‘Maybe it’s your destiny, not mine. I’m not going anywhere.’
‘Ah, but you are, just as you have long ago. You are the Yin to my Yang. Only together can we hope to succeed.’
‘Okay, Dim Son, I’ve had it-I’m out of here.’ Immanuel tries to push his way past Jacob, but the white-haired twin is too strong. In one motion he pivots around his brother, catching him from behind in a choking headlock.
‘I love you, Manny. I gave you six years, but now it’s time-time for you to join me. Did you really believe God gave you these abilities so you could score touchdowns? The sooner you face your destiny, the better prepared you’ll be for what awaits us on Xibalba .’
A wisp of thought, in the consciousness of existence.
It took our secret band of scientists eight weeks to squirrel away a year’s worth of supplies and make one of the three Mars shuttles spaceworthy.
Our Guardian clan now numbered thirty-seven: Twenty men, twelve women, and five children-three of whom were first-generation infants born with elongated skulls. Through genetic manipulation, New Eden’s women could control their ovulations and times of conception. They could select boy or girl, even fraternal or identical twins. Most important, the mother could influence an unborn infant’s chromosomes while in the womb, preventing disease, even altering certain attributes-including the size and shape of the newborn’s skull.
This type of genetic manipulation seemed amateurish in comparison to the mind-boggling things Professor Bobinac and I had discovered down on the planet’s surface. Situated beneath the floating city was a vast genetics compound erected on the shoreline of an artificially created sea. Within this facility, the transhumans had left behind evidence of an advanced gene-splicing technique that combined cybernetics with synthetic artificial intelligence enhancements to produce a biomimeticbiomemnetic organism. These beings, dubbed Tezcatilpoca by their transhuman masters, had been weaned within the silvery exotic liquids contained in their artificial sea.
Holographic records showed the Tezcatilpoca had grown into immense cybernetic serpents-each silicon-tissued monster as large as a train-with sixteen nodes positioned along their frightening spines. Incredibly, these nodes were crystal lattices designed to amplify and focus gravity C-waves and fluxes in zero-point energy, a godlike source of power that had eluded scientists back on Earth. Apparently, the crystal lattices provided a form of synergy or harmonics necessary for the channeling of these incredible energies.
But for what purpose?
As unfathomable as it seemed, Professor Bobinac and I theorized that the transhumans had discovered a way to manipulate wormholes through the use of hypersonics. The Tezcatilpoca creatures created ‘magnetic bottles’ that bridged the gap between our own physical dimension and the higher realms of existence.
As the day of our secret departure approached, I knew I had to leave my fascinating studies behind. Devlin and his mother were creating a new religion that bordered on a Satanic cult, and the colonists, save our Guardian members, were becoming unquestioning followers.
My biggest concern then was Jude. As founder of the Guardian brotherhood, I had established strict rules regarding secrecy, each new recruit having to pass a number of ‘loyalty’ tests before they could be ‘brought in.’ Though I had been ‘testing’ her for months, Jude remained a steadfast Devlin worshiper, refusing to heed my concerns.
Jude’s refusal to listen would create a major rift between the shared consciousness of Michael Gabriel and Bill Raby.
Bill Raby loved Jude the way I loved your mother, his emotions soothing a void in our collective soul. As the moment of our departure grew near, his consciousness became more forceful, fearful of losing the woman he adored.
To complicate matters, two days before we were to depart, Jude told us she was pregnant.
Desperate, our shared mind began working on her more intensely.
‘Jude, I overheard a rumor today that Devlin’s guards dismembered another New Edener. If it’s true, that’s six in the last two months. Doesn’t that worry you?’
‘Our Creator speaks through Devlin. If there are nonbelievers and deceivers among us, then the traitors need to be dealt with.’
‘Traitors to whom?’
‘To our Creator, of course. He who brought us here. He who saved us from ourselves back on Earth.’
‘Then you believe the death of billions was a planned event?’
‘Of course. Read the Bible. Wasn’t Noah’s flood a planned event?’
‘I can’t accept that. I think you and the others accept it because we’re all so overburdened with survivor’s guilt.’
‘Bill, you’ll never be happy unless you open your heart to the Creator so that He might show you the way. Come worship with me tonight in our angel’s house. Listen to the truth, my darling, and the truth shall set you free.’
Jude’s brainwashing ran deep, yet I could not bear the thought of leaving without her. Realizing my only chance at luring her away was to learn more about her ‘angel,’ I agreed to attend Devlin’s service.
The Mabus House of Worship was an immense transhuman dwelling, its alien archways and flying buttresses giving it the feel of a futuristic Notre Dame. Inside the hall were thousands of hover pods-private antigravitational pews that formed a ring around Devlin’s pulpit.
Two ‘thrones’ were positioned in the center ring. In one sat Devlin, a crown of gold leaves situated atop his curly black hair, his wings folded in behind him. To his right was his mother, Lilith, the sheer material of her ‘priest’s robe’ screaming blasphemy to the Judeo-Christian values both Bill and Michael Gabriel had been raised under.
A cherub-faced transhuman male took his place at the dais, gazing at the capacity crowd through false rose-colored glasses. Instead of using the now-familiar telepathy, he spoke aloud, his Louisiana drawl sounding bizarre in these most alien of settings.
‘And the truth, dear brothers and sisters, shall set you free. Yes, these are wondrous times, yet a gray cloud has invaded our lord’s blue sky. False prophets have infiltrated New Eden, my friends. They cleverly disseminate their destructive Earthly heresies among you, hoping to infect our New World and turn you against our archangel, Devlin, whose generosity and wisdom brought us to our cosmic oasis. In their jealousy, our enemies concoct clever lies, hoping you will be led astray. But fear not, devoted souls, for God condemned them long ago, and they will all soon suffer a swift and terrible end.’
A chorus of ‘Amen.’
I felt Bill’s consciousness crawl cold beneath my own.
‘For our Creator and his archangel spare no one when it comes to blasphemy and sin, just as God spared only Noah and his family of seven from the Great Flood back on Earth, just as the Creator spared only our chosen flock from the devastation and ice age that consumed the seven billion lost souls shortly after our escape. These false teachers are unthinking creatures, born to be caught and killed. Be not sympathetic, for their destruction is a just reward for the harm they have done. They are a disgrace and a stain among you, and their arrogance is laughable.’
And then this plump man removed his comical rose-colored glasses and stared at me.
I could feel the eyes of the congregation upon me.
Devlin stood, his wings standing on end-a hawk, about to strike. In a soothing, almost loving tone, he said, ‘Seize and dismember him.’
A hundred hands were upon me, dragging me from my floating pew. They stripped me naked and stretched me out on the floor, prey for the Seraph, Devlin, who hovered above, brandishing a pair of three-pronged silver claws in his hands.
Adrenaline soared through my body as my mind tried to fathom the hideous death to come.
What followed then, dear Jacob, was truly a miracle.