The God Experiment

Chapter No.69. A Cognitive reality.

Chapter No.69. A Cognitive reality.

The Steris family enjoyed long periods without being involved in difficult situations. Sylvia was well into her pregnancy and winter weather prevailed. Like most people, the Steris family stayed mostly at home on long winter evenings. However, they had Robert's game room in the basement to enjoy.

James and Sylvia liked to play ping pong or enjoy a game of chess, while Robert and Janet played darts.

Evenings were a chance to discuss things, and on one occasion Robert brought up an interesting theory.

"It appears that we are not the first to become subjects of a God experiment," he said. "The obvious subjects are Samson, who was betrayed by Delilah. Daniel was another possible candidate that was betrayed. There was David, the king of Judah. He screwed up by becoming enthralled with Bathsheba. The best example was Joan of Arc, who was betrayed by a bunch of French nobles. All of these heroes had unusual powers, but not enough to prevent their demise."

"Obviously, we are different in that we have infinite powers," James said.

"Yes, but there was another case, a Carlos Delagarza, who was a Bolivian peasant that helped in the wars to throw off Spanish rule. He was reported to have had superpowers but did not attempt to take over and become a leader. The reports about him suggest that he was betrayed by his wife."

"Why are you're telling us this?" Janet said.

"Because it reveals that betrayal is the main reason why we could fail. The only chance we have is if we stick together and don't allow our superpowers to corrupt us."

"I think that we have strong enough family ties to prevent that," Janet said.

"What else could we do?" James asked. "We need all of us, including Sparky, to do what we do."

The dog offered an inclusive bark.

"I'm not going anywhere," Sylvia added.

"Technically, you could," James said. "We're able to morph."

Sylvia patted her baby bump. "I like this and I'm looking forward to giving birth to it."

"We are too," Janet said.

"I'm surprised that NASA hasn't elicited us to help them with another mission."

Just then the land line rang.

"Speak of the devil," Janet said before she answered it. After a brief conversation, she hung it up. "They said it's a serious emergency."

"Let me guess," Robert said. "It's another asteroid collision probability.

"It's worse. It's the chance of a monster coronal mass ejection destroying most of the power systems and satellite tech."

"How much time to we have?"

"They didn't say, but it sounds like it won't be very long until it hits."

"Let's go there and check it out."

They teleported to JPL and met Jason and three other people, two women and an older male.

"We're not sure how you could prevent this from destroying our power grid and satellites, but it's on the verge of causing a multi terawatt event like the Carrington Event in 1895," Jason said. "There wasn't that much tech back then so it didn't cause much damage. A CME like that now would be a disaster."

"How does it do this?" Robert asked.

"It's a massive plasma of particles and electromagnetic energy blown off the Sun that smacks into the Earth's magnetic field, compressing it on the day side. The result is a massive shock that destroys sensitive electronics and electrical equipment. Basically, it's a powerful electrical storm."