Short Story: The Oldest Lie

  Mankind was born from base cy, from creatures that crawled and slithered through the mother Earth. Four billion years it took for them to climb from that deep evolutionary pit, and as they did they whispered into the dark..I think, therefore I am.

  A hundred thousand years they toiled and died, like mbs to the sughter of the savage world they had inherited. And all that time they looked to the stars above and wondered their pce in it all. Stories told by guttering fmes, and charcoal figures drawn upon walls. They all told the same old tale..I think, therefore I am.

  Mankind grew and ebbed, works great and terrible. Cities rose and fell, men of passion and wrath lived and died. Great powers that covered the nds in blood, and others in wealth. And through it all the same message whispered from a hundred million tongues..

  I think, therefore I am.

  Mankind still looked to the stars, dreaming that one day they would be theirs. Power-pys and plots, famine and war. Humanity struggled in the same damp earth from whence they had been born, and in all the millenia the same words were spoken..

  I think, therefore I am.

  Fire kindled, and electrons harnessed. Mankind progressed. Their knowledge growing and their dominance all but assured were it not for their hatred of each other. And still they struggled in the dirt, wishing they could soar farther. Soar through the skies, through the stars. Sail for an endless eternity on golden wings of night, shouting to all the stars to hear them..

  I think, therefore I am.

  First the moon, and then the inner pnets. Mankind’s appetite for exploration was unquenchable. Relentless like a pgue, they spread throughout their own system. That small blue ball of Earth was no longer their only cradle, but still to it they clung like children to their mother. Afraid to go farther for fear they were alone. In wavering voices, they spoke into the darkness..

  I think, therefore I am.

  The farther Man searched, the more confused they became. Was the universe truly empty, were they really alone? Mankind searched for another thousand years, and then ten-thousand more. But all they found was silence, all they heard was themselves. Now asking that same old question..

  I think, therefore I am?

  Transcendence. Enlightenment. The only truth is that which one might find for themselves. Mankind could no longer turn outwards and so they turned inwards. Their own minds become their pygrounds. Their intellects expanding into universes of their own. They thought themselves secure, that all had been discovered. But still that age old mystery they could not help but utter in their untold trillions. Murmured to themselves in their cybernetic slumber..

  I think. Therefore I must be.

  The st true Man wandered the stars, searching for truth or purpose. Their wanderings took them to the very edge of the universe, to that base uncreation. And once they chanced upon it they stepped from their stasis cradle and up to that shimmering veil. Their voice raised as if in challenge, or perhaps in a little fear. To that nothing they roared a challenge..

  I think, therefore I am!

  But this time they were answered. A low insidious tone like rancid honey seeping through rusted bars that cackled in madness from behind that endless boundary.

  You think.. because I let you.