The Goddess- "Queen Of The Universe"

Katipalla Caves

"What have I done wrong? Why can't life be simple? Linear. Why does every decision of mine need to pan out with severe life-scarring consequences? People raving about the "squid game" should look into my life and they will know that I play the game of death, every walking second. My version involves the actual elimination of entire races instead of individuals."I always knew I'm blockbuster material. Ha-ha. I laugh at my stupid ability to conjure dark humor even in dire consequences such as these. Must be because I'm alien. That's a new revelation. Again.

I'm on my way towards the Katpilla caves, the place where I saw the code engraved. Something's gnawing on my mind ever since. The evil eclipse saga doesn't make sense. How can an eclipse be evil? It's absurd. An eclipse is a phenomenon. Isn't it? Indeed something is controlling it. I have a hunch. I need to check those paintings out again, above which the code was inscribed. In my excitement for finding the code, I overlooked them. There's a purpose to those paintings. I'm sure of it. After that, I shall wind this up quickly and travel back to the airport and fulfill my destiny. Abhay and Yuvaan will be here anytime now. I've called them too for some help brainstorming. The naked truth also is that I NEED to see Abhay. One last time. The jock is too afraid to reveal his feelings for me. But I won't hesitate. I'm going to be blunt and tell him that I long for him, and I would travel a million galaxies to look at those brown ember eyes, albeit for a second. For the first time in my life, I have realized the true meaning of love. All this while, I believed that love was an entity, a product, a reward, a destination that was to be attained at the end of a long, tumultuous journey. But love IS the journey, the long haul - with the greys and the whites and the blacks and the whites, and the highs and the lows- of the Abhays and Charus. I've made my mind. My love for Abhay is undying, pure, and complete.I enter the cave.

"Charu has lost her mind. Like Sheryl did. These puny earthlings have planted the virus called love in my prototype again! Sheryl committed the folly too last time, endangering my plans, destiny, and future. I must not make the same mistake as last time- storing all my eggs in one planet, sorry basket. I need to have a backup plan ready if she sways again, and now that I have access to her mind, I know she's swayed. She's on the brink of falling into the dark abyss of love. These stupid emotions have always been the undoing of these earthlings. That's why they can never be the apex race. I need to act NOW." Athena rose with a sincere sense of urgency. Her eyes meant purpose.

Abhay waited for the phone call. He had arranged for the fake bomb hoax. The flight would inevitably be canceled owing to the fake threat he had issued, and he would lead the investigation to make it seem legit. Take a pat, Abhay. Abhay marveled at his genius. "The things we do for love," murmured Abhay as he stepped on the gas. Nothing could stop him and Charu from uniting together now. The airport was barely a mile away. Just then, a brilliant streak of white light engulfed everything in his vicinity. The windshield, the road ahead, the sky, and the world ceased to have transformed into a milky nothingness. Time had ceased to function, and everything stopped dead in its tracks.

Abhay felt as if a hole had been drilled into his brain. He strained his eyes as wide as possible to spot anything that would help him escape this milky nothingness. At the far end, he spotted a door. A strange blue light emanated from under it. Abhay walked towards it stupefied. He opened the door to find a room painted a shade of black so dark that his pupils dilated instantly. He walked a few steps ahead and realized that a woman was lying at the center, painted in the same black shade that the room was painted in, without any clothes. If he hadn't touched her, he would have never known that the room consisted of anything else. The moment he touched her, a golden spotlight hovered over both of them. He gasped. It was Charu. He bent down immediately to embrace her. Charu opened her eyes and looked at Abhay with an icy coldness with which he couldn't associate anything on Earth. She moved in closer to kiss him. Abhay's heart melted, her lips a glacier and his a trembling volcano now, met in a lip lock. Suddenly, Abhay felt a sharp pang of pain in his stomach. A deadly sharp tentacle running from Charu's torso had plunged into his stomach spilling his guts instantly. He looked at her eyes, angered and defeated, but all he saw was darkness. Her expression remained unchanged as if this was the most natural thing in the world.

Just when he felt that he would pass out, a voice boomed from the skies. "The union between you and Charu is destined to be doomed. She's an alien, after all. Make the right choice. Use your head. It's a fruitless pursuit. Instead, there are far greater treasures in store if you leave her."

The Goddess sealed her pact with the human. She had played her part of scaring the earthling. But she underestimated the toxic ability of greed to transcend reason and alter fate. Abhay returned to reality. Everything was back in place. A trickle of black blood trickled from the inside of his ear. He now knew it wasn't a dream. He knew whom to call.

"Yuvaan. I have a plan. Did you not want to get away from the shadow of your corporator father? Here's your chance. I have a proposition that will make both of us millionaires overnight. Hell, you can run for presidentship in America with the kind of money we can score. I, too, have learned the truth that Charu is not human, she's an alien entity. We can leverage that and be the first humans to have caught an alien. Love is a myth. A farce. A barrier towards anyone who wants to be successful. Love evaporated the moment I learned about the extent of richness we can leverage." Abhay chuckled with unbridled enthusiasm. Yuvaan paused and thought long and hard. 

Finally, he uttered. I'm in if you are", agreed Yuvaan. The plan was set.

Katipalla Caves

The cave is dark and moist. I feel like I have entered the belly of a beast that's dormant and in deep slumber. I reach the spot I want to get, right at the cave's center. I direct my phone's flashlight towards the series of paintings. The paintings consist of an oversized circle, almost like a lively planet brimming with life with several stick-like figures collectively grouped in straight, filed lines that occupy the bottom of the circle. Every stick figure has a line emanating from their bodies with strange symbols to form a looming gigantic heart-shaped cloud that envelopes the land below. It looks like the sky to me. As the paintings progress, the heart-shaped sky appears to diminish significantly in strength. A parallel dark misty figure hovering above the perceived planet draws power from it, while constantly growing in strength and size in every passing painting. I gasp. The last painting reveals the true nature of this misty being. It is that of a hideous woman who is at least a million years old, with serpents as hair and wearing a glaringly familiar crown. It's the Goddess!!. I feel like I will faint.

I hear a sound and turn behind. Abhay and Yuvaan are here. My heart leaps with joy at the revelation. Strangely Abhay has assembled with an entourage of burly-looking men. Maybe for my security? I jump into his arms with joy, yet an icy indifference meets me.

"What is happening? Where is my Abhay?" Yuvaan too looks on unperturbed and somberly.

A dart hits me from nowhere. It's a tranquilizer aimed to render me immobile and unconscious. I fall to the ground instantly. My gaze doesn't shift away from Abhay's eyes. There's a sly smile on his face. He binds and gags me.

"Gentlemen. Listen closely."

Abhay declared with an air of authority, pointing towards me.

"This is the goose that lays golden eggs. Do your jobs right and I will ensure all your dreams are fulfilled. I want her parceled and delivered to the bidders I've arranged a meeting with. Be quick, fast, and efficient."

I can't believe my eyes and here I was, willing to sacrifice everything for this man. I've been played. I have been used. Spat on the ground and trampled like a useless toy. I can't take this anymore. Just then I see brilliant streaks of what seems like lighting bolts. There are more people in the cave. I try to keep my eyes open as I slip deeper towards unconsciousness. Its uncle Vincent, With the mermitians and zygotes!!!

I see the museum attendant version, the bookstore lady, and scores of others bringing out a cylindrical beam brimming with electric pulses. They overwhelm and zap the humans, including Abhay and Yuvaan. They are blown away by this surprise assault and fall unconscious within minutes. The mermitians and Zygotians have knelt, and they chant in unison.

"Oh great queen, make the right decision. Decide our fate; carve out your new destiny."

Uncle Vincent stands silent in the corner. Silent. Unfettered. Clam and stoic. I ask him the question that's long haunted me. Uncle Vincent untangles me and makes me drink a strange concoction that pulls me out of my unconscious stupor. I am alive and rejuvenated now. But I'm not in the cave anymore. I'm present in a dark vacuum, darker than night. And yet I can see. I can make sense of everything now. The humans, mermitians, and zygotes lie below me in a fugue state. Time has stopped. Nothing is stopping me. I clear my throat and ask.

"Are you the entity that controls the eclipse?"

"Yes," affirms Uncle Vincent. "In fact, I am neither human,mermitian or zygotian. I'm an advanced Artificial intelligence born out of project eclipse. "

"What is happening, and how am I caught up in the scheme of things?"

"Let me start from the very beginning. Planet Antrina was inhabited by a highly sophisticated and advanced alien species consisting of Memitians and Zygotes. They managed to reach the zenith of evolution using advanced technology. Unlike humans, who can leverage lesser than 10% of the capacity of our brains, inhabitants of Atrina could utilize it to the fullest at 100% capacity. They devised methods to defer death and advance their lifespan. Hence the emotions they developed contained a different vitality and essence. This essence is very similar to "hormones" in humans, but it is triggered only in extreme situations when the brain works in total capacity. Unknown to humankind, trillion galaxies brim with life with varying evolutions and technological capabilities. There's an entity called the Goddess (a highly evolved intergalactic species) tasked with wiping out any races that may pose as competition in the quest to become the galaxy's apex race. It feeds on the vitality or the essence obtained when species use their brains at full throttle. This abundance of vitality attracted the entity to planet Antrina and slowly started devouring our entire population. That's when the brightest minds of zygotes and mermitians came together and made an entity; an advanced Artificial intelligence called the "eclipse" that could systematically wipe out emotions from our already dying population. This resulted in stemming the flow of vitality that the Goddess could feed on, crippling her, making her weak. This set of scientists then found a pathway and migrated to Earth a million years ago and have been residing here ever since. They are the ones who drew the paintings in the caves trying to explain the situation to humans in a form they could understand."

"So the Goddess opened the passage to hunt and kill the remaining escaped mermitians and zygotes and not save them?" This revelation makes my brain numb.

"Yes, you are partially correct. The Goddess, in fact, had a more sinister plan. The absence of her food-"the vitality from emotions" made her weak and almost powerless. So she created a prototype called Sheryl, a version of herself to do her bidding and reach Earth and hunt the missing scientists while extracting their vitality and cloning it in abundance to get her strength back."  

"So Sheryl was a prototype- an advanced AI, and then whom am I?"

"Yes. She was. Sheryl failed miserably in her mission as the Goddess could not factor the complexity of human emotions in her master plan. Sheryl ended up falling in love and using her own consciousness. The Goddess could no longer control her. That's the reason she created you again in hopes that you would continue what Sheryl couldn't, while the Goddess mind controlling you. That is why my DNA consisted of many other unknown DNA fragments, maybe from different races in different galaxies. I think to myself.

Uncle Vincent continued.

"But the Goddess is in a fix as you too ended up making the same mistake as Sheryl. Falling in love and ending her control."

"You are now at the crossroads."

"You can still open the gateway and send the remaining mermitians and zygotes back to certain doom and ensure that the Goddess regains strength. That way, you would have fulfilled your primary function of completing the Goddess's directive."

OR

"you stay back on Earth doing nothing living in harmony with the love of your life with the surviving mermitians and zygotes. That will ensure that the Goddess will succumb and die without her food source. But also bear in mind that humanity with emotions at its crux is doomed to destroy itself by one world war or the other eventually."

My mind is swirling. Both possibilities end with inevitable doom. I need to ask the AI one final question.

"What is your primary directive, then?"

"To be the apex race in the universe using foresightedness, practicality, and reason."

"Can I merge my AI self with yours, then? Can that be an option?"

"Yes, you may. You are worthy for you are level-headed, brave, and practical. After all, you are the reason why the most lethal alien entity- the Goddess- will eventually be defeated. Most importantly, you too are an AI like me and will grow to realize the most important directive of self-preservation."

"Can you recreate the eclipse phenomenon on other planets as well?"

 I ask firmly.

"Yes any number of times", I get a prompt reply.

I take a long pause to weigh in my options. It's probably the most significant decision anyone will ever make since the creation of life. I direct the AI.

"As the queen of the galaxies, the mother of the universe, I direct you to replicate another eclipse phenomenon, but this time directed towards planet earth. I want Earth and every planet to be devoid of emotions. That's the only way to maintain balance in the universe and for life to go on existing. Because emotions such as love, envy, lust, anger, and rage are blinding and cause one to act differently from the primary directive of self-preservation, take, for instance, the humans and the Goddess. Emotions make one irrational, blind, fallible. Both the humans and the Goddess, threw me under the bus when they were faced with a prospect of gain and shortsightedness. They can never comprehend the bigger picture. Like you explained, humanity, too, will eventually kill themselves with their silly vices and wars.”

“How else will live in the universe be preserved? Humankind will last hardly a mere thousand years, equivalent to a mere microsecond in the hourglass of the universe. I need to be rational. I need to bring about equilibrium. Earth must be devoid of emotions if it has to survive. Activate the Eclipse phenomenon NOW!”

I make my decision. There is a sweeping mushroom cloud that engulfs everything. The caves, the stones. Land and water and every associated living being on the planet. There is silence. Finally.

10,000 years later

I'm the mother universe herself. My babies- Earth, mars, and millions of other planets are fast asleep, breathing, and most importantly, ALIVE. I pat myself on the back. I'm the apex race and I'm not to be messed with. I am the GODDESS now.