Prophecy

by Paula Bradley

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  Pacing before the screen, Sateron paused as his colleague, the last to arrive, entered the relay facility. His self-regulating garment, hampered by his previous exertion and his current state of agitation, worked feverishly to maintain his body’s proper temperature.

  The three humans were equally excited. Their heads swiveled in Aleris’ direction, their expectancy obvious. Being given the nod by the latecomer, Emmanuel notified the matrix processor that all were present and then stepped aside to allow the others equal view.

  The NMIP needed no further encouragement. White letters against a blue screen seemed to radiate with intensity.

  “I have received a signal from PS orbiter Valariti. The female has registered an unprecedented increase. Awaiting your command for visual.”

  The only sound in the room was the sibilant sigh of the environmental control system. “The Three” (as the humans were referred to by the scientists) were off to the left, watching eagerly as Aleris advanced toward the relay screen. Sateron grinned, nearly bursting with suppressed excitement, his eyes meeting those of his associate’s. He had intuitively checked the calibration of the relayhimself three days past, even though he knew it to be unnecessary. He was confident there could be no error.

  “Do not be unduly aroused,” he said to the Three as his gaze swept them. “We have received increases before.” His words were spoken offhanded, but none were fooled. Beneath his nonchalance, a volcano of emotions bubbled on the verge of eruption.

  “Your pardon, Sateron,” Siddhartha said respectfully, “but her aptitude has increased spectacularly in such a short span of time. Furthermore, if I may point out, without our assistance. Surely this substantiates your theory.”

  Uncharacteristically smiling, Aleris faced them. “Centuries of investigation have culminated in the most extraordinary data that now can be shared. The information must be presented from two points of origin for true clarity. The first, with which you are most familiar, is the psychic history of the female, Mariah Adele Carpenter.

  “We captured scattered readings when she was a child and were most intrigued at the significance for a human, and one so young. However, they terminated abruptly when she entered puberty. We reasoned that hormonal changes in her body disrupted her telepathic aptitude.

  “When, after a hiatus of many years, she began again to register on Valariti, the western hemisphere orbiter, programmed to feed visuals and aural signals keyed to her DNA.”

  The humans nodded, well aware of the Anorasian satellites that maintained a geosynchronous orbit twenty-three thousand miles from Earth’s surface. Even though each had a footprint of one hemisphere, their signals overlapped to encompass the entire planet. These intelligent orbiters could not only sense the location of psychic emissions with a resolution down to two hundred and fifty feet, they could also monitor communications, environmental changes, technological deployment, and remain undetectable by Earth’s technology while avoiding physical and visual contact with Earth’s own orbiting satellites.

  Aleris turned back to face the relay monitor and addressed the NMIP. “Please display her psychic history.”

  The screened blanked. Words were replaced with a chronological chart indicating date, time (down to milliseconds), location with coordinates, age in years/months/days/hours/minutes/seconds, and the recorded psychic notation.

  In a commanding voice, Aleris said to the NMIP, “Begin when the female was in her ninth year minus the extended data.” Without turning around, she addressed the assemblage. “This is her first noteworthy record.” Aleris psychically enlarged the end column of green glowing numerals:

  1.1

  This was recorded the day Mariah Carpenter telekinetically moved her white glove in the synagogue, causing it to land on the head of an elderly gentleman. All had seen this number before; nevertheless, they knew the geneticist needed to keep the statistics in a coherent stream.

  “Display the next recorded signal of merit,” Aleris ordered. The NMIP responded, displaying two glowing numbers:

  1.4

  This represented the night the thirteen year old “found” her friend, Marty Zablonski. It was a significant increase. Each tenth of the scale was ten percent more powerful than the previous, which meant she was psychically thirty percent stronger than the reading taken four years previous.

  Unfortunately, no consequential increases occurred over a span of seventeen years. “Display the next increase of import.” The NMIP responded and the screen shimmered in the dark:

  1.6

  “This was during her spiritual Joining with Emmanuel.” They remembered well his attempt to dissipate the effects of the sleeping pills she had ingested while administering a full measure of the dicit. Catching Emmanuel’s eye, Sateron tried to wink, a human accomplishment he had never been able to master. Even so, Emmanuel understood the significance of those two huge eyelids simultaneously closing and opening.

  Aleris turned to face them. “Soon thereafter, the readings incremented steadily with the discovery of each child.” The Three awaited the information that had caused the Anorasian such wonder, their heart rates elevating. “There is little doubt the dicit is responsible, at least in part, for these extraordinary increases.”

  Aleris turned back to the screen and, in a voice husky with emotion, said, “Display the next six concurrently.”

  The digits appeared on the screen, their breathtaking glow seeming to pulse a startling green against the black screen. Instinctively, all knew they were witness to an event of stunning significance:

  1.8

  1.9

  2.1

  2.4

  2.7

  2.9

  Not even Sateron knew for what his colleague had patiently waited, but knew it was about to appear on the screen. With exceptional foresight, Aleris had known that soon—very soon—the human female would break through the pattern of incremental increases, would perform some psychic act that would confirm their suspicions and allow them their triumph, bringing them to the second point: their genetic history would further them on the path to liberating their species.

  Mariah’s psychic energy was now one hundred thirty times stronger than the night Emmanuel had paid his visit ... and in only eight months. The magnitude was not lost on the Anorasians. Even their own race of exceptional psychics had never, to their knowledge, produced a being that could develop at this rate, trained or not.

  Drawing in a deep breath, Aleris demanded, in a voice filled with triumph, “Display the latest reading.”

  All those present never knew if their minds deceived them, or if the relay screen actually pulsed the digits larger. Sateron sprang from the bench against which he had been leaning, moving forward as though doubting his eyes at a further distance. He roared with jubilation, grabbing Aleris in a hug that would have crushed the humans.

  Before them was the culmination of thousands of years of anguish, clandestine operations and painstaking data accumulation. Mariah Adele Carpenter had just harnessed atomic energy in order to save Sophie Celeste Duval and in so doing, had been able to manipulate George René Malchelosse even though he was thousands of miles from her. To the Anorasians, the two numbers on the neural processor relay screen represented the light sought: the understanding of Netsor’ah, the Prophecy, dating back more than sixty-five million years—and the comprehension that finally pierced the darkness of obscurity and deceit:

  3.9

  Chapter 9

  Once again the Shadow stood alone, the only lights in the Mobile Exploratory Research Station being those that glowed from the vid-screens. It was intent on what had previously been uploaded to panel array Duodua, linked to sub-orbiter Valariti.

  The Shadow keyed in the encrypted data, accessing Duodua’s memory.

  A numeral immediately glowed brightly against the blackened screen. Thunderstruck, adrenaline surged through the Shadow’s blood, its normally unemoti
onal state becoming highly agitated.It began to pace the breadth of the Neural Matrix Information Processor’s chamber, head down, hands clasped behind its back. But it could not deny what was so glaringly obvious.

  Stopping in front of Duodua, the Shadow glanced again at the numerals thereon:

  3.9

  The newest addition to the list should have made the Shadow ecstatic; however, it received this information with a doubtful (and fearful?) light smoldering in its eyes.

  The human was most decidedly a rogue. No Anorasian in recorded history had ever attained such increasing power in so short a period of time. And without benefit of tutelage.

  Netsor’ah, the ancient Prophecy, was ambiguous throughout, but one point seemed a recurrent theme: one unprecedented, unimaginable psychic would strive to tear the galaxy apart; another would seek to eliminate this destroyer of worlds. Regrettably, there were no further intimations to enlighten the Seekers; they knew not which one was, mayhap, this human female.

  Another segment of Netsor’ah was just as convoluted: was there one so chosen by the Great and Glorious Shen’dalah to demystify the relationship between the races? Would it cause great healing and wonder ... or irreparable damage?

  And would this be a third entity, or one of the other two so mentioned? The possibilities were too numerous, too confounding. Mayhap the one demolishing the star systems knew where insidious rot had formed and only sought to bring safety to those planets that remained pure. Mayhap the one who would hunt down the destroyer of worlds was, in fact, the evil doer!

  With a shudder, the Shadow requested the vid-screen to disassemble. The numerals were forever etched into its brain. One detail and one only was a given: the Seekers would do naught to hinder this galvanizing force, this humanoid, as it ascended to a psychic level the Shadow knew exceeded the realm of the known.

  There could now be no doubt: this entity was one of the unequivocal predictions from Netsor’ah. The Shadow closed its eyes, its head turning up, its arms raised in supplication.

  May the Light of Shen’dalah guide my spirit down the correct path in the fulfillment of Netsor’ah. Praise be this entity is Your Man’asorai, Your Chosen, The One who will rectify great wrongs and safeguard your creations from The Abomination.

  Chapter 10

  “Twelve thousand years in the past, we followed our planetary explorers and an android scout ship on a routine expedition. Our goal was to gather information on new star systems capable of sustaining life and producing food without the prohibitive cost of creating artificial environments.”

  Ton Re’Sateron leaned against a large rock, his arms folded across his chest, enjoying the breeze against his back that came off the lake. By mutual consent, the Anorasians agreed that they possessed enough substantive information to present what had been withheld from the Three these past centuries. They were now gathered in the Temperate Zone, their favorite of the five ecological chambers.

  The other four zones plus their personal quarters surrounded the Temperate Zone, the laboratory’s core. Vectored Energy Fields (the VEFs erected between each zone) allowed the Environmental Control System to maintain unique climates for each eco-chamber. This one, in particular, rotated through the four seasons similar to Earth’s. The climate encouraged vegetation from other planets to mutate while coexisting with hybrids developed in the Fabrication Room.

  Next to their personal quarters was the Humid Zone. Its temperature ranged from eighty-five to ninety-eight degrees Fahrenheit, never dropping below eighty-seven percent humidity, while its dense vegetation shielded the surface from the direct rays of the hazy sun.

  Diagonally across was the Arid Zone with brutally hot days—one hundred ten to one hundred thirty degrees Fahrenheit—and bone chilling nights, plus to minus twenty degrees Fahrenheit. Its dusty siroccos blew incessantly across the stark white sand.

  Adjacent to the Arid Zone was the Frigid Zone, its sun too weak to warm the freezing air that rose off the mountains of ice. Its temperature swung from minus ten to minus eighty degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the severity of the artic-like winds.

  The last eco-chamber was typical Hakilam; gently rolling hills covered in gold and red flora that surrounded a fertile valley sowed with a conglomeration of ornamental and food-producing plants.

  Behind each VEF was a holographic mural of sky with the appropriate clouds and sun and stars for the zone. It gave the impression that the “land” was infinite. The energy field was a soft wall, allowing animals to come within twenty feet before meeting a pliant resistance that turned them gently away. The lake was in the Temperate Zone, but shared its waters with the Humid and Hakilam Zones. The VEFs between the Humid and Hakilam Zones extended into the lake, thus keeping separate a variety of life forms peculiar to each Zone.

  Humans and Anorasians could psychically step through a VEF and pass from one chamber to another; but only the Anorasians, with their exceptional visual acuity, could see through the VEF into the adjacent zone.

  Each ecology chamber had its own underground Environmental Control System joined by tunnels in which were android maintenance closets. The control systems received energy from the Power Antimatter Core—a two-level, cylindrically shaped tower outside the hanger that kept the entire underground laboratory supplied with the energy needed to sustain life.

  The NMIP was the intelligent core that linked functions such as power, environmentals, communications, long and short range sensors, hyperspatial drive, navigation, and weapons. It communicated as a living entity with audile, verbal, and visual recognition.

  “After centuries of travel in the MERS, we arrived at a hyperspatial exit point beyond a mass previously charted as a star system. Thus did we come to Sol. Several of its planets held promise. The one most conducive to immediate habitation was your birth planet which we named Er’ath, which means ‘green valley’, now known as Earth. As I prepared to transmit our intent for further investigation back to Hakilam via hyperspace relays, my colleague advised against, intuitively requesting a delay until more information could be gathered.”

  Siddhartha sat on the grass before Sateron, his legs in that uncompromising position the Anorasian had never been able to master. Sateron had tried to place his left foot on his right thigh, his right foot on his left thigh—and had promptly rolled onto his back, his legs locked in that position, looking like a beetle lying on its shell! Laughing as heartily as the others, he waited while Aleris untangled him with a stern warning never to attempt that while alone for fear he might die of starvation.

  Emmanuel sat with his back against another rock, the breeze that tickled his beard bringing with it nostalgic smells and sounds. Aleris shared his rock, the two enjoying the warmth of the sun on their skin. No one wore a self-regulating garment: this was considered their backyard where they could pretend they were above ground.

  Sateron grinned, watching al-Amin try to find a comfortable spot. In less than five minutes, the human had gone from lying on his side, his head propped on his fist; to kneeling, heels against his spine, palms flat against his thighs; to lying flat on his stomach, his chin resting on both closed fists. This one was so like himself: restless, physical, competitive, needing movement just as others needed stillness.

  Returning to his subject, he said, “We collected samples and were mystified. Eighty percent of the accumulated specimens had an above average DNA match to similar species on Hakilam. Further, the DNA of the sentient life forms matched Anorasian DNA code by nearly ninety-eight percent.”

  The humans watched Sateron intently. He remained stationary, curious for one who usually paced while talking. Even al-Amin stopped fidgeting. The information just received astonished them no less than it had the Anorasians twelve thousand years previously.

  “Even with these puzzlements, we were treated to one having equally more disturbing consequence,” he said. “We began an intensive scan of the planet, finding something compelling in the equat
orial region. How terrified were the humans when we teleported into their territory! We attempted communication, but they disappeared into the trees, presumably due to our physical appearance so unlike their own. They watched, but would not approach.

  “Unerringly, Aleris made directly toward that which had acted as magnet. I thought it only moss clinging to a tree; nevertheless, as we neared the moss, it shivered and drew back! It curled in an arc then moved slightly forward as if finally deciding we would do it no harm. My colleague gently removed several to bring back to the MERS and began the wearisome search through our extensive data to see if this plant had been acknowledged prior. It was found in obscure documentation, only a brief description. It was named Eocene dicit’ledoni, seemingly to have been on Earth sixty-five million years in our past.

  “’Tis an entity that is currently manufactured in laboratories throughout the Empire.” Sateron sighed in remembrance.

  “Further disclosure revealed that, while having no specific intelligence or communication skills, it did possess some psychic recognition. It acknowledged us when first we came upon it, but not you three until you had sufficient amount of dicit in your system.” His eyes, alight with suppressed excitement, the Anorasian began to pace, unable to remain still.

  “We named this life form from Earth dicit-E. We found it to be ninety-seven percent alike to the biologically engineered dicit on Hakilam. So we differentiated it from the Hakilam complexity which we now name dicit-H. Had we stumbled upon the prime whence ours was fashioned?” Sateron paused as though to gather his thoughts.