Bubble Energy Taken by Force

Earth's Fate

Jim hosted the festivity at his house. Corin and Audrey drove Stephen over. Even if he had to drive alone, he would have no trouble finding it. It's the house with a big sign, lit by a spotlight, advertising Preacher Creature's Tuesday night Bible studies.

"Welcome to my humble sanctuary. Glad you sold your flashy Topheth's Sword necklaces."

"They paid for the crushed car's replacement. Very nice home. Jim, I have a confession. When I first met you, I worried about you being a Scarlet Letter Puritan. Their furniture probably consisted solely of pews, stocked with King James Bibles. I didn't expect your home to be filled with colorful orchids, leafy houseplants, and the most comfortable sofas that ever rested my tired body. Your library apparently has far more than King James Bibles, and the bookshelves look fantastic too. I should've known better. Your Vice President, based on my research before coming here, despises all forms of militant authorities who are overbearing. She doesn't like feminists who hiss at men trying to tell their point of view. She certainly will never hire angry Bible Thumpers who scream Hell judgment at anyone who disagree."

"Yes, I probably gave you something of a bad first impression with my stark desk. It's necessary because I get distracted very easily. If my workspace has anything more than the barest necessity for work, I would've never be able to get anything done. Glad you like my shelves. Woodworking is one of my favorite hobbies for unwinding after hours. If you wish, you may borrow any of my books, including my reproduction 1599 Geneva Bible."

"Your laser show is amazing. I especially like the smoke-making machine built behind the dummy computer vents—nice touch."

"Hacker Jack thought up of that idea," Jim answered. "Excuse me, that must be Mac at the door." He turned away while bells, hooked up to Raspberry Pi's powered servos, played a sped up rendering of Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. Catchy.

Corin said, "I considered driving over to the supermarket to buy some consumables, but by the time the County's Colossal Traffic Jam of the Century dissipated, panicked people cleaned out every grocery store within a day's drive. I'm afraid we'll have to get along with canned soup and tap water for tonight. A shame that Preacher Creature never had an opportunity to make his legendary Face Hugger roasted chicken inspired from Alien, the movie.

"Stephen, what happened? Some spots looked like primeval Earth after a meteorite bombardment. We could actually see your light show all the way from our rooftop."

Jack said in awe, "That was spectacular how you crashed Robo-Mentor. Incredible! We're going to be busy for days working on a fix. When lightning struck you, much of its electrical charge was modulated into the beam and transmitted to us before destroying your radio. I'm still trying to figure out how in the world that happened. Of course, our office antenna and everything electrical were grounded and protected by surge protectors. I insisted on having them. They would've work if the sub-humans didn't shot up our main office. One of the bullets went through the wall and cut the ground wire leading to our office antenna. Without any proper grounding, that surge instead went into the receiver and nailed Robo-Mentor, arcing over its secondary protections. Our computer froze so solid that we had to eventually throw the emergency power cutoff switch. Thanks for finding the flaw in its power system. The upgrade will have an alarm to alert us on any breaks in grounded wires. Please do the honor of stamping the next dead PC image onto the board and autograph it with the golden magic marker."

Corin continued, "Jack needed to replace the Input and Output module with a spare, an older version that's an energy hog. I already order a new one. Thanks to Jack's cautious habits, it was isolated from the rest of the computer so nothing else was damaged. Stephen, what happened?"

Stephen answered, "Before I give my long, long story, I like to know the verdict. Can we solve this energy crisis? Is the Society Simulation accurate? Is mankind going to survive?"