Chapter 2

"What? Dark Energy?" I asked. "We know about it." I was about to continue when the voice stopped me from speaking.

"I know what you want to say. Please hold until the end of my explanation." The voice replied.

I held back. Then it continued. "In the early 1990s, your people were fairly certain about the expansion of the universe. It might have enough energy density to stop its expansion and re-collapse, it might have so little energy density that it would never stop expanding, but gravity was certain to slow the expansion as time went on."

"More is unknown than is known. You know how much dark energy there is because you know how it affects the universe's expansion. Other than that, it is a complete mystery for you. Your people were partially true, that roughly 68% of the universe is dark energy. Dark matter makes up about 27%. The rest - everything on Earth, everything ever observed with all of your instruments, all normal matter - adds up to less than 5% of the universe. "

"In short, it was concluded that dark matter slows down the expansion of the universe, while dark energy speeds it up. Dark matter works like an attractive force — a kind of cosmic cement that holds universe together. This is because dark matter does interact with gravity, but it doesn't reflect, absorb, or emit light."

"Meanwhile, dark energy is a repulsive force — a sort of anti-gravity — that drives the universe's ever-accelerating expansion. For decades, so called physicists all over the world have employed increasingly high-tech instruments to try and detect dark matter. So far, they've found no signs of it."

"Let me tell you about it. The other part of the mystery."

"Your people have already had myths about it. Write stories about it. Believe about it. Faith is one interpretation. So is Qi, chakra, Mana, Primordial Chaos Qi, ....."

"Different names. But all originate from the same. Your so called gods, mythology, miracles and everything to do with theology. Well that's all Dark Energy."

"Do you know Oort Cloud as your people named it."

"I don't." I answered.

"Well, your solar system extends much farther than the eight planets that orbit the Sun. The solar system also includes the Kuiper Belt that lies past Neptune's orbit. This is a sparsely occupied ring of icy bodies, almost all smaller than the most popular Kuiper Belt Object, dwarf planet Pluto."

"And beyond the fringes of the Kuiper belt is the Oort Cloud. This giant spherical shell surrounds your solar system. It has never been directly observed, but its existence is predicted based on mathematical models and observations of comets that likely originate there.

The Oort Cloud is made of icy pieces of space debris the sizes of mountains and sometimes larger, orbiting our Sun as far as 1.6 light years away. This shell of material is thick, extending from 5,000 astronomical units to 100,000 astronomical units. One astronomical unit (or AU) is the distance from the Sun to Earth, or about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers). The Oort Cloud is the boundary of the Sun's gravitational influence, where orbiting objects can turn around and return closer to your Sun."

"The Oort Cloud also protects your solar system from the Dark energy and dark matter. If the influence of it is 1 outside the solar system then inside it is close to 0.0000000001. But even the tiniest of it influenced your civilization. When your ancestors looked at the stars for navigation or at night in wonder they were influenced."

"Your myths were history in some corner of the universe. The dark energy brought it's memories from the worlds far away. Some people interpreted different memories from different worlds. They even evolved in different ways based on their stories. Not only the environment but these stories and beliefs also played how you look. As your people believe 'Mind over Matter'. It is true. Over the millenniums, your so called races also differentiated."

I didn't know what to think. What to reply. 'Is this true? They all happened in other worlds. They were so many worlds.'

Feeling my confusion and dis-belief the voice continued "No need to be overwhelmed yet. Any life form can be molded. Some voluntary. Some involuntary. Every species has a chance of becoming a higher lifeform. If it can't be done as single cell, then these single cells group together to form higher life. Then each of these cells take different responsibilities to keep the whole alive."

"The trillions of cells in your body dying and giving life to new cells all come together to form a single conscious. You."

"Similarly, all living things on a planet, all of these singular conscious from different lifeforms form a planetary conscious. Your planet still hasn't formed it's own yet. It is almost born. A few centuries and it would be done."

"When a planetary conscious is formed every life that is born and every life that passes away would be under it's control. All seeing. All knowing. Every life born on the planet would have it's mark."

The voice stopped saying anything else. It gave some time for me to let all this information to sink in. I also understood why I ever had an opportunity to know all this. I do not have a mark. I haven't been majorly influenced by so called dark energy. And that was a good thing?

Maybe the voice could feel my thoughts. Or listen to? I could feel that voice smiled? It was laughing?

"No need think too much. And yes since there is no mark, it is good for me. Let me tell you more. The planetary conscious formed would make it's own rules in it's world. Think of it like a Game Manager in a game. Whatever he wants happen. He can change rules if wanted. He could stop the game too."

"It becomes a closed cycle. Souls enter the world's cycle to be recycled. The memories are scrubbed. Think of it as a computer CPU. The memories, feelings and every piece of information that make one unique or himself is wiped and a new one put in or filled in new life. And that CPU would have that world's logo or mark."

'So I am the CPU with no logo.' I thought. As if sensing it, the voice said "Yes, you are a sad little puppy who has no logo, low specs, all pitiful."

"A soul can be strengthened. It's like changing the RAM for higher processing speeds. Or getting a higher capacity hard disk for memories. And these changes also strengths the body it occupies. Vice versa is also true."

"So you might be wondering how this all happens. Why? Well simply put in earth scientific terms it would isotopes. The number of neutrons in an atom affected by dark energy are higher than stable atomic structure. This in turn affects the molecular structure. Then macroscopic properties of the same elements also differ. So you take in radiation which affects living organisms. But you would have a filter in form of world conscious which protects life from that radiation all at once. It will take the dark energy and convert it into it's own form of energy. Different Worlds will evolve based on energy converted into. "

"For world's which have conscious but low levels of dark energy available the world absorbs it into it's own fuel. If even that's not enough then it hibernates until it stores enough then wakes up and directs the living organisms to find the new sources of energy. Sometimes it make take lives of it's organisms to fuel it's survival. Every world has its own source of it's energy."

'Wow so much information. So many wonderous natures and explanations of life. But what am I supposed to do. Steal the source of energy of a world?' I thought

"No little one. You will retrieve an object from a world. A space wonder or a cosmic wonder to be exact."

????????

"A Space Wonder is any phenomenon in the Cosmos that directly defies scientific or magical knowledge, and is unique and can't be repeated, the term "Space Wonder" ("Cosmic Wonder"), is a catch-all term used to describe phenomena that even advanced technology from the Advanced Civilizations, cannot explain."

"Most do not know about them even if they have them. Sometime ago I found a one such space wonder. I went to the world to get it. But the world didn't even allow me to even talk with it. I wasn't even allowed near it. So here I am looking for another way to get it."

"Your task is to infiltrate the world, get close to the wonder. If you can capture it then I will reward you so well that you could have everything you have ever dreamed of. But it is a scenario which has probability very close to zero. So don't worry about it. So all you have to do is to get as close as possible to it. If it has already a owner, no problem. Get close to him as much as possible and do few minor tasks."

"Before you get close to it, you have to few other things so that I could retrieve it without much fuss with you. Think of it as side quests in a MMORPG game. Okay?"

All could say was "Yes". I still had so many questions. But before I could ask the voice replied "No need to worry too much. I will give a gold-finger as your people would say. It will help you out. But don't depend too much on it."

"Bye human."

That was the last thing I could remember before everything turned black and I couldn't feel anything else.