Shalin was sitting at the Tea Centre. He read a news article in which one headline caught his eye. He read that
"Space Travel for the Common Man"
By reading deeply, he found that it was a space programme for travelling in space jointly organised by the space agencies ISRO, NASA, UKSA, ROSCOSMOS, and JAXA. In which the selected candidate can travel by a spacecraft that can travel with light speed and will have to reach the point closest to the event horizon of IOC 188A, the artificial intelligence of the spacecraft and robot system will study the event horizon and notice everything that was programmed and Candidate will return to earth from space after 15 days. The next step was an application or registration for the space travel programme on a common website.
It was the year 2505, it was the month of May, Shalin was 22 years old, he was the student of the third year of B.Sc., he was orphaned, brought up in an orphanage, and currently stayed in a hostel. He got a scholarship, especially for orphaned students. In the year 2505, India was one of the major leading nations in the world. Everything has been discovered in science in terms of health, genetics, agriculture, biotechnology, etc., but scientists were still working on the speed of light. In the year 2499, they were successful in achieving 99.99% of the speed of light.
In the year 2503, scientists discovered the Black Hole, which was 15 light days away from Earth. This means light will take 15 days to reach that black hole from its source of origin. Scientists have tried to uncover the mystery of the black hole, and they want to test human life near the black hole. It was a stellar black hole that is 10 times more massive than our sun. Shalin applied for programs, and hehe successfully registered himself for those ograms.
On the 16th of July, 2505, Shalin's phone rang, and he received a call from the other end:
Hello, is Mr. Shalin Punjabi from Amritsar speaking?
Shalin : Yes, I'm Shalin Punjabi. Who are you, sir?
Opposite side: :I'm Dr. Narmadeshwar Tiwari from ISRO speaking, and I want to inform you that you have been selected for the Space Travel programme congratulations!"
Shalin was shocked. Dr. Tiwari said
Dr. Tiwari: You have to reach our centre in Vishakhapattnam; however, you will get all this information in your registered email. This is my contact number; kindly save my number.
Before Shalin could say anything, Dr. Tiwari hung up. Shalin received the offer letter in his email ID, and he reached Vishakhapattnam. At the ISRO office, he met Dr. Narmdeshwar Tiwari. They shook hands with Shalin and gave him a seat. Now Dr. Tiwari said:
Dr. Tiwari: I'm from Banaras, UP; you are from Punjab; we are neighbours! (laughed)
Shalin smiled
Dr. Tiwari: Shalin, do you have a girlfriend?
Shalin: No, sir.
Dr. Tiwari: Do you have any special people in your life? Like love once or valentine?
Shalin: No, sir.
Dr. Tiwari: I have read your biography in your application. This is the bitter truth for you: you were selected because you have no family or friends and are a single guy. Because in this space programme, there may be a life threat to you.
Shalin: Okay, I understood, sir.
Dr. Tiwari: Very good, dear. However, there is 90% no chance of life threat, but it is a black hole, not any planet. In addition, this is a stellar mass black hole, where time has slowed down. Even in spacecraft, you will take 15 light days to reach near the black hole, but it will take 7 months for Earth. This is because of time dilation. The speed of spacecraft will be 99.99% of light speed, and it will take 7 months for Earth to reach the closest to the event horizon of IOC-188A.
Dr. Tiwari further said: Now it is up to you; if you want this project, then sign this agreement. If you don't do this, the chance will be given to another candidate.
After 10 minutes of silence,
Shalin signed that agreement.
