The Gods of Science

A scientific retelling of the origins (and fate) of the world

Today’s short fiction piece was written by Gemma Church. Gemma is a science copywriter/journalist with two degrees in physics. She recently received a diploma in creative writing from Cambridge University. Her short stories have appeared in The Writer's Forum, Bag of Bones Press and Indie Bites.

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When World was born, he found himself orbiting a young star so bold and blue. Blinking in the stark starlight, he saw his brothers and sisters carving out their own elliptical orbits against the void of space. 

He was a happy soul, singing to his siblings and waving at them, but they did not wave back. Instead, they called him the runt of the litter, for he had neither the splendour of his gaseous brothers nor the stealth of his rocky sisters.

“What is the point of you?” his three wicked sisters wheezed. “We are warriors, light-footed and hell-born. You are nothing more than a useless lump of rock. A dreamer with no place in this family.”

“And we pull many moons into our orbits, decking ourselves in lustrous rings of diamond and ice,” his four gigantic brothers added. “You cannot even attract the most meagre of meteoroids.”

They laughed and laughed at World until his molten heart grew cold and heavy, solidifying to rock and beating with the weakest thrum. He did not sing to his siblings again.

 “Pathetic World. Stupid World. Ugly World.” Their words rang out across the cosmos. 

World’s siblings did not realise that they were not alone. They were inwards-looking like that, assuming that the entire universe was created just for them. That they were the centre of that universe. They were not. For there were multitudes of planets, stars and other universes stretching out beyond what they could possibly imagine. 

Their unkind words travelled into space, flying past their dwarf planet cousins, a vicious belt of icy bodies, and a donut-shaped cloud where ancient debris came together to chatter and sing, coalescing to form mountain-sized boulders. Their words stretched out across light years until they reached the ears of the first Gods of Science: Gravity, Forces-Three, Quantum, and Relativity.

The Gods of Science were not happy with what they heard. 

 “We should protect World, wake him from his sad slumbers and make him into a seat for the gods, the jewel in the crown of the cosmos. That will silence his boastful brothers and sly sisters,” Gravity said. 

Forces-Three crackled with excitement. “Yes, this sounds like a fine experiment. Besides, World needs a friend and I am so tired of flying around this universe, milling together molecules. You must be tired of pulling everything together too, Gravity, forging mighty crowds of stars from tiny atoms and specks of dust.”

Gravity nodded. “I am tired. In truth, we are all worn out from our work forging this universe. Quantum is a superposition of every bad mood there is. Relativity, why, they have been snappy since that business with the black holes.” Gravity turned to face Relativity and Quantum. “But what do you two think? Shall we take a break from our work and help World?” 

Gravity waited for a response but, as always, Relativity and Quantum were too busy squabbling amongst themselves. Gravity cleared their throat with a seismic rumble until Relativity and Quantum looked up from their tussle and nodded in agreement. 

 “Good. It is decided. Now, can you two stop arguing for five minutes while we travel to World?”

Relativity and Quantum nodded once more as Gravity pulled a gigantic lump of rock and ice from the distant cloud surrounding World’s star, which had now cooled to a warming yellow. Then, the Gods of Science mounted that cosmic snowball and off they went, speeding towards the star. Towards World. 

The Gods of Science created their bodies anew as they travelled, their limbs elongating into space and joints snapping into place. They laughed as they raced towards World, watching the starry firmament whiz past their newly forming faces. Even Quantum cracked their first smile, shaping a tendril tongue to catch the taste of the cosmos and finding it tasted of strawberries. Quantum hated strawberries. But before Quantum had fully registered their disgust, the Gods of Science collided with World.

In a whirl of fire, ice, and metal, they merged with such energy that World’s frozen heart melted and began to beat in a strong, deep rhythm. World liquified and roared to life, his insides turning red-hot as a thin crust solidified and formed his new skin. 

The Gods of Science, dizzy but regaining strength, walked unsteadily and started to transform World, only stopping to look up and wave at their new sibling. For the Gods had also transformed their snowball vessel into something new, something grander, deciding that it had served them so well on their journey that it also deserved a place with them, at their table.

The snowball crystallised, its skin waxing and waning to form a cloak of white as it settled into a gentle orbit around World. And so, Moon was born as another God of Science, one with two opposing faces. 

World only knew the Man in the Moon’s kind face, for it was permanently turned towards World, gazing down and smiling. 

Moon’s other face was not so kind. Pockmarked and snarling, she was called Lady Moon. She glared out into the void of space with cratered eyes of vengeance, daring World’s siblings to ever say such cruel words to World again. His brothers and sisters stopped their sniggering under Lady Moon’s protective glare. 

World remained humble as the Gods bestowed countless gifts upon him, garlanding his body with a rich atmosphere and clothing him in polar regions, vast tundra, evergreen forests, seasonal forests, grasslands, deserts, rainforests, and deep oceans. 

But as World’s beauty grew, his siblings’ envy inflated. They watched as the Moon tilted World’s orbit to stir the oceans until World was neither too hot nor too cold, but just right to nurture life. They watched as his body welcomed mortal creatures cast in scales and feathers and skins. They watched as some of those creatures grew upright and proud, staring back at the heavens to record the motions of the stars, planets, and Moon in almanacs of stone. 

With the arrival of those creatures, World’s eldest sister saw an opportunity. Because not all the creatures looked up to the sky. Many were as inwards-looking as World’s siblings and decided that they knew better than the Gods of Science, making up their own rhetoric for their own gains. The words of these doubters polluted the minds of many, turning humans against one another and World. 

But World’s eldest sister heard their whispers and doubts, a seed of an idea unfurling in her mind and she bided her time, waiting for an opportunity to come.

An opportunity did come when, one day, the Gods of Science decided they had done all they could do, leaving World in the hands of the humans.

 “I have grown quite fond of these humans and World. They will not forget us, will they?” Forces-Three asked with a tear in their eye.

Gravity shook their head. “Of course not. We are instilled in every fibre of the universe and the humans are a curious bunch with far-seeing ambitions. If they continue to look up, then they will uncover the secrets of the universe, discovering more sciences that will unite their people and lands. I have great faith in them and what they can achieve with their experiments and theories. And with Moon to look after World, what could possibly go wrong?”

And off Gravity, Forces-Three, Quantum, and Relativity flew, travelling back through the cosmos to forge other planets, stars and universes. But those Gods of Science were naive and carefree, not realising the dangers that lay ahead for World.

World’s brothers were furious. “Did you see that? Those gods flew straight past us without once stopping to admire our strength and beauty! Why did they not give any gifts to us and choose our simpering little brother instead?”

His sister planets were angrier with the humans than the gods.

“We are not to be observed like animals in a cage!” The youngest sister snarled, watching the humans as they watched them. “Make them stop, World!”

 “And how dare these humans try to constrict us with their theories and observations?” the middle sister added. “Why do they worship these sciences instead of us sisters? World, why do you not stop their blasphemous ways? Why do you not help us and remove these humans from your midst?”

The eldest sister said nothing at first. She was thinking. Plotting. Finally, she whispered to World, “If you get rid of these humans, we will welcome you back with open arms. A small asteroid should do the trick. And you will be so much happier with us than them. We’re your family, after all, not those humans.”

World refused in an instant, shuddering as he remembered the last asteroid to collide with his body. 

His sisters did not cease their whispering, badgering World until his brothers chimed in. “But you are so beautiful now, so majestic. You do not have our size but you have so much splendour that we can love you now, World. Those humans are ugly and weak little things, why will you not help us get rid of them?”

At first, World tried to reason with his siblings. “Brothers, you may be bigger and louder than me. Sisters, you may have faster tongues and cleverer thinking. But you have not seen what I have seen, learnt what I have learnt from the humans. How they dance and laugh and sing! I’m sure you would be happy in their company too, happier than you are now, alone in the void of space. Will you not consider changing your ways so you can support their life on your surfaces too?”

His brothers guffawed. His sisters sniggered. “Pathetic humans. Stupid humans. Ugly humans. What is wrong with you, World?”

Then, for the first time, World stood up to his sisters and brothers. “There is nothing wrong with me, and I will not have you polluting my mind anymore with your toxic words. I will not have you saying these things about my friends either because, unlike you, these humans love me without condition, and I love them too.”

His brothers swelled with rage. “Unconditional love? That is not real love, you idiot. You were always too small and insignificant to be part of this family anyway. You are dead to us, World.” And his brothers pushed themselves further away from World, deeper into space, refusing to speak to him ever again.

Before his sister planets turned their backs on World, the eldest said one last, spiteful thing. But she did not say it to World. She whispered to Lady Moon, telling her what World had become. Telling her of the humans who were questioning the cosmos, questioning World, questioning Moon. 

 “If you do not believe us, then turn around and face World to see the situation for yourself,” his wicked eldest sister said, smirking. 

And that is when the trouble began. Lady Moon did turn to face World. The humans stared back into the sky, horrified by such an unexpected celestial phenomenon. Their observations and theories could neither explain nor predict this occurrence and, in that moment, they were filled with doubt and fear, abandoning their observations and shattering their almanacs. 

When the shock had receded, the doubters began to gather and prey on these fears, questioning the sciences, inventing new deities, ones that could explain the universe with simple words and fictions that came from their fragile minds and not from understanding the wonders of the World. 

At first, the stories brought the humans comfort, but eventually their words turned toxic. Over the millennia, these words resonated with many humans until they became spiteful, boastful and short-sighted, abusing World until his blond-sand beaches were scarred with plastics and his mountains were befouled by open dumps. His shimmering bays became slick with raw sewage, dangerous chemicals and rotting garbage. World’s oceans were cloaked in a chitin sheen, his forests were decimated, and his atmosphere was sliced with poisonous gases through which the harsh stellar winds blew strong.

His brothers and sisters smiled, believing their work was done. “See what your humans have done to you? How they have plundered your resources and left you weaker than ever? We tried to warn you World. It’s not too late to join us.”

World ignored his siblings, because he saw the situation for what it was. He understood that  the humans were mere infants compared to the lifetime of the universe. Children who had made a mistake, one that was wrought from the minds of his sisters. 

World forgave the humans in an instant, because mistakes can easily be forgiven and rectified in the young, given the correct approach. And World would use neither the violence of his brothers nor the manipulation of his sisters to put things right. 

Instead, World began to sing as he had heard the humans sing to one another and as he once sang to his siblings. He sang to the handful of humans who still wanted to understand the World and their place in it. He sang them the stories of the Gods of Science, but his words were garbled and strange. Still, the humans did not give up. They continued to listen, experiment, and theorise until they could make sense of World’s message. 

They translated World’s songs into sets of equations, associating the symbols used in those equations with measurements of physical things. They did not hide those songs away in books sequestered for the rich and powerful either. Instead, they shared World’s songs in the pervasive language of mathematics, shouting them to anyone who wanted to hear. And more people listened, connecting everything they observed in the heavens above and World below. With every new discovery, World grew stronger and braver, singing louder and with more confidence. 

So too did the humans, who looked again to the heavens and left behind their wasteful ways. World relayed more information and the humans learnt many things. They learnt of science and song and how to launch tiny satellites to better see into space. Then, they boarded space faring vessels to meet Moon and the planets for themselves. While Moon welcomed them with open arms, World’s brothers and sisters fell into a great funk, ignored by the immortal Gods of Science and then prodded by mortals and their machines. World’s siblings never spoke again, growing cold, inert, and alone. 

Over time, the humans started to ride the white road of the Milky Way in silver ships, whizzing past those sibling planets, their dwarf cousins, icy belts, and donut-shaped clouds, sailing further out into the stars to see what they could see. 

The humans walked new worlds beyond their solar system thanks to the information bestowed by World. But they never forgot their first home around a small star out in the galactic boondocks. No matter how far they went, they continued to sing to World every night, beaming their own songs back to him in a rising cadence that was entangled with the music of World’s soul. 

But for all their songs, experiments, and explorations, the humans were still hungry to learn more. They understood how Gravity, Forces-Three, Quantum, and Relativity worked now, but they longed to unite every God of Science in one glorious Theory of Everything.

With a Theory of Everything they could explain all physical phenomena in the universe, from the tiniest particles to the grandest galaxies. It would be their masterpiece, a framework to describe all there is to understand. When the humans had their Theory of Everything, they knew they would have learned all they could.

The humans searched for millennia for this theory but found nothing, even with World’s help. But they never stopped trying and discovered something else – that the search for understanding is what pushed them forward to make new discoveries and explore new worlds. 

Many humans postulated that this quest for knowledge was enough. That the challenge of new discovery stopped humans from stagnating and becoming inwards-looking once more.

But others continued pushing forward, searching for the ultimate God of Science. For the Theory of Everything. 

They searched and searched without luck until World’s star grew bloated and red. Then, the humans knew they had to leave World for the last time because they were no longer safe there. 

World, now ancient and fading, was not sad when the last humans left his surface, knowing he had done all he could for them. The humans loved him unconditionally, and he loved them too.

The humans sang to him one last song as they left, a song so powerful and steeped in love that it rippled the very fabric of space and time, reaching the ears of four old souls at the threshold of all-there-is.

The Gods of Science turned to face World once more. They watched as World’s star swelled, consuming him and his brothers and sisters in its fiery cloak. They watched as World threw his arms wide open to the conflagration and welcomed death because he had led a good and happy life.

When World died, the Gods of Science did not weep. They knew death was not the end for World as they flew to him once more and captured his atoms in their arms. Then, they used every element of World, binding him with their own souls. Binding themselves with one another.

And so, World was never alone again. He was eternally united with Gravity, Forces-Three, Quantum, and Relativity, becoming a new God of Science. The most powerful God of Science there is. 

World became The Theory of Everything, ready to be discovered once more by the humans he so loved.

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