Chapter 2A: Magnum Opus
What is a magnum opus? To answer that question, we would first have to explain “What is art?” Since it is far too complicated a question to answer, the meaning will be up to the interpreter.
To the old man, a magnum opus would be something that spits in the face of human ethics, the very ethics that cost him his ticket to Gaia. To the boy, a magnum opus perhaps will be his best work before his illness takes away his final breath.
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps it is not only beauty but art as well.
The boy lied down in his bed. He was looking through a journal he borrowed from the old man. It listed various chemical reactors and experiments the old man did in his youth. The sheer number of them was shocking. G4240B was dedicated to the whole ‘Seeing is believing’ part of learning. He had to physically perform and see the reaction to understand them truly. It was his method of education.
A7619B, however, was less of a contact learner. He learned through reading. The most he read, the most he remembered. He was blessed with an ever-expanding memory that improved as he read more and more.
It fascinated anyone who ever came into contact with him. It’s what also brought the boy to the old man’s doorsteps.
When the boy left the lab today, he asked the old man a question he had been saving for a while. Perhaps he knew his time was cut even shorter; maybe his body was telling him “No more, let us go.”
The question he asked was this:
“Why me?”
It was a very vague question. One could interpret it ask the boy asking the heavens why was he chosen to die young. It could also be construed as the boy asking the old man why he stuck with him all these years.
The old man only smiled faintly and said one line.
“Because you remind me of myself.”
The boy walked away after that. He never knew the old man’s past. He never bothered to ask. It was against his morals to poke at someone’s history. He of all people should know how painful the past could be.
The day-night cycle in the seed ship was regulated very strictly for the residents to live a healthy lifestyle. They get their usual ten hours of darkness and fourteen hours of light. Right now it was night time. The lights all dimed to a near total darkness and the stars outside could be seen even more vividly during times of darkness.
With his room being so far from the window, he had a monitor on his wall displaying the outside view. It was the backdrop to his life.
While the boy was enjoying his final moments doing what he loved, the old man was doing something unusual.
He managed to create an area that was blind to the AI. To some, it may be easy to do. But to G4240B who was under constant surveillance, it was a difficult task.
In the cover of night, he got his robots to move the equipment one by one to the blind spot. He would have to be careful. The AI is known to be all knowing and all seeing. With his track record, if it spots him doing something shady, he inevitably will be caught. It was his last strike too. One more and he will be considered a threat and ‘decommissioned.' G4240B didn’t want to reveal his status just yet.
The final piece to his experiment will be the most important one. He needed a near perfect specimen. Not a single blemish on their history. But luckily, he found one just the other day in the medical wards. It wasn’t a perfect fit, but it will have to do with such short notice.
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He laughed to himself when he thought of what the boy’s reaction would be.
“I will give him another chance in life; it’s up to him to take fate by its horns and ride it down into the sunset.”
G4240B looked up at the ceiling window. The infinite stars glimmered with their lights traveling through the emptiness of space for eons and eons only to end up in his cornea.
“Fate...,” He said as he stared into the cosmos, “What a foolish concept.”
______
The following day, the boy got a message from the old man to visit him at a new location. A7619B didn’t question it as the old man often brings him to see new and wondrous things inside the seed ship. He would then explain the process of what was happening and why. Things like the filtration system, the recycle plants, and even the crematorium.
Everything on the ship has a purpose. Including the passengers.
The boy sat up. Since his body had become too weak to walk unassisted, a small robot the brought him home last night beeped and bopped as it positioned itself behind the boy and lifted him up via the underarms. With the robot crutches, the boy left his room. Honestly, his body condition varied day to day. Some days he could walk by himself without much effort while some days he was indeed a cripple.
They walk through the corridors, past the multitudes of doors to various other dwellings, into the central hub with the large monitor displaying the current statuses of the ship. He didn’t look at the giant monitor and quickly moved on with his trek. If he had just taken a peak, perhaps he would see something that would shock him.
From the main hub, he made a left and entered through a large sliding glass door into the next sector. The color of the walls changed from blue to green. A7619B and his companion-bot were nearing the oxygen recycling center. The walls were lined with artificial chloroplast to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. It used the same concept the old man used for his artificial tree. The old man just made a far cheaper version than what was used in the seed ship. Soon he arrived at his destination. The last living plant on the seed ship, the Tree of Hope.
On every seed ship was a tree planted at the center of every oxygen recycling center. It signified life and hope. It showed that even in the vastness of space, life could thrive. The tree was healthy and robust; its hulking mass looked powerful as its leaves flowed back and forth like a flock of ten thousand birds.
The tree on this particular seed ship was a Californian redwood, also known as a Sequoia. Its titanic structure loomed over the entire oxygen plant and could be seen from the entrance. It was an ancient tree, as old as the seed ship itself which by now had been flying through space for more than a few century.
Behind the tree in a dark shady spot, he found the old man.
“Hey boy, come here quick,” G4240B beckoned him over.
The small robot that was supporting the boy had trouble traversing the root infested floor. It took him a while to get to where the old man stood.
“Let me ask you boy if you were given a second chance at life, would you take it?” The old man asked with a glimmer in his eye.
“You know that I would,” The boy answered immediately.
“No matter the cost?” The old man added with seriousness in his tone.
“No matter the cost,” The boy finally said after much decision.
The old man’s face beamed. He saw the determination in the kid’s eyes renew.
“That’s my boy!” He laughed gratuitously, “Quick come inside.”
He waved his arm revealing a camouflaged sheet that hid a large table, a tube, and a huge machine behind it. If one didn’t look carefully, the sheet perfectly aligned with its background, blending in seamlessly. A7619B gasped at the incredible sight.
“Quick, we don’t have much time,” The old man hurried the boy, “Lie down on this table.”
A7619B did as he was told. The sight of the metal table looked cold, but the humid air from the oxygen recycling plant made sure a fine layer of dew formed on it.
The boy didn’t get a look at what was in the tube.
G4240B quickly washed his hands and sterilized everything. The oxygen recycling plant was very clean, but to be extra sure, the environment he set up was kept sterile by a dome covering everything. Of course, the dome was lined with the particular camouflage sheet as well.
The old man took one last look at the boy.
“Do you trust me?” he asked the kid.
“Yes,” The boy said with affirmation in his eyes.
The old man nearly shed a tear, but his tear ducts had long since been dry. He walked up to the boy and administered an anesthetic injection.
The boy slowly passed out as his mind raced about what the old man had planned. G4240B looked at the sleeping boy’s determined face that was lined with a hint of confusion and worry.
“I won’t let you go, my boy before I go, I will give you my final gift.”
He walked over to the tube and wiped the dew off of it.
Inside the tube was a girl who looked the same age as the boy.
“Let the operation begin,” The old man said as the recording robot he brought along began to record the whole experiment. He knew that perhaps this will be his final work. His enemies will find him.