From: tolman%asylum.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman)
Subject: Some words to live by
Date: 14 Apr 92 03:43:51 GMT


  Myrillion flowed forward in a slow drip, cautiously intruding on Calibers
space.  There seemed to be no traps of any kind, no protection.  Caliber
had left the place bare.  Myrillion sped up.
  A tinkling of bells could be heard.  Myrillion stopped, scared now.

A thin line of blue light appeared, and expanded.  Caliber stepped out
into visibility.  "Don't look before you leap" he said, chuckling.

Myrillion stepped back, "Dammit!"  He tried to flee, but could not move.

Caliber sighed, "Do you have any final words?"

Myrillion clenched his teeth, "You asshole!"

  "Very WELL!" Caliber cried out, and the space around him distorted, a
twisting and turning of an orange red vortex.  The continuum broke,
enveloping Myrillion.

  Myrillion could see some sort of signal analysis chart.  He saw his
words "you asshole" drawn out, then analyzed for pitch, for meter, for
harmonics.  A 3 dimensional chart sprang into view with the analysis,
and it stretched around to form a sphere.  The sphere grew and grew,
mountains visible from the inflection of "ass" and a deep trench in the
space between the words.  He sped towards this place, this planet.
He suddenly realized he would be living in his last words forever.

  He awoke.  Water had come from somewhere, and was flowing down the
side of this small hill.  The landscape was no longer bare, but bits
of life seemed to swarm about- small insects and bugs flitting about
tiny plants.  He could sense they had originated from between his
clenched teeth.  In his angry "You asshole" the breath had been forced
out, forming eddies and currents with their own life.  This life now
flurried about, searching and living.

  The days flowed by quickly, and he looked out into the sky at other
planets that hung at a distance.  Other's living in their last words
in an eternity.  The animals did not die out, but seemed to thrive and
evolve, growing larger and more complex.  He would play with some of these,
and sometimes they would do new tricks, and he would laugh.

  On some days he walked to the high cliffs which stood where he had
finished the word "asshole", and watch the bird like creatures dive
and play in air currents.  Other days he would travel to the smooth sloping
parts of the world from the exclamation of "you".


  Many years later, he spoke with his friend Ammad.  Ammad had flown in
from across the region of lakes.  "Caliber is dead" he said.
  Myrillion had sensed this as well.
  "Are you going to escape?  Can you?" asked Ammad.
  "No" said Myrillion, looking out across his world, at a distant waterfall.
"I could, but I will not"
  "Ah" said Ammad, "let us plant some jojo beans."

  The anger of this creation had carried on, fighting for life.  Myrillion
himself was no longer angry, and no longer fought.