Beyond the Sky

Humanity was due to break a new world record anyways. Mankind's progress for becoming greater than we were the day before has become stilted. But eventually one person from two different types of people will sit down and decide to change history. Those two types are the men who wish to be a pioneer and the men who wish to make money. While I like to think of myself as the former, the people at Virgin Galactic who've funded this project fit squarely into the second type.

We're mere minutes away from reaching what we have to do. The highest jump anyone will have ever done. Earlier attempts were done through the usage of weather balloons from my understanding. While the great men that have come before me and have risked their lives in achieving what was previously thought impossible, it is time for them to be surpassed.

It feels cramped inside this spaceplane. My arms and legs are bundled together in silver lined restraints, with the entire interior of the plane being coated in a dark blue. A small monitor displays the time and the stages the plane is going through. It is currently 3:09PM and we are nearing the end of the take off stage. WhiteKnightTwo is controlling the ascent of the plane so there is only a quiet hum from above. Everything else is silent.

I remind myself why I am doing this. While human progress has stilted, technology is continuing to thrive. The men who organized this project understood this notion. The general idea for it came when their passion project the Spaceship-Two went from a thing of novelty and fantasy into a legitimate and affordable way of travel.

As soon as they perfected the formula, they realized they could best the records set by Joe Kittinger, Felix Baumgartner and Alan Eustace. Not by a few thousand meters as well, they could have a man jumping from a height of 300,000ft, more than double the current record. I was chosen to be the man to jump, as my qualifications and training proved to be highly satisfactory. I do not aim to disappoint.

The record will rely on the plane reaching the highest altitude, at the point where the plane reaches a state of micro-gravity, a state of weightlessness. Once reached, I will need to exit the plane as soon as possible and dive down to Earth. As of now, the plane is currently being piloted towards space. The plane has been separated from the WhiteKnightTwo and the rocket engine has just been activated. It is now 3:13PM. I'm sitting as close as possible to the door I have to jump through. It takes all of my strength to not look outside the window. I don't want to spoil the surprise.

The next stage is being reached with the climb. The plane flies upwards at a near perfect straight line. It is hard to tell if I'm sitting down anymore. I can only see the ceiling as of now. The helmet restricts my vision in parts. I feel myself starting to sweat in this suit. It was made to withstand intense temperatures in the event of an unexpectedly high re-entry speed and for the general coldness of space. A drawback has come from it retaining heat on the inside. It's like a sauna inside this suit. Hopefully I'll keep my head clear when I have to leave.

Almost there. I can hear a loud hum from the back. The last of the rocket engine is being used. Micro-gravity should start any second now...I run my hand through my back to be sure my parachute is still there. It is. Once I fall near the clouds, I will release the parachute. Once I'm down there, I'll be remembered as the new pioneer for the ages. This event will be bigger than my life. It will be bigger than anything. I feel my legs jitter in place against the floor.

And then they stop. They can't jitter against the floor when they're not on it anymore. We've reached the maximum altitude. I unbuckle my restraints and move to the door. I give a thumbs up to whoever's piloting and open the door. I look down at the world in front of me. It doesn't look as big as I thought it would up here. I can barely see the land down there. It's just a mixture of clouds over a sea of blue. Like a ragged blanket stretched over a bed.

It gives me pause. I feel nauseous. It starts to set in how insane this is. But I refuse to falter. I’m making history. I run my hand through my back once more. My parachute is still there. There's no more time to wait. I walk before I tell myself to do so. And then I fall. I can't feel anything. There's no wind to guide me like Earth normally would. The fall doesn't feel right. I have to pay attention to everything else.

If there is something I can currently know, it is that I am starting to fall faster. I look around my surroundings and I see pitch black. And in looking down I see the Earth grow bigger. I look upwards to try and see if I can see the space plane I jumped out of. I don't think it's there anymore. Or at least if it did, it's blended in with the blackness. With nothing.

I made a mistake in looking up. I moved my arms by mistake. There's a slight spin to my descent. This is dangerous now. I try to counteract the spin by adjusting my other limbs. It doesn't help with matters. I can't hear or see anything but I feel it everywhere. My heart is spinning. It feels like my blood is forced to be stationary. I have to keep trying to center myself. Can't panic here. Anywhere but here.

At some point I exit the Mesosphere and approach the Stratosphere. The spin is starting to stop but only just. But now I just fall quicker. Feels like the worst rollercoaster in the world. I'm sick to my stomach. I have to hold it in. I'll look around my surroundings. Around me is the pure blackness of space. Below me is the Earth growing even larger. And above me

Above me is a blue fire.

SpaceShip-Two is on fire and rapidly descending. I don't understand. There weren't any malfunctions during any stage of this. There were no reports of meteorites approaching at this time of day either. Any rational explanation I could give for why this is happening is wrong. I'm still falling to Earth. I keep my eyes to the nothingness of space.

But there's something there with me. I don't know what it is. It appears to be a dark blue circle of some kind. It's very far away from me but it has to be bigger than me. So much bigger. I can't tell if it's falling with me. I don't think it moves.

And then it does. It rushes down to my planet. It blends in with the world below. It's beginning to turn gray now. The land beneath me is visible. I'll be approaching the clouds soon but I don't want to be down there anymore. That thing might've been responsible for downing the plane I was just on. It could come for me next.

I can just barely feel an intense heat while the plane falls faster than I can. It barely misses me as it shoots straight to the ground. I can just barely see a hole in the front of the cockpit before it's gone. It was blasted open. I can't think anymore. I can only fall.

Reaching the Trophosphere now. The clouds are vastly approaching. I look off in the distance and something concerns me again. There's more blue circles. They're all over the sky. They are covering the world. What happens if I'm too slow and I land on one of them? What happens if I make it?

I'm past the clouds now. I'm still falling but I still haven't pulled my parachute. I'm falling past the circles. There's a fire down below me. There's fire everywhere. This is the world now. Why did this happen while I was gone?

I'm still falling. The ground is getting closer. I don't know what to do. If I pull the parachute, how long could I live for? Would there be any to save me? The fire would probably take me. I die a slow death if I pull my parachute. Maybe I don't need to die that way. I can just let this happen. No need to suffer. I will fall until I stop. I'm the last pioneer. The last human being to have changed the course of history. It ends with me. It ends with