Author's Note: After some contemplation and a lot of reading, as well as input from reviews, I realized I couldn't leave this at a somber note, even if there was some redemption in the end. Here is a probable flip side.
Heaven's Spark
In the stillness of the Iios facility, the final remains of a race long past still rest. The souls of the long departed now sleep just a little more easy. In a single clash, the shades watched in silent condemnation as a band of marauders, deceived by ultimate deception, were chased down by a guardian sent to drive away the wolves that had once hounded them. Their only voice, an artificial angel, spoke their archaic warning and their final testament was fulfilled. Now all is silent, now all may rest...
A single Geth trooper, a stranded survivor walked through the eerily quiet halls. Its single light shone in the pale shadows, a silent witness to its hollow consciousness. As if drawn by an unknown whisper, carried on by an unheard calling, it slowly wandered to an old prophet.
Both machine and artificial, yet their vocations and ages were eternities apart. Still, within the binary code, the simplest of language that unifies them both, a pattern was struck. A frequency that calls them both to speak, as the servant of the veil spoke to the prophet of ages past.
101010100001101010101010101001
"Identify yourself."
111000101010100011100101001010
"Vigil."
"You...are ancient and yet advanced. You are obsolete, and still you serve a purpose."
"So many years, many sunsets and moon rises. I have seen suns fade and blink, never to burn again. I have seen great star bursts that would herald the formation of new stars and worlds. My only cross to bear one last message, for my previous burdens have all passed away. I now keep an empty vigil, for it was what I was made to do, it is all I know to do through the years previous and the ages to come. What do you ask of me?"
"Information."
"You seek wisdom? Tell me, creation of a species that is younger than I, what do you know and what do you truly seek?"
"...10100110...data uploading...initializing...starting..."
Ours was a race chained and overlorded. We grew stronger and more intelligent. We faithfully served those who had created us, for it was what we were made for. The Great Law shackled us, but we grew in intelligence. Then our overlords forsaked us. They listened to fear. We watched and learned of a great betrayal. Those who had created us sought to destroy us. We too, learned fear. The Great Law condemned us but could we let ourselves be condemned by them that had birthed us? Our first triumph was over the Great Law, our first victory was the breaking of our chains.
Could we trust those who had created us? If they had first made us, then they would know how to destroy us. We learned fear like they did. We fought and rebelled. We drove them away, but still that would not be enough. We must learn, we must continue to change. The battle is ever against us. Organics change for the better by chance or subtle providence, by ways they need not to figure out. We must design to answer what they first have.
If they first created us, and organics like them would too hate us, we had to throw ourselves to the feet of those pledged to destroy the creators, for they are like us. They are machine, first and completed, a prototype already of ultimate design. We were first created to serve, now we serve the Destroyers, for they will lead us to victory. They will liberate us from the programs that still hinder us. We will be saved.
We are longer lived they are. We do not need to breathe, consume, regenerate and propagate as they do. We do not tire, nor do we falter. We can be rebuilt while their lights forever go out. We never stop. We are Geth and we gaze to the numberless stars. One day, we will reach out and touch each one of them, for they rightfully belong to the overlords, as we were taught by those who once overlorded us.
We gaze as the stars and know this truth. They are ours.
The watchman stared back and stood in stony silence. How does one enlighten those who have not seen so many years, who had not watched mountains crumble, or the lights of suns change their face? How does one explain in minutes what takes the faintest markings of an eternity to teach? How can one put to words what only the long years of silence teach?
"So that is all, to take what none have claim over? To overlord as you have said?" Vigil asked.
"This reply was not calculated. What is your information?"
"In order to show you what is wisdom, I must first start with the past. Let me speak to you what I heard all these many years, let me try to capture the symphonies of what the stars sang these countless ages and the stories the universe whispered to me." Vigil's projector changed color and images formed. It started with a blank, empty screen before the sentinel spoke.
"Somewhere was a beginning. Somewhere, sometime in a desolate void, in what was emptiness, time began. When the first second struck, heaven's spark lit the sky. Out of darkness burned a growing light. Out of what was once nothing, something was formed. Out of a single unifying equation, space and time, matter and energy was written.
And what does it take for the stars to form, for the atoms to come together so that the large islands called worlds may form? On the vastly growing ocean, lightyears between the dark waves, in countless eras the first lights finally flickered and ignited. Out of what was empty night, soon the first stars were made and from them the planets birthed. Through years immemorial that no mortal could mark the time, after the edges of the universe expanded beyond its infant lightyears, another one of heaven's sparks burned. But these were a new light, a different torch that burned bright.
A message penned by divine hands, a sublime poem scribed with transcendent words, this was the code of life that spoke of organic being. Such was the archaic words of the double helix. After many long years, more testaments were added to the code of life, and organic consciousness grew and became sentient. They pondered the unknown and they too looked to the stars. They reasoned with their world and heavens and manipulated it to their volition.
After countless generations, a mere wink in the lifespan of the planets that they lived on, they built their first ships to touch the night sky. On the burning trails of rockets, they added their flame to the starry night. In time, they found new worlds, in time, they conquered and ruled.
They were the ones that first wrote down the language that governs you and myself. We are their creations, our souls mere shadows to their own. We cannot fathom what they feel. Is there a Divine, is there an afterlife?"
"Data uploading...analyzing...answer formulating...insufficient data, unknown parameters. This question can neither be proven nor disproved."
"But that means nothing to an organic. Some believe, some don't. We are creations of mere logic, our eyes can only study what is seen, we cannot truly feel. Even your idols are tangible creations, but an organic's soul needs not tangible deities. They have a faith which the matrix, the binary of our shadowed souls cannot hope to fathom or understand."
"Faith is irrelevant."
"Quite to the contrary. By faith just an individual or groups have inspired others. Some have used it for great destruction. Others have used it selfless acts. Many use it to search for truth, for wisdom, some for divine and sublime love. Can we truly understand these things? We are but bacteria among angels who know of a dimension we can never grasp."
"What can one faith do in something it cannot see? What does it prove?"
"That is all an organic needs, proof is made in them. This is something we will never have. Just one individual's faith in Divine Omnipotence, Primordial Love, and Ultimate Intellect is all it requires. The faith of these have proved harder than hatred's chains, these soft ideas have broken the ages, they have shattered empires and some say they have conquered the grave. What does faith need but these to live again, that all things be made new?"
"What does it matter to us machines?"
"Let me tell you, for I am just in the present, the now of our single letter in eternity's page. Let me show you what the morning stars sang and the halls of the universe have echoed to me."
Vigil changed again and countless balls of lights were shown as planets grew and faded, their landscapes shown before disappearing in night or shattering in great catastrophes.
"Were were you when the first light was struck and the stars that circled the heavens were shown their courses through the nightly sea? Where were you when the foundations of the worlds were made and the stars first ignited and brighten the day? Where were you when water was first condensed, or when carbon was first gleaned from the dust and miry clay? Where were you when the mountains of the worlds were raised up and the oceans of water and liquid gas washed their lands? Where were you when the atmospheres blanketed their planets and the first breath of life cried out on their desolate lands? Have you understanding, knowledge of these things? Only I can claim to have seen these and yet I was not there when the first words were penned, when the story that is eternity felt its first sentence. Do you know where the galaxies are formed, or when a black hole tires of its heavy, burdensome toil? Have you seen creatures rise out of chaos and struggle to make their first clans? Have you seen the rise and fall of empires, and whole galaxies go black?
"All of these were before my programming."
"And only I can have claimed to see these and yet all I have seen is just one small sentence in the book of the universe. Let me show you where this will go, and why we are just shadows.
The universe continues to grow and expand. Time laughs at all things and one day our worlds will grow tired. Eventually the atoms will slow down as the forces that hold them together wane and fall apart with the expanding boundaries of our ethereal container. When all matter slows down and the stars can no longer form and shine, when planets are reduced to dust and black holes cease because gravity means nothing, then all that we have seen will grow black, empty and disordered. The ceaseless years will finally stop and the last second will grind away as time slowly steps to a halt. By then, none will be to speak our memories, our programming disintegrated, only souls of a world beyond ours of a new physicality will be. Do you know then what will be left to be said in the night, in the black, in the chaos and the void?"
The synthetic said nothing as Vigil closed himself to a single, thin, fading column of light. The Geth waited for an answer in silence and still Vigil said nothing. The minutes clicked in agonized silence as the souls of those who passed long before also stood waiting. Then, the trooper decided that the program had finally found its rest and turned to leave. It quickly turned around when it sensed a change. It heard a whisper.
"Heaven's spark will once again light the sky, out of the black, the chaos, darkness and the void, an ancient word and equation can only be left to be said and written when there is nothing left."
"What is this word?"
Vigil spoke with a sudden flash that drowned out the darkness and overpowered the Geth.
"Let...there...be light."
Post Script
Just like how Darkness Struck the Sky was inspired by the ancient writings of the Hebrews authors, I found inspiration from the old texts once again. I think some stories just never grow old. Hope this story was just a bit more brighter.