“Why are they doing this? Why are these people killing themselves?” says he in a scared tone.
She says nothing in response and so he continues with his loud train of thought. “I don’t get their behaviour. One moment they are enjoying their life and the instant it got a bit tough, they started ending it. Why? Why?!”
Despite being as knowledgeable as he is in psychology, Sam Ace is confused. Sam repeats this looking at her expecting an answer but Aka Rai keeps quiet while staring at the death counter as the number goes up.
“They are scared.” says Aka.
“I don-. This does not make sense,” says Sam, “I never programmed them to feel fear.”
“Still…”
This is an ongoing conversation between two gods, divine beings who built the Akari solar system. They can be perceived as a simple man and a woman wearing white suits standing in a bright, completely white control room with a bunch of futuristic dials, gauges, monitors, buttons, etc.
The story of Akari system began a couple of centuries ago. After a lot of effort they found an empty region in space. They built an egg shell like shielding barrier to protect the world inside from the outside threats. They created a star and planets to house life. They planted the seeds to give birth to intelligent humanoid vessels. They developed the technology to safely transfer the consciousness of their people into these new mortal vessels so that they could live a life free of the burden of their past and future.
‘Life’ is the most beautiful gift one gets and yet right now they are throwing it away like old clothes. Sam is very worried right now as their creation is failing.
“Suicide is not the solution!” he yells punching the control panel. Well, if he wanted to, with a press of a button he could make an announcement all around the planet like some divine intervention. He doesn’t do that. The agreement is that the gods do not interfere in mortal matters. No matter how serious.
These mortals were fine initially, happily living in a peaceful community. Then over time a wild mutation happened turning harmless domesticated animals into violent carnivorous flesh-eating beasts. When these animals attacked this peace loving community, the people were caught defenseless. They became easy prey.
Witnessing their fellow community members being eaten alive, dying brutal deaths scared them. That’s why whenever they were cornered by carnivorous beasts these people decided to kill themselves instead of finding a way out or fighting back.
“Please tell me. You are the clever one. You must have a solution to this problem.” says Sam as he goes on knees in front of Aka. She does not react. Instead she is frozen in place watching the counter. Her brain seems to be hard at work trying to find a solution. After some brainstorming she whispers,
“It’s love.”
“Love?”
“Yes, that’s what they are lacking. Love.” she says looking at Sam.
“What? didn’t we agree on this…?” Sam replies, “You were the one who said that there should be no such thing as ‘interpersonal love’ in this new world. According to you, love takes our free will away. This makes our feeling towards others biased…”
“…we care about some people more than other. Sometimes the feelings people share aren’t mutual, this leads to many tragedies. Love is what leads to war and that is something we need to avoid at all cost.” says Aka completing what Sam started saying. She continues,
“Having said that. Love is a the strongest motivator for a person to stay alive, even when the world around turns into a living nightmare. No matter how tragic their life might be, love for a person is the greatest distraction from these tragedies. That’s why even though I didn’t want to, now we don’t have any other option” says Aka insisting on incorporating the concept of love in their genetic code.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” says Sam.
“Why?”
“I agreed with what you said before because I believed in the same thing. I don’t want my creation to repeat our mistakes. This passionate love often leads to violence. So even thought this might allow them to survive these beasts, sooner or later they will start fighting among themselves over love.” explains Sam.
“Fine. Do as you wish…” says Aka, “…but keep in mind, soon this counter will reach twenty thousand and then you will have to create intelligent life from scratch.”
Aka is annoyed, but not by him. She too is worried to see the accelerated rise in death count. Actually in this moment she is blaming herself to not have come up with this idea sooner. On top of that, when Sam resists this makes her very angry. Still, since Sam is the main mind behind creating this reality, he can veto any decision of her’s. She knows that and so she doesn’t try to convince him.
Aka stays silent letting Sam think about it for while. With every passing moment in silence, there are people dying. The counter is rising so fast that its ticking sounds like a musical tune.
“Okay fine. I’ll go myself and see to it that the trypling practice is incorporated in their culture.” say Sam while turning towards the door.
“Wait… Not trypling.”
Here at this point I need to tell you that trypling is a marriage-like practice these divine beings have. The only difference being that there are three individuals that tie a knot together and become each-other’s spouses for as long as they want it to last. This is a very common practice on their home planet but something tells me that Aka Rai has some other practice on her mind.
“Then what?” asks Sam.
“This practice of ours is flawed…”
“How so? Trypling has been part of our culture for many millennia. Don’t you think it’s best to incorporate a method that is tried and tested?”
“No. Quite often people in a trypling are attracted one of their spouses more than the other…”
“How can you say that?! Do you know someone like that?” asks Sam interrupting her. Instead of answering Aka continues with her belief,
“…That’s why our tryplings often don’t last long. If you want these people to have the want to stay alive then they should fall in love with only one person and this love should last at least for one lifetime.”
Sam doesn’t understand why she is proposing this new concept. Still he agrees. “Whatever works” he says to himself as a way to convince his mind. Sam personally hasn’t experienced biased attraction, being in a trypling himself. So he wonders where Aka saw this.
“You did not answer my question.” says Sam.
“What question?”
“Who is that person who told you they are attracted to one of their spouses more than the other? Is it someone from our faction?” asks naive Sam.
In response Aka simply looks straight at him making strong eye contact. She hopes that he will realize what she wants to say but sadly he doesn’t. Sam simply smiles waiting for an actual answer. When he doesn’t get any he walks out of the room ending their conversation then and there.
TO BE CONTINUED
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