Stilthrovene opens her eyes for the first time. Above her, a young woman smiles down with an expression full of warmth. A few others sit quietly around the bed, their attention fully devoted to her.
A faint blue hologram flickers into existence right above her head. Stilthrovene recognizes this immediately. It's a form of communication, a language made of light. These people do not speak with their mouths or voices. They spoke with patterns and movements of a singular, obscure hologram orb.
The woman continues to smile as the hologram morphs into a softly vibrating orb, shifting through various abstract forms of a sphere. Stilthrovene looks at it and understands them without effort. Though just born, she was already programmed with the knowledge of their culture, their language.
She knows her name. She knows her family. She knows her purpose.
The orb pulses gently with a message: "Welcome to your world, Stilthrovene. I am your mother."
The young woman already knows that Stilthrovene knows who she is. Yet, she feels like it is important to say it herself. Stilthrovene gazes at the woman's face, her mother. Tears shimmer in her eyes, but her smile only widens. She cradles her daughter gently, holding her snug in a swaddle garnished with tiny star patterns.
Stilthrovene reaches upward, small fingers stretching to touch her mother's face above her. Her arm is too short. It sways in the air, just a foot away. Then, with a soft blink, she emits her first hologram from her eyes. Her eyes shine brighter as a tiny hologram flickers in.
"Thank you," it says, Stilthrovene's first words.
Stilthrovene is a spectacular child. Her eyes glimmer like crystal-clear blue water, brighter than the ceiling lights. Her fine, soft hair glows with the same gentle blue hue.
✮⋆˙
"Stilthrovene, are you ready to go outside?"
At just three years old, Stilthrovene can now walk on her own. Until now, she has spent every day in the nurturing room within the hospital where she was born.
Hand in hand with her mother, she stands before a tall glass door. Through it, the world awaits.
Beyond the glass, she sees flying vehicles streaking across the horizon like ribbons of light. Figures stroll calmly along the glowing pathways below. And in the farthest distance, the wall beyond everything shimmers with millions of sparkling lights flickering.
Stilthrovene nods. She already knows her world - its structure, its layout, its design. She lives in tower-2836, one of thousands of colossal white spires scattered throughout space like a constellation of cities. She knows all of this. She's seen it in her mind, understood it through data. But she has never truly seen it with her own eyes.
Her mother steps forward first, and Stilthrovene follows behind her. The glass door detects their presence and slides open with a soft hum.
It is exactly as Stilthrovene had imagined. The tower, tall and pristine, appears just as it had in her programmed knowledge. Every minute detail aligns with what she expected. But even so, it is more beautiful than she ever believed it could be.
The soft glow of the soaring walls. The subtle, distant movements of people and machines. The sprawling bridges and highways that twist through the tower around her.
In that moment, Stilthrovene realizes that exploration is truly her purpose in life, just as Stilthrovene knew from the start.