By David C. Daoust
The remaining population of Grandeur II was stranded within the nothingness, within the vastness of space- light years from any planet or sun. While all communication had been severed, the technology designed to keep the humans alive and well, still functioned.
They still had some hope to maintain life.
At every Ark Ships core, sits a ‘bio-sphere’. This is a titanic, vast hallowed structure. At its core was the ‘Anchor’, which is itself an ancient Solar Gate linked to Sol for the duration of the trip to the Second Sun. This is the source of all life among the Ark Ships. As long as this link is maintained, the Arks can function on, as intended, whether the ship is moving through the galaxy or not.
Artificial gravity kept great plains of earthen soil packed and molded over this arching concave world. The biosphere housed a self-sustained ecosystem of genetically altered ‘super’ life forms. This ecosystem managed to maintain the job of the millions of species of earth, all with only a handful of keystone species.
Great Autotrophic plants grew rooted in this soil, its massive treelike vines clung in coils as it stretched and arched over the great fields, using the sun and soil to grow ‘Lotus’. Lotus was the primary food supply of those that lived on the Ark. This plant life also acted as a great filter to the air supply, pulling carbon dioxide from the air and replacing it with oxygen.
The insect and animal species that lived within were few, but they fed from the vegetation. Great herbivores wandered these concave planes, striding under the great arching vines. These creatures took their toll, to maintain their lives, lives which helped to enrich the soil. When they died, they returned to the soil, to be broken down and fed upon by fungi and bacteria. This would then re-enrich the soil even more, to grow more vegetation, to produce more Lotus.
These were extraordinary species, altered to maintain a huge food supply, with minimal resources. This meant the Bacteria, too, had to be extraordinary. This super Bacterium would consume normal life, meaning humans, within a matter of moments, breaking it down into soil. This reason, is why the Spheres are primarily droid-run, no human could ever enter this secluded and unusual world. At least not while they still lived, ALL life returned to the soil of the Biosphere eventually. It was a contained ecosystem- nothing left the Arks.
Despite the loss of propulsion of Grandeur II, this biosphere still thrived.
The AI, however, was altered, all to maintain functionality. It was blinded, and crippled, only able to finish its basic functions. Any broad understanding it once held, would trap it back into the paradox.
The AI was but an earth worm, compared to what it once was. Its primary task- was to retrieve the lotus.
The humans were many. They found life with no promise of a true future, futile. With this acceptance, however, their mentality changed. Ultimately, they were trapped within a self sustaining prison, with no chance of release.
Truly, they lived within what one may call a ‘Philosopher’s Stone’; an item of ancient mythology- a magical stone which granted eternal health, eternal wealth, and eternal sustenance. The idea being, if these basic needs are supplied, undoubtedly you would have no choice but to become a philosopher. And thus the cities of the lost ark began their descent into the vast landscape of the mind.
Ultimately, they sought a philosophy, which would allow the AI its past abilities, without trapping it within the paradox. Put simply- they needed to agree.
They began as groups of people, coming together with similar ideas. Tribes of similar thought, they would spread through the great cities in waves, rising to their apex, at their maximum capacity, and then shattering to bits as the ideas falter among the sheer number of those dissecting the thought. Only to rise again, in a new form, a greater form, built from the shards of the shattered, Built on the ideas that worked, just never at such a great scale.
Despite this, it was not long until the same idea set into the stone of this society.
Under this societies new ethos, the AI became something more. It was splintered into three, three separate aspects. One could comprehend the Faith of those Elevated. Another could comprehend the Will of those Elevated. The last could comprehend the Fear of those Elevated.
Ultimately it was a simple game of ‘Paper, Rock, and Scissors’. Faith cancels Fear, Will cancels Faith, and Fear cancels Will. For how can one with faith truly fear anything? Yet how can a person have faith yet also ‘will’? How can someone ‘will’ without fear of an outcome? These were the ideas that were born of this civilization of philosophers.
These simple thoughts created a prism of conflicting ideas within a human mind. Thoughts that could change all reason for their actions a thousand times a day, depending which side of the prism one looked through, yet created no conflict among the human mind that spawned these thoughts. The Ai however found it exponentially confounding to its thought process, especially when ordered to appease their every whim. This separation of the AIs thinking process allowed it to take a greater role, outside of the Biosphere, without seizing into a paradox. Though truly these three, were of simple minds, especially compared to what it once was.
This philosophy was deemed mandatory to society.
Among this strict edict, rebellions began to spring up through the narrows. As the fighting began, they did not use guns and blades, yet they fought all the same, their words were poignant and devastating.
It came to a point, where it was simpler, simpler to just join the mind of those that disagreed, to show them directly the truth of the popular philosophy.
This joining of the minds became more and more common place, until it was very rare, not to have an ongoing shared mind somewhere within the Ark Cities. The way those of the Onion, took their leave among the holographic parks of the Hub– these people would delve into a shared consciousness, which would eventually call itself ‘Ergos’.
At first they were in and out, though as they progressed, fewer and fewer would want to leave. The first pods were created to maintain those that would not leave. Until, there were those, which could not leave.
The people looked to Ergos for more and more.
The cities transformed from bolstering cities of philosophers arguing their point, to the emptied streets as the Ark became a working singular mind.
Eventually, though, the threat of ‘Sol’s end’ caught up with the people of the lost ark, again they turned to Ergos.
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