THE EDGE

In 2234 a signal was received by deep space satellites and the data transmitted back to Earth, scientists at NASA managed to track the signal to its source, it was coming from outside the edge of the known universe from some form of intelligent life.

With interstellar travel now possible travelling trillions of light year can be traversed in mere centuries and now interested in discovering the possibility of another life form or even a civilisation the world began a monumental task of building a ship that could survive the long journey to the edge

And choosing the brave crew willing to venture into the unknown with the high likelihood of never returning…

The Asgard moved through the vast expanse this was the beginning of the mission to reach the edge of the universe, the crew was going about making all the final checks before going into the cryo baths, when all the jobs were done the crew had assembled in the galley were they were all sat around the dining table, Anderson the cryo engineer sat at the table and took a mouthful from the protein pack and looked to the others “If anyone needs to hit the bathroom now you’d better do it because 400 years is a lot to hold it in” Katarina laughed flippantly “At least when we’re asleep we will be unable to hear your shitty sense of humour Anderson” Jacobs passed Anderson a drink “Now now Kat let’s be polite to the man who controls whether we wake up or not” Anderson nodded with a smirked of pride as Natalia the ship’s captain entered the galley everyone stood and saluted “Please no need for formalities we are not on Earth anymore” she signalled for them to be at ease “But I would like your attention for a couple of moments so I can say a few words” the crew all turned to face her, Natalia stood in front of the group looking at each and everyone one of them she smiled slightly “Everyone here who has volunteered for this has left behind their lives back on Earth, but all of us have no families some with only friends to leave behind and with how far we are going we will never see those friends again which I can understand may be hard for some of you and I know you are all nervous about what we are going to do but we are all here together willing to go fourth out into space who knows how many years it take but we’ve trained for years and gotten to know each other, so don’t think that you’ve left friends and loved ones behind because they are right here each of us in this room we are family and what we are going to do will be nothing short of extraordinary” Jacobs raised one of the small tin cups with a smile “Let’s make history everyone” everyone cheered and raised their drinks in salute to the journey that lay ahead.

Down in the cryo deck the crew had begun to get into their baths, Wallace turned to Anderson looking a little concerned “Mate are you sure these things are safe?” Anderson replied whilst trying to help another crew member with their thermal rig “Everything has been checked calibrated and double checked it will be fine, your thermal rig will reactivate your body’s internal systems when the ship reaches the destination” “But what if something goes wrong?” Anderson chuckled at Wallace’s comment “Then you’ll drown in the cryo fluid…but don’t worry you will be too unconscious to care” Wallace looked unnerved as he was helped into his cryo bath, Natalia was being helped into her bath by Jacobs who was her second in command “It’s truly unbelievable the thought of finding another civilisation” Jacobs didn’t seem so excited “Careful Captain that signal has been beaming out from the edge of the universe trillions of light years, there may be nothing to find when we arrive” Natalia looked at him with a slight glimmer of sanguinity “Then why venture out there if you think there is nothing?” Jacobs looked up at her “Isn’t that what science is about? To prove what is only theory to be fact, I may have doubt that there is nothing out there but it would be a huge mistake to not go” he smiled “even if it waists hundreds of years?” she said softly he replied “the search for knowledge is a timeless endeavour” she laughed hopefully “well we better not hold up the journey then” he nodded “see you in 400 years Captain” Natalia lay back as the hatch of the bath slid over enclosing her safely inside, Jacobs stood up and walked over to his bath he looked to Anderson “See you soon” Anderson smiled “going to be one hell of an adventure” both climbed into the bath which sealed shut over them, the crew was down for the long nap and the Asgard continued to drift deeper into space…400 years pass 

Jacobs sat slumped against the wall the gun held tight in his hands he didn’t know how long he had been crying he just stared at the body of Natalia laying on the floor her blank expression staring at him a vivid reminder that he was the one who had put a bullet in-between her eyes, he had no choice he thought to himself she was helping them she had gone nuts reading the texts in that god forsaken book, the ground started to shake violently “No I stopped her in time! I stopped her!” cracks began to split along the walls Jacobs stood up taking the communicator from his pocket “Anderson? Anderson, come in?” He ran quickly down the black stoned hallway his legs burning with pain but his will to get out kept him going, he left the citadel and the ground continued to shake but he stopped in his tracks and stared at the figures in front of him “Fuck!” he gasped, they were stood about twenty feet away draped in black hooded cloaks looking to sky which was now a deep blood red black clouds swirling in the sky, they didn’t appear to be moving just quietly chanting those words in that unknown alien language Jacobs didn’t dare wait any longer he ran again, the sky rumbled and cracked with thunder, lightning struck the ground hard splitting the stone Jacobs could see the shuttle up ahead surrounded by a jagged mountain range that looked like broken teeth of some colossal beast, this place there was nothing but beasts here twisted and malformed there was nothing pure here, everything was corrupted lurking in this dark place clawing at each other bound in an eternal nightmarish hell, as Jacobs reached the shuttle he looked to the mountains and could see that red beam of light streaking up into the sky it all began in that fucking cave Jacobs thought to himself, the thrusters erupted to life pushing the shuttle off the ground up towards the charcoal clouds swirling above, the shuttle groaned and shook violently Jacobs held onto the seat restraints tightly and closed his eyes hard waiting for the shuttle to break through the atmosphere, the deafening metallic orchestra finally fell silent, Jacobs looked out the starless black void and could see the Asgard still in orbit over the planet, “We can’t leave” Jacobs kept repeating to himself his eyes fixed on the ship as it slowly drew closer, he typed at the controls and began the shuttles docking sequence the autopilot would do the rest Jacobs turned from the seat and made his way to the airlock he slipped the gun from the back of his trousers slid out the magazine to check the ammunition he had plenty of rounds should anyone get in his way he slammed the rounds back in and cocked the gun, the shuttle rotated alongside the Asgard the thrusters firing into alignment and then cautiously propelling it into the ship’s airlock, the airlock door thudded open with Jacobs cautiously stepping out into the corridor, as he made his way he took the handgun from his back of his trousers and gripped it tightly, red from the warning lights had drowned out all colour as the alarms continued to blare out their cries of urgency, Jacobs stopped when he heard voices ahead pausing to listen he recognised them it was Anderson and Jennings they were on the bridge.

Anderson tapped at the screen fumbling to find the settings for the transmitter “Shit everything is fucked!” he growled, Jennings stood behind him looking out to the planet’s surface the beam of red light cutting through the black void of space she stared at the red intently “It’s so beautiful” she said in admiration, the screen blinked into function “Finally!” Anderson sighed with relief “Now we can call home”, Jacobs turned the corner quickly he aimed the gun at the two of them “Don’t you dare call home!” Jacobs yelled, the others turned quickly Jennings spoke with delight “Jacobs you’re alive?! We thought that Natalia had killed you with everyone else in the temple” “No but that crazy bitch certainly tried” Anderson started to walk slowly towards Jacobs “Jacobs why don’t you put the gun down?” he could see that Jacobs was trembling but from what happened down on the planet’s surface Anderson wasn’t surprised that Jacobs would be traumatised, Anderson was with Jacobs when Hendricks was found screaming with his organs and entrails ripped out and hanging from the ceiling of that black room the screaming wouldn’t stop only a soulless person wouldn’t have gone mad on some level at that sight “We should never have come here! Can’t you see what’s happening out there?!” Jacobs’ voice began to tremble with fear he looked to the window at the red beam his eyes began to well up with tears “have you not heard them…the voices, the writings scrawled on the walls throughout this ship pounding in my fucking skull!” he saw the alien writing written on the wall next to him he stared pensively at the black runes hearing the whispering in his head “I know what’s going to happen, they showed me, they are the ones who created everything and…and I know how it’s going to end, they are going to destroy it all” he looked back to Anderson and Jennings “We have to stop it, no one can come here that’s what they want, they want to leave” Jennings tried to reason with “We know that’s why we are leaving to warn those back on Earth” Jacobs turned to point the gun to Jennings who took a couple of steps back “We are not leaving either” Anderson began to storm towards Jacobs he roared “Are you mad?!” the gun swiftly turned back to Anderson “STAY BACK!...We can’t leave!” Jacobs bayed “If we don’t stop it here then everything will end”

Jennings and Anderson were frozen suddenly their gazes were not fixed on Jacobs but the figure that had emerged from the corridor where Jacobs had entered from the shuttle and was now standing behind him, Jacobs turned to see one of the creatures from the planet’s temple, a gangly creature black as night and faceless but its body shrouded in a blackened hood gown, it slowly approached Jacobs slender fingers began to slowly creep across his face tears streamed from his eyes as the faceless creature leaned in closely, Jacobs trembled dropping the gun onto the floor as the hooded figure caressed his cheek it growled and spoke in a dark tongue “Thruulvaenae el Khanaac” Jacobs let out a silent scream then collapsed to the floor dead, Anderson and Jennings moved away from the figure which looked at Jacobs then craned its head to look at them “Vaalca” Anderson looked confused “What’s it saying? We deciphered the language right?” Jennings tapped at the screen on her wrist activating the translator as the creature made its way to the console “Sindaeves caltravaa himellissa” Jennings voice trembled as she spoke “Witness something beautiful” “Jofrecene uudae do postruinca” “As we reach out” “Renn quenticaa laal henrendrickk fuu jaslayy” “And give the universe a gift” Jennings looked at the translation curiously, Anderson walked towards the creature as it gazed over the console “What gift?” it turned to face him and spoke one final word “Thruutae” Jennings collapsed to the ground Anderson turned and rushed over to her “Jennings! Sarah are you alright?! Sarah?!!!” He looked to the translator and saw what the creature said tears began to fall down his face then turning red from blood seeping from his eyes he focused on the word “Death” then collapsed as well, the creature pressed at the console then looked out to the planet and the beam reached out into the void a beacon to warn everyone what was to come, it raised its arms wide its kind had created this universe and now this was how it was going to end it looked down to the console and saw that the course had been set for Earth.

END