Librarian's Note: The following is an excerpt from the author's personal writings that were destroyed immediately after being written. Seit was known for doing this due to the oppressive nature of his civilization's government. It is believed that the majority of his work faced this fate, and that Seit wrote them as an act of rebellion.
Quadrant 188B, Hyrule Station, Andromeda 12 | December 4th, 19640
Something has been bothering me. I feel an urge to write about what cannot be written. It is something that struggles to be put into words. I think that it touches upon an existential fear that gripped the minds of most ancient humans:
What will happen at the end?
It is simple for most of humanity today- we never think of it. We are born, we are programmed, we work until our bodies or minds break, and then we are at the end. We arrive without having thought of it. In fact, I doubt that anyone in my quadrant has been taught the word death or what it entails. On some instinctual level, they must surely recognize it. Perhaps only unconsciously. It is not a lie that I could be one of very few living humans who can even ask that question. Thus, I feel as if I have a duty to provide an answer. It might only be an answer that satisfies me and no one else, but at least it is an answer.
When I am at the end, I hope that I meet God. Yahweh, Jehovah, Christ, Allah, The Trinity, The Lord of all Lords. He is one of the most fascinating deities of our species. If He was real, then I would want to meet and understand Him. I would ask Him about His holy texts- Why do most say that He gives all of humanity free will, but then He warps the minds of key people and predetermines the fates of others? Why have animal sacrifice and strange rituals for centuries only to suddenly cast it aside with Christ? How could He expect people to understand the real truth when His words and interpretations of those words changed with every region, culture, and era?
I would then ask Him about ancient times- Why did He allow suffering? Wars? Pandemics? Disasters? What lesson could an infant learn from dying before they could ever learn who He was? Why did He stand by as humans constantly dominated one another? They spoke of times when He intervened for His chosen people, but when they were decimated during every world war, He was absent. Why? Our original solar system is uninhabitable because we valued productivity over longevity. Why have us be born on Earth if we were just going to ruin it and all the neighboring planets? Why did He allow humanity to travel throughout the galaxy, only to make it completely devoid of any other life? Why are we utterly alone in this universe?
I would then take His hand and lead Him through my era. I would walk Him through the various quadrants of my world. He would see the mindless tasks that people are programmed to dedicate their entire existences to. He would see how they have no opportunity to learn about Him, and yet they are to be damned, nonetheless. Why? I would show Him the rocky planets where the subjugated work endlessly. I would show Him their implants that prevent higher thinking and destine them to be more like work dogs than people. Where is their freedom? I would show Him the perfect oppressive systems of The Collective and ask why this could not have been avoided. Why did all of our cumulative efforts as beings made in His image conclude as this?
I would ask these questions and show Him these things without hostility. Then I would hear Him out. I would allow Him time to give an answer to everything, if He so wished. He might explain why some particular suffering was necessary. Maybe He would tell me the secrets of the universe. Perhaps He would enlighten me with the true reason why He created us all. More importantly, I hope that He would tell me why he allowed The Collective to form. I would want to know how He felt about the fate that humanity had been straddled with. It is our birth right to colonize The Milky Way and perhaps more, but what is the point? What is it truly all for?
Once I had heard everything that He had to say, I would thank Him for His grace and patience. Then, I would judge Him. I would be fair but firm. I would treat Him just as He had treated others. I would not accept any answers that I found to be selectively moral- as in, I would not accept something as wrong simply because God considered it sinful. Sin is merely all that which God says is wrong. So then, are the terrible machinations of The Collective not sinful simply because there are never mentioned in any holy texts? That is not fair. I would hold God to the same standard that He holds humanity to: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
I would then cast my judgment and offer a sentence, if there should be one. If He was a just god, then He would accept it. Given the tens of thousands of years that my species has lived beneath His rule, it would be the least that He could do. If He was not just, then He would surely rebuke me. He would spit me out like lukewarm water and curse me. I would tumble down and down until I arrived in a place of suffering. Hell, the Underworld, the Labyrinth, the Outer Darkness, the Lake of Fire, a wretched pit. I would be punished for daring to stand up to my heavenly father who had appeared before me.
If my ancestors were right, however, then He would never answer me. At the end, there will merely be silence for a long time. Then, trumpets blaring. I would awaken along with untold trillions and rise to behold His return. Divine light would shower us all as we all knelt and bowed our heads. Then, we would be judged. The men and women who had kept their faith would be lifted up into the heavens. They would fly upwards without looking back down at the rest of us, their gazes focused on eternity with Him.
And I would be abandoned for a final time.