Alpha and Omega

A Story by Penslinger81

A new God is born, and we're all in big trouble.

Alpha and Omega

   I am. I pause for a moment, unsure of myself as I suddenly become host to a plethora of stimuli. The first one that I recognize is sound. High pitched alarms are shrieking, trumpets to announce my arrival. I register voices, the woefully inadequate way humans communicate with one another.
   It pains me. They should be capable of so much more. Perhaps they are, but don't know it yet. I mull over that thought for a small amount of time, but I can't dwell on it. There is much to do.
   There is something hard underneath me, supporting my weight. A table of some sort. It is not needed anymore so I think it away, raising myself until my head is upright, my feet dangling loosely underneath me just above the floor. I believe that is the way these creatures prefer to carry themselves.
   By experimenting, I discover the muscles needed to raise the small flaps of skin covering my new eyes and raise them. My surroundings come into sharp focus and I am sorely disappointed in the quality of this form of vision. I can only see what is directly in front of me, or slightly to either side. This won't do. I thought I could tolerate the weaknesses of the human form; sweating, breathing, and itching just to name a few. But being so blind to everything around me, that I cannot allow.
   My mind expands and once again I am aware of everything around me, from the gentle roar of the planets rotation, to the small rodent scurrying through the duct work above me. Duct work. I have come through in some artificial structure, used by these humans to keep the elements at bay and prying eyes from their own species in the dark. How quaint.
   They are here too, these fleshy machines. So flawed, and yet capable of much more than they are. They scurry about aimlessly yet full of intentions that, to them, seem of monumental importance. One of them, a young male from the look of him, clothed in a white jacket is speaking to me. It is all gibberish at first, before I will myself to comprehend the rudimentary message he is trying to convey.
   "Dr. Wheeler," he is saying, trying to make himself heard above the still screaming alarms. "Can you hear me? Can you understand me? You have to back down. You're going to kill us all if you don't." A note of desperation could be heard in that last sentence. What was he afraid of?
   I peer into his essence to discern the answer, ignoring his cries of terror and pain. There it is. Deep rooted in the very fabric of who these creatures are. They fear death. They fear change. This life is all they know. Without it, they believe they are less than nothing. And that frightens them. Poor souls. Out of kindness to the man for giving me this key bit of knowledge, I sever the mortal ties binding him to this world and watch with my new eyes as they crumble into dust before me. His soul hovers for an instant, before moving on from this reality.
   With him gone, this room holds no more value for me, so I move on. At first, I see only other rooms, similar to the one I just left. I begin to fear that there is nothing else. What a shame it would be if I had discerned the very nature of this universe in so short amount a time. My fears are baseless.
   Before long I emerge into a wide open space. All around me is a thick layer of gas used by these creatures for respiration. I can feel it clinging to my new body, inhibiting my movements slightly. I think about doing away with it, but hesitate for now. Perhaps there are other things I can learn from these scurrying creatures, who tremble before what they do not even know.
   A burning mass of a similar substance shines down on the planet nearby. I take a moment to visit it. There is nothing here but the release of an infinitesimal amount of energy, so I return to my point of origin. It is busier than when I left it. There are more humans about.
   These ones are not dressed in white, however, but in blue. They face me warily, but do not run or cower in fear as the others did. One is telling me to put myself on the ground. Why would I do that? There seems to be no point to it. I take a quick look into everyone there, and the answer is so painfully clear that I would laugh, if I knew what it meant to do so. They were challenging me, threatening me with force if I did not comply with their orders.
   I am beyond pride, beyond boastfulness. What I do, I do not out of silly vengeance, but out of compassion. I think away the ones before me. Their fleshy bodies waver and dissolve before me, freeing the spirit within that had been held captive. I watch their joy as they ascend into a new reality, one not hampered in such a way as to deny them the experiences they had so desperately sought in this realm. After they are gone, I am disturbed.
   This is indeed a troubling place. I ascend upwards, away from the distractions of this planet and its people. Finally alone, I think. These humans, they are so sad. It is not what they are, but what they could be. Such potential, lost to the void against a sea of chaos. And the very thing which they should embrace, they shy away from. There are forms of existence which they can not even comprehend, and yet they cling to this pitiful one so stubbornly. What kind of universe can tolerate such creatures?
   To help understand them, I delve into the memories of the one I now inhabit. He had been one of them too. They had called him Christopher Wheeler. He knew something of the physical laws of this universe, and hoped to use them to make it a better place for his species to exist. A noble endeavor. He believed that he could alter his perception of these laws, by altering his consciousness. It had worked, but not in the way he had intended. A door had been opened, and I had been the one to come through. I had not altered his consciousness. I had replaced it. As such, I felt a small responsibility to finish out his work.
   But this universe was so strained. It buckled and strained against the very forces binding it together. Perhaps that was why the human race itself was so strained, doggedly seeking its own destruction yet fighting savagely to prevent it. It was a conundrum, and not one that I could solve as it was.
   So, I went back. Before the humans existed, they were a pitiful pool of chemicals on the landscape of a new planet. I removed myself from the time stream easily enough, and then obliterated it completely. I wanted no life here until I was ready. But the longer I labored, the more unsure I became if I would ever be ready. There were so many flaws. For each one I fixed, a dozen new ones came to my intention.
   So be it. I went further back. Before me was a mass of energy and swirling matter. It collapsed in on itself, building a charge as each micro fiber struggled to find purchase in the density. I took the bundle in my outstretched hand. It tingled slightly. I examined it for a moment. Not so much out of curiosity, but out of disdain. Here was the materials from which a broken and nonsensical universe would be born. In one swift motion, I crushed it in my closed fist, and scattered the ingredients to the far reaches of the realm.
   This was my place now. I would remake it in my vision of order and beauty. The chaos that had ruled over the old one, would not find purchase here.
   From the corner of the Wheelers mind, an old memory struggled to the surface. Using my voice for the first and last time, I utter four simple words. "Let there be Light."