BS42 took Lorne on a tour of the ship. Lorne had never seen such an amazing ship before.
"This is the best Samsara pod ever created by the Lord Master," BS42 said.
"I don't know, my experience of advanced technology is limited. However, it is certainly the most impressive thing I have ever seen," Lorne said.
"Let's head to the navigational bridge," BS42 said. Lorne merely nodded.
Once they reached the navigational bridge, Lorne's eyes sparkled. Although Lorne loved archaeology he had another love and that was science fiction. Perhaps he just found the imaginative writings and adventures exciting. Lorne never felt imperiled before in his life until the Zimwer incident. For him, the notion of peril was a novel concept. Usually, he enjoyed the fantasies of risking it all and coming out on top. It was much more interesting than easily accomplishing anything he wanted in his previous life. Things were just too easy and made life boring. Lorne realized finding out he was an alien when he was a child also impacted his interest in science fiction.
Lorne laughed when the thought occurred to him the reason he became a superhero probably had to do with finding out he was an alien with immense power. The story reminded him of other such beings recorded from the comics he read as a child.
Staring at the bridge, he realized this bridge represented everything he ever dreamed of before. The large ‘Captain's’ chair in front of him cried out ‘Nostalgia!’ Lorne immediately ran over to the chair and sat in it. He swiveled in it a few times and clicked a couple of switches and pushed buttons gleefully.
BS42 made a robotic sounding cough. "Excuse me young lord, but that is my seat," BS42 said. Lorne reluctantly got up from the seat. BS42 sat down in the chair and explained the navigation controls to Lorne who was deeply interested.
"May I try to fly it?" Loren asked.
"No, you're much too weak to fly this ship. Besides, the ship isn't capable of flying right now. We're currently experiencing Karmic entanglement," said BS42.
"Karmic entanglement?" Lorne asked.
"The universe is composed of matter and energy as you may know. What you may not know if there are other energies making up the universe, spiritual energies, for example. Just as there are forces working on physical objects, such as gravity, there are spiritual forces working on spiritual objects, such as Karma. We call spiritual objects souls.
Karma is the tie binding various existences together. It is also an invisible arbiter of justice. It creates unexpected opportunities for the worthy. Right now, we are searching for the best opportunity for your soul. Given your selfless defense of Earth in the face of absolute destruction, you should have great opportunities available. In fact, you do, I know this because the ship informed me of the sizable Karmic cords grasping onto the ship. There are both Karmic strings and cords attaching to the ship.
Karma is trying to grasp your soul and bring it to its next destination. To a certain extent, we can control which path you choose. We may not be able to choose the exact destination but we can choose between greater and lesser opportunities. However, as we began our journey the ship was immediately entangled by countless numbers of Karmic strings. As we've moved through the multiverse some of the Karma threads broke while others combined and strengthened. The strings that combine are called Karmic cords. We're looking for the thickest cord. When we find it, we'll allow it to control the ship and bring you to your new opportunity, your next life," BS42 explained.
"Will I forget my past once I reincarnate?" Lorne asked.
"No, that's another benefit of the Samsara pod.
However, prior to birth, you will feel a special kind of spiritual enlightenment informing you of your mission in this life. Since you can remember your last life your mission from the previous life will be added to the mission for the current life. If you can accomplish these missions, then the Karmic threads for your next life will become even more numerous and amazing. The Samsara pod will record whatever you say, but it cannot record anything if you do not speak during the enlightenment period. You have to speak, if you don't speak out the mission, then the mission will have to be sought out blindly through life. It's much harder this way but not impossible. The Enlightenment process is unique. Our technology is incapable of directly controlling or recording the information from this event." BS42 said.
"Amazing, will this happen soon?" Lorne asked.
"We haven't even arrived at our destination and you haven't gone through the gestation period yet. Depending on what body you are reincarnated into you might have a lot of time on your hands," BS42 said.
"What determines the gestation period?" Lorne asked.
"Two things, the species of creature you incarnate into and the level of cultivation your parents have. The stronger the parents the longer the gestation period." BS42 informed him.
"This reincarnating, does this mean I'll never be able to see my family again?" This was the question Lorne wanted to ask all along. He missed his wife and children. He wanted to see his children grow up. Now, he was forced to live in a new world with a new body. It seemed it was unlikely he would ever see his family.
"I don't know. It depends on several factors," said BS42.
Lorne was completely surprised by BS42's response. He thought for sure BS42 would tell him there was no hope. Instead, he was being told, 'maybe.' That meant hope to Lorne. He might see his family.
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"What are some of the factors?" Lorne asked.
BS42 thought for a few moments before replying.
"The best-case scenario is we find ourselves in a universe with a timeline significantly different from our own," BS42 said.
"What do you mean?" Lorne asked.
"Not all universes are created equal or at the same time. We want a universe that moves forward at a significantly slower speed or one way behind our own timeline. Don't get too happy about this possibility. There are lots of problems and questions that would need to be overcome such as the quality of the universe we arrive in. There is also the problem of relativistic multi-universal time disfasia. Different Universes develop and grow at different speeds as seen from our own universe. In our universe, a year could pass but in another year one-million years could have passed and vice versa." BS42 explained.
"How would that work?" Lorne asked.
"This is tricky, if we enter at a universe with time disfasia and then returned to our universe, we could be faced with the situation where we arrive in the old universe before we left for the new universe. It's extremely complex. In fact, your father's master was actually a warrior born many many years after your father became the Emperor. Your father trained his master, but then his master found himself in a universe with time disfasia. When his master returned to our Zimwarn universe, it was nearly twelve million years before your father became the Emperor," said BS42.
"The reverse could happen then. I could come back to the original universe we left from and I could appear twelve million years or more after I left," Lorne said.
"Lorne, to be honest, it is going to be very difficult to get back home. Your chances of returning home to see your family not long after you left are extremely unlikely. To begin with, we don't even know where we're going to appear. Will we appear in a universe close to the one we came from? Will we find ourselves in a new, unexplored universe? If so, then finding our way back to the original universe becomes even more problematic. The truth is you should prepare yourself for the likelihood the farewell you had with your wife and children was your final farewell.
Even if there's a chance we can make it back, what will you do in the meantime? You have to live your life, you can't put your love life or family life on hold for an indeterminate amount of time. Humans can't live that way. You don't know the future. Your family is very important to you, but you've only lived a little over thirty years. How will you feel when you've lived one hundred years, a thousand years, or even longer? There's no way you could know. People change over time. The more time the more change," said BS42.
"It's a lot to take in BS42. I don't know what to think. Please don't ask me to make any decisions right now," said Lorne.
BS42 smiled faintly at Lorne, "I'm not asking you to make any decisions, I'm just trying to prepare you for an ugly possibility you might be ignoring. I don't want to rob you of your hope, but I don't want you to suffer a crueler fate than that of letting go." BS42 said.
"What could be worse than the pain of letting go?" Lorne asked with red eyes.
"The pain of pointless obsession," BS42 said.
Lorne was quiet for some time. "No point speculating on what will be. Perhaps we can save this conversation for when we arrive." Lorne said with a faint smile.
"Fair enough," BS42 said. "Shall we continue our tour?"
BS42 took Lorne to the library next. This was a place of great interest to Lorne.
"Welcome to the library. There is enough reading material here to last you an immortal's lifetime," said BS42.
"Until pre-birth you're free to come here any time you would like to read. There is every subject you could ever desire to learn," BS42 said.
After BS42 finished the Samsara pod tour, Lorne spent many months living in the pod. He found his favorite time-passing activity was reading in the library. He couldn't eat or drink, so there was nothing for him to do but read. Reading was a great pleasure for Lorne, even when he was on Earth. He read every book in the world by the time he was eighteen. Having super speed and super comprehension helped. Not having a physical body, there was no such thing as super speed for Lorne.
On the other hand, as a spectral entity, Lorne found reading was much easier. Lorne had to be careful when reading at super speed back on Earth. If he read too fast he could accidentally set the books on fire. His father eventually built a device allowing him to read as fast as he wanted. Unfortunately, within a week of getting the device, he finished reading all the books on Earth. After that, he periodically reread all the books on Earth. He had probably read the entire collection of Earth's books, in every human language, hundreds of times. For an academically minded person like Lorne, this was a great tool.
One day, Lorne was reading in the Library using a technique he discovered called spirit reading. This allowed him to spread out his spirit and read multiple books at once. As soon as his spirit touched a book he instantly read and remembered the book. He had even learned eighteen new languages over the last few months they hurtled through the multiverse.
BS42's voice resonated in his soul. "Meet me in the gene pool, we're about to arrive."
"At last, we're arriving. It will be nice to be somewhere other than this pod." Lorne thought.
When Lorne arrived at the gene pool he found BS42 was already there. Next to BS42 was a nearly translucent object in the shape of a pill.
"Step inside." As BS42 said this a door on the side of the pill opened.
Lorne entered, and the door shut. Immediately after shutting, the 'pill' condensed around Lorne's soul. It integrated into his soul. Lorne felt slightly uncomfortable during the process.
"What's this?" asked Lorne.
This is a soul suit, it has several functions but the most important function for right now is it will allow you to sit in the gene pool during the initial embryonic formation. Once that's done, you can step out of the embryo and wait out the gestation period on the pod until right before birth. You'll be much less bored this way. Another important function is this suit allows you to store the Samsara pod in your soul. It will be absolutely hidden and once you're born you'll have access to the Samsara pod,” said BS42.
Lorne was really impressed. His father's Empire should be named the Miraculous Technology Empire. Forget their sci-fi technology like Warships, battle armor, and what not; their spiritual technology was simply unbelievable. It defied reason he thought.
BS42 finished the preparations and the embryo was formed intaking the new genetic information provided by Lorne's future parents and combining it with his original Zimwarn genetics. All four tubes filled the tube. Lorne was already laying at the bottom of the gene pool when the liquid filled the pond and surrounded Lorne's soul. The genetic information was optimized. Finally, a fetus was formed. Lorne stepped out of the embryo but noticed nearly imperceptible energy strands connected him to the embryo.
"Those are your spirit tethers. They keep you attached to the embryo at all times. The embryo dies without its soul, but with the tether; you can leave the embryo and still sustain it with your spiritual energy." BS42 said.
"Amazing" Lorne marveled once again at this spiritual technology.
"Uh-oh," BS42 said, his eyes scanned panels and readouts around the room, but Lorne couldn't tell what he was specifically examining.
"Hurry, get back into the embryo, I think you're about to be born," BS42 said hurriedly.
"What, but didn't you say...." Lorne began.
"FORGET what I said, get into the embryo RIGHT NOW!" BS42 yelled.
Lorne immediately did as he told. As soon as he was back in the embryo he suddenly disappeared.
"How bizarre," Lorne said.