The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell

by Douglas Howell

  “So why was your god of thunder and lighting facing north?” Ramirez asked her.

  “I don’t remember. I don’t think anybody ever told me, or that I ever read the reason why. My people always preferred to capture our enemy’s leader. And what did we do with him? We put him in a so-called palace that was a prison type of a fort. Surrounding that ‘palace’ was a military fort. So it looked like a rectangle inside of a rectangle. On the inside wall of the military fort, we painted a beautiful scenic view. I guess it was done to create some type of a ‘view.’ And as for his top lieutenants? We hang ‘em.

  Depending upon the type of a leader that he was, if he was a good leader we would return his body back to his people when he died, if not we would have cremated him and put his urn in a crypt below the palace prison.

  You know, sometimes I think that my people had embark upon some conquering stage in our history. Either that or we had a very long history. I once went to see those columns of conquest, and there were a lot of them.”

  “How many where there?” Ramirez asked her.

  “I don’t know there must have been like a hundred of them. I should have read something about that. If I did read something on it, it might have been when I was young and I just forgot about it. Oh well.

  You know, I once met one of those captured leaders. He was 237 years old with a plus-or-minus of ten years. I was 16 and still being trained as a warrior. His name was Tilloose (tee-la-loose), leader of the Grak’tyl (sounds like crack - till) - Grak for short. And my people did everyone a service by destroying them.”

  “Really? How come?” Ramirez asked in a curious, almost puzzled manner.

  “Because they are one of the most vicious son-of-a-guns that you could ever have the unfortunate pleasure of encountering. Before they march off into battle, they would put themselves into a drug induced stupor, and would lose all sense of self-preservation. Not only that, most of them don’t feel any pain because of that drug. Some of them would actually set themselves on fire before they would attack someone.”

  “Damn, that’s fucked up.”

  “I know. They did that because it’s their way of saying just how committed they are to their cause. When they set themselves on fire, it was a form of a terror weapon. As a terror weapon it really did work, especially when they came after you.

  Later in my life I had to confront them when they where trying to make a comeback. Lucky for me, I didn’t go alone. I had a team with me. Thank God for that. Yes we did succeed in crushing them, but it came at a high price.

  I remember that it was nighttime. I was in the forest with my teammates, and then here comes those damn Grak warriors. I notice that one of them set himself on fire and came straight for me. Oh, I did kill him, but not before he gave me my burn scar on my left elbow. It was indeed harder than hell to kill him.”

  Vaistll started to develop the look that Ramirez is all too familiar with. It was the look of bad memories that come from a scar upon the soul. The pain that burns so deep inside that it be humbles the mightiest of warriors. It was the pain that rises up behind the eyes, and creates a dam of pain and sorrow.

  “It’s okay Vaistll; you don’t have to continue on about that incident. I can see that it is too painful for you to talk about it.” Ramirez said as he put his left arm around her to comfort her.

  “No, it’s not that. It’s… It’s just another incident that I went through. I guess he was a Grak. I don’t know, maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he… Maybe he was just… crazy or something. But it’s not what he did to me. He set himself on fire. But it reminded me of... It’s what was done to... Oh God, the smell. It was the smell of… burning flesh of… “

  With that, she broke down and cried. She started to look around like she was a prisoner who wanted out of their hell hole. She look like she wanted to say something, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t say anything. Not because she didn’t know what to say, but because it was too painful to remember.

  Three minutes later she spoke and said, “I’m all right now.”

  “Are you sure?” Ramirez said as he removed his left arm from her shoulder.

  “Yes.” She said as she took a deep breath and let it out.

  She then continued on about the Graks “My people used the name Grak in a not so polite way. When we call one of our own a ‘Grak,’ what we meant was that they use drugs because society, for whatever reason, rejects them. But despite that, they still won’t take crap from anybody. When we use the term for anybody outside of our civilization, it typically meant a violent person on drugs, with little if any regard for life - not even their own.

  My parents, before they got married, worked in the palace of my people’s leader. My fllaistl mom, Unatoos (oo-naw-twos) worked in the palace as a florist. She dealt with ceremonial and celebratory flowers mostly. After my fllustl mom and dad died, I went to my mom Unatoos to learn her trade as a florist. I just wanted us to do something together before I lose her. It was both of us doing something together that she loved to do; after all, she did give me life.

  My fllustl mom, Nincylste (nin-sis-to) worked as a palace guard. After all three of my parents got married, and after my mom Nincylste had a still birth, she left her job to become a fisherman. Both of us were always close, and after my father died I decided to learn her trade as a fisherman. I didn’t care too much for it. It’s not my cup of tea. I think that she knew how I felt.”

  “Did she say anything about it, when she realized how you felt?”

  “Nope. I don’t think that she even cared. I guess it was because I reminded her of my dad. With my dad Zyynuma (z-eye-new-may), he worked in the palace as an engineer and as a clock maker. Other than the type of a clock with gears in it - something that didn’t existed back then - he knew how to make a sundial, a water clock, an hourglass, and so on. He is the sole reason why I know that I was born at 10:37, in the morning, on March 23.”

  “So, you’re an Aries.” Ramirez said with a smile.

  “By human standards I guess. There was this one civilization that did come up with the idea of a horoscope, but I never learned anything about it.”

  “How come?”

  “I just never care. That’s why I never told you what my star sign was. And like I always said, I never really believed in it. And neither did my civilization.

  So, all three of my parents had a strong connection, even contacts in the palace. Then one day one of those contacts, or somebody else in the palace using those contacts, talked my parents, including my trainer, into having me, against my wishes, go to that prison palace to talk to Tilloose. Not only is it that I never wanted to go, I really hated the idea of going there just to talk with him. It took me away from my friends. And because it took me away from my training, it meant that I had to train that much harder just to catch up. Like most of my people, I was biased against the Graks.”

  “Did you ever learn why they wanted you to go? And what did you do when you found out?”

  “I didn’t learn a thing at first. I did ask my parents on more than one occasion, but they kept on giving me all kinds of excuses. Nobody in the palace would give me a straight forward answer. Nor was it easy trying to get a hold of them. By the time I figured out that they wanted me to learn about the new leadership of the Graks, my parents had died, and so did my trainer, of old age.”

  “Why did they use you like that?”

  “Because Tilloose like young girls like me. I wasn’t attracted to men as old as he was. Or a Grak for that matter. And even if he was younger, and was not a Grak, I still wouldn’t have like him. And my parents knew all of that, but they couldn’t do anything on my behalf. So what could I do? What was done is done. I never have, and I never will live in the past. So I just didn’t care.

  What I managed to figure out was that the Graks at that time period was trying to make a comeback. Or they wanted revenge. I don’t know why it matter so much to our leader. We beat them once, so we could beat them again. Perhaps it was because the Gra
ks, and some of their allies, was fixing to declare war upon us and we couldn’t afford it. Or it could have been a nation that we didn’t know about but Tilloose did. Either way, Tilloose naturally wouldn’t tell us how to stop them. So somebody must have found out what his weakness was. And I turned out to be that weakness.

  So there I was, 16 years old and inexperience and he was 237 years old and experienced. He was famous and I was overwhelmed by it. I was overwhelmed by it because it’s not everyday that a 16 year old girl gets to meet a very famous leader of a group of people. What bothered me at the time was the possibility of cross culture difference. The Graks were monotheists and we were polytheists, so there was always the possibility of religious differences. Sometimes I thought that he was trying to convert me. Yes, it how I got introduced to his religion, and later I would convert to it, but at the time I didn’t care for it.”

  “So why did you convert to it? What was it because you were young, or something?”

  “No it’s not that. After my parents died, my trainer and all of my… friends… the ones that I trained with… After they all died… I… I felt so horrible and lost. They all died too close, within a period of thirty years. When you are an Apollinarian, thirty years is like ten to fifteen years to a human. I was so devastated; I lost everybody that I cared about. My parents never died of old age, it was… I don’t want to talk about that yet.”

  “That’s okay, you don’t have to.”

  “My trainer died of shock when he found out what happen to my friends. I lost all but two of my friends in just a few days, then shortly afterwards… my trainer died. He was old and just couldn’t take the shock. I’ll tell you what happen later.”

  “Okay.”

  “What attracted me to the religion was its philosophy on life and the divine. It helped me to heal from my loss. That was probably the reason why I turned to the religion. I guess. The Graks where converts to the religion. And I don’t know who converted them to the religion. And quite frankly I never care to know. I did learn enough from Tilloose to find the library of the religion.”

  “What was the name of the religion?”

  “Actually Alex, it was in a dialect that I didn’t understand. But what I do remember was that there were two possible translations; ‘My Soul’s Journey,’ or, ‘The Journey of the Soul.’ Or it could have been, ‘The Journey of My Soul.’ But I seriously believe that it was the second one. The way in which it gave its adherents hope can best be described through one of its sayings, ‘Goodness is despair that finds hope in the end. Evil is hope that finds despair in the end. For goodness will always suffers under evil deeds. While evil will always boast of a perceived triumph over goodness. But in the end, it is goodness that will triumph over evil. And therefore no matter what bad things may come your way, you should have hope in knowing that if you truly are a good person, you will overcome those bad things.’ To quote from the religion, ‘Evil is fleeting, goodness is eternal. Put your fate into the hands of God, and you will always triumph over evil.’ So always have hope in knowing that.”

  “I will.” Ramirez said with a smile.

  “So how did the religion handle an all-powerful, all-loving god, when bad things happen? Or how about with the Christian god where it is stated that you can connect any two of those propositions, but never all three? With the Apollinarian monotheist religion of my day, the answer was quite simple: all bad things in life are a test to see if you are worthy to enter into the kingdom of heaven. As the religion states, ‘Evil people takes bad events and turn them into evil deeds. Good people take evil deeds and turn them into good deeds.’ Why would an all-loving god allow evil people into heaven? Or any other god for that matter? Why would an all-powerful god allow evil to exist? Once again, to quote from the religion, ‘One must know evil in order to know good. For evil must exist in order for good people to go to heaven. The existence of both good and evil teaches us the difference between right and wrong. They give us a sense of morals and teach us why we are not animals. What morals do animals possess? What morals do we possess? What morals do you possess?’ So as you can see Alex, the answer was clear and quite simple.”

  “Yeah.” Ramirez said with the look of deep thought of enlightenment.

  “The religion wanted people to honor their parents, for their parents represented the divine. As the religion stated, ‘Treat your parents the way you treat your god. Treat your children the way in which you want your god to treat you. For just like your god has created your parents, so has your parents created you. Just like your parents want you to be a good, moral, decent person, so does your god desire of you.’ After I lost my parents, you can see how that would have affected me when paganism said absolutely nothing like that.”

  “Yeah.”

  “The religion views about the existence of heaven, hell, the afterlife, and creation, helped me to heal as well. Basically, it said the following: the existence of heaven lies within the Creator’s heart. Both heaven and God’s heart are one in the same. Once again, as the religion stated, ‘Beyond the end of time, you shall exist within God’s heart, within God’s love for you. But fear not, those who loved you shall be with you for all of eternity.’ As for hell, there was no eternal damnation, no pain or suffering. Those who worshiped the religion would have considered it an insult to God to suggest that there was some everlasting pain and torment. What waited for those who were sent to some hell is being deny entry into heaven. Different denomination had different views of what happen to those bad spirits. My denomination believes that they would become a non-being. After they become a non-being their evil was release back into the universe as bad luck. You know, Murphy’s Law.”

  “Yeah, I got it.”

  “The denomination that I belong to was called ‘Sunez.’ The denomination that the Graks practiced was called ‘Tvv’y’lik’ (tee-v e lick). I didn’t want to practice that one, mainly because I was just being biased against the Graks. That’s my people for you. If the Graks are doing it, then it can’t be good. The denomination that the evil slave trader Natas practiced was called ‘Mea Kryysti.’ His wife also practices it, but I know anything about that denomination.

  Each of the denominations believed that death was something that was never to be feared, or to be embraced. They had their own views about judgment in the afterlife, what to do about restless spirits, and so on. But all of them agree that death is feeling the breath of God upon you. That when God breaths in, he is taking all the good people into heaven. And when he breaths out, he is casting all the bad people away. And therefore, they are denied entry into heaven for all of eternity.

  As for creation, all the denominations believed that an infinite god would have created an infinite universe. A person always puts a little of themselves into that which they have created. God would be no different. And so, God holds an infinite universe in his hands. Therefore, things will always get better, because God watches over us all.

  I’ll tell you more about the religion some other time. It’s getting close to the top of the hour and… I don’t know about you, but I’m getting hungry.”

  “You payin’?” Ramirez said with a smile.

  “No, you are.” She said in a teasing manner which caused him to laugh a little.

  “You know,” Vaistll said as she just remembered something, “I do want to tell you a little bit about the government of my civilization. There’s not much to say… I just wanted to mention it before I forget about it.”

  “Okay.”

  “With our government, I don’t remember much about it. But what I do remember is that it was a collection of city states. I don’t know if they ever went to war with each other. I don’t remember what type of leader each of the city states had, or their connection to the Iomiyyan government. But I do know that the Iomiyyan government was a council. As for our leader, I don’t remember if he was the leader of the council, or what type of a leader he was. But what I do remember is that he had the power to declare war and to appoint
ambassadors. And he kept the peace between each of the city states. Beyond that I don’t know what else. And... Well... that’s it for now.”

  With that, both of them left the room, giving Ramirez something to think about. He had the look of deep thought in his eyes, as he thought about all that she said. To him, it made her life back on her planet seem more real to him. It reminded him that somewhere out there, is a planet that she is from. Knowing all that he knows about the Apollinarians, he couldn’t help but to think about what they are up to on the Earth. Is it good… or bad? Will they bring salvation… or damnation? He kept on thinking about it, and so was Vaistll. If only they knew the truth. If only they knew.

  (6)

  Wexler was sitting in his jail cell, waiting for somebody to come and give him the news. It was the news that told him how long he will have to wait there. Lucky for him, the guards where kind enough to give him a uniform - prison that is. It was close to 08:30 when he saw who would be giving him that news. When he saw who it was he had the look of, ‘Oh God, anybody but you,’ on his face - it was Lieutenant Sanchez.

  When he saw her, he stood at attention and saluted her. She saluted him back and, with a smirk on her face she said, “Well… old man… I hate to be the bringer of bad news but… you have to stay here until we are ready to leave for our mission.”

  “What… ma’am!?” He said, a little shocked to hear that.

  “Yeah well… last night I talk to vee-stall-la-la, blah-blah-blah… whatever…”

  “It’s Vaistll.” Wexler said correcting her.

  “Well… like I said… whatever. And I talked to Taylor. And I talked to that one-eyed freak. And they all said that you should stay in here that long.” She then laughed and said, “They said that they ‘don’t want to worry about you, since they know that you are in a safe place.’”