by Steve Alten
The UMBRA assassin steadies himself as he aims the crosshairs of his scope.
‘Think about it, Jake,’ Immanuel pleads. ‘For six years you’ve been devising strategies for defeating the Xibalban sentry, and you’ve never won. Didn’t it ever occur to you that they know we’re coming, too?’
Jacob stares at his twin, pondering the thought.
‘You say you’ve been communicating with our father. How do you know Lilith wasn’t eavesdropping? Maybe that’s why we lost the first battle, because Lilith was listening to Mick.’
‘Yes … it’s possible.’
Manny takes Lauren’s hand. ‘You once told me Lilith was your soul mate. Well, Lauren’s mine, and I’m not leaving her.’
Dominique nods. ‘I’m coming with you, Jacob. Case closed.’
Jacob turns to her. ‘Okay, Mother. Say your good-byes quickly.’
Dominique rushes to Immanuel, hugging him as hard as she can.
‘Ma … thank you. I love you.’
‘I love you, Manny, I love you, too.’ She hugs Lauren. ‘You take care of him.’
‘I will.’
Jacob hands Dr. Mohr a microdisk. ‘This will allow you access to everything you’ll need. I don’t know what’s going to happen from this point on, but all of you are fugitives. Go now, before Lilith finds you.’ He looks at the big African-American bodyguard. ‘Take care of my brother, Pep. Lilith won’t rest until she finds him.’
Ryan Beck nods. ‘Do what you were born to do. We’ll watch over them.’
Jacob embraces Manny, whispering into his ear. ‘Remember the young lady named Bright, whose speed was far faster than light. She went out one day, in a relative way, and returned the previous night.’
‘Why are you telling me this?’
‘Because your actions today will create a new fork in the road of space-time. Where that road leads is up to you. I hope you’re ready to face its consequences.’
‘It’s what I choose.’
The edge of the storm reaches the stadium, its 196-mile-an-hour winds causing the folded-down arena seats to flap open and closed, the sound echoing across the empty arena like a flock of cackling geese.
Immanuel nods at the Balam. ‘Go find our father.’
Jacob takes Dominique by the crook of her arm and leads her into the starship, the portal resealing behind them.
Waves form on the flooded field. The wind howls in Immanuel’s ears as the starship’s engines power up. Salt grabs the Mohrs, Beck takes Chaney. ‘Move! Everyone in the limo!’
Immanuel turns to Lauren, who is smiling at him, tears in her eyes. ‘I love you, Immanuel Gabriel.’
‘I love you.’ He reaches for her—
—a scarlet explosion splattering his face. He falls backward, Lauren collapsing against his chest in a shattered heap.
Kurtz wheels around, his smart-glasses instantly retracing the line of fire. Zooming in on the target, he fires, the laser burst from his rifle igniting inside the tunnel, vaporizing Collin Shelby into a wisp of organic ash.
Manny holds Lauren, his fiancée’s life gushing from the still-expanding scarlet gap in her waist. ‘Lauren! Lauren!’
She glances up at him, unable to speak, her face pale and drained.
‘Oh, God, Lauren, don’t leave me!’
The hazel eyes glass over. The pulse in her neck stops beating.
‘Oh, God! Oh, God, help!’
Kurtz scans the stadium with his smart-glasses. ‘We’re sitting ducks out here. Pep, grab Manny.’
Lauren Beckmeyer’s remains continue disintegrating in blood-soaked clumps. Immanuel releases her detached upper torso and stands in rigid defiance against Ryan Beck’s grip and the blasting wind, his fists balled, tears streaming from his azure-blue eyes as he looks up and screams, ‘Ja—cob!’
The gold starship continues its majestic ascent into the swirling heavens until it disappears into the diminishing blue eye of the storm—
—leaving him behind.
A wisp of thought, in the consciousness of existence.
The site of the gold-paneled starship on that distant moon did something to me.
Michael Gabriel’s anguished soul seemed to cry out to me for your mother, or maybe it was Bill Raby’s tortured heart, refusing to go on without his Jude.
Whatever it was, I had finally had enough. Aiming a high-energy taser at my head, I pulled the trigger—
—and awoke!
Bill Raby was gone. I was Michael Gabriel again, still aboard the Guardian’s pod, only my vessel was no longer moving through space, I was hovering over the alien moon.
Moments later the pod landed in the domed subterranean facility.
Before me stood the Guardian survivors, behind them the Balam.
The wormhole …
The time loop …
Am I conscious, or is this all a dream?
Am I Michael Gabriel or Bill Raby?
Where am I? On a moon somewhere in the Orion Belt, or lying unconscious in solitary confinement back in my cell in Massachusetts?
Michael Gabriel? One Hunahpu?
Bill Raby? Osiris?
Jacob, are you there? Are you real, or are you part of the delusions?
Michael?
Dominique?
God, why must you torture me? Why must you …
The white fog! Two pinpoints … angry violet eyes, stare at me from within the nexus haze.
‘One Hunahpu …’
Her shadow appears, her form pushing forward … cocoa skin … so intoxicating. The Abomination! How could I have let my guard down?
‘Come closer, One Hunahpu, so that I might taste your soul.’
No, please … God! God help me!
‘God? God is like eternity, his existence cold and lonely. Bathe in my heat, Michael, and let me thaw your mind. Crawl into my womb as I entwine your being. Inhale my breath as I caress your lonely soul.’
No! I am Michael Gabriel. I am One Hunahpu. I am in control. I control my mind, not the Abomination. My mind is a safe haven.
‘The Guardian have deceived you, Michael. I am not your enemy, I am your salvation.’
… I will focus on the echoes of my mind and not the coos of the Abomination. I shall control my mind, and the Abomination cannot hurt me. I shall retell my tale to my sons, and occupy my thoughts—
‘No more tales. Our destiny together begins anew as we await the arrival of your sons.’
Boys, can you hear me? Jacob? Stay away! The Abomination knows you’re coming!
‘The cosmos has turned a deaf ear, Michael. Now, there is only us.’
No! God is out there, God will help me!
‘God? God is dead, Michael—
—a mere wisp of thought, in the consciousness of existence …’
PART 7
AFTERLIFE
God is testing us, to see if we can
kill the Satan within us …
—FROM NIGHT, BY ELIE WIESEL
Darkness cannot drive out darkness,
only light can do that.
—MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
Each of us makes our own prisons,
and each of us has the ability to set ourselves free.
—JULIUS GABRIEL
Love is all you need …
—THE BEATLES
36
ABOARD THE BALAM
The 722-foot-long starship cruiser, Balam, is divided into two main decks. In the lower deck, located midships to stern, is the propulsion chamber and its twin power cores, with extensive feeder assemblies and circuits growing out of the bulkheads and deck. Designed into this compartment is the Balam’s massive solar plant, with links to the ship’s recycling water supply with distillers, gravity mats, and a myriad of machinery responsible for the starship’s force field and weapons system.
At the heart of the vessel is the Balam’s central processing cortex and its immense biochemical brain. Sealed within an immense chamber of gelatinous liquid, this beehive of nanocircuits c
rackles with energy. Neuroclusters fire in the isolated darkness like a million fireflies. Fluid-filled sensory vacuoles branch out from the biochemical organ, interconnecting every neuroprocessing center within the ship.
The rest of the lower deck is devoted to the hyperdrive system and ‘scoop’ that channels tachyon particles from space into the vent-style gills located along the ship’s wings, essentially ‘pulling’ the Balam through the cosmos.
Embedded in every bulkhead, ceiling, and deck are artificial gravity node emitters, set to normal Earth gravity. Inertia dampeners protect flight crew operators from possible injuries caused by sudden acceleration, deceleration, or rapid changes in direction. Voice controls in each room can adjust ambient light, humidity, and temperature controls.
The upper deck is constructed to assure passenger comfort and survival. Hydroponic vats, biological waste treatment converters, and chemical storage containers needed to produce crops are located in an aft hangar, along with storage bays and a series of ‘autophysician’ pods that look like sarcophagi, something Dominique remains too claustrophobic to use. A main corridor leads forward into the centrally located ‘habitat,’ a 230-foot-long chamber that contains a kitchen, bathing pods, toilets, workstations, virtual reality facilities, exercise, and sleeping pods.
The onion-shaped control center is located upper deck forward. Escape chutes leading to smaller landing/escape pods are situated throughout the vessel.
Dominique Gabriel opens her eyes. The padded ‘curtains’ covering the portals in her sleep chamber have parted, allowing filtered sunlight to brighten the compartment. Reaching across her body, she unfastens the Velcro straps of her sleep suit, which cause her to adhere to the wall.
The dull headache returns the moment she floats free.
Dominique has been traveling in space for two days, twenty-two hours, and eighteen minutes. She has been suffering repeated bouts of spacesickness and an aching lower back, anxiety, sleep deprivation, an inability to focus, and an almost constant dull headache.
Her diet of freeze-dried rations has only added to her irritability.
‘Computer, activate gravity mats.’
A moment of nausea as her Earth weight returns, landing her awkwardly on both feet. She groans as the menstrual pain returns.
‘Computer, locate my son.’
JACOB GABRIEL IS ASLEEP IN HIS POD.
Dominique enters the habitat where her son is sleeping. During her first ‘night’ in space, she had tried to sleep in a similar pod, but the coffinlike bed was too confining.
Hearing a muffled scream, she rushes over to one of the sleeping pods, where her son is in the throes of a terrible nightmare.
‘Jake?’ She bangs on the tinted plastic lid, then struggles to open it.
Inside, her son thrashes violently, as if being attacked by a swarm of bees.
Dominique yanks open the cover, grabbing him by his wrists. ‘Jake—wake up! Jacob!’
The azure-blue eyes flash open—absolutely terrified. He grips his mother’s biceps, bruising them within his powerful fingers.
‘Jake, it’s okay … Jacob, you’re hurting me … Jacob!’
‘Huh?’ He gazes up at her and stops thrashing.
Dominique helps him out of the pod. ‘Are you all right?’
He nods weakly, then collapses into a deck-mounted ‘nourishment’ chair. ‘Computer, 20 cc’s supplement 4-F.’ Placing the feeding tube into his mouth, he closes his eyes, sucking the clear liquid through the two-foot-long pressurized straw.
‘Another nightmare?’
‘It was a vision. A final warning from my father.’
She kneels in front of him. ‘Tell me.’
He shakes his head.
‘Jacob … please—’
The white-haired twin looks up at his mother through gallows’ eyes. ‘I was deep inside the nexus, enshrouded in heavy white fog. My physical body seemed to have left me, there was only my mind’s eye. Two violet specks appeared … two eyes, glowing at me from within the thick haze. It was Lilith. She whispered into my mind, “Jacob, we’ve been waiting.” And then I saw her.
‘She was so intoxicating, Mother, like exquisite poison. “Come to me, Jacob,” she said. My mind screamed no, but then I felt her touch, and it was beyond any ecstasy I’ve ever known. I could feel her warm breath in my ear. My nerve impulses tingled as she caressed the pleasure centers of my mind, and her nectar spread over me like a soothing balm.
‘I could have stayed there forever. I could have let her drain me, dying a happy man. But then these blue specks appeared—a pair of Hunahpu eyes observing me from beyond the fog.
‘It was my father. “You have allowed the serpent into your garden,” he said, “and once more you’ve been deceived.” Then the fog lifted, and I saw the Abomination for what she really was.
‘She was part-human, part-demonic creature. Her skin had bleached ghostly white, her long hair was black and knotty. The corneas of her eyes were violet-red, her pupils like a viper. But it was her mouth that made my soul retch—a vertical slit, like a fleshy trap—like a vagina, Mother, only it was filled with hundreds of these sickening stubbly black teeth.
‘Blood was smeared across the monster’s unholy slit … my blood! She stood before me, an obscenity of humanity. Her hideous lips spread apart, inhaling my consciousness inside her orifice, and I knew I was in Hell.
‘And though I had no body, I could still feel her heat melting the flesh from my bones, and though I had no nose, I could still smell the putrid scent of demon’s vomit, and though I had no mouth, my tortured mind screamed over and over as the Abomination entwined her naked limbs deeper around my mind, and ground her rancid groin into my being.’
‘My God …’
Jacob wipes tears from his glazed-over eyes. ‘I was drowning in her sulfuric maelstrom, ranting and raging and screaming as if caught in a swirling pool of lava, then suddenly I was in an oasis of calm. Somehow Mick had reached in and saved me, pulling me to safety. I could still feel the Abomination clawing at my back, tempting me to look at her. And even though I had just escaped her Hell, it was all I could do to keep myself from turning again.
‘My father pulled me into his arms and held me, whispering that I am the true Hunahpu, the Nephilim messiah, and that he would be there for me when I needed him.’
Dominique wipes a tear. ‘How did he look?’
‘Weary. And then he faded back into the white light.’
Warning bells sound, snapping Jacob to attention. ‘Computer, report.’
WARPED SPACE DETECTED, COURSE TWO-ZERO-THREE MARK SIX. TIME TO INTERCEPT: FOUR MINUTES, TWENTY SECONDS.
‘Origin of warped space?’
GRAVITATIONAL RIPPLE.
‘The wormhole?’ Dominique asks.
Jacob nods. ‘Computer, plot and execute intercept course.’
She follows Jacob forward into the control room.
‘Computer, activate forward screen.’
A three-dimensional image of space appears on the wall before them. Located in the upper right hand corner of the screen, growing in size as it travels from east to west, is the frightening scarlet-ringed aperture of the wormhole.
Jacob stares at the object. ‘I think you’d better strap in.’
Dominique climbs into one of the pilot chairs, which instantly conforms to her physique. The mouth of the vortex appears before them, radiating like a swirling, orange-red alien moon.
ACTIVATING EXOTIC-MATTER BEACONS.
The image of the scarlet orifice blurs as the negative energy field of the starship’s exotic-matter force field carves an invisible path before them.
Jacob pulls himself into his command chair as the wormhole’s mouth grows to occupy the entire forward screen. ‘Hold on!’
The sleek starship crosses the wormhole’s threshold, the cosmic tunnel’s intense gravitational forces instantly sucking the vessel down its throat, propelling it through its conduit.
Dominique’s arms are suction
ed to her chair, the intense gravitational turbulence shaking the vessel hard enough to loosen her back teeth. She bites down, her eyes barely able to focus on the forward screen.
