“Does that surprise you?” Heishi asked. “How would I hold the highest level of authorization and be able to stop Labere’s computations otherwise?”
“But you didn’t tell me this in the beginning!”
“Because back then I was like an infant with a completely blank mind,” Heishi said, pointing at his head. “According to the learning functions in my body, my knowledge and memories were supposed to develop with time. If I woke up and all of the memories in my brain activated at once, they would short-circuit me.”
Suddenly, A-Ka laughed without restraint and reached out to pat Heishi’s head. Heishi’s mouth curved into a little smile as they watched A-Ka’s past self climb down the steep cliff and curiously open the lid of the incubation chamber. They remained shoulder to shoulder on that craggy rock, hand in hand, watching the movements from afar.
“So, that’s how it went,” Heishi murmured. “You were the first person I saw upon opening my eyes.”
A-Ka smiled, but he didn’t respond. His emotions were very complex as he, a bystander this time, watched himself go through the entire process of getting to know Heishi. For some reason, he felt the urge to cry.
They watched as A-Ka lifted Heishi in his arms. As he was using K to scale the cliff once again, A-Ka’s frail body seemed ready to fall off the precipice at any moment. If he had, his bones would surely have shattered.
“That was a close call.” A-Ka felt a little bit of lingering fear in his heart. “If I had fallen, both of us would’ve been done for.”
“You’ve always been brave,” Heishi replied. “I still remember when you discovered me again in Phoenix City and chased me across several streets despite the bullets and the soldiers.”
A-Ka made a face. “Let’s leave. In the future, I definitely won’t be this reckless again.”
Heishi waved his hand, indicating that A-Ka wait for a moment, as he walked toward the sleeping chamber on the beach.
“Is there anything inside it still?” A-Ka asked as he followed.
“There’s one thing that’s vitally important.”
He once again opened the incubation chamber. The power inside had been fully expended, but there was still a backup power source in the depths of the chamber. With a surprised intake of his breath, A-Ka watched Heishi turn a switch before pushing the energy core back in.
The chamber came to life once more. Instantly, countless rays shot out of the chamber to form a star map. In the middle of the star map appeared a huge circular plate, and the depths of the plate filled with a projection of the Nucleus of the Astrolabe.
A-Ka was both nervous and excited, though he didn’t know what Heishi wanted from this map. He glanced back at the heights of the cliffs, afraid that his past self would appear.
“I’ll be done soon. I only need a few minutes,” Heishi assured him.
The whole expansive universe seemed to appear on the windswept shore of this dead sea thanks to the projection. Heishi gathered his hands around the light, shaping it into a flattened image. Then, he began to retrieve a large number of messages.
On the screen he had created, countless strange text symbols arose. Their glow reflected in A-Ka’s eyes. These messages contained all of the knowledge of the human world and even the knowledge that Father held, but what was even more amazing was that it seemed to be a communication device that had a direct connection to the depths of the vast universe.
“You are going to… With the Creator…?”
“Yes,” Heishi said. “No matter what the outcome is, I must tell him about the proceedings of the entire experiment.”
“Zoroaster, my son,” said a deep, rich voice from inside the incubation chamber. The entire galaxy above gathered into a single point, changing into the warm face of a giant.
“Father,” Heishi murmured, lifting his head. “Finally, I glimpse your face.”
“When you manage to see this message, the experiment on the petri dish will be approaching its conclusion,” the Creator’s voice said. “You chose Cedesian, which is the mother tongue of our world, and I am grateful for that. It seems that the development of the petri dish, on some level, has gone exactly as I predicted.
“At this moment where you’ve activated the cryosleep cocoon, my physical body will be on the other shore across this enormous river of stars. After leaving this test point behind, I will never return again. But you—what have you learned from this world?
“Since you have opened the cocoon, then everything that remains on this petri dish will be left for you to decide, my dear son. When I came to this Astrolabe, before I created you… You must understand, my world of origin, the one my people, my loved ones were in, was also once like the world you are in now. There was sunlight, there was wind. There was rainwater, there was a sky. There were mountain ranges and great oceans.”
With the rise and fall of that voice, the lights of the star map changed and the figure of a distant planet appeared. Giants strode over mountain ranges to start battles, only to slaughter each other with weapons. The blue light of the central tower, the exact same model as Father was, destroyed the entire planet.
“But my people ruined all of this with their own hands,” the Creator’s voice continued. “In this vast universe, I’ve found lone island after lone island and tried to recreate that lost splendor, but it is a pity that with my limited lifespan, I cannot wait for such a moment. The evolution of intelligent species is far too slow, and there are a thousand changes that can happen. One small shift can cause the entire species to head toward some hitherto unknown future…
“If you open your eyes and find that a life-form called ‘man’ exists, then that means that my experiment has succeeded.”
Heishi murmured, “But they’re somewhat different from what you anticipated, Father.”
The Creator didn’t respond to Heishi’s words, because he was only a blurry video recording. With his hands clasped behind his back, he walked toward the ocean, stood on the roiling surface, and looked into the distance.
“Your awakening,” the Creator continued, “is proof of the appearance of an intelligent species. After I seal away the entire experimental platform, I shall leave a section of hidden code in the central control system Labere. Only when a human who fulfills the specific requirements appears and activates the special emotion and thought mechanisms present in Labere’s central system will it release the cocoon that is holding you, allowing you to emerge in this world.
“Labere originally could not think like we do. Its patterns are fixed,” the Creator said slowly, still looking off into the distance. “Your job is to pass judgment, and from each of us individual gods, learn emotions and grow. No matter what the situation actually is, the experiment will formally end the moment that you appear. What comes after is for you to decide.
“My dear son, Zoroaster.” The Creator turned, his voice becoming sorrowful. “I hope that your future will not be like that of your father’s, experiencing millions of years of loneliness before departing alone into the long voyage through time. I did not bestow upon you the ultimate emotion, because I hope that through your interactions with humans, you can slowly learn about love.”
A-Ka’s heart thumped loudly, but Heishi only watched his Heavenly Father’s projection steadily, despite the faint traces of tears gathering in his eyes.
“I wish you happiness,” the Creator said solemnly, before turning into thousands of glowing points of light that dissipated into the air.
Heishi keyed in a few symbols, then bent over and pushed the cryosleep chamber into the ocean.
“Are you going to destroy it?” A-Ka asked.
“No. I activated an escape function. It may come in handy in the future.”
Heishi sent the chamber that had been his cradle away, and he and A-Ka stood by the sea, saying nothing. The waves rolled and crashed, just like the waves in each of their hearts, never ceasing in their motion.