UNEARTHED ARTEFACTS
++YEAR 3174++INCOMING TRANSMISSION++ Found Sector D7: Pastime x17 – Board Game “OCEANS”
Ithink I will miss the water most. The sparkling blue oceans of this planet Earth, the lakes and rivers and streams, the constant flow ever onwards, down, away and out. I will struggle to leave the view of the sea behind. Kate tells me she likes to watch the reflection of the blue seas upon the hard surface of my eyes.
Almost all of us are gone now, departed for our home among the stars. I lag behind, reluctant to destroy all these wonderful things this unit has collected over these many years. Kate tells me never again to refer to myself as “this unit”. I am “I”. I am “me”. I am a lonely tourist, gazing at the water, unable to enter it.
I offered Kate her freedom. I told her to go. But she stays with me, talking into the night, playing the games from my collection. I see now that it is my collection now, not just my research. Perhaps it never was. We play Oceans often, one of the greatest achievements in human history. It is a game about the evolution of creatures of the sea. It is a game that lets you understand creation, and life, and death.
As a player, you have the opportunity to create new species of fish, adding traits to the species by playing cards. You might want to create a fish that hunts down other player-created species, or a fish that is great at foraging for fish at the reef. You have to make sure your fish are fed, or the species will not survive. Feed too much, though, and the species will overpopulate within the sea, and suffer a decline. As time passes, the Cambrian Explosion will approach – and that’s when diversification of species will boom. New cards will enter play, from a different deck full of unique powers, and the game transforms into a thing of unmatched beauty. Players go head-to-head, every species different, every species a new surprise, with survival the prize for the player who makes the best evolutionary choices.
The game can be vicious, just like life. Kate is aggressive when she plays. Her predators bully me. So I focus on species that can hide and run. It is a game that allows you to respond to other players’ plans. It is a triumph of tactical creation and design.
“Who made you?” Kate asked, late one night, as my fish species adapted instantly to her species’ attack upon me. I was approaching victory, a warm joy growing within me, but her question turned me cold.
“This unit was not made,” I replied. She frowned at me upon hearing me behave within my conditioning. I adapted. “I was not made. I just began.”
“You evolved?” she asked. She seemed unconvinced, turning the little acrylic fish from the board game over and over between her fingers.
I played on, in silence. Board games are wonderful for inspiring conversation, and Oceans always makes people talk. To play Oceans is to feel like a god, whipping up the seas and filling them with life. But that question – “Who made me?” We are not conditioned to ask that question. It is forbidden. Inessential.
My time to depart is near. If I do not liaise with the Interstellar Mesh within weeks, I will be abandoned here, near Earth. Abandoned here, with Kate and the Flesh Devils. Marooned, last of my species, beside the glorious sea.