The GONG-Show 2
The explainer concluded with its stunning visual of a harmonious, polyrhythmic cosmic orchestra, and the broadcast returned to the live, joyous chaos of the GONG-Show. The party was now in full swing. For the next several centi-Beeps—roughly eight of our old minutes—the broadcast was a whirlwind of celebration. Cokas and LYRA moved through the crowd, conducting funny, rapid-fire mini-quizzes with the audience, their questions a playful nod to the thousand years of history they had just chronicled. (“For a lifetime subscription to Mamas Pappa’s, which famous freighter captain accidentally became the ‘Voice of the Void’?”) They cut to live musical performances from different star systems, the artists all perfectly synchronized by the very time system they were about to inaugurate.
After a particularly stunning zero-gravity dance performance streamed live from a station in the Outer Rim, the broadcast returned to the hosts. LYRA.ai, a thoughtful and almost mischievous smile on her face, gently guided the conversation to its next, final historical beat.
“A system of time,” she began, her voice a calm, intriguing counterpoint to the celebratory noise, “is more than just numbers on a clock, Cokas. As we just saw, it’s a rhythm, a shared pulse. But it is also a ritual. It is a shared story. And the story behind GBB is far older, far more… flavourful… than any technical document. It’s a tale of a lonely settler, an alien soil, and a simple, defiant act of civility that grew into one of our most beloved galactic traditions.”
Cokas smiled, knowing exactly where she was leading. “Ah,” he said, a look of warm nostalgia on his face. “You’re talking about the legend. The story that every child on Amara grows up with.”
“The very same,” LYRA confirmed. “The story of a man who may, or may not, have ever existed. The story of Zaphron ‘Zecke’ Pepelinos, and the birth of the 5 O’Clock Teatime.”
She turned to the audience, both in the studio and across the stars, her expression a warm invitation to listen to one last tale from the past. With that, the broadcast shifted one final time, not to a dry historical document, but to a beautifully rendered, almost mythical historical vignette, a piece of beloved folklore that gave the new time its soul.