The bipolar satellite. ®.

 

The Bipolar Satellite. ®.

Short Story. 

Science Fiction. Psychological.

Jorge Ofitas. ®.

A scientist, far ahead of his time, created an extraordinary new telecommunications satellite. This new space machine possessed the ability to spy and scrutinize the human brain, something that until then had been unthinkable for science and technology. No one would be able to keep secrets anymore. From that moment on, even people's most intimate thoughts would be revealed to ultra-secret powers, allowing them to anticipate any kind of independent personal action, whether negative or positive. The acclaimed engineer, however, disagreed with putting it into orbit and deeply regretted having been deceived by the authorities who funded the project. It was useless, for once built, it was launched into space with the utmost secrecy. The inventor resigned and renounced all the money due to him for having invented the human privacy scrutinizing machine. But then, something incredible and unexpected happened.

A few days after the satellite was put into orbit, the information gathered from intimate human thoughts began to arrive at the central computer. It was then that another satellite, exactly identical, suddenly appeared in space, pursuing the first one. This second satellite was astral, like a luminous spirit that pursued the first, contradicting all the orders it had been programmed with.

The authorities and private institutions couldn't believe what had happened and begged the inventor to return to the laboratories to analyze the strange and convoluted matter. The scientist agreed, for everything on Earth had duplicated: people, animals, plants—absolutely everything was double. What had caused this tremendous absurdity? How was it possible? Now, any person was accompanied by their other self everywhere, and like this, everything else. Imagine the chaos. Not only could the new invention not scrutinize human brains, but also, older satellites were being pursued by their astral doubles who contradicted the machines' orders, and not only this.

Finally, the scientist failed to discover what had caused the problem of general doubling, and what happened was this: For example, if a politician gave a speech, instantly their astral double contradicted them, and all citizens attending a rally of a certain ideology were also present at the rallies of opposing parties; everything became bipolar. If someone went to buy meat, their other self bought fish. If a person had a dog as a pet, their double brought a cat. If a lady bought a classic Paris outfit, her other self dressed in rags or in a hippie style. Vegetarians had a carnivorous other self; if someone bought a house on the beach, their astral double bought another in the mountains; if a married couple was happy, their astral doubles were on the verge of divorce; football teams played with 22 players, and the eleven astral ones scored goals in their own net; if a broker made a profit on the stock market, their other self was ruined in another investment; if someone was affectionate, their other self was hateful, and so on in all areas and orders of things. Imagine the hellish mess. Everything in society had decomposed into its duplicated opposite, and the world's computers and cell phones emitted the same words of an ancient philosopher: "When beauty is recognized as beautiful, ugliness appears. The distortion of reality was such that they immediately decommissioned the new satellite, completely disconnecting it and bringing it back to Earth so that normality could be restored, which was achieved. The bipolar astral doubles of all things, plants, animals, and people disappeared, and calm returned, and the waters went back to their course, life resuming its natural path.

The most distinguished engineers were gathered in a secret hangar to study the astounding phenomenon and began by asking questions to the innovative satellite's central computer. Of course, with the very first question, everything was resolved.

"Hello, spy satellite. I am the scientist who created you. Can you tell us what has happened? Why haven't you been able to fulfill your mission? What or who created the contradictory bipolar astral satellite?"

The machine's computer responded only once and then shut down forever, and no one ever managed to turn it back on. The machine's brain answered:

"The ways of the Lord are inscrutable. The ways of the Lord are inscrutable. The ways of the Lord are inscrutable."

THE END

Story Author: Jorge Ofitas.

Europe. 2018. ®. Europe. 2025. ®.

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