Hecate seethed with anger and frustration but knew she was powerless to do anything. This outcome had never been discussed, and Hecate knew, as did Adam, that this was just one more additional cruelty, courtesy of the Liara, the Creator.
Liara said, “Before we start the festivities I have a few things we all need to discuss about past and future. And of course, it’s Hecate’s job today to end your life, Adam St. James, and to do that, we will need to use a very special method, since our boy here is pretty much impervious to most human means of death. But then, Adam, you know you’re not really human at all now, are you?”
“I know I’ve been modified to equal Paulo and Enzo in combat – by you. But beyond that, and my birth genetics, it there something else you’d like to share?”
“Why of course darling. There are only two beings left on this planet who were born, and still live, who carry all four of the genes necessary for the Great Change to take place…”
“Great Change?”
“Catchy, no? It’s what I call the reintegration of the three species that began hundreds of thousands of years ago but was accidentally interrupted. I was supposed to be watching and making sure progress continued but … oops, I missed this one. Happened not to be one of my original projects so I didn’t exactly give a shit. My bad. That’s why all this corrective action was necessary, and why you pissed me off so much with your refusal to carry through with my plan. With Earth at a few hundred million beings, I could have managed the Great Change myself much more easily. But, then you refused, and you were one of the three designated beings who could begin the process. But the others – and you won’t fucking believe this – were Saldana Ri, deceased, and Hana, Princess of the Gens Wildmen. Now, in the beginning, say the date of your birth, both those ladies were fucking non-starters for very different reasons, so I was left with just you. I couldn’t kill you at the time, though I was sorely tempted. I had to get you and/or Saldana and/or Hana together, but that seemed improbable when you were young, that is, until you discovered the Library in that miserable desert place.”
“Tucson.”
“Whatever. Anyway, once that whole ball got rolling there was some hope, an outside chance that you and the two ladies might get together and, if so, all the other genetic work could be done with your sorry state of science, both computer and genetic. But that meant getting the Gens and the Nobilus on board, so that stupid Prophecy thing was resurrected. You could then be tasked with eliminating Enzo and Paulo along with their Immortal allies, capture Derek Nobilus, and then have you become the Chosen One, or whatever the fuck they call you.”
“Manti. They call me the Manti.”
“That meant you now had all the ingredients you needed, you were now basically the leader of the Gens worldwide and the Nobilus were happy to help, given they want to be human anyway. Derek turned out to be quite useful. That only left pressuring the humans to cooperate, and that was done easily enough by your Immortals, your politicians and my doom and gloom that the planet would be destroyed if you didn’t all cooperate.”
“But you said …”
“I said what? That I would destroy this planet and start over again? Never gonna happen. This planet and this novo human project come from the Big Boss, not me. Ever ask yourself who Niona and Fionna work for? Free agents just wandering around the RealVerse? No. They serve an entity far more powerful and ancient than me; I’m middle management. The big, big picture is called the ‘Reality’. That’s everything. I am the Master of the RealVerse, which you could say is a small part of the Reality. I govern my own realm, and everything in the associated MultiVerse. So, this Universe that you are in is less than a speck of all Universes and dimensions; you’re nothing. But the Big Boss really likes this Universe and, in particular, this experiment on Earth. If it fails, I may be deposed by my own Immortals for being asleep at the wheel and disappointing the Big Boss. Or the Big Boss might eradicate all of us lesser Immortals and do something else. I am a lesser Immortal than both Fionna and Niona, who could destroy me in a flash, except that the Boss won’t allow it. Believe me, they’ve tried. They’re probably with my Master, the Big Boss, right now pleading your case. Might be able to convince my Master to intervene, but it’ll be too late. You’ll be dead by the time they see him and present the facts. I’ll admit to fucking up, but explain that the problem is fixed. A couple of pesky dead beings, one mortal one Immortal, won’t matter. And Niona dying with you is His problem, not mine. Your lives don’t matter. Not to the Boss.”
“You mean God.”
“No, I mean the Boss.”
“Bruce Springsteen?”
“No, you dope. The God all you mortals worship does not exist; not that God. But the Boss is a more Deist God; that’s a closer description. He starts things, creates things, organizes things. He watches over mortals, but not like you think. Can’t be bothered. He gave you ‘free will’, so the Boss figured you could settle all your own problems on your own without His help. The Boss settled on a division of labor to run the Reality and made various species of Immortals to do what he commanded to be done. God is not male or female or anything like what mortals think, so all your religious texts that attempt to understand who God really is are just mortal nonsense. The Boss is fine with that, and the recognition and, who knows, maybe even the Boss thinks that the One True God really does exist. Maybe He thinks that the One True God has given Him, the Boss, a part of a mega Reality to run. Maybe the ultimate authority in all that was, all that is, and all that will ever be is the One True God. Like your God, Adam. My Lord has no issue with that, worships nothing, and goes to work every morning just like everyone else. Of course, the Boss doesn’t actually sleep, go to the office, or have night or day; that’s just a metaphor, right?”
“Right. Go on. What you are saying means you’ve lied to us all along just to cover up and then fix your own mistakes and that, as a practical matter, you aren’t allowed to harm us as a planet at all.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much correct. I can destroy you now too, but then I would have to explain why, which I really don’t want to do. But I am now both the Creator and Destroyer of worlds; I took back my old powers to destroy. Technically, I could say this experiment failed and I prudently destroyed everything before you could infect other planets. Vaporized the planet, but that would be hard to sell. The Boss would just as likely vaporize me.
“So, you have found your living counterpart in Hana, mated and she’s pregnant with a son. He will live and the kids of everyone you’ve knocked up will have the four genes. Hana, along with your unnamed son, is all the proof I require that the experiment God intended is still viable. Now, the only thing I need to do is kill you. You are ‘evidence’, and I don’t need you around anymore. Too risky with your two Immortals running to God every so often; all that needed to be done, you did. I’m golden, and you’ll be dead. Worked out great for me, I’d say.”
“Thanks for the update. But I sense that you’ve got more you wish to share to prolong my agony.”
“Exactly. So much more, then Hecate will use this knife and cut your throat. We’ll watch you die quickly as that Carotid artery spills your blood everywhere.”
A glowing knife appeared to be suspended in mid-air. It looked like Niona’s Sari blade, but made of pure energy.
“That thing is lethal to everyone, including me. Hecate will have to finish the job alone.”
Hecate said, “What if I won’t? What if I refuse?”
“Then I’ll explode Orsin’s head and everyone in Paraiso, after I explode yours and Adam’s. I could have killed all of you at any time, but if the Boss is watching because of Niona and Fionna, then I have to be careful that I don’t get exploded myself in the process. As an Immortal, though junior, I am given a lot of latitude over mortals. God really doesn’t ever like to get involved. It’s his senior Immortals that carry out most of the work that we juniors aren’t assigned. But that’s not even the best part.”
“Which is?�
��
“You and I were, once upon a time, lovers. After Hannah and before Misti. But I sealed your memory so you have no recollection of it. I release those memories to you now!”
Chapter 57
“I don’t remember any of this. We were close; in love even. I was crazy about you. What changed? Why do you want me dead? Why all the lies? I don’t get it.”
“First, you, a mortal, and me, the Creator, an Immortal, getting it on? No way I let that info out for publication in any part of the RealVerse. It’s not impeachable; it’s the death penalty.
“Second, and you’re going to love this one, we had massive amounts of glorious unprotected sex. Me an Immortal not ‘getting’ the whole ‘pregnant thing’ while in mortal form. Not like I can go to Planned Parenthood for family planning advice. Never thought this could happen, you know species to species. But there I was, a single mum; I knew I could not stay long on Earth, but I knew I couldn’t go home pregnant.”
She paused.
“So, I had to stay. I had the baby, Immortal style, in a few months.”
“Not nine months.”
“Nope’ we’re a little quicker than you mortals apparently, and it just sorta happens. Not like mortals with all that water and mess.”
“We mortals. We never measure up.”
“Anyway, I left the baby with a human family until the Change, her transition from mortal to duality, then brought her home to my realm briefly. Not like you can have a mortal brat running around in the Palace of the Immortals. Didn’t even have the Palace you see now until later anyway.”
“The Change?”
“Don’t know what else to call it. Took a couple of years for her Immortal side to kick in, then she was Immortal and fully formed, but not completely mature. The mortal side is there, like a deadly virus, but aside from that, she was an Immortal with knowledge and ready to take up duties. That being said, I sent her on a mission after a short while.”
“Didn’t want a half mortal around your other minions causing you concern.”
“Exactly.”
“So where did you send your daughter? Somewhere far away and exotic, a nice cushy assignment to keep her occupied?”
“Well, partly. Far away for sure to an insignificant part of a Universe in the RealVerse that hardly even mattered, but was hardly a cushy assignment. You met her. It’s Hecate darling. Hecate is our daughter.”
Both Hecate and Adam stared at each other as if the very thing that others had always suspected had never occurred to either of them. Of course they were father and daughter; so much alike in temperament and thinking. Loving and protective, but a hard edge on the other side of the blade; wanting to be kind and caring but able to kill ruthlessly when necessary.
They had found each other anyway, and he had adopted her as his own daughter. It was fate, or kismet or something, but what they had discovered as father and daughter was a matter of love and commitment; it already existed. Adam was the father and Hecate was his daughter.
Of course, it made perfect sense. Now, at the end of things.
Adam, who was now hugging his daughter, and Hecate, who was now crying in great sobs of cruel emotions, asked, “Why didn’t you say something? Why keep us from knowing the truth?”
“What fun would there be in that? This way was much more thrilling for me, especially the way you two started out. So much fun, so much bad behavior. I wish I could have shared this deliciousness with my intimates, but then I couldn’t exactly let the cat out of the bag, now could I? I could never reveal this, not until the very end. Which is where we are now.”
“But why Hecate? Why not one of your subordinates. You know Hecate doesn’t want to do this. It hurts her to even think about it.”
“Well, the idea came from one of your Holy books and I thought if it was good enough for mortals, why not try it out? See how much more enjoyable it would be for me.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well you had to go; I knew that. Sorry darling, we had fun, but you present too much danger to me being the Creator. So, I devised a test for Hecate to prove her loyalty to me. Kill you. You say you are Holy …”
“Religious. I am religious. Holy is different.”
“Whatever, well in one of your obscure Holy books, there’s some father who your God tells to murder his son …”
“Sacrifice. There’s a difference.”
“… so he takes him somewhere and kills him. End of story. I have no idea what that means, but I thought, sounds like fun. I play the part of God, Hecate the father and you the son. She kills you proving to me that she’s my little girl too. See?”
“You’ve got it all wrong. And missed the point.”
“Oh?”
“It’s the story of the Binding. God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a test of faith. They go to a Holy place, Abraham binds his son to sacrifice him to God, Abraham believing that God will raise his son from the dead.”
“I missed that part. And no way I’m raising you from anything. You’re going to be dead and stay that way. Until …”
“But an angel of the God appears and stops Abraham. The usual sacrifice, a lamb, is not available. Suddenly a ram appears, which Abraham sacrifices to please God. That Abraham would sacrifice his son presages the coming of Christ. The son of the One True God will be sacrificed for the good of all humanity. You need to be more careful with reading and nuance, Liara. You should now send one of your flunkies here to save me. Then we’re done; I’ll swear we never met. I’ll parent Hecate and you can go away. Hecate will be happy and it’s all good.”
“No fucking way. I like my version better; besides, that God of yours is such a pussy. I’d have watched the father kill the son then put the video on Youtube.”
“Didn’t have it back then.”
“Well, on whatever you did have, and let that be a lesson to everyone not to screw with the Creator.”
***
“Lord, you cannot let Liara do this. She lied to you, has hurt everyone around her and failed you. She did not do as you commanded and only this one mortal has done anything to correct the problem. Why do you abandon him?”
“Abandon him? What is he to me? A speck of dust, no more. I have no duty to him. I have my lesser beings, such as you and that even lesser Immortal, Liara, to manage what I create. I don’t concern myself with this kind of mess. Besides, even if Liara lied to me, according to you, she’s fixed it. All’s back to normal. If this mortal doesn’t die, like he’s been bragging he would, then the experiment might fail now because no humans believe in him and won’t further cooperate. He’s supposed to die to save the planet, but doesn’t? How does that work?”
“If Liara had done her job correctly, this never would have happened. This is cruel. You owe him.”
“Don’t lecture me on what I should or should not do. I have no responsibility to him, that planet or those mortals. I gave them a gift, free will, now it’s for them and Liara to decide. If the experiment continues, then that’s what I care about.”
“It will fail if you do not intervene.”
“I will not. And don’t even think I would ever intervene. It’s not going to happen.”
Fionna was dispirited.
“But I might let someone else … intervene. Why I would do that? Give me reasons and make your case fast. I’m super busy and this mortal business is beginning to aggravate me. He’s about to die anyway.”
“What if it fails again? Or the humans go off track because of Liara. What happens then? You like these mortals, I know you do. You watch them. You need this mortal because he has the four genes; his wife Hana does too. She a Gens, he’s a human. That’s the magic formula you decreed would need to be present to succeed. And you will succeed beyond your wildest dreams, but only if you let him live. He and his wives can produce the beings you want, and if he has more children, so will they. You need him. It’s the only way to be certain that you get what you want. He’s a stud bull; use him to
carry out your will. You know I’m right.”
“I see your point. There is the lying business and her failure. It could still be a mess. And we’re very close to success. Maybe this one time I should let you have your way. What’s in it for you? You always have an angle.”
“I love him. I have mated with him. I wish him to live.”
“Did I know that?”
“Yes Lord, you approved. And for Niona, too. We have children that you should meet. You’ll adore them, and they are part of your plan too.”
“That’s right, I did. Well then go ahead and save this mortal if he means that much to you. But you must to give Liara compensation. You decide what, but something. I’ll discuss this matter with her later when she comes whining to me that I let you two interfere in her business with me. But, if she refuses your command, kill her.
“Thank you, Lord.”
“And Fionna, what is this thing you call love?”
“Complicated. I’ll explain it to you right after I save my husband.”
“Begone.”
***
“Let’s not waste any more time here, Adam. Hecate you know what you both must do. Grasp the knife, and just give him a clean cut across the neck. Then come with me. I’ve got plans.”
“No, mother. I will not kill daddy.”
“Daddy? Oh, he used to love it when I called him that. I never got it, but then mortals can be so irrational. Anyway, he always got friskier whenever I whispered it and flicked his ear with my tongue, if you know what I mean.”
“Mother! Eeeeww. He’s my father. Not the same. Not the same.”
“Oh, sorry. Well, not really, but insincerity is a human thing too, is it not?”
“I will not kill my father.”
“Pop, pop, pop. Hear that? That’s the sound of your Orsin and his family and everyone else in Paraiso dying, one by one. The terror it will engender will make me … how do you say, wet and horny. Maybe I should keep your father around until after I finish punishing your insubordination, Hecate. One last farewell fuck?”
Resolution Page 111
