by Reilly, Jim
“Fine,” he told the voice he had heard before in Afghanistan. “Now maybe you can tell me why you brought me here?”
“Our people heard about some old internet sites that were recruiting people who were discontents and felt they had no hope of making a difference on their own.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“We know. However, what you might not know is that the recruiters behind the attacks, if you can call them people, are not non-enhanced with an anti-enhanced agenda. To the contrary, they are enhanced.”
Cameron snapped back at her, “How do you know?”
“We placed two people into their network. The first you know, Mohammed Ishtar. He tried to be accepted in their network. Somehow he didn’t pass the interview process and ended up in a ditch with a nasty weapon burn. But you know that.”
Intrigued, Cameron asked, “What happened to the second person?”
“The other is Ivan Mosgov.”
“Where will I find him?”
“He just walked right by us with the gray jacket, dark pants, balding with a thick mustache. Our people have been watching him and we believe he’s headed towards the UN’s government regeneration center down the block. At the moment, we’ve lost contact with him and he seems to be in a trance of some sort.”
“Can you tell me if he’s in a catatonic state?”
“Yes,” she said as she got up to leave, and then turned around. “You’d better hurry before he blows himself and the regeneration center with all those people in it to kingdom come.”
Alarmed, he asked, “With what?”
“You remember St. Louis?”
“Oh crap!” Cameron bellowed as he ran down the Russian street at the man with the gray jacket. When he got close to him, he shouted, “Ivan Mosgov, don’t move a muscle. I’m Inspector Richards from United Nations Security and you need to stop this instant. I know what you’re about to do. So please don’t take another step. We can talk about this and nobody has to get hurt.”
Seeing that the man hadn’t stopped or even acknowledged him in any way, Cameron ran up ahead of him and positioned himself directly in front of Ivan with his stunner aimed straight at him. The whole time he yelled to the other pedestrians on the sidewalk, “Stay clear.”
He also contacted local authorities on his Visor to evacuate the regeneration center before it was too late.
As many of the pedestrians and street vendors ran for cover, Cameron tried to reason with Ivan, “If you want to sit here and talk, I’m all ears. Please, tell me what’s on your mind?”
Ivan, still in a trance, kept on walking. Cameron figured he had no choice, so he set the stunner at maximum strength in order to fry the circuitry in the bomb hoping at the same time it wouldn’t go off. The stunner at that strength might, though, kill Ivan. Cameron believed he had no choice as Ivan got closer to the regeneration center. So, without flinching he aimed the stunner at Ivan’s mid-section where he believed the bomb was and fired away.
Chapter 3
31st Century.
As the doors of the Captain’s state room dematerialized, D’Shawn Williams walked in with two nurses, one on each arm. In the room he saw Steven already sitting and conversing with the Captain and her staff. When his eyes met with Steven’s, D’Shawn proudly announced, “Steven, these beautiful women are from my line. They’re gorgeous and intelligent. Even better, there’s a lot of my line around the world. When this ship gets us back home, I want to meet every one of them.”
Before Steven could explain the dilemma they found themselves in, Cynthia Moss the former dancer, turned Super Homo sapiens arrived to say, “I heard we had a stowaway.”
“Something came back with us,” Steven said with a sullen look pasted on his face. “It took the form of Walter Sikes to hide among us.”
Not feeling too hopeful, D’Shawn asked, “I don’t suppose it’s sitting in the ship’s brig?”
Shaking his head, Steven replied, “Him, it, or whatever overpowered some of the ship’s personnel. Maybe overpower is the wrong word. He got them to fight among themselves. Then he escaped in a transport headed for Earth.”
Curious, Cynthia questioned, “Could this ship overtake it?”
The Captain injected, “The smaller transports have less mass to move and thus are quicker.”
“Then what about Earth’s defense at this time? Can it be stopped before reaching the ground? There must be technology now that can perform this task,” Cynthia said.
The Captain added, “There is, but the craft has disappeared from all forms of detection. At the moment, we have no idea where it’s headed.”
“I hope then that the plan to populate the world with the more evolved humans has taken place,” D’Shawn asked. “This way Earth would have a better chance to repel an Ancient Visitor invasion. I would imagine just one Ancient Visitor would be no problem. Shit, I would think it would be taken care of before breakfast. I bet my great, great, great, whatever granddaughters here would pulverize one of those soulless creatures.”
Observing Steven not looking too optimistic, Cynthia said, “Unfortunately, there’s a problem, isn’t there, Steven?”
“As much of a handful as one Ancient Visitor would be, I don’t think this is what we’re up against,” Steven said. “It was different.”
“No,” a dejected D’Shawn sighed.
“I didn’t see it or came within in a hundred meters of the creature, still I felt it,” Steven told everyone in the room.
Dreading what Steven started to say, Cynthia reluctantly asked, “It was a cold and dark presence, right?”
D’Shawn followed, “You have this feeling of anger, anguish and despair grip your body, mind, and soul like a python.”
“The last we saw of this thing was when the exploding ship created a singularity or black hole.” Steven said. “It appeared to have been sucked in with the rest of the ship and all those Ancient Visitors.”
The Captain asked, “What is this creature?”
“It was the Prince,” Cynthia mumbled just loud enough for all to hear.
Then Captain Christine Carroll spoke to the ship’s computer, “Reference Matt Schaeffer and Prince.” Being a distant relative of Matt, she was very familiar with his telling the world of the battle between the Ruler of the Realm and the Prince. She moved her hand to her temple to access the file she needed on the micro-computer embedded in her head. When she found it, a hologram appeared in the front of the state room from a thousand years ago of Matt Schaeffer explaining to Jennifer La Mont and her audience what he learned from the last time he and the others were abducted.
The image of the former class president and captain of the track team, stood in front of an amazed Steven, Cynthia, and D’Shawn as he was about to speak. His image was accurate in every detail and his friends gazed toward him with a feeling of loss as if he was really standing there.
The three dimensional image spoke, “I will be thorough in my description.” He then took a deep breath and began to explain, “This time when we woke up on the ship, we were not as confused as we had been the first time. Fortunately, there were no language barriers between us, and the confusion of the first time we were taken did not occur. We gathered ourselves and began to organize…”
The Captain interrupted, “Forward to Prince reference.”
The hologram immediately advanced to Matt now explaining, “It is hard to say because of my limited understanding of his language. I think the closest translation is ‘Prince.’ Supposedly, some entity created them. I don’t know. I think it translated to ‘Ruler of the Realm.’ This ruler of some kind ruled the center of creation. The Prince had some kind of disagreement with the Ruler, and the Prince and his followers were banished to this universe. Here they plan on their return.”
Jennifer asked, “A plan?”
“Yes,” he said. “They plan on some sort of battle to get them back there.”
“Freeze,” ordered the Captain and instantly the life like image
of Matt stopped in its tracks. “If I recall from history, there were some then who believed the Ruler of the Realm and the Prince were the Biblical God and the fallen angel known as Satan, Lucifer, or the Prince of Darkness. It was believed that Satan disobeyed or sinned against God. As punishment, God banished Satan along with his followers. As they wait for judgment day or the end of time, they bide their time in tempting humanity. Well, at least that’s what I recall. Perhaps, when Lieutenant Hailey Johnson joins us, she can fill you in on what you’ve missed since you’ve been away for so long. She was brought onboard this mission due to her extensive knowledge of religious history and the relationship with modern times. She studied at the Imam Rashoni and Rabbi Wolmetz Institute of Religious Studies.”
As if on cue, the slender blond haired, blue eyed woman entered the meeting, “I apologize, Captain. I was still finishing up my interview with one of the Returned. He told me a fascinating story of his exploits on the Ancient Visitors’ ship. I was so glued to every word that I lost track of time.”
Right behind the Lieutenant was the former drill sergeant, Marcus Latterri, “I hear we’re not done yet.”
Steven, Cynthia, and D’Shawn jumped to their feet to welcome their friend after his long sleep, as Marcus continued jokingly, “I’m sorry as well. I don’t usually oversleep and miss roll call.”
The pretty Lieutenant proceeded with the Captain’s permission to inform the Returned what had happened since they were taken by the Ancient Visitors, about a thousand years ago, along with the religious implications. Each corner of the state room was enveloped with three dimensional holographic images detailing moments in history as the four who were returned tried to keep up.
During a break in the meeting, the Captain dismissed her staff as the four Returned and the Lieutenant remained. It was then that D’Shawn asked the obvious, “If this dude impersonating Walter Sikes is this Satan and is the same manifestation we observed on the Ancient Visitor’s ship, then why would it need a transport to get to Earth. Couldn’t he just blink himself there?”
“If the biblical texts are a guide,” the Lieutenant supposed, “then maybe he’s weak. To summarize, Satan is defeated, and God imprisons Satan for a thousand years. Perhaps, an imprisonment in a black hole is that prison that was prophesied so long ago. Also imprisonment might have taxed its energy. The texts do imply that Satan thrives on tempting others into sin, so maybe it’s weak and needs to regenerate by trying to corrupt the population back home.”
“I hope then that Earth’s defense has been built up with enough firepower to defend the planet against any intruder,” Marcus figured. “I could only imagine what humanity has developed the past thousand years.”
“What defenses are you talking about?” asked the Captain puzzled by the comment.
An equally confused Cynthia tried to explain. “The plan was that by the time the Ancient Visitors would return to conquer Earth and take the survivors for slaves in their army, that our future generations would evolve not only physically by enhancing to Super Homo sapiens, but also by being technologically superior. The enhanced humans would be trained to be able to match the strength of the Ancient Visitors, as well as have advanced weapons in order to give humanity the best possible chance. That was the plan, right?”
“The answer, my dear, is a plain and simple, no,” explained the Captain to the shocked Returned. “About a hundred years after you left, it was observed that there was an explosion in space where the Ancient Visitors’ ship was thought to be. What followed were celebrations knowing that you had succeeded in your mission. Sometime after that, simply put, we went in another direction. No longer was there a threat from the Ancient Visitors. Furthermore, the collaboration in preparing humanity for the conflict against the Ancient Visitors, along with our growing intelligence got people thinking that humanity could evolve. I’m not talking physically or technologically, but mentally. The result was no more war or conflict of any kind. It was also the time the Peace, Love, and Serenity movement really gained strength and enveloped the world. Today there is just tranquility. When you get back to Earth, you’ll see.”
All four of the Returned erupted and each began to argue with humanity’s decision to not defend itself when the Captain interrupted to acknowledge an incoming message directly to her mind, “I’m glad you made contact with us. Please give us a moment to set up our valued guests.”
The Lieutenant handed a small round disk the size of a quarter attached to a small headgear to the Returned, and told them, “You don’t have any communication or computer implants so you’ll need to put on these portable devices. We’ll set you up with them soon enough, but in the meantime, these will suffice.”
Steven, along with Cynthia, D’Shawn, and Marcus each put on the headgear with the small round disk on their foreheads. Each then felt dizziness followed by brief nausea as they lost their focus. When they were able to refocus, they found themselves in a large grassy field in what looked like a park with tall green trees on the edges and large rock mountains in the distance. In front of them sitting on two benches were seven Super Homo sapiens wearing loose silky clothing with a bright spectrum of colors.
A disorientated Steven held his arms out to his side to balance himself as the Captain explained, “It takes a few minutes to adjust the first time you experience this. Don’t fight it. Relax and take a few breaths, you’ll be okay.”
Amazed by his surroundings, Steven asked, “Where are we? Are we back home? On Earth?”
“No,” the Captain clarified. “We are still on the ship, a ways to go to get home.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” D’Shawn expressed with astonishment. “I can smell the freshness of the grass enter my nose and fill my lungs and I feel the breeze gently moving across my face.”
The Lieutenant explained, “This place is a computer-generated meeting room and none of us are actually here.”
“This is beautiful,” said Cynthia feeling the warmth of the sunlight.
“Yes,” the Lieutenant replied. “There are almost an infinite amount of these settings the computer can do, some even more beautiful than this one. We use these meeting places in order to have meetings with people too far away to be together without ever traveling to be there. It’s all done in our minds. How should I say in your time’s vernacular, a meeting of the minds?”
As the four Returned adjusted to the surroundings, a tall man with slight Asian features and straight glossy black hair to his shoulders approached. “Greetings. We are honored and happy you have finally been returned to us. Speaking for all of mankind, I want to thank you for all you have had to do to safeguard our future. We’d also want to thank those who didn’t make it back to us and honor them for their sacrifice.” After a moment of silence, the man continued, “I am President Juan Chi, and I’m here today with the Counsel of Nations. To help you be familiar, our present form of government evolved from the United Nations of your time. Over time, the merging of territories enabled more economic and cultural diversity. That, along with unlimited and ease of travel throughout the world, changed the landscape from your time.”
After each acknowledged the President with a slight bow, Marcus told him, “I’m not sure what you’ve been told, but the Earth is in danger and you’ll need to be prepared to defend yourselves.”
“Marcus, we are aware of everything that happened on the ship you are currently on. We are all connected mentally to each other, even at these great distances. We can each feel what every person on that ship feels. Though, there are parts of our minds we keep to ourselves, for the most part, we have open communication with very little to hide. You’re thinking that is too much information to process, but since you left, we’ve become accustomed to expanding our minds. As you’ll see, we have evolved our minds to unbelievable levels compared to your time. This, you will experience when you get connected.”
“That’s great Mr. President,” Marcus said. “But how are you going to combat this threat with no def
ensive system that I’m aware of? The people of our time were hoping that generations that followed would evolve physically and mentally while developing the ability to fight off the eventual return of the Ancient Visitors.”
“As the Captain explained, we are a peaceful people with no hostility toward anyone. There are no wars or conflicts of any kind. We simply use our minds to solve any problem that comes up. That’s our first line of defense. The others and I discussed before you arrived for the meeting, that maybe we should rely on our elders’ expertise.”
“I was afraid of that,” D’Shawn thought out loud. “We were hoping to rely on your capability.”
“If you all could do us the honor of defending us, your descendants would be grateful to say the least.”
Marcus, along with the others thinking they had little choice, just nodded their heads as a sign of their willingness to take on the challenge.
“Wonderful,” said a relieved President Chi. “Commander Carroll please hurry in and bring our honored elders home so they can begin their quest to preserve our home. We will reconnect when you return. Until we meet again, Godspeed.”
“Understood,” she replied as the six on the ship left the meeting.
Still in the meeting, one of the ministers in the counsel offered, “I believe not telling them everything is a mistake.”
“Your objection is noted, Minister Daley,” responded the President. “If they knew everything, then they may not have helped us. Perfection is not something they aspired to in their time, and they may not understand. As we’ve discussed, let’s keep them focused on the problem at hand and help them the best we can.”
Minister Daley bowed her head, “I pray you are right, Mr. President.” She then left the meeting as her image dematerialized. Moments later, the remaining members left as well.
Steven now adjusting to having his mind back on the ship heard the Captain say to them, “We’ll be back home and docked with New Jerusalem in approximately two days. During that time, we’ll have you and all the Returned up to speed, as well as being updated with our advanced implants. I am also assigning Lieutenant Johnson as your guide in your quest. She is a knowledgeable historian with extensive understanding of our experience with the Ancient Visitors. She should be an asset. Now I’ll leave you in her care.”
