The plan for finding Yahweh Aris was simple. Viper would take one of his small recon vessels and land it in the wide open spaces beyond the Andes in lower Argentina. He suspected the Dark Lodge still tested their experimental craft in this area; only now there were no humans living in the wide open spaces to witness their trials of new technology. MIB would still be monitoring the entire area and it wouldn’t take them very long to figure out that Viper’s craft wasn’t one of theirs and send agents to investigate. These agents would be Viper’s ticket to an introduction to the head of the Dark Lodge.
Thus it was that Viper came to be standing alone in the middle of the parched barren plains of Argentina, staring at a mighty mountain range in the distance, the peaks of which disappeared into the turbulent clouds above. He chose to come alone, not to protect his kindred but to further his own personal cause, which he felt his association with the Dark Lodge would do.
Viper had assumed a human form for this meeting and Mahaud was under instruction to remain invisible, but close at hand, in case at any time during Viper’s visit with MIB he required Otherworldly assistance.
When he spied the numerous black vehicles flying over the plains towards him, Viper lit a cigarette and leaned casually against his spaceship. Smoking was one of Gaia’s pastimes that greatly appealed to Viper. It wasn’t like it could kill him and the habit was so frowned upon by mortal men these days.
The three vehicles pulled up one beside the other in front of Viper and twelve agents climbed out to confront him.
‘You took your time getting here.’ Viper moved away from his ship to approach the greeting party, whereupon one of the agents pulled a weapon and shot Viper several times in the chest. Blood spattered forth as Viper was thrown back against his vehicle. He laughed out loud as his wounds healed over in a matter of minutes and he approached the wall of men once again. ‘I think you’ll have to do better than that, gentlemen.’
A second agent drew a cylindrical weapon that shot forth a ball of etheric light, which, upon contact, caused Viper to black out.
It was his nerves twitching that prompted Viper to wake. He ached all over, had a pounding headache and felt weaker than he ever had — including when he was mortal! His eyes fluttered open to spy the several men staring down at him. Their dark glasses prompted Viper to recall his circumstances. ‘What did you do?’
‘Positive ectoplasmic charge,’ said the man leaning over his head. ‘Any human who was of the light path would have been empowered on impact. But as you fell hard and fast, we knew it was safe to bring you in.’
‘In?’ Viper attempted to raise himself and was aided to a seated position by several of the agents. ‘Where —’ he became woozy and leaning forward he threw up a glowing white slimy muck. Vapour rose from this discharge, for, as it was exposed to the air, it began to dissolve.
‘Your body is rejecting the light residue of the charge,’ advised the spokesman for the group. ‘You’ll feel better now.’
‘Oh, yeah.’ Viper wiped his mouth and sat upright. ‘I feel bloody marvellous,’ he wheezed, sarcastically, although he did feel strengthened after his up-chuck. ‘I want to see Yahweh Aris.’
All the men present looked at one another, their expressions giving no indication that they understood his request.
‘Come on,’ Viper urged them. ‘He’s an Orion, just like you guys, so don’t try and pretend that you don’t know what —’
‘Why do you seek Yahweh?’ asked the spokesman, curious to know how the stranger knew about him.
‘I have something that your leader might be interested in,’ Viper began.
‘I see,’ said the spokesman.
‘And I know for a fact that Yahweh Aris has something —’ The Falcon lord noted the ornate silver ring that the spokesman was wearing and attempted to use his etheric sight to view beyond the spokeman’s physical form. The spokesman’s facade began to peel away to expose a much taller being, but Viper’s psychic perception crumbled before he could make out the man’s true appearance; it seemed his psychic talents were at a low ebb much as his physical strength was. He wondered if Mahaud was close at hand but dared not inquire in any way, as the men about him were almost certainly psychically gifted and he didn’t want his captors knowing about his insurance policy. ‘You wouldn’t be trying to deceive me now, would you, Yahweh Aris?’ Viper raised his eyes from the ring to look into the spokesman’s face.
Is he the one? one of the agents bethought the spokesman.
If he were, he would perceive this discussion —
‘I do perceive your discussion,’ Viper boasted, to shock the gathering. ‘So you may as well speak aloud. And,’ he added, feeling empowered by the return of this psychic talent, ‘for fuck’s sake, stop with the tests! I am darkness incarnate. I am immortal. Do you people have a problem with that?’
‘Hardly,’ said the spokesman, a smile threatening to form on his lips, although it did not.
‘That’s good.’ Viper stood, feeling more himself. ‘Because, judging from what your friend here said, it sounds like you’ve been expecting me.’
‘Yes,’ replied the spokesman. ‘In fact, we’ve been expecting you for so long, it is hard to believe you are real.’ He admired the thick, dark shadow that interpenetrated Viper’s etheric form. ‘How did you achieve this dark super-conductive state?’
Viper grinned and shook his head. ‘How about you tell me why you’ve been expecting me first?’
‘I’ll do better than that.’ The uniform appearance of the spokesman changed, as he transformed into the dragon-like being that Mahaud had described to Maelgwn. The Yahweh was a very tall, forbidding warrior and was dressed in long, black robes of a dense artificial fibre. ‘Allow me to show you,’ Aris suggested, winningly.
19
MAKING AN IMPACT
The underground complex of the Dark Lodge was distinctly alien to Viper, as there was no Charichalum anywhere. The architecture was geometric and featured loads of sharp angles, spikes and jagged edges. The walls, floors and ceiling were covered with mosaics, hieroglyphs, symbols and seals — some Viper recognised from Mahaud’s tuition, but most were a complete mystery to him. Orion technology was distinctly foreign to Viper as well.
‘We are powered by etheric energy extracted from the matrix of this planet … it’s about the only thing the positive aspect of the Shamballa energy stream is good for,’ Aris jested in a friendly fashion, which made Viper feel all the more wary of him. ‘Not that there is too much positivity left by the time the divine inspiration has been drained through the consciousness on the surface of this planet. It is clear that the dark path is preferred by most of the populace living on the face of the planet, and its associated colonies in orbit, on the moon and under the sea.’
‘This was the case at the time of Atlantis, no?’ Viper sensed by the Orion’s tone of voice that there was a problem. ‘A great victory for your Lodge, was it not?’
‘It was a disaster.’ The Orion’s mood darkened at the mention of the incident. ‘We lost all our well-developed human soul-minds and were left with mere savages to educate and experiment with. But we did manage to capture this stronghold from the White Brotherhood and, as etheric field manipulation is the forte of my people, we set about damming up the etheric matrix at our end. The pure energy that once flowed out of this place and back to the cosmos, we now use to power our operations here.’
‘And what of the dark energy,’ Viper wondered, ‘what do you do with it?’
‘We’ve been storing it for a rainy day,’ Yahweh advised, and then changed the subject back to Atlantis. ‘It took us eons to recover and re-establish the dark arts after the deluge, and just when the consciousness of my people was getting a firm grip on humanity the Brotherhood of Light sent Christ into the world. Still, with Jesus came the devil concept, which has proven very useful for covering up a lot of our work here on Gaia.’
‘Yes, I have read about your work.’ Viper glanced at the darkly-clad men who
were accompanying them on their tour, and as he could not espy any etheric dragon-like forms behind their manifestations, he figured that they were hybrids. ‘Abductions, mutilations, strange experiments with genetics and technology … I have to admit I was very impressed.’
‘You don’t know the half of it.’ The dragon wizard stopped in front of a pillared doorway. Where the doors should have been was a dense black void, which dispersed as Yahweh Aris moved to enter between the pillars.
It was not necessary to explain the purpose of the massive complex they had entered. It was clearly an embryo nursery for an entire race of Orion-Gaia hybrids. ‘Behold the future of humanity.’
Inside the millions of transparent, egg-like pods which were large enough to hold a full-sized human being, the embryos were frozen at the beginning of their development. ‘These guys aren’t going to be much use to you for a while … where are the full grown ones?’
‘All are presently active.’ Aris began to outline his problem. ‘Very few human soul-minds have proven dark enough to be attracted to an incarnation as a hybrid.’
Viper didn’t understand. ‘I though you said that the way of the materialistic is rampant on Gaia?’
‘On the face of Gaia self-indulgence is rampant. They all want to be rich, famous, clever, powerful, sexy and decadent. But the Inner Earth people have no interest in such things. They receive and transmit Shamballa energy also, sending forth their sickeningly sweet and meaningful inspiration to their brothers on the surface. Thus, my carefully retarded flock are beginning to stray before they are evil enough to join our ranks.’
Viper knew what he’d do in the same situation. ‘Then destroy these Inner Earth people.’
‘I fully intend to.’ Aris raised a finger and beckoned Viper to follow. ‘In the past, many positive extraterrestrial intelligences have been actively contributing and reincarnating into human soul-mind consciousness. The contribution of my people is being diluted and pacified. But, as you can see, I no longer have a need for Gaia’s peoples, as the adaptation of my people into humanity is complete. Destroy all of Gaia’s existing human life forms and the human consciousness of this planet will be left with no choice but to join the new world order.’ Aris motioned back to his embryo army before dispersing the dark void between the pillars at the far end of the complex.
‘Why do I get the feeling that the dark energy you’ve been saving has something to do with all this?’ As he followed Yahweh into the next huge chamber, Viper grinned. He couldn’t help it — the Yahweh’s ambitions were terrible and most enviable.
The control deck granted views inside both chambers of the twin complex. Inside each of the huge chambers Viper could see the biggest electro-mechanical devices that he’d ever laid eyes on. Both machines were entirely different in appearance and only one of them was operational at present. The device that was not in use appeared like an oversized laser gun head.
Yahweh Aris led him to the huge windows that granted a view of the machine that was in operation.
Four large metal legs shot up from the floor to form a pyramid-shaped structure that supported a large metal ball on its pinnacle.
Around the walls of the chamber housing the structure was a metal grid that appeared to be sucking electricity from the metal pyramid. The metal ball was clouded by a dark haze, which it appeared to be extracting out of thin air.
‘We call this the Polarifier, as it literally separates etheric energy into its positive and negative aspects,’ Yahweh explained. ‘The dark matter you see shrouding the pinnacle is actually being drawn down through the legs of the device to a storage facility beneath us. The electric, or positive charge, is being sucked into our power generators for storage and use.’
Bugger me, thought Viper, impressed by the capabilities of the Dark Lodge. If they had accomplished this then what else were they capable of? ‘If you were to feed your stores of dark matter back through the etheric matrix, it would suck the light from everything on the planet. Nothing would survive.’
‘Except us,’ Yahweh added gleefully.
‘But what use will a dead planet be to your New World Order?’ Viper couldn’t figure the motive behind the move. ‘There must be a way to establish your new race without destroying the planet you mean to rule?’
‘Rule!’ Yahweh burst into laughter. ‘Ruling is for pussies. It is the purpose of the Dark Lodge to destroy.’
‘But why turn a perfectly good planet into a dead moon?’ After a life in space and his lust for a planet to call his, Viper just couldn’t fathom the idea.
‘Because a dead moon will never become a sun,’ Yahweh explained. ‘Gaia, and every other planetary Logos, has the potential to be a Solar Logos. Thus, with every planet we devour, the cause of darkness is furthered. I know that there are other human colonies in our galaxy, and once Gaia is destroyed, I shall take my New World Order and continue to further the cause of the materialistic elsewhere.’
Viper was never so pleased to be of the dark path, and yet, he felt wary. ‘Well, you seem to have everything you need to accomplish your goals here. Why have you been waiting for me, Yahweh?’ The Falcon lord thought he’d see just how much bargaining power he had before he stated his own reasons for seeking MIB out.
Yahweh paused a moment to consider the question. ‘We’ve been having a little trouble reversing the flow of the matrix.’ He motioned back to the huge laser weapon that was not in operation. ‘As you might imagine it’s very hard to get dark matter motivated. So, for eons we’ve been seeking a superconductor that will empower dark matter, rather than repel it.’
Suddenly Viper noticed the Dark Lord was viewing him with relish. He took a step backwards to will himself elsewhere and felt one of the MIB agents at his back. Before Viper had even blinked he was encased in a transparent egg-like cubicle not unlike those containing the frozen embryos of Yahweh’s new human breed.
‘This is a little invention that I channelled to a mad scientist back in the golden age of Atlantis,’ Yahweh Aris advised. ‘It was used to contain a time hopping immortal who was giving us grief. It has been slightly modified and improved upon now, of course, and it will hold you in a conscious state of stasis indefinitely.’
A great pressure bore down on Viper’s body in every direction. ‘M…a…h…a…u…d!’ he cried, but his utterance took so much effort to say that he found himself frozen in time before he could instruct the crone to aid him. A steel spike extended from his capsule and rammed itself into Viper’s third eye area.
‘Mahaud?’ Viper heard Yahweh Aris’s voice inside his head. ‘Is that the name of that horrid elemental assortment that has been following you around? I thought those creatures looked awfully familiar. Don’t worry, now that I know your little playmate’s name, I won’t have any trouble extracting my pets from her and recalling them to service.’
But you need me, Viper bethought his captor. I can get you all of the superconductive black substance you want.
‘I feel sure your crone can help me in that department, and besides, there is far more glory in destroying a rival Dark Lord. With such potential as you have, you must understand that I cannot let you live.’
Are you some kind of idiot! Viper stalled, knowing there had to be more to the Dark Lord’s motivation. You never dispose of someone who can still be of use to you. Mahaud knows very little about those planets you seek to conquer. I know all.
‘I know,’ smiled Yahweh. ‘I have your entire memory on record for reference.’
Viper couldn’t believe it. He’d never underestimated an enemy before. Who would have imagined that there was a dark race of beings more technically advanced than the Chosen? Still, Yahweh had said that Viper’s coming had been foretold; maybe some of the lord’s motivation was connected to this prophecy. Did somebody predict I was going to destroy you, Yahweh? Viper said this as a spiteful jest, but the look Aris awarded the Falcon lord made him think that he’d hit a sore spot. Viper would have smiled if he’d been able. You can believe
it, Yahweh … I will destroy you and your New World Order.
Tory had finally caught up to herself in the story. As she read of the events her kindred were dealing with, the story was as surprising to her as it was to the other guides following the tale her charge was writing. She was very concerned about the last scene she’d read — Viper had got himself in a real predicament and she feared she was the only soul among the Chosen who knew what Yahweh Aris was up to. Still, Astarleia encouraged Tory not to go charging off to the rescue before they discovered how Rhun and Avery made out with their mission back to Atlantis.
‘Everything in the dimension you left will be affected by your sons’ quest,’ the Oversoul reminded the muse.
‘You’re right.’ Tory settled back down to work, greatly looking forward to reading all about her sons’ adventures. ‘Back to Atlantis again then,’ she announced and the rest of the guides gave a little clap, just as eager to return to the story. ‘To be sure the time hopping chariot was not discovered by the Dark Lodge,’ Tory read, ‘the Dragon’s sons willed their transport to land on the Mount Duranki Plateau …’
Their arrival at the plateau had been arranged to coincide with the day Prometheus and Orestes were destined to invade the City of the Golden Gates. The two brothers were delighted to be greeted by seven lovely maidens as they alighted from their transport, all of whom they recognised as incarnations of some of the greatest females of the Chosen race. Their mother was among them.
The Cosmic Logos Page 39
