THE TRANQUILITY CHILD - Tapa blanda

In that day those who bought into the accepted dogma-whether religious, political, cultural, or economic-became ever more rigid and unyielding. They chose up sides each hiding within their own invented version of God, each declaring the sanctity of their own set of beliefs, each vilifying all others who thought differently. And the inevitable outcome came together in a place called the Holy Battlefield where the armaments of mass ignorance decimated the pawns. Nature had messed up, it seemed, and gave rise to an organism with no natural enemies, and so, to be fair about it, Nature turned man upon himself.

Would History continue to repeat itself? All the signs were there. Human nature had not changed and wasn't likely to. Yet a secret society of scientists found a way to forestall what might well be inescapable. However, the government considers the group a terrorist organization, and they are treated as such. Providence will leave it up to one mysterious child to make the decisions grown men and women would not.

"Hello," she said, clutching the tattered doll to her breast. "Would you like to play a game?"

A former math/science teacher, Terry Oliver Mejdrich writes a regular science column and does free-lance work in addition to composing novels. He lives with his wife, Darlene, and dog, Tess, on the shore of a quiet lake in sky blue water country.