AUTHOR NOTES

Hey, you made it to the end. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed it. If you've come to the author notes, I hope that means you want to know more about the process or my thoughts about the story. That, or you're so angry you want to know what the heck I was thinking.

Well I guess the old saying works either way, no such thing as bad publicity.

I originally started this with the inkling idea of a horror story, but that thought didn't last long. I knew it would start with a crew finding something on the surface on Mars. I didn't really know what that meant until I had already finished chapter 1. That first chapter flowed wonderfully. It came out smoothly, and I could practically hear how I wanted it narrated as I went. It really was a thing of wonder.

Now, you might wonder why I picked the ships phycologist as my point of view character, or even why I would have one of those on the ship in the first place. At first I wasn't sure what role my narrator filled on the ship, but after a little thinking, a phycologist came as a natural solution, because he would be encouraged to pay close attention to the others on the crew, and see how they were handling things or dealing with the situation. By his very job, he would be encouraged to be an active observer, trying to put things together and understand what was going on.

This was made extra interesting by the very nature of the journey, in that what they were experiencing could not be put together easily, and how the influence of the cube could be felt so strongly and change how one would be expected to react.

Of course they say write what you know, but I know nothing of walking on the surface of an alien planet, any more than I know what it means to be a phycologist. But I do consider myself something of an observer of humanity, and so I leaned into that as a way to guide my narrative. I also leaned into the sort of exiting and awe inspiring feeling I might get when my world view is challenged in new and exciting ways.

Ultimately, any story teller can only lean on their own emotional experience to draw on. I may not know what it means to walk on the surface of Mars and dig up a world changing artifact. But I can know what its like to go somewhere unknown, and know what it's like to have my own views changed in a deeply fundamental way.

Anyway, back to the story. The fact that what they found was a cube was an effort to make the device knowable, to allow us to picture it as it is described. As an audio narrative, I rely heavily on the listener to fill in imagery on their own, much like a book, though the medium does require a different way of dealing with it.

I was really drawn to the idea of this tale being like a story told, you, and the narrator, sitting down together, while he bares his soul to you after this civilization changing event. I loved the intimacy of the idea. I loved the idea of how his voice would change as he spoke, as the emotions of the events came through in his retelling, as he relived this impossible event. I think Edwin, the voice actor, did a good job making that hope a reality.

In chapter 2, we get our first glimpse of the deeper purpose of the Cube. I enjoyed writing the dream sequence here. Some of my coolest story ideas come from dreams, so I love playing with the whole idea of dreams and visions. Our narrator gets to join Elis as a witness of the mission of the Cube, and catches his first view of the Cubes counter part. When the whole vision sequence ends, I really wanted to stress how much it stuck with him. I've had dreams like that before, that don't leave, but stick around, and I really wanted to express that feeling.

I know the idea of a White and Black Cube can be a little cliché, but clichés work much like tropes, as a useful short hand. And in this case, the intent was the primordial forces of light and darkness, or good and evil, if that wasn't immediately obvious. Though too be honest, a small part of me toyed with the idea of flipping their natures about half way through the story, but I stayed the course, it was always meant to be a small project.

That said, not everyone may agree with what the White Cube stood for, and that's fine. Everyone interacts with fiction in their own way. I just hope you find it entertaining.

Come chapter 3, our narrator begins to see the cost that is being exacted on Elis. This whole idea came around as I came to terms with just what the powers of the Cube's were, like what their limitations and abilities were. I never viewed them as mind control machines, not even the Black Cube, but that people could still make choices even under their influence, even as the cubes tried to make people make favourable choices.

One of the limits that began to take shape here was the idea of distance and energy. In my mind the Cubes needed to be close... well at least as close as on the same planet anyway, to draw energy from the humans they were influencing. When you have a whole planet to draw from, its easier to act. But the poor White Cube was basically in sleep mode, and needed a jolt to wake it up. That was supplied by Elis. After that, it could spread it's burden among the crew, but the first hit had to come from whoever woke it up.

This limit allowed me a reason why the White Cube couldn't just do whatever it needed to do while trapped on Mars.

Funnily enough, my plan originally was to have the White Cube not be from some distant place, but to have Mars be the former home of the beings who made it. That ended up not quite fitting with what was taking shape, and so I changed it on the fly. I do like plotting things, but always like to leave myself with enough flexibility to make changes as I go. This project was rather light on the plotting, and heavy on the flow.

And so our journey back to earth continues. Beginning Chapter 4, we see that Elis is doing pretty rough, and that the crew is just focused on finishing the journey, having no idea what will happen with their return. This one gave me a chance to address the cost I exacted on Elis, and show case exactly how much it had hit him. Part of this was as a need to raise the stakes of the whole thing, part of it was simply because that is what the story demanded. Sometimes you are bound by the narrative.

One thing I liked about this chapter was the shared enthusiasm of Elis and the Narrator, to share their experiences. There's a special kind of energy when ever you meet and speak to someone who gets something you get, but which you can't really describe to others. It's one thing to describe what the thunderstorm on the prairies is like, it's quite another to stand in the midst of the flashing lightning and billowing rain.

Onto chapter 5! Here we begin to unravel the mystery of the Cube. What was once just vague feelings and impressions, and an incomplete vision, now comes crashing into our narrator, and subsequently the listeners, in stark detail. This is always a difficult transition to navigate, and I fear there's really not a good way to do it right.

If you build a mystery, the very act of revealing it, can be a disappointing experience. As we walk the path of the mystery, our minds come up with all kinds of exciting theories, and those blossom outward in a ever expanding cloud of pure possibility. Once you begin to define the elements of the mystery though, those possibilities collapse into the rigid form of reality.

I can only hope that I did it some kind of justice. I was always careful not to explain everything in the grand picture. By the end of the story, I still wanted there to be a few unanswered questions, because then we have something to think about after. Did I pull it off? Well I guess that's up to you. Heaven knows I'm trying.

Chapter 6 starts us off with the conclusion of the startling revelation at the end of the previous chapter. Namely that they ship is in immense danger. Some of the holes in the narrative are filled in at this point, with Elis explaining what he had seen when he first touched the Cube on Mars, it being a version of what we had just heard before through the eyes of our narrator.

I also dealt with Joanna's reactions to all this and her support of Elis. I found this a necessary thing to mention, if I were Elis I likely wouldn't have had the strength to continue with such courage without the support of my wife, so it was worthwhile to establish.

I also add a little more definition to the 'test' and the limitations of the Cubes. I am, at this point, working on tying this thing up, and getting out of the way the last things I felt I needed to talk about. I knew I wanted to keep this short, and with that in mind, I knew my time was limited.

Chapter 7! New York City, yet another cliché. Having been to New York (Nice place to visit, but I couldn't live there), I felt it a suitable place to act as a seat of power for the Black Cube. It is a place of great influence, and thus what better place to have a global reach and still be limited to one physical location.

Unfortunately for me, I had to blow up the Pathfinder. As I never went into great detail about it, to the listener, it's just the loss of a ship, but to me, it's the destruction of something I had grown quite fond of. Even if I didn't describe it, I could see it in my mind while writing, see it's shape, walk the halls, understand it's nature. And I had to nuke it. Neat.

It allowed me to show just how desperate the Black Cube was to stop the arrival of it's enemy, but it also allowed me to show that it was not in total control, and did not have a perfect picture of what was going on. It allowed me to show it's own fallibility.

Then we get to finally see the Black Cube in all it's shadowy glory, and I threw in the one thing the crew didn't expect. Namely a gun wielding guard. What fun!

Writing this final scene was a little... odd. I never quite know what to start with description wise. I try to go with 'what would I see first' and go from there, but long descriptions can take us out of the moment, because if there's a gun pointing at you, it kind of takes priority. Therefore, the room in which the Black Cube sits, is quite simple, because something else takes the priority here.

The end is finally in sight, Chapter 8, the second to last. By this point I could practically taste the conclusion. Believe it or not, I was still unsure what I was going to do to the Black Cube, or how I was going to do it. I more or less wrote this and the last chapter, by the seat of my pants, letting the story take me where it demanded to go.

I realized I had described the White Cube's mission and motive in great detail, and I wanted to give emphasis to the fact that despite all their influence, ultimately humans still had to choose. But how can you make a true choice, without having the whole picture? Therefore, the Black Cube makes its case.

At this point, the amount of voices I've used for the narration, was pushing Edwin as a voice actor. The fact that he was able to keep the voice distinct was amazing. In our discussions I made sure to always ask how comfortable he was before throwing another voice into the ring. If he had decided to tap out at this point, I would have had to greatly modify this.

Anyway, the Black Cube makes it choice, and the White Cube returns with one final piece of the puzzle, leaving our narrator with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Finally, we make it to chapter 9, and the conclusion. I'll admit that some of my own philosophical and spiritual beliefs coloured this conclusion, and the ultimate choice of the Narrator, but I wanted to stress that it was still an individual choice. Immortality is a concept that comes up frequently in fantasy or sci-fi, the pursuit of an eternal life.

Something that has always been in my mind is that the nature of that life ought to be a big factor in our pursuit of it. If we cannot be better than we are, a immortal existence is just a chance for a never ending self made hell. Unless we are willing to rise up, it would consume the whole of the universe given enough time.

So thusly, at the end of it, the influence of the Black and White Cubes must be removed, so that the choice could be humanities alone, free of their influence. And for that reason, I had to eliminate them, through the sacrifice of the White Cube. I'll admit, I was sorry to end it's existence, but it felt fitting nonetheless.

The choice made, I sort of rush through the consequences of that choice. I'll admit, at this point, I just wanted it to be done. I was pleased by what it was coming out as, for Edwin had recorded all the previous chapters while he waited for me to write this one, so I already had a strong idea of what it was like. As such, I was eager to tie things up so I could get it out.

I'll admit, the very end of it, is a little clunky. Making it a story embedded within a new messenger actually separates it from us, as we are still on earth, but I absolutely needed to end on the idea of the continuing test, the ongoing cycle of the great work. It wasn't an end, simply a chapter in a greater saga.

One day I may revisit this, I could possibly go into greater details of the consequences of humanities choices, or follow the Ark of the Black Cubes people, as they come to terms with the fact that they had been rejected, or even deal with the arrival of our own Messenger to another world. I have options anyway, but this was always an experimental work, and so I am satisfied with what I have, but I suppose if there's enough interest in that, we could head into it once again. I'd probably do some voice work myself if we did that. It would be fun.

And that's rather the point, isn't it?

Hope you enjoyed yourself. Have a wonderful day.

THE END