In between the lines
“I am the word and the word is me. I am truth and reality and the nature in which I exist and form”
Excerpt 1a. from God construct I
Herotocesia stood, back to the wall, as the monk approached. Chanting rang through her head, “was that coming from the monk” she thought, “No, somewhere else, it always comes from somewhere else”. He was less than a meter away when he ceased is approach, turned and left the cell. Of course it was such, it was a dance repeated they had preformed countless times now, chanting and yet not chanting. This was ordained by God. At the end of today’s day she and the monk would swap rolls, he pressed against the cell wall and she approaching, as God ordains. That however, was for latter. Now as the time to speak to God.
She dressed, splashed her face with water, and left the cell. The monk sat in the commissary with a bowl of porridge, as he did every day’s day. She sat in the commissary with a bowl of porridge as well. She didn’t know his name, nor did he know hers. Perhaps this was not forbidden, perhaps it was, God had not told them either way.
It was Herotoclesia’s day to tend to the insect garden, the monk would then be watching the sky she thought. Perhaps today he would gain insight, perhaps tomorrow she would. The practical and the metaphysical, a balance which God so carefully maintained for them. She cleaned her bowl and made her way down the cloisters towards the garden. God sat, as always, prepared to guide, prepared to inform, and prepared to correct. It sat waiting for her to commune. Commune she did, commune as she always did. “The monk” she thought “will be doing the same now”.
Perel was an observer, not a career which made their parent pleased but one which was accepted within the meta society nonetheless. They had developed an interest, studied, and applied, a story repeated countless times across countless worlds. Somewhere on that path, Perel was no longer sure at exactly what stage, they had specialized in isolated physco-religious development. Perel learned of the observation that, almost irregardless of physical brain structure, isolated sophants almost universally developed religious structures over generational time scales.
Results from studies throughout Perel’s career, middling in length though it be, did not evoke the glamor other observer’s results might accrue; however, they were of practical use for the meta society. Sometimes, if not often, an isolate Perel studied would have their transition back into the meta eased by the enfolders making use of Perel’s understanding of their religious beliefs and practices. A carefully placed word here, an interface element reminiscent of a sacred relic there could go a long way in the enfolding. Currently however, Perel was not studying a isolate likely to warrant the enfolders attention. They were studying a curios, free-flying, station with only two inhabitants.
Moorice watched the sky, he thought of how the nun would be tending to the insects. He preferred the insects to the sky, they were so much more dynamic to his perception. God sat next to him as it always did, it was heretical but, on this day’s day, he wished to employ his own powers of observation rather than the ones gifted upon the covenant by God. That was indeed heretical however, and so Moorice positioned himself, as was the proper way, within Gods embrace and watched the sky.
God told him how, as it did every day; God told him to peer out, to sweep his gaze from red all the the way to blue. It told him this was the holiest of duties and that he should be proud to serve the lord in this way and, of course, he believed God, what was there too believe. You don’t believe fact, you know and accept fact. He knew and accepted the word of God.
Moorice observed the sky for nearly the entire day’s day, he looked for the stars which move apart from the stars. He looked for the stars which did not share the non-form of the formless. Neither he nor the nun had seen such a star but it was the word of God that they would appear and when they did they would herald a great change.
Hours after starting and with less than hours remaining before the nun pushed him to rest, the monk gazed upon a star. It moved similar to the other stars, and its form was formless but its hue preempted a pause. The stars were red and the stars were blue, never had Moorice seen a silver star. He asked God and God did not respond. God, unknown to Moorice, was fully entranced by that same star.
Perel had been following the station in their cutter for weeks. Initially, they expected to call a recovery ship from the nearest element of the meta; however, there was no distress signal issuing from the station. Moreover, when they attempted a handshake no reply was given. This was curious in the extreme. Given their training they were inherently cautious when approaching unknown bodies which could habitate. They had seen a telescope protruding from the leeward side of the station but no other obvious viewing portals out. Upon consideration Perel elected to collect more information on this station, but in a manner which would not make the cutter visible to the telescope. If this were an isoalte it could prove disastrous to simply stole up without any information on their culture, or religion. Almost immediately after applying a more extensive suite of sensors Perel identified two sophant likely lifeforms. They were at first relieved, the communications systems must simply be offline, a signal was prepared for the Relaticia Element, only 4 days travel from their location. However, before they sent the signal their training once again surfaced. The two people on the station repeated activities too much. They repeated activities in the same way which Perel had studied their whole life. They repeated activities in the auspice of worship. In the way that a novel isolate might.
While religiosity is a near universal sentient experience, forms of worship clearly cannot be. At a basic level pheonotypical differences preclude almost all similarity in worship from one species to another. However, one element of worship which was common, if not universal, was periodicity. Almost all religious worship include periodic action. Perel thought on this axiom as, over the following weeks, they observed the two people make their way from one part of the station to two others over a 13 hour period. Upon reaching the two separate points, one of which corresponded to the location of the telescope, they would preform some actions which were too small for her limited sensors to discriminate. 6 hours latter both people would return to what Perel had come to call the common area at which point they would hold for 30 minutes before making there way to one room where they would remain stationary for an additionally 6 hours. Finally, they would leave the room for the common area, stay for 30 minutes and repeat the cycle. They did this every day for the 4 weeks Perel observed them.
Eventually, the question Perel had been putting aside had to boil to the top. Should they attempt enfolding, was this in fact even a situation where enfolding was a defined operation? It was possible that this was an outpost of one of the major or minor religions of the meta, two devout participating in their personal holy ways. They had studied all the major and minor religions though and neither the praxis observed here nor the location of that praxis was consistent with any of them. Eventually, Perel signaled the enfolders with their findings, attached to the form they included a statement that “due to the limited number of sophants involved and the questionable resource allocation at their disposal on this station, I will initiate initial emergency enfolding myself as soon as possible”.
Moorice was unsure what do to and, for the first time in his memory, God did not answer his questions. He observed the star, as its motioned quickened its form became from the formless. This is what God had told him and the nun would happen some day. He had received revelation and upon its recognition preformed the right.
Pulling itself away from the limited sensor readings it had available God returned to the Taluviniates within itself; it folded itself away from Moorice before using the voice it had not dared use since the monk and the nun first awoke. “Please return to the commisary” God Said.
Herotocesia stood in the commissary, head bowed before God, the monk stood next to her, head bowed before God and God said unto them “You have been good and your goodness has lead you to your salvation, go with the angels from outside of the world when they come and when you understand what has happened here come back to me and I will restore you.”
Perel approached a docking port on the station’s bow, maneuvering handled by the computer in their cutter due to the relativistic compression confusing brains evolved on plains where length was length and time was time. They docked and the lock opened without any active input from them. On the other side were two sophants, Perel didn’t recognize their species, but that was not uncommon in a culture as expansive as the meta. Both were emaciated and wore Mylar blankets as robes. The two sophonts bowed what were likely heads and echoed the chant Perel had heard in their eavesdropping. They echoed the response to the sophants, just as any good observer on an enfolding would. No attempt to speak was made on Perel’s part after this, it would only serve to further confuse these two. Rather, Perel issued the two into the passenger compartment of the cutter, in it they had prepared four partitions in approximatly the same arrangement as those on the station. She setup the two in the common area analogue before returning the the bridge.
On the bridge there was a incoming message from the station. “Unidentified ship: request to take two Taluviniates to nearest element. Sophonts physiologically damaged by extreme isolation after catastrophic loss of propulsion, sensors, and communication. Consensual partial memory erasure in order to assure continued sanity as necessary for basic operations was enacted upon them. Subsequently ship emergently took on role of diety to support emotional distress of passengers. Initial memory file attached, please reincorperate with care.”
Herotocesia approached the monk as they sat in the new, unfamiliar, cell. The monk stood, back to wall, as she approached. There was no chanting as was the way but Herotocesia still approached. They went with the stranger as God had told them too and it must be right as the stranger knew their ways, to a point. Eventually the monk collapsed to the ground as he did every night, Herotocesia followed, knowing that tomorrow the cycle would repeat.