crash-landed in the park when the turtles were practicing there. They pulled a little alien from the wreckage, who mumbled something about the "eyes of Sarnath" and died. The guys buried the alien and spent quite a bit of time looking for these powerful artifacts. (Shredder did too. He fought the guys for the crystals many times. I seem to remember that one made things shrink, and the other two did other things....Plus, look for the eyes in the Future Shark Trilogy in Archie comics!) Anyway, you probably always assumed (rightly in the case of the cartoon) that saying the artifacts were "the eyes of Sarnath" was just one of those archaic expressions that didn't mean anything. But in Archie comics, it turns out that this one race of aliens (the Mergia) created beings like Sarnath (the Triasts) to be their servants. The Triasts revolted (with the help of Battle Beasts like Qark) and the Mergia fled the planet. But Sarnath's master stole his eyes. By the time Sarnath reached Earth however, it was too late. His master was dead and two of the eyes were gone...Read on for the rest of the story!

*footnote*--McIntyre and his cameraman Squint. They're the news team for the tabloid-like talk show, "Inside Affair." Back to the story.

*footnote*--Just in case you're interested: I found a rather odd loophole here....the guys who wrote this obviously did their homework on black holes, but they made a really stupid error. Namely, they didn't realize that Sarnath's ship had to be traveling over the speed of light. Follow my logic here. I mean, it takes OUR slow-ass spaceships something like 7 years to go to JUPITER or somewhere. Sarnath's ship is traveling to a whole other galaxy. So if they're traveling under the speed of light, their skeletons will be dust by the time they reach Dimension X. Thus, Sarnath's ship had to travel over the speed of light. They should have at least acknowledged this when writing the story. In science fiction, you often have to shape science to fit your needs. :-) Enough science lessons...let's get back to the story!

*footnote*--Stump Asteroid is an asteroid claimed by aliens Stump and Sling. Its sole purpose is to house the Stump Arena, which can hold tens of thousands of alien spectators. The sport they come to watch is Intergalactic Wrestling. The matches are put on by Stump and Sling, and the wrestlers are often the Intergalactic Wrestling Team members who make their home there. Back to the story.

*footnote*--Cudley the cowlick is a transdimensional cowlick who can travel through time and space. He may look weird, but he's sentient. He works for Stump, taking Intergalactic wrestlers to and from Stump Asteroid, but has helped the turtles of his own accord in the past. Back to the story.

*footnote*--Trap is a member of the Stump Intergalactic Wrestling Team, and he's ready to rumble anytime, anywhere Stump sends him. He helped the turtles fight off Maligna on the planey Hirobyl (long story). He's worked as an announcer and referee for several wrestling matches, including the Turtles versus each other match and the Donatello versus El Mysterio match. Trap is loyal to Stump and Sling, although he also likes the Turtles. He also likes guns. Back to the story.

*footnote*--Stump and Sling are alien partners who run the Intergalactic Wrestling matches on Stump Asteroid. They both look like midget trees. They don't seem to be mean people, but they have very good business sense and are out to make a buck at any cost. They are not entirely scrupulous in their methods of obtaining entertaining wrestlers. For example, they have twice blackmailed the Turtles into wrestling for them. The first time when Cudley kidnapped them after a battle with Leatherhead. Then Stump got permission to broadcast the battle on Hirobyl. Recently, the Turtles were forced to wrestle each other and El Mysterio. Back to the story.

*footnote*--If you've read the profiles of the Nova Posse, you'd notice that the history of the Posse presented here is different. This is because the writers at Archie goofed. The history they put in the TMNT Sourcebook was different from the one in the comic. I used the Sourcebook info to make the profiles. In the Sourcebook, the members of the Posse never belonged to the Aerwyl Fleet, but the Nova Squadron, which is something totally different. It's all very confusing. See the Nova Commission page for details on this. Since other issues go along with the Sourcebook story, it is reasonable to assume that the Sourcebook story is right, and the comic explanation is wrong. Just go with the flow.... Back to the story.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the comic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, and the series The Black Hole Trilogy are copyright 1993 to Mirage Studios and creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.