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

by Douglas Howell

  “Yeah.”

  “And she gave… that sword… to that guard. So that he… and I… can go into Natas palace… where I am supposed to be delivered into Natas custody. By the time when I got to the Earth and I had to the chance to sleep on it, instead of being in cryo-sleep that is, is when I figured it out. She wanted me to bring it back to her. That they never betrayed me. I was just overreacting.”

  Vaistll had the look on her that she wanted to say something to Ramirez, but didn’t. She knew that he knew what she already knows and suspected. What would have happen to her, Tsk’llk and Llyysta had Vaistll stayed upon her planet. Vaistll couldn’t bring herself to mention it, and Ramirez didn’t say anything.

  “I remember asking the guard if ‘Llyysta had lost her mind or what.’ He didn’t say anything and then we left. Both of us went down a road that went through a forest. Somewhere along that road we heard this strange sound, and we saw this light coming through the forest. Both of us stood there for a brief moment perplexed by what we saw. We just had to go and investigate it to see what it was. And that’s when we encountered that space-slash-time traveler. Whoever he was.

  Because of my training, I didn’t get lost in the moment, unlike the guard who did. Seizing upon that opportunity, I got the better of him and killed him. I told that space-time traveler that if he helps me… then I’ll help him out. He agreed and then he freed me. I took him back to his spaceship and asked him if he had any medicine for his injuries and he said no. I told him to stay there while I go get some. That meant that I had to go inside the palace to get some. Lucky for me, I knew my way around the palace and I knew some people who should still be there. So I guess it didn’t matter.

  So, I left him to get that medicine. I went into the palace feeling like I’m going into combat for the very first time. With bad feelings and bad memories coming back to me. I started to feel like shit. But I knew that I had to help him. It was not because it was the right thing to do or anything like that. I just felt like that I had to. It was like; helping him was something that the gods wanted me to do. It was like I didn’t have a choice.

  So... I went into the palace and found the medicine without incidence. Thank God for that. I don’t think anybody knew that I was there. While I was about to leave I heard a commotion down the hall from where I was. As I approached I heard some voices. I recognized one of the voices. It was Llyysta, she was disgusted about something. She was out of earshot when I got to where she was. It was the entrance to Natas’ bedroom. There was a guard at the entrance, and Natas was sitting down on his bed looking like some teenage boy who just got in trouble with his father. He looked up at me and said nothing. Neither did the guard. I asked the guard what was all the commotion about, and he didn’t say anything. The guard had the look like he was both disturbed, and confused about something. I really wanted to find out what it was, since it had something to do with Natas. Maybe it could answer some of my questions, like why did he do the things that he did to me. So I had to do a mind-meld with the guard in order to find out.

  What I learned was this: when the guard was a boy, and Llyysta was a young adult fresh out of her warrior training, both of them where standing outside of Natas’ mansion. I don’t know why Llyysta was there. She never talked about that time period in her life, and I never ask. I also don’t know if this was the time period in which his palace was being built. As both of them where standing there, Natas’ son, who must have been a pre-teen, came running out and ran to where Llyysta was. He bent over and started to throw up. He looked up at her and said something. To which Natas thought that he said, ‘He is a faggot.’ But what his son actually said was, ‘I don’t wanna go back to him.’ Natas got pissed off and yelled at him and said, ‘How dare you say that! Get back in here.’ And then his son turned around and went back inside. As he did, Llyysta looked at Natas, and then she looked at his son and said, ‘Poor kid.’ But Natas incorrectly thought that she looked at his son first, than him, and called him a pervert. Llyysta then walked over to a crowd of people and started to talk to them. They all looked at Natas, and shook their heads. I don’t know what she said to them because the guard didn’t go with her, but Natas gave them all that look of, if-looks-could-kill. So I guess you can imagine what transpired between father and son.”

  “Yeah. That he is a sick sonofabitch to do that to his own son. So is that the reason why he did ALL that he did to you, Tsk’llk and Llyysta?”

  “Not by a long shot. I once told him about something that I heard about him that made that seemed trivial in comparison. All he said was, ‘Absolute power demands absolute control over oneself. For the way in which you handle slander, no matter how vicious it may be, will always reflect upon your leadership. Much more so when your word is law.

  Deep down inside people do not care about all the most vicious, vile, deplorable things that they hear about you. Sure they’ll joke about it, but it would never go any further than that. But what they care about more than anything else is: how you use your power that you wield over them. And thus, if you can’t control yourself just because somebody said something negative about you, than you never deserved what power you DO have.’ So he never really cared about what anybody thought, or said about him.

  So there I was, standing there after I did that mind-meld with that guard. I just didn’t care anymore. I’ve been through a lot, way too much for anybody to go through. So why should I care what type of a man Natas is? My attitude at that moment was: it’s not my problem, so I’m outta here. So then I left and never looked back.

  Before I got out of the palace this seven-foot, four-inch tall, gorilla of a guard, who must have been somewhere between 50 to 100 years old, with the look of being physically arrogant, was blocking my exit. He knew who I was and that I had to be taken into custody. And here I am, this woman who is the equivalent of a 107 year old human, who’s way passed her prime and haven’t seen combat in decades. And I was having serious heart problems on top of that. I was a woman who is only trying to get by him to find her freedom from the evil in my life. But I had this very interesting way in which I got by him though.” With that Vaistll started to laugh.

  “What?” Ramirez asked her. “What’s so funny? What did you do to get by him?”

  Vaistll started to laugh some more than she finally told him. “Oh, nothing much. I gave him that look of, ‘Oh, wow. Whatever.’ Then I lifted up my shirt showing him that scar that I have. With him knowing the details, and the myths that everybody created about those details, concerning how I got that scar, it belittled him into a Girl Scout.” That caused both of them to laugh with Ramirez laughing out loud.

  Vaistll then continued on, “Seeing that guard isn’t gonna do anything, I smiled and patted him on the left side of his face and then left. I went back to that space-time traveler and dressed his wounds. He needed my help in getting his ship up and running again. It wasn’t easy for me in understanding what he was talking about. But I figured out a way to get his ship working again. What I did was, I got so frustrated with trying to understand him that I got mad and kicked one of the machines. And that’s how I fixed it.”

  “That’ll do it.” Ramirez said with a smile.

  “Later when I was in the escape pod, that’s when I noticed that there was medicine in there. I didn’t think much about it since he was injured in the right side of his head, and he wasn’t thinking straight. And you know the rest.”

  “Yeah.”

  “After Langston fall from grace, and I was able to come out of that shit-hole that I lived in, both Project 21 and myself could finally do our job. Project 21 was way too busy in protecting me to be concerned what the EOD was up to. And sadly, the EOD took full advantage of that. If Langston didn’t take Project 21 job seriously, the EOD sure did and it cost everybody dearly.

  Once Project 21 was able to do its job, they didn’t focus upon the EOD. Instead they focus upon all of that stuff that I brought with me from my planet. You know, I will always be eterna
lly grateful for Project 21 in respecting my wishes concerning Llyysta’s sword and my Warrior Code Book of Honor, that they wouldn’t do anything to them. As for everything else, I really didn’t care... except for two things that I wished they destroyed... but they didn’t.”

  “What was it?”

  “I’ll tell you in a little bit. They got a good sample of DNA from all of that stuff. Although they never asked, and I had to persuade them, they got my DNA as well. I figured that they could learn a lot about Apollinarians from my DNA. So the geneticists then went to work on creating a genetic fingerprint on all the DNA. They then went to work on recreating those life forms, including an Apollinarian.”

  “What... you mean they even cloned you!?” Ramirez said in disbelief as he couldn’t even begin to believe that she would allow something like that to be done to her. He knew her well enough to know that she would never permit it.

  “No, no, no, no..., nothing of the sort. Look... it’s like when you modify a pig’s DNA in order for it to grow human organs. That’s what they did with my DNA. I should have used better choice of words. Sorry for that.”

  “That’s okay.”

  “Cloning all of those life forms wasn’t easy. It actually took them 25 years to do it, from 2011 to 2036. The hardest part was trying to replicate both types of whiskey. When they finally did, they did such a good job that I couldn’t even taste the difference. When they were finished, they gave me both of those bottles back. There’s still a lot left over.... in case if you ever want to get drunk off of some whiskey that comes from my planet.” She said with a smile.

  “We’ll see.” Ramirez had no intentions of doing that. He didn’t want to waste any of it, since it’s all that she has left that comes from her planet. He knew that she wouldn’t care, but he did.

  “After Project 21 picked a location in California that closely resembled the climate of my civilization. I went to check upon how good of a job they did. And I was impressed. So much so, that when I went into that huge aircraft hanger, the first words out of my mouth were, ‘Oh my God... I’m back home.’ I was sooo happy that I cried. I really did felt like I was back home.

  After that, I tried my best to talk Project 21 into creating an aerospace company with the single minded goal of creating a Martian colony. Then they, the aerospace company, could claim that they created some Martian life forms as a promotion gimmick. Once the aerospace company did that, it should able to smoke out any Apollinarians on the Earth. Or at least expose their plans. Project 21 was adamantly opposed to it, but in the end they cave-in out of fear of not knowing what the Apollinarians are up to.

  So in the year 2038 the world was introduced to what was called... Martian life forms. Despite the blowback from that, it turned out to be hugely popular. Geneticists all over the world said that the DNA is so alien that it must have come from another planet. Although they also had to admit that those so called, “alien life forms” DNA, obviously had an Earthly influence and must have originated from the Earth.”

  Vaistll started to laugh out loud and then said, “All of those conspiracy nut cases were right all long. And nobody believed them. So now you know where Martian life, including both types of the Martian whiskey, comes from.”

  “Yeah... wow.”

  “Unfortunately my plan to smoke out the Apollinarians didn’t work. Nothing happened to suggest that they were on the Earth. Either that, or they are really damn good at hiding themselves.” She then stops talking because she just realizes something and started to think about it.

  Ramirez started to read her to see if she was joking with him, she wasn’t. He was both amazed and speechless; he then mouthed the word, ‘Wow.’ He then asked her, “So what were those two life forms that you didn’t want them to clone? And why is it that you didn’t want them to clone them?”

  “I’ll tell you later. I just realize something that happened after 2038. It’s so strange.” She paused because she started to think deeply about it, trying to figure it out.

  “What happened? What did you realize? Was it something about the Apollinarian life forms that they cloned?” It started to get Ramirez to think about what he knew about that time period. He thinks that he knows what she is referring to.

  “Two years after the world got their first taste of Martian life, President Stemson came to power. He was the one who wanted to take on the EOD and take them down. Even though he had questionable motives at heart. He turned out to be, not only America, but also the world’s first eschatological President. Everybody tried to warn him of the consequences of trying to take on the EOD. Everybody knew, like other companies and agencies that the EOD had nano-probes and they were not afraid to use them for sinister reasons. All he said was that Jesus would save humanity if the EOD tried to use their nano-probes for ill will. And that they did.

  The EOD created two different types of nano-probes: one that turned a person into a mindless zombie that ran around on instinct; and the other one was a military type of a zombie that preserves its smarts, intelligence, the ability in being clever, but not its humanity. The EOD then unleashed them upon the State of Florida for no other reason other than the fact that Florida is a peninsula. And therefore they could end it at will. Two years later in 2042 the EOD used genetic assassination on Stemson. That part is strange since Congress was talking about convicting him of treason. So why would the EOD kill him? Where they trying to cover something up?

  What’s even more strange is that somewhere between 2039 and 2043 the founder of the EOD went missing. He may have been old, but he was still in good shape. I mean, look at modern medicine at that time. So you know he should be in good shape. He had no reason to disappear like that. So why would he disappear? Did it have something to do with Stemson?”

  “I have no knowledge about any that. It’s just something that they always kept secret. So I have no idea why he would disappear.”

  “At one point Project 21 thought that maybe he was an Apollinarian. That would explain a lot though, like the timing of his disappearance. Or why the EOD unleashed all of those goddamn nano-probes on Florida. But after going over all of that data that was ever collected on him, with the most finest of fine tooth combs, it still said that he was a human being. Nothing more, nothing less.

  If the EOD could use genetic assassination to kill someone, and they have done that before as early as 2018, then why didn’t they assassinate Stemson as soon as he took office? Why wait two years to do it? Why would they want to do that to Florida, when that is the first, and only time that they ever did something like that? Why did the EOD behaved in such a paranoid manner like that? Where they trying to send a message? If so, then to whom were they trying to send it to?

  We even look at the possibility that the Apollinarians had infiltrated the EOD, but there were no evidence to support that. So that turned out to be another dead end. By 2047 we had to call off any further investigations since we had nothing to go by.”

  “Yeah... it would be highly unlikely that anyone, even an ET, could have infiltrated the EOD at the time period.”

  “Yeah. We figured that out, but it was just so hard to accept it. There where those within Project 21 who thought that maybe my plan to smoke out any Apollinarians did in fact worked. In the sense that the Apollinarians used some type of mind control technique. If that’s was the case, then what would they have to gain? It achieved nothing, other than killing millions of people. Before Stemson was killed he thought that maybe the Apollinarians where using some form of mind control on him. So he had me do a mind meld with him to see if they where, but no dice. And as for the EOD? One word: cyborgs. Mind control techniques just don’t work upon them. So what gives? How can anybody explain all of that?”

  “Maybe its some weird coincidence or something?”

  “Yeah... maybe you’re right.” Somehow, in someway, Vaistll felt like that wasn’t true. That there was something more to it than meets the eye. She just couldn’t put her finger on what it could be.

/>   “You know Alex... some good did came out of it.”

  “And what could that be?”

  “When I first heard about nano-probes I figured that their impact upon human civilization would be the same as electricity. That one day, like electricity, they would be all around us doing a million things. Yes... some people would use them for evil purposes... but mostly they would be use for good intentions.

  But I also knew that first... people are going to have to solve the ethical problems that nano-probes would create. World governments especially, will have to solve and pass laws concerning their use. And that’s exactly what happened after Florida was turned into a graveyard. I was right all along. And nowadays, like electricity, we just can’t live without them in our lives.”

  “You got that right.”

  Ever since Vaistll came to the Earth, her life is filled with nothing but unanswered questions. Questions that she wished could be answered, but never is. If she ever came around and started to pray more often, than there would be only one thing that she would pray about - having those questions answered.

  (8)

  Sanchez was driving one of those convertible robotic cars, traveling through a part of Roscadia that she should have known better. Her driving ability was mediocre at best, pathetic at worst. But that’s not why people were staring at her. People were staring at her for no other reason other than she was a stranger who shouldn’t have been there.

  It was indeed a dangerous part of town. Task Force ZH-3C, including Mad Dawg’s crew, was told not to travel into that part of town. The police department of Roscadia wouldn’t be much help, let alone come to your rescue, if you needed them. The place symbolizes the fact that Roscadia is a dying town where no one seems to cares. And Sanchez is traveling through that part of Roscadia. Why is she doing that? It is a shortcut to her destination.