The lovable Reptilian 'Peeps' who lived near the Galactic Center where the stars were only half a light year or so apart, had carefully recorded all of Earth’s television science fiction broadcasts and rebroadcast them towards their Elephant-like neighbors, the Stomps of Amberfire, with commentaries on the psychology of a race that could come up with this fantastic idea of a space traveling ship. Discussions with the Stomps had led to the conclusion that such a ship was buildable. This would greatly change their combined civilizations, for while the Peeps and the Stomps had been in radio contact with one another for generations, the idea of space travel had not occurred to either of them until they started to pick up television waves from Earth.

Aeons later when Humans finally reached the galactic center, they were surprised to find a thriving Star Alliance awaiting them, all of it molded completely around the ideas of Earth science fiction!

Suddenly Starflame appeared beside Fireflower. "Ah therrrrre you arre!" He said "I've been looking all overrr for you. And I do mean ALLLL over!"

Fireflower grinned, "I got tired of the Moon."

Oh and by the way Violet Dawn and Mountain Thunderorr send their love. I had them out looking forr you too."

Fireflower gazed at his friend, "Why didn't you just ask God?"

Starflame grinned, "And spoil the fun of the hunt?"

Starflame sat down on a comfortable patch of void, and watched television with Fireflower for a few days. Then finally he spoke, "I am happy to report to you that Tubal-cain is ready to start uploading fictional characters."

Fireflower was delighted. He whooped with glee. He made kirlian rainbow sparks go forth from his hair. "Oh boy oh boy oh boy!" Before Starflame could say another word he darted away, headed as fast as he could move, back to Tubal-cain's Cave. The inventor was bent over Rodric when Fireflower got there. Little hearts were flashing on the Computer's screen.

Tubal-cain sensed the Angel's presence and turned around. He nodded to his friend, "We are ready to try it now. I've worked out some of the difficulties."

"Which and how?" The Angel asked.

The caveman explained, "We won't have the problem of fictional characters demanding that everybody they ever knew or loved be uploaded I have figured out a way to put a mental block in their programming so that they just won't realize those characters are missing. Besides that, God has come up with a solution to what to do with them to give them purpose in existing." Tubal-cain explained it to Fireflower.

The Angel gasped.

Tubal-cain nodded, "That was my emotional response too. God sure can come up with great ideas! One problem though, I have not solved."

"What is that?" Fireflower asked.

Tubal-cain shrugged, "Some of the characters we are trying to upload are very weak in their spiritual strengths. I can't change that without changing their entire personalities. So with many of these characters we are just going to have to upload them and wait, and wait,

and wait, until it dawns on them to try prayer. We can't reveal the existence of God and Technoheaven to them, until they do that. You know God never goes where He's not invited."

Fireflower nodded, "I know! That's why parts of this Multiverse are in such messes! Well let me think about it for a while. Fireflower sat down on a Bear skin bean bag chair, and thought for several minutes, saying nothing. Finally his face brightened, "Tubal-cain, I've got it! Why don't we use other fictional characters that have found God to act as witnesses to the fictional characters that need to learn to pray?"

Tubal-cain grinned, "Hey Fireflower, that just might work! Let's sit down now and discuss our options."

"I"m already sitting down."

"Well so you are. I'll join you."

They thought for a bit. Then Fireflower said, "The Captain already has asked the Lord into His life, Tubal-cain. There was one scene, where the Doctor asked, ‘Do you think He's really out there?' And the Captain replies, 'He's not out there. He's in here.' And he pointed to his heart."

"Well Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. That takes care of one of ’em. Now we’ve only the other two to work on.

Rodric put up some question marks. "Maybe someday you can explain to me, why modern Humans refer to the heart as the home of the soul. Even in Tubal-cain’s day they knew it was the brains that housed the soul."

Fireflower shrugged.

Tubal-cain grinned wryly and admitted. "I never kept my fair share of God in my blood pump. What a bumpy ride He would have had!"

Fireflower giggled.

The caveman nodded, Now then, the subject of the Doctor. What do you know about his spiritual state?"

Fireflower scratched his head, "Hmmmn. He once quoted Shakespeare. He said, 'Angels and Ministers of Grace preserve us.' Maybe we can make that do."

Tubal-cain frowned, "I never thought it was a good idea to pray to Angels or Ministers of any kind. Eliminate the middle man, that's what I always say."

Fireflower nodded, "I agree with you, but we are grasping at straws here. Besides, Christ is certainly a Minister of grace!"

The caveman nodded, "I guess we can make that do, but he's getting up here only by the skin of his teeth!"

Fireflower nodded, "As for our logical skeptical first officer, who 'does not believe in Angels,' I have an idea."

"What is it?"

Fireflower twinkled with mischief. "Remember what God said about uploading Sherman Homes?"

Tubalcain nodded, "I remember. But how do we upload Homes? He’s not Born Again either. And he’s too rational to try to be!"

"But what if a live fan wrote a story where Homes and Datson excepted Christ?"

Tubal-cain, stared at Fireflower in surprise, "You mean you’re going to do an Angel Gabriel to some fan to get him to write a story where Homes and Datson become Born Again?"

Fireflower put his hands in his pockets, "Yup."

"Fireflower you are a WEIRD Angel."

"Yup." said Fireflower. The Glory of Creation is in its infinite diversity and in the way our differences combine to create meaning and beauty."

Starflame cocked his head, "That comes from that show of yours, doesn’t it?"

"Yup." said Fireflower, "I’m weird but God needs weirdness too. We can’t all be nice normal Mundanes, or the Multiverse would be mundane and God couldn’t stand that."

Tubal-cain nodded, "But the Multiverse needs Mundanes too, Fireflower. Someone has to take care of things. High C Q’s are not so good at day to day life."

"Infinite diversity all right," Fireflower

admitted, "God needs and loves All His children."

**************************************

The night was late, and Thaddeus Jones could not sleep for the fiftieth day in a row. The virus that had affected his nervous system left him tired to the point of agony, but relief was impossible. His adrenal glands were surging. His mind was racing. His eyes felt like they were on fire!

He looked at the clock. It was four in the morning. Four and the morning and he had to be up at six to go to classes! He knew he would not be able to concentrate. He knew now he would fail his courses. His parents would be so ashamed, and they did not understand why he could not sleep. No one did.

Everyone said if his faith were great enough, he wouldn’t have this illness. Of if only it were true! No one understood.

But maybe God at least, did understand. Thaddeus prayed for sleep, but it did not come.

Five o’clock. It was no use.

Thaddeus got up and started to read, "The Adventure of the Blonde Headed League" At least the story would distract him from his pain and his multitude of problems.

Thaddeus did not see the Angel that came oozing through the ceiling of his dorm room. It was a fat unkempt looking Angel. He had his hands in his pockets and he was whistling, the theme from Jeremy Britton’s Sherman Homes films. "Think, Thaddeus, Think!" The Angel crowed.

Fireflower floated on the ceiling concentrated, staring at front of Thaddeus’s forehead.

Thaddeus suddenly stopped reading, and gazed at the ceiling, Though unable to see Fireflower, he somewhere still sensed his presence.

"Wouldn’t it be nice if Sherman Homes and Doctor Datson were Christians?" Thaddeus thought to himself. What would Homes’ conversion be like, I wonder? He is so logical. I know he believes in Providence. He mentioned that in "The Green Ruby." There was a time when belief in God was automatic. It isn’t any more. Thaddeus felt sad about that. His faith in Christ was just about all that kept him going at times, despite Job’s comforter-type Christians that didn’t understand about his illness. That and his love of Sherman Homes!

Thaddeus sat down at his computer and started to type. Five thirty!!! Oh what difference did it make? He wasn’t going to be fit for class anyway.

Up on the ceiling Fireflower chuckled softly to himself, "You prayed for sleep Thaddeus. You’ve prayed to do well in college, but you are going to fail college. Instead you’ve been given the most important assignment of your life, and you won’t even realize it until you are freed from that infected body of yours."

"That will be years later, Thaddeus. You are going to live a long sick life. There is plenty of suffering ahead of you, but plenty of glory and joy too. You will see. You will come to the conclusion some day that it was all worth it."

Thaddeus suddenly looked at his writings, groaned, highlighted them and hit the delete key.

Fireflower groaned too.

Suddenly a collie oozed through the ceiling. Fireflower was surprised, "Ho Lassie!" he said.

The dog gave Fireflower a dirty look, "I am not Lassie. My name is Pal. I am a male!"

Fireflower giggled, "So is Lassie. He is a female impersonator!"

Pal growled.

Fireflower stopped giggling and said, "Sorry! I suppose you are here to take a message back to Tubal-cain."

The collie wagged his tail. Fireflower assumed that meant yes.

"Tell him Thaddeus has the story in his head, but that is the only place he has it; the curse of the delete key. We’ve not so much as a crumpled piece of paper in the waste basket to work from. Tubal-cain needs to hit these space time coordinates accurately, before Thaddeus’s sleep deprived mind loses the entire memory."

Pal nodded and darted back upwards through the ceiling.

Fireflower looked upwards, his sky blue eyes dancing with mischief. "Notice Papa God, I didn’t tell him to ‘do a Lassie.’ I resisted the temptation."

God chuckled. "I appreciate your resistence. The poor dog is so sensitive about his more famous relative, I Am sincerely considering taking him off of messenger service and putting him on guard duty. I have a whole tube world full of Elephantnoids that have had their half a light year long space station sliced right in two by an asteroid. I’ve got one hundred billion newly glorified souls all within half a light year of a dark hole. I’m rounding up glorified beings from every corner of the Multiverse to try and keep them from trouble. Pal would be perfect for that."

Fireflower nodded, "He is after all a dog that was developed to herd sheep."

God chuckled, "There’s not that much difference! It is done then."

Suddenly Tubal-cain and Rodric oozed through the ceiling.

Fireflower waved his arms. "Danger Danger Will Robinson! Watch out. Depressed Author down below."

Tubal-cain studied the situation. He whistled. "You were right. Depressed big time, but his still has his Sherman Homes memories. Work quickly, Rodric."

"Doing so, honorable caveman." Rodric intoned cheerfully. Hearts flashed on his screen.

"Can’t anything be done for this poor boy?"

God answered the computer, " A few days from now a doctor will put him on brand name antidepressants. Those will help immensely. The generic stuff he’s getting from the health clinic is too weak and no one realizes it yet."

It took but a minute for Rodric to upload all Thaddeus had on Sherman Homes. Then caveman and computer both took off to process the information.

Fireflower stayed a few moments longer. He floated on the ceiling hands perched under his chin. There was newspaper on Thaddeus’s night stand, Fireflower absent mindedly started rustling through the pages. Thaddeus would think the rustling was just from the ceiling fan.

An article caught Fireflower’s attention. He read it, and started to grin. He floated that piece of the paper across the room and landed it with a light thump on Thaddeus’s foot. The sleep deprived fellow just sat there half unconscious at his computer desk, moaning.

Fireflower concentrated on Thaddeus’s forehead.

Thaddeus looked down at the paper and picked it up glumly. An article caught his eye. "GENERIC ANTIDEPRESSANTS PROVEN LESS EFFECTIVE THAN BRAND NAMES." Thaddeus started to read.

"Good job! Fireflower!" said the Lord.

Fireflower leaned back in Papa God’s lap, and inspected his nails, "Am I good or what?"

God chuckled, "You’re getting there. Give yourself a few more Big Bangs and I’ll have you practically perfect!"

Fireflower oozed back up through the ceiling into the rain washed new morn. "Morning has broken" he sang, "Like the first morning. Blackbird has spoken like the first bird.."

God sighed, "Next circling of time, we’re going to have to work on your singing!"

Fireflower giggled. "I can’t go into the sunset like a proper hero, God. It’s sunrise."

"Go around the Earth until you come to the sunset."

"Good idea!" Fireflower did so.

"There’s a new Godzilla movie out," said God.

"Anything that starts with ‘God’ has got to be good."

God smiled, "I’ll supply the popcorn."