wonderful.'
'This is it, then?'
'Of course not. It's only the beginning.'
I knew that, too. I knew a lot of things, then. What this was, was a new form of existence. Exactly what kind of existence, I didn't know. The answer was part of what lay at the end of the long road ahead.
I thought about it for a while, and when I snapped out of it, I was back on the farm again. Susan was there, but Sean had left.
'He says he wants to visit again sometime,' she told me. 'He told me to tell you good-bye. Someone else is here, though.'
I was already shaking hands with Prime. 'We should talk,' he said.
'I'll be going,' Susan said.
Susan and I embraced. We parted, and I looked into her eternal brown eyes and saw that we would never meet again.
'It was wonderful, Jake. Knowing you. Loving you.'
'I love you, too.'
There were no other words to speak. 'You won't join, will you, Jake?'
I turned my consciousness to Prime and said, 'No.'
The corners of his lips turned up into a knowing smile. 'You are a remarkable individual.'
'Thank you. I must go back.'
'Of course.'
'You gotta tell me about the cube, though. I'm not sure I understand everything. You took the first one, the one I brought from the Skyway.'
'Yes.'
'Why?'
'We opened it,' he said.
'And?'
'The results were ambiguous. Not surprising, since the experiment sought to answer an ultimate question. Those rarely admit of unequivocal solutions.'
'What ultimate question did the experiment pose?'
'It is perhaps the only ultimate question-the only one that matters. And that question is: Why is there something rather than nothing?'
I found a nearby tree stump-somebody had cleared this land-and sat down. I watched clouds for a moment, then said, 'That is pretty damn basic.'
Prime paced in front of me. 'Oh, it can be formulated any number of ways, and it has a million corollaries. Did the universe come into being spontaneously, or was it caused by something else? If the latter, what does that do to the concept universe itself? And on and on and on.'
'So,' I said, 'the results were ambiguous.'
'Let's say that the data will be a long time yielding conclusive results. Very difficult to tell at this point.'
'Okay. Tell me this: In all of space and time, no one ever lhought of constructing this experiment?'
'It had long been known to be theoretically possible. For some reason, it was never done. At least, there is no record of it ever being done. We don't know everything that ever happened.'
'You're not omniscient?'
'Not quite.'
'Uh-huh. You're not a deity-in the sense that beings of my time and space and culture understand the term.'
'No. That is a very curious concept, by the way. Intriguing, though.'
'Do you think there is such a deity?'
'It may yet be true,' he said.
'The jury is still out on that one.'
'I understand the allusion. Yes.'
'All right.' I took a deep breath. 'All right. The cube created itself, didn't it?'
'It seems to have done just that. Remarkable. Possibly recapitulating the history of the universe it modeled.'
'Possibly?'
'Very possibly.'
'Why couldn't the Culmination have created the experiment?'
'We don't create. We don't do science. Science is knowledge. We seek wisdom. In the final analysis, science gives answers which lead only to more questions.'
'But what does wisdom lead to?'
'Ultimately? Perhaps only to a state of mind… or a state of being in which a question is its own answer.'
I got up. 'Well,' I said. 'Thanks a lot. I have a load of goods in my truck that I have to deliver. I'm running late.'
'I understand.'
'Thanks for all your help.'
'You're very welcome.'
I turned to look at the farm one last time. Nice place. I could have stayed there for a million years or so.
But I have to get out on the road once in a while. And I really did have a load to deliver.
21
Dissolve to:
INTERIOR-EMERALD CITY DINING HALL-DAY.
A lap-dissolve from one scene into another, just like in nuipix.
And there I sat, in my free-form sculpted chair at the table. Everyone was looking at me.
'Jake?' Sam was eyeing me curiously.
'Yeah,' I said. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes. 'How did I get back here?'
Sam arched an eyebrow. 'What makes you think you've been anywhere?'
'Huh? I must've been gone for hours. Days maybe.' I glanced around. Everyone was puzzled. Me, too. 'Wasn't… I mean, didn't I-'
'You've been staring off into space for the last minute or so,' Sam told me.
'What?' I sat back and exhaled. 'Holy hell.'
'It must have been quite a trek,' John commented.
I looked at him and nodded. Then I noticed Prime was gone. Inclining my head toward his empty seat, I said, 'What Iwppened to…?'
'Him?' Sam answered. 'Oh, he just got up and left. Said he had some pressing business. Probably was double-parked.'
I took a long drink of coffee. It was still warm. I began, 'How long did you say-' I stopped and put my cup down. 'Never mind.'
'Jake, what happened?' Darla asked.
'Huh? Nothing. I mean… I'm not really sure. Tell you latter.'
Darla shrugged. 'Okay.'
And I wasn't sure at all, now, what had happened. It had been something outrageously wonderful, mysterious, and sublime-that much I did know-but exactly what had happened was unclear. I might never really know for sure. I did know that all of a sudden I felt extremely depressed. It was a crashing to earth. A letdown, a feeling of great loss. The sense of bereavement was profound,
'Jake? Is something wrong?'
