Surfing Chance — Chapter 15

Universe Alpha[1]

"There is another way! Your plan will never work as you intended it to. The side effects of your journey may become perilous for the universe itself. You might end up being transported to an unknown area of reality and destroy the fabric of existence along with it…"

Chance watched Yuri as she eloquently explained her theory and it was not implausible. He smiled as she continued with her explanation. He knew that there were certain risks involved with his plan to outrun the speed of light, but he never stopped to consider them fully. He thought that if he'd stay on Earth for the time needed to finish all his calculations, it would indefinitely postpone the experiment.

Yuri walked to a big flipchart that Chance had in his living room and turned the page. She took a black and red marker and started drawing a giant oval which represented the universe as it is known. Its diameter — 93 billion light years. Its radius, nearly 46,5 billion light years.

"Based on the data of the James Webb, the most distant object that was recorded is nearly 13 billion light years from Earth. It looks to us like a galaxy in formation. That is the point to which you need to go. If the universe is indeed expanding equally in all directions, without a center, you need to establish a trajectory — a straight line between two points. Once you reach that place, 13 billion light years from Earth via a portal, you need to open another portal in the exact same direction, on the same trajectory. Once you do this 3–4 times, you should be close to the expansion line of the universe… now here is comes the tricky part…"

"What if the universe isn't expanding at all?", said Chance.

"Exactly. I was thinking about this a few weeks ago, what if the redshift as perceived by us is merely a phenomenon that happened billions of years ago. What if the universe used to be expanding and it isn't expanding now anymore?" asked Yuri.

"I think a more relevant question is related to what you drew on the table. What if the edges are not there, but much farther… A group of Oxford scientists that have estimated that the actual size of the universe is 250 times bigger than the observable universe. This means it may be as big as 7 trillion light years across."

"Even if this is big, my method for getting there is still quite effective. Think of a needle sewing into a fabric. In and out. You will enter a portal here on Earth and exit it 13 billion lightyears from Earth and then fly into the next portal in the same direction and this will bring you 26 billion light years from Earth.

Even if the universe is 7 trillion light years across and we are close to the very edge, it will not take you more than 540 jumps before you reach the edge."

…

"Like a giant needle, sewing through the fabric… This might keep the universe from getting torn apart.", state Chance as he was deep in thought.

"More importantly, it will keep you time-safe. If you survive the exit, you will be able to return back to us… return back to Earth in our lifetime. Travelling at extreme speed does not guarantee this outcome.". She wanted to seem only mildly concerned.

…

I need to make additional modifications to the portal technique that I am using. Open portal at x-distance, in the exact direction of my trajectory, considering my trajectory the line going from point a (Earth) to point b (Farthest Galaxy visible through James Webb @ 13,1 billion light years). Point c will consequently be the next point in spacetime that aligns with this trajectory. The modification should be: open portal only if there is spacetime at its destination coordinates.

…

Yuri was with Chance at the moment of his departure.

"If something goes wrong, come back and let's live to try another day…"

Chance knew that this won't happen. He firmly believed this would be the last time they saw one another.

"Yuri, thank you! You saved me from a great number of terrible mistakes. Who knew that you'd be the one to save our universe from myself.", said Chance with a sad smile.

He wanted to say more, but thought it better to leave things as they are. He was not sure that he'd be able to come back. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to. The powers that he now has are much too dangerous for being used on an Earth scale. Any mistake could have catastrophic consequences for the whole human race. For now, it is better to leave thing be and run off into the vast openness. After passing the expansion line, who knows… perhaps an opportunity for an even greater exploration journey will present itself.

He hugged Yuri and said goodbye. He opened a first portal from Earth to the moon. All the breakings were activated so that he is shielded from the outer space effects. He summoned his upcycled surfboard from the living room wall. After setting the course, he opened the first portal and flew through it on his surfboard. He was in the farthest galaxy ever observed by people. It was much like the Milky way in terms of complexity and star population. Still and silent. From the portal that he still had open; a thin red laser beam was pointing towards the direction of his next jump. It was an installation that he developed on the moon, to help him with keeping a straight course. Without closing this portal, he opened another one next to it and then another one 13,1 billion lightyears from the place where he was now. He continued to do so, using the laser beam course.

10. 100. 300. 500. 510. 520. 530. 535.545.555.565.

Chance was still opening portals and the edge seemed to still evade him. He continued to open portals at 13,1 billion light years intervals.

600.650.700.800.900.1000

Chance was close to double the length of the initial planned journey. One thousand jumps at 13,1 billion lightyears. He was now at 13,1 trillion light years from planet Earth.

When he wanted to open the next portal, it did not work.

"Finally!" he thought to himself. This must be the end.

He set the distance to 90% of 13,1 billion for the next jump. Fail. He set the distance to 80%. Fail. He set the distance to 50% and the portal opened.

"Another 6,55 billion light years! Now the expansion line should be between here and the next 4 billion light years."

Through another set of halving trials, he moved to 2 billion light years and then 500 million light years and then 100 million light years and he made a final stop when he was about 10 lightyears away from the expansion line. Last stretch.

…

Chance thought to himself:

"Einstein used to say: everything is relative. How can 10 light years be extremely close and yet, if you travel at 99% the speed of light it can take more than 10 years to reach the final destination.

If you were to travel at 50% speed of light, it would take 20 years to reach it. If you were to travel at 33% speed of light, it would take 30 years. Now if we take into account acceleration up to the optimal speed and deceleration, it will take considerably more than the above figures.

If we were to travel this last 10 light years with the currently available space faring technologies and everything would go smoothly, it could take more than 15,000 years to make this journey.

15,000 years… and yet, with another set of portal jumps, I can reach it in a matter of seconds."

Chance saw the frontier and was surging towards it on his enormous elongated surfboard. His eyes were burning with excitement and his body was tingling with fear that he tried to overcome. He tried to not think about all the ways in which this giant experiment could fail. Not being able to return to Earth because in his journey at high velocity he ends up fast-forwarding the time on Earth relative to his… This could mean that he goes back to Earth thousands of years into the future when the civilization is most likely disappeared or utterly unrecognizable from the one, he left behind.

Getting lost in outer space was just as big a threat. Imagine trying to find one meager star hidden in some distant galaxy… one of trillions. In the observable universe alone, there are 200 billion trillion stars, and as Chance discovered, the observable universe is but a fraction of the total universe size.

He tried to clear his mind of all these precarious thoughts and plunge into the unknown. The expansion line was more than just dark, it looked completely opaque and dense as steel. Chance pushed through it and it bent. He applied extreme temperature and force to bend it even further and it changed texture. Now Chance felt things that were inconceivable to the human mind and in this paradox of hallucinations, his brain was trying to put meaning into what he saw. In one split second he saw himself as a sperm pushing through the walls of a condom. He was spinning his tail as fiercely as he could and he broke out and was heading towards the gigantic egg.

In the mind of Chance, the only way to cross a solid barrier was by breaking quantum mechanics and making his whole body exhibit the traits of a particle such as an electron that can jump through impossible walls. This breaking was the secret weapon that Chance had in stock for crossing the expansion line. Keeping a clear mind and a steady train of thoughts proved onerous.

As soon as he traversed the egg-shell, his body melted away along with everything in it and he was no longer an individual with a clear self. His essence merged with the contents of the egg and this organism became an extension of his mind. In this strange state he found solace. The memories of his life on Earth were floating alongside him in an ocean of jellyfish tentacle-like strings. He could see his cells, his childhood dreams, his first school days, his favorite ramen noodles, his tattoos, his old lost Christmas sock, his anger, his first kiss… all the pieces of his personality… fragments of his past floating in this giant warm gelatinous womb…

The expansion line of the universe must have retained some of its early-stage chaos and in the mind of a mere human being that tried to make sense of it, it looked like a kaleidoscope of billions upon billions of colored Lego pieces mixed up with screws and bolts and wardrobe pieces at a gigantic furniture factory. The building blocks of the universe were not meant to be comprehensible and neither was the universe. It was not built for elegance or display and it is often unburdened by what people labelled as meaning.

He felt like he glimpsed into his pre-birth state of serenity with silence interrupted only by an out of tune heartbeat. Meat, skin, blood were the fragile ingredients that in sum created a false illusion of impenetrabity and protection. There is no greater miracle than that of spontaneous creation for this entails the creation of matter out of nothingness and the creation of self-awareness and consciousness out of inanimate matter particles.

…

In his dismantled state, Chance's left eye was gazing at the pinkish liquid in which he was submerged take the shape of a round bowl. The jellyfish strings of his self were suddenly scooped upwards by a giant tin ladle. Another scoop managed to pick up his left eye along with several other strings of his being. He saw himself get poured into a reddish plastic cup by a teenage-like blue alien (he actually looked purple if seen through the red cup wall).

His eye was taken a tour through the party house. As far as he understood, he was the punch-like beverage that people had in their cups as all of them were socializing. The 'tour guide' walked outside the house with its cup and placed it on the poolside.

The blue aliens were behaving strangely and they were waiting for some kind of ritual. At last, one of them was chosen and pushed into the greenish slimy pool. Its body dissolved into nothingness and the fumes that came out of the pool were quickly inhaled by everyone around. After the inhaling they started moving strangely and the noises of what seemed to be music got louder and louder. They were getting intoxicated. Chance's lost eye was monitoring this strange scene from a puddle of punch that formed as his red plastic cup turned sideways. His eye was terribly close to the pool edge and the punch puddle started dripping into it.

…

The 'belongings' of the human being named Chance were now resting in cups of blue intoxicated aliens. They were all sipping their drink and the pieces of the professor were ingested by these random strangers. Memories, beliefs, ideas, personality traits, all that was previously contained, was now served for hedonistic enjoyment. The piece of consciousness that remained stuck to his eyeball was experiencing this ceremony. He was hearing noise and this meant that his ears were still around and probably stuck in some odd creature's cup.

After the effect of intoxication went away, the blue beings visibly changed their behavior. They became aggressive and nervous. This did not last. Immediately another one of them was tossed in the pool and as that individual dissolved, the fumes rose up and everyone inhaled again. They resumed their dance. This sacrificing ritual became Chance's new reality. He tried to bring himself back together, but his nose must have also inhaled some of the party fumes. Instead of finding the strength to overcome his predicament, his pupil became dilated and he felt himself getting stretched even thinner.

He wondered if the host upon preparing the punch batch had taken the time to explain to the guests what the secret ingredient was. Or perhaps, they were used to consuming lifeforms such as people like French wines that are exquisite if they are from a certain geographic area and from a certain year.

"The human being known as Tiberius Chance was raised in the Milky Way galaxy nearly 13 billion years after the Big Bang in his universe and he was harvested this afternoon for our enjoyment here today… Please fill your glasses and savor it."

Chance felt as if billions of years have passed since he was at this alien party. Before he could think of a plan, a blue child reached out and grabbed the whole remaining punch bowl. He placed on a wheeled wagon and pulled it towards the garden pool. All the guests were applauding the effort of this youngling. The wagon got parked on the pool edge and then he kicked it like a football onto the gastric juice swimming pool. The ladle flew over the bowl higher and in mid-air he saw his own nose, ingesting the fumes of the loose strings of self that were already dissolved.

The child proudly walked towards the left eyeball and picked it up in his tentacle fingers. It said some words and then threw it in the sinking bowl of punch. This was the unique opportunity that the professor was waiting for. He did not dare to form a plan, but he was waiting for the moment in which enough of him was collected into one place. He reassembled himself and swam up to the surface of the pool. The aliens that saw him panicked as if some long-foretold end of the world prophecy came true. Chance tried to say something, but then he saw the sky turn dark. The instance when he finally got back on his feet, the planet and the whole star system vanished into the void of nothingness.

…

Chance was transported to the Orion entity and in the vast hall, he saw an enormous throne and lots of small tv screens that were horribly framed like museum paintings. He also saw himself in what he initially thought was a mirror.

"We have been expecting you, but it took you much longer than we thought. This is the version of Chance that was not assisted by his students, as you were. I guess as they say, if you want to go fast, go alone…", this was the entity's attempt at a dark humor. None of the professors were laughing.

"Hmm. Not too fond of comedy, are you now. Since we're all here, I guess we can begin the merger. Let's start with Yuri first.", the entity revealed the sleeping girl and as soon as the professors saw her, she vanished into nothingness.

"Don't worry. She will be perfectly fine. She was moved from your Beta universe to your Alpha universe for merger. Mild headache and nausea. Nothing out of the ordinary. Now for phase two…"

Chance was shoved into one another and like two water droplets, they merged into a bigger and taller professor that later on shrank back to normal size. His memories of the last year became awfully scrambled. On the 1st of June, in one mind, he spent an afternoon at university and in the other mind he was stuck in the snowstorms of Titan.

"You mustn't try to make sense of it all. Just let the mind re-organize itself and we shall reconvene here in a few hours. I know you waited for answers, but have a little more patience and you will get them… Rest now, professor.", said the entity as it presented the option to lie down on a green Chaise Longue.

…

[1] Universe Alpha — still existing.

Universe Beta — annihilated.