her own.
Despite her fears for the consuming darkness the commander’s trek back across Eden’s landscapes was untroubled, not a sight nor sound of any life form caught her attention. At vision of the probe her tensions lightened greatly. Thoughts of her seraphim’s health now bared strongest in her mind. With relief she clambered into the small craft to find Heylel awake and breathing.
“Yaza,” his silver spheres fixed on hers. “It is good to see you are well.”
“You too, Heylel.” She knelt by his side and removed a bung from one of the skins. “This is water, try it, but not too much. I’m not sure whether it will be of benefit or not.” She helped him hold its open top to his mouth and gently let some of the liquid out, much to Heylel’s apparent pleasure. “How is it?”
“Refreshing.” He looked at her smiling.
“Good,” she smiled in her suit, looking back through the vessel’s open seal, the now black sky sparkled brightly. “Such beauty, from above and below.”
“What did you see whilst accompanying the humanoids?” The seraphim asked, continuing to sip at the water.
“A society living. Surviving, constrained by made up laws. Some suffering, others thriving.” The commander released the skin pouch and laid in the vehicle’s interior, she relaxed her head on her arm in anticipation of rest. “Why is our kind prevented from breeding as all other creatures do, Heylel?” He sighed at her question, remaining quiet for some moments, as though gathering his thoughts.
“All species have the impulse to recreate, Samyaza, it is a most basic instinct for survival. To create and to dominate, no matter what star you look upon, no matter the entity, these two things are constant throughout the universe, but as much as an animal can progress through the constant creation of more, they inevitably regress into extinction.” The seraphim sat slouched within the death probe, he looked out through its exit staring up at the star lit sky. “Had our people not began to recreate as we did, without the regressive nature of natural production, our species may have died out long ago.”
“These humanoids appear to the Adams as the malakhim and cherubim did upon our home world to the seraphim, Heylel. Was Michael truly lying when he spoke of your intentions upon Eden?” The seraphim shook his head.
“Our intentions are the same, Yaza, to ensure the survival of our species, and see all that our kind has achieved continue to develop. What has happened here however, it has been a disaster. Such intermixing of these genetic mutations has caused... A scenario which could have been avoided.”
“I fear such a scenario has become inevitable for our species, Heylel. What I see here is no different to our home. Master and slave.”
“A set to build, a set to protect, a set to learn, and a set to lead. Our existence is predetermined, Samyaza, what we are created as cannot be altered. The removal of the necessity to naturally reproduce allowed our kind’s progression to become greatly accelerated, without the need to worry for a genetic set back or upstart that others could not comprehend. A linear progression that generated the greatest results, that did not see the creation of such things as these nephilim.”
“And yet we still destroyed our home, Heylel, perhaps extinction is inevitable no matter the effort to avoid it.”
“A star is merely a host, so long as we were able to discover a new one, and we have, nothing was truly lost.” Samyaza fell quiet at her leader’s words, still laying upon her side. Beneath her visor she closed her eyes blocking thoughts of her planet from her mind, the reasons to keep them hidden had held her to silence since her species departed their home, in the face of impending doom however, the lingering thought of execution seemed irrelevant.
“I lost a child upon our home world, Heylel, born from natural reproduction, a female, fathered by a cherubim. Two deeds both which earn the penalty of death, yet which themselves create life. I hope you do not see it necessary to punish me, but I have longed to discuss these things for an eternity.”
“We are under no regulation of our homeland’s laws upon this world, Samyaza.”
“But you are still a seraphim,” she twisted her body to look back at her leader, “you still hold authority over me.” Heylel turned to look at Samyaza. His eyes were still dim though he breathed well. “I have always been close to you, Heylel, have you never felt the desire to embrace me for your own passions?” The huge entity’s gaze returned to the stars.
“We tried our best to breed out the brain’s ability to release such chemicals, there were some successes in the set of the seraphim. I am sorry, commander, I am incapable of such lusts, though I must confess I have often pondered over what effects such feelings might have over the mind and body.”
“There is no more gratifying a feeling than to hold in your arms new life, Heylel, a life born from passion, not created in the coldness of a society bred to sets, merely to perform their required tasks until their body is no longer of use and to be discarded, only to be replaced by another.” A lasting silence took hold of the probe, once more Samyaza rest her head, feeling a sense of grand relief to have been able to share her deepest secrets.
“Perhaps you are correct, Yaza, perhaps it is a shame that those things were considered impurities by those that came before me. It is a thing I could never understand. Eden is an opportunity to succeed where we failed before, though I know not of Yahweh’s motives, if he has truly left, then perhaps you are right. I do not frown upon your actions. Michael was correct about one thing, you do have a brilliant mind, that you succumb to natural instincts is a flaw of the seraphim, no others.” The huge entity stood up, he reached out of the probe and pulled its seal shut. Turning back, he stepped across the craft and rest down against its interior beside Samyaza. As she lay the seraphim looked over the bronze suit covering her slender figure, it brought comfort to the commander to feel his presence beside her as her conscience slowly dozed off into darkness.
13.
An enormous crowd had been corralled into the detainment depot, by the delicacy of their frames alone Michael could determine whether the entities were watchers or one of his malakhim set. Stood at their head was Zebub. Michael held regret over his previous interactions with the male for fear now it may sway the paunchy being’s mind ill towards his cause.
“Michael? What tyranny is this?”
“Tyranny? Do you recall, Zebub, your final moments upon our home world? Not those before you stepped upon Heaven, but all that lead up to our kind’s demise?”
“Of course, is it not the very reason we are here? It was the seraphim themselves who sought new stars so that our kind may continue, in whatever form that may be. Why, on the verges of success would one seek to destroy this unique opportunity?”
“The very moment we entered Eden’s orbit this place was destroyed. Do none of you question why a seraphim responsible for war upon our home world would be placed upon a vessel destined to infiltrate the organic matter of another star and plant our people’s seed within it? A military mind, placed at the head of a vessel destined to create life.”
“To protect us, Michael. Or so I had believed. The purpose of the seraphim is to hold council over decisions, to protect this vessel’s heart, the throne. Life aboard this ship, all life, Michael.”
“For many years I stood to quell the ‘cherubim uprisings’ upon our home world, watcher, believing my actions were keeping our sets safe, but do you wish to know the truth? The more I reflect upon those times the more I realise. There were none. There was only fear, lies from the seraphim which fuelled our actions, but we were the terrors in the dark, Zebub. It was my set and yours who were manipulated into creating everything which the seraphim hold their claims to, upon this star and our last. Their leadership has already lead to the death of two of their own set.” Zebub shook his head as he spoke frustrating Michael.
“What point are you are attempting to make, malakhim?”
“That the seraphim seek only control, Zebub. Control over all things, our sets and y
our watchers’ experiments, it is you who can produce our kind a future, it is merely your genetic design which causes you to kneel before the seraphim’s authority. Why can’t you see, Zebub? You speak of tyranny as though you are not already crushed beneath it.”
“Your words are treason! You are merely a-” The watcher looked up at Michael. “Servant.”
“A slave, to the seraphim, yes. But a servant to my kind, to my set, to all who serve beneath our self proclaimed leaders.”
“They are not self proclaimed, Michael, the set of the seraphim is bred to lead.”
“But what has their set achieved that we malakhim and watchers cannot?”
“They hold us together, Michael, their set is the pinnacle of our species existence, they understand all sets, and they excel in all things, they are the driving force in our species research and successes. They are specimens of creation that may never be achieved again.”
“And yet they enslave and manipulate all who they feel are beneath them. Do you not believe the watchers could have been successful with the experiments upon Eden, without the seraphim?”
“Doubtlessly, we are here to survive, but with them we are a society, our sets can be reproduced and our legacy pushed on into eternity.” Michael’s single iris suddenly fixated upon Zebub, he blinked, staring at the male