Unable to speak, Ikato transmitted his love and acceptance telepathically as the Christ dematerialized.
*******
Kevak closed his eyes and discharged the lasgun. When he opened his eyes, he was surprised to see the skiff hurtling toward the moon. No longer secured to the doomed craft, he watched in disbelief as it plunged into the surface. A great explosion followed immediately. In the silence of space, he saw a flashing light and large columns of debris emanating from the surface of the moon.
Something was pulling him away from danger. He was enclosed in a force field bubble. When he turned around, he could not believe his eyes.
It’s the Christ!
Kevak could see the wormhole in the distance. They were accelerating toward it with incredible speed. As they passed it, the Christ waved His hand and the vortex closed. Kevak’s communication device buzzed.
“Kevak!” cried D’Hal.
“All is well, Primus!” he replied. “Vambiri is safe!”
“Father!” shouted Kwetz. “Mother and I have been healed! The contagion has been eliminated! He did it, Father!”
“Kevak!” called Vrin. “You were right! I believe!”
A tear slowly rolled down Kevak’s cheek. As the bubble accelerated beyond what the laws of physics permitted, Vambiri disappeared from view.
Where? Kevak asked in his mind.
Home, came the reply.
The bubble force field afforded Kevak an unrestricted view of the universe. In the absence of an atmosphere, the stars did not twinkle — they were instead crisp and clear, with a huge variety of colors.
As the bubblecraft left the Kepler system, Kevak could make out something ahead: a dark splotch in the shape of a crescent moon against an infinite backdrop of stars.
The bubblecraft continued to accelerate, and the stars nearest Kevak moved faster than those farther away, much like the signposts on a road as a car drives past.
Ahead in the distance, the stars began to flow around the crescent splotch like water in a creek spilling past a protruding boulder.
Kevak had no idea how fast the bubblecraft was traveling, but it was surely surpassing the speed of light, since his eyes began to play tricks on him. He moved his hand, and a hundred images of his hand passing through space in the direction he had moved it appeared before him. He tried to speak, but the voice that came from his mouth was so low-pitched that he could not make out his own words.
He gave up trying to speak. The bubblecraft itself began to stretch, and he felt an encroaching pressure on his body.
The crescent splotch — it’s a black hole!
He looked at the Christ and communicated the question in his mind. How is this possible?
The Christ smiled. With Iam, all things are possible.
A flow of information bombarded Kevak’s mind. Equations encompassing general relativity and quantum field theory flashed before him, and he easily assimilated the knowledge. The equations unified gravitational and non-gravitational forces — something Einstein had spent his life trying to solve.
The Theory of Everything!
The bubblecraft continued to contort, along with his body, but Kevak was no longer afraid. He understood the mathematics of what was happening to him and surrendered his body to the space-time distortions occurring around him as he and the Christ accelerated past the event horizon into the black hole.
Kevak could hear the sound of crunching bones as his body and that of the Christ were elongated beyond their physical limits.
There was no pain.
Although his flesh and bone became a mush of subatomic particles that swirled into the black hole, Kevak was still conscious. His essence was fully intact.
In his mind he made a fist with his hand. Looking down, he saw his hand. It was transparent, like a hologram. His essence now occupied a diaphanous form, as did the Christ.
Ahead of them in the distance, a spark of light flickered. The Christ accelerated toward it, and Kevak followed. As they got closer, Kevak could make out a skyline. The Christ beckoned, and Kevak coasted to his side. Accepting His extended hand, an electrifying feeling coursed through Kevak. It was love, all encompassing, yet at the same time unencumbering and liberating.
Hand in hand, they continued.
Into the Light.
Into Glory.
SPIN
The following is the transcript from Keep it Civil with Sybil, hosted by Sybil Doyle. It aired May 6, 3049 on the UNN (United News Network).
DOYLE: Happy Saint Kevak’s Day! We are broadcasting tonight’s show from the Chapel of Transfiguration deep within the city of Lun on Vambiri. We also have an extraordinary line-up of religious scholars, historians, scientists, and social commentators to discuss and debate — in a civil manner — the miraculous event that occurred a thousand years ago today: Kevak’s self-sacrifice to save his home world of Vambiri and his subsequent rescue by and ascension alongside the Christ. This event had repercussions on two worlds, both of which experienced drastic changes concerning religion, science, culture, and politics. Whew! So, we’re in for a bit of light discussion tonight — not! I want to begin with Jeremy Palmer, Professor of Antiquites at Vanderbilt University. Professor Palmer, welcome to the show.
PALMER: Thank you for having me, Sybil.
DOYLE: Kevak arrived on Earth in the fifteenth century, yet few people knew about his existence until after his ascension in 2049. What kind of insights can you offer about him?
PALMER: Well, Sybil, we could begin with the iconic artwork in which he has been portrayed during the last millennia. Terran artists have unilaterally depicted him as human with the telltale elfin features of a transmuted Vambir. He has a holy, yet winsome look about him. But Kevak only underwent the transmutation in the last days of his life — for over six hundred Earth years, he occupied his original Vambir form.
DOYLE: He looked like Nosferatu for all that time.
PALMER: Precisely. It’s an extraordinary challenge for a Terran artist to portray a subject with demonic features as holy. Yet here we are in the Chapel of Transfiguration, the most sacred destination for Christian pilgrims, with the possible exception of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem, and what do you see above the altar?
DOYLE: A magnificent wall fresco with Jesus in the center, and at His right is Kevak in his original Vambir form.
PALMER: The elongated bald head with pointed ears, the reptilian eyes, the fangs protruding from the center of the mouth, and the huge talon-like hands — but of all the depictions of him, this for me captures his true essence. In his right hand is the Bible he discovered in Wallachia in the fifteenth century. Notice how his protracted nails are gently holding such a delicate object. His left hand is raised, pointing upward toward Heaven. The lips form a slight smile, much like the Mona Lisa, yet the fangs do not detract in any way from the serenity of that smile. The eyes are reptilian, but the pupils are fully dilated, conveying an underlying warmth of spirit.
DOYLE: It’s almost like they’re twinkling.
PALMER: And who else has eyes that twinkle?
DOYLE: Jolly old Saint Nicholas.
PALMER: Easily portrayed as a kindly soul. The artist here has done the impossible with regard to Kevak: Nosferatu is a credible Christian saint.
DOYLE: What can you tell us about the artist?
PALMER: Well, Primus Kwetz, who succeeded D’Hal, commissioned the work. The artist was the Vambir equivalent of Michelangelo. Her name was Mayimet, and she was one of the children hidden away in stasis by Ikato when he was working on developing a wormhole for the Council before the gamma-ray catastrophe.
DOYLE: Just to remind the viewers, Vambiri once had a strict caste system in place for thousands of years, and the children that Ikato hid away from the Council were from the lower rank.
PALMER: That’s correct. Members of the lower rank were never regarded as being capable of achieving average intelligence, let alone such artistic flair.
DOY
LE: Ikato and the Newlunders raised these children, so Mayimet and the others would have looked upon their caregivers as loving parents and mentors and would have never perceived their physical characteristics as being demonic.
PALMER: Precisely.
DOYLE: Is it true that these children of the lower rank were responsible for Ikato’s religious conversion?
PALMER: Not a conversion — a discovery. Religion was banned on Vambiri, and it was the lower rank that kept it alive in secret with their passed-down oral traditions and rituals. You can see to the left of Jesus, the fresco depicts Ikato standing in front of the vast rows of stasis pods that hid the children.
DOYLE: What happened to Ikato after Kevak’s ascension?
PALMER: When the Christ revived himself from stasis, he appeared in the particle accelerator chamber and immediately healed Kwetz, who was clinging to life after a deadly poison manufactured by Jirza and Tolum that was intended to be used to commit genocide entered his system. The Christ then healed Vrin, who was the mother of Kwetz and also Kevak’s spouse. Ikato and Betana were in the chamber at the time, and both of them received the Touch Blessing of Jesus.
DOYLE: What is that?
PALMER: Exactly as it sounds — as the Christ blessed them, He transferred some of His super-nanobots to them. In a matter of weeks, their bodies were transmuted. Primus D’Hal appointed Ikato as the Vambiri ambassador to Earth. She believed, rightly so, that Ikato’s human appearance would alleviate xenophobic stereotypes held by many Terrans at the time. Ikato shared his knowledge of wormhole technology with Terran scientists, which resulted not only in commonplace transportation between the two planets, but also the discovery and visitation of other planets in the so-called “Goldilocks Zone” that went on to be colonized. He also worked with Kevak’s network on Earth to heal cancer and other diseases with the super-nanobots. His work paved the way for the cancer vaccine that is still to this day administered to infants.
DOYLE: And what of Betana?
PALMER: History remembers her as “Betana the Blessed.” As soon as she received the Touch Blessing from Jesus, she infused the embryos onboard the Newisla. This resulted in a new Vambir generation already transmuted at birth.
DOYLE: What can you tell us about the altar below?
PALMER: As the name of the chapel suggests, the stasis pod is adorned on either side with the pristine remains of Moses and Elijah, just as they appeared in the biblical Transfiguration.
DOYLE: Seeing them in person, it’s quite remarkable. They truly look as if they are sleeping.
PALMER: The robes are incredible — the woolen fabric of Moses with the Levite tribe pattern and the camel-hair cloak of Elijah. The biblical descriptions of each of them were spot on.
DOYLE: At one time the stasis pod held the body of the Christ, but now it’s empty.
PALMER: Not only is it empty, but the hatch has been left open to signify that He is risen.
DOYLE: The Ark of the Covenant is here too. Tell the viewers how that came about.
PALMER: Shortly after Primus D’Hal made Ikato’s log available to the public, questions were raised regarding the 2034 Ark discovery being declared a hoax. It was decided that the appropriate home for the Ark was in this very chapel next to the remains of Moses.
DOYLE: What happened to the archaeologists who discovered the Ark?
PALMER: Upon the find initially being declared a hoax, their reputations were destroyed. Salma Kair lost her directorship of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, and her assistant, Hisham Sadat, never worked in the field again. Kair came from a wealthy family and was able to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. Sadat was reduced to working in souvenir stands to make a living immediately after the scandal, but eventually he opened his own antique store. Jean-Paul Champollion, who was the visiting academic responsible for examining the stone tablets, was blackballed from all subsequent antiquity conferences.
DOYLE: But they were vindicated after Kevak’s ascension, surely.
PALMER: Unfortunately, vindication came too late for Champollion. By 2050, when the find was declared genuine and sanctioned by Pope Mary herself, Champollion had been confined to a senior living facility for several years due to alcohol-induced dementia. It should be mentioned that it was Champollion who tried to convince Kair to keep the find a secret, with the ominous warning that their reputations would be ruined once the cuneiforms on the tablets were revealed to have been carved out by a laser. Eventually, Kair was offered her directorship back, but by then she was completely devoted to several charities she had established. Sadat, of course, already had his own thriving business and had no desire to work again as an archaeology assistant.
DOYLE: So the Ark of the Covenant was a genuine artifact from the time of Moses — that is no longer in dispute. The argument for the last thousand years has been who exactly was communicating with Moses. Was it Ikato alone or was it God speaking through Ikato?
PALMER: The mystery of the decorative fractal patterns framing the cuneiforms suggests that some kind of supernatural force was involved.
DOYLE: Explain to our viewers what you mean by that, please.
PALMER: To this day, there does not exist a laser on either Earth or Vambiri that can perform more than three cycles of a recursive fractal formula. Although magnification methods continue to improve, no one has found a terminating cycle in any of the cuneiforms. These exquisite patterns live up to their nickname as “God’s design.”
DOYLE: I want to bring in Catholic scholar Marie Simms-Clarkson, fellow of the Institute for Philosophical Research and emeritus professor of theology at Oxford University. Professor Simms-Clarkson, how was Pope Mary able to prevent the schism that everyone felt would surely happen in 2050?
SIMMS-CLARKSON: She took the unprecedented step of calling a papal conclave.
DOYLE: Before 2050, the sole purpose of a papal conclave was to elect a new pope.
SIMMS-CLARKSON: It was extremely controversial — even more so than her own election as the first female pope, but in the face of incontrovertible evidence of Vambir and Terran religious overlaps coinciding with the physical presence of Christ, she met it head-on and forced the cardinals to tell her face-to-face where they stood on the matter. She also demanded that every holy relic be subjected to rigorous testing using Vambir technology, and it was confirmed that two phials purporting to contain the blood of Christ were genuine. It led to a resurgence of faith, not a backlash as was initially feared by the cardinals.
DOYLE: At the end of the conclave, Kevak was beatified, and almost immediately after that, he was declared a saint.
SIMMS-CLARKSON: A new order of Kevakian monks was established, along with the Sisters of Betana. Verses from Kevak’s Unification Bible were introduced into the Divine Service.
DOYLE: Why was Ikato never canonized?
SIMMS-CLARKSON: The official reason is that there has never been any evidence of a posthumous miracle attributed to Ikato.
DOYLE: Could not the same be said of Kevak?
SIMMS-CLARKSON: If someone dies a martyr, no evidence of a posthumous miracle is required. Kevak’s case goes well beyond that — he ascended into Heaven with the embodiment of the Christ at his side. Christ Himself chose Kevak.
DOYLE: And it also needs to be mentioned that Pope Mary dialed back the official church position at the time that Heaven wasn’t an actual physical place.
SIMMS-CLARKSON: Well, she had no choice. The recorded images of Jesus emerging from stasis in this very chapel combined with the tracking of his bubblecraft that collected Kevak and broke the light barrier to enter the black hole Cygnus X-1 could not be swept under the carpet.
DOYLE: Mickey Vaze, I see you smirking, so I’m going to let you weigh in. For many years you have performed a stand-up comedy act that relentlessly lampoons Ikato, and most recently, you switched mediums and authored a graphic novel series with illustrator Kyle Grundy that rehashed your stand-up routines. The images are stark — Ikato is shown as a caricature with a
n oversized ray gun holstered at his side, which he frequently discharges across the universe, resulting in obscene graffiti being melted onto public bathroom walls and unsuspecting virgins becoming pregnant, much to the chagrin of their skeptical parents.
VAZE: [giggling] The series is called The Impreginator. Each time his ray gun zaps a new girl, he gloats “I’ll be back!” in the last frame.
DOYLE: Charming. Your stand-up routines and graphic novel series have quite a cult following, but some say that you’re a one-trick pony.
VAZE: Yeah, but consider the pony: Ikato, who committed the most egregious violation of the Prime Directive in all history, to use a term coined from a twentieth century television show. I’ll never understand why, a thousand years ago, yeah, when his shenanigans were exposed, yeah, why didn’t Christianity end on that very day? I mean, anyone with half a brain can see how this holier-than-thou mumbo-jumbo was all cooked up…or maybe it takes someone with only half a brain to believe it. I mean, you can either be intelligent and of science, yeah, or you can use religion as a crutch to get you through life with the promise of unicorns and rainbows at the end as long as you’ve been a good lad or lass. It’s all Father Christmas, but instead of toys you get a ticket into Heaven. I can’t believe that an intelligent person would accept “On the first day, God made the sky.” over the Big Bang Theory.
DOYLE: Your response, Professor Simms-Clarkson?
SIMMS-CLARKSON: Well, let’s start at the literal beginning.
VAZE: [mumbling] This should be good.
SIMMS-CLARKSON: Mr. Vaze subscribes to the popular view that science and religion are incompatible — that science refutes God. There is an alternate view that science and religion are complementary paths to knowledge. Pope John Paul II stated that science can purify religion from error and superstition, while religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.
VAZE: Idolatry — like you praying to a metal cross sitting atop an altar?
DOYLE: Keep it civil, Mickey.
VAZE: Sorry, Sybil, [mumbling] my little piranha fish.
The Nosferatu Chronicles: Return to Vambiri Page 22
