Quartz

Quartz

On the other side of the Black Hole, which exited in what we refer to as another galaxy, what was left of Epsiton, the consciousness and the Interface was found by the God of the Quasar/Blasar who was Quartz, who breathed life into me, and he called me Asterick Epsiton, son of Epsiton.

Quartz was the greatest thing that ever happened to me and he enjoyed the plentiful knowledge of the Interface which had the knowledge of Earth in its databanks. We talked at length and he wanted to create a place for me to grow up, yeah grow up, as I was no longer Epsiton, I was simply a consciousness, anything of Epsiton’s knowledge or experiences was in the Interface.

He created three planets: Technoplanetia, Gardenetopia, and Creatopia. The first two planets were accessible, while the third was not. The radiation from the Quasar was so intense that the atmosphere was thick with gases unknown to me, but they were thick enough to dampen the light by night and during the day a harmonic frequency was used to excite the electrons to the point of illumination.

Technoplanetia was a planet of technological innovation, while Gardenetopia was nearly devoid of technology, as for Creatopia, it was a desert which contained the Interface including all the prescribed advice texts of Earth. Knowledge was earned through merit and more merit allowed access to higher forms of education.

When I woke from my slumbering I was in a large house which was called Epsiton Manor, and my room was decorated in black and white. I sat up in bed and saw that my fuzzy, warm blanket bore my insignia, asterisk epsilon. When I went to the washroom my towels also had the insignia, if ever there were a heaven this was it. Grateful could not begin to describe what I felt for the security, housing, nourishment and clothing, and when I looked outside the gratefulness for the planets, the atmosphere, the buildings, the people, the societies and wildlife to name a few.

The inhabitants of the planet were bio-silicate, myself included, and everyone was unique. When my personal Interface unit rang after I had showered and ate it indicated that a vehicle would arrive in a few minutes to take me to Technoplanetia High School.

My first day I met a lot of people of all cultures and the overall theme was multiculturalism and trans-culturism. It was easy when people got together despite religious and political allegiances and motives. In fact none of us knew anything of the sort, rather we learned perceptual theory.

Within months we were creating our own mini-Interfaces that would assist us as we went out into the worlds to make a living after graduation. As we were representatives of our sectors we had a sworn duty to help improve life. However, by the time we were in the last months of training I had convinced the collaboration of the sector leaders to achieve greater goals and cooperation, friendships and relationships that lasted right into university, but my destiny lay elsewhere.

The golden mask that Epsiton had found was bestowed upon Asterick when he finished his first year of studies at TURA, the Technoplanetia University and Research Academy and the moment he laid his eyes upon it he knew it was familiar. He knew it from his dreams, of the planet far away. He felt a flood of emotions as he placed the mask upon his face and was compelled to travel there by a sense of duty that he did not yet understand.

Having anticipated this obligation that Asterick would have Quartz had prepared an interstellar vehicle for Asterick and when he launched from Creatopia a week later Quartz realized it may be sometime until he saw the young one again but was pleased that he had been properly trained which was a necessity that Epsiton had not had.

Asterick was, after all, destined to inhabit the comatose body that Epsiton had left behind on Earth.

It seemed like any other space journey, just that he was heading to Earth this time, in his seventeen years he had traveled to the Andromedan and the Magellan homeworlds four times each on class trips and each time he had gained several more friends. They had discussed Earthlings many times before and how difficult it must be to be limited to three-dimensions. Now he was heading for that dimension. His anxiety grew as he passed into the Milky Way Galaxy, unlike gentle landings elsewhere the entry into Earth would be difficult to say the least, as his ship passed into the atmosphere it would take on the form of a meteorite and his trajectory should land him in Canada, but that was as close as he could estimate.

The meteorite broke up into a dozen pieces over Saskatchewan and Asterick’s spirit landed in a field, he navigated towards the Queen City and after several days of walking he came to the outskirts of the city. By nightfall he was searching the hospital for the body of Epsiton, who had been on auto-pilot, had finally arrived at the hospital, ready to integrate.

While not too different from a bio-silicate body, it took Asterick a while to move his human form. He sat up in the hospital bed after some time and he practiced his dexterity; and within a short time his movements were natural.

The mask imbued Asterick with the knowledge and experiences of Epsiton so the only immediate problem was not referring to his aunt as auntie but rather ‘sister’, and not call his grandma as grandma but rather ‘mom’. They were every bit as intriguing as their memories and many times he had considered being honest with them, but, people fear what they do not understand and he could not risk losing any more time to institutions. It was, after all, 2004… there was a mere nine years until World War Three.