Millions more Gen N babies were conceived in the following days.
U.N. Secretary-General Ghan Chi-won said, “With the Visitor’s help, we managed to save our planet from non-terrestrial aggressors. Why not take advantage of the momentum generated and apply our efforts to saving our planet from ourselves?” In response, a core group of nearly two thousand summit meeting delegates announced the formation of a new international NGO called the 2ND NUDGE. They drew up a list of the world’s most intractable problems and resolved to find solutions to them all within ten years. Their list contained the usual suspects: world hunger and poverty, human trafficking, pandemic diseases, endless regional warfare, global warming, environmental degradation and collapse. But at least one goal was a surprise to many — to root out endemic wealth disparity by bringing rampaging capitalism to heel. Not only labor but all stakeholders, including the planet and its environment, its flora and fauna, its waters and air would be granted an equitable share in all commercial enterprises. Where did that come from?
THE DAY AFTER the Nudge, Jace was a dinner guest at Barbara Jean’s. Neither he nor Deut said much. They were too busy offering each other extra servings of this or that and sighing. After dinner they sat on the sofa in Barbara Jean’s living room and held hands. Barbara Jean excused herself as soon as she could and retired to her room. Crissy Lou fell asleep in front of the stove.
When it was time for Jace to leave, they kissed and kissed good-bye.
C2 1.0
WHEN JACE FINALLY left, with enough kisses to last him a good while, Deut loaded the stove with an armful of firewood and went with Crissy Lou to her bedroom. She was surprised to find it lit up with an unearthly, shimmering radiance. Gabriel was waiting for her, crouching on the floor in the corner, his manly legs tucked beneath him in the cramped space. He was as beautiful as ever, and Deut struggled to keep her composure.
“I must say, that was the longest good-bye I’ve ever been forced to endure,” he said with a heavenly smirk. “I thought I might have to wait until tomorrow to talk to you.”
“Oh, Gabriel, I’m so happy.”
“As you should be, beloved in the eyes of God.”
Crissy Lou gave no indication that she saw or heard the angel but curled up on the throw rug next to Deut’s bed.
“Unfortunately,” the angel went on, “the Father’s victory was short-lived. Though the people of God, by the volume of their prayers, were able to divert the rogue planet Pipnonia and avert a disastrous collision with Earth, Lucifer managed to turn Pipnonia’s path once more, and Earth is once again in great peril.”
Deut’s knees grew weak, and she sat on the bed.
“How? How did this happen?”
“In a word, sin. While I have been rallying the followers of Christ these last days to offer up prayer and worship to the Father, Lucifer has likewise sent his legions of devils among the nations to sow temptation and infidelity. There are many more wicked men alive today than righteous, and they are committing more sins of greater depravity than at any other time since before the Flood. The balance of sin far outweighs the good. Lucifer has won this round.”
All of the magic and wonder of the evening leaked out of Deut’s heart.
“What will become of us now?”
“That depends on you, cherished servant of the Heavenly Father.”
“My mission?”
“Yes, it’s time for this servant to reveal to you your mission.”
“THE ROGUE PLANET Pipnonia appears to be a barren and lifeless place, but under its surface lives a race of men who are not from this Earth or descended from the stock of Adam and Eve.”
“Blue men?”
“Some of them are blue, but keep in mind, they are not humans. Your mission is to go to their settlements and preach to them the Word of God while there is still time. Adding the force of their prayers to that of the faithful on Earth may well swing the balance in our favor.”
“You want me to travel to another planet?”
“Not I, but the Father wants you to go there and preach, and for that to happen you’ll need a driver. Have you broached this matter with the ranger yet?”
“Not yet, but hang on. Are you telling me there are space aliens after all, and that they live on Pipnonia?” Even as she asked this, her heart filled with misery.
“Verily, I am.”
Without speaking, Deut got up and left the room, with Crissy Lou trailing behind. They returned a moment later with Barbara Jean’s copy of the Bible. Deut opened it to Romans and read, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” She repeated, “the whole creation,” with added emphasis.
“My poppy says this is proof positive there are no space aliens because there is no Space Alien Jesus. Jesus is the Second Adam, not the Second Blue Man. The sin of Adam and Eve tainted everything there is, and not just people on Earth but everyone everywhere, including on other planets. And yet, without their own Jesus, they can never be redeemed in His blood no matter what they do, and so they are damned to Hell’s fire forever. That is cruel and unjust; Father God is the opposite of cruel and unjust, so He would never do that. So there can’t be any space aliens.”
She closed the Holy Book and rested her case. It meant that this gorgeous angel was just another false angel tricking her like Martha had tricked her poppy. It meant her visit to Heaven was an illusion because that was where she’d met Gabriel. It meant that Mama was not Mama and that Uzzie was not a saint. That angle glow was just another kind of lust, and that she had abandoned her family for nothing at all. It meant that she was a fool.
Gabriel saw her anguish. “Peace, O Daughter of Man. It’s true that the Heavenly Father is not cruel and unjust to His people, as you say. But it’s also true there are alien men on other planets.”
“How? It’s not in here.” She thrust the Bible toward him. “No one can add to the Book or take anything away, not even an archangel. So where is your proof, Gabriel, if you’re even an angel at all?”
Crissy Lou looked up, alarmed by the anguish in her voice.
“Peace, cherished one,” Gabriel repeated. “You are sincere in all that you say, and yet you walk in error. Permit me to instruct you in the knowledge of the Lord so that you may see His plan and your part in it. Will you allow this?”
Deut placed the Bible on the bed next to her and pulled the comforter over her shoulders to ward off the chill. “Go ahead.”
“Thank you,” Gabriel said. “You are correct that no one may add to the prophecy inscribed in the Book. As the Holy Ghost has revealed to St. John at the end of Revelation, anyone who does attempt to counterfeit new prophecy shall suffer the scourge of the plagues that are recorded in its pages. Likewise, if anyone attempts to remove anything from God’s prophecy, God will take away his portion from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in His Book. And clearly, His Book speaks the truth of all creation from the beginning of time unto the last day. Also, as your poppy teaches, the sin of Adam has condemned the whole of creation to suffering, not just here on Earth but everywhere in the universe.”
The angel paused until she looked up at him.
“Yet I say unto you, Deuteronomy, who is esteemed in His eyes, the book of God, which you call the Bible, speaks only of this creation, your creation, which is the Second Creation. Before the beginning of time there was a First Creation where God fashioned angels out of rays of His own glory, and after your creation there was a Third Creation, where God fashioned Pipnons to live in innocence on the planet Pipnonia.
“Behold, here is the story in which all three creations meet in catastrophe.”
Archangel Gabriel proceeded to reveal to God’s chosen missionary a story that predated time itself. Deut listened in silence, both fascinated and frightened by the knowledge Gabriel shared with her. Soon her doubts and suspicions melted away. Here was knowledge that no human, not even her poppy, had ever encountered, and she wondered why she was the one
God chose to hear it. [see The Three Creations]
When Gabriel finished his account, he paused for Deut to speak.
“Yes,” she said, lightheaded with knowledge, “this is more than I could imagine, but . . . But I’m just a girl in the woods. What can one person . . . what can I do about any of it?”
“You can do much, O Daughter of Eve; you can do everything. The Pipnons have never sinned and thus have never needed the redemption of a Pipnon Jesus. So Lucifer has brought them to your creation instead so that they might be tainted by Adam’s sin and suffer eternal damnation through no fault of their own. But in doing so, Lucifer made a strategic error because by bringing them here, he has also exposed them to the voices of His faithful on Earth. God has chosen you of all His children to act as His missionary. To become His Thirteenth Apostle. God desires that you go to the world of the Pipnons to remind them that He loves them and to teach them once more how to pray. For they have forgotten. This is key to both Earth and Pipnonia’s deliverance. Pipnon prayer, added to the prayers of Earth’s faithful, will be enough to shift the balance from wickedness to righteousness. Earth can be spared its untimely destruction and Pipnons may be returned to their own creation, renewed in God’s love. That is your mission, Deuteronomy Prophecy, if you accept it. Do you? Do you consent to being God’s Apostle to the Pipnons? Speak now.”
C3 1.0
JACE DIDN’T WALK home from dinner at Barbara Jean’s, he danced home, he floated home. He felt more alive now than he ever had, like his life had only just begun. Jace stopped on the corner of Main and Lucky Strike and looked up at all the stars.
“Where is it?” he said.
Scrappy highlighted Pipnonia.
“Nyah, nyah, you can’t touch us now,” he boasted.
At home, Jace got ready for bed, but Scrappy said, Found One wants to talk with you. Shall I invite it in?
“Yeah, sure, in the living room.” Jace threw on a robe and went out to meet the little sausage man sitting on the couch. “Hey there, Found One. Looks like they’re going to throw you a ticker tape parade. I have to say — you rocked! I’d go to New York to see that.”
After a long pause, Found One said, “This one doubts the parade will take place.”
“Of course it will. Mayor Bloomberg has —” Jace broke off when Found One crossed its large, moist eyes. “What?”
“This one has detected another perturbation in the solar system.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that Machine has responded to this one’s action by readjusting Pipnonia’s trajectory. In a few hours, astronomers will observe that it is once again on a collision course with Earth.”
Jace was astounded by the news. “That’s insane! Are you sure?”
“Unfortunately, yes. There was always an outside chance that Machine possessed local controlling mechanisms.”
“Well, can’t we nudge the Earth again?”
“Probably not. The ready sources of fungible energy have already been tapped out. There is not enough time to sublimate, say, firewood or wind energy into virtual dark energy. The Little Nudge was a one-time tactic, and the window for altering spacetime has passed. Besides, if this one managed to alter Earth’s orbit again, Machine would simply re-aim Pipnonia.”
“Then what can we do?”
“You will recall that this one has already offered you a second option, the Big Bump.”
“Yes, global earthquakes, super volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, overwhelming destruction, massive population eradication, widespread environmental disaster. Some option.”
“This is true, but also survival for at least a portion of your species, enough to repopulate the planet in a mere three or four generations.”
Jace should have known that the Little Nudge was too good to be true. You generally got what you paid for, and sacrificing a few thousand plutocrats apparently didn’t buy much.
“So tell me more about this Big Bump.”
“As you wish. The Little Nudge depended upon dark energy and the expansion of local space for its effect. The Big Bump relies on magnetism. Magnetism is an elemental force of great magnitude, but only at close quarters. Pipnonia will have to be much closer when this one executes the effect, and, therefore, the results will be much more violent.”
“So how does it work?” Jace said. “You use the planet’s spinning molten core like a giant electromagnet or something?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes. This one will use both planets’ natural electromagnetism — because Pipnonia also has a dynamic core — as a catalyst for totally magnetizing both planets.
“The whole planets?”
“Yes, iron and a few other elements display strong magnetic effects naturally, but every element can be magnetized. This one will initiate total magnetization in rapid, brief pulses. Moreover, each planet will present as a virtual monopole during those pulses. That is, instead of the usual North and South poles that all magnets possess, the planets will have only one pole. The whole planet will be either North or South. This is not a natural state but can in theory be achieved.
“If both planets experience the same polarity at the same time, they will repel each other with great force. The closer they get, the stronger the repulsion, so much so that they will not be able to meet.”
“Okay,” Jace said, “but can’t the machine change Pipnonia into a South magnet when the Earth is North, increasing their attraction?”
“Perhaps, but recall that it took Machine over twenty-four hours to perceive and react to the Little Nudge. That tells this one that although Machine has controlling mechanisms in your solar system, its command structures must be located quite some distance away. If Machine changes Pipnonia’s polarity, this one can instantaneously change Earth’s to match. Machine won’t be able to react fast enough to foil this plan.”
It all sounded pretty iffy. “Don’t tell me, you need me to give you permission to proceed.”
“Yes, and also to make an additional decision.”
Another decision? Hadn’t he already made enough decisions?
“You need to harvest more people?”
“No, the ones already harvested are sufficient. The decision you need to make is which planet to save, because this one can’t save them both. Although they won’t meet, the forces driving them apart will cause just as much planetary stress as if they did collide. This one needs to increase the integrity of one planet while eroding that of the other in order to diffuse their inertia and soften the blow. Instead of two billiard balls crashing into each other, it would be more like a pool ball hitting a feather pillow. With the Big Bump, one planet will be obliterated, while the other will emerge shaken but intact. However, as before, this one has no moral authority to decide the winner and loser here. It’s up to you to decide.”
“That’s ridiculous. There’s no choice involved. Obviously, Earth must survive.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because like Earth, Pipnonia is populated.”
Of course it is.
“THEY’RE CALLED PIPNONS. There are about half a trillion of them.”
Jace said, “How can that be? None of the telescopes found cities on Pipnonia, or air pollution, or other signs of life.”
“That’s because Pipnons live in warrens deep underground, and they don’t burn fossil fuels or practice agriculture or other industries.”
“Sounds pretty primitive. What are they like? Are they intelligent?”
“Compared to what, you?”
“Yes, compared to humans. Are they self-aware? Civilized? If there are half a trillion of them, they must be pretty small. Are they like pond scum?”
“Intelligence is a relative thing. The Pipnons never went through a knowledge singularity like your ancestors did. Instead they have evolved in a linear fashion over eons. They enjoy a predisposition toward altruism and cooperation. They have never known war, murder, deceit, thievery, slavery,
the heel of government, or the need of institutions of any kind. They have a social order, to be sure, but it’s founded on surplus rather than scarcity, equality rather than hierarchy, and fairness instead of greed.
“The Pipnons have no tools or technology whatsoever; never needed them. All their knowledge is local and/or communal, and it is considerable. They have a rich culture, art, oral tradition, and theater. While they lack a facility for music or dance, they more than make up for it with their sense of humor.
“Their brains are communal and huge, but they have no skeleton, skull, or birth canal. So the idea of a god would be a foreign concept to them and utterly incomprehensible.
“They have no microbes. For that matter, they have no flora or fauna, as you do on Earth. They comprise the totality of their biome themselves and draw their energy directly from solar and geothermal sources.
“About the only thing humans and Pipnons have in common is their sloppy, wet juiciness. Disgusting. Human biology is extraordinarily juicy. You leak, you secrete, you bleed, you swap juices. It’s like you people can’t accomplish anything of consequence without everyone getting wet. Frankly, it’s among your least flattering features as a species. But if anything, the Pipnons are worse than you in that regard.
“On any other objective scale, they are superior to you. They are your betters and a species you can only aspire to emulate.”
Jace listened patiently to all of this and, to his credit as a progressive thinker, he tried to keep an open mind. But it didn’t work.
“All of that may be so,” he said at last, “but you can’t seriously expect me to choose them over us, no matter how superior they are.”
Found One agreed. “This one has no doubt which way you will eventually decide. But keep in mind, humans are a doomed species, as this one has already explained in rich detail, whether or not you survive the Big Bump. Machine has decided to destroy you, if not this time, then surely in the future. By choosing Earthlings over Pipnons, you are merely postponing, not canceling, your imminent demise at the cost of a truly worthy species with a bright future. It’s at least worth some good-faith deliberation, don’t you think?”
Glassing the Orgachine Page 37