On The Edge

The unknown spaceship was approaching quickly, heads on to their vessel, on a collision course. The incident seemed unavoidable.

“Where the hell did this bastard come from?!” Captain Gerald Bostaph asked. “Did you try to signal them? What can we do to avoid direct hit?” He turned to Rade Lukic, First Mate. Two of them were on the Bridge, looking at the hazy image of what looked like a spacecraft right in front of them.

“Yes, sir! We signaled them, and they signaled us!” First Mate responded. “I gave the order to the Engine Room to slow down to a full stop. In the meantime, our Navigation Unit is executing a turning maneuver, trying to get out of the way. I am surprised as well. There were no other missions in this quadrant – ever. This is a phantom. A ghost ship. Flying Dutchman.”

“Yeah, sure. And it is some deep space Cthulhu race of ghost aliens flying on it,” Bostaph shook his head.

“You might be close to the truth, Captain. We explored so much of the universe, yet did not encounter any aliens yet. This event is overdue! This could be our moment!”

“Shut up, Lukic, and get us out of this mess. I am not looking for any adventures here. I am one mission away from retirement, and I don’t need any goddamn Cthulhu to ruin my well-deserved time to enjoy myself.”

“Aye, Captain! If you remember, we are retiring together. But it will sure be cool to close out our illustrious careers making friends with an advanced alien race!”

“Illustrious careers? Let’s hope they don’t demote us and put on a garbage disposer as a punishment for wrecking this tin can.” 

Space Cruiser Unbreakable was on a recon mission deep in the uncharted region of space. They did not expect to encounter anything out of ordinary in this quadrant, the Cruiser was old and was not considered fit for any risky endeavors – notwithstanding its pretentious name, the ship has been broken and repaired numerous times. The crew members were not the best or even middle-of-the-pack performers. For Captain Bostaph and First Mate Lukic, it was one of the last missions before their happy retirement somewhere on the beautiful shores of the Booflonian ocean or in the magical clouds of Ljusalfheim.

Humanity had always looked at the stars and the universe and wondered what is out there. Are we alone? Is the cosmos infinite? What mysteries are lurking in the regions far away from Earth? Progress had been very slow, distances unsurmountable, and challenges abound, yet people had persevered in the quest of uncovering secrets of the universe. Then, about three centuries ago, an inflection point had happened. First, the nature and phenomenon of dark matter and unaccounted-for gravity had been explained. After that, dark energy and the true nature of space-time had been explained. Practical means of wielding the latter had come with the deep understanding of its essence. Space Compression mechanism had been discovered and applied to serve humanity. A new generation of spacecraft, propelled by Space Compressors, had been built. Instead of using propulsion to push vessels through the vast oceans of space, these new, slick spaceships relied on the fact that space itself could be compressed almost infinitely, significantly reducing actual travel distances. This engineering breakthrough had opened up the universe for mankind, and now enormous regions of formerly unfathomable galaxies were being traversed, mapped, and sometimes even settled. People had become explorers and masters of the universe. 

“Sir, bad news!” Navigator Leslie Maynard’s voice filled the Bridge.

“What else? You cannot turn the ship?” The captain was annoyed.

“No sir, we are executing the maneuver. The problem is the phantom ship is doing the same!”

“What do you mean by that?”

“It repeats all our motions. This is very strange…if I may, sir…”

“Yes, go ahead, for the love of God!”

“It almost seems like our mirror image. I know it makes no sense, but this is how you can explain its maneuvers. Either they are copying everything we are doing, or we are seeing ourselves in a mirror.”

“Navigator, do you still keep that supply of hallucinogenic bugs from Enceladus? I remember telling everyone to airlock this shit and never touch anything like that!”

“No, sir, I am absolutely sober! I have no other explanation, sir!” Navigator’s voice reverberated in the Bridge.   

“So, you suggest I should believe your nonsense about the invisible mirror we encountered in deep space?”

“Yes, sir! I wanted to say no…I don’t know…We will try to turn around.”

“Go do your job, Navigator! Enough of this baloney!” Captain Bostaph wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Lukic,” he turned to First Mate, “Any ideas what is going on? Could this be mass hypnosis or some other weird shit?”

“Could be anything, Captain. We should focus on avoiding a collision.”

“Right. What if we nuke the bastard?”

“If it mimics everything we do for some strange reason known only to its ghost crew, it might just as well nuke us back. I don’t like this prospect.”

“Okay, let’s not provoke the ghosts, whoever they are.”

“Captain Bostaph,” a deep, low voice filled the Bridge. “Senior Engineer Chen speaking.”

“What is it, Chen? Report!”

“Sir, something is wrong with the Compressor. I don’t understand, never seen anything like this before.”

“Shit, one more problem…what is wrong? Can you fix it?”

“Sir, the thing is…nothing is wrong, everything seems to be within the norm. But…looks like there is no space to compress.”

“What do you mean ‘no space’?! Are you guys taking your captain for an idiot?! First, my Navigator tells me we are in front of the magic mirror, now my Engineer tells me there is no space around us! Did you eat these hallucinogenic bugs together with Navigator Maynard or alone?”

“No, sir! I mean, yes, sir! Sorry…I ate no bugs whatsoever.”

“Then stop with your crazy stories and go back to the Engine Room!”

“I am in the Engine Room, sir…”

“Right…whatever. Do what you need to do!”

Captain Bostaph looked at the image of the phantom ship on the screen. As Unbreakable started to execute the turning maneuver and the other ship mimicked Cruiser’s motions, they were now positioned more side by side rather than directly in front of each other.

“I’ll go check the Navigation Unit,” Lukic said and left the Bridge. He stepped into a Maglev capsule and was transported to the Navigation room in a matter of seconds.

“Leslie, what is going on?” Lukic put his hand on Navigator’s shoulder.

“We are in good shape, Rade. I am confident we’ll be able to avoid the wreck if the phantom ship keeps repeating our maneuvers. It does look like our mirror image, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, it does, Leslie. By the way, I still have those bugs from Enceladus left. Come by my quarters and we can repeat the magical night we spent together last week.”

“Thanks for the offer, Rade. I will take you up on it once we are out of this conundrum.”

“Nah, don’t worry. I am sure this is a very friendly alien race and we will have a lot of fun mingling with them.”

“Mingling? What do you have in mind?” Maynard looked at Lukic, squinting her eyes.

“Oh, nothing specifically. We will need to study and learn everything about them. For example, their psychology, physiology, reproduction, stuff like that…”

“First Mate Lukic, come back to the Bridge, quickly!” Captain’s voice thundered around them.

“Well, duty calls. We will continue this conversation later – my offer stands,” Lukic winked at Maynard and went back to Maglev capsule.

Back at the Bridge, Lukic saw Captain talking to Chief Scientist Maria Hernandez. He glanced at the monitor – both ships were now very close, but positioned side by side and moving very, very slowly on parallel trajectories.

“Chief Scientist Hernandez has a theory,” Bostaph said. “She does not believe this is a ghost ship, or an alien vessel, or a space mirror.”

“What is it then? Damn, I was so hoping we could meet sentient species and learn from each other!” Lukic snapped his fingers.

“Well, gentlemen, I believe we arrived at the edge!” Chief Scientist Hernandez exclaimed, waving her hand in a theatrical gesture and swinging her long, red, curly hair in the air.

“The edge? What edge? I’ve been on the edge most of my life,” Captain said.

“The edge of the universe, of course,” Hernandez announced, pointing her finger at the image of the phantom ship. “This is not an alien ship. This is us, reflected off the boundary of space.”

“So, Leslie…Navigator Maynard was right? Is it some kind of a mirror?” Lukic scratched his chin.

“I’ve heard different theories about the universe, but not that it is bounded by a mirror…” Bostaph mumbled.

“On the other hand, it makes perfect sense!” First Mate said, his eyes opened wide. “The universe is a huge ball, surrounded by a mirror – this is why we never observed any edge artifacts, we see the same thing reflected back!”

“Well, I don’t actually think it is a mirror…” Chief Scientist looked at them, wrinkling her forehead. “But it should be easy to check. Are you familiar with the Javelin Argument, gentlemen?”

“No. Please, enlighten us,” Captain suggested.

“Alright, this one goes back to the ancients. The argument was invented by Lucretius to prove the universe is infinite. Imagine a man traveling across the universe, throwing a javelin in front of him. Suppose this man nears the boundary of the universe and hurls his javelin at it. It either lands where the force of the throw sent it, or it hits some sort of a barrier. In the first outcome, there is obviously no edge. In the second, the barrier is only a barrier if it separates our compartment of space from the other, so there must be something on the other side. And so on to infinity. Does this make sense?”

“Very clever…” Lukic whistled. “The mirror is not really the edge then, there must be another part of the universe and another mirror behind it.”

“This is not what it implies, First Mate,” Hernandez looked at him suspiciously. “Anyway, the fallacy of the argument could be demonstrated if we apply it to the surface of the Earth – our imaginary man keeps throwing the javelin and arrives at the same point where he started from. The Earth is a sphere, its surface is not infinite, no barrier needed.”

“Okay, I still don’t see where you are going with that,” Captain said.

“I suggest we are dealing with some sort of edge effects, where space itself curves. Or it could indeed be an alien ship. Anyway, it is easy to check – we need to throw our imaginary javelin at it.”

“Alright, I’m on it!” First Mate turned around and went towards the Maglev capsule.

“Lukic, where are you going?!” Captain Bostaph shouted after him.

“To the Track & Field Unit, of course!” Lukic shouted back, running away. “We must have some javelins there…”

“Yes, good idea…wait…stop, you idiot!” Captain yelled. “She does not mean actual javelin…or do you, Hernandez?”

“No, of course not!” she smiled. “I suggest we launch something that can’t hurt our ship if it is reflected back at us. For example, we could remove the warhead and fire a missile.”

“Brilliant!” First Mate rejoined them. “I was not really sure if I can hurl a javelin that far.”

Chief Scientist looked at him intently but said nothing.

“Okay, let’s do it then. What are the risks?” Bostaph asked.

“I don’t see any. Unless this is indeed an alien vessel and they’d consider it an attack and destroy us.”

“We’d be ready for that. I will order the Battery Unit to keep all the active defenses at a hundred percent and be prepared to fire back if needed. After the missile launch, will you be able to tell us what is going on?”

“Yes, sir! I believe it will provide me with the evidence I need.”

A few hours later all commanding officers gathered on the Bridge. The phantom ship was flying on a parallel course, at a safe distance. Both ships were moving very slowly. The Space Compressor still did not quite perform as intended.

“Is everything ready for the launch?” Captain Bostaph asked.

“Yes, sir! We will fire at your command!” Lieutenant Zuma reported.

“Okay, then! Aim, ready, fire!” Captain ordered, punching First Mate in the chest.

They observed a missile leaving the battery and going in the direction of the ghost ship, which was still hanging next to Unbreakable.

“Look, they do mimic us! It is a mirror!”  Lukic exclaimed, pointing at another missile, fired by the phantom vessel at the same moment.

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall…” Captain Bostaph mumbled.

Two missiles went straight toward each other, getting closer and closer.

“Chances of a precise shot like this, hitting our missile at such a distance, are basically zero,” Lieutenant Zuma said, folding his arms behind his back.

The crew looked in amazement as two missiles went straight at each other, ready to collide. But then something happened. Instead of a head-on smash, their trajectories started to curve. For a brief moment, images of both projectiles disappeared from the monitors and then reappeared again. Only now one of the missiles was heading toward Unbreakable, while the other one – toward the phantom ship.

“Are active defenses ready?” Captain asked.

“Of course, sir!” Zuma answered. “We’ll take it down in no time!”

A minute later, the ship’s batteries fired intercept rockets, equipped with complete warheads this time, which promptly destroyed the object approaching Unbreakable. Everyone watched in disbelief as the phantom ship did exactly the same with the projectile nearing it.

“Astonishing!” Lukic gasped. “If it was a mirror, the missile would have broken it. Am I right, Scientist Hernandez?”

“Not exactly, First Mate. Do you really expect to find mirrors in deep space? Rhetorical question.” Everyone was silent, waiting for an explanation.

“Okay, Hernandez. You promised us answers after we do your javelin test. Here you go, enlighten us!” Captain Bostaph said.

“Yes, indeed. As I suspected, we are experiencing the edge effect. The edge as in ‘the edge of the universe’, to be precise. The phantom ship we see is not an actual ship, it is our reflection off this edge. I think now this fact should be clear to everyone.”

“Damn, I was so excited to meet intelligent species!” Lukic banged his fist on the table.

“We hurled the javelin and it came right back to us…” The captain said quietly.

“Exactly!” Hernandez swung her long red hair and looked around the Bridge in triumph. “We just invalidated the javelin argument. It did not go forward as we intended, and it did not hit a wall, either. Rather, it turned around. There is no wall and no mirror. We are dealing with extreme space-time curvature at the end of the world.”

“You say it beautifully, Maria!” Lukic put his hand on his heart. “The world is curved and there is no escape…instead of falling off its sharp edge, we are turned around…”

“But how is this possible? What is behind this curved edge then?” Captain scratched his head.

“You are going back to the fallacy of the javelin argument. It does not mean something must be ‘behind’ the edge. Imagine a two-dimensional universe as a flat circle. The circumference of the circle, instead of being abrupt, curves and loops around itself, like a shape of a torus in the third dimension. If you travel from the center of the circle, you reach its extremities, then loop around and find yourself in the same spot, in front of the circumference again. We are experiencing the same phenomena, but in a three-dimensional universe.”

“How do you know this is correct? What if this is indeed a ghost ship and we’ve just destroyed the missile it has shot at us?” Lukic did not want to give up easily.

“Because, as Lieutenant Zuma pointed out, chances of such an extremely precise shot, mirroring the trajectory of our projectile, are next to nothing. I bet you a few bugs from Enceladus – if we repeat the test with different objects, we’d get the same result. It is a mirroring effect of space-time curvature.”

“Did you say bugs from Enceladus?” Captain frowned. “What is wrong with you, people? I thought my instructions were clear – I ordered everyone to get rid of this crap!”

“I am sorry, Captain, I think you were the only one who actually airlocked your supply…” First Mate muttered.

“What? Unbelievable!” Bostaph yelled. “Okay, then I will have to confiscate yours, Lukic. This is an order.”                         

“Another observation raising questions,” Hernandez continued, “is how strangely our Space Compressor behaves. As Engineer Chen described, it looks like the Compressor ran out of space to compress, which is nonsense. In fact, there is a different explanation – the space around here is already compressed, there is nothing more the engine can do. And it is compressed as a result of space-time edge curvature effect.”

“Okay, what do we do now?” Captain asked.

“We are preparing another turning maneuver, Captain,” Navigator Maynard said. “In a couple of hours, we will have the edge behind us and will start flying back using propulsion engines. We will get off the edge, so to say.”

“This is an outstanding discovery, we should carefully record and document all observations,” Chief Scientist added.

“Maybe we will all get promoted into jobs on an actual modern spacecraft, not this piece of scrap metal!” First Mate Lukic smiled.

“Enough is enough,” Captain concluded. “I want to go home. I need to plan my retirement party. Lukic,” he turned to First Mate, “I will be counting on your supply of Enceladus bugs for that.”

“Aye, Captain, at your command! Leslie, are you joining us?” Lukic asked Navigator Maynard.

“As soon as I finish charting the course!” “One more thing, while I remember,” Lukic snapped his fingers. “Zuma, could you please check if we have any javelins in the Track & Field Unit? I want to see if I can hit the edge of the universe!”