beyond

Traveling at near light speed had become a rather customary and safe affair.  His speed was not the problem that morning rather it was his decision to follow the subtle path that beaconed him between the second and third dimensions.  He knew the elusive inter-dimensional space was not well known but it seemed like a good idea at the time until that moment when the unforeseen space-time ripple threw him for an interstellar tumble.  Within seconds he realized he was going to miss his appointment and a few seconds after that he realized he might never be heard from again.  He had no idea what direction he had been thrown in and he had no idea how to stop the inertia he had become subject to.  Resigned to his fate he tumbled along for an unknown quantity of time watching the universe spin and spin around him until eventually, and for unknown reasons, the spinning begin to slow down until ever so gradually he slowed down and stopped in some unknown region of the universe.  He floated there looking around himself to gather his surroundings, which he noticed were completely empty of anything that could possibly surround him.  All he could see was an empty blackness.  He peered into the blackness and thought that where ever he had been thrown to was the emptiest region of the universe he had ever seen.  Then he thought that maybe he wasn’t in the universe at all.  Had he been thrown beyond the universe?  Had he been thrown out of the universe entirely?  He had always wondered what was beyond the universe and to look around it seemed to him like there wasn’t anything at all.