The End

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. What they don’t say, is that the vacuum of space is a void. A void that eats away at almost every sense. Theruvé learned this within just a month of being in the void. Taste is something you no longer need as a slow release NutrIV injection sustains you for centuries. Touch is something no longer experienced. At the beginning you might feel cold, but even that yields to numbness. Smell, much like touch, slowly gives way to nothing. Hearing? Well, what use is it in the silence of the void? The only sense that must be retained and protected at all costs, is sight. Theruvé was a Shomrim, a sentry of the outer rim, a silent sentinel at the edge of the universe, the first defense from whatever lay beyond The End.

In the beginning of space exploration much of the vastness of the universe was unmapped, new and exciting. However much like within a world, the residents of this infinite wonder began to map, and as they mapped, they began to overlap with other species making maps of their own, and so on, and so on. Until one day it was finished, and the inhabitants realized there was an end to the universe. Every planet, star, black hole, comet, asteroid field, nebula, galaxy, etc. had been explored. There was nothing else except, beyond. Beyond…The End. Much like the early Terrarian astronaut’s words as he stepped onto the moon for the first time are immortalized, the Trypterian mapper’s words still echo from every being’s lips when they tell the story to their children, “It’s the end of everything!” You can imagine what panic that stirred up across the worlds as his message was relayed and translated to the entire universe before the true meaning was understood. Soon after other explorers and mappers started to hit their own ends of the universe, and that is simply what it became known as, The End.

The End is a strange place. It is hard to explain. It is true you cannot go further, but you can try without consequence. It is not a solid wall that will destroy any ship that flies into it. If that were the case, the Trypterian mapper would not have had the chance to create such pandemonium with his ill thought exclamation. The End is more like a net that catches and gently bounces back. There was one explorer who thought it would be a good idea to launch a torpedo into it. He did not have the chance to relay any messages of doom before his vessel was destroyed by the returning projectile. At this point a new race began between the inhabitants and nations of space, the first one to make it through The End. Drilling equipment was brought out, explosives were more prudently attempted, anything and everything was tried. Centuries were spent attempting to break through The End. But there was nothing. Nothing could penetrate it. It was a solid, silent black curtain. It could be pushed and prodded, stretched and pulled, but not torn. It truly was the end of everything.

However, for the residents of our majestic universe to admit we lived in a cage, no matter how expansive and beautiful, is unacceptable. No one can cage the Galaxarium, no one can tell us that there is no more. No one can say this is The End, without putting a question mark after it. There is no end, there can’t be. The universe is infinite…it has to be. Because if it isn’t, what will the rest of us do? There is nothing left to explore, nothing left to map. We have reached the end of everything and now that we know, there is nothing more for us, or the generations that come after. This of course could not be, so the powers who maintain order in the worlds came together and the Shomrim were created. An elite regiment of sentinels tasked to stand guard at The End and protect it from whatever lay beyond, because something must lay beyond. The End cannot be the end, The End is only the end until it isn't.