The Epiphany
The two men stared in bewilderment at what stood in front of them. They had finished scraping the last layer of stone from it, and stood glaring at it in silence, waiting for a possible explanation to arise. But none came. All they could do was mumble a few remarks of confusion and then look at one another with an anxious look. A flat, shining and perfectly rectangular slab of metal seemed to have no reason to be encased in the earth’s crust, several kilometres underground. And yet it was there; a giant, polished piece of metal, sitting lodged in the stone parallelly to the two men, reflecting the elevator’s light back at them. One of them pressed a button, and the underground lift moved closer to the metallic surface, and then jammed to a halt. He extended his hand and felt the dark grey surface with his glove. First, he felt the flatness, then its heat, and then suddenly a faint vibration. He yanked his hand back with a quick reflex action. And then the doors parted.
The elevator had been finished installing the day before, reaching a depth of more than four kilometres, and the two geologists had been sent down promptly to justify the reason for drilling in the heart of the Great Victoria Desert. They were to examine the body of an unidentified metal underground, and report back whether mining it should be the next move. But they found themselves improvising when the elevator’s light revealed what lay behind the soundless, sliding doors. A square chamber the size of a master bedroom stood in front of them, whose inner faces were made of the same metal as the doors. The doors had slid the entire length of a side of the chamber, revealing it in its entirety. It appeared completely bare, except for a cuboidal podium that stood at the centre of the metallic floor. The light from the elevator’s lamp shone on a black, rectangular slab that was placed above it.
In the silence of the borehole, a faint but quick throbbing echoed around the elevator. The men looked nervously at each other, and then slid open the meshed doors of the elevator facing the chamber. The floor was close enough for them to land on it with a small hop. Their headlamps revealed the dark grey inner walls, polished and perfectly shaped. The men felt their sweat dry as the temperature dropped several degrees. They walked to the podium at the centre, which rose till their waists, and stood facing their lamps towards it. The black rectangular slab was the size of a large tray and a centimetre thick. Two large white rings were marked on its surface one beside the other, and an ergonomic thumb imprint was marked in the middle of the borders of two opposite edges. The plate seemed to be designed for humans.
When Mr Moore entered his office the next morning, the two geologists were already seated around the small conference table. Cooper, the senior geologist, had informed him the previous night that something unusual had happened, and that his immediate attention was needed. Mr Moore sat down opposite the two men, and looked at the briefcase kept in front of him. He didn’t know what to expect; if their search had resulted in a failure, the men wouldn’t have kept it from him this long. He examined their faces, which had hints of impatience and enthusiasm on them.
The assistant geologist, Michael, opened the briefcase and placed the black plate on the table. He recounted the previous day’s events to his boss, who frequently asked him to repeat his sentences. By the end, a faint smirk developed on Mr Moore’s lips, as he fidgeted in his chair.
“If this isn’t a prank, which I don’t think it is, I think we have discovered something more valuable than the most precious metal. I suppose you have kept this to yourself?”
“Yes sir. We wouldn’t have known how to proceed after this discovery.”
Mr Moore was beaming as he looked at the black plate. Plans of arranging a press conference had begun stirring in his mind, and he imagined the buzz that would grip the public. He didn’t know the origin of the object in front of him, but he was sure it would put the Gorgen Corp and himself in the news.
“Do we know the function or purpose of this yet?”
“No sir. We haven’t examined it yet. We believed it would be best to bring you up to speed first.”
“Let’s get to it then, before we reveal it to the technical team. I want to know what we have here first.”
The men began their inspection of the simple yet perplexing artefact. They soon realised that there was hardly anything to tinker with; it seemed to have no openings or buttons. It was simply a neat, minimalist, black rectangular tablet. It felt metallic but was much lighter than it looked. The edges and corners were blunt, and the mat black surface had a flawless finish. They attempted to poke the white rings, press the thumb imprints, swipe the surface, but the plate stayed inanimate. The men left it alone after a few minutes.
“So what are we thinking? Aliens? Time travellers? By your description, it seemed to have been placed there for us to discover it.”
“Yes, it appears so. But we don’t have any theories as of now.”
The men were soon lost in their thoughts as they stared at the baffling discovery they had made. They revelled in the thought that they were the only ones who knew that a momentous revelation was imminent. Some shocking news was coming the public’s way, and they would be its source. But above all, they contemplated what story the plate would tell.
It came to Cooper when he recalled his memory of touching the metallic door for the first time. He pulled the black plate towards him and placed his palms in the two rings, which fitted almost perfectly inside the peripheries. Ten seconds later, he suddenly cried out in astonishment. The plate had begun vibrating faintly under his palms.
The gentle vibration continued for a while, but Cooper kept his palms glued to the plate. Nervous anticipation built up in the room, as the three men stared at the plate, waiting for something to grow out of the vibration. After a minute, it stopped abruptly, and the two rings began to glow an ominous white. Cooper decided to keep his palms fixed in place, as he looked worriedly at the other two, guessing what had just happened. It was then that a voice spoke from the plate. But what startled the men more was that it was Cooper’s voice.
“This is a thought translator. It examines the physiology of the beings connected to this platform, and extracts a method of communicating with them in their own medium and tone. It attempts to translate and convey the thoughts stored in this platform in the most precise way. Remove your palms to pause the translation of the information, and keep them placed otherwise.”
Cooper pulled his palms away and looked astonishingly at them. The voice stopped speaking, but the rings continued to glow. He was breathing heavily and took a moment to register the last thirty seconds. Michael gazed nervously at the plate, and Mr Moore laughed in astonishment. “This is it”, Cooper said, as he placed his palms back inside the rings.
“We predict that if you have the knowledge and resources to locate this platform, then you do have the capacity to learn and use what we have left behind. The following is a brief chronicle of our history. We were this planet’s first creatures equipped with abstract and creative thinking capabilities. We were among the first bipedal species with large brains that migrated out of the vast landmass where all species of our genus evolved. Our ancestors finally arrived at another large landmass further east, where this platform finds itself now. They underwent a monumental mutation soon upon arriving, which increased our brain tissue density immensely and changed us forever. Our physiology did adapt to the new changes, but we still broadly resembled the other species. This new development sparked meteoric societal and intellectual progress, while our cousins still hadn’t learnt to communicate effectively. Although we were using our ever-increasing knowledge of matter and the universe to build structures and test inventions, we never expanded our territory beyond our landmass, as it wasn’t necessary. If other species ventured into our land, we would relocate them to other unpopulated landmasses through our discreet ways. This way, we always kept our distance from others, but continued to survey their progress nevertheless.”
Cooper reeled his palms away, and the men exchanged glances as they came to terms with the unexpected revelation. The creators of the machine were neither aliens nor time travellers; they were a different human species from the past. The spirited anticipation in the atmosphere had morphed into a more serious thoughtfulness and attentiveness. Cooper looked at Mr Moore, who signalled to him to continue.
“Towards the end of our existence, we collected the information we had gathered about the universe which we assumed could be beneficial for future intelligent species, maybe for some of our own cousins, once they procure the means to understand and make use of it. Behind the podium on which this platform is placed are doors that lead to a vault. Another thought translator will guide you in browsing the libraries.
It was our responsibility to erase all our creations from this planet before our end to eliminate any chances of them harming the environment in the long run, and so that other organisms can inhabit the land naturally. In our last days, we monitored our cousins extensively, to predict the future of the planet. One species stood out, as it had developed abilities to communicate effectively and in large numbers, and was beginning to migrate out of our large, birth landmass. They were smarter and fiercer than others since they could collaborate in large numbers. We predicted they would eventually colonise the entire planet, and would begin expanding their knowledge of the universe. Our best bet is that the procurer of this platform is that species...”
Cooper looked at the other two with a stunned expression, as he placed his palms on the table. The rings continued to glow. Michael sat staring at the plate with his palm covering his mouth, and Mr Moore sat hunched, staring with anticipation at Cooper. The same thought crossed the three minds. They were thrilled about what lay behind the vault doors, but a more grave question nagged them: what happened to them? There was something unnatural about the way the platform phrased their chronicle; it didn’t overemphasise the places where it spoke about their end. A numbness to the finality of things was expressed through the voice; there was no touch of sadness or distress. Mr Moore guessed it was due to the inability of the thought translator to convey the temperament of the thoughts stored. He hoped the plate would reveal what really happened, and offer insight into what humans could do in the face of similar doom. He nodded at Cooper to continue. Cooper licked his lips, took a deep breath, and pressed his palms inside the glowing rings. The plate would speak for a minute more, and then the rings would stop glowing.
“... and that they will use our knowledge for their welfare. We hope it helps you in realising your mightiest ambitions, and also in creating bigger ones. There are few greater feelings of satisfaction than knowing the tapestry of the universe. But there could be unforeseen consequences in doing so. Once having linked the dots in your knowledge about the universe, it’s possible you have the same epiphany as we did. It might arise out of your collective knowledge of the universe. It could be a powerful revelation, which might push you to realise it. In that case, we hope you will have faith in yourselves and the courage to follow it. Trust.
We compose and store this message while a quarter-day is left to us. Our last days were our happiest. They were the days following the day the epiphany was revealed to us. The day the realisation descended upon us about what lays afterlife. We finally knew what doors death opens us to, and we finally knew what we had to do. We will end our lives; we will embrace death. No life fails which ends, no fulfilment is greater than that of death. A far, far better existence awaits us, than we had ever known. This is indeed the last and supreme discovery to be made by a conscious and observant species. This is the gift of consciousness and the ability to think. And this is the destination to which it all eventually leads. After all, why do you think you find yourself so alone in this dark and desolate universe?”