Here's the scenario describing the experience from the cockpit of the nearby ship, incorporating the physics of aether-sonis:

**Experience in the Cockpit of the Nearby Ship:**

1.  **The Visual Event (Instantaneous):**
    *   **What they see:** The crew in the nearby ship will see the explosion **first**. It happens almost instantaneously with the event itself. The brilliant flash of light (thermal radiation, ignited gases plasma, laser/weapon discharges) travels at the speed of light (299,792,458 m/s). This fills their view for a brief moment – intense white or yellow light blooming violently, perhaps followed by an expanding fireball, debris scattering rapidly outward, visible shockwaves in the superheated plasma if the explosion was energetic enough and surrounded by gases.
    *   **Physics:** Light propagates as electromagnetic waves through the vacuum independently of the aether-sonis. Its speed is constant and vastly outpaces any mechanical wave.

2.  **The Auditory Event (Delayed):**
    *   **What they hear:** Several seconds (or potentially minutes, depending on distance and propagation speed in aether-sonis) **after** seeing the explosion, the crew will hear the sound.
    *   **The Sound Itself:**
        *   A sharp, extremely loud **CRACK** or **CRUMP** would be the initial blast wave passing through the cockpit structure (transmitted via the ship's hull/general structure from the impacting sound wave in the aether-sonis).
        *   This would be followed by a **prolonged, deep ROAR or RUMBLE**. This represents the combined sounds: the destructive release of energy tearing the ship apart, the ripping and buckling of metal bulkheads, the detonations of internal systems (weapons/reactors), secondary explosions within the ship, the chaotic expulsion of escaping gases and fragments, and the massive shockwave reverberating through the aether-sonis itself.
        *   The sound would have immense bass frequencies due to the enormous energies involved and the nature of low-frequency sound waves traveling further effectively even in an ideal medium. Higher-frequency sounds (metallic screeching, small explosions) might be present but attenuated more quickly.
    *   **Sensation:** Along with the sound, the crew might feel a distinct **vibration or shudder** transmitted through their ship's hull as the intense acoustic energy passes through the aether-sonis and impacts their vessel.
    *   **Physics:** Sound waves are compression waves traveling through the aether-sonis medium. The speed of sound (`v_sound`) depends on the hypothetical properties of aether-sonis: specifically its stiffness (or bulk modulus, `K`) and its density (`ρ`), according to `v_sound = sqrt(K / ρ)`. Given it's described as "massless" and permeates space:
        *   **Massless?:** A true vacuum with massless particles might imply `ρ = 0`. This creates a problem (`v_sound = K / 0`), suggesting infinite speed. We need to interpret it as "so vanishingly small its effects are negligible except for wave propagation," meaning `ρ` is positive but incredibly tiny.
        *   **Perfect Transmission/No Damping?:** This likely means minimal energy loss to absorption/attenuation within the medium itself over astronomical distances.
        *   **High Stiffness?:** To be non-trivial and useful, aether-sonis needs extremely high stiffness (`K`). The defining characteristic is likely very low density.
        *   **Speed Implications:** `v_sound` would be **extremely high**, likely greater than typical speeds in air or water, but **still significantly slower than light**. `v_sound` probably falls somewhere between the speed of sound in solids/dense plasmas (several km/s) and relativistic speeds (though likely *far* below `c`). For comparison:
            *   On Earth: Sound (Air) ~ 343 m/s
            *   On Earth: Sound (Steel) ~ 5,100 m/s
            *   Space Combat Range: Let's assume 1000 km (a typical sci-fi 'knife-fight' range).
            *   Speed of Light: Time delay ~ **0.003 seconds** (effectively simultaneous visually).
            *   Sound Speed Scenario A (v_sound = 10,000 m/s): Time delay = Distance / Speed = 100,000 / 10,000 = **10 seconds**.
            *   Sound Speed Scenario B (v_sound = 100,000 m/s): Time delay = 100,000 / 100,000 = **1 second**.

3.  **Simultaneity?**:
    *   **NO.** The crew absolutely **would not experience sight and sound simultaneously**.
    *   **Light arrives first:** Due to its vastly superior speed, the visual information (the explosion) reaches their eyes almost instantly after it occurs.
    *   **Sound arrives later:** The acoustic wave takes a measurable amount of time to propagate through the aether-sonis medium over the distance between the ships. The delay depends on the exact nature/speed of sound in aether-sonis and the separation distance. Even at very high sound speeds (e.g., 100,000 m/s), a separation of just 100 km results in a 1-second delay. A separation of 10,000 km (still relatively close astronomically) would result in a 100-second delay.

**Summary of Experience:**

*   **Visual:** *Bang!* Immediate, brilliant flash - debris expanding silently.
*   *Pause - Counting the seconds: 1... 2... 3...*
*   **Auditory & Tactile:** *THUMP-RRRRROOOOOOAAAAAARRRR....* Hull vibrates. Deep, powerful sounds of destruction finally arrive, mingling the blast, ripping metal, secondary explosions, and shockwave vibrations in the aether-sonis itself.

**Physics Core:** The discovery of aether-sonis fundamentally changes space physics by providing the missing propagating medium for sound waves. However, it doesn't alter the fundamental difference between the speed of light (c) and the speed of sound (`v_sound`). `v_sound` in aether-sonis, while potentially extremely high, is guaranteed by relativity and wave mechanics to be **less than the speed of light**. Therefore, *every* explosion in space involving sight and sound will be experienced first visually, followed or not followed (if too far) by the accompanying sound. Tactical "sonar" detection and timing sound delays against enemy positions would become critical aspects of space combat in this universe.