77 A Message For Them (1/2)

Ma's original homeworld was a small, blue rock in the middle of nowhere from what she had told Reed. The humans in her world were born in a world without the wonders of magic and instead relied on their understanding of the world and scientific law to make sense of natural phenomena.

They built their devices to probe the universe's secrets and used their findings in practical applications to improve the quality their lives.

Ma had explained to Reed that much of the technology that currently supported Mulia had human fingerprints in some capacity. Whether it was the jury-rigged Altar system, the hovercraft tech in every vehicle, or the Universal Compendium — they all had origins as human-made concepts.

This was a version of humanity that followed their natural, inborn curiosity about the world around them unlike humanity from his original world.

His world had been ruled by religion and was enforced through tradition and the political machinations of those who reigned supreme. Magic, for all its wonder was but a means of oppression in his world and served only to further the means of the few who knew how to harness it. The word of false gods was supreme and those who defied their will would eventually be silenced...

It seemed Ma had an answer for everything and an endless amount of stories about her life. Whether it be on her homeworld or on Mulia — she had no shortage of tales about the many things she had experienced.

Hours had passed before Reed had even realized it. He learned much from Ma's stories but... he had not yet asked the most important question.

Reed really wanted to ask Ma but he couldn't find the courage to say it. Despite everything she had told him about her life, she had not told him about how she ended up…

But how can I ask the question in a respectful way…?

”Hey, Ma, what exactly is the Nexus? How is this place so… realistic despite being an information network?” said Reed in an attempt to side-step asking the question directly.

”Information Network?” Ma scoffed when heard that and said, ”It's so much more than just an information network, son. It's the soul of this whole empire.”

She pointed outside towards the trees and said, ”The Nexus is this entire forest, my boy, and every single tree you see out there is a highly sophisticated archival construct designed to preserve the most important memories of all Avunians.”

An enormous memory bank? But why? For sentimental reasons? Or for some other kind of reason…?

”That's incredible,” said Reed. ”But I don't understand — why are they so intent on preserving their memories?”

Ma sighed and said, ”So their descendants do not forget them and so they can pass on their wisdom onto the next generation. These are the standard responses you'd receive from an Avunian if you were an outsider, but I know the truth about this place and its true purpose…”

”It's a far-fetched dream, really. I'd go as far as to call it childish, but I can understand the feelings behind it. This Nexus is recording information, compressing it for archival, and uploading it onto a special device,” said Ma.

She flicked her hand and a small hologram of a miniature coffin appeared in front of Reed. It was smaller version of the kind he had ridden during his final exam, but looked much more advanced than the standard model.

”They want to send a record of their existence back to their homeworld. To that end, they've created this special coffin to travel through the space-time back to their world the moment they all disappeared. That is what the Avunians want to accomplish,” said Ma.

”They want to send a final message across space and time to their loved ones… in the past. To let them know that they are all right and that they miss and still remember them… thousands of years in the future.”

That's heartwarming and a bit crazy when I think about it. Sending a time capsule back in time isn't really normal at all. Aren't you supposed to bury them for future generations?

He understood the idea and felt it was certainly a touching act of love. In a way, he envied the way the Avunians cherished the concept of familial love.

But there was something morbid about people who were considered dead or gone sending their memories back for the living. Reed felt like it was better that those poor souls in past be left alone to grieve without knowing the truth.

Was it better to know how and why your loved one died, especially given where they were? What they were up against?

Would it not better for a grieving family member to think that their loved ones had gone to heaven or the afterlife instead? Let them form their own comforting endings for their lost ones than learn the real truth…

That their families had been sent to hell.