58. Countdown 72 Seconds: The Route of Lightning
“Ha-ha-ha! Remember when Suri drew this line in red pen like a little kid? So embarrassing. Seriously, even for someone ranked dead last in class… Anyway—here! This is a blind spot in the Oracle’s drone network.
They have no idea it exists. If the Malta takes this route, we’ve got a chance. We get in first—and then shut the door behind us! Ha-ha-ha!”
Maru’s chest puffed out like a balloon.
“Hold on. The Oracle has possession formulas—our dads invented those! They could use them at any time. We might end up possessing ourselves. And why are you pretending to be an idiot again? Can an idiot pretend to be an idiot? Woof, woof!”
Spit flew as Suri shouted.
“Just like airplanes have fixed flight paths in the sky, there are natural—and artificially tuned—routes through space. These were originally formed by the gravitational harmonics network built by the ultra-ancient civilization, Pangaea.
It allows ships to travel efficiently while avoiding black holes, neutron stars, and interstellar dust fields. Some sections even provide propulsion, like riding on a gravity rail. After Pangaea fell, it became a legend—but certain ancient maps still preserved those coordinates through forgotten devices. Our fathers had one of those maps. And I found it. I, the genius Maru.”
He spoke with the dramatic confidence of Carl Sagan himself, a flood of scientific and philosophical words spilling from his mouth.
“Seventy-two seconds. It’s seventy-two seconds.”
Sansuna shouted.
“Assuming the Oracle activates their possession formula, once we sync with their quantum neural network, we can trigger a phase mismatch. The countdown is seventy-two seconds. We must enter within that time window.”
Silver holo-lenses covered the ceiling of the Malta’s command bridge, projecting the universe in three dimensions.
Hundreds of thousands of stars flickered like shards of stained glass.
Within the projection, forty-eight ships of the Oracle fleet blocked the Malta’s path in perfect formation.
Their shields, coated in the latest “Altima-Flux” barrier, designed to block all external electromagnetic interference.
“It’s time for you to become Mailer again.”
Marblem’s eyes were filled with resolve.
“…I’m ready. Let’s begin—right now.”
Suri’s courage blazed brighter than ever.
“We’ll become one bolt of lightning—slip into the Oracle’s neural network—and blind their eyes and ears. The fleet will still exist, but they won’t perceive the Malta approaching the black hole.
Minimize combat. That’s the plan.”
Marblem wrapped Suri in a firm embrace.
“Seventy-two seconds. We’ll dive into their network, induce a phase mismatch, and possess their drone weapons. This time, it’ll surpass the Great Marblem Battle—our own legend begins now.”
They clasped hands tightly.
Then, side by side, Suri and Marblem leaned back into running stance.
In the next instant, their bodies turned into blue current and shot upward leaping into the void like lightning reborn after seventy-two years.
They streaked through the electromagnetic channels of space and waited at the brink of the black hole—the Cosmic Cliff—so close they could feel the pull of gravity threatening to swallow them whole.
“Once Suri and Marblem move, we go full throttle!”
Sansuna’s voice rang out, bold and commanding.
Countdown / 72 Seconds
Inside the Oracle fleet’s central communications core, a single blue bolt of lightning raced through data circuits, cutting synchronization links one by one.
Combat AIs erupted in error alarms all at once.
Countdown / 58 Seconds
Two battleships lost engine power. Sparks flew; circuits burst into smoke.
Countdown / 41 Seconds
Shield control systems collapsed. Half of the forty-eight ships flickered—and their barriers went dark.
Countdown / 29 Seconds
The commander shouted an emergency order:
“Intrusion detected! Strengthen the Altima Core shield!”
But it was already too late. The lightning had infiltrated the core.
“Now! Full throttle—maximum power!”
The Malta’s engines roared, erupting with explosive force as it sliced through the black hole’s event horizon.
The Oracle fleet still hadn’t realized what was happening.
The Malta plunged into the black hole—into a new universe.
Countdown / 11 Seconds
Suri and Marblem reappeared from the lightning, gasping for breath.
At that exact moment, the Oracle fleet froze.
As the Malta crossed the event horizon, all light and sound shattered.
It wasn’t darkness.
It wasn’t light.
It was simply—color.
Billions of starlight poured down like liquid.
A blue comet’s tail danced across a scarlet nebula, a massive whale-shaped body of dark matter drifted slowly through the void.
Gravity folded and unfolded space like paper, and the universe itself pulsed like a living heart.
“So this is a black hole… I thought it’d just be pitch black, like a grave or something.”
Maru’s voice was dazed.
“That whale thing—did it just look at us? I swear we made eye contact.”
Sabi’s excitement was uncontrollable.
The Malta’s ceiling lenses went haywire, warping reality and unreality together.
Starlight shattered like stained glass and fused again— and in that flicker, a corridor appeared.
“We have to pass through there. The internal gravity shifts every second.
One wrong move and we’ll be trapped—or fall into a time that hasn’t even been born yet.”
Sansuna warned the crew.
“…A time that hasn’t been born? That sounds nice. No exams there, right?”
Maru looked blissfully clueless.
“Exams? In an unborn time? Ugh… you really are the king of idiots.”
Sabi glared at him.
The Malta adjusted its angle toward the living corridor.
Time slowed.
Event Horizon: In general relativity, this refers to the boundary beyond which events cannot affect an outside observer. Around a black hole, the event horizon marks the point where the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light, meaning that any matter or light crossing it can never return.
[To be continued…]
Starting November 2023, The Korea Daily is excited to publish the fantasy novel series “Sword of Malta – Lightning in 72 Years” on our website. This new captivating series follows a trio of young adventurers on their quest to uncover the mysteries of ancient civilizations, including the Maya and Inca. In an exciting development, Netflix is currently adapting the novel’s storyline into a film.
The ‘Sword of Malta – Lightning in 72 Years’ is the latest novel authored by Jeeyoon Ha, who created the “Pangaea series.” Ha’s debut novel, “The Pangaea: Finding Xibalba,” was selected by the Korea Creative Content Agency in 2022 as part of their initiative to support the global export of fantasy literature.
*Mark Oh translated the Korean novel into English.
