By Starla Huchton
From the ancient Egyptians to today’s
fast-paced modern world, religion has been a part of human culture.
It’s a concept that comforts us and offers explanations in an
existence that so often feels beyond our control or understanding.
Humanity has studied the beliefs of our ancestors and come to our own
conclusions about what we feel to be true about the universe, and
whether that’s praising Odin or discarding the notions of higher
mystical powers entirely for science, everyone has faith in
something.
But what if everything was connected?
What if Viking valkyries and Christianity’s angels were one and the
same?
What if the explainable could be
explained in a single, unifying theory that spanned millennia?
Science Fiction has never shied away
from the hard topics, often building new religions for alien cultures
or judging the world through eyes unused to human customs. In The
Night Bridge, I’ve taken the notions of our modern world and
adjusted the lens a bit, casting humanity as the largest science
experiment ever conducted since The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the
Galaxy. The architects of this experiment learned to bridge the
gap in space and time, crossing over to a place where time moves far
more quickly, in order to learn how they developed into what they are
and getting a glimpse at where the future might take their species.
When a dozen years on Earth passes in as little as a month for this
other race, it’s a much more complicated undertaking than growing
mold in a petri dish. So what would such a thing entail?
Designing that sort of experiment not
only takes the dedication of vast amounts of people, but computing
power as well. The calculations required to successfully travel
between one dimension and another would take lifetimes to unravel,
but for a machine that’s advanced enough, it could take a matter of
moments. While that technology is not yet within our grasp, it might
not be all that far off. Traveling between intersecting places and
times might be a thing we take for granted in two hundred years.
And much as a computer would be used to
calculate travel between the realms, it stands to reason it would
also be programmed to detect problems with the experiment.
Physiological signs of distress exist in all forms of life,
manifesting in ways that can be seen, predicted, and alleviated. But
while a computer might find those things, sometimes it takes a
special, more human touch to solve problems. It would need the
ability to dispatch an experiment specialist on a second’s notice.
Without beings guiding the evolutionary
path, how could we guarantee the results? Guardians would need to be
assigned to act as mentors, messengers, and protectors for the
growing culture (in both senses of the word). Specially trained,
highly intelligent people would be required to keep the experiment in
control, especially when outside forces would take it for themselves.
The presence of more advanced races could skew the evolutionary
process in either direction. These “angels”, “demons”, and
humanity would all vie for the final say in ownership of the Earth,
and that’s the key to all of it: when life becomes sentient, who
are the gods and who are the flock?
I took all of these things into account
when writing The Night Bridge, along with much more. In
exploring this theory of how we came to be, I needed information not
only on religion throughout the ages, but on more scientific concepts
than I can count. It’s these big ideas of science that allow us to
extrapolate on theories such as this, to make them plausible, giving
way to creativity on a smaller scale that allows us to explore the
universe from the comfort of our living room.
In a world where belief defines
reality, who can say anything is impossible?
Find The Night Bridge in ebook and print on Amazon:
A geek of all
trades, Starla Huchton has been crafting stories in various genres
since 2007. She is a three-time finalist for Parsec Awards for her
podcast fiction work, and was the first place winner for Science
Fiction & Fantasy in the Sandy competition in 2012. Her work
spans science fiction, fantasy, New Adult Romance, Young Adult
titles, Steampunk, Contemporary, and various other varieties of
stories. She is greedy and likes all the genres!
When not writing, Starla trains three
Minions, a black lab, and a military husband whilst designing book
covers for independent authors and publishers at
DesignedByStarla.com.
Website:
Facebook:
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/starlahuchton
(The views expressed therein are the views of the author and not necessarily that of the SFR Brigade.)
(The views expressed therein are the views of the author and not necessarily that of the SFR Brigade.)
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