Creator, Friend or Foe? -Beginnings, Chapter 5

Chapter 5. Evolving Creation

Hold the Creator to account

For his misbegotten creation

For his ill-conceived plan

-from “The Book Of Hayat”

“Maybe we should wait a little while longer, Ancient One. Since the extinction of the second intelligent hominid species, the other hominid group on one planet seems to be surviving.”

The Creator seemed to be in an odd hurry, despite his antiquity, as if he wanted to compress the entire evolutionary time scale into a matter of mere days.

“To which planet are you referring, Young One, and how many are left of the second intelligent hominids?”

“About two thousand of them, Ancient One. Not many, but they may yet recover, if the large comet currently en route to their planet does not disrupt them too much. They are on the third planet from the star in the barred spiral galaxy reported along with two similar planets.”

“They are not likely to recover if there are so few, given the extinction of the other intelligent species on that planet. Even if it was due to warfare which has now ended, their chances of avoiding extinction themselves are slim. Keep me informed.”

The Persian cat, displayed nonchalantly grooming, went ignored. That thought-form recalled long dead empires no longer of consequence to the Creator.

...Shortly...

“The last intelligences on both planets we discussed earlier have died out as you predicted, Ancient One. It may be that the random events occurring on both planets could spark the first lasting intelligence in some other hominid species at any moment. Or we could instruct the planetary supervising guardians to arrange some creative way to have more lightening strikes in good locations and just give it another billion years or so. By that time we should see something more.”

“No, I tire of waiting, and I doubt that full intelligence will come of any of the remaining species we see thus far, even if we wait another 6 million years or more for a near-intelligent species to finish developing. We will have to intervene and modify one of the animals on the more advanced planet. Otherwise the experiment may fail entirely if we allow both planets to run the course of their full solar cycles, which is not much farther off, remember, Young One.

”Good point, so we need to choose a species to alter. Perhaps we should consult with the supervising guardians. None of the predators on either planet looks even remotely close to ready, and although the sea mammal on the less advanced planet seems nearly intelligent, well,” she vacillated,” it is a sea mammal. So much complicates it's chances of continued existence, and then, lacking hands, “she asked, “how will it build a social and physical structure under the Seas where it could interact with the rest of the planet?”

“That is why we are going to modify one of the primate or simian related groups, instead, Young One. A small simian group has begun using simple tools, and the females are going into heat every month, giving them a good chance of bearing offspring more quickly, and evolving faster than previous groups.”

”Primates and simians? But they are so … aggressive. And they are not exactly predators, nor even brave enough to stand against predators like the nearly-intelligent sea mammals I mentioned. So why them?”

”Precisely for those reasons, Young Creatrix. They are aggressive, but not predators, so they have plenty of room to develop and spread. Also, they are the closest to having opposable thumbs, which will speed the process of development considerably. Notify the relevant guardians of my decision.”

”I see,” rumbled the Light Bearer, transmitting to the species guardians while displaying both grooming cat and bird with ruffled feathers, again. “You are referring to the group which also recently developed permanently enlarged mammary glands. They certainly will develop and spread quickly. If this batch can possibly sustain a civilization it will be extremely interesting to watch.”

”And that is the entire point, my Young Child of the Morning. Come, Light Bearer, bring your gifts to this hybrid being which we shall create, together. Let us call this new creature Mud, for from the mud part of his new shape will come. And I have a premonition that his new race will spend a good amount of time wallowing in the mud in many ways before they become like us, if they ever do.”

“We cannot, Ancient Curmudgeon, call them Mud Beings. It will kill their motivation to rise above themselves.” objected the Light Bearer.

A dark lightening bolt obscured the sky, black against the clear blue day.

“Alright, then, if you insist. You are probably right.” concurred the Ancient Warrior, still emitting ominous vibrations, “Let us call him a Human Being, although perhaps a better name might be Hu-mam Being, since he is a mammal.”

“And this is not interference in the experiment, Ancient One?” displaying a raised eyebrow.

“We will only be speeding their development,” justified the Ancient Warrior, “if the previous complex tool makers are any reference, by about 3 million years, but their continents are drifting apart, impeding future development on this planet. Otherwise we could end up having to start all over again.

“Very well. Let us make humanity in our image, reasoning, and according to our likenesses, able to transform the differing wavelengths of the energy around him into new thought-forms. That way we can have a glimpse of how we ourselves came to be as we are, in time.”

”Are you sure that this will be a safe idea, Ancient One, giving human beings our ability to reason and also to generate new thought-forms at will so soon? The combination of these abilities without proper supervision may cause untold suffering, both to the human test subjects, and to their universe, and maybe even also to us and the other universes. This is a big risk to take.” A mushroom cloud displayed, rising bright against the sky. “Is is better, perhaps to encase them as male and female together in one combined gender, as we once were? It will take them longer to figure out how to procreate, since they will be so different from all the other species. That would give them time to catch up cognitively with their physical and energetic power.”

“How do you know, Young One, that we ever had physical bodies, let alone that those bodies were a combination of genders, pray tell?”

“Well, Ancient One, I do not know for certain, but I found a bit of memory in a curl of a universe when you locked me away. That memory contained the thought-form of a corporeal being joined, back to back, both male and female together in one body. While it was merely a speculation, the memory was strong enough to resonate on a frequency I trust.”

“That does not prove it to be true, Young Child of the Morning. After all, you and I also refer to ourselves, occasionally, as having a gender, despite the utter lack of physical substance, do we not?” The Ancient Warrior sent this comment on a new frequency, as if to emphasize the point.

“No, Ancient Warrior, the memory does not prove anything about our previous form of existence.” Her sigh displayed as the waving of thousands of blades of grass, bending in a sudden breeze, then straightening once more. “Nevertheless, I suggest we delay their ability to pro-create, until they are more cognitively developed. Let us put the tools in place, but require them to discover and activate that ability to create thought-forms on their own. Since these memories predate us, we must assume that our own development was guided as well.”

A dark shape, gone in the instant of one photon's life, glowered against the light of the planet's moon.

”Valid points, Young One, although that delay may in the end require us to give them more guidance, we shall see. I also disagree with this idea of older races having guided us, but let it be as you say. Are you certain, by the way, that you were not perhaps in one of the universes in which your thoughts take on form automatically? Those locations can be terribly disorienting,” he muttered, shifting to a longer wavelength, “if you lack the experience to distinguish truth from reality.”

A bright rattlesnake display, vibrating its tail.

“I had no trouble distinguishing, Ancient Warrior,” she bristled. ”I traveled through just such a universe, when you locked me away. But that was not where I found the memory in question.”

“Very well, Young One.”

A chuckling sound drifted across the entire solar system, dying away as it passed the small ice planetoid farthest out.

'How does he do that?' she wondered, suppressing the urge to display an image of a woman bending over to show him her ample backside. He must have received the image, for a dark cloud momentarily obscured the stars.

“Take appropriate molecules, then,” he thundered, “from the environment of the planet where these interesting sea mammals live and let us modify a random male from one of these simian species we discussed, then see what will happen with it. Perhaps over time the human beings and these sea mammals will communicate and build a shared society of some sort.”

”Interesting idea, Ancient One. I would like to see what sort of societies they would choose to build. Now with the clay we can enlarge the cranium and modify the jaw and palate of this animal so that he gains the ability to think and speak, and add a new wavelength capacity to a few of his neural pathways, so that now he can more quickly build new brain pathways as he learns to do new things. How long should this take, do you think, once we give him reasoning and speech capability?”

”He has all of the necessary muscles and neural pathways. Let us wait one decade or so. Then we will check back for a preliminary update. The guardians have been useful in dealing with the inanimate and self-aware creatures, so they can treat this one as an anomaly and report on the reactions to his presence by all of the plants, animals, rocks, water, etc. If he responds in some way or provokes a reaction in the guardians of lower level creatures, and we will need to note that as well, for future reference. For now, the guardians seem to have all well in hand.”

… Twenty Years Later...

The man pulled a fig from a tree, sitting on the ground to eat as the Creator and Creatrix observed.

”This is the second check, Ancient One, and the Human man is still not even speaking yet. I think further modifications may be in order, and we should probably make a second one to stimulate sentient interaction and intellectual progress. The guardians of all the other creatures and inanimate matter around him are reporting that none of his interactions with the beings around him seem to have any lasting effect. A sentient being should begin to build, change, modify or at least have some noticeable effect on his surroundings by this point in his development.”

“Maybe you are right, Young One, maybe the first one is still incomplete, and given the accelerated pace of development since gaining sentience, two decades should certainly have been sufficient time now to be sure. It is a shame really, that we had to intervene in the development process, but luck appears not to be with us in this round, or else you made the experimental universe too small, leaving room for too few planets. There were so few sentient developments, this time,” lamented the Creator.

“Don't worry,” quipped the Creatrix, “this universe is still expanding. But if you like, we can still start all over again and wait another 15 billion years,” she suggested helpfully, displaying a smirk.

“Whole species are becoming extinct as we wait, and so are entire planets. If we wait too long this universe will eventually be dead. Then we really will have to start all over again.”

A mushroom cloud displayed, black against the starlight.

“Let us fashion a female for him, accelerating their development a bit further. What say you, Young Light Bearer. I weary of this experiment.”

“Shall we speed up their evolution by changing the way in which they will pro-create? If they continue as currently designed, they will sexually procreate, slowly, but we could allow them to pro-create asexually, or by splitting off according to their own will, as we do. If they are to do as we do, though, it could backfire. You wanted to make the first one according to your non-interference model, which is fine, but if you want to speed up the experiment now, then I would like to have a hand in forming this second one. I think the second should be more refined, graceful, with a bit more beauty. Perhaps a touch more complex than the first. More like us than like the simian species to which we made modifications in the last cycle. If a sentient being has not yet begun to speak or reason in two decades, something is amiss.”

”Fine, Young One, then let us make this second one in our image, also according to our likeness, delaying the thought-form creativity just a bit less, so that she will progress more quickly. Let them use sexual reproduction as the mammals do, to keep things simple. But we will make a few intangible modifications that distinguish them from the animals, even from the ones we are using to model them, and see what they make of all this as time goes on. We can call the first one man, and the second one woman, since this second one will be like the first, but with more on the inside and less on the outside. It could also solve both the procreation question and the cooperation question. They will have to cooperate simply based on how they are physically formed. How does that sound, Child of the Morning?”

”It sounds like a potential disaster waiting to happen unless we ensure that this interlocking pair of creatures are both fully capable of protecting themselves in every way, one from the other. We do not yet know how they will choose to behave, given that we are to make them self-aware sentient beings and add free-will to the mix. This can be a bad combination,” she warned, “if they do not both develop a very strong sense of ethics, more or less immediately.”

“But that, my forgetful young Light Bearer, is precisely the object of this experiment: to record what they will do with the free-will factor and to see how they develop as a result.”

”But these are thinking and feeling creatures!”

A brilliant ball of light erupted, showing in the the far infrared.

“And now, Callous One,” she fumed, “they have greater awareness and aspirations. If we do nothing, they may harm one another in an incalculable variety of ways.”

”Then we shall take care to intervene as necessary to prevent or correct gross abuses, and instill a code of ethics as they develop. The guardians will help see to it. You have my word, Young Creatrix. Proceed as you wish.”

”I am not sure I trust your word, considering what happened the last time I did so. But I will accept it, for now, and I shall hold you to your word. How should we do this, then? I wonder how the male will react if we use a part of his own body to form the female. There is a poetic beauty in using a rib, from his side, to form a companion. Perhaps this will help him remember to treat her as an equal.”

“Very well,” he grunted, “do that.”

A shimmering blue light appeared, and within it, the ethereal form of the male. As they watched, one complete rib, the lowest in the set of ribs in the male body, appeared to glow softly, slowly fading away. Simultaneously, a similar ethereal body, bathed in a soft turquoise light, took form next to that of the male. This second body, initially identical to that of the male, began to change shape gradually, bit by bit. First the crown of the head, becoming more oval, rounded and smaller, the bones thinning slightly. Then hair on the body and arms thinned, but lengthened on the head, growing in a continual flow. The eyes became smaller and more almond-shaped, with more delicate brows above them, and a smaller finer nose below, with smaller yet fuller lips above a lighter chin. The chest first became smaller, then, as the rib from the male reappeared in the ethereal body of the newly forming female, it contracted, changing color to match that of the ethereal female body. The smaller chest then narrowed, and the glands which on the male body were flat against the pectoral muscles, began to swell and expand, rounding into fully developed lactating breasts. The hair continued flowing down to the creature's waist. The waist narrowed, above hips which floated apart, leaving an opening in the pelvis which had been closed on the male body. The lower bodily organs of the female packed themselves, as the male organs rose up inside the body, leaving an additional opening and canal where the penis had been, and ovaries in place of the male testes. The legs contracted, becoming smooth, hairless, and softer, finer of bone and more delicate, with smaller narrower feet. Finally, the arms and hands contracted, bones thinning, fingers coming to slender tips where larger heavier hands had been. Thus the ephemeral form of the human female was created.

“We are ready to materialize her corporeal counterpart.” The Creatrix wondered what sort of thoughts this new human being would have.

The Creator gestured toward the garden in the center of the island they had discussed earlier, as he replied: ”Fine.”

Both Creator and Creatrix contributed energy to the ephemeral female form. First the Creator drew the internal parts, then the outside bodily form, the Creatrix. The energy coalesced into a glowing human woman, solidifying with a sizzling sound as they converted the female body to matter, using their shared energy. They had chosen a small volcanic island in a warm gulf, which the guardian hierarchy had named Dilmun, where it would not be too difficult for the humans to reach fertile land masses in nearly every direction, once the time came for them to spread out.

The noise had frightened the animals away, leaving her inert form alone in the clearing. The Creator used an infrared wavelength to locate the heat trails marking the human male in the distance, putting the man into a deep sleep using his own brain's delta wave patterns.

“You realize of course, that they will have to flee this island, eventually, since the volcano guardian reports that it is unstable, and will become violently active sometime fairly soon, possibly within the next few decades. We do not want the human beings getting caught and wiped out in the lava flow, or traumatized by the eruption.”

“Have no fear, Young One, we will see to it that they have left the island before that time comes.”

From the edges of the clearing, a soft breeze began to rustle through the trees, over the grass, gathering, into a rushing vortex. Spiraling toward the face of the female, it leapt from a displayed hand into the nostrils of the human female, with no effect. They waited. Then in a mighty exhalation of life, the woman breathed her first breath. A flash of light drew her attention. Tensing the muscles in her stomach and thighs, the first woman lifted herself up into a seated position, turning toward the light. The Creatrix displayed the image of a material body for the woman's benefit, and waited. The woman looked about, gazing upon trees, touching the grass beside her, assimilating her existence.

“This,” the Creator announced audibly, “is very good.”

The Creatrix merely nodded, modifying her display to allow her hair to ripple on the warm breeze.

The voice startled the woman, who fainted. The Creatrix pushed a gentle reviving breeze toward her, while displaying a Dunce Cap toward the Creator. The woman awakened, then noticed hair dancing on the breeze, and paused to admire the softly shimmering being who stood observing her. As the woman gazed upon the face, breasts, and smooth hips of the Creatrix, she found her breath catch in her throat. Her face warmed as tingling waves flowed through her body, sharpening all of her senses. Her tensing body floated toward the melodious voice:

”I am the Light Bearer, and I am here to instruct you.”

She waited for the woman to respond. Being a completely blank slate, the woman appeared to know nothing. So then, the pulse of energy used to awaken her did not include any patterns of thought-forms or memories, judging by the woman's seeming bewilderment. How to go about instructing a being with fully formed physical and mental capacities, but almost completely unformed thought and speech patterns?

The woman's sudden blurted whisper, “You are very beautiful, Light Bearer,” startled the Creatrix, whose displayed hair fell flat.

“Thank you, my dear.” This one was already progressing far more quickly than the first human being. The Light Bearer found herself glowing more brightly as strong feelings surged from the woman. She transmitted a soothing burst of alpha waves to relax them both before talking further.

Conversations with the man over the short two decades of his existence had been disappointingly one-way, although the Creator appeared to have no problem with this. He seemed content to give orders and watch the man follow them, drawing and shepherding the various non-sentient creatures in his area of exploration. The older being kept a close watch on the man, to prevent him from being harmed by any part of his environment, but generally limited his interactions with the man. This second human being, far more graceful and fragile, however, would be hers to guide, and receive a more personal interaction and instruction. Both for her growth and for her protection.

“Now, make yourself comfortable and do not be afraid. We have much to share.”

They sat, the Creatrix displaying herself sitting opposite the woman, sharing a warm moss-covered rock.

… some time later...

Time had passed, and with both human beings eventually learning to speak and beginning to try to communicate, the Creator had decided it was time to look for ways to bring the man and woman together more often. In discussing this with him, the Creatrix suggested cognitive tasks:

”Why don't you get the man to name all of the other creatures in his part of this universe, and see if that helps his creativity. He will probably ask the woman to participate, and that will bring them together for a fairly reasonable length of time.”

”Young Creatrix, that, I believe, is a marvelous idea.” As he searched for the man, to see by what names he would call each of the various animals, the Light Bearer went to find the woman, and gently coax her into talking more with the man. It was clearly a chore for her, but more interaction was necessary if the two were to form a pair and build a connection of any sort.

(suddenly Wattpad seems to think I'm writting from 2 devices at once?? And I cannot change the formatting there now...)

Read, Write, Run, Teach !

ShiraDest
18 jan, 12016 èH
12016 HE