Old Gods

They flew through space at thousands of times the speed of light. The group was glad to be close to their destination, though the years they had spent traveling were nothing compared to the aimless wandering they had endured, ethereal, preparing for the signal. They had floated, embedded in the membrane of space-time, waiting, watching and remembering. The hive mind could still remember their origin, trillions of years ago.

When the colony began, in the universe before this one, they all had bodies. And unlike any beings in this time, they had true souls. Their consciousness existed outside of the physical plane, contained by, but not reliant upon, their corporeal form. They lived on their tiny planet for centuries until it was consumed by the explosion and subsequent collapse of their sun. Their bodies were destroyed while their souls lived on. They remained, trapped in the black hole for millennia until they finally discovered how to bypass the cosmological constant and escape. By the time they did, all life in the universe had been extinguished by the inevitable compression of time and space. They had no option but to wait until that universe came to its final end, a perfect point of zero size and infinite density. When it finally did, the colony took a timeless moment to subtly change some of the laws of time and space. Give matter a tiny edge over its counter-part, accelerate the expansion of the new universe, add in some dark matter; make it easier for life to evolve. They added in one condition, sending them a sign when intelligent life developed. The Big Bang brought the new universe into being, starting the clock; fourteen billion years until they would truly live again.

A poor French farmer looked up from the carrots he was pulling out of the ground, feeling a strange fear, a premonition of danger. He stood up and looked around, as did his fellow pickers, similar expressions of apprehension upon their faces. He tried to walk towards the main farm house but found that he couldn’t move his legs. Terrified, he tried to look to the other field hands for help but was unable to even shift his gaze. Then, curiously, his horror started to fade; his fear was replaced with ruminations so deep and powerful they overwhelmed him, with thoughts that staggered him and suppressed his consciousness until his identity was squashed into nothingness.

For the first time since the dawn of time they looked out on the universe and could truly see it. They moved their new hands through the air and marveled as it flowed around them. They felt the heat of the new sun on their skin and wept with the joy of physical sensation. After starving for so long the immortal souls were finally whole. The old gods were once again divine.