Humphrey Price Archives - Sci Phi Journal

Fiction

The Prayer

by Humphrey Price

It was the last chance to save my crew. Yeah, we’d made some mistakes when we arrived in our starship invading like conquistadors. We slaughtered multitudes of them, and they killed many of us. Our ambitious leader, Captain Rocetz, underestimated the alien race known as the Spledici. Who knew they possessed antimatter beam cannons? They could have obliterated our entire fleet, but they showed mercy and allowed us to surrender.

I didn’t approve of the Nisei Data Company’s colonial aspirations, but I was an indentured conscript with my family held hostage back home, so I had no say in the matter. As the ship’s official alien liaison, my request had been granted to have an audience with the Spledici High Priest. Little was known of their strange alien mythology.

The Captain waited outside with our crew after arriving in a shuttlecraft. It was a beautiful world with a breathable atmosphere and comfortable environment. I alone was allowed to enter the temple to be met by the High Priest and led into the Holy Chamber.

Helckemezid, a brown furry ape-like being, spoke through an AI translator. “Your people have attacked us like savages. Now you must face God, and She will pass judgement. She will decide if you live or die.”

I felt bold and risked asking the question, “Does God decide or do you decide?”

“I will interpret God’s decision.”

At the far end of the chamber hung a fabric curtain, beyond which lay the Holy of Holies. The High Priest said, “Before you face judgement, you must understand what you are about to behold. God is the supreme intelligence and designer of the universe. As with all conscious entities, thinking and memory require the processing and storage of information which must take place in a real manifestation, or they cannot exist. There is no supernatural magic in our universe. So how does God think? Where is She physically located?”

I tried to remember my history lessons on religion and mythology. “I thought God was supposed to be everywhere.”

“She is everywhere, spanning our entire universe.”

“How can God be everywhere in a physical form which we cannot see?”

“This will be revealed to you.”

Helckemezid drew back the curtain, exposing the innermost chamber. At the far end sat a gold-colored rectangular box with a transparent cylinder suspended above. “We shall now enter and stand in the presence of The Lord.” Helckemezid pulled the curtain closed behind us, plunging the alcove into darkness.

“The outer surface of the Sacred Cylinder is a display screen viewing a volume of space inside that is less than the size of an atom. Our technology allows us to view the quantum realm in real time, without disturbing the observations.”

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw flashes of light in the cylinder. They were different colors and appeared evenly dispersed. I stood in silence, mesmerized, as the flashes waxed and waned in random patterns.

“Am I seeing virtual particles and antiparticles being created and annihilated?”

“Yes,” the priest answered, “This is vacuum energy. These events are the firing of the synapses of the cosmos. Just like the synapses in your brain or the switching elements in a computer processor, you are glimpsing God thinking.”

“If the quantum foam is really God’s brain, then how does God interact with the universe?”

“She can create particles, matter, and energy at will. The quantum fluctuations are not really random. They just appear that way to us. By controlling this energy, She has the power to create and destroy and perform miracles. She can manipulate matter and energy as She pleases, never violating the laws of physics She crafted. And now, if you are to live, you must pray to God.”

I was terrified. I had never prayed in my life, and I didn’t believe any of this crap, but I had to come up with something. “God, it is amazing to be here and see you.”

The flashes of light stopped, and the chamber went dark. I heard a gasp from the High Priest. Then the flashes started up again. Helckemezid looked concerned.

This is just some kind of gimmick, I thought, but I knew I needed to make a contrite appeal. “My people have sinned, and we need your help.” A bright series of particle creations and annihilations cascaded across the cylinder. “Please guide us in bringing peace to our worlds. We pledge that we will depart and in the future engage with the Spledici only if they so wish. I beseech you to please forgive me and my crew for our horrible transgressions.”

The chamber lit up with an explosion of activity for several seconds. Then it reverted back to the usual random behavior. A brisk wind blew through the enclosed chamber carrying a subliminal voice that breathed, Only the truly wicked shall be punished. Certainly, I had just imagined this hallucination.

“I have never witnessed such an occurrence,” the priest whispered in awe. “You have been forgiven, and you shall live. Now having God’s favor, you will also receive the gift of eternal life.”

“You believe there is life after death?”

“This is in our scriptures.”

“How can that be so? All of our thoughts, memories, and experiences reside in our brain. When that dies, we can no longer think or be aware of anything.”

“God preserves your memories and all of your thought patterns in a system backup. The backup is maintained at all times and kept instantaneously up to date. That stored information is your soul. When you die, God has your full system image ready to restore and resurrect your brain in a new body in the afterlife.”

“And where exactly does God keep my soul, my system backup?”

“In an almost infinite quantum computer, the fabric of the universe, God’s brain.”

“You mean in the quantum fluctuations that we just observed.”

“Yes.”

“We are one with God then.”

“It is perfect, is it not?”

I was not convinced. I thought this whacky religion was all a bunch of hooey, but at least our crew was saved. As I left the temple, there was a commotion outside. The Captain had been struck dead by a bolt of lightning.

~

Bio:

Humphrey Price is a space systems engineer who has contributed to robotic missions to the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. You can follow his writings at humphreyprice.com.

Philosophy Note:

This piece explores what type of religion an advanced alien culture might have. Throughout human history, most cultures have believed in some type of religious construct to explain the universe and our place in it and attempt to appeal to a god or gods in order to control outcomes so as to be in our favor. The fictional idea in the story presents a construct for God and creation that could be measurable, understood, and not require any supernatural violations of the laws of physics. This notional alien religion would also allow for divine intervention in past and current events, performing acts that would be interpreted as miracles, and provide for the possibility of eternal life after death.

Fiction

The Perfect Heart

by Humphrey Price

My grandmother was dying, with maybe six months to live. Her old heart was failing. I was pretty torn up about it, because we had always been so close. While growing up, I could confide with her in things I would never reveal to my parents, and she would listen and understand. In many ways, we were kindred spirits. Grandma was on the wait list for a transplant but considered high risk because of her age and general health, so it was unlikely she would be offered a heart in time.

I was determined to do something about it. To give her the best chance, I wanted a pristine heart, not a used one, so I contacted Dr. Aften Skinner, the world’s foremost researcher for creating lab-grown organs who had just opened up a call for candidates for a revolutionary new procedure. She was willing to provide the first lab-grown human heart for an experimental transplant but needed a donor for the stem cells. My grandmother’s cells were old and not a great source. I assured her that I would find a donor.

My next move was to consult with a friend who is a professional magician and a master of prestidigitation. She trained me well, and I spent countless hours practicing to become proficient to execute my plan.

I flew to the Vatican early to make sure I would be in the front of the queue for the Papal communion on Easter Sunday. I figured if anyone could perform the miracle of transubstantiation, it would be the Supreme Pontiff. When I received the wafer from the Pope himself, I palmed the Eucharist as I simulated placing it in my mouth. Drinking from the chalice was the tricky part. With misdirection and sleight of hand, I slipped a custom-made clear plastic device in my mouth to capture the wine into a sterile compartment. When the Pope moved on to the next parishioner, I used my legerdemain skills to remove the receptacle with the wine and place it in a concealed cold container along with the purloined consecrated host. Technically, this was an act of desecration, a grave sacrilege, but this was required for my plan.

Doctor Skinner was amazed at the purity of the samples. The bread and the wine had indeed been transformed into corporeal human body cells and blood. “The tissue sample is amazing!” she proclaimed. “It’s incredibly uniform, and the cells are youthful, like they were just grown yesterday. The blood is immaculate with plenty of white blood cells that have DNA. Where did this come from?”

I said, “I’m not at liberty to reveal the source, but I can assure you that the donor is a godly man, truly a saint.”

“I am able to get flawless stem cells from this material, and I’ve never seen such clean DNA. There are no corrupted segments or bad genes that I can find anywhere. It looks like the donor is of Middle-Eastern origin. The blood type is AB, as is your grandmother’s, so this will be a great match.”

The stem cells were applied to a hi-tech armature and nurtured as they multiplied and specialized into the complex cell types specified in the DNA instructions. Doctor Skinner was able to grow a strong beating heart in a matter of a few months.

Grandma was still hanging on, and the transplant went well. A month later, she was back home, playing bridge, and digging in her garden. It was a miraculous turn of events, and I was so happy, because ever since I was a small child, Grandma always told me that she wanted to have the heart of Jesus.

~

Bio:

Humphrey Price is a space systems engineer at NASA JPL who has contributed to robotic missions to the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. His stories range from highly realistic hard science fiction to science fantasy. Info on his writings can be found at humphreyprice.com.

Philosophy Note:

If the Catholic transubstantiation of the Eucharist during communion is real, and the bread and wine actually are transformed into real human cells and blood, then as a scientist, this begs the question of, “Well, what can you do with that?” This story presents one such possibility.

Fiction

Fragment 27

by Humphrey Price

The Universe ends tomorrow. When that happens, I will die for real. But I am ready! I’m actually pretty excited about it. Everyone is.

I am one of the Aeonians. There are a lot of us, but not as many as you might think, all things considered. By my count, there are just around 144 trillion of us! About nine hundred million years ago, I asked God if that was the correct number, and He chuckled. He had manifested Himself as a complex flower-shaped energy field, and the lobes of the field undulated back and forth in mirth like the tentacles of sea anemones I remember from Earth. “You know I like the number 144,” He responded enigmatically. “You are a brilliant mathematician. I made you that way, and I have every confidence in your count.” I knew I wasn’t going to get anything more out of Him on the subject.

Most Aeonians socialize with only maybe a million or so of their acquaintances, but I made a concerted effort to meet and talk to every single Aeonian, and I think that I have. That might seem impossible, but on average I only had to meet about 25 new people per day, or what passes here for the equivalent of an Earth day. I still think of time in terms of Earth days and years, and in fact most of us, except for the angels, evolved on worlds with diurnal cycles and years. God often thinks of “days” as eons or ages, but He has a bit of a different perspective on things.

I have tried to keep track of time, ever since I was resurrected at the Second Coming on May 14, 2033 CE, exactly 2,000 years after the Ascension. I had been dead for 43 years at the time. Only 144,000 human beings from the entire span of Earth history were rewarded with eternal life. The literal interpretation of the number of those saved in John’s Book of Revelation turned out to be correct. We are the ones who made it through the narrow gate, and we have been joined in Heaven with Aeonians from other worlds as well. We were transformed into energy beings with flawless bodies formed in the likeness of our previous corporeal ones.

We all communicate with The One Language, the mathematically perfect language God gave to all sentient creatures He created in His image. Earth lost TOL when the Etemenanki Ziggurat was built, also known as the Tower of Babel, but for the most part, the rest of the Universe always spoke in TOL.

I have seen a hundred million worlds inhabited with intelligent life, having been sent on missions and assignments to many of them along with angels and other Aeonians to seek and save the lost. And on each of these worlds there was a day of reckoning when those who had followed His teachings were lifted or resurrected and transformed into Aeonians. Most did not make it. When God said the path was narrow and few would find it, He wasn’t kidding.

Many of His teachings were framed by the culture of the times, but those principles adapted to the evolution of societies. As examples of previously forbidden practices, some of those saved from Earth had tattoos, gender-indifferent hair length, and different sexual mores. I think the key was that they loved their neighbors as themselves and were pure in their motives.

There were billions of trillions of souls who did not receive eternal life. What happened to them? When I asked Him, He said, “They received no everlasting punishment. In My mercy they are all now at peace in eternal rest.”

Now those worlds are all gone. The last of them perished a billion years ago. The multi-dimensional membrane we inhabit has expanded to its limit, the stars are cold, and the back holes are evaporating.

Even though I met everyone here, there are those I see more often. John the Baptist and Isabel de Olvera are among them. I taught both of them to play Go and bridge, two of my favorite games. We had so many great times together. My best friend is Eela, a Neanderthal woman from 97,200 BC. Of course, I met Adam and Eve. They were the first farmers, the first civilized humans “to work the land,” and the first of “God’s people.” They were born in 10,000 BC, “created from the dust,” so to speak, as we all were. I have many close friends who were born on worlds in galaxies far from Earth.

Now I have said my goodbyes and await the end. Just as the fundamental laws of this universe were spawned in the creation event of The Big Bang, they will break down as the mathematical topology of the Universe becomes unstable in its accelerating expansion, and the bubble pops. In an instant, all of creation and we Aeonians will disappear, and the energy of this universe will recycle into the creation event of a new universe which God tells me will be very different from ours. Even the laws of physics may not be the same. Only God will survive the event, since he is external to and integral with the set of multi-dimensional membranes.

So, I will die. But wasn’t I promised eternal life? Well, 15.7 billion years seems pretty eternal to me. God has hinted that some of us may be resurrected in the new universe, or that some artifact of us may survive. No one will ever read these words, but I am compelled to record them. I am satisfied, and I shall relish my ultimate end only a few hours from now.

#

This text was found encoded in wave grouping 1,728, fragment 27, in the m-shell orbital of Xrtrium in the periodic table of 4D surfaces. 1,440 messages have been found embedded in the fundamental wave groupings of surfaces in the universe.

~

Bio:

Humphrey Price is a space systems engineer at NASA JPL and an aspiring science fiction writer. He was the Configuration Engineer for the Cassini Saturn orbiter and the Project System Engineer for the GRAIL lunar gravity mapping mission. His hobby is coming up with alternative ideas for sending humans to explore Mars sooner rather than later. All ideas and opinions in his stories are his own and do not represent NASA policy in any way. You can catch up with his SF exploits at humphreyprice.com.

Philosophy Note:

This eschatology story explores the questions of what happens after you die and what happens at the end of the universe as we know it. If there are universes before or after ours, are the laws of physics the same or not, and can any information survive the end?

Humphrey Price

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