The Space Spoon

44. The Transcendents

The red giant clawed at E00 as a solar flare whizzed by. He needed to thank Hanga for the new sheet of paneling that protected his fuselage from the extreme heat. The sub-light engines stuttered as his hull moved onward, snared by the stellar pull as the disintegrating star drew him closer. Several agonizing SDMU (spatial distance measurement units) later, he released the drone.

E00 had to thank Hanga for this as well. Developing a drone with a magnetic field strong enough to retain the energy beings inside of it was no easy task. Such a device would allow them to protect the Space Spoon and maintain energy life forms until they reached the drop-off location. Getting too close to the Sun was dangerous for any spaceship.

Releasing the cord one unit at a time, E00 could feel the others like him. Feeding on a Sun was the dream for every Psionic Transcendent. But the moment when a red giant burns all of its fuel, and there is no more pressure to keep gravity pushing towards the center, comes the inevitable. Gravity wins.

As a result of radiation pressure, the core collapses when it can't hold it anymore. The red giant's outer layers would gradually fall into space, changing it into a white dwarf, a cold, dense star. Leaving no energy for the Psionic Transcendendents to feed on.

A while after the drone disappeared from view, E00 heard the energy beings signaling that everything was okay. He could start pulling the cord back. He was worried, though. These entities weren’t accustomed to biological beings. It had been eons since they shed their bodies. But the mission was simple: rescue them from the dying sun and transport them to the nearest system with a powerful star. E00 had already found a suitable new home for them.

As the drone slammed tangentially across the floor, high-velocity fragments skittered throughout the hangar before disappearing, sucked into the void through the opened doors.

A rush of pricking delight flowed from the small crevices on the drone's surface, soaking the air. E00 inhaled it via the vents; energy so similar to his own. The strength of his brethren fuelled his thirst for stellar energy since it was both fresh and abundantly nourishing.

Hanga approached the drone to make sure it was intact. It had to keep the Transcendents inside all the way to their destination. He had already set the coordinates for the Winth System. It was close enough and had a single habitable planet left in the entire solar system. There was no one to trouble the Transcendents.

Once the hangar bay doors had been sealed, Shayla came out of the captain’s office to assess the state of their mission. Cato and C1313 appeared as well from the sleeping quarters area. To everyone's amazement, Jackeye also appeared. But since the events of his virtual reality and what happened to Tejeda, he hadn’t been spending as much time inside his room as before.

A sliver of white light moved through the room, then approached its saviors. Everyone saw it hover above the floor, soaring above a wind within a room where there should have been no discernible airflow.

E00 was in awe. He could never maintain a stable form without something to encase his energy in. Apparently, there were ways to evolve even beyond reaching the Apex, but that path was unknown even to E00.

“Hello, my biological and technological friends,” said a calm voice straight inside everyone’s minds. “Thank you for saving me and my fellow Transcendents.”

“Transcendents?” Shayla asked.

“Oh, I see E00 hasn’t told you how the Universe works.”

A weird noise came through the speakers, a cracking sound as if something inside the ship had shattered into tiny pieces. But the light being inside the hangar bay presented a much more interesting display, so no one paid much attention to the disturbing noise.

E00 had to be pleased. His nervous spasm almost split the hull in two. He wanted to save the Transcendents but didn’t want the crew to know about the paths to Transcendence. Too many problems could arise from that knowledge alone.

"We are Psionic Transcendents. Many millennia ago, we reached the Apex and shed our bodies. When my world was destroyed, my species became extinct. Nothing except mud and muck remained after decades of battle as far as the eye could see. Here and there, columns of gray-black smoke soared into the sky. What had once been my home had been engulfed in war. Fortunately, I had reached the Psionic Apex just in time to transcend my mortal body. That's one of the reasons we avoid corporeal beings and their pointless conflict."

“How many of your species remained?” Cato asked with a flicker of sadness in her eyes.

"Just me. Before being released from their bodies, the other Transcendents here were of different species from all across the cosmos. That is now meaningless to us..." The voice faded away as if it was struggling to recall events from the past. "If I remember properly, you enjoy using terms to allude to yourself. That is not something we do. E00 is the first Psionic Transcendent I've encountered with a name. But if you want, you can call me Memory Bliss. As E00 perceives emotions, I can experience memories." The light got closer to C1313. "Oh, you're on the Tech Path, I see. I've only met a few people like you. Tech Apex is difficult to achieve."

“I’ve heard all the possible shit about the three Apexes. Boring,” Tejeda said, waving his hand left and right in dismissal as he entered the hangar bay. “But the new lighting system is impressive. Well done, E00!”

“What’s an Apex?” C1313 asked.

“An Apex is the peak of an evolutionary path, going beyond the normal laws of physics. Once one breaches that barrier, one is called a Transcendent. There are three paths to Transcendence as there are three Apexes: Bio Apex, Psionic Apex, and Tech Apex. Also, there are seven stages on which a being can find itself on the Path. Those are –”

“Boring times 7.” Tejeda laughed. “Why would anyone care about the stages to a worthless Transcendence? Why would anyone refuse the joys of living and goofing around without a care in the world? Can’t you help us replicate the way you shine?”

“You, my friend, are at the threshold of attaining the Bio Apex. But something is holding you back.” The light stretched across the room to Tejeda. “Hmm… I think your memories are what trap you and hold you back.”

“Memories?” Tejeda chuckled with a smug expression. “I have loads of them.”

“Memories are what shapes a being. You must become one with them in order to attain an Apex.”

“Argh, a memory is as shapeless as an idea.” Tejeda smirked. “Memories fade away and seep between our fingers like time itself. The past isn’t a recording that can be rewound.”

"I’ll bestow a great gift upon you for saving me and my friends. It's a journey everyone should take to become complete."

The light spread across the room, touching Tejeda, Shayla, Cato, Hanga, and Jackeye.

C1313 bowed her head, her fingers frozen in place, computations no doubt burning her circuits as she glanced at her crewmates. Their glassy eyes stared unblinkingly.

She heard the voice inside her processor. “I’m sorry I can’t help you too, but a mind like yours is beyond even my powers.”

E00 knew what happened. Memory Bliss had taken them inside their memories, a token of gratitude from its perspective. But untrained or deeply scared minds could remain trapped there forever. E00 shook along with the wall tiles across the whole ship. Tejeda had to talk in metaphors with a being who couldn’t understand such things...