by Reilly, Jim
D’Shawn was stunned into silence. Cynthia asked, “How’d this happen? Who’d do such a thing?”
Marcus explained, “It seems they’d been killed by individuals with no clear connection whatsoever. It was out of the blue and for no apparent reason.”
Steven asked, “Would it be the case of Satan’s influencing the weak?”
“That may be the case, Steven,” said a tall woman with dark skin and tightly curled black hair reminding Steven of Middle Eastern features except for her Irish eyes. “Maybe it’s related. We’re not sure, but we’ve sensed a hatred for the Returned on the Grid. What’s odd is that it wasn’t there before we retrieved you all from deep space. However, this may be linked to an earlier episode in our transition from Homo sapiens to Super Homo sapiens.”
“Welcome, Minister Daly. I recognized you from our meeting with the Council of Nations,” said Steven. “Tell me please, how would something in the past affect us now?”
“About fifty years after you all left to combat the Ancient Visitors, there were incidents where out of the blue people were being murdered. The murderers had no issue or connection with their victims. In most cases, they knew nothing about the victim. The only connection was that the murdered had fifty percent or more of the DNA matched to one of you. Even with the development of our own enhancement drugs and blue chambers, the majority of enhanced at that time were from your lines. We had even considered laws forbidding breeding among the Ancient Visitor enhanced.”
Cynthia inquired, “Was there an issue between the, let’s say, Ancient Visitor enhanced people and the synthetically enhanced?”
“The non-Ancient Visitor enhanced and Ancient Visitor enhanced mating diluted the levels of UM,” explained the Minister. “Eventually we got a handle on it and monitored UM levels.”
Steven asked, “Minister, I’m not familiar with UM.”
“It was a substance the Ancient Visitor enhanced you with and put in your system. At the time, scientists didn’t know the reasoning for the substance when they were trying to duplicate the procedure to enhance people themselves. So it was left out of future procedures, as well as extracted from your DNA. Then years later, a use for the substance came to light. It made a great conduit in connecting our minds to the chip embedded in our minds to get us on the Grid. In small amounts, I have to say. It worked well until we noticed people in the population during random tests having excessive amounts in their system. Again murders and violent crimes escalated on those whose DNA was close to yours. To safeguard people with your genetic makeup, we now monitor people with excessive UM in their system. Those people then have the UM level reduced to normal levels. At this point in time, we speculate we are down to no more than a hundred people showing high levels. We do have a problem identifying these individuals sometimes due to laws protecting patient privacy and not enough scanners on a local level configured to detect the high level. So some do slip through the cracks.”
Now exacerbated, D’Shawn bellowed, “That’s just great. Not only are we up against Satan, but we’re also up against some people who are pre-programed to do us harm. This doesn’t get easier, does it?”
Minister Daly added, “We don’t understand why they have targeted the Returned at this point in time or your genetic line in the past. It’s only speculation but maybe after your attack on the Ancient Visitor’s ship, they deemed you hostile and this is a way to eliminate the threat. How it was triggered? That’s the question to which we don’t know the answer.”
Marcus then made a command decision. “Let’s call our people back to the ship and re-group. I’ll have the Captain check the crew for UM levels. Maybe we should rethink our strategy?”
Later in the Captain’s stateroom, a dejected Marcus, pacing back and forth said, “We can’t lose people this easily.”
Cynthia reported, “I’m told all twenty two Returned are aboard the ship though there were attempts on two of their lives. If not for our warning we issued, it could have been worse.”
Marcus said, “I hear that the perpetrators of our friend’s deaths were in a trance or hypnotic state and traveled great distances to attack a Returned. Afterward, they had no memory of what had happened. Minister Daley spoke to the President of the Council of Nations, and they’re working on suspending health privacy laws until all the people with high UM are secured.” Marcus then paused for a second as he realized, “I can’t believe our people took on the powerful Ancient Visitors and destroyed one of their massive ships only to come home and be killed by an administrative assistant, a janitor, an accountant, or an insurance agent. It blows my mind.”
Knowing that time was not on their side as Satan grew stronger by the second, D’Shawn had a thought. “What if we draw those with high UM out in the open? Then maybe we disable them before they can do any harm.”
Marcus asked, “D’Shawn, how would we do that?”
“I’ve been asked to participate in AV combat. Without any of us on Earth, I can get in the game and be out in the open to draw them to me. Marcus, we have the local police restrain anyone who comes near me.”
“It’s too dangerous for you to do it on your own,” Marcus said.
“I’ll fight along on his team to back him up,” said Steven.
The former drill sergeant, who never backed down from a fight, told them, “I’ll fill out the last spot on the team. Cynthia, you work with security.”
“When we’re out there, don’t slow me down Marcus.”
Marcus laughed. “Please don’t go there. Don’t you remember who picked you up off the floor during combat training on the Ancient Visitor’s ship?”
The man in the white robe wandering in the African Savanna came upon a village. His robe was now dirty and his arms and legs had scratch marks from the prickly brush. He walked up to the first people he saw, and he was greeted with kindness. Some gave him water, while others offered him some of their food. He told them he was looking for the nearest transport to get him to his next destination.
He was put on the next vehicle heading to the local transport hub. In a few hours, after numerous connections, he arrived at his destination. It was a small white church in Charlotte within the old state borders of North Carolina. When he got to the church, he walked around the building until he saw some benches. As he eyed the benches, he smiled.
That moment of serenity was interrupted by the cold and dark voice coming from the seat to his left, “Humanity is the lowest form of life in this universe. The worst thing about them, they are selfish and ungrateful. They certainly don’t appreciate what they have. Aren’t they the peoples who put to death the one who came to save them, the Messiah? If I recall, he was put on trial in a no-win situation and condemned to die on the cross. He was then whipped until his skin fell off the bones on his back and they fastened a thorny crown on his bloody head. They made him carry the heavy cross they were going to hang him on up a long hill. If that wasn’t bad enough, the people nailed his hands to the cross with each blow creating excruciating pain. Still not finished, they nailed his feet as well. It was a horrendous way to die. Like I said, they are an ungrateful people.”
Ignoring the voice, the man in the white robe turned to a person who sat down to his right and held her hand out to greet him. “Hello, my name is Allison Robinson. Welcome to our little church. I didn’t see you on the tour that I just finished. Were you here for that?”
“Quite frankly, I came for the tranquility.”
“Then you must have been here before to understand the great sense of calm this place has given to whoever needs it?”
“You can say that,” he told her. “I came here to experience something I had experienced a long time ago.”
“If you please then, can I give you a quick tour?”
He nodded his head in appreciation.
“Great! First off, you heard my name, and yes I am a distant relative of Pastor Charles Robinson. He is the one who figured out the relationship between Scripture and the Ancient Visi
tors. That’s not what he was most famous for or what he was most proud of. His greatest achievement, he thought, was rebuilding his congregation after he thought he’d lost it during the period of doubt with the discovery of the Ancient Visitors’ spacecraft and realization of their influence on mankind’s development. Tradition has it that he had an epiphany sitting on one of these benches. He always said he was at his lowest point when a young girl approached him and gave him simple yet important advice. You do know Sha’nay Barnwell, the founder of the Peace, Love, and Serenity movement? You must, you’re wearing the robes worn by the inhabitants of Nirvana.”
“Yes, I certainly know of her.”
“Her childlike wisdom propelled the Pastor to go and look for his lost sheep. It changed his attitude and brought him closer to the Lord. It energized him to go and do the Lord’s work by going out to see the people. That work was rebuilding the congregation to the point that it was larger than ever. Over time the church picnics he loved and the Sunday school he rebuilt were flourishing. He even repurchased the land that was sold off to pay the bills during the lean years and made them ball fields and picnic areas again. When he handed over the reins to his son, the church community was stronger than ever.”
“It was a wonderful thing he did,” he told her.
“He lived the rest of his life not straying too far from this community. As a matter of fact, he kept going out into the streets asking to help the community and understanding their needs until just about the day he died. Sha’nay Barnwell was a frequent visitor and was there the day he passed on. She even spoke at his funeral and helped lay him to rest over there near the south side of the church.”
The man, Kaiden, said, “Pastor Charles Robinson was not only a man of great integrity, he was also a simple man not looking to do one great thing, but a great number of small things. He proved Satan wrong, and that humanity is worth it.”
“Sir? I don’t understand.”
“It means my preparation is over and I am ready to begin.”
“Sir, I still don’t understand,” she told him again, but he didn’t explain. He just put his hand on her shoulder and blessed her. Instantly she felt a sense of tranquility as he walked away.
“I don’t like the fact you three are completely surrounded,” Cynthia complained as she stayed outside of the virtual game organizing the local Earth Security force. “The game is going to start in ten minutes, and I’m not comfortable.”
Getting ready for the game to begin, D’Shawn told her, “We’ll be all right in here. The three of us have our computer chips configured to detect a weapon set higher than stun. Anything set higher will be detected and we’ll be ready for them. You just make sure the security forces are ready to apprehend anyone that we deem a threat. Remember, participants can enter from anywhere in the world. You just make sure they’re tracked.”
“It’s the volume that I’m not comfortable with,” she explained. “Due to the sheer notoriety of you three, the maximum players have been reached. There will be one hundred thousand players starting level one, so expect the fighting to be fierce. What’s more, the spectators who can enter the game will exceed five million.”
“The three of us fully trust you’ll keep us safe as we draw out the people with the high UM who want to kill us. We would, though, appreciate your finding those folks before we reach level seven where it gets dangerous and the filters are turned off. For our part, we’ll make sure we don’t reach that level and the game’s finished in six.”
“Will do,” said Cynthia. She stood in the Captain’s State room aboard the ship monitoring the game with computer-generated screens viewing every angle of the participants and the spectators. Marcus, Steven, and D’Shawn were there as well but were in a trance as their minds were in the game.
“Since this is a game that is gambled upon, I, as a priest, have no experience with this sort of thing,” said one of the other people in the viewing room to Cynthia. “Could you please give me a quick overview of the game?”
“Sure, Father Willie. This game is a byproduct of a training we, who were abducted by the Ancient Visitors, had to do on their ship. They were training us to be warrior overlords to mankind to prepare them for being slave soldiers for the Ancient Visitors battle with the Ruler of the Realm. The description given by Matt Schafer a thousand years ago is the basis for this game. People are divided into teams that work together in eliminating members of the other teams using Ancient Visitor stun sticks and electrified balls. Not only do the team members work together, opposing teams work together in eliminating teams. But in the end, only one team advances in its bracket. What constitutes a losing team consists of all three members going down by getting hit with one of those weapons, which by the way are quite painful. The pain intensifies with each level. The team that wins its bracket advances to the next level until they reach the sixth level where hopefully the contest is resolved.”
“I thought there were seven levels?”
“The seventh level is only played if there is a stalemate with three or more teams still in the game. At that point, all safety filters are turned off and the pain levels are excruciating, though not supposed to be life threatening. In the last game we lost a few folks because one team had excessive levels of UM and they manually exceeded the power requirement of their weapons. They, of course, were apprehended, but unfortunately, had no memory of what they had done.”
“The winner, I suppose, would be the last team standing?”
“That’s right Father, although, that’s not what we’re trying to do here. If all goes well, we identify the people affected by the UM and stop them before they can do any harm. I would, though, like to find out how the UM ingredient was reintroduced. I was on the team that worked on adapting a human made serum or drug cocktail combined with the blue chambers to induce enhancement. We purposely left out the UM ingredient because we were unsure of what it did. How it got into circulation is a mystery to me. We knew all of us who were abducted had trace amounts but we figured over time the human designed enhancement in sheer numbers would dilute the UM factor. I guess we were wrong.”
“Not necessarily Cynthia,” proclaimed a now mobile James Connor walking in with Hailey. “I’ve now been given access to the main server for all of Earth’s computer system. It was quite an eye opener. I can now, without any doubt, claim to be the smartest man in the world. I wish David Cho was here so I can tell him he was wrong. He always said I wasn’t as smart as I proclaimed. Well, he--”
“James, you were starting to say something,” Cynthia said to stop James’s rant. “I believe it was about the UM ingredient.”
“Of course Cynthia,” he said, correcting himself. “Thirty years after we were taken to the Ancient Visitors’ ship, Babylon Corporation got approval to manufacture large quantities of a synthetic version of UM to help with its integration of the Visor device with its enhancement capabilities. When Babylon purchased Visor manufacturer, Babylon’s scientists led by Chief Scientist and CEO Cassondra Romano, determined it needed a conduit to be able to have the newly enhanced individual connect telepathically with the computer of the Visor. It worked unbelievably well from what I gather and that eventually evolved into the chip computer now embedded in just about all people, including the one in your head.”
“You mentioned a conduit. How does that work?”
“The Visor gives off a subtle energy pulse that works as a link between the mind and the computer. It’s quite clever if you ask me.”
“James, was there any disagreement at the time about using this technology with a substance originally developed by the Ancient Visitors?”
“It got approval directly from the United Nations by a very large margin. There was, though, an investigation involving the UM ingredient and Babylon Corporation manufacturing it long before it got approval.”
“What was the result of that investigation?”
“Nothing came of it because the investigation report was never submitted to the Uni
ted Nations Security Group. I came across it in a deleted file I found in a recycle bin. The author of the report, Agent John Ryan states that they found a link between the manufacturer of the substance and a plot to destroy regeneration centers not owned by Babylon Corporation. He reported to an Inspector, Cameron Richards…wait…correction, Cameron Cho. The son of my friends, David and Jennifer La Mont-Cho. The report however is incomplete and no conclusions were determined.”
“What ever happened to the Agent?”
“He would eventually have a long distinguished career at the United Nations Security Group and when he retired, he went to work for Babylon Corporation until his death in an accident some years later.”
While Cynthia was conversing with James, she was also doing her job of protecting Marcus, Steven, and D’Shawn. About to start level three, they were waiting after making quick work of the competition in the first two levels. With her help and Hailey’s assistance, the local law enforcement agencies were able to detect and apprehend twenty-five people with elevated UM trying to get within range of Marcus, Steven, and D’Shawn. D’Shawn’s plan was working.
Cynthia, though, believed she was onto something, and continued to ask James questions. “What did they think the UM ingredient did?”
“They believed the substance put people in a suggestive trance and assumed it was the reason suspects in the attacks were easily persuaded to do the despicable act.”
“You also mentioned that there was an energy pulse that triggered the UM ingredient, correct?"
“That’s right,” James told her.
“Could you access the Ancient Visitors’ database? I’d like to see what kind of energy is used to trigger the UM to put people in a suggestive state. Maybe the UM holds a set of instructions the Ancient Visitors wanted for mankind to do. You mentioned an energy pulse used between the mind and the chip in our heads. Could the Ancient Visitors also use a pulse to trigger the UM to act?”
