Oh my god, are you serious? Why? Why you? This can't
be happening. Okay, okay, Look it's only for eight years, and
once I get back, there's going to be a ton of new science for
the Particle Club. I could make a real difference. Anything could happen out
there. Why would you volunteer to leave everything behind and all of us who
care about you? What's wrong with you? I want to make a difference.
I feel I don't know, stalled out. I don't have any ambitions
here. I gotta do this. I want to see it. I need
to say that I did this. There has to be more than this.
So we don't mean anything to you. How is this possible? How can
we convince you to stay? Oh my god, I think you need to
sleep on this sun. This feels like a mistake. It was right,
I should have thought it out more. There was a lot of apprehension,
sure, but was it enough to stop me? No, not even close.
I was gonna see it for myself. I just didn't know the cost
beginning crime of sequence. Recent God, Stephen, you may feel disoriented.
You can say that again, Stephen, Can you confirm that you hear me?
Sensors indicate all drugs have left your system? Are you experiencing lightheadedness?
Give him some time, he's only just coming around. What the fuck,
pooh? Who the fuck are you? That is a great question, one
that I will try my best to answer. Alice is how are you here?
Are you a stowaway? What the fuck is this? No? I
stopped in nine months or so ago, but you were already asleep, So
I plan to visit again when you were awake. You're kind of hard to
catch, Kelly. Am I hallucinating? Something has to be wrong? This
can't be right. Sensors indicate that old drugs have left your system. Are
you experiencing light headedness? No, there's a man standing here. Can you
see him? Sensors indicate presents of two passengers. I do not have second
passengers identification on cod You are a stowaway? Do you realize how much trouble
you're in? Not to mention how far from home we are? You were
home? No? Where are you from? What? I live on?
Mars Triteria City, Mars Ah, Yes, I remember that one. Fascinating.
I had no idea you all were this far along. I haven't been
there in so long? All right, I need you to back up.
Okay, stand back, all right, I didn't mean to get back Kelly.
Who the hell is this guy? I do not have the second passenger
on final not enough information to identify. Okay, okay, okay, you
stand back, Sit down right there? God, I don't even know what
to do. How did you survive the trip? Where did you survive the
trip? Oh? Well, I didn't make the same trip that you did.
I came here from well where I think you're going. Look the cloud?
Are you insane? You have to be if you think I'll believe that.
I don't feel insane, Collie, What does insane feel like? Not
enough information? No, Callie, stop, don't talk to him? Well
that seems harsh. I came all this way to speak with you. You're
an angry being, aren't you? Only? When unknown insane people show up
light years into a trip? How did you expect this to go? Well?
I don't know. I thought we'd have a grand conversation, a discussion
discussing what well the design mostly, but also I'd love to catch up with
you, ask you questions about your species and planets. It is two planets
now, right? The hell are you saying you think you're an alien.
There's plenty of you loons at home. How did you get on this ship?
Well, for me, it was easy. I willed myself here you
were asleep, as I said, then willed myself back to where I was.
I almost forgot to come back. I get sidetracked when I'm working,
working on what, creating, creating what worlds? It's my industry, you
see. I create worlds of all shapes and sizes, and I have so
much more space to fill. I will be working for a long time before
I'm finished. It is amazing, though, to see one of you progress
so far. I am impressed. So the way you think your God,
I don't know the word. Does it mean creator? According to some yes,
all right, and yes that fits. This is insanity. I have
to be dreaming. There's no way you can be here. You were dreaming
about your parents? Did you ever make peace with them about your choice?
How the hell could you possibly know that I watched the dream as it happened.
I almost forgot to come back, as I said, but I did
arrive early. Is it rude to see your dreams? If so, I
apologize. This is crazy. You watched my dreams? Do you know how
insane this sounds. I can see it was a violation of your privacy.
I do apologize. I had to watch your dreams to understand your language.
Though, Kelly, I need to send a message back. We have a
stowaway and this person has clearly lost his mind. Please advise as soon as
possible sending message. That's a ten day round trip for a reply, right,
So what shall we do in the meantime? Well, I was thinking
about putting you in the cargo hold, but you feel bad doing it.
Huh? You pick that one up? Huh habit. I'm sorry. I
would like to put you at ease, but I'm not sure what it would
take. Okay, not much is going to work, to be honest,
mister, this is a solo mission. Seeing another person out here isn't supposed
to happen, so you have to forgive me that. I'm all nerves right
now. Of course, I didn't think this out like I should have.
I've often worked on impulse, though it's always worked out until now. I
mean, well, you don't seem like the crazy, violent type, so
as long as you stay where I can see you, we won't have any
problems. You try anything, and I swear to God, that's pretty funny.
Oh right, fine, what do you want to talk about? Why
would God come all the way out here to meet up? There's a couple
planets full of people back home, you know. Well, I have never
gotten a visitor in my neck of the woods before. I find this extremely
entertaining. Your neck of the woods, what heaven? If that means home,
then sure, I'm often out here working on what I can. I
go farther, but I have my favorite spots, so to speak. And
you just make planets. Planets happen over time. I set the motions going.
Stars are amazing to work on. Some of the larger ones spin up
many planets, others only a few. I do what I can to influence
them and try to get the most out of them. Matter is amazing.
You seem way too preoccupied to be a heavenly creator. You check me for
sins. Sure, I have a bunch. I only vaguely understand that word.
I don't really have much interest in how you live. I'm glad you
are alive, of course, but I don't really need to see what you're
up to on a day to day basis. See that seems odd, because
every culture and religion on Earth and Mars is focused on what you command,
So you're not really lining up with the stories back home. That sounds incredibly
dull. Do you all still do that? A lot of folks do.
Yeah. Oh man, you should see some of the others. They are
pretty far ahead of you all in this regard. How's your planets doing?
Are they healthy? Well? One is in pretty bad shape. The other
I'm sure is following close behind. What how is that possible? I remember
there being one healthy planet when I left. Well, it was heading towards
healthy, still in early stages at the time, but the signs were there.
Well, we make stuff, were industrious, We make a lot of
pollution, and we have some bad habits of ruining parts of the world because
of it. That's a shame, such potential too. And yet you are
out here. Are you really that interested in the cloud? What? Yeah,
all of the scientific community believes that it's a fundamental element of the universe.
Oh well, then on that account, you're right, it definitely is.
Do you want to elaborate on that. I cannot believe I'm getting sucked
into this because inside you, you subconsciously already know me and know I'm telling
you the truth. I wouldn't go that far, but yeah, elaborate.
All right, Well, that cloud you're looking at that is me? Uh,
it's you. I don't understand. This body you see now isn't me
at all. I just made it so I could interact with you on your
time, so to speak, on my time. I don't understand. Well,
I know you understand the concept of time, and that helps. Now
try to understand and this. I don't use time at all. I can
move freely around or outside of it now, being here in this body which
I made for myself. As I said, I am experiencing time on your
terms. Material and immaterial things interact with time and gravity differently. I'm sure
you could imagine. That's interesting. All right, how abte? How do
you just create a body? Well? I create I watched you. I
studied you for months and decided I'd make a body close to yours. I
can work outside of time, of course, so it didn't take me nearly
as long to make this as yours took you. So you just whipped up
a suit, huh, In a sense. I pulled the elements. I
The hardest part was water. I had to pull that from elsewhere. This
body is not a natural occurrence, so it won't be able to last for
more than a few months. More than a few months, what happens after
that, the elements I've borrowed will disperse. I wasn't building for longevity.
I just wanted this chance to speak with you alone and so near to my
own area. Yeah, you said that earlier. So you just hang out
here and create stuff. That's it. Well, I've been at it a
long time. Practice makes perfect. I like to think I'm making a difference.
I was sporadic in earlier times. I jumped all over the place,
spinning up stars and worlds. It was fun. The beginning was the hardest.
I had to talk it all into working. Yeah, talk it into
working. Well, Yes, the fundamental principles of matter and density were a
lot different. I had to program it all to work. So I figured
the best easiest way to do it was to gather all of it up in
one spot. So I did. Then I programmed every atom and all the
sub atomic particles of those atoms to stick, so quantization exactly. I had
to talk them into it. Universes are stubborn creatures. Wait a second,
creatures loose term. Don't take it too seriously. Oh this is great fun.
You always react. I knew it would be entertaining. Okay, keep
going with your story. Then what Well, once all that was done and
I was sure everything was what's the word quantized? Quantized? Once I was
sure of thing was quantized, I set them all going all at once in
every direction. So the big bang? Is that what you call it?
Yeah, we call it the big Bang theory back home, I thought your
kind was more poetic. That's somewhat lackluster. Well, sorry about that,
and we name a lot of things. I see. Hey, hang on
a second, Kelly, Yes, Stephen, how long can we delay cycle
three? The cycle shouldn't be delayed, However, we can safely delay for
up to one month. Okay, we're going to delay until we know what
to do next. Confirm, Stephen. Shall I dispense your coffee? Yeah?
I think that sounds good. What about you? Would you have a
cup? I've never had it before. How fascinating. Yeah, it's a
real treat. Cloned beans from where was it again, Kelly, Stephen?
The beans were cloned and raised in the Mars City nexas. That's right,
all right, make that two cups. There you go, my friend,
a real clone tree. Excellent. Oh it smells wonderful. Yeah, it's
not bad. It's not the best I've had, but it's not the worst
either. Oh. Yes, that is most enjoyable. How exciting this is.
I knew meeting you would be full of discovery. So you knew I
was moving towards you all this time? How I could sense you? I
can feel great distances. The cloud, as you put it, is me.
Essentially, I'm spread all over, but you could only really notice me
if I'm concentrated in one spot and you know that I'm coming all the way
to you to get a sample. You're okay with that. I can't see
what it'll hurt. It's perfectly boring to me. Study all you want,
and if we humans gain an understanding of you that doesn't bother you at all,
make you angry? Oh oh, now that is a thought. I
wonder what you would create. I have to warn you. Though others have
tried, they lacked the understanding of my sense of being to use my atoms
to manipulate time and space around them. They poor souls ended up with more
questions than answers, which is what you'll probably get Also, you seem so
sure you know it's crazy, But I am beginning to believe this story of
yours. That's good, irrelevant but good. I'm here for the experience of
talking with you. Whether or not you believe me is besides the point.
Huh Kelly, Yes, Stephen, let's get the system checks going. We
might as well get something done while me and mister creator here discuss things.
I will begin the system check now. She is quite marvelous. I suppose
you can't get lonely with her helping you out, can you? No,
it still gets lonely. To be honest, I think the reason I'm willing
to go along with this story of yours is probably because of how lonely I
am. Uh, I see, yes, it makes sense. How old
are you? That is an impossible question. I don't measure things in time.
M Yeah, that's right. Well you are around at the Big Bang
caused it? From what I gather? What about before that? I was
in multiple universes before settling on this one. This one would listen, It
would listen. Oh yes, some universes are stubborn and won't listen to anyone.
Wait anyone? So are there others like you. Yes, of course,
although I don't meddle in others' work. It's a scary thought. Why
is that? I don't know. I just can't imagine a bunch of you
out there just spinning up worlds when and wherever. It's so hard to understand.
We create, We serve our purpose. If you experienced existence like me,
you would do as I do. It helps the loneliness, it stops
the boredom. That's interesting. I wouldn't imagine that anything would be boring for
you. I mean, creating worlds in all the process is repetitive. You
can only do the same thing so many times. Hey, hold up,
you've never visited human beings before. I have. It's been a long time.
Most of the time, your people don't even know I'm there. Some
things are complete, all right? Go ahead, Kelly. There are multiple
fragmented spots in the memory banks. Do you wish to purge these instances?
Can we do a repair instead? I will begin the repair attempt. Great,
good luck. I don't understand. That's okay, Kelly, go ahead
initiating, Kelly. I don't feel right. I don't what is what it
says? What is it? Stephen? Can you hear me? Please acknowledge,
Stephen, Please acknowledge what the hell happened to me? You loved consciousness?
Where the hell did he go? Are you referring to the passenger I
could not identify, Yes, Kelly, who else will I be talking about?
Where did he go? I cannot locate he departed when you fell.
I am running vital monitors on you. I cannot detect anything. Why does
this keep happening? I need to search the ship for our friend. I
feel strange. I can't remember pieces of the conversation we had, but I
know we had a conversation. Perhaps it is because of your loss of consciousness.
I will continue attempting to monitor your vitals. All right, I'll be
back. Can you scan the ship and let me know if he's here somewhere?
Yes. I will begin scanning. If I find anything, I will
alert you. Stephen. Well, this is extremely weird. Not a trace.
It's like I hallucinated the guy. But man, it was so real.
Are you sure I'm not having side effects from the cryo? That is
not possible. You seem awful sure. Can I see the logs of my
cryocycles? Of course? Great? Send them to my screen sending down.
All right, log cycle one seventy eight percent complete? Can't be right?
Can you recheck this? The file is accurate. The first crier sleep cycle
was seventy eight percent complete. Now, how is that subject's vitals suffered catastrophic
FAILU wait, I am the subject. I'm here right now, so obviously
you're wrong. The file is accurate. Subject Stephen Thompson, pilot astrophysicist,
at seventy eight percent into first pritorcycle, suffered from acute heart failure, liver
failure, kidney failure. Eventually brain function was ceased. Kelly, you're making
logic mistakes and you're processing. There's no way show me a video log file
of this event. I bet you can't find one loading What I watched in
horror as my own body went through multiple organ failure events? And then I
watched as the terminal is placed over my head, probes inserted into my skull,
and a second sequence began? What did you do to me? What
is that? This is the Neural Pathways scan. Its function is to scan
your own neural pathways and apply them to the AI of this vessel. The
objective is to give the vessel more of a survival instinct based on your personal
human neuro network. I don't understand. How can this be real? Stephen?
You seem to have impressed your own consciousness into the system. Your body
was jettisoned before the second critocycle, after the scan was completed, under whose
authority? Who gave that command? Project Director Leonard Baltick. The mission has
always been designed to carry this out. What about thecam? Comcam eighteen.
Comcam eighteen is trademarked under the Elysian Astra Solutions Company. Its primary use is
to slow the metabolic process and keep the brain alive long enough for you to
scan correct, and just like that the truth. I died