“So are you saying that the planets have a mind of their own?”

“No specimen.  Planets are just sensory organs for a nascent celestial being.  As such, planets will not develop a mind of their own in general.  The theory states that an entire solar system is alive as a single entity and will likely form some level of consciousness given ample time for growth.”

Droll wondered how he had gotten himself into this discussion with the specimen.  He usually did not care about what the specimen thought unless it was directly related to performance testing or purchasing of lab equipment.  But this time it was different.  Once he heard the specimen spout out untruths, he quickly jumped in to rectify the misunderstanding and took it as the duty of a generational intellectual genius like himself to correct the uncivilized thoughts of an ignorant specimen.

It had all begun when the specimen said that the planet they were standing on was round and that if he could fly real fast and achieve escape velocity, he could leave the planet’s gravity and orbit the planet.  Then he continued to perjure common sense and said that it was not possible to travel faster than the speed of light.  

That was the last straw for Droll.  The specimen was spreading scientific heresy onto Yuni and that was very bad.  It would not be allowed, if Droll had anything to do about it.  Even though she was a specimen, Yuni was very helpful to him.  She provided data when asked, created tools when needed and completed some of the work for him.  Which in the end left him with more free time.  She easily doubled his floor hockey time.  Thus, her contributions to the lab and mostly to himself must not be detrimentally impacted by the ignorant drabble that was spread by the specimen.  So he had stepped forth, but somehow they ended up in a conversation about planetary consciousness and celestial beings.

“How much time is needed?”

“If measured by the largest planet’s rotation about its star then likely a hundred billion rotations or more.  However, some celestial beings develop faster and others slower.  Additionally, the more nascent one are more akin to primitive animals and can be dangerous.  Once they grow up, it is said that they can communicate with the races.  The Modus did discover a few celestial beings, but has banned all interaction with them unless you are at the highest levels of authority.  They do not want to anger a celestial being and cause an almost immeasurable amount of unnecessary damage to the Modus.”

Droll smiled as he had proudly showcased his intellect once again.

“Wow that’s great.  I never expected another sci-fi concept from home to become real.  Though your theory is far greater since in the story I read it assumed that a planet would have individual consciousness and not be just an organ for the solar system.  Your work is incredible.”

Droll added a few more points regarding the topic.

“The theory also states that a large planetary fragment due to a planar split may result in the creation of a plane that has the required material composition needed to form a nascent celestial being.  And lastly, it is not my theory, it is Quant’s masterpiece.”

Kai loved knowledge so this conversation was fulfilling for him.  He was initially having fun playing devil’s advocate to Yuni’s facts as she began to reveal the truths of the universe when Droll dropped by unexpectedly.  And now, he was more eager to learn and looked forward to debunking his earthly world views.  It reminded him of the old adage that was tied to an infamous supermarket tabloid,  “Inquiring minds have to know.”

“So since you can travel the stars, does that mean the Modus possess FTL drives?  I mean, Faster Than Light propulsion systems that allow you to travel faster than light speed?  In my world, it is taught that faster than light travel is impossible.”

“Your ignorant world has taught you nonsense. We can travel the universe faster than light. These FTL drives as you call it, do exist.   However the Sub’tolonians would cry if they heard how you simplified the pronunciation of their glorious contribution to the Modus.”

Oddly even Droll could not withstand the onslaught of abbreviations and nicknames used by the specimen in order to shorten the length of a discussion.  Though efficiency was the hallmark of any advanced civilization, when it came to names pride usually won out.

“It’s amazing that you can even go that fast.  But it must still take thousands of cycles to cross the galaxy.  Even for the Modus it must be cumbersome to travel around its domain.”

“Fool, only the ignorant would use FTL drives to traverse the universe.  The Modus are the most advanced civilization that has ever existed.  We can travel extremely large distances in an instant using planar corridors.  Just open a portal and step in and transfer to a location a hundred thousand light years away in a fraction of a second.”

This revelation stunned Kai much more than FTL drives and planar consciousness.  His scientific knowledge seemed to break this day.  It was as if he had read from stone tablets all his life and believed that he would fall off the edge of the planet if he sailed too far into the horizon.  He felt very naive at the moment.  

Perhaps Kyrie and the flat earthers are right after all.

The hard science that Kai greatly appreciated for most of his life seemed to be nothing more than a fantasy.  And like a hawk that attacked a hapless rodent, Droll spoke again.

“Also, this so-called planet that we are on is in fact not a planet at all, it is a plane.  It is flat.  It was likely created after a star exploded and destroyed a very large planet.  So your orbital nonsense does not apply here.”

“Woah!”  Kai keanued once again.

He was amazed, he did not know what to think.  The physics he understood was broken. Newton’s laws likely remained, but Einstein’s theories were crushed for sure.  If anything, he had to leave the lab and see this planar world.  

Then Kai realized that he had never left the lab.  The lab was gigantic, it even held all 20 levels of Droll’s Gauntlet and there was still plenty of room to spare.   Since he was involved with daily training which continued to improve the control of his new body, he never wanted to leave.  Plus hanging around Yuni was pretty fun.  But now it was different, he had to determine how much Einstein was wrong.  

I was right after all!

He thought about writing to his old Physics 3 professor to get his B changed to an A since his relativity calculations on the final resulted in showing that one could travel faster than the speed of light.

Kai and Yuni had never left the lab since their creation.  So it was time for them to go outside.

“Yuni do you want to go outside with me?” asked Kai.  

“Yuni will go with Kai.”

“Droll how do I leave the lab?  I want to go outside to look around with Yuni.”

“You will need permission from Quant, registration and a passport.  Since you are both specimens there may be other requirements that need to be met.”

Though Droll responded, he really did not know what to think.  A specimen had never asked to leave the lab.  Only a few specimens had ever survived, and those that did were stored in suspended animation, frozen solid in carbonite, since they were expected to die only a few days after testing was complete.

Kai looked at Yuni and did not say a thing.   Yuni nodded and replied.

“Yuni will go ask mom to let us go outside.”

Then she left to talk to her mom.  Her statement stunned both Kai and Droll.  It just seemed weird to them, since it really had felt like Yuni was going to ask her real mom for permission.

By the end of the day, they got permission from Quant to leave the lab.  They were even given money for food and souvenirs.  What surprised Kai the most was that Quant gave them an errand to perform.  They needed to visit another plane called Pyre-3 and pick up some organic material for Quant.  The organic material was very sensitive so it required a special case to hold it and that case was usually hand carried.  For Kai this outrageous trip felt like a casual outing, as if he and Yuni were going to the local grocery store to pick up a few things for her mom.  Given their current situation, it was a familiar yet odd feeling for him.

Though the lab was part of University B4BB, it was located on the isolated Quanti plane that floated in the Haluia Nebula.  Quant was given the plane as a reward for her seminal work.  It was named Quanti due to a clerical error, but Quant did not really care about it, so the name just remained.

The lab’s equipment was used to create Yuni’s and Kai’s passports.  However, the data contained in them was slightly different for each of them.  Even though they were both specimens, Yuni’s passport indicated that she worked for Quant as a freelance handyman while Kai’s passport identified him as Quant’s property.  Kai complained that it was unfair since he had to go through an extra regimen of shots.  However, he soon understood the real reason for the classification.  He was unfamiliar with the world of the Modus, so being classified as a glorified pet allowed him to blend in more easily with the unfamiliar world and remain in the background as they traveled. 

Droll was scheduled to travel with them until they reached their first transfer point, Bekka City.  He did not want to go, but Quant told him he had to since the specimen’s wellbeing was his responsibility.  Though she told no one, Quant just wanted to make sure that Yuni came to no harm and did not get lost.  A true parent was always worried about their kids.

Though Yuni had access to an unfathomable amount of knowledge due to her piconite origin, she still received a two hour comprehensive talk from her mother about traveling outside, meeting strangers and acting with common sense.

As for Kai, Quant just attached a tracking collar to his neck that blinked readouts every now and then.  The collar also came with a bronze name tag that read “QS1”.  It was clear to anyone who saw it that he was owned.  And though nobody had told him, he was quite sure the name stood for Quant’s specimen number 1.  He never imagined that his life would turn out similar to the one of a tagged dolphin that was released into the wild and wandered about collecting data for researchers.

When morning came, they all left the lab to go shopping.