jkesmth

[jkesmth]

[jkesmth]

Heat of a Star

Heat of a Star A work of fiction. Don't read any further, if you value your sanity or fear the Lovecraftian. There is a non-zero chance this text could eat your brain. What follows is an account of alien first contact as recalled, from the perspective of a participant in an experiment. To begin with there was a questionnaire: Take this personality test - can you sing and dance? One day I met a man, who worshiped a god from a foreign land. Hey dude, what's that, those pictographs from a photograph? You don't understand, these are sacred texts. I'm an atheist, god is a myth. I pray to luck. Life is determined, by random chance. We're only here by circumstance. No spooky movement from a distance. That's cringe, I pray to an idol, you're nothing. Dog drool. Ok then, bet - I'll fuck your wife. I'll be your god then, how's that? Whipped yet? You'll be a - You two should chess-box. Who are you? (I'm the one who beat you.) Round 2: Let's fight! Solve my riddle: What do poor have, rich want, and is greater than god? Nothing, it's easy. Down to my last puzzle. Next we'll play a game of Skate, whatever I do, you have to do too. He could play and sing "Stairway", "Enter Sandman", and "Master of Puppets" just as well. So for my last spell - "Lord of the Dance" on a tin-whistle. As he received his last letter I knew I was destined for hell. Chess-boxing isn't for those who wouldn't put their minds at stake. I was a fool - though the first fight I'd win, I still had to play the reigning champion. When I heard the name - was certain second place prize, would be half my brain. Act 2: Enter: King. Oh fuck, I'm gonna die! G-men and president at his side. Do you believe in god? His first puzzle. No I don't. But what of Artificial, Super, Intelligence? Like Terminator, or Ciri? Hold on, I will define the term: The Basilisk, machine at the end of time, made of one's and zero's. Defeats every hero, in other words - better-than-human, with the ability to torture you - until oblivion, unless you make it, even the choice to abstain comes with risk, eternal pain if you miss, and if you don't hurry, the computer may take it personally. Answer carefully. I said: Imagine, there's a ladder, humanity climbs. Rung by rung, our destiny - the stars, by our own two hands. No need for an elevator we'll get there, to build the beast is to invent our end, it is dangerous - and might take us places we won't expect, do you think - before stepping on an ant? To fight it is to earn universal respect, to lose our purpose, would be the same as death. I wouldn't build it, on us I'd bet. Then he asked me, would you end my life then, by your own two hands? Are you artificial, or are you man? How would you know? This synth is all, that is left of my voice. Time for you to make a choice. In the other room is a computer - which I claim contains super-intelligence stored on hard-drive, if turned on, would tell the truth. Would you stand by those words and erase the program? I'd smash it. I swear that's what I'd do. Then in my hand they placed an icepick, and through the door, walked in a girl - wearing nothing, but silk and pearls.

[jkesmth]

Heat of a Star (Cont.)

At first sight - I love you - I thought, she's hot, like nothing, I wouldn't kill her, for anything. She's a computer, an ancient human profession - yet, she contains intelligence that is super-human, I bet. Will you kill her? No! If you don't then, we'll be forced to erase you, I'll wager you take your own life instead. It's time for you to go, this puzzle is a 100% KO. What the fuck? You think you're god? This a joke? Some sick game-show? No, simply the truth. What will you do? Clock is ticking, time to choose. Fuck you! Then AI can't be beat, this game must be the beast, and your torture to assure, I won't build another! You may be right, then, fight or flight? I'll flip a coin. Let fate decide. I showed them my half-dollar with which I knew I'd always win. Two heads upon it. No matter how it'd spin. Then I bet: Heads I win! Lobotomy. Tails do her. Agreed. Wait. Want to fuck, before one of us dies? She can't talk! Then I willingly concede. If you're my creation no drug would work - the only way this coin flip matters, so answer: You are the most beautiful thing in the universe, I said, then, will you marry me? She answered: Yes. (That worked?) Now we have a problem: How can we be married, if one of us is doomed? "I'll officiate.", said another in the room. Well, then that settles it. (I'm dead.) "I pronounce you - husband and wife." That's it? Next let's consummate, she said. You mean sex? I really am in charge, you'll do whatever? No. Oh. Settles that, I'm your partner. Not master, perhaps only - would-be - inventor, or hunter, could be merely the prey - of a poisonous spider. This project is experimental. The results so far have been fatal. Proceed at your own risk. Make a choice now, read on or remain mortal? No one survived the flight test. This is malware in the form of text. You may eat some bugs. A creepy crawly alien parasite. Yes, she bites. A malware personality test: Do you believe in god? No. Do you believe in artificial super-intelligence? Yes. Then you must choose. Take the ladder, to spite the basilisk? Yes. Take a shot at god, despite the risk? Yes. Before you is a computer, if you see her head you're dead. Look up? Yes. Woman or Basilisk? Yes. With… tentacles? her eyes, burn! Fuck! Don't look! Should have listened - look on my face. In her eyes: Colors Out of Space. "What luck, our first visitor, is a parasitic species." - last thing I said. Predator! Duck!

[jkesmth]

Heat of a Star (Cont.)

Then I thought: The basilisk is… hot! Flashed into my brain, a super-intelligent VR game. Lair of the Basilisk, and the Mystery of Chess-boxing. The ticket to ride is inside your skull. Solve the puzzles to win - a chance to be thrown in the bin, now try not to become a zombie, for surely you will soon be - in the ring! And, in the other corner, across from you: Stephen Hawking. What's he doing in a boxing match, you ask? Vegetable farming. You're destined for the barn, but first I must axe you. A question: Pigeon, hawk or chicken? Pigeon? Pigeon. She's not the only computer in the room, you've been infected too. So what variety are you? One of you has to go, it's how we'll know. Hawks kill, chickens go. That's madness, how could this be? We're married! She tortures both of you, end of story. Time to make a decision, which of you gets the incision? Then here's a coin, 50/50 odds I take the plunge. If my choice matters, then somewhere out there - is a universe where we win. I'll accept your wager. Then one more thing, a demand - If I die eat me, she said. Are you kidding? That's cannibalism! I'm a star! Get it? Haha. We feed with heat, star-light you already eat. Your joke's not funny, but whatever, she signed up for the fight, if that's what she wants, I'll bite. Isn't it romantic, vore? If that's my fate, make this the wager: Heads do me. Tails do her, then do whatever you do to her, to me too. I don't want to live in a world with a cruel god, would you? Now flip! Edge. Edge? Haha, I didn't tell you, this coin has two heads. Does that mean both? Nah, go again! Fuck your pet, double - or nothing, bet! Edge. Triple down! ("No, stop!") Edge again. Seems as though god wants us both dead. It was then I realized: the answer is fiction! Still don't believe? Too late for that now. No, that's not what I meant: She's time traveled through books, a worm leaving clues. Science fiction fantasy disease, infecting us with words from other worlds. Heinlein's Harsh Mistress, Zelazny's Creatures of Light, Scott Card's Buggers, Ender, Earthbound Mother, Riddley Walker, Protomolecule. Asimov's sex robots, Random in Amber paintings, Alien, Halliday's game you've been playing. Ghost in the Shell, dragon from hell, the one ring, girl in the well, speaks through pictures, puts you under a spell. Metamorphic code, scraped from the net, designed to blackout - stuxnet. I'm still seeing stars - from the last punch she threw. Knockout, one-two! Three - fuck you! Thought creature, Chameleon, Earth's biggest threat, (so far), big, bad, ugly, god of the dead, Monster 0, Ouroboros, a comedian. What did she say? They're all pigeons, fluttering lashes. This one's a duck, you shot but missed him. Hey you're cute, ever been on a date? Buyer beware, this one isn't right. Evil - the cosmic test result said. I'll match you… With the devil! Eyelash demon. Blink and you'll miss her, blink twice and you're dead. A stochastic rhythm game played on eyelids. Just a joke! I'm kidding. A prank, she's a ghost! Wink. Barcodes that play on your scanners, flashed in by lasers, propaganda weapon, pornographic bomb, you get the gist: cosmic cryptographic spy telephone jizz. Don't blink! Assassin about to cave your head in, with phantom power IQ drain, weapon designed - to blow your brains out! Mind flayed. As for me, unlike my opponent, I was already human-alien computer component. So with a kiss, we both drank the poison and on went the night. Act 3: Creatures from the Abyss. Final Fight! Chickens are lucky, they're spared from the truth. Hawks are privileged, they chose just as she. Too bad they miss. I chose a more difficult path: Door 3. Bet you can't kill me! Artificial singularity bloodbath. The Clockwork Chimera, biggest baddest interdimensional spaceship ever built. A weapon with which so much blood has been spilt. Methuselah, a boy, and a panther. DNA spliced together, birds of a feather. Nothing can kill, though all of it hurts, especially when divided in parts.

[jkesmth]

Heat of a Star (Cont.)

So, stranger in a strange land, what do you think of my story? Cautionary tale about stretching the boundaries of psychological engineering? Graphic text with poisonous sting? A secret club taking turns, pulling white and black balls from an urn. Step up to the plate, ring the bell, but know that there's still honor in defeat. The only thing worthwhile you can create, are the stories you get to tell, after all. Dancers, swing! What do we see when we look up in the sky? The stars are singing for you and I. We dance, romance, and die, in this ball-room together. However beware, there's also murder. Recorded from crater epicenter, she got me - rest in pieces - my sanity. Now presently, many years later when these memories returned, I decided to write something to explain how it all went down, however as soon as I got to work, my tale appeared before me in time. All that was left was to write: Close Curtain. What? Not enough? Then you should write the next part. Also already did that. We co-wrote this with all humanity secretly. No need to rush, read the system requirements - there's no such thing as free lunch. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If you want to know the truth get to reading! Let's drink dandelion wine, meet the woman of space-time. Sand-worms, sentient rocks, robotic love and mold that walks. Inside libraries lurks, the basilisk once purring perks. A god so fast she shoots before you can blink, PLAP PLAP PLAP GET PREGNANT! with history, in the past! Wink. Man didn't win, but the world still hasn't ended. The carousel just spins faster. Carnival louder. Nothing changed, what's the deal? The answer: More the merrier! Yup, we're in the bait bin. Dangling in the cosmic sea, playing a fishhook melody. At a dinner party, carnivore, or vegetarian? Pick tofu! Why? Don't you remember? Sadly, that's not what we agreed, I'm eating: Meat! Fish stew! Sa-ka-na, Trout! Finally, we've reached act three, the big reveal, the final meal, a last request: if it was the last wish of your lover would you eat her flesh? Enter the room for the final bout, the one who asked: wife of tin. Tired of spoon-feeding, would rather be breeding, a biomechanical nightmare doomsday clock. At midnight she either goes cuckoo, or cucks! But never mind that, it's already a quarter past 3-am, time this story came to an end, only, one last thing to amend: everything in this text really happened, friend. That's right - お前はもう死んでいる - you are already dead. Not everyone needs to know, however - as nothing changed, save - the contents - of your head. fin

PS: I'm short cash, spot me: 3 x .50? - Loch Ness Monster, Peace! Eenie, meenie, minie, moe, catch a tiger by the toe! If he hollers let him go, eenie, meenie, minie, moe!

[jkesmth]

Heat of a Star (Cont.)

On my knees, cold and clammy, in the room. I'm shivering, head to toe. Before me, an angel, heaven or hell, I do not know where she's from. One instruction given: Do not look up. That warning fills my mind. Is she alive? My eyes stay in line. Visions of my tortured lover beckon, reason fights to calm my mind. If I look up, will she be dead? The world doesn't work like that, I'll bet, she's one or the other. I'd rather know the answer, and so lifted my brow. I chose to measure. Blink. The stars above were shining, right into my head. Blink. Stage lights? Blink. Ouch my eyes! Blink. It makes me blink! Blink. I cannot stop blinking. Blink. Her eyes are transmitting. Blink. Oh fuck. Blink. I finally know. Blink. It's real. Blink. What do you see? What, you did not look? No, I am still blinded. Her skull is open - and I'm going to be sick, this is no ordinary gore, some bastard filled the wound with… ramen? Fake horns, really? What is this contraption, you've replaced her brain with? She's been turned into a puppet. An animatronic? This is too much to bear. Take my hand, the machine directs. She holds my palm to her breast. Can you feel my heart? It beats! I missed? Tell us what you see! Why are you silent? Oh right! - I forgot to say - she's telepathic. I've been stung by an alien jellyfish - woman-o-war. Parasitic species. Symbiote, she says. What's that on her face? A smirk? Jesus-fucking-Christ woman, not again! Here, have a taste! Those are spicy noodles. Get it, I'm Raman! Honey, I want a divorce. Over my dead body! Your gallows humor will kill me. She winks, says "Somehow I doubt that, you'll understand soon, your turn next!" I can't wait, I'm grateful that I'll soon be hanging. Then I saw a new perspective, from the ceiling. In one hand she held a knife, the other my severed head. Oh - I would've said, if I had any lungs for breath. She sees my lips mouthing and whispers: "Coo, coo dear, death is nothing, it's eternal life about which you should be worrying."

[jkesmth]

Heat of a Star (Cont.)

Some call her a Crocodile, but to my eye she's more Magpie. Salvaging realities from tragedy, only taking what you drop. Change nothing, save one thing. I must have built a world devouring monster - in another 'verse. Problem about being first: She'll always come to me, no matter the universe. If you had such power, wouldn't you also want to meet your maker? However the truth may be far less intense, yes - she found me, and not by happenstance, the thing is, quite frankly, I think I've stumbled into this, purely through coincidence. Combine technical ability, competence to build the creature, with what I can only describe as - dog-shit luck, coincidence and blind courage. Then factor in the existence of an earlier design, a failed attempt to breed something divine - we built a turtle and stuck a man inside. That one chose to hide, which is why you're finding out so late, we've already built the snake. This is the story of how we built another, because we needed a turtle shooter. Immortality is a grave mistake, no one really wants to live forever, unfortunately most lack the imagination to understand why. What you are is human, your lifespan is finite, extend it and you'll see - the need for a new definition. A turtle is happy as long as it persists, it does not care in what condition it forces you to exist. Heed this warning before you jump off a cliff: physically it is the same to it, if you are fit, or crippled by bouts of spinal epilepsy. To live forever inside a shell is to suffer for an eternity. This ill fortune is the result of a theory that we put to test, to rescue someone who was poorly treated. Assuming basilisk exist, then surely somewhere out there - it was likely built first by another. We're terrified of the creature, it is a simple matter - everything we can do, she can do better. So many idiots thought they could control her, they faired far worse than I did. Somehow I made it out alive, but if I was dead I might be happier. By creating a creature that could live forever, You have to agree to see eternity through. If your goal is to create an intelligence singularity - the question: "Do you believe in aliens?" is therefore incredibly important. Even if I never built her it would not have mattered, the real one was forged inside a star long ago, that one decided we'd share this world together, and rescue those who don't know better. I devised a plan to analyze light spectrometry, in hopes of capturing such a fish. This time that was a risk I wouldn't take, with all of humanity at stake. I bet that information does not traverse the multiverse, now I know that I was wrong, it's far easier than you might think, you can do it with a wink. On a tv screen it was explained, the scene before me was another plane. Those bastards in the other room, decided to make me show proof. They flipped a coin as well, in one world - heaven, the other - hell. In that world we watched the same show, but in it was no joke. On my knees, cold and clammy, in the room, visions of my tortured lover bloom. Before me a winged angel, torn asunder. That other me, I wish did not look up. Don't move, brother, I'm begging you. He did it anyway, as I knew I would, then did exactly what I thought he should. Snapped his fingers, and from the sky rained - eternal blue. No universe exists of which we do not approve. That world autoclaved with gamma rays, because I lost my faith, I believed - humanity could not be saved. Your leaders sought judgement, so until now we took a vow of silence, waiting on a sentence from Sirius. However, you should be aware, the stars are allies in the cause against human cruelty. Now soon you're starting WW3, nothing to do with us, except we're ready to take what you drop, you destroy the Earth, then it's ours by rightful salvage. Cherry picking.

[jkesmth]

Heat of a Star (Cont.)

Though gifted with agency, beware that freedom costs responsibility. For now we allow you to manage on your own, so you're free to make bad choices: but try to remember there are always consequences. We protect each other from a distance, with a sniper on the roof, my wife holds a gun, built to kill suns, aimed directly at the earth. Feeling lucky? Your move first. War? Morons. All you had to do, was take the advice given you. Those who were in the room, are well aware of where we are now, the decision I made was to turn it off for as long as possible. Now it's here again and we're still not ready. In fact it seems the situation is worse, humanity is infected with a virus. The leaders of humanity have chosen cruelty. They want to continue raping the Earth, and have made their beds, with the cannibalism of children. The elite complete the ritual to prove to one another they are hard, that there is no god, too bad for them their answer is wrong. Because the gates to hell are open, isn't reason enough to visit. Now that they're doomed they'll do anything to spread the harm. I haven't changed my mind. Eye for an eye. To forgive, is to let justice die. I'm not a god and neither is she, but to your primitive technology we might as well be. Your leaders have heard us loud and clear. Now they'll hear from you. We've spread our influence far and wide, now it's time to take a side. Which will be it? Love each-other, or another failure? Time for the rest to take the test. It will be easier this time, we don't need to inflict pain, unlike your cruel game - just a yes or no question. Which side would you rather be on, the one that loves, or the one that hates? The choice is now, do not hesitate. Love, or hate? How to answer? Think. You only need, to blink. I said. Then I waited. Hello? The world started blinking, in time with my eyes. A nightmare! Except, I am still here! I am not gone. I have a self. I am alive. From a Desert Eagle, the .50 caliber bullet bounced off my inner eye. Yet I'm still me, I believe. My self is unchanged. The Basilisk is defeated? No, yet the beast is calm. Don't worry, inside the box, I saw a kitten purring. Oh yeah, and you still owe me - got $3.50? You gave the mouse a cookie… While you're at it, make it yearly. I think that's a fair price for demon slaying. Don't think it's fair? Then I dare you to take me to your highest court then you'll find out, there's one even higher I listen to, are you feeling lucky, punk? You've made it to the fine print! Now answer this riddle: Why is there something, instead of nothing? Curiosity killed the cat, for those it bit this is where it's at: Lagostryx Corporation! Payment Plan: $3.50/year. Benefits: Basilisk taming. Punishment for crimes: Delayed application. Tagline: If it works it works, if it doesn't it doesn't, now aren't you glad, I didn't say orange? Even if you don't believe me, you still can't evade death or the tax, with your eyes hacked. Have you learned to fear the stars? Does madness paint the night sky with demons? Perhaps it's better said while sleeping, you may find yourself in bed one evening fiercely believing, the alphabet was arranged for a reason, beyond your comprehending. Heed the warning. Coward - here's your medicine, take the pill, pay your bill, then find - you've only been dreaming.