Prince Of Darkness

I found Father Carlton

this morning.

He was taken to the hospital,

but he never regained consciousness.

Why was he here?

He had an appointment with

His Eminence this afternoon.

Let's talk about

our beliefs...

and what we can

learn about them.

We believe nature is solid...

and time a constant.

Matter has substance,

and time a direction.

There is truth in flesh,

huh,

and the solid ground.

The wind may be invisible,

but it's real.

Smoke, fire, water, light...

they're different,

not as to stone nor steel,

but they're tangible.

And we assume time

has an arrow,

because it is as a clock.

One second is

one second for everyone.

Cause precedes effect.

Fruit rots,

water flows downstream.

We're born, we age, we die.

The reverse never happens.

None of this is true.

Say good-bye to classical reality,

because our logic collapses

on the subatomic level...

into ghosts and shadows.

From Job's friends insisting...

that the good are rewarded

and the wicked punished...

to the scientists of the 1930s...

proving to their horror a theorem...

that not everything can be proved,

we've sought to impose

order on the universe.

But we have discovered

something very surprising.

While order does exist in the universe,

it is not at all what we had in mind.

Professor Birack, in relativity...

geometry breaks down on the cosmic

scale, and in quantum physics...

logic breaks down

on the sub-microscopic scale.

What's this?

I don't know.

Birack did that whole series of

debates on the B.B.C. A few years ago.

Oh, with the English priest.

Right.

Maybe they're planning

another one.

He died before his appointment

with the Cardinal,

but he left a diary.

You-You must help us.

Please.

The discovery of this supernova...

has immense significance

to the scientific community.

Particles collected date

from pre-Cambrian times...

before man walked on earth.

Light from the explosion

was hurled through space...

at 186,000 miles per second,

and is just now reaching us

across the vast expanse of the universe.

He was the guardian priest.

Apparently, he lived here

for over 30 years.

Once a week,

he would venture out for food.

And every day,

he opened this door.

Built in the 1500s...

by arrangement

with the Spanish government.

Who knew about this? Only the

members of this forgotten sect.

The Brotherhood of Sleep.

There was a vow of silence.

Even their very existence

was kept from the Holy See.

The Vatican didn't know?

The guardian priest

would keep the secret,

and before he died

would pass it on to another.

The sect had enormous

power and authority.

Their actions were never questioned.

Latin.

Some of it is in Latin.

Some in Coptic, Greek, numbers.

It's not easy to decipher.

The original text has been

distorted over the years.

Distorted?

Rewritten.

Writing upon writing,

sometimes two or three times,

and improperly erased.

You can still see

the old writing.

It's underneath.

What is it?

A secret that can no longer be kept.

Do you feel it?

Yes. Something.

It was never here before.

It started a month ago.

What started?

A change in the earth...

and the sky.

His power.

I don't get it.

What don't you get?

The whole thing.

It doesn't make sense.

It violates common sense. That's the whole

point. That's what Einstein couldn't accept.

I can't accept it either. Do you know

anything about spontaneous human combustion?

Walter, come on. That's

Schrodinger's cat. I know, I know.

So what's the point? The point is,

until the cat is observed by someone,

he's not in any definite state,

either alive or dead.

He's in a wave superposition state,

both dead and alive at the same time.

Huh?

Okay.

Only when we open the box

and observe the cat...

does he materialize into reality,

either dead or alive.

But it doesn't make sense. That

is the entire, complete point.

It doesn't make

any common sense.

Our common sense breaks down

on a subatomic level.

Why do I want a Ph. D in this?

Particle beam weapons,

research grants.

A millionaire when I'm 40.

Now I remember.

You're really gonna like this.

Class canceled?

"Will the following students

please see Professor Birack. "

Sh*t, there I am.

Me too.

All of us. And we heard Birack wants

us to cancel our plans for the weekend.

What? That's not all. A couple of

biochemistry's finest are coming with us.

And someone to translate Latin.

Coming with us where?

I'm gonna have to pull some strings here. This is just

not gonna happen. I have serious plans for the weekend.

ditch Pagels again. He's not gonna like it.

Sleep with him.

Get an "A."

So what about your plans?

I was gonna study, actually.

Me too.

I'm Brian Marsh, by the way,

since we're spending

the weekend together.

I know.

Catherine Danforth.

I know.

So where did you

transfer from?

Kneale.

Theoretical physics.

I came here to study with Birack.

You're applied physics, right?

So why are you taking

Birack for theory?

I wanna know

what the math means.

Birack's ruthless.

He wants philosophers, not scientists.

Well, I've read his books.

He's a brilliant man.

Just when I think I've got it,

visualized it, it just all goes away.

I start seeing

old-fashioned classical reality again.

I want the clock put back.

I wanna put it all into a little box.

But whenever I try,

it just, uh, slithers out.

Some things aren't changed

by quantum physics though.

Such as?

Well, for instance,

every theoretical physicist

I know wonders why it is...

that no one who looks like you...

ever seems to settle down

in our end of the building.

That's not true, and that's

an extremely sexist thing to say.

Confirmed sexist,

and proud of it.

Hey. I was just joking.

What happened?

You talk numbers, you get romantic.

You talk people, you clam up.

Just a little miscue, that's all.

It's not your fault.

I'm sorry.

I'll see you later.

Hey, wait.

This conversation isn't what I

had in mind. Can we start over?

Okay.

Okay.

I was hoping that you would need

some help with your theory,

and that maybe we could discuss it...

over... over dinner or something.

Well, I suppose

something could be arranged.

There are other things

that I need help with... over dinner.

I have volunteered our services

to the Archdiocese.

Now, each of you

is a competent physicist,

even though you don't have

a degree to prove it.

Participating in this examination...

will greatly improve your

classroom averages, I might add.

Plan to take your meals there.

We'll bring cots to sleep on.

There are other departments joining us.

Excuse me, sir.

Is there some reason why you're not

telling us what we're gonna be doing?

In time.

It's your disbelief that powers him.

Your stubborn faith in...

in common sense...

that allows his deception.

He lives in

the smallest parts of it...

in the atoms.

Smaller,

invisible.

He lives in all of it...

in the sum of its parts.

We must translate

this book.

You must prove it

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