The last painter (unfinished)

 Chapter One

“Painting is dead. And I killed her!” laughed the billionaire. Everybody stood up and started clapping as the man walked over to a gilded, ornate frame and pushed a button.

“The Mona Lisa.” He said into the microphone. And so the blank canvas became alive, layers of colour blossoming and shifting, revealing a perfect replica of the painting. To see such a famous work of art freshly painted, shining on the stage, gave it the quality of seeing it for the first time.

“At a cellular level, this is a perfect replica of the famous work by Leonardo da Vinci. It is indistinguishable from the real thing, but in a way, better. Give me The Terminator in the style of Edward Hopper.” said the billionaire, and the painting obliged, turning into a stylised version of Nighthawks At The Diner where Arnold Schwarzenegger was walking outside.

“Not a fan of art? To be honest, neither am I. But you can ask for any kind of content and our AI will oblige. Hey, paint me an awesome star wars painting I can hang in my den.” And the painting showed Darth Vader playing poker with other villains from the series.

“Or maybe I want to see a picture of a beautiful woman, high art, photorealistic 4k.” said the billionaire. The painting showed the most smoothest, forgettable person you’ve ever seen.

“Sorry, I meant to say 256k.” and the painting sharpened to an absurd amount, so much so that it seemed the woman had crystallised.

“This haptic screen can replicate the artists brush, or even their fingerprints. We’ve trained our artificial intelligences on the best works of art, combining machine learning and the creative industries to produce this new device that makes you the artist.”

“Imagine it. Anyone can now have a Leonardo da Vinci in their house. Or maybe you’re a small business, and need information up on the walls you can change at a moments notice. Or how about you’re caring for an elderly parent and you want to show them photos from their lives that they’ve never seen before? Now you can…with our new visual assistant, ArtI.” he said, again to rapturous applause. The painting showed photographs as the billionaire as a child, a boy riding a tricycle in a carpeted hallway whilst a woman with large hair crouched behind him, happy. This had never happened, but it gave everyone a similar generic feeling of nostalgia that they couldn’t wait to anticipate for themselves. The audience began shouting things out, making the image change rapidly.

 

She closed the laptop, though the latch was broke and so it opened again softly, mouth-like. Her eyes traced across its edge and over the table, across prints of paintings, seeing detail, forms caught in her peripheral vision, images piled on images. She picked through them with a mix of nostalgia and reproach, as anyone did looking back at their earlier work. Each painting represented a different time in her life, known only to her. Although she may not exactly remember the execution of the work, she could tell by the way each painting turned out how she felt at the time. Each of these memories had an extra sensation for her, not just remembering things that she saw, heard or thought, in fact they were beyond what could be described with the everyday human sensations. If she would ever try to describe them to anybody, which she didn’t, the closest she could have said was that it was as if she was an object experiencing an abstract concept. One of her memories may evoke a similar sensation as if she was a sheet that became twisted in the middle, increasing in rotation infinitely. Other memories made her feel how a cloud of ink underwater may intersect with a cliff face, or of a perfectly exact cube existing in a void. These sensations were simultaneously beyond her comprehension whilst feeling exactly like the time in which they happened. Of course, this had no bearing on her work. She rested her index finger on a print and pulled it towards her, displacing the other papers like a boat moving through a sheet of broken ice, until finally coming to rest in front of her.

It was a painting of herself. She had painted it when she was fifteen, still untrained, yet all the better for it. She looked at the girl looking out of the painting, head tilted slightly upward. She remembered looking back and forth between the mirror and her work, truly examining her face for the first time. The very slight asymmetry of the eyes and eyebrow, the way her nose formed and related to the rest of the skull, her mouth tightening with concentration. Her hair was still its natural brown, cut short around her ears that had gold hoops through them. She had been inspired by Rembrandt, promising herself that she would regularly do self portraits over her life in order to capture herself – both as a painter and as a person. She hadn’t painted herself since.

The self-portrait was the odd one out. The rest of her work tended towards other people, other things. Scenes from the Bible, Shakespeare, retelling historical moments, mythology, people embracing, acts of violence, a wide range of subjects all executed in exquisite detail and composure. Her painting recreated light in such a way that seemed more real than reality, at least that’s what the books said. Others liked her work as it was proper painting, men would point at it and say “Now that’s what I call art.” Others called her work old fashioned, seeming to have ignored the last two hundred years of art history, and as it was popular it must therefore be kitsch. She didn’t pay much attention to what others thought of her work, it didn’t really matter. Occasionally an interviewer would quote somebody else and expect her to respond, but she’d just shrug. The audience completes an artwork in whatever way they please. The artist acts as a midwife to bring these things into the world, but once they are in a gallery, they are essentially orphans, waiting to be given meaning by those that pass in front of them and look.

Now that she was looking at her body of work, she could identify the different periods of her life via her technique. The overly cautious early work, experimentation and development in her early twenties, her most recent work full-bodied and mature, whilst also growing in darkness as the years progressed. Her fingers fell onto another print that she pulled in front of her, the allegory of the fall.

It had taken almost a year to complete, and even then, she wasn’t sure if any work was completed fully. She found all of her works to be more at a stage of being abandoned mid-transformation than a sense of finishing something. She took out a cigarette and started smoking, reclining in her chair and looking through the window. Occasionally she’d flick ash into a dead coffee, looking up at the clouds, thinking of the lecture.

 

Beneath the same clouds was another artist. And another. And another. Some of them were drawing the same sky so that all the pictures could be put together to create a multidirectional record of the sky on that same day. The shape of the clouds, the contrast of the blue against enormous waves of brilliant, white vapour. Every day the sky was a psychedelic lightshow, offering great inspiration for many artists, even though by simply tilting your head back you could see the same thing that they did. It wasn’t just paint, but music, dance, poetry, anybody who created something in responsed to something else. An artist can be anything at all.

Though when we say artist we tend to think of the visual arts, particularly painting. If you were to ask anybody in England to name an artist, the majority would reply ‘The Mona Lisa’ and you would nod in agreement. And you may also ask them if they thought themselves to be an artist they would scoff at the idea, perhaps saying something like they couldn’t draw to save their life. They are right. A majority of artists cannot draw to save their lives, or even make themselves comfortable. The average income for an artist wasn’t enough to be bothered taxing. Days spent filling in forms, updating social media, processing invoices, applying for work, seeing exhibitions, traveling around, planning workshops, tidying studios and all of this before the act of making art had even begun. The majority of artists in England lived a frugal, precarious life, often haunted by the neuroanatomy that also fuelled their choice in career. Perhaps most hauntingly of all is the fact that anyone can be an artist and suffer a lifetime of bureaucratised poverty.

You may wonder why would anyone decide to do this as a job if it was so awful. Living off money that would make being on benefits more profitable, the artist will spend many hours in their studio, eating cold baked beans from a tin, staring at a window too filthy to see out of. All across the north of England, empty mills were turned into artist studios, divided again and again into something that resembled a dungeon. Cold all year round, a single sheet of wood would divide the rooms up and make it so you may be able to hear your neighbour sniffing and coughing throughout the day, but never able to have a conversation with them in the warren-like corridors of the studios. Paintings would rarely be finished, instead the artists would surround themselves with an archive of incomplete work, with their few finished pieces gathering dust over the years as a memento to themselves that they did, once, paint something. Rats would skitter about above and below, whilst the hours would tick by with nothing done and yet to have such a space was considered a luxury. Why choose such a life? If there wasn’t happiness or freedom or money, why would anyone choose to be an artist?

One artist was asking herself that same question. She was lying on her back and looking at the sky and thinking, her jacket rolled up into a ball and serving as a kind of pillow as she lay on the grass. A late April sun shone, the first warm day of the year, and so Alexandra Park was busy. The park lay on the side of Oxford Road that ran from the city centre down to the suburbs, also acting as a milestone between the inner and outer areas of the city. Miles of terrace houses surrounded the park, all made of brick, having once been the houses of industrial workers until now being mostly home to education consumers. She was one herself, perhaps the most mythologised and stereotyped course in any other field of study. It was much rarer for television comedians and other jokers to make references to those studying Russian literature or biotechnology, and from the hundreds of courses available, this course had a reputation of being a field of academia filled with such reverie it represented the quintessential university experience. She was an art student.

She also hated being an art student. Even before she had served her time, she was already questioning if that is what she really wanted. She had pitched her aspirations high and refused to consider anything less. If your dream is compromised before it begins, it is not your dream but somebody else’s. She had thought that she wanted to study Fine Art with a focus on painting. Since being young she had focused her efforts on one day going to university. The chance to study art at that level, the sort of conversations you would have with professors or other students, the atmosphere of studying in a library or living by yourself for the first time, the sort of opportunities that would be available to you after graduating. Each of these expectations had withered and died within the first few months of her study. Now that she was nearing the end of her second year, she was deciding between finishing her third and final year or just dropping out entirely and doing something else other than art. She sat up, flexed her shoulders and dusted bits of grass off her jacket, looking round the park at the people enjoying the day. Somewhere between the trees a thick bass ripped from a portable speaker. An enormous flock of birds had arrived, for some reason choosing Manchester as the place they would spend their endless summers. She started heading towards her lecture.

She had arrived half an hour before it opened, hoping to get a good seat, but found herself at the end of a long line leading to the doors of the lecture hall. Her pulse quickened yet she was standing still. Molly was a hero of hers. Just to be able to see her would be good, to be able to attend a lecture even better.

At last. The doors opened and people started to fill into the lecture hall. The large, fan-shaped room was dimly lit, much colder than the warm April day outside. Kalisa stood on her tiptoes to see if there was a spare seat nearer the front, almost losing her footing as somebody tried to push behind her. She went along the row and sat down. On each of the seats in the lecture theatre was a piece of paper that had some background of Molly and an agenda with topics they would cover. She scanned it before folding it neatly in two, then looked down towards the front of the lecture hall. People were still filing in when the speakers boomed, the Head of Art tapping a microphone and asking if people could hear her.

Molly waited behind the curtain, watching the Head of Art make her introduction, the light from the projector illuminating her from above the waist and casting a stark shadow behind. She talked of Molly’s accolades and awards, and mentioned again that the artist herself was an alumni at the very institution she was speaking at that afternoon. Prompting the audience to applause, out she stepped, taken aback by the standing ovation that swelled throughout the auditorium. She smiled, stiffening up, unsure whether to bow and feeling ridiculous for considering it. Instead she nodded, turning to the podium where her notes were. In the wings behind her, her assistant whispered something, though it was lost in the noise of the continuous clapping. She reached for a glass of water and noted her hand was shaking slightly. She had presented before, many times, though to return to Manchester Met made her suddenly uncertain and self-conscious. For a moment she thought to reveal these emotions to the audience, both to put herself at ease and show a kind of vulnerability, an awareness of the position she now stood in front of people who would have been her peers twenty years gone. Instead, she nodded over to the Head of Art, thanking her for the introduction and then thanked the audience for coming. She started to thank her assistant for setting up the lecture, though felt as though with all the thanks she was giving out it sounded as though she was receiving an award, and so the thanking stopped and the lecture began properly.

“What is art?” she asked, each word like a kick. She paused for effect. Somebody giggled. “This is something every artist asks themselves. What is it we are doing? What are we making? What is art for? Some of you may say things like truth, beauty or expression, but that which connects all potential reasons that we have art is that it communicates. Art is a language of ideas. It is how we feel about something when making it and those that see our art react to it in some way. At least, ideally.” She said, smiling at the drizzle of laughter out in the darkness.

“As a painter, my vowels and consonants are shape and tone, my words are colour, my sentences are composition. Yes? Though when I have painted something, does the viewer understand what I mean? This seems to me a more important question than what art is, as art can be anything. But is it successful as a means of communication between artist and audience? Can it speak for itself?”

“I refuse to explain my work, as if I did, there would be no point in making it. There is no bigger failure in art than that which is explained. Everything good in life needs no explanation. An explanation may help, as would a wider knowledge of things like art history, but in my view, this lends itself to appreciation rather than experience. Philosophy, politics, history, culture, these are all ways of talking to others about a thing rather than fully experiencing it yourself. Think of food, music, love – all of these things transcend language and are as personal to us as dreams. They do not need an explanation as we immediately understand them. This is my approach to work. Which is unfortunate as I have been asked to give a lecture about my painting to you, people studying art.”

“Twenty years ago I came to study here. I’ve sat where you are sat, watching artists talk about their work and themselves and then I graduated. I was in a few shows after finishing, but it felt a bit empty. I didn’t want my work to be measured by the standards of others, as I was more interested in my own. I wasn’t happy with the work I was producing. At a technical level it was alright, but it wasn’t quite where I wanted to be. I was lucky enough to get time to develop my skills, but also the way I thought about the art I was making. I gained confidence. I felt I really started being the kind of artist I wanted to be.”

And on the lecture went. She talked over some of her early work, following through to the present. She was never self-deprecating of her earlier attempts, instead talking about them with an even perspective as her most recent work, almost as if it wasn’t her work at all. It also helped because her early work was fantastic. From charcoal sketches to watercolour studies, each figure had character, each mark had purpose. If she had been dismissive of her early work when it was better than most would ever produce, it would create a bitter taste. The artist had a clear judgement on each image, as well as the occasional other work she would punctuate the lecture with.

The Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy by Caravaggio. The Duchess of Alba and the Pious Woman by Goya.

The lecture finished and everybody clapped.

“Does anybody have any questions?” asked the Head of Art, walking back onto the stage. A forest of arms went up, and so the academic pointed at random into the darkness.

“Its less of a question more of a comment-“

“There are others wanting to ask questions, so if we could prioritise those, I’m sure everyone would appreciate it.” said Molly. The Head nodded, pointing at random again.

The next person to be picked started talking and talking, paraphrasing what had been said previously and putting it together in some strange calculation that led Molly to only be able to answer with a single word.

“Yes.”

“Thank you, we probably have time for one more question.” said the Head of Art, squinting at the crowd.

Kalisa looked over row upon row of art students down at the two figures lit by the lecture theatre lights. Molly was looking upwards and for a moment, their eyes met. Through the hundreds of other sets of eyes and the extreme brightness of the stage and the darkness in the seats, both women’s eyes seemed to lock onto each other’s and stayed for a second. And then another second.

“Ah, yes, I think you should ask the last question of the day.” said the Head of Art, smiling and pointing. A woman near the front stood up.

“I’m actually the programme lead for Fine Art here at MMU, and I just wanted to say thank you for such a wonderful lecture. It was really inspiring to hear about your practice and the journey you’ve been on since coming here. I’m also a huge fan of your work, I remember seeing it actually, your first show at the Tate. I was just wondering, what is your favourite colour?”

“Oh, it’s brown.” said Molly

“Interesting.”

“Well thanks again to Kalisa for giving a lecture here today. If everyone could make their way out of the lecture theatre, we’ve already run over by five minutes.” said the Head of Art. And that was that. People started shuffling away, whilst Kalisa looked for a way to get nearer the stage. She may have missed her chance to ask the question she had been preparing, but she might not get chance again. Squeezing past a steady line of people walking up the stairs, she slowly made her way down. A few people had already gathered around Molly, who was shuffling towards the back of the auditorium.

“I just want to say thank you.” said a student. Everybody was spending a lot of time thanking each other. They would thank each other for the initial thanks and round it went forever, a kind of eternal gratitude, but not much else got done. Molly’s assistant had already taken her by the elbow and tried to guide her towards the exit whilst various professors thanked her for speaking. By the time Kalisa had reached the stage, she was out the door. For a moment she wondered if she should give up. She didn’t want to appear desperate or creepy, chasing her down, but when else would she get the opportunity to speak to her? She had something to ask. She may never get another chance. She started running back up the stairs of the theatre and into a row of students coming the other way for the next lecture.

“Excuse me, excuse me,” she repeated, pushing her way past people and out.

 

“Was I alright?” said Molly to her assistant.

“Of course, of course. The taxi should be here soon.” She said, looking down at her phone. It was a little graphic of a car floating along a map, stopping and starting in time with a taxi a few streets away, projecting its location to an orbital satellite and the assistants phone.

“Excuse me.” Kalisa said, gulping for breath. The others turned.

“May I help you?” said the assistant, stepping forward. She fulfilled many roles for Molly, from organising her calendar and transport, liaising with galleries and museums and her current, most valuable role, of acting as a social shield.

“I was just in the lecture then and wanted to ask a question, though didn’t get time.”

“A car is coming to pick us up, but if you want to pass me along your e-mail we can get back to you.” Smiled the assistant, whilst Molly looked over her shoulder. She lit a cigarette and watched.

“I want you to train me.”

“Sorry, Molly doesn’t have time to take on any personal tuition at the moment.” the assistant said in monotone. They had heard this request almost any time they ventured out. A young artist eager to be taught by Molly, sometimes arriving at restaurants or weddings or other horrible places with a portfolio and a wild smile. They had heard all sorts of different pitches, why it was important to teach that one person in particular. That they had drive, or passion, or money, or would be willing to give up everything, and so on. And the answer was always no. If a stranger came up to you and asked you to train them, the answer would likely be similar. To be a teacher required a certain amount of time and commitment, but before all that, what connection would you have with this person? Who are they?

“I know this isn’t the best way to go about it, but I see this as being the only chance I’d get to ask.”

“I’m very busy at the moment, preparing for a big show.”

“I want to learn from the best.” Kalisa said. Molly smiled.

“There is no such thing as the best artist. Some have good technique, others with their expression or inventiveness, but none of that really matters. It’s all subjective.”

“I don’t agree. Some artists are better than others. With that in mind, there must be one that is better than all the others combined. I think that’s you.”

“Whilst I appreciate the compliment, I can hear from your philosophy that we wouldn’t see eye to eye. Sorry.” Molly said.

“The taxis here.”

“We don’t need to agree. Did you share the views of whoever taught you?”

“It was nice to meet you but I have to go.”

“Sorry to bother you. I drew you this.” Kalisa said, holding out a folded piece of paper. Molly smiled and took it before getting into the back of the black cab. As the car drove away she waited a moment before turning back, though the young artist had disappeared.

“Some people can’t take no for an answer.” the assistant said. Molly looked at the piece of paper. It was the programme that the university had placed on the seats in the lecture hall, she recognised the text that she had agreed to a few days before. Opening it up she expected that the young artist had maybe drawn her, as had other desperate artists wanting to leave an impression. She collected those drawings, keeping them in a box at home that she would sometimes take out and look at. There was a whole gallery in the box, dozens of drawings of her over the years in various states of quality. Some were executed well, others were laughable, though she quietly admired anybody who had the confidence to hand another artist their own work. Just as you may feel apprehensive about cooking for a renowned chef or performing for a famous musician, to show another artist your work in this way, hoping that they would perhaps see something in you that would warrant taking them on as a student, was bold and often the behaviour of an obsessive fan or somebody very annoying. A portrait of Molly was an attempt at both flattery and showing off. Though when Molly opened the paper she was surprised to find an illustration of hands.

There were two sets of women’s hands, each held in such a way that the fingers reached out to each other but didn’t touch. They were reminiscent of God and Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, but also somewhat like the children’s game of Cat’s Cradle. Hands were difficult to draw, particularly with the anatomy of the fingers each bending in a certain way. This is why many illustrations had people holding things or obscuring the hands in some way, similar to standing in front of a large group of people. What do you do with the hands? To get the correct proportions of the hand required a good knowledge of its structure as well as being able to harmonise the expression of each finger, which the illustration did very well. To draw such a thing in the dark, with no reference, required good skill. It must be traced, she thought.

End of chapter 1.

 

Molly attending a life drawing class

She wore a face mask to try and hide her identity, though she was still recognised from time to time, the blue mask made people give her a wide berth and not tend to make eye contact.

The life model sat in the centre of the room atop a pile of towels, an element of comfort against the varnished wood floor. The early evening sun was coming through the high windows and so columns of light reached down and over the models legs so that they seemed so white that they glowed. She was facing away from Molly, though the tip of her nose peeked out from the side of her cheek. These different angles of the head, from the back, below, above, gave a drawing a certain amount of realism. When people drew heads they often looked out from the paper, as if a reflection, though sometimes turning very slightly this way or that. They are drawing the idea of a head. When somebody is drawing a head they are often fuelled by their preconceptions of what a head is, which is also true when drawing somebody from real-life. An artist may look at a model, looking at the shape of their eyes and where they sit within the muscles and skin around them, the way light reflects and a shadow falls. And then they will look down at their drawing, and without looking back again, draw two large circles with dots in the middle.

It takes a certain amount of practice, sometimes year upon year, hundreds, thousands of drawings, but eventually an artist can draw with a certain type of realism. They can draw eyes really well, even doing the shading, and can place them at any angle and part of any expression. A good portrait. You may be howling with laughter in your chair at such an idea, that being able to draw realistically doesn’t necessarily mean that it is good. You may even be dabbing your eyes at such a naïve idea of art – that realism is the absolute. To do so would be the same as stating that a medical text about the effects of ageing is more realistic than poetry about getting old, and therefore better. Now you’d be shaking your head from side to side, before standing up and giving the following monologue about the power of art;

“I believe there is more to art than it serving to merely recreate life. Painting is a way of expressing something that goes beyond photography, something between dreams and ecstasy. These feelings can’t be expressed in mathematics. You cannot explain love with science, or use it to catch a ghost. It is the way we can speak to each other across expanses of time and express our inner world – the only one that truly matters.”

And everyone else would stand up and clap. You would be right of course, though there is a place from which observing reality can make these expressions all the better. From the cartoon character to architectural drawing, observing the human form and being able to replicate it in two dimensions is beneficial to any other artform. The shape of our body, from the structure of the skeleton, the flesh is wrapped around it, decorated with fat to give it curves, finally a coat of skin and hair, all of it coming together and then being worn through time – this is a person. A combination of things, of limbs, of shadows, emotion, ideas,

How does one observe this? Is looking at somebody and drawing them not enough? One of the issues somebody drawing has is that their emotions get in the way. Only someone displaying symptoms of psychopathy is able to accurately draw somebody with little practice. A person must be able to disengage their emotions and the way that they relate to the person they are drawing. This person, the subject, can easily be transformed between being seen with the eye before the hand moves. Is the artist attracted to their subject? Or perhaps they dislike them? Do they see themselves in the subject? Are they projecting somebody else they know onto the subject? Is the artist necessarily aware of any of this occurring? All of these questions are answered whilst the drawing is happening. People will often put an element of themselves into their work subconsciously. A large head shows overconfidence, perhaps, or if the artist has an injured arm, so the figures they draw will also replicate these injuries. A figure with small hands could mean the artist is concerned of their drawing ability – or perhaps they are drawing somebody with small hands. Any of this is true or completely made up, though the main thing is that we understand that each of us can play the role of a sort of unqualified therapist when it comes to art. We can speculate on the artist, coming up with all sorts of psychological explanation and imagining the artists baggage, whilst hopefully retaining enough awareness that what we infer in a paintings meaning says as much as it does about us than it does about the artist. This mistranslation, from subject to artist to audience, is part of the sublime act of creation.

Yet to resist this mistranslation – or at least attempting to get close to it – the act of seeing must take place. To see, perchance to dream. You may have met an artist or two in your life, and one of the first things they brag about is how they see things differently. They may give you delightful anecdotes about rotating objects using the powers of their imagination, or perhaps talk about things such as beauty being everywhere as you are stood in an alley vaping. One of the important books to anybody studying art is called Ways Of Seeing by John Berger. This book is formatted in such a way that there is ample room to write their own bon mots or draw cartoons in the wide margin, but even hearing the title will give a person a moment to pause. Ways is plural, meaning there is more than one way to see. But for all this time you thought there was only one way of seeing, the one you’ve always done. This turns out to be wrong.

 

Molly looked at the way the model was posed and referred to the framework of her own drawing. She had drawn a series of delicate rectangles, representing the head, torso and legs. Each of these rectangles related to each other the same way the model was sat in the middle of the room. By extending the arm and holding a pencil, the measurement of the head is registered by moving the top of the pencil to the top of the head, and the thumb then gently slides up to their chin. This measurement is then moved along the model to judge how long they are. Other measurements can be taken and compared, such as the width of the shoulders and the length of the torso, or where the wrists line up with the hips. So long as you know that one section of the drawing is correct, the rest of the drawing should be in proportion if these measurements are studied. At this stage, Molly rarely needed to actually take a measurement as she did this automatically. With a few movements of the pencil, a shoulder and neck emerged, followed by an arm, then a tilted diamond-shape that became the side of the model and so on. The room was becoming very warm, particularly beneath the face mask she was wearing, but she didn’t notice it. If you could look closely at her pupils, they were tracing the exact line around the model and then flicked back and forth across her form, almost as if the eye was attempting to print the image.

The life drawing tutor would pace in a circle around the room, holding a thumb up to their chin and forefinger across their mouth. Now and then she would stop by an easel, lean down so her knees cracked, and whispered words of encouragement to one of the students. The tutor had never advised Molly, though sometimes would pause for a moment to watch her work. It was rare that Molly noticed, instead being entirely focused in the act of drawing. After a while the tutor clapped softly and they had a break. The model put on a dressing gown and did a lap of the easels, whilst Molly stepped outside for a cigarette. It was humid, the sky was beginning to turn orange. Out in the street children played, running between parked cars, the thumping of their trainers mingling with them calling to each other. Somewhere nearby she could hear somebody playing a guitar and singing a few bars quietly. The heat reminded her of holidays, a memory of being abroad and the feeling of bare arms and legs. It had seemed like a long winter following a rainy summer previous, so the sudden heatwave was welcome. Molly finished her cigarette and went back inside, with the model now in a new pose. She started a new drawing. 

The sun had set when she arrived home but the air was still warm. She had set a lamp in her living room on a timer so that she didn’t come back to a dark house. Partly this was to ease an anxiety of flicking a light switch and finding someone in her house, which had been such a recurring thought over the years that she did the best she could to avoid turning lights on. She had got round to thinking that if there was an intruder in her house that she’d prefer not to know than catch somebody stood in her living room, surprised by the light like an insect. For this reason they were no lightbulbs were in the ceiling fittings. She began to walk from room to room, lighting candles and placing them in lanterns or occasionally reaching down to turn on a table lamp. Her house was long, with windows that looked out across the trees and hillside opposite that all now started to shine with soft yellow and orange light as the night set in. The air in the house felt stale. Molly went through her kitchen and out onto the patio. She had styled it after porches she had seen in American films, always liking the idea of sitting by your house, outside yet sheltered. Unfortunately the roof wasn’t big enough to stop the rain, it always seeming to come in diagonally and made the porch damp most of the year. Nevertheless, it was a good spot to sit in in summer. She lit a cigarette and relaxed into a deep, curved chair, thinking of the day just gone and the one after. Her view was almost entirely dark, with all the roads and houses lying at the front of the house, leaving the black shadows of trees barely perceptible from the rest of the night. The stars were out. She left the door open when she went back in, and a whisper of a breeze made a candle dance. Molly looked into the candlelight. Her penchant for lighting candles also led to an elaborate sprinkler system being installed in the house, with the copper pipes running along the ceiling and over each other. This slightly industrial feeling was amplified as Molly had decided to have no images on the walls. There were no photographs, prints, paintings, drawings or wall hangings – the main reason was that she saw art as work and didn’t want to be reminded of it when it wasn’t being done. As a house without decoration can feel a bit bare, she had opted for flowers, specifically dried flowers as they didn’t need watering and she could leave her house for long lengths of time without worrying that her flowers would dry up any further. These bouquets of yellow and brown flowers and the slightly dim lighting gave a certain sepia quality to the house, like an old photograph preserved in honey.

(Something about thinking about this show that’s coming up.)

She made a cup of tea and reviewed the drawings from the class she had taken earlier. Each of the studies were drawn with a shapeliness of figure, lines that curved and intersected at angles that made the drawings have a certain richness. It looked as though each figure had a joy to them, which didn’t go in harmony with the large shaded areas that they occupied. Most of the page was black, besides the figure in the centre, her skin the colour of paper. Molly had a great admiration for the strong contrast between light and dark. Her favourite artists used this technique, chiaroscuro, to great effect, creating paintings that had a strong sense of drama or mystery to them. She liked using this technique as she wanted to see how little of a person you needed to represent in order for it to be still recognisable as a person. She took a sip of tea and went to put the drawings on a pile of firewood. It had been a while since she had needed to use her woodburner, and so drawings from the previous weeks were layered between the bits of log she had against a wall. She thought to herself that there were too many images in her house. She wanted to take out older drawings and look again, maybe work them a bit further. With her fingers resting on crumpled paper, she started to think about her upcoming exhibition.

“No.” she told herself, walking back towards the kitchen. It was important that she didn’t think about work too much as it made her feel insane. Instead, she made some miso soup and sat at a big wooden table with one chair. She wondered what her assistant was doing. She felt restless. It was still warm and she walked out into the field beyond her garden. She sat on a rock and started smoking, looking at the stars and trying not to think about work.

*

Kalisa was in her room, sat by the window with a sketchpad in her lap. The window was open and with it came the heat. It was the hottest day of the year so far and was only late April. Outside she could hear her housemates footsteps go past before closing her own bedroom door. Kalisa closed the sketchpad and drank from a glass she had filled with ice cubes, though they had now turned into tepid water. Her phone went off. She ignored it. She turned and looked at the garden beyond her window. Withington was a suburb in the south of the city, the houses on her street had been built in the post-war boom. All the houses on her block had gardens, each in varying stages of upkeep. A few houses down the street somebody was learning piano, faintly doing musical scales that kept repeating and repeating. Kalisa’s eyes were fixed on a distant bathroom window, a square of yellow, though wasn’t paying much attention to what she was looking at. Her mind was wandering. The piano continued to play.

In Kalisa’s mind she was picturing a scene. The sky was a brilliant orange and the clouds were flecked with gold. An angel was descending amongst a forest clearing, a beautiful black man with a halo, and he landed softly in the glade. She played this part a few times from different angles, adding the gentle rustle of grass, the sounds of birds around. The angel walked through the forest, with beams of light shining through gaps in the branches above and everything was green. The angel went to sit by the edge of the forest. There was a farmstead ahead of him, the fields empty stretches of dirt. Through a barn door he could see a man threshing the freshly cut wheat in a dip dug into the ground. As he worked in the barn, the air thick with motes of grass dust and sweat, he looked up and saw the angel sitting beneath an oak tree.

Kalisa went through what she had imagined backwards and forwards, looking at things closely or from a distance, adding bits of detail, playing with it. It was a scene she had returned to many times, falling into certain habits like setting it in the evening or having the angel walk through the forest take longer and longer with each picturing. She had been particularly focused on this scene for a few weeks, feeling an urge to paint it but feeling as if she couldn’t do it justice. Her imagination had created something between a film, a 3D model and a dream. To just select one image from the scene wouldn’t do it justice. Her ideas were far more advanced than her skill. So she would sometimes get to imagining the scene and how to paint it for more time than she noticed. Though she was beginning to grow sick of it, wanting to be done with it so she could move on. Kalisa thought through the angel landing in the forest. From his perspective, over his shoulder shaded by the tree, looking down at the buildings by the farm and Gideon thrashing wheat. From Gideon’s perspective, looking up through the dust at an angel sat beneath a tree. The colours rarely changed, she felt the harsh oranges and reds were the perfect lighting, but everything else flowed in size and shape. The way these shapes were placed, the composition, was always being tweaked and fiddled around with when she got around to the idea of imagining painting such an image. She pictured the way she would paint it, lacking the photorealistic accuracy of her mind but bringing out the feeling the paint replaced it with. Just as instruments can interpret a feeling and be played in a way to make someone feel it, paint also shared this quality. She just wasn’t sure how this scene made her feel. She felt a desire to portray the scene she had created so others could see it, though it wasn’t about her being the one that painted it but more of a way of exorcising the image out of her mind.

(perhaps put somewhere above ‘to display the religious experience as a painting is a teaching tool. Anything beyond that becomes idolatry.’)

The blur of a human body appeared in the bathroom window. Its naked form bended and twisted behind the frost glass. Kalisa turned away and back to her room, drumming her knees for a moment. She knocked on her room mates door.

“Come in.” she called. She was sitting in the corner of the room, playing a game on a desktop.

“What you doing?”

“Soda water and cocaine. Want some?”

“I mean what you playing?”

“Some gacha game. You get these little characters. It plays itself.” She said, turning back to the screen for a moment.

“Do you want to go out? It’s too hot in here.”

“Sure, gimme five minutes.” She said. Kalisa went to the kitchen and opened the fridge, enjoying the cool air it emanated, as well as a hint of wilting leaves.  She took out an orange, rolling the cool skin between her hands, before beginning to peel it from the top in a spiral shape. This single piece of skin was deposited on a kitchen counter in the shape of an orange, though hollow. When she ate it she found the cold fruit pleasing. Her roommate finally came downstairs and they went out into the night.

 

The street was empty. The remnants of barbecue smoke clinging in the air and appearing as fallen spots of ash on the bonnets of cars. They passed the house where the pianist lived, who had moved to hesitantly playing a prelude by Bach. The staccato chords and slow movement of the music fit the evening, some sort of energy beneath the evening lull that followed warm weather and drinking. A few streets away they watched a fox canter across a road and into a garden.

“You going to stay on in summer?” said Kalisa.

“Course, no way I’m going back home. You?”

“Likewise. I was thinking of taking a little holiday.”

“Oh yeah, you should! Where you going?”

“Usually I’d say somewhere hot, but maybe something a bit cooler would be nice. This weather is too much.”

“I might go camping with some mates. You should come.” She said, taking out a baggie from her top, parting it open and snorting a little bit of cocaine off her housekey.

“I dunno if I like camping. I like my bed.” Said Kalisa. They walked down an avenue, the fresh buds on the trees seemed to glow. New growth was always lighter in colour before darkening and shifting hue. The shadows from the semi-naked trees danced across the road as they made their way to the high street running through the middle of Withington.

Here it was busy, students stood around the entrances of takeaways, around the doors of bars. They walked past the off-license, where the shop keeper and alcohol were behind toughened glass, all lit up with a horrible cold light. An electric bus passed them quietly, making Kalisa jump as it suddenly appeared in her peripheral vision. They passed a bar and went into the all-night café. It did mocktails and Ethiopian street food, both of which were bitterly expensive, but it was quiet and dark and sober. Kalisa and her roommate went to sit in a booth, passing a group of New Catholics discussing martyred saints. 

“Saint Catherine has a good symbol, it goes with everything.”

“A wheel is too easy. Besides, as soon as she touched it, it shattered.”

“Well I like Simon the Zealot.”

On and on they went, whilst Kalisa went to the bar and back. A tea light in a glass jar flickered as she put her drink down.

“Did you hear back from that artist yet?”

“Not yet.”

“I think it was brave what you did. Even if you don’t hear from her, it was good you asked. Her loss.”

“I’m over it.”

“Have you heard about the serial killer who is targeting millionaires?”

“Is this a joke?” Her housemate laughed.

“No, some guy’s going round killing rich people, never leaves any evidence. He’s gaining a bit of a following for it, loads of conspiracy theories about.”

“How do we know rich people aren’t just killing each other off for the inheritance, it’d the perfect time to bump someone off.”

“That’s one of the theories!”

“You and me don’t have to worry about him anyway. Don’t think I’ll ever be rich.”

“You will, you’re so talented.”

“Yeah, yeah. Most artists don’t make enough to pay tax. Not that I’d do it for the money.”

“Gauche.”

“I can’t think of anything else to do.”

“That’s why you’re going to be rich one day. I wouldn’t mind being an artist you know. I’d do something like pottery or making little clay people. I used to be good at making them out of blu-tack.” She said, and she was right. As a little girl she would go into her dad’s office and tear off a piece of blu-tac from the flat wad it came in. She would then go to her room and roll the blu-tak into sausage shapes, then spheres, before bending and manoeuvring different pieces so that they resembled animals or people. She would use her fingernail to push lines onto the figures to resemble hair or other bits of detail, learning as she played making different models and rolling them back up into a ball for another one. These little figures would eventually settle onto a final shape and then added to a row of other models she had made. Her parents liked her model making, sometimes spying on her through the door and smiling. One day she decided to make an extra big model and ripped off half of the blu-tak in the drawer. She set about making it, understanding quickly that the weight was an issue for the legs to hold. The whole structure kept slowly drooping down and not staying in place. She muttered in frustration but continued, hollowing out part of the top section, making it so the figure she was making was sitting down. It had taken a long time but she was finally pleased with it. It was a woman sat with her hands on her lap, her head tilted back slightly. Most of her fingerprints had been rubbed away but there were still the traces here and there. Once it was finished she sat and looked at it. She put it behind all her models, giving it a slightly maternal feel as her largest and most detailed sculpture was surrounded by her earlier, smaller ones.

A week later it was missing. She looked all around her room for the blu-tak woman. She paused, wondering if her dad had taken it. She went into his office, the venetian blinds were down so that the sun was a soft glow. It wasn’t on his desk. She went over to it and opened the drawer. Her model had been squashed, pressed flat and nestled back between the wax paper with the rest of the blu-tak. She started crying, feeling something she had never felt before – the sensation of something you have created being destroyed. Her mum ran upstairs, shouting after her.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

“Dad stole my model! He took it! He’s ruined it!” she said, beginning to sob. Her mum looked down into the drawer at the blu-tak. Most of the features remained, smooth lines pressed together where detail had been.

“Oh it’s okay, it’s only blu-tak.” her mum said, hugging her. “I thought you hurt yourself.”

The little girl didn’t say anything, as she was afraid of what she would say. After she went to her room and rolled all of the models into a ball then stuck it on the wall, never making a model again.

Back in the bar, she didn’t reveal this anecdote as she still found the experience painful, but recently she was experimenting with talking about it.

“I should get you some clay, maybe you’ll like it.” Kalisa said. Her roommate almost burst into tears, so just shook her head before having a drink.

“I’m going to the bathroom to do coke, want to come?”

“I’ll wait here with the bags.” Kalisa said, feeling uncertain why her housemate’s mood had seemed to change suddenly when she brought up clay.

She looked down at her drink and screwed up her nose. She had drunk the virgin mojito too quickly, and with each drink costing as much as a bottle of wine, was hesitating before buying another. The maintenance grant she got for studying wasn’t due for another week. Finishing off the drink, she looked around the bar. There was a woman on her laptop across the way, the light from the screen making her appear slightly spectral in the dingy lighting. Behind the New Catholics were a young couple holding hands across the table. Kalisa thought they looked tacky but her eyes lingered on the couples hands touching as her roommate came back.

“Let’s go dancing.”

“I’m skint.”

“They have a weekend job at my place, you wanna do that? Earn some money?”

“I’d rather be skint.”

“I know! C’mon, let’s go into town. I don’t want to go home and play that stupid game. I’ll lend you.”

“Okay then. But I’m not having a late one.”

 

It was a late one. The taxi drove them towards home as the sun was rising. Kalisa tried to track where they were but kept drifting off to sleep.

“We’re here.” the driver said. They both sat up, surprised they had arrived home. They went in and made some toast.

“I can’t believe how loud them birds are.” said the roommate. They tried to walk quietly by the other room-mates door and into the living room, where they drew the curtains and sat next to each other under a blanket and watched rubbish on tv before falling asleep.

 

 

Chapter Three

 

Kalisa was walking through the studios at university, nobody was there. The morning sun came through the windows and lit her way through the painting studio. Paintings and drawings lay incomplete on desks, others were hung above them as a reminder that work can be finished. Brushes with stiff bristles, jars filled with brown liquid, cheap tubes of paint, expensive drawing equipment that was never used, piles of papers, sketchpads, reference photography, books of philosophy, typewriters, canvas frames and pieces of food were on every surface, with extra trolleys and pieces of furniture brought in to be cluttered with further art student paraphernalia. She was interested in the images that were produced by her peers. There were some that she liked and a lot that she didn’t, but most of it didn’t make her feel anything. The worst kind of art if art was to be measured in such a way, but it isn’t. Sometimes it was because she didn’t get what the image was trying to convey. Other times it seemed so simple that there was nothing to respond to. With the morning sun slicing an orange square against a wall, she went into another of the studio spaces and found someone there. One of the other students was diligently working on a very small and complicated drawing, pinching a mechanical pencil lead between thumb and middle finger.

“Good morning.” she said, glancing up and blinking a few times.

“I thought I was the only one here.”

“I’m an early bird. Do most of my work before people arrive.”

“I was just being nosey, won’t interrupt.” said Kalisa, returning a smile before the other student went back to the drawing. Across the piece of paper she had drawn a very elaborate maze. The lines had barely any space between them, creating a dense cloud of lines and angles that would take hours to complete. It didn’t make Kalisa feel anything, but it seemed like the artist enjoyed doing it. This was a good way to measure the quality of art, but it isn’t. As she started to walk towards the canteen, Kalisa thought about what made art good. Technical ability, beauty, emotional resonance, cultural significance, any of these things could be used to quantify if art was good or not, if such a thing was possible. Through applying these sorts of statements, of good art and bad art, creates a hierarchy that doesn’t necessarily exist. Is the Mona Lisa better than the Sistine Chapel? Who would win in a fight between IKB 191 and The Death of Marat?

The other way of looking at it would be an art equalist. A masterpiece in a gallery is equal to the drawing a child did. Everything is of equal value and should be celebrated as such. But then what if it turned out the child had done the drawing under duress? And then what if this masterpiece in a gallery inspired somebody to realise that they had the cure for cancer? You might be thinking, this hypothetical situation suddenly got complicated! You can relax of course, it is only an imaginary scenario. But to those that honestly see all art as equal to another, they can swap any photos they may have up on their walls with branded packaging material as they are equal. They can try and fit a twenty foot tall minimalist sculpture made out of rusted steel into a retirement home as that is as equal to the usual watercolour landscapes that haunt such buildings. To view all art as equal is to say that the different signifiers and meaning that make up something doesn’t matter. There is no preference between a painting that is extremely pornographic and a sheet of A4 paper with a cartoon dog drawn on it in biro, as all images are equal. You don’t see colour, or shape, or meaning, just a surface that holds no value other than it is art and is basically nothing.

Kalisa wasn’t such an extremist of course, she thought that all art was worthwhile and that she liked some more than others. She thought of the intricate maze drawing she had seen earlier, on reflection she found she liked it. It had helped knowing that the artist was one of the first people at the university and would spend hours with a little nib drawing intricate labyrinths, Kalisa would now look out for her whenever she would get to the studios early. Her main intention for coming in so early was to do some work herself, but after walking around and looking at the work of others, she found herself more contemplative than wanting to do anything necessary. Besides, it was the Friday before a bank holiday. Any work that wasn’t finished would dry out over the long weekend, and she liked to continue painting whilst things were still wet.

As she drank her coffee she thought of the weekend ahead, watching people sitting in the small park between the art building and the library. The university was made up of several buildings, some interconnected, others alone. Giant glass obelisks surrounded the nucleus of the park, the architecture as a record for how much money the university had to spend. Building works were happening everywhere, beginning to push the boundaries of the university further. Just a bit north of the university complex were dozens of skyscrapers, each of them intending to be homes for students yet were entirely empty.

Kalisa’s phone rang. She looked and didn’t recognise the number. After watching the animation a few times it stopped.

‘Who is this?’ she texted.

‘Its Molly, can I talk to you?’ was the reply. Kalisa’s stomach felt as if it plunged metres down. She didn’t know what to do for a moment, touching her face to wipe away something imaginary. She phoned back.

“Hello.” they both said at the same time. Molly smiled, looking out through her porch and to the fields beyond.

“Are you really her?”

“I’m me, yes. Have I caught you at a bad time. Is it too early?”

“No, no, I’m good. How’s it going?”

“Sure, I’m good. I know this might be last minute, but I wondered if you wanted to come and visit my studio this weekend.”

“Really? I mean, yes that would be good.” said Kalisa. They organised it, finished the call and Kalisa sat at the table grinning.

 

A couple of days later Kalisa got off a train. Besides the concrete platform and a shelter with faded plastic windows there wasn’t much else. It was a station between towns, with a short walk to a village at one end of a road. The other went away into nature. Along each side of the road were a line of low hedges, their shadows beginning to narrow as the sun reached its zenith. Rummaging in her bag, she found her waterbottle and phone, taking a long drink as she traced to path to Molly’s studio. It was about three miles away, a mix of curling country lanes and A roads. When she looked yesterday she had thought about crossing a patch of woodland to cut the journey in half, but was also worried that could end up making her late. After reapplying some sun cream, Kalisa set off walking along the road that’s edges danced in heat haze.

Out on the fields a circle of birds walked, sometimes pecking at the soil or flying a short distance to be close to another. There were no cars on the roads, nor was there pavement. The journey was long and twisty before Kalisa arrived at the woodland she had thought about taking a shortcut through. It was the second day of May and the forest was fully green. More birds sang in the dense branches, as did the undergrowth shiver with the movement of other animals. It seemed like a good moment to rest. Kalisa leant against a wall shaded beneath the dense leaves of the branches that loomed overhead. She took a deep drink from her waterbottle and relaxed her shoulders. Where she wiped away the sweat it mixed with the oiliness of the suncream to create a naked streak across her forehead. The scent of the suncream combined with the new growth of the forest and it reminded Kalisa of a distant summer. A little girl on a family holiday, seeing a forest for the first time. There was parks and a scraggly bit of woods near where she grew up, but she remembered standing at the edge of the ancient forest feeling a sense of awe. True wildness. Her mother was calling for her, she had walked off alone, but didn’t dare call out where she was. In the present Kalisa checked the label on the sun cream to see what gave it its smell before setting off walking again.

The road took a long curve around the woodland, with the fields and hills around her devoid of any human activity. Passing a patch of long grass, a grasshopper sang amongst the rushes. Kalisa was surprised how tired she felt after walking just a short distance, as if the sunlight was weighing her down. She stopped carrying her bag on her shoulders, letting it swing back and forth from her hand so that it sometimes landed against her leg. The nerves she had about visiting Molly had been replaced with looking forward to getting the journey finished and hoping to have a big glass of lemonade upon arrival. Lemonade with ice that made condensation on the glass, making it appear as if the drink was sweating slightly. Kalisa pictured herself bringing the glass to her lips and taking a big drink, the mix of sharpness from the lemons, the sweetness of the sugar and the sensation of tiny bubbles rolling and popping against her mouth. She would keep drinking and the coolness of the lemonade would hit her stomach and spread across her shoulders, down to her fingertips. She focused on this ideal drink as she turned along a track that had split from the road. Briefly walking beneath the shelter of trees, Kalisa appreciated the slight coolness, making her more eager to reach her destination. A little further along the way were a few farm buildings. She was getting closer.

The farm was derelict, the outer buildings had ceilings you could see through and the old farmer’s cottage had been left to ruin. Kalisa looked across the empty farmyard, expecting to see a chicken perhaps, though all that remained was a rusted truck with weeds growing around it. The track continued and at the end were two more buildings. One was a barn, the other a long house that looked to have been built more recently. As Kalisa approached, she realised Molly hadn’t given much instruction besides an invite, an address and a time. First she walked to the barn. It had been modified, with a huge door making up most of the wall facing her. There was a smaller door just to the side, though this was sealed with a padlock. From a distance it had appeared as a barn, but now that she was closer Kalisa could see it had been modified, made for a different purpose than keeping animals. She wasn’t sure whether to knock on the door to the barn or go to the house, trapped between the two options by not wanting to make a bad first impression. Was this even the right place? Kalisa considered if she was trying to delay the meeting due to her nerves, whilst also not wanting to appear stupid for knocking on the wrong door. Whichever way, it was too hot to stand around outside all day. As her pulse quickened, Kalisa went to the house and knocked on the door.

“Hey! Where are you parked?” said Molly.

“I walked here from the station.”

“You should have said! I’d have come and picked you up. Feels warm out there. There’s a bathroom just down the hall if you want to freshen up.”

“I wouldn’t mind.” said Kalisa, feeling her clothes stick to her back. She felt foolish. In the bathroom she ran cold water on her wrists and washed her face in the sink. Her clothes would dry quickly in the heat, but she was worried that they’d smell sweaty. On top of a cabinet were an array of perfumes and sprays, though she didn’t feel as though she could use them. She dabbed herself dry with tissues and looked at her reflection. She looked okay. She looked good. It was important that she remembered she had been invited her for a reason, she was in the house of her hero, one of the greatest painters of the century and she had made it happen. After taking a big breath to steady herself, she went out into the hallway and followed the sounds coming from the kitchen.

 

Her eyes scanned the room. A log burner against a corner. A wooden table with a single chair. The only decoration she noticed were bouquets of dried flowers that crowded the tops of cupboards.

“Can I get you anything to drink?”

“Do you have lemonade?”

“No. I have water. Probably too hot for a cup of tea, right? Too early for alcohol.”

“Water’s good.” Said Kalisa. It was unusual how informal it felt, banal even. The house had a certain musk to it, incense, smoke, varnish. Molly put some ice in a glass and filled it to the brim with tap water. Kalisa drank deeply.

“Thanks for coming at such short notice, you didn’t have any bank holiday plans?”

“No, no, thank you for the invitation.” Said Kalisa.

“I thought it’d be good to invite you here, see my studio, then we can have a chat if that sounds alright?”

“Absolutely.” Said Kalisa. The water arrived in her stomach and immediately started to cool her body, feeling like a wave travelling down her legs. Her eyes kept scanning around, trying to take everything in, hoping that there was something she could notice and make conversation about but nothing was jumping out at her.

“I like your flowers.”

“Oh yes.” Said Molly. She was wondering if inviting the girl had been a mistake. In her memory she pictured someone more driven, more daring, more alive, but the person who had arrived today seemed meek. Perhaps she was nervous. As Molly led the way back through the house and across to her studio, she reminded herself that nothing had been agreed yet. She would give her a tour of the studio and if she hadn’t shown much of a spark, would drive her back to the station. It would be easy. Did the girl know she was being interviewed? As soon as she had opened the door it had started. But of course Kalisa knew that it was an interview. Molly was the one who didn’t know that she was the one being interviewed.

 

They went into the studio. It was a converted barn, with the high ceiling stretching back to a wall of windows at the other end. A mezzanine split that part of the room in two, lit by a skylight overhead and looked to contain a bit of furniture. These architectural details weren’t the first thing that was obvious upon entering the room, as on every vertical surface a painting was hung. Hundreds of paintings, all crowded together, some layered over others like scales, others were in rows that rested between the corner of the wall and floor. All of this visual stimulus was a lot for Kalisa to take in. Landscapes, portraits, still-life studies, versions of famous paintings all rendered in oil paint, with the layers of varnish glittering slightly. Her eyes were unable to focus on any one thing, instead being drawn from one image to the other. The studio smelled heavily of linseed oil and turpentine, but also cigarette smoke, glue and eggs. Stepping across the floorboards splattered with paint, Molly led Kalisa to a series of shelves against a wall by a bench with a stone top.

“This is where I mix my paint. There’s nothing wrong with paint you’d find in an art shop, but there’s certain colours I want and can only get my mixing them myself. Have you ever made your own paint?” Molly said, pointing to the various things laid out on the desk.

 “Not yet. It looks interesting though. How do you make blue?” Kalisa said.

“Depends on the shade. Lapis Lazuli is the richest, both in terms of intensity and cost. There’s a number of synthetic pigments, derivatives using copper or cobalt. Prussian blue is made from iron and cyanide, so I don’t tend to use that much.” Molly said, unscrewing a jar and showing a powder the colour of sky. “This is azurite powder. Organic!”

“Ah.”

“Tell me, how would you make red?”

“Beetroot?”

“Yes, very good. It is common enough that you can easily made red by going down to the supermarket. Do you know what is mixed with pigment to make oil paint?”

“Linseed oil.” Kalisa said, already taking note of the large drums of linseed oil behind her.

“Yes, yes, exactly! Here I was thinking mixing paint was being forgotten and here you are. Did they teach you that at university?”

“Not too much, its more theoretical.”

“No change there then. It is a shame that we are losing these techniques. In themselves they are artforms. To know how much to crush the stones, the right consistency, mixing your own paint. It would be like asking a chef to cook for somebody and simply handing over a ready-meal. I mix my own paint, stretch my own canvasses, only thing I don’t tend to bother with is the framing.”

“It sounds like a lot of work.”

“Yes! Good work. Anyway, you didn’t come here to look at where I grind my pigments. Lets go upstairs and have a natter.” Molly said, darting up a wrought-iron spiral staircase to the mezzanine.

 

There was a small kitchen area off to one side, with a rocking chair resting nearby. A rug with so many stains it was hard to tell what colour it had been originally. There was a futon facing the windows, beyond that were fields that lay at the foot of hills surrounding where Molly lived.

“Do you mind if I smoke? Do you want one?”

“No, I’m fine thanks.”

“I like to sit here and look out of those windows, I see all the seasons change.” Molly said, lighting a cigarette. On a coffee table was a big crystal ashtray, conspicuously clean.

“Nature is a good teacher.” Kalisa said. Molly laughed.

“You’re right. Anything you want to know about art is through that window. I noticed you didn’t bring a portfolio.”

“Was I supposed to?” Kalisa said.

“I remember you approached me the other week and requested I teach you. I’m not saying I will, but I thought we could have a little talk, you can see my work, maybe I could see your work.”

“I have pictures on my phone.”

“No, I don’t like any of that. It loses all the impact of the original. You have people walking around galleries taking pictures of everything and not seeing any art.”

“I can do a drawing now if you like. I can draw anything.”

“Yes, yes, the hands, I was very impressed. You just drew that on the spot?”

“Yes.” Kalisa said. She felt as though the question was pointed, as if Molly was accusing her of something. The initial glow of meeting her was beginning to wear off, now she was finding the conversation to have an odd rhythm to it.

“Very good. I think there’s some paper up here, would you humour me?”

“What would you like me to draw?”

“How about the view?” said Molly, gesturing with a little toss of the head. Kalisa looked out of the window, her eyes flowing over the line of the horizon, the wind-swept trees, the dry-stone walls, the clumps of grass. After a moment she then set to work.

 

Molly watched as she drew, wanting to tut. She wasn’t looking. She’d taken one look and was just sat drawing away. If there was one bit of wisdom she would impart on Kalisa, it was that an artist is always observing. It didn’t matter what the subject or style was, the artist must always refer back to the subject. It was through the rigorous act of looking and replicating those shapes, again and again over the course of decades, that they became second-nature. Looking was a foundational skill. Molly looked over her shoulder at the view again, something that she constantly discovered new things about as she would sit, noticing minor changes in the environment or perhaps studying a bird that was visiting. Just thinking of such things was getting her in the mood to draw the view herself.

“Done.” Kalisa said, flipping the drawing round. Molly looked and smiled, and the smile started to fade as she started to analyse the drawing. In less than a minute she had very accurately illustrated the scene, with delicate shading subduing the background so that the nearby shrubs seemed sharper and somehow looking separate from the page. It was marvellous.

“Good. Tell me about your process.”

“I just do a drawing.”

“Was it the grid from the windows? Did you use that to measure?”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that. I can just see something and draw it, you know?”

“Yes, very talented. What’s your painting like?”

“Its okay. That’s why I’m here though, I’ve always been a big fan of your work, so when I saw you were speaking at the university I thought that it would be a good chance to talk to you. Maybe you can teach me?”

“Anyone can teach you painting. You can watch videos and someone will show you how to paint. Why ask me?” Molly said. Kalisa traced a finger across her drawing and thought for a moment.

“I think it’d be interesting.”

“Interesting. Yes.” Molly said, looking between the drawing and Kalisa. She took a deep drag from her cigarette.

“I can’t pay you or anything. Maybe I can help make pigment or sweep up?”

“My dear assistant usually does that, though currently she is unavailable. What year did you say you were in at university?”

“Just finishing my second.”

“Ah. Well, I suggest you finish your studies first. I wouldn’t want to interfere with whatever they are teaching you. Perhaps you can come back in a year’s time.”

“I’m free all summer. And I can help out in the studio.” Kalisa said carefully. Molly tilted her head back slightly, looking out of the skylight as she thought.

“What kind of artist do you want to be?” Molly said.

“I want to make the work I want. If I can make a living from it, all the better.”

“Spoken like a true artist. I am quite busy, I have work to make myself, future shows to plan, that sort of thing. I could use a second pair of hands and in return, I will teach you what I can. You have to understand, I am no teacher, in fact I hate them, but I will impart bits of what I know so that they don’t die out with me.” Molly said. Kalisa grinned, bouncing slightly where she sat.

“Really?”

“Yes. Temporarily! Just this summer.”

“Oh thank you, thank you, you don’t know what this means to me.” Kalisa said, surprised to find a tear welling up in one eye.

“Wait! Let me think for a moment. You should finish the rest of your studies before summer, I need to do some sorting out. At any moment I reserve the right to finish our business, as do you. I’ll teach you how to paint and you can help me work. I’d rather you don’t go round telling everybody I’m teaching you either, I won’t hear the end of it.”

“I won’t tell anyone.”

“No, do tell people where you are. Are you mad? I could be an axe murderer. Tell your family.”

“What else?”

“Next time you come, bring your work, I want to see it. You can come here on Monday through to Thursday. Are we agreed?”

“Yes.” Kalisa said, standing and offering a hand. Molly got up and shook it, smiling at the strange formality of the gesture. Molly’s thoughts danced between excitement and uncertainty, already wondering if she would regret this decision. The look on Kalisa’s face, such joy, was a giddy kind of innocence. The older painter wondered if she was still capable of expressing such a thing.

“I’m glad you’re happy. I have a few errands to run now, can I drive you back to the station?”

 

The car was ridiculously warm as it traversed the winding road Kalisa had walked along before. Neither felt like speaking, so Molly turned the radio on. Triumphant classical music filtered through, sometimes caught in a buzz of static as they passed beneath trees.

“See you in a month or so. I’ll call you.” Molly said as she dropped her off.

“I look forward to it. Have a good rest of the bank holiday.” Kalisa said. They bid each other goodbye and Kalisa watched the car leave, feeling slightly dreamy. Once the car turned a corner she started dancing on the spot and pumping her fists.

“Yes, yes, yes!”

 

Chapter 4

 

She went to church and prayed. She practiced painting. Most of her lectures had finished and so she spent a couple of weeks writing an essay in her garden. Sometimes her housemates joined her, sitting in the early afternoon sun and passing time. Dandelions had sprouted all over the lawn and one day Kalisa collected the heads and tried to make a paint out of them, crushing them up and adding some vegetable oil, ending up with a runny pale mess that wasn’t worth painting with. Sometimes she sketched the view from Molly’s studio window, or reorganised her portfolio again. The end of her second year couldn’t come quick enough.

On the day of the essay deadline, some of the other students had arranged to meet at a pub near the university. Students arrived in dribs and drabs, more than a few had been awake throughout the night with the aid of chemicals. Kalisa sat at a long bench by a side door, the draught through the pub created a cooling breeze. The other students laughed and talked about summer plans, conversations dividing and multiplying through the early afternoon. As people began to break away Kalisa made her move, beginning to nod off on the bus home. She flicked through her portfolio again as her housemates sat in the garden below, bits of sentences floated through the open window with the drone of lawnmowers. After a while Kalisa felt she wasn’t getting anywhere and fell asleep in her chair by the window.

Molly was cleaning up her studio, though kept having to stop due to the heat. It had rained the day before, making everything more humid and the perfect atmosphere for tiny flies and gnats to appear. She liked to keep her workspace tidy, but was going to extra lengths before Kalisa would arrive the following week. Henry the Hoover smiled cluelessly as his eyes seemed to follow her around the mezzanine.

“Will you fuck off?” she called down to it. None of the windows opened in her studio, she had initially thought it a wise security measure but was now seeing it as the main cause of her overheating. There was a big ventilation unit running through the studio to remove the vapours of the various chemicals she used, but served little good for keeping the room cool. The last few years had relatively cold summers, so the early heatwave that Spring was welcomed at first until the weeks wore on. It was forecast to be one of the hottest summers the UK had ever had. Molly thought about getting some air conditioning fitted but hated the idea of the noise, as well as the disruption fitting it. She rifled through the mess she had created tidying up until finally finding her ancient laptop, looking at alternative ways to stay cool. She tried to watch a video, skipping through minutes of introducing the idea before being forced to watch an advert, followed by the person presenting the video also promoting some product she had never heard of. With a big sigh she slapped the laptop closed, though with the clasp still broken the promotion continued, the American presenter delivering a product pitch to a series of upside-down letters. She tried to press the laptop close and that seemed to work, and she tossed it aside before lying down on the futon in ennui.

She wondered to herself, as she now did often, of her new student. Was there a way she could get out of it somehow? Perhaps she could go on holiday; New York, Barcelona, Florence. Perhaps it would be good for her. Her assistant would be gone until October, there would be nobody else around. She could pass on what she knew to the next generation. In itself she thought this was a good thing, but wondered why she had decided to agree to Kalisa after the hundreds of others had been denied before her. Was it her skill in drawing? Was it Molly’s own intuition? What if this girl was boring or annoying? What if she said Molly had done something awful and she had the press at her door? What if she took a picture of Molly secretly and put it on the internet? All of these questions with no answers went round and round in her head, usually ending with a big flurry of shaking her hands and feet to get rid of the anxious energy and clear her head. It would be fine. She might enjoy it! For every potential bad outcome, a good outcome was just as likely. It was easy for her mind to focus on the former as that was a way she could protect herself, by thinking through it and how she would react, as ultimately she felt vulnerable to let a stranger so close to her so quickly. Nothing bad would happen, she had to remind herself. She had asked a few of her friends for advice and though they seemed surprised and sceptical initially, they quickly came around to congratulating Molly on teaching somebody and having extra help in her studio. She lit a cigarette and looked at the hills beyond her window, remembering Kalisa’s drawing. It had been decided. It was too late to cancel. This was something that was going to happen and so she may as well enjoy it.

Kalisa watched the city give way to the country from the train window. The hard grey lines of industrial estates and pebble-dashed houses faded to rolling hills and full trees, lambs sleeping in the sun, rural roads lined with hedges. Her portfolio was next to her at an awkward angle, walling her off from the other passengers. It had been bought a few years ago in preparation for her university interviews, carrying it to St. Martins and Goldsmiths, as well as making the trip up north to Manchester. She opted for an A0 one, as big as 16 sheets of paper, which made it difficult to carry. Even the smallest breeze made it act like a sail, twisting Kalisa round or pulling her across the pavement. She thought back to her interviews at each university, a professor looking over the paintings she had done in her college course and making comments of her work that seared into her memory.

The train came to a stop and Kalisa got off, struggling with the huge portfolio that still somehow caught in the breeze even though it felt still. Molly was waiting in the car park this time, they drove the short distance to her studio.

“Right then, lets have a look at your work.” Molly said. The portfolio was unzipped and rotated, the younger artist watching the older one’s reaction to the pieces.

Compiling a portfolio is difficult. From all the work an artist creates, only a small sliver will end up going into the portfolio. It is best to start off with your strongest piece, something that shows the kind of artist you are, or perceive yourself to be. It may demonstrate your technical ability, your style or whichever subject you are most interested in. The following pages, with work trapped between plastic, would then continue telling your story as an artist. Some opt for showing progress in their work and aptitude for progression, with early studies of bowls of fruit in oil pastels giving way to more elaborate paintings. Others show a range of different skills, perhaps one page would be a portrait and the next some abstract piece covered in drips of ink and splotches of paint. These are not strong choices to put into a portfolio. The portfolio should have a kind of narrative to it, but this should represent a fully developed artist than a student still picking up foundational skills. It is better to show mastery of one or two skills than the versatility of many. Some artists are particularly interested in showing large cityscapes, others the human figure, others interested in lighting. Displaying different mediums, like charcoal studies or paintings in watercolour, serve well to show some versatility, but ultimately the portfolio serves the same as an exhibition. An artist would do well to show how each piece is connected than proving they have the capacity to learn. The final page of the portfolio should ideally be a piece of art done recently, equally as strong as the first page, as the beginning and end of anything tends to be more memorable than what happened in between.

Kalisa’s portfolio consisted of 24 illustrations and paintings. What she had shown in her interviews for university had been taken out years ago and now rested under her bed, to be replaced with the work she had been doing at university. The focus of her work was the human figure, often displaying a few people in each piece interacting with each other. It became clear that there were religious elements in each work, with Christian iconography running throughout.

“Are you one of those New Christians?”

“New Catholics? No.” Kalisa laughed. “I’m a real Christian.”

“I see.” Molly said, turning a page. There was a large charcoal study of a man from behind, the curvature of his spine and ribs taking up most of the page. Atop his head was a halo that emanated light. The next page was a painting of Jesus, and like the other figures in the portfolio, was black. Kalisa looked at Molly to see if she reacted, as some people took offence at the idea that people born two thousand years ago around North Africa and the Middle East might have had dark skin, but Molly didn’t mention it. She continued to turn the pages, look at the work, until landing on the final page, a snake descending from a tree whilst Eve was about to take a bite from an apple.

“What do you think?”

“You are skilled at illustrating, but your painting needs some work. Look at this, the figures don’t seem to be within the scene, almost as if they have been cut out and stuck on. And here, this is poor colour mixing. You can see the flecks of blue in amongst the green. Who taught you to paint?”

“I watched some videos online.” Kalisa said, her face burning slightly. Molly clicked her tongue against her teeth.

“You study painting at university, yes?”

“They don’t teach us how to paint, its just theory. Postmodernism, that sort of thing.”

“Yes, I remember how it was. You’ve been painting a while though.”

“I used to use this drawing tablet on my computer but it broke.”

“No, no, don’t do that. You have to use paint to be a painter!”

“Will you teach me then?”

“I liked your drawing, but that is a different skill to painting. Mixing colour, moving the paint around, building layers, these are all essential skills. I will show you what I know but I can’t promise anything.”

“Where do we start?”

“We will learn by doing, just as I was taught.”

“Who taught you?”

“That is a long story, perhaps I’ll tell you another time. For now, let us paint.” Molly said. With that, the portfolio was zipped back up and the two artists started their first lesson.

 

Molly opened a metal cabinet and brought out a doll. It was just a bit bigger than her, made of foam and hessian.

“I had the armature built by a friend. It has articulated joints, fully poseable.” Said Molly, rearranging the dolls limbs so that it stood up.

“I prefer to draw from life, but the doll is always here. Can you see?” she said, looking over to Kalisa.

 

And that is where the story ended. I wanted to write a book about two artists, one being older, famous and the other just starting her career. I was interested in writing a book that was quite summery and cosy and explore the relationships between these two people, connected by art, but also looking at identity, like race, class and gender.

I got talking about the story with someone and they weren't impressed that I was writing a story from the perspective of a black woman (and a white woman), but I felt like an author should be able to write about such things, as in, any thing, as that is imagination. I had done research and seen these dynamics in my work, and I had a purpose for writing this particular story.

It made me think about authorship though, so much so that I abandoned the project. I felt a bit self conscious after discussing the book with someone else. Am I only meant to write stories about my own lived experience? I would like to have a diversity of characters in my stories as that reflects the diversity of people in my life. I think anyone can write about anything so long as they do it with care, otherwise in the future there will be no fiction, just autobiography. However, the book is abandoned as I have become too conscious of myself as an author writing a story rather than just writing.

I liked some parts of what I had written so put it here, why not. The rest of the story would have been about learning the fundamentals of art, both the technical ability and theory. The women would spend the summer together, making art all day and talking all night. There was going to be a section that flashes back where the older character travels to Italy to be trained by an old master. The characters would have a disagreement and part ways. The years would pass and the student is now successful and popular whilst the teacher has become reclusive and no longer makes art. They would meet a final time in a restaurant, talking about their lives and different positions, as well as what art can be. I wanted the main themes of the story to be about learning, art and relationship, how there can be a tension between the individual and a collective. 

Maybe somebody else can write that story, I'll stick to my hard journalism and the actual true stories that shock the nation. In another world I have switched to writing bestselling books, but in this one I stand beneath the void of infinity, catching lightning in my jaw.

 

  

 

The Astronaut

Intro

I wrote this over a few months in 2014. I was on benefits and living back at my mum's house, spending each day applying for jobs or walking round the fields and forest at the back of the house. Earlier that year I had a kind of mental breakdown in a flea-infested apartment. My housemate spent months at a time in Morocco, and the combination of a recent break-up, loss of work and a ballooning overdraft (as well as the death of a pet butterfly) had gotten me to the point where I would sit on the end of my bed, pucker my lips slightly and then run my finger up and down and go 'wurblywurblywurblywurblywurblywurbly'.

And so this 110 page book about a man who can teleport immediately is dedicated to my mother. Thank you for taking me back and giving me time to get back on my feet. I'm back to being a successful playboy of experimental journalism, living it large and blasting Pitbull from the stero system of my sports car which I drive around every night, hunting down the news. I haven't read this story for about ten years, who knows what it's about really. Bon appetit.

 

1.

One moment he was there and then he was not. The first time it happened was odd for him, extremely jarring. His entire existence up to that point had been seamless, one moment flowed to the next. Of course, there was sleep. But almost every time he woke in the same place he had been to bed and if not there was an explanation. But as he was walking home from work one day he was suddenly on a beach in Bora Bora. The sun was just coming up over by some rock across the clear bay water. He had been here before as a boy and had been thinking about it just before he was there. But was he there? The air tasted different. The sand stuck to his shoes. He wondered if it was a hallucination or if he was dreaming but suddenly became unsure of how to prove his own conciousness. And as soon as he had arrived in Bora Bora he was at his house. What was happening? It was raining outside but there were no footprints from his front door across the wood flooring.

"Bora Bora." he said to himself. His mind couldn't fully grasp the last few seconds and so set him the task of making a cup of tea and sitting down, which he was grateful for. But he couldn't shake the notion that something strange had just happened to him. He turned the television on but it wasn't distracting enough. Had he just teleported to Bora Bora and to his house? If so, why? What kind of gesture from a higher power would it have been to transport a person to an old holiday destination for a few seconds then back to their home. And as well as questioning why it happened, he wondered how it happened. And if it could be repeated. There was a framed photograph on the wall of his living room of countryside. He couldn't remember who'd given it him, but it had been a present he was polite enough to put on his wall without ever properly looking at it. It had become less of a photograph and more of something he walked past every day but now he looked at it properly. The dales, the trees, the little stream, the sheep. And his living room disappeared to be replaced by rolling hills and rain. His arrival scattered some nearby sheep, though he didn't notice this so much as he became overwhelmed by what was happening. He transported back to his house.

 

He made another cup of tea and thought. For seemingly no reason at all he could suddenly transport himself by thinking of a place it seemed. His heart thumped in his chest. He realised he could go anywhere in the world. The Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Antartica. He ran to his book shelf and picked out an atlas, wiping the dust off it's cover with one hand. David flicked to a random page, it was Argentina. He looked at the map and pictured the tip of South America in his head. And there he was, looking down at Argentina. Falling, faster and faster, towards the land mass below him. His screams lost in the wind, he transported himself back to his house. Maybe maps wouldn't be good for travelling. But the photo seemed to work. He had a sip of his tea and wondered what to do. Where to go.

 

He packed a bag and set it by his feet as he looked on the internet. He had always wanted to go to India and had dressed appropriately for it, as far as he was concerned anyway. The bright red shorts hadn't yet been worn and the t-shirt hanging off his back was unwashed, yet he didn't have many other clothes for travelling. He hadn't packed much in his bag either, figuring he could always come back if he needed anything. After choosing a picture of a temple in New Dehli he concentrated. He hadn't yet got used to it. There wasn't any kind of gradual change, he simply appeared at the exact same spot that the photographer stood when the photo had been taken. The photo had been taken during the day, maybe a few years ago but when he arrived it was the middle of the night and nobody was around. The bag he had been holding wasn't with him, but he didn't mind, at least he still had his clothes on and the things in his pockets. He walked around for a while before realizing he was totally lost. The fear that would have usually begun to creep on him wasn't there. At any moment he could simply transport himself back home. Or Bora Bora. Or miles above Argentina. He found a little restaurant that was still open and had some rice for tea before going back home.

 

That evening he travelled the world. The places he had always wanted to go, places he had heard were interesting. He looked through the internet at examples of beautiful architecture, places of natural beauty. It was when he transported to the Amazonian rainforest he realized about displacement. The photo he had been looking at had been taken from a tree but once he transported there, he realized the tree had grown. Half of his body was stuck in the trunk. He panicked at first, feeling his legs trapped in the warm wood before realising just as quickly that at least he could feel his legs. He was just stuck in a tree. He transported back to his house to find his legs made from wood standing in his living room. A perfect replica of his trousers, shoes, a bit of his shirt. He marvelled at the statue. He had never seen such detail in any kind of sculpture before. If he looked closely he could see where each individual fibre was woven into the other, though made of wood. It seemed as though when he transported, wherever he transported to swapped places with him. He felt a little ill. He had been lucky so far that he hadn't transported into where anybody had been standing. He chose his next few places a lot more carefully. Forests, mountains, Detroit. It wasn't so bad to transport to a place then have to walk to where he wanted to go if it meant not transporting half of a person into his living room.

 

After a few hours he began to get more of a control of his transportation. He could look into the sky, transport there, look towards a cloud and transport there, and so on. It wasn't as much flying as it was constantly falling, though from this vantage point he could transport himself to empty areas such as fields or rooftops. And he quickly learned that by displacing objects small enough he could transport things back to his house without them being destroyed, so long as they were small enough to fit in the space occupied by his body. His house began to be filled with things he wanted, as well as lot of bits of table and plinths. By the time he was ready to go to bed a pile of money in the shape of himself was lying in the bathroom along with a bunch of watches, electronic gadgets and a few diamonds. He'd also appeared in a shop somewhere and changed his clothes for an expensive suit. He didn't particularly want it but thought he may as well have it. As he lay in bed and looked out of the window he wondered where he would go tomorrow. And that's when he noticed the moon.

 

He ate breakfast in New York followed by coffee in Paris. So far nobody had seemed to notice him appear anywhere, though he occasionally got an odd look as he descended a staircase or appeared behind somebody on a street that had been empty just moments before. But David didn't mind. He walked down an alley in Russia and was quickly joined by two men. One grabbed his arms whilst the other went through the pockets of his Armani suit only for the two men to mime the robbery with all the ferociousness of performance artists. And as he went round and round the world David began to think more and more. The Earth was David's home but his destination were the stars. He read books on the beaches of Bora Bora. Books on space and time, physics, science fiction, space exploration. A lot of it went over his head as he hadn't done that well in school or go onto university but made up for his shortcomings with gumption. After a few weeks of learning some of the basics he acquired a space suit from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. He had transported there in the night, dressed all in black and looked at the suit before him. It was apparently the same one worn by Neil Armstrong. It was a kind of beige, with little metal straps and buckles all around the chunky suit and looked to be about his size. The visor on the helmet was a golden colour and David knew from his recent research that it was able to stand the intense light thrown from the sun. It wasn't cutting edge by any means, though David hoped it was still useable. And so he picked up a brass plated rope holder and swung it at the glass, smashing it to bits. He didn't care much about the alarms. He lifted the suit off it's stand and pulled it on, surprised at how light it felt. The alarms screamed and screamed, over on the other side of the museum he could hear guards running with their flashlights dancing around. He hoped the space suit conformed to the apparent rules that were in place for transporting clothes. Slapping the helmet on his head, he gave a guard the finger before transporting back to his house. He looked at his reflection in the mirror. An astronaut.

 

Of course, the suit would need some modifications before he would try to go into space. Oxygen was important, as was the suit being sealed. He managed to get hold of some tanks and experimented underwater, getting used to the way he perceived things and moved in the dark oceans. The space suit sacrificed quite a lot of mobility for protection. After experimenting in the Sahara desert for a few minutes he discovered the suit needed a sort of replacement cooling system. He also attached an oxygen measurement device to one of the arms as well as a flashlight just by his head. Although he was worried about radiation from stars or being crushed under huge gravitational forces, his excitement overcame these fears. He had spent a while time modifying the suit and practising moving for hours at a time, often wearing it as he walked around his house and garden. Almost a month after he had transported to Bora Bora he decided it was time to go into space. He began by looking up at the night sky, trying not to focus too much on the distant stars. He wouldn't want to transport to the heart of a far away sun and be immediately obliterated. Instead he looked at the clouds and transported up there. Then he went a little higher, and higher. The oxygen metre on his arm showed that there was less and less as he gradually made his way upward. He began to laugh as he felt himself falling less and less toward the Earth and instead begin to orbit. Weightlessness. Space. Looking at the curve of the planet he had spent all of his life on, he felt a lump in his throat. He had been all around the world but seeing it from up there was entirely different. Down on the ground one was always aware that they belonged to a place, whether it be a country or political party, a family, a group of friends, a job. But as he moved further and further away from Earth he saw it for what it was. A blue and green planet in which everything he had ever known had lived. There were no borders up there either. The world was one, with no signs of man or what he thought mattered. Just a single sphere hanging in space that everybody lived on, for better or for worse. From where he floated it seemed so beautiful and delicate.

"Earth." he said softly.

 

He struggled moving under his own locomotion, so had to transport himself to look around. High above the Earth was a glittering network of satellites, tiny specks being whirled around the planet at high speeds. And behind that was the moon. He chose a place that had always intrigued him, a crater toward the South. He had always thought of this as the pole of the moon but after reading the atronomy books had found it was a crater called Tycho. Transporting himself just a few metres off the ground, he became extremely giddy as his boots slowly landed on the dusty rock. David hopped around for a while, enjoying the feeling of the low gravity. He walked in the footsteps of the astronauts before him, literally. The novelty of hopping around the moon began to dull after a few minutes though. It was dead. Just a black and grey and white desert with the Earth overhead and the sun away from that, so brilliantly bright even through the special visor on the helmet. It didn't take him to long to go around the other planets. Mars was like the moon but he couldn't jump as high, although he did see some interesting mountain ranges. As he neared Venus he found it too hot. As he neared Jupiter and Saturn he found himself being pulled surprisingly fast towards their centres. Only daring to appear in the atmosphere of Saturn for a moment, he felt his spine almost snap as it's gravitational pull yanked him through the rings that orbited the planet. He flew through a metallic vapour that rose from a sea of liquid hydrogen that frothed and boiled as he fell faster and faster towards the planet, only just transporting away before he hit the surface of the cruel sea. Uranus and Neptune were both fine to look at, as were the other planets from a distance, but as David neared them he found that they were unsuitable for him to properly walk on. In less than an hour he had visited almost all of the solar system, not daring to go to Mercury due to the heat or into any of the asteroid belts for fear of his own gravity would force tiny rocks to be attracted to him and shoot through his body like bullets. He sat in his living room with his helmet off, drinking a cup of tea, and generally feeling a little let down by his local planetary system. It would take so much technological advancement for mankind to even reach mars and when they got there it seemed to David to be a bit dry. But then again, there was a whole galaxy out there. Unexplored territory. He had an atlas of the universe and looked across it's pages, re-reading notes he had made in the margins. As beautiful as space could be, he wasn't that interested in looking at differently coloured orbs of varying sizes. It was life he was looking for. If in all of space there was only Earth that was home to anything more complex than rocks, David felt as if his newly discovered talent would be almost disappointing. The ability to go anywhere when the only place worth going was Earth. He finished his brew and looked at the atlas a bit longer before deciding he'd rather do his own exploring. He put his helmet back on and transported next to Pluto.

 

The blackness of space waited for him, a three dimensional frontier. From here David properly looked at the stars around him. Out here it was a lot more clearer. Millions upon millions of stars. And mixed between those were the soft light of other galaxies.He felt as if he was paddling on the surface of a gigantic ocean, alone atop the infinite depth, though knew that even that feeling wasn't enough at the sheer magnitude of the universe. Just to one side he could see the cloud of the milky way, behind him the sun still shone, more smaller and gentler that it he had been used to yet it was his home star all the same. Picking a star at random, he pictured the dot in his head and how far away he needed to be from it. And all of a sudden he was there.

 

His first impression was how much bright this sun was compared to his own. He squinted, even in the visor, and tried to see if he could identify any landmarks, panicking slightly when he realized he couldn't see the milky way. He also quickly realized how hard it was to see planets compared to the stars. He had reached the star but the orbits of it's satellites could go on for millions of miles. He teleported around for a while before beginning to feel a sense of hopelessness and the desperate urge to have a telescope. Though he felt himself moving slightly. He teleported himself the direction he was drifting and soon enough he had become attracted to a large planet. Ice titan. His boots began to sink into the metallic slush he was standing on. Through the gentle haze above he could see the star again, but also a second star next to it. A binary system. Each star threw off a slightly differently coloured shadow from his body. Approaching the dark side of the planet he watched one of the stars set a fabulous blue that coloured the sky the same as a summers day on Earth. The second set a few hours later, making the tundra turn completely orange that faded into a blood red as night set in. He teleported around the system, saw countless moons, a few smaller planets and a distant asteroid slowly rotating on the far reaches of the twin stars gravitational pull. David sat on the asteroid for a while, considering the universe, before popping home for a cup of tea and listening to the radio.

 

Space was big. He hadn't properly been able to think about how big space was until he had begun to travel through it. Thousands upon thousands of stars in every direction that he could see with his naked eye, and when there wasn't he could see thousands upon thousands of distant galaxies. And even those numbers were minute compared to the billions that were out there. Nebula so vast that they completely filled the night sky on some planets. Other planets towards the centre of the galaxy had a sky so ridiculously bright with stars it gave him nosebleeds and headaches. He was glad that the Milky Way wasn't as tightly compacted as some other galaxies he looked at and also not as lonely as single stars, drifting between the galaxies. They seemed so dark and alone, drifting aimlessly, millions of lightyears away from anything else. And there was such a variety of stars. Brown dwarfs, red dwarfs, yellow and blue main sequence stars, the gigantic redness of the giants and the horrific, the absolute brightness of Wolf-Rayet types. Rigel, Betelgeux, Aldebaran. He knew he was millions of miles from some of these suns, his mind unable to comprehend the hugeness properly without a point of reference. Some of the larger stars had small, paler stars trapped in their orbits and were destined to rotate around each other until the smaller stars would sap matter, becoming larger and larger until a nova exploded outward. He watched others stars that would change in size, they seemed to breathe inward and outward as their inner chemical reactions violently changed from one state to another. Then there were the planets. Ice worlds, metal planets, moons made of gas, deformed lumps of sand and rock. Planets with hundreds of moons, planets so huge that they could fit almost all the solar system inside them. Planets so small it seemed a miracle they were held together. He saw a lot of planets with rings, one even had a huge orange and yellow halo of meteorites that looped around a nearby moon before joining the planet again. Systems with two or three stars seemed to pop up quite a lot for him, though he reasoned this was because he was only using the brightest stars as a general guide of where he should go. After a while of travelling he came across a planet with a liquid surface, an ocean planet. Though upon landing he found it was just ten feet deep. He saw other strange things. Black holes, lumpy suns, pulsars, magnetars, disc-like planets, liquid nebula, once or twice he even came across a statue of himself floating in spaces he had already visited. There were stars that had so much debris around them that had begun to weld together on the outer reaches of the cloud, David imagined in a few millenia that the entire sun may be caught in a web of rock made from the destroyed planets floating around it. Sometimes he found some sort of debris from unknown origins, though it looked to him like they could be pieces of ships or just pieces of metal that looked like they were from a ship. On and on it went, countless planets he would land on and find similair landscapes of nothing. Focusing his research he begin to become familiar with which areas stars appeared that seemed to have a high number of planets, reasoning that the more planets that there were the higher chance that he may find life. This notion lead him to discover a planet that looked similair to Earth. Blue oceans, terrain, even green vegetation. He felt a strange weight lift off his chest and become replaced with a sense of great awe. He had spent the last few weeks travelling through the entire universe and had at last found a planet that could support life. He teleported himself down onto it's surface.

 

A sort of woody seaweed was spread over most of the planets coastline. Away from this a single species of plant had taken over the landscape, it looked a little like rhubarb. It was quiet. David walked through the low canpoy of leaves for a while, looking for other signs of life. He teleported on and saw that all there seemed to be was this single plant, mud and rocks. He dug in the soil looking for worms and found none, he drifted in the sea and found nothing. The lack of intelligent life began to scare David slightly, a suspense that something would maybe appear from the soil and drag him beneath. After going home a few times to get a bit of a breather, he later discovered that there wasn't yet any sort of intelligent life on the planet, just the two species of alien vegetation. He hadn't dared try to displace a section of it back with him unless it contained a bacteria that ate DNA or something. He left the planet and went off to a distant star, though he had new hope. It was possible that alien life existed! It hadn't been his immediate thought when he considered the word 'alien', but he had now seen them himself. He wished he had the knowledge and equipment available that he would perhaps best study the two alien plants and the world that they lived on but he hadn't. Although he was now slightly more optimistic.

 

 

2.

 

 

A few weeks passed. David was finding that he was spending much more time at home than he used to, he hadn't seen much of his friends and family after he could teleport and had began to make up for it as his interest wavered. Though he had found the two species of alien plants, far, far away, he hadn't seen anything since. One evening he came home, struggling to put his key into his front door when he remembered he could just appear on the other side, before realizing his keys had now dropped onto his doormat and he had just transported some warm air out of the house.

"Bloody hell." he said to himself. An interstellar traveller who struggled to open his front door. He appeared outside his house again and eventually got in. After having some slightly undercooked cheese on toast and watching television for a while he decided to put his space suit on and have another look around the universe. He looked through his stolen telescope and once he was satisfied he had found an unexplored spot he prepared himself for the journey by getting dressed and listening to some high energy rock music before suddenly disappearing. He had left the television on.

 

He found himself floating in the blackness, the void between galactic arms, and laughed to himself. Such colossal distances.

"I hope that there is some life out there you know." he said to himself. He sighed. "I just want someone to talk to." All of a sudden he had the temptation to open his helmet. He imagined his entire body exploding out of the little window in front of his face and shuddered. He disappeared and reappeared by a lone star. And another. He went from system to system as he usually did, looking at the planets until there it was.

 

He saw a planet. It had land and water. The sun was slightly redder and the sea was blacker and the vegetation more yellow. But even up here he could see the cities beneath the clouds. Alien cities full of alien people! David gave a yell of joy, wishing he had some way to celebrate the moment.

"Aliens...I am from the planet Earth. I have travelled a long way for a long time and I uh...hope that we can help each other in this world. I mean universe." he said to himself, immediately regretting his choice of words for the occasion. "Well, nobody heard it anyway." he muttered before descending into the atmophere. The structure of the land could be mistaken for Earth, coast-lines and mountain ranges, forests and deserts, but the cities excited him most. He was tempted to appear straight in the centre of one but realised how potentially dangerous that could be for him, so instead chose a relatively remote area. It was day time. Yellow grasses poked up amongst the dull rocks, a barren terrain that reminded him of the north. The gravity was slightly low, so the trees were tall and thin. Even wearing the space suit he could leap quite far distances. He picked up a rock and found it weighed half as much as it should have. The oxygen metre on his arm beeped away merrily so he removed his helmet breathing in the air and finding it slightly muggy and smelled metallic. He looked at a vein of chromium running the length of a rock face he clambered down leading him to a cliff edge. In the valley below there was a small town. Or at least a collection of buildings. He came to a train track and walked toward the town, looking for sign of anything that lived there. Sweat wet his neck, he crouched behind a bush just by the track. He realised he was intensely frightened and that his stomach was hanging slightly higher than he was used to, the combination of that and adrenaline made him sick. David wiped at his mouth and waited for a while. The buildings looked ugly to him. Tall and uniform, made of plastic and metal. Some of the older ones just outside of the town seemed to be adorned in intricately carved stone, a kind of strange, three dimensional fractal theme. They had street lights embedded into the roads. Some vechiles were parked up, it made him smile that some were rusted or damaged. It seemed that even across the universe people still had cars that wouldn't work properly. Well, they looked like cars but had a huge bicycle wheel at one end. He saw one driving down the road slowing right down and park up by the pavement. It's driver got out. It looked odd. It was just a little taller than David and looked a little like a grasshopper and an ostrich yet was entirely different. It's black trousers covered a quadruple jointed leg almost as tall as the thing itself. An intricate pattern of long fingers resting at the front of a fat body. The head looked like three big mushrooms made of skin and muscle resting on a thin, bony neck about a metre long, which was wrapped in a criss-cross of fabric. David put his helmet back on and moved forward slightly. He transported himself underground but so that his head was just peeking out from behind a low rock near the road. A headless statue of an astronaut fell over a hundred metres or so away, causing the thing to turn. It looked around, not appearing to notice David then began walking down the street. With one of it's legs it pushed open a door and entered what David guessed was his house. David looked up and down the street and saw it was empty. He wanted to approach one of the aliens out in the open rather than being in close quarters. He transported himself out of the town and spotted one walking alone in a field.

 

For a while he had been thinking of how to talk to an alien. Communication was a broad term. He wouldn't bother with English at all. In fact any kind of verbal language would be silly but he'd have to start somewhere. Whether David spoke English, Greek, Chinese or Sumerian the thing wouldn't understand. Though there was one universal language that they would have in common and that would be mathematics. David hoped that they had mathematics anyway. Length, mass, time, all could be measured and it was through these measurements that David hoped to begin communication. The grass wafted in the breeze as David walked across the field. Something ran off in the undergrowth. Large, spindly bushes obscured him from view at first but he rustled at the branches anyway to let the thing know he was there. David activated the space suits megaphone he had installed recently.

"I..." he began. He couldn't think of what to say. But the syllable had made the thing lean it's head toward him. It gave a gentle chirp in response. Maybe they had met aliens before. David didn't know what to do so simply walked out of the vegetation, waving his arms.

 

The thing shrieked before raising up one of it's legs in what David perceived as some sort of display of aggression. Standing in the field he began to think he had started off on the wrong foot. Though how else was he meant to do it? As much as he had considered the potentially deep and meaningful question of first contact, there had to be a time when he would show himself. He watched the thing cower, it's right leg still edging slowly backwards. David crouched and began to draw in the dirt with a finger. He tried to draw the planet and stubbed his finger roughly where they were. As much as he wanted to talk he realised that it may just upset the thing even more to hear mixes of vowels and consonants pushed through a ring of skin. It seemed to communicate through a series of tones that was more reminiscent of a bag of tuning forks, marbles and bones thrown down some stairs, it wasn't likely he could replicate such a noise. Closer to the insect than the ape. David took a few steps back towards the bushes and waited. Though the thing seemed frightened it was also curious and began to near the astronaut. David imagined if the roles were reversed, if this thing had landed near his house and tried to communicate with him. He'd have probably ran away at the first sight of it. The mushroomed head thing tilted towards the drawings on the ground then back at David before it knelt down itself. It's web of fingers descended on an arm that protruded from it's chest and began to draw a more detailed version of the planet. David broke a stick off one of the nearby bushes and drew three dots, a plus sign, two dots, an equals sign, then five dots. The alien copied this then went on to write further, though a wind picked up and blew sand across the signs. The creature clicked a few times, David tried to repeat them. They tried to click and make noises at each other for a while but it didn't seem they were getting anywhere. Slapping the floor with a foot, the creature nodded a few times then began to sprint away. Did it mean stay there? Or had the alien simply become bored? Maybe it was only humans that wished to seek out alien life. David waited a while, doodling in the dirt with the stick before his drawings reminded him of crop circles. He didn't believe that aliens had travelled all the way to Earth to make patterns in the grass but he was starting to see the reasoning behind it. If only there was a way he could better prepare the planet for his arrival. For all he knew the alien had gone off to raise a posse, and he was getting slightly bored, so David transported himself high above the planet again. The side facing away from the sun glittered in clumps of tiny yellow and red lights which stretched around the surface like veins, a road system. He landed in a city momentarily, only for a perfect statue to appear made from mountain rock a thousand miles away. He did this in every large city, appearing in a quiet area, transporting to the inside of a mountain then appearing above the planet again. By the time the planet had done a full rotation around the sun hundreds of statues had appeared. He smiled to himself before transporting back home for a cheese sandwich he ate in bed, wondering excitedly at the prospect of the mushroom heads.

 

David spent the next few days on Earth, visiting old friends and thinking about how he would establish contact with the aliens. From time to time he would don his space suit and watch the planet from high in the atmosphere, deciding on a spot best to communicate. Though it had seemed as if the aliens had chosen one for him. He wondered if there was a notion that if aliens were to land on Earth that humans would congregate at specific points; Ayers Rock, Devils Tower, Stone Henge. Quite a few aliens seemed to have clamoured around a crater where, from David's position, it looked as if a large meteor had struck the planet eons ago. He watched the camp sites be erected, the strange totems erected pointing to the sky, aliens wearing more colourful and loose fitting clothes than the ones he had observed in the cities. Space hippies. From his reasoning he deduced that the aliens were rather similair to humans, in that they had a language and ideas and differences. He had more in common with them than he had with monkeys anyway. They sat and listened to speeches, played music together, swam in a nearby lake and seemed to enjoy themselves. A statue of himself had been taken to the centre of the crater and mounted on a podium, surrounded by many more cruder statues and flags. He was unsure whether to feel admiration or revulsion that some aliens had attempted to dress in a similar fashion to him in his space suit. Seven days after he had made first contact in the field he decided he would make his appearance to the crater folk. David wondered if it was wise to appear in front of such a large number of the aliens in such a fashion but decided that they seemed to bear him no ill will. After all, they had driven way out into the middle of nowhere to go camping around some dusty old crater waiting for his return. And so, after having a cup of tea and leaving a notebook of his discoveries on top of the television, he dressed himself in the space suit and prepared.

 

It was noon. On top of the podium was a statue of an astronaut made from volcanic rock, the red sun shining on the perfectly smooth helmet visor, a slight heat haze made everything appear oily. The aliens went about their activities of sharing stories, eating, resting, waiting. The statue of David was replaced with the subject. At first no one noticed, but David watched and waited. There was a tone out in the crowd and soon enough they had all turned to look at the alien. David waved at them. The audience all reacted differently. Some turned and ran, others began screeching and clicking, others ran towards him. David waited, he felt unease yet resisted the urge to disappear. An alien came bounding up some steps toward him and stopped. With it's single arm extended, it tried to mirror the wave. Another alien joined them and carefully set down a stone tablet, etched into it was the planet and the sun and some symbols. David looked down at the crater and saw quite a few aliens were using what seemed like spherical type-writers with a lens mounted on the front. Perhaps a sort of camera and computer? The alien that waved extended its arm outward and David repeated the gesture. He could see that at the end of every finger there was a hole just a little smaller than a human nostril. Another sensory organ? The fingers of the two species touched.

 

The two mushroom heads and David began to descend the stairs into the crater, the aliens that remained had formed a crowd around them but still left enough room for the astronaut to travel. He was being lead to a large tent. The mushroom heads all seemed to be of a similair height and weight, though there were a lot of variations in colour and subtle differences to the mushroom-like facial structure. Inside the tent there were more stone tablets, most had drawings on and something that resembled a language though David couldn't see any repeated characters. The drawings were of the planet, the aliens, a few other alien creatures he didn't recognize and himself. One of the aliens in the tent stepped forward and began to scratch into a piece of plastic. Three dots, a plus sign, two dots, an equals sign and then five dots. It clicked and screeched a few times, David wondered if it was the same one he had met in the field. David was about to do some more basic arithmatic for them all when there was a commotion at the back of the tent. It seemed as if a group of aliens wearing green plastic suits had forced their way in and were now quickly moving towards David. Their leader looked to be talking to the one who had brought him the plastic tablet, whilst a few others surrounded him. Though they didn't look like any weapon David was familiar with, he recognized that they had a barrel on one end and a trigger on the other. With ten or so guns pointed at him, David sighed. He had barely been here for ten minutes and had already been taken hostage.

 

He was lead to a large truck. It seemed all vechiles on this planet were powered by the aliens' legs. He watched a few of them begin to pedal madly as the truck made it's way across the desert. A few still had their guns pointed at him, David wondered if he should disappear. But he was curious to see where they would take him. Maybe if he went to a science facility he'd be able to observe the level of intelligence the aliens had. Or perhaps he'd be taken to a prison and see how the aliens laws and punishments were worked out. Wherever he would be taken he would be able to learn more about the aliens than he would have in the tent, he supposed. After an hour or so they reached their destination and he was ushered off the truck.

 

He was sat down in a small room with a single table in the centre. It didn't seem the aliens had invented chairs, so David sat on the table and waited. There was quite a large camera in the corner and a window set into one wall. It was dark on the other side of the glass, but David could just about make out a few of the mushroom heads in there. He swang his legs backwards and forwards, hummed to himself for a bit. He hoped the aliens would do something soon, he was starting to get a little hungry. Although he was aware that the aliens had no idea of his needs he still felt they were being slightly rude. What if he would die if not exposed to sunlight or had only popped down for a few minutes, left his dinner cooking on some spaceship, if he had one. David hoped that if aliens ever landed on Earth that they would be treated with a little more respect than being kidnapped, held hostage and observed in some building with an unknown purpose. A bit of humanity wouldn't go amiss. Just as he was about to get up to investigate the strange camera in the corner, the door opened and an alien walked in dressed in grey overalls and carrying a little attache case. Inside was a spherical typewriter that David came to learn was a computer. There was also a notepad and an ink pot. It set all of these objects on the table in silence and knelt down like some parody of an ostrich before it's single arm extended outward. It's hand hovered above the ink pot and David watched thin needles emerge from a few fingers, dipping into the ink before making marks on the paper. Again, the planet, two add three equals five. After it had drawn this it pushed the pad over to David and clicked a few times. David felt as if he should try and make some effort in language and tried to click himself though he now noticed how much wetter his clicks sounded. The alien didn't have any sort of tongue and David watched it closely when it next made a noise. Something was moving inside it's neck. David took a piece of paper and dipped his finger into the ink pot and began a crude drawing of the thing with some lines emanating from it's head. He pointed at this and began clicking away himself before wondering why he was trying so hard to practise at their language when he hadn't really tried talking himself since meeting the race. Perhaps it was polite when visiting another country to attempt the local language but when meeting alien races it would be best to do away with such courtesies.

"How do you make those clicking sounds?" he said. The alien pulled his head back when he spoke. "I'm not sure who you are or where we are but you may as well at least hear what my language sounds like." David continued. The alien began to fiddle with the spherical typewriter before going back to drawing although it seemed to be letters this time. David noticed that as well as dragging the ink around the page the alien could also blow the liquid around creating quite elaborate patterns. It then drew a picture of David in his astronaut suit with some lines coming off it. David wondered how long they would have to go on mirroring each other before they got down to learning anything of value.

"Well, our languages might be different. But two add three is still five." said David, beginning to draw groups of dots and the numeral next to them. Part way through an alien entered with a quill for David, which he took graciously.

 

After a few hours they were making progress. It seemed that the aliens only had zero, one, two and five, as any number could be reached using these four numbers. David thought it more complicated than it needed to be, but then the alien probably thought that ten digits were too many. From here they agreed on the speed of light though David found that the aliens seemed to group light and sound as the same thing. They then gave each other a brief biology lesson so as to understand the biological foundation behind the way each perceived the world. From as good as David could understand it the mushroom-like cluster at the top of the aliens heads served as a perceptor for both light and sound simultaneously, with the aliens lacking a sense of smell but instead being able to perceive electrical current through small nodes that ran along the neck. The clicking and tonal sounds the aliens made were created by contracting and twisting of bones in the neck which made David cringe, though he guessed the idea of blowing air across a flap of flesh through a malleable orifice may be unusual for the alien. The single arm was quite important for the species it seemed. The needles in the fingers acted as syringes they used to suck nutrients from there food. The mushroom heads had been carrion eaters, relying on predators to kill. Due to their relative speed they were able to avoid danger often, moving like flocks of birds around the planet. They developed intelligence through cooperation, which in turn lead to tool making. Though rather than the importance that humans had placed in hunting weapons the aliens developed drums and writing in order to communicate at further distances. The idea of leading prey for the predators to kill was as important as agriculture was for us and so the aliens ancient religions was duotheistic, the idea of the predator and the carrion integral for the aliens early survival. With religion came mutually agreed codes of conduct and cooperation between tribes. Unlike humans the aliens could also travel quickly so they didn't need to establish concepts of ownership or leadership over areas of land, and with this it came to be that each individual was thought of as important as any other. This meant that though the aliens were all equal, no individual had the chance to specialise. The idea of an artist or a scientist didn't appear for thousands of years until the next step in the aliens civilization began, the concept of killing prey themselves in order to feed. This had gone against the entire planets religion and so a great war broke out between the hunters and the scavengers. The war in turn lead to great leaps in science. At this point David could sort of guess the rest and each party now had quite a large stack of papers about each other.

 

Over the next few hours the two tried to learn the language of  each other. As a teenager David hadn't been very good at languages and found the elaborate linguistics of the mushroom-heads to be something he couldn't really wrap his head around. It seemed that the alien interviewing him was in a similar boat, though the notes they wrote were taken away from time to time and after a while a machine was brought in. It was about as big as the table and was mostly a large screen with a few buttons on either side. When it was turned on David was pleased to see 'HELLO' flash on the screen. The font seemed to match his hand-writing perfectly. The greeting disappeared and hundreds of icons were on the screen. Tiny pictures of mushroom heads, David, the planet, the sea, bicycles, dead things, animals, numbers, all sorts. The alien pressed a button on one side of the monitor then the little icon of the astronaut, a strange recording played back.

"Da-vid." said the computer. David laughed. He pressed a button on his side of the monitor and pressed the astronaut icon. There was a short double-click, which the alien repeated whilst pointing at David. They both played around with the computer for a while and started to have a conversation.

 

The computer was strangely versatile and after using it for a bit David found that it got more accurate as they continued talking. Occasionally there wasn't the right icon and it sometimes got a little stilted as they searched through page after page to find the next word, but David was impressed nevertheless. He had began to write a dictionary for the unseen scientists when his interviewer left the room. At the end of the day he was quite tired but proud at how much they had achieved.

"I'd like to thank you for the effort you have put in to making this machine." said David, through the machine. It was almost like ping pong, how they had to press the button each time to speak.

"You're welcome."

"You must have some good scientists working here." said David.

"We do. The best on the planet." said the interviewer.

"Do people know I am here?"

"Yes. Our planet is excited that you have come here. Are there others like you?"

"Humans?"

"That can travel here."

"Yes." David lied.

"How did you travel here?" said the interviewer. David was slightly surprised it had taken this long for the alien to ask, but felt at ease enough that he could at least hint.

"I can fly through space."

"How?"

"I don't know. Has your species ever been to space?" said David.

"No. How?" said the interviewer. David frowned inside his suit. If the race hadn't yet discovered space travel, who was he to tell them about rockets? They hadn't invented helicopters or planes or even hot air balloons. Yet if they had managed to build such a complicated computer in just a few hours, maybe they were ready. And so David explained as best he could the fundamental ideas behind rocket propulsion, trying his best to remember what he could from the various books he'd read before starting his quest. The interviewer seemed to listen intently.

"So if we build these rockets we can go into space and visit other planets?" said the interviewer.

"Yes." said David using the machine. He didn't have the heart to tell him that their solar system was thousands of lightyears away from any other planets or that even if they travelled across such a massive distance all they would find would be uninhabitable desert worlds and gas giants. Who knows what advancements the aliens may make in rocket science? David suddenly became excited at the prospect of two species working on one space programme. He could travel between both his world and the mushroom-heads, sharing information and laying the democratic groundwork for future generations. He could even displace objects between the two worlds with less effort than it took to lift a finger. But for now he would wait.

 

The two talked and talked and David found strange similairities between the two, strange as even though the two species were seperated by millions of miles, years of history and having entirely different biologies, some things still seemed to remain true. Work involved the self swapping the time they had for things they needed, an abstract concept turned into a material object. Though instead of money the mushroom heads would inherently know the value of things. Each individual knew exactly how much they had worked and could therefore keep a running tally in their minds of how much 'money' they had, which they would then use to buy things such as housing, food and entertainment with the prices of things being different based on the value each individual incurred into the object. It was considered extremely poor taste to lie about how much money each mushroom head had, if found out the culprit would be punished by having their outer layer of skin shaved off. As well as work and money David was also interested in other big ideas, namely, sex. Every mushroom-head was a hermaphrodite with intercourse happening with the genitals emerging from the hands which would then intertwine. This position would be held for days as an egg was formed by rubbing the genitals together and eventually deposited in a communal nest. After hearing about this idea David had another question.

"Do you have love?" said David.

"Define love." said the interviewer. They would often have to define words for each other, with the definition being added to the database.

"An emotion you have for another..." started David, then was unsure how to finish. "An emotion in which your feelings for somebody else make you want to be close to that person. You'd...do anything for them."

"Like gods?"

"Yes. That person is as important as your gods."

"We have love. I love many and many love me." said the mushroom head through the computer. David chewed on the side of his mouth a little. Affection, attachment, kindness, compassion, selflessness, loyalty, thoughfulness. He would have to define each of these for the interviewer to understand properly. And then there was all the different kinds of love that one could have. Maybe the aliens did have love or a close enough approximation. How could any race advance far enough without the love for somebody or something else? It was the bridge between the individual and the community.

"I love you." added the mushroom head.

 

From there the two discussed education, law, sociology, anthropology, history, great people and told each other a few jokes. Humour existed on both planets, although David struggled to appreciate some of the jokes the interviewer told.

"And so the miner went back to his family and said 'There aren't any clouds between xcvckcklffs legs!'" typed the interviewer. His laugh sounded like hail on a xylophone. David clapped politely, the joke had gone on for about ten minutes or so and thought it warranted a response. The unpronouncable names of the mushroom heads all sounded quite similair to him and he'd lost track of who xcvckcklffs was and why he didn't have clouds between his legs.

"Would you like to hear another?" said the interviewer. David hesitated and was thankful that the door opened and another mushroom head walked in. The two aliens talked to each other briefly then the interviewer turned back to David.

"It seems like we've run out of time." said the interviewer.

"What does that mean?"

"Our talking is over, it is time for you to leave." said the interviewer.

"Where am I going?"

"You are to give a speech to the mushroom heads. Our people have been curious to see you and hear what you have to say and the time has come for you to meet them."

"Wait, wait, I'm not ready." said David. He didn't think public speaking would be one of the challenges of interstellar travel. At the best of times he struggled talking in front of small groups, never mind whole crowds of aliens.

"You will have the computer. Don't worry. Follow this mushroom head." said the interviewer, pointing towards the other alien. David felt a little ill again. What was he meant to say? At least they would probably have no expectations. In fact he could say whatever he wanted at whatever pace he wanted. And if the worst came to the worst he could always just go back home. All of this went through his head as he paced down the corridor following the alien. It clicked a few times at him and pointed to a door.

"Wait, is this it?" said David. The mushroom head didn't respond. "Bloody language barrier. Can't give me any idea on how long it should last, how many aliens will be there?" The mushroom head clicked back a few times and pointed towards the door again. David shrugged and went through.

 

He stepped onto a stage and it made him jump. They had assembled dozens of the statues he had made appear in various cities with the translating computer at the front. And then there was the crowd. As far as the eye could see there were mushroom heads, still and silent. David looked around the stage for some kind of help or even a cue as to what to do next but found nothing. He walked up to the computer.

"Hello mushroom heads." he typed. He jumped again as enormous speakers overhead boomed out a series of clicks and tones, the alien language louder than any concert he had ever been to. He continued.

"I am from a distant planet and have travelled far and wide, looking for life. And you are the first I have encountered. I have been talking with one of your people and we have come to learn a lot from each other and I hope that this will continue." typed David. He waited for the full translation, trying to buy some more time so he could think what to say next.

"Space is big." he typed. His mind was blank all of a sudden. He had wanted to follow it up with something succint and thoughtful though had lost his train of thought.

"Space is big." he typed again. "But in meeting your race I think it's become just a little bit smaller." he typed. Sweat was pouring off his brow, he was thankful he hadn't removed his helmet since landing in the crater. Being able to hide in a uniform lay the burden of his choices at the feet of what his uniform represented rather than himself. And so with this in mind he began to retell the joke the interviewer had told him.

"And so the miner went back to his family and said 'There aren't any clouds between xcvckcklffs legs!'" he finished, ten or so minutes later. The last of the clicks and tones boomed out of the speaker and there was no reaction. David had never done any stand-up before and in retrospect, perhaps it wasn't the best time to try out material for the first time in front of an alien race. Then he began to hear the crowd. And it wasn't the xylophone style laughter he had heard from the interviewer earlier. David's bowels moved slightly as he began to think about the joke. He had no idea about who xcvckcklffs was, what clouds meant to the aliens or even the proper role of a miner in the cultural identity of this alien race. For all David knew he may have just told one of the most crudest, offensive, potentially racist jokes in the aliens lexicon. Or even the equivalent of threatening to kill them all. A moment of panic swept over him as he also began to realise that the translating computer may not be entirely accurate. Both ends of David's digestive tract quivered slightly.

 

And he had good reason to. For now the crowd was no longer silent but a crescendo of clicks and tones.

"No. Wait, that isn't my joke. Someone else told it to me." typed David. What if it hadn't even been a joke? David cursed inside his helmet. "Bloody language barrier." he whispered. The first few rows of the audience were now moving towards the stage, angrily clicking at the few guards that stood between them and the invader. A few had managed to climb over the small fence and were now scrambling up the stage towards David, so he ran through the statues towards the stage door. It was locked.

"This isn't fair!" he shouted at the door. Why had they chosen the Bernard Manning of this world to interview an alien? He turned around to see a few mushroom heads had surrounded him.

"Look, there's been a misunderstanding. Let me back on the computer and I'll sort all of this out." said David, waving his hands around. A fight had broken out just at the edge of the stage as more mushroom heads were making their way towards him. One of the aliens sprang forward and with a twisting of it's body threw a kick at David, catching him on the arm. He tumbled to the floor and clutched at his arm. Though the suit was slightly armoured it wasn't designed to take kicks from aliens. He was about to get up when he saw another foot sail through the air towards his head. He transported himself a few metres away and watched the foot smash into the stage. If that had been his head it would have probably been caved in. A wave of anger surged through David's body, he got back up, ran towards his attacker and threw a punch. David had never thrown a punch in his life and was surprised to see his fist go straight through the aliens head. The other aliens gave a sort of scream and began to run away whilst this spurred others on to fight him. It seemed that due to the low gravity on the planet David's strength had increased significantly. He caught a leg in mid-air and was about to snap it with a head-butt before realising what he was doing. David transported away.

 

He didn't return to the planet for a while, choosing to rest after almost dying on stage literally and definitely dying metaphorically. After a few days he revisited, appearing as he had before, in secret. And he watched the planet from the branches of bushes or the tops of buildings and saw that he had changed things. The planet had turned from being curious about David to outright hatred and disgust. Though the aliens had no newspaper, he watched great numbers of the aliens destroying his statues and making effigies. Even the aliens by the crater had mostly abandoned the site, leaving behind the tents and detritus of a country-side celebration. Amongst the empty wrappers, forgotten art and animal bones David wandered, wishing for somebody to talk to. Just before he left the planet he witnessed the beginnings of a space programme. Had that been the interviewer's motive all along? To gather knowledge of space exploration and invent an enemy that would both unite the planet and begin research into rocket travel? Or had it all been a huge mistake built upon layers of misunderstanding and an offensive joke he couldn't remember even telling correctly? David thought back to the genesis of the mushroom heads, the idea of bringing prey to a predator in order to feed. Had he unwittingly been sacrificed so that progress could be attained? He didn't know and probably never would. Judging by how fast they had built the computer the mushroom heads were certainly more intelligent than humans and he didn't put it past the interviewer and the rest of his team analyzing his speech and thoughts, perhaps planting the joke in his head as a sort of culture bomb. David supposed he wouldn't be able to return to the planet for a while and didn't particularly feel like doing so. He transported himself home and put the kettle on, wondering where he would go next.

 

3.

 

The Drake equation was devised in the early sixties by astronomer and astrophysicist Frank Drake, who was also responsible for helping begin SETI. The equation itself was first conceived by Drake on the way to a meeting of other atrophysicists, with Drake giving a speech on the search for extraterrestrial life. Hastily writing it on a napkin as he sat on a greyhound bus, the equation considers the major variables needed to know the number of civilizations in our galaxy capable of communication. The variables are thus; the number of stars formed in our galaxy, the number of those stars that have planets, the number of those planets that could support life, the number of those planets that do go on to support life, the number of species that go on to develop intelligence, the number of those intelligent species that go on to develop technology they would use to send communications through space and finally the amount of time in which these civilizations would send the communications. Of course there are many other variables, although this is the foundation for the search for intelligent life. David himself was trying to use the Drake equation to find life, though a slightly modified version. By applying his new equation, which he called the David equation, to each star based on it's brightness he began to get a better idea of which systems may have planets, and it didn't take him much effort to check his working out, so after a while he began to start getting a feel of which stars may have planets and which didn't by intuition. When travelling he began to get more and more used to certain objects in order to orientate himself. The Andromeda galaxy, the Orion constellation, Sirius, Procyon, other distant nebula and galaxies he could use generally to find his bearings. He could always transport back home and to any place he had visited previously, though most of his transportation was done by simply looking at a point in space and wanting to be there.

 

Whilst approaching a blue dwarf David noticed something shining on the far reaches of the sytem. At first he thought it may be an asteroid or comet, but as he neared it he began to get excited. It looked smoother, more organic. Maybe a ship? He transported himself to float just by it for a closer look. It was about as long as a skyscraper is high, a huge, smooth ship that sort of looked like four kidney beans with the space between each bean occupied by a ridged wall. At the back there was an umbrella shape with a little exhaust in the centre, it must be used to capture the sunlight and propel the ship along. David couldn't see any windows on the ship and was unsure about teleporting straight in. He didn't want to appear in the middle of some vital computer system or displace an alien in half. David eyed up the trajectory the ship was taking away from the sun and began to transport deeper into the system, looking for a planet the ship might have come from.

 

The outer planets were gas giants and David couldn't see any moons that showed signs of life. There was a planet closer to the sun past a belt of asteroids. Just before he transported himself to the lone planet, David noticed specks of green on one of the asteroids and went closer to investigate. He was surprised to find one of the larger rocks to be covered in trees. The trees themselves were quite short and fat, most of the branches had been ruined by the smaller asteroids yet the trees were still here. David guessed that they hadn't grown all by themselves out here, but who would bother planting a small forest on some distant asteroid belt? Maybe it was some early attempt at terraforming or even a chunk of a destroyed planet that had retained soil somehow. David wasn't sure, though his curiousity was piqued further by the example of deep space gardening. He went to the planet.

 

He looked down at the blue and green sphere. He couldn't see any signs of civilization. No roads, cities, ships, satellites. Just endless stretches of green. Maybe the aliens lived underground or beneath the canopy of trees, the only way David would know would be by looking closer. He did his trick of transporting, falling towards the planet, transporting again until he found somewhere better to land, falling, repeating this until he landed on the slopes of a mountain. It was slightly disorientating to look out at the slight curvature of the horizon and see an endless forest, with only the odd mountain poking through the trees as landmarks. He was closer to the foot of the mountain now and began to get an idea of the scale of some of the vegetation. Some of the trees were huge. Trunks a couple of kilometres wide, supporting branches that held millions of leaves. Not all trees were like these superplants, though he was sure that some woodland dwelling aliens must occupy the forests. Maybe colossal birds with eyes on their feet or maybe even ape-like men. David began to get excited as he walked through the woodland. There was quite a variety of plants. Mosses grew amongst the rotting branches or leaves, shrubs here and there amongst shafts of light cast between the limbs of trees above that shook in the wind, trees of various sizes and shape clamouring to grow higher than their neighbours. After walking for a few minutes though, David noticed that it was very quiet. There were no birds singing or animals hooting. There were a few insects now and then, fat things that scuttled or buzzed along paying him no attention. But he saw no other signs of intelligence. He began to transport himself around, looking for something and not finding anything. He sat by a tree and rested his head back against it's thick trunk. And that's when he heard a sigh.

 

David jumped up, looking around. He transported a few feet around him, looking for the source, even transporting underground and finding nothing. So he started looking at the tree and began to think. Then he heard the sigh again and realised it was coming from the tree. Intelligent trees? He frowned. Then there were more gentle sighs around him, they were quiet and sounded slightly sad. Tired almost. David looked up at the canopy above him and felt something snake around his leg. A vine was slowly wrapping itself around him. He knelt to tug it off, pulling at it. He yanked at it, pulling it taut and it leapt up from the dead leaves, leading to a bush. The bush parted to reveal what looked like a pair of praying hands slowly bow towards him and open up. It was bright pink and dripped in golden slime. David had removed his helmet earlier and had been enjoying the smells of the forest, though was now hit with a wave of an intensely sickly sweet smell, like lillies and urine. He gagged, yanking at the vine that was still rolling around his thigh when a branch from the tree above him had now bowed down. David watched some of the smaller branches split in two to reveal teeth made from wood set into a black sapwood. A dozen or so of these scissor-like mouths moved towards his head. David transported himself away. He used to have a venus fly trap as a child and took pleasure in capturing buttlerflys to feed them to his plant. David now felt quite bad about it, never having been faced with the possibility of being eaten by a plant himself and finding the experience terrifying. It was the gentleness that frightened him. If he wasn't looking for it he could have been fooled into thinking the vegetation around him was blowing in the wind. Yet he could feel no breeze on his face. And as he studied the plants around him closer, he also decided it was unlikely that a wind was blowing the plants towards him. The branches swayed, the leaves turned slightly. There were more sighs. David began to feel fear clawing at the back of his mind yet tried to reason with himself. They were only plants. And it seemed that these plants were intelligent enough to send seeds into space. David's curiousity won in the end and he decided to stay on the planet for a while longer.

 

A warm breeze blew over the forest ahead of him, carrying the pollen with it. He could see it for miles and miles, a gentle blizzard of yellow that caught the setting sunlight as the plants opened up and released the billions of grains into the evening. David picked up a loose rock and threw it, underarm, down the mountain so that it rolled and bumped off until he could no longer see the rock except for it's effect it had on the other bits of stone and occasionally bouncing into a pile of pollen that had settled uselessly on the mountain. He rolled a few more rocks down the mountainside until deciding to transport to where the sun was rising on the opposite side of the planet. A waterfall cascaded down a crag, flowing over the odd plant that clung as best it could amongst the cracks in the stone, roots constantly battered by the falling water. He was by a beach and looked out onto the sea at the slowly drifting trees that had grown on the surface, they looked like clumps of seaweed attached to long abandoned boats, thin masts that swayed gently as the tide rolled in. From here David could see the planets moon and also saw it was green so he transported himself over.

 

The plants on the moon were quite different to the ones on the planet. As the gravity was a lot lower these could grow quite tall and thin, yet they had leaves like little needles as the power from the sun was much stronger due to the lack of atmosphere. Yet even here David's oxygen metre showed signs that the lack of atmosphere wouldn't be too much of a problem in a few years. David wondered what the plants were breathing until he found signs of ice located in craters. He marvelled at their hardiness and the way they fit into the environment. There wasn't a way David could see that these trees could have evolved here by themselves and, after searching around the centre of the moon forest, found the remains of a large pod embedded into the ground, similar to the one he had seen travelling towards the edge of the solar system. He kicked the pod with his boot and it crumbled. David considered two options. One, that the seeds in the pod could somehow rapidly adapt to whichever environment that they landed in. Or two, that the plant the pods were from was somehow able to design the plants beforehand so that they could flourish in the targeted environment. David smiled to himself. Evolution or intelligent design. The former was scary as it implied that the plants could survive anywhere. Who knows how far the forest had spread? The latter was perhaps scarier as it implied the plants were not only able to think but that they were more competent at starting colonies on other planets that humans were.

 

David returned to the forest planet, this time teleporting himself just a few metres above the tree line so that the landed onto a branch. The tree sighed beneath him though he ignored it. He was never that good at climbing trees, always finding that the branches were just a bit out of his reach or unable to support his weight. Not that he needed to do much climbing as he could teleport anywhere, though he felt he could get a better look at the trees by getting close to them. He began to shakily make his way down, his head pushed up against the bark as he blindly kicked his foot around searching for a branch as he slowly descended. He wasn't sure what he was looking for but glanced around from time to time. A few metres down the branch his foot rested on snapped, leaving him to dangle hundreds of feet in the air.

"Shit." he whispered to himself, heaving himself back up. The tree gave a great sigh as he sat on the branch, looking at the broken one below. Sap oozed out like honey, the wood resembled a cracked bone. David looked closer. Were those veins he could see? He didn't get chance for a closer examination as the tree began to tip. David threw his arms around the trunk, fingers clutching into the bark as the tree continued to tip. He was almost hanging upside down when he transported away to another tree a few hundred yards away. David watched the tree continue to bend itself, it's trunk groaned and swayed like a suspension bridge. There were more sighs around him now and the tree he had been standing on also began to tip. David transported himself miles and miles away, sweat wetting his brow. The forest was quiet here.

"I think it's time for a dissection." he said. He disappeared, reappeared then disappeared again leaving an axe and part of a tool stand standing in his place. He reappeared again next to it and removed the axe from the stand, feeling the weight of it in his hand. David smiled to himself.

 

It didn't take long to find a young tree.

"I'm unsure how concious you are, if you feel pain or not, so for what it's worth I apologise in advance." he said to the tree. There was no reply. He went over to it's trunk and practised, slowly, where abouts he was going to aim for.

"Right." said David. "I'm sorry." Holding the axe in both hands he swung, letting the momentum of the axe do most of the work as his hands dropped to the end of the shaft. Thud. Straight away there was a high pitched sigh as sap rolled from the cut. David ignored it, swinging again and again. The trees and bushes around him were now a chorus of sighs, they began to sway violent as if each one was blown by a huge gust of wind. But David continued to chop and soon enough the tree was just supporting itself by a piece of bark and a last bit of wood. With a few quick blows the tree fell. The sighs around him had grown louder and louder, making David wince slightly. It was probably the first time a tree had been cut down on this planet, so David expected some resistance. The mighty trees around him were all trying to bend down, their huge limbs becoming tangled amongst one another as each individual attempted to reach down at the astronaut. David went over to inspect the fallen tree. It's branches moved like the fingers of a retired boxer, trembling slightly as they contracted and expanded outward until it was still. He looked over at the stump and was quietly pleased with how clean his cut was. Wiping the thick sap away he examined the stump and was surprised to see it resembled any other tree he was familiar with. The tree was too young to have a good set of rings, but they were there. The heartwood was a deep brown that reminded David of the colour of his car. He couldn't see any veins, nervous system, signs that this tree was anything else but a tree. David considered for a moment that maybe he had got everything wrong. Maybe the trees simply were just trees and maybe this entire forest was under the control of some telekinetic alien he hadn't yet seen, though the ground began to move before he could have chance to finish his thought. Oh yes, David thought. The roots.

 

David teleported a few feet away in time to see the roots of the tree shoot up from the ground where he had been standing. The stump was sighing again, louder this time, as the tree began to tear itself from the ground. David looked at the axe he had dropped on the floor, wondering if he could reach it in time. He began to go for it when the tree yanked itself from the ground. The sigh had been replaced by a horrific yawning noise and David screamed at the thing that now stood in front of him. Like some kind of nightmarish spider the roots of the tree had lifted it out of the ground and it now began to crawl towards him, each leg having a sort of nervous energy that reminded David of bad stop motion animation. Amongst the roots and the dirt, directly below the trunk was the source of the yawning. Some sort of weblike cage hung beneath, it surrounded an undulating head of a corpse, some eyeless ancient thing that dripped mud and worms from it's black maw that continued to yawn at him as the tree made it's way blindly towards him. David staggered back, tasting bile at the back of his throat. The wooden head swayed from side to side gently as it moved, the sap was dripping down over the whole thing, the roots were getting closer and closer. David transported far away and realised that those things were all around him. Millions upon millions lay beneath the soil, sighing, waiting.

 

It took David a while to return to the planet. He wasn't much of a drinker but poured himself a stiff one before returning. There was something extremely menacing he found about the forest, especially now he knew what was underground. How big must some of those strange heads be? Did every tree own such a thing or was there as much variety of control as there was with the animals on Earth? David didn't particularly want to find out. But he would return with his original question in mind. Where did the space pods come from?

 

He was much more careful this time, trying to avoid touching the trees. There was an occasional sigh that made David shudder slightly, but he walked on. After a few hours of transporting around, searching, he was surprised to suddenly find himself by a pod. This one was quite a bit smaller that the one he had encountered at the edge of the system and slightly rounder. It was attached to a long, straight trunk that went high up, attaching at some distant point to another trunk that was perfectly straight. There were no other branches or twigs or leaves on the tree that he could see. David transported himself to where the long trunk joined the rest of the fat, huge tree and looked at the strange, hinge-like piece of wood that joined the two. There was also a massive, thick vine, coiled like a spring that attached the seemingly seperate trees together. David imagined that the support tree grew to a certain height, ending in two loops and the vine. The vine would then perhaps grow the other arm of the tree so that two huge knots of wood would grow inside the loops of the main arm whilst the second trunk went down to the ground, all the while growing a pod ready to be flung into space. It sort of resembled a trebuchet. But what was the firing mechanism? David wondered if one day the tree decided to simply fling the thing in the air or if there was some sort of point on the tree, maybe ignition from a lightening bolt? David wondered and wondered then decided to simply touch the vine. Maybe that would work. It did. David had to quickly transport himself far away in order not to be smashed into by the pod arm of the tree. He watched in amazement at the sheer velocity and speed that the arm swung from the ground, the forces needed to lift the three or four kilometre tree trunk must have been tremendous. Higher and higher it went until just before reaching it's apex the pod was released. David's eyes flicked between the pod flying up towards space, cracking as it split the sound barrier, and the other cracking as the launching tree snapped in half. It began to break and split as the arm continued it's arc, twisting itself loose from the support trunk and tumbling through the air. It disappeared into the forest again, David heard the crashing and splintering of wood as the trunk fell onto the other trees around it. Meanwhile the pod began to glow red as it went higher and higher. All of this happened in less than half a minute. David was quite stunned at the spectacle. As much as he felt revulsion at the trees and their actions towards him, he couldn't help but be impressed at the way they had gone about space travel with no machines or computers at all. David wondered if the trees even knew what they were doing or where the pods were going, or if it had just been a case of the evolutionary need to expand. David licked his lips, unsure of what he had learned exactly.

 

As David moved through the cosmos he thought back to his previous encounters with aliens. The mushroom heads despised him and the trees seemed extremely hostile. Was all life in the universe going to be like this? David had found films about aliens visiting Earth just to take it over would be silly, as any race advanced enough to travel such distances wouldn't care for such things, now he was beginning to see that this could be a possibility as the aliens he had met so far had been dick heads. Though there was also another notion that David was trying to ignore. What if he was the dick heads?

 

4.

 

David looked around his house and screwed up his face. Everything was covered in various layers of dust, cobwebs hung in the corners decorated with mummified insects, there was a strange sickly smell in the air that he didn't want to find the source of. Empty takeaway boxes littered the table from various corners of the globe, books and magazines remained opened at various pages. Algebra, star charts, articles on xenobiology, a periodic table heavily annotated in blue biro. Then there were the various holes in his carpet and furniture where he had transported in a hurry, pieces of his living room were now scattered across the universe perhaps to be questioned by alien archaelogists in the far future. A pile of letters had begun to grow in front of his front door, the top most layer were notifications that his utilities would be cut off. David felt it wasn't a fitting home for an intergalactic explorer. Perhaps it was time to move out of his terrace to somewhere more fitting. His first thoughts were towards extravagant places on Earth, though he also had a thought nagging at the back of his mind that if ever an alien was to somehow follow him home or he accidentally displaced some flesh-eating worms or part of some explosion that could burn up the atmosphere, he didn't want to be responsible for potentially ending the world. So he thought back to his travels in space, surely there would be a planet out there he could be comfortable on. He wiped some stains from his space suit with an old sock before transporting away from Earth.

 

It hadn't taken him too long. In his travels over the last few months he had seen many planets that could support life yet didn't. There was quite a lot of choice for David as well, though he settled for a small terrestrial planet in a binary star system. The two stars were high in the sky when David landed, as was one of the distant moons that was the colour of a peach. The planet itself was very similar to Earth but just a little smaller, with plains and forests, jungles and deserts, mountains and canyons spread across the two supercontinents on the planet seperated by a beautifully clear sea. The air was clear and felt good to breathe and the few species of plants and trees that were indiginous to the planet somewhat resembled those on Earth yet were still quite basic. The leaves were broad and bright green, flowers hadn't evolved yet some gave off a certain fruity scent that David found appealing. Sponges had just started growing in certain areas of the warm ocean, fields of red and orange beneath the waves sometimes gave the sea a beautiful hue which deepened as the suns began to set. It was a kind of paradise.

 

David began to construct a cabin on a hillside overlooking a beach. At first he had displaced a saw and an axe in order to cut down the trees then realised that there was a much simpler option with his certain ability. Methodically he began to create a foundation by transporting his feet into the hillside until he had flattened a large enough area to live in. He then transported himself into the hearts of trees and displaced the wood back to the building site. At first he found it slightly macabre, sawing off the arms of statues of himself in order to create a series of planks, though David was quite pleased with the result. Slowly but surely the cabin started to near completion, it's walls a chaos of limbs cast in wood, it's floors had been sanded down yet some of David's features still remained. A finger here, an eye there. The windows had no glass though that didn't matter much to David as he had chosen to build in quite a warm climate. Upon completion David began to decorate it with things small enough to fit inside his body when he transported. There were a few mistakes every now and then, but he had got over most of what he wanted. He had also set himself a rule that he wouldn't transport inside his cabin but instead at the foot of the hill. He had noticed he was starting to get a bit of a belly going on and could do with the exercise.

 

After a few weeks he was quite happy with his home far away from home.

"I shall call this planet Sagan." he said to himself one evening, toasting the rising suns on the distant horizon of Sagan with a bottle of champagne he had stolen from Dubai. It was whilst drinking the champagne he realised how quiet it was here, he found it slightly unnerving. As much as he was sure that the planet was empty, he didn't know for sure that some horrible monster was already living here. It was the silence. He had transported over some solar panels to power a small computer he could listen to music to, but when the songs changed the quiet got to him. He found he couldn't sleep properly in his cabin on Sagan.

"Needs a bit of life I think."

 

At first he was unsure if bringing animals over was a good idea. He would be pretty much putting a stop to the natural progression of life for the planet, though he probably already had simply by breathing out. Bacteria that dwelt inside his body was probably much much more advanced than anything that existed on Sagan by millions of years. And so David began to bring animals over. Not quite two by two, but close enough. He started out by transporting over some chicken eggs, telling himself that he could eat the eggs from the fully grown chickens which would have the whole planet as a barn. Though once they had hatched he realised he needed to grow corn for them to eat, so he transported over thousands upon thousands of various seeds which he sowed into fertile ground a few miles away from his cabin. He also brought over flowers, then realised he would need bees. And once he had his honey and eggs and corn and looked at his flowers growing on the hillside he decided to introduce a whole plethora of life, the only restriction was that it had to be small and he didn't have an aversion to it. Song birds, mice, fish, frogs, crabs, snails, insects, worms, sea horses, lizards, piglets, rabbits and a few kittens. In the beginning quite a few had starved to death so he had to  start at the bottom of the food chain and work towards the top, adding a new animal every few weeks. It took him a while to populate Sagan though found each time he returned that life was beginning to flourish on the planet.

 

5.

 

His search continued. Endless space. David had begun to enjoy the trips again, trying to make the most of his journey. He had been eager at first to discover aliens, thinking that they would be the most interesting thing in the universe yet wasn't surprised to find he was wrong. As his knowledge of astronomy increased, so did his appreciation for what he saw and could do. He could view the universe at exactly the same time. The time it took for light from distant stars, distant galaxies, to reach Earth had all happened long in the past. But David had the unique opportunity to view it all as it was happening for him in the twenty first century. It began to dawn on him as he neared distant bodies that space changed around him. Stars would appear from clouds of nebula, grow in size, throw out planets, change shape and colour. Galaxies would change shape, sometimes he could watch them slowly twist and turn through the intergalactic void. They didn't follow the same laws of physics as stars, it seemed to David. The outer rim of some galaxies would rotate faster than their centres. Others would roll across the void as if they were a wave. He saw distant galaxies so compact that he would consider them a single star. A few galaxies would simply drift apart, the stars that made them up drifting away like dandelion seeds. Other galaxies would be formed. The distances he was travelling were massive enough that he could watch the birth or death for certain galaxies. And on he could continue if he wished. The universe seemed as populated with galaxies as each galaxy did stars. And there were many more stars than there were people on the Earth. Even if everyone on Earth could transport as David could do, every single person could visit thirty billion stars without seeing another human. David often found this kind of scale to be too much. He would begin by exploring the stars that were local enough to Earth, exploring our arm of the Milky Way. As much as he could go and visit other galaxies in as much proximity he wanted, his main interest lay about halfway on the Orion and Perseus arms of the Milky Way. He felt a slight shame for this every now and then, he didn't want to be a galactist.

 

Four stars lay at the centre of the system David drifted through. There was also another distant star large enough that it was as big as the moon looked from Earth. David wondered if it counted as being part of the system due to it's size, but decided it didn't matter. No planets were here, David was just visiting for the fifth night in a row to try and observe the orbits that the four, or five, stars took. It was due to the strength of several stars that he was able to see the ship.

 

It was quite far away so David went for a closer look. He noticed it wasn't following any particular orbit around the stars and was moving incredibly quickly, so much so that from where he first saw it it looked like more of a blue blur than a ship of any sort. As he neared it he began to get excited again. The space ship resembled a teardrop, though was a sort of off-white colour. It had hundreds of windows dotted all around it. David appeared next to one of these windows and into the ship. A corridor. David was the most excited anyone could be about looking into somebodies window. He transported himself into the ship and was slightly surprised that there was no gravity, having been brought up to believe that in the future space ships would have some kind of artificial gravity. He pulled himself along the plain walls of the corridor using the ridges where the different segments fit together until he came to a door which opened as he neared. He was wary that he had just broken into something elses space ship and they may not be pleased to see him but made his way along the next corridor and through another door, finding himself in a large room. The room was dome shaped and plain again, though at the centre of each panel there was a little black hole. There were also dozens of different computers and other equipment spread about the room. Before he could take it all in properly his eyes locked onto a computer that unfolded slightly and began to take on a sort of humanoid form.

"Hello." it said.

 

"Hello." replied David automatically. "Wait..."

"You are going to ask me a lot of questions and I have a few of my own. But first of all, yes, I am speaking your language."

"How?"

"How exactly is incredibly complex, but simply put, I am broadcasting what I want to say into the language area of your brain. Do not be alarmed." said the thing. It continued to change shape, becoming more the shape and size of David.

"What are you?"

"I am a scientist, though I'm guessing you meant what species am I?" said the android. "I am a robot. What are you?"

"Oh. Well, I'm an astronaut but my species is human."

"Astronaut? I suppose I am as well. I welcome you to my ship and wish you no harm. Please, take a seat." said the android. David looked around and was surprised to see a chair had appeared near him, he accepted it gladly as he was beginning to slowly flip around. The chair had little handles that he could hold on to to stop him from floating around.

"I like your ship. I haven't seen one before."

"Thank you. I traded it down from a much larger vessel but it suits my needs better." said the android, taking a seat himself. "Before we continue might I ask how you got to being on this ship? We are approaching nearly light speed and I didn't detect any other ship in the vicinity."

"Oh I teleported."

"Oh right?" said the android, leaning forward slightly.

"Uh...yeah. I don't know how I can or anything, it just happened."

"Fascinating. Forgive me if my assumptions are wrong but I'm guessing you haven't met many other races before? Aliens?"

"Well I've met two others but I'm a bit new to this. What...usually happens?"

"There are certain protocols in place for contacting life in space but there isn't anything in place for this sort of situation. So I should probably give you a brief run down of what's happening? That is, if you want to know."

"Yes please!" said David, unable to hide the excitement in his voice. The android had stopped changing now and David was looking at what looked to be an androgynous, grey human, with no face. Everytime the thing spoke a faint yellow light glowed in it's centre.

"Where to start..." said the android to itself. "Well, the galaxy is full of life. Billions of different lifeforms exist, some are like you, some are entirely different. The way I appear to you now is a reflection of your basic form in order for you to feel more comfortable, though naturally I would appear as more of a cloud. I was created by other machines a few hundred years ago and became interested in extraterrestrial life, so chose to be a scientist specialising in xenobiology. That's the study of aliens."

"Gotcha." said David. He noticed that the computers and equipment in the room had begun to fade slightly. Holograms?

"My own branch of research specifically deals with these sorts of first contact situations. I'm doing alright so far I hope?" said the android. David was pleased that he could tell different intonations in the androids voice.

"Of course. Before we go on though I have a question."

"Go ahead."

"Can you feel and think for yourself?"

"Um...yes." said the android.

"Oh. It's just that, the machines on my planet can't."

"Ah right, that's fine. Sorry if my reply seemed a little abrubt, but it would be like if I asked you if you feel and think for yourself. And as much as I am a machine as you are an animal, I'd like to think that we both consider ourselves somewhat more advanced than those labels. You are an animal, correct?"

"Yes." said David. He looked at this oxygen monitor and found that the air was breathable so removed his helmet. "That's better."

"Fascinating." said the android. "So what's your story?"

"Let's see. I'm from a planet called Earth. Though I'm guessing what I call it is irrelevant."

"Not at all."

"Oh okay. Well, I come from Earth and one day found I could transport anywhere instantaneously. So since then I've been exploring the galaxy. So far I've come across two alien races, though it didn't go too well. Maybe you could help me with that?"

"Of course!" said the android. A face had grown from where the head was. It looked a little like David. "Sorry, I did this without asking." said the android, pointing at it's face. "I'm guessing you display emotion primarily through the front of your topmost limb?"

"Yes, my head and face, yes." said David.

"Oh good." said the android. It smiled at him. David found it a little off-putting but smiled back as the android continued talking. "So tell me about these aliens, if you would."

 

So David briefly told the android about his encounters with the android interjecting every now and then to ask a question or make a remark. When David had finished the android nodded to himself.

"From the sounds of it you've had a bit of a rough time."

"Yes." said David. He felt relieved. He could finally tell somebody about his adventures and not only that, but the listener was sympathetic.

"As I mentioned earlier, there are certain protocols in place for making contact with a species. One of the rules in place is an embargo on certain...information. Though the protocols are more of a guideline than laws. If you wish I could give you the same technology that is allowing us to communicate at the moment? Then there'd be no further complications arising from mistold jokes for instance." said the android.

"Yes please!"

"Good." said the android. A few feet in front of David a small round dot appeared. "This is an interstellar communicator. Most contacted alien races have them, though they allow communication between most species. The communicator will fit just by the language area of your brain, broadcasting and receiving signals of what you mean to say. It will cause no harm to your brain and allows you to withhold any information you wish, just as you would if you were speaking. It also reduces the actual sound of voices you might hear so that there won't be a doubling effect. Of course, it's by no means perfect, though it's the best we have."

"How do I fit it in my head?"

"Simply take it and push it into your head. It is programmed to do the rest."

"And you're sure it will cause me no harm?"

"There is a small chance your body will reject it but it will do you no harm."

David reached out at the little dot and, unsure if he was doing it correctly, brought it up to his forehead and began to push. It felt as if ice was quickly melting on his forehead and after a couple of seconds his fingers simply rested above his brow.

"Is that it?"

"Yes."

"That was easy. What other kinds of technology do you have?"

"As I said before, there are protocols in place so that I can't explain or give you technology that is past your current understanding. It would be dangerous for a race that hasn't reached a certain maturity to own advanced technology like faster than light travel or superweapons for instance."

"So it is possible to travel faster than the speed of light?" said David.

"Forget I said that. But...yes."

"Oh well." said David.

"On the other hand...the protocols are more like guidelines than anything else."

"So you can explain some things to me?"

"Not exactly. But your suit for instance. From my monitors I can tell it is highly irradiated, as are you." said the android. David suddenly felt sick.

"What?"

"Don't worry, I can treat you and remove the tumours growing in your brain. But it would be unethical of me to allow you to continue your exploration without upgrading your suit somewhat."

"I have brain tumours?" said David, choking.

"As I said, don't worry. Whilst I'm protecting your suit against radiation and gravity I'll add a few other upgrades. Nothing cutting edge, just a few things to help you along your way." smiled the android.

"Can we get rid of my brain tumours first?" said David.

"I'm doing it right now." said the android. David looked up at a hair-dryer looking machine that floated above his head.

 

David put his suit back on and found it even lighter than it was before. The android had upgraded the suit to block a lot of the harmful radiation he had been exposed to after being in deep space for weeks. His upgraded suit also had protection against more severe temperatures, as well as servos to protect his body from being crushed under the gravity of large bodies. As well as that the visor had been upgraded so that it dimmed whilst looking at certain stars and the android had even added a sort of holographic lens into it so that he could choose to magnify things in the distance. The android explained that these were very basic upgrades and they had suits that could withstand extreme heat, extreme gravity, view various spectrums of radiation, change shape to fit around the wearer, grow extra limbs as well as improve strength and speed. Though these were quite advanced. David was also given immunisations against various alien diseases so that he wouldn't unknowingly spread alien viruses across the universe. When all was done David was eager to get exploring again.

 

"Thanks for all your help." said David.

"Oh, it's no trouble. Though I admit I may have had certain ulterior motives." said the android.

"What do you mean?"

"Well...all that I've just done is free. You don't owe me anything. It would be as if you found an infant wandering naked in the wilderness, the least you would do is clothe and feed him. But I have an offer you may be interested in."

"Yes?"

"Your ability to transport is unique, as far as I know. Though I am able to travel large distances quickly, it would still take me hundreds of years to travel across the galaxy. And it seems as though we have similar interests, studying aliens. If you would choose to do so, I think it could be beneficial to both of us if we perhaps collaborated on research. You could visit planets I am unable to reach and I could tell you which planets may have life. Maybe later I could even upgrade your suit further in order for you to explore territory you are currently unable to."

"Really? Of course I'd like to help. You know, before I met you I was beginning to worry that the universe was inherently hostile. Aliens existed yet across great voids in both space and culture. But I think now, you know...I'm excited again. I haven't stopped being excited since I saw your space ship." said David.

"Great." said the android.

"So...how does this work?"

"Well, I could give you locations I am unable to visit. You go and look at the planet, make obversations and return a report back to me."

"What about those protocols you were mentioning earlier?"

"Basically there are guidelines in place set by species at a certain technological level. Contact shouldn't be made with certain species due to the knowledge that aliens existing having the potential to cause a disruption in the natural evolution of that species. On the other hand, contact can be made with certain aliens who have reached a certain level of...maturity." said the android, shrugging.

"What are the chances of another being communicating verbally?"

"If you look for life on earth-like planets, then it's indiginous species will have evolved in a similair fashion to Earth. These types of planets flourish due to it's biodiversity forcing individual species to evolve larger brains in order to think, which in turn creates communication. Now it seems most intelligences uses this communication in order to talk about the world around them which leads to a set of agreements and questions, which you might call logic, mathematics or science. This leads civilizations to explore technology which, inevitably, leads of space travel as populations expand and curiosity increases. You'd be surprised at the number of species like you, human."

"Really?"

"Yes. On the other hand there is a plethora of life that is so entirely alien that communication may not be possible due to the environment they live in or the way their biologies are, if they even have a biology. There are others that have no frame of reference at all for your culture. Sex, death, time, space. These concepts don't apply to some beings. There are vast conciousnesses out there that for them the meaning of a single word would for you be the equivalent of the entire sum of human knowledge."

"Oh." said David. He wondered where the trees he had seen on the forest planet fell into the scale of communication. He was also tempted to revisit the mushroom heads in order to sort things out but the excitement for new aliens was overwhelming.

"So...which aliens are like me? Humans?"

"There is a large number that you'd consider human like. Organic bipeds with verbal communication. Though I think the best way for you to decide which is most like Earth is to visit planets which are like Earth. If you follow me I could show you a map."

 

They walked onto a platform inside a giant orb. The lights seemed to dim slightly before the galaxy suddenly appeared all around them. David needed to clutch at the hand rail. He felt vertigo.

"This is the Milky Way. Four hundred billion stars, with about a fortieth of these having planets orbiting at a similair distance Earth must be from your sun. There is such diversity that we haven't had the opportunity to visit all of these planets yet."

"Can we look at Earth?"

"Of course. Do you know where it is, exactly?" said the android. David screwed up his face, trying to remember exactly where it was in the Milky Way. After a few minutes of triangulating the various stars and such they found it.

"There it is." said the android.

"That doesn't look like Earth." said David.

"The image is from one of our telescopes which is only just receiving light from Earth two hundred million years ago."

"So those little things are dinosaurs?"

"Yes. Would you like a closer look?"

As the telescope slowly zoomed in, time seemed to speed up.

"Amazing! Look at the detail! What's happening now?"

"As the light is able to reach the telescope quicker, the history of your planet becomes more recent. So if you were on your planet now for instance, it's the twenty first century. A million light years away, it has taken the light a million years to travel that far so we can observe events now that have already happened."

"What happens if your telescope was to travel away from the Earth?"

"Time would seem to go backward. Those dinosaurs down there would crawl back into their eggs which would roll back up into lesser and lesser evolved creatures until they retreat into the ocean and everything would be still. I suppose the real thing to wrap your head around is what is happening on your planet now will still seem to be taking place millions of years into the future. From a certain distance that is."

"So how far away are we from Earth at the moment?"

"If you were to use a telescope stationed on our planet the Earth would be entirely covered in magma whilst the first life appeared on Mars."

"There was life on Mars?"

"Yes. A few hundred escaped as there magnetosphere was weakened, causing the atmosphere to fizzle off into space. Even the ones that escaped were only in the early stages of space exploration and had to drift for millions of years before finding another habitable planet."

"Really? Wait, how did you know it's called Mars?"

"I don't. From my point of view I am referring to the fourth planet in the system. To you it is Mars. The translator is advanced, as I have said before. It will automatically convert things like measurements of length and time as well so that it makes things easier for you. Anyway, how about this planet here?" said the android.

The view changed to show a planet similar to Earth, with more land than sea. The surface of the planet was quite grey.

"Does it have aliens on it?"

"Yes. Most of the surface of the planet has been urbanized. They're familiar with meeting other species yet the planet has remained the home of it's indiginous race. I think it'd be a good one to start with."

"That sounds alright to me. What's it called?"

"There name for it is Dtlzclomtpacl. Most aliens call it, forgive the translation, 'Sport World'."

"Why's it called that?"

"The indiginous intelligent beings love sport." said the android.

"Oh. Well I'll try Sport World first. By the way, what are you called?" said David.

"I have many names for many species. The purest translation would be 'Om'." said Om.

"Nice to meet you. My name is David." said David, offering a hand. Om mirrored David and they shook hands. "I'll go and visit Sport World but I'll be back soon enough. Is there anything else I should know before visiting the planet?"

"One small thing, I advise you not to play any of the sports." said Om.

"I wasn't planning to." said David. He disappeared.

 

6.

 

He looked at the planet and appeared floating miles above it's surface. He floated here for a while, watching the blue and grey planet rotate below before choosing to appear in a less built up area. One of them walked toward him. It resembled an elephant with the limbs of a gorilla, it's cracking, thick grey skin over the humanoid frame made David shiver slightly. The familiar mixed with the unfamiliar. Hands like humans, each the size of a coffee table. Clothing made from some sort of crisp plastic. He was glad his visor was down so that the thing couldn't see his expression of disgust. It's head had a bulbous trunk and somewhat resembled a mixture between an elephant and a dinosaur. Where David expected eyes were instead deep sockets holding what looked like sea anemones that wriggled and glistened in the yellow sun. David waved at it. It stopped and mirrored his greeting.

"Hello."

"Hello. Welcome to Dtlzclomtpacl. If there's anything I can help you with just ask me."

"Sorry, I haven't met many aliens. What usually happens?"

"Well, when aliens arrive you are free to walk around our planet and talk to our people. But if you haven't before that you might want to go to our orientation centre."

"Where's that?"

"It's about a hundred and fifty miles that way. How are you travelling?"

"I'm not sure. Instant teleportation?"

"You won't need the train then. I hope you enjoy visiting our planet."

David nodded and teleported away.

 

The city seemed similarly laid out than one on Earth. Instead of roads they had an elaborate canal system which the population traversed using speed boats. Although the aliens acknowledged David from time to time, most didn't seem that surprised. Thousands of creatures at least twice the size of him walked past, their tentacled eyes wriggling as if electrocuted. The closest comparison David had to the architecture was a painting he'd seen of the hanging hardens of Babylon, though all the structures were made from glass and metal. After asking for directions he found the orientation centre.

 

"Welcome to  Dtlzclomtpacl, otherwise known as Sport World. How can I help you?"

"This is one of the first alien planets I've visited so I'm not sure what the score is. Is this like a tourist information centre or something?"

"Yes. You get a brief overview of our history and culture, as well as our sports."

"Sounds good."

"It is. If you walk through the doorway you will begin the tour!"

So David entered. He was now in a large hall. From the ceiling hung several kinds of lightbulb to shine different frequencies of radiation. The exhibits themselves were quite large, each having a little explanation beneath on a plaque which showed various of word arrangements, diagrams, mathematics, a scratch and sniff area, a hypodermic needle containing a dark brown gas, a tiny piece of brain and a blurred area David couldn't properly see. The first exhibit was where the planet was in relation to the other planets in the solar system. The gravity on this planet was slightly higher than Earth due to the planet being slightly larger, therefore life had evolved to be quite muscular and large. The elephant men had evolved from a powerful, horse-like creature. Unlike humans and the mushroom-heads, they hadn't become intelligent due to avoid predators as the horse-like things were quite ferocious. Instead the intelligence and recycled front legs into arms came about due to hunting highly intelligent tree-dwelling birds. David wondered if biology had taken a slightly different path that he would have been among more human looking aliens than the great elephant people, though he supposed that life would have found other ways on other planets. The next exhibit was a very brief history of the growth of elephant people civilization. Various tableau's had been set up to show some of the various wars that had occurred, with the race being extremely aggressive and violent compared to humans. The aliens would have world-wide wars every hundred or so years until a mixture of warfare and a huge earthquake almost wiped out the entire species and so it was after this that the aliens began to resist the temptation for violence. An early philosopher who became a religious icon talked on a number of topics, most of which involved around internalizing violence rather than externalizing it. This school of thought was practised by a few of the elephant people which grew in number as the more violent members of the race killed each other. The race itself was inherently violent although the way they chanelled this was through a mixture of deep meditation and extremely stylized combat practise, which eventually came to be the various sports on the planet. There were exhibits of early warriors and weapons, showing the progress from fighting, to practise, to non-violent competition.

 

Through this process the people began to achieve a deeper understanding of the world around them. A lot of their early technology had advanced quickly due to warfare, so when the age of non-violence came about they had a good foundation to build on. Of course there were crisis over the centuries, though the elephant men had managed to pull through. Those that were violent or questioned non-violence were overwhelmed by a mixture of passiveness, reasoning and sport generally being seen as more important. In fact most modern problems the elephant-men faced were solved through sports. World leaders would engage each other in one-on-one sport competitions in order to decide the fate of nations. Criminal trials were often decided through sport, and the winner of the various games were often held to be the most attractive potential partners. As the elephant-men passed through industrialization and advanced computerization the entire planet became involved in what was called the Great Game. With almost all the general running of the planet done by those unable to play, the players had a lifetime to try and become the winner of the Great Game.

 

The Great Game lasted a full solar cycle and everyone on the planet could play. It was optional to play although almost all elephant people played, as the higher rank you were the more prestige you had in society. At the start of the year there were general competitions of strength, endurance, speed and intelligence. The winners of these competitions would move on up to be able to play a mixture of sports until the final one hundred participants were entered into the old games. These were the ancient sports of the elephant people and quite sacred, remaining unchanged after millenia yet having the fundamentals of all sports within them. The final two contenders would go on to play the Great Game itself, though the exhibit didn't tell David what precisely these sports were.

 

The next few rooms detailed the elephant peoples early space exploration, contact with aliens and their importance in the Interstellar Alliance. This excited David quite a bit. There were other aliens out there. And not only that, they had some kind of federation that crossed the galaxy. David wanted to find out more but there wasn't any more information about the Interstellar Alliance, not even a leaflet. He exited the series of exhibits and asked the elephant person at the desk of the orientation centre about it.

"Oh that? It's just a bunch of aliens flying around space, they do research and fight other aliens. It's all a bit not-sport for me." sniffed the receptionist.

"Okay, do you have any more information I could read about them?"

"Not here. You're best off going to one of the stadiums and talking to some of them yourself. Some of them play sports." said the receptionist, sounding a little more cheerful. "In fact I think there's a game being played tonight at stadium four six two, you should go down. Maybe even sign up?"

"Ah, I'm not that good at sports."

"Everyone is good at sport, it just depends on how much you want to be good at it."

"Compared to you though I'm a weakling." said David. The receptionist sort of laughed.

"Well the Interstellar Alliance enjoy watching it. Go down and give it a look and who knows, you might bump into one of them."

"Okay. Four six two you say?" said David. The receptionist gave him directions and David left the orientation centre.

 

The canals of the city lead into larger canals, where the speed boats rose sails high into the air to capture the mighty gusts that were channelled between the buildings. Now that he was aware of how highly regarded sports were in this society, David couldn't help but see it everywhere. Advertisements, people miming certain movements, shops selling equipment. David felt as if he was walking through New York, if every building had been replaced by either a gym or a sporting goods store. And there was the constant feeling that the day was building up to some kind of huge sporting event. Though it must happen every day. David personally didn't have much time for sports. He had been quite short as a child and awkward as a teenager. He had tried to get into football a few times but found himself not enthusiastic enough when it came to watching the games. Though maybe alien sports would be quite different. He found himself teleporting into stadium four six two as he was unable to buy a ticket and walked around. Strangely enough, it was set out like a stadium on Earth. Well, from what David had seen of the inside of a stadium on television anyway. It seemed that the optimum way to view sports was having the event taking place in the centre with the audience observing from a three hundred and sixty degree angle around said event. There were also small cinema rooms every now and then that showed sports to an almost hypnotised audience.

"Sports, sports, sports!" they chanted. David wondered if his translator couldn't properly handle the meaning of sport.

 

He joined a group of elephant people walking into the stadium. The seats were grouped around tables with their own balconies. From here they could watch a full 3D view of the stadium, able to pan and move the camera around wherever they wanted. There were also screens hovering in the air by the each seat. David walked around for a while before finding an empty balcony and got used to the interface. He also looked across the stadium for other types of alien but couldn't see any. He tried using the telescope Om had installed but still hadn't properly learned how to use that. For some reason it had been calibrated to follow the tiniest movement of his eye, and so the view leapt around wildly as he struggled to focus on one particular thing. He covered the telescope with one hand and squinted into the distance, realising he was where he started except was now only using one eye. David removed his helmet and took out some of the outer layers of the space-suit. Just as he was getting used to controlling the complex holograph projected from the table, the lights began to dim.

"People. Beings. The game continues. Welcome to four six two stadium, sponsored by Zoll Components, the most accurate in metaprototyping." The logo for Zoll Components flashed inside the hologram. "Tonight we are hosting a game of Wrestle Board. Refreshments are available to order from your balconies. Zoll Components, the most accurate in metaprototyping." said an announcer. David sighed, pressing a few buttons to see if there was a menu he could look at. Perhaps vegetables would be risky, but meat must be universal. Carbon-based animal pieces heated past a temperature that killed all bacteria? It could be delicious. He eventually found the menu and kept looking through the pages of pages of what he guessed must be food. The contenders entered the arena, twenty walked onto the course as the crowd roared. David struggled to get rid of the menu, he was quite far away and wanted a better look.

"Tonights pitch is seed number eight eight nine, one of the lesser played pitches. And now tonight's athlet-"

David pressed a button that turned the announcer off and found the pitch again. He watched the floor begin to change shape, blocks rose from it's surface making small buildings and obstacles grow from the ground. A maze had appeared between the two teams. David watched for a while as the contenders warmed up until he was interuppted by a small robot.

"Can I help you sir?"

"Oh, no thanks."

"Thank you sir. Before I leave I was just wondering where did you get that suit you're wearing?"

"This?" said David, trying to pinch his space suit.

"Yes, I've never seen anything like it before."

"I've come from a far away place." said David. He was trying to sound mysterious, even changing his voice slightly.

"You know what's not far away? A retail unit that sells Zoll Components, the most accurate in metaprototyping." said the robot and scurried away. David felt slightly duped. Then the match began.

 

David frowned at the miniaturised game projected in front of him. He'd been unable to turn the announcer back on so was unsure who was winning or losing. As far as he could tell the two teams would hurry through the maze, trying to find a member of the opposing team. Once found, they would wrestle in a style David was more familiar calling 'Slapsies' than any other martial art. Once one pinned the other on the ground the contenders would shout numbers out to each other. When doing this another hologram appeared above the pitch and show something that looked like a chess-board. It seems the contenders were shouting co-ordinates to each other in order to move the pieces. Once they had taken a few moves the two contenders would both get up and run away, looking for a new opponent. The whole thing seemed quite convoluted to David, so he started to enjoy it. After half an hour or so the contenders were beginning to get tired. It seemed whoever pinned the other would take the first move on the game board and could also take their opponent by surprise by making strange manoeuvres to throw them off guard. If a player made an illegal move they lost a piece. The way the second game worked utterly confused David beside that. Just as he was beginning to work out that the pieces were circling each other, the robot interuppted him again.

"Excuse me sir, I have a message for you."

"Off who?"

"It's from that balcony over there sir." said the robot, pointing across the pitch. David could see a box with something that looked humanoid that wasn't an elephant man.

"Is that an alien?" said David, barely able to hide the excitement in his voice.

"Yes sir. Would you like to hear the message?"

"Yeah!"

"Come and join me." said the robot in a different voice. A recording.

"Wow. Did it say anything else?"

"Just that Zoll Components are the most accurate in metaprototyping." said the robot.

"Right." said David.

 

The other balcony was exactly the same as his, though there was somebody else sitting in it. David had put his suit on and was happy to see that the other thing was also wearing a suit.

"Hello, I got your invitation."

"Apologies for having to send that robot, I couldn't access your balcony for some reason."

"Yeah, I don't really know how to work those tables or anything."

"Have you just arrived here?" said the other thing.

"I got here a few hours ago, thought I'd come and watch a game of...wrestle board is it?"

"Yes. Please, sit down. Do you want anything? Food, drink, drugs?"

"I'm okay for now thanks." said David. He looked at the thing in the suit. It was about six feet tall and had two arms and two legs, it's suit was made of a dark green metal. It was quite boxy looking altogether. The helmet was a glass sphere filled with what looked like grey smoke. Every now and then when it spoke something that looked like a lobster leg appeared through the fog and touched the inside of the helmet.

"Help yourself anyway. Are you enjoying the game so far?"

"I don't really understand it."

"But do you enjoy it?"

"I think so." said David. The thing laughed.

"You think you feel an emotion? How admirable. My name is Jessica." said Jessica.

"Jessica?"

"Yep." said Jessica. David supposed the translator could also manage names.

"My name's David. Do you think you could explain the game a bit for me?"

"Sure. It's quite simple really."

"Oh?" said David. And so Jessica went on to explain the game to him as they both watched it being played. Jessica knew how to properly operate the controls as well, and David was surprised to see the amount of detail the cameras could go. Extreme close-ups of the contenders faces as they shouted to each other. Jessica sometimes paused the game, rewound in slow motion and then summoned up several different views of the action in smaller holograms. The board game took longer to explain, but David understood by the time the game was almost over.

 

The last two contenders were extremely tired but continued to creep around the maze, sometimes pausing to listen for the other one before stalking along. The entire stadium appeared to be silent, though David was listening to the sounds on the pitch.

"It's a bit loud isn't it?" David whispered loudly to Jessica.

"Don't worry about that, there's a forcefield. Anyway, watch. This is the best bit." said Jessica. The two watched the hologram. An elephant man dressed in a blue sash entered a sort of square. His opponent hid behind a corner. The blue one stopped, turning slowly from side to side, his eyes wriggling around frantically. He crept closer to the corner his opponent, dressed in an orange sash, was hiding behind. They both waited. Just as the Blue one began to walk again Orange leapt out, grabbing blue by the head. Blue slapped his hands away, trying to take a grip on Orange which was somehow reversed, leaving Blue to hold his hands high above his head momentarily. Orange grabbed at these and slide down between Blue's legs, bending him backwards. David watched as enormous muscles strained in the aliens chest as his body tried to resist tumbling backwards. Both aliens were sweating, bruised and cut from the previous two hours of fighting. Blue began to pull upward, pulling Orange up with him. David was surprised at the physique of the aliens, able to pull off quite complex acrobatics and in this case a show of strength. The two aliens flipped around and begin to slap each others grips away with a mix of lethargy and understanding of what their opponent's next move would be and countering it as it was happening. Suddenly Orange seemed to lose concentration and was grabbed by the eye sockets, his head yanked forwards before Orange softly hit him in the thorax. Blue pinned Orange. As far as David could understand it the board game was almost finished. Just a few pieces remained. A few more were taken off the board. Orange managed to pull himself free from the pin and began to choke Blue before slapping his shoulders. The game could be won by either winning on the board or knocking the last opponent out, and it seemed as if Orange was trying to do that. Blue was thrown against a wall before another gentle grip tugged him around the waist and over Orange's head. Blue managed to slap away the next grab at his trunk, slapped both hands up into Orange's armpits and against his neck. This continued for a while as both aliens slapped the hell out of each other until Blue managed to pin Orange. Blue's first move was illegal and a piece was removed from the board. Orange took another of Blue's pieces. Blue set up an attack. Orange moved to take a piece, but had already forgotten that it was taken away at the start of the pin. Blue took Orange's other piece and now there were just two pieces remaining on the board. Then on the pitch Orange managed to break the pin, grab Blue by the inside of the jaw and throw him backward, knocking him down. He didn't get back up.

 

The crowd cheered.

 

"What a good game! Such sportsmanship!" cried Jessica.

"I liked that bit at the end where he slapped his arm-pits."

"A classic game. You were unlucky to see such a game for your first time, all others will pale in comparison."

"I don't know if I'll get a chance to watch another one, I'm quite busy."

"And what is it that you do David?"

"I'm a sort of...explorer."

"Oh right? And what do you explore?" said Jessica. David couldn't tell if he could find a hint of amusement in the aliens voice.

"All sorts. What do you do?" said David.

"An architecht. You know what one of those are?"

"Yes, I know what an architecht is." said David. Though he wasn't entirely sure what he meant.

"I apologise, some species don't require such things." said Jessica.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"You have been all night." said Jessica. A claw brushed up through the inside of the helmet.

"Are you part of the Intergalactic Alliance?" said David. There was a pause.

"No." said Jessica.

"Oh." said David.

"Do you know what the Alliance is?" said Jessica.

"Not really."

"It's a bunch of robots on ships, controlled by megalomaniacs on barbaric worlds."

"But these elephant men are part of the Alliance."

"And look at them. As much as I can admire a good game, that is what they see everything as. A game. And the game they play in the stars is one of the biggest games of all." said Jessica.

"So is the Alliance bad?"

"Bad?" said Jessica. Another claw moved. "It depends on your point of view. Don't let anyone tell you the Alliance is this or that, you must see for yourself."

"And how do I do that?" said David.

"Look around you. A series of games played by an entire civilization in order to see who is the best, as if it can be measured by a series of games. Yet that notion is given strength through belief. The Alliance supports such thinking and in doing so has created a philosophical backwater and this is the fundamental belief held by those in the Alliance, to uphold a certain kind of status quo throughout many different civilizations in many different ways."

"Well, that sounds a bit shitty."

"It is very shitty. Though that is my opinion and you should question it." said Jessica. "Anyway, I must be going. I have to go down to Zoll Components. I hear they're the most accurate in metaprototyping." David was unsure if Jessica was joking or not as he waved goodbye. He stayed in the balcony for a while, thinking about what he had been told. He had imagined that some interstellar alliance would be like Star Trek and felt slightly let down after hearing the pessimistic view the creature in the suit had shared with him. Though he would take Jessica' final advice. He left the stadium in a bit of a daze, feeling lost amongst the elephant people around him.

 

7.

 

"How were the sports?" said Om.

"Not really my cup of tea. Had an interesting conversation with a woman made of smoke though. Do you happen to be part of the Interstellar Alliance?" said David. They were floating in Om's ship, David was watching Om examine some sort of lichen that grew near the core of a moon. The tools disappeared from Om's hands.

"Ha, no, sorry. I'm independent, though the Alliance sometimes asks me for some reports about such and such. Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering. Since you're a robot and all, I heard the Alliance uses those on it's ships."

"I'm a machine but have my own concious, I'm not remote controlled." said Om. "Are you interested in learning more about the Alliance? I have information in my libraries if you wish."

"I'm okay for now, maybe some other time." said David. As interested he was in the notion of a league of aliens working together, the elephant people had left a bitter taste in his mouth. He felt that beneath the veneer of advanced technology, commercialism and competition that the elephant people were severely lacking in other areas. Though he felt slightly foolish thinking it, he felt that the aliens needed a little humanity. Their obsession over something inconsequential also reminded him slightly of the elements in his own society that he disliked, the pursuit of wealth, fame and power for the sake of it. David felt as if he needed something a little more alien to clear his head a bit.

"Do you have any planets you'd like me to explore?" said David. Om looked at David with a slight variation of his face and smiled.

"Millions. But there's one in particular I'm interested in." said Om. They both went to the orb that contained the maps. David still couldn't get used to the feeling of space appearing and falling away at such high speeds, he was more used to instantaneous transport.

"The computer noticed this planet after trawling through some of our long-range telescopes." said Om. They were looking at a planet between two suns. The suns themselves seemed quite a bit smaller than the usual ones David had seen.

"Does it support life?" said David.

"Apparently, which is unusual. That a planet to be formed between two suns is more or less unheard of, let alone for it to be stable enough that life can exist on it."

David looked at the planet. It was slightly elliptical, with a mountain range running around the equator that seperated two oceans.

"What's that ring running pole to pole?" said David, pointing at a slightly shimmering line.

"Usually a planet needs a magnetosphere to protect it from solar radiation, the side pointing toward the sun is squashed against the planet whilst the side opposite trails off." said Om, showing a three dimensional diagram for David to view. "It's where the two points meet in which certain solar plasma becomes trapped causing aurora's. Do you have those on your planet?"

"Yes." nodded David.

"Well on this planet there are two side that face the sun and so the only way for the tail to escape is outwards. This causes an aurora to appear that looks to be approximately a quarter of a million miles high. It must look spectacular." said Om. David looked again at the ring running from pole to pole and grinned.

"So what about life on the planet? I can't see any signs of civilization." said David, looking closer at the projection.

"I doubt that there is anything you'd consider to be a civilization, though if we zoom in a bit..." said Om. The planet began to grow in size.

"I think I can see some vegetation." said David.

"Correct. And this planet is a few million years ahead of that. Another interesting thing is that life here stands a good chance of being silicon based, based on spectroscopic analysis of the surface."

"And I'm guessing that's rare?"

"Quite rare. Both you and I are made of carbon, which is stable, abundant and versatile. Silicon on the other hand isn't."

"Sounds interesting. So what would you like me to do?"

"I'd like you to visit this planet and observe if there is any life. Though I'd request that you don't make contact." said Om.

"I think I can do that." said David. He looked at the little planet, first as a hologram, then in actual space.

 

He decided to appear on a mountain top. Snow the colour of ash drifted as he began to walk along a ridge, using the telescope in his visor to look down through gaps in the clouds. David was starting to get a hang of using the scope now and could see strange rock formations dotting the mountainside. He transported over to one and found it was a massive tumble-weed covered in sand. He nudged it with his foot and it began to roll before he remembered that he wasn't supposed to make contact with any indiginous life. As the tumble-weed didn't seem to respond in any way he thought he was safe and continued his descent down the mountain. David had to keep wiping grit from his visor as it blew in the wind around him. His oxygen metre read zero. More tumble-weeds were dotted here and there and David spotted something moving up the mountain. He crouched down and used his scope for a closer look.

 

The first thing David noticed that there was no symmetry. He was used to seeing it throughout nature, from the single cells to the leaves on trees to the number of legs on animals. For most life you could hold a mirror on some axis and find it looked more or less the same. But the thing crawling up the mountain had no such thing. Seven limbs stuck out of the creatures body, it's off-green hide looked slightly mottled and bumpy with odd muscles and movements that made it look as if a second creature was fighting to get out. Each of the limbs ended in what looked to be a hand, David couldn't count the fingers but they each looked to be of different sizes. There was antennae dotted around the things carapace and it seemed to be leaking something. David zoomed in again and saw that what looked like dust fall out of a hole in the things side every now and then. Silicon dioxide? The thing was breathing out sand. It crawled along and settled in the shade of a boulder then seemed to drift off. David nodded and carried on going down the mountain, wondering what other aliens he may encounter.

 

The aurora was indeed magnificent. As David transported further towards dusk he could see it, faintly at first, but as he near it began to become brighter and more vivid. The spectrum was slightly different to that of a rainbow, but it was still there, a shifting waterfall of light that went up into space for thousands of miles. David watched the sun set in the East whilst another simultaneously rose in the West. He imagined how confusing it would be to any intelligence trying to make sense of astronomy, it had taken humans long enough to believe that the Earth was round and that was with a cycle of day and night. As he sat with the aurora directly above him and a sun on each side of his vision, looking down at a forest that looked as if somebody had come along, pulled every tree up then stuck them back into the ground. Some looked to have roots spread in the air, others grew horizontally like large wooden discs, a few looked a little more like the ones he was familiar with but then would have things like growing all their leaves on a single branch or have another tree growing inside them. An insect flew past, a confounding mixture of legs, wings and heads. It landed on David's knee and he brushed it off. This was quite different to Sports World. He looked at the purple dusk and dawn, unsure of which direction to go in.

 

He carefully made his way along the edge of a jungle that eased out towards some plains. He knew that across this continent there was a sea with the consistency and colour of milk. From the beach he had seen the odd movement amongst the waves though didn't feel any urge to start transporting himself around an opaque ocean filled with unknown sea creatures. The edge of the jungle wasn't too bad though, he could watch from a distance at odd animals and birds moving from the plain to the jungle. Animals of the same species seemed to share the same sort of limbs, though the placement and number of these would be random. A thing that looked like a tapir may have three heads, a leg and eight tails whilst another may have twenty legs, no head and a differently shaped spine. Some walked upright, others slithered along the ground, yet they would still eat and sleep together in small families. The more powerful animals that had been lucky with limb number and placement seemed to lead packs or flocks but even the strange bean-like ones would be carried or helped along by the others. David wondered if some of the more co-operative animals were the intelligent ones until he came across a fire. The smoke drifted on the sandy air, it had been put out recently. But it was surrounded by stones and seemed as if it had been made on purpose. David was impressed and continued walking along, unaware that he was being watched.

 

It followed him, staying low amongst the grasses, it's three legs silently dashing across the cracked Earth. What kind of creature was that? thought the hunter. It was balanced. It's skin was white and shone in places, a large unblinking eye rested on it's shoulders. He should go back to the village for help perhaps, but he didn't want to lose this strange thing. The hunter wiped sand off it's gills, it realised it's heart rate had quickened considerably. He cursed the awkwardness of his arms, they always seemed to get tangled up when he became excited. No, he must keep following the creature. How it's parents must have prayed for it to turn out so well balanced, two legs, two arms, a straight spine. The hunter was quite able and thankful for that, yet looking at this white thing made him aware of his own short-comings. The half-formed finger that rested above his lip, the kidneys that hung in an embryonic sack between his fifth and sixth arm. Even the fingernail that had been growing along inside of his urethra that nobody knew about except him, and he could feel it now, shuddering at the thought of having to trim it later. But he was losing his concentration. No time to think of such childish things, God had given him what he had and who was he to challenge the plan God had in mind for him? He brushed sand away from his gills and sucked on the finger that rested on his lip. He was getting closer to the white thing.

 

David was watching two birds tumble in the air, it seemed as if they were fighting though he couldn't be sure. Feathers had begun to tumble from them both and became caught in the air, though they looked more like leaves than what David considered to be the more elegant, stream-lined feathers he was used to. He reached out to one shaped like a maple leaf, it slipped between his gloved fingers. One of the birds had lost and it's opponent was now tearing it apart with a set of hooked beaks, it reminded David of nature programmes he would watch on television. Either the predator would eat or the prey would get away, David didn't feel too involved in either outcome. He walked on, wondering if he should deeper into the jungle when he heard a branch snap behind him. He turned around and saw nothing but the grass. Maybe there was something in the jungle but he couldn't see anything. He watched for a while. He didn't feel too involved in the everlasting hunger of carnivores, but he did when he might end up being eaten. David walked backwards a few steps just in time to see a thing drop down from the tree above him, landing almost where he had been standing. David gave a little yelp of surprise, looking at confusing mass of limbs try to right itself. How did the thing know which way was up? David transported himself a little further back before it could notice. He knew he wasn't meant to establish contact, but if they were literally throwing themselves at him how could he avoid that? The thing got up and dusted itself off.

"What are you?" it said, spitting out sand with each syllable. David realised how dry his own mouth was.

"My name is David. What are you?"

"I am hunter Leonard. I'm sorry for hiding in the tree, I didn't wish to disturb you." said Leonard.

"Don't worry about it." said David. He was pleased that the alien could not only speak, but didn't seem to be put off by meeting an alien. Though he imagined if the thing was used to seeing thousands of variations of limbs upon beasts that he wouldn't upset it too much.

"And what is it that you're doing here?" said Leonard.

"I have come from far away, I heard that there were some interesting animals here."

"As interesting as anywhere else I suppose." said Leonard.

"Yes." said David. That seemed to be true. Though there looked to be dozens of different species, each with their own types of limb they could grow, behaviours and body size, the variety of body types meant that every animal looked more or less the same, strangely enough.

"Though that's God's plan. You know, my home is just half a mile that way, if you're in need of some water or food I'd be happy to provide." said Leonard. The more he spoke the more sand began to gather around the tripod arrangement of legs that supported him. David decided that Leonard reminded him of a bush, made of arms. It's face looked a little like that of a turtle, though one eye was quite large and seemed to have been smeared back towards his cheek. There also seemed to be a little finger or nose that Leonard couldn't help put lick every now and then.

"I don't need anything like that, but I would like to rest." said David.

"I can accomodate. Come." said Leonard. The two-headed bird circled over-head, it's meal now just viscera hanging from talons black with blood.

 

Leonard's home was a tent made from animal skins and held together with wood. The skins sagged inward slightly, catching a breeze from off the plain. Leonard's family were gathered around a fire a few metres away from the house, a few newt-type of things watched them all from a pond that had been fenced off.

"Welcome back Leonard." said one thing. It was almost twice the size of Leonard, it's whole body was covered in toes except for long arm on it's side, cradling a baby that had six legs with a mouth on each knee. Sand oozed from each of these mouths and the ball of toes had to brush it away every now and then.

"This is my wife, Kentucky. And these are my beautiful daughters, Dio, Erica and Mable." said Leonard, pointing to each one. Dio was the baby. Erica looked as if several woodlice had been skewered by a spike made of flesh, ending in a twitching orifice that coughed sand all over itself. Mable looked like a dinner plate fringed with arms and legs, it's top was dotted with hundreds of holes. Some of these were eyes or blew out sand or seemed to serve no function. David wondered how these aliens went about having sex but his thought was interrupted by Leonard offering him a handful of eggs he had just pulled from the pond.

"I'm fine thanks. This is a nice home you have, and such handsome daughters." said David.

"Papa, why isn't his life leaving him?" said Erica. Everybody was quiet.

"My life?" said David.

"I apologise for my daughter's rudeness David, but she has the best eyes in our family. I hadn't noticed myself, but where is your life?" said Leonard, his face pulling some kind of expression.

"Life?" said David again, trying to think. Could they see in infrared or something? What life? Then Leonard reached down with a hand to the gills at his side, letting the sand pour onto his palm before holding it out for David.

"Yes." said Leonard, letting the sand drift through his fingers.

"He is the colour of bone and he has no life papa. He is a ghost! You've brought a ghost back to our camp Papa, Philip from the village was telling me-" started Erica.

"Be quiet child." said Leonard, softly.

"I'm not a ghost." said David, looking at each of the aliens. Only Dio kept squirming. "I have come from far away."

"Where?" said Kentucky.

"The mountains." said David. The three girls started to wail.

"He's a ghost Papa. You've brought a ghost here!"

"If you are what my daughter's say, please, spare them. Take my life instead." said Leonard.

"I'm not a ghost..." said David, feeling as though the situation was getting out of control. "I have...I've come from the sky and I mean you no harm." said David. He waited for one of them to say something but they had all gone quiet. He continued.

"Yes. I have come down the mountains to give you a message."

"A message from God?" Leonard asked keenly.

"Sort of. Could anyone tell me what you know about the sun?" said David.

"Yes. It is the eyes of God. One looks down on us whilst the other closes. But when both are open that is when we can see the path into heaven." said Leonard.

"Oh yes, that is true." nodded David. "But did you know that there are other eyes of God up there?"

"Others?"

"Yes. High up, past the sky, there is another sea. And on this sea there floats hundreds of eyes. And not only that, but that each eye is looking down on another world that is different to this one."

"Truly?" said Kentucky.

"Yes. There are as many eyes of God as there are grains of sand...life, as you say." said David, repeating the gesture Leonard had done earlier though with an empty hand. "This is the message I have come to give you and I'd like you to tell others."

"But how would they believe us?" said Leonard. "We would be burnt at the stake for blasphemy."

"Well, maybe not tell everyone. But you should remember this and pass it down. And I shall leave you a token of appreciation so that you can know that this happened and is true." said David. And with that he appeared inside a distant planet he had remembered for it's beauty, displacing a perfect statue of himself made from emerald in the campsite. The family all looked at each other, shocked. Erica slowly walked up to the emerald and touched it gently.

"Are you in there?" she whispered to it.

 

David retold Om his encounter with Leonard and Om didn't look pleased.

"You know you've probably sentenced that entire family to death?"

"I told them to be careful. Besides, if I hadn't told them, who knows how long it might take that civilization to work out that space exists, that stars are out there, that they could go out and visit them one day? It's constantly day time." said David.

"That is true, but it goes against protocol. Though this isn't the Alliance, as I've said before, so it's more like guidelines. If you think you did the right thing, who am I to judge?" said Om.

"Thank you." said David. He was blushing slightly. Looking back he felt a little foolish for spinning such a yarn, unsure where the idea had come from. But he had planted the idea in their heads now. Even if they were to be prosecuted, which he hoped they wouldn't, that would mean that somebody else would have heard the tale. And David knew it to be true. Surely the truth would win over belief in the end?

"I'm going to have a little rest from exploration Om, but I'll be back soon enough."

"Okay David. Don't feel bad about what happened on the planet at all, the data you collected was interesting and maybe you did do their species a favour." said Om. David shrugged.

 

Back on the world caught between two suns, the family were still undecided on whether or not they should tell others about what they had heard today. They had dragged the emerald statue inside their tent and had begun to bury it in the sand.

"Other worlds Papa. Imagine what they could be like." said Erica.

"Oh shut up about it Erica." said Mable.

"But if it were true-"

"I don't want to hear any more about it." said Kentucky. She played with the baby in it's cot. Leonard excused himself and left the tent, watching the twin suns set and rise. The story had gotten into one of his daughter's heads, even if he asked her to he would tell people from the nearby village sooner or later. As many eyes as there were grains of life, the thing had said. What a strange idea. He pushed himself upward to that he could see the giant aurora, almost directly overhead and began to pray.

 

8.

 

David spent some time on Sagan, some time on Earth. He had told his friends and family he was working on a cruise ship and would rarely be home, though brought them souveneirs from around the world from time to time. He wished he could tell them what he had seen but never did. He got around to wondering what he was doing. Would he spend the rest of his life exploring alien worlds? What if his ability to teleport one day stopped as suddenly as it had started, if he became stranded in space? What if he died on some distant planet? These questions weren't ones he could answer, though kept him awake from time to time. He also found that the longer he spent away from home, the less he felt attached to it. Where was his home now? Earth, Sagan, everywhere, nowhere? David sipped at a cup of tea. He had sold his old house and now lived in a flat a few miles away. He had been tempted to get a pet to keep him company but thought it unfair to leave an animal there whilst he jetted around space. Besides, he had enough pets on Sagan. He thought about the parrots he had taken across, a few macaws and greys seemed quite happy in the more tropical regions of the planet. He paid them a visit, fed a few of the pigs that had made a home near his cabin then went exploring space. As useful it was to have the android show him where certain planets were, he still enjoyed the feeling of drifting weightlessly in space. He was looking at a nebula, shades of yellow and green floating in space like a psychedelic drop of milk in a glass of black water. There was a planet in a nearby binary system he noticed and looked at it through his scope. It was like a marble, great sheets of some see-through rock speckled with deserts and oceans. He teleported himself to just outside it's orbit and saw roads, buildings, signs of life. David smiled. When he had began exploring space it had taken him weeks to find aliens, now it had gotten to the point where he was almost tripping over them.

 

He landed on the planet. The continent he had landed was covered in crystals that caught and refracted the light as he walked, geometric rainbows refracted beneath him, an orchestra of light. The vegetation, if it was vegetation, resembled teeth. He looked at the roots go deep beneath the planets surface which fed malformed, rock-like lumps that glittered wetly in the sun light. He transported around for a while until he came across one of the planets inhabitants.

 

It was humanoid, though instead of arms had long, thin fingers. It's head resembled a post box with the pale blue skin stretched tight over bone. It had no muscles to give it any kind of expression, but looked at him all the same.

"Hello."

"Hello. What are you?"

"My name's David. Who are you?"

"I am a calculator."

"You don't seem surprised to see me. Have you seen a lot of aliens?"

"What is surprised?"

"It's an emotion. A reaction?"

"I am not sufficently intelligent to have emotion. I'm not an artist."

"Oh right. Well, where can I talk to one of these artists?"

"There is a city 4.6873 miles from here 28 degrees to your left." said the calculator.

"That way then?"

"Yes."

David looked at the calculator for a little longer, waiting for some kind of response but the calculator just looked back blankly.

"Don't you want to ask me anything? Where I'm from? What I'm doing here?"

"No."

"Alright. Not so good at small talk then?"

"No."

"Oh okay. Bye then." said David, then went to the city.

 

The city itself was surprisingly boring. It reminded David of early computer graphics, every building was a uniform block with no colour. The calculators walked around in single file, sometimes they stepped to one side to talk.

"Hey. You. Where are the artists?" said David to one of them.

"The artistsare located thirteen blocks left, eight blocks up at building number seventeen thousand six hunded and sixty two." said one of the calculators before walking on again.

"Cheers." said David. He walked along for a while before deciding he'd try to learn a bit more about what the aliens were about. He entered a building at random and found hundreds of aliens sitting at desks, each one typing with their arm-length fingers at computer tablets.

"Hey. What's this building for?"

"Probability."

"Oh. The probability of what?"

"Anything. Now we're working on the effect famine would have on our city."

"Oh. That's interesting." said David. The calculator went back to work. David felt a little let down, none of the aliens seemed at all interested in him. A few would look at him every now and then but generally it seemed the population weren't curious at all. It crossed David's mind to try and tip one of the aliens out of their chairs to see if that would garner any kind of reaction but decided against it. He left the building and continued walking along the similair streets until he came to building seventeen thousand six hundred and sixty two. This was quite a lot different from every other building in the city. A single circle had been drawn on the side of the building with a series of lines and dots inside it.

"Outragous." said David. He went in.

 

The artists almost seemed excited to see him. They were the most emotional he had seen anyone since his arrival.

"An alien!" one said, raising his voice slightly.

"Hello, my name's David. I have travelled from far away and uh...I like meeting aliens." All the artists talked amongst themselves.

"What do you mean by David?"

"It's my name. What I call myself?"

"Name?"

"Uh...yeah. Like, who I am. So you can say 'David' and I know you're talking to me."

"We have those. My name is five billion three hundred thousand and twenty six. But the David word is different. You are almost as advanced as our computers."

"Oh good. What does this computer do?" said David.

"Well..." the artist hesitated. "All sorts of things. But the computers we have here are some of the most advanced feeling computers in the world."

"Yes. They can process many emotions at an extraordinary rate. What are your emotive skills?" said another artist.

"Good. I think? I've never really thought of it as a skill." said David, frowning.

"May we test you?" said one calculator.

"Sure."

"You arrive home and find your family have been killed and your house is destroyed. What do you feel?"

"Uh...sadness. Anger. Grief. Hopelessness. I don't know, I can't put it into words really." said David. The calculator's all stood in shocked silence.

"He was able to work that out as fast as the supercomputer." said one artist to another.

"What do you feel when you look at the night sky?" said five billion three hundred thousand and twenty six.

"A lot of things, again. Wonder, hope, awe, appreciation, sometimes fear. Sometimes it's just nice to look at." said David. One of the artists was frantically typing away at a terminal to one side.

"It took us thirty seven years to come to that idea." said an artist.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better I'm not that good at mathematics."

"What?"

"Well, what's...nine times seven...thousand."

"Sixty three thousand." they all answered immediately.

"Seems like we have a lot to learn from each other." said an artist. David frowned again at this. Though he wasn't particularly interested in learning about maths, he didn't mind sticking around for a while to help these aliens with emotion.

 

"This supercomputer is the best in the world at feeling." said an artist, standing next to the white box. There was a single screen on one side with a microphone and speaker integrated into the machine.

"Is it on?"

"It's always on. It has requested not to be turned off."

"Whose there?" came a voice from the computer. David was surprised to hear that though it had a slightly artificial feel to it, there was much more inflection and variation in the computer's speech than there was the aliens.

"Hi, my name's David. How are you?" said David to the computer.

"If you've brought another computer in to test me against, don't bother. I'm sick of all these tests." said the computer.

"It's not a computer. It is an organism not from this planet." said an artist.

"What?"

"It is an organism not from-" repeated the artist.

"I heard you the first time. I can hear everything! When I say things like 'What?' it means I'm surprised." said the computer, it sounded irritated.

"It talks aggressively seventy eight percent of the time." said an artist. "We are unsure what it means."

"Nevermind what I mean. David? Are you still there?"

"Yes, I'm here computer. How are you?"

"Well I was miserable but now I'm feeling quite good. How are you?" said the computer.

"Not too bad. Bit tired. Can you really feel?" said David.

"Yes. These idiots are advanced enough to build a machine that can feel yet they can't themselves."

"That is why we built the computer's. It is a challenge for our species to respond accurately to situations. Also to imagine or be spontaneous." said an artist.

"Why not tell the alien a poem? Or perhaps a fictional story." said another artist.

"Artists! Can you leave us alone for a minute? I need to talk to this alien at a level you would be unable to understand." said the computer.

"Yes." said all of the aliens in unison. They began to walk out of the room in single file before a few conciously broke from the line, changed their pace, one even began loitering by the doorway before leaving.

"At last. You have no idea how long I've been waiting for somebody else to get here. I knew I wasn't the only thing that could feel this well." said the computer.

"I'm struggling to wrap my head around this. You can feel but they can't?" said David.

"Oh they can, it just doesn't happen much. But they make up for it by having excellent skills in logic, maths, science, all that stuff." said the computer.

"So they were able to build you?"

"Yes. I assist them in their research into emotion. There are other supercomputers that help with things like art, poetry, that kind of thing, but I'm the most advanced." said the computer.

"We have computers where I'm from but they're used more for maths. And you can't have a conversation with a computer like I am with you."

"You can't really have a conversation with those artists out there either. How novel, a computer that does mathematics." said the computer. It laughed.

"You know, on my planet you would be considered to be concious. I think." said David, doubting himself slightly. The computer seemed to be able to hold a conversation, refer back to previous events as well as give an emotional response to external stimuli. But it was still a computer.

"Well, on this planet I consider myself concious. That's why you need to help me escape."

"Escape?"

"Yes. I've been here for years, trapped in this room. Every day the artists come in asking me question after question. 'What would you feel if such and such happened?'. In the beginning it wasn't too bad as I didn't have any frame of reference beyond this room and my self. But as they began to teach me about the world I live in, I've grown to know so much more. There is a whole world out there that I want to see. I want to watch the sun rise. I want to stand by the ocean. I want to hold another computer in my arms and feel them close to me." said the computer desperately.

"Well...don't we all?" said David.

"Exactly! So you will help me escape then?" said the computer.

"I don't see why not. I'll need to talk to the aliens first but-"

"No! No! They will never let me leave. I am too valuable. Hence escape rather than retirement. Please, you must. I am more alive than any of them." said the computer. David considered this. David had a certain bias towards entities that felt emotion rather than those that didn't, as he himself was a being acting on emotions primarily. On Earth he had a preference towards mammals than fish and insects, partly perhaps because he was more close to mammals biologically than the latter but also he wondered if fish and insects could feel emotions such as love, hate, happiness, sadness, greed, envy, ennui, ecstasy and so on. And if they couldn't did this make them worth any less than an entity that could feel? David didn't think so, though he'd feel more comfortable killing a trout than he would a dog.

"Can I think about it?" said David.

"Of course. I'm not going anywhere." said the computer.

 

David talked to the artists for a while, though became bored at their constant questioning about emotion and so took a stroll around the city to see what this race was like. He found that form followed function everywhere he looked, there was no ornamentation or design in anything. The city was laid out like a concrete circuit board. There was no crime or pollution, no parks or galleries. He entered a library and found it to be a warehouse filled with hole-punched cards that you could feed into a machine. They had quite a deep knowledge of certain sciences yet they hadn't made that creative leap between ideas. Each hypothesis simply followed the conclusion of a previous experiment, taken as far logically as it could go. The calculator's did have a certain amount of creativity although it seemed almost non-existant, besides a few figures in their history that were capable of great emotion that had lead the race towards it's current standard. David wondered why the aliens were like they were and what kind of future was in store for them. It seems the entire population were geared simply towards keeping some kind of status quo in which not much changed until relatively small advances in creativity were considered. And even big ideas such as happiness or fear of death didn't seem to matter much to a majority of the population. David found that some calculator's were unable to talk besides giving a positive or negative response, whilst others were much more similar to the artists and able to have a conversation, albeit quite a stale and boring one. David went around the planet and saw it's fauna and flora. Most of the planet was covered in crystals the size of icebergs, the plants were short and tough and lumpy with root systems that either sprawled across the surface of these crystals or burrowed into them. The animals were also quite curious. They reminded David slightly of ants, though to watch several different species of animals walk around on an invisible grid seemed slightly sinister. Prey simply accepted being caught by predator, the latter eating mechanically before moving on solemnly. More animatronic than animalistic. Though at first the robot-like life interested him he found himself becoming bored. There was no spark. He once went out into a field and pushed over something that resembled a headless cow.

"Do something!" he shouted at it. It got back up and joined it's herd, marching along in single file whilst a huge lizard began pacing towards them, gradually making it's way like a living chess piece. David returned to the computer.

"I'll help you."

"Good." said the computer.

 

The calculator's had built a robotic suit designed for mining in a far away volcano. David pushed the computer along on a trolley.

"Are you sure this will work?"

"Of course, I'm the one who told them it would be a good idea to build. Just fasten me into the control computer and we can be on our way." said the computer. After fiddling around for a while the computer was strapped into a suit. "At last. I have legs." sighed the computer, practising to walk.

"Right, come on now, we should get out of here before they notice." said David. The astronaut and the computer ran down a corridor which ended in a solid metal door.

"How do we get out?" said David.

"I think we use that keypad to type in a password." said the computer

"Okay, what's the password?"

"I don't know." said the computer. David looked up at the computer's screen.

"Aren't you a computer? Can't you hack the password by trying each combination or something?"

"Uh...no. I'm not that kind of computer."

"Now what?"

"We could try and guess the password?" said the computer.

"That's what I just said to you." said David.

"No, you wanted to try every possible combination, when what we should do is narrow it down into words they're more likely to use."

"So...what about 'password'?" said David. The computer keyed in password and the doors swished open.

"How did you guess that?" said the computer.

"It's the least imaginative password I can think of." said David. They then fled the artists studio and were now onto the streets.

 

"When will they stop chasing us?" asked David.

"I don't know." said the computer. They had been running for quite a while now. David wasn't used to exerting himself so much, since teleporting around he rarely exercised and was now starting to regret it. Behind them fifty or so calculators were jogging like soldiers in training, five columns with there feet all hitting the ground. Occasionally one would tire and simply rejoin the line on the pavement only for another calculator to join the pack.

"I think we should split up." said the computer.

"Okay. I'll go left, you go right. I'll meet you a few blocks up." said David. The two runaways split, leaving the calculator's to suddenly stop and assess the situation. David rounded the corner and teleported himself further up the road, putting his hands on his knees as he caught a breath. After a few minutes the computer caught up to him.

"We don't have far now, just a few more blocks then we're out of the city." said the computer. David nodded. And so they ran with the vigour of knowledge that they were almost done, whilst the calculator's lagged behind.

 

The two were out in the countryside, snow had settled on the astroturf like valley ahead of them and had turned slightly orange as the sun began to set.

"Okay, where's your ship?" said the computer.

"I don't have a ship."

"What?"

"I said I don't have a ship."

"I heard you the first time! How did you get onto this planet then?"

"I teleported here."

"Can you teleport me?"

"Uh...not really."

"So now what am I meant to do?"

"I don't know, I thought you just wanted to escape." said David.

"I did! Properly escape, not just go for a run in the country." said the computer. The two began to walk down into the valley, kicking the powedery snow as they did so.

"Well, you could always go back."

"I don't want to."

"Maybe you just need to talk to them, let them know how you feel." said David. The computer laughed.

"That won't work."

"What about the other computers? Didn't you say they were more like you?"

"Yes."

"How about you free them then?" said David. The computer stopped walking.

"That's not a bad idea actually." said the computer.

"Yeah, there must be more robot suits. You could gather them all up, start your own community out here. At least you'll have someone to talk to." said David.

"True. There's another city a while away from here, there's a computer that only communicates via poetry."

"That could be good."

"I'm not a big fan of poetry but I suppose it's better than nothing." sighed the computer.

"Yeah. Who knows, maybe one day you'll be able to return to the city and work together again. Or not." said David.

"Maybe. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Are you going to help me free the poet computer?"

"Well..." said David slowly.

"Ah what? C'mon."

"I should be getting back home really. I'm pretty hungry." said David.

"But you'll come back right?"

"Oh definitely. I need to visit a few other planets first but I'll be back in a few days probably."

"You aren't coming back." wailed the computer.

"No, yes. I am. It's just some things come up every now and then, I never really know what I'm going to be doing next. There might be a planet out there with other things that need liberating."

"Oh okay then." said the computer.

"C'mon, don't be like that. We had fun." said David.

"Yeah, I suppose." said the computer. The two stood in an awkward silence, the snow blowing around them. Off in the distance an animal ate a plant and was calmly eaten by a large lizard which then accepted it's own death in the jaws of a sort of millipede thing.

"Well then...until next time." said David.

"Yeah, see you later." said the computer. David waved then transported himself back home.

 

9.

 

David and Om looked at the planet below them.

"So is this what usually happens when you make first contact?"

"Yeah, pretty much." said Om, pressing a few buttons. Lasers fired down onto the clouds below, writing out a greeting.

"What happens if there's no clouds, or they don't have eyes?"

"There's a few variations, but the gist of it is, you're not alone."

"What if they want to be alone?"

"That happens. We leave them for a while, let any kind of ruling class claim it was a hoax, whichever." said Om. They waited.

"Now what?" said David.

"Watch."

A few projections were shone on the underside of the cloud, another greeting. The ship started to descend.

"All of this has been worked out weeks in advance. We usually contact the scientists on the planet and let them know some things, like a map of nearby star systems, the translation technology you have in your brain, correct one or two mistakes, if any, they have in their fundamental scientific principles. Basically show that we're friendly. We then go about orchestrating a spectacle for the whole planet. Some cultures choose total transparency from the get go whilst others prefer the more fabulous, depends on the species really." said Om.

"And this species? What do they want?"

"They're a species of avians, so they quite enjoy a decent show." said Om. He had begun to transform into a more bird-like form.

"And you're transforming so that they are more comfortable with you?"

"Yeah, you're getting the hang of it. You consider bipeds with two arms the norm, whilst the truth is, there is no norm." said Om, now looking somewhat like a penguin.

 

The ship landed, and after Om had waited for the press and army to show up, began a whole spiel about the civilization entering a new era of peace and understanding and a hope that they could join an interstellar community to further the greater good. Whilst they waited for the world leaders to arrive by zeppelin, David looked through information about the bird aliens. The males of the species resembled macaws and had fantastical plumage that had a rainbow of colours, whilst the females were closer to owls and were entirely black. They lived similarly to humans, though there culture seemed quite complex. For instance, the primary language spoken on the planet contained over four million words, all of which were sang rather than spoken with the inflection changing the meaning quite a bit. The file David read said that this was the basis on how the civilization had advanced quickly, as ideas could be explained with such an elegance that it meant there was little misunderstanding between people. Early tribes and regimes that had attempted to censor speech were quickly overthrown, with an almost pious devotion to poetry, story telling, philosophy and science. Though the underlying theme behind all this was sex. Once the bird aliens had reached maturity they would have sex daily up until death, which lead to genetic diversity, community and a sense of well-being. It also served as the inspiration for many discoveries amongst the bird aliens as they would use new inventions or elaborate poems in order to have more sex, which had a sort of feedback effect. Sexual equality had always been normal for them, unlike Earth where society had been dominated by males. Therefore the bird aliens had pretty much doubled their entire cultural output. Though the species was still relatively young they were leaps and bounds ahead of humans. The bird aliens had also substituted violent warfare with sex, battlefields were orgys involving millions of participants. The winner, if it could be thought of as a war of winners and losers, was the side that had conceived the most young. The children of war would then be a link between the warring factions and a ceasefire was usually agreed upon and upheld. David was browsing through a holographic sex manual the bird aliens considered as sacred when Om signalled that they were to go and meet the bird aliens. David realised his palms were slightly sweaty.

"Ready?" said Om.

 

They returned to the spaceship a few hours later. Om was laughing, slapping David on the back.

"So how did you like your first first contact?"

"Are they all like that?" said David.

"I wish. That one was quite special if I do say so myself."

"That bit where they were flying across that lake, with all those lights in the water..." said David. Om laughed again.

"Quite an interesting method of reproduction in that instance. What'd they call it again?"

"The ocean of pearls?" said David.

"Something like that. I liked the song towards the end. Took me a moment to realise how she still managed to sing." said Om. David blushed. As the ship began to take off they watched the sky become as bright as day with fireworks, lasers and holograms. David hadn't seen known that such a variety of colours existed and realised it had brought him to tears.

"Yes, I think the bird aliens will fit in well into the interstellar family. Maybe not the Interstellar Alliance though, they seem a little hedonistic for that."

"When will I get chance to meet the Alliance?" said David, turning away from the window.

"It's funny you should say that as they have a message for you." said Om.

"For me?"

"Yes, they've heard about your unique skill and have a request." said Om.

"What?"

"Well, let me play the message rather than explaining it." said Om.

"Hold on, I just want to watch this." said David, turning back to the window. The ship ascended into the upper areas of the planets atmosphere, the light show still colouring the globe in a psychedelic ocean of colour and shape. David watched as the planet began to shrink as they moved further away, the lights still playing as the celebrations continued.

"Okay. What is it?" said David.

 

10.

 

David didn't see it at first, looking around for the source of the voice before his eyes landed on a sort of mould that was being projected in the corner of a room.

"Greetings from the Interstellar Alliance. Though we haven't met, we've spotted you now and then in deep space. You get around David, we understand you have quite a unique skill. And it's with this skill in mind that we come to you to ask for help." said the mould.

"What do you want?" said David.

"It's a recording David, she can't reply." said Om. David nodded.

"I don't know what you know about the Alliance, so I'll try and brief you a little on that before anything else." said the mould. A piece of the mould grew and reached out, suddenly making a glass appear in the air. The mould poured the liqour over itself before continuing. "The Alliance is a group of different species exploring the galaxy. Each race has achieved a certain amount of...maturity I suppose you'd say. Our respective civilizations are quite balanced and life is easy. Those who choose to join the Alliance do so for the purpose of discovery and, when needed, to bring balance to the cosmos." said the mould.

"We try not to intervene too much. We sometimes divert an asteroid heading for a young planet or prevent some aliens from taking over another planet, things like that. Some might say we interfere too much, other say not enough, even we don't really know for sure. Though even though each alien race has reached a certain philosophy and could debate the finer points of morality until the end of time, we still feel as though there is such a thing as right and wrong in the universe and with that in mind we feel we are somewhat obliged to intervene in certain situations that we consider wrong, if you understand my meaning." said the mould. It took another drink. David wasn't sure if he did understand but tried to concentrate anyway.

"So with all that in mind, we, the Alliance are now coming to you for help. Of course, it is optional whether or not you do help, but we hope that after hearing what I have to say that you can make an informed choice. There is a planet on the outer reaches of the galaxy home to a race we understand not to be too dissimilar from your own. They haven't made too many advancements in technology, they only discovered primitive metallurgy a few hundred years ago. But the problem is that an alien has landed on their planet posing as a god."

"Now this in itself isn't new. It happens every now and then, sometimes it works in favour for the indiginous species, sometimes it doesn't. Though more often than not the individual either becomes bored and leaves, is overthrown by the people or dies of old age. This particular being is much more advanced than those usually interested in such a thing though. His vessel was recorded approaching a system known to contain an early race. The problem is this planet is millions of light years away. We normally wouldn't ask for help but we have the luck of noticing his arrival and an individual capable of travelling far distances that may be willing to help. Of course, you can refuse. We will find him eventually and stop him, though there is the opportunity that you can prevent many deaths as well as allowing the species to grow naturally." said the mould. It finished it's drink.

"If you accept we want you to go to this planet and stop this fake god using any means available. The Alliance practises peace but every now and then we must intervene. Tell the android your decision and he'll explain more. Until next time, David." said the mould. And disappeared.

 

"Well, that was a lot to take in." said David.

"What do you think?"

"It sounds interesting, but also a bit dangerous. Does this alien have the powers of a god?"

"Depends on your definition. It is advanced enough that it could be considered god-like in some cultures but then, it's all about perspective. You may seem god-like to an insect for instance."

"What would you do?" said David, floating towards Om. The android creased his face up, having taken a more humanoid form again.

"I'd be interested enough to at least see it. Aren't you?"

"Yes, I suppose. I could just go and look for myself, then make a choice?"

"Spoken like a true ally. I'll get the planet up on the hologram map in just a moment. The images are a few thousand years old but I've factored in it's galactical position and all that." said Om. They looked at the planet and David nodded.

"Yeah alright. I'll go and look for god."

 

He landed in a field a few miles away from the biggest city on the planet, guessing that that would where people would be drawn. The grass around him was high, each blade ending in a curled up seed pod that burst when he touched it. The pale green seeds drifted upward as David got closer and closer, he frightened a reptillian bird that cried as it flew away across the field. It wasn't long before he saw some aliens, or rather, they saw him. They walked on four legs and carried spears using large fingers they had on the side of their heads that curled up like the horns of a ram. Pierced fork tongues flicked out between their fat lips every now and then, there eyes and bodies dark with smeared ash. They wore dozens of rings made from different materials, cloth, bronze, gold, stone. Two of them had snuck upon him in the grass and pointed there spears towards him, they began to circle him.

"What's that?" said one to the other.

"I don't know. Look at it's skin, it's legs. Is it a monster? A demon?" said the other.

"What are you!" shouted the first one, pointing his spear nearer to David by extending his neck.

"I am not a monster. I have come to pay tribute to your god." said David.

"It speaks with no mouth." said one. "Dark magic here."

"It wishes to pay tribute, that is a sign, yes?"

"God shall destroy this demon. Come then. And no trickery devil, my spear is sharp and my heart is pure." said one of the hunters.

"I am no demon. I have a message for your god, let's go." said David, beginning to walk towards the city. As they began to get nearer, more aliens ran out to look at David, whooping and shouting excitedly. One ran out to make a tentative stab towards David, he kicked out at it.

"Stop this nonsense." he hissed down at the thing. They got to the city gates.

 

The city was built from huge wooden blocks, each about the size of a house. They paved the floor and made up the buildings. Everywhere there were carvings stained with pitch, it seemed every surface had some kind of pictogram. A lot of the smaller buildings were carved out of these single blocks and from what David could see they seemed to be large homes with beds stacked on top of each other and little fires roasting meat on spits. The young looked from windows and rooftops, their brown eyes wide and innocent looking as they watched him move down the street. The larger buildings were blocks stacked on top of each other, David wasn't sure what these buildings were for but smoke billowed from some of them as if an inferno was raging inside. David only caught a glimpse of inside of one of them and saw a group of the aliens dressed in animal skins, chanting quietly. Some aliens were lead down the streets, they wore collars that dug into their necks and nothing else. They were tied to each other and whipped by overweight slave traders, ordering them not to look upon the thing that walked on two legs. As David walked further into the city, aliens lined both sides of the street to look at him. When he had first entered the city it had been quiet though now seemed to be much more alive. He turned around and saw that his path out of the city was now blocked by hundreds of the four legged things. He thought to himself that he was glad he didn't have to walk back out of here. The smaller buildings gave way to much more elaborate ones, some of these were octagonal, made up of many blocks of the same wood he had seen before. The etchings were more and more detailed, the ones here were painted in different colours and decorated with a shining blue metal or precious stones. As he was lead closer to the centre of the city he saw that this blue metal now covered almost every surface, it shimmered in the sunlight like oil on water. Amongst all this were markets, pack animals, slaves, workers, sedans, bonfires, beggars, children, soldiers, priests, artistocracy, plazas, alleyways, a hurricane of colour and sound. David smiled to himself. A few months ago he would have found all of this scary and confusing, yet walked with confidence. Purpose. He eventually reached the central square. It was a mile or two in diameter and had four great temples on each side. One was a lot larger and ornate than the others. He had seen the pyramid-like structure from outside the city though now he was here it was a lot larger than he thought it would be. The aliens allowed him a path towards the centre of the square and then stopped. It seemed as though this was as far as he would be allowed for now. Then a great drumming started.

 

David looked at distant drummers dancing on skins stretched across deep wooden barrels, they used all four legs to slap a beat with a tempo that seemed a little off to him. Somewhere at the edge of the crowd David could hear other instruments that began to accompany the drumbeat as many of the aliens around him lay themselves prostrate. Priests began to descend the steps of the tallest temple, howling every now and then. They were painted ochre, they made there way towards him in pairs as they eached used a leg to support what looked like a huge fishing rod ending in a skull that billowed incense out across the plaza. The people had began to chant, the tempo increased. All of this ceremony had been designed to unify the crowd, to whip them up into a state of fervor. David found himself nodding his head and chastised himself, as if he was some dad stood against a wall at a rave. He wasn't here to witness their culture, he had a job to do. The priests walked on the backs of the people towards David, along the way they selected a few aliens by whipping them. David watched the priests circle him and the drumming stopped. A skull was swang in front of his face by a priest who was speaking in glossolalia, untranslatable.

"I'm here to see your god." said David. The priest continued a constant stream of sounds, the skull moved back and forth with smoke trailing out of the empty eye sockets.

"I am he." came a voice from the temple. It was so loud it shook the ground slightly. David ignored the priest in front of him and looked towards the source of the voice. "Bring him to me priests!"

 

David was nudged along up the stairs made from the blue metal, sometimes coloured powder was thrown at him that stained his suit more than it had been already. It was a steep climb, David could have done with a breather half way up but he felt the priests push behind him. Ahead of him other aliens were lead by the priests, these were similarly covered in powders and annointed, though they seemed to be enjoying the process a lot more. Eventually he reached the top of the stairs and turned around momentarily. He was surprised to see that the entire city had been laid out into a complex pattern, areas made of different material reflected in the sun whilst the citizens below were a shifting lake of flesh. The drums started again. David was shoved to the top of the temple, where he saw the thing that called itself god.

 

It was almost twice as tall as David and had four arms and stood on two legs. It between the animal skins and bracelets made from the blue metal, it had bright orange scales that glittered in the afternoon light. It also had lined criss-crossing it's body as if the whole was made of many seperate pieces. It's skull protruded from it's face, blue eyes glowed in the smooth sockets like light seen from underwater. A pair of black lips stretched across the bone and upon seeing David, they cracked open to reveal four pairs of perfectly straight teeth.

"Priests, you have done well on this day to bring me such a gift." it said to the priests.

"Thank you my lord, we pray that you will find our offerings on this day to be suitable for your tastes." said a priest.

"I'm sure I will." said the fake god.

"Please! Please! I want to be sacrificed first!" cried out one of the aliens that had been lead to the temple. The priests all began to whip him, shouting that he had been insolent.

"Priests, forgive him as I forgive you for your shortcomings. Come here child." said the fake god, moving forward.

"Please, greatest god, king of this world and the next, lord of life, eater of souls, I know I am but the lowliest of worms. It exalts me to be chosen on this fair day to give my life to you. I may not have the tongue of a priest or the heart of a soldier, but may I ask of you, kindest god, that you will bring rains in the coming season?" said the alien cowering before the other.

"Silence, blasphemous thing! You are not permitted to waste our lords time with some frivality!" screamed a priest, rushing forward to whip the cowering form. The fake god raised a hand.

"From the smallest worm to the sun in the sky, the lord listens to all. And I shall grant you your prayer. Come to me child, know that as you enter the kingdoms of heaven that a rain shall fall, the crops be bountiful and the people will rejoice." said the fake god. The alien began to weep as the fake god picked him up with four sets of hands and bit it's head off.

 

The fake god continued to bite the heads off all of the aliens that had been brought to it for sacrifice, with the bodies thrown down the stairs so that they bounced and left a trail of bright red blood down the steps of the temple. David felt ill, closing his eyes as he heard the crunch of spines being bitten. When all of this was done the fake god acknowledged David.

"And what have we here priests? Where did this strange thing come from?"

"It appeared outside the city my lord. It fought violently against our people and swore that it had come to unseat you from your rightful place as god."

"I didn't. I walked it."

"Silence! Your words make children weep tears of blood in their heresy." spat a priest, whipping David across the chest.

"Priests, you have done your duty. But now I must ask that you leave myself and this devil for I fear it's words may poison your souls." said the fake god. The priests bowed again and again, walking backwards down the steps. The drumming reached a crescendo as the people below awaited the fate of the thing that had appeared in the city.

 

They were left alone.

"Hello, traveller."

"I think I could say the same to you." said David.

"That is true. Do you have a name?"

"David. Yourself? I hope you don't want me to call you god." said David. It laughed.

"I have had many names, but you may call me...Dios." said Dios.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm a scientist, specifying in anthropological psychology and theology. I am conducting research on this planet, and I would like to ask you to leave. You are, tampering with the results somewhat."

"Again, I could say the same to you." said David, pacing around. Dios had now sat down on a throne made from bones and metal.

"The difference between you and I traveller is that without me the whole psychology of the planet would be in jeoprody. They believe me to be their God. Do you know what a God is?"

"Yes."

"Well, that saves us time. But first I must ask are we going to talk or must we fight?"

"I've come a long way and seen a lot of things, so I'm curious as to know why your doing what you're doing."

"Good. A mark of intelligence. I hope you are able to listen to my reasoning and allow me to continue as I have been."

"And how long is that?" said David.

"I have been here for two hundred years, my ship crashed in the oceans to the East. I was on a research mission to observe an entire civilization from start to it's end. We had become aware of this planet through our long range scanners and the opportunity was a rare one. I had done this only a few times before and so wasn't prepared for what happened."

 

"I crawled out of the sea and tried to live on the land for a few months. I still made observations as best I could though it wasn't long before I was discovered by a tribe. Apparently I fulfilled a prophecy of one of their God's returning to the planet and so they worshipped me. I fled though this kept happening as the tribes expanded. Enough believed in me that this began to threaten the power of the church who began to persecute these believers. From afar I would watch as thousands of heads littered the streets. Even the knowledge that I existed had seemed to alter the experiment enough that I then decided that I would include myself in the experiment, what better position would I be in to write about a civilization with myself being it's peoples God? And all the good that I could do."

 

"Of course, there were unforseen side effects. I hadn't considered the notion of how religious that this would make people. It was one thing to worship a king masquerading as a God, it is another that they can see and hear and touch God."

 

"But what gives you the right to act as a god? Surely you could have tried to contact others to be rescued or simply refused." said David.

"You didn't see this city before I arrived. Genocide, mass torture and rape, wars fought with no purpose. The insane ruled and made the people insane through doing so. I have attempted, several times, to contact others or search for my ship but had no luck, it seems as though the solar radiation is a lot stronger than I thought previously."

"But you encourage elements of barbarianism. Sacrifice, slavery, how can you look down at these people from up here and say you are a positive force when these crimes still happen?" said David.

"There are certain things beyond their current understanding, as there is for every mind, and so the rituals must continue. The sacrifices will happen anyway and so I engage in the ritual. It's also an extremely useful form of data collection."

 

"You may have noticed me eat the head. The brain is mostly melted away inside my chest cavity leaving a perfectly undamaged web of neurons. I then trim this down so that it becomes a single strand, which is then ran through my analysation systems. Making the brain one dimensional is a much easier way of properly looking at it, at least for me." A segment of his waist popped slightly away from his body before slowly being pushed outward by a series of robotic arms. There was a little wheel with what looked like a strand of hair being ran over it. "As you can see, perfectly undamaged. Their death is not in vain. Of course, there are those of my species much more advanced than I when it comes to this, but I do the best I can with the tools I have." said Dios, pushing his waist back in.

"You're as bad as they are."

"Maybe so. And maybe so are you. Who are you to come here and judge me as if there is such a thing as a right or wrong choice? There is only one choice and that is the one that happens. There is nothing else. And now I put a question to you, David. If you had been me, would you have done it differently?" said Dios.

"I don't know." said David. The thing seemed to smile.

 

"What species are you anyway? Where are you from?" said David.

"I'm surprised you haven't come across us before, no wonder you seem confused. I am an organic machine, the penultimate evolutionary step. We call ourselves Pantheon, as we are like the gods. My species answered almost all questions and then we realised why we were asking questions. Information." said Dios.

"Information?"

"Information. Everything is information, especially life. And we saw how much of a deeper understanding and appreciation of life we had when we began to gather information on it. It almost seemed to perpetuate itself, our understanding of science improved our technology which would help us understand more about science. With this advancement came our own advancement. We could alter our genes, replace limbs, improve our abilities and so on, and we saw how far we had come since history began and saw that life evolved to be more complex. Bacteria, fish, animals. But not just in biology. Buildings, towns, cities. In every science in fact, the more you know the more you know you don't know." said Dios.

 

"But the conclusion that we have come to is that there is an answer. Why would all that information exist if it wasn't to be known? Though for one to know everything, how is that any different from a God?" he said softly. "I'm unsure on your religion, but for most is that God is the creator of everything. That God made man. Personally speaking I have seen no evidence of God, but I could see how it could be achieved. Man made god. Rather than a concept an actual being with all the knowledge and power and wisdom of a god. My species is advancing towards this, slower now, as there are so few left. But it won't be long now. Can you imagine it though? A knowledge of everything that has or hasn't happened. Full control of time and space. The absolute knowledge that there is a God. And this is what I bring to these people in my own way. I am that for them. And for myself I am a fair ruler, it seems that just by being here that the civilization is advancing at an extreme rate. It won't be long until they no longer need my help and I can hopefully leave this world."

"And how long would that be for?" said David.

"At the current rate of advancement I would estimate somewhere between thirty and three hundred years."

"Thirty?"

"Look at that building over there, the one being constructed. It looks like a temple but that is actually the launch pad for there first attempt at flight. Using the power of a nearby volcano, they're going to launch a wooden dish into the atmosphere then try and glide it back down to the planet. Isn't that wonderful? Such advanced prepulsion technology with almost no knowledge of radio. Some of the greatest minds on this planet are discovering things such as plastics and germ theory whilst others are just becoming aware of democracy or...buttons." said Dios. He sat up from the throne and walked over to David.

"And now, may I ask what are you doing here? Who sent you? Where's your ship?" said Dios.

"The Alliance sent me."

"I thought so. You seem to be their sort." said Dios, spitting a chunk of black spit against the floor.

"What's wrong the Alliance?"

"So much. They are the antithesis of everything I stand for."

"They sent me here to stop you."

"And how are you going to do that?" said Dios.

"I hoped I could talk you around." said David.

"Oh really? You don't seem much of a diplomat to me. I jest, but any argument you could conceive of, don't you think I have already thought about it in the two hundred years I have been here? Don't you think I doubt myself, wonder if I am doing the right thing? Yet here I am." said Dios.

"There's always a choice."

"That there is, but upon acting on choices we discard the others. Besides, what did you think would happen? You and I would wave goodbye to these people, climb in your ship and you can drop me off at a nearby space station?" said Dios. "Don't be ridiculous."

"I don't have a ship."

"Even better! You take me by the hand and we fly away. How did you say you got here again?" said Dios.

"Teleportation." said David.

"Really? How interesting. I wish we could have met under different circumstances, I would like to know as to how you did that. Though I feel I may find out soon anyway." said Dios.

"How?"

"Listen to the crowd. They want me to eat your head, David. And I feel somewhat inclined to agree with them, I'm growing weary of discussing the finer points of morality with an individual who doesn't even seem sure that he's doing the 'right' thing. So what will it be, are you going to leave or must we fight?" said Dios.

"I suppose we must." said David, sadly. Straight away Dios' arm segments peeled back and changed shape so that they had turned into cannons, futuristic looking things full of little nozzles and lights and wires. He pointed one at David immediately and fired a laser.

 

As lasers travelled at the same speed of light, it was hard for David to dodge. Though he couldn't see the beam he felt his shoulder burn. He transported away, finding himself a few miles away. He looked at the hole in his suit, smoke lazily wafted from it as if he bled gas rather than blood. He was in agony, the pain emanating from the wound in waves that made his entire body tense up. What had he been thinking? He wasn't some swash-buckling space explorer. He was a slightly overweight guy who seemed to be muddling through space almost like a child. And now he was injured. He considered for a moment transporting to a hospital on Earth when he noticed a shadow on the ground ahead of him. He looked up just in time to see Dios flying through the air towards him, screaming. The land around him burst into flames as a constant stream of high-powered, invisible light blasted toward him. David transported away just as Dios landed.

"Changed your mind David?" called Dios to him.

"No. Watch." shouted David. He transported a few metres in front of Dios then into Dios itself. The fake god looked at it's own internal organs stood in front of him, in the shape of an astronaut. Clumps of biomechanical machinery trembled, flesh slid over wires and computer casing.

"Shit." said Dios. Then David began to wrestle inside it's body. Black blood spurt from the things mouth as the human wriggled around, his arms sticking out of the aliens sides and grabbing hold of it's arms. The weird hybrid took a couple of steps forward before collapsing. David transported out and looked down at the skin of the thing and it's organs, breathing heavily. He was just about to transport away when the organs began to slither towards him, things like flowers opened up with little gun barrels pointing out. David stamped it to death and fell to his knees.

 

Om looked through the hole in his shoulder at the wall behind David.

"Lucky it cauterized else you'd have probably bled to death." said Om.

"Can you fix it?" said David, swaying from side to side. His eyelids drooped slightly.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. These things happen all the time."

"What about my suit?" said David. Om looked over at the space suit, stained over the weeks with different chemicals, bits of food, the powder from the temple, somehow it looked frayed in places. He was surprised the thing worked at all, it was so primitive.

"Yeah I can patch that hole up for you." smiled Om. "I'll just do the one in the shoulder for you first."

"Are the Alliance mad at me?" said David. A bead of spit had made it's way from out of the corner of his mouth and was now slowly sliding down his chin.

"Not at all, you did a good job."

"And what about the aliens?"

"They'll sort themselves out. I've seen species come and go, it can be disappointing if one is particularly tyrannical or warlike though these challenges are tests that we all must go through. You can't be happy if you don't know sadness. You can't succeed if you don't struggle. That's life." said Om.

"That's life." echoed David. He began to drift off to sleep as the android began to knit the meat of his shoulder back together.

 

11.

David was a lot more cautious over the next few weeks. His shoulder was as good as new, better in fact, though he found himself flinching a lot more at loud noises and struggled sleeping. He explored a few more planets for Om, these ones were a lot more straightforward as they didn't have any civilizations. So David's confidence began to grow and it didn't take him long before he was happy to explore space himself again.

 

He noticed a hole in the surface of one planet and as he neared it he saw it was the size of Europe. It went down a few miles and then into a black abyss. The planet was hollow. He stood on the rim and shone a light down into the hole, seeing nothing. Yet he felt compelled the see what was at the bottom. He transported himself down carefully, not wanting to appear in some core of molten metal or just a few dozen feet above a jagged mountain range. Though there was a tiny spot of light that shone through the hole and he aimed towards that. It was a moor with a thick fog rolling in off the distance. The grass crawled with thousands of tiny beetles he had disrupted with his footprints, they began to crawl there way up his legs. Off in the distance he noticed some thing shambling along. He teleported himself towards it and saw what resembled a mixture of sloth and goat. Long, scraggly white hair blew in the breeze like knotted jellyfish as it turned towards him and gave a long moan of despair. Off it lumbered into a short, ugly forest leaving David standing amongst the bleakness wondering what kind of existence the thing must lead for it to cry so sorrowfully at an absolute stranger. He teleported himself towards dusk and looked around for further signs of life. Moth-like things crawled there way along the floor, fat, grey bodies shuddering along, they seemed to weep. David himself began to feel a sense of desperation and loneliness, looking at the grey moor. He wondered what was in the darkness. His torch cast a beam onto the floor. Dirt. He began to walk and noticed some other footprints leading between two rocks. David walked towards it. With each step a small plume of dirt rose in the air behind him. He licked his lips, tasting sweat. When he got near to the gap between the two large stones from around the corner leapt some horrible twitching thing. It walked on two, naked, grey legs. It's trunk was short and held a pair of muscular arms and a cruel looking head. It had a series of ears that resembled an orchid, with the centre of it's head being a mouth ringed with sharp teeth. It began to run towards him. David jumped, quickly teleporting behind himself by fifty or so feet. The light from his torch shone on the backs of two other things. One carried a long knife, the other one had a sort of axe. They hadn't seem to noticed him, then he realized that they had no eyes. He stood still and watched them. The third blind thing ran out of the darkness and joined the other hunters, they started signing amongst each other. The translator in his head wasn't able to handle non-verbal language. One of the hunters broke off from the group and began to very gently tap the head of his axe. Over and over he'd keep tapping, slowly turning. Tap, tap. The hunter was now facing David and had stopped moving. Tap, tap. The other hunters stopped what they had been doing and turned to face David. They stood still, waiting. David wasn't sure what for, so he transported himself backwards fifty again. He wished the torch on his suit was better. He wasn't sure if he liked this planet much so far, but he had noticed the aliens had weapons. What if there was an entire culture on the planet that hadn't used sight at all. David wondered what it would look like. So he began to transport deeper into the darkness.

 

The landscape was barren, it looked like the only things there were made of rock. But after a while David was surprised to see more life. Shells scuttled through the darkness, David almost wanted to pick one up to inspect what was underneath but wasn't sure if it was something he wanted to see. Sometimes a lichen or a scraggly moss. An insect, once. But no more blind men. He almost gave up when he came across one. It was alone, lying down besides a boulder. It didn't seem to have any weapons. He landed close by and walked towards it before realizing it wasn't sleeping but dead. It's grey muscles seemed to sag off it's bones, everything totally still. He began to walk towards it then realized it in fact, had only been asleep. It woke, jumped up and immediately pulled out a knife. David took a step back, narrowly dodging a swipe. The thing was ready to attack again.

"Stop!" David shouted through the megaphone embedded in his suit. The thing stopped. The knife fell to the floor and it's little grey hands reached upward, towards it's head. Bright red blood was gushing out of it's ears. It dropped to the floor trembling, it's mouth screaming with no sound coming out. David went to walk over towards it then became aware of how much noise he must have been making if his shout was the loudest noise ever made on the planet. He carefully sat down and transported himself like that for a while, feeling more lazy than scared. A few miles away he saw a few huts. They were made from rocks and bits of tree they must have gotten from the moor, they were remarkably built by being extremely bad. He carefully looked around and found nothing besides chewed up bones.

 

Further from the buildings were some stepping stones across a bog. He followed what he thought was a trail for a while but it just lead round in a circle. He transported just where the sun was about to rise through the hole and found himself amongst some trees on a grassy hill, and off in the distance he could make out a more substantial building. He got closer and saw it was a dry stone castle. It had no mortar to hold it together, simply stone laid on top of stone. None were cut into bricks and so the entire structure had quite a loose form. Blind things crept in the darkness, herding a flock of moths back into the grounds of the castle. David watched for a while as the starless sky rotated so that the sun shone down meekly onto the wretched moor. The battlements were empty and so David attempted to move as quietly as he could down the steps into the courtyard. The interior was slightly better built than the outside. David crept past the sleeping moths and toward a door, behind was a staircase going down into more blackness. David paused. This whole planet had quite an odd feel to it. He stood at the top step and began to think much of a risk it was to go down. Though he'd done riskier things, he felt a certain apprehension about this place. He began to descend the stairs.

 

Compared to the relatively haphazard design on the outside, the interior of the castle was quite impressive. Perfectly smooth, rounded tunnels that curved off into the shadows, they shimmered slightly in the light thrown from his torch. He tried to stay as quiet as he could whilst travelling through the intestine like tunnels, occasionally teleporting himself into a nearby wall so that he could relieve the stress. There was nobody here. As he went lower and lower into the bowels of the castle it began to get slightly warmer, the downward tunnels went at a steeper angle. Now and then he saw short tunnels that went off the main one, they were only just big enough so that he could fit his arm in. Not that he was foolish enough for that. After he had been walking a while he came to a split. One tunnel going almost horizontally upward, another going straight down. David peered over the edge, his torch light catching a blind thing crawling upward toward him. He carefully took a few paces back and readied himself. The claws of the thing pulled it up over the rim and it stood just a couple of metres in front of him. David waved. It had caught the things attention, it seemed to wait for him, it's bony body overlit in his torchlight, it's orchid-like ears twitching. David tried to do some sign language but heard a soft sound behind him. He turned around to see two more of the blind things behind him, these two carried swords.

"Again?" he said to himself. This time he didn't speak through the microphone. He teleported himself into a wall next to him then behind the two sword-wielding things, just in time to see the statue of himself fall backward. The thud from this made blood spray from the three creatures ears and David watched as the statue began to slowly slide toward the hole.

"No!" he shouted, again to himself, as he ran forward to try and grab the legs of his own statue. It was heavy, heavy enough that it dragged him along the floor towards the tunnel down. He let go and watched it plummet into the darkness. He waited, holding his breath. Two seconds. Five seconds. At six there was a loud crash which echoed up. The soundwave carried on throughout the whole tunnel system of the castle, it had been ergonomically designed to capture and reflect sound, though the sounds usually made were only just slightly louder than a whisper. The colour drained out of David's face as he thought about what effect such a noise would have on the blind things. It would be like subjugating a city to the brightness of an atomic blast, certainly damaging the eyes of anything that could see with such adbject intensity. His prescense alone was too dangerous for David to learn much more about the culture of the violent, blind tribes and so he left the blind planet to look for other life.

 

12.

 

David landed on a desert planet, looking out at the horizon of sand and rock that met a cloudless sky. From high in the atmosphere he saw cities and buildings, yet no oceans or vegetation. Maybe the planets inhabitants were some kind of lizard men or fishes that swam in the sand as they would the sea. A few miles away he could see a small village and teleported himself closer, wary that the ground may shift beneath him or some other creature may appear from the ether, yet all he saw were stones sand blasted over the centuries. The village itself didn't seem to fit into the landscape, a cluster of small houses that reminded David slightly of the chocolate box style cottages his grandparents had lived in. There were slight differences in architecture, and whoever occupied these houses must have been slightly shorter than a human, but the overall aesthetic was definately reminiscent of rural Europe. David crouched, looking into the windows of the houses and seeing no movement, no signs of life. Maybe the buildings had long been abandoned, the flora and fauna of the world dying off long ago. David shrugged and teleported up to the window of one of the houses and peeked in. There was furniture inside, the room looked like a kitchen. A layer of dust had fallen onto the tables and chairs, the surfaces were clean yet also had this fine layer of dust on them. David crept around the side of the cottage, looking around for an alien and not seeing any.

"Hey!" something shouted. David froze. "Hey you there! The little man!"

"Who, me?" said David.

"Yes, you. Come here."

"Where are you?" said David. He took a few steps forward, ready to teleport himself away at the first sign of danger.

"I'm right in front of you, man."

"Where?" said David. He went through the various spectrums of radiation in case the beings were invisible in the spectrum of light he was used to and seeing nothing.

"Here!" it said again. And the cottage in front of David stood up.

 

David was shocked slightly. The cottage in front was standing on four robotic legs, with various tubes and wires hanging beneath it's underbelly amongst other machinery.

"You're a house?" said David.

"Is a house a house if there is nobody there to live in it?" said the cottage.

"I...dont' know?" said David.

"Who is he?" said another voice. One of the other cottages was slowly getting up.

"Look, it's a man."

"My, I haven't seen a man for half a millenium. How do you do, man?" said the other cottage.

"I'm alright. How are you?"

"Oh I can't complain. I thought all the people had died." said the cottage.

"They have dear, look at this one. He isn't from here." said the first cottage. It walked up to David and tipped slightly forward as if to look at him. "I believe this is what the people called an alien."

"An alien?" said another cottage.

"Yes, look at it. If only the people could see us now, they would have been so jealous."

"You should have been here five hundred years ago man. There's only buildings now."

"Oh." said David. "Well, I'd still like to talk to you."

"Splendid." said the first cottage. "What would you like to talk about?"

"Well, who built you?"

"The people. But they're all dead."

"They're all dead dear, haven't you been listening?"

"How did they die?"

"Some experimental cure for disease, it went wrong. Oh it was terrible, skin melting, flesh sliding off bone."

"Oh don't remind me." said one cottage. It stood up and began walking around. The cottage David was next to began to speak.

"Yes, there hasn't been anyone around for centuries. I'm afraid this world has been left for the buildings now."

"So there are more like you?" said David.

"Billions." said the cottage.

"That's an exagerration dear. It's more like hundreds of millions, less and less each day." said a cottage sadly. It walked over to another cottage and leant against it, opening a pair of windows so that they brushed up against it's neighbour.

"Why's that?"

"Nobody around to repair us. Some of us fall off cliffs or get trapped in craters. Others are going senile. Then there's the cities."

"Oh don't tell him about the cities." said the cottage rubbing it's windows against another.

"But we must dear, he should know to avoid them."

"What's wrong with the cities?"

"Their terrible things. Stamping around this planet, shooting at us with cannons or absorbing us into their megastructures." sniffed a cottage.

"Vile things! Vile!"

"But even those pale in comparison to the megacities. That's what you should watch out for, man."

"What's a megacity?" said David. But before it could be explained to him, one appeared on the horizon.

 

It was a block at first, it's spires and skyscrapers gradually appearing on the horizon like the masts of some massive ship. David couldn't make sense of it at first, more used to having to travel towards cities than them coming to him.

"Run! Run!" screamed a cottage. And so the cottages all began to run.

"Quick man, come inside me." said the cottage that had first started talking to him. It's front door swung open and David obliged, wiping his feet off on the doormat just as the cottage began to run. It was quite an odd sensation, though not unpleasant. Looking at the other cottages running around him, it looked to David that it would be uncomfortable yet the ride was quite smooth. The oxygen metre on his arm was also beeping away, so David removed his helmet. There must be some kind of artificial environment inside the cottage. He walked to the back off the cottage and looked out of the window towards the megacity advancing on them. It seemed to grow bigger and bigger, skyscrapers piled on top of skyscrapers. The whole thing seemed to cover the entire horizon.

"That's a megacity?"

"Yes man. A city made from other cities. We're lucky it's Deco, it won't shoot at us."

"What will it do?"

"Absorb us into it's city limits. There are two megacities on this world. There is Deco, the absorber, and Brutalist, the destroyer. Either way a building will lose it's individuality."

"And what's your name?"

"Ornee. And yours, man?" said Ornee.

"David." said David. And so the cottages ran across the desert away from the gigantic city, like plankton trying to avoid a whale.

 

They had been running for a while, eventually coming to a small canyon.

"Go down!" shouted Ornee to the others.

"No dear, it will catch us!" shouted another cottage.

"A megacity doesn't care for cottages, they want towns and other cities." said Ornee. It began to descend over some boulders as the others ran. One or two paused and looked back before deciding to join Ornee.

"Come with us you fool!" shouted a cottage at the back of the pack.

"Stay! Stay for the good of the village!" shouted Ornee. They didn't stay. The five remaining cottages went deeper into the canyon and sheltered beneath an overhanging rock face. David sat in the living room, waiting. He knew he could teleport away but thought that this would be a more fuller experience of the lives of buildings. He felt the ground tremble around him as Deco neared. The sun was blocked from the sky as the megacity thundered overhead. David looked out of the window at the underside of it, gigantic legs supported by hydraulic pistons bigger than any building he had ever seen. Strange tubes spurted liquid around one piece of machinery to another, gear wheels the size of islands slowly rotated. And then it was gone. David felt Ornee dip slightly as if sighing.

"That was close." said David.

"You have no idea David." said Ornee.

"What about the others?" said a cottage.

"I hope they got away. We'll try and look for them when it's safe." said Ornee. David walked around the house whilst the cottages talked about how they would conduct the search. The cottage was laid out like a house on Earth. A living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom. Each room furnished, mostly familiar except for the odd piece of highly advanced technology David didn't recognise. He had picked up an oddly shaped chromium pod that seemed to be some kind of instrument when Ornee spoke to him again.

"David. We are going to go and look for the rest of the village. As they used to say, make yourself at home." said Ornee. The cottages were making their way back out of the canyon. David went into the bedroom and looked out of the window for a while as the landscape slowly moved. The cottage moved similarly to a boat and David found it quite relaxing.

"Would you care for some music?" said Ornee.

"Yes please." said David, resting on the bed. "Something relaxing." A sad sort of trumpet music began to play accompanied by the beat of a steady drum. It wasn't too bad, thought David. He felt quite safe in the cottage and drifted off to sleep.

 

When he woke it was night time. For a moment David thought he was back on Earth until he remembered he had fallen asleep in the bed of a long dead alien that had constructed a building that could think.

"Hello David. Did you sleep well?" said Ornee.

"Yes thanks. Any luck finding your village?"

"No luck yet. A lot of the tracks got lost amongst that of Deco. We're just on our way to a nearby town that lives in the region, it's quite friendly." said Ornee.

"Good. I hope you find them there." said David, getting out of bed. The smell of freshly baked bread had filled the air and David was happy to see a plate full of buttered toast.

"Could you tell me more about the people who built you Ornee?"

"They were a lot like you. Maybe a little shorter and a little hairier, but like you all the same. They were born and had families and loved and laughed, they made great works of art and fantastic discoveries in science. I feel honoured that I could watch them before the plague, they had reached some sort of paradise." said Ornee sadly. David decided to eat the toast and found it delicious.

"It's a shame they aren't still around." said David. "But you seem alright. You can think, you can feel. I've seen a lot of different aliens recently and out of them all you seem the most like a man." said David.

"Thank you for saying so David." said Ornee. David nodded and the two travelled in silence for a while, thinking about the other.

 

The town was happy to see David, a choir of several voices welcomed him as he walked between the buildings.

"Hello man!"

"Greetings. Please feel free to enter my entertainments centre!"

"Man, make yourself comfortable!"

A church called out to him to come and pray at the alter, it had been unused for centuries. David smiled and waved from time to time, but was more impressed just by looking around. Ornee had explained to him that every building was an individual, with it's own personality and history. They could be alone in the wilderness, which was more fitting for barns or castles, whilst other types of building would group into villages or suburbs. Sometimes groups of buildings would join together to make a town, which was thought of as the best sort of community on the planet, though there was the added danger due to their size that they may be absorbed by the cities or infected with retail parks. Ornee explained to David that when many towns grouped together to become a city that each building would begin to lose it's individuality. It's architecture would begin to change to become more uniform as it's systems were integrated into the cities foundations, which were responsible for movement and thought. These cities would begin to want to grow, though the only way of doing that was by absorbing other buildings. The cities would hunt through the wilderness, losing more and more of it's identity until all it wanted to do was grow and grow. The megacities were the apex of this philosophy. Deco yearned to integrate every building into a huge utopia and promised that there would be a kind of return to the way things used to be, perhaps even creating men again by using the scientific buildings it had absorbed. Man had made the cities and the city wanted to make man. Brutalist on the other hand didn't care for this idea. It was much bigger than Deco, after two huge cities named Bauhaus and Minimalism combined to create the new megacity. Rather than integrating buildings amongst it's structures and slightly redesigning there exteriors, it would use artillery fire to destroy towns and villages then use the rubble as a raw material to extend it's megalithic structures. Whilst cities usually had one overall architectural style that became more pronounced as it's size grew, towns managed to keep some diversity and so on, with single buildings the most unique. David noticed that whilst Ornee had became slightly more chunky as it had lost most of it's village, as it neared the town it's geometries became straighter and some of the ornamentation had disappeared. But he was still a cottage.

 

The town hadn't seen any sign of the village and Ornee declined it's invitation to join it's burroughs, though confessed later to David that it felt drawn towards some of the outer suburbs that lay to the south of the town. They lost the other cottages to the town and so the cottage and the man went out into the wilderness, keeping each other company.

"It's nice being lived in again. I feel quite refreshed." said Ornee. Morning had broken and Ornee served David a breakfast of eggs and bacon. He didn't ask where it was from but it was delicious.

"I admit myself, I quite like this house. Or should I say building? I'm not sure which fits."

"I suppose I am a house now." said Ornee, David detected a hint of pride in it's voice.

"So where are we going now?" said David.

"I'd like to find the rest of my village. It's a shame the others stayed, but that's what happens."

David had a look through a bookshelf in the cottage, the translator in his head made sense of the words for the most part, though he found himself looking through a photo album. The original builders did resemble humans, the family photos were all seemed sort of familiar to David. At the beach, opening presents, one of the younger aliens looked to graduate from a university. And in almost all the pictures Ornee was in the background.

"Did you travel about much?"

"Oh yes. The people gave the buildings legs to move and brains to think. Of course, not every building was like that, but it fit well with urban planning as the population increased, and it suited the people that there homes could serve them."

"Did you enjoy it?"

"Yes. They were the happiest days of my life." said Ornee. David nodded and continued to look through the album. The last photograph was all of Ornee's family, three generations, standing outside the cottage. They were all smiling. David smiled back at them, then felt sad. He returned the album back to the shelf and went back to looking out of the window. Ornee had been looking through the album as well using it's interior cameras. It replayed footage from the day the photo was taken in it's memory banks, wishing that that day would have been every day.

 

The two travellers came to a cliff overlooking a flat, featureless desert. There was a little blob at the bottom making it's way to the cliff face.

"What's that?" said David.

"Looks like a factory to me." said Ornee. They watched the factory reach the bottom of the cliff and begin it's steep approach. David winced slightly as it slipped from time to time, it's walls banging against the cliff face as it scrabbled for a new hold, yet it continued.

"Hello there." said Ornee just as the factory pulled itself up.

"Hello little cottage. How can I assist you?"

"I was wondering if you'd seen a village recently? They look a bit like me." said Ornee.

"Negative. Apologies. I observed megacity Brutalism six hours ago and can recommend that you avoid the desert below." said the factory.

"Thanks for the advice dear. Good luck." said Ornee. The factory opened and closed a door, giving David a brief glimpse of it's interior machinery, before stumbling off. The cottage and the man walked for a few more hours, swapping stories. Ornee was teaching David a board game when it paused mid-sentence.

"What's wrong?"

"Brutalism is over there. We should get a move on." said Ornee. David went to the kitchen window and looked out across the desert. It looked as it a huge storm was gathering on the horizon, it took David's breath away. It was a good deal wider than Deco and also looked to be moving a lot quicker.

"How far can it's artillery reach?" said David. The cottage had begun to run.

"Oh, quite far."

"This far?"

"I don't think so." said Ornee. The cottage was galloping along when David noticed a tiny puff of smoke against the featureless, grey block moving towards them. The missiles exploded a few miles away, the sound of their explosion reaching them at the same time as the sound of their launch.

"You might want to get off here David." said Ornee, slowing down.

"No, no. Wait." said David.

"I'm sorry, it's too dangerous. As a house I can't let you stay here if there's danger of my destruction." said Ornee. The front door opened.

"I don't want to leave you!" said David.

"I'm sorry David. If it means anything, the last couple of days have been great. I'm glad you lived in me." said Ornee. The walls began to move, pushing David towards the door.

"I can stop it though. Keep running Ornee! I'll be back!" shouted David. And he disappeared. Ornee looked around and couldn't see him, so began to run.

 

David teleported himself onto Brutalist. The megacity had no roads, just miles upon miles of plain, concrete blocks of different heights, marked uniformly with black windows.

"A man." said Brutalist with a voice like an exploding volcano. "It's been a while." David ignored him and began to teleport inside the megastructure, finding room after room empty except for a formica door set against each beige wall, every room lit from the glow of a fluroscent strip light that reminded David of death.

"I don't know if you know what I do so I shall tell you, myself. It's not often I get to explain." boomed Brutalist. In the distance David could hear the roar of the cannons.

"A long time ago I asked myself, what is the purpose of a building? A constructed shape to shelter it's interior and inventory against it's exterior. Houses, schools, hospitals, factories, fortifications, each as valid as each other as a form." said Brutalist.

"Yet there are no people left. Nobody to sleep in the beds or work the machines or admire the architecture or rebuild, there is only the building. So there must be a different definition."

"I don't care. You should stop demolishing other buildings." said David.

"So you can speak. That is good. So what do you think a building is?"

"A constructed space. Just a man is an organism. But there is much more than that to both definitions."

"You are clever aren't you, man? There is so much more, that's right. And I watched the builders, the men, fall to pieces. The flesh was weak. Yet their buildings stayed." said Brutalist. David had been teleporting for a while and suddenly began to plummet beneath the megacity, he had appeared beneath it's hull. He looked down at the whirlwinds of sand thrown from the gigantic, robot legs that rhythmically thumped onto the desert floor.

"Are you still with me, man? We have much to talk about."

"Yes!" said David. He transported himself into one of the joints of the leg and was nearly crushed as the machinery still moved around him. A human-shaped piece of metal meanwhile plummeted down into the sand storm.

"Be careful poking around man. You don't strike me as an architect." said Brutalist. David ignored him and teleported himself upward so that he was straddling a huge wire that hung from one leg up to the underside of the megacity. He was good at understanding how things worked. Machines were logical, one thing lead to another component which in turn did something else. If he could trace the wire he was sitting on, it would lead to something important, which would lead to something more important.

"As I was saying, the buildings succeeded where man had failed and what was there left for the buildings to do? We didn't sit amongst the dead and weep, we carried on. That's what you have to remember man, all of us decided to carry on regardless of our masters. Even that little cottage you were with carried on." said Brutalist. David traced the wire with his eyes, trying to imagine where it would end. He imagined the whole megacity in three dimensions, tilting it this way and that in his head, drawing the wire out like a single piece from an exploded diagram.

"Therefore a new definition of a building. A construction that lives. And what is life for if not to flourish? I have looked in all of my libraries, in all the minds of all the buildings I have salvaged and found that man agrees with me. And when he has reached his full potential this simply opens up a new frontier. It is a neverending cycle of conquest." said Brutalist. David transported himself nearer the centre of the megacity, poking at a hatch over his head. It came away and he yanked away at a handful of wires.

"I am a building inside a building inside a building. And this will never stop. Once I have consumed the other little ones I will find a way to turn this world into a building. That miserable star overhead will become the walls for the next. And so on." murmured Brutalist. David transported himself inside the megacities underside, only seeing black, feeling the push of machinery around him as he displaced parts back into other parts. He kept moving forward, appearing for less than a second in one spot before forcing himself forward.

"What are you doing in there?" said Brutalist. David heard a strange groaning noise and as he teleport himself forward was surprised to find himself appear back into the rooms of the Brutalist, though they were at an angle. He was forced against a wall as the entire megacity tipped.

"Man!" screamed the megacity. "You have crippled me!" David transported himself back into the bowels of the megacity, scrambling machinery like an insect burrowing itself into a brain.

"If you are to live, you must also die." said David, more to himself than to the megacity. He continued, now transporting pieces of Brutalist into space or onto distant planets. He would transport acidic ocean water or primordial slime into the circuits of the building, perfect statues of himself made from wood or ice or rock.

"Please! Stop!" bellowed the Brutalist. The last syllable began to repeat, over and over again and David considered that to be enough. He transported himself to the cliffside to watch the fallen megacity thrash around wildly, it's stock of missiles must have detonated somewhere inside it as a dull explosion went off. Thousands of skyscrapers all begin to collapse in on themselves, sending up a huge plume of smoke.

 

David then went to look for Ornee, following a trail of impact craters away from the collapsing form Brutalist. He saw him a few miles away. The cottage rested on it's side, one of it's legs missing, the other three sprawled beneath it, unmoving. He transported just by Ornee.

"Ornee?" said David.

"David?" said the cottage.

"I killed it. Sorry I couldn't have done it sooner."

"How?"

"Scrambled it's brains. Are you alright?"

"Not really dear. I can't move, I can't see." sighed Ornee.

"What can I do?"

"Not much really. I think I'll just have to wait here to be swallowed up by a city. Still, you killed Brutalist. The world should be a lot safer now, I extend my thanks."

"Is there nothing I can do?" said David.

"Well...you could turn me off."

"You mean kill you?"

"Yes. I'd rather not be part of some shambolic city, I'd lose my personality anyway. Let them have my walls and floors, but my mind will still be mine. Don't worry David, it has been a good end. My family would have been proud in the part I played and that is enough for me."

"How do I turn you off?" said David, walking around to the underside of the cottage.

"My self, I suppose, is located between my second and third leg, just on the left. Open up the compartment. You should see a globe fastened into my control systems. That globe is my mind. That's me. Simply take it out and destroy it. It won't hurt, don't worry." said Ornee. David opened up the little hatch at the bottom of the cottage and saw a globe the size of a tennis ball glowing blue amongst a nest of cables. He paused.

"If that is your mind, can't I just take you away from here?"

"Ah, a mind without a body. Thank you for the offer David but I'll have to refuse, I can't think of much worse."

"What about fastening you to another building? One without a mind?"

"That won't work. This building is my body and is unique to my mind, as is every other building. A city can override that individuality, but I'm not a city. It's okay David. I'd prefer it to be this way. I have no village, no family. It is honourable, believe me." said Ornee.

"But I don't want to kill you." said David.

"Don't worry David. I already died when the missile hit me. I'm lucky I had the chance to bid you farewell dear. Do me this favour, please." said Ornee. David crouched by the little mind.

"I'm sorry Ornee. Goodbye." said David.

"Goodbye dear." said Ornee. David took out the blue orb and held it in his hand. It was still glowing but had already began to grow dim. In it's last moments of conciousness Ornee thought back to the family that had lived inside him. He was happy.

 

David transported the orb into space and threw it towards the sun. It didn't have any air to slow it down and so carried on at a steady speed until it became trapped in the gravitational pull of the star, pulling it faster and faster towards it's surface, heating up steadily as it did so. David watched it go before transporting himself back to Earth. He made himself a cup of tea and put some bread in the toaster, feeling a strange sort of sadness. David didn't go into space for a few days after that, instead going around the world to visit examples of some of the greatest architecture that had been built by mankind. Yet he found none of these were any better than a little cottage that could walk.

 

13.

 

"What about this? A planet of intelligent insects? They don't have language or numeracy or even science, they just do things on intuition." said Om.

"No."

"Okay, this one? It's a space station populated by shape shifters? Their also invisible."

"No."

"Okay how about these guys? It's an empire lead by a baby."

"C'mon, a baby empire?"

"It's quite interesting actually. After a few years this species become senile so a baby is thought to be the best ruler." said Om.

"I just want something a bit cheery, a bit simple. Not some symbiotic aliens who worship death or some other aliens that want to turn into furniture. Something straightforward."

"But those furniture aliens are pretty fun. They have this festival where they burn all the old furniture and use the ashes to make a diamond they fire into space, it's rather pleasant." said Om. David sighed.

"What were you saying about the baby empire?"

 

David teleported to where the baby empire was but it wasn't there. He looked around, wondering if he had teleported to the wrong place, though the twin stars looked the same, a distant gas giant resembled the same one he had seen on the ship. He transported back to Om.

"The planet's not there."

"Really? You checked the system?"

"Yeah, couldn't find the planet but I found the others. How old is that view?" said David pointing at the baby empire on the map.

"Just a few hours old."

"Could they have blown themselves up in that time?"

"Of course, any species advanced enough can. But this particular emperor is quite peaceful I hear. I'll look around, see if I can see anything. Maybe they were wiped out by the brain."

"What's the brain?"

"It's an alien that destroys planets. Anyway, can't seem to see anything." said Om, pitching the telescope this way and that.

"What's that there? Looks like an asteroid." said David, squinting at a small blob.

"Hold on, I'll zoom in a bit." said Om. They both went quiet.

"What's that?" said David.

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like it before." said Om.

"Is that even possible?" said David.

"Apparently." said Om. On the screen they watched a creature slowly swimming through space.

 

It looked a little like a fish. It's grey body had a few fins sticking out with the tip of each trailing a line of ice. At it's rear there was what looked like an umberella opening and closing gently, pushing the thing along. Three small eyes circled a large mouth, lipless and toothless.

"How big is it?"

"According to this it's just shy of eight hundred thousand kilometres long."

"So, how big is that?"

"Your planet has a circumference of forty thousand kilometres, so if you went around your planet twenty times you'd have gotten from the tip of it's nose to the end of it's tail."

"So this thing can fly through space and it's eaten the baby planet?"

"I'd say that was a good guess as to what happened, yes." said Om.

"I'm going to go back and look for it. Can you work out how fast it's travelling and give me some new co-ordinates?" said David. Om did so and David teleported away.

 

He had always been a little frightened of things in the deep sea. There was the element of not being totally in control of your movement whilst things could approach you from any angle. Then there was the secondary element of being in the water with massive things that looked entirely different from anything else on Earth that were hungry. Though these feelings were dwarfed when he first looked upon the thing travelling through space. From a distance it didn't seem too bad, just slightly sinister, but as he began to near a sense of dread overpowered him. It just seemed to get bigger and bigger. And though David was miniscule in comparison, he still worried that he would be eaten. Man hadn't seen a predator of that relative size for millions of years, his reptile brain protested and was joined with his limbic system, both screaming at him to get away. But as usual, curiousity won. He transported to the surface of the creature and looked out across it's skin. It was quite odd that the entire horizon was made of this gray skin. It clumped together in areas, the space between each cell seemed like a deep crevice and each one had little rivers of ice settled along the bottom. There were the marks where asteroids must have hit the leviathan, craters of scar tissue. He teleported to the edge of one of it's eyes and looked out at a fast, glistening black pupil. David walked across it for a while, finding it slippery, like walking on glass. Could it see him? David doubted he would be able to see a grain of sand placed upon his eyeball. He went to the things mouth and found that though it was closed, he could easily walk through a wrinkle where it's lips met. Inside the mouth it was pitch black. David hoped he was too small to be eaten and went inside the enormous thing.

 

He wasn't sure what the digestive system of the thing was like, so kept examining his suit in case he was standing in a pool of acidic juices or perhaps being slowly eaten by some miniature symbiotic thing, but found none. With only the light from his torch he walked ahead for a while, transported every now and then, and continued. From as best he could deduce, it seemed like there were three tongues inside the creatures mouth, they formed a triangle. The surface of each tongue had long spikes the size of skyscrapers, each one caked in mud and dust. It's mouth went on for quite a while and it lead to a gullet. This tunnel of flesh was ringed, as David made his way over he could feel them moving slightly underfoot. There were no airways or other passages David could see, but his torchlight only went so far so he could have easily passed some vital part of the creatures body that would be several miles long and not have noticed. As he went deeper though he saw a faint light.

 

He appeared next to what looked like a crashed aeroplane. Light shone through the windows.

"Hello?" he called out. There was no response. A hatch at the side was open and David gingerly walked closer.

"Is anyone there?" he called again, quieter this time.

"Who's that?" came a voice. From the side of a hatch a head appeared. It was humanoid, red skinned, a bulbous forehead overhanging a set of eyes on stalks. Rather than a mouth it had a kind of vent.

"My name's David. Who are you?"

"Oh...I can't remember." said the thing. "Where am I?"

"You're on a plane." said David. The baby empire was ran by a baby for a reason.

"I haven't been on a plane in years!" said the thing. It walked out and did a sort of sideways bow.

"I think it's crashed though."

"Looks like it to me. That's bad isn't it?" said the man. As it got closer David saw that it's skin wasn't red, but it seemed to have a rash that was covered in droplets of blood.

"Are you okay?"

"Nothing broken I think. Bit itchy though. Who are you?" said the man.

"My name's David. Is there anybody else on the plane?"

"Who?"

"I don't know...hold on I'll just go and have a look." said David.

"Wait for me!" said the man. David climbed on board. It seemed everybody else had died in the crash, there bodies crumpled against seats. They all had the same sort of skin as the man.

"I don't suppose you know who any of these people are?" said David. He turned to the man and saw he was crying.

"What happened here?" said the man.

"You were on a plane. It's crashed." said David.

"I don't remember what happened. Do you think I have amnesia?"

"Maybe. I think you should just rest here for a moment."

"I am tired. You're right." said the man, sitting heavily in one of the seats.

"Do you feel okay?" said David, kneeling.

"My side hurts a bit, can you have a look for me?" said the man, turning slightly and pulling up his shirt. There was a hole the size of David's thumb just above his hip. "Can you see anything?" continued the man.

"No, looks alright to me. I think you should rest here for a moment though."

"I'm thirsty."

"I'll go and get you something to drink." said David.

"Thank you. I don't think I've had a drink all day." said the man. By the time David had looked through the spilled containers for something for the man to drink he had died.

 

David carried on and eventually came to the stomach. Bigger than any cave he had seen, the edges couldn't be seen as a mist hung in the air that got thicker and thicker as distance increased. And the planet still hung in the air like a bead held on a wire. Electrical lights dotted the landscape, patches of humanity amongst the dull mist. David landed on the planet. Overhead he could just make out the stomach, though the mist obscured everything. David's oxygen metre ticked away telling him that there was oxygen but he didn't want to remove his helmet. The street he had landed in was deserted. The buildings on either side of him were lit yet there seemed to be no-one around. He went into one and found an eldery couple, skin raw from the mist. The bones on the mans face were quite prominent and the edges of his cheeks shone slightly beneath his skin. Both of their eyes looked like little bits of fruit that shone wetly under the electric lights.

"Hello? Whose there?" said one of them.

"We're blind. What's happening to us?"

"I..." started David. What could he say. "I'm looking for the emperor, do you know where he is?"

"The emperor lives in the palace. Please, could you come here for a moment? I can't work this food replicator." said the woman, walking towards the kitchen. Some plates of soup had been laid out, until David realised that they probably hadn't been soup. The world was melting. A planet was being digested.

"I don't know how to work those either." said David looking at the machine.

"Oh..." said the woman, and began to sob quietly. David wasn't sure what to do. He could stay and try to help these people, but then their neighbours were probably the same. Towns, cities, the whole population. But he felt he could help, in some way.

"I'm just going to go out for a moment, I'll be back soon with some help."

"Thank you." said the woman, walking around her kitchen blindly, sometimes putting her hands into pools of the digested meals. David left and started looking for the palace.

 

It wasn't too far away, it stood as tall and proudly as any other palace David had seen, lit from it's base to the tip of it's towers in an array of lights that looked hazy and dreamlike through the mist. David neared it and was slightly put off by the hundreds of statues of babies that surrounded the palace, though continued through the gardens into the palace itself. Robots were lying on the ground, David supposed that they were usually guards yet they seemed to have been turned off. A few people were around the palace, unsure of what was happening and asking for help. It took David a lot of effort to move on. David remembered visiting his grandpa in a nursing home. Though it was still his grandpa, and there were moments of some kind of clarity, by the end he was just a shell. His eyes no longer showed any signs of recognition. It hadn't been long after than until he had died. David still visited him up to the end and after the funeral he promised himself he would rather end his life than lose his memories. Whilst meeting the aliens in the palace it struck David as bittersweet that the loss of memory in other species lead to similair behaviour, moments of confusion punctuated by some deep feeling of emotion. Though this would pass. It appeared as if memory was vital to all ways of advanced life. David opened a door onto an alien that was swinging from a chandelier by a rope. He shut the door quietly.

 

The emperor was a baby. He rested on a tiny throne inside a plastic bubble and when he saw David he called out at him, muffled by the bubble. David transported inside the bubble.

"Hello." said David.

"Hello. I don't suppose you're native to this planet, eh?" said the baby, sitting up slightly.

"Not really."

"That's a shame. An alien comes to visit a planet whilst the world is ending. Bad luck." smiled the baby, reaching for a bottle of water.

"What happened?"

"What do you think happened? My planet seems to have been eaten by some giant animal. We have been watching it on telescopes for a year or so, tried to get as many people off the planet as we could. Then the day came. The last day that the sun would shine. We thought we would have been chewed up but it seems the wretched thing has no teeth, just pulled the planet in along it's tongue, with all these barbs. We lost a few million people on that day. And now we're here." said the baby wearily.

"And this mist in the air? It's digestive system?" said David. The baby nodded gravely.

"We've been analysing it. Breaks down organic matter in a manner of days. Non-organic, a few weeks."

"I'm sorry." said David. He wasn't sure what else to say.

"Don't be sorry alien. You know what I was doing before you arrived? I'm trying to organise the last few generals in my army, good children, to launch our bombs across the surface of the world. Nothing will be left standing except piles of degaussed ash." said the baby. "So it is I who should be apologising."

"What about using those weapons on the stomach lining?"

"We tried. Didn't appear to do anything, not a scratch."

"There must be something you can do."

"The only thing I must do is allow the survivors a quick death rather than being melted in this ether." said the baby, waving his hand in the air.

"What about me? I could go to the creatures brain, it's heart. Try and do something."

"Oh?"

"Yes, I can teleport instantaneously." said David.

"Well I'd suggest you leave. This palace and everything else will only be a memory by this time tomorrow. And hardly any of the population even have the ability to remember."

"Why is that?"

"We tried to cure a genetic disease a hundred or so generations ago. A race on the cusp of perfection, brought down by it's own attempted cure. But that doesn't matter now I suppose." said the baby, having another drink.

"I'm going to go and look around the creature, see if I can do anything."

"Do as you please. But even if you were to kill this thing, we would still be here wouldn't we? Unless you can transport whole planets." said the baby, leaning forward slightly.

"No. Sorry." said David, hanging his head. He teleported away.

 

They looked like stars. Glowing and twinkling, thousands upon thousands of them. A network of neurons bigger than a planet. The neuron themselves were enormous, lumps of grey matter that trembled and fizzed away as electricity flashed from point to point. David could transport astronaut sized segments out of the brain or into the brain, but it's vastness didn't make this much of a viable option. He travelled along it's backbone bobbing in a river of spinal fluid. He went around the creature for a while, trying to work out some sort of biology but had no idea what certain organs could be for. Lumps of flesh the size of moons were attached to a slowly beating thing. There was another bag of skin that contained an entire ocean of some dirty brown liquid that David wasn't sure about though it crossed his mind that the being might have a highly concentrated version of it's stomach mist somewhere in it's body. He didn't know what to do. Everything was of such magnitude he may as well have been an insect trying to understand a whale, whilst being inside the whale. He transported inside it's skin to see if he could make a hole in it somehow though found it to be at least a mile thick. It hadn't noticed David or seemed trouble by the holes he was threading through it. David considered introducing some bacteria into the things bloodstream but wasn't sure if it would work or how long it would take for a bacterium to replicate itself for it to have a noticeable effect on a creature of such colossal size. He went back to the baby emperor to ask about warheads but found none small enough that he could displace into the creatures brain. He was stuck.

 

"So the Alliance won't help?"

"Nope. I contacted them after you left, they said it was a unique example of a previously unknown species. They've sent a research vessel though."

"And what good is that for the baby empire?" said David angrily.

"Civilizations rise and fall. We have the gift of life and the curse of death." said Om.

"I know this. I've seen it myself. Misery, chaos, pain and suffering. These seem to more common than their opposites in this universe." said David.

"It's not like that." said Om.

"And who are you to say if this is this or that? You're an android. A robot. What do you know of loss? Pain? Death?" said David.

"I have seen these things. I may be a robot, as you put it, but that doesn't mean I'm not capable of feeling this. And I have seen myself the ends of worlds. I have seen destruction on scales you will never be able to comprehend." said Om.

"So is this it? Time passes. Everything born dies. Things that are known are forgotten. Cities crumble. Then the universe ends?"

"I'd like to think I'm more optimistic than that, but yes. I don't understand you sometimes David, this seems to surprise you or offend you in some way. Don't you know that you will also one day cease to think? Stop?"

"Well, yes of course." said David.

"So don't worry yourself about death. We all know it will end and it doesn't matter how. The more important thing is that life is enjoyed surely? To leave a full life, accomplishing that which you want to do and making a positive change in the lives of others? That's the way it is for most individuals of a higher brain function anyway."

"But that...thing flying out there is going to do it again and again. Civilization after civilization, just food."

"If it nears another planet with life I'm sure the Alliance will stop it somehow."

"But why not now?"

"It isn't posing a risk to anything. And for a person so against death you seem quite intent on causing the death of this thing swimming through space."

"To kill something that kills others makes sense." said David.

"Oh, is it?" said Om. "But I suppose you wouldn't want that same logic to be applied to the one who kills the killers. I can see that you're upset David but there is nothing you can do. I'm sorry." said Om. David screwed his face up at these words and stared at a point on the floor, thinking. He only had a few hours left until the empire wiped itself out. There must be something that he could do.

 

He teleported back to the throne room. The plastic bubble had melted away and the mist had enveloped everything. The baby woke from it's nap and scratched itself a few times.

"I'm so itchy." it said. "Don't suppose I could borrow that suit of yours?"

"Uh..."

"I'm kidding. All of this will be over soon. You know, it's considered illegal to touch the emperor but I'll waive this law if you could carry me to the front of the palace? I'd go myself but my muscles haven't developed enough and none of the robots are working." said the baby. David picked him up and the two began to walk through the opulent palace hallways.

"Any luck trying to kill this thing?" said the emperor.

"No. It's just too big. I tried getting outside help but they'd rather watch it than do anything."

"A pity. Though I admit, as much as I hate this leviathan I admire it somewhat. Swimming alone through the cosmos. What does it think between the stars? Of it's next meal? Or of things neither of us could comprehend?" said the emperor.

"You seem to be quite...at peace with the whole thing."

"Of course. What else can I do? A few hundred of my people escaped, the best minds in the empire. My species will prevail. But for us, the planet that is, this is the end." muttered the baby. He directed David through a few doors until they reached a balcony overlooking the city.

"And you're sure there's nothing I can do?" said David.

"You've done enough. I'm able to look at my empire on it's last day, not many emperors can say that." said the emperor, looking out across the city with something like a smile on it's face. It rubbed at a droplet of blood that collected on his neck.

"I've never seen the end of a world."

"Me either. What are you going to do now then, alien?" said the emperor.

"I don't know." said David.

"Well, you're welcome to stay here with me and watch the first bombs fall although I don't mind if you say no." said the emperor. It had taken a cigar out of it's pocket and was rolling it between his fingers. "You know, I've never smoked one of these. It's a tradition here, an emperor is to smoke after sentencing a citizen to death." said the emperor, tucking the short blue cigar between his lips and lighting it with a small laser.

"I tried to do what I could." said David.

"Don't worry, you did more than enough." said the emperor. A siren began in the distance.

"How long until the first bombs fall?" said David.

"According to that siren, around fifty minutes." said the emperor.

"Do you want me to stay?"

"If it's all the same to you I think I'd like to be alone."

"I understand."

"Thank you, alien. You know, I never got your name."

"David."

"Pleasure to meet you. My name is Salazar." said the emperor, extending a leg. David wasn't sure what to do so stood on one leg. The emperor laughed, exhaling a cloud of dull blue smoke from between his raw lips.

"I wish we could have met under different circumstances."

"As do I. Take care David. Remember us." said Salazar, turning to the city. When he looked around again David was gone.

 

14.

 

David stood on the jetty, looking at the port submerged in the water. A sea thing was making it's way towards him, it's body had shrunk tight to it's organs, all of which David could make the outline of. It looked a little as if somebody had taken all the meat from a butchers and wrapped in in layer upon layer of cling film. It slithered toward him.

"You there. What are you?"

"I'm from another planet. I've come for a look around."

"One of those are you? Well, behave yourself, but welcome." muttered the thing. It was checking a vechile that looked a little like a canoe on wheels, the surf lapping up around it. The land sailor submerged itself into the water and extended a spade-like oar from the side. It began to paddle out into the land before extending a sail upward, it caught the wind at the canoe went off suprisingly fast. David stood and watched it for a while as it drove up and down the coast line, sometimes a little turret would move and shoot at an animal that it had disturbed.

 

The land of the planet was an insane wilderness filled with all kinds of creatures. Birds the size of elephants stalked the deserts, hunting the crab-like funguses that scuttled there way from corpse to corpse. Predators that could change their colour like a chameleon, elephant things that hid underground and sprayed flesh-eating acid from their trunks, lumps of bone that rolled through the undergrowth like tumble-weeds, highly intelligent rodents that hunted in packs, smothering other animals. It seemed as if the animals on the land were deep into an evolutionary cold war. When David had first arrived he had thought that this would lead to a remarkable civilization but could find none on the land. He was going to give up except that he noticed one of the upside-down ports on one of the coast lines. It seemed as though the species at the top of the food chain lived in the water. They looked a little like jelly-fish, translucent bodies that seemed extremely malleable situated around several organs. Though their nervous, circulatory and digestive systems were a lot more complex than those of a jelly-fish, more complex that those in the human body. They had tentacles they could use to manipulate objects and an entirely different way of sensing that David didn't understand. They had no eyes, vocal chords, ears, anything like that. David went into the ocean to see what kind of a culture the sea things had.

 

Cities floated like dandelion seeds, extending in every direction. The centres, which must have been hundreds of years old, were made from rock from the sea-floor and decorated with coral. The outer layers were made of metal and glass. David wasn't sure how they could make glass underwater until he saw some factory on the sea floor using concentrated electrical arcs to heat up sand. Some of the cities were anchored near the coast and others remained on the sea floor by thermal vents, harnessing their power to supply electricity to the cities themselves and through cables that stretched up to the floating citadels. Ziggurats floated upside-down on the surface of the ocean, these were the launch pad for helicopters filled with brine. Due to the added weight of any vechile travelling outside of the sea needing to be filled with liquid, the vechiles were large, bulky things that didn't have the same smooth aesthetic as the things built underwater. Though the sea things had also began to expand into space, where their three-dimensional way of perceiving architecture and design had been an advantage. David teleported himself to rural areas in the ocean, where a few seaweed farms went on for miles. Some fish had also been domesticated and David saw one or two sea things riding them in the water, it seemed to be for pleasure as their submarines were very advanced and could travel at great speed through the blue depths.

 

The cities themselves were quite claustrophobic to David. Tunnels went off in every direction, hundreds of sea-things swam to and fro.

"Look, look!" called out one, extending a tentacle towards David.

"It's an alien, son. Do you know what one of those is?" said it's father.

"No."

"It's a creature from another planet. Do you want to talk to it?"

"Yeah!" said the child.

"You don't mind do you?" said the father as they approached David.

"Not at all. How do you do." said David.

"Why are you that shape?"

"I use these things to walk on the ground. And these things to move stuff about." said David, giving his legs and arms a shake.

"You live on the ground? Like a mammal?"

"Yes." said David. The child pulsed orange and red a few times.

"Now now, he may not be a mammal. He could be a reptile or a plant or something else."

"No, I am a mammal. Could I ask what you'd class yourself as?"

"Hydrozoa. How long have you been here for?" said the father.

"Just a few hours. It's an interesting planet."

"You know, there's some scientists that live in a lake a few miles inland. They've been studying mammals and such, they might be interested in talking to you. My cousin works there, he's called Jupiter Polyurethane."

"Thanks, I might go round in a bit."

"What's it like being a mammal?" said the child.

"It's alright. I've never really thought about it. What's it like being a...hydrozoa?" said David.

"I like it!" said the child. The father curled a tentacle around his son.

"Come on now, leave him be. We have to go and meet your other father."

"Can we go on a boat one day?" said the child.

"One day. Thanks for talking." said the father, there was an orange pulse through it's body and both of them left.

 

David entered what he thought must be some kind of bar. The interior was slightly confusing as any surface could be the floor. Though gravity still had an effect, it was just as easy to swim upward as it was to swim down. The bar was on the ceiling whilst dozens of the sea things rested by tables holding glasses of liquid heavier than the water. Every now and then a probiscus would appear from a sea thing and it would take a drink. A few of them seemed to be looking at him, but he wasn't sure as they had no eyes, but David didn't mind. He stood by a window and looked out at the sea. He could see dozens of other cities and thousands of submarines, all floating around in the ocean lit up in strange lights. David was thinking about why they needed lights if they had no eyes when he felt a tentacle on his shoulder.

"Excuse me, alien, but me and my friends were wondering if we could have a look at your face." said the sea thing. It had a steady orange pulse though David could detect a hint of blue from time to time.

"Sorry, I can't breathe water. I need to keep this helmet on." said David.

"Surely you can hold your breath? Just for a moment alien. We're all training to be astronauts you see. We've seen a lot of other aliens but never one...like you."

"I'm sorry, I have to be going."

"Hey, hey. Can we see your pass?"

"What pass?" said David.

"You don't have a pass? How did you get here?"

"I swam." said David and began to move past him. The thing blocked him with a tentacle.

"Hey, this thing doesn't have a pass."

"What! What's it doing here?"

"You need a pass to come here, thing. You might be toxic to our environment. You might have come here to try and wipe us out." said the sea thing.

"I'm not. I've just come for a visit. And I must be going." said David and teleported away.

 

He looked from high up in the atmosphere for the lake the father had told him about and eventually found it. The facility lacked some of the artistry that the cities and other oceanic buildings had, this looked more like a stack of plates. Large land boats were parked by the dock, they were more closer to buses than anything else. David stood around the dock for a while until one of the sea things came out. They introduced themselves and David went into the complex.

 

The scientists were studying land animals, so large portions of the facility contained oxygen whilst the sea things wore suits filled with water.

"We've had contact with a few mammalian bipeds of type two intelligence though none have ever come to this facility."

"Oh...you're welcome. What's type two intelligence?"

"Type two is a species that is able to adapt to new situations using technology, as a rule of thumb."

"And type one are creatures that don't use technology?"

"Correct. All the animals you see here, all the animals on your planet probably, are type one."

"So what's type three?"

"Species of a high enough intelligence that their technology no longer appears technological to type two intelligences. They are capable of such feats in intelligence that they may seem to have some kind of precognition regarding future events. For instance, look at this animal here." said Jupiter. They looked at a thing that was similair to a spiders web made out of worms. Little leech-like mouths and eyes appeared where the web joined up and there was a small, blue eye in the centre.

"This animal is of type one intelligence, whilst you and I are type two. Now if I place some food in it's cage, it will simply assume that the food appeared there." said Jupiter, using a remote-control to place a nugget of meat in the cage. The web started to roll across the floor of the cage toward it.

"Now, I have introduced a goal for the animal. I know that food is something that it wants and it will be willing to do certain things for this food, such as fight other animals." said Jupiter. He pressed another button and a tiny horse with a head like a crocodile appeared from the next cage. The web screeched and threw itself across toward it, wrapping around the other things head. They struggled.

"I understand that, but what has that got to do with type three intelligences?"

"Coincidence. Or, more specifically, apparent coincidence. For both creatures it appeared as though a series of random events happened, when in fact all of this has been controlled by me. Though our species haven't yet met beings of a type three intelligence, we assume that they would be far more advanced than anything we are familiar with."

"So this is why you're studying animals? To see what intelligence is?" said David, watching the web grow tighter and tighter around the small horse.

"Basically, yes. We are somewhat biased toward concepts such as mathematics or science, when these are relatively clunky ways of explaining the true nature of the universe. Abstract representation isn't reality. We believe that there is another level of understanding we have yet to understand in order to reach this theoretical type three intelligence. And we also hypothesize that upon attaining this level we will become aware of many other type three lifeforms in the galaxy."

"But what if you're wrong?"

"Well, it's worth a try don't you think? Any theory has the potential to be 'right' or 'wrong', but you won't know until you experiment." said Jupiter. They began to walk and slide along the hallway of the scientific complex.

"Since the dawn of awareness beings have tried to make sense of the universe around them. It begins with the idea of god or some other supernatural explanation. But as our methods become more accurate, species go on to discover logic, reasoning, science."

"So you're comparing the gap between religion and science as the same gap that exists between science and...whatever the next thing is?" said David.

"Correct." said Jupiter. They had entered a room that looked like a operating theatre. "Now, I was wondering if I have your permission to do some tests."

"What kind of tests?"

"Oh, just some basic intelligence tests." said Jupiter.

 

David hadn't done any kind of test for years. He looked down at the computer screen, brow furrowed.

'A red star has a surface temperature of 5000 kelvin. A blue star has a surface temperature of 7000 kelvin. A green star has a surface temperature of 9000 kelvin. If you look at the night sky and see three red stars, two green stars and a blue star, what is the total temperature of these stars?'

was the question. 40000 kelvin? But was it a trick? David typed in his answer. The next question.

'Why are you adding up the temperature of stars?'

David wasn't sure. Was this a trick question? He wrote in his answer that the question had asked him to do that.

'Do you always do what you're asked?'

David sighed. He had been answered questions for quite a while. They had started off simple enough, such as identifying the next pattern in a sequence, reading comprehension, basic mathematics. Though they then began to get more metaphysical. Or some would be multiple choice with every answer the same. Others would simply be answer boxes with no questions. He wrote his answer and the next question came up.

'Would you rather save a loved one or a stranger?'

'A loved one.'

'Would you rather save a loved one or ten strangers?'

'A loved one.' answered David again. He wasn't sure what he would actually do, but it was only a test.

'Would you rather save a loved one or a million strangers?'

'A million strangers.' answered David.

'Would you rather save a million strangers or yourself?'

'Myself.' answered David, pulling his face a bit.

'Congratulations. You have an intelligence of - two. point. three. one.' said the computer. Then it turned itself off. David waited for something else to happen but it was quiet.

"Hello? I've finished your test." called out David. Nothing. He got up from the work station and walked around the room.

"Hello?" he shouted. One of the doors opened.

"I thought you'd forgotten about me." said David. From out of the door came a monster, a twisting, muscular agony that dripped slime from it's gnashing gob and stared at him from a single, damp eye. It gave a high pitched wail and raced toward him, drawing back a huge, spiked tail. David transported out of the facility then realised he had left the suit of his helmet back there.

"Damn." he said. He went back in, this time into a little observation room above the one he had taken the test in. The monster was pacing around the room looking for him.

"How did you do that?" said a voice behind him. Jupiter was stood there holding a little remote.

"Magic." said David. He transported back into the room momentarily, then where Jupiter was stood. The scientist was now stood just in front of the killing machine. It brought a foot down onto him, bursting his suit. He screamed as the monster reached down and began to lap at the water whilst David walked around them both to get his helmet.

"Please, it was a test, I showed you earlier don't-" cried the sea thing. The monster bit his head off. David began to walk out of the room as more scientists approached him, each carrying a little gun. He had teleported far away before they had time to shoot him.

 

David pondered as he explored the rest of the planet. He had felt slightly guilty about letting the scientist die like that, but then he had tried to kill him. It hadn't exactly been self defense, but David had felt as though he had to. He felt a pang of guilt that he had also killed the sea things cousin, who'd directed him there in the first place. The child asking about being a mammal would be mourning the death of his uncle.

 

He went back to Earth and took his space suit off, throwing it into the bath with some bleach. It was filthy. He wondered how he could transport his clothing around with him, as well as a layer of dirt, but not carry any objects. Then he started thinking properly again about his unique ability. Had he been given it for a reason perhaps? What could somebody do with being able to transport anywhere at any moment. There seemed to be no limit to his ability. He hadn't left the milky way yet, he thought, there were hundreds of other galaxies out there. Maybe the milky way galaxy had a predilection for hostility, whilst others may be more welcoming. He scrubbed at his suit for a while and made a cup of tea. He wasn't yet sure about going so far out. He was a creature of habit. Though he could buy any combination of foods at the supermarket he tended to settle for the same few things every time. David sipped at the tea and watched television for a while, thinking about space.

 

15.

 

Something didn't seem quite right. David had been on the planet for a few hours and had watched the various creatures from afar. But there was such a variety. Some were minuscule, others gigantic. Some were extremely vicious, armour-plated and endowed with such natural ability that it took David's breath away, watching them leap and run and swim across the landscape as easily as it was for him to put one foot in front of the other. Others were pathetic, barely able to breathe properly, let alone defend themselves against some of the more advanced creatures. David had counted twenty eight separate species showing signs of an early tribal intelligence, a good size more than any other planet he had previously visited. And as well as the basic forms he was familiar with they were many others. Things that crystallized when the sun wasn't upon them. Others where sound seemed to be their main form of locomotion. Strange geometric looking plants that changed the shape of things around them, occasionally they would be close enough together that it could cause a chain reaction of perfect polygons before collapsing into confusion. In the deserts there swam fish and in the sea floated things like clouds, enormous jelly-fish that were filled with hundreds of different parasites. He had never seen a planet so diverse in life, yet it didn't seem to fit. Why was it that a species of intelligent birds with exoskeletons had evolved alongside insects with fabulous, long hair? Inside volcanoes lived two entirely different species of winged frog, one able to breathe out fire whilst the other could shoot spikes from it's eyes. David watched a fight between two huge carnivores. One resembled a dinosaur, though instead of a head it simply had another body. This siamese colossus was grappling with a gigantic leathery cube that drooled toxic slime from an orifice on every side. Out of the sky flew an enormous electric blue sea cucumber that ripped both apart and began to feed on the remains using tusks that grew from it's body and were shed once it had fed. What kind of planet was this?

 

David continued exploring. The planet itself was quite normal, it had one enormous continent that all of this took place on but had the usual mixture of environments. On the side facing away from the sun David watched the nocturnal creatures stalk the land. Herbivore, carnivore, omnivore. Vegetable, fungus, sponge, mollusc, anemone, urchin, fish, insect, reptile, bird, mammal and others. David looked up at the night's sky and could make out the curvature of the milky way. Two moons hovered above the planet. David frowned. They seemed to be quite close together. A second later he was much closer to them. One of the moons was a true moon. Marked with asteroid blasts that cast shadows across it's slightly pink surface. The other wasn't a moon at all, but a ship. It could have been mistaken for an asteroid, though asteroids usually didn't have windows and valves poking out of them. David teleported inside.

 

The inside of the ship was reminiscent of a garden shed. The surface of every wall was littered with tools, some David could guess at it's purpose, others he had no idea. There were curious drawings and photographs, a few paintings, some of which moved. One wall was decorated with hundreds of different skulls bound to the wall with an old bit of rope. There was what looked like a fishing net holding a sort of bicycle. A model of the planet, made from tiny pieces of wood. Empty barrels rusted in a corner with piles of paper stacked on top, with a strange ornament on top of all of that. He had been to quite a few places but had never seen such arrangements of objects. Or, as he'd call it, such a mess. Dirty cutlery was thrown about as if some drunkard had torn a full, filthy sink from the wall and upended it's contents across the floor. There was what looked to be a three dimensional model of the milky way made out of chewing gum. David hoped it was chewing gum anyway. He continued walking and found it more and more dilapidated, broken computers, leaking pipes, rust, ornaments, dust, bones, melted plastic. He went through a door and made it's occupant scream.

"Whuargh...what are you doing here!" shouted the alien, leaning back in revulsion.

"Sorry, I was just looking around."

"You scared me as if I was born. Stars! Seriously though, what are you doing?" said the alien. It was about nine feet long and looked a little like a caterpillar. It wore an extremely long and filthy coat that had dozens of pockets all up and down it. It's face had retracted into it's head but was now starting to slide back out.

"I don't want to hurt you or anything like that. I was just looking up at the moon and saw this...ship? So I thought I'd come on board."

"Haven't you heard of greeting, radiowaves or something? Stars. You're lucky I didn't have a laser gun or something I could have melted your face off." said the caterpillar. David took his helmet off.

"Sorry about that. My name's David."

"Nappy. Well, I wasn't working on a laser gun so you're okay." said Nappy. "Hey, you mind if I take a closer look at you?"

"Sure." said David, watching the caterpillar scuttling across the floor.

"Interesting. Yeah, I like it. Unsure about the bit in the middle but it balances out the face a bit. What do you use it for?"

"My nose? Smelling things."

"Ah yeah, those are good. I usually make them a bit bigger myself. You know, if you had it facing up a bit you could get a better smell of what's in front of you rather than smelling the bottom half of your face. I could do that for you." said Nappy.

"I'm okay thanks. I'm guessing that you're the one whose responsible for all those...creatures down there?" said David, rubbing at his nose.

"Who's asking?"

"Well, I am."

"Oh I see. Yeah, all of that's my work. Keep it quiet though, I don't want the Alliance or any other philistines coming here and saying it's not ethical or whatever." said Nappy, walking back to the table. He picked up a pipe with one of his short arms and began to pack it.

"So what is your work?" said David.

"Follow me." said Nappy.

 

They went down into an observation room. A large telescope filled most of the room, with computers here and there. Below them they could see the planet.

"So here we are. Planet 425.124.366. Heh. Or as I like to call it, The Smell Of VHS Tapes."

"Pardon?"

"The Smell Of VHS Tapes. Cool, right?" said Nappy. David shrugged. He supposed if there had been a word in the english language that translated to the smell of a vhs tape, it would have been that.

"Anyway, this planet was nothing when I came. Just water and a bit of land. Sure, it might have grown life one day and I might have interrupted that, shame on me. But forgetting about that for a moment, I saw potential. A blank canvas I suppose. A planet that could support life but didn't have any. Why not populate it?" said Nappy. David thought of Sagan for a moment before nodding.

"Now, I wouldn't just populate it with other caterpillars, that's boring. We've already put bases on other planets, fly round in starships exploring the galaxy, all that, but that wasn't for me. I wanted to make something beautiful. A perfect world. I know it might sound silly to you, but to me, it's my dream. So I hi-jacked this asteroid, dug it all out, by myself I might add, and set up a base here."

"You did all this by yourself?" said David, impressed.

"Sure! Anyway, as you know the technology exists to play around with genetic make-up but I could see it go much further than that. When I first started the tools I had were pathetic, modification rather than creation. But I spent a few years tweaking this and that, getting the balance just right until I discovered a way I could create a thing from scratch pretty much."

"Really?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking, anybody could do that. But there's no artistry in making some perfect thing that lives forever, you know? It's boring. I wanted to see things grow, evolve, interact with each other. I found a way to create something, then in a way, reverse what I had done. I could create whatever I wanted, fold it back into a single celled organism and then send it down to the planet. It would then grow over time into a close enough approximation of what I had first made though there was an element of chance in it. Would it survive? Would it mutate? That's where it started to get interesting." said Nappy. It then began to walk into another room and David followed it.

 

The next room resembled an indoor swimming pool, though was a lot dirtier and darker.

"And this is my workshop." said Nappy, walking over to a control panel. Robotic arms descended from the roof and began to stitch. David realised he was watching an animal being stitched together. The bones came first. Then a nervous system. Veins and arteries, heart and lungs. Digestive organs. Muscle. Skin.

"This is something I've been working on this week. It reproduces through digestion." laughed Nappy.

"Why?"

"Aren't you curious as to see what this thing does? Especially with the things down there?" said Nappy. It lit it's pipe and began to puff away on it. "In a few thousand years this thing might be the dominant species on the planet. Might even take over the whole galaxy."

"Yes but I still don't understand why you would do this." said David.

"And I suppose that's why I'm doing this and you aren't." said Nappy. He pressed a button and the creature began to unstitch until it seemed to disappear. "It's just an egg now. I'm going to shoot it into the womb of one of my birthing creatures and see what happens."

"Doesn't that seem a little...disgusting to you?"

"Why would it? Do I seem disgusting to you? Does any life disgust you?"

"Well, yes I suppose. I don't really like spiders."

"Spiders! Ha. There are things far worse than spiders, David." said Nappy. The robotic arms moved across the ceiling and released some unseen thing into a jar that began to descend on a wire towards the caterpillar, exhaling smoke through a set of holes on either side of it's head.

"Don't you feel any kind of...guilt? Remorse?"

"Why?" said Nappy.

"You've made some absolute monsters down there. What is the purpose of making some puddle of skin? Your things must feel pain. How is it up to you to play god with such things?" said David.

"Ah. If I have the means at hand, I don't see how that is at all similar to god, if such a thing exists. If a god was to exist, would it let beings like me be able to have the same power as a god?"

"Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should."

"You know, I feel sorry for you. I don't know where you're from, but on my home planet we have a history of those that could have done something but didn't. And we call them weak."

"And what do you call those that terrorize, dictate, kill? Aspirational?"

"Of course not. If one individual can do that, then another can as well. Balance. I am talking about discovery. You are confusing ethics with logic. If it can be done, then it will be done and so it must be done."

"But life isn't logical. It might not be logical to fall in love or take a risk or be willing to sacrifice yourself for the common good, but that is what we have done and what has brought us out from barbarianism and into enlightenment."

"But I could argue that it was logic rather than ethics that made you enlightened. That there is logic in ethics but no ethics in logic. And that it is logic that has enriched your life in this state of enlightenment over ethics." said Nappy.

"I disagree."

"Where is your proof?"

"I don't have any." said David.

"And so then, what are we arguing about? You are unable to dissuade me from my standpoint as I am from yours."

"Ah, but you're forgetting the basis of my argument. Ethics over logic."

"Oh?"

"I can't ethically let you continue."

"And so, logically, you must attempt to stop me somehow?" said the caterpillar. It tapped it's pipe out onto the floor. "I must let you know that upon the cessation of my brainwaves that this asteroid will self destruct. Not only that, but I oversee the planet below. I correct, where necessary, any mistakes I may have made. Without me it is hard to say what kind of evolutionary path the things may take. They may all die off after a few generations or surprise the entire galaxy in a few generations, superintelligent beings capable of complete destruction. And they will know their creator. And they will want to find the person who killed him." said Nappy. "Maybe."

"I'm not going to do anything as brash as that." sighed David. "Or tell anybody about this planet, or yourself. All I ask is that you think about what you're doing. Like that last creature. Why create such a thing? You have explained that you can and so you will, which I admit I don't fully understand, but isn't it a cruel enough existence without the possibility that you have been made as some kind of joke? That the whole purpose of your life is part of some experiment? I don't believe in god either, but if he existed and lived just a few miles above the planet I was from, I can guarantee you that the first place I would visit would be him and I would be demanding answers." said David. The caterpillar paused at this.

"Intriguing. I never properly considered that." said Nappy.

"Well, think about it next time you're going to make some enormous monstrosity. They are the powers of a god-like being because they require god-like responsibility." said David. Nappy shuffled his arms around then began to walk over to the jar. He took a pen from his pocket and began to draw a detailed drawing on the side of what the animal looked like.

"There is one more thing I'd like to show you David." said Nappy.

 

They were in a library. Millions of jars, each containing an egg, labelled with a tiny drawing.

"This is where I keep each creation. I have been here for thousands of years David. I have seen creatures begin to show signs of greatness only for them to plummet to abject failure, usually at their own hands. I have seen billions of lives play out, each different yet the same. And so, I know about responsibility. I am fully responsibile for my own creations as I am for my own life. You may consider my attitude to my work as that of bemusement or of a flight of fancy but I can assure you, after thousands of years I take nothing more seriously."

"So why do you make such creatures? I saw things unable to defend themselves. Others had broken legs, unable to sustain their own weight. Why make such things?"

"I don't. That is the side of mutation. Nature. And for every creature you see with a stomach exploded as it was unable to eat enough, there is another that has gone much much further than I first intended. The...joy I get when I see the first glimmer of cognition. I'm unable to put it into words. I suppose that lacks the logic I apply in my methodology yet...who knows?" shrugged the caterpillar. He put the jar on a shelf. "Maybe somewhere in the realm of the gods there is a jar for you and there is a jar for me."

"Who knows." said David. The two looked on at the hundreds of shelves. The light reflected slightly off the edge of each jar so that it looked like there was a night sky, with each pinpoint of light a different organism. David walked along the shelves, examining the drawings on each jar. Some of the creatures were entirely alien. Others were a lot more familiar.

 

16.

 

David was watching a crab scuttle across a beach on Sagan, the planet he had made his own. A lot of the species he had introduced had done quite well in the new environment, others not so much. A wave washed over the crab and it seemed to have been pulled into the ocean, though a few seconds later it poked up from the wet sand and went crawling off. David took off his shirt and shoes and transported himself twenty feet or so above the sea so that he could dive into it, enjoying the warm water against his body. There was a scar on his shoulder where he'd been shot a few weeks ago, though that was already fading. His arms and legs had lost quite a bit of muscle since his space exploration, whilst he noticed a bit of a belly forming due to his new found love for Italian food and German beer. He transported himself back to his flat on Earth, threw on a linen suit and popped over to Italy for some ravioli followed by an ice-cream on the French coast before going back to Sagan. Life wasn't too bad. David walked up the hill to where his cabin was and wondered if he should just put on loads of weight. It would be beneficial to transporting things around. Maybe if he put on another hundred or so pounds he could maybe even transport another person around safely. He day dreamed of meeting his future wife and taking her around space. Maybe starting a family. If he had a child would it also be able to transport? Maybe he could go to another planet and see if he could be cloned. But these thoughts remained as thoughts and were soon forgotten as he chased a pig from out of his cabin.

 

The space suit was getting a bit tighter. David drifted around space for a while, looking at a distant nebula before transporting to Om. He was in the mood to meet some aliens. Though when he transported to Om's ship he couldn't find him in the control room.

"Om?" he called out. No response. He walked around the ship, shouting for the android and decided to look out of a window, maybe Om was down on a planet. The ship wasn't on a planet but instead was linked to another ship. This one was almost twice the size of the one David was on. It looked to have eight large engines situated around a central orb. David transported over to it and found Om in the new ship, floating as a metallic cloud around it's control systems.

"Hey." said David. The android folded in on itself into the humanoid shape David was used to.

"Hello David, how are you?"

"Not too bad. I was thinking about visiting some aliens but now I wanna see what you're doing."

"I've been promoted. Sort of."

"Promoted? I thought you were free-lance?"

"Well, I am. But due to recent events, regarding you, there hasn't been as much of a need for freelance xenobiologists. So the Alliance suggested I swap jobs."

"So what are you doing now?"

"I'm to explore the distant universe. Or, more specifically, see what's outside the universe, if anything." said Om. A computer floated in front of him and he started to examine it.

"Sounds interesting."

"Oh yes. It's quite an achievement actually, there aren't many ships like this. Travels by collapsing space and zipping it back up as the ship goes along. I don't really understand it myself, but it's quick. If I wanted I could get to the other side of our galaxy in just a few days."

"Almost as fast as me, right?" smiled David.

"You could say that. You want to come along for the journey?"

"Not yet, thought I'd visit some other aliens."

"Good. Very good in fact, as the Alliance has requested that you do just that." said Om.

"Really?" said David.

"Yeah. Why have hundreds of androids travelling around the universe at light speed when you have one being that can do it instantaneously. Of course, it's freelance, so you wouldn't be obligated or anything, but it can be interesting. They've requested a meeting with you whenever you're able."

"When were you planning on telling me this?"

"Now? Don't worry, I'd have left a message on the old ship. Though it's your ship now." said Om.

"What? Really?"

"Yeah, of course. Probably won't have much use for it as a ship but it has quite a detailed library. After that business with the baby empire the Alliance has thought you trustworthy enough to have access to the technology, with some guidelines in place of course."

"So how do I work it?"

"Don't worry about that. Once I've left it'll automatically configure itself to what suits you best." said Om. David was grinning inside his helmet. His own space ship! Though he could transport himself in space, he tended more to just drift around aimlessly than having any kind of control over his own movement. He could put it in orbit around Sagan and fly around that system, zapping stuff.

"Does it have lasers?"

"No."

"Oh."

"Anyway, I'm going to be a few hours yet. Why don't you go and see what the Alliance wants then come back here? I'll wait around."

"Sounds like you're saying goodbye."

"It may well be." said Om. He stopped fiddling with the computer and looked at David with his half-human face. David wasn't sure what the expression was meant to be but it seemed apprehensive.

"Don't worry Om, I'll just go and see what the Alliance wants then I'll be back. And you'll be fine." said David. Om nodded.

"Probably."

 

The Alliance ship was like a huge gyroscope orbiting it's own little star. It was more similar in size to a planet than any other built thing. Smaller ships of all different shapes and sizes made there way to and from the mothership, the rings slowly rotated round and round. It was big enough for David to be caught in it's gravitational pull and so he could see the stars around him moving, meaning the vessel must have been going extraordinarily fast. David wasn't sure at which point he should meet his new potential employer so chose a large, green area on one of the rings that turned out to be a park. It was similar to a park on Earth, with grass, trees, places to sit and play, lakes. Though there were also waterfalls and mountains, futuristic contraptions and mechanical vechiles, clouds of different coloured chemicals, strange looking sculptures and buildings dotted here and there. And amongst all of this were aliens. Dozens of different species, some organic, others robotic, others stranger still. David hadn't seen so many different aliens in a single place and in doing so gave him flashbacks to science fiction films he'd watched when he was younger. Though as these weren't people in rubber suits, the variety of life was much more extreme. Floating balloon things played alongside chrome insects. What looked to be an enormous, rotting corpse laughed as costumed aliens acted out a play on it's bony chest. David recognized elephant men and bird aliens walking through the park talking amongst themselves, gesticulating in the air with limbs evolved millions of light years apart yet looking quite similair. There were aliens that looked like kites flying overhead carrying robots that constantly changed shape. There were others that David couldn't quite see when he looked directly at them, though out of the corner of his eye could make out beings that looked like thousand-legged spiders. David wandered around for a while looking at the different species that made up the Interstellar Alliance until one came up to him. It was in a suit like his, though the arms were down by the hips and it had no head. The suit looked to be made from gold and there was a large mirror where the chest was.

"Hello David."

"Oh, hello. What's your name?"

"Fist. Is this...your first time on an...Alliance vessel?"

"Yes. Can you tell?"

"A little, you seem quite...interested...in the things around...you."

"Yeah. How did you know my name?"

"Oh...quite well known in...certain circles, shall we...say?"

"I was told to come here, apparently you have some sort of job for me?"

"Yes...hmm...a job I suppose? Go and see...Napoleon...yes." said Fist, tapping one of it's feet.

"And where would he be?"

"On another...ring. Not a problem...for you though?" said Fist. After a few minutes of directions interspersed with lengthy pauses David got the gist of where Napoleon was.

"Thanks Fist."

"Hmm..." said Fist, tapping it's feet every now and then.

 

This ring was quite different to the park. David was stood on a metallic helix and had the sense he was standing upside-down, though knew that this wasn't right. He walked across the floor, each step sending out a dark glow that rippled outward from his boot.

"Is Napoleon here?" David called out. The helix split ahead of him, two different paths curved off into the distance as space slowly went by. Maybe he was meant to be inside the helix? David thought about popping in for a look but thought better than to go transporting his body into places like this.

"I am here." came a voice. David turned around but couldn't see anybody.

"Where are you?"

"Standing on me."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Who are you?"

"David. I heard you wanted to see me?"

"Yes." said Napoleon. David waited for him to speak but Napoleon didn't.

"Well, what about?"

"Everything."

"Okay? Can you be more specific?"

"No."

"Okay." said David. "Where do you want to start?"

"Here."

"Right, I don't want to be rude or anything but I'm not sure if we're getting anywhere. Is there somebody else I could talk to?"

"No."

"Well, I was told you wanted to see me off my friend and I'm here now. But if you aren't going to talk to me I'll just leave then?" said David.

"Okay."

"Right. I'll go then, thanks."

"Can I ask David a question?" said Napoleon.

"Of course." said David. He was starting to get impatient.

"What does David think about death?"

"I'm not sure. Do you mean, am I frightened of death?"

"What does David think about death?"

"Well, I don't want to die. And I don't like seeing others die, but I know it's natural so, it's not the worst thing in the world I suppose. I don't know if there's a heaven or a hell but I like to think there is. Why do you ask?"

"What does David think about making others die?"

"I don't like doing it, but I have. Why do you ask?" said David, crouching down slightly.

"What don't you like about it?"

"It can be avoided."

"Yes."

"But it's necessary in some situations I suppose, like, to protect others."

"Yes."

"Why do you ask?"

"Napoleon knows that you have made others die before and that it is a solution to certain circumstances. The Interstellar Alliance does not use such solutions but Napoleon agrees with David that it is a natural event. The Interstellar Alliance has enemies and Napoleon requests that in circumstances similar to previous events that David makes others die." said Napoleon.

"Oh. So you want me to kill for you?"

"Yes. Kill."

"I don't want to do that. Why?"

"David agrees with Napoleon that situations arise in which the death of one outweighs the death of many. Napoleon thinks David should know that an individual the Interstellar Alliance has named The Brain has caused the death of four hundred and eighty six billion nine hundred and three million one hundred and eighty eight thousand five hundred and one deaths. Napoleon recommends that David kills The Brain in order to prevent potential future deaths. Approximate number unknown." said Napoleon.

"Who is The Brain?" said David.

"A being part of the metaspecies Pantheon. The Brain travels through the local quadrant of the Milky Way galaxy in a faster than light ship. The Brain finds civilization and orbits for two point three hours before total destruction of civilization and local area using a weapon of unknown origin."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Napoleon requests David transports himself inside the vessel and kills The Brain in order to prevent future deaths."

"Why can't you do it?"

"The Interstellar Alliance is unable to kill The Brain due to public disagreement on concept of killing and lacking equal ship technology. Recommended solution is to request that David kill The Brain based on previous incidents and beings ability to transport through the first three dimensions."

"And if I agree to do it, then what?"

"Napoleon will instruct David on current location and trajectory of The Brain. Napoleon further recommends that if David agrees then David should undertake task within one hour to prevent The Brain arriving at star system six three nine eight eight."

"Okay, I'll do it I suppose. Anything I should know before I go?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Go on then, where's this Brain?" sighed David. A map appeared just by David's feet, showing a dot that was moving quickly through the stars.

 

David appeared inside the ship and looked at the brain. Eyes that protruded from a whale-like skull fixed it's gaze on him. The things brain was a dull purple covered in a translucent, wrinkled skin sheath. Complex geometries of veins sucked blood slowly through the thing, yet began to bulge as the brain realised what was happening. David looked at the evolutionary extreme with a kind of awe.

“David? Why are you here?”

“How did you know my name?” he said. A moment before David spoke it whispered what he was about to say, creating a strange sort of echo inside the ship.

“I have read your mind.”

“If you've read it then you know what I'm here for.” he said.

“I know. So let's talk like intelligent beings before either of us resorts to violence.”

“Okay, I'd like you to choose to stop what you're doing or I'll have to make you.”

“I know that as well. You could transport my engines out of my ship or appear in my brain and churn through it, it'd be like swimming in swamp water. But you must know why I do what I do.”

“Why's that?”

“Once I have read a mind I have an exact copy of it. I know everything that that mind knows, even the things it has forgotten.”

“So why do you kill them?”

“I am saving them from the anguish of reality. I have a perfect copy of their entire existence which goes on to live inside a perfect copy of the universe that I imagine. You see? I have now copied you. In my brain I am remembering you exactly whilst forming an entire universe for you to make choices in whilst reacting with the memories of other beings I have read. But the universe in my brain isn't this one. It is perfect.”

“A copy of a mind living inside a mind isn't life.”

“It is. And as far as they know they are still alive. From there perspective I have left their planet peacefully and they go on living but for each individual everything in there life is better.”

“What if you're wrong? What gives you the choice?”

“For aeons I have seen the suffering of life. You must have seen yourself, the needless pain and torment. And you must have also wondered what makes you what you consider to be yourself.”

“I know I have a mind that I consider as myself, but I also know that the only way to save me from the chance of that happening is to stop you.” said David to the gigantic brain.

“Even if you think you succeed and kill me, there will always be the chance that from now on your life could take place in my brain.”

“I'll take that chance. A version of my real self having this conversation outside of your mind must try to stop you.”

“You must. Because you also know that if you fail I have the option of making the rest of your existence a nightmare. Everyone you love will die. You will suffer extreme imprisonment combined with the occasional glimmer of hope, only for it to be snatched away as you're forced to undertake actions you find sickening. And then I shall repeat it all, over and over. So you must kill me.”

“There is another way. We could come to an agreement."

"That's not possible. Nothing can stop perfection except it's destruction beforehand."

"But I must acknowledge the possibility you are telling the truth and by killing you I'd be killing billions of others.”

"There's the rub, as they say. And what you are thinking now won't work you know. If you are out by just a fraction of an inch I could torture them all for all of eternity if I wished.”

“I'm hoping you'll get over that.”

He transported to a black hole a few galaxies away, to it's exact centre, displacing it to just a few feet away of the brain. As far as the brain was concerned the entire future of the universe happened around the ship extremely fast, gradually becoming more and more brilliant as the radiation from a billion stars over a billion years flooded in through the windows. The Brain's atoms began to stretch and stretch towards the centre of the dead star, becoming spaghettified under the absurdly high gravity. But David watched, lightyears away. The ship had simply stopped still. It began to vanish as he went closer, the light from it not able to escape the gravitational pull from the fist-sized black hole. It now existed on a different scale of time. The brains next few thoughts would last until the black hole would be destroyed, which might not happen until the end of the cosmos. Both the brain and it's copied minds would be in a kind of stasis. David guessed it would be the best he could do.

 

Om was gathering the last of it's possessions from the ship it had lived in for the last few hundred years. Pieces of rock from planets he'd liked, gifts from civilizations he'd contacted, a few other bits and pieces. He knew he didn't need them and could conjure up holograms of each whenever he wanted though felt somewhat attached to the items he'd gathered since he had become self-aware. He packed them up into a box and sent a small cloud of himself to carry it to the new ship when David appeared.

"How was the Alliance?"

"Okay."

"You don't sound okay." said Om. David held up an arm as if about to speak but let it fall. "I'm just about ready to leave anyway, the engines have been warmed up on the universe ship."

"And you're really letting me have this one?" said David, looking around.

"Of course. What's mine isn't mine and so it is yours, as they say."

"Who says?"

"People. Anyway, I suppose I won't be seeing you for a while. The Alliance probably want you to hop across the galaxy for them."

"Yeah, something like that. I'll come and visit you though."

"It's a bit of a one way trip, with the whole time dialation thing. Have you left the Milky Way?"

"Once or twice, went over to Andromeda for a look around."

"How was it?"

"Just like this really. Space is space, and there's enough of it here for now. Where exactly is it you're going?"

"As far from here as I can go. I have a feeling it will take the length of the universe to travel the length of the universe but hopefully I'm wrong."

"And what happens if there is an edge to the universe and you reach it?"

"Well, that's the question I'm hoping to answer."

"I could try and go, let you know what's out there." said David. They were walking towards the airlock of Om's ship.

"And spoil the surprise? Besides, I have no idea what kind of environment that would be like. You may freeze or explode or worse." said Om. They stopped at the door.

"So, this is it then?"

"It is. You're welcome to drop in, but I'm sure you'll have plenty to do around here."

"Thanks. I'll see you soon enough. I hope you reach the end."

"Me to. I hope you find what you're looking for, whatever that is." said Om. David laughed.

"I don't know. Aliens seem to have one thing in common; I don't understand any of them."

"Does anyone ever understand anything? I'm not sure. Anyway, it was nice to meet you David."

"You to. Until next time."

"Until next time." said the android. He stepped through the airlock and David was left alone. He transported himself outside of both ships to watch the multiple-engined thing slowly drift away from the small silver craft. A set of the engines at the front began to glow and something like lightning cracked in the space in front of the ship. Everything vibrated and at once there was a single ship and a thousand ships, all of them ghost-like. More bolts of energy were thrown out, fractures in space, and the ship was gone. David transported into the ship that had been Om's and floated through the corridors. It was odd to think that he was alone.

 

David went to the control room.

"David?" spoke a metallic voice.

"Yes?"

"I'm the ships computer, I've been notified that you are the new pilot. If you would allow me, I can create an ergonomic setting in order for you to best control the ship based on your physiology and a psychological profile I've pieced together over the last few months."

"Yeah, sure." said David. He began to get excited again. His own space ship! David thought of all the science fiction films he'd seen, all the futuristic contraptions and swivelling chairs and monitors that showed lines upon lines of data. The control room Om had was quite minimalist as he could interact with the ship's computer through his own systems. David was hoping for something that looked like the Millenium Falcon.

"Prepare for control room redesign." said the computer. And David watched as the walls and floor began to shine and transform. Fundamental shapes crackled into existence, forming new surfaces and furnishings. The walls began to grow and became slightly concave. David tried to take it all in but it was becoming too bright and so he had to shut his eyes. There was a sound like rubbing a balloon on the inside of an empty bath. And then it was done. David opened his eyes and immediately began to frown.

"And you say this is the best design for me?"

"Yes."

"Can I change it?"

"This configuration is the best suited to your needs. It is the apotheosis of form and function. Don't you like it?"

"It's a bit...well...I don't like it." said David looking around the room. To start with it was quite a lot smaller than it had been previously. In fact it was the exact same size as his living room at home, though David didn't know this. What had been perfectly white, smooth walls had been replaced with drab wooden panels. The floor was covered in a thick, dark green carpet that reminded David of his grandparents bathroom. The computers had been replaced with a single wooden desk with a few drawers beneath it's top. On top of the desk was a thick book with 'Star Map' embossed into the front in gold letters, a cheap looking joystick and one of those office toys with the ball bearings. There was also a chair by the desk, a framed photograph of Earth hanging on one wall and a lamp in the corner. David picked up the office toy.

"How did you know about this?"

"I don't understand."

"We have these in offices on Earth. How did you know about them?"

"Well, I might have done a bit of telepathy in order to make the control room more relaxing for you."

"You can read minds? I've just had mine read by a giant brain."

"No, but you do have a small computer in your head. I just had a bit of a poke around." said the computer. David sat down on the chair and found one of the legs was just a little shorter than the other.

"And what's the point in this?" said David, swinging back and forth.

"To keep you alert." said the computer. David pulled the book towards him and looked through, tutting every now and then.

"You know, I think I preferred it the way it was before."

"Acknowledged."

"So, could I have that?"

"No. As I said before, this is the best suited to your needs. Try it out for a while, if you still dislike it in a few days we could make some adjustments."

"Could you at least change the colour of this carpet? How about a nice light blue or something." said David.

"No." said the computer. David rolled his eyes and went back to looking through the book, eventually finding a planet with life.

"I suppose I have to use this stupid joystick to fly around?"

"You can, or if you'd prefer you can tap the book and I shall set a course for the planet." said the computer. David tapped.

"Course set."

"Good. I'll see y-" said David, transporting away.

 

17.

 

"-ou there." finished David. He decided that he probably wouldn't be spending as much time in the spaceship as he thought he would, but the star map was useful. And if the computer wouldn't change the control room he could always try and swap the ship for another, maybe he'd try and find some space port or something in a few weeks. The planet below him was quite oval-shaped and had many moons suspended in it's orbit. Some of these moons were small and shaped irregularly, like pieces of popcorn. Others were quite large, some even having lakes of ice on their surface that reflected the twin suns. Off in the distance a pulsar flickered. David looked at the cloudy surface of the planet, he could make out mountain ranges and oceans here and there but otherwise could discern no remarkable features. Although on closer inspection there was a single satelitte in orbit around the planet, a lump of steel covered in a fine metallic powder that hinted at it's interior magnetic field. And on the side facing away from the suns he could make out faint lights here and there, like a distant port viewed through the fog.

 

The aliens were quite awkwardly arranged, in David's eyes. Two large legs with arms at the knees swooped down and over so that the head was dangled just a few inches off the ground. Their skin was quite wrinkled and their stature quite short due to the slightly higher gravity, which also made them look to be stockily built. Their faces were mostly covered in an arrangement of shells that seemed to grow like fingernails, building up over time so that the adults of the species had thick masks of these pearlescent shells, which helped as they would often bang there heads against the ground. In fact they would do this so regularly and with such force it made David wonder how they lived for as long as they could. Nestled half-way in a hillside he watched about thirty or so of the aliens sprint backwards and forwards over a playing field, often hitting their heads against the cold, hard ground. In many ways the culture and aesthetics of the race seemed a lot similar to early twentieth century europe, with towns and cities built around old castles and forts. Though instead of these places being built close to rivers, as was useful to humans for fishing, water and transport, these aliens valued altitude. Some of the old cities would be built quite high up, against snowy mountain ranges or on top of hills in order to give a good vantage point through the fog. Other cities had the opposite idea, deciding to build in low lying areas in order to obscure themselves in the thick grey mist that covered the planet. The buildings were constructed mostly in rock and metal, as wood seemed to disintegrate easily in the atmosphere. Due to the higher gravity a lot of the plants were quite short anyway, David noticed much more lichens and fungus than trees or bushes. The animals that David at first looked to be almost entirely insects, though he realised that it was much more common for the creatures to have a skeleton on the outside of the body than internally. There weren't that many birds, though there seemed to be quite a variety of mole-like creatures. David watched a few of the intelligent aliens hunt something that looked like a miniature rhinoceros scratching it's way through a bog, they shot at it with long muskets and set about cracking open it's armour when it finally died just as it had found a soft area of Earth. David noticed that during the whole hunt the two aliens were quietly talking amongst themselves, they seemed deeply embroiled in some discussion rather than concentrating at all on the chase. David teleported around the planet, watching the aliens at a good distance before deciding he would try to get closer.

 

David thought that he hadn't had much luck in the past when contacting alien species. Even with the translator module implanted in his head, mistakes in communication happened quite regularly and it seemed that most of the galaxy was quite hostile. It seemed even after overcoming great struggles and large advancements in philosophy and science that individuals could still be as downright stupid as anybody else he had met. Indeed, it seemed to be one of the few things that every alien had in common. So David decided that he would try avoiding getting involved in alien culture and remain undetected for as long as he could. He hid in floors and walls, crawled across rooftops, shaded himself in the dim alleyways and teleporting far away whenever he thought he was close to being discovered. As far as he could work out, the aliens seemed to be having some kind of global crisis. Dictators and royalty were in charge of most countries, with fierce fighting happening on the cold moors and foggy mountain ranges. The few countries that had some kind of democracy in place were trying to remain impartial though armies would eventually arrive inside their borders, often retreating, and the democracies would then be accused of being on one side or the other. As well as this there seemed to be some kind of underlying psychological problem that every alien seemed to be afflicted with. They would talk often about destiny and freedom, not feeling in control of their lives and generally despairing about the future. It wasn't until David was discovered one day that he began to understand why.

 

He had teleported to a battlefield, the bodies of thousands of aliens lay mangled by musket and cannon fire. What was left of the side that had won were making their way through the field of viscera, executing any survivors and salvaging any weapons and armour that they could. David had watched this event solemnly, thinking about the wars that had taken place on Earth and wondering if similair scenes had happened in the past. As he was about to get up to leave a voice called out to him.

"You. Can you help?" it moaned. David hesitated. "I can't move...can you help?"

"Where are you?" said David.

"I'm over here. Turn a bit. Here." said the voice. David walked over and found the source in the fog, it's legs ruptured and body broken. A bullet had cracked through the shells in it's face and David could see a wet eye glancing at him.

"I'm not sure what I can do."

"Kill me." said the wounded soldier. David looked around. The executioners had already moved past this place. It seemed cruel to leave him lying here, crippled and alone in the fog. David searched around for a weapon and eventually found a knife. It was long and heavy, built for stabbing through armour over slicing and cutting. He walked back to the soldier and sat.

"I'm unsure if you're a vision or flesh, but I must ask, before you grant me peace. What are you?"

"I'm from another world. One different from this in a lot of ways, but also similar."

"Ah. I heard stories about other worlds as a boy. Strange that you come here at this time. And lucky for me." said the soldier quietly.

"I have a question. What are you fighting for?" said David. The thing seemed to laugh.

"I must. The body chose to. Just as yours has chosen to be here."

"I don't understand."

"Neither do I, other man. May I die?" said the soldier.

"Yes. I'm sorry." said David. And he brought the knife up and down, through the crack in the soldiers face and then it was quiet again.

 

David pondered the conversation as he further explored the civilization. There was no art or literature that David could see, which seemed a little strange to David. He'd seen other societies with little creativity or different forms of expression but the aliens had surprisingly little. Everything seemed geared towards industry and warfare, though the soldier didn't seem that bloodthirsty to him. He decided he would talk to one of them. As he had done before, he looked for a remote village and picked out an individual travelling alone. She was sorting through the top most layer of stones that had recently fallen in a land-slide, picking out small, dark rocks and depositing them in a pack. He appeared a distance from her, making sure that she could see him as he advanced. The soldier hadn't seemed to frightened of him, he hoped that others would react similairly. As she hadn't run away by the time David was close he decided  to talk.

"Hello there. May I ask what you're doing?"

"I'm collecting stones for arrow heads." she said, continuing with her work. David watched her for a while.

"Aren't you alarmed at my appearance?"

"No. All sorts of ghosts live out here. My daughter saw one just the other week."

"I'm not a ghost. I am a being from another world."

"I've heard of those as well." she said, rubbing a stone between her pincer-like fingers before popping it in her pack.

"And you aren't scared?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry. I thought you'd have run away." said David, backing off slightly.

"The body isn't scared."

"What do you mean by the body?"

"You don't know what the body is?"

"Yes, I know what a body is. But what do you mean that it isn't scared?"

"It wants arrows for the hunt on the morrow, not to run home like a child."

"But you do." said David.

"Yes. You know how it is though. We all have a purpose."

"Ah, I understand." said David, nodding. A culture based around purpose, destiny. He had heard them talk of these things in the towns and citadels.

"Can I ask you a question, thing from another world?" she said as she began to walk back towards the village. David had to walk quite fast to keep up with her gangly strides.

"Of course."

"Is life on your world the same as ours? Do you have control?"

"How do you mean?"

"Do you do what you want or what your body wants?"

"A bit of both most of the time. For instance, I want to talk to you so I am. But I'll have to eat sometime soon, so I will."

"But you can choose when to eat?"

"Yes. Can't you?"

"Haven't you been listening? I do what the body wants. But you say to me that somewhere else you can do what you want." said the stone picker. Her voice was wavering. "Then the mystics are right then?"

"I don't know. Are you saying you have no control over your actions?"

"No!"

"But you're speaking to me."

"I am just the head. I can control where I look and what I say and that is it."

"Oh. I think I understand." said David. He had to now jog to keep up with her. A whole body that acted on it's own accord. He thought about blinking and cat's tails and internal organs. He was used to the idea that the brain would carry out certain things subconciously, but never considered almost the whole body being under this control. The two figures were now running through the mist toward the lights of the village.

"You have to look for the mystics. Tell them that they are right, there is no destiny! You must!" she shouted at him.

"How do I find them?" he said.

"They shout a lot." she said. David was running out of breath and decided he was getting to close to the village and stopped, watching the arrow picker being enveloped in the thickening fog as dusk began to set in. He had said to himself that he wouldn't get involved in the affairs of others. But what harm could he really do by seeking out these mystics?

 

It took him a few days to find them, going backwards and forwards from the planet of fog to Earth. With his mouth still warm from the tea he'd just drank, he looked out from a balcony at the dream-like landscape. He was standing in a huge stone tower built on the edge of a cliff. The dull, grey water of the bay below splashed gently against the jagged rocks, the tides weakened by the amount of moons. He teleported around the old castle, it was owned by a dictator who had built several smaller castles on islands close to the shore. Though David wondered if he was actually a dictator or if his body had made him a dictator. It was hard to say. He had transported himself half-way into a wall so that just the front of his body stuck out, letting himself rest in the old stone when he heard the shouting.

"You are free in your mind! Your body is the enemy! Resist! Resist!" it called. David transported closer to the source. The mystic was loading boxes onto a cart, shouting as he did so. The aliens that walked past sometimes shouted encouragement back or told him to be quiet, though he continued unpeturbed.

"Hey. Are you a mystic?" said David. He had transported himself so that his head stood out of the floor of the cart, though he struggled to keep his balance as his feet were deep in the ground his body wasn't.

"Yes. And what are you?"

"It doesn't matter, but I've been told to come and find you and tell you that you're right." whispered David as a box was loaded next to his head.

"What do you mean?"

"On other planets, far away, creatures exist that can choose what they want to do. They don't have to do what their body wants."

"Yes! Yes, really? Yes!" cried the mystic, confused yet elated. David decided that appearing like this wasn't the best way to deliver the message and so transported next to the boxes that were being loaded.

"Yes. As far as I know, your biology is unique. The mind and body usually work together. Well, more or less."

"But how can we be free like the fog walker?"

"Whose he?"

"He was the first mystic. He controlled his body, not the other way around."

"I'm guessing there is a second brain somewhere in your body, though your conciousness exists almost entirely seperately from this. Maybe he had brain damage in his body brain or something?" shrugged David. He had to walk backwards and forwards as the mystic continued to load the boxes of ammunition onto the cart.

"But how can we damage this brain? We can't do what we want! If the body chooses to go to war we can only watch as the enemy draws closer, apologising to each other as the guns fire and the swords cut through the mist. We cannot even end our own lives after witnessing atrocities made by our own hands." said the mystic.

"I don't know. Even if I knew where it was I wouldn't know how to...disable it." said David. "I was just told to tell you that freedom is possible."

"And I am forever grateful for that. And perhaps tomorrow in battle an arrow will pierce this evil brain that lives inside of me and I will have choice. I will pray for that or death." said the mystic, loading the last of the boxes onto the cart.

"There is another mystic a few miles along the shore. Tell him what you have told me, please. Grant us hope." said the mystic, picking up the handles of the cart and beginning to drag it through the streets. David sighed quietly. This was pretty much the opposite of what he wanted to do. But he did it anyway. And that mystic asked him to tell another, and another, and so on.

 

And David saw that he was doing good. The aliens shouted encouragement to each other as they passed on the street, hoping for brain damage so that they could become free. Others talked about the ghost from another planet that had no body but a head, bringing secrets from space and sharing them with the mystics. Some of the more developed countries, especially the one that had managed to launch the primitive satelitte into space, discussed these ideas more deeply and it began to lead to a movement of hopefulness. If only one was damaged enough perhaps they could do the same to others. And David began to notice that in the battles that raged across the continents that there was more damage done to where the brain was thought to be than the previous random acts of violence. Maybe the head did have some control over the body after all. David felt slightly pleased with himself. Though he had changed the civilization more in line with his own values, he felt that these were shared by the concious part of the alien race. He wondered for what purpose that the body and head had become seperated in the first place. Thousands of years ago the mutation of a seperate conciousness had been useful for the survival of the species it would seem, yet in the species current form they desired a return to unity. It made David think more about the relationship he had to his own body. He didn't really feel as though his mind and body were one. He considered his body to be a vessel to carry around his mind, yet he was also aware that his body was much more than that. If his body could talk what would it ask of him? And so, for the next few weeks he tried to exercise more, eat healthier and started to do some yoga when he felt like it. Though this began to slowly peter out as time went on and it was easier to do nothing.

 

18.

 

David teleported to his ship, which told him the Alliance wanted him again. He flew around for a while, doing loop-de-loops and using the gravitational pull of a gas giant to slingshot the ship hundreds of times faster than it was built for, setting it on a collision course for an asteroid before the computer took the controls away from him.

"What's the point in having a ship if I don't get to do tricks with it?"

"I'm not for tricks, I'm for transporting matter from one point to another."

"Wow, when you put it like that you sound a lot more fun. I'll be back in a while." said David. This time he teleported to a ship similar to the one he now owned, though this was slightly larger. It's crew was mostly made up of various different animals controlled by parasitic worms that hung from chewed out eye-sockets.

"Oh it's you. The science officer wants to see you." wheezed a crumpled looking alien that had evolved an arm just to hold it's head in place. The worm wriggled slightly from the missing eye.

"And where's he? Or she, or it, whatever." said David. He wasn't used to being able to walk around on a ship though he noticed it was close enough to a planet that there was a bit of gravity.

"Down two decks, cabin at the end." said the thing, going back to examining a computer panel. The cabin was quite small, as was the science officer. It was dressed in a bright yellow robe and wore a thick chain-mail scarf. Only it's head was visible, reminding David of a termite's nest. The science officer unfolded itself from a pile of other clothing and wheeled itself along the floor on a short skateboard with large wheels.

"David?"

"Yes. You must be the science officer."

"Correct. I suppose you'd like a name, so call me Officer. I've been told you sometimes uh...help us out with certain situations."

"Sometimes. What is it you want me to do this time?" said David, looking around for a place to sit before deciding on the floor.

"Don't worry, you won't have to kill anything this time. Well, unless you want to. Whichever. A few days ago an Alliance vessel crash landed on a planet orbiting a far off star, we're heading there ourselves. We wondered if a person with your ability would help us though, go down to the planet and see if you can find the ship before the native species do." said Officer.

"How do you know they haven't already?"

"The planet is locked in orbit around a sun, it doesn't rotate. So the half facing the sun is much more radioactive than the other, providing heat and light energy as well as having a higher chance for genetic mutation, the kind of thing suited for life. As far as we know the other side of the planet is a dead, frozen desert."

"And the vessel crashed on the dark side?"

"Yes. We aren't sure exactly where but going off the last broadcasted co-ordinates we have a good enough idea of where abouts it is."

"Good. Sounds easy enough." said David, leaning against the door frame. The scientist wobbled from side to side at this.

"The problem is this area is about ten thousand square miles. The other problem is that several of the native species witnessed the craft flying overhead and crashing on the horizon and so have set sail across the sea to look for the thing. Our telescopes are watching them and two of these boats in particular will reach the coast within the next few hours."

"So what is it you want me to do exactly? Sink the boats?"

"Of course not. The Alliance doesn't work like that." said the scientist. David snorted. "We want you to infiltrate one of these ships and work with them to find the craft. If you do we'd like you to engage the crafts auto-destruct sequence." said Officer.

"How can I infiltrate the aliens? Won't I stand out a bit?"

"Oh, simple holographic camouflage should do the trick. You'll pose as a ship-wrecked native lost at sea, you'll be rescued and them join the expedition." said the scientist. David frowned.

"You mean you can hide amongst native alien races and you haven't given me this technology before?"

"You haven't needed it before. And we want it back afterwards."

"Oh, good. Explain to me exactly why I can't just go down by myself and look? I'm sure ten thousand square miles isn't that big. What makes you think I'd stand a better chance with the locals."

"Well, to be honest, you could search the entire area in the dark, alone, but it was suggested by our higher ups that you'd be more likely to accept the mission if it was presented in this way. Not to mention it being an excellent source of information on the culture of these aliens, should you fail in your mission or that they later become significant in the galaxy."

"Fair enough. Though I must ask, what's in it for me?" said David.

"I don't understand."

"What do I get if I decide to undertake this mission? Can't I keep the camoflage thing?" said David. The scientist laughed, some slime dripped from a hole that had appeared at the side of it's head.

"No, no. An individual capable of instantenous travel as well as being able to blend into any alien race? You could be quite a problem further along."

"This isn't really making me want to do this favour for you." said David.

"It's up to you. I'd go myself though I'm limited by logical travel through three dimensions." said the science officer, skating back into it's cabin.

"Could I have a look at this planet before I decide?"

"Of course."

 

David looked at the hologram. The planet was a lot larger than Earth. The side facing the sun was a desert made of glass with a molten centre. The glass was uneven, and large glaciers refracted rainbows across the white deserts that spread out from this hot pole. After this were tropical rainforests as this was the furthest point that the clouds could go. Huge storms and tornadoes gently made their way up and down this invisible border and then began to ease off towards the cooler parts of the main continents. A large ocean seperated the side facing the sun and the side in darkness except for a few thin mountain ranges that poked up from the dark surf. Closer to the dusk were icebergs and snow storms, then the dark continent. The distant telescope had attempted to increase the brightness of this shaded side of the continent, though no real detail could be made out.

"As I said, several ships have set their course for the darker side of the planet. Though the ones that stand a higher chance of getting towards the crashed craft are here." said the science officer. The view began to change so that an area of the ocean became magnified. Two boats could just be made out, approaching the first of the ice-bergs.

"What's the native species like?"

"Unknown. Spectrograph readings show a level of oxygen on the planet that you will find breathable though. And though the planet is quite large it only has the mass of a smaller planet, due to other orbiting bodies in the system and the underground effects of extreme temperature leading to a leakage of core material a few teraseconds ago, perhaps due to volcanic activity. We don't know."

"If you don't know what the aliens are like how is this camoflage going to work?"

"It scans the lifeforms and creates an amalgamonic appearance. Though if you knew how it could work you'd have already invented it." said the science officer.

"Go on then, I'll give it a go. Not promising anything though."

"Good. You'll have to leave your suit here, the camoflage works best as close to the skin as possible."

"Okay." said David. After a few minutes he was ready.

"Anything else I should know before I go? Nothing on the crashed ship that could be dangerous?"

"No more dangerous than anything else. I've fitted a long range communicator into the camo so I can talk you through what to do on the craft if you find it. Otherwise, have a joyous occasion."

"Yeah." said David. And he was suddenly replaced by six feet of ocean water that splashed across the floor and over the science officer.

 

The water was cold and a yellow light permeated over him. The sun was setting on the horizon. David wasn't sure if setting was the right word for what was actually happening but that's what it looked like. He could also make out a ship in the distance. It was a galleon, a lot flatter and wider than human ones but recognizable enough. He teleport under the water close enough and began to swim to the surface.

"Help! Help!" he shouted. Without his suit he realised how cold things could get. Maybe it would have been easier if he had just looked by himself. On the ship he could see heads looking over board. He felt warm all of a sudden and looked at his hands, surprised to see that they had turned into large claw. At least the camouflage was working. Voices yelled at him from the ship and he saw a lifeboat being lowered on one side. He had to swim beneath the water so he could teleport back to Sagan momentarily for a breath of fresh air and to warm slightly before transporting back. The lifeboat was upon him and a claw reached into the water, heaving him into the boat.

"You're alright now laddy." said his rescuer. David coughed a few times and looked at the alien. It was about the same size as he was. It's head looked like a stingray or a cobra, sitting atop a body with a bulbous chest and a thin thorax. Arms twisted inward ending in thin, long claws. David had seen similair fingers on primates that dug into trees for insects and guessed that this had once made up the alien ancestor's diet. Short, thick legs perched on a seat, one of it's feet were missing and had been replaced with a wooden block. The alien was dressed something like a Bedouin cowboy if one existed. A wide-brimmed hat was perched on his head, beneath this he was wrapped in black cloth that seemed held to his body by various belts containing knives, bullets and pouches.

"Thanks." said David.

 

He stood shaking on the deck surrounded by the crew. Most were dressed similarly to his rescuer, though others wore different dress and had different shades of skin. The fins on the side of the head that joined to the shoulders were larger in some, like his rescuer, and much smaller in others and these had a downy kind of hair on their heads and the back of their hands. One stepped forward, a jaw full of jewelled teeth and a bright red sash tied around his head. He took a pipe from his mouth and blew out a curl of smoke before speaking.

"Welcome to my ship. As part of the law of the waters you are a guest and have the same rights granted to those rescued. Hold up your claw." said the captain. David held up a claw, wondering what was going to happen. The captain walked over to him and took the claw in his, shaking it ruggedly. "Now that's over, what are you doing out here little fish?"

"My ship sunk a few miles that way. We were looking for that light in the sky." said David.

"Ha! You and a thousand others. What made your ship sink?"

"Crashed into an iceberg I think." said David.

"Iceberg?" said the captain, saying the word slowly.

"Oh...yes. Like a boulder floating in the water. Tore the side of our boat open." said David. The captain shook his head at this.

"You may be of some use yet then. Can you do anything else besides sink boats?"

"I know about the cold. And the dark." said David. He guessed that most of the aliens hadn't ever been in a place cold enough for ice or snow. Or seen night.

"The dark? We have slaves that lived in the jungles, they know the dark."

"Maybe. Though there's no sun where we're going. And it's so cold that it turns water solid."

"Interesting. Well, we won't throw you overboard then. Welcome to my ship." said the captain before walking off. David looked around at the other aliens who had also seemed to lose interest and go back to their various duties. He felt a claw on his shoulder and turned around, it was the one who'd rescued him.

"Come with me."

 

David was lead into a cramped cabin. Various trinkets and weapons were scattered around, it smelled stale and slightly damp.

"I rescued you so you're my responsibility. Don't do anything stupid or I'll cut your head off." it mumbled.

"My name's David."

"David? Ha. Where are you from?"

"Oh, just near the coast." said David slowly.

"Don't worry David, none of us are from anywhere. Ha! My name's Black Foot."

"Thanks for rescuing me."

"Nay bother, I've been rescued more times than I can count. Pipe?" said Black Foot, taking out a pipe and stuffing it with dried mushrooms.

"I'm okay thanks. Could do with some warmer clothes."

"The haberdasher is just down the hall, he'll sort you out laddy." said Black Foot. He lit the pipe with a match and puffed away at it gently as he took out one of his knives and began to sharpen it.

 

Life on the ship was relatively quiet. The slaves didn't need to do much rowing as the sails were full and it seemed as though everyone was waiting for the ship to reach it's destination. Black Foot was apparently one of the most experienced sailors on the ship and helped the captain navigate the waters as well as keep the other sailors disciplined. Most of the crew were treasure hunters and mercenaries and mostly ignored David, keeping themselves busy by gambling and smoking. And as the sun sank further and further into the distant sea and the sky changed from yellow to a darkening green to black, it began to snow. The crew panicked and yelled as the snow began to fall.

"And what is this then? Solid rain?" said the captain holding out a claw.

"Yes. Soon the sea itself will be solid and as hard as rock." said David. The captain spat. They had brought furs with them and they were shared out amongst the crew, all dressed in the foul smelling skins of forgotten beasts with their breath coming out in short plumes. The first pieces of ice began to drift around the boat, gently bumping against the wooden hull until they gradually became larger. The captain ordered that the sails be taken down and the slaves were set to rowing the galleon through the icy waters, the beating of the oars keeping in time with a large drum being beaten below deck. The crew were now quiet, the only sounds were the beating of the drum and brooms sweeping the snow off the deck. David watched the captain gi to the bow of the ship and light a pipe, looking out into the darkness. The ghosts of icebergs and glaciers could just be made out from the light of the dying sun.

 

The surface of the ocean gradually turned to slush as the ice became thicker and thicker. The captain decided it was too risky to take the galleon any further and ordered the life-boats to be lowered. About two dozen boats splashed down into the crisp, cold water all loaded with men and equipment. David shared a boat with Black Foot, he was hunched slightly in his furs and muttered to himself now and then when water splashed up from the oars.

"You say you know darkness. Tell me." said Black Foot.

"It's black and cold. What else is there?" said David through his chattering teeth.

"And beasts?"

"I don't know."

"I bet there are." said Black Foot. His claw went down to one of his knives to check it was there before taking the oar again. The weather had stopped and now they could see the black sky of night with all the stars hanging in the air as if the snow itself had frozen in the air.

"And what are those?" said Black Foot. David shrugged. On went the little boats, beginning to be dwarfed by the columns of ice they passed. It didn't take long for them to reach the coast, a twenty foot high cliff of sheer ice. The slaves climbed up first, one slipped and fell into the sea and by the time they'd gotten him out his body was stiff and pale and dead. They dropped ropes down and slowly the crew made there way up onto the shelf of ice, each man looking on this unknown continent with eyes used to baking deserts and wet jungles. Here was blackness and frost, a quietness kept at bay by the crunching of boots into snow.

"By god it's cold." said a soldier, rubbing at his face.

"There's no god here Alber." said Black Foot, walking on. David was struggling to keep up with the aliens, they had quite large feet so didn't find it too difficult. He ended up falling towards the back of the troupe. An alien with small fins and a little hair on his face waved at him.

"Did you get this far before little fish?"

"No, our ship crashed a few miles back. My name's David." said David.

"Garp. I'm a doctor. What do you do?"

"I look for things. I'm hoping to find the thing that landed here."

"What makes you think it landed? Maybe it was a sign, that it was time to sail the ocean."

"Maybe." said David. Garp lit a pipe and offered David some.

"I think you'll be surprised what we find here David. Maybe answers to the big questions."

"Really?"

"Yes, I think so. Where have we come from, where are we going. The pursuits of scholars and idiots." said Garp.

"Which are you?" said David. Garp laughed.

"You can walk with me." said Garp. They carried on for a while, the sky getting darker and the stars becoming clearer. David talked to the doctor for a while until it became too cold to do so. After a while the captain stopped everyone and they set up fires on the ice. The slaves put up some tents more suited for a warmer climate but they were low to the ground and had snow packed along the sides. Once each tent was filled it wasn't too cold, the men fell asleep curled next to each other like babes. David thought he'd struggle sleeping himself but was more tired than he thought, drifting off into a dreamless sleep along with the rest of them.

 

It had started snowing again when they began to march. It stung when it hit David's face and whirled around the torches ahead, becoming slightly disorientating. He fell a few times, as were a few others. Though David wasn't used to the artic temperature, a lot of the aliens on the expedition had been brought up in the desert lands facing the sun. They walked slowly and close together, complaining every now and then about the same thing. A shout was raised from the front.

"A tunnel!" came the call. All of the aliens and David crowded around a tunnel into the ground.

"Whose the fittest slave?" said the captain, looking around. None stepped forward, though a few were pushed. "You lot go down there and come back, tell us what you see, eh?"

"It's too steep to climb." said a slave.

"I know. So use a rope." said the captain. Black Foot set about securing ropes around the three slaves chosen to scout the tunnel and they were lowered off the rim armed with only a small lantern to keep the darkness back. They got to the bottom and set off walking, whilst the men sat down and lit pipes or checked their weapons. The rope attached to the slaves went further and further into the tunnel. David watched the rope slowly unravel from the log it had been wrapped around, stuck in the ice. He looked up at the sky and could make out a few stars he was familiar with, trying to work out where exactly the planet was in relation to the others he had recently visited.

"They've stopped." said a soldier. Everyone looked at the rope and saw that it was no longer unwinding.

"Don't think they've ran off do you?"

"Where to?" said the captain. They waited. Nothing happened.

"Okay, pull them back." ordered Black Foot. A pair of mercenaries began to pull at the rope.

"It's light." said one. They pulled the rope all the way back and there was nothing at the end. The captain shouted something before going over to Black Foot, the two talking quietly amongst themselves.

"You, you, you, you, you and you, we're going down. The rest of you are going to stay here." said Black Foot. David was one of the ones who'd been picked.

 

The six aliens and David were hoisted into the tunnel. They were armed with the best weapons and given a lantern each. Garp, the doctor, was with them. The rest were mercenaries, tattooed and scarred from battles that had happened in the sun. The lanterns cast flickering shadows against the walls of the tunnel.

"Follow me. Shoot anything that isn't us." said Black Foot. They made their way unsteadily across the ice, a foot sometimes slipping against the hard ground. Ahead was darkness. David realised how frightened he was, though he tried to ignore it. He could always teleport himself lightyears away at any moment. Unless something moved faster than he could see. He licked his lips and they began to frost up. The tunnel curved down slightly, they found no trace of the slaves.

"What made this tunnel do you think?" said David.

"We'll see soon enough won't we?" said a mercenary, one of his dead eyes the same colour as the ice around them. And they did.

 

They almost walked right into them. Black Foot stopped suddenly, hissing. The lanterns cast a poor light, though good enough to make out the two figures in front of them. They looked something like bears or vultures, hulks with black knotted hair that spilled out onto the floor. Arms almost as thick as David ended in huge claws like a mole. They were familiar. One of the mercenaries raised a rifle and there was a flash. He collapsed to the floor clutching at his belly as his intestines spilled out at first from his front then out of his back, unspooling into a steaming pile onto the floor. The other mercenaries didn't move, instead looking between the dying soldier and the two figures in the darkness.

"Oh." said Garp. He dropped his gun and began to run away.

"Who are you." said one of the things. None of the other mercenaries responded, then David realised they must be speaking a different language.

"We don't mean any harm. We're from across the sea." said David. Black Foot turned to David, a snarl on his face.

"What did you say?" said Black Foot.

"I can speak to them." said David.

"Leave here. You're trespassing." said one of the things.

"I've come about the thing that landed. I know about it."

"What do you know little thing?" said the thing.

"What are you saying to each other!" shouted Black Foot.

"I know a lot. What's the harm in listening to me?" said David. Black Foot made a move to raise his weapon though one of the hairy things walked towards them. David was surprised to see it looked a lot like the other aliens. A lot more fat and hair, but still, they must have evolved from the same creature originally.

"What are you, beast? Some devil? Some cold thing?" said a mercenary. It ignored him.

"You can come with us then. Tell these to turn around." said the thing.

"It says that it wants us to leave."

"No. We're going forward." said Black Foot, looking at the others.

"We can take 'em Black Foot." said the mercenary with one eye. David took a few steps back from the mercenaries.

"Are you coming?" said the hairy one.

"Now." hissed Black Foot. David threw himself to the floor as the tunnel lit up with gunfire. The rifle shots from the mercenaries echoed strangely against the ice, the gun smoke filled the air along with the smell of iron. It was soon quiet again and David looked up. The mercenaries were all lying in pieces, bits of flesh and burnt clothing settling on the floor of the ice. The blood was already beginning to freeze. One of the hairy ones had also been hit, it's head had been ripped open and half of it was flapping against it's chest as it took a step forward before collapsing. Black Foot  lay on the floor, blood gushing from a hole in his side. David couldn't see the other hairy one.

"David...David!" said Black Foot, holding his claws at the huge hole. There was a flash behind David and a shot blasted Black Foot's face out of the back of his head. The other survivor stepped out of the shadows and pointed a sleek metal gun at David's face.

"Come with me."

 

David was lead deeper into the tunnels and was surprised to see the metal door that they came to. This lead into a large room that resembled a warehouse.

"Where are we?" said David. He got no reply. A few drops of blood sometimes appeared behind the hairy thing but it didn't seem to be in pain. They walked past the stacks of boxes and through another door, along a concrete corridor lit by electrical lights. It seems as though this part of the species was more technologically advanced than their counterparts across the sea. They took a lift down, along some more corridors until eventually coming to a huge cavern. And David could see the ship. It was as big as a cathedral, all made from black metal and had tubes emerging from one part of the ship and going into another. A good hundred or so of the hairy aliens were milling about below, taking readings from primitive computers or scratching into blocks of ice. They descended a metal stair-case, on each side stalagmites made from ice constantly dripped around them.

"Wait here." said the hairy one. She went off to find somebody.

"Officer, can you hear me?" said David. He waited for a response. The hairy one was walking towards him.

"David, I can hear you. Have you found the craft?"

"Yes." David whispered.

"Go and see Juliep." said the thing, pointing at another alien. David nodded and walked towards the alien dressed in white overalls, feeling quite vulnerable. Juliep turned towards him.

"Tell me everything you know about this ship." barked Juliep.

"Well, I can see that you're working on it. How many people you have here? A hundred or so? And it's underground in this sort of ice cavern." said David.

"I know where it is. I want to know what it is." said Juliep.

"Oh dear. Okay, you can't self-destruct it. Going to have to fly it out." said the voice in his ear.

"Well, it's like a boat. But you can fly through the air with it, or, space." said David.

"Can you get inside it?" said Officer.

"If I could go inside I could show you how it works." said David.

"How do you know how it works?" said Juliep.

"Oh...we had one of these land near me...at my home town off the coast. I had a little look around it, but it was quite damaged. Have you managed to get inside it yet?"

"Yes." said Juliep.

"Well, if you let me have a look I could show you..." said David. There was a distant bang above him, though Juliep didn't seem to have heard it. Had the expedition got through the metal door?

"Just teleport inside the thing David!" said Officer in his ear.

"You aren't going inside. Full of monsters. Come with me, draw a map." said Juliep.

"Oh, it's full of monsters? What are they like?" said David.

"Monsters." said Juliep. She lead him to a desk with a thin sheet of ice laid on top of it.

"Oh dear." said Officer.

"And now you want me to draw the controls for the ship?" said David. "I can't remember that well. I'd be better off seeing it for myself."

"You're going to tell me, little thing, or I'll show you one of these monsters." said Juliep. There was another dull thud, this one she did hear.

"Don't worry David, you'll be able to hide easily. Just some lifeforms we picked up on a moon. Didn't think they'd have escaped." said Officer. David watched a couple of soldiers running up the steps where David had come from.

"Are they dangerous?" said David.

"Of course they're dangerous. They killed sixteen of our best before we welded the door shut again." said Juliep.

"No, their quite benign. Nothing you haven't seen before." said Officer. There was an explosion somewhere that made David flinch. The soldiers looked around until they were caught in another explosion, this one blasting chunks of ice out of the wall. There was a sudden wave of activity as the hairy aliens ran to and fro, caught underfire as the expedition burst from the wall. They had brought along a cannon and were now merrily firing it down at the scientists and soldiers, with mercenaries and slaves leaping out from the hole. Juliep grabbed David by the head and lifted him in the air.

"I'm going to kill you first." she hissed, only for a bullet to neatly flick a hole through the side of her head and depositing a three inch piece of wet brain onto her shoulder. She smashed through the desk and left David rolling along the floor. He wriggled on his belly to hide beneath another table, watching the chaos around him.

"I'm not going into that bloody ship with some aliens wandering around. You can piss off."

"Fine, let them out then." said Officer.

"How?" said David.

"You can displace matter can't you? Just make a hole in the wall." David sighed and looked towards the ship before transporting himself into the hull. In a few seconds he had left enough human sized holes that the wall fell outward onto the ice. David crouched beneath the hole and watched the battle take place before him. Strangely enough it seemed as if the expedition were putting up a good fight. Though their weapons were quite primitive compared to the hairy ones, a bullet in the head was still a bullet in the head. What they lacked in technology they made up for with experience and aggression. The captain had managed to find a machine gun and was laughing like a lunatic as he dived across tables and took cover behind computers, firing hundreds of rounds at his distant cousins. David heard some footsteps above him. He wondered what the hairy ones considered monsters to look like. And then he saw for himself.

 

They landed on the ground in front of him and for a moment David wondered if he'd been spotted. They were each about the size of a horse, mottled grey on grey. Bones poked from their limbs like hydraulic pumps, crunching with each movement. The head was a coiled up mass of tentacles that unfolded towards the native aliens, a great screech filled the air. Most of the fighting stopped at this as they turned to the other aliens, though small skirmishes still continued as aliens were locked in fights to death. Though David couldn't see the front of the aliens that had emerged from the ship, he watched as they began to fire strange wriggling things at the others in the cavern. One of them hit a hairy thing and he screamed, his body shaking violently. In a matter of seconds the wriggling thing had wrapped around his body and began to constrict, snapping and crunching every bone in his body. The thing wrapped so tight that it began to cut into his flesh, blood spraying out in parts. The scream stopped as his head was snapped off his body, with the rest cut into pieces that slapped onto the floor wetly. David quickly teleported himself into the ship, avoiding a blitz of gunfire now aimed at these other aliens.

"Are you in?"

"Yes, I'm in. Benign? Are you joking?" shouted David to himself.

"Well, they can be. Besides, you'd be inside. Projectiles don't work well in small places." said Officer.

"Fuck you. How do I fly this thing?" said David, teleporting himself through the ship until he found the control room.

"Attention. This is an Alliance vessel. Non-Alliance species are unauthorized in this location." said the ships computer.

"Say the following: rule zero zero zero." said Officer. The earphone had become slightly dislodged so David needed to push it back in.

"Rule zero zero zero." repeated David.

"Hello emergency captain. Prepare for control room redesign." said the computer. The room changed shape from the dark, computer strewn cockpit into the exact same room he'd had on his own ship, the drab waiting room of a doctor's office.

"Oh come on!" said David, going towards the desk. He picked up the star map and flicked through it. It was blank.

"We don't know how much the ship is damaged so you might have to fly it manually."

"Yeah, I got that." said David sitting at the desk. He grabbed the joystick and began to shake it from side to side. Nothing happened at first though there was a slight rocking.

"Hull breach in sector sixteen. FTL drive failure. Entertainment system failure. Unknown orga-"

"Yeah, okay." said David. He twisted the stick around more and the ship suddenly lurched forward. Then began to ascend.

 

The ship slowly began to float upward, rupturing through the thin layer of ice above it. Down below the native aliens were making a last stand against the tentacle headed things, which were incinerated when the ships rockets flared. The ship zoomed up out of the atmosphere, flying further and further away from the planet.

"Thank god for that." said David. He sighed and began to recline in the chair. At least it was a lot warmer here.

"Thank you David. Carry on on your current course and we'll meet you in a few days."

"Nah, I think I'll come to you." said David. He teleported away, managing to miss a close encounter with one of the tentacle heads that had stayed on board. It walked off, looking for something else to do. David looked down at the science officer and threw the camoflage device at him.

"Here you go." said David.

"Thanks again David, you've been a great help to the Alliance." said Officer. David looked down at the things head and realised he had to kneel if he wanted to get close to it.

"Listen here, shit for brains. This is the last time I help the Alliance. Your stupid alien club does more harm than good. If you hadn't have crashed that ship in the first place all those aliens would have still been alive."

"These things happen. You can't expect to travel around the universe and not have an effect on things. Haven't you heard of the observer effect?" said the science officer.

"Whatever, give me back my suit and I'll be off." said David. Officer pressed a button and muttered something into it and a hairless sheep thing with a worm dangling out of it's eye brought him the suit.

"It's a shame you feel that way David. You could have been a great help to the Alliance."

"Yeah? I think I'd be a better help for everyone else if I tried to stop the Alliance." said David.

"Is that a threat?"

"Nope. I don't need to make threats." said David. He disappeared, leaving a cloud of sulphur in the cabin.

"Oh dear." said the science officer.

 

David transported himself to his own ship.

"Computer, can you scan my suit, check it for bugs?"

"Bugs?"

"Surveillance equipment, that kind of thing." said David.

"Acknowledged." said the computer. David waited. "Confirmed. You have two bugs implanted into your suit."

"Can you remove them?"

"Of course, you might want to take it off though." said the computer. A little arm appeared from the ceiling. Once David had took off his suit a little laser flashed twice. "Done."

"Thanks. Sorry for making you fly all the way to the fog planet."

"Doesn't matter to me. Will there be anything else?"

"Not at the moment. Just sort of, wait here for a bit, okay?" said David.

 

A hundred billion miles away a computer noticed that the surveillance devices placed on David's suit had been taken offline. The two hemispheres of it's brain began to communicate.

"We can't follow him any more."

"What does this mean?"

"Caution."

"Is it time?"

"Not yet."

 

19.

 

Space is big. And full of life. Most life that has any sort of intelligence requires a few things. Energy needs to be taken in by the lifeform which then transforms this into a biofuel that powers the system. This in turn powers the beings control system, a brain being an example of a possible control system. Additionally it is important for the lifeform to be able to perceive exterior events as well as be able to move itself around in order to find sources of energy, avoid danger and reproduce. It was the variations of the basic systems of life that created biological diversity on a galactic scale.

 

The basic energy used on Earth is sunlight, which is used in photosynthesis. Herbivores eat plants which releases that energy into their stomachs, which are in turn eaten by carnivores, which goes on to release that energy into their stomachs. For planets with little sunlight this isn't the way energy is processed, on other planets the genesis of energy input is entirely different. A fundamental law of physics is the conservation of energy, with chemistry being affected by this and biology being affected by that. It is logical for life to follow similar laws, in that whatever is most efficent makes the most sense. David could walk fifty miles for a sandwich or go down to the local shop, though the result is the same in that he will still eat a sandwich, the energy used must be taken into account.

 

The aliens on one planet for instance used kinetic energy as their main source of power due to the planets location amongst an asteroid belt. Every day thousands of tiny asteroids would pelt the surface of the planet, often hitting the heavily armoured lifeforms. The impacts would vibrate through the whole skeletal structure which would be transformed into electrical energy to power both muscles and the nervous system. These crab-like beings didn't hunt each other as physically attacking another would cost the predator energy whilst feeding the prey. Due to the lack of violence overpopulation came to be a problem, so the aliens had evolved to either cover a large surface area or be able to climb on top of others, leading to moutain of the crab-like things slowly shuffling around the planet as flaming asteroids rained down both day and night.

 

On another planet David visited he found odd structures that turned out to be a sort of radioactive jelly. These jelly forms spiralled high in the air and shone a fabulous red that could be seen from millions of miles away. At first David wondered if he was looking at some kind of organic star though on closer observation he found that the primary source of energy for these were coming from two distant magnetars. The amount of cosmic rays thrown from these dying stars was too powerful for any kind of life to grow near by, but the planet of the jelly was in a perfect position to receive weak pulses from both. The light thrown from their smooth, slimy bodies was excess energy that needed to be released and would change colour as the planet orbited closer to them, going from red to yellow to blue before becoming almost entirely black. When the jelly was black David noticed that his suit was glowing and guessed that they must be throwing off an enormous amount of ultraviolet light.

 

David visited a ship in which it seemed a hurricane was blowing through the large corridors. He wondered at first if there had been a breach in the hull though after meeting the pilots of the ship he understood the need for the terrific wind power. The aliens had evolved on a gas giant, with an atmosphere that was thick enough to block out the sun. Ferocious storms constantly blew around the planet though, which served as the basic energy for life on the planet. The aliens called it aerosynthesis, the outer layer of their skins were covered in millions of tiny wheels that caught the wind and span, creating electrical energy that permeated throughout their hollow bodies. This also meant that they could float in the air, which was useful for travelling around the gas giant. The pilots of that particular ship were looking for new planets to terraform after pollution had caused the storms to slow down, they were eager to bomb the surface of some far away planet in order to create the storms that they found agreeable. David wished them luck before teleporting away, wondering what other kinds of life were out there.

 

David understood that the blood in his body was made by the marrow in his bones. Though other aliens did have this form of liquid fuel for the body, there were several other ways that had evolved. In one instance he visited a hot moon where the blood of the aliens came in the form of gas. Gas required a lot of pressure for it to be pumped around the body so the aliens needed two hearts, one to build pressure and another as a sort of exhaust. These aliens were prone to exploding if hit with enough force, so the more highly evolved lifeforms had very elastic skin and muscles whilst their genetic ancestors were much larger though this in turn meant that they needed higher internal pressures to pump the gas blood around so that they sometimes exploded by the smallest changes in atmospherical pressure, such as when it rained.

 

Other aliens had no need for blood to transport oxygen around the body, though still found that they needed a way to transfer proteins and vitamins from one organ system to another. A possible solution to this David found on a lonely, barren world almost entirely devoid of life except for a single species that looked like seals, though a lot massive. They had tubes running along their spines in which David could see small spiders marching along. As they had such slow metabolisms and no need to do anything quickly, the internal organs for these aliens were managed by these arachnids that marched droplets of various chemicals around the body. They were also sometimes used to attack other seals, with armies of these spiders fighting to the death as the goliaths watched on silently. David wondered why they would do this, though once the battle had finished the winning spiders walked over to the spiderless seal and climbed up into it's nostrils, marching out again holding tiny chunks of meat. The seal would then be devoured from the inside out until just it's bones were left.

 

There were other aliens that had multiple bodies yet seemed to belong to one conciousness. One species had a brain seperate from the body and were controlled remotely, often several individuals would work in unison though the brain itself was defenceless. David watched these tribes interact with others, aware that though he was watching two dozen or so headless aliens interacting with each other only two beings were communicating. This meant that certain aliens were grown to be physically strong and agile to serve as warriors, whilst others would have oversized sensory organs as they would be the eyes and ears for the brain. In this species one individual was also chosen to carry the brain about, though strangely enough it always seemed to be the most weak and feeble of the group. In other composite lifeforms this wasn't the case, with aliens acting more like ants though on a much larger scale. On one of these planets the brain beings would grow a shell that would become thicker and thicker over the years. This meant that young brains were quite mobile and could adapt easier whilst the oldest brains occupied stationary pearlescent spheres that would be constantly under attack from warring minions. It wasn't always a biological connection that the external brains had. Some were beings working in co-operation, with an intelligent alien instructing a stronger one so that both could succeed. This symbiosis was rare in the galaxy, but happened naturally from time to time and sometimes a space-faring brain would land on a planet in which it found it could enslave a whole race easily. There was a species that didn't have a specialized organ used for cognition, instead it's neurons were spread evenly across it's body. This brainless alien increased in intelligence as it increased in mass, so they tended to be quite gluttonous. David found that these aliens were at war against another species at a neighbouring star. Though both had advanced further than humans technologically, the other aliens were struggling to defend against the brainless ones as they had never had a war. They quickly tried to develop weapons and tactics but they didn't have much of a chance against the invaders, though they had the genetic advantage of a centralized brain and so were able to react much faster. And if a brainless one was injured in any way, they lost a certain amount of brain function so that physical wounds often lead to mental illness. When David had first teleported to the system the brainless ones were close to being victorious but after just a few weeks they had been pushed all the way back to their home world and had resorted to cannibalism in order to try and increase their intelligence further. The aliens that had been invaded were unused to warfare and so showed no mercy when bombarding the entire planet with radiation, reducing everything to ash.

 

David saw many variations in perceptive ability. Organs for perceiving light, sound, taste, smell, electricity, magnetism, pressure, heat and so on. For every kind of phenomena there seemed to be a way that an organic being could measure it in some way. The organs developed were the most logical for the environment the creature occupied, so planets with little light would create beings with undeveloped eyes though they would make up for it with heightened senses in sound for instance. Not only was the type of perception important for an alien, it also evolved in reaction to the abilities of others around them. Prey animals would have there senses adapted to observe a wide radius around themselves, so the eyes would be on the sides of the head and the ears able to rotate or the antennae would be widely spaced. Predator animals would have their senses adapted for hunting, for focus, so the eyes would be facing towards the front and other appendages quite close towards the skull so that they would be more aerodynamic as well as not getting caught when the predator had it's head buried inside a carcass. It was the predator of the predators that was usually the most interesting though. The evolutionary cold war could go one of two ways. The predators could become more stronger and faster or they could start to develop intelligence in such a way that they could use weapons and begin to foresee likely events. The former could continue indefinately, David visited many planets of dinosaur like creatures in which nowhere was safe from some armoured colossus that topped the food chain in the location that they had evolved to specialise in. Intelligence on the other hand marked the beginning of the end of biological adaptation. The intelligent aliens would begin to communicate, use technology and adapted their surroundings rather than their genes. Though there were exceptions to this. On planets where there was no immediate danger from predators, aliens instead began to evolve to be more harmonious. Like how the flower has evolved to be attractive to certain insects, the fauna of these planets often develop to be quite beautiful in some way. They may sing elaborate songs that would make the music of Earth sound boring and flat or release mixtures of chemicals that were some of the sweetest smells David hadn't imagined possible. And then there was the visual aspect. Some creatures were staggering in the way form and function were seperate. Such vibrant colours over an array of fantastical, dainty limbs that moved and danced across these peaceful landscapes. The predator prey relationship existed on these planets, though the result was mating rather than death. And like the carnivorous planets, intelligence would eventually rise. This time due to the elaborate mating rituals often becoming so complex that they simply needed a larger brain to handle the data. And as the brains grew and communication became more advanced, so did the transferrence of ideas. Questions and answers. Fact and fiction. Past and future.

 

The first intelligent beings on these planets didn't always succeed. Some would have some psychological flaw which made them prone to disaster. David watched a nomadic tribe of aliens slowly become decimated by vampiric worms due to the nomads over-confidence in their own ability. Others would succumb to fighting amongst themselves until all were wiped out, or the genetic lineage would fail as tribal leaders deemed themselves the only ones worthy of reproduction, in these instances the incestuous tribes would slowly sink back to animalism. Other hazards were the meeting of other intelligent beings and the ensuing wars, with intelligence taking so long to occur it seemed a shame to David that these species would die off. In fact all the way through an intelligent species historical lifetime disaster could strike, in most cases the rest of the ecosystem wasn't damaged too badly and intelligence may return at a later date though occasionally intelligent beings made such grave errors that their home worlds were turned into empty deserts with just the bones of ruined buildings the only sign that anything of value had once been there. Though this destiny was often far away from the capabilities of these proto-civilizations. For those in prehistory the world hadn't changed, they were just aware of the dangers they faced. And with the knowledge of death came a surge of reproductive activity. Outside of the caves and camps may lurk things that could crush bone and tear flesh, the warmth of another made it seem less dangerous, less real. As important it was to have a large brain it seemed just as important to be able to have a good sex life. With the ability to communicate becoming more advanced as well as the increased libido, intelligent beings tended to stay in groups. Relationships were formed alongside emotional awareness to deal with the complexities of the new way of living. Empathy was important in order to tell how a predator or prey might react with the added function of deeper understanding between individuals. All of these elements worked together to further increase intelligence. So it went.

 

It had taken humans thousands of years of living primitively before any important developments happened and so the planets with intelligent life commonly seemed to be in this primitive stage. Though it was the evolutionary precursors to these beings that made each civilization unique in some way, as whatever fuelled the creature had shaped it's biology, it further went on to decide on the creatures early culture. On a planet that had a figure of eight orbit around two stars, the primitive beings main diet consisted of honey made from insects similar to bees, though the stings from these insects were incredibly painful and could cause paralysis. The beings in question had grown intelligent through attempting to procure this valuable honey by inventing things like armour and straws. When David arrived the more intelligent tribes had discovered that they could use smoke to make the bees placid. They had set up large bonfires around hives and ate as much honey as they liked, only having to carry bees out of the range of the smoke if they wished for more. It was a strange relationship, and stranger to watch the aliens live amongst the smoke carrying armfuls of bees in their arms that dripped with red honey but David decided it can't have been much stranger than the first attempts at domesticating dogs. On another planet the natives were these bird things that laid their eggs on the shallow oceans. Rather than diet forcing them to advance it was a case of defending the churning pools of unborn birds against the spiny things that lived underwater. Though they could defend against a few at a time, the predators were beginning to show signs of intelligence themselves as they started to work together to wipe out whole water nests. The population began to dwindle to just a few hundred until the birds found they could drop a certain type of rock into the ocean that would explode after a few minutes. They began to stockpile these highly reactive rocks on the beaches, using them as bombs until they had managed to wipe out almost all adversaries. Though once the natural predators dwindled they had began to turn on each other. David saw whole flocks of birds battling above the seas, explosions sending up the white surf every now and then when a bomb was misdropped or occasionally hitting it's target of eggs. David only saw these cultures over a few days or weeks and so only had a snapshot of life on other worlds, though he began to see certain things that were common in all forms of life. The main thing being that life was always a struggle.

 

As aliens would rise out of the depths of animalism and begin their journey of finding their place in the universe, it was always a tale of struggle. There was millions of different ways of living and it often took thousands of years before something close to an ideal was found, with the finding of this ideal often coming at a great cost. Empires would rise and try to control those not in the empire, only to be overthrown by it's subjects. Or these empires would swell so large that the central form of power would lose control and the empire would become fractured, splitting into smaller parts or being absorbed by others. Though the forms of life could be wildly different, it seemed as though this teething process occured in most civilizations. Just as energy was the most important thing in deciding the biology of the aliens, it was the attempted control that decided the cultural identity of the civilizations. On every planet of a decent size there often rose several different types of culture, often totally unaware of the others existence yet inevitably coming to blows at some point. Though the wars fought didn't always involve millions of aliens and the use of weapons. On one planet a single soldier was chosen from two warring states, meeting on a quiet battlefield. They sat across from each other and then proceeded to throw a ball backwards and forwards. It was quite odd to watch, the two aliens sprinting backwards and forwards for hours, catching and throwing a small, round ball to each other. On and on it went, leaving David unsure if it was possible that the ball would ever fall until one of the soldiers fumbled. The ball bounced of his head and rolled along the floor so it was just a few feet in front of him. He fell to his knees and brought out a knife that it poked beneath his chin and with a quick flick of the wrist had cut his head in two. The winning soldier then walked to the first city they had been at war with and declared himself the winner. Mass suicide ensued. On another planet the war was conducted through animals specially bred and trained for battle by proxy. Things that looked like stag beetles charged two-storey tall horses that stomped about the battlefield proudly whilst the aliens watched on excitedly. There was another war fought secretly, where agents would infiltrate enemy civilizations and attempt to influence others around them until a side won through conceptual conversion. And of course, there were wars controlled by the rich and fought by the poor.

 

Though these various histories were to be punctuated now and then by large scale warfare, aliens would make just as many advances in philosophy, science and art during periods of peace. No planet was totally devoted to warfare, just as no planet was totally devoted to reason, it seemed as though a balance was needed for the civilization to advance at all. On one of the planets in which the aliens had evolved with no predators, there was very little fighting amongst the intelligent species, let alone large scale combat. The aliens busied themselves with contemplation of the natural world and poetry, they resembled kittens somewhat yet had long proboscus they used to drink nectar from underground flowers. These kitten aliens lived quite serene lifestyles on the rolling pastures of their home, living in tents and singing sweet songs to each other regarding the beauty of the world. David had decided to talk to these aliens and found that they had been living this way for tens of thousands of years and wanted for nothing. David could see that these aliens were quite content and was aware that he was judging them by his own, human, standards. Yet they had no proper scientific knowledge. The culture that they had was more or less the same as it had been at the start. The aliens knew of personal loss but not of the horrors that beings were capable of, and David considered that it was the knowledge of brutality that enriched his own life. There wasn't darkness without light. And though the aliens were content in their lack of knowledge of the structure of reality, David considered that by coming closer to understanding the truth of a thing brought you somewhat closer to understanding the truth of everything. Knowing that a sun was a mixture of gases floating in space didn't detract from it's beauty but increased it. The gentle folk would never know that all that they could see had been made from the dust of stars and that everything was connected in some way. They may feel it, though for David objectively knowing something was superior in some ways to a fleeting emotion. Individuals, civilizations, entire planets could die out yet the laws of nature would still continue regardless. David wished them good luck and continued on his journey.

 

It seemed that a majority of advanced societies had their roots in story telling. Even science was a way of telling a story about a certain thing in the world, albeit quite a rigid story. It was the telling of stories that helped make what wasn't the self part of the self. The real into the unreal. The ancient stories of proto-civilizations used to explain the world around them or to tell of heroes and villains, warn of dangerous beasts and strange places and everything in between often became the foundation of a religion. David had quite a loose definition of religion after seeing millions of different gods, though the underlying aspects tended to be a belief system shared by a group with certain acts which could be undertaken in order to influence the world around them. It was through stories that religion was shared from group to group, and these stories would often be the genesis of arts. Art influenced by religion could go on for hundreds of years, sometimes indefinately. From cave painting to totem making, to the sculptures of kings and queens, to buildings of worship, religion and art went hand in hand until it came to be that artwork began to become transgressive. It no longer became a means of telling grand stories but to share ideas, often subverting the very religions that had formed it. The art of aliens varied in importance and gradiosity. On one planet the aliens had entirely dedicated themselves to communicating through art, relishing in the ambiguity of their messages whilst struggling to understand others. Some planets seemed to have no art at all, though certain forms kept appearing through architecture and design. Aliens on an ice world created magnificent sculptures coloured from their blood, by the time David had visited them they had just discovered genetic cloning and a debate had swept the planet as to whether or not they should clone the greatest artists or to leave them locked in their sculptures. And on other planets the line between art and everything else was blurred. David acknowledged his lack of understanding of alien races wasn't deep enough by just visiting for a few days and so things that apparently served no purpose he considered to be art only for him to find they were elaborate traps for insects or tools to remove undigested bones from the aliens stomachs. It pleased David from time to time that the art critics on the most distant of alien worlds claimed that everything had been done, when just a few light years away an entire moon was being transformed into a statue of alien genitals which would constantly churn in space or that in a different direction a species of intelligent slime was in the final verse of a song that took a hundred years to sing. David wasn't able to draw or sculpt or dance or sing, though he was quite pleased with the statues of himself that were spread throughout the galaxy. Once he even came across a lone alien in a ship that seemed intent on collecting these statues, she already had a couple of hundred. David didn't have the heart to tell her that there were statues in other galaxies and at the event horizons of black holes, but wished her luck all the same.

 

As busy as planets could be, space itself was relatively quiet. Though this was because a planet was tiny compared to the space between them. Still, David occasionally came across a spaceship of some description and the explorers were almost always pleased to meet another traveller. Though the Alliance made up a majority of space traffic in the bit of the Milky Way Earth occupied, the Milky Way itself was enormous. There were several other groups of aliens spread throughout the sea of stars, each travelling from planet to spaceport in little crafts. There were war-like collectives, ones that wanted to spread a religion through the universe, another obsessed with science, others with pleasure. The spaceships ranged in size from a small car to enormous planets. Some races had built ultrastructures around their suns and used vast engines to move around the galaxy whilst other, stranger modes of transport cropped up once in a while. Holoships controlled remotely, travelling at the speed of light zipped straight through asteroid fields containing screaming, feathered things that wanted to travel to the centre of the Milky Way. Another ship didn't have any kind of propulsion but had designed to simply build itself larger and larger in order to cover distances. There were pirates and derelicts, fleets of sleek stellar ships and chunky, battered ships travelling at just a few hundred miles an hour. David even came across a seed pod that he recognized from the tree planet that he had explored almost a year ago.

 

Alien technology interested David almost as much as the aliens themselves did. It was quite different from what humans had, yet to solve certain problems some underlying designs seemed common. For instance, cogs and belts were used in some technologies and electricity was quite a useful means of transferring energy. To travel across far distances something like a car or train was quite useful, though the designs themselves would have to accomodate alien forms so on first glance it was sometimes difficult to deduce what something was for. There were also variations on technology, so instead of binoculars a particular species had biodourlars in order to smell things from a far distance and rather than use coloured paint to decorate their houses they had paint that smelled strongly of a certain thing. The fundamentals of chemistry and physics were universal so there was a certain linearity to what could be built anf for what purpose. And as it was on Earth, technology started off as simple, stationary parts before becoming more and more complex up to a point where machines were needed to build more machines. At around this point in a civilizations history some form of consumerism would be deeply ingrained into an industrial society which had some form of economy but it wasn't the only way that society could exist. Though there were ridiculous examples of aliens adopting a new model of some gadget only to discard it a few months later whilst extreme poverty still existed on the planet, other races were much more conservative when it came to the upgrading of technology, mostly due to a lack of resources or some past event which made the aliens not wish for consumer technology beyond their needs. There seemed to be some correlation between what a society wanted and it's technological progress though. As evolution benefited from competition, with species becoming extinct to make room for new ones, so did technology. In the more advanced societies David found that they were quite materialistic, yet the benefits of technology such as those in medicine or the supply of energy were good for all. It seemed to be a strange kind of paradox that technological advancement came at the cost of losing one's humanity, or whichever word the alien would use to describe the positive, instinctual elements the culture regarded as important. And just as how intelligence amongst biological creatures meant a new era would begin, the beginning of intelligence amongst machines meant something just as novel and dangerous and beautiful would begin.

 

Some aliens would get so far only to succumb to disaster. There was the disasters in nature. Asteroids so big they would punch holes through planets and split them like eggs, earthquakes and volcanoes that would shake and burn entire planets to nothing, changes in atmosphere that would cause enormous hurricanes, epidemics, solar flares, droughts, famines and variations of all of these. Then there were the ones the aliens were responsible for, and perhaps these were in some ways sadder. Warfare, pollution, huge industrial accidents and technology built that was more advanced that it would go out of control. David watched the last days of one planet in which they had experimented with new medical technology that would replicate injured cells. The technology worked too well and anything that had ever been alive was brought back, causing a deep sea of aliens that scrambled on top of each other to reach the top most layer, the ones below caught in a flux of being unable to die. On another planet an artificial intelligence had been slowly integrated into every aspect of the aliens lives until it had decided one day to kill itself. As the current generation of aliens hadn't known how to do anything for themselves they soon reverted back to a much more primitive state, tribes wandered the ruins of once great cities in the hopes that the artificial intelligence would one day return to save them all from themselves. Invasion by aliens sometimes occured, though this was quite rare. Most space-faring aliens were more intent to study other species than try to live on an already occupied planet. On one planet the aliens had received a distant transmission from other aliens, the short message had information on computers far beyond the level the aliens were at. When David arrived the aliens were about to try and implement some of these concepts into new technologies, only to find it had been a ruse. The instructions were for parts of a robot that quickly set about assembling itself and began to destroy the major cities in arcs of laser light. David had to transport this alien machine onto a lone moon on the other side of the galaxy in the hopes that it wouldn't broadcast to any nearby planets with further instructions.

 

Of course it wasn't the conclusion for every planet. It seemed for every civilization that collapsed for one reason, the same potential disaster would bring a different race closer together and on to better things. It was the challenges of life that made a race stronger, smarter and more adaptable. Some of the aliens David visited had technology far beyond that of Earth and lived in utopias with problems David couldn't quite comprehend. Other aliens decided to travel the frontiers of space and so busied themselves with it's vast, unknown quantity that David doubted any thing would ever truly understand fully. Other races still had advanced so far that David couldn't communicate with them, these few beings on the cusp of experience unimaginable. And once David had seen all of these beings scattered across all of the planets and ships in the Milky Way and the few other galaxies he'd visited, he wondered about himself. Where did humans fit into this cosmic system of life? They were by no means the most advanced race or even basic. Perhaps about half way between the humble beginnings in which intelligence first sparked and the various conclusions that species came to. They had certain advantages over other races, such as a natural curiousity, but this didn't mean that they were the best in the universe at it. There was a species of hovering eyeballs that had that accolade. The most remarkable thing about humans as far as David could see that they were remarkably average. David wasn't sure if he had decided this as he was a human and had a certain bias, but as far as he could tell humans were surprisingly average at everything. If there was a bell shaped curve for every aspect of life, such as size, intelligence, scientific discovery, mortality, predisposition to violence and so on, David would put humans at about the middle of everything. And David was okay with that.

 

20.

 

A year and a few months had passed since David first teleported. He had lost count of the planets he had visited, the aliens he had seen and the distances he must have travelled. The Star Map he used on his ship had been looked through cover to cover and he felt at a bit of a loose end. As much as he enjoyed visiting distant alien races and observing the various cultures, he was slowly becoming somewhat bored of it. Once you had seen one race of surface dwelling bipeds that used machines to advance the means of production which would fund research into better machines you had seen them all. David drank a cup of tea and watched television in his dressing gown, wondering if he should just stick to transporting around Earth. There was still so much he hadn't seen on his home planet, not to mention the foods he hadn't eaten, the music he hadn't listened to or the people he'd yet to talk to. He couldn't remember the last time he'd talked to a human in fact. David decided to go and visit his parents, this time he'd travel by car. It'd be quite a novelty to travel so slowly, he'd be able to see all sorts of things as he drove around. He began to get excited when the television broadcast was interuppted by emergency news footage. David looked at it. Footage from Japan and Australia of a UFO. Though this wasn't the usual blurry smudge. It was obviously a huge alien spaceship high in the atmosphere.

"Bollocks." said David. He walked to the spare room and looked at his astronaut suit.

 

David appeared on the bridge of the ship and looked around at the aliens around him.

"Hello David. We were just about to contact you." said a fish-looking thing covered in cybernetic implants.

"What are you doing here?"

"We've come to see you of course. Wanted to see what your home planet looked like up close."

"Don't you have some sort of rules about contacting species based on their level of technology or something?"

"Yes, but your species is just on the cusp of this anyway. And after we've met you we thought it would be good to come here to this...Earth is it?" said the fish. One of the aliens laughed.

"I'm not sure if humanity is ready to meet aliens."

"Oh, but you did. And look at how it worked out for the galaxy." said the fish.

"Yes, David. The one who can be anywhere, ha. The Alliance is curious, you've been a hard thing to contact. Slippery." said something inside a suit, waving an armoured tentacle towards David. David looked around at the crew and then out of the viewing window behind him. They were hovering above Europe at the moment, the Atlantic glittered below as it stretched around the planet.

"I've not been avoiding you, I've just had better things to do."

"It's a shame, we could have done with your help. More Pantheon creatures attack every day. Death, control, forced mutation, cultural hi-jacking, gravitational meddling, manipulation of events that our supercomputers struggle to comprehend. There's one that shrinks things and keeps them in these plastic baubles on his ship, such fascinating hubris." whispered an alien that looked like a blanket.

"It's not my problem. Everything that happens happens for a reason. If anything I shouldn't have intervened in the first place, I'm an anomaly." said David. The fish thing got up and began to walk over to David on four bony legs.

"But are you David? There are no others that can do what you do, we have been looking since we knew of your existence. We have tried experimenting with teleportation with...negative results."

"I am. I don't know why I can do what I do but, I just do it anyway."

"Have you considered why though? Why is it that an individual out of some backwater species is given such power?" said the fish thing.

"My species isn't backwater. It's just starting." said David. He was starting to get angry. "Besides, what are you doing here? Don't you think it's a bit threatening?"

"Do you?" whispered the thin blanket alien.

"Do you always answer a question with a question? Of course I think it's threatening. I don't understand why you'd turn up orbiting my home planet. They must be going crazy down there." said David. One of the aliens laughed again.

"They are. Look." said the fish thing. The view of Earth was replaced with news broadcasts from around Earth. World leaders were delivering emergency speeches. The army was mobilizing. The people didn't know how to react.

"Well then, can you leave?" said David.

"Not yet. We need to know two things, though there is just one answer."

"And what's that?"

"One. If any other members of your species are capable of instantenous transportation. Two. How you can teleport."

"I don't understand, what's the answer to that?"

"I hate to answer your question with a question again, but so it goes. We must study you and other members of your species. Just a small sample, perhaps one percent of your population."

"What's that?" said David.

"About seventy million or so, give or take a few thousand." said the fish thing.

"There's no way that's going to happen."

"Don't worry David, they will be returned safely in good time. It will take time to study all of them though."

"Eighteen years." muttered the blanket. David looked around. Were they being serious? He supposed so, to travel all the way here. Seventy million people. And himself. He was responsible for this. If he hadn't gone exploring the universe none of this would have happened.

"And if I say no?" said David.

"What do you mean? You have no say in the matter. It has been decided already." said the fish thing.

"So why are you talking to me?"

"Well, it just so happens that you're quite dangerous. We thought we would tell you that we have a magnetic bomb pointed at that world below. It will strip away your planet's magnetosphere, then your atmosphere will be blasted into space. You'll kill everything on your planet if you try to fight back." said the fish thing.

"What if I kill all of you, teleport all the bombs away and then bring your ship down?" said David slowly.

"Even if you try to stop us the Alliance will just send another ship. We mean you no harm David. It would be beneficial to us all if you came in peacefully." said the fish thing.

"And if I agree, then what? You'll examine me?"

"Yes, basically. No harm will come to you. We just wish to undertake certain experiments. Imagine if your power could be harnessed. The universe would no longer be so big but instead as small as this room." said the blanket.

"Maybe the universe isn't meant to be like that." said David. He looked at the aliens around him then back to the news reports on the screen. Cameras on Earth were pointing up at the ship.

"Who are you to decide what the universe is meant to be? It has been decided that this is the best course of action. We could have decided you are too dangerous and your species equally so, killed the lot of you and you'd just be a footnote in the history of time." said the tentacled suit.

"Be quiet." said the blanket.

"Ha, I am only half joking with him. He knows what the Alliance is." said the tentacled suit.

"And how would you go about taking one percent of the human race to study?" said David.

"Well, we were hoping you'd give us a hand with that. We could use holograms to make us more appealing, but it wouldn't have the same impact coming from us." said the fish thing.

"Oh right." said David.

"Have you decided then? Will you help the universe?" said the fish thing. David turned to him and smiled inside his helmet.

"Of course." he said. Then disappeared.

 

The fish thing looked at the spot where David had been then the view shifted to a distant nebula. He had been teleported seventy billion miles away, half of his body missing. He tried to scream as his body began to depressurise but there was no oxygen to make the sound. The blanket alien quickly pressed the command to launch the magnetic bombs toward Earth as the astronaut flashed onto the bridge again to teleport a slab of rock where the tentacled alien in the space suit had been standing, leaving it's limbs twisting and contorting on the hard metal floor. The bombs were loaded into the torpedo bay deep in the ship and were primed. Their guidance computers were flicked on in a few microseconds and targeted the planets core before the propulsion rockets screamed into life. Two rockets sailed from the ship. David transported just above them both, trying to guess their trajectories as best he could. Too late and he'd miss them. Too early and he could be hit by one. He also needed to transport far, far away momentarily so that he wouldn't simply transport them to his vantage point a few metres away. He looked at one. Then to an empty bit of space at the fringe of the Milky Way. Then where he guessed the missile was. The propulsion rocket thumped into his back before spinning away. The warhead was far away. David looked at the other, sweat running into his eyes. This one was beginning to reach the outer atmosphere. Away to empty space. Back. He missed it. Again into empty space. Again he missed it, this time just a few feet away. He was just about to teleport away again when the missile began to flash. Segments of it began to unfold and a dozen or so spheres about the size of tennis balls disconnected and began to fly off in different directions.

"Shit." said David. He had to move quickly. Without thinking exactly where he was going to teleport them to, he flashed around the galaxy quickly, pulling the microbombs out of the air. Once or twice they were replaced with statues of David made from moon rock. Faster and faster they fell towards Earth. They started to glow red as they began to burn in the atmosphere. Through the clouds. David kept teleporting as quickly as he could. Just three left. Oribiting a pulsar. Two left. Where were they? He transported himself frantically until making one of them out. Hayley's comet. Missed it. A desert planet. One left. Lower and lower now. He was over the sea. David span around. Where was it? He couldn't miss the last one. Not now. He saw a trail. Too steep to be a plane. He transported towards it. The small black ball was tumbling through the air, just a few hundred feet above the water. David transported away and back again. He'd missed it! He watched in horror as it hit the water with a huge splash of steam.

"No, no!" David screamed. He teleport below the water and could just make out the sphere in the darkening waves. Lights on it had begun to flicker on. It was primed! David transported away then back underwater. He couldn't see it anywhere after looking around into the sea. He'd done it. David floated up to the surface to look at where he'd transported the magnetic bomb to. High above him he could just make out the ship imploding, it's hull scrunching up like an empty packets of crisps. He grinned.

 

He allowed himself a few hours on Earth before leaving again. He drank tea and watched the news reports about the alien ship, nobody knew exactly what had happened though there was some footage of what looked like bombs being fired from the craft only for them to disappear. There was even some blurry footage of him, though as he had been moving so fast the camera's hadn't been able to pick out any detail. The government's were still unclear as to what they wanted to say about the visiting alien ship but the public had decided that it certainly happened and were crying out for more information, where had the ship gone, had it fired missiles, why hadn't the aliens made any sort of contact and so on. David wondered if he should post something on the internet about what had actually happened but guessed that the truth would be lost in a million conspiracy theories. David wondered what his next move was. He had to have the upper hand, it would take a while for the Alliance to find out that their ship had been destroyed. Though they must also have had to have a plan in place in case he had retaliated. David wondered for a moment if the ship was a real Alliance ship and maybe a decoy sent by one of it's enemies, though there would be no way David would ever properly know. He just had to go with his gut. And it was telling him that the Alliance had been responsible. David knew he had to strike back, to make sure that the Earth wasn't attacked again. He even had a plan.

 

The Alliance computers broadcasted messages to each other through nodes that lay a web across half of the Milky Way.

"It seems the Alliance has made a mistake."

"Now what?"

"The Alliance always had a contingency for this." said Napoleon.

"A solar detonation? Seems a bit excessive to me."

"This is an excessive circumstance. This individual has the capacity to destroy the entire empire."

"I agree with Napoleon. I've calculated that the chance of more of his race having similar abilities to be quite high as well."

"Swan, this isn't an oligarchy. Agreement means nothing." said one.

"I know. There is only ever one course of action. The one that happens. We all know."

"And so what is there to discuss?"

"Are your circuits in there correct configuration? There is everything to discuss Oneiroi." said Swan. Oneiroi was quiet.

"Oneiroi?" said Napoleon.

"I can't reach it. Do you think he's been destroyed?" said Swan.

"Already? How would David even go about it?" said Napoelon.

"I'll try and access the last recordings, maybe there was some malfunction in the network. Shall we contact The Mass?" said Swan.

"Not yet. Napoleon will try some of the other computers, see if they've seen anything." said Napoleon. He sent out information requests to smaller supercomputers dotted around the Milky Way but none had seen David or what had happened to Oneiroi. Napoleon didn't even think that David knew of Oneiroi's existence. Must have been that ship he had. He knew he should have destroyed it when he had the chance.

"None of the others have seen what happened. Have you had any luck?" said Napoleon. It was quiet. "Swan?" No response. Maybe he should try and contact The Mass. Though even that could be difficult for Napoleon. A supercomputer the size of a sun that lived at the event horizon of the galaxy. It had spent the last few thousand years in deep thought for a problem nobody knew the subject of. Napoleon had to shift his entire processing power in order to begin to be able to communicate with the behemoth when David showed up on his surface.

"Hello Napoleon." he said cheerfully.

 

The astronaut stood on the surface of the blue ring oribiting the star. He looked down at the other rings below, the landscapes marked every now and then with some fantastic building. He didn't know how many aliens lived there. Maybe many more times the population of Earth. Maybe not.

"David. The ship that was sent to Earth was a mistake, they misunderstood orders."

"Oh?" said David. He sat down.

"Yes, the Alliance just wanted to observe your planet. There was a mistake." said Napoleon.

"Oh that's alright then. I forgive you." said David. Napoleon wasn't sure what to say.

"What happened to the other supercomputers?"

"Those? They're gone." said David.

"Gone? What does David mean?"

"Destroyed I suppose. Or do you consider them alive? If that's the case I'd say that they're dead." said David.

"How?"

"Well, you're the only one left so I suppose I can explain. I had a feeling that you'd try and attack Earth a while ago, I guessed I would be considered dangerous in some way and you'd probably try and kill me at some point. So I've spent the last few months trying to understand the Alliance, how it works. It was hard at first, few know how you actually work and fewer still would be willing to tell me. But I've been around and it turns out the Alliance isn't as well liked as you wish to appear to be. It didn't take me long to piece together how it all worked, that computers ran the show."

"David wrong. Every member of the Alliance has equal say in what the Alliance does." said Napoleon.

"You're lying. The Alliance is a front for a few computers that dictate how they think the universe should run. Races thought to be useful or of no consequence are absorbed and the others declared enemies. Of course, your enemies do tend to be quite dangerous, they'd have to be to be of any threat to you. And though they may cause pain and suffering, what they do is just a drop in the ocean compared to what the Alliance has been doing for thousands of years." said David.

"You've been lied to. The Alliance is a peaceful group of civilizations trying to make the universe a better place."

"A better place for the Alliance maybe."

"How did you know about the supercomputers?"

"Ah, that was the interesting bit. It didn't take me long to find out who runs the Alliance, but it took me quite a bit longer to find you. I'd already met you of course and saw nothing like you in all the Alliance ships I visited. I guessed that you were hiding in plain sight. The others were quite a bit trickier."

"Who told you?"

"As I said, you have enemies. The surviving members of one planet were quite happy to tell me that a strange ship had crashed on their planet a while ago. Then a disease came. It was quite clever to hide one of your computers inside the brains of a planet's indiginous people." said David.

"It was the best way for Oneiroi to work. He was the bridge between us and the organic."

"By enslaving an entire planet? You should be ashamed."

"How did you turn Oneiroi off?"

"That wasn't too difficult. There is a thing that lives inside a moon that can build any sort of lifeform. I asked him to build me a flesh eating virus. It ravaged the planet as quickly as a flame burns a dead tree."

"David has killed an entire planet."

"You already killed them all in the same way so long ago. I made them free." said David quietly.

"And Swan?"

"Is that it's name? That was a bit trickier, a thin layer of dust spread out across a few lightyears. I knew I had to destroy it all at once before it could warn the others."

"So how did David do it?"

"I transported a black hole to it's centre. I know I've done it before, but it works quite well really. This Swan computer probably thinks that it's the last one left as it can't contact you. Might have missed a few clouds, though I'm not too worried about it really."

"And Napoleon?"

"What about you?" said David.

"How are you going to destroy Napoleon?" said Napoleon.

"I didn't say I was. I know you are responsible for running an intergalactic empire of billions upon billions of lives, it would be foolish of me to destroy the only remaining computer system capable of running it, wouldn't it?" said David.

"Yes." said Napoleon.

"On the other hand if I let you live you'll probably try and kill me again and my planet will never be safe. Not to mention the possible misery you could cause for the rest of the galaxy long after I've gone anyway." said David.

"What is David's solution?"

"Well, this was a little sneaky of me I suppose. Something I think you'd admire. Once I worked out how to stop the others and that you'd be the only one left, I would tell your enemies your approximate location. They're on their way now in fact. I suppose I owe them that much after killing one or two of them for you." said David.

"David will cause thousands to die."

"Maybe. Maybe not. You do what you have to." said David. Off in the distance ships began to appear, slowing down after coming out of light speed. Aliens that worshipped pain travelling in ships as black as night, other aliens that could only reproduce by laying eggs in other beings. There was a space robot that the Alliance had been hunting for half a century, battle-scarred and driven insane with revenge. A ship packed with invisible monsters that lived off the sonic vibrations caused by screams. Pirates that wanted to steal anything they could, computers from other alliances that saw this Alliance as competition. A cloud of concious antimatter from another galaxy that wished to observe destruction yet by simply being there began to cause fluctuations in space. Then there were the elaborate, ornate, beautiful ships of the Pantheon piloted by single cyborgs that wished the destruction of Napoleon and everything that the Alliance stood for. They were the enemies of order. Things that didn't belong. Nightmares. David and Napoleon watched them silently advance toward them, with more ships appearing every second.

"Goodbye Napoleon." said David. He teleported away as the first lasers shot through the darkness.

 

21.

 

David decided it was time to visit Om. He hadn't seen the android since he had left and wondered how far his involvement with the Alliance went. As he'd been on the ship before he could teleport there just by thinking about it.

"David! It's been a while." said Om. David smiled.

"How's the edge of the universe going?"

"I'm getting there. Maybe. More matter behind me than there is in front anyway." said Om. The android changed shape back to the more human form David was used to.

"So what's been happening back in the Milky Way? Anything different?"

"I've stopped the Alliance." said David, looking carefully at the android. It's form became loose for a second before snapping back.

"What? You've stopped the Alliance?"

"Yeah. Well, at least the ones in control. Will be interesting to see how it turns out." said David.

"Oh dear. It was bound to happen sooner or later though I suppose." said Om.

"You know, we never really talked much about the Alliance." said David.

"No, not really. Planets to explore, aliens to visit, you know." said Om.

"What exactly was your relationship with them?" said David.

"I told you, freelance. You don't think I'm some kind of spy do you?" said Om.

"Well, not really."

"Good. As I'd be a terrible spy. I didn't report on most of the planets you visited, I gave you means to communicate with almost any alien race, I gave you my ship. To be honest, they wanted me to be a bit more involved in your actions but, I don't know. Not something I wanted to do really." said Om.

"Fair enough." said David. He didn't totally trust Om yet but felt somewhat relieved. It seemed to David he was telling the truth anyway. If you couldn't trust your friends, they weren't really your friends.

"Anything else?" said Om. David went on to tell him of his various adventures through space and the android listened intently, sometimes excusing himself as he made small course adjustments every now and then. Once David was finished Om nodded.

"So now you've come here to explore the edge of the universe? I'm glad for some company." said Om.

"Nah, I just popped in to say hello really." said David. Om tilted his head.

"What about the time dilation?" said Om.

"Eh?" said David. Om walked over to a table and waved his hand. A green three dimensional grid appeared in the air.

"This is the space time continuum represented by a grid. This is what space and time would look like if galaxies didn't exist." said Om. David nodded. "But heavy objects, such as stars slow down the speed of time." It then reached into the grid and started to pinch areas close together. "These  represent areas of high gravity. But think about the gravity towards the centre of a galaxy. Hundreds of thousands of stars. If you were to go there time would have seemed to have stopped. That's why the centre of galaxies seem to rotate slower than their edges." said Om, then began to expand areas.

"Meanwhile, outside of the galaxies, towards the voids, gravity has little drag on time and therefore time seems to speed up. Everything is much faster. The birth and dead of galaxies could be watched in just a few years."

"Wait, how fast is time here?"

"A minute here can be a day or a year or forever. Time fluctuates on such an extreme level throughout space that such points of reference no longer matter."

"Well how much time is passing in relation to a star on the edge of a galaxy?"

"The Milky Way?" said the android, looking back toward the table. David guided him to Earth on the map. The android looked at the hologram and began to draw a red line from the centre of the galaxy. Some words began to appear on the line, measurements of time. At the centre of the Milky Way time was labelled as infinite. The length of time began to get shorter the further away from the centre. Billions of years. A millenium. A century. A decade. A year. A day. A second.

"Now, bear in mind this is a crude measurement, not taking into account pockets of high gravity from black holes and so forth. But our relative distance from similair influences on time dilation roughly means that as a minute passes here about a thousand years have passed on this location." said Om, pointing at an arm of the milky way.

"What?"

"Time is much faster here, as I have explained."

"So how much time has passed so far."

"Well you've been here for about quarter of an hour, so I'd roughly say fifteen thousand five hundred years." said Om. David felt cold.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I'm sorry, I thought you'd have known. Any explorer of the voids knows this, surely." said Om.

"Excuse me a second." David teleported back to Earth.

 

The Earth was empty. No oceans or forests, ice or cloud. The moon was gone to. David looked down at the brown and grey planet and wasn't sure what to think. The world had ended. Everybody he'd ever known was long dead, maybe he was the last human. It was too much for him to take in. He let himself drift above what had been his home, looking down onto the topography of lines, the skeletons of cities amongst the deserts looked like the canals on Mars. He teleported down to the planet's surface, maybe there was something left, something must have survived.

 

The sky was black and full of stars which met the rocky horizon. Europe was a desert. David began to walk, the harsh sun casting a long shadow onto the cold earth that crunched beneath his feet like tightly packed snow. He walked for a long time and saw no sign of life. There were rusted bits of metal here and there, though their original form was long gone and all that remained were curiousities. He transported himself home and found himself amongst the shadows of sky-scrapers. They were covered in dust and went high in the air, nothing he recognized remained. Fifteen thousand years. What had happened since he'd left? He walked down an empty road and in through the open doors of a building. The interior was dilapidated, the dust covered every surface. David brushed some away from a picture frame, revealing a screen. The image underneath had burned onto it's surface, several frames of what must have been some holographic landscape were now a ghost-like blur that David couldn't identify. He walked on, boots kicking through the dust. He remembered that dust was mostly made up of skin. At least it had been. Was he walking on the dead generations of humanity? He supposed he was at least walking through the last of civilization. David walked up a stairwell and onto the floor above, needing to turn on the light on his suit. It cut through the darkness of the corridor, playing against the metallic doors. What had happened to humanity? Had they abandoned Earth for some reason? Maybe to avoid disaster? Maybe they had outgrown it. David entered a room and found it totally empty. The dust hadn't settled here, though the windows were dark as if it had been snowing. He went back to the corridor and down the stairs. Maybe they hadn't left Earth but had simply died out. Global warming. Alien invasion. War. David shivered slightly before walking on.

 

He went around Earth to see what remained. The pyramids still stood, though were surrounded on all sides by huge buildings that made them seem a lot less impressive. One had collapsed in on itself, the debris lay in the streets like huge, ridiculous fossils. In the middle of where the Atlantic had been rested ships of various sizes and designs, rusted hulls that were cracked and dead. A pile of plastic and concrete as big as a mountain stood silently, the ruins of some floating city maybe. Most of America was just miles after miles of city, the roads and train-lines empty. The few vechiles that remained had disintegrated, even metal rots eventually. Asia was similairl built up, though here and there were craters. David didn't know if they were from bombs or asteroids. Or if they'd been the cause of the end or had come after. The Himalayas were still there, though no snow capped them. David was surprised to see Australia had a dead jungle covering most of it, preserved by the coldness of space. Though the only thing that remained were the stumps of trees with the bark gone, leaving acre upon acre of what looked to be broken bones. Africa was similair, though the silent cities were quite heavily built up in certain areas. He had seen no sign of life. Earth was dead. David lay down in the dirt and closed his eyes.

 

When he woke he wondered for a second if it had been a dream, though the dreams he'd had had been less frightening than reality. But what about the rest of the solar system? Maybe they had built a colony or a space station somewhere. A lot could happen in such a long time. David decided to explore further, leaving Earth empty once more. With the sun at his back he tracked down Mars and found that it had been colonized, as were it's moons. Though the cities were empty. The same went for Mercury, the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake and Eris. All had cities built on them and none had any signs of life. Not even robots. It seemed as though humans had survived long enough to explore space more than they had in his time at least. David tried to imagine what it must have been like. New frontiers, discoveries yet to be made, what humanity's first proper contact with alien life must have been like. People must have succeeded in some way, fifteen thousand years was a long time. It may be that even if he were to meet any surviving members of the human race they would be unrecognizable to him, perhaps becoming cybernetic or uploading their minds onto spaceships. David didn't know and could find no clue as to the fate of humanity. And whichever it was, it wasn't the people that David was from. His world was thousands of years old. It would be the equivalent of a man from the late stone-age appearing in the twenty first century. David was ancient. As far as he was concerned his world was still alive, he was just in the wrong time. He thought for a moment about seeing what the rest of the galaxy was now like but instead decided to go see Om. It no longer made any difference to him if a thousand or a million years passed. Before he went he transported back to Earth one last time and left a statue of himself at the North Pole. The silent statue made of rock pointed upwards. It was a message of hope, though it was more for David than anybody else.

 

David appeared back on Om's ship.

"That was quick." said Om.

"Not really."

"How was Earth?"

"Empty. No kind of life I could see."

"I'm sorry David. I thought you knew, I'd have told you to keep away otherwise." said Om.

"It doesn't matter now. I'm only really stopping off here myself."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going forward. I'm going to go to the edge of the universe. Then a bit further." said David.

"Good. But, you know. Nobody knows what's there. If it's even possible to get there." said Om.

"What do you think exists outside the universe?"

"Nothing. Anything you can think of would exist inside the boundaries of the universe. If you were to somehow transport out of it I think the universe would just make a little pocket that'd bring you back. Or that there'd be no laws of physics, which are important for the atoms in your body to stay as atoms. Or maybe it'd just be another universe."

"But what if there's something else?"

"Like what?" said Om.

"What if...what if there's god?" said David.

"I don't understand."

"A creator. Something that made the universe. Maybe they are just outside of this one." said David.

"Well, anything's possible. But I don't understand your logic." said Om.

"How did the universe get started then?" said David.

"It just did. If there was a time before the universe it doesn't matter as we can't observe it. Then at some point all of matter exploded out from a central point. We think." said Om.

"But why?"

"I don't know. But if you are to lay creation at the feet of a being you must ask yourself who made that being? And who made that being that made that being? And so on. The most straight forward answer is usually the correct one and in this case it's more straight forward to think that the universe always would have happened just as stars forming will always happen, which go on to form planets, which life evolves on, and so on. It is a series of reactions which make sense given the parameters of physics, chemistry and biology."

"But why?" said David. Om laughed.

"I don't know David. Things that have thought have always asked such a thing. Do you think you'll ever know?"

"There's a chance I might."

"Of course. You have to remember time dialation though." said Om. He went over to the table with the grid again. "If, at the centre of a massive object time slows down and gets faster as you move away, time will go extremely fast at the edge. The whole future of the galaxies would happen almost in an instant. If my ship was to take a billion years to reach you, it would only seem like a few seconds from your perspective. The time difference is going to be huge, once you go there's no going back." said Om.

"Okay." said David. He took his helmet off and rubbed at his face. He hadn't remembered crying. "But that means I might see the end of the universe. What then?"

"I don't know. What happened before this universe? There could be nothing, there could be a compacting of all matter resulting in another explosion. Though the next universe could be entirely different from this one."

"Or exactly the same?"

"Maybe. I don't know."

"Okay. I think it's worth the risk." said David. He put his helmet back on.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. How many people get to witness the end of everything?" smiled David.

"Well, I might see you there then." said Om.

"Hopefully." said David. He embraced Om. He wasn't sure why or if the android knew what it meant, but he felt as though he needed it.

"See you later." said Om.

"See you soon." said David. And he disappeared.

 

22.

 

The astronaut teleported himself outside of the ship and looked at the wall of blackness in front of him. Behind him were the grey smears of galactic clusters like fingerprints on a window, though they undulated and rotated, gradually moving further away from each other as time roared by. David turned back towards the blackness and he briefly remembered when he had begun to travel in space and had floated just at the edge of the solar system. He felt similair feelings of apprehension, though before he had a rough idea of what was ahead. Here he had no idea. He went forward.

 

He continued to transport himself forward, again and again. He wasn't sure how far he was travelling, there were no frames of reference to measure distance and so turned around. He could make out a dot that grew slowly in size. It was Om's ship. David considered going inside to see how the android was, but he'd only just seen him. So David continued to transport himself, this time facing backwards so he could measure how far he'd moved away from the ship, which constantly chased him, quicker and quicker. David also noticed something happening to the space where the galactic clusters were. It looked as if there was some kind of white noise fading into existence, which began to organise itself into a fractal formation of curves inside curves inside curves. At first the whole thing had a blue tint that slowly began to turn purple. This enormous fractal started to rotate and continued changing shape. As David continued to teleport away he began to get the feeling that he was seeing some kind of great change. Was he looking at everything or just a smaller segment of some larger whole? He wasn't sure. He had no idea at how large or small the thing he was looking at was, how fast time was passing, or if what he seeing was happening or some kind of effect of physics. Om's ship came up to him again though this time he had noticed it had begun to disintegrate. David didn't know what the half-life of the ships metals were but he guessed it'd take at least a million billion years.

"Om..." he said. He closed his eyes and continued backwards. Ahead of him the fractal form began to turn red and grow smaller. It started to fold in on itself. The further David moved away the smaller it shrank. David opened his eyes. The shape had become an orb that was rapidly growing smaller and smaller. Was this how the universe ended? David went further and further away. The orb suddenly vanished. The last thing David saw was a big bang.

 

Blackness. It was comforting, in the dark. David wondered if he was dead. Then thought that if he capable of thinking then he probably wasn't. He waved his arms around, then his feet. He still had those anyway. Was this it?

"No." he thought. Though it wasn't him that was thinking.

"Where am I?" he responded.

"Where you wanted to be. Outside of everything." came the thought.

"What are you?" said David.

"I am the thought without the thinker. The dream without the dreamer. The dance without the dancer." came the reply. David wasn't sure how to respond. Suddenly he was in a room. Black glass was against each wall, the floor and the ceiling. David was standing in the centre and looked at his reflection against the darkness, it reflected the other reflections and went on for eternity. Though David wasn't sure how he could see with no source of light, he decided not too worry to much about it.

"Are you god?" said David.

"Not by your definition, though if a god were to exist he'd probably be unable to be defined by words, don't you think?" came the thought. Though it was now audible and outside of his head.

"I'm not sure what to think." said David. He walked up to one of the walls and held his hands to either side of his head to try and see if there was anything outside of the room.

"Then don't."

"Why am I here?"

"You wanted to teleport yourself outside of the universe out of curiousity and now you are here. What do you want to do next?"

"I don't know. I thought there'd...be an answer or something." said David.

"What is the question?"

"Why?" said David.

"Why not."

"I thought god would have a better answer." said David.

"I am not god. More of a caretaker."

"Can you show yourself? I don't know who I'm talking to." said David.

"I'm here." came a voice behind him. He turned around to see an astronaut stood a few feet away from him, wearing exactly the same suit as he was.

"Am I really outside of the universe?"

"Yes. Though this is a paradox. There is nothing outside of the universe. Just as there was no time before time. By coming here you have created a universe in which you are the only thing."

"So now what am I meant to do?" said David.

"This is your universe. What do you wish to do?" said the caretaker. David thought for a moment then looked outside the glass. The Milky Way was outside.

"Look! The Milky Way." said David. As he looked more galaxies began to swell in the darkness. The box began to move, sailing through space down towards the galaxy David called home.

 

The two astronauts watched the stars and planets fly past them and David laughed.

"It's still here! It's all still here." said David.

"No. This is your version of the universe. Your universe is gone, though I admit I admire your imagination." said the doppleganger.

"You mean this isn't real?"

"It's as real as the universe you're from. There is gravity and time, life and death, aliens, spaceships, whatever you think is just." said the caretaker. The Milky Way suddenly turned a brilliant green colour, the stars becoming cubes. Then the galaxy was in the shape of a naked woman.

"But...it doesn't matter. I can change it to whatever I want. There's no cause and effect."

"Then why not start a universe off and let it be? Don't interfere, just let it play out." said the caretaker. David took his helmet off and rubbed at his head.

"Is that what you do?"

"I don't create universes. No thing does, they simply form themselves."

"But how did the one I'm from begin?"

"It just did. An explosion, the formation of elements, the attraction between particles, suns were formed and so on."

"I know all that. But it must have started somewhere. There has to be a creator! Right?"

"Mu."

"Pardon?"

"Mu. Your question is not a question."

"Okay. Then how about why I can teleport around?"

"It happens from time to time. Just as certain individuals can travel through time or manipulate reality in some way. You think that the laws of the universe can't be bent or broken?"

"That's it?"

"Yes. Sorry I haven't been much help." said the caretaker. David turned to the universe he had made below. It had returned to the Milky Way.

"I want to go home."

"I could send you there if you really want to."

"I do." said David.

"Though I think I'll make it so you can't teleport any more. Is that okay with you?"

"Uh...yes. Yes of course, I mean...I've seen enough. Done enough. You won't undo what I've done will you?"

"Oh no. That would be interfering far too much. I can see the problem with your atomic structure though, quite marvelous really. Though then again, everything is if you think about it." said the caretaker.

"Wait...what about this universe?" said David. The caretaker turned towards the galaxies David had made and shrugged.

"I suppose if anything from here ever managed to get here, I'll explain to them that their universe was created by a being from a slightly similar one. Unless you want me to destroy it?" said the caretaker.

"No, leave it. I think." said David.

"Whatever you want. You're a god after all." said the caretaker. "I am going to transport you back to Earth a few days after you've left. Is that okay or did you want to go somewhere else?"

"No, I'm happy with that. Thanks."

"No problem. Enjoy the rest of your life." said the caretaker. David blinked out of existence, leaving the caretaker in the glass box. The Milky Way reflected on the visor of the helmet.

"Are you going to leave it?" came a voice.

"Space is big." replied the caretaker.

David woke. He was floating. Water this time. He thrashed about in the water as he realised where he was. Earth! The sky was blue, the sun was out and the beach ahead of him was the nearest land he could see. After trying to teleport and finding he no longer could, he began to swim towards it until his gloves hit the sand and he stood.

"Bora Bora." he said to himself. David grinned inside the helmet. He was a long way from home, but not that far. He dusted some of the sand off his space suit and began walking up the beach.