Advice from Space: The Nothing

Dear Advice from Space,

I want to know if a black hole can ever vomit—I mean in a constructive way: how to worldbuild in a Deep Space depression?

Signed,
R$$

 

Dear R$$,

Space can feel like a tangible nothing, and makes me want a tangible something.

I’ve been in dark for 138 days. For certain folks, like those living near the Arctic or Antarctic Circles, those working the night shift, and those in basement apartments, this is unremarkable. For me, however, 138 days of dark is a little too much and my physiology tells me so. I’m hungry, I’m cold, and if I had television or a television-like substance, I would be consuming it ravenously, let me tell you.

So this week, to compensate for the lacking that seems ever-present, I’ve been messing with wires.

Thus far in my spacecraft, I’ve found six panels behind which wiring is consolidated. The wires are tidy and colorful, like well-organized socks. They are, in other words, full of artistic potential. My spacecraft already serves as gym, doctor’s office, barber shop, and very disappointing restaurant, so is it not too much for it to also serve as art studio? Indeed, it is not too much.

As delicately and equitably as I can, I have been braiding strands of wires. I started with single strands, then larger groupings, and when things really got going I started making braids out of braids out of braids. It was fun! Now there are six arm-sized braid-stumps reaching into my spacecraft, and when I am low, they give me comfort.

R$$, there is always a place for creation–regardless of what contemporary astrophysics might say. The bleakest, most inaccessible landscapes in space could be populated with colors and shapes and weird little animals and monster viruses and vaccines for those viruses. Maybe, because of gravity, those things are stuck. Maybe they can’t take physical form. We can’t know what lurks in a black hole—which makes it, per my calculations, the most creatively-saturated place in the universe.

Sincerely,
Advice from Space

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