JT Hilltop
Kirk and Cosmo had been friends since Elementary God Training School when life was just about splitting atoms with friends, playing star toss, and studying to be a future cosmic gardener god of a galaxy. Through all the millenniums since they have remained close so it came as no surprise top anyone that Kirk would be with Cosmo in the creation of his second garden attempt. Kirk was well recognized and praised for his work in his Tiberius galaxy so he had quite an array of awards. Cosmo never gave jealousy a second thought. He was overjoyed to have Kirk offer his opinions in the new seeding of his garden. “Zoinks Cosmo this is like the old days. Man your fucking garden is so colorful and full of vegetation. Nicely done my friend it’s coming along really nice. So which species are you gonna hit up with brainpower?” The two friends surveyed the globe. “Doc gave me two types of seed. The AB seed which is just basic intelligence, and some CD seeds which is a slightly higher grade. With AB seeds the new smart species will be able forage, hunt and gather and build simple tool and structures. The lucky recipient of the CD seeds will be able to build more complex structures, and have the brain power to make not only tools, but weapons for more effective hunting. See those hairy things down there?” Kirk looked into the jungle Cosmo had pointed and saw a colony of Apes. “Is that gonna be your intelligent species?” Cosmo shook his head excitedly. “Yea. Well not exactly. Look closer over there. I have modified the apes to look like that.” He pointed to another small colony of apelike creature with less hair and a straighter back. They were almost godlike in appearance. Cosmo glowed with pride. “I gave them less hair so they could move faster. They will need to figure out how to make clothing to keep warm, but that’s why they are getting brains. I also strengthened their spines, arms and legs. Gave them strong muscles.” Kirk was amazed. “Deity shit Cosmo they look just like you man!” Cosmo laughed heartily at this because he came up with the design after staring at his own body in the reflecting material for over an hour. “That’s fucking funny as burning brimstone Kirk. I’ll call them you mans because that’s the first thing you said when you saw them. Meet my newest creation about to become knowledgeable. The You Mans.” Kirk loved when Cosmo was inspired right before his very eyes. “Good one buddy, you mans sounds great. Why not make it like one word though?” Cosmo rubbed his head. “Okay, yumans. The male one will call man, and the female ones will be what?” Kirk laughed. Man, that’s perfect. Whoa that’s funny.” Comos turn to laugh. “You are fucking brilliant Kirk. Whoa man. that’s the female, wo-man.” So Cosmo had man and woman and now it was time to drop the seeds of knowledge.
“First I am going to put some AB seeds around.” Cosmo took some sees and sprinkled them on some of his creations in the land down under. “This is where I will put the first AB seeds. I will call these people my ABoriginals since they are the first.” He then put the power of reason in both North and South Columbia and the islands around them. He was getting low on AB seeds so he put a mixture of AB and CD seeds in his continent of Afrika and Eurasia, and the rest of the CD seeds everywhere else. “Well that’s that Kirk, now just watch them grow and evolve. Hey listen Kirk, when I was at the District Doc warned me about watching out for jealous gods. Is he being overly worried?” Kirks face hardened. “I’m afraid he may have understated it my friend. Some guys like Simon and Lucy may play little jokes Like the time Simon gave some of my species pointed ears. Oddly I ended up digging the look an adopted it myself. Oh and the time Lucy snuck these furry little creatures in she called Tribbles. Fucking things were adorable at first but before I knew what was going on they had multiplied in the millions. Lucille still laughs about them. Dang the trouble with Tribbles was epic! But there is a dark side to the mischief as well. I can’t prove anything for sure but I think Micrighton or Botchie fucked up my garden and slipped in these evil shits named Romulans. At the very least some god planted a vegetation that spat out deadly spores on my creations. And either the same bastard or another saboteur place a number of dilithium crystals in a transporter and it cloned evil twins of any who used it. I didn’t even find them for two weeks. Let me tell you that was a mess and really screwed up the dichotomy of my garden. That was no accident. You need to keep your eyes open all the time. I don’t trust many gods, especially those two. But have no fear Coz, you have many friends and we will watch you back.” Cosmo felt a little better but that other person in the room feeling was still gnawing at him. Could Botchigaloop have been there with he and Mary Anne? Or Michreighton? He was certain there was a third entity in the room after their night of sexual rapture but wasn’t positive it was a god. He considered mentioning it to Kirk but opted to wait. Kirk had read Cosmo’s notes on his new cycle of life theme .He looked at his good friend admiringly, “Please Cosmo, tell me more about you cycle of life. I find the concept….fascinating.”
Cosmo was extraordinarily proud of The cycle of life and was more than happy to talk about it to his friend. “Here’s the real deal Holyfield. I have programmed all the creatures with the laws of life, or more appropriately ’cycle of life’. Every creature is programmed for a life span which is exclusive to their own species. For some its only days and for others it can be a hundred years but each has its own cycle. They are born, they live, and they die. The law is that once they die they must avail themselves back to the garden. I call it decay. Other creatures, or bacteria, or insects eat the flesh, organs, and muscles and convert it into organic material for vegetation. The vegetation gives off oxygen which allows the creatures to breath. So they have a life cycle and when they die they become part of a larger cycle. Each creature is responsible to formulate a strategy of survival. They must do whatever they can to make the chances of their species continue. Thus the cycle of life.”
“Fascinating! Cosmo you are a fucking genius. That is beyond brilliant. Everything relies on everything else. They know all this? What other life laws do they follow? Give some examples please.” Kirk was enthralled and wanted to hear more. “How specifically does this survival shit work? Fascinating! And remarkably logical.” One of the things Cosmo loved most about Kirk was how intriguingly organized and analytical his mind is. “Kirk, you are gonna love this.
Let me start with sea turtles. Every turtle knows it must run for the water upon birth in order to live. No one tells it to run for the water it knows instinctively. The very moment they enter the garden it’s a mad dash for the water because many birds like gulls view them as tiny shelled hors d’ouerves. So a female turtle lays like a hundred eggs and buries them because she knows many will not survive. Some become nourishment for birds while others reach the water where they will live. But even then not all will survive. They must now worry about becoming dinner for some smaller fish. The ones that live will reproduce and start their cycle over again. Since they were the strong and smart ones that survived they will have offspring with strength and smarts too. Like a natural selection. While alive they feed on poisonous jellyfish which they are immune to, hence giving something towards the betterment of the sea. On land my mammels know right away to look for the life giving teat of a mother. The mother nourishes them until they can fend for themselves. Lets take a goat as an example. We have a black goat and a white goat over on that mountain. Different species. Lets say the black goat’s mom dies and can’t feed the baby black goat so it goes over to the white goat. The mom refuses to feed it because that would be a threat to the survival of her own baby. See those huge majestic eagles over there?” Cosmo pointed to a tree with a large nest and four eggs. The mother has four eggs but only enough ability to feed two babies. Upon birth the ones born first will many times kill the newer ones as they are trying to leave the shell . That’s their strategy for survival of their species. Butterflies have to struggle out of the chrysalis to signal blood to flow to the wings to allow flight. Everything knows just what it must do to survive and if it fails to follow the law or gets lost or eaten it will drown in its own gene pool. Everyone for themselves within in the clan of a species for the better of the species.” Kirk stood mouth agape at the amazing creation. “Devine mother of Cronotitan! I bow to you my liege. This I nothing short of absolute.” Kirk bent down on his knees and offered his arms over his head. “I’m not worthy, I’m not worthy.” Cosmo let out a long laugh. “If you liked that my dear friend, just light up a smile stick of cannabis while I tell you of my ants and graminoids. Two brilliant blueprints I left for the youmans.”
Everything in the garden has the power of some form of communication. This is the key to existence. Everything has the ability to communicate in one way or another, taste, sight, smell, touch, or sound I gave the youmans vocal chords similar to ours and various other forms. My snakes have forked tongues to push the air into a sensor on the tongue that acts as a nose and they communicate by smell. Some species are developing an ability to hide from predators using colorful deceptions to help insure the continuation of their own. Oh here, check this out. I have bacteria living on the water. By touching each other they gather information. Once they have enough bacteria together, they communicate by touch and all begin to glow like one big school of happy shiny fishies. Bioluminescence. Fantastic. The larger fish see them and eat them, and thats where they live, inside the fish stomach sharing the fishes food. When they die they become part of the big fish waste and give back to the garden. They all want to be part of the garden. It is truly an amazing thing to watch. However those little tiny things way down there are my ants. I have designed them as a kind of blueprint for the youmans. If the youmans are as smart as I hope they will be they’ll study these tiny works of creation art. They are the closest thing to a perfect species I have ever made. Ask me, these are the most intelligent thing in the garden except that they can’t reason. The very second they enter the garden the know their purpose and how to achieve it. Some are specifically born for mating, the ones with the ability to have the highest amount of offspring. Others are foragers that go out in search of food. Once they find it they communicate to the workers where the food is and the workers all get together and carry it home back to the colony. Everything is for the benefit of the colony.” Cosmo stopped to puff on the joint. “Brilliant Cosmo, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one so the colony may live long and prosper.” Cosmo let out a plume of sweet smoke. “Exactly my dear friend. All the youmans need do is observe how well they work together to build and feed the colony and they will be building cities in no time.” The two friends finished the herbal delight and surveyed the world. “It all looks great Coz, what about this graminoids you mentioned. What’s their significance?” They went down for a closer look and Coz showed him patches of green all over like area rugs or a green carpet on earth. “I call it grass for short. This grass serves a great deal of purposes. It serves as a food for many species, it retains water to keep the garden cool and moist, it can be used for so many things but it has one huge significant purpose. If it they study how it works it will teach the youmans how to grow all kinds of vegetation at their will. That knowledge could cause a revolution.” The two friends finished the weed and hung out trading stories for the next few hours but it was time for Kirk to head back to his own enterprise. “G’luck Cozzie my friend. I will wait with baited breath to see how your youmans turn out. Until then, beware of things unseen. Live long and prosper dear friend.” At those prophetic sounding words a cloud of confusion settled over Cosmo. He wasn’t especially good at being suspicious but he promised to take Kirks advice very serious. “And you as well my dear friend. I hope to see you at our next reunion.” Cosmo heard a “Beam me up Scotty”, and in an instant Cosmo was all alone again. Well not alone really, he had his suspicions with him as well. TBC