Aquari

by DD White

  * * *

  Aquari/Nieniel in the photon laboratory suddenly got pulled by the arm over to a wide view screen where a technician typed away on some buttons. On the screen a couple hairy bird-like creatures were exchanging chirping lines of language. Chirping laughter had been dubbed into the scene, indicating that she watched some kind of theatrical comedy that began its photon recorded journey over 30,000 Earth years in the past. The chirps went back and fourth until the laugh track started up again. The chirping language had a poetic tendency to rhyme, which made it catchy and melodic like music.

  “They are very creative and entertaining,” the researcher who pressed the buttons exclaimed.

  Nieniel smiled in agreement, and continued to watch the show while intrigued. “Where did these bird-beings come from?” she asked.

  Deliadre interrupted the conversation with her answer. “They evolved from Trigloyts.”

  Nieniel looked at her as she approached. “Trigloyts?”

  “Yes,” replied Deliadre. “Trigloyts were furry little flightless birds that were introduced to the Tze-Doldus-2 ecosystem by the early Nephapricans according to the Nephaprican history data we have preserved here in Occuitah. They were a violent Doldorian animal, but when Nephapricans bred out the aggressive tendencies they grew the most adorable fur and became a favorite type of pet for Nephaprican colonists on Tze-Doldus-2.”

  “That is fascinating,” said Aquari. “That any at all survived the destruction of Tze defies rational.”

  Deliadre said, “The only explanation is that the star-door teraforming programs preserved DNA material from all the planet’s species. The inhabitants of Tze-Doldus-2 these days must have evolved when the agricultural ecosystem teraforming programs kicked in long after the explosion of Tze had destroyed everything. It must have cultivated plants for food that saturate the body with cerebroids, which suppress adverse cellular mutations and also divert synaptic paths in ways that encourage the kind of cerebral cortex evolution that results in sentient intelligence.”

  Another researcher interjected. “These hairy bird creatures have been observed in the photons we’ve picked apart building cities on top of ruins around the star-door structure, which we think might be near the planet’s north pole. These entertainment broadcasts are fueled by their ability to tap into the star-door’s electrical grid, which encompasses the whole planet, fully functional probably to this day.”

  Aquari soaked up the available data like a kid at Christmas. Once again the Eigalli had not failed to amaze the cosmic being called Aquari. “I expect when I finally arrive at this planet to become aquatinted with sophisticated and advanced beings who have benefited from the education of the star-door technologies.” Nieniel/Aquari spent the day watching Tze-Doldus-2 television and learned the simple chirping language that seemed to rhyme its way into a pentameter all of the time. She watched them marvel in news broadcasts about the ancient indestructible star-door they had discovered, which was very large since the Tze-Doldus-2 beings were actually very small, (less than three feet tall.) The star-door structure towered above the planet in these ancient video news stories, to stir the clouds of greenish mist that made up the planet’s upper atmosphere. The star-door made no secret of the fact that it had been built by some kind of giant beings long before the recorded history of the bird-people. The little inhabitants of Tze-Doldus-2 were shown in video broadcasts to be treading carefully about the excavated star-door artifact with a fearful reverence as they filmed it and speculated about its untold secrets. Tze-Doldus-2 measured a bit smaller than the planet Mars with about 20% of the gravity of Earth. Like most white-dwarf planetary systems, everything seemed scaled down to miniature with the next closest planet to the star hanging at times in the Tze-Doldus-2 sky roughly the same size as Earth’s moon, even though it is a small gas giant much farther away. Deliadre had after much study and observation basically concluded that the Tze-Doldus-2 beings were, “just so cute.”

  Goag’s avatar sat in a cafeteria waiting for Nieniel/Aquari to return from the photon laboratory. Aquari became insatiable with the entertainment feeds from beings who evidently evolved from scratch on the long lost star-door planet Tze-Doldus-2. Goag became anxious to show Nieniel/Aquari the other surprise they had ready and waiting for his historic return to the galactic core. One of the Eigalli technicians came over and sat at the table near the lord of life and reality for thousands of species of intelligent life and billions of citizens who relied on Goag Ralus for their very existence. Parental benevolence had been programmed into the personality of Goag Ralus billions of years ago, and the programming always agreed with It. The most coveted reward for all this as far as Goag Ralus had been concerned would be the friendships He made along the way of exploring Himself in avatar form. The beings that made it to Goag Ralus would have already become highly evolved beings long before making the impossible journey to the unforgiving galactic core to arrive here.

  The technician interrupted the silence Goag had appeared emerged in. Nobody feared the great Goag Ralus, being well aquatinted with Its nature their whole lives as a friendly personable form of divinity. “It is so strange to see Nieniel again walking among the living. I used to be her colleague in her photon research. I never met the famous Aquari before. He seems to have to constantly advertise his presence through the thought horn with that circle of light message.”

  Goag peered up at the technician. “Aquari has no control over that. It’s a symptom of an atomizing effect his presence has on the bodies that he inhabits. You can learn much from the cosmic being for he is even older than I, and he has traveled all over this galaxy.”

  “Truly we welcome his ability to travel faster than anything else in the known universe.” This had not been the first time the technician had struck up a conversation with the legendary Goag Ralus. Goag’s avatar often visited the Eigalli, and It loved, even longed for good conversation. Conversation gave Him a piece of these beings, forever recorded in Its memory, to survive them even after the ends of their fleeting mortal lives of several thousand Earth years. Goag Ralus was a solitary being that outlived the fleeting lives of almost all Its friends. Goag Ralus had been created as immortal yet one of a kind, and this drove Its purpose in the universe to spread terrestrial life throughout the galaxy in order to assure that the immortal Goag Ralus would never have to be truly alone. Goag Ralus had been programmed to respect the preciousness and fleeting nature of life in the universe.

  Goag Ralus said, “I am waiting for Nieniel right now to show Aquari the Dol star-door we have acquired since his last visit. We have so far concealed the news of this from him so that he appreciates the Tze-Doldus news undistracted. You should accompany us to the star-door. Nieniel will have comfort from another familiar face she can locate in Nieniel’s memories. Nieniel arranged to be the body for Aquari on this visit before she died to further our understanding of death and the ego construct, and we should all enjoy the reunion with both Aquari and our long lost Nieniel.”

  Then Nieniel, Deliadre, and an entourage of technicians, as well as those recording the Eigalli history being made that day entered the cafeteria. Then more interesting conversation erupted along with a well prepared lunch. Eating remained a main pleasure among even the most highly evolved of beings. It’s a main reason Aquari likes to explore alien worlds using the same taste buds as the inhabitants. Goag Ralus became a rich oasis in the center of the galaxy for life that came here from the farthest reaches of Magphoreus. It’s like a whole galactic civilization gathered together on an enormous platform the size of most solar systems. Goag exhibited a child-like anxiousness as It began to reveal Its other surprise for Its space traveling friend. Then time lunch became interrupted by an Eagolim shaped hologram-like being that walked into the room, stopped right next to Nieniel/Aquari, and extended a holographic hand of glowing quanta-optic nanocode, known to Aquari as one of the long lost Nephaprican technologies. “Hel
lo Aquari, we’ve met before several million teks ago. I am Begalius.”

  Nieniel/Aquari silently dug through ancient Aquari memories to connect the dots. She looked up at Goag smiling smugly at the surprise It had just sprung. It took an excruciating moment for Aquari to remember. “The quanta-optic nanocode guardian of the Nephaprican star-door that orbits the star Dol? How is it that I am greeting you here in the center of the galaxy? As far as I know the star Dol still exists close to the end of a very long life.”

  Goag then interrupted to keep the surprise unfolding as originally planned. “For that answer we shall have to show you. Come now Nieniel, to the transport provided. We must leave the city for what you are to see next.”

  As they left the cafeterias to enter a virtual particle driven transport platform, Goag began to tell the story that explained the ancient holographic being in their midst. Deliadre just smiled silently, watching Goag tell Its old friend the story. She didn’t want to steal Goag’s show, and It obviously enjoyed the fact that It had amazed the amazing Aquari; something not at all easy to do. Goag Ralus began explaining to Aquari/Nieniel what had happened. None of the fabled star-doors that the Nephapricans built in the second age of Magphoreus had ever been destroyed. The problem has been that most all of the stars that powered the star-doors had long since died, leaving the star-doors only relics divorced from their solar power sources, or else long since lost in what is known as the great disappearance of the Nephapricans. Tze-Doldus was the last of three stars that remain to this day since white dwarf stars live very long lives. Now in the third age of Magphoreus only 3 stars remained of all the other original 15 star-door stars of the Nephapricans, which had either died, or they were among the seven stars that disappeared a whole galactic age ago. There still remained the stars Tze-Doldus, along with Poa now a pulsar, and Dol now a red giant probably could not be not long for this world. The Incaprican (reptile) galactic civilization had long since taken over the Dol star-door, and operated the star-door technologies, which included universal communication devices. As the star Dol grew it eventually swallowed the planet Dol-2 along with the Nephaprican star-door that had been built on that planet. This caused a cosmic catastrophe, and forced the Incapricans to distance themselves from Dol altogether. The burning star-door released all kinds of dangerous energies and uncontrolled wormholes that were turning a whole sector of space into a galactic Bermuda Triangle of sorts.

  The Incapricans wisely employed the universal communicators that they were in possession of to contact the highly intelligent Eigalli in the galactic core for help, as well as the great Goag Ralus. They were able to all work together across the unfathomable distances in space/time to program the star-door that burned beneath the surface of the red giant star Dol. They were able to make the star-door create a wormhole all the way to a receiving platform constructed on Goag Ralus to cause the star-door itself to transport through that wormhole. This technological feat even rivaled anything the Nephapricans themselves were known to accomplish with this technology, but it worked to the joy of the Eigalli and the relief of Incapricans that were now relieved of the accursed malfunctioning star-door. The ancient Nephaprican physics of wormhole technologies that were found in the ancient Eigalli data banks were essential to the Eigalli and Goag Ralus figuring this time/space bending accomplishment out.

  Then Goag’s avatar gestured to the surface below where a dark mountain with an unnatural mushroom-like dome glowed below the virtual particle driven vehicle. “Behold Aquari, the Dol star-door nestled in a giant crater on Myself, Goag Ralus.”

  Begalius leaned over the edge of the vehicle, which was just a platform with a fence around it and no roof, and exclaimed, “Home, oh wonderful home!”

  Nieniel/Aquari patted Goag on the back. “You have truly made this visit to the galactic core historic and full of surprises old friend.” Goag at last became speechless, only able to say a satisfied smile from one side of his big blue Eigalli avatar face to the other.

  Aquari immediately understood where this was going. He would travel to Tze-Doldus-2 and recalibrate the star-door to connect with this Dol star-door. Then Goag Ralus would have a star-door to the outer galaxy to use for exploration. For the first time in Its existence, Goag Ralus would be able to travel in avatar form to worlds far from Its oasis in the core. Aquari could foresee from here a new revival of the long lost technologies that were, so far, only grasped by those amazing galactic beings of the last galactic age, the long lost Nephapricans. Aquari foresaw a new galactic era of star-door technologies that would finally become far more than just the old artifacts left behind over four billion Earth years ago. Aquari had been handed the destiny of helping to usher in a new age of quanta-optic-nanocode, quanta-optic-networks, quanta-optic-processing, quanta-fusion communication, quanta-fusion self-sustaining power cells, solar wind ionization planetary power grids, planetary warp space teleportation grids, warp space alternative reality technologies, teraforming genetic engineering programs, and the unlimited source of star-door energy along with all the technologies that spring from that. Nieniel looked over at the holographic Dol guardian, Begalius who looked down at the star-door below with motherly concern. The star-door had obviously been affected by its time spent beneath the surface of the red giant star that once powered it. All the star-doors had a quanta-optic-nanocode being in charge of the star-door’s many functions. Goag Ralus now had a friend other than Aquari who could live as long as Itself.

  Goag Ralus and Begalius were actually related, both being Nephaprican creations of artificial life. Aquari recalled that the Tze-Doldus star-door also had a quanta-optic-nanocode being by the name of Beataphoriah. Beataphoriah would probably still be in existence, and must have been the one responsible for evolving this new thriving-with-life version of the old Nephaprican star-door planet. None of the Tze-Doldus photons that Nieniel had observed that day recorded any evidence of Beataphoriah however, Aquari could think of no reason that nanocode being wouldn’t still exist. Even Begalius had survived a harrowing time living in a star-door swallowed by the red giant star Dol. It would have been Beataphoriah who probably teraformed the planet after the Tze nova event. It must have been Beataphoriah who switched on the pentanthropomorphic gene switches in a bird-like animal that used to be a simple Nephaprican pet. That all made perfect deductive sense to Aquari since even quanta-optic-nanocode beings can get lonely for intelligent life to have conversations with after so many millenniums.