by Mark Kraver
“Where?” Faraday asked. “Atlanta?”
“No, Atlantis. You’ve heard of it, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, but didn’t that fall into the sea or something like that?” Hammond said, in a half joking, half nervous way.
“Yeah,” Ajax laughed, “I mean, no.” He cleared his throat and took on a more serious expression. “Atlantis is not what you’ve seen on the television, except maybe the way it was portrayed on Stargate, that was pretty cool, but the actual Stargate is not real.” He could see he was confusing them even more. “Atlantis is a real place, filled with real people. We’ve stayed hidden from civilization for thousands of years because of misunderstandings, like this one.”
“Misunderstandings?” asked Ezra.
“Until now?” asked Faraday.
“Until now,” said Ajax, in agreement.
“What do you have to do with this cloud? Or the blackout? Are all the marked people from Atlantis?” asked Faraday.
“Restart civilization. Oh wow, those were your words,” Ezra stammered. “If you have the answers, and if you are one of us, then we need to know before—”
“Before? Before what? The aliens conquer the world and eat our brains out?” Ajax laughed.
“Ah God. It’s not here to eat our brains out, is it?” Hammond asked, as everyone’s face grimaced in horror.
“Great, an ultra-top secret think tank for the President of the mightiest nation on the face of the planet, and you think our Lord is here to eat your brains out? Brilliant,” Ajax said, shaking his head in dismay.
“Our Lord?” Ezra questioned.
“Yes, he is known to us as Yahweh.”
“Name of God!” Ezra, the only Orthodox Jew in the room blurted out.
“Yes, as it happens he has the same name as the ancient Jewish God. That’s more to do with his seraph, Numen, but yes, he is our Lord, and he has resurrected to lead us all to Heaven.”
Discreetly, Ezra reached under the table and activated a hidden button that alarmed the guards outside the meeting room.
“Are you afraid of me?” Ajax asked Ezra.
“What? Why do you ask me?” asked Ezra. He folded his arms and covered his mouth in what Ajax recognized as a respiratory avoidance maneuver.
“Because you just pushed the panic button.”
Two armed guards burst into the room to see why the panic button was pushed.
“Him, it’s him.” Ezra stood and pointed at the man with the golden disc on his temple.
“What? You don’t want me to answer any more questions before I meet with the President?” asked Ajax. “Like why we call the blackout the Anti-Babel?”
“Wait, Anti-Babel, as in —” Ezra asked.
“Yes, the tower,” Ajax said, nodding and locking his eyes with Ezra’s as a glimmer of understanding fell between them.
“You’re not meeting with the President. Arrest him,” shouted Hammond, cutting off all conversation.
“On what charge?” Ajax asked.
“You are a spy,” answered Hammond.
“A spy? Is that the best you can come up with? A spy? Will this government fail? Yes, it has already failed, big time. The whole world has failed. Will our Lord fix it? Yes, all will be explained over time, but first I must speak with the President.”
“I said you’re not talking to anyone. Take him away,” ordered Hammond.
“Don’t do this,” Ajax warned with both hands on the table in a calm voice looking straight at Ezra.
“Hands behind your head,” one of the guards shouted out with such force Faraday put his hands up behind his head for a quick second.
Ajax sat without moving a muscle. He stared at Ezra and muttered, “This didn’t go as well as I had planned.”
“I said hands behind your head,” the guard repeated. He was moving forward to take charge of the prisoner when an angry-looking cherub appeared over Ajax’s right shoulder and pushed the guard back with a repulsor beam, knocking him off his feet. In his astonishment, the other guard opened fire on the feisty flying baby. Bullets riddled everything, and all the lights inside the room were shot out.
When the shooting stopped, and the smoke cleared, everyone was lying on the ground face down. The barrels of both security men’s assault weapons were bent into a “U” shape, and Ajax DiRoma and the strange bird-baby were gone. The guards scrambled down the hallway, looking for them and shouting alarm.
Gasping as he pulled himself out of the destroyed office room, Hammond leaned against the corridor wall next to Ezra. Hammond had rescued the box of donuts and held them under his arm for protection. Faraday sat in the darkness trying to light a cigarette with his shaky hands.
“Anti-Babel,” Ezra mumbled.
“What the hell is an Anti-Babel?” Hammond gasped with confusion.
“I believe it refers to the Tower of Babel, in the book of Genesis.”
“Okay, but how did he get out of the room, and what the hell was that thing?”
“Looked like a flying naked baby to me,” Ezra said, stroking his beard, deep in thought, and wishing he’d asked the man from Atlantis a few more questions.
Chapter 54
Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. For these, they will receive from the Lord the reward and recompense they deserve.
Francis of Assisi, 1182-1226, Earth
Library of Souls
Creator
As Yahweh and Numen descended upon the Cathedral of St. Mary of Zion in Aksum, Ethiopia, cries rang out around the campus that Jesus and the Virgin Mary had appeared. Parishioners and tourists alike bowed their heads in reverence before feverishly snapping photographs in hopes of later selling them for a bundle of cash.
“The guardian caretaker is the only one allowed inside where El’s pod is stored,” Numen said. “His name is Abba Tesfa Mariam. I visited with him a few years back, so he will not be surprised to see us.”
“Very thoughtful,” said Yahweh, drifting into the chamber. He nodded reverently at the Ark of Covenant, which he knew was El’s hibernation pod. It was displayed prominently in the middle of the circular secluded antechamber buried deep under the main cathedral floor. They both stopped a respectable distance from the man standing at the simple wall altar to El, tending oil filled lamps and incense that flickered ghostly shadows on the smoke-stained ceiling. Abba was dressed in his well-worn ornate robes, and slowly turned when he felt their presence. He was clearly happy to see them, though Yahweh guessed the caretaker would be happy to see anyone—even aliens—inside his solitary confinement.
“I was wondering if I would ever see you again in my lifetime,” said Abba. “Is this Lord Yahweh?”
“Yes, and he gives you thanks for protecting his master for all these years,” Numen interpreted for his master in Abba’s native tongue.
Bowing his head, Abba said, “A promise made long ago when the world was newer.”
Numen approached the pod and brushed his hand across the top as if to shoo flies away. The two cherubim statues fixed to the top of the pod transformed and took to flight, making grunting annoying sounds until they landed on the nearby altar.
“El must not be disturbed in his fragile last moments of this life. I will attempt to stimulate a holo-neurographic response,” Numen said out loud, not for Yahweh or Abba’s benefit, but for the benefit of another. As the words came out of Numen’s communications relay, El’s projection appeared.
El’s silky white raiment reached down to his feet. A golden ornate girdle wrapped around his waist, and on his lined face he wore a long full beard. His hair appeared like the wool of a young lamb, as white as snow, and his eyes were as the flames of fire. Upon his feet were shoes that looked like they were made of polished brass, and when he spoke to them it sounded like many voices washed through the sounds of water.
“I am glad you are not the red giant,” the image of El said. “Have thou c
ome to save us, or to pillage, and torment?”
“Lord El, I am Yahweh of Helios. I have failed to rescue, but now seek your blessing of genesis so I can execute an exodus of this planet to Heaven,” Yahweh said with his head bowed. “We have already obtained Ra’s blessing and have reverent hopes of receiving yours.”
“NO!”
The word boomed through the air, but it was not El’s hologram who said it. Ba, El’s personal seraph, descended from high above. “Only El can lead this planet’s exodus to Heaven.”
Yahweh stepped back, and Numen stepped forward. “Ba you have served your master flawlessly through all his creations. Now it is time to pass the crystal on to the next,” Numen tried to explain.
“My master in still the governor of his realm. He doesn’t need replacement at this point in the time continuum,” Ba insisted.
“I see we are at an impasse,” El said. “My time has passed. I no longer can nor desire to lead this planet’s exodus. I hereby give my blessing and worldly possessions to my son Yahweh of Helios. Ba, you have been my faithful constant companion. Your last task is to assist in the exodus of this planet, and to secure mine and my love, Ra’s, obituary chamber in-perpetuity.”
“I pray it will be done, my master,” Ba said, bowing his head first to El and then to Yahweh.
Ba reached for a panel on the side of El’s pod and revealed the embedded emerald deed crystal. “I present to you, Lord Yahweh, my master’s deed crystal.”
Numen received the crystal in one hand, then held out Ra’s crystal in the other. With his palms up, Numen slowly brought his hands together so that the crystals lay side by side. Ba placed his hands over Numen’s and, for the first time in millions of antons, the crystals were one.
Ba handed the crystal to Yahweh as El said, “Gog first divided the crystal, and now it is whole.”
The united crystal began to glow bright green in his hands, and scanned Yahweh up and down, imprinting his DNA into the crystal’s locked memory core forever. Yahweh watched, mesmerized. When he raised his head, he saw Ra’s projection emanating from the pod through quantum entanglement, appearing as a hologram standing next to her lover, El.
“My dearest El'azar, I thirst for you,” Ra said, her voice as it was back at her ship. “My whole soul longs for your comfort as a dry and parched land yearns for water.”
“Ramla, I have ached for your comfort as well,” El answered. “We have reached the end of one journey together and look forward to the next.”
They grasped each other’s hands and focused upon the young Elohim citizen standing before them as they recited an old Elohim prayer.
“Yahweh of Helios cover us with the same emerald mists,” El said.
“Carry us to still waters,” Ra said.
“Hail, as we journey into the great unknown, we shall fear no sin.”
“Prepare a dwelling for our next lives, so when we journey together again, all will be pure,” Ra said, finishing the prayer.
“I will lay you both to rest as you wish, my masters,” Yahweh said, his head bowed low with Ba, Numen, and Abba as his witnesses.
Ra and El proclaimed in unison, “All hail Yahweh, Creator of Helios.” Then they looked back at each other, locking on one another’s holographic eyes until, with a flicker of green light, the two holograms of Ra and El disappeared. The two cherubim flew off the altar and resumed their positions on top of El’s pod, and Ba returned to his perch high above the altar, ever watchful as his master slept.
“When it is time to move my master, I will be ready to serve,” Ba spoke to Yahweh and Numen telepathically.
“Well, I guess we didn’t need the cherubim after all,” Yahweh said. “Let us commence with the genesis.”
“Affirmative. May I request the cherubim recover the rest of El’s ship at the bottom of the Black Sea and transport it to Antarctica where we can use its components for the exodus?”
“Of course. When will the Anti-Babel reach this area?” Yahweh asked, gesturing to Abba.
“Soon. He will be rewarded with a long and healthy life.”
“Why didn’t you access my holo-neurogram when you left me and went gallivanting around the planet all those years ago?”
“You did not pre-record any guidance to assist me in my quest. Besides, I didn’t want to bother you with my endeavors that may have in the long run proven futile.”
“I think I’ve underestimated your programming. Let us go and see how Dr. Logan is handling her newfound role as leader of this primitive planet, shall we? I am tired and need to sleep.”
“As you wish. I see that I have tasked your stamina to its limit.”
“You are insinuating something?” Yahweh asked.
“I did have one more minor event planned for this part of the planet.”
“Yes?”
Several of the glowing corridors of the nautilus-shaped Obituary Chamber radiated into the connectome, triggering partitioned memories of Yahweh’s achievements:
“Becoming Creator on your first mission is remarkable,”
Nadira acknowledged.
“No one in the history of the Elohim had ever done that before or since. Sounds like a coup d'etat,” added Lanochee.
“Not by my design,” said Yahweh.
“What about Numen’s design?” she asked.
Yahweh remained silent.
Chapter 55
Friendship is essentially a partnership.
Aristotle, 384-322 BC, Earth
Library of Souls
House Divided
“Very interesting exercise in mass manipulation,” Yahweh said to Numen as they raced across the Mediterranean at the speed of sound. They were on a direct course back to New York City and the Prophetess Logan, having just addressed the Muslim nation in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
“Yes, as the humans would say, killing two birds with one stone.”
“How did the tradition of walking around that black draped building—”
“The Ka’ba.”
“—come about?”
“Simple. It was commanded of them by their spiritual leader, Muhammad, some 1300 years ago. Peace be upon him, for he would not recognize his own religion in its present form. If he were alive today, radical jihadists would want to behead him for his apostate views of the Koran, that he himself prophesied.”
“Interesting. Tell me, have we had a press conference with every religion on this planet after these three performances?” Yahweh asked.
“According to my calculations, you have spoken to 74.1% of the population through one primitive device or another. The phylogeny of this planet has fractured along religious, cultural, and phenotypical lines. Humans separate themselves into groups, and they will fight to the death defending their right to belong to those groups. So, it may be impossible to speak with every religion on this planet within our intended time frame, but you have reached the clear majority.”
“Hmm,” said Yahweh. “Why have they become such a fractured species?”
“I suppose,” Numen said, reviewing elementary genetics as an answer to his master’s question, “that this is because of the hard copy genetic sorting code built into every genome from single cell bacteria to Homo superior. Propagation of individual species would not be possible if this one universal code was not perpetuated throughout all known life forms. Possibly a product of mitochondrial maternal jealousy.”
“Religion is a curious concept. How can humans believe in something other than Eos, the life-giving universe?”
“It is interesting to note that a human would say the same thing about the Elohim,” Numen replied. “I have concluded that sapients lack the mental capacity or the words to frame their discussion on the subject of God. As you are aware this planet has been without direct Elohim guidance for over six antons. There are over seven hundred thirty-one established religions broken into over three thousand, two hundred, fifty-six different sects. Christianity alone has more than two hundred and one sub-sects, according to
their own analysis.
“Do you feel the lack of Elohim guidance is what has left this world splintered and fractured in every category?” Yahweh asked.
Numen nodded. “There is a World Church of The Creator and my favorite, the Nation of Yahweh. There is even a religious sect where their men wear baggy pants because they think their messiah will be born to a man, without a uteral transplant or being a functional hermaphrodite.”
“Preposterous. Why are different parts of this world so hostile toward one another?”
“They all want their place in the sun. It is the ‘us-against-them’ genetic mentality. Over a thousand planetary orbits ago, the Christians went to great lengths to eradicate the first people of the religion you just addressed. They killed them because they were different, in spite of the fact that, by my analysis, they both believed in the same God. Now, the tables have turned. By keeping their populations uneducated, governments and terrorist organizations have kept their religion a stumbling block to enlightenment. Murdering their own people in the name of their God is now commonplace. Psychopathic religious intolerance around the world has become a cancer that will kill its host.”
Numen paused to recall some of his more anomalous findings. “However, ice water,” he added, “runs not in everybody’s veins. In areas of the world where people are educated, and laws enforced, religious intolerance is not a widespread problem.”
“A house divided against itself cannot survive. Do you claim any responsibility for these differences in theologies?”
“Yes. There were a few incidences in which I had the chance to perpetuate religious divergence. Ba, El’s seraph, developed a line of worshipers that pre-dated both Christianity and Islam; they were conquered and driven out of their homeland. I brought several such wandering people to Atlantis when it was located in the Aegean Sea. They were of superior intelligence and would have been a satisfactory addition to my enclave at the time. However, their religious beliefs were non-inclusive, and this stressed research and development.”
