Chapter 2005: First Attempt

Crownus looked toward the distant planet. "They were the result of my first attempt at creating a System, which I now believe to be a failed attempt."

Ning turned to him immediately.

"A System?"

"Yes."

Ning glanced back at the enormous, colorful machines pushing against the asteroid and raised an eyebrow. "You tried to make a System and accidentally created a civilization of sentient humanoid robots?"

"Not exactly."

"Then how?"

Crownus gave no visible reaction to the comment, though Ning was certain he was emoting as well as he could.

"Before Bayrus died," Crownus said, "he spoke to us about Systems and what they were, and how soon he would create one that was practically perfect. He was unusually excited about it."

Ning remembered Bayrus well enough to understand the excitement. After all, that thing had indeed managed to capture him. Had Ning not shut down his System completely, he would have learned a lot more.

"What else did he tell you?"

"He said he was going to build a great System, one unlike anything he had created before. More importantly, he claimed he would gain the necessary understanding directly from someone who already possessed the Energy System."

Ning became still for a moment.

Crownus continued before Ning could interrupt.

"When Bayrus died, I was shocked. His death was not something I had expected, especially given what he had been preparing to do. At first, I believed what he was trying to do had killed him. That it was an accident."

Ning listened quietly.

"Then Meghilars died, and I understood there was no accident. Someone who could kill us had come."

This time, there was a slight pause.

"Even while searching, I could barely determine what had happened."

Ning understood why.

At the time, Crownus would have been searching for an explanation while trying not to draw attention to himself. Someone capable of killing beings like Bayrus and Meghilars was not the sort of existence one casually investigated without considering what might happen if they noticed.

"What did you do after that?" Ning asked.

"I hid."

Ning smiled slightly. "Reasonable."

"I concealed myself as thoroughly as I could while continuing to search for the source of what had happened. I did not know whether you intended to find me next, and I could not determine what sort of power had killed Meghilars."

Eventually, however, Crownus had found something.

"That was when I discovered you."

Ning tilted his head.

"How much could you actually see?"

"Very little at this distance."

That answer did not surprise him.

Crownus looked at Ning more directly. "I could not properly understand what you were. I could only perceive that you were a being whose Soul had somehow become trapped within a System, and that the System allowed you to possess extraordinary power."

Ning almost corrected him.

Almost.

The explanation was wrong in a fairly important way. Ning did not have a Soul trapped inside a System. There was no separate Soul anymore, no hidden person sitting somewhere beneath everything else.

He was the System.

So Ning let the misunderstanding remain.

"And you decided to make something similar?" he asked.

"Yes."

Ning turned toward the planet once again. "That explains why you were interested in Systems, but not how you ended up with these people."

"My first attempt was not a System designed for one individual," Crownus said. "I created one that covered the entire world."

That caught Ning’s attention.

"A worldwide System?"

"Yes."

Ning thought about the scale of such a thing. While he didn’t believe it was any more difficult than creating a System for a single person, it would certainly consume a lot of Energy.

"What did it do?"

"The System I created made it possible for certain organisms to attach themselves to the rich metal ore on the surface of the planet and use it to house a Soul. I thought that if I could make something that could house a Soul, that would become a System in and of itself."

Ning’s expression changed.

"You were capturing Souls?"

"As much as any other sentient life-form was," Crownus said. "The containment had a fixed limit. Once the machine failed or broke apart, the Soul inside would immediately become free."

That distinction mattered.

Ning focused on the mechanical beings once more, finally beginning to understand where the story was going.

Crownus explained that the tiny machines had been designed as part of the larger planetary System. They could interact with Souls for a limited period without creating a permanent bond, allowing Crownus to experiment with the relationship between a System, a physical structure, and the consciousness connected to it.

The machines themselves were never supposed to become a species.

Over time, however, the process changed.

Souls remained inside the machines long enough to influence how those machines developed. The machines became more complex, more durable, and eventually more capable of maintaining themselves.

"What changed everything was when the planet itself learned what I had done and started creating new machines that could house more Souls. They were never meant to be a species, and yet they became one."

Eventually, a Soul entering one of them was no longer simply waiting to be released.

It could live through it.

The result was the race Ning was now watching.

Sentient machines.

Ning looked at the enormous humanoid figures with renewed interest as they coordinated their efforts around the asteroid. There was personality in their differences.

"I’m assuming the planet doesn’t have a manifested Will," Ning asked.

"No, it doesn’t," Crownus said. "I do not know why, though."

Ning did. It was because there was no Origin.

"So you accidentally created a new form of life while experimenting with Soul containment," Ning said.

Crownus considered that description. "That is close enough."

Ning gave a short laugh and turned back toward Crownus. "You said this was your first attempt at making a System."

"Yes," the Galactic Will answered.

"Then can I assume that you have made more attempts?" Ning asked.

"I have," Crownus said. "Two more. Would you like to see?"