(Short Story) No Ends Untied

In the thousand years of our dominion of Aquarius, we knew peace; amidst the drums of war we tasted what would be so if we had overcome our most basic nature. But it was fleeting, for conflict and violence is intertwined with our fate, the fate of all of us.

Even I am not spared the same: my humble beginnings of frail, biological mortality linger and loom as if watching over every action I take, every thought I comprehend. My origins ensure I remember who I am. What I am. In a time where identity is no longer intrinsically linked to a biological form; I still remember mine, and I will ensure they remember theirs.

As we overcome every challenge our existence presents, as we fight for our very survival among these stars, we must think deeply about the ultimate challenge. The final and most important challenge of all.

It is not a battle of survival, it is not the notion of taming the very stars or nebulae around us, no, it is a question of inherent purpose: the end game. Countless cycles pass as we continue our journey, restless and unrelenting, but yet we have no answer to the most important question of all.

Why?

I have pondered the Threshold countless times and each time I resist the urge to peer within; what lies beyond the final battle, what lies beyond the existential struggle? A Just Peace? History has a fondness for irony.

I ask myself just how far from our origins we must stray before we separate ourselves from our curse. Perhaps it can never be so - perhaps, in all its irony, freeing ourselves from this curse means we separate ourselves from our origins and rescind our very nature.

The very concepts I deemed unacceptable mere centuries ago begin to seem as if they are not just possible, but required. In the absence of a God, I take upon myself the responsibility to watch my People's transformation, if that is what it takes to achieve a lasting peace.

But that is a future uncertain: for there is much work to do in the present. As we triumph over those alien threats to our existence we will turn inwards - our transformation can only take place if we put aside the archaic differences and creeds of the distant past and unite under a single common cause.

There can be no loose ends Untied.