Visionary From The Stars (18.2)

Jean McClain followed the Star Traveler crew into her brother's office building. A lab technician met them at the reception area and led them to the elevator that took them ten stories up the side of the building. As the elevator opened, Laurie found herself staring at a blank wall, as though the elevator was trying to let them out between floors. The lab technician placed his hand on the wall, which slid up and out of sight, revealing a large room.

Laurie, followed by the rest of the crew, stepped into the room. The suite reminded her of the control room of the new Star Traveler. Her eyes passed from one glowing viewscreen to the next. Each screen showed a different still image. Wires and devices were strewn all over the place. The room looked like a high-tech game-room with every known gadget and a few she had never seen.

"I see you like my Tech room," Peter McClain replied as he strode into the room from a door in the rear. He was flanked by a handful of white-jacketed scientists.

"What is this room for?" Laurie asked.

"Jean!" Peter exclaimed as he realized his sister was with them.

He hastened to give her a short hug.

"I thought you were still on your research mission?" Peter asked.

"My mission got diverted--by a bunch of aliens no less! They seemed to be trying to keep the crew of the Star Traveler from finding something called an Intergalactic Bible?" Jean sputtered, showing her irritation.

"Ah, yes the object we are all here to discuss. Follow me." Peter led the group around the room.

"This room, Laurie— to answer your question, is where we test different software programs until they meet with our approval. There is one item, though, that we just can't seem to crack," Peter replied, pointing to a small, green, cylindrical object under a clear glass bell jar sitting on a short table, apart from the other lab tables.

"The only thing I can get it to do is play some sort of introductory program. The program plays itself over and over again, although it varies a little each time," Peter replied, frustrated.

"What does it play?" Dr. Smith asked.

"It plays a virtual reality scenario where people disappear right before your eyes, and yet some are left behind. It is freaky each and every time," Peter replied, looking at the floor, and appearing a bit disturbed.

"The End Times scenario," Laurie whispered.

She stepped forward, kneeling to get a closer look at the alien inscriptions on the cylinder.

"Our technicians have already decoded the message around the cylinder," Peter replied as he handed a piece of paper to Captain Mitchell.

Captain Mitchell showed it to the rest of the crew and then passed it down to Laurie.

"That's not all that it says," Laurie replied, only glancing at the paper momentarily. "It also has directions for opening it."

"We didn't see that. If it was some sort of bible, then wouldn't it be easy to read, instead of having to go through all this decoding nonsense?" one scientist spoke up.

"Well, if you think about it--first, let's assume that there are many different species of aliens--in that case, what do you need?" Laurie asked.

The Star Traveler crew waited for her to finish and the others standing in the room shrugged in reply.

"You would need a book that could be read in many different languages, and if that weren't enough, let's just assume that the new species of readers have never met aliens before. Well, then you have another problem—An Intergalactic Bible would probably talk about many different species of aliens, and here your audience is, not even aware that there are other species in the universe! Of course they would be disinclined to believe the book‒wouldn't you?" Laurie rambled.

"So if you find the first cylinder, it tells you in your own language how to find the bible. It then gives you a map to other planets that will inevitably show you that other species of God's creation do in fact exist. If the last cylinder is the bible itself, and the entire purpose of this hunt is to pave the way for you to believe in God's word, and consequently in God- it only makes sense for the first two cylinders to be the key to decode the last cylinder. Otherwise you would open the bible too early, before believing that there are other species out there in the universe. Such a thing could undermine your belief in the authority of God's word," Laurie explained all in one breath.

"How did you figure all that out?" Peter asked.

"Laurie has been captivated by these cylinders ever since we first found them. She's been studying them ever since," Eli replied.

"That, and since I became an ECOP, it has become second nature for me to try to think how others might," Laurie stated, more to her parents than to Peter.

"So how do we get past the introduction?" Peter asked.

"With the information from the first cylinder," Captain Mitchell replied as he lifted the glass bell jar and placed his MTD on top of the cylinder.

A holograph projected from his MTD to display a large screen, showing the words "The Intergalactic Bible", along with the same introductory statement inscribed around the cylinder. However, the words on the screen were all in English. A menu showed up next, asking whether the reader wanted to view the text or participate in a virtual rendition of the events. Silently the Star Traveler crew, along with the scientists, all listened to the Intergalactic Bible for more than an hour. As the first of the many programs came to an end, Peter stood slowly and reluctantly shut it off.

"This is amazing," Peter McClain said breathless, "we must work on a way to get everyone to read this. Not everyone has a computer like your MTD."

"Couldn't you just download the program into a DataTech WORD Reader?" Jean asked.

"We've tried that," Peter replied. "The readers can't handle the introductory program. Yes, we will have to work on a more advanced reader so it is available to everyone. Meanwhile, I am going to find you all a place to stay for the night. We can talk about how we are going to share this information tomorrow."

With a few short commands, McClain arranged for the crew to be led across the street to a hotel suite that was arranged just for their use. After Captain Mitchell sent a message to EASA, the exhausted crew left to find their individual rooms for the night.

Laurie could not sleep. She lay in bed wondering over the new problem that Peter had just brought to light.

'How can we make it so everyone who wants to will be able to read the contents of this cylinder?'

Suddenly, having an idea, she got up and left her room. She tiptoed into the living room of the suite and looked around until she found one of the WORD Readers.

Laurie ran her fingers over the smooth design of the object. It was about the size of an old-fashioned paperback book and weighed about the same. However, the Word Reader was made out of an industrial strength plastic. When she opened the reader, she found two screens which displayed the text of the book that was currently programmed into the reader.

Laurie's first impression was to simply download the Intergalactic Bible into the reader and delete the story already there, like Jean had suggested. However she soon realized that the reader was not equipped to handle that much information or programming. Seeing why Peter had been right, she decided to make a few modifications to the reader.

Laurie pulled apart the WORD Reader and proceeded to reassemble the chips and circuits inside. Still needing a few things, she moved her project into her room where she had set the case she brought with her on the shelf. She never went far without her repair kit. In it she kept spare parts and tools for working on circuit boards.

I'll have to build an entirely new piece of equipment. She mused, carefully considering the parts she had available to her.

Laurie worked through much of the night, falling asleep hunched over her creation.

The next morning, Laurie and the Star Traveler crew walked across the street and back to Peter McClain's WORD Corporation building. Peter met them looking slightly disheveled.

"I haven't been able to stop thinking about the problem," he replied wearily. "I've checked all of our databases, and talked with multiple manufacturers, we don't currently have a device with the proper amount of memory and capability that would be needed to house the Intergalactic Bible's programming. If we did, we could easily make it available to the masses."

"I came up with a way to solve our problem last night," Laurie replied as she handed a small box to Peter.

"What's this?" Peter asked her, opening the box to find a Word Reader lying in the padded interior.

"Open the reader," Laurie instructed.

As he did, Peter was surprised to find the Galaxy Bible's programming starting automatically.

"I redesigned the hardware in the shell of the Word Reader, and it now conforms to the requirements of the Bible program," Laurie replied. I even integrated some of the MTD's capabilities so the virtual reality program can also be accessed with the device."

Peter looked at Laurie, openly stunned.

"How! Can you show my technicians how to replicate this?"

"I would be happy to," Laurie replied with a smile, walking off with Peter's Technicians to show them how to mimic what she had created.

"We must contact the planet's news programs and spread the story of our discovery!" Peter exclaimed ecstatically.