Sole Solution by Eric Frank Russell (Fantastic Universe, April 1956)1 opens with a being trapped in a dark void where only he exists. He realises that the only resources available to overcome his predicament are “secreted within himself” and that he must “be the instrument of his own salvation”.
Eventually, after further exploration of his environment, and much thought, he conceives of a solution that will provide what he wants:
He created a mighty dream of his own, a place of infinite complexity schemed in every detail to the last dot and comma. Within this he would live anew. But not as himself. He was going to dissipate his person into numberless parts, a great multitude of variegated shapes and forms each of which would have to battle its own peculiar environment.
And he would toughen the struggle to the limit of endurance by unthinking himself, handicapping his parts with appalling ignorance and forcing them to learn afresh. He would seed enmity between them by dictating the basic rules of the game. Those who observed the rules would be called good. Those who did not would be called bad. Thus there would be endless delaying conflicts within the one great conflict.
When all was ready and prepared he intended to disrupt and become no longer one, but an enormous concourse of entities. Then his parts must fight back to unity and himself.
If this (spoiler) doesn’t give the game away, then the neat payoff lines, “‘Let there be light.’ And there was light.” confirm his identity.
I’d read this story before and remembered the ending, but I still thought it was pretty good: adroitly laid out, and the last lines bootstrap the story to another level. I’d also add that I was quite taken, even though I’m an atheist, with the conceit that we are all parts of a disassembled God trying to distract himself.
***+ (Good to Very Good). 700 words. Story link.
1. This is the first story in Brian W. Aldiss’s anthology Penguin Science Fiction, which is a group read starting in one of my Facebook groups today, 27th November 2023 (private group, so you will have to join).