… Early beliefs recorded the concept of a flat Earth: In early Mesopotamian mythology the world was portrayed as a flat disk floating in the ocean and surrounded by a spherical sky. Later civilizations would laugh at the idea of "Earth as a Petri dish", but it was not until the 3rd century BC when Hellenistic astronomy established the spherical shape of the Earth as a physical given.

… "And God said: 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.' And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so."

     The white haired elder stood on a circular catwalk looking down into a glass walled tank filled with dark liquid. Staring at the swirls of purple and red mixing through the dark fluid, silently observing the myriad of twinkling lights from within, he sighed. A younger colleague on his left looked up from his own study and asked what was wrong.
     Doctor Julius Godwin leaned on the handrail that kept foolish scientists from taking an unpleasant swim and shook his head. "The Grand Council is at it again, Chris. They've suggested another round of budget cuts and I'm afraid we're on the list this time. I don't believe they see the merit in our work here."
     Doctor Christopher Lord looked back into the blackness and frowned deeply. His silver hair glinting in the overhead lights, he looked up to the array of expensive instruments and softly swore. "Damn. After all the work it took to transfer everything … why couldn't they have said something before we produced the tank?"
     Godwin simply shook his head. "You know the council, Chris. They never move until they're good and ready. It may be nothing, but I fear we're going to lose this project. I'm going to trust in you and the others to keep a constant eye on this thing until the Council pulls the plug. Maybe we'll see a tangible result in time."
     "You believe the Council will allow us more time if we get results?"
     "It's the Council. They won't accept reports unless they can find a profit in them."
     Doctor Lord waited silently, watching as his mentor left the catwalk. Turning his attention back to the depths of the tank, he mumbled an urgent prayer. "…Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to all."

----

     "Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."

     "Tell me again what we're looking for?"
     Doctor Godwin pulled back from the ocular lens and sighed, rubbing his fingers over the bridge of his nose. Looking across the consoles at the newest member of his team, he wondered why the Grand Council had chosen to hire her. Eve Shun was a capable enough assistant with a sound understanding of the theories behind their unorthodox experiment. But the importance of their work seemed to continually elude her; she seemed to believe what they were doing could handle itself – indeed she thought the whole process had started on its own with no help whatsoever, an idea that made Dr. Lord furious whenever she was so unfortunate as to voice it in his presence.
     But Godwin liked Eve despite her odd ideas. At least her motives behind the study are pure. Looking back into the scope, he twisted the magnification dials and answered in a flat tone. "I am looking for signs of beneficial activity. You are to listen for electromagnetic signals." He waited for the reply he knew was coming and smiled at her response.
     "Signals? You're kidding me. There's enough static to drown out a Council session."
     "White noise."
     "Excuse me?"
     "We call it 'White noise", Eve. You're to listen for any evidence of an applied pattern." He stood straight to look at her and held his laughter at her expression. Before she could question further he answered her concerns. "A deliberately applied pattern will sound different than a natural rhythm. Or it might not. But you are to listen regardless, and if you hear something unusual, then it is our responsibility to trace the sound to its source, and identify whether the sound is of natural origin or of an applied pattern."
     "And what would an applied pattern mean?"
     Dr. Godwin smiled as he looked back in his scope. "It would mean, Miss Shun, that we had finally found the result we were looking for."
     He did not need to see the roundness of her mouth as she exclaimed, "Oh!" before going back to her headphones. With this new generation, he thought, it's a wonder we get any positive results at all.

----

     "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

     "So I told her, it did not matter. Unless we adjusted the geophysical shift parameter, the tropospheric layers would retain too much radiant energy from the ambient core, and the biological elements would never be favorable." Dr. Godwin shifted in his chair and took another bite of his lentil soup. His colleagues at the lunch table nodded as they saw to their own meals; he no longer noticed the various items they brought that he himself would never eat. Instead he watched and waited for reaction.
     Doctor Indue peeled the lid from his paneer masala and stirred thoughtfully. With his dark complexion, black hair and thin frame, he carried himself like a younger researcher, though Godwin knew their ages were roughly the same. Indue claimed his meatless diet as the source of his good health and keen intellect, and Godwin thought him close to right. It seemed as though the younger scientists were the source of all the new radical ideas that were being fed to the Council. Researchers like himself and Indue took more time with their questioning and were less likely to propose erroneous conclusions.
     Of course, dietary restrictions did not explain everything. Doctor Lam had his own fervent dislikes in the lunch room, and he ran about with more energy than Godwin and Indue combined. Oft determined to do things his way, regardless of protest or consequence, he was a challenge to work with, though Godwin had to admit his methods generally got things done.
     Noted for his past brilliance in transcribing and interpreting the scientific method of the previous generation of researchers, Lam's one major flaw seemed to be reluctance for adapting to changes brought about by the newest generation. He disdained the up and coming students in his field and seemed to positively loathe their new assistant. Yet he was the quicker of the two and responded first, pointing his knife for emphasis.
     "You told Dr. Vulcan to recalibrate the tectonic drift ratio, and chose to use particle bombardment anyway? That was a ballsy move, Julius. It's no wonder they left in a huff."
     Indue shook his head and chuckled. "All the senior members left in a bad way. Is one to think that their protestations are to blame for the current direction of the Council?"
     Godwin smiled, spreading his hands. "I wouldn't put it past them, but I don't think that's truly the reason. Hellene Roman and Gautama Shinto were the last hold outs of the old order, and nobody knew more about the basics than they. But we simply had to change the host's direction, and I saw early on that the ambient source fluctuation wasn't going to be enough to do it. A few nudges with the particle accelerator took care of the problem."
     Lam's "Brilliant" was eclipsed by Indue's slow shake of the head. "Very good thinking, Godwin Sir. But were you not afraid that you might sterilize the host entirely?"
     Lam scoffed. "Bah. They simply would have re-seeded it."
     Godwin raised a finger in denial. "Not necessarily; it took a lot of work to even bring the right conditions about in the first place. You're right Hari, caution and consideration were foremost in my mind."
     "But it worked. And the old goats hated you for it."
     Godwin chuckled. "It was not the first time they looked down their noses at me, Isaac. I had to work long and hard to meet their approval and join their project in the first place. Doctor Roman felt I had usurped her creation."
     Isaac Lam laughed, his booming echo filling the small break room. "Well you had, old boy. You had. It's their own bloody fault for refusing to see."
     "Their concerns were valid, Isaac. But we only had so many days, even then. The host organism had to be made just right for what we had in mind, and that wasn't happening with the temperature scale so high. The others thought I had ruined the experiment by tampering, and refused to take part any farther. Some walked out on the spot, but Hellene and Gautama placed their resignations with the Council and gave them notice. By the time of their last day, they knew I had made the right decision."
     Indue shook his head. "Well, it still seems that you made a risky move."
     "Hari, sometimes you have to risk everything to get anywhere at all."
     "Āmīn."
     Amen indeed, Isaac. Amen indeed.

----

     "Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable and I have loved thee therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life."

      Dr. Godwin dialed the magnification wheels once more and zoomed in on his subject, a tiny particle along the outer edge of the great glass tank. The organism they had planted was still healthy, floating along serenely in the darkness with no indication of what made it so special. There were literally millions of similar organisms in the tank, circling their ambient cores, not a single viable one visible to the naked eye. The cores winked and flickered in their orbits, drawing the eye through the dark swirls, but nowhere in the tank was there a sign to show the casual observer how special the project really was.
     Godwin looked closely and jotted notes about the organism: the color, axial tilt and distance from its parent core. He clicked the dial again and smiled as the organism's tiny companion came into view. His predecessors had added the bit of material as an afterthought, pulling the substance from the original organism before seeding the larger with the chemical mixture to produce life. It was a one in a billion chance, but that tiny blob had proven to be the one element that made everything else possible. And to think they thought it a mistake.
     But if that had been the only difference, the Grand Council would have terminated the project immediately after the first week. Godwin spun the dials farther and peered again. Details leaped into view that the accountants never saw; things came into focus that interested the Budget Committee only slightly, if at all.
     But to Julius Godwin and his colleagues, the inner workings of that single organism were a wonder beyond measuring. To them, the thing that they had created held the potential of a wealth untold. But how to make the Council see it so?
     "How are they today, Julius?"
     Doctor Godwin looked up from the scope and smiled. Dr. Lord was busily scribbling down his morning observations, trying to jot every note of consequence in the most precise order. I used to be that way, Godwin mused, thinking of his earliest days on the project. But he had mellowed somewhat with the passing time, happy enough to keep track of the important events without the obsessive record keeping displayed by his younger associates. Besides, he thought, those I favored passed their Zenith days ago.
     Lord looked up from his note taking and gave his mentor a quizzical expression. "They're still going strong, aren't they?"
     Godwin started. "Oh, yes. They are at that; still spreading in every direction. I think the extra space gave them quite a bit of relief."
     "So they just needed the room to grow… We did make the right decision, didn't we?"
     Godwin smiled. "You know we did, Chris. They were positively ready to spill over the edges. Giving the host its own orbital space more than doubled their room to expand. Dr. Roman had suggested it from the start. I don't know why they didn't do so."
     Dr. Lord rubbed his chin and laughed softly. "I thought if there was anyone left that would know you would be the one. Weren't you involved from the start? I mean, you wrote the beginners' notes, didn't you?"
     Again, Godwin smiled. "I wrote what I considered important, Chris. Without those papers, funding would have died nearly from the beginning. When the Council understood what we were trying to do … I think it scared half of them. Hell, when I understood it, I did nothing but worry. What if something went wrong? What if it went right? There were so many what ifs." He sighed and shrugged. "And here we are, and here they sit, and we're still no closer to the answers we seek."
     Lord walked around the table, gesturing with his clipboard. "What about all of this, Julius? Days of notes on every minute of their behavior? Generations of them; is all of that worth nothing?"
     "Not to the Council."
     "But the answers are in there, Julius! You know they are!"
     "It's nothing we can prove, Chris. Without that, there's nothing more than faith that what we've done means anything at all to them." Lord sighed and slumped over his notes. Godwin shook his head and bent back to the scope. "You know I'd give anything to prove otherwise, Chris."
     "I know, Julius," said Lord, quietly. "You've given them more than most."

----
     
     "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:…"

     "…For all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."


     Eve looked up from her station and flipped through a series of slides. Shaking her head, she looked back into the microscope and dialed through the settings again before calling out to the others. "Am I seeing this right?" She asked. "They seem to be quite aggressive this morning."
     Doctors Lord and Lam looked up from their stations and smiled at one another. The younger scientist made a barely heard noise of disapproval before returning to his work, leaving Lord to roll his eyes and move to the young aide's side. "Is there trouble, Miss Shun?"
     Eve lifted from the eyepiece and indicated the book of slides. "I know they've always been busy, Sir. But it's like they've all decided to occupy the same space at the same time. Nearly every part of the host is affected; everything seems to be in turmoil."
     Doctor Lord noted the concern in their assistant's voice and motioned her to step aside. Looking up from his station, Lam chortled. "There has always been an element of virulence amid the subject, Miss Shun. Lord can tell you; our favorites have almost always seemed to have it in for one another."
     Lord called from scope. "I think this goes beyond the norm, Isaac. The micro-organisms appear to have reached a new level of aggressive behavior, and they're not following the previous zonal divisions."
     "What? What is it now?" Lam abandoned his station to join the investigation, shooing Eve farther away.
     Lord continued. "The outburst of activity is centered upon the primary growth area, but you can see the effects spreading across the whole of the organism. None of the zone types seem to be immune."
     Lam's irritation was clear. "Let me look at it. What are you still standing about for? Shouldn't you be calling Doctor Godwin?" Eve jumped and hastened to obey while Dr. Lord stepped aside. Lam's searching culminated with a growl of frustration. "Damn it!"
     Lord shook his head and reached out to steady his associate. "It's not the end of the world, Isaac."
     Lam shook him off. "But they're losing ground! After all I did for the strain!" Lord's crossed arms and facial expression finally registered, and Lam stepped back and coughed. "Well, it seemed prudent. I was only duplicating your own research."
     "And look where that got us." Lord laughed softly. "Yes, Isaac: us. Godwin's strain worked wonders at assimilating and blending with their competitors. Ours turned around and tried to destroy anything that wasn't the same. Good enough, until they encountered each other. But this…" He turned and indicated the scope. "This could make everything unravel. Godwin won't be happy."

----

     "Among the men who fought … uncommon valor was a common virtue."

     "What are they doing?"
     Doctor Lord stopped his pacing below the catwalk to look up at his mentor; Julius Godwin had gone from worry to looking decidedly ill. Taking his underlings' place at the microscope upon his return to the lab, he had watched with mounting horror as their subject systematically attempted to destroy itself. And yet, despite the gravity of the situation, Godwin had not sounded uncertain. To hear him speak so now was a worry greater still.
     "What's going on, Julius?"
     The elder scientist ran a hand through his white locks and shook his head before bending back to the eyepiece. "I can't be sure, Chris. They seem to have paused in the primary zone; I think they may be finished there…" The pain in his voice was too apparent to ignore; Lord climbed the stairs to pat the elder's shoulder.
     "I cannot understand why the others have targeted your strain like this…"
     Godwin winced and turned red eyes to his colleague. "Three times; three times they've nearly lost it all. I gave them everything I thought they would need. I don't understand what I did to fail so badly. I just … don't … know…"
     Lord swallowed and shook his head. "It wasn't you, Sir. The rest of us… Come down. Let someone else monitor –"
     The old scientist shook off the younger. "I must keep watching. Everyone else will keep." But before he could bend back to the scope an alarm sounded. Doctor Indue called from the monitor banks, "The Gamma Indicator just registered a massive spike from the host." And immediately afterward, "There goes another!"
     Godwin searched frantically through the lens before settling back with a stunned expression.
     "What? What is it?" Lord grasped him by the shoulder.
     "They've produced an atomic reaction."

     "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

----

     "Never in the field of human conflict, has so much, been owed by so many, to so few!"

     Julius Godwin sat despondently at his desk.  At one hand lay a pile of discarded slides; a riot of color and form whose contents could only be deciphered by a practiced eye. At the other, a single page rested, baring a single paragraph of text. Godwin rubbed at his nose and sighed audibly, looking at neither pile but staring inward. The team he had worked with for such a short time stood and sat in their chosen positions in the room around him, each waiting for some sign or signal from their leader. They're depending upon me to give them the answers. What if I don't have any?
     He looked up at the collection of expectant, hopeful faces. What could he tell them that they didn't already know? He gestured at the spilled slides, sighed, shrugged, and then cleared his throat. "This one… could have been a close call. It wasn't the end of the world, but …"
     "But it might as well have been." Isaac Lam had turned increasingly bitter the last few days, and Godwin knew exactly how he felt. Each scientist in the room had their own agenda that was supposed to come second to the main goal. And as long as the host survived, adversity toward one's pet project was a tolerable situation to be overcome. But when the diverse species began to fail en masse, it was very hard to watch one's chosen strain die. Godwin had nearly lost all hope as his chosen had come to the brink of extinction, after so much time.
     "There is so much we don't know about the micro-organisms. Why so many clusters turned on each other at once; not a single genus was immune. Of course we've seen this kind of behavior before, but never across the entire organism, never all at once. Divisions within divisions even…" Dr. Lord was not the only one mystified, and he seemed to have more to keep track of than anyone, but it did not help the disposition of the others to know his chosen strain had prospered more than anyone else's. Those which he favored had spread across the organism, devouring everything in their path, dividing into ever evolving species, even turning on each other, and still they prospered and persisted. Godwin could not help but admire them, even as he wished his own strain had done as well.
     But if Lord was mystified, Lam was furious. His strain had lost all purpose and cohesion, spilling across the host in statically agitated groupings lost amid the greater chaos. Lord's strain had split into two major types and had begun to influence the entire project; even Dr. Shinto's long neglected strain had undergone formative changes in part influenced by Lord's. None of the doctors could say where the project's study focus was heading.
     "We nearly lost everything to this outbreak of aggressiveness; the behavior of the micro-organisms has changed dramatically. But they have also shown signs of major improvement in other areas. They live longer, survive in greater numbers all over the host, and are well on the way to maximum capacity. What we don't know is where they will go from that point. Will they turn on each other yet again, or destroy the host and perish?
     "Is there no other option? Can we not find some way to transplant their numbers?"
     "We have already done that once. There are a number of organisms close to the host that could be made to accommodate their numbers. The greatest challenge they face in that regard is to escape from the host itself. And I am afraid they're almost out of time." Godwin tapped the single page in reminder.
     "Damn the Council. We're so close; I can feel it." Heads nodded in agreement, but Dr. Godwin could not join in.
     "We do not possess unlimited funds. Despite the potential we see in them, the micro-organisms have simply failed at this point to achieve our target goal. Unless we receive some measure of contact from them, we must assume their level of intelligence is minimal and terminate the project by the given date. We have no other choice."

----

     "…Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land…"

     "Doctor Godwin! Doctor Godwin!" Godwin lifted his head from his desk and blinked bleary eyes; Eve's excited call took a moment too long to penetrate his consciousness. He yawned and stretched, rose to scratch an itch and work the kinks from his spine. Wasn't this why I asked for an assistant? I'm far too old to be spending all night over the instruments. As that assistant repeated her insistent call, he strode over to the workstations, waving at her to keep her voice down; others were sleeping at their desks as well.
     "What is it, Miss Shun?" He'd lost so much enthusiasm of late, and it was hard to keep the edge from his voice. Eve flinched and yet still couldn't contain her excitement. She pointed to the microscope and picked up a slide from the table. He recognized it immediately; the old picture of his personal strain's introductory region brought a lump to his throat. Giving her a sharp look, he took a deep breath and looked into the eye piece.
     "I was just checking out the old areas of the host, sir. And you know, since it has always been such a hot spot, I thought I'd see if I could recognize anything. And I couldn't understand what was going on at first, but … I'm not mistaken am I?"
     Godwin did not answer at first, so busy was he with the magnification dials, looking closer and closer at the clusters of life so delicate, so far below. Slowly he cracked a smile. Despite everything the others could do to you … Despite every hardship and handicap you had to endure … He looked up into Eve's hopeful face, and watched as she gave a smile of her own.
     "They seem to have been quite busy down there, haven't they?"
     Eve laughed. "Yes they have, sir. Doctor Lam's don't seem to like them there, but they can't seem to wipe them out."
     Godwin thought of the days of hopeless anguish and the destruction of all he'd hoped to accomplish. His smile faltered as he looked up to the atomic clock running numbers on the facility wall. Eve leaned in with a worried expression. "Sir?"
     He forced a smile and patted her hand. "Let's not tell the others yet, shall we? Keep looking. We might get lucky after all."

----

     "But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer."

     "Who knows how much time they might have lost? If they hadn't been so determined to destroy each other, the whole organism might have been built upon by now. They might have gotten somewhere. They might have been able to send us one damned signal!"
     Doctor Lord beat a hand upon his desk in frustration. The others sat in silent agreement. Yet few had the attachment to the project as a whole that Lord had displayed. It was as if the aging doctor had bet the sum total of his career on this one experiment. Lam had his moments, and Godwin did too, but Dr. Christopher Lord… Doctor Hari Indue simply shrugged at the others and went back to cleaning out his desk.
     Lam settled back and propped his feet up. "You're cleaning out early, aren't you Hari?"
     The swarthy elder smiled and kept packing. "Oh, not so much. I believe we are all in agreement that this project will be terminated."
     "And that's it? You have no attachments?"
     Indue smiled sadly for a moment, and shrugged yet again. "All things must end in time, Isaac. And thus make room for new beginnings. You must learn the way of the world for yourself, as should they."
     Lord looked up from his books and glared at his colleague. "All of those lives meant nothing to you? Hari, your strain is one of the largest, longest running groups in the whole history of the host! Doesn't it bother you to think what they could have been capable of if you'd only paid them more attention?"
     "Not particularly, no. I do not know what it was that you wished to accomplish. But everything your meticulous tinkering produced was created by my strain earlier, with less effort and destruction. It was only when your subjects met mine that difficulties arose. The devastative effects of your actions are comparatively clear, and we will never know what might have happened had we left the starting seed alone."
     "So you blame us for this, do you?"
     Dr. Indue smiled sadly. "No. There is nothing to blame upon anyone. What was done, was. We are but to live with the results of our studies."
     Lord slumped. "We are to live… but what of them?"
     Indue studied his distraught colleague for a long moment before rising from his desk. Standing between Christopher and Isaac, he placed his hands behind his back and looked them in the eye. "Do you believe that they are capable of fulfilling their purpose?"
     Lord nodded without hesitation; Lam looked thoughtful for a second too long. Indue smiled. "Kucha bhī sambhava hai" Looking back and forth, he nodded and bowed his head. "AUM, let us be accepting of what is. What was, is past. What will be, is yet to come. Only by accepting what is now, will we begin to understand what we should do. By our will and what is, let those who must learn this lesson, learn it well. AUM."

----

     "And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply…"

     "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

     "It's happened! It's happened!" Eve Shun's high pitched voice rang out through the facility with all the excitement of a young child receiving their first birthday gift. Old scientists sprang from their desks and work stations like athletes desperate to win a gold medal race. They crowded around the great tank with breathless anticipation, jostling one another to reach the microscope aperture that would let them look upon the wonder that they had created, hoping to see the answer to their pleas and prayers.
     And then as if by instinct, respect or command, everyone stopped and twisted, turning to the eldest of them. Doctor Julius Godwin took a deep breath and smiled, stepping up beside assistant Eve and bending with quiet dignity to the eye piece. Twisting a few of the dials with a frown, he looked for a long moment as the others fidgeted in silence. "Where is… I don't see… Oh, there it is." His apparent lack of excitement touched the others even as he dialed up higher magnification. Silence gave way to a very muted buzzing and then…
     "Your genus has reached a new milestone, Christopher."
     The silver haired scientist clenched his fist and grinned. "Yes!" His small celebratory gesture brought chuckles from the others while Julius tutted in gentle admonishment.
     "You will be pleased to know that our micro-organisms have taken the first outward step." Yet as Godwin stood it was easy to see that his opinion on the matter remained reserved. As the others moved aside to let him step down from the observation platform, the elder shrugged. "They seem to be putting a bit of material in orbit, but too few of our subjects, if any, have gone beyond the outer skin of the host."
     "But it's still the right direction, isn't it? You could petition the Council to give us more time."
     Lord took his place at the scope without answering and it was left to Godwin to take Eve in tow. The white haired elder shook his head. "Even if they somehow make it far enough out to escape the host's gravitational pull, they have to prove they can survive beyond that. They have to find a way to make contact. They have to send us a clear signal. And unless they can do that, then the Council is unlikely to see them as anything more than yet another bio-organism without potential."
     "But… Every bio-organism has the potential…"
     "The potential for what?" Doctor Lam's interjected question made the young assistant flinch, and not even Julius' gesture for peace made him back down. "What do you think they can do, Miss Shun? The Council will not sit idly by pouring money into bottomless pits for our amusement. We need results and we need them yesterday."
     With the assistant and the team leader looking at him silently, Isaac Lam paused before moving back to the steps to await his turn. Laughing softly, he nudged doctor Indue. "She thinks they'll improve, Hari. The whole lot of them have 'the potential.' I knew we should have chosen one strain and forgotten the others."
     Hari Indue looked down at his colleague and sighed. "Some of us did so, Isaac. Some of us did."
     Julius took the crestfallen Eve and drew her to the coffee pot. "You must realize, Miss Shun, that the statistical probability now favors failure. We have already re-sterilized the host several times and put more effort into this batch of organisms than any other. They seem to be clearly incapable of progressing to the standards we set for them."
     "But they've come so far…"
     "Yes, but it simply isn't far enough. There has been no sign from any genus; nothing on any scale that we can measure to show they understand their purpose. They haven't colonized the host system, they haven't sent us a message; they haven't even gone beyond warring amongst themselves."
     "But haven't they tried, doctor? How do we know there's not a signal moving through the amniotic right now?"
     "Have you heard any such signal, Eve?"
     The young woman looked down at her feet. "No. But I've listened to hours and hours and…"
     "And there has been no change in the pattern. Eve, even if they had sent us a signal we don't know if we can receive it. They haven't shown more than the natural instinct they were instilled with. Of course they're creating things, but why? Nothing they've done shows any more purpose than to survive and multiply. Even escaping the host's outer membrane means nothing more than that they're looking for room to grow."
     She swallowed. "But wasn't that what they were supposed to do? Isn't that the command they were given?"
     Godwin laughed softly. "Yes. But we hoped for so much more."

----

     "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…"

     "Has there been any more, Chris?"
     Doctor Christopher Lord looked up from the microscope, across his notes and down to his mentor standing, waiting at the foot of the steps. Putting his pen down across the pages, he straightened with a heavy sigh. "Nothing," he finally admitted. "They continue to fill the outer membrane with rubbish, and a small number visit beyond the host's life zone, but they seem to have abandoned the orbiting body. I don't understand it, Julius. Why can't they see?"
     Julius Godwin smiled sadly and spread his hands. "It may be anyone's guess, Chris. Perhaps they're awaiting a sign. Perhaps they simply cannot grow any farther. Despite what Eve will tell you, some creatures just are not meant to grow beyond their cradles."
     Lord laughed. "Eve. Do you suppose she could be right, Julius? Could it really have happened on its own?"
     Godwin crossed his arms. "What do you think? Does it really matter? I don't suppose they will ever know."
     "No, I don't suppose they will. Damn the Council anyway. We were so close!"
     The elder scientist turned back to the great tank. "That we were. What will be …"

----

     "My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure."

     The team was together one last time, gathering for a subdued celebration of what had been accomplished. What had been 'yet to be' denied them, they sat around an emptied table drinking in their fashion. Julius Godwin raised a toast to the tiny creatures they had watched come so far. Each member raised their glass to the great tank with the depths of their feelings written large upon their faces; after all had responded, the lowly assistant set her glass upon the table and rose to her feet. "Do you think they know?"
     "Know what, Miss Shun?"
     She caressed the glass wall and gave a soft sigh. "That this is their last day. Do you think they know it?"
     Hari Indue shrugged; Isaac Lam snorted. But Godwin and Lord looked at the tank before they answered. When they both started to reply Lord bowed to his leader. Julius nodded, and after a long drink he gestured to the tank. "All of our research has led me to the conclusion that they'll go about their business without much thought for the future. We gave them knowledge of the beginning and let them know there would be an end. Yet their lives are so very short; it is impossible to know how much they have retained and passed along to the next generation."
     Christopher Lord laughed aloud – it was not the laughter of one carefree, but nonetheless amused by some bit of information. He stood and made his way to stand beside Eve. "Can you be any more clinical, Julius? That isn't what Miss Shun has asked of us, and you know it. 'All of our research'… You know as well as any of us do, Eve; the micro-organisms exhibit all the signs of intelligent behavior tempered by an instinct for individual survival. As a whole they have been capable of things both great and terrible. But they have no collective conscience and no real overriding sense of reason. And yes, Hari; we did not let them develop as a single strain. The results have been less than we hoped to achieve."
     Eve sighed and kept looking into the glass, as though she could find the one ambient light among the millions that she longed to see. Doctor Lord smiled and put a gentle arm around her shoulders. "The end will be quick, Eve. They won't know what's happened to them."
     "You can't be sure of that, Sir."
     "No, I don't suppose we can. But you have to believe. You have to, or you might as well go mad."
     Eve slipped out from under the comforting arm and pushed away from the tank. "That's one hell of a callous attitude. I thought you cared for them, all of you! But the plug's being pulled and that's it. Just like that. It's over, and you'll just let them take it all away…"
     Lord tried to get a hold of her once more, but she whirled out of his grasp and away from the tank. "There's nothing we can do, Eve!" All of the scientists save Julius were standing; everyone watched as the young assistant paused. She wiped at her eyes and gave each of them a hollow stare. Lord called softly, "We tried everything we could. The Council won't accept our results."
     Eve took a deep breath and straightened. "Maybe you should have tried working together." Delivering an accusing glare at the lot of them, she turned on her heel and walked away. They listened as the click of her heels faded in the facility before they turned to their glasses. Doctor Lam stared into the clear depths of his drink before shrugging, letting forth a "Bah!"
     Lord grimaced in an apparent desire to agree with the younger outspoken scientist. Hari Indue smiled half-heartedly. "She is young yet, no? I am certain that she will one day understand; is that not right, Doctor Godwin?"
     Julius Godwin swirled the wine in his glass with an air of consideration. "Perhaps, Hari. Perhaps one day…"

----

     "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
     But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no …"

     12.19.19.17.19

     The clock on the facility wall counted the last minutes of the day without remorse. Julius Godwin watched the numbers change in a detached manner; Christopher Lord stood by the main power switch awaiting the order for termination. Neither man had looked into the microscope for their last hours, instead relying on the array of sensitive equipment above the tank to pick up on the hoped for signal. Both men knew in their souls that no such signal would arrive. The red digits morphed and shifted, and the final minute passed without a sound. When the clock rolled over, Julius sighed. "Do it, Chris."
     His face grim, Christopher Lord flipped the toggle to cut the power on the great glass tank. As one the ambient cores flared brighter for a moment before they began cooling from their assorted colors to a dull cherry red. They would continue to glow until the pressure and flow of the dark fluid surrounding them carried away the last of their heat. When it was gone, the flow would cease, and the uncounted particles, set adrift in the black fluid upon the loss of power, would be pulled down the drain, flushed from the tank for recycling. The men knew this as a matter of course; every procedure was to be followed to the letter, and there was nothing to be done differently.
     Yet each man sighed regrettably, closed his eyes, and for the length of a single prayer, dreamed of what could have been.

----

     "And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. A-men'."

     "Is anybody listening? … There's no reply at all …"

     Surely since the first time he looked out from his cave in trepidation, man has asked of the universe, "Is there anybody out there?" From early mysticism and prayer to the radio signals of satellites and interstellar probes, he has long sought to contact a different intelligence, someone or something different than his own kind. But for what reason has he taken those endeavors? Were there questions to be answered or knowledge to be gained? Or was his species somehow instilled with a basic desire to tell the universe, "We are here"?
     And is anyone listening? How can they know? Even if an alien culture created the means to receive the exact signals of mankind, the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is over four light years away. The closest galaxy, Canis Major's irregular dwarf galaxy, is around twenty-five thousand light years distant…
     … And most contemporary radio signals fade away, according to the inverse-square law, at just four light years out…

     "This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper."

     The way the world would end was always open to debate. From biblical Armageddon to the universal big crunch, most scientists agreed the world would end. The only real questions were when and how.
     Ever more sensitive, far seeing instruments put the age of the universe at thirteen point seven billion years and its visible size at twenty-eight billion light years in diameter; a far cry from the biblical estimate of earth's six-thousand year age (plus the six days to produce all of creation) and the flat Earth theories of those earlier times. But with each new level of scientific understanding, more questions were raised. In the end, proponents of both science and faith asked, "How much do we really know?"
     Were the lights of distant galaxies really what they seemed? Did not the effects of redshift and quantum mechanics distort what men thought they knew? Prophetic indicators and misunderstood quotations prepared them not, though scientific measurements bore out the truth of the sun's swelling in size. As each luminescent light in the sky ran out of nuclear fuel, every one brightened before fading, as everything grew cold and dark.
     Such things as day and night ceased to exist, or matter; as galactic driven solar motion stopped, so too did planetary forces, and with them, life. How awful the ending to such a grand creation, as planetary organisms were set adrift in the cold black sea of night, thereby to float forlornly until the last great current of the ages drew them away. How vindicated certain scientists would be, as the last dregs of creation were sucked from that plane of existence through the maw of a massive black hole.
     And the theories they would have voiced about what might lie on the other side…

     If only they could have lived to see it…

----

     "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

     The letter drafted and sent to the Great Council regarding the Earth Project detailed the experiment's successes and failures in plain language. The researchers involved did not shirk their duties and responsibilities for what had happened; instead they took full credit for what had caused the Earth Project to come undone. In closing they expressed their regret for the Council's inability to grant the researchers more time, and pointed out the vast potential shown by the micro-organisms they had created.  They concluded with a simple suggestion – to place the project in the hands of a single researcher – For the host could be recreated, both singularly and within the vast confine of the galaxial tank. If the mistakes of the past were not repeated, who could say what might be accomplished?
     On the last page, they signed it – each member of the team that had worked so tirelessly in the final seven days.

     Julius Godwin – Senior Director
     H. Indue – Assistant Director
     Christopher Lord – Research Associate
     Is.Lam – Research Associate
     Eva Lou Shun – Graduate Student

----

     "The universe is a little too darned orderly to be just a big accident!"
    
     The small laboratory office was white and sterile, cramped and austere, just as the Great Council liked it. There had been little difficulty getting through the outer office and within the inner circle; Julius Godwin was known far and wide for his body of research and was respected; young scientists had avidly sought his opinions and council for years. Yet there was still protocol to be observed, handily marked by the dozens of bureaucratically hired secretaries that had stopped him between the front doors and this very office. Wearing his visitor's coat and regulation gear, Julius stopped just inside the last door and placed his transport case on the floor beside his foot. Very much determined not to interrupt anything important, he waited for the office's sole occupant to notice his presence.
     It took the young researcher wearing a doctor's white lab coat some time to notice his arrival. When she did she looked up twice as if to be sure of what she was seeing; giving a smile and a wave she went back to her work with the appearance of renewed determination. Julius kept his waiting vigil in silence as she finished her round of spot checks and measurements, smiling only when she came across the room to stand beside him.
     "Doctor Godwin!" She cried, free at last to greet him properly. He in turn opened his arms and gave her the appearance of a welcome hug, carefully not touching her in the case of a clean environment. She understood the gesture and simply turned to her lab, beaming that he had come to visit. "It isn't as large as the old facility, but it's all mine."
     Julius looked at the whole of it, mystified as to what she was investigating. But her latest work was not the reason for his visit; he had come to visit the newly christened Doctor Shun for something closer to their hearts. "You've done quite well for yourself, Eve."
     She turned, lifted by his praise. "I could not have gotten here without your guidance, Sir. The Council was far more impressed at my apprenticeship than anything I had actually done."
     Her smile remained warm, even if her eyes fell. But Julius bent to look into her eyes and brought her laughter back to the fore. "You did well, Eve. A full doctor now! And you have everything you need for whatever project they want to put you on. Have you come under contract yet?"
     Eve laughed. "You flatter me, Sir. I haven't been here six months. There is more space here than project, and though they haven't capped my budget yet, they haven't suggested I do anything more than what they ask me."
     Julius nodded. "I know. And those days will come. But for now, any free hours are your own. The Council figures that you will use the extra time to double check your work. We both know you're already that careful."
     More laughter rang in the small room. Eve stepped back toward her research desk and paused at the sight of the transport case. Folding her arms, she put on a mock grimace and nodded toward the silver box. "Did you come to offer me another task, Doctor? I'm not sure I can take on work of your caliber…"
     "Oh, this?" Godwin laughed softly and plucked the case from the floor. "Do you mind if I set this upon your table? It would be awfully hard to see it down there."
     "Go right ahead, Sir. If I may be so bold, what is it?"
     "You are the Doctor this time, Eve. I should hope you would be bold enough to ask the right questions. As for what it is, consider them a gift."
     "A gift, Sir?" Curiously watching, she waited as Godwin popped the locks and opened the small case, allowing a swirl of cold steam to billow into the air. "A cold storage case; what did you bring me?"
     Silent and smiling, Godwin pulled the telescopic microscope into position above the isolation pack and focused it upon the cherished cargo, before stepping aside and motioning for Eve to step in and have a look. As she did so, he took a deep breath. "I took them from the host before Christopher arrived to shut it down. We could think of no one better to revive them; Chris is curious to know if some of your theories will actually bear fruit."
     Eve gasped as the pair of micro-organisms from the failed experiment came into view. "Oh my! They're so tiny, so frail… My theories? But I thought he hated my ideas?"
     Godwin laughed. "He wasn't fond of them, Eve. But he agrees there is more to the picture than simple intelligent design. We did the best we could… you should know those two are the last of them."
     The young scientist put a hand to her breast and gasped aloud. "And you want me …"
     "The matter is in your hands now. Whatever they are to become, I am sure you will be the best hope to guide them."
     "I … don't know what to say. It will take some time to create a new host to receive them … Them. I can't keep calling them that…"
     Godwin laughed. "I know how you feel. Though you may want to change their names…"
     "You've named them?"
     "Well…" At her urging, the elder chuckled fondly. "I named the male after my grandson."
     "Adam?"
     He nodded. "That's right."
     "And the female?"
     Julius smiled. "After my favorite assistant…"
     "Who… Me?"
     "That's right. I named her 'Eve'."
     The younger scientist turned to the microscope again and breathed a long speculative sigh. Standing, pondering, she turned back to Julius. "They're nice names," she allowed at last. "I have the room to keep them. But I don't have the funding to create a new host at the moment."
     Julius put his hands into his coat pockets and smiled warmly. "I think I could provide some help there."
     "Could you? Oh Doctor Godwin, I would gladly bring you on as an oversight assistant. How long do you think it would take?"
     Julius Godwin smiled and answered with a twinkle in his eye. "A new Earth? I think it can be done … In seven days."