The Results

The Results

  As Phil receded back into his large, over padded office chair, he couldn't help but muse over the vast and cavernous like office he had become accustomed to. Row after row of data terminals and printers lined the long entrance to his office, finally spilling into the cathedral like office, which had been designed by him. This was not only to extol his position but intimidate anyone else who should question his status. With his acceptance as Executive Head of the new CSD (Combined Sciences Directorate) just a mere two years ago, he was quite confident and exhilarated that this was the pinnacle of his career. Always having a keen interest in the sciences, he had obtained several degrees quite easily and as a young engineer had also been pointed out for early promotion in every position held!

  Phil was still musing over past events when the bank of machines sitting to the right of him jumped to a life of their own. Spilling reams of paper that contained the weekly reports from all science labs, they were sure to raise his ire, should he not receive them. He pondered to himself, if his insistence for this mound of paper wasn't a payback scheme by his associates as he looked at the stack on his left from 2 weeks past, still marked with tags from when he'd set them aside for more urgent matters.

  The machines had just finished the obnoxious noise of paper handling and seemed to go dormant once more, with Phil anxiously and carefully putting tabs on items he thought of importance or need further explanation. When the trill of the phone interrupted his solace, a worried voice of the department head for Astrophysics could be heard rapidly talking with someone in the background. "Yea, that's right, run it one more time and give me the results again. Phil? You on line yet? Ok, have you seen the latest reports? Well look them over, have a think, and call back, all right? With final deafness the receiver hung up, leaving what Phil thought his department head had been drinking too much coffee lately.

  Flipping thru the large bank of the new report sitting in front of him, Phil finally found the Astrophysics section. He scanned the pages, involuntarily shaking his head at each item, with nothing appearing out of place from the numerous reports he'd seen before. He was just reaching for the phone to call back when a glimmer of something odd struck him. Pulling the hand back, Phil reached over and pulled the pile of reports that had been sitting neglected for two weeks.

  Scanning the old stacks he reached the reports from Astrophysics, tracing line by line with the new report. To Phil's astonishment two major star clusters, M12 and M42 were missing from the places they had occupied on the old reports! While reaching for the phone again, its light started to blink with chirping noises in sequence. "Ok, ok so I know you're doing the best you can, but run it again. Phil? Sorry to keep doing this to you but I want to be sure of this. Ok, ok so you have the same results. Phil? Sorry again. Have you found it yet? Good. I'm calling to tell you... What? Of course, I've run a dozen times and checked the equipment. No doubt about it, they're gone.

  Phil hung the receiver softly, wondering how this was possible. Two major star systems are gone! Never in history had something of this magnitude ever been recorded! Phil's head swarmed at the thought of this, wondering how the department was going to break the news to the outside world. They, other people, of course, would look to him to provide an explanation. Sure, they were several thousand light-years away, but when whole galaxies start disappearing emotions run high and people start to second guess any findings, proposing any type of wild theory and resurrecting ones discarded long ago or worse yet, tying some mysticism to it all.

  Phil had always abhorred this worse form of tripe. It made his skin tingle just at the thought of the prophets and doomsayers that were to surely spring up once this news had found its way to the common man. Underlying all this Phil could not suppress the thought - that little fear of what his fellow scientists would say or tell him should the data prove incorrect? Of anything he was not going to have, it was speculation from others that he did not have control over his departments!

  With this Phil decided it was time to make sure that the situation didn't arise, that he was not caught off guard when the anticipated onslaught of questions that would be asked from the most uninformed to scholarly. Surely these people would be expecting him for the final analysis on something he could not explain! Turning to the bank of machines that had been standing there like quiet sentinels guarding the entrance of the office that was his domain, Phil quickly typed in instructions to the computer to correlate all data pertaining to the two known galaxies and to offer a hypothesis as to the disappearance.
 
  Phil was quite sure that all this would be answered quite simply since in the two years that he'd been in charge; nothing seemed quite out of reach with the manpower and facilities that were at his disposal. The computer screen flashed several messages and Phil turned to see...

He didn't know how he came to be standing by his overturned chair. The huge stack of reports lay scattered about the floor, unraveling like streamers in a breeze. Phil's head felt numb and he couldn't help but wonder if a large section of the ceiling hadn't fallen, striking a blow and leaving him bleeding, giving cause for the feeling that he was experiencing.  Regaining some of his senses, Phil righted the chair and sat slowly; sinking into it and noting for the first time the chair may have been slightly oversized for his frame. Phil glanced over to the computer screen and started to realize the hot, searing point that was scorching his brain was emanating from the messages contained on his display. He slumped further into the chair as he read rapidly the words shown...

It had been known for some time that the entire universe was governed by the same basic rules. The combined science departments feeding huge amounts of data into their machines, had advanced science to new heights never thought obtainable and had provided proof the microscopic, as well as the macroscopic, worked in the same manner. In fact of interest to Phil was the newly discovered "fifth force" of nature, the cosmic "glue" that bound all matter together appeared to have some type of organization to it as yet unexplained. Another interest that had caught his attention was the physics lab had determined a method to sort cosmic "noise" into its basic elements, thus detecting all that had ever transpired, even from the beginning of time itself!

Phil shook his head, trying desperately to clear his mind of the multitude of thoughts and emotions rising within him. For knowing what he did, the messages on the display became all too clear.

COMPILED DATA ON M12 AND M42 DISAPPEARANCE:

DATA BANK SUGGESTS THAT ALL MATTER IS CONTROLLED BY A INTELLIGENCE.

REFERENCE TO CAPABILITY OF THIS MAGNITUDE IS TO A SUPREME BEING, KNOWN AS GOD.

MESSAGE RECEIVED AND DECODED FROM NOISE ANALYSIS FROM 0.0 HOUR (START OF TIME) IS:

ALL THAT IS, HAS BEEN MADE FROM GOD SO ALL THAT EXISTS MAY BE PART OF GOD, BEING MADE FROM THE SUBSTANCE OF GOD HIMSELF.

FURTHER ANALYSIS OF DISAPPEARANCE SUGGESTS:

It was this that Phil's mind had rejected, that last sentence now glaring back at him;

NOW GOD WANTS IT BACK...





Rick Light