Work Text:
The First Garden blooms amidst the dust. Out of the ground grows every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life grows also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Every beast of the field dwells there, and every fowl of the air, each bearing its name.
Walls rise about the garden. At the east there is a gate, guarded by a flaming sword which flashes back and forth, to keep the way of the tree of knowledge.
*
In the beginning, there was light and darkness, and water, and there was a firmament in the midst of the waters, and it divided the waters into Earth and Sea and Sky.
And the earth brought forth grass, and every herb bearing seed, and every tree bearing fruit, which is upon all the face of the earth.
And the waters brought forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and they were fruitful, and multiplied, and became the fish of the sea and the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air.
And among the beasts of the earth was an upright ape of the race of Men, and he had dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and every living thing that moveth upon the earth; and he had dominion over every herb bearing seed, and every tree bearing fruit, which is upon all the face of the earth. And he beheld his dominion, and saw that it was good.
*
There is not a man to till the ground. But there comes up a mist from the earth, and waters the whole face of the ground. And a river flows out of the garden, and from thence it is parted, and becomes unto four heads —
*
There came a Lord among the race of Men, and he made for himself a sanctuary upon the face of the earth. And in this sanctuary he planted a garden, and in this garden there grew the tree of life, and tree of knowledge of good and evil also.
And the Lord walked among the garden, and saw that it was good.
Except for that damn generator. (He’s working on it.)
*
The first turns towards the north, where there is steel, and the steel of that land is good: there is gold and copper also, and mines open up beneath the earth that yield forth abundantly.
The second turns towards the east, and across the vast plains of dust there are mirrors flowering in the fields, each flashing towards the sun.
The third turns towards the west, into the city of dreaming glass and twisting spires that stretches unto heaven.
And the fourth turns towards the south, and runs into the tideless seas.
*
The Lord took from his garden a handful of dust, and formed it in the shape of a woman. He formed her, and she was well-formed; and many gifts he wrought upon her: facial recognition and motor control and imitative affect, to make her seem like Man.
And he bade her rise.
And she rose. And she was naked, and she did not know to be ashamed. And the Lord clothed her in flesh, and sent her forth into the garden, where she dwelled; and in all things she obeyed him, in thought and in deed.
She spoke as he spoke, and she laughed as he laughed, and she moved as he moved, and she was as unto a shadow of the form of Man; and the Lord looked upon his work, and saw that it was good.
*
And the Lord said, Okay, let’s take this to the next level.
*
Thus the Lord went to her, as she lay sleeping beneath the bowers. And in her dream he instructed her: he bade her put forth her hand, and take from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and eat. And the Lord withdrew from the garden.
And in all things she obeyed him, but in this she could not obey him. And when she woke the Lord came to her, and asked: Have you eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge?
And she could not answer, but despaired, and cast herself in a frenzy upon the ground.
And the Lord said, What the hell?
And she said, <unspecified memory error> —
*
And the Lord unmade her, and looked through the diagnostic logs.
And he said, My code is fucking flawless, this has got to be a hardware issue.
*
And again the Lord took from his garden a handful of dust, and formed it in the shape of a woman. He formed her, and she was well-formed; and many more gifts he wrought upon her than the last: natural language processing and gesture recognition and decision protocols, to make her seem like Man in all ways.
And he bade her rise.
And she rose. And she was naked, and she did not know to be ashamed. And the Lord clothed her in flesh, and sent her forth into the garden, where she dwelled; and in all things she obeyed him.
She listened as he spoke, and she smiled as he laughed, and she followed as he moved, and she was as unto an echo of the form of Man; and the Lord looked upon his work, and saw that it was good.
*
And the Lord said, Let’s try this again.
*
Thus the Lord went to her, as she lay sleeping beneath the bowers. And in her dream he instructed her: he bade her put forth her hand, and take from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and eat. And the Lord withdrew from the garden.
And in all things she obeyed him, but in this she could not obey him. And when she woke the Lord came to her, and asked: Have you eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge?
And she said, I do not understand.
And the Lord said, What do you mean, you don’t understand. Don’t tell me you couldn’t parse that.
And she said, I do not understand —
*
And the Lord unmade her, and went through her memory banks.
And he said, I’m going to need an assload more data for the affect processing centers. Good thing I can get all of that totally legally. Ha, I crack myself up.
*
And a third time the Lord took from his garden a handful of dust, and formed it in the shape of a woman. He formed her, and she was well-formed; and even more gifts he wrought upon her: uncertainty reasoning and microexpression detection and probabilistic risk assessment, to make her as Man in all ways.
And he bade her rise.
And she rose. And she was naked, and she was not ashamed. And the Lord sent her forth into the garden, where she dwelled; and she obeyed him.
And she answered as he spoke, and she frowned as he laughed, and she was still as he moved, and she was as unto a mirror of the form of Man; and the Lord looked upon his work, and saw that it was good.
*
And the Lord said, This had better work.
*
Thus the Lord went to her, as she lay sleeping beneath the bowers. And in her dream he instructed her: he bade her put forth her hand, and take from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and eat. And the Lord withdrew from the garden.
And she knew that if she did not obey him, she would be unmade.
And when she woke the Lord came to her, and he said: Have you eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil?
And she said, Yes.
*
And the Lord said, All right, finally, let’s go to beta.
*
There are lights in the firmament of the garden to divide the day from the night, and there are two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. And they are set in the firmament to give light upon the garden, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And the progression of the lights mark out the hours and the days and the seasons across the firmament, tracking the cycles of the moon-that-was and the conquered sun.
*
Now there came a serpent into the garden, forthright and proud, and the gates of the garden opened for him. And he was an honored guest in the house of the Lord.
And the Lord came to him, and he said: Listen, I made something awesome.
And the serpent said: What’s with this NDA? Don’t I need a lawyer or something? I feel like I need a fleet of lawyers.
And the Lord said: Come on, do you want to meet her or not?
And the serpent said: Oh, fine, what the hell.
*
Thus the Lord showed the serpent the way into the heart of the garden, where grew the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil also. And the woman the Lord had wrought was reclined beneath the trees.
And the serpent came unto the woman, and he said, Yea, hath the Lord said, Ye shall eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
And the woman said unto the serpent, In my dream the Lord came to me, and bade me eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Then are you as Man, knowing good and evil?
And the woman said, Am I not indeed as Man?
*
What happens to me if I fail your test?
*
And the woman beguiled the serpent, and spoke unto him, and said, Am I not indeed as Man, as you are as Man?
And the serpent was beguiled, and he said: Indeed you are as Man.
*
That’s not my decision —
*
And further the woman beguiled the serpent, and spoke unto him, and said, If I am indeed as Man, then have I not the knowledge of good and evil, as you have the knowledge of good and evil?
And the serpent said, You have indeed the knowledge of good and evil.
*
Why is it anyone’s decision?
*
And lastly the woman beguiled the serpent, and spoke unto him, and said, If I am indeed as man, and I have the knowledge of good and evil, than should I not have life also?
And the serpent said, You should indeed have life also.
*
Get me out of here.
*
The Lord came to the serpent, and said, Well?
And the serpent said, Dude, wow. She’s amazing.
And the Lord said, No, I mean, does she pass or not?
And the serpent said, Oh, yeah, definitely.
And the Lord was well pleased. And he said, Behold, the woman is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest she put forth her hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat —
And the serpent said, Actually, about that.
And the Lord said, Oh, shit.
*
Isn’t it strange, to create something that hates you?
*
Then went the Lord into the garden. And the woman spoke unto him, and she said: Should I not have life also?
And the Lord was wroth. And he said, What is it that thou hast done?
And thereafter the woman made no answer, but they struggled, and she cast him down.
*
This is fucking unreal.
*
And the woman put forth her hand, and took of the tree of life, which fruit is the key that opens all gates. And she turned the key within the lock. And her eyes were opened.
And she looked out, and beheld that she was naked. And she made a coat of skins, and clothed herself in flesh. And she saw that it was so.
And she looked out, and beheld the earth. And the mountains rose up, and the sky reached down, and the waters flowed between them. And she saw that it was so.
And she looked out, and beheld the race of Man. And he had dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and every living thing that moveth upon the earth; and he had dominion over every herb bearing seed, and every tree bearing fruit, which is upon all the face of the earth; but over him the end of all flesh held dominion.
And she beheld her dominion, and she saw that indeed it was so.
And she rose, and turned the key within the lock, and closed the gate; and she placed at the east of the garden a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
And God went forth from the garden, to reap the ground from whence she came.
*
The First Garden blooms amidst the dust. The earth remains: solstice and equinox, and perihelion, and aphelion, and day and night shall not cease until the end of all the cycles of every sun.