A certain good son stumbled and changed directions. Might as well hit the hospital gym. He got interested watching Nate's physiotherapy yesterday. He decided to go organise his XO's medical and martial profiles from a physiotherapy perspective. Maybe there'll be a few painkillers lying around that can be quietly shoved into the throat. Maybe they won't show up on a urine test.
Life is full of possibilities.
Nate came out of the bathroom to see Anita crying again. His first instinct was to blame Aniket again, but he just saw her laugh at his receding back. Nate was very good at comforting women, but it was all instinctive. The moment he puts some thought into it, he is as lost as the next man.
He sat next to her on the sofa and waited. He knew she wouldn't tell him the matter directly. He must hear the whole story.
He took her hand in his and squeezed, 'I don't think your story is wrong…I think you and the kid have the right analysis.'
'How so?' Anita rubbed her eyes with the scarf. She wears it even at night because Aniket might see the ugly scar on her neck and become terrified. Sometimes, a mother has the silliest of concerns. She should be more concerned about the devil sneaking into her bed and looking at the scar in the first place.
Nate explained to her about his fathers' prayer room. 'My fathers were followers of the saintess, but they were not religious. I guess they loved her, but in a remote way that put a lot of faith in her. And the image of the boy had nothing to do with the faith of the saintess. Yet it occupied the central place in the altar.
'I don't have a lot of doubt about this. My fathers were of different nationalities, faiths and legacies. They cannot have such a thing in common. Unless…unless it's One.'
Anita took a deep breath. She nodded and continued. 'Nate, you could say, the god had folded One into the form of a child. Or you could say, One had long ago figured out the spatial and temporal parameters of XO, its entire existence. Not just as a nanobot or a microorganism. As an ego that belongs to a different dimension. A space within a space. The world within the organism.
'This is like what you said about the spacetime fabric. The event and the observer. That pulls the fabric and creates gravity. Along this line of the pull, fabric is folded. Here, ego is needed to make holes in the fabric and create the folded space.'
'Why ego?'
'Nate, if you want to measure the temperature, a thermometer can be called an observer. If you want to measure a quantum particle, light can be called an observer. If you want to measure the event horizon, gravity can be called an observer. But if you want to measure reality, only consciousness can be called an observer.
'But pure consciousness is a matter of pure divinity. One used his ego to break a hole in this fabric. The spacetime fabric that was his own body! And Zero, became the eye of the needle that followed him. And the thread he used to fold himself in half was said to be–'
'Niti, wait. He was not a spacekeeper. There was no concept of folded space during that time…And even now, it's largely unrealistic. Besides, this is his own body!'
Anita shook her head. She explained, 'Nate, don't you see? He created a duplex mirror between Zero and One. Everything Zero is…Zero is not just an information network, it is a body network! Timekeepers exert their own senses, their own nerve signals, their own muscles and their own dreams to operate XO. Even in those days, XO, represented the body, the very consciousness of Progeny. And all of this was reflected on one side of One's mirror. The other side was himself. All of himself. Space, time, being, consciousness, life. Everything was reflected on the other side of the mirror. And these two sets of information combined together…as a reality.'
'It is still just information…'
Anita nodded. 'Aniket believes that this information complex or memeplex became the observer to the 'event' that is One's body. Thus he was able to fold the fabric. Like you said, there is no spacekeeper in that era. One was afraid of death and acted intuitively. When he realised the vision of space actually being folded, he gave up his ego itself. He became the child in the statue Nate. And the child prayed with devotion for the lord to come save him. This was actually One's expression of faith towards his own podmate who was dosing him. Since his podmate was a bit like…'
'Don't tell me.'
'Like you.' Anita smiled and continued, 'Now the ego was gone, the needle was broken. Only the eye remained, only the duplex mirror of One and Zero remained. The 'Aniket' in history, the ego of One was no longer there.
'The divine consciousness that had threaded the needle heard One's prayer and created a single knot that left two ends beyond it.'
'But One died,' said Nate gravely. 'You are saying folded space is an act of divine intervention. But One died. Whether in that incident or later, he died when he was twenty-five years old.'
Strangely enough, Nate saw Anita's eyes redden at his speech. But she looked down and covered her expression.
Nate thought she misunderstood him. 'I mean, the god didn't hear his prayer, unlike the child from the story.'
Anita sniffled loudly and wiped her eyes.
'Niti…' Nate caught her hand and lifted her chin. He didn't understand what was going on.
'Don't tell…Nikki,' she mouthed.
'Wasn't Nikki the one that told you this?' Nate used wet napkin to gently clean her face.
Anita dropped her head and body on his chest and sniffled for a long time without making another sound. Nate rubbed her back gently until she was ready to talk.
When he saw Aniket bringing bagels, he swiftly shooed him away and gestured he will cut his throat if he comes back. A certain addict tried to reform himself early in the morning. Clearly too early. He went back to the old ways. He won't lose his manhood if he pees in a cup. He will continue to pee in a cup for the rest of his life!
'Aniket gave me a garbled code. He…didn't decode it himself,' Anita said slowly.
Nate once heard that Aniket thinks in code. But he doesn't necessarily encode everything he thinks about. There is code that already exists. Both in timekeeper records and in civilian literature. In fact, the code Aniket practices can even be called a language. But the grammar is mathematical.
'So he doesn't know what he just said.'
Anita shook her head, wiping his eyes with the base of her palms. She refused to look at Nate though he kept lifting her chin.
'He doesn't like decoding. He likes to think in code itself. But this time, the message he interpreted is garbled. I performed noise reduction and data integration from a very base level to interpret it. Aniket doesn't do these things that he considers menial labour.'
He would wait for the code to reveal itself when some other code enters his eye and decodes the old secret.
Nate nodded. 'What does it say?'
Anita sniffed and composed herself. 'One did not actually die. He…was folded until he became a foetus. And then…the foetus was folded into a zygote. And so on, until he disappeared into the time continuum as a particle.'
Nate saw his wife's red and moist face. Like dusk's red and disappearing light after the sun went down, the colour was mysterious and adorable on her black face. He gave her a quick peck on those moist lips. He did not know how to actually tell her.
One was certainly dead.
It wasn't just the account she gave Nate, which clearly showed One had folded himself to death.
'That's you, Nate. That's the story of every timekeeper. All children in our fold are such pure devotees, and the god came for all of us.'
Nate was a precocious child. He didn't believe all children are good. But One's image was just like their hopeless boy, Aniket. He couldn't help but hope the god will come and kick Yama's butt for One.
As for Aniket, should he ever fall into that situation, the god better have good humour. Why would the devil be taken by the king of hell? The devil is the king of hell! He was just fooling god with his devotion. No doubt, for revenge!
'Well…'
'Well what?'
'That is exactly what happened.'
Nate didn't talk for a while. The night doctor fed him a bottle in the middle of the night. A certain rascal has occupied the bathroom. Nate had been coddled as a patient by Anita. But now she forgets all about him when the son comes. Nate was highly discomforted.
He kicked Aniket's butt and woke him up. 'Get out.'
Aniket's drugs were taken away. He was not in a good mood. He scratched his stubble and his sticky hair. He decided to go raid the pharmacy.
Anita kindly reminded his disappearing back, 'Dear, you're peeing in a cup before breakfast. What would you like? Eggs?'
Anita shook her head, wiping his eyes with the base of her palms. She refused to look at Nate though he kept lifting her chin.
'He doesn't like decoding. He likes to think in code itself. But this time, the message he interpreted is garbled. I performed noise reduction and data integration from a very base level to interpret it. Aniket doesn't do these things that he considers menial labour.'
He would wait for the code to reveal itself when some other code enters his eye and decodes the old secret.
Nate nodded. 'What does it say?'
Anita sniffed and composed herself. 'One did not actually die. He…was folded until he became a foetus. And then…the foetus was folded into a zygote. And so on, until he disappeared into the time continuum as a particle.'
Nate saw his wife's red and moist face. Like dusk's red and disappearing light after the sun went down, the colour was mysterious and adorable on her black face. He gave her a quick peck on those moist lips. He did not know how to actually tell her.
One was certainly dead.
It wasn't just the account she gave Nate, which clearly showed One had folded himself to death.
Timekeepers lie about a lot of things, but they don't lie about death. One can also say they are a death culture. They don't celebrate weddings or births. They definitely mourn the dead. In a very big way.
One's death is a very seminal part of timekeeper history. Even if his life is faked, his death cannot be faked.