The Hubble Moment

Those who dream of traveling at the speed of light or faster always thought it would be only a few generations. Science fiction stories littered with amazing unimaginably vast distances traveled in a chapter. For generations they hoped the dream would come true. It took one thousand years to leave the solar system. Ten thousand years to reach the closest stars of the Milky Way. It took one hundred thousand years to explore other galaxies. There is only one place untouched, deep space. The journey to the furthest point from the big bang was now in the tenth year of the mission. The mission has traversed many wormholes to get to this point.

Captain Moore woke up from his sleep. “How strange” he thought. The ship has stopped. The vessel has only stopped twice in ten years and that was under his orders. There had better be a good reason the officers stopped the ship.

“Captain, Captain!” he heard through the walls.

“Yes, go ahead bridge, why have we stopped” the captain demanded.

“There is something in the way” The bridge officer said.

“Well, go around it” replied the captain.

“We can’t sir” the officer responded.

The captain answered “ I'll be right up”

The bridge was crowed with officers as the captain arrives. Most eyes were fixed upon the screen. The only thing visible was a deep blue transparent thick haze.

“How far away are we from it and what is the size?” the captain inquired. One of the science officer responds,

“A quarter light year, size unknown, no measurable curvature, sir”.

“Ahead slow six, to hundred thousand miles, release TS-12 probes and let me know when we arrive,” ordered the captain. He left the bridge and made his way to the secure communications room to send messages to his commanders.

The captain has been informed that they have arrived and was on his way back to the bridge. When he arrived, he looked up at the large display. That had to be the most beautiful blue body in space he has ever seen he thought.

“Status on the probes?” he inquired.

“The haze is transparent sir” Science officer Holder responds and continues, “appears to be space, devoid of any material, some kind of buffer.”

“How is that possible?” the Captain asked.

“I do not know sir,” said Holder.

“Any damage to the probe or life forms on the probe?” The captain continued.

“No sir” Holder replied. He turned toward Matthews, the Flight Officer and saaid, “Could we fly the ship through this?”

“Yes sir,” answered Matthews. Holder, Matthews, or none of the officers can tell the captain how long the blue haze went on for or what is on the other side. They still did not know how large it was.

“Ahead slow 2, increase speed slowly, and continue until notified,” Instructed the captain.

Five days later, the captain and officers were on the bridge when they noticed the blue haze slowly turning black. They were almost out of the deep blue haze.

“Analysis?” The captain asks.

"Just more of what we left before we entered this buffer.” Holder said.

Soon the ship was in deep space again. Behind them was the large blue haze, so all views are blocked from the rear. In front of them, a view that had most of ships crew glued to the display screens no matter their location on the vessel. Ahead the sight of millions of deep blue haze spheres, in all shapes and sizes depending on the distance. The bridge and rest of the ship wrapped in silence. Behold, displayed in grand beauty, a universe of universes. Finally, the captain said, “The universe just got a lot bigger”

Denny E. Marshall has had art, poetry, and fiction published. One recent credit is fiction at 50-Word Stories Fall 2017. See more at www.dennymarshall.com.

Find more by Denny E. Marshall in the Author Index.

Comment on this story in the Aphelion Forum

Return to Aphelion's Index page.