FINAL ANSWERS • by Nick Allen

The Professor spoke quietly to the six men before him.

“It was over sixty-three million years ago when The Visitors came, travelling for hundreds of light years before reaching a primitive Earth. They found the most advanced mammal to be no bigger than a rat, but understood this watery planet had potential and spent decades studying its rich environment. The Visitors were wise and realized that a jewel like this was a rare find. Guessing that long after their civilization had crumbled into the dust, creatures not dissimilar to themselves might evolve and flourish, they decided to leave a record of their time on Earth.

“They wanted to tell of their own world and culture, how they lived, what wonders they had seen on their travels through the Galaxy. But more importantly, they wanted to share their understanding of mathematics, physics and biology, the secrets of the Universe, the nature of time and space; knowledge that had taken countless millennia to uncover.

“But where to leave such an invaluable store of information?

“The mightiest mountains would eventually turn to nothing but rubble, while the ocean beds would silt up, burying secrets under miles of rock. Continents shifted, volcanoes erupted and earthquakes swallowed… no place would be a safe home.

“So The Visitors looked to the Moon. There were countless miles of lava tunnels there, left by retreating magma from a time when the Moon was a burning young rock. These tunnels were safe from the corroding influences of wind and water or geological movements. And there would be no bacteria to rot or sunlight to fade — it was the obvious safe storage facility.

“The Visitors filled these tunnels with their records before they left, safe in the knowledge that when intelligent life did evolve, one day it would realize where to look for these treasures.”

The Professor stopped and looked at the six men sitting around the table, each with varying expressions of incredulity on their faces. Finally, one, a man dressed in black, spoke.

“Are you saying you have actually…”

“Indeed so. For the past three decades we have been slowly unraveling the messages they have left us. We have feared that to go public with information like this would be too big a step, but we have been introducing the technology they shared with us into society as quickly as we dare. The advances in computer technology for example are all from this source, and there are more wonders to come.”

“Then why tell us? Now? We are not scientists?”

“Because the latest information we have gathered affects you, affects us all, and we need your advice.”

“New information?” said the man in black.

“It appears The Visitors also left a second record of their visit, in the DNA, two genes we have recently identified. The first gene appears to give us a kind of ‘latent awareness’ of these visitors. It has been diluted over time but its effects are still evident to this day. It has finally explained why every culture, in every time period, has held a belief in a god. I’m sure that was not the intended effect, but nonetheless, that is its legacy.”

The six men looked uncomfortable and spoke amongst themselves before the man in black spoke.

“So this is why you have invited leaders from the great religions of the world to this meeting, to inform us that God is merely the effects of a long forgotten gene?!”

“No,” said the Professor, “I am not saying that. The second gene is from The Visitors very own DNA, and it was introduced into our genome to ensure that we developed as we did. We are, in fact, made in the visitors’ own image. What I am telling you gentlemen is not that there is no God, but just the opposite, that we have found Him.”


Nick Allen is a Mental Health Nurse who has been writing Flash Fiction for three years. He has had work publishesd in a variety of ezines. More of his work can be seen at his Tiny Badger blog site.

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