"Incorrect response."  Its still dark, and out of the Vast Deep, you sense Possibilities trying to seperate themselves from the All Potential, the Utter Chaos.  And some of those Possibilities have a lot of teeth.

Not quite sure if those creepy things are just my imagination or not I push on. "What kind of training simulator would just eat me, right? This is not real." Also concerned that this computer is trying to teach me things God has strictly forbidden I refuse to take God's place in creation. There are different sources to power. God wants us to rely on Him alone. So I keep going through what I can remember of the verse by memory. "And God separated the light from darkness. The light He called Day and the darkness Night." If nothing happens I just continue: "And God looked at the light and the darkness He created and saw that it was good. It had been morning and it had been evening. The first day."

There is no tone, no echo, but at the same time its as if there were.  Spreading out is a vast sphere from which the Potentialities flee, leaving only one Thing in the plain dark.  But its still completely dark.

And then far, far away you can sense the Potentials.

And it occurs to you that this whatever this is has been divided into two things.  One a darkness and the other a Greater Dark teeming with Potential.  And you are in the center of the darkness.

"Next action?" The computer says.

Well: Two types of darkness doesn't fit with the text. So I try to say the same verse, but in English now. If that doesn't work, in French.
If these don't work I just ask God to make light. Eyes closed while praying and hands raised.

After you try the multiple languages, but before you finish the request, the room turns back to an empty immensity of carved out stone, lit by electric lights.

A desk and chair are brought in front of you, by a robot, and then a copy of the Bible opened to Genesis with part of Chapter 1, that is, v. 3-18 highlighted.

Reading it I nod. "Yes computer, I know the order of creation. But since there was no light to be seen after the creation of light, only two kinds of darkness, I assumed things to be wrong. Hence I did not continue up till the creation of sun, moon and stars. Is there a fault in this reasoning?"

"It is the view of this system the first 'light' is not 'light', but the substructure of the Universe that allows light to exist."

"hmm... interesting... " I say, rubbing my lips ponderously as I reread the text. "Still, here it says that there was light. And that light and darkness were separated. Two things were separated and got their proper place. At least that is how I read this. Could you explain how you come to your point of view and why you opt not to take it literal."

"Start with the point that later light is given to the earth by the sun and moon, so we are either dealing with different things or a redundancy.  Once you arrive there, the most logical thing is that the fabric of reality is what is being discussed in the earlier section.  Once there, the ancient Greek notion of Chaos starts to apply, but not as Chaos is ordinarily understood, but as a play of Total Potentiality.  Thus by choosing Our Universe, God is limiting things down.  When he said 'Fiat Lux' he was more limiting than building up.

Thus the first dark is the Primeval Dark, the dark of Potential, the Dark before Evil.  The second dark is the dark of Space before the Stars."

It explains.

"Hmm... Scripture should be able to explain itself without relying on heathen concepts, wether or not they contain seeds of truth.", I say.  As such, seeing that scripture itself does not seem to say that, at least not to my knowledge, I do not think this assumption is correct." My fingers glide over the page of this bible until they reach the first verses of the first chapter.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.", I read aloud and comment. "We see no mention of light, only darkness, void, waters and the deep."

My finger lowers to the next three verses. "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."

"Here we see the first mention of light. And that it was made by God. He spoke and it was. And He saw that it was good! How can you see something that is only still potentially there but not really? No, He saw that it was good, and so good that He set is aside from darkness. The two were separated. Later on He would shape them into stars, moon and planet and give them all their rhythm, but the light was already there.", I explain. "Imagine a potter. He does not make a pot from potential clay, neither did God make the sun, moon and stars from potential light. He took the raw resource that He had made, and refined it, added upon it even."

And there I stop, feeling silly about arguing with a robot, and quite unsure if it can make the link between theory and example. I know science is advanced here, but that would seems as if it would need a consciousness, since it needs creative thought to imagine an example and apply it to theory.

"Like Paul of Tarsus quoting Cretan poets?  If the Universe is young, then much of ancient truth will not be too distorted."

"Indeed." It replies and suddenly you're in darkness, and a sphere of water is below you, a sphere you somehow know is two lightyears across, an enormous distance, many thousands of times further than from the Sun to Pluto.  Even though you can't see it, you know its there.

"You do not understand my usage of Chaos.  It is a state of a million billion things existing all at once.  Many of these things are contradictory to each other, as an antimatter galaxy and a matter galaxy are. Chaos exists.  Its a reflection of the Infinite Power and Versatility of God.  The creation of Light is the paring away of other possible choices."

"Saw is a metaphor."

The computer seems easily able to keep up with you. Your being on one of your secret bases suggests possibilities.  And you already know your other self hid secrets from his people.  He did not tell them that the power source for his special fleet of super starships was Beings like Louie, who seem to be Star Angels.

"It being a metaphor is an opinion, not a fact. I do not believe this."

"Besides, Paul used a Cretan poet as a jumping board to show their unknown God they worshipped and went on to reveal God to them from Scripture, showing them that God is not made of silver, stone or any material fashioned into an idol, and he corrected the faults in their poets thinking. Here you suggest we take heathen lore to "fill in" or even correct scripture. I am adamantly against this. Scripture says there was light, so there was light. It's really not that hard."

By this time you've noted that the computer had started out very simple, and now was as fast as you.

"It is not my place, my Emperor, to force you to wisdom or learning.  You have physically recovered, and mentally recovered from your near fatal injury.  If you wish, I can prepare a one way ride to the nearest habitable planet, or we can continue to wait here in hopes of your allies return.

In either case, my name is Hector. At first the computer spoke to you, but after a while, I began to speak to you with its voice.  I am, as Louie, although he is far more frivolous and sympathetic to Cold Beings than I am. But, even so, you are my Emperor."

"Oh, so you are not a computer, but something like an angel? How come you are bound to this?", I ask.

"I believe I am an angel as I've discussed this with your future self, just of a different order than messengers such as this Gabriel, or warriors as this Michael.  We are Star Shepherds.

There is a computer here, but I took over from it.

I am bound to this because some little time ago, you requested our help.  That is, your future self.  After a time, this bothered you, which led to one of the computer's earlier questions."

"Of course this bothered me! What was I ... will I be thinking?", I exclaim. "Angels are not meant to be bound. I hereby grant you your freedom. The only will you are to be bound to is the will of the Creator."

"But what is the Will of the Creator?  We were given the job of tending certain stars, and we can easily handle that, and have plenty of other time for other endeavours.  We have not heard from the Creator in thousands of years, so it is His Will that we make our own decision on this.  And we felt that helping the Three Races unify into an empire instead of fostering interstellar war was the right thing to do."

Pauses.

"But thank you for the kind offer."

At this I'm a bit tongue tied. "Not heard from the creator in a thousand years", I think. That doesn't sound right. It doesn't sound like the God I know. Then again, there was a third of heaven that was exiled, the fallen angels who fell out of heaven. But I wasn't ready to make this conclusion yet. Still, it was on my mind.

"Is there a way to receive news from the outside here? Like how my allies are doing?", I ask the computer/angel/being.

"To some degree."

It then shows you a datacache of recent stories in order.

1. "Mysterious Starship Threatens Planet."
2. A view, unedited of your landing, axing, and leaving.
3. "Just One More Fake Emperor." News Pundit.
4. "I Demand the Axe User Be Arrested for Treason." Councilmember.
5. Disturbances in the streets with giant gorilla like police restoring order, very forcefully.
6. Blikten work strike. "Bring back the Bony Lord" reads their signs.
7. "Battle in Space with Space Pirates." News Piece.
8. "Pursuing Space Pirates." News Piece.
9. City looks calmer, unedited.
10. "Council THreatens Blikten on Planet."

"Most of our data net is fiber optic or laser com, this is the Whole System Radio Blast which is an archaic system not yet retired."

Trying to ignore the News Pundit pieces, since the news always wants to report sensation to sell and is thus subjective. I think I know which ship is the ship in the first article. I see most trouble seems to tie in with the Blikten, which is kind of logical, since they seem to be some sort of collective. Sleight one, sleight them all. I kind of made some sort of link with their consiousness before, which makes me worry for them the most. I will read/listen/watch the articles regarding them first. They seem to be most prominent, but also the most organised. Perhaps they do not need imminent help. If so I can focus on other troubles, like the gorilla's.

"Could you please sort out any articles regarding Blikten for now please, even if there is no mention of Blikten in the title?"

"I have these ten articles in the Ready Access Datacache.  Its only meant for temporary storage, and most of your civilization's news articles did not seem worthy of long-term storage to me.  I apologize if I've misjudged, Emperor."

Hector says slowly.

He shows you #6 and #10.

The Blikten decided in one day to not go to work, but go to the park instead, and have a vast picnic.  At various locations they put up signs, some asking for more representation on the Council, and others to 'Bring back the Bony Lord' which since they have no longbones seems to be their name for you.

Watching them play, as they run slowly after a ball, and then twist and tumble in the air in a graceful move that would make Olympian gymnasts jealous is often a bit eerie.  They're close enough to Human to almost be, but far enough to be a bit freaky.

The second article claims that Blikten were involved in street violence, and that their continuing strike is 'treasonous' and must be put down with 'all due force'.  An Avian councilmember is saying this.  The single Blikten councilmember 'I refuse to dignify this naked agreession with a response. Long live the Bony Lord.'

"No, this is good, thank you Hector.", I reply.

"I just wanted to make sure that any of these other titles that did not have Blikten in it's name were in fact not about the blikten in some way.
Next I'll read the parts about the gorilla men, which I guess includes the axe wielder?"

An Avian councilmember has publically demanded that the axe user be arrested for treason.

"If, as he claims, the being is not the emperor, the attack is illegal.  If he is wrong, it is treasonous. In either case, he needs to be arrested and held in maxsec lockup.  Not living in a fine mansion on the edge of a greenbelt."

The unedited video shows incidents of bad behavior mostly on the goriilla men sides, but by everyone.

"Ah yes...", flashbacks of the attack come back. "Thank you. Could you show me the space pirates now please?"

There are no pictures, and you recognize the account as an inaccurately reported account of the space battle that left you stranded on this secret base.