The Black Hole Express: A Novel

By Michael Cantwell

The Perfect World exists in the far distant future and is ruled by an old man called the Grand Exterminator. In this heavily polluted world people wear oxygen masks and silver vinyl jump suits. Theyve never seen flowers or grass. Robots do their work and their thinking. Many laws exist, but the chief prohibition is against passion. Anyone who talks of love or acts on feelings of love or passion is exterminatedreduced in seconds to a few particles of dust.

Jack Goddard, a young physicist, a disheveled guy who sports an unruly mop of curls, has committed the ultimate crime in the Perfect World: hes fallen in love. The object of his forbidden passion is a young redhead named Julia. The Grand Exterminator has learned of Jacks crime, and he sets out to destroy this threat to the existence of his Perfect World. Jacks punishment will be severe.

But Jack acts decisively. He successfully activates a black hole and teleports to New York City, 2010, where he survives, thrives, and is happy. His quest for a genuinely perfect world is only beginning. The world hes landed in is not perfect eitherand besides, the Grand Exterminator has followed him here. Jack and his beloved Julia, who manages to find Jack, now have an alternative quest: to save their new world and fight the repulsive exterminator.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781532034978

Michael Cantwell

Michael Cantwell, CCIM (1958-present) is an author and commercial real estate agent in South Florida as well as a published photographer. He was born in Ft. Campbell KY, raised in Trenton, NJ, graduated college at LaSalle University in Philadelphia, PA. He now resides in Palm Beach County, Florida. He is married with three children and one dog. He loves music and is a big Miami Marlins, Dolphins, Panthers and Heat fan. He also enjoys strolling South Florida with his camera at hand. He has served on many board of directors and volunteered many hours as a coach for baseball and basketball as well as for Junior Achievement in many schools around South Florida.

Book preview

The Black Hole Express

A Novel

Michael Cantwell

Author of Graven Images

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The Black Hole Express

Copyright © 2018 Michael Cantwell.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

iUniverse

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Because of the dynamic nature of the internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5320-3498-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-3499-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-3497-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017915935

iUniverse rev. date: 12/28/2017

Contents

Part I The Perfect World

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Part II The Grand Exterminator

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Part III The Big Bang

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Part IV The Best of All Possible Worlds

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Part V God and Physics

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Part VI The Grand Exterminator Redux

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Other Books by Michael Cantwell

Chasing Mayan Dreams

The Labyrinth of Love

The Tollan Trilogy

(for middle-graders and adventure lovers of all ages)

Book One: The Secret of the Smoking Mirror

Book Two: The Rising of the Fifth Sun

Book Three: The Halls of Montezuma

Rosa’s Gift and Other Stories

My Friend Casey

Max the Mouse and the Secret of Mars

This gripping quest story about two worlds is by a writer who knows his science and his history.

The first world is called, ironically, the Perfect World. It is a survivor world and exists in the far, far distant future, ruled by an old man (he is hundreds of years old) who is ominously called the Grand Exterminator. He becomes the hero’s archenemy. In this heavily polluted world, people walk around with oxygen masks and wear silver vinyl jump- suits. They have never seen flowers or grass. Robots do their work and their thinking. There are many laws, but the chief prohibition is against passion. Anyone who talks of love or acts on feelings of love or passion is exterminated—reduced in seconds to a few particles of dust. Why the harsh laws against passion? Because the Grand Exterminator has determined, probably correctly, that all the wars and human horrors in past worlds, now lost, were caused by passion.

Like the hero of many quest stories, Jack is an unlikely and untried hero. He is a young physicist, a disheveled guy who apparently does not have the almost-universal genes for baldness, so he sports an unruly mop of curls. Jack has committed the ultimate crime in the Perfect World: he has fallen in love. The object of his forbidden passion is a young redhead named Julia. The Grand Exterminator has been informed of Jack’s monstrous crime, and he sets out to destroy this threat to the existence of his Perfect World. Jack’s punishment will be severe. (A mere hot dog purveyor has been zapped into dust by a giant spray gun.) But Jack goes into action. At great risk, he successfully activates a black hole and has himself teleported to another world, this one bearing a strong resemblance to New York City in the present. Jack survives and thrives and is happy. But his quest for a genuinely perfect world is only beginning. The world he has landed in is not a perfect world either—and besides, the Grand Exterminator has followed him there.

Jack and his beloved Julia, who manages to find Jack, now have a new quest: to save their new world and fight the repulsive Exterminator.

Sadly, Jack’s and Julia’s bodies are still subject to the natural laws of their old world. Their reported end is heartbreaking.

And while we’re at it: Who is this narrator who is telling us the story of Jack and Julia? His identity is part of the mystery.

One more note: besides being an exciting adventure story, this unusual book will give you some understanding of the new science. In readable, compelling prose, the writer instructs us on the nature of black holes, on comets (tons of dirty ice), on teleporting genetic material to other worlds—on the surprising dangers of robots.

—Kathleen Daniel, author of 223 Second Street

Larry Rooney, the narrator of The Black Hole Express, introduces the reader to Jack Goddard, a young man he met in Washington Square Park. He describes Jack as a geeky, disheveled young physics whiz who tells Larry that he was teleported to NYC from a place that was once known as the Perfect World. Jack described it as universe inhabited by humanoids and ruled by the Grand Exterminator. It was a robotic world where passion, love, individual intellectual development, and environmental concerns were not allowed. Yet eons ago the Perfect World was very much like ours today.

Michael Cantwell, a great writer and political activist, vividly describes the conditions that led to the demise of this so-called Perfect World and gives the reader a great deal to think about. He challenges us to consider the meaning of life, liberty, freedom of thought, and our individual responsibility to promote moral and social ideals to improve not just our lives but all lives.

The Black Hole Express is a must read for all ages.

—Marie LaFrance, director, Programs for Children and Families

I

dedicate this book to the memory of my father and mother

and to my sister, Anne-Marie

I want to thank my computer expert, Ali Sutjianto, who, among other things,

helped me create the front-cover design for this book.

Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair.

—George Washington

Part I

The Perfect World

Chapter 1

W hat if the skinny, disheveled physics student I met in Washington Square Park was a visitor from another universe, as he finally told me? I know it sounds crazy. I knew Jack Goddard and talked with him many times about his black hole compressor, as he called it. I came to the conclusion that he was not crazy.

Okay, maybe I’m the one who’s crazy. I know you will find this story hard to believe. You may concede, for argument’s sake, that what I am about to describe is within the realm of theoretical possibility. Of course, we all know that the term theoretical possibility has been used to cover a multitude of intellectual sins ever since the beginning of human thought. At the very least, I hope you will find my telling of Jack’s story entertaining—good for laughs, maybe. Yet much of what I am about to reveal is no laughing matter.

*     *     *

Let’s begin with Jack’s life in the Perfect World, as the humanoid types on his planet called it. Its early history had a lot in common with ours. But Jack was living in a time of great advancement for all rational, sentient beings. It was a time when they had reached a condition of near perfection. But the ideal of perfection was precisely Jack’s problem. In the first place, his dusky skin, unruly hair, and general unkempt appearance led many people to believe he was a throwback to a primitive stage of humanoid development. But his biggest problem, by far, was that he didn’t fit in. Jack had ideas and feelings that many of his contemporaries felt were not only weird but signs of moral degeneracy.

Julia Eden, for one, had made the decision that Jack’s company was to be avoided by every means. He had been a part of her life and thoughts for too long. Jack had been a bad influence. For starters, he’d urged her not to cut her hair when everybody else who was not born genetically free of it had cut theirs as a sign of commitment to the ideals of humanoid perfection. And there were other things. Now she was resolved to cut Jack loose, as well as her useless, evolutionary regressive hair.

Making her decision hadn’t been easy. After all, it wasn’t so long ago that she had invited Jack to visit her in her dorm. After admitting him into her room and offering him a glass of SuperAide, she smiled slyly and said, Let’s play.

He stared at her in utter delight as she removed her clothes. She had to admit to herself that, for all his being a slob, there was something sexy about his being different from other boys; having wild, tousled hair; and wearing old-fashioned blue jeans with holes in the kneecaps. Later she realized that she should have been aware of the dangers of becoming attracted to such a person.

Not only that, but the way he got excited when he talked about the books he read should have been a tip-off that his mind wasn’t quite right. And when he lavished her with passionate kisses, holding her tight against his body, she had to cry out, Enough! Jack. Stop it! Sex was fun, a game to be enjoyed but not to be taken seriously. And love was a serious disease.

Julia knew full well that a display of passion went against the basic rules for all those committed to the ideal of perfection. After all, it was Aristoddle, the great passion deflator, who, back in ancient times, had proclaimed the golden mean—moderation in all things, nothing to excess. Perfection lay in obeying the golden mean. Sadly, this standard was ignored for thousands of years following the death of the great philosopher. Humanoid history was marked by wars, all driven by overriding passions for one thing or another.

Julia knew this to be true. She also knew that, thanks to the Age of Enlightenment, the golden mean was restored to its rightful place as the last best hope of humanoid-kind.

For his part, Jack Goddard thought that the indictment of love was based on a misunderstanding. He was convinced that this misunderstanding was the reason Julia had drawn away from him. Yet he believed that some part of her loved him in the best sense. If only she knew that he loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life devoted to her happiness. Was that wrong? Together, they would lead a perfectly normal life—yes, a perfect life.

Of course, he knew that love had become a dirty word. But he felt he had to let Julia know what he meant by it. His was no fly-by-night passion. At the same time, he had to admit that passion was there, and it was great. But he had to tell her of his love and tell her soon, despite the risk. He might alienate her completely and get himself expelled from school. Or worse, she might, in a fit of rage, report him to the office of the Grand Exterminator. It was well known that few who were called to report to the Department of Extermination were ever seen or heard from again.

But Jack couldn’t believe that Julia would report him. She was too nice, and besides, he was convinced her affection for him was such that she would never consider it. In any case, declaring his love to her was the only way to find out if he had any hope of winning her heart.

And so our story turns to the day Jack was walking across campus to his class and saw Julia walking in his direction. Although it was early in the morning, the air was heavy with a mix of humidity soaked with soupy pollutants. By midafternoon it would be necessary to wear an oxygen mask. Global warming had contaminated the atmosphere long before the Age of Enlightenment, and there was no way of turning back the clock.

Upon seeing Julia, Jack’s heart rose. Her heels made clopping sounds over the vast limestone plaza that was coated with sparkling jade, giving it the appearance of a well-mowed lawn. Few people Jack’s age (a hundred years or so, as life expectancy in the Perfect World had reached seven hundred years) had ever seen grass or trees, let alone flowers.

As Julia drew near, Jack was struck once again by her breathtaking beauty. Looking into her sky-blue eyes (sky-blue being a word handed down from antiquity), he felt as though he was given a glimpse of an ideal world, the kind described by Socrateaze. The sheer grace with which she walked—indeed, all the movements of her body—revealed to him the ideal forms of beauty and truth. He loved the way her long auburn hair splayed over her shoulders. At the same time, her full bloodred lips were turned down in a pout that Jack found to be sexually provocative.

As their eyes met, Julia smiled weakly. She gave him a curt wave with a hand and just as quickly turned off in another direction.

Julia! Jack called out. I must speak with you. It’s important!

Julia stood before him, tapping her foot impatiently. What could be so important, Jack? She sighed with vexation. I’m late for my mind-body fusion group, and I have to finish my Perfect Balance homework before class.

Jack took a deep breath. He knew his future, his very life, was on the line, but he couldn’t back off now. Yes, he was out of control. Looking into those sky-blue eyes, watching the movements of the bloodred lips, the shining auburn hair, and her wondrous figure all brought his passion to a boil.

I understand. I admire your dedication to the goals of perfection but—

Stuff the flattery, Jack. You’re taking up my time. What do you want from me?

Julia … Jack struggled, his voice quaking to reveal his fear. I must tell you before it’s too late for both of us. Suddenly, his voice choked up on him.

Out with it, Jack. I told you I’m late for my class.

Jack took another deep breath. I just wanted to tell you that I love you.

Julia’s eyes widened. Her jaw dropped. You filthy thing! How dare you say that dirty word to me. Her eyes began to smart with tears. I’ve always been good to you. And this is how you pay me back? One of her books fell to the pavement, and Jack hurriedly picked it up.

But you don’t understand, Julia. I want to devote my life to making you happy.

She shook her head vigorously, as if to shake off his words as well as his presence. "Devote your life to making me happy? That’s insane. And you can’t mean it. It’s your passion speaking. That’s your problem, Jack. Your passion. And you’re always trying to infect me with it. All you’ve ever done for me is make me upset, and that’s against all the rules. We abolished passion centuries ago, as you should know. Passion has been the cause of many problems throughout history. To be perfect we must live according to the golden mean, moderation in all things, nothing to excess. We all learned that in Perfect Balance 101."

Julia took a deep breath before continuing her tirade. "You infected me with your flattery from the beginning. And I was dumb enough to fall for it! One good example is I didn’t cut my hair because of your praising it so much. How stupid of me! Everybody else who has