o mi genoito...

It had been exactly seven days since I had crash landed on a planet in sector alpha1. I was desperately low on supplies, what little I had been able to salvage before my ship had been completely destroyed. So it was just what little was left and my robot companion Gnosi 124.2. I just called it Gnosi. I had waited in vain for someone to come rescue me. I had Gnosi send out a distress signal before the planets gravity had sucked us in. And here we were- man, robot and a little bit in what seemed to be the middle of a desert.

14 days or so

I could not believe I had not been rescued yet. How could this be I asked myself? Surely it was just around the corner-- my rescue that is. I had run out of all supplies of nutrition. I at least had an endless supply to water thanks to Gnosi who was able to harvest moisture. Without it I would surely be dead by now. But then that was its function – keeping me alive. I couldn’t believe the helplessness that I was feeling. Twenty seven thousand years of evolution had yielded in nothing but a simpleton as far as knowledge of science went. I did not know the principles of radio wave transmissions…. Heck given umpteen resources I was sure I could not make much out of that. I was like an ancient baboon in a nudist bar.

20 days or so- conversations with Gnosi

“Gnosi are you capable of intelligent conversations?” I asked. “ That depends on what you might observe as the definition of intelligence Daskalos San” it replied. I could not believe it! All this while I had thought him to be a junk programmed to serve me. I looked at him ( I had just decided to elevate it to a him ) and asked curiously, “ why have you never spoken so to me before?”. “Daskalos San you never asked before for me to carry out what you call coherent conversation”. My curiosity was now piquing me,” Gnosi, Do you know where we are? Are you capable of radio transmission? “ Gnosi replied,” Daskalos San we are on the planet known to the supreme race of the beta quadrant as Meno Makria Kronos in the sector alpha 1 and No” I continued,” Gnosi I have been devoid of conversation of any kind for the past 20 odd days. I apologize for taking you to a metal heap retard. I have another question for you(I paused).. are you allowed to speculate?” Gnosi said “ Yes… “( a long pause) “to be or not to be that is the question is it not”

He had just done what I had asked him to do.

I thought to myself when I had taken the job of flying the research vessel --- Phoenix 2 … I would now make enough to live the rest of life in luxury. I was a pilot not a rocket scientist. My comprehension of any electronic principle was minimal. I had in fact been sent to flight school because I had failed fourth grade. I was dubbed by any standard of society to be a dunce who had a flair for picking up languages very quickly. I was starting to figure Gnosi bit by bit. I looked at him and said,” Gnosi , do you think we should venture out to cross this desert to find food?” Gnosi ,” ………………………..(pause)…….I think that would be the best solution Daskalos San. I studied the topography as we were being pulled down for this very quest. We should head north. That would mean 3 days travel to a proper source of nutrition.


35 days or so

“ Gnosi we have been wandering these vast grasslands for a week now…” I had grown thin. I had... it seemed over estimated Gnosi after grossly underestimating him. In saying a proper source of nutrition he had assumed the carbohydrates from the grass would be enough to sustain my life. He had not known my poor underdeveloped digestive system would not allow that! As we had reached the grasslands I had at once seen the error in his calculation. I had lost at least close to 20 pounds having not eaten a morsel in the last twenty days. Gnosi was now carrying me all the time. That was eating into his hibernation cycle as well when he could recharge his batteries. He was not designed to carry a human across a thousand miles was he now! I smiled at the irony that stared at me in all four directions.

“I think the only way to survive for the seven more days you say will get us to a proper nutrition source, no strings attached, is that ….” I paused –I could not believe I was saying this … “ is that I feed on my own flesh…” Gnosi ,” Yes according to your calculations...” .. I said “ I cannot cut my own flesh Gnosi. I give you the command to cut flesh from the appropriated parts of my body and help me consume it”

I screamed in pain. I was crying like a baby. I could not believe what I had just done. I tried to eat my flesh but had vomited violently. I had then made Gnosi force feed me. I continued vomiting as Gnosi said;” Daskalos san we must keep moving to keep to your timetable” So we continued having sterilized my self inflicted wounds. To take my mind off the pain I started bantering,” Gnosi… the great robot … made the biggest error of calculation.. thought I could consume grass and live… what an idiot… “ Gnosi said, ” Daskalos san I did not make an error… you can still consume the grass”. I thought I was delirious.” What do you mean… I cannot digest grass you know that… “ Gnosi said,” But Daskalos san I can break down the grass into concentrated doses of carbo-hydrates that can be consumed…” I looked at him in all my pain ,” Why Gnosi did you not tell me this before? Why have you betrayed me so? “

Gnosi simply said,” Daskalos san- you did not ask” . I passed out


43 days- the tribe

I could not believe I was among a tribe of anthropoids of a primitive state of evolution. They were nursing me back to health. Gnosi was making sure of that. The past few days were a haze to me. Gnosi had been carrying me when we had come across these tribal hunters in the twilight of one of the days- I cannot remember which. He had shone his beacon brightly and everybody had bowed down to us and now I was almost back to full health.

30 years – Thanatos

As per my wishes Gnosi had brought me away from the tribe quietly into the mountains. I was now only hours away from death. I was feeling scared. I looked at Gnosi and said,” Gnosi what does your name mean and why have you called me Daskalos all these years?” I did not expect an answer. I was just babbling in a fear of the darkness that lay ahead. Gnosi replied, ” Gnosi means knowledge and Daskalos means teacher. You are my teacher Daskalos san” I had never really thought there had been a meaning behind the name of my companion of 30 years. I continued ,” Gnosi what languaage is this you speak of? After all these years it strikes me the name of the planet you told me off also has the same roots. Wait… This is ancient greek isnt it? What does the name of this planet mean?” Gnosi replied,” Stay off the planet Kronos”. It took me a while to assimilate what he had just said. It started to make sense – why I had been abandoned so… but I needed a closure to this issue. I had figured out that Gnosi knew the answers to my unanswered questions of 30 years past. I had at many times almost brought myself to ask them but hadnt with the power and prominence I had gained on Kronos and more importantly due to an inherent fear. But now the time had come. I asked and Gnosi replied,” Daskalos san, this is the planet which is the future of the galaxy. But till they discover to ride out to the stars the human race is not to come into any form of contact with them. The Elders had thus named the planet so. When you crashed into the planet you inadvertently broke the rule. In the final few hours before the crash I was contacted by the elders and told of your fate. Deep mathematical calculations of probability and the application of the Zimba theory of probabable patternification had yeilded in but one answer. Your abandonment….” I started seeing blackness.i tried to look at Gnosi and said,” My companion I shall have my last laugh at the elders….. I ask you to destroy yourself once I am gone of all repository of knowledge that you have gained of my actions over the last 30 years…. “

I took one last breath and said..” Gnosi goodbye my good friend…..”


1000 years--- The legend

There where temples in every city every town every village of the most prosperous civilization of the alpha quadrant. The existence of the elders and the human race was not known to anyone in the quadrant anymore. Their existence a mere fleck of the past oceans of time.The temples had but one deity- “ Daskalos our creator destroyer and preserver “and overseeing the main deity room was a smaller deity of Gnosi- his able companion to the end… Daskalos was god...



Ancient greek vocab-- o mi genoito=God forbid Thanatos= death