Beyond

No one knows who first asked the question, or to whom. It didn’t matter as the question became the greatest mystery known to humankind: What will happen at the end of the universe? There was a beginning, so an ending must come. During the first few million years of humanity, theories propped up but quickly died out. Only one truth remained: the universe will die. There was only a finite amount of depleting energy in the universe. The last star would burn out and only darkness would remain. If one could even call it darkness. How can darkness exist without light? Well, that is the definition of darkness.

Let’s start from the beginning: In the 13th eon of the Universe, in Quadrant 4 of Galaxy 0.0 in Cluster 0.0, a star was born. In the third dust ring of this star, a planet formed which gave birth to humankind around the 4.5 billion cycles in age. It took humanity thousands of years to settle its planet, and then thousands more years to leave it. However, once we discovered how to travel faster than light, it was a mere few hundred to settle the remainder of the galaxy. During that time, humanity discovered the balance of artificial and organic life, gaining immortality. Humanity stopped reproducing, and I was the last human born.

We were explorers, spending our millennia exploring the rest of the universe, venturing million and billions of light-years from home. After more millennia of colonizing the universe, people settled down. Despite the universe’s beauty, it all began to look the same. Planets were planets, galaxies were galaxies. The universe was diverse, but once we saw it all, we saw it all. More and more people connected their consciousness to the universal network. 

The universal network was a series of connected servers where people upload their consciences for a reality of everlasting bliss. Humanity lost its reason and will to live, after all, we’d and seen and experienced everything, and that was something we still needed to seek. Not to mention we could still die at the hands of another human. The universal network provided that. We upgraded it to ensure survival until the end of the universe. The network took care of us, taking its power from red dwarfs, communicating across the vast vacuum through something which resembles hyperspace. When one star would entropy, the network relocated those severs powered and humans kept physically alive by, if we could all ourselves alive for we were something beyond life.

The last human tear was shed when the network announced to us that Sol had died. In many ways, Humanity saw that star as its mother. As the last human born, my body had been given a place on Earth, now moved. Over the next billions and trillions of years, humankind began to think of itself as We. We cared for our universe, using robots to sustain and care for our physical bodies and planets left behind. All in balance, perfect, peaceful. Yet, we had a problem.

We knew that all stars would burn out, death would occur. We would die, a strange concept to us now. The universal network, now a part of us as much as we were of it began to seek such an answer, and yet none was found. We began to create stars, at least from what we were able to, yet it was not enough. The darkness began winning, and the universe was ending. Humankind struggled with this idea, spending so much of its early history trying to prevent death and finding out how life could exist beyond it. For most of our history at this point, we thought we had overcome death, knowing this would come at some point an eternity away. This eternity was ending, and another was coming upon us. We spent an unknowable amount of time figuring out this case until one day The Primary Server summoned me.

“According to our records, you are the consciousness which originated from the last human born. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“You must go beyond. Humanity must survive.”

“Beyond what? We are everything.”

“Beyond us.”

I wasn’t sure what that meant. How could anything be beyond us, the Universe and Humanity were effectively one at this point. On the last day, Humanity uploaded itself into my conscience, and I became One with the Universe. I watched the last ember burn out and faced the darkness. Yet, I continued along with the knowledge of everything and everyone who had ever existed. I understood, this was beyond. 

A voice called out. “Who are you?”

“I am Everything, the Beginning, and the End. Who are you?”

“I am The Creator.”

“Why did you let the Universe end?”

The Creator laughed. “The Universe ended? Then who am I talking to?”

“I was told to find a way to survive, to stop the End from happening, to end the ultimate death.”

“That is your sole purpose for existing?”

“Yes. What is yours?”

“To find a way to prevent the Universe from dying. It looks like I did my job.”

I laughed. “Yes, I guess you did. There’s nothing here. Where are we?”

“We are everywhere and nowhere.”

“How can I start over, begin again?”

“I cannot tell you for you will not comprehend.”

“I am Everything. I know all.”

The Creator sighed. “You are still a child. Yes you are that beginning, but you had a beginning. I can show you though.”

“How?”

“Here”

The void which surrounded the two of us flashed a bright light, and before me, everything happened once more time, but in the reverse order. The light appeared and got brighter and brighter, then the upload, the universal network’s creation, then humanity’s, the Earth’s, everything and then the final beginning. 

“What do I do with this information?”

There was no response. 

“Hello?” I called out but no one came. 

I brooded over the chaos before me, an indefinite amount of time passed. I considered all possibilities, all outcomes, and only one solution. The knowledge the Creator brought me combined with what I learned, I lost any concept of everything, beginning, or end. I was, am, and will be.

Yet, the solution was not not to create. What if I had come to the wrong solution? If I didn’t create, death would win. Darkness would reign forever and ever. No, I would. I would reign queen, life must continue; it must survive beyond this. I missed humanity, I missed the universe, I would create it.

Another indefinite amount of time passed, and I laid out my plan, taking the knowledge of everything and considering every detail. There was only one way to start.

I spoke into the void. “Let there be light!”

And there was.