There is a ceiling to the universe, and there’s something possibly very sinister beyond it. Our theories were all wrong. We were under the impression for a long time that the universe was constantly expanding, but we were wrong. We found an “end” a few years back and we really had no choice but to accept that as reality.
In the year 2016, the development of a new astronomical observatory was completed and began its orbit around the sun very soon after. It was called the Ruthford telescope and it was far stronger than any telescope we’ve seen before. It was stronger than the James Webb telescope by a lot. However, NASA always waits to reveal new technology like this to the public, they always have. In case we happen to find evidence of alien life, among other more minor reasons. In fact, NASA was probably hundreds of years more advanced in technology than the average citizen knew.
My team and I were the first ones to inhabit this telescope. Our first assignment was to take a picture of as far away as possible. It takes around a week for the picture we take to fully develop and what we found was peculiar to say the least.
It was a ceiling. Or what looked like a ceiling at least. It was off white and textured. It was quite uncanny really. Of course we knew it had to simply be a coincidence, the universe existed before ceilings. But it had all of us confused. It wasn’t noticeably expanding or anything, this was simply the end of the universe. We had a multitude of questions. Is there anything beyond it? Is the ceiling physical? What’s it made out of?
We estimated how large the ceiling is compared to the milky way galaxy and tried comparing it in the picture. The galaxy was too small, it was barely a pixel in the picture. So we knew this was big and theorized this ceiling likely wrapped around the universe. We decided to point the telescope in another direction to see if there was more of this ceiling. A couple weeks later, our theory had been confirmed. Of course we had to do more tests and take quite a few pictures, but my team and I knew.
After confirming our theory, we decided to put full resources towards studying this ceiling. We were trying to collect any sounds coming from that area, as well as more pictures. Nearly a year of nothing. Just more and more pictures of the ceiling. A couple months ago however, we got a sound. But this sound came from beyond the ceiling. It sounded like slow muffled stepping. Like someone walking on a creaky floor above you. This only confused us even more. Everyone had their own theories. Maybe there were more galaxies beyond it, and space debris could be hitting the other side. Galaxies even. But I knew not even a galaxy hitting the ceiling would create that loud of a noise. If the ceiling had any thickness to it at all, then something very very big would be needed to create that noise.
For a couple months, that was it. Constant stepping. It was also clear that the stepping was never in the same place. It was moving along a path. Every few steps were far louder, as if something stomped. I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind. The idea that there was something beyond the ceiling, and that it was walking. And its steps were so loud, we could hear it 46.5 billion light years away. This terrified not only my team, but everyone in our program.
Last week, we heard a loud and clear break. A loud snapping noise. A part of this strange layer clearly broke. We found a dark spot. There’s a hole in this ceiling and it seems like something got through. Being that we’re seeing and hearing this now, we know this happened billions of years ago. But the light and sound has made it to us, who knows how close behind it could be?