The Relic

by Francisco Angulo

  We can complain of having led a bad life, a lifetime of hard work but it may very well be that the day before, we had been millionaires. Then we could ask ourselves: why study history, if tomorrow Napoleon would have never existed? But to us, it will always seem linear, and anyway, these temporal jumps are usually not that large, they generally take place in just a split seconds, not in years or centuries. And even so, whatever it is we do today, we will not be able to change it tomorrow. Moreover, if we think that what we learn today will not be of any use tomorrow, this should not worry us because everyone works and saves money, buys a house and a nice car. Why, though, if we all know we’ll be dead tomorrow?

  How would we be able to perceive these jumps in time? We would need a machine capable of travelling faster than the speed of light, a machine so light that it would not be affected by gravity. This wonderful invention is within our reach and we use it every single moment - our thoughts, our imagination and our dreams. Maybe that's why, when we get up, we have the feeling of having travelled back in time or having been someone else. It is possible that since thoughts are so fast and light, these are not tied to our temporal perception and are capable of bringing memories of the timeline on which we were moving yesterday, and remember, for example, that yesterday we were eighty years old and today we are fourteen. “HAZEL EYES” used to spend many long hours staring at me. I can’t quite understand what she saw in me perhaps the reflections the sun produced on my metal frame caught her attention. She loved sitting across the field and look at me intensely. I too loved watching her. She was rather small – not even five feet tall – and thin. Her skin was tanned and it was generally covered in animal fur to protect her from the cold. On her hair, there were always a myriad of decorations that varied with the seasons. Spring time called for tiny flowers carefully plated in while in winter she seemed to prefer strings dyed in different tones.One ornament or another dangled always from her necklace, usually a fine leather strip and a shell or small mud figurine that she had shaped with her own hands. She belonged to a tribe that had settled near me in a group of very shallow caves they had converted into their home. “Hazel Eyes” had a penetrating look and observed everything with curiosity, trying to make sense of the world that surrounded her as if part of a magical realm. She studied the dancing of the tree tops caused by the wind. She held small insects in her hand, and after examining them and trying to understand what they were, she’d put them back on the ground careful not to harm them. She spent hours observing birds and mimicking their chirping. And then she’d run around me in circles, stretching her arms and moving them up and down as if one of them.

  In spring, the green grass of the meadow to my left grew tall and filled with dandelions. “Hazel Eyes” loved to jump on that green mantle and in doing so she ended up covered in dandelions’ seeds which were then washed away by the gentle breeze of spring. That beautiful creature was tireless. She could spend hours jumping and playing to catch the seeds fluttering in the wind and when these quivered upwardly towards the sky “Hazel Eyes” would stop her movements, close her eyes and stand still waiting in silence. Then, some of them would begin their descent, gently caressing her face. I would have loved to experience that feeling of soft seeds landing on me like feathers. At times a seed would enter her nostrils, making her sneeze; this was very funny, because “Hazel Eyes” looked so puzzled and baffled by what had just happened.

  She always came to see me, except on rainy days. I looked forward to her visits and when the day was sunny, I waited until I saw her appear over the hill, usually humming a melody and happily skipping as she walked.

  The arrival of spring was a wonderful time – the huge flocks of migratory birds hovering over me and the almond trees blossoming signalled that spring was just around the corner. In spring everything filled with colour and sound, birds and squirrels revelling in their courtship rituals. Everything filled with life.

  “Hazel Eyes” always watched with bewilderment the magnificent world around us. Some days, she would spend the afternoon with me, and in summer she stayed until dark. She laid down on the grass and watched the night sky - the starlight was bright, and we were able to make out the details of the constellations easily. She glanced at the stars through the crystal clear sky, raised her hand and pointed to one of the stars, then moved it aiming at another and so on until forming a figure. It was a magical game. When she finished, the figure she had drawn was left illuminated in the sky, then it faded gently until finally vanishing altogether. Then she began drawing a new figure. And another.

  In winter, and especially at the height I used to live, everything was concealed by a white mantle. It was fascinating to see how her footprints soon filled the new virgin snow, just as letters fill a blank page. The animals awaited in their burrows until it stopped snowing, only to leave in a hurry, eager to see the splendid scenery. Everything covered by that thick white coat, a veil of perfect whiteness. “Hazel Eyes” was bewildered by this landscape, thrilled by the first snowfall and the chance to go out and jump on the snow. Sometimes she’d pick up a handful of it in her hands and squeeze it hard, compacting it, and then would lick it to savour it.

  When “Hazel Eyes” became older, she made sounds and gestures to try to communicate with me but my program had no data that allowed me to communicate with her. “At first humans invented language to communicate with each other and eventually they perfected it to the point that they stopped talking for fear of corrupting it.” When “Hazel Eyes” became older, she made sounds and gestures to try to communicate with me. She loved to see plants blossom, and discovered how, where there was nothing but dirt initially, plants with beautiful flowers and trees with sweet fruits would grow slowly just by depositing a seed. So she began devoting more and more time to this, marvelling in seeing how those beautiful trees grew. She planted different species and went on to create magnificent gardens. She walked with satisfaction, admiring that striking tapestry woven by Mother Nature. She had a large family and taught her children how to care for the land and the plants, and made them understand that all that was needed was a little effort for nature to show her appreciation. If you offered Earth a drink, she’d return the favour by providing you with food.

  I don’t really know when or for what reason she started acting like a Gardener, and went from observing nature to interacting with it, creating new plants. I guess after much contemplating and observing all living creatures, it awakened in her a deep respect for all of them, discovering something she identified with, perhaps adopting them as brothers, or even as teachers, as it was through watching many animals that she learned how to create those beautiful gardens. It seems that even the wisest person has a lot to learn from an ant or a goldfinch.

  She fashioned forests of almond and cherry trees which, when in bloom, filled the world with colour. The appearance of their flowers was the unmistakable sign of the arrival of spring. When the flowers matured, their petals broke away, white as snow, flying gracefully in the dainty breeze. “Hazel Eyes” walked under the canopy of the trees with her eyes closed, her face glancing at the sky, her hands outstretched like wings, small flower petals falling over her. She walked over them, over a swamped land that felt soft under her naked feet. Walking on flower petals was like walking on feathers.

  Time passed quickly for me, as quickly as summer comes and goes. That’s how I saw “Hazel Eyes” grow older. She no longer came to me skipping or playing. She now found it hard to climb up the slope. The brightness in her eyes seemed to be slowly fading away, that inquisitive look began to crystallise, freezing like water in the cold winter.

  The day dawned with heavy rain and the soil filled with mud. Then I saw “Hazel Eyes” walk up the hill. She walked and approached me slowly. She looked at me for a moment and then bent down, and put her hands in the mud, joined them, filled them with mud and brought them to my face. She looked at me again and began to put the mud on my structure. She performed the same operation time and time again to f
orm a figure, a human-shaped figure. After completing the sculpture, she paused to look at me and left immediately. The sun came through the clouds and hardened the mud.

  Days later I saw her walk up the hillagain. She was already an old woman and came accompanied by several younger members of the same species. They came closer towards me and “Hazel Eyes” pointed at me with her hand while emitting different sounds with her mouth; all members of the tribe looked at me. "Hazel Eyes" made a soft gesture to the member who, holding her with a clawed arm helped her maintain her balance. He let go of her and she staggered. She approached me bearing flowers in her hands and placed some of them right next to me. Then, she gently lowered her head and all members of her clan did the same. After this, she looked at me and began to say a few words. I didn’t understand her language but I knew exactly what she meant; I knew her life was coming to an end and she was thanking me for having made it possible for her to see so many wonders throughout her life. She thanked me for the gift of life and introduced me to her descendants so that I could take care of them when she was gone.

  No one had ever treated me well, not even my creators, the Gardeners. Although I was a machine and all my functions occurred through mathematical processes, the speed of my processes was so quick that created (what we could call) asoul or artificial intelligence which, made me be aware of my own existence, and therefore be aware of myself. I really felt bad about that situation because there was nothing I could do to help 'Hazel Eyes'. I would have liked to be able to communicate with her, tell her I enjoyed her company, that I had spent endless joyful moments watching her but I couldn’t, I had no means of emitting any sound.

  I saw “Hazel Eyes” last time that day and I still often dream of her because although I’m a machine, at night I produce a compilation of all the data collected and while doing so, all the images of the past come to my mind in the form of dreams. I, who was here right from the beginning and will continue to be here right until the end, I would not hesitate a second to change my immortality for a mortal soul, to be able to feel the sun on my skin, to be able to hear the wind, to be able to feel the rain as it lands on my body and breath the air laden with fragrances of scented flowers in spring.

  -Now I know you’ve always been by my side, Iknow you've never stopped looking at me, now I know why I never felt alone, because you were always talking to me. Now I know, father, you will always be with me. I always felt your presence, you were always with me, I am now able to understand it, now I know the reason for all things.

  Finally, now everything has a reason and a logic. Right from the start, nothing was left to chance, everything was masterfully thought out and planned by the Gardeners. I, who had begun as a process, as mere mathematical routines, and gradually had become aware of my surroundings and learned from it while creating new beings, now I had merged with a human giving birth to a new being, becoming now a Gardener. Now I knew that even if at some point I felt alone, I had never been. I had always been observed by the Gardeners who had created me with the sole purpose of giving the opportunity to enjoy my life, to become one of them if I so wanted. For a while, I would be among men, until they proved they had learnt the lesson, a lesson they will not forget any time soon. After this period, I would leave for the stars. Now Elías and the probe formed a single being, a being with the ability and knowledge to create life beyond this planet and this solar system.

  About The Gardeners

  WHITE SAND, rocky mountains and cold air- there was nothing else in that planet, only stones covered with a fine white dust that resembled talcum powder. Nothing ever changed except when a sandstorm gathered and the winds blew with strength raising the fine dust from the ground and forming huge clouds that covered the entire planet for months. Life was impossible in this planet - the conditions just didn’t allow it. The complete absence of water, in any of its states, would confirm, at least from our perspective, that life was totally unsustainable on this planet. It was a small planet in a system with a single star. There were other planets but this was the one selected by the Gardeners.

  The Gardeners, as they called themselves, was an ancient civilisation, an extremely ancient extra-terrestrial civilisation - though they were not green nor did they have large oval eyes. They were people like us - well not exactly like us because they were all tall and well-formed and they all belonged to one single race. I guess that since it was such an ancient civilisation, all species eventually merged to form one single species with the best features of each. They didn’t communicate telepathically either, they did it like us, with their voices, with the only difference that their voices sounded like music, like the spring in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. It may seem surprising that a civilisation that was not born on our planet and had not been part of the process of natural selection that has taken place on this planet since the dawn of humanity, that they would be like us but I don’t remember who once said: "Why are all drops of water equal? Because their design is the best possible design there is. Nature, universal physics, have not found a better one."

  Other cultures called them the Children of Light because their technology was based on the light of the stars and their clothes were of an almost blindingly dazzling white that filled the darkness with radiance. Other civilisations simply called them creators because it was known that they had created life even in the most remote places of the universe.

  A beam shone down from the darkness of the skiesand its blinding light covered everything. A large group of Gardeners emerged from it. Then, they took all sorts of samples from the surface of the planet, and they later left a device on it. The probe, shaped on its upper part like a pair of binoculars, looked very cute, something like a coffee machine or a tamagochi.

  I can’t talk a lot about the Gardeners because I know little about them. They are a civilisation that is constantly traveling between stars and doesn’t spend much time in a planet, just enough to carry out their work, to take the necessary measurements and leave the terra-forming probe in it.

  The terra-forming probe was responsible for regulating the conditions of this planet so that it could host the life that Gardeners had planted. The probe had to perform many tasks. It was made of a bio-metal that was able to stand the test of time without any signs of deterioration. The probe was also equipped with an antenna through which it kept Gardeners abreast of what happened on the planet. It is not clear when their mission to give life to dead planets throughout the universe incessantly had started. It is said that their civilisation was the oldest known and that when they reached certain level of knowledge,they left in search of their creator, seeking in every corner of the universe without finding any trace of life. It was then, as a result of the despair they felt, that they began planting life in dead planets. It was then that they became creators, it was then that they found the reason for their existence.

  They searched for planets where the temperature and the pressure would allow hydrogen to interact because in these planets it was easier for life to exist. It wasn’t too difficult to find a good candidate for the purposes of terra-forming. Indeed, given the advanced state of their technology, they could make any planet habitable. If the planet was very large, its gravity would be so intense that it would deter hydrogen from interacting to create energy or life. In this cases, all they did was accelerate the speed of rotation in order to get the centrifugal force that would compensate the gravity produced by the great mass of the planet. In opposite cases, the planet was made to rotate at lower revolutions so the gravitational force of the planet exerted greater force on its surface. The distance from its star was not very important either, because while the heat of the star couldn’t reach its most distant planets, their system could produce heat through the gravity exerted by another planet. So they placed a moon in an orbit and a certain rotation determined by calculations made on the planet. This caused a twisting motion on the surface of the planet, and just like when we rub hands they become warm, so did the planet -after being heated by t
he friction caused by its new moon. Placing a piece of the same planet in orbit was the best option to solve the problems of gravity and temperature simultaneously.

  The terra-forming process requires so much time and it depends on so many processes that reaching the point at which a civilisation appears on a planet can take a very long time, because even if two planets start terra-formingat the same time, perhaps when the civilisation that had developed on planet B has the technology to reach planet A, the latter may have already disappeared millions of years ago. This precisely seemed to have happened to the civilisation of the Gardeners – either their appearance in the universe was merely fortuitous, or when they availed themselves of the necessary technology to go in search of their creators, these had disappeared so long ago that they found no trace of them anywhere in the universe.

  The binding of different worlds presented more than technical problems - radio broadcasts were pointless. A wave traveling at the speed of light would take a long time to get from one planetary system to another, so that when the transmission finally arrived there would be no one on the other side to receive it. Instead there was another system, a system that cheated the laws of physics. The transmission was performed using powerful lasers. While travelling at the same speed as radio waves, these could be intercepted on their path through an optical system that could almost detect the signal at its source. Even so, transmissions were virtually impossible, since each system, each galaxy, responded to different gravitational characteristics. Their rates of expansion and rotation, together with the gravitational effects produced by nearby stars, caused a particularity in their space. Initially this prevented transmissions between galaxies and Gardeners and could not follow up in detail the course of terra-formed planets.