Next, we entered the Terek Valley from the north through the Derbent passage. There we found an ancient community of Persian Christians . They fought better than the Georgians. But what was the good of it? Before we left the valley, we had erased them from history.
After fighting with a nation called Alans without knowing where their territory was, we continued north and were again welcomed by wide steppes, our favorite climate and geography. Like a hurricane, we tore through the land of the Jewish Cumans and loomed over their fate like a nightmare. We recruited their enemy, the pagan Pechenegs, to come along with us. We massacred the Kipchak people, and then, we turned around and killed the Pechenegs.
The news of our merciless wrath stirred those who lived in the faraway land of Crimea, the principalities of Kiev, and the Russians. These nations united their armies and marched toward us. We sent them a messenger with a spurious reproach.
“We have no dispute with you; we don’t even know you. Why do you advance on us?” the messenger asked.
During our withdrawal, we passed through the lands of the Kipchaks—a shamanist Turkish tribe brought up in the steppes bearing similar culture to our own—and slaughtered the people there. Meanwhile, a huge, fully equipped Russian army of one hundred thousand soldiers continued to pursue us. We led them a great distance, wearing them out for three weeks. Finally, we welcomed them in a river region called Kalka, near the Sea of Azov.
We caught them off-guard, this multi-national army, and divided them in two around a hill. The war lasted for three days and nights and was a complete massacre. Without exception, we put everyone to the sword and crushed those who surrendered by squashing them under wooden boards. We gave the commander, Mstilav, Prince of Kiev, special treatment by crushing him on a carpet so that his blood would not mix with the earth.
By then, our appetite for war was satiated. Just as we had wanted, we headed toward our headquarters by crossing over the Caspian Sea to the north.
As we passed through more lands we didn’t know, we needed permission to pass through a big and powerful Turkish country known as the Kama Bulgarian Kingdom. We were done with war; however, they objected to our offer, saying that they wouldn’t allow us through. They even killed our messenger. So a new war began and, as always, we chased after the runaways and their supporters and crushed them. We invaded their capital city of Bolgar, and, after the spoils were collected, we set off to join our comrades.
We had traveled more than twenty-thousand miles, fought with countless forces, superior to our own, won every battle, destroyed two great kingdoms without even knowing their names, and changed the destinies of all the nations we encountered.
Once when Sobutay and I were looking over the main camp from some distance, I asked him, “Did you like your reward?”
Sobutay grinned.
“I do not like long speeches and farewells,” I continued. “You know what I would say, anyway. I wish you and Selen long life and happiness.”
“Cuci, but...”
“The best guest is the one who goes when his visit is over,” I said.
I quickly turned my horse and rode away.
I never looked back.
Limbo
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On a remote corner of a Crimean harbor next to rippling waves blown by the north wind, a dead body of a haggard man lay in ragged clothes, his dead eyes still on the horizon.
A piece of a wolf pelt was in one hand and, in the other, a red handkerchief.
… [STOP]
I suppose I regained my consciousness first. My first perceptions were a feeling of lightness, a sweet sense of happiness, and a combined sense of ease...
“Hey! What’s going on?” I yelled in my mind “How did this happen?” I reached for my sword, but it wasn’t there. Neither was my hand. I looked around for shelter. But then everything melted away as awareness slowly returned.
“Wow!” I said. “Was that all a simulation? It was so real. I can still smell the salt air.”
“It is beyond a simulation, sir, but it’s something like that. It is an advanced memory program formed and configured by the data of your previous life.”
“How long did it take me to experience that entire life again?”
“Time does not exist here, sir. However, through the entire process, we haven’t even completed one revolution around the earth, if that makes any sense to you.”
“Did I have other lives like that? How many did I have? Why is it like this? What’s the aim?”
“Sir, calm down. This was the first phase. It is the beginning of the process of you becoming yourself again by going through the data. First of all, you are going to adapt to your previous selves so that your consciousness can be integrated without causing any harm to you.”
“How many more stages do I have?” I asked.
“At least two. If necessary, there might be a third. First, we will formulate and integrate the memories you just recalled. We will give explanations, if necessary.”
“Sobutay. What happened to Sobutay?”
“Sir, he lived for a long time and shared happiness with Selen as you wished. When he died, he was almost ninety years old. He was remembered as history’s greatest commander. Napoleon recorded only two or three victories. Alexander had six or seven. But both tasted defeat. Sobutay won sixty wars and never lost a battle. He brought all existing communities to their knees. He was the only commander who ever beat two different armies on two different fields at the same time.”
“It sounds like the tactics we worked on as children helped,” I continued. “What about my father, the empire, my family?”
“Your father established the greatest empire in the world and forced submission from all the civilizations within its physical borders. He died older than eighty, in his own lands, in peace. Of course, Cagatay didn’t replace him. Ogheday became the Khan and pushed the empire to its widest borders. It is an odd coincidence that the name Ogheday has evolved in time and has been changed to Oktay in recent Turkish. The Mongolian empire reconfigured the lifestyle and behavior of the entire world. Just like Noah and the Flood, it changed everything by defining power through death and exile.”
“How so?”
“Sir, you must know of the ‘Butterly Effect.’”
“Of course: A butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the world, and a storm breaks out on the opposite side…But, did we really change that much?”
“Do you remember entrusting a few surviving children to a Turkish tribe?” the program asked.
“Yes, I remember something like that,” I said.
“They escaped from their camp that night and ran away from your torture. They moved to the east of Anatolia and found fertile lands to settle. They established a dynasty that would be known as the Ottoman Empire. After you altered the fate of the entire world, Ottoman rule followed and had the widest dominion of any empire for 500 years.”
“Wow. So, that young man was Osman Ghazi?”
“Yes, indeed. Additionally, you destroyed the Georgian empire as they were about to become the rising power in the land. You also erased the Bulgarian Kingdom, which was about to become another great power. Those are small examples. If you want to look at it from a broad perspective, you brought China to its knees, dominating a civilization that had existed for five thousand years. You also jailed them in their own lands, causing most of the population to perish. Your empire decimated nearly half of the population on the lands it ruled and integrated its own population. Those who are from the blood of Genghis Khan form one-fourth of the living population today. It’s impossible to fully comprehend the Khan’s influence on the world’s genetic map.”
“Okay, okay, I understand, but why did it all happen? What’s the purpose?”
“Think of wheat, sir. When it was first grown in Mesopotamia, it was of a tiny grass variety, insignificant and weak. Even its seeds were impossible to see. However, the grasses with high nutritional value and those with coarse grains grew taller
while others were destroyed. Over time, the coarse grasses adapted to people’s tastes, and in return, people planted them all over the world and destroyed their rivals. The products with useful mutations were allowed to develop. As a result, a very different plant that had nothing to do with its first form was developed.”
“What do you mean? Is this a process like breeding? Do you mean breeding the desired human race, and eliminating those who aren’t desired? Do you expect me to believe this? Men waited for their fate like sheep, and we selected the useful ones and shut our eyes to the deaths of others. And I—we—slaughtered them. Is this what you mean?”
“Have you ever seen a sheep that doesn’t produce milk and whose meat is not eaten, sir? Have you ever heard of taming such a thing and making an effort to continue its blood line? Have you ever worked for the survival of a living being that would do you no good?”
“Dogs were the first animals that were tamed, right? I had a wolf, and it was loyal to me. It always protected me. And I didn’t eat its flesh, although it was rumored that it breastfed me when I was a baby. But no one would breed a dog for its milk.”
“Sir, there are sheep dogs around flocks of sheep to protect them. They serve the shepherd.”
“But the wolf...”
“The wolf was always around you, protecting you. Let’s say it prevented you from dangers you weren’t aware of.”
“This is too much for me to digest. You’re a computer program, so if you tell me that I’m hanging out in space, I’ll believe it. But it’s too much.”
“Sir, have you ever noticed the common history of the Turks and Mongols? The same story is always told. A race was locked somewhere behind the iron and a bluish wolf fell down from the sky and led them as they passed through the iron and spread their rule all over the world.”
“That is just a legend, right?” I asked.
“Truth exists under everything. The sequence is beyond coincidence, sir.”
“Is it something like my father’s name, Temüjin? ‘The one of iron.’ And my name, Cuci, ‘The one from outside?’”
“It is more than this, sir. As you may know, there is a story similarly told in the major holy books. Judaism and Christianity have Gog and Magog. Islam has Yecüc and Mecüc: beings that passed over high walls, attacked all of humanity, and flooded and wiped out everyone. It was unknown where they came from nor what they wanted. They would kill and destroy. They passed over the walls of iron that the prophet Zulkareyn Ilyas had built. It is more than just a coincidence that the same tale has been told in every civilization and in most legends.”
“So, were Gog and Magog mentioned in the ancient beliefs of the Mongolians?”
“Sir, at the first stage, you were overloaded with too much information, and this stressed you a little bit. You partly perceive things, and I assure you that you will understand everything as you grow into your old abilities and reacquire old knowledge. But in order to digest the recent stages and move to the next one, you need to calm down and keep quiet.”
“Who will I be in the next stage? What will I experience?” I asked, desperately.
“You weren’t always in the world as a human, sir. And this next experience will be very different. I’m unsure of whether it is right to let you experience something like this after you had such difficulty with the previous one. However, I will act in accordance with the protocols you set. I can only advise you to trust yourself.”
“What? I won’t be human? Tell me what I will be. Even if I won’t remember when I experience it, at least tell me now.”
“Trust yourself, sir. This is your program, and I merely restart it. Are you ready?”
“No, of course not.”
“Sir?”
“Okay, okay! Start it, goddamn it!”
Subconscious
1
Do you know how long you have existed? I think the answer is always the same: you exist from the first moment you remember. Before that moment, it is only what is transferred to you. For me, the first moment I remember occurred long after my birth:
My close neighbor had just let me that he was now ready. Having completed his preparations, he was in the final stages of a careful creation. He provided us with the information and said he had the necessary material and energy stocks. Then he opened the protection wall, divided it and pulled down the border between the two equal particles. This was the most difficult and dangerous stage. As the protection wall partly lost its effect, we could be harmed by pale blues, an uncontrolled release of energy, or even grays. Although others tried to protect him, using themselves as shields around him and standing guard, it was still a dangerous stage.
Somehow, a storm cloud composed of pale blues appeared above us. Although we were very carefully perceiving the messages, we could do nothing. Little pale blue monsters rained on us. They were hitting my shield, sometimes bouncing off, sometimes getting stuck. As we rapidly modified the walls so as not to have holes, throwing the stuck ones away was the only answer we could give, at first, to the sudden attack. Unfortunately, one of us, close to the end of the production stage, pulled down his shield.
Having sensed the weakness, the pale blues moved quickly to exploit the gap in the wall. Only one of them could make it inside at a time, while the others bounced off of the wall. Overcoming the shock of the sudden attack, we rapidly activated the guided weapons system and defended ourselves against the onslaught. Complete chaos and confusion spread everywhere, and we counted many losses from those who were exposed to the cloud in the first attack. Still we performed a successful offensive and defensive strategy. The enemies from the cloud were brought under control and either turned gray or remained pale blue.
We began the ordinary process of collecting the spoils, counting the bodies, and repairing the walls. The walls were strengthened using new materials, and the necessary reinforcements and repairs were made.
Now that things were calm, I had the opportunity to assist my neighbor. The first piece that was parted was undamaged and in its natural function. The other piece didn’t have any problem, even though a pale blue came inside.
“The pale blue is still inside, keeping its color, but it has been inactivated,” my neighbor told me.
“You got off easy,” I said teasing him.
When the busy day and stories of the Great War were over, everyone except for the guards in our community fell asleep.
I began to scan around with a feeling of unease, drifting between a sleeping and waking state. Everything seemed fine, but somehow, the feeling of unease was increasing.
Then, I realized the change in my neighbor. He was dying and becoming gray, but as I looked closer, I saw that it was a balanced change from pale blue to white. He was turning into something new.
It was an unexpected situation, and I did what was necessary. I sent powerful emergency messages and began to run away. My poor neighbor was now unrecognizable. He was severely swollen, and his shields were about to explode because of the inner pressure. Getting away as fast as I could, I was completely panicked. I tried to increase the thickness of my shield while also pushing whatever I had close to the surface. Suddenly, it happened: my unlucky neighbor exploded. Yes, literally exploded. Hundreds and thousands of little pale blues scattered around. Unlike the attack in the day, they could now pass through all our shields whether we were asleep or awake.
When the pale blue went inside, it transmitted the information to the others about how to pass our defensive walls. But being aware of this didn’t have any significance now. Escape was the only way to survive.
It was a complete massacre. The pale blue bastards stopped the motion of whoever they moved into. Those who tried to run away bumped into the walls of their friends and became the next victims. The huge colony was captured in a very short time, and the war was over without any struggle. Dishonorably, I ran away from the battlefield, hoping to reach an old colony that would outnumber the countless little pale blue bastards. Staying was stupid, as all my
friends were exploding and spreading death as soon as they were captured.
I couldn’t even tell where the goddamn bastards came from, but I saw that one had gotten stuck in my extra-strengthened wall and was slowly wiggling inside. I didn’t know how to fight it, and it was terrible to know that it was the end. Suddenly turning gray and disappearing is one thing, but knowing that I would slowly explode…What is it like to explode? I wondered. Is there any awareness?
No! No! I wouldn’t give up! I wasn’t ready. I didn’t have enough energy or materials, but I didn’t have any other way. I rapidly began the partition process. As the most precious unit was the control and information unit, I carefully divided it first. I placed the materials opposite them and started the process of copying. I began to carefully copy the energy conversion unit, the communication module, and the waste and drainage systems. Meanwhile, the pale blue bastard had already passed through the upper layers of the defensive shield. It was almost inside. I felt panic, anger, and despair all at once.
Everything was over. The little bastard was inside now. I desperately tried to stop him, throwing at it whatever I could use. But that horrible, pale blue was moving steadily towards the information and control unit. Closer…closer!
I continued the process in a state of panic, out of control. It was almost over.
The little monster was stuck on an incomplete part of the information and control unit. I could tell that it was rapidly configuring the interconnections in order to have control. My movements got slower, my consciousness weakened.
Save the Last Bullet for God Page 23
