Three Equal Faces
By adthoughtsglobal. Last updated [12-01-2024]^(DD-MM-YYYY).
Part 1: The creation of creators
It was noon at Ararat, Dr John Cerad, a professional physicist who is on a quest to make a sci-fi machine, a machine that makes everything smaller than the size of a memory chip. Sadly, John was failing the tests, and he thought it was impossible to do so.
But today, something caught his attention, and he found out that it all was just a mere mistake in his calculations, he fixed it and tried again, and it was a great success.
To tell the news to his twin brother Christopher, who was settled in Turkey, he took his car and started traveling, because the airlines and internet were blocked due to some details that hadn't yet been told to the public.
As John was on the way, he saw a zombie-like being, when he looked at it from near, he felt that it was a human. He asked him to move from the road, but he didn’t listen and just started to lie down on the road. John decided to call the police, but now, he is saying something “I, I’m Kazim, from Erbil, there’s a war going on. I just somehow escaped from that, wait, where are you from?” John said, “Ararat, Armenia.” He quickly responded with a hopeless face, “Oh! And that is the country which hosted a war with us!” he wondered, so that was the case why the airlines were closed
He couldn't let him die in the middle of the desert, so he decided to take him too in his journey. It was a long, tiring drive, and after they reached Christopher's Space Research Centre, John was surprised, to see a huge crowd there, both entered the building, and they got in Christopher’s room.
Part 2: Making the end of times
Christopher said, “Oh My God! I'm seeing my brother after a long time, but who is with you, John?” John said, “This is Kazim, he is from Erbil, Iraq.” John asked him, “Why is he with you, though?” John said, “he was found alone in the [Tabriz desert]^(Tabriz is in the Quru River valley in Iran's historic Azerbaijan region between long ridges of volcanic cones in the Sahand and Eynali mountains.), he said he had escaped from the war.” "Ah, the war!" exclaimed Christopher, his voice loud but devoid of any satisfaction.
Christopher took them to the only safety chamber, he said, “This is the safety chamber, here, nothing, even if the world ends, you’ll be safe.” they wondered why, John asked Christopher, “anyway, why are you not going to the launch?” Christopher exclaimed, "What launch? There's no launch today!?" John asserted, "No, why should you lie? I heard the crowd."
There was a rocket launch happening at the space research station, Christopher did his utmost to keep it concealed from both the public and his brother. Suddenly, a sound caught their attention, and they both peered through the airtight window to see a colossal rocket soaring into the sky.
Christopher said, “I think this is the right time to say this. I was lying to the world, there’s actually a launch happening here, A rocket carrying three of the world's most esteemed individuals. However, there is an issue with the water fetcher I designed, which is intended to collect water from space in the event that the pool does not replenish with Earth's water. Currently, it has a high failure rate of 80%.
"So, there's only a 20% chance of success?" John pondered. Then he inquired, "But why a pool?" John questioned. "It's for testing the safest cell and conducting large-scale water experiments. The rocket is meant to land in it," Christopher explained. John, bewildered, retorted, "What are you talking about, Christopher? A pool, a rocket, and water from space! What's the reason for all this?" Suddenly, Christopher's phone rang, and John shouted, "Turn on the speaker!" Christopher answered the call. "Sir, the pool is malfunctioning..." The call abruptly ended. they were locked in the vault; it was a disaster.
Soon, it was only water outside the window. Kazim asked, "Why did you call me into this?" John replied, "If I hadn't, you would've been dead by now." Christopher announced, "The world is ending." Shocked, John exclaimed, "What the actual hell are you telling me? Do you mean your words? The world is ending!? That's impossible!"
Christopher replied “No, this is the truth, and you should understand this. If the water fetcher machine malfunctioned, it would fetch water from space forever, the water will rise indefinitely until all water from the entire visible sky is flooding our planet.”. "But Chris, are you telling me earth's gravity would be enough for all this water?" "No, earth will exponentially increase in mass and would deorbit, causing it to drift towards the sun or collide with a different entity before that.". "How long would this take? billions of years?" "It will complete this galaxy within a year. It uses antimatter to achieve this"
They understood that there was no escape from the vault in the future without risking suffocation, which meant they could be trapped inside indefinitely. John said, “there’s literally no way out.” Kazim exclaimed, "No, there's a way—the door, the exit—we can go through that!" "Kazim, it's impossible," replied Christopher. "The force of the water will be massive; A human body won't withstand the pressure." John said, "There comes a point when this vault can take no more and is filled to the brim, and that's when we can make our exit. and I'm pretty sure we will survive underwater for the time this thing fills up.”
Part 3: Universe is key.
They decided that the only way was what john said, risk it. They closed all the doors that lead to the different sections of the vault, so that the water would fill faster. After everything was safe, they retreated to their safe spots where the incoming water could be avoided to some extent.
They opened the door, a whole lot of water rushed into the vault within no time. The trio waited until the vault filled. “This is filled with water; we can go through!” Christopher showed hand signs floating in the water - barely understandable. No room to breathe, they swam up, and they reached the top where the level of the water was increasing by seconds, with no room to set foot on. Huge waves, the earth shaking, but before the trio was even able to look around, Kazim spotted something shiny descending from the sky: the rocket. "Quick, dive underwater!" John exclaimed loudly.
A large wave like a tsunami was made when the rocket that splashed from the sky into the blue seas. It was majestic, the water splash reached the sky, casting a shadow over half the horizon.
The rocket was fine, not even a scratch, floating over the sea they made. After much time in the water, they hopped into it. They witnessed the tragic sight of beloved individuals from around the globe, their lifeless forms adrift in the sea they made akin to those of a helpless creature.
"Kazim, can you swim?" "I had the gold for the Olympics for that." replied Kazim. John said, "here's something i have been working on for years, and i think it will be useful in this situation. He handed him the micro-er, as he calls the size shrinking machine he made. And asked Kazim and Christopher to collect all the resources they would need till the end of their lives while he rebuilt the rockets internal software to reposition itself for launch while floating.
The two was back after days, with buckets of shrank versions of resources and fuel. John exclaimed, "This rocket can be relaunched! Fast, get in."
They ignited the engine, propelled the water, and the rocket positioned itself straight in the vast ocean, soared into the vast sky, searching for hope, seeking nothing but rescue.
Part 4: Why live?
Weeks, and weeks passed by, with indefinite supplies of all vital requirements, to be used by all humanity - now concentrated in hands of three people. The net profits of all the people who were originally in the disaster at earth, combined, won't even count with the immense wealth they have collected. This was very much enough for the limited lifetime these mortals can spend.
Destruction and exploitation are key to the human psyche. "Thee created weapons, killing machines and much more. Just to deal with their friends, their relatives, their kind of blood.". "May man earn wisdom, through understanding his past - not amazed by the dazzling future his actions might provide."
Kazim spent the first weeks cleaning up his music, upgrading from a tiny mobile screen to a full DJ studio equipment, the crew couldn't help the temptation to throw him out of the window - he likes to play when the sun rays are blocked: because he get depressed that he cannot find where he is in the cosmic darkness.
Lights of starts glazed over the ship, Christopher observed the Orion with his brother. "Why can't we enjoy this immense view, why bother when we have all the resources our mother earth gave?" "Says the murderer of mothers.", john muttered. Chris went insane after hearing that.
Following the fight, the two were left with scars, not by human, but by the emergency safety system.
While checking the documentation for the entire project, Kazim may have found something rather interesting. He called John, "What do you want now?" - john said, annoyed by the action.
But john was amazed by what the papers in the hands of the youngest member of the crew said:
"The mechanics of the safety system is a self-created 'thought' that an LLM generates based on the transcripts of events of the past 5 years, including all details from units specific to milliliters and centimeters, and feelings rated by dynamic physical states of the vital organs of mortals in the early stages of the ship.", skipping to the end, read: "mortals, if found trying to break peace, or increase entropy in the system: will be annihilated by the sector-10 bot swarm."
"What the actual hell is a swarm sector-10 now!?" - john shouted.
"A swarm of nanobots", "why should we fear it?", "it kills."
"Kills who", "Life."
The responses, were more than enough to Chris and Kazim, stunned by the thought that they were being controlled by a dumber entity - was so dramatic within them.
"A bot..." started Kazim, "bots, there's millions of them" corrected Chris. "Okay so millions of bots are there in this ship to kill living things?". "Not all living things. Things that disrupt its rhythm way too much.". John asked, "what counts as one?", "something stops the journey"
"Don't lie to your only brother." shouted John at the face of Chris, holding the collar of his shirt, in a hard, pressing tone, emphasizing every word. Chris replied, "You tore my shirt, brother".
"Say it, say it all, facts said, we are all going to die, do you have any other nail to put in our coffins?" inquired Kazim.
"Yes, I do. That's the fact that I'm only an agent."
"Your words aren't even meaningful for god. Say things your Turkish brother can understand - okay?" stated Kazim.