Microstory 94: The Verge

At the beginning of the 23rd century, the second most important discovery in the world was made. They had found the first evidence of the simplex dimensions. They continued to study its properties, and were able to tap into it a few decades later. After many failures and deaths that were covered up by the government, they were able to successfully send a vessel through the orange simplex. The volunteer astronauts traveled for only a matter of hours and ended up in what they thought to be the exact center of the universe. They were unable to navigate in any other direction. No matter how much force they exerted, they were only allowed to head in two directions; forwards or backwards. There was a bright light in the center of their universe that was presumably the source of this force. They tried to approach it, but were unable to do so safely. Instead, after long deliberation, they decided to build a large structure and literally cover up what one scientist called The Verge. It was a single point in space through which all moving matter in the universe passes. Matter, including ships, can travel either towards The Verge, or away from it, but it cannot subvert it. If there was a planet only a couple lightyears from your own, you had to head towards The Verge, and could then essentially turn around and head in a slightly different degree to your destination. After centuries of chaos, where anyone with a ship could claim any planet they happened to land on first, a group of people formed a military force designed to regulate interstellar travel. They later built a space station the size of an entire planet around The Verge. It would not be another few millennia before the absolute most important discovery was made. The Verge was actually not the center of the universe; it was only the center of the galaxy. And apparently, there were other galaxies. They just couldn’t observe them due to the light disruption of The Verge.