Greg Krojac - The Schrödinger Enigma

The bearded but non-moustached Jacob bade everybody sit down.

Jason had noticed many Amish dwellings nearby, but all appeared to be empty.

“If you don’t mind me asking, where is everybody else?”

Jacob sighed.

“They are with our Father. For some reason the Good Lord saw fit to spare my family and myself. We knew that the Lord must have saved you too, for if he had not, you too would have perished and joined him by now.”

Jacob’s wife, Ruth came in from the kitchen with a tray of coffee and Amish Cinnamon Bread for their guests. Although the bread took about ten days to make, Ruth always liked to have some on hand, and it was a habit that she couldn’t break free from, despite the plague having left no one else alive in the community to share it with. She couldn’t help staring at Enak, while silently chastising herself for doing so.

“Help yourselves, please. There’s plenty more in the kitchen.”

Jason took a bite of the bread.

“Mmmm. This really is delicious. Thank you, Ruth.”

He waited until he had swallowed the last of his slice, before speaking again.

“As you’ve kindly offered to let us stay for a few days, perhaps we should tell you about ourselves.”

Jason had an ulterior motive. The real reason behind Jason’s leading the conversation in this direction was that he wanted to know more about Enak, and hoped that this impromptu ‘show and tell’ would encourage him to open up more about himself.

“As you can probably tell from my accent, I’m from England. I came to the USA a few years ago to work on an engineering project, met a girl, fell in love, and got married. I lost her to the plague. I was with a group of fellow survivors – for some reason the disease appeared to have passed our little community by – but then one day I woke up and everybody else was dead. I couldn’t stay there any longer and decided to take my chances on the open road. I was attacked by some other survivors, but Enak here saved me. We found a car and headed towards your settlement, in the hope that your culture of isolation may have spared you. That’s me in a nutshell.”

Jacob disapproved of ‘found a car’ (knowing that it was a euphemism for ‘stole a car’) but times were unusual, so he gave Jason a free pass on breaking the Lord’s eighth Commandment.

Sitara explained that she was a NASA scientist, working on the Voyager Interstellar Mission, and was a Muslim. She told how she had been called to examine a fallen satellite that had been picked up by a factory trawler in the Bering Sea, and how she had been able to identify it as the Voyager One Space Probe, even though the probe was supposedly over 13 billion miles away from Earth and still in communication with NASA. Tears welled up in Sitara’s eyes.

“It’s my fault. If we [22] I think this should be “crew and I” but I’m not sure hadn’t returned to shore, if the ship had sunk out there, all these people – Jason’s wife, your community, all the other people in America, the whole world, they’d all still be alive.”

Ruth went over to the distraught young woman, and put her arm around her shoulders.

“Don’t cry my dear. It’s not your fault. You weren’t to know. It’s all part of the Lord’s plan. We cannot know for what reason He allowed us to suffer this tragedy, but He has a good reason. You can be sure of that. And you don’t know that it was anything to do with this spacecraft.”

Samuel and Miriam looked at each other. They had had several conversations about the plague when their parents were not around, and didn’t entirely agree that this was all part of God’s masterplan.

Sitara took a sip of coffee to clear her throat, and dried her eyes on a handkerchief that Miriam passed her.

“But I do. It was traced back to Dutch Harbor in Alaska. The fishing vessel docked at Dutch Harbor. The crew and I, we were all patient zero.”

Jason took hold of her hand.

“But you didn’t spread the disease, Sitara. [23] but immune are still carriers right? Or does nobody know that? The crew? Probably, but you’re immune. It wasn’t your fault. Hang on to that thought.”

Enak knew that they would expect him to tell them all about himself. He wanted to tell them the truth, but could they handle it? He decided to start telling his story and see how it went. They had to know sometime. It may as well be now.

“My name is Enak. You may notice that my features – in fact my body – are different to yours. I am shorter, but markedly stronger. There is a reason for this, but I do not know if you are ready to hear it yet.”

The others were intrigued. Enak certainly did look different. To be honest, he looked a bit like a well-groomed caveman.

“Many years ago – about forty thousand years ago – there were two species of human on this planet, your species and mine. We had been put here as part of an experiment, by a far more advanced and superior race of beings, known as the Jah. We co-existed on this planet for a while, but then we Argons, or what you apparently call Neanderthals, were removed and resettled on a different planet, far from your solar system. We continued to evolve and develop until we became what you see before you.”

The reactions of those in the room were varied. Jason had heard part of the story before. Well, except the experiment and advanced super-being part. Samuel and Miriam had always wondered about life on other planets (although they had kept it to themselves), while their parents were trying to reconcile this information with their religious beliefs. Sitara immediately switched to scientist mode.

“So you’re really an alien?”

“Not really. This planet is my home planet, as it is yours.”

“But you’re from outer space?” [24] a NASA scientist would probably use a more specific/technical word

Sitara couldn’t help but ask questions, it was her nature. It wasn’t every day you met an extra-terrestrial being. Ruth, on the other hand, suspected that Enak was a product of the work of the Devil.

Her husband, however, took it as a sign from God.

“Praise be the Lord, for He is almighty and has shown us His miracle of life.”

Enak found the whole scenario amusing.

“What you call God was actually an alien race, with technology even more advanced than ours.”

Samuel was fascinated by the revelations, even though it went completely against what he had been taught by his family and the community.

“It could explain the miracles in the Bible, father.”

Ruth was having none of it.

“He’s a demon, or at the very least possessed by the Devil. He’s the Devil incarnate. May the Lord deliver us from this evil spirit.”

The children were expecting their father to join their mother in proclaiming Enak a demon, but were surprised at his response.

“Ruth, please calm down. Our guest is neither demon nor Devil. His explanation makes sense. The Lord has many children and Enak is simply one of his other children. If he were the Devil, do you think we would still be alive now? God made everything and everyone in the Universe, including these Neanderthal fellas. The Lord works in mysterious ways, but his works always have a reason and that reason must be good. Looks to me like he sent Enak here to help us.”

It wasn’t exactly the response that Enak was expecting, but it seemed to be a positive step. He stopped his story there, saying that he needed to sleep, hoping that Jason wouldn’t realise that sleeping was merely a diversionary tactic when talking some more could become awkward. He was certain that they weren’t ready for the rest of his story. Not yet, anyway. He would tell them everything when he was left with no other choice. He was glad that nobody had asked him how he had come to be on planet Earth, as they wouldn’t like the answer. In fact, they would be horrified, quite rightly so, and probably want to kill him.