Thursday, November 29, 2012

Section 2: Marriage

This month I had been busy writing for a 50000 words novel for NanoWrimo. http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/ng-xin-zhao/novels/problems-try-this/stats
Below is a section (chapter) in my story.
 Here are some of the links where I found my inspiration from. And the story is roughly set in half a billion years from now, in the same earth of Milky Way galaxy. Tell me what you think if you got time to enjoy the long story below! Sorry for all the grammar, English mistakes. I'll polish it later. Got to write more! Highlight for the story!

Prince Ajita grew up being the best in absolutely everything that he learned. He’s the best sharpshooter in the planet, best martial artist in all of the martial art form that he had ever learned, best in all of his studies, mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, psychology, comparative religions, 140 different human languages, and 290 different alien languages, economics, business, finance, music, medical, all sorts of engineering and all sorts of sports. In the galactic wide Olympics, he had to step down in order to allow for others to win after winning gold, record breaking gold too, 10 times in a row for every event that he entered.
Using a child prodigy to describe him would be an insult to him, because he mastered all those within his first 100 years old, which in the context of the lifespan of humans then, he was still considered a toddler.
Yet, the Prince already has 3 different palaces: Vardhamaanaka, Siddhaarthaka and Candra, each for the three seasons of the year: the rainy season, the cold season and the hot season.
The palaces grew up from the ground, literally it was tree growing technology. The trees were genetically engineered so that they provided for all the internal air circulation, cooling system, water delivery, fruits growing at all sorts of places for people to eat whenever they want to, and rooms custom made and all of these were genetically written into the tree’s DNA and RNA mechanism, which is quite thick compared to the tree’s ancestors.
In addition, the tree also sucks up the trace minerals in the ground to form 7 types of gemstones within themselves. As the palaces grow too, people help to put more of the gems into the interior and exterior part of the palace. Gold, silver, lapis lazuli, seashell, agate, pearl, and carnelian decorates the palace to make art forms that are unique due to the complexity of grow patterns from the trees.
The palaces were seven storeys tall each, three underground and four above ground, with millions of rooms in each floor, thus, they have the size of a small island. A heptagon of wall, made of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, seashell, agate, pearl and carnelian each, supported by the additional growth of the trees from it’s extensive roots. At the gate of the palaces, is a pandal, or door arc that is covered with elaborate and beautiful decorations of the 7 gems and diamonds, platinum, emerald, ruby, sapphire, topaz, amethyst, alexandrite, aquamarine, citrine, garnet, opal, onyx, peridot, tanzanite and tourmaline.
On the roof of the palaces was specially designed leaves and branches that simulates the music from five different types of musical instruments. Some branches were hollow, and grow in the angle that catches wind to blow inside it. Inside the branch, the wind can escape through a series of holes, governed by the leaves which decides which ones opens and closes. This is the woodwind instrument.
The brass music instrument was similarly constructed, but instead of having hole along the branch, these special type of branches have internal coating of the alloy of zinc and copper, and grows in complicatedly long winded way. Along the complicated route, there were some parts which can be closed off by leaves to vary the length of the branch, thus producing the different sound effects of brass.
Stringed instruments were generated when the fibres of the trees were stretched and tuned to different tensions, and being plucked by nearby branches which rustles with the wind, but not completely following the wind, as there are some active cells in the trees which were deciding the music that is being played.
The percussion instruments were formed by hollowed out tree trunks and branches that taps on them. Some of them have very thin skin left, thus it sounds just like a drum and some of them have metals coated on them, thus sounding like a glockenspiel.
Finally, some shapes of the inner tree trunk were like the human vocal cord, thus giving voice to the whole musical scene.
The best part about this is that the type of music is controllable via a computer interface with the tree.
Inside the palaces, on the wall which is integrated with the computing imagery, 3D effects of lines of palms, lions, elephants, coaches, peacocks, swans, curlews, storks, eagles, garudas, dragons, aliens, supergods, creepers, trees, lakes, oceans, ships full of gold, silver and coral. Jambudipa and other great continents, Ketumati and other great cities, and other cloth paintings shining with the colours of the rainbow.
Everyday, showers of flowers fall upon these palaces from the trees that made them. It is literally the ideal living quarters. Of course, the trees were treated to be fire and heat resistant.
Even with all these in place, Prince Ajita never did asked for more. In fact, he was just concentrating on his studies, trainings and education, not bothering with the luxuries that he was born into and also not becoming arrogant because of that too. In his mind, the things that he learned was far greater and more valuable than the material stuffs. Yet he did not despise the material wealth that he was born into, he indulge in them whenever he feels like resting or after a day’s long of thinking and studying. Thus had he lived his childhood.
On his 123rd year, there was a galactic wide celebration that involves his father, scientist supreme of Utopia. His father was supposed to share in a wonderful story about the struggles and triumph of human spirit on this day which is called Earth Day. Curious about this celebration too and proud to see his old man standing tall, he decided to join in. This celebration is usually done at smaller scales, and once every thousand years, it becomes a planet wide celebration, every fifty thousand years, it is a galactic wide celebration, with podcasts of it to be transmitted to all corners of the galaxy.
Subrahmana started, “the story that I’ve to tell you, all of you who gathered here is a gruesome story, yet it is a story that should be passed on, to ensure that we and humanity as a whole do not ever suscumb to such dangerous tribulations and near extinction ever again.”
The atmosphere was silent, quiet, with everyone paying full attention in the supreme scientist’s words even if they had heard the story a thousand times before. Prince Ajita was iimpressed by this attitude. They were all standing or sitting on a green clearing, with a wild life sanctuary behind them a stark reminder of Earth Day.
“According to legend, long ago, all of humanity was originated from one planet, back then the planet was called Earth. Now we believe it is this very planet, where the spread of humanity to space began. However, it was not without struggle. There was a point in time, soon after the invention of the classical computer and the planet wide internet, where humanity lost a lot of it’s own kind due to mismanagement of the planet.”
“We have reasons to believe that at that era, recycling needed to be encouraged, yet a lot of lights and energy were wasted without care about the next generations.” There was a lot of gasps and disgust shown by everyone who listened to this. Prince Ajita looked around and saw that the retinue of 84000 people who accompany him were reflecting and being disgusted by the actions of humanities’ ancestors towards the planet.
“Not only do the humans of that period mismanage their only planet, their only home, they were not appreciative of their own morality, of life itself. It is said that there was a country at that time where almost every family has a hand held projectile weapon, called a gun. And accidents happens every year, up to 10000 people die, more than half by suicide.”
The people who listened to this began to shiver and shudder in horror. Prince Ajita himself can feel goosebumps crawling on his skin, he felt nothing but compassion for the people of that age. How could people be so ridiculously foolish and unappreciative of life? He wondered.
As if his father read his mind, Subrahmana continued, “according to fossil evidence, the humans of that time were much smaller than us, and the planet much more populated, at it’s peak, Earth hold 12 billion people!” Now a wave of shocked disbelief passed through everyone.
“It is because of these reasons that we believe that they have very short life spans. On the order of decades of years. But even so, computer simulations show that in supporting that population, there should not be a problem. Yet, there was also fossil evidence of the most cruel thing yet that I have yet to say. Please brace yourself.”
Everyone was already quite nauseated and just feeling sad for their ancestors, now they prepare themselves for the worst to come.
“There was fossil evidences of animal farms, where they breed animals just to kill them. The size and frequency of the farms suggest that the total number of animals that the breed to kill at one time is more than the total human population. The amount of plant needed to support such a size decreased the feeding capacity of the total human populations and thus part of the human population necessary suffer from hunger. 1 billion people have not enough food to eat, and 6 million children die from hunger every year. Let me tell you too, that their children is up to 12 years old only, not ours 300 years old.
Prince Ajita felt deeply moved by this. He is indeed still a child in Utopia’s standards, but to think of children in the past to not have lived long enough to even learn some simple Physics that he had learned, not even have the opportunity to grow up and have a chance in living happily.
The people around him were by now weeping openly, it was a celebration that always started out solemnly, up to a critical point where the good part of the story is supposed to bring their spirits up.
The prince quietly moved to under a tree, to be under its shade and away from the masses of crowd who were weeping. He found a bit of peace and sat there cross legged, there he continued to listen.
“There came a greater time of distress, after which our ancestors finally realized the folly of their ways and repented deeply. While repenting, they carved down on a piece of giant artificial diamond, what transpired. This language defied translation for 30 million years since it’s discovery, but in the last 3000 years, one brilliant linguistic managed to crack the code, written in binary, and here what it says.”
“‘We are the survivors of the bloodiest war that humankind has ever seen yet. There was a group of us, ranging from 4 to 10 years old, there was no one who could live beyond 10, due to the various types of diseases that devolved the human body to only generate a lot of short burst of energy. Energy we needed to survive. I am aged 9, witness to the bloody war happened when I was 4 one of the youngest in hiding, now with the last shred of laser technology I am engraving this memory to the largest diamond we had artificially created just for this purpose. For the purpose that future generations will not repeat our mistake. Once is enough for the whole humanity. Therefore remember your history, for those who do not is bound to repeat it.’”
“‘I am Avel, and the bloody 7 days war happened during my 4th years of age. It was half a lifetime ago, yet I remembered it clearly as yesterday. Each of us humans were genetically engineered so that we would had various kinds of superpowers. Many of those involves animalistic superpowers which might alter the appearances of ourselves. There was a virus that spreaded, most probably via sexual transmission to almost all of humanity. The virus made us see each other’s powers to be much amplified than it really is, and we saw no more of the humanity is left in the others. Everyone sees everyone else as animals, dangerous wild beast to be tamed or destroyed. And the destruction happened.’”
“‘I was fortunate however, for there is a wise leader who said to us that let’s us not kill and be killed, let us instead retreat to the last of the forest of earth. We’ll build a fort and remain guarding there, eating fruits and roots of the forest. We hid for seven days, and at the end of it,  we emerge from our hiding places to meet with seas of blood and rotting flesh. Ten billions dead bodies all over the earth, every shoreline of the sea we saw was filled with blood, deep red blood that seemed to threaten to remain there forever. It became pinkish by now, even after five years the waves can’t wash away the awful things that we did to ourselves. The remainder of us rejoiced in seeing other survivors and we all realised that it is because of our evil ways of killing that these suffering befall humankind. Let us now do good. Starting by not taking life.’”
“‘And so, we abandoned our eyepiece, which allow us to see into augmented reality and think that the real world is a game, that lead to less resistance towards killing others. Now, after five years of not killing anything. Not even animals, real animals. We seemed to be enjoying a bit of increase in lifespan and beauty. Our children seems to be maturing at a slower rate, aging slower too. One can only hope that it means they will live far beyond our limited 10 years of age, and prosper. Here ends this record which has the sole intention of asking all of our descendants not to commit the wrongs we had done and learn from the mistakes of the past, so that you do not repeat it in future.’”
The people who were listening was inspired. They stopped crying and paid full attention to what the supreme scientist was saying now. Prince Ajita, however, was already long missing and no one has yet thought to look for him.
“From there onwards, humanity has gradually increased in morality and the knowledge of science. We build...”
The prince knew of what was the development that lead to the galactic republic and perhaps this is the reason he allowed himself to be distracted by a worm that was in the leaves near the trees. Before his eyes, the worm was eating into the leaves, leaving a lot of holes and growing fat, suddenly, a praying mantis leaped onto the bug, and killed it. The mantis was slowly enjoying his fat meal when a frog jumped in and pulled the mantis into its mouth via its long tongue. Then behind the frog, came a snake, it ambushed the frog and eat it whole. Just as the snake was slithering away, an eagle from the sky sweep down and grabbed the snake in its claws, peck it and brought it back to its nest, where it slowly digested the snake.
The prince of course had learned all these before in his biology holovideo, but to see things up close and directly, he saw that while the worm was eating, the essence of the leaves were eaten. There is no inherent leaf, as the materials that made it is being digested to become part of the worm. Then the praying mantis came along and eat the worm. There is to be found no worm qualities in the praying mantis, the worm is insubstantial in itself, just like the leaves were. The frog too, it eats the praying mantis, but does not become the praying mantis itself. Now even the form the of the mantis is gone. Then the frog is transformed into parts of a snake. Making everything before it seems more and more removed from memory and reality. Had they really existed before? If so, they certainly do not exist now. And finally the snake is killed by the eagle and eaten. There is yet another level! If one thing cannot exist on its own forever, by what reasoning and property can there be a self of the thing to carry on? And if the self is the thing that is being eaten, then the self is a changing self, that is not worth clinging on to.
Having reflected thus, he calmed down and focused on his breathing. Letting go of whatever that is happening outside of him, he quickly attained to a stage where his mind has only one thing. That thing is his breath. So concentrated was he that the usual mental process of awareness and sensing of the five physical senses were shut down as his mind remains in peace and calm, focusing on his breath. Feelings of great joy and happiness arose within him, he smiled and by all means looks serene.
It is about this time that the story by Subrahmana was finished, and the multitude of the people listening started to be aware of the prince Ajita being in a deep state of concentration. Subrahmana seeing his son being in the seated position, crossed legged, came to his front and pay respects to his son, for having achieving this deep state.

At Prince Ajita’s 500th year, the mark to adulthood is celebrated by great dancers and performances specially made for him and presented in his palace. All year long, there was dancing, singing, music, 3D holographic videos, video games, quiz competitions, sportsmanships, sonic-screwdriver-to-escape-the-room competition, movies, cartoons, tea, fun camps, debates, and all sorts of entertainment in the palaces that he visits, on the floors that he visits. Of course, there are also ample time for rest. In fact, there are special rooms for resting, one have the full jungle effect, without insects; another has the beach effect, on the ground floor, near the sea, well, it is a real beach; yet another simulates underground pood, deep and cozy, smooth and calm. By now, the prince had slept in about 30% of all his palaces and yet there are still places in which he had never been to.
These sleeping chambers number seven thousands in total, has umbrellas with handles made of gems, beds covered by multi coloured sheets, and well decorated with treasures from all ranges of time. Each time he entered a new chamber, there will be someone who stands ready to explain to him the significance and history of the decorations that he wishes to know. As a result, his knowledge of the entire galaxy, sometimes, even of things beyond the galaxy increases.
At each of these rooms, beautiful, fragrant, and delicious fruits are ready to be plucked and eaten anywhere. The prince eats them when he feels hungry and the rest of the fruits were to support the rest of the people in the palaces.
At each of these seven floors, there are seven thousands dancing girls who will dress up and await to dance. They accommodate to the prince’s desire and changes so fast, he is constantly amazed by their adaptability and flexibility. Once, he just finished watching the first six Star Wars movies in 7D (3 for visual, 1 for each of the other senses) and was exhausted by the effort, before he goes to bed, the dancing girls were dressed up as female jedis, and make for the gesture that smooths and calms him to sleep. The leader of the dancing girls was dressed up like Princess Leia, in bikini form, and she was gently rocking the prince’s head to sleep.
Prince Ajita smiled, after looking at the girl who was putting him to sleep, he immediately forgot about Star Wars and the associated memories with it. She was by far way more beautiful in real life than the actress in the movie. She is Candamukhi, one of a kind, unsurpassed in beauty, within the planet and even once in a galactic beauty pageant, won the top prize in all categories of love, compassion, generosity, smile, kindness, and physical characteristics, which are beauty of bones, beauty of muscles, beauty of complexion, beauty of hair and beauty of age.
As she puts the prince to sleep as she had done since they were 50 years old, the prince felt blessed to sleep in the arms of a girl not too tall, nor too short, nor too thin, nor too fat, nor too dark, nor too fair. In her exquisite beauty, she is more divine than human. Sandalwood scent that issues from her body and the scent of water lilies from her mouth made him comfortable and cozy. The glow from her body covers the area of a sphere with radius of 6 meters. As he rest his head, he found that her body is as soft as a well cleaned cotton as always.
Thus has he been put to sleep by Candamukhi half of the nights. This year, it was almost every night.
Finally, the day of his 500th birthday had arrived, and there was a special arrangements from both his father and foster father to surprise him.
As he walked into the main chamber of his palace, he found all sorts of manners of beautiful girls stand ready waiting for him, with the High Chancellor Sankha and the supreme scientist, Subrahmana. After greeting his parents, he inquire for the purpose of this rather unusual gathering.
“Why, my son, it is simply time for your 500th birthday! This whole year had been a celebration of this day, for the day that you entered into manhood. The day that you pick a wive with you.” Subrahmana hugged his son and exclaimed.
Sankha added on, “you are showing great promises in the ways of governing having passed all of the test and trainings with the best score possible, I am inclined to want to give you the title right now, but as it is, tradition dictates that before ruling a country, one has to know how to handle a family first. So don’t worry Ajita, take your own sweet time to develop a family and raise your child to his own manhood age, after that, I’ll impart this city for you to govern for 500 years, and increasing from there, you will eventually inherit the whole of Utopia, then the galaxy and it is up to you then to extend your reach to the universe at large.”
“Thank you father, so the selection of my wife will be amongst these young beautiful ladies here?” Prince Ajita inquired, secretly hoping that Candamukhi is there in the crowd.
“Yes, my dear Ajita, here are the kingdom’s treasure, that I give to you as a wedding gift. Give one to each of the girls below to see how do they react to you. If you found one whom you know you can live with and connects with your heart, then you will know who is your wife.” the High Chancellor Sankha said.
Prince Ajita nodded and sat down at the throne seat, both of his father and his mother retreated to the second floor and watched the proceedings from there. The prince breathe in and out once and smiled, gestured for the first girl to come up and say her name.
“Gabriella, my prince.”
“Here’s a necklace, Gabriella.”
“Thank you my prince.”
The next one came up, she was Diana, then Alex, Camila, Chloe, Maya, Jenniffer, Britney, Katie, Rachel, Ruby.....
The treasury was depleting, and half a day was spent before the last of the treasure goes to Shiely. The next girl caught his heart and attention.
A smile crossed his face as he recognised increased heartbeat, a bit of sweat on his hands and the smile that each of them gave each other.
“Candamukhi, I’m sorry I’ve run out of something to give you, but if you don’t mind,” Prince Ajita took out his ring and helped to put it in Candamukhi’s finger, “can you be my wife?”
Candamukhi then smiled the smile that would melt most men’s heart and said, “Yes my prince.” Then they kissed. Applause rises from all corners of the palace as everyone knew of how long they had grew up together, and how matching the pair were.