THE SCIENTISTS

a short story

It took Dr. Romero 40 years to get to the top of his game as a nuclear scientist who studied all weapons of the nuclear arsenal. He gave lectures far and wide and was invited to be the keynote speaker in numerous conferences and conventions. He was after all the number one world authority on nuclear devices. The President also gave him was also a very large laboratory with significant resources and funds to ensure that he is the prominent master of the world of nuclear physics.

As an old man who in my youth tried to be a clown, a comic and a philosopher (and failed miserably in all I tried) I watched the rise of Dr. Romero and admired him and even had a photo of him with candles lighted beneath it just like the saints.

There was also a Dr Fong, a world renowned philanthropist who accumulated trillions of dollars building factories, medical labs and huge infrastructure projects all over the world. Dr Fong also commanded a very large group of technicians who in fact were engaged in the dark side, in massive espionage and terrorism activities.

Early this year, Dr Fong's technicians were able to kidnap a prominent nuclear physicist from the west and took him to Asia and forced him to create a new kind of a nuclear weapon that can only be detonated using a very complex encryption technology. Once the secret device was created and replicated thousands of times, the poor physicist was killed and with him died the secret solutions to diffuse the nuclear devices.

Dr Fong and the terrorists had millions of cells all over the world bought and paid for by Dr Fong factories and institutions. Dr Fong instructed all these cells to have their nuclear devices ready for donation at his command.. To demonstrate the lethal catastrophic effect of this nuclear device Dr. Fong detonated one device in a large city in Asia. It took a matter of hours when the rest of the world was in the grip of indescribable fear that Dr. Fong and his terrorist cells will bring havoc to the entire world.

So, It was now up to Dr. Romero, the celebrated scientist to save the world from Dr. Fong and his nuclear Armageddon. The United Nations invited Dr. Romero to meet with all the kings, presidents and Prime Minister’s of the world to outline how they can face this invisible enemy that Dr. Fong has leashed over the entire globe. Dr. Ramiro went to work on the issue and discovered that there was no single encryption that you can work on the new nuclear technology but almost infinite number of encryptions. This was a nuclear global pandemic he declared.

Dr Romero advised the world that the only way to avoid millions and millions of people being "evaporated" by the nuclear explosion would be to keep everybody in their homes and shelter them from the radiation. The idea being to have distance among them so that when the devices detonate fewer people would evaporate! Dr. Romero also recommended special nuclear masks to be handed to every citizen to wear in anticipation of the nuclear explosion in their city.

Obviously every government in the world with all of their military and police powers were after Dr. Fong and his terrorist technicians but they could not discover nor infilterate any of their cells. For months, the world heard nothing more. Dr. Fong apparently decided to play the wait-and-see and was living "the life", enjoying the fear that gripped the world and how Dr Fong brought humanity to its knees. Dr. Ramiro on the other hand kept advising the United Nations on different measures to counter the impending threat of this new nuclear catastrophe. Kings, Presidents and Prime Minister‘s would quote Dr. Romero statements as they wish if they help their case politically. So every politician started using and referring to Dr. Romero as the expert for every decision they made, because after all they follow the science.

As of the writing of this short story, the entire world is being held hostage by Dr Fong terrorist and Dr Fong is nowhere to be found, he has gone into some invisible place. On the other hand, Dr. Romero is everywhere keeping frightened citizens informed and providing them guidelines of how to survive day by day. Dr Romero has become even a fashion icon. In the meantime, all world economies have tumbled, riots are in the streets, people are killing each other especially if they are of different races or colors and everyone is waiting for science to save them.

In my old age, I have to ponder: which science will come to the rescue, is it Dr. Fong and his technicians that will think again of the destruction that will happen to the entire world including themselves and perhaps decide to diffuse their nuclear Devices? Or is it Dr. Romero with his army of scientists who will keep on studying the unlimited number of encryption technologies to come up with a eureka vaccine that will help the world in diffusing some if not all of the nuclear devices in every cell in the world.

Clearly science has created the problem and science better solve the problem right?
Oh I just wanted to say that as I write this, I sit in my white -privilege den (I earned from working over 45 years) trying to write something funny or comical or philosophical that my old age may inspire me. Slowly but surely a sad grin comes on my face thinking that The greatest comedy has unfolded right in front of my eyes. Science which is supposed to improve human life has all of a sudden become the enemy and science at the same time has become the decision maker of human activities for better or for worse.

With all my "pre-existing conditions" and as I feel I am well on my way to the promised land, I can’t help but laugh loudly and hysterically on the best scientific joke ever made.