[ PI ] You are the last person to die and go to heaven . Humans have created a way to extend life indefinitely . You meet with God . He 's not happy .

In the beginning, there was only darkness. Then the light shone into the dark, and in that light I could see glimpes of things: an aged hand, a woman's eyes, a snow white dove. I was still dazed and sluggish with death, and so I did n't understand at first what I was seeing. 
 
 `` Child and father, mortal soul, do you know what it means to be a god?'' 
 
 I did not. My mind - or what passes for a mind in that immaterial place - was reeling. Those who came near death often experienced hallucinations, but this was unlike any dream I'd ever experienced. 
 
 It was only after several moments of silence I thought to wonder where the question had come from. All around me was light and imagery, with not another human soul in sight. Just as I was starting to wonder if I'd heard anything at all, the question came again, more thought than sound. 
 
 `` Mortal soul, do you know what it means to be a god?'' 
 
 `` Hello? Are *you* God? Is the old religion true? I thought... We all thought there was nothing after death.'' I thought of the work and preparations I had left behind on Earth: the various immortality projects that were nearing fruition. 
 
 The light around me dappled and swayed, and I thought of wind moving through a birch tree or a child shifting from side to side. 
 
 `` True as tales. Real as shadow. Do you know what it means to be a god?'' 
 
 `` If you'd asked me yesterday, I'd have said there was no such thing as gods. How can I know what gods are if I only just learned they exist?'' 
 
 `` You do not know,'' said the voice, and there was sadness in its tone. 
 
 `` It means great power and omnipotence,'' I guessed, and the light rippled. 
 
 `` It can,'' agreed the voice, but it is more than power and less than omnipotence.'' 
 
 That was true. The Judeo-Christian god had been omnipotent, I recalled, but many earlier gods were anthropomorphic, with human personalities and faults. 
 
 `` It means that people believe you're a god and worship you,'' I said, but the light rippled again. This time it seemed to have faded, and I began to be afraid. 
 
 `` This conception of gods as parasites that feed on prayer is a recent conceit. Are Freya and Odin any less gods because no one worships them?'' 
 
 With some reluctance, I spoke the word I knew it had been leading me to. 
 
 `` Immortality.'' 
 
 The voice laughed. 
 
 `` And humanity has just ascended to godhood, is that what you think? No, little mortal, no. Your divinity has just been lost.'' 
 
 A rolling thunderstorm. A horned man. A dancing girl. The summer stars. All these I saw in the remnants of the fading light. I saw, but I did n't understand what the images meant. 
 
 `` Who are you, and why are you being so deliberately cryptic?'' I asked. `` You want to know what it means to be a god? I'll tell you! It means showing yourself to mortals, spouting lines that can be interpreted a thousand different ways, then buggering off to watch the chaos that ensues.'' 
 
 The darkness rippled. 
 
 `` You do not understand, mortal. I am not gloating. I am mourning. We are the last, you and I, the last of the human gods.'' 
 
 `` Surely there must be other gods?'' I asked, `` Humanity ca n't be alone in the universe.'' 
 
 Motes flickered like fireflies in the boundless dark. 
 
 `` You are still thinking like a living man,'' it said, `` As if we had the power to move through physical space. We live in thought and memory. Any gods we met would be human gods and we are the last.'' 
 
 One by one the motes went out. 
 
 `` Then what does it mean to be a god?'' I asked, but there was no one left to answer my question.
