Before she could finish her sentence however, a dark wormhole opened up behind the couple, sucking them in and closing. The boy continued to cry, screaming for his mother and father. Adrian began to pull the boy in closer to comfort him, but two spindly gray hands plucked the boy from his grip. “Macaria!” Adrian hollered.
The evil spirit laughed in her victory. Her eyes glowed red. The mere sight of her sickened Adrian to the core.
The boy shrieked and screamed in panic, reaching out for him. “Gampa! Gampa!”
Adrian tried to rescue his grandson from the clutches of the evil spirit, but another strong hand held him back. He snapped his head up to the other person who had just walked in from the darkness. Koroan Chast’s glowing red eyes met his as he levitated the three golden tablets into his possession. Then Koroan raised his right hand a few inches from Adrian’s chest. With a flick of his wrist, he sent Adrian hurtling into the blackness of the same wormhole through which Jake and Celeste had disappeared.
Adrian’s eyes popped open as he sat straight up. He was sweating profusely and his breathing was erratic. As he was calming down, the buzz to his quarters startled him again. “C-come in,” he said.
The door slid open, and Nichelle walked in. The look on her face told him everything as tears trickled down her cheeks.
“It didn’t work,” he said.
Nichelle shook her head. “No. It’s been over fifteen hours since the last of the solution entered their bodies. You’ve been asleep for nearly twenty hours. We thought we should let you rest, hoping that maybe their bodies would begin to heal. B-but they haven’t. Maybe if we would have gotten the fruit earlier … We were too late. I’m sorry, Adrian.”
Adrian stared at her in silence as she turned and left him alone. He didn’t know how to respond. His mind was numb. After a few more minutes of staring into the darkness within his quarters, he decided that he needed to shower and change. He looked through Jake’s belongings and found some fresh fatigues that he could change into. Walking into the bathroom, he started the hot shower and sat on the toilet for a moment while the hot steam filled the room. He pulled his spacesuit off and dropped it to the floor. As it fell, something hard clanked against the surface.
Before he pulled off his undergarments, he picked up the suit and felt around. It was the golden tablet that he had found on the floor of Mars I and placed in his spacesuit. With everything going on, he had completely forgotten about it. Unzipping the pocket, he pulled it out, sat back on the toilet, and began to examine it.
The plate was no bigger than a six-inch by nine-inch book and maybe at least a half-inch thick. Only one side contained symbols. The symbols were similar to Egyptian symbols. Frustrated that he couldn’t read them, he put the plate aside and showered.
After the shower, he felt a little better, despite the fact that he was starving. But he wanted to examine the plate a little more before going to the ship’s kitchen. After he dressed, he turned the lights up in the room and sat on the edge of the bed with the plate in his hands. Examining the tablet further, he noticed that the symbols were carved into the gold about a quarter of an inch. Pretty deep, he thought. As he continued to trace, he recognized that each symbol was connected to the other by deep grooves.
A thought suddenly occurred to him. Jumping up from the bed, he clutched the plate in his hand and raced toward the medical bay. When he entered, Skip had just finished sealing one of the bodies into the freezer within the morgue of the ship. Startled, he jumped around. “Adrian? What’s going on?”
“I need blood.”
“Blood? Why?
Adrian stopped held the tablet in front of him.
Skip’s eyes grew wide in astonishment. “Is that—”
“The golden tablet of Gnolom … Yes, it is,” Adrian said as he began to frantically search through cupboards and drawers. “You cleaned up here. Have you drained the blood from the bodies yet?”
“No. We thought we would leave that up to the Terrestrian army mortician. But I think Nichelle drew some vials of blood after we drained the solution into their bodies to see if there were any changes.”
Adrian stopped searching through the drawers and stood up straight. “Where is it?” he asked, with a crazy look in his eye.
Skip pointed over to the medical waste station on the opposite wall.
Adrian grabbed some rubber gloves, put them on, and began searching throughout the waste. After a few seconds, he pulled out two vials and quickly made his way over to the counter, placing the tablet on the counter as well.
Skip made his way next to him. “Adrian, what are you doing?”
“The Atonement of Christ. Through the blood of Christ we are saved, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well ...” Adrian continued as he popped the caps of each vial and began to pour drops of blood from each one into the grooves connecting the symbols on the plate, “since we are saved through the blood of Christ, what if through the blood of the Holy Spirit we are enlightened with our Father’s knowledge?”
Suddenly the blood that Adrian poured into the grooves began to travel to the other symbols on the tablet. Once the blood had filled each symbol, a hologram exploded out of the plate, above the two men’s heads.
Both men stood staring at the hologram in astonishment for a few seconds.
“I-is that a star map?” Skip questioned.
“Yeah. It looks like Gnolom’s and Terrest’s solar system, as well as others – millions of others.”
Skip reached up and touched the brightest star on the map, obviously representing Gnolom. As soon as he did, an image that appeared to look like the same wormhole that Adrian had traveled through several times appeared next to it and a line extended out across two other solar systems to another star. Then he touched that star and the same thing happened with a bright line extending to another star and so on.
Adrian began to quote scriptures that he had read thousands of times, “And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten.
“And the first man of all men have I called Adam, which is many.
“But only an account of this Earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them.”
Once he finished, he turned to Skip. With excitement in his eyes for the first time in a long time, he said, “It’s a star map connecting every single one of God’s known worlds to the others. Look, there has to be millions, if not billions, of stars representing planets on this map.”
“But this is only a part of the map, Adrian. We need the other two plates for it to be complete. What does it mean? I mean . . . what does it lead to?”
“To God, Skip. This map connects all of God’s children together. Can you imagine what we can learn from one other? I mean, the knowledge is unfathomable.”
Skip was about to reach up to touch another star to see where it led to, when the image disappeared back into the gold plate. “Where did it go? Get it back.”
Adrian poured more blood into the grooves, but this time, it didn’t work. It was obvious the message wasn’t for them. Maybe God only allowed them a preview of what hidden knowledge lay in the tablets.
Skip turned and looked at Adrian with a grim look on his face. “Can we ever get it back?”
Shaking his head, Adrian looked past Skip and then nodded at the wall where his son’s and Celeste’s bodies were at rest, frozen. “I don’t know, Skip. I’m afraid the only one that will be able to interpret these plates has been lost with their deaths.”
CHAPTER 24
Earth Time: 3 days later, August 11, 2042 – Gnolom . . .
Koroan Chast sat straight up and looked around, trying to gain his bearings. Once his vision adjusted, he realized where he was. He
was inside the second cavern hidden within Mount Resumpsi. This cavern was separate from the garden that contained the pyramid and the tree of life. Over forty Gnolom years ago, he and Vlamer Kreuk, along with the hunting party that he led, stumbled upon this mountain after finding a strange ship that his goddess had landed just a few miles from it. It was here in this second cavern where he built this secret lab, a lab that only he and his goddess mother knew about. And it was in this lab where he had been given a gift, the gift of near immortality from his queen by partaking of the fruit of life from the tree hidden inside the gold pyramid.
Before he had been given this precious gift, he was already the strongest and most talented in his telekinetic and telepathic abilities compared to the other Gnols in his tribe. But once he partook of the fruit, a transformation took place. His was almost immortal. No longer did he bleed red. Instead, the fruit had changed his entire genetic code. What flowed through his veins now was pure energy in liquid form. He had seen this energy when he accidentally cut himself with his dagger. The site was shocking. Expecting to see blood, he saw, instead, a liquid that radiated so much light that he had to turn his head away from its brightness. But once his eyes adjusted, he watched as the wound on his hand miraculously closed and healed itself instantly. Moreover, his strength, as well as his telekinetic and telepathic abilities were all enhanced. So much so that he was able to convince his people that he was a god.
This newfound power caused him to crave even more, and he wanted his best friend, Vlamer Kreuk, to have that same power. He remembered the goddess of light allowed him to consume the entire fruit. Vlamer, on the other hand, was only allowed one bite, which of course magnified his powers, but left him vulnerable to mortal death.
The thought of death snapped Koroan out of his thoughts as he felt around his body. His black spacesuit now hung in shreds upon his body. However long he had been unconscious, his body had healed itself. His shattered bones were now whole, and he felt more energized than he had felt in a long time. Could he die? Of course, he could, but it would take a lot more than conventional means to kill him. That’s why he unbuckled and allowed himself to be propelled from his fighter. He also knew that the pain would be too much to bear, and would cause his body to fall into a coma until it had healed.
Standing up from the sterile metal slab, he looked around. The entire lab was made of silver Omutx. Shelves lined one wall and contained varying medical instruments. The other walls of the perfectly square room were completely bare. The only other item in the room was a cryogenic casket, standing upright about six feet in height, in the center of the lab with a small window near its top. Four liquid nitrogen tanks connected by tubes fed the casket.
He was about to go and peer inside to see if the item inside was okay when he realized that something important was missing from the shelf. Whirling around, he almost leapt forward to the spot where the item had been. He became enraged as he traced his hand along the cold empty spot where his most prized possession had been.
“It is gone, Koroan,” a voice said from behind him.
Turning around, he met the blue eyes of his goddess mother. Her beautiful body hovered a few feet over him, and her blonde hair seemed to flow as if there was the presence of a breeze.
Too angry to kneel in reverence, he lashed out at her. “Where is it?”
“The human, Adrian Palmer, has it.”
Rage protruded throughout his body. “How?”
The goddess lashed back. “That is none of your concern! We will retrieve the golden tablet of Gnolom. But remember, you still have Terrest’s gold plate in your possession.”
Suddenly, Koroan remembered. Reaching down onto his thigh, he felt where he had secured the tablet in his spacesuit. It was still there. As his anger subsided, he unzipped the pocket and pulled out the golden tablet of Terrest.
“We only need one,” the goddess said, “for the transformation to become complete.” She then turned and hovered her way to the cryogenic casket. “The transfer of energy from the tree of light is complete.”
A surge of anxiety and fear suddenly hit Koroan like a fist to his gut for the first time in a long time. He knew the power the goddess of light possessed already. And if he were to activate the casket, the new power she would receive would be tenfold the power he possessed. Despite his misgivings, he knew that he was doing the right thing for not only his queen and her master, but for himself. If the transformation worked, he would be rewarded beyond anything he could conceive.
The goddess turned back and looked at him with a ferocious gaze, seeming to recognize his thoughts. “Activate the casket, Koroan.”
Koroan retrieved a scalpel from the medical supplies, and made his way next to the hovering spirit directly in front of the casket. He pressed a button on the casket’s control panel and a small panel jutted out. He placed the gold plate on the panel and then proceeded to cut his hand along his palm. The light from the energy flowing through his veins caused him to squint as it flowed out of the wound. Squeezing his hand together, he watched as bright drops flowed from his hand into the grooves of the gold plate.
His hand healed itself immediately, and the liquid energy flowed along the grooves in the tablet to the written symbols. He then pressed the same button that he had pressed before, and the panel with the gold tablet loaded back into the casket.
Without warning, there was a bright flash of light, filling the entire lab. The heat and radiance from it was so intense that Koroan shielded his eyes and dropped to his knees. Once the heat dissipated, he stood up slowly and looked through the window.
As soon as he peered into the casket, the striking blue eyes of his deceased wife, Ciminae Chast, burst open. And then he said, “My queen . . . Macaria lives.”
* * * * *
Earth Time: 3 days later, August 14, 2042 – Underground Rebel Base, Terrest . . .
The Holy Spirit hovered in front of the two young guards who were guarding the morgue within the rebel base on Terrest. The two guards were dressed in gray fatigues with blue berets on their heads. Both looked to be barely out of their teens. They couldn’t see him, but he could see the goodness within them as he hovered forward in between them. Reaching out with both hands, he touched each one of the guards on the forehead. Both guards immediately dropped to the floor in a deep sleep.
He then hovered straight through the door of the morgue and made his way to where he knew the bodies were located. Using his mind, he unlocked and opened the two vault doors that held each body. The metal slabs that the bodies lay on extracted out from the wall, as mist from the condensation from within the refrigerated wall evaporated into the room. He unzipped each body bag, again using his telekinetic ability, and examined each body.
Looking up toward the ceiling, he praised his Father for allowing this to happen. The fruit of life had repaired his mortal parents’ wounds. He looked back down, first at his mother and then at his father. With joy surging through his entire being, he touched each one of their foreheads with his fingers. Instantly two flashes of light exploded into the cold morgue, and the eyes of Celeste Chast and Jake Palmer burst wide open.
EPILOGUE
Earth . . .
Lucifer sat on his magnificent throne within his palace deep underground. The room was dark, adorned by flames that surrounded his throne, which provided the only illumination. This was his refuge, his inner sanctum where he could be alone. He loved being alone. The rest of his disciples were on the surface, creating untold chaos and despair upon the mortals that survived the Gnol attacks.
For millennia now, he had sat on his throne gazing at the distortion on the wall directly ahead of him. The small wormhole served as a window to the past, present, and future of the world he inhabited. And it was here where he reviewed past events, looking for clues as to the whereabouts of Earth’s golden tablet. He had confidence that Macaria, his servant, already had possession of the tablets of Terrest and Gnolom. But what eluded him the most was Earth’s.
&
nbsp; The three gold plates combined, along with the chosen one’s ability to decipher them, would give him untold power. Enough power to dethrone his Father and the precious Son, and give him dominion over worlds without end.
He stood up and walked slowly toward the visions before him. The light from the event horizon within the wormhole danced about the room. As he had done so innumerable times, he watched Earth’s history, looking for some clue, something he had missed. But the results were the same. The plate had seemed to disappear with no trace. Rage poured from his being. Screaming, he looked up toward the ceiling and cursed God, causing the walls to tremble.
Just before he disappeared, something within the wormhole caught his eye. Calming down, he leaned in to observe the past event closer. “It can’t be?” he whispered. “So that is how Jehovah hid the tablet from me.”
For the first time in ages, he began to experience hope. Faith that his plan was about to come forth. But first, he needed somehow to contact Macaria and her servants, Koroan Chast and Dorange Gar.
WORLDS WITHOUT END: THE PROPHECY
Book 3
Scheduled for Release – Christmas 2013
The destinies of three worlds and the Chosen One rest upon three ancient gold tablets written in the pure language of God. Now, good and evil collide in an epic battle for control of the galaxy and the souls of mankind.
The ageless war for the souls of mankind rages on in the third installment of the Worlds Without End series. After the presumed death of the Gnols’ supreme leader – Koroan Chast, Dorange Gar seizes command over the other military overlords with the assistance of an ancient, supernatural being. Their goal is to find the golden tablet of Earth. This relic, combined with the relics of Terrest and Gnolom, will give untold power to whoever possesses them; enough power to dethrone even God, Himself. But before Dorange and his new ally can look for the ancient relic on Earth, they must first destroy the remaining human resistance on Terrest.
Worlds Without End: Aftermath (Book 2) Page 41
