Before
Es irrt der Mensch, so lang 'er strebt.
Wenn er mir auch nur verworren dient;
So werd’ ich ihn bald in die Klarheit führen.
Full of curlicues, frescoes of naked gods falling from clouds and fake columns, the hall is lavishly decorated in the outdated Rococo style of Earth planet in the universe 1/137. At a desk, not fitting in stile to its surroundings, sits the Master of the Game, who is studying the screen of an even more outlandish-looking computer. He diverts his gaze to one of the windows but only sees white mist below a multicoloured sky. Looking back at the screen, he sees the two Earth humans he has now been watching for quite some time. At present they are trying to find transcendence through sex. He thinks that he has the possibility to immediately access both of them and change their behaviour, but watching them on and off for some time – not only making love, but also doing things for which they are not programmed – he decides that he has had enough of their antics and has to interfere. But as he tries to do so he finds that he has no access to the two actors.
Now he is worried about the human woman and man, who are they, having gone their own ways? He programmed the earth planet in the universe 1/137 to produce many messiahs, but they were all flawed in one way or another. The male seems too perfect and does not refer to his father in the Kingdom of Heaven, meaning him, the Master of the Game, but he has heard the Henry saying to that woman Gretchen that he takes responsibility for his actions and calls himself homo futurensis…
Who is this man, striving for perfection?
A terrible thought hits the Master of the Game: he had not programmed the figure of Henry Faust and the woman Gretchen, so who were they? Does this Henry Faust who just appeared want to become the Master of the Game – usurp the Master’s powers? Action is needed. He calls the Lord of Chaos to come into his office immediately.
The Lord of Chaos, dressed smartly in designer clothes, walks up to the Master of the Game.
“Greetings, my esteemed Master.”
“I have to talk to you.”
“Oh, Master, did I not perform to your satisfaction? Did I not create a wonderful chaos on that planet earth in the 1/137 universe? You surely see that the humans of that world have a hard time surviving the chaos you told me to create.”
The Master of the Game points at the screen. “Come here and have a look at this.”
Looking at the screen the Lord of Chaos says, “Ah, that character and his woman have caught my eye already. Did you, esteemed Master, create them? He seems to want to program the game of this earth world himself, not aware that you, esteemed Master, and me, the programmer of chaos run the game. But then, it was you who programmed free will into the ones who call themselves human…”
“Enough. You know that I asked you to program chaos to test the free will of these humans. You went a bit far with what you did. For example, you took away their god, me, in whom they believed...”
The Lord of Chaos bows.
“Since you took their faith in me from them, I have become the Master of the Game and you the Lord of Chaos. As you said once: we have to go with the flow. Well, it seems, somebody did not like it and imposed this Henry Faust and the little woman on the game. I want you to concentrate on this character, this Henry Faust,” said the Master.
“But why? Whoever hacked into our programmes has programmed the best humans achieved so far. Was it really not you who programmed this couple?”
“I told you, I did not program them. Somebody interfered and went too far with this creation This Henry must learn his limits. They even copulate shamelessly… I want you to coerce him to make mistakes, to sin against himself and others – but mainly himself. From now on stop creating further general chaos on the planet earth in the universe 1/137. You will not succeed by trying to reprogram them – it is not possible.”
“What a strange request from you, oh Master. What will be my reward for this work?”
The Master of the Game points to the screen. “If you do your job well, he is yours. If you fail, he is mine. Do what you have to do. Pull him down from his high horse. But should you fail, we must admit that this character survived your devilish deeds because he has become what he proclaims he is, namely homo futurensis, who has taken responsibility for his independent and not programmed actions.”
“But, esteemed Master, did you not send him to these unusual adventures you programmed for him?”
“No, I did not. I told you that he cannot be reprogrammed, he is independent of my programme…”
The Lord of Chaos grins slyly. “May I ask, is this Henry an experiment?”
The Master of the Game growled, “If it was an experiment it was not mine.” He then commanded, “Now go, and do your job.”
“But how will I access these characters?” asked the Lord of Chaos.
“You cannot access them, only the environment in which they act. If they do something, like miracle workings, change the result…”
The Master of the Game can only guess who programmed the Henry, which had appeared suddenly in the game. The Lord of Chaos does not know about His Eminence who could have introduced the Henry. The Master hopes that it was not His Eminence who introduced this dangerous human…
The Lord of Chaos walks down the passage to his office rubbing his hands. “From time to time I like to see the Master,” he murmurs. “Beside making me clean up the mess he creates, he speaks so nicely to me – to me, the dark Lord of Chaos.”