The Night Faculty: Cassandra, a Hawking Siren

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Dear Readers,


   Here is the next part of my series on the University's Night Faculty.

   If you thought Professor Raven was unusual, I'm happy to introduce you to Dr. Cassandra Hawking, a name which we gave  to her and she graciously accepted.  "Cassandra" comes from her vast and uncanny knowledge, which I will explain in a moment.  "Hawking" comes from her nature.

 
    Cassandra is what her time stream calls a "Hawking Siren," a being that dwells in space and can warp light around itself.  At her core, cleverly concealed within her biology, lies a small singularity, event horizon and all.  Hawking Radiation from its gradual evaporation powers her entire metabolism as well as her consciousness.  Surrounding it is a complex network of matter and light.


   The singularity itself is maintained within a vacuum, to protect her outer body from its pull.  In her native time stream, Cassandra existed in a constant state of collapse.  The tiny singularity within her consistently approached the final point of its evaporation, at which point it would release a tremendous amount of "information" into the surrounding space.  In her time stream, that happened to be the solution to the black hole information paradox.  This process would destroy her outer body as well as her mind, effectively killing her.

   So, like all members of her race, Cassandra needed a steady stream of matter in order to maintain herself.  Her energy-matter matrix allowed her to transit around the universe collecting such matter, but, as with every species, there were pitfalls in her existence.  Certain civilizations loved the idea of a race of singularities to conquer, beings that they could enslave and use for a source of energy for all time.



   Over time her species developed--you will understand in a moment why I do not say "evolved"--the ability to shift their matter/energy matrix to mimic the appearance of other objects.  Using their matrix along with their internal singularity, they could use a combination of gravitational lensing, position, and shape to look like anything.


  
  For certain members of her race, this allowed a new strategy for matter acquisition.  The hunters became the hunted, and many careless ships drew themselves into the heart of a Hawking Siren when it appeared to be a grand bonanza of salvage or a pleasure ship in distress.  Once it had trapped its prey, the Hawking Siren would absorb its mass and feed off the energy released as Hawking Radiation.  Thus, they would go on to live further.  Other Sirens chose to stay hidden and consume only inanimate matter, but in the end most of them settled on an omnivorous life.

   This might make Cassandra seem entirely too dangerous to work with here at the University, but we have found a way to keep her sustained without needing to fear she will begin to devour her coworkers.  The process by which she is kept fed also results in excess energy that can be used to sustain University operations, so it is a beneficial scenario for all.  It does keep her occupied during the day, however, which means she must be a part of the Night Faculty.  However, we did not anticipate that benefit when we began to work on bringing her here.

   You see, in their final moments in her time stream, small singularities contain arbitrary amounts of information, a necessary consequence of the immediacy of their evaporation.  Literally, whenever she gets hungry, Cassandra's knowledge of time and all times expands to immeasurable amounts.  Any information she chooses to share with us is cherished.  In theory, she could tell us everything about everything.  Yet she often holds back, and it is beyond me to wonder why.  Perhaps she fears to live up to her name.

   At times, in the night, a graduate student will disappear, and then be resurrected with no knowledge of some previous stretch of time.  I wonder if, perhaps, Cassandra roams the halls and prunes those avenues of investigation which might lead to our ruin.  I am not certain how to feel about this possibility, but the thought does not help me sleep.

   Always,

   Dr. John Skylar
   Chairman
   Department of Anachronism
   University of Constantinople

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