He saved me from those hunters and the dreaded cultists my dad programmed to hunt him down. Yes, we were tricked like caged animals, but our emotions were pure, were they not?
If I was scared, it was only because everything I thought I knew about this life was changing. This place changed me.
He changed me, but in the best way possible.
The tears start to dry. I roll my palms across my cheeks, smoothing my skin, sniffing loudly. These limbs, the blood that runs in my veins, and the bones that make my body what it is have actually grown throughout time, yet they are synthetic materials. Somehow, I feel reality sweep through me with every step taken.
The rural villagers stare back at me. A few nod their heads. Some children point and wave. I return the gesture, knowing that we are one and the same.
If I destroy this place, what will become of them? Will they vanish into thin air? Just another cruel parlor trick my father foisted upon me?
No. I won’t let them parish. I won’t let any of this go to waste, I decide. But I will say goodbye to my father. I won’t let him get his ultimate wish.
As hard as it was for me, I let him go. Before this shit went down, I watched that wooden casket lower six feet into the Earth. I said my goodbyes, tossing a bit of soil into his grave.
Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.
I expected him to be gone forever.
Some people might be grateful to have another second with their lost loved ones. But he never loved me. I was just a toy, a soulless robot, not quite the futuristic model he expected to create.
Well, I have grown. Things have changed greatly since then. Every second that passes comes with new learning. Once you love, the entire world opens up to you. A new landscape awaits.
I keep my eyes focused on the magnificent temple in front of me, scanning each row of gold brick until my sight reaches the top. It calls to me, beckoning me forward. The great beyond must lie on the other side.
The Furnace, the first place Elon and my father designed.
If I know my dad, he’ll be coming after me. In fact, I’m sure he’s on my tail now.
I start to walk faster. My heavy, determined steps turn into a jog. And then I’m running again.
Another world. Another wish. Another night to hold and fuck my alien lover.
We never got the rest. The interminable nights staying up, talking about our hopes, dreams, and fears that make up the peripheral of our existence. Worst of all, we never got to laugh.
I’m not laughing. I’m nearing the temple’s facade. It’s so much bigger than I thought, and it blocks out the sun by absorbing its rays.
Strange, twisting columns rise throughout the center, steps leading toward what should be a door, but it is sealed with a grey ceme
nt. The entablature above has been carved, containing pictures that make up a story. I squint, peering at the slight shapes.
I see me. I see everyone I know here, etched in stone. This is the story of this world, the genesis of something much bigger.
“It’s… incredible,” I whisper as another tear falls from my eye.
I don’t want to admire it any more than I have, but it’s stunning. Earth Federation has terraformed planets. Recently, I was told about one such planet, Avalon, where they made beasts to inhabit the terrifying landscape. The scientists were killed.
However, this is something different. Something much bigger. This is biblical.
Our love defines this entire place.
I gasp and step through a long grove of trees. Birds of red and blue, and yellow and black, and hints of purple and orange fly and land on nimble branches, chirping tones that sound like music to my ears.
My father…
He made this for me. He broke me down so I’d feel determined to find this place.
He doesn’t hate me. He loves me.