There used to be an argument in Earth's theology about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin.
From boyhood, I always thought that was silly. Angels surely had better things to do, especially if they had to be guardians to any boys growing up Kirk. Cousin J.T. and I could have kept a thousand angels busy just keeping us out of trouble in the fields of Ohio where we and our cousins the Grants grew up.
I can tell you, however, how many Flame Knights are guarding the X-ray bursting black hole in the Sentinelle solar system.
There are 12. Don't forget the little bitty ones. Size and number counts, a lot.
For a long time, Cousin J.T.'s fleet was itching to get out and see the accretion ring around a particularly strangely behaving black hole at the edge of the Sentinelle solar system. On the books, that system was a strange case in galactic formation – apparently, there had been two stars and the planets were complexly orbiting both of them, but then one had collapsed on itself.
However, it had not exploded as it should have. The planets of the Sentinelle worlds had cooled down quite a bit, but they were still habitable, and to a point, the new “accretion disk” had kept enough heat going to keep it that way.
The supernova that should have occurred and wiped out the whole system didn't.
This is probably a good time to mention that theory from the 21st century that said black holes weren't collapsed stars after all; they were just dark energy stars of immense gravity that collected energy around them that was visible. The question still wasn't settled by 2265 and isn't settled now, but, the number of supernovae that weren't is the cause of the divergence in theories all the way back to around 2020.
Still, the Dark Sentinelle star and its unusual “accretion disk,” upon close investigation, proved not to fit in any theory box.
12 distinct figures appeared to be dancing around the star, 12 figures of the same golden hue as Bright Sentinelle, the “regular” star in the system.
They were big flames, of course – multi-millions of degrees, not unlike a regular star's corona.
But they were more than that, as I observed as my freighter passed near where a fleet ship was examining Dark Sentinelle.
The flames danced faster and brighter as the fleet ship approached, and that picked up even more as I flew by. They were aware of our presence.
The fleet sent a probe into the Sentinelle system to investigate.
It got so far, and then disappeared.
Super-slow motion replay showed that the tiniest flame creature had moved out of formation, allowing a beam of energy to escape from Dark Sentinelle – that beam had contacted the molecules of the probe and vibrated it apart on an atomic level, not unlike a disruptor-type weapon would.
Like I said: there are 12 Flame Knights, and every one of them counts.
The captain of the fleet ship figured it out quickly enough as the bigger Flame Knights on the near side of Dark Sentinelle began slowly adjusting their position … a warning to him to back his ship off. He did, and I kept flying by. His ship joined me on route a minute later, the shields of that big, beautiful fleet ship drained to eighty percent power.
Communications have improved since 2265, and since then the powers that be on the human side of things have been able to communicate with the Flame Knights and assure them of intentions just to explore the Sentinelle system. The Flame Knights agreed to this, on one condition: humans were not to settle there. To make their point, they showed their full power, an awesome display of a power exchange between Dark Sentinelle and Bright Sentinelle that would vaporize anything in its path. The biggest fleet ships would be like a moth in an atomic bomb blast if that were to occur.
The point was well-made, of course, and the one condition is yet adhered to. No human yet has settled anywhere in the Sentinelle system, and the native inhabitants live as they have since their creation. Their 12 guardian Flame Knights dance on unwearied, ever vigilant.
This was a fractal I did in Apophysis several weeks ago that reminded me of that old thought about angels -- perhaps the fiery seraphim type -- dancing, although, AGAIN, I know the seraphim have better things to do ...