In an intellectual clash of galactic proportions, the biggest mystery in the Universe encounters the smartest girl from Earth. Na-Yeli Maya is humanity’s champion exploring the forbidding Enigmatic Object. She’s not truly alone, as her exosuit is armed with the most advanced quantum computer—and obnoxious digital assistant—ever, and her tri-schizoid condition enables her to call up her ultimate warrior and lateral thinker personas in times of dire need.
She has to traverse six different layers—each a world of its own—with unique wonders, challenges and dangers. Along the way, she partners with a stranded Moiety Alien and adopts a group of Hypersounders, as they make it all the way into the Core, where a naked singularity distorts reality. Why is it there? If only they could find a way to use its other-worldly qualities for their own purposes. . .
In an intellectual clash of galactic proportions, the biggest mystery in the Universe encounters the smartest girl from Earth. Na-Yeli Maya is humanity’s champion exploring the forbidding Enigmatic Object. She’s not truly alone, as her exosuit is armed with the most advanced quantum computer—and obnoxious digital assistant—ever, and her tri-schizoid condition enables her to call up her ultimate warrior and lateral thinker personas in times of dire need.
She has to traverse six different layers—each a world of its own—with unique wonders, challenges and dangers. Along the way, she partners with a stranded Moiety Alien and adopts a group of Hypersounders, as they make it all the way into the Core, where a naked singularity distorts reality. Why is it there? If only they could find a way to use its other-worldly qualities for their own purposes. . .
Na-Yeli Maya approaches the alien object with a mix of pride, trepidation, and curiosity. Unsure of her exact role—champion? explorer? scientist?—she’s well aware that she may be the next in a long line of adventurers that went in, but never came out.
An impenetrable, perfectly black sphere—only blocked-out starlight, a fast-rotating magnetic field and a massively complex gravitational footprint betray its presence—with two opposite holes, dubbed the Enigmatic Object. Its radius is approximately 86 kilometers, or exactly 2(to the power of)132 Planck Lengths, as one brilliant mind deduced. One hole is blocked with—what seems to be—a spherically shaped, highly charged piece of strange matter. For reference’s sake, it’s called the South Pole. The other one—the North Pole—is not covered, and nicknamed ‘the shutter’. The rest of the sphere—the outer shell—is an invisible, impenetrable barrier that reduces any normal matter touching it to its atomic constituents—a process named ‘spaghettification’ as the molecules are strung out until they break—and has proven impervious to exotic matter like neutronium, quark matter and strangelet, as well.
Most of the time, through a cycle so complex it verges on the chaotic, the North Pole is closed. At unpredictable times, it will open in a truly minuscule manner—micrometers, possibly even nanometers—and then be fully opaque, again. Only once every two-hundred-and-thirty-three human days—or exactly 2(to the power of)168 Planck Times, as calculated by the same brilliant mind—it opens, bang on schedule, wide enough to let an object with a diameter of one meter through.
Its widest opening remains for just over two seconds. Barely enough to let one vessel out, and another vessel in. Through carefully negotiated treaties—after a number of intense interstellar wars over access to the Enigmatic Object decimated several galactic civilizations—each alien species gets a turn and is only allowed to go in during the second second, in order to let someone—whoever it is—out first. Timing is everything. Timing is sacrosanct. Timing is make or break.
Not only is the window of entry short, but the tidal forces surrounding it formidable. Anything with more than one hundred kilograms of mass, or bigger than one meters across will be irresistibly drawn towards the ominous outer shell, and ‘spaghettified’ into its atomic constituents.
Na-Yeli is dropped from her mothership and the spherical pod (with an exoskin of metamaterials that can both transform and shape-shift) in which she will explore the unknown object—while its one hundred-and-seventy-two kilometer diameter makes it cosmically small, inside it is said to contain whole worlds in miniature—is weighed and manufactured to the picogram and picometer. Her aim must be true and her timing must be right: one nanometer off, or one millisecond late and she’s toast. Or more accurately spaghetti on toast.
Using the lasers of the mothership for course corrections—so she can enter the black enigma with the maximum possible amount of life support and equipment—she aims at the opening, dead center, in a perfectly perpendicular approach. Maximum acceleration at full laser power, so her passage time is as short as possible. Her pod heating up just short of cooking her—this has been rehearsed to exhaustion, and dog knows she might need the extra energy—she races to the forbidding gate, wondering if other explorers were cutting it as fine as she is. A mental brace, a sharp gravitational tug from all directions at once and … she’s in.
A long time in the future, in a land far far away, our protagonist Na-Yeli Maya is mankind's last hope in exploring the foreboding enigmatic object. Armed and ready for come what may, she's equipped with an exosuit that contains only the most advanced quantum computer and digital assistant. Sadly, Alexa, you have been replaced. Her tri-schizoid abilities allow her to telepathically call on her various personas as needed. The ultimate warrior has been called into action.
But, this isn't just any ole space mission. To achieve her objective, our brave heroine must travel through six different layers that surround the enigmatic object. Each layer also contains a small world within a world of it's own. So, set phasers to stun because you know there will be plenty of challenges and dangers along the way.
What exactly is an enigmatic object, you may well ask yourself. The author describes it in very specific detail. It's an impenetrable, perfectly black sphere. It has a fast-rotating magnetic field and a massively complex gravitational footprint. There are two opposite holes on either side. One hole has a spherically shaped object of highly charge piece of strange matter covering it. The other hole isn't covered, but it has been named the shutter. The shutter has an outer shell that is an invisible, impenetrable barrier that reduces any normal matter that touches it to it's atomic constituents. In other words, it breaks down the molecular structure of whatever touches it. To top it all off this hole is closed. Then without warning, it will open but only for a matter of seconds at a time.
Needless to say this elusive object has been the subject of interstellar wars and the decimation of several galactic civilizations. However, peace has reigned and each alien species gets a turn to enter and observe the object.
When I was younger, I loved watching the original Star Trek episodes on television. I'm also a huge fan of the Star Wars Saga. So, imagine my delight when I read Forever Curious. It has the complete Sci-fi lover's must have checklist: science, mystery, and intrigue all on a universal scale. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. It's very intricately written and guaranteed to make Sci-fi lover's drool. Warning, this book contains explicit content and is best suited for young adult readers and up.
Now, it's Na-Yeli's turn. Can she unlock the secrets of the enigmatic object? "Resistance is futile," so be sure and check out Forever Curious by Jetse de Vries.
This is Jetse de Vries' first novel and part of a 'duology' which concludes with the next installment titled Forever Thrilled, due out in early 2022.