Page 0267

  << First  < Page 266  /  Main Plot  \  Page 268 >  Last >>  

  << First  < Previous  /  Chronological Plot  \  Next >  Last >>  

This content is not published under a Creative Commons license! Text and images are used in this wiki only with permission of the author. The content should stay true to the original.
Follow this link to get to the original: http://www.drivecomic.com/archive/170808.html

http://cdn.drivecomic.com/strips/main/170808_1504116889.png

Transcript

• Nameless Sill: But enough of that: You have all come to drink in the great quiet!
• Taneel: Ah. No ma'am, we are not pilgrims.
• Nameless Sill: Then... why come? Why seek out the monks?
  We few stay here in the noise only to help others find the quiet.
• Taneel: "You few"? Ma'am, you are the only living Sill for hundreds of miles around.
• Nameless Sill: IS THAT TRUE? I imagine that could be true.
• Nameless Sill: The joy of the great quiet is hard to rouse from. It takes an immense act of will to stay in the noise. And even more to care for this physical form... or procreate.
  ... So there are less and less of us with each generation. Soon we will walk in the noise no longer.
• Taneel: But... how did this happen? An entire advanced species finds nirvana, and chooses to die off?
• Nameless Sill: Chooses? No no no. Just as one does not choose to weep, at the death of a loved one, one does not choose to feel joy, upon drinking in the great quiet.
• Taneel: But surely there were some among you who wanted nothing to do with it.
• Nameless Sill: In a drought, a grassfire will spread to every blade. Thus it was with us. We had engineered telepathy only a generation before the prophet Ekka came along. So when she discovered how to reach the great quiet, it spread like wildfire. A wave of joy, spreading from planet to planet across the hold... bringing all into its embrace!
• Taneel: But... everyone died!
• Nameless Sill: So? You will die, as will I! None escape death. So the question becomes, for what purpose was your life and work?
  The great quiet is the ultimate embrace of purpose! Of truth! Of fulfillment in all creation! The noise of this form falls away, when you walk in the great quiet.
• Nameless Sill: I.... it's.... perhaps my words fail me.
  Perhaps I should give your telepath a glimpse of the great quiet, and he can explain it better.
• Skitter: [wind-talking] No no no no no no.
• Nameless Sill: I sense hesitation.
• Skitter: NO NO NO NO NO NO

Trivia

• This page is called "An Immense Act of Will"