The Bourne

BOURNE: (noun) 1. a limit or boundary 

2. a goal or destination

Excerpt from the personal log of Commander Alfred Livingstone Earth Year 2492—

“I have always been afraid of death. The fear has driven me, kept me moving, forced me to explore. I have always felt that if I stop searching, stop pushing the boundaries, stop discovering, death will catch me.

Earthside, death feels so near. The ground I walk on is made from bodies decayed eons before, the greenery and breathing things all around me rely on the death of something else to stay alive. The masses of humanity in their crowded cities where death arrives for someone every second of every day of every passing year. This terrifies me.

Out in the cosmos I feel like I have a chance. The rational part of me knows this is foolish, but when I am hurtling at 6x the speed of between galaxies, turning the stars red behind me, I feel like death is far enough away it just might never find me.”  

Excerpt from The New York Times, Jan. 1, 2500—

Over the centuries of space exploration, there have been a few exceptional moments when humankind’s greatest explorers crossed an impossible boundary for the first time. There is Armstrong, the first to set foot on our own moon in 1969. Poletov, the first to another planet when he touched down on Mars in 2046. Gao reached the first extrasolar system, Proxima Centauri, in 2112 and Singh captained the first crew out of the Milky Way and into a new galaxy in 2303. 

With the advent of speed of light amplification and spacetime resonance ships, there have been a multitude of new moons, planets and galaxies visited since Gao penetrated Andromeda, but there haven’t been any new kinds of boundaries crossed for nearly two hundred years. 

We sat down with the greatest explorer of our age, Commander Alfred Livingstone and asked him if 2500 will be the century his name is added to the list of explorers who have done what no others have done before them. 

The Times: Some have said space exploration is in its golden age. What do you think will be the biggest thing to happen in the new century?”

Commander Livingstone: I think we’ll find the edge of the universe and I think someone will cross it.

The Times: The edge of the universe? Isn’t that a little tricky both scientifically and philosophically, as far as whether it exists or not?

Commander Livingstone: Theoreticians make it tricky. But exploration is simple, just going out and seeing first hand which of all the tricky theories are actually true. 

The Times: But what if there is no edge? Wouldn’t that be the case if the universe is infinite?

Commander Livingstone: There’s an edge. Once we find it, maybe we will have to invent new words for it, or change what we mean by “universe” or totally reconsider the way physics work. But that’s what great discoveries do, they change the way we see things.

The Times: Do you think you’ll be the one to do it? To cross the boundary out of the universe for the first time?

Commander Livingstone: Let’s just say I have a full schedule of missions planned for the next several years.

Recording obtained via Household Virtual Assistant, Livingstone residence, June 2, 2500—

“Grandpa promised he would be here for my birthday. He said he’d bring me something from a new planet.”

“If he promised, then he’ll make it back, even if he’s a day or two late.”

“Why does he always miss things?”

“He does his best. You have to remember he’s coming from millions of miles away and time shift corrections can be off by weeks sometimes.”

“Grandma, do you think he’ll ever take me with him? Not on one of his important trips, but maybe on one that just goes out a little ways? I want to see what the sun looks like when it is the same size as all the other stars.”

“I’m sure he would like to take you out someday. He told me his next trip might be his last big one. I hope he will be around more after that.”

From the Live Broadcast of Cmdr. Livingstone’s Final Launch December 7, 2500—

“Commander Livingston is lifting his hand in farewell and ducking through the capsule hatch.

But wait! He has re-emerged. He has taken his wife in another embrace and rests his hand on his Grandson’s head.

Now, his goodbyes said, the hatch is closing behind him.

Through the porthole his face can still be seen.

He is calm, the picture of heroism.

His lips are moving, and we are left to wonder what prayers are uttered by great men in their greatest moments.

He is connected to the monitor, his vitals are coming though.

Heart beating strong as we would expect.

His respirations deep and regular. Neural activity registers as concentrated yet calm.

“Launch sequence initiated. 

“Countdown marking:

“9

“8

“Respirations falling. Heart rate dipping.

“6 

“5

“Intense activity in the amygdala. Adrenal system engaged, yet vital signs remain low.  

“3

“2

“His breathing has nearly stopped. His heart rate no longer registers.

“1

“Commander Livingston is dead.”

Excerpt from Pre-Launch Interview with Dr. Chopra November 2500—

“We are calling it the tether. Real exploration isn’t about how far you can go, it’s about how far you can make it back.

Sure, if you launch something out at 1000 times the speed of light, it’ll go somewhere no one has ever been before.

But if there is no way for them to send data back, then its not exploration, its just suicide.

That’s why the tether is so important.

We have been traveling outside our own galaxy for about 200 hundred years.

That sounds impressive, but we have still only accounted for 1 trillionth of one percent of the universe.

The problem isn’t distances.

Spacetime resonance solved that.

The real issues are the limits created by being “normal matter” creatures in a universe that is 27 percent dark matter and 68 percent dark energy.

That leaves only 5 percent that our senses and instruments are even capable of observing.

Sure we can tell the stuff is there, but even though we have known about it for centuries, we still haven’t found a way to directly observe more than nano sized particles of dark matter and nothing of dark energy at all.

Hopefully, the tether will change all that.

God bless Commander Livingstone for being brave enough to take this step past the edge of the observable universe.”  

From a speech given to the Explorers Club by Cmdr. Livingstone, July 2496—

“The will to survive. That is everything. Planning, yes. Technology, yes. But a will to survive above it all. When you are lost in the darkest, coldest hell the cosmos can conceive, the will to survive can find a way out.

When nothing but a failing airlock stands between you and eternal mummification, the will to survive can seal it. When time distortion calculations go awry, and you find yourself two billion years off course, the will to survive finds a resonance wave to surf you home. When viruses mutated by unfiltered cosmic rays begin to liquefy you from the inside out, the will to survive makes a cure out of rocket fuel and space debris.

Bravery. Intelligence. Discipline. These are all noble and will lead you to a noble death. But the will to survive—that will take you where no one has gone before and bring you back again. 

Recording obtained via Household Virtual Assistant, Livingstone residence, June 14, 2500—

“Grandpa, is space really like it seems in cinesensies?”

“Yes and no. They get some things right, but sensory recording can’t quite capture the way you truly feel when you are actually out floating in it.”

“Cinesensies always make me feel small when they go out into space, especially when I am up close to earth and really see how big it is.”

“That’s just it, I think. The cinesensies want you to feel something—small, or scared or awed—whatever it is the director is going for. But real space isn’t trying to make you feel anything. It’s just there, or to be more accurate, not there. Most of space is nothing. Sure, Earth is big up close, but when you are really out in space, you are almost never up close to a planet or anything else. The funny thing is, when I am out there, I actually feel gigantic and it's kind of true. In deep space you and your ship are the biggest thing for millions and millions of miles around.

“Do you ever think about me and Grandma when you are up there?”

“Of course I do. What makes you ask that?”

“Well, we must seem pretty small to you if even the planet we’re on looks tiny.”

Excerpt from Interview with Dr. Chopra November 2500—

“So far it has performed admirably. The quantum nature of the tether renders time and space irrelevant. During our last test, Cmdr. Livingston situated himself on the cosmic horizon— that’s about 42 billion light years out and around 13 billion earth years in the past—I was able to pinpoint him with the 10VL array as usual, but when I activated the tether, it was like he was right next to me, or I guess more accurately like I was right in his head. A strange sensation actually, looking back in my own direction across all that space and all that time.” 

Recording obtained via Household Virtual Assistant, Livingstone residence, June 14, 2500—

“Why Alf? Why are you doing this to me? For forty-five years I have never said a word while you blasted yourself as far away from me as you could as often as fleet command would allow. I never complained. I tried to understand. But this? This is cruelty Alf. You can’t do this to me.”

Excerpt from the personal log of Commander Alfred Livingstone June 15, 2500—

“Terah is angry. I thought she might see what all this means. “The bourne of time and space!” My whole life, my whole career has brought me to this. But I do not hold it against her. It will be hardest on her and little Fred. Yet their fear cannot be greater than mine. Perhaps if I were not a coward, I would not make this attempt. Perhaps if I could accept that death will come for me like for every man, I could spare myself this last adventure and instead spend my graying years loving the two of them while we wait for death together. But I am afraid and my fear drives me forward. ”

Excerpt from interview with Dr. Chopra November 2500—

“There are a few elements to this that are theoretical, though we feel pretty solid about them. The first is the nature of the soul. Centuries of human thought claim that it exists, but only recently has that been turned into a scientific truth.

Yes, science has confirmed the existence of a human soul, but only indirectly. We know it’s there, we just don’t know what it is. Our theory is that the soul is made of the same thing as everything else in the universe we can’t see: 27 percent dark matter and 68 percent dark energy.

Looking at it that way, our soul may be the only truly normal thing about us, the thing that blends with the overall make-up of the universe.

It may also explain why, among the millions of “normal matter” planets we’ve explored so far, we are the only sentient life form. Maybe every other kind of sentience is made from the prevailing types of matter and we’re weird little anomalies with just enough “soul” to make us think we're smart.

“Anyway, that’s how the tether works. It hooks into the soul somehow. Again, we don’t know exactly how it works, only that it does work. Wherever that soul goes, it sends a stream of data back through the tether.

Oddly enough, the form the data takes is a lot like a cinesensie, but instead of digitized sensory information being pumped directly into your brain, you get raw perception, pure consciousness. Let me tell you, it puts anything they can do at a hi-def cinesense theater to shame.”

Excerpt from Private Notes of Dr. Veeraj Chopra December 6, 2500

I am becoming concerned about Cmdr. Livingstone’s perception of this mission and of what the tether can accomplish. I have not intentionally mislead him, but it seems he believes the tether may be able to send more than data back. When I explain to him that this is not the case, it does not register with him. I am uncomfortable about the ethical implications of continuing, but I am forced to move forward. No other candidate has the strength of soul necessary to operate the tether. Cmdr. Livingston’s “will to survive” as he calls it, provides the adhesion between his consciousness and the device. But perhaps I should not worry. Is he not a great explorer? Is he not accustomed to risks and uncertainties and to facing death?

From the Live Broadcast of Cmdr. Livingstone’s Final Launch December 7, 2500—

“Let us observe across this planet and indeed all across the space and star stations within reach of this broadcast a moment of silence for the great explorer who has launched his soul in the name of discovery.

“Now Dr. Chopra signals. Is there data coming through the tether? Has he done it? Has Commander Livingston crossed the boundary and sent us word from the other side?”

Tether data stream, December 7, 2500

“Sunset and Evening Star”

I cannot keep my lips from moving as I say the words to try and drown my fear.

“And one clear call for me”

I should have held her a moment longer. I should have told the boy I loved him.

“And may there be no moaning of the bar”

The bar. The bar. What will be the bar?

I am no longer my body. I am nothing. Like the deep of space. I am drifting, drifting drifting towards the trembling. NO! I will survive! The tether, clutch the tether. And now the moaning swallows me, the boundless deep before me! But I grasp the trailing rope and ring the evening bell! There is something to discover here and I will survive it!

“after that the dark”

I cannot see, because I have no eyes or because there is no light I cannot tell. But I do not feel the cold or a waning of my thoughts.

“There will be no sadness of farewell”

That is what I wanted, why I never say goodbye. But Terah, there is something here, something for the boy. When I embark! When I embark! I will turn again. Terah, you are my home. I knew before, though I never thought it.

Here, beyond the bourne, there is something, though I can’t yet see it. You will find me, you will find me, when you have crossed the bar.