“Lift off…have lift–”
The NASA director’s voice over the communications system became inaudible with the
sound of the exhilarating blast. He squeezed hard on the ring his mother had given
to him before the accident that killed both his parents. The piezoelectric synthetic
crystals returned a mild shock through his body. Diamonds had been another depleted
natural resource since the invention of hypermining.

Dawn was now upon Earth, the blue planet that he would soon leave.
The monumental projectile burst through the atmosphere at 27 000 km/h. The cosmic
rays, which had left the sun at his departure, were now radiating through the deck
windows only eight minutes and twelve seconds later, at the very instant his body
became weightless. The rocket now raced towards the dark green alien structure
as the red planet grew linearly in the window.

It was not long before the green clouds filled the window and he knew it would only
be a matter of minutes before he would be completely enveloped by it. He stared
incessantly at the atomic clock as the red LED’s ticked down to the wormhole equivalent
of Event Horizon. With each second, the speedometer increased exponentially.
The senile alarm buzzed continually, without which he may have passed it for a dream.
His sanity was threatened with the maelstrom of events that coalesced prior to
the moment. Despite staring at the atomic clock, he never even realized when the
red glow was filled with zeros.

And then…a flash of light…a mist of consciousness.

All was now tranquil like the cold, dark space, which had previously surrounded
him. But where was he? When was he? He knew deep down that these very questions
had now become rhetorical. Anxiety, fear, anger, frustration, all had been just
some of the feelings that he had lost in the cloud of consciousness which now
engulfed him.

The true nature of the universe: quarks, leptons, neutrinos, life, dark matter,
energy, black holes, he knew it all. He had become truth. But this infinite
amount of knowledge now meant nothing to him. Knowledge was futile. Although he
was now all-powerful, he had no reason to interfere with the existing universe.
He could be in any place, at any time. In fact, he was everywhere at every time.
He knew now that the very essence of time was merely a human perception, which
enabled the simple beings to sieve the occurrences of the universe.

He returned to Earth, in the so-called “time” that humans watched his vanishing
in awe. The people at NASA had declared that all his vital signs seemed normal
up until the instant of his disappearance from the subordinate universe. And now,
it seemed that humans were trying to build a space ship, not just to send more…but
to send all. A titan that would send all humans to the Promised Land. It was
as if his energetic presence had inexplicably sent a placid sensation to all his
kind, about the uncharted wormhole. If he had one feeling left after the transition
that made him omnipotent, it was glory. The glory that came when he had realized
that the human race had consolidated, to form the final space ship that would take
his kind to the heavens. It was the harmonization of all nations, all races and
all people.

It was humankind’s most glorious moment. The deep blue planet behind them filled
with chaotic patterns of now greying clouds. Thirty-two billion souls on a single
ship, the Odysseus, were on a quest for the Eden they had left so long ago.