by Gene Curtis
She dumped the rest of the water on his belly and upper legs. “I’m going to help you sit up so we can get this cloak off of you.”
The other guards were rendering first aid to the rest of his team. They all seemed to be relatively okay but severely depleted.
His minds began racing with memories of what he’d seen in the vision, pondering what it all meant and what course of action he should take. Was he supposed to confront Benrah at some point? Was he supposed to start rescuing people, when? Truth and Justice Warrior had breathed fire back at the dragon. Did he have that ability? If he did, then that meant Mr. Rutherford was right; he and LeOmi were the two witnesses.”
The pain in his right hand brought his minds back to the here and now. “Ow.”
“Sorry, but we need to get this off of you.”
“We don’t need healing oil.” He produced his first aid kit from Aaron’s Grasp and said, “Aloe Vera for the sunburns and we need to eat. We’ll be okay.”
Samantha said, “You’re the boss, but healing oil would take care of everything pronto.”
“Yes, but we don’t really need it.”
Mrs. Shadowitz led the Council of Elders through the opening.
Mr. Diefenderfer walked over and removed the cap on a bottle of Cap’n Ben’s energy drinks. “This stuff works amazingly fast.” He handed it to him.
He took it and began sipping. “Thanks.”
Members of the council passed out drinks to the others.
Mrs. Shadowitz said, “I’m sure you can tell we’re anxious to hear what you might have to tell us.”
“There is a lot to tell. Would the council care to join us for a meal?”
She nodded and asked, “The Oasis or the citadel?”
“The citadel, I’m sure others on my team will want to hear it too.”
He tried to stand and with Samantha’s help, found he could. He raised his bottle to Cap’n Ben. “Good stuff. We should all start carrying a bottle or two of it.”
Chapter 2
Mrs. Shadowitz walked into the citadel and called to the receptionist. “The seven have awoken and will be here shortly. They will be eating in the officer’s dining room. Pass the word; they have quite a lot to report.”
The receptionist picked up a phone handset, pushed a button and spoke into it. The building’s PA system sounded. “General Young and his captains will be arriving any moment.”
A flurry of activity began. A bevy of recruits ran from the hall and out the front door, all wearing dress uniforms. Many more began lining up on both sides of the hall and the lobby forming a corridor of starched uniforms, from the front door through the hall. Salina, Ricky, Nurse Mary, Shana, Steve and Shirley walked briskly between the ranks toward the lobby. Steve paused to point out a piece of lint on one recruit’s uniform then quick-stepped to catch up with the others. They split when they exited the door and formed two lines in front of the recruits standing on both sides of the porch.
The line of recruits continued down the stairs. On the desert in front of the citadel, tens of thousands were forming into crisp ranks leaving a passage between them leading to the stairs. A moment after they were all formed up Mark and his captains appeared. A lone voice called, “Ten-hut. Salute.”
All the recruits in the front lining the path to the steps drew swords and snapped them to their faces directly between their eyes. The recruits behind snapped their hands to their eyebrows.
The General ambled toward the steps with the others following behind. When they were there, Mark slipped from the horse’s back, looked up the steps and shook his head.
When he reached the top of the steps, he said to Ricky, “I told you not to do this sort of thing.”
“Sir, I didn’t. They wanted to do it to show their respect. You were in battle with them, sir. You risked your life and limb as much as they did, if not more so. They saw what you did to Ruby. They’ve heard the stories from your guards. You won against considerable odds. Not to mention you’ve just come back from God speaking to you. And speaking of Ruby, she’s dead. They found her mutilated body in her cell. It looked like she’d been half eaten.”
Mark looked him in the eyes and after a long moment said, “I’m hungry, let’s eat.”
Ricky opened the door and they entered. Mark thought he had turned too fast because he suddenly felt dizzy. That, along with the lack of food and baking in the Wasteland for three days, was bound to take a toll. Behind and to his left Chenoa went down on one knee. She was followed by James.
Mark said, “We are very depleted. We need to eat. Please, everyone...” He collapsed to one knee. It was all he could do to hold his head up. He removed a pack of sandwich crackers from Aaron’s Grasp and fumbled trying to open them. They fell to the floor.
He didn’t understand; he had been this tired before especially after Maode Maharaw. Had the time in the desert really been that much worse?
He felt hands under his arms lifting him up. Nurse Mary, his chief medical officer said, “You are still very dehydrated.” She held a bottle to his lips. “Drink.”
Samantha’s voice said, “Shouldn’t he be taken to the healing ward?”
“Not necessarily. The treatment is the same here or there. They need fluids and food. If their symptoms don’t improve within an hour then an IV may be necessary. I’m sure they’ll be better after they eat.”
After he was standing, Ricky moved to his left and held him up with an arm around his back. “Can you walk?”
He nodded while finishing another bottle of Cap’n Ben’s energy drink. “I feel better now. Let me try walking by myself.”
Ricky’s arm moved from behind him and he stepped forward. “Yeah, I’m better now. Let’s eat.” He led them to the mess hall, Ricky walking beside and slightly behind keeping a constant eye on him.
They all made it to the officers’ mess and sat at tables.
After nurse Mary ordered chicken noodle soup for the seven Mrs. Shadowitz said, “I’m sure we’re all anxious to know what God has shown them, but let’s let them eat first.”
Mark said, “That’s okay. I think we can speak without passing out. Jamal, can you tell everyone what you know about your staff?”
“Well, so far the scrying stone shows me which way to go. I think that doctor in Ethiopia used it the same way. From what I could tell, it led him to people that needed his help and he took them where they needed to go. That’s why he ended up in Tanzania, where it was stolen. The vision thing happened because Raphael told me in a dream to gather the team; God wanted to show us something. I followed the staff to the Wasteland.
“The way I followed the staff is the stone looks bright when it points to the way you’re supposed to go. It looks normal in all other directions. I’ve stared into it several times and I didn’t see anything but the stone. That’s basically all I know.”
Mark looked at Cap’n Ben, “Would you hit the high points of the vision?”
“As you command, Truth and Justice Warrior.” He looked around, “That’s what the name Mark means.
“It’s like James commented while we were there; there is nothing new under the sun. A team of seven creatures, those dinosaur beings we discovered, each one a representative of us. We heard their names not as how they were pronounced but as what they meant: Truth and Justice Warrior was their leader. Small Gentle Creature of Early Light is Chenoa. Beautiful One is Jamal, and like that. They were fighting against a seven-headed dragon that came down on top of a bright-stone pyramid and claimed to be God. His lords were establishing above-ground cities in excavated sections of mountains. Any creature refusing to live in the cities was hunted down and executed. After that, a passel of the ones the team had rescued was captured as a trap for Truth and Justice Warrior. He went to the dragon’s temple and destroyed it. After that, he gave his team members specific tasks to accomplish because he planned to turn himself in. I think that hits all the high points.”
Mark said, “That sums it up nicely. Chenoa, w
ould you speculate on the meaning of the things we saw?”
“I think we were shown specific events that we can expect to have similar destiny nodes in our time. The reason we were shown this is so we can choose paths to best facilitate Benrah’s defeat while being mindful to cause the least amount of suffering for others along the way. I think every single event we saw will play out in some way in our time, not just some of them. I think we should record what we remember as some sort of permanent record.”
“James, do you have any specific suggestions for plans of action?”
“Well, we know from the tablets that they used the dark stone to darken the pyramid thus proving that the dragon wasn’t God. The consensus was that God would destroy the world if every creature worshiped the dragon as God. I don’t think everyone did, far from it. That leaves the question of who or what caused the asteroid to strike Earth? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t God. I think we should devote some energy to figuring out how to keep that from happening again.”
Nick said, “I don’t think that was a node since we weren’t shown that. I think one of our plans should include going back and communicating with them, pick their brains for more information. We might be able to remanifest there since our spirits have already been there. If not, we have another way.”
Mark rebutted, “I believe God has shown us all that we need to know. My greatest concern is in knowing just when I should turn myself in.”
LeOmi and Chenoa protested at the same time.
“Not while I live,” said LeOmi.
“That ain’t happening,” said Chenoa.
Mark answered, “You saw exactly what I saw. It will happen. The question is when.”
Cap’n Ben said, “I think we need to prepare for rescues and such or maybe we’re meant to look for another path, one that will delay the nodes.”
Mark remembered Sun Tzu’s principle of attacking an enemy where he does not expect it and where he is weakest. “What about advancing the nodes? I mean, Benrah has been proceeding according to his schedule. If we start attacking things based on what we know, that will force him to move faster. The underground cities are being brought out three years ahead of schedule. That’s had to have caused problems. That video about the firestones had a bit of urgency to it since they don’t have enough of the stones bonded yet. Let’s take out that facility.”
Chenoa said, “Our planes have been refitted so the fuel won’t explode, but any ordnance we carry will.”
Ray said, “Binary, use binary explosives. They won’t go off until they’re mixed, easy enough to rig and JDAM kits will fly them exactly where they need to be. Add some aerodynamics for gliding to increase the range to say,” he looked to the ceiling like he was doing some mental calculations, “two hundred miles, probably more. You’re flying F-22s, no worries about radar; contrail could be an issue though if a high-pressure weather system is in place. All in all, I’d say it’s very doable.”
Mark said, “Sounds like a plan. Ray, you work with Chenoa on making it happen.
“Another node is billboards. We need to get information out about what is happening. Who wants to handle that?”
Mrs. Shadowitz said, “That reminds me, there is a new movie trailer being shown. It came out just a couple of days ago. The movie is titled Firestone and is a Sci-Fi thriller about using firestones against an alien invasion sometime in the future. The trailer has scenes from the video you broadcast. It effectively indicates the video was a promotion for this movie.”
Nick said, “There are a ton of movie production people at the mountains. We could produce a movie ourselves and pass out free discs. The question is, should it be presented as fiction or as a documentary?”
Mark said, “Both, a fiction movie with special features including a documentary on what is really happening.”
Salina said, “I’d like to take that project.”
“It’s yours. Consult with the best people at the mountains on how to make it a blockbuster, keep the production of the documentary secret.
“I’ll continue the billboard campaign with dream casting. All right, next up is making their above ground cities uninhabitable. LeOmi and I have the ability to control the weather. We’ll use that.”
Nick said, “I think we need to address taking down the Internet, cell phones and broadcast. Those are instruments they’ll continue to use against us if we let them stay.”
“That sounds like a tall order.”
Samantha said, “Jamming for broadcast and cell phones, malware for the Internet. We might not be able to take it all down, but they can be rendered basically useless.”
Nick said, “Taking down the Internet is easy. I just need to attack the sub-structure that ties everything together. The Huawei machines, more than ninety percent of that structure, can be hacked and shut down.”
Ray said, “Taking down broadcast antennas and uplinks would take them a long time to recover from.”
“Great, you two work with Nick on that.
“Sanctuary for those fleeing Benrah’s wrath, any ideas on that?”
Cap’n Ben said, “Where to hide seven billion people, is that what you’re asking for?”
“We won’t need to hide everyone, just those that Benrah will be trying to kill.”
“Okay, say your information campaign is somewhat successful, that could mean a billion or two, maybe more. Tokyo is the largest city in the world with a population of over eight million. New York City, same thing. That would mean establishing at least one hundred cities that size. We just don’t have the room or the capability at the mountains.”
James concurred, “He is right. The total population of the sentient creatures in the vision was definitely less than eight million, more like one or two million, total. The mountains could handle that much but not a thousand times that much.”
“So you’re saying we should abandon the need to rescue the inevitable refugees?”
“Not at all,” said Cap’n Ben. “We just need to change our strategy to something like teaching people how to hide and fight back.”
“I understand. You and James develop a strategy based on what needs to be accomplished, even if it means putting them on Mars.”
Mr. Müeller, the head of engineering, said, “I really don’t think Mars is a viable option. Even if we put everyone underground, there isn’t sufficient potassium or nitrogen to grow enough crops. Phosphates are okay though. I don’t think it’s practical to stockpile that much food for say... ten years.”
“I used Mars as an exaggeration. I don’t really expect to hide everyone on a different planet.”
“Well, if we had a few more years to prepare, it would be possible.”
He smiled and pulled the sword from the base of his staff in Aaron’s Grasp, produced it and held it pointing at the floor. He let go and it pierced the floor all the way up to the hilt.
“On another topic, I know you can’t make anything this sharp, but I was wondering how close you could get?”
“Actually there are some very good ceramics available, nothing that sharp of course, but certainly sharp enough to cleave a stone... once. Trouble is they’re a bit brittle for use in combat. Adding a steel spine improves that somewhat making them good for two stones, three at the outside. The sword smiths at The Fourth Mountain have experimented with various techniques of making them but they haven’t come up with anything satisfactory yet. My information on that is a couple of years old, but believe me,” he nodded at Ms. Vanmie, “your combat teacher would have spoken up if that information had changed to any degree.”
Ms. Vanmie confirmed, “They’re still working on the idea. The best they’ve come up with so far is using a Samurai technique and adding a replaceable ceramic edge. If you’re wanting a replica of that sword, their technique still produces a curved blade. It might be possible for them to add ceramic edges to a tapered blade like you have there, but I have no idea how well it would hold up. I can check if you’d like.”
“Than
k you, please do. It would have to be a convincing copy.”
“I understand.” She called to the group, “Anyone have a camera I could borrow?”
Several people held their cell phones up.
She took the closest one, which happened to be Samantha’s and snapped a few shots while Mark held the sword. She said to Samantha, “I’ll get this back as soon as I get some printouts made.” She turned back to Mark, “I’m curious why you would want a replica of this sword? Anything that could be made will be significantly inferior.”
Jamal answered, “One of the nodes involves LeOmi, um, excuse me, A Magnificent Female being given orders to hide the sword.”
Mr. Diefenderfer said, “By happenstance, might you have... a notion as to where that... might be?”
Mark noticed that Mr. Diefenderfer didn’t use the word perchance. Was he being overly cautious around LeOmi? “No sir, I don’t and I don’t think I’m supposed to know where it’s hidden.”
“I take it that you are... planning to hide the facsimile... in which case it wouldn’t represent a... true node. If I surmise correctly, Truth and Justice Warrior would have... hidden his sword to keep it... out of the hands of the dragon... when he surrendered.”
“He didn’t surrender; it was a ploy to get inside to testify and prophesy to the people.”
“Correction noted... surrender was a poor choice of words... Nonetheless, the reasoning remains valid... I surmise it safe to say that... Ruby reported that the staff... she stole was a facsimile... I believe that led them to suspect... the authenticity of the destroyed sunstone... among other things. They will have no way to verify... their suspicions except through espionage... Should they attempt that... we are prepared.
“Having said all that... I wish you to consider this.” He picked up a small bit of hash browns on his fork, picked up his plate and held it down by his lap where Mark couldn’t see it. He dropped the food from his fork back onto his plate and then showed the plate to Mark. “Identifying the morsel I had on my... fork is difficult. Perhaps having more than one facsimile produced... is a good diversion. Hide several fakes... replace the one in the staff with a fake... and hide the authentic someplace known only... to you... but somewhere you can retrieve it quickly.”
