THE REAL LIVE JOURNAL EXHIBIT A WEEK FOUR -- ULTRA DEEP FIELD
CONTEMPLATING THE INFINITE
Several of my fellow Idolers have expressed admiration for my talent as a “World Builder”, and many members of my fan base have complimented me for the depth and richness of the back stories in my tales. I wish I could appreciate the compliments more, because in recent years I feel like I’ve been doing a half-assed job when it comes to setting scenes and creating character histories. As I’ve indicated before, I started dreaming up many of my tales when I was six-years-old… and I’ve been building on those ideas ever since. There are times when I think I’ve forgotten so much about The Art of World Building that I feel like a half-wit compared to my younger self.
Let me give you just one specific example of the kind of details I used to work out in my tender youth:
A stone is forever drifting through space.
It would be easy to miss in the deep gulf between galaxies, where what little starlight which falls upon it was emitted millions of years previously and is far too dim to be seen with the naked eye. But once glimpsed the stone immediately engages the viewer's attention, for it glistens like a gem… which is exactly what it is. The rock is pure carbon, fused together into a single crystalline structure, like a diamond set upon ink-black velvet.
At first glance it is hard to judge the size of this jewel, as there is nothing near it to give a sense of scale; it initially seems no larger than the tiniest chip cast off from a jeweler’s workbench. It is only as the observer draws closer that the stone's enormity is revealed - Seventeen miles long, eleven miles wide and three miles thick. It is far too large to be artificial, yet too immense to have formed naturally. If nothing else, intelligent hands have cut and shaped the jewel, for its structure is far too uniform for it to be completely raw… and it is hollow. The stone is actually a ship designed to sail between the stars.
Let us use the power of imagination to pass through the otherwise impenetrable hull. Much of the interior is taken up with a thriving ecosystem; a jungle, lush and warm. Strange alien creatures eke out their existence, completely unaware that they are in a cage so huge that they literally cannot see the far side. The rest of the vessel is filled with obviously artificial structures: an engineering section which harnesses power from a hole literally ripped in the fabric of space-time; a command and control area three stories high with stations for several dozen command staff to oversee various aspects of the ship’s systems; sufficient dwelling space for millions of intelligent beings, with plenty of room for all to live together in extreme comfort. Magnificently constructed automated devices maintain the ship’s systems perfectly -- every portion of the vessel looks as fresh and new as the day it was launched… but then, most of the facilities have never been used. For the ship is abandoned and vacant… almost. Though designed to carry multitudes, the ship currently has but a single passenger.
Upon the bridge of this grand vessel, a lone intelligent being lies in a coffin-like chamber… but it is not dead, merely in suspended animation. It wears a headdress which enables it to telepathically communicate with the computers which govern and maintain the ship’s systems, receiving status reports and giving directions as required. Physically, the creature appears to be a young adult human, though of unusually tall and thin stature - he is well over two meters in height. But all is not as it seems - this being is no member of the species Homo Sapiens and is far older than he appears.
Technically, he is the Lord of his race, heir to a long line of kings and has the ability to commune with his god at will. But all that is a half-truth at best - He is, in fact, a genetically engineered construct, created for a deeply sinister purpose using the modified DNA of the rightful claimant to the throne… and his race is all but extinct, the few survivors lost amid the endless deeps of space... and his "god" is a creature of pure thought which developed a symbiotic relationship with his species over the course of millennia. He is technically master of all that he sees, but even if he were to raise himself from his pallet and gaze through the view ports of his mighty vessel he would only look upon the empty desolation between galaxies.
He is the lord of everything… and nothing. He has always been alone, yet has never known loneliness… for his god speaks to him in his dreams, and assures him that all will be well… for he is alive, and where there is life there is hope.
My younger self dreamed up many adventures involving this being, most of which I’ve long since forgotten… but fragments remain. His body was designed to never grow old, and with the medical facilities aboard his ship he is essentially immortal. Thus he spends eternity seeking for surviving members of his kind, as well as the entity which destroyed his race. All of space is his to explore, and he has the time to see it all. He is Odysseus without a home, so he sails the sea of space forevermore… for he has literally nothing else to do. Technically, he never really had a name, though the geneticists who designed him gave him the designation of “The Prince”, as they used the DNA from a member of the Imperial family when creating him. But of course that is merely the English translation of the word; as these creatures were alien, they had their own language, which I spent a fair amount of time developing. I don’t remember many words from that made-up tongue, but one thing I’m absolutely sure of:
The race’s word for “prince” was Ellak.
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