hair to those in the intestine, has the same basic DNA coding. The second piece of data: only five to ten percent of the data in DNA is in use. The function and purpose of the other data is unknown. Now comes the question: Do you think that a fish leaves millions of eggs to create thousands of offspring as an evolutionary strategy to increase the numbers of its descendants?”
Ender looked off in the distance. He seemed to be making calculations. “Actually, you’re indirectly asking me if there is a purpose for our existence. Continuing the bloodline is the expansion of the why question, isn’t it?”
“You’re near my point, yes,” Feryal answered.
Ender thought again to himself, then turned to her. “I’d like to begin explaining in the way that I hate the most—in other words, with a question,” he said. “If you had all the power to send a message that would last a very long time, even eternally, what would you do?”
This question excited me and prompted me to jump in. “While working on the Qur’anic code, I thought about this issue a lot,” I said. “In fact, I may have even addressed this question precisely. If a message is written in nature by using universal constraints, like the code I suggested, it will be there as long as the universe exists. Take a number like Pi , which continues until eternity. If we encode a message in such an ocean of information, the message can go to the Andromeda galaxy or to any edge of the universe and it will stay the same: stable. So the information remains as long as the universe exists.”
“I would try a different approach,” Feryal said. “I would write the message in the place where time doesn’t function: on the border of extinction, such as the entrance to a black hole, to guarantee that the message and information stay there as long as time and the universe allow.”
Ender considered our comments thoughtfully. “These are good statements,” he said, “but they still don’t cover all eventualities. The universe is in a loop, and as such, if it assumes a form in which the same rules don’t apply, your message will vanish.”
A period of silence followed until the boy spoke again. “If the message can be written inside of a complex structure that is able to exist, overcome and adapt to every situation, we can have a dynamic means of message transmission. I posit that there can be a possibility of carrying a secret message in our very DNA which allows us to go beyond time and our universe. As you know, life does anything it can to survive.”
“Whoa! Even I hadn’t thought about it that way,” Feryal said.
“So what would the message be? If the reason of our presence is that message, what is it?” I asked.
Ender laughed at that. “How can I answer that question? I can only make inferences about these dimensions, and I am only one person with one mind. How can an electron that transmits only a portion of a small electrical signal in a telephone conversation know the entirety of that conversation? Assume, for example, that you are a tiny LED light on a dashboard, occasionally flashing. You will neither know the whole image nor which part of the message you support.”
The conversation had tired us all out at that point. Hidir and Feryal got up to head to their rooms while I remained thinking about what Ender had just described. As I was about to go back to my room, Ender followed closely. “You may not be aware of it,” he said quietly, “but you have been badly beaten. Take care of yourself. Don’t let the things you know but don’t remember prevent you from protecting yourself.”
I laughed. “If she hadn’t left, I would think Gizem was talking to me now. Did she put you up to this?” I said.
Ender smiled at my joke, then grew more serious. “Just pay attention to Fatin,” he said before he went to his room.
I didn’t know what Ender was referring to, so, in my room, I dismissed his warning and tried to think of a strategy