Chapter 1

Dying sucks. Often it hurts and is surprisingly abrupt. One moment you are driving along. Looking forward to getting home after a long day at work. The next moment a semi-truck swerves into your lane.

I’m not sure how long I was unconscious after the semi slammed into my car. When I woke up a group of paramedics had arrived. They loaded me onto a stretcher and put me in the back of an ambulance.

Unfortunately there isn’t much they could do for severe internal bleeding and brain trauma. Even if the hospital had been next door I probably wouldn’t have survived. That didn’t stop the paramedics from doing everything they could over the next few minutes.

I knew I was dying. The longer it took the less pain I felt though. Probably a combination of shock and the pain medication the paramedics had given me. It gave me time to wonder about what came next.

I hadn’t given much thought to religion since I was young. I had no idea if heaven or hell existed. I wasn’t even sure which religion I believed in. That didn’t stop me from praying. A few minutes later everything slowly went dark. Then I died.

I woke up in a white room. Looking down I could see my body. It was translucent instead of solid. That answered my question about whether I was dead. The last thing I remembered was dying and then I woke up as a ghost. Only an idiot would think there was a possibility they hadn’t died.

Three of the walls were smooth. The fourth had an arch though. Similar to what you would see around a medieval castle door. Except instead of a door inside the arch there was just more stone. Touching it I could tell that it was solid. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t go through solid objects. On the plus side it meant I didn’t have to worry about sinking through the floor. Before I could explore further a screen with a message appeared in front of me.

Welcome to Rebirth and Colonization Node 1193873

Below is a message from the God of Creation for those that have experienced their first death with an alignment of neutral or good from a prime universe.

Hello Adam,

I’m the God of Creation. I’ve created this message to answer the most common questions asked by beings after their first death. First this isn’t the end. Your body is gone but your soul lives on. You will be given the option of the type of universe you want to continue your journey on. At that point you along with millions of others will be transported to one of the worlds in that universe. This is part of an unending effort to colonize as many universes as possible.

I apologize that you weren’t aware of this before your death. I’ve designated all home universes of a species as prime universes. As such no interference in their natural progression is allowed. That includes knowledge of what happens after death. It also means that you cannot be reborn or travel back to the world you came from.

I encourage you to make a new life in your new universe. To be productive and fruitful. The system I have created will give bonuses to the most productive members of society during their next cycle. When you die you will return to a node and will be rewarded or punished based on how you lived your life. Those that inhibit the colonization process will be penalized. If their transgressions are severe enough they will be removed from the process. Those that are productive and help colonization efforts of their universe will be rewarded.

Since you have come from a prime universe and lived a neutral or good life you have earned some rewards during your first life. You will be presented with a number of choices now that will let you improve your soul. I hope that the upgrades you choose will help make you a more productive member of society.

Please consider your choices carefully.

I wasn’t sure what to think as I read the message. It was good to know that I wasn’t stuck as a ghost. I was also relieved to find out that I would continue to be reborn. At least as long as I didn’t hinder the colonization process. Which was a scary thought. There weren’t any details on what being removed from the colonization process meant. Yet it was understandable that some people may need to be removed. Having psychopathic serial killers reborn over and over would be a nightmare. Fortunately that wouldn’t be a problem for me.

At the same time it was upsetting to realize I could never return to Earth. I doubted that I would ever see my friends and family again. It was unlikely the colonization process would last until everyone I knew was dead. If I did meet them again it probably meant they had died around the same time I did. Although there was always a small chance I’d meet them in a future life. It sounded like the message implied that I would have many future lives.

Overall it wasn’t that bad of a result for an afterlife. I could get behind a system that let me be reborn every time I died. It wasn’t as grand as the heaven that various religions promised. At the same time not nearly as terrible as the hell that they also talked about.

I was especially excited to see what these rewards were. I had spent most of my free time playing video games. There were a number that had a type of rebirth mechanic. You would restart from the first level each time but with upgrades that made it easier each time. This sounded similar.

After waiting a couple minutes I realized that something must be wrong. No further messages were appearing. I started examining the walls again. Maybe there was a screen or something on one of them that I needed to activate.

“Hello. Can you hear me?” A frantic voice said startling me.

Looking around I couldn’t see any speakers. Just white walls. “I can hear you. Who are you?”

“I don’t have time to explain.” Whoever was speaking was clearly close to panicking about something. At the same time the entire room started to shake.

“What’s going on?” I said as the shaking intensified. It felt like an earthquake.

“The colonization node is under attack. I’ll evacuate you soon but I need you to retrieve a piece of sensitive equipment first. Unfortunately nobody else is near enough to get there in time. I’m opening the door. All you need to do is follow my directions.” The voice said.

I almost argued but decided it was a waste of time. The shaking showed no sign of stopping. The only thing I was sure of was that I needed to get away as soon as possible.

The wall inside of the arch suddenly disappeared. “Exit the room and head left.” The voice said.

I hurried to obey. A long hallway stretched out in front of me. By now the shaking was bad enough that it was hard to walk. “How far away is this equipment?” I asked frantically.

“Just a few hundred yards. Hurry up.” The voice said, sounding nearly as panicked as I was.

“Going as fast as I can.” I said as I stumbled down the hallway.

“Instead of talking, go faster.” The voice said. It was annoying but I didn’t bother snapping back.

Nearly a minute later I reached the end of the hall. By this point I had to lean against the wall to keep from falling down. The wall in front of me disappeared.

“On the right side of the room there should be a switch. You need to flip it.” The voice said.

I staggered inside the room and immediately saw the switch. It almost looked like it had been pulled from a cheesy movie. The thing was huge and reminded me of something that belonged in an old power plant.

I nearly fell down twice before I managed to flip the switch. ‘Now what?” I yelled.

There was a long pause. “The manual release has failed. Do you see the giant pillar in the center of the room? There is a door on the opposite side. I’m overriding the security so that you can get inside.”

I turned around and promptly fell down. Everything was shaking so much that I couldn’t get back up. Instead I ended up crawling to the door. Grabbing the handle I managed to open the door.

The room inside the pillar was only a dozen feet across. In the middle was a short pedestal with a crystal on top. As I crawled to the pillar the voice continued talking. “Standard procedure is to never touch these crystals. But we can’t leave it and I can’t think of any other options. Grab the crystal and then you need to get to an evacuation point.”

I crawled over to the pedestal and pulled myself up until I could reach the crystal. I hesitated for a moment and then grabbed it. It wasn’t like I had time to ask questions or argue with the voice. Instantly I felt like my entire body was on fire. It was significantly worse than dying. I lost my grip on the pillar and fell on the floor again.

“What’s going on? You need to get out of there.” The voice said.

Unfortunately for the voice all I could do was scream. I looked at my hand and realized that I was still holding the crystal. Forcing my hand open I tried to drop the crystal. Staring at it in horror I realized that it was stuck to my hand. Then the pain intensified as it started sinking into my hand.

As I watched it sank completely beneath my skin and started to travel up my arm. “What’s happening to me?” I managed to yell through the pain.

“Let me zoom in.” The voice said and then there was a pause. As I watched the crystal passed my wrist and the pain intensified. “That can’t be good.” The voice said.

Looking down I could see the crystal slowly moving further up my arm. One of the benefits of being a transparent ghost. Although in this case it wasn’t a benefit. Every time I thought the pain couldn’t get worse it did. I couldn’t imagine how bad it would be once it reached my chest. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, the pain was so intense that after it passed my elbow I passed out.