The Sweetsong of the Ladydove - Part XII

Chapter 20
The mind is an amazing instrument, and when you think about it, you certainly will have reason to glorify your creator for such a marvel. For during those thousand years (which, in retrospect I surmise was the curse of the angel’s sword), even though I consciously slept, that little entity there inside me -- my dormant mind -- was working continually, faithfully putting two and two together, extracting conclusions from all I had learned since the beginning of time. My mind was developing logical scenarios that became more clear with each passing decade. With this new foundation of understanding, now, my mind escalated in intelligence dramatically toward the end of my “slumber.”
I now had a clear plan on what I would do next, in order to have something to look at for the rest of eternity, even if . . . even if only a sunset . . . . .
First, I decided I was going to multiply. It has been a given since time began that anything living or intelligent has had the ability to multiply, even the smallest cell, including the component parts of that cell. After the division, each cell lived a life independent of the other. This meant that the spirit or intelligence of the first cell had to be able to divide as well, for I had learned during all existence that when a spirit leaves the body, the body ceases to live.
Well, here I was: a spirit. I was going to put my conclusions to the test, and attempt a division of my spirit, or my intelligence.
But I did not want to create someone equal to myself, for I imagined he might seek superiority over me, or fight with me on certain points. I decided to create an intelligence very inferior to myself, one that was not very creative, but one who could do calculations. I also wanted to build into this entity the type of passiveness I experienced during my thousand-year slumber. I wanted an intelligence that did not care about or understand the passage of time. I also wanted an intelligence that would faithfully follow my directives.
What I was looking for, was an intelligence that could be used as matter. This is why I wanted to withhold creativity and time awareness, for matter has to be able to exist for long periods of time with very little measurable changes or progress. Later on, I’ll explain why I thought I could create matter. For now, I just wanted to create a workable intelligence that would conform to these conditions, and also one who knew how to divide itself.
I knew that the matter in my other worlds had to be made of some type of intelligence, because -- according to the stories -- inanimate objects and masses responded to those who had “power and authority.” (Do those words sound familiar? The word “priesthood” came to mind.) Seas were calmed, flesh was instantly healed, and mountains were moved, all at the mere words of the one with this authority. I, myself, had even witnessed evidence of this, when I heard the planet Priegan welcome the Messiah.
I practiced for a few years, concentrating on the parts of my personality that I wanted to duplicate. In time, I began to get results, and I spent a few more decades perfecting the process. It was like I was enlarging or enhancing those parts of my personality through practicing them, then willing half of each of these traits to distance itself from my point of existence, and from my consciousness.
In this new entity, I saw I had the data bank of a calculator, able to do quick calculations continuously. I gave this new intelligence the designation, “atom.”
I need not go into all the science as to how I turned my “atoms” into matter. If you wish to know this, I will append this treatment at the end of this narration. For now, suffice it to understand that I created matter. Or should I say “mock-matter?” When a dimensionless entity utilizes dimensionless rules and regulations, and uses real emotions such as gladness or fear, which are found abundant in a soul in spirit form, and can multiply those “feelings” millions of times until something tangible is felt, you will get something that seems as real as anything ever made physical, for perception is relative to the laws encompassing it.
Therefore, I will postpone my scientific chatter and continue with my story, letting you know that I continued testing the atoms as they cycled through all the elements I had established for them, until I could see that they acted as they should, as matter would act or react. After another 350 years, when I was satisfied that my atoms were predictable, I established an auto-reproductive system, and decided to let them reproduce themselves for a while.

It is amazing how quickly a number can reach astronomical proportions when doubled each time. My seedfruit doubling project showed how true that is. Only two hundred years had passed by the time I felt that the mass of my atoms was sufficient to create the beginnings of a small universe. But I had given all of them the directive to not utilize their physical calculations during this reproductive phase. This way, they remained right here in front of me so they could learn of updated directives and laws without doing their calculations at the same time, which might have been a bit chaotic at this point in time.
One of those directives was to stop reproducing, and to remove that element from their makeup. I utilized what I will later describe as the latent intellectual device I programmed into each of them to affect this change. My next plan was to have them expand into space, so to begin the formation of stars, galaxies and solar systems.
I calculated the total mass of my collection of atoms -- when fully functioning -- to be about one-thousandth that of the universe I came from. I surmised that I didn’t need so many at this time. Had I wanted it, I would have had my atoms double themselves only ten more times. But for now, this was sufficient, for -- because I was a novice -- I didn’t feel comfortable at creating so much matter; if a problem came up over the structure of my atoms, or some similar problem, I felt I could change it easier because of the smaller number I had now. I could always make more if I needed, and put them in the center of the expanding ball, and no one would notice the difference.
I reviewed with them all the laws, probed for their understanding and acceptance of what I said, and of what their behavior would be under extreme circumstances. Finally, after checking and re-checking, I decided it was time for . . . “the Big Bang.”

My main reason for wanting a “big bang” was to put everything into a natural progressive state. By telling them all to start observing the physical laws on my cue -- from this concentrated point-- I would have a natural expansion, I would have heavy particles being made naturally, galaxies forming themselves naturally, and rotating bodies happening all at once so that solar systems and planets could form -- all this, so that I wouldn’t have to do it personally, which would probably take millions of years of time, and would tax my creative powers.
I placed myself about two hundred thousand miles from the spot in which this vast amount of “material embryos” were gathered, and said to them, “When I give the signal, you must start practicing the laws of solid matter, never to depart from that practice unless you hear otherwise from me, or an authorized representative.”
After a short pause in which I sensed compliance from all the atoms, I said, “Are you ready? Start . . . . now!”

So faithful were the intelligences in complying with my directive, that at the same instant, every single “atom” began to expand to their predetermined fixed size. But there were so many of them in the same spot, that it was impossible to achieve this immediately. So they reverted to their arithmetic equations for the various situations that would cause departures from the norm. Within the first few instants, there was chaos as they made their first real-time calculations and encountered frustration at every step, for almost all variations were existent at the same moment. But soon this passed; the appropriate calculations were arrived at and the associated responses were executed.
This all happened within the first few instants of the first second, in which temperature readings rose to trillions of degrees and formulas took affect. But during the rest of that first second, the ball of atoms expanded rapidly, according to their calculations.
Before the next second elapsed, the fiery ball engulfed me, and its “event horizon” expanded quickly into deep space. Of course -- according to an exception I gave them -- I was not effected and I beheld the wonder with great interest.
I noticed that even during the tremendous pressure that these atoms were enduring -- or more correctly, calculating, broadcasting and responding to incoming readings that defined “pressure” -- and the greatly accelerated speed the outer ones were traveling, they were still carrying out all the various laws programmed into them: The vast number of atoms in the center of the group were still at zero dimension, but sending out a temperature reading of mega-trillions of degrees, because of the pressure readings around them. But they were also sending out their attraction values, and the atoms on the event horizon of the expanding ball were picking up those readings, and trying to adjust their speed accordingly, when the opposite force of the pressure pushing them out slackened slightly for brief nano-seconds.
Ultimately, however, their acceleration and expansion pressure overcame the attraction, again because of the almost infinite pressure exerted by the inner atoms as they tried to expand as quickly as possible to their fixed distances.
As the entire group was not evenly distributed before they began their expansion, there resulted a few vacuum pockets, which caused a bit of lateral movement in some of the atoms. At the same time, because of the vacuums, there were less atoms to hold back those on the surface, and their acceleration was greater than their neighbors.
This -- and perhaps other chaos-born anomalies -- caused an uneven broiling within the expanding ball, but it happened mostly on the surface. The variations were hardly noticeable, but as the ball expanded and pressures and attractions were felt less, this broiling effect became more pronounced.
After about the fourth second, the ball had reached the size of an average star. But it was still growing at almost the speed of light.
After about an hour, the sphere had expanded to over a billion miles in diameter, and the ball of mass was still a solid plasma, broiling with intense heat and energy. During this expansion, bonding had already started, and multi-particle atoms were being formed.
After several days of this, it almost seemed to become commonplace to watch this terrible expansion. A few times, I traveled billions of miles outward to watch the ball expand. Its size from one second to the next grew rapidly in the first few minutes. But after that, because of its increasing volume, it seemed to slow down in its growth, though the expanding velocity of its surface moving away from its center was the same.
I used my “power and authority” (which I’ll call “priesthood” for simplicity) over the material to help the mass expand faster, just as I used this power to move faster when I was traveling to my destiny those many long years ago. If I would have waited for the natural process, it would have taken perhaps a thousand years before this vast collection of atoms would begin to lose sufficient density and heat to constitute “space.” After that, several more millennia would pass before it was ready to start creating galaxies, stars and planets. Again, I used my priesthood at every step of the way to speed it up.
All the time I was doing this, I had to laugh: I was playing a role that wasn’t really me!
The true irony in all of this was how I started compared to what I was doing now: When my total recall began, I played the devil, without being the devil. Now, I was playing God without being God.
And I was amazed at how everything was falling into place!
During the next hundred years, not many atoms were bonding into the heavier elements, so I gave many of the expanding atoms the directive to start collapsing their shells and forming multiple proton-neutron cores. I created everything from oxygen to gold. I even worked at creating some of the more unstable and radioactive elements, because I suspected that small quantities of these elements could perform special tasks within plants and animals, as well as in physical projects I had in mind.
After this hundred-year period, I told some patches of the matter to increase their gravitational value, so that they could form galaxies and suns faster. I used my priesthood to help speed up this process as well. While this was happening, I kept track of the various heavier elements I had made, and had other intelligences copy them. This way, I didn’t have to wait through the millions of years required for the stars to make these elements naturally. I also directed dust and debris toward average-size stars in preparation to make planets. Into that dust I sent large quantities of the heavier elements I had on hand, and made sure I had plenty of the building blocks of life: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and so on.

After this process became somewhat autonomous, I began another project: I approached the expanding elements on the outer horizon, those that were closest to the universe in which I was born. A new idea had come into my mind, and I wanted to develop it: From many of these front-line atoms, I made a new kind of intelligence: I caused them to form themselves into a series of giant parabolic dishes. Each dish was about 10,000 light-years in diameter (about 1/10th the size of the galaxy I saw just before leaving my Mother Universe), but the atoms were spaced very loosely for this project. The surface of each dish was lined with enhanced directional intelligences (See the text I will add at the end of this narration to learn about “directional” atoms.) -- stacked several layers deep -- to help insulate the outer surface of the dishes from the noise created by my own universe.
Before long, I had a collection of about 50,000 dishes, stretching out over an area that was about ten million light-years in diameter (This was about 100 times the size of that same galaxy I saw). Their job was to not only broadcast intelligent data from their parabolic focus points, but also to be receptive to any information coming into the dishes. Anything received from afar would go through an “amplifier,” which was a group of intelligences programmed to multiply the values being received. There was one amplifier for each dish, connected directly to the element at the focus. Also, all amplifiers were connected and programmed to add up everything and put it into one decoded message.
As they were all facing toward the area of my home universe, with a slight diverging broadcast cone, I was in hopes of not only getting a reading of where my “home” was, but in sending out information about where my own universe was resting, now. As intelligence can communicate across vast distances instantly -- ignoring the limitations of the speed of light -- I surmised that it wouldn’t be long before I got a reading, one way or the other.
After perfecting the system over a period of about 375 years, all dishes were broadcasting the very same message: “I, Hannejan of the Eternities, alias Heinmet of Engoran, Deazar of the Charruss [and there follows here a few other names representing significant lives I had], and Harusten of the Harbannes, am out here.” I calculated that the energy being broadcast was well over 200 trillion times greater than any energy I could ever muster from my own mind, while the intelligence required to run it was a small fraction of what I possessed.
I made another kind of intelligence that would send me a signal, should anything from outside be received. I also made a recording device, a system that would store all final decoded data, so I could organize it into any imaging or auditory charts or keys I might want to use. Occasionally I tested the system by projecting myself billions of light-years ahead of them, and turning up my own feeble energy.
As far as insulating my dishes, it seemed mostly impossible to block out all the noise from my own creations, but with some honing and practice, the atoms making up the equipment learned to differentiate between our own noise, and foreign data being received.
When that differentiation became easier and easier, it wasn’t long before I was notified that a foreign signal was coming in.
The combined data resulted in only noise, but it was definitely from the direction of my birthplace! Evidently, no single message had been sent from there; I surmised it was merely random communications of trillions -- or quadrillions -- of intelligent beings.
I studied the data from each dish. By noting which dishes received the strongest readings, I could tell the exact direction from which the data came, because -- as I said before -- the dishes were arranged to create a slightly diverging broadcast cone.
Now, I had all the dishes converge so that they were broadcasting all information in an attitude parallel to the information being received. I didn’t want to go any less than parallel, fearing that if my birthplace was enormously more distant than imagined, the cone would first converge, then invert, then spread into a weak and ineffective area trillions of light-years in diameter before ever reaching its intended destination.
When the parallel broadcasting adjustment was done and perfected, I had them continue my broadcast, then I went back to my other projects.
One of those projects in particular was the idea to create a group of atoms that could position themselves in a specified pattern. That pattern was the image of a human being, specifically that of Harusten. I had plenty of time, so I worked hard at this project, stopping and starting over many times. I also programmed them -- or key groups of them -- to respond to my mental commands that had to do with movement and gesturing. Another important thing I gave them was immunity to most of the calculations that would cause them to interact with other atoms. I did this so that if a piece of stray matter happened to cross its path, it would not blast it apart or send it hurling away into space. One directive it had to obey was that it had to respond the calculations it received that were labeled “light rays.” This way, it could receive and reflect light, depending on the intensity of that light. When I was satisfied with how this “body” was behaving, I then had it position itself around me, not to depart unless I told it to. I did not always use it. I used it only to practice with, when I found myself waiting for my matter to do certain involved tasks.

After 522 years, my parabolic dish intelligences informed me that they received a different kind of signal. I hurried to the spot, and decoded the information. This is what I received:
“This time, we are gathered together by millions, reciting the same message. We hope our combined energy will be sufficient to reach you. Acknowledge you have received our transmission by sending out the numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 11.”
With an excitement that almost had me completely inept, I managed to make that transmission. In addition, I said, “I see you have requested the first six prime numbers. Why did you ask for those numbers? Please tell me who you are.”
In twelve days, I received the answer, “We seek to join with an intelligent species. How far away are you from our location?”
My response: “I do not know. Can you tell me where you are situated?”
Their response: “We are lost. We do not know our position.”
Their communication confused me, and as I thought about their answers, I wondered what kind of people these were. So I asked, “Please tell me again who you are, and whether you are around a collection of planets and stars.”
While I waited for their answer, I made a few more dishes, and used my priesthood to get them one trillion light years away from my creation (about 66 times greater than the diameter of my Mother Universe), in a position perpendicular to the transmissions I was receiving. I did this so that I might use triangulation to get an accurate estimation of where these “lost” people were. Because of my authority and powers, it seemed just as easy to skip a trillion light years as 20 billion. I chose to think big, in hopes of reducing the number of times I would have to re-situate these distant dishes, in case the people were too far away for the first triangulation to work. I also hoped this enormous distance might give me some type of clue as to how far away my home universe was. While I was out there setting up the dishes, I looked back at my own universe. I couldn’t see the light my creation was emitting, because it would have taken a trillion years to reach this point. But I could see it through my spiritual eyes. It definitely had body to it. It appeared to be about five millimeters in diameter at arm’s length. I imagined the universe of my birth to appear almost 20 millimeters in diameter at this distance.
During this project, there was another transmission:
“We are people who have wandered from the universe of Eldu.”
I began to feel like I was pulling teeth: They were not giving any real telling information, unless I specifically asked for it:
“Why are you lost? Did you leave of your own free will? Were you forced to leave? Do you have bodies?”
Their answer: “We merely wish to join up with you, but it is hard to determine your direction.”
Obviously, they had no bodies, nor anything physical, for there seemed to be nothing to shield or reflect the transmissions I was sending them -- which was needed -- in order to know direction. They had not invented matter as I had, or at least, they did not know how to make direction-sensitive elements.
Because of their evasive answers, and because they seemed to be cast out “into outer darkness,” I was beginning to think that these were some who had rebelled against Eldu, or who had knowingly gone against him so they could get rich, or find power among mankind. In a way, they were the same ilk as I! Or, perhaps worse, for there seemed to be many who openly rebelled, even knowing Eldu intimately. The fact that they asked for prime numbers in my first response, mixed with their reluctance to volunteer information told me that they were inherently deceitful; they were trying to make me believe they were intellectually advanced, to throw me off the path of suspicion over their nature.

A few times, I sent information to them only from my dishes a trillion light-years away, adjusting its narrow beam each time, until I got a specific response from them. This helped me to triangulate their distance. I plotted a line back toward my created universe at a 90 degree angle from that new direction line. It made an angle of about 2.2 degrees off the perpendicular line along which the new dishes rested, which put the intersection with the original transmission line about 40 billion light years behind the main body of dishes (almost 7 times the distance of my growing universe). I used these numbers to calculate where the lost people were: It seemed they were about 25 trillion light years away from me.
I decided to pay them a visit. Through experience, I felt that I could get there in two or three projections. The first would get me near the area, the second and third would help me do course-corrections if I were a little off track. I decided to take a few atoms with me -- including those trained to form a “body” around me -- and some embryonic parabolic dishes, in case I decided to start something there.
I faced the direction from which their communications came, used my priesthood to project myself and a little “equipment,” and -- voila -- I arrived within a minute, making just two course-corrections.
I couldn’t see them, but I could feel them. I said, “I am Hannejan. I am here, among you.”
After a pause that seemed to indicate “surprise,” I received sundry questions such as, “Where?” “How close?” “Who was that?”
Judging from their surprise, they apparently could not feel my presence. The power and authority I had gained through the eons had evidently made me more perceptive than these souls. Or it showed I had honed my power better, through one means or another.
I gathered my special Harusten body around me and told those same atoms to heat themselves up to the point of giving off a little light. When the light was sufficiently bright, I felt that these people could see me, and that they were in awe.
One of them said, “Dear Lord, we know you have power sufficient to redeem us. We ask that you do so, and give us a place to rest; a world with light and colors. . . .” He went on, asking for merely a place to be, somewhere to call home.
I asked, “What is your name?”
He answered, “I am Lochaan.”
“How long have you been out here?”
“412 years.”
“Have you heard of me? Or why do you suppose I can give you a world?”
“Because you have created light within your own body.”
I paused a moment before I said, “Tell me why you are out here. And do not lie. I can perceive a lie.”
I felt the communication between Lochaan and his people, who signalled agreement. Then Lochaan said, “We have been cast into outer darkness because of rebellion.” After a moment of silence he continued, “But make us your subjects, and let us have physical bodies, and we will not rebel. We will worship you.”
I shook my head. “You need not worship me.”
I thought a moment, then said, “This is what I’ll do: I have not yet mastered biological bodies. But I will create a world out here, and a star to give light. In time, there will be life, but it will be gradual -- very gradual. Can you live with that?”
“Yeah, Lord.”
“And you need not call me Lord. Here is what I want you to do in return for the world I will give you: I want you to help build and maintain a parabolic dish system that will be facing the area where we all have come from. It will broadcast information that I will give to you. And I want you to report to me anything you receive that is foreign. Are you willing to do that?”
Lochaan asked for the consent of his group. They all seemed to be in agreement, so he said, “We are.”

I had my atoms begin to reproduce again, and I had the dishes duplicate themselves. I trained Lochaan how to set them up, giving him all the specifications needed to get them working, and some authority -- or permission to command -- over the matter.
I also left directions for some of the people to migrate a few trillion light years at a time closer to our mother universe, setting up parabolic systems along the way, for as long as necessary, until something definite could be heard from what I hoped or imagined to be that same mother universe.
When things were running smoothly, I left with the promise to come back later to form a world with the atoms that were reproducing now.

Through the next seven thousand years, I practiced making stars both in my original universe, and in the neighboring one with Lochaan’s people. I had to not only assemble the right amount of helium and other elements, but I had to help them become stable. This was an interesting exercise in cosmic orchestration that I got better at through much time. Had I let the universe form itself -- without intervention -- I wouldn’t have needed to know the exact dynamics of a stable star; the odds were in favor of one forming by itself, given enough time and enough matter. But I was in a hurry. I felt that the people of Lochaan, as they were now called, were waiting patiently for me, so I decided to speed things up.

To create more chances that stellar bodies might become stable on their own, I decided to make even more atoms. I had plenty of time to have them reproduce, then expand from the same center point, as the expanding universe was still very young, and it’s center a hot plasma ball.

After another mini-big bang, I went back to star formation and finally achieved what seemed a stable star. As stellar bodies take their time to form -- even with priesthood action to speed them up -- I had plenty of free time, so I made several stars at once, including some in the area of the people of Lochaan. I then manipulated the debris around them in order to make planets. Again, it was practice time! It took a few tries with different planets before I could balance the elements just right to make a livable planet. But through time I did it. In each solar system, I put my reject-planets in less optimal orbits by having all the atoms in each change their attraction variables until the repositioning was done. I put my successful planets in the ideal orbits, then continued my work on them. Water covered their surface, and the rest of the elements settled under that according to their weight.
As I thought about how I would get the heavier elements to come toward the surface, I remembered books I had read in other worlds that presented theories as to how planets were formed. Meditation, thrown upon that wonderful subconscious that never slept nor suffered depression, helped me to decide on the best method for bringing up the heavier elements: re-shape the planet, using a terribly large rock.
A few light years away, I found a roaming asteroid about two thousand miles long and told the atoms therein to increase their gravitational or attraction variable about a thousand times their norm. This caused the asteroid to change its course, for there was a star about a half a light-year away that attracted it moreso, now that the gravitational value was increased. When I saw that the asteroid was headed toward my planet, I had the atoms change their attraction value back to normal. When the path of the asteroid needed more adjustments, I had it either decrease or increase its gravitational value. Next, I had it skip a few light-years so that I could bring it into the solar system I was currently working on. This was in Lochaan’s area, as there were people waiting for this creation.
I calculated carefully its trajectory so that it would not hit the planet directly, but off center, so that it would slice off a part of it.

The impact was spectacular! The friction of the asteroid on the atmosphere caused broiling clouds of steam, smoke, cinders and fire. Much of the water on that side of the planet was vaporized instantly into steaming explosions that dissipated into space. The rock that rested under the water melted instantly, exploding into fine ash. The exploding and displaced earth and lava were pushed into space, and the beginnings of a moon was born. This was good, so I could have tidal activity in the future.
Now that the planet was flattened out a little, the water on the parts more distant from the new center began to travel toward the low spots. At the same time, large pieces of earth cracked and fell toward the gravity center, as the planet now began its attempt to make a sphere of itself again.
As the water rushed off the high areas and toward the low, and over the newly-formed cliffs and cracks above escaping lava, billions of tons of earth began to be swept away by its friction. It is amazing how much earth can be moved in a short time when planetary-size bodies of water are rushing over it.
I even accelerated the flow of water over the earth through priesthood commands. When it came in contact with the magma, continental plates were born as the molten rock was solidified. I also speeded up the movement of these newly-formed plates over the magma that didn’t harden.
With the planet ripped open this way, instant mountains were formed around the breakage areas that circled the globe, for now these were the areas farthest from the new center of the planet. Whatever water was over those areas drained over and around them as they quickly wore away into hard, jagged points. This was probably why on various of my previous planets a “backbone” or “string” of mountains could be found in almost a continuous line around their circumference.
But here, at first, they were tall and ragged. I knew that in a few million years -- or a few thousand if I speeded up the process -- they would wear down to the type of mountains I was used to, through wind and water erosion.
With astronomically high volumes of rushing water, canyons were quickly formed, and jagged plateaus and peaks were the result. Often, with water cutting the earth right down to the magma, plateaus up to 150 miles wide fell into the liquid rock, or they tipped sideways to settle down at an angle.
Other newly-formed cracks in the earth let out the magma. Often, because of the pressure from the overlying plates -- and the earth above them -- the lava was spit out at high speed, atomizing the liquid rock. This, and the thick smoke and ash, put a brand-new layer of dark soil around those areas, waiting for the day I might come upon an idea for planting vegetation.
In response to all this catastrophic terra-forming, Lochaan’s people cheered with ecstacy. They even sang out some praises and songs of gladness. They invented poetry right on the spot, and expressed varying degrees of gratitude, emotion and reverence for me.

By now, 9000 years had passed since I met Lochaan and his people.
While Lochaan’s planet went into “automatic formation,” I gave the same type of impetus to my other planets, forming several at once, as I had plenty of time to overlap my projects.
After each initial catastrophe that helped each planet to develop beauty and character, I “stepped back” to watch how the “pieces came together.” This reshaping was the first formation phase of each planet in its long journey in rounding itself out, and forming itself. I had learned that planets are like droplets of water: when a droplet rolls off a leaf it is elongated, but while in the air it works to make itself perfectly round again by shortening the “teardrop” shape. But the inertia of its shortening action makes it overcompensate, so it becomes flatter. Next, it works to narrow itself, again overshooting the spherical shape it’s attempting. Thus, it distorts itself back and forth, until it finally settles into a perfect sphere, all within a second. I knew that this is how it would be with each of my planets: It will have flattened and elongated itself back and forth until it finally settled into a spherical shape -- but during a much longer drawn-out period of time.
I knew it would be a long journey, for almost all planets on which I lived were still in the act of doing this, even though many seemed perfectly round, and millions of years had passed. Inside some planets that had basically reached spherical equilibrium, there were still anomalies: some plates were higher, denser or thicker than others. Some were still not perpendicular to the draw of gravity. These and other anomalies such as meteorite impacts continued to cause movement in the upper crust, and plates were still moving which caused earthquakes, and gashes in the earth. In other areas, the moving plates had made even more mountains when they came together.
But as I said before, I stepped in occasionally to speed up the process. When the rocks were not breaking up fast enough, I told them to change their structural make-up. This gave me even more dirt and rich soil.
Thus another 9,000 years passed.
While standing back to watch the planets in auto mode, I arrived at the 20,000 year mark since my banishment, and decided it was time to orient the people of Lochaan about who I was. But I didn’t want to give my story to just anyone. I wanted my words to sink into a pure heart that could be moved by them, and believe them enough to teach them to the people when the time was right. I knew that these were all selfish people, but since they seemed to be under my “watch,” I figured I might could do something with them, and teach them a few things. But what I had to teach them required time, complex programs, and patience, in order for some of it to stick or cause results.
I had been teaching them general principles during the 18,000 plus years since I made contact with them, and I saw that at least one of them had the capacity to humble herself and take what I said seriously.
So I went to her, pulled her aside from the rest of the people and said, “Neodana, listen well, for I want you to remember all that I say. I wish to tell you the story of how I came to be the creator of this spattering of matter in this area of the eternities:
“It has been over 20,000 years, now, since I have been consigned to outer darkness. And the time is due that I should record the events that led me here, though there is no pen to write it, nor paper to receive it, except it be the 'pen of my mind,’ and the parchment of your memory.
I tell you my story now, as I seem to have a bit of time, so that I will live on in your mind, if I cease to exist, or if I leave for a time. . . .”
I then told her my story. I told it in pieces, and reviewed it often with her, until I felt she had it down. After the third session, and at the end, she praised me and worshiped me over choosing her to be the vessel of my words. I told her not to worship me, but her gratitude was so powerful that it seemed an overwhelming task for her to smother it.
After another 3,000 years passed, I had a couple of planets that were looking quite authentic! I even had the moisture cycle going on, now, as water evaporated from the seas, rained down on the mountains, then trickled out to sea again. I found great joy in having created two pleasant worlds, each complete with a sun that rose and set to fit the rhythmic resting cycle of a normal human being. The one in my original universe was more esthetic and a little more benign to human life, as it was my second world, my second chance to make less mistakes. Actually, it was my fortieth world, but the second successful one.
There was still a lot of restlessness in the worlds, because they were far from being a perfect sphere. But that was acceptable, because I needed more break-ups and cracking and lava spewing out, and more mountains forming, to give them more character and beauty.
I let the storms do their natural thing: When clouds were not present in some parts of each world, the earth heated up. This caused water to evaporate and air to rise, creating a vacuum. The vacuum brought in the colder air from nearby areas, making a wind that caused erosion. When the warm air hit the cold air, then there was condensation from the water vapor, and it rained. Rain helped to shape the mountains, and created rivers and streams, and it also caused erosion, bringing soil to the plains, and leaving sculptured cliffs and large boulders in the mountains and hills.

During the 12,000 years I mentioned above, while each of my planets was in auto-development mode, I turned my attention to creating my version of biological life. I surmised that if physics can be created from illusions and computations, then life could be created in the same way, especially when there were intelligences directing that life. And as the intelligences progressed, they could eventually abandon their atomic make-up, inhabit the more sophisticated sentient-prone bodies, and become autonomous in deciding their future. But I decided to start with plant life, as I suspected I would need that in order to support animal life.
Again, I need not bore you with the science of how I created plant cells. As before, I will append that treatment to the end of this narrative.
Let it be sufficient to say that it took me a few thousand more years to even achieve something that showed signs of simple algae-like life, the process for which can be found hereafter. I had to make adjustments and do many reworks. But after a few more decades of testing, I began to achieve success.
When everything started to fall into place, and my algae grew and flourished, I felt a joy I had not felt before. It was a feeling of accomplishment, along with a feeling of great power. It was a realization that I had conquered an insurmountable mountain of infinite proportions. In essence, I had created something from nothing.
I had created life from nothing!
I reviewed my past history back to Priegan, and imagined how things would have gone if I had been placed in my final reward without the opportunity to create it. I’m sure if that would have happened, I would not have felt even a thousandth part of the joy and euphoria that I felt now.
There is a special feeling of extreme joy at figuring something out on your own. I found this out during some of my previous lives: When given a puzzle or challenge, there were always two alternatives: Someone else told you the answer, or you came up with the solution on your own. The difference of satisfaction and joy caused by each scenario was vastly different -- one being a feeling of “Okay; it’s nice to know this,” and the other being a high that simply outclassed any chemical trip. Well, my feelings here were astronomically more satisfying than the best of my previous accomplishments.