Joshua-52 transferred his unfathomably intricate thoughts to the mighty processor that stood in front of him. His synthetic heart began to beat furiously beneath his chest; his electrically operated neurons shot around his body and his half-computerized mind began to sizzle.

Across the room, his Automaton, Ez-24, observed him cautiously, for he had been exerting himself with this experiment for over a century. Ez-24 wished with all his programmed sentiments to assist his master. Yet, a part of his central system advised him that Joshua-52 had to brawl his way through this by himself. For the time being, Ez-24 resolved to maintain the spaceship as it flashed at the speed of light through multiple dimensions beyond the space-time continuum.

A trickle of sweat ran down his forehead and Joshua began to fight for his breath. He scrolled his way through several of the million holographic controls that ornamented the gleaming panels and the space before him. His cerebral search engine purred as it sifted through hundreds of millions of volumes of data. The intense effort in his intelligence systems made it burdensome for him to maintain both feet on the ground. His sleek highly mechanized apparatus and various associated gadgets and contrivances began to throb with vast amounts of whirring data. The information-storing particles in the air around him buzzed and whirled and vibrated. All around him, the towering platinum walls of the spacecraft began to rattle as the humming machines began to process the latest input. Sources of ultraviolet light flared on and off, illuminating and blackening the metallic chamber as it quivered.

He gazed into the aperture of the spacecraft at the untold specks of stars that stretched before him, swelling into the black vastness of infinity. Suddenly it all flashed before his eyes: the very first time he’d loaded a scientific volume, the very first time he’d journeyed through a wormhole, his earliest inventions… He had spent his childhood questioning others about the purpose of their species, about the fate of the macrocosmic universe and the ultimate purpose of the various spheres and branches of science. Some mocked him, but others recognized his uniqueness and were in awe of his singular mind. On his world, the populace was apt to leave the machines to do the revolutionary thinking, but Joshua-52 did it all himself.

The machine before him set off an alarm and it happened. The immense spacecraft came to a halt and hovered in the midst of the totality. Each and every throbbing gadget in his vicinity froze. The whirling, humming, and throbbing instantaneously diminished. Just like that, after a century of downloading information into his central intelligence and processing it, he had reached his deepest and most intense desire. There, before his eyes, unfurled the Answer – the Solution – the Remedy to everything.

It was the answer that his species had been searching for within this seemingly infinite universe ever since they began to stand upright; the answer to a series of questions that had set off many of the most astute minds to move earth, wind and mountains, along with the rest of the universe in order to uncover. Here before him was an intricate equation that scientists had been hunting for over fifty thousand years…A theory that expounded and elegantly explained the Ultimate Truth.

Joshua-52 had unlocked a door to the comprehension of all existence. He had produced a theory that would not only elucidate the true properties of the innumerable forces, particles and enigmas of nature but also predict all of their individual and collective fates. This equation before his very eyes would give an explanation of each and every aspect of all dimensions and forms of reality. It would be the final answer in totality: it was, in essence, the Theory of Everything.

Joshua-52 pondered upon the very first of his kind—the humans as they were called back then—who first began their quest for such an equation. It was their seeking for the ultimate solution that had caused them to uncover the very first attributes of the universe. It was this that had led them to extend their mighty civilizations across the universe, colonize other galaxies and scrutinize hyperspace, parallel dimensions and hidden realities. They had journeyed through time and literally moved mountains and earths in order to predict the fate of the majestic cosmos. They wired supercomputers into their organs of intelligence and hooked up complex electric contraptions to over seventy percent of their anatomy. All this was with the aim of a greater brainpower to uncover the riddles of infinity. They had scrutinized the most minute of particles, digging deeper and deeper into the various dimensions of creation in order to comprehend its fundamental forces. For eons, their philosophers and scientists had poured their minds into unveiling the ultimate truth about the universe.

It was as if an invisible being had abruptly smacked Joshua-52 in the face. His species had moved forward in mighty leaps and bounds in search of this equation and now it was right before his eyes. What would become of them? What would become of their intense desire for knowledge; what would become of their compulsion to seek; what would happen to their boundless inquisitiveness? Terror unfurled itself in the remnants of humanity that was left in Joshua-52. He sensed his abdomen churn for the very first time. It had been eons since his kind had panicked.

If Joshua-52 was to reveal the elegant equation that was the ultimate key to understanding everything, then all pondering and seeking would cease. They would be presented with the ultimate answer, solution and remedy to each and every past, current, and future enigma of the cosmos. Knowing everything, there would be nothing left to hunt for. There would be no more questioning, no more wondering and no more nourishment for their curiosity. Most crucially, they would no longer flourish as before. It was as if the universe had finally cornered them, with nowhere to flee to.

Joshua-52 had unfastened a door that billions before him had failed to. He was staring through the open door at the purpose and fate of reality and existence.

Joshua-52 slammed the door shut and walked slowly away.

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