Revolution

The conclusion to the short story miniseries which tried to tackle epic sci fi fantasy but ended up as a science fiction commentary on reality, perception, humanity and divinity.

Speaking without words had become more than second nature.

What do you mean, experiments?

The creature in the containment tube twitched. God brought it to a large table and laid it down lengthways so the tops of the cylinder were visible. Through the flat discs, I saw it move. It tried to breathe but sputtered on the clear inspissation. The gel, meant to hold it in safety, was choking the thing. God’s thoughts touched some activator and the glass-structure fell away.

The organism wasn’t overtly strange. It was built in practically the same way as my previous people, two legs, two arms, one head. The skin was unique. It was the color of the sands below the plateau cities. Two eyes perched above a vertical and protruding nose with only two nostrils. It was stuck between sleep and the waking world, unaware of us but fully capable of speech. Mumbles in an alien language erupted arbitrarily.

They were overshadowed by God’s symbols, flying past my visual perception. It didn’t matter much if I could hear the thing laying in a pile of disintegrating coagulation, there was no chance of an understanding.

I keep them alive. At times I reanimate them. They are quite interesting to watch.

Placing them in new situations can be exhilarating for both parties.

If my lips had still been visible, if they hadn’t molded and meshed to a flat area on my face, I could have shown my anger a little more physically. As it was, my motions had become faster, stronger. My habit of pushing my movements brought the estimated conclusion. I was evolving. I slammed my fist into the table, sending shimmers through the cylinders holding his army of wards. The thing on the table, something unnamed he had collected eons ago on a world he knew nothing about, began to cry like a child. I had frightened it. The rage I felt overtook my sympathy for it.

Exhilarating? It is not a game! Their lives are not for your entertainment!

God looked confused. His head tilted. I stopped him from replying. I was not done.

This creature lives. Because of that, it deserves respect from everything else that shares existence. You didn’t need to hurt it to keep yourself safe, you didn’t need to kill it for food. Beyond that, you could have no reason to alter its life!

The slight shudder of his body, accompanied with a soft, perforating sound that I had acknowledged as laughter caused my shoulders to itch.

It was living in a forest, evacuating its bowels on itself. Compared to the other monsters it lived alongside, this thing was unlikely to survive for very long. Why are my actions any different than the universe itself? It had no plans. Look at it.

I did look at it. It looked back at me. It was female. She had gained full consciousness and sat up at much exertion. A certain fatigue seemed to be a side effect of such storage. She shook at the sight of me. She screamed at the insanity that was what I had called God. He nodded to her and she fell back on the table. I moved forward, afraid for the creature until I felt her life still going strong.

You don’t know what it wants.

More laughter. He saw me as quaint, like a child, holding on to a myth against all proof to the contrary.

What it wants? Its an animal. They are all animals. I do not injure them. Whatever fear they feel, I wipe clean. When they have reached an age that brings pain and disability, I send them off into the void without pain or knowledge of the happening.

I stepped towards him, staring into the three eyes out of the five I felt lined up with my own.

How are you anything more than they are?

He stopped laughing.

There is an absolute scale, Jeiveive. I am above them because of my abilities and knowledge. I have not found anything higher than I. Not yet.

I felt something new. I could smell something in the air. I could discern the contents, the molecules and the elements within them. There was a thickness I hadn’t noticed before. There were nutrients floating around us. I was absorbing them through my lungs and skin. The sensations I’d been having of growth which I had thought impossible from the lack of sustenance, were now completely justified.

I turned to a tube, moving to separate the reflection from whatever was inside. I was even newer than before. Sets of silver horns were growing from my temples and face. My hair was gold and shared the shimmering of the metal as well as the color. I shuddered within myself and the room, possibly the entire ship, shook with me. Everything slowed for me. The tremors seemed to have such a long wavelength.

The creature had been brought back from her sleep. She held onto the table, screaming in terror. With a thought of my own, her protective covering returned. She went back to her place, the only way I thought to keep her safe.

It’s happening too fast. Why are you changing this quickly?

My strong legs cracked the ground on my way to him. I opened my hands, my fingers had fused to a set of three. Each were tipped with long, silvery points. I stood above him letting his slow, simple words finish their tedious run.

You were not meant to become this advanced before I gave you your orders. Listen to me now. Listen and understand your purpose.

I sent him in the air, hovering before my eyes. He seemed so small, so below me. Not because of the power I felt, not because I could turn him to dust. It was because he couldn’t grasp why I hated him now. He couldn’t understand something so simple. I was done with him. I was done with his purpose. Before I disappeared, before I tested the levels of my own abilities, I gave him my last message. It was simple yet still, I knew he would never come to know what it truly meant.

No. My purpose is my own.

I took all of his toys with me. I reached into their minds, finding their words. I reached into his and found the coordinates. The worlds that remained, I altered small parts and gave each their homes where they had been abducted.

Those that came from planets no longer in existence, I gave a completely new world. I gave them a new home. It became mine as well and there I found my peace, not as their god or their mother. I was their guardian.

Author's Note

this has evolved into something I'm sure only I will enjoy.