He was right. How could I have missed this glaring flaw in my plan? I had blindly overlooked this whilst leading myself down endless and aimless pathways of thought. Once again a major part of the problem had to be rethought from scratch.
“You’re right. I cannot believe that I did not think of this earlier.”
“How are we going to end this now?
“I have no idea. I’m not even sure where to begin rethinking this.”
This oversight was a huge dagger to my heart at this stage. I had been single minded in my focus on one specific way of ending this problem that I had ignored one of the fundamental laws of physics in doing so. That was just naïve. It was like forgetting to carry the one with dire consequences.
I was thankful that EricToo had spotted this and stopped me in my tracks from pursuing a way to destroy Stasis as I know I would have eventually found a way.
For now, we had to win the war. I briefly mused that it would perhaps be wise to remove everyone from Stasis now to ensure that no one else ‘died’. However, I knew that it would still be exploited. If not by Patrick, then by someone else. Stasis had now been experienced by everyone. Some would never want to return and others would want to come back. Those with the same inclinations as Patrick would want to use it for profit.
No, the risk was too high. The transition back had to occur immediately before the closing of Stasis. Not only that, but the lock on Stasis had to be rigid.
The point that EricToo had originally brought up about weather death in Stasis was real needed to be addressed. I could only think of one way to answer this definitively. I once again went below the horizontal plane to visit the sentient code. Without even moving anywhere I just started speaking to the omnipresent being knowing that I first had to introduce the concept so that it could reason with it before understanding it. Only then could I approach the question I want to ask.
“Do you know what death is?”
Maybe.
“Okay. Do you know what life is?”
Am I alive?
“No, but you are aware and have intelligence. But you cannot be alive because of your nature.”
Life is what you and others like you have. Death is what ends life.
“Yes. Can death occur in Stasis?”
Something can have an end. I have felt endings. Energy surges through the network and into a node when an ending occurs. It is stored. Small, not big.
“Is it death? Is it a terminal ending?”
I am confused. All endings are terminal. How can it be an ending and not be death?
“Show me this stored energy. I need to see it. I need to know if an ending is not necessarily an ending. I need to know if an ending can be made into a beginning.”
A circle. The beginning is also the end. A circle never ends. Life does not end.
“No, life does end outside of Stasis. I think you have just realised that life cannot end in Stasis. I still need to see this stored energy to confirm my thoughts.”
I will take you.
Stasis Update: A Novel 
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