“Tunnels had to first be constructed at the site to prevent flooding,” said Amos. “It was during the construction of one of those tunnels that an ancient vault was unearthed a few weeks ago. The vault was a repository of personal items owned by Titus himself. Surely, you read about it!”
Merk was ashamed to admit to Amos that he no longer kept up with the obscure archeology websites he used to follow in his Speaker’s Corner days — his work with Vambir technology kept him constantly busy, and he could never reveal to Amos that the so-called “tin foil hat brigade” had been right all along, to a certain extent. “My work is all-consuming, and I’m not up to date with current events. How is the vault significant?”
“The entire walls and ceiling were covered in frescos depicting Titus’s destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem,” said Amos. “They were pristine!”
“What’s any of this have to do with the Antichrist?” asked Merk.
“There were several images of Titus,” said Amos. “There’s no doubt — it’s the face of Sebastian Romano, the presidential candidate who believes in faith healing!”
Merk’s knowledge of ancient history and the New Testament matched that of Amos. It didn’t take him long to connect the dots, and the two began to debate as they used to at Speaker’s Corner.
“Titus headed the Roman army when it destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem,” said Amos. “The book of Daniel predicts the Antichrist will come from the revived Roman Empire. Romano’s very surname announces who he is!”
“So you’ve become a resident of this luxury hotel because an American candidate for president bears a striking resemblance to Titus and his surname suggests a connection to Rome?” asked Merk.
“You know there’s more,” insisted Amos. “The book of Revelation says the Antichrist will perform counterfeit miracles. He will preside over a global government with complete power over every person on Earth. This power will be so complete that he’ll control everyone’s ability to buy or sell. In the time of Jesus, never before had a man restored sight to one born blind. Today we have Sebastian Romano and his ministers going across America curing terminal cancer patients by the laying of hands, and the media broadcasts it into every living room!”
“The media portrays him as a kook one day and a charlatan the next,” said Merk. “The laying of hands isn’t done in front of the cameras, and it’s just a matter of time before he’s exposed as a fraud.”
“But that’s just it!” exclaimed Amos. “This isn’t fakery! This is the Devil performing real miracles in order to lure people in — counterfeit miracles! There’s a video on the blogosphere. One of the family members of a cancer patient secretly recorded the laying of hands. You can see the energy transfer from the hands of the minister to the cancerous lung. For an instant it glowed!”
Merk hid his anxiety. In the lab, the nanobots gave off a glow in their excited state — could the Vambir who killed Pocatello be in league with Romano?
“Counterfeit miracles are nothing new,” said Merk with a shrug. “They go back to Pharaoh’s magicians.”
“A time of great deception is upon us,” said Amos. “Even though the teachings of Jesus are well known, the world continues to search for a savior who will put an end to the suffering endured by so many. Today they marvel at Romano’s faith healings. What happens if he ascends to power?”
“It won’t come to that,” said Merk. “His candidacy is a complete circus.”
“Have you ever lost anyone to cancer?” asked Amos. “Cancer is an equal opportunity disease that crosses all socioeconomic bounds. If you were an atheist with a terminally ill child, and every treatment had failed, would you let nature take its course or seek out Romano’s free-of-charge laying of hands?”
“I would move Heaven and Earth to get to Romano,” admitted Merk.
“Of course you would,” said Amos. “At that point, there would be nothing to lose. And what if that last, desperate act produced a cure? Romano would have your complete loyalty and gratitude. And if an atheist could be convinced, then think of how easily people who hold religious views could be persuaded and manipulated. Like I said — a time of great deception is upon us. It’s all I think about, and I can’t get the visions of Revelation out of my mind.”
Amos hung his head and wept.
“It’s going to be alright,” said Merk as he put his arm around him and rubbed his neck. He made sure to collect enough of Amos’s cells under his fingernails for a sample before getting up to leave. “I’ll arrange with Dr. Bajwah to come back and see you soon. I promise after my next visit, you’ll feel right as rain.”
*******
Lifeboat, Arctic Circle
“What are we looking at?” asked Emanui.
“Wait for it,” said Merk. “There! When the hand moved over the chest! Just for a second, you can see the glow.”
He rewound the video and replayed it in slow motion.
“I see it,” said Tariq.
“Do these ministers look familiar to you?” asked Merk.
“I don’t recognize any of them,” said J’Vor.
“If the nanobots induced a different type of metamorphosis,” speculated Jasper, “then perhaps the physical changes are different as well.”
“Has the press released the ministers’ names?” asked Devonna.
“I don’t think so,” said Jasper.
“They wouldn’t be so brazen as to use their Vambir names, surely,” said Merk.
Jasper shrugged. “What could we do about it if they did?”
“Where did you get this recording?” Emanui asked Merk.
“From the blogosphere,” answered Merk. “During my years at Speaker’s Corner, you know which sites to visit to get the juiciest bits of conspiracy theories. These websites can’t be found using a standard search — the addresses change daily.”
“Then how does anyone access the site?” asked Nadia.
“Subscribers are given a unique twenty-digit code, which is what you input into the general search engine,” said Merk. “That takes you to the newest website.”
“So what’s to stop the police from becoming subscribers?” asked Nadia.
“The code contains a Trojan Horse,” said Merk. “Any attempt by a subscriber to access information about the site’s controller triggers the release of a virus, which destroys everything on the user’s hard drive.”
“Romano has four ministers — two male and two female,” said Jasper. “If they are the Vambir who killed Pocatello, then we can safely assume that Kwetz, Jirza, and Tolum are among them. Who is the fourth? All we can say at this point is that it’s female.”
“She’s definitely not a Newlunder,” said Tariq, “since they were all fitted with cerebral implants.”
“Then this is surely proof that there must have been Vambir who survived after the Passenger Lottery revolt and acquired wormhole technology,” said J’Vor.
“They couldn’t survive in an irradiated atmosphere where nothing would grow,” said Emanui. “Even the most fanatical preppers couldn’t store enough rations to last nearly twenty thousand years. The only way they could have escaped was to go into prolonged stasis.”
“Twenty thousand years is pretty prolonged,” said Devonna. “Would any of you commit to that? My last thoughts before going under would be that something was bound to malfunction in all that time.”
“Right now, it’s the only explanation that makes sense,” said Tariq.
“Could this Jirza and Tolum have figured out a way to remove the Newlunders’ cerebral implants?” asked Merk.
“No,” said Emanui. “The implants emit tendrils into the brainstem that fuse with the organic tissue. It would be like unscrambling an egg.”
“Okay,” said Merk. “So a group of Vambir are marooned after the Passenger Lottery revolt. They avoid starvation and radiation poisoning by going into extended stasis. When they are revived thousands of years later, the planet has healed itself — the radiation levels are no longer toxi
c and the hemoplants have returned. They detect the Newisla in the Kuiper Belt and decide to bring her home. So the question now is how and when did they acquire wormhole technology?”
“We can’t even be positive that Romano’s ministers are transmuted Vambir,” said J’Vor.
“We can,” said Devonna. “Let’s test the nanobots on cancer cells.”
“We already know that the nanobots protect normal cells from invasion by blocking the receptors,” said Merk.
“But what about cells that are already cancerous?” asked Devonna. “We didn’t look for healing properties.”
“That’s going to seriously deplete the current crop,” said Merk. “It’s been a painfully slow process understanding how they replicate. There has to be a catalyst, and we need to discover it first. Just one line of coding could quicken the process exponentially.”
“But if the nanobots can cure cancer, we would know with absolute certainty that Romano’s ministers are the Vambir we’ve been looking for,” said Devonna.
“If the nanobots can cure cancer,” said Tariq, “then we are morally bound to share this technology.”
“Not with the pharmaceutical companies,” scoffed Emanui.
“We’re getting way ahead of ourselves,” said J’Vor.
“By the way,” said Merk to J’Vor. “You’re absolutely sure the Vambir had no contact with Earth before the fifteenth century?”
“It’s just like we told Devonna,” said J’Vor, “the only ship that ever left long-range Vambiri space was the Isla, so the controversy surrounding the Ark of the Covenant has nothing to do with—”
“I was thinking instead of the Roman Emperor Titus,” said Merk.
“Well, that’s a new one,” said Tariq.
Merk displayed the news report on the frescos discovered in the vault near the second triumphal arch of Titus. “Look familiar?”
“It does look like Romano,” admitted Emanui, “but there are apps that match anyone’s photo to someone famous in history, and those matches can also be incredibly similar if the angle of the facial dimensions are tweaked just right.”
“Why is the resemblance between Romano and Titus significant?” Jasper asked Merk.
“There are a number of biblical scholars who could make a good case that Romano is the Antichrist,” he answered. “Titus presided over the destruction of the second Temple of Jerusalem, and Revelation predicts the Antichrist will originate from those destroyers, namely, from Rome, so his surname coupled with his resemblance to Titus is…interesting. There are also several scripture references about how the Antichrist will perform counterfeit miracles and rise to power through politics.”
A long, awkward silence followed.
Merk rolled his eyes and sighed. “I’m not off my meds!”
“We never said that,” said Devonna.
“Your silence said as much,” retorted Merk. “But in all fairness, this material was brought to my attention by a dear friend from Speaker’s Corner who is currently going through a bad patch. In fact, unknown to him, I gathered some of his cells under my fingernails. Is there any kind of treatment—”
“We should not interfere,” said Tariq. “It might compromise or expose us.”
“He has devoted a lifetime to the study of ancient history and theology,” pleaded Merk. “We used to have lively debates about the existence of aliens and their hidden influence throughout history. Knowing what I now know, I could have cleared up a thing or two concerning many famous unsolved mysteries when I visited him, but I didn’t. Please help him. He’s an old man and doesn’t deserve to spend his last years institutionalized.”
“Surely it couldn’t hurt to design a dopamine inhibitor tailored to his specific DNA?” Devonna asked the others. “Can’t we do this one thing for him?”
The others exchanged looks then nodded.
REBUILD
Planet Vambiri
Council Meeting
Earth Year 2047 AD
“We should rebuild the particle accelerator in order to travel to Earth,” said Ikato.
“I disagree,” said Kevak. “My original concern still stands. The Vambir will immediately be overtaken by the blood addiction as soon as they are exposed to humans. The mainframe being destroyed was the only good thing that happened. I can only pray to Iam that J’Vor and his Rescued network will capture Kwetz and the others. They would have surely detected their arrival. Tracking down Ferals was second nature to all of us for many centuries.”
“But what if it the Vambir no longer suffered from the blood addiction?” asked Ikato.
“Don’t speak of impossible scenarios,” said D’Hal. “It’s not helpful.”
“Not impossible, Primus,” said Ikato. “In fact, I think it is the key to understanding why Jirza and the other adolescents fled.”
“Go on,” said Kevak.
“All four had just become Touch Healers,” said Ikato. “After running a full diagnostic on my palm implant, it showed that not only did Jirza access the nanobot data, but she also downloaded copies of my journal entries.”
“Then she knew about your wormhole communications with the ancient Egyptians,” said Miboj, “but your journal entries end with your unsuccessful attempt to transport Moses back to Vambiri alive. What use would any of that be to her?”
“Because my work on the nanobots began just afterwards,” said Ikato. “She obviously recognized the significance of the timing and would have correctly surmised that I was using the nanobots to solve the organic transportation problem.”
“Using the nanobots to cure our advanced aging was a ruse,” said D’Hal. “They used the crisis to conduct their own research work!”
“They probably infected us with something that exhibited symptoms of advanced aging in the first place!” exclaimed Miboj.
“Most likely,” said Ikato.
“Why didn’t Jirza have you eliminated as soon as she had gotten the information she needed?” Miboj asked Ikato.
“My death would have created suspicion, and Tolum probably predicted that the probability of them being held responsible was too great to risk,” said Ikato. “Luckily, I wasn’t anywhere near the chamber when they absconded.”
“How is any of this relevant to our current situation?” asked Kevak.
“Transmutation is what they were striving for,” said Ikato. “It is one of the five sacred stages, immediately after Exodus.”
“I don’t follow,” said D’Hal.
“When I first glimpsed humans,” explained Ikato, “I was awestruck by the fact that they were impervious to sunlight. The nanobot algorithm I initially developed concerned the protection of the nuclei during transportation through the wormhole, but once I obtained biological samples from Moses, I turned my attention to mixing them with Vambir cells. Without the nanobots, the cells underwent the same metamorphosis that the Vambir did just after the Isla first arrived at Earth. I was in the process of tweaking the algorithm whereby the nanobots would combine the DNA of both species in such a way that the negative aspects would be repressed — a transmutation. Exposure to sunlight would no longer be fatal. No more dependence on only one food source. No more blood addiction.”
“You don’t know for sure that’s what they were trying to do,” said Miboj.
“It was the next logical step,” said Ikato, “and Jirza was bred for intelligence. By being Touch Healers, they could facilitate this transmutation in themselves by an initial ingestion of human blood.”
“Would their Touch Healing abilities become enhanced?” asked Kevak.
“Yes,” answered Ikato.
Kevak leaned forward on the table and covered his eyes. Kwetz went along with Jirza’s plan in order to become a more effective Touch Healer — he wanted to restore Vrin to perfect health! He suddenly raised his head. “I want to become a Touch Healer. The nanobots will protect me as I travel through the wormhole.”
“What are you going to do?” asked D’Hal.
“Once I retu
rn to Earth, I will make contact with J’Vor and the others,” said Kevak. “I will ingest blood from supplies in storage and test this transmutation theory of Ikato’s.”
“But the risk!” protested D’Hal.
“But the reward, Primus!” countered Kevak. “If I could achieve transmutation, then I could return to Vambiri and administer the enhanced nanobots to Ikato’s children and the Newisla embryos through Touch Healing! Just think, Primus! Everything Ikato spoke of would come to fruition! Future generations would no longer have to hide from sunlight and subsist on one source of food! The blood addiction would be eradicated! There would be no need for a travel ban to Earth! Peaceful interaction between our two worlds would become a reality!”
“We would welcome all pilgrims to the Chapel of Transfiguration,” said D’Hal. “The Christ belongs to Earth as much as Vambiri.”
“The Christ will unite us,” said Kevak.
“There is much work to be done,” said Ikato. “Not only will the mainframe have to be rebuilt, but several miles of the accelerator collapsed. All debris will have to be vaporized before we can begin reconstruction.”
D’Hal looked at Miboj. “I’ll get straight onto making out new work assignments,” he said, anticipating her thoughts.
MANCHURIAN
The following is a partial transcript from the contentious second presidential debate of 2048, held in the DeBartolo Hall of the University of Notre Dame. The exchange was between Faith Party nominee Sebastian Romano and moderator Charmaine Galbraith, correspondent with UNN (United News Network).
GALBRAITH: Mr. Romano, this question touches on the subject of healthcare. For nearly a century, the two major parties have attempted, without much success, to construct a system that adequately provides essential medical coverage for everyone and is funded by corporations and the wealthiest one percent of individuals. The process has been painstakingly slow, and the few pieces of meaningful legislation that have been passed only occurred when the executive and legislative branches were controlled by the same party. My question to you, sir, is this: There is not one single member of Congress, either presently seated or currently running for office, who is a member of your Faith Party. The overwhelming majority of voters oppose your candidacy — sixty-one percent to be exact, according to the most recent Marist poll. If you were to win the office of President of the United States, how would you work with Congress and win the support of the American people to bring about meaningful change?
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