Here is a summary of the second chapter from Heaven’s Ant Farm. Click here for a synopsis or click here to see the agent query letter I used to provide a brief description of this SciFi novel. Let me know what you think!
Chapter 2- Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself
3,000 years after the Holy Nuclear War, Heaven has become a grand society. Except for educational purposes, religion has been sworn off, replaced by the Great Scientific University that has made Heaven a land of milk and honey with unlimited clean energy and the means to produce any desired thing, where Quantum Entanglement Substance Teleportation (QUEST) networks zap you from place-to-place via a thought command, and where you can explore the galaxy at warp speed. In Heaven, you can pursue anything—so long as it does not adversely affect others.
Key to Heaven’s paradise is the Loving Free Will Gene that scientists recently discovered and believe to be a byproduct of the Holy Nuclear War. They theorize that its genetic influence now predisposes humans to make more benevolent decisions that have a peaceful and positive effect on Heaven’s society.
Inside one of the Great Scientific University of Heaven laboratories we find Professor Yahweh Tabbris, a short, spindly and rumpled physics professor working on his Soul Storage Unit (SSU) device that stores the electronic essence of humans just before they die. Just then, Professor Lucifer Deville interrupts Yahweh as he puts the finishing touches on the SSU.
A caped and tall broad shouldered man, Lucifer recently arrived at the university as the new Quantum Thermodynamics department Under Dean. An evangelical devotee to his god Korbibtor, Lucifer is also the new Vice Chair of the Ancient Religion department.
Their encounter immediately takes a nose dive as Lucifer tries to school Yahweh on the virtues of religion and invites him to join the Korbibtorian sect. They trade barbs and squabble over whether or not organized religion served or harmed their ancestors. Lucifer offers specious examples on behalf of religion while Yahweh points out all the harm religious zealots have caused. Their argument climaxes when Lucifer denounces the Loving Free Will Gene as a fallacy—“something scientists whipped up in the lab” and claims that it was his god Korbibtor who rescued Heaven from its nuclear ashes. Lucifer always seems to have the upper hand and he uses it to browbeat, threaten and even temp Yahweh into religious submission.
Miffed, Yahweh retires to his ant farm back home—a vast underground world where he unwinds by watching the ants’ industrious habits that mimic both the peaceful and war like ways of human culture. While science and myrmecology are Yahweh’s joys, his true passion is Gwendolyn, his wife. When they are together, Yahweh enjoys a clairvoyant connection to Gwendolyn. But even when they are apart, he can still hear her voice—soft, warm and close. It soothes the anger that simmers inside from his encounters with Lucifer and intimidating memories of schoolyard bullies when he was young. So Yahweh constantly seeks out his magical bond to Gwendolyn even though he can’t explain it.
With her telepathically by his side, Yahweh quickly finishes the Soul Storage Unit and perfects the second component of his Resurrection Technology—the Body Printing Machine. But after a successful demonstration that brings the once late Professor Frank Stein back to life, an incensed Lucifer accuses Yahweh of “…stealing souls and spitting out human bodies like printed paper!”
—–
As always, feel free to comment and click the follow button on this page to explore the true science and other musings behind Heaven’s Ant Farm.
