Oneiro IV: Apotheosis

Written by: John Stuart Goldenberg

Available In: eBook|Paperback

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This singular story describes the unfolding phylogenesis of Philip Carr, a strikingly gifted young lawyer in midtown Manhattan—which took him from New York, to Oneiro, a hitherto nameless island in the Aegean Seas, to the icy, lightless deeps of Earth’s oceans, to the most remote regions of deepest space.
The first stop on his cosmic odyssey: Kosmas. The planetary home to the finest minds in the galaxy, acting as the institution of the most advanced learning in the cosmos for literally millions of years.
As was slowly, methodically and meticulously revealed to Phil, he had a destiny of immense cosmic importance: Verteror. A creature unique in all the universe. Gifted with the amazing ability to directly communicate with and command ultra-sub-atomic particulates known as SNA (Sub-Atomic Nucleic Apperception).
SNA, as must, are immortal, near omniscient, and capable of assembling and reassembling matter and energy into every conceivable form, at the most profoundly particulate level. Perhaps they are the consciousness of the universe? They are an ancient, seminal and fundamental element of the cosmos; and the key to Phil’s ascension to Verteror, and the Verteror’s approaching imperium of the universe.
But first, he must learn and master his calling. The Kosmin were quite pleased to provide Phil mentors, advisors and spacecraft to assist in pursuing this goal. With excellent result. But not without intermediate disasters. One of the great risks of Verteration was the inadvertent, near instantaneous propagation of a fundamental force know as Resumptive Reticulation. Reticulation defies the most powerful forces in the universe in terms of destruction and reach, and during his inculcation, millions of beings were destroyed along with hundreds of celestial bodies.
Complicating and compounding the severity of Phil’s labors is the raging onslaught of two living nebulae. One, “harvests” planet-by-planet, sentients who have achieved sufficient intellectual maturity. The other obliterates all remaining life on such planets, leaving them a totally sterile stage upon which to restart life. Phil’s challenges are therefore threefold and deadly.
Adding to Phil’s burdens, much of the populace of Kosmas begin to regard him as a deity, along with his own crew; and Phil’s burgeoning skills do little to dispel their idolatry. Soon his worshipers grow into the millions.
These many forces finally vortex into a colossal crisis and Phil remains largely alone in his universe, forcing him into a draconian solution with consequences for the universe itself. It also forces Phil into a climactic reckoning with who and what he really has become and what his ultimate roll in the cosmos might be.