text: Faster-than-light travel should not have been possible. Even if it had been, vessels and biological life should not have even been able to survive transit. Yet, in 2022, the *Yelle* visited Earth and their arrival couldn't have been more further away to what we had expected, than what we had been encountered in fiction and Hollywood media. The *Yelle* invaded our minds, all at once, in unison. Some people's brains couldn't handle it and in some cases, this proved fatal for them. For those of us who were more scientifically minded, what the *Yelle* showed us made a little bit of sense. But the illumination made many of us uncomfortable; it made us uncomfortable because it revealed to us that Faster-than-light speed was not only possible, but relatively easy and effortless - well, as long as you knew what you were doing and you possessed "red matter", or "red goo" as the media called it. The *Yelle* clearly lacked bedside manner and people skills because they informed us, in the least subtle of ways, that the "Universe" - well, the Universe as we knew it - existed in something "akin to" a computer program. Depressing, I know; but it was definitely nothing like the "Brain in a vat" we've all heard of...or the infamous *Matrix* in popular media. No, the *Yelle* informed us that it was more like a runaway reality, with strict parameters; but, as with all programs, there were possibilities of "hacks" - if you knew what you were doing anyway. Put quite simply, it was entirely possible for matter - any matter - to "blink into" another part of space - any point in space. Sure, sure, it sounded like what we understood to be "teleportation", but it was far from the ideas we had of this. So, years on from this bizarre encounter with this "godlike" intelligence, scientists and researchers around the world had worked feverishly to "create" this so-called "red goo". Within five years, our advances in "the space effort" had accelerated to superhuman levels. We had achieved in five years what it would have taken us a hundred or two hundred years to achieve. We began to construct spacecraft...*in orbit*. The bodies of vessels were coated in this "red goo". Crew and passengers embarking on trips would have to be in depressurized areas and then immersed in this "red goo" during transit. This therefore preserved all matter - spaceships, biological matter, the whole shebang - during FTL transit. So, here I was, Brandon Fischer of Orlando, Florida, floating in my cabin aboard the *Archimedes* in orbit over the planet Mars, docked in Bay 11 of The International Galactic Space station. I grinned, waving at the cameras. Dozens of screens surrounded me and I could see screaming crowds waving up at me: throngs and throngs of people in Times Square; thousands in Miami; masses and masses of people in Paris. "*ARCHIMEDES RELEASING IN TEN.*" Hundreds of thousands of screams blasted from the screens; the roars echoed in my earphones. I, Brandon Fischer, aged 17, would be the first teenage human to travel at Faster-than-light speeds - and not just to any random place in particular, but to a region of space located over 46 *million* light years away, in the Messier 108 galaxy, to Gaia in the International Ring of Earths. It was mind-boggling; in a few seconds, I and *Archimedes* would be "blinking out" of existence - quite literally - and then "blinking in" again, all within a few minutes, to a point in space located tens of *millions* of light years away. Shocking; impossible; unnatural - and yet, completely achievable. "*SIX.*" The screams became louder. "*FIVE.*" Jubilatory music blasted in Time Square, as if we were at the beginning of a NFL game. "*FOUR.*" Fireworks continued exploding over the Eiffel Tower. "*THREE.*" *Archimedes* began to shake slightly as the releasing process was nearing its end. "*Two.*" My heart began to beat quicker as I looked down at Mars from my cabin one last time and then quickly grabbed one last look at Earth floating in space on one of the screens in my cabin. "*ONE.*" Everything suddenly went dark; the screens had shut off; Mars was no longer in view and I could no longer hear anything in my earphones. The entire cabin - the entire spaceship, in fact - had gone completely dark and quiet. Everything around me was red-tinged, as if I was looking through red sunglasses. *Must be the red goo*, I thought. There was complete silence everywhere. There were 7,000 other passengers and crew aboard, but they were all in their own cabins and I could not see or hear them. I floated slowly and slightly, but the red goo kept me mostly fixed in place. Objects around me looked as if they were flickering on and off. *This is so weird...trippy*, I thought. I had never used LSD or dabbled with Magic Mushrooms, but I guessed this was what "a trip" must have been like. I tried to turn my neck to look out of the cabin viewing window; it was difficult, but I managed to catch a glimpse of it at the corner of my vision. The view was terrifying and bizarre. From the corner of my eye, it looked as if there were thousands of silver lightening-like strikes engulfing *Archimedes* and the nearby "area". *This must be what it's like...on the "outside"*, I thought. That was where we were right now - "outside", outside the Universe, outside of Space and Time. It seemed so unreal and so impossible. How exactly was it possible to be "outside" of everything that exists? And yet, here we were. The red goo suddenly began to tighten its grip on me; I was really struggling to move now. The grip became tighter around my jumpsuit; I was now struggling to breathe slightly. Suddenly, *Archimedes* shook and the cabin slowly began to repressurize. The red goo was gone almost as quickly it had appeared and I began to slowly "sink" down to my cabin seat. A hostess' elegant voice was the first to speak: "Ladies and gentlemen, we have safely arrived in the International Ring of Earths; if you look to your right - or, alternatively, on your screens - you will see Gaia in the distance and Jupiter II over to the left and..." I looked down through my cabin viewing window and saw the amazing sight. Gaia loomed large in the distance and Jupiter II glowed brightly beyond. I looked over to my screens and saw Amazonia glowing, with its purple and green foliage seen from orbit and its shimmering turquoise oceans. Across the other screens, the dozens of other paradise planets called out alluringly. We were here; we had arrived; the greatest location in the known Universe and it wasn't even the oldest: the International Ring of Earths. I looked at my watch and cursed. During transit, it had stopped. I had wanted to time how long it had taken us, but that private mission had failed. *Archimedes* had been fully repressurized now, so I opened my cabin doors remotely and called out. A hostess walked over, smiling sweetly and blushing. "How are you feeling, Brandon?" She asked, blushing. "How long did it take?" I asked. "The clocks stopped, Brandon, but the Monitors told me...3 minutes, 54 seconds, 22 milliseconds and 41 nanoseconds." I sat back stunned. I had traveled across 46 million light years of space in under 4 minutes. Mind-blowing. Crazy. *Contrary to science.