"I'm so sorry," he said. "I was day dreaming. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give the water of life. Remember that, from the book of Revelation? Yet we read: 'And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea'. The Earth was burned, the trees burned, and all the grass of the Earth burned. Burned? What does it mean? It is the Apocalypse, the Revelation to John, the last book of the Bible, the decisive struggle against Satan and his cohorts. It's curious, don't you think? The reference to Apocalypse, to water, to a burned Earth, to Satan...to a new creation, a New Jerusalem? Perhaps I will understand when we get to Earth–but things may not be as I originally thought."
"I'm beginning to believe in a 'New Earth'," David continued, "without need of sun or moon...but that's impossible, don't you think? And Revelation says the foundation of the New Earth is of Jasper, but the ancient Jasper is translucent. Would that imply that the New Earth is made of such material? Material that one can see through? But then, any biblical reference must be taken with a grain of salt. Holy books are the creation of man, not of God. Yet man must have been influenced by some thing or some one to write the scriptures."
David seemed lost in thought.
Susan listened intently. It had been a while since she had read from the bible–and she had certainly not read to the last chapter.
She asked, "Do you mean that the Godships are creations of God...the biblical God? Is that what you're saying?"
"Why yes, dear girl," David said, coming out of his reverie. "But not the biblical God that you've read about. The biblical God was created by man. But all things are creations of God, are they not?"
"But what of the creators, the alien race which built the Godships? Surely you must think they are responsible for these spacecraft."
"They, too, are creations of God." David seemed amused.
"I think you are speaking in riddles," Susan grunted. "Can we eat now?"
David walked to a wall, brushed his hand along the smooth surface and a digital clock appeared. It read: 6:47 AM.
"Breakfast time," David said. "I'll call Tiesha and you get Gordon. How about French toast with butter and maple syrup?"
Susan stared at the ceiling in mock meditation. "Hmmm, we've had that too often before. I think scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese and ham."
"Ah, milady, your wish is my command."
David closed his eyes as Susan watched, smiling with delight. Slowly, a table materialized, then dishes, cutlery and glasses. The dishes slowly filled with scrambled eggs and large chunks of cheese.
"Hey! Melt the cheese," Susan complained. "No big chunks, please."
David opened his eyes and grunted. The cheese melted.
"I see you are with Gilgamesh," Susan said, with admiration. "Maybe, soon, I will be as well."
"You'd better get Gordon," David said. "The eggs will get cold."
"Okay, but don't forget the ham."
Susan walked through a wall just as Tiesha appeared. Tiesha walked to the table and looked about just as four chairs became visible. David looked pleased. They both sat, waiting. In a few minutes Susan walked through a wall with a sleepy looking Gordon.
"Uh...eggs, I see," said Gordon, frowning. "No menu, pre-ordered–and they're not done properly. Overcooked, dry. They should be creamy, not arid fluff."
"Gordon, you're much too critical. You should be pleased that David has conjured up a breakfast for us."
"I'd like to conjure up my own breakfast. It's not such a feat if you just think it and our hosts provide it."
David looked at Susan and grinned. "Gordon seems in a bad mood. Perhaps we should tell him where we're going. Maybe that will cheer him up–do you think?"
"Yes, David. Please tell Gordon. I'm quite sure he will be pleased."
Part 6.3
Gordon sat heavily in a chair and stared at his plate of dry scrambled eggs. He ignored the others while he pushed his eggs about the plate with his fork. Tiesha had started eating, but David and Susan waited for Gordon to react to their comment about having news. Surely, they thought, Gordon would be gladdened to hear they were going home.
"Okay, where are we going?" Gordon looked very glum. He pushed his plate to the side. "Some barren planet to collect more biological specimens? Some foggy nebula to collect black holes? Some far off..."
"Gordon, we're going home, to planet Earth. Isn't that wonderful?" Susan was delighted.
Gordon rose to his feet and stared at Susan. "Are we, really? For good? To stay, forever and stop this gallivanting about the cosmos?"
"Yes, Gordon, we'll be there in about a week," David said.
"How far away are we?"
"Roughly seventeen light years, give or take a light year."
"But...but that would take seventeen years, even if we could travel at the speed of light." Gordon sat again, looking confused.
"Oh, Gordon, you must know by now that we don't travel long distances in normal space. Don't you know that?" Susan sounded like a mother speaking to a child. "And the speed of light isn't so bad," she added. "Through a Bose-Einstein condensate it's not much more than running speed." Susan giggled. Susan never giggles, does she? I couldn't remember. But then, my Susan had changed so much I can't remember how she behaved, back home.
"Susan is right," David said. "We'll take a wormhole in a day or so, a brane port. We will enter parallel spatial dimensions and be quite near the solar system when we exit. I can't quite make out where, but well beyond Pluto, I'm sure. We certainly don't want to exit parallel space near any gravitational attractor, would we?"
David smiled and Susan giggled again. "Oh, David, you are so funny."
Gordon looked weary. Tiesha was just finishing her breakfast. David and Susan hadn't started to eat, but seemed too euphoric to consider scrambled eggs and cheese.
"In a week...we'll be home in a week...I can hardly wait. It seems too good to be true." Gordon sat and was now staring at the ceiling, a look of anxiety and joy on his face.
"But we won't be leaving our Godship," Susan said, casually.
Gordon rose again to his feet.
"What? Why not? I'm bloody tired of this travelling to places I don't care about. Why else would we be going home if it weren't to let us leave the ship? Even if our hosts want more natives, they can still let us get off."
"We'll be helping Uruk rise from the ocean floor. Apparently that spaceship has managed to reconstitute itself and is now ready to ascend and join the Godship fleet once more," Susan said. "I'm not sure why it spent so much time in the ocean. I think it had some mission that is now completed. But then, the role of Uruk, what it has been doing for so many years…that's still a mystery."
"Susan, how on Earth do you know all this?" Gordon looked agitated.
"Gilgamesh talks to me," Susan said. "Not as clearly as he does to David, of course. After all, David has been integrated into ship cybernetics."
David raised his hand. "No, Susan, not cybernetics. I am a component of the ship's neurological network. I think Gilgamesh relies on my intuitive abilities when dealing with humanoids. I might point out, however, that the purpose of our visit to Earth, our rendezvous with Uruk, that is not quite clear. I believe that Uruk had some functions to perform and that we are involved in the completion of those obligations."
David turned to Gordon. "You will be able to visit Earth for a short while, but you must return to the ship. You–actually several of us–we're needed for the next phase in Gilgamesh's plan."
"Oh God, please don't make me one of them." Gordon was close to tears. "I just want to go home."
"Soon, my dear," Susan said. "Very soon."
Part 6.4
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The ship was assimilating David and Susan. They sounded more and more like automatons. Was I next? I needed to talk to someone that was free of the ship's grasp. Tiesha? Yes, Tiesha. Although she seemed unconcerned and perhaps unaware of the problem, maybe I could get her and her n
ative friends to stop this madness. When we arrive at planet Earth, maybe they would want to return to solid ground, as I do. Maybe I could encourage a mutiny of sorts.
And Uruk–what was that about? A Godship resting at the bottom of the deepest ocean, for millennia, and now they will be raised...for what purpose? And who will raise them? If they could raise themselves, then why hadn't they done it long ago? Are we going to raise them? If so, perhaps we'll be very close to the Earth surface. Perhaps that would provide an opportunity to escape. But without Susan? She was my wife. In spite of her current abnormal behavior, I'm sure she could be reconstituted whole and in good health. I'm sure that Gilgamesh was capable of that. What am I to do?
Part 6.5
I had tried on various occasions to walk from place to place on the Godship. Sometimes the walls vanished and I could walk to another site, but often I found them impenetrable and I had to be careful not to walk into a solid partition. To get to wherever the natives lived, I needed a map of the vessel. I thought up a table which promptly materialized before me. So far, so good. Then I thought up a map and the table dissolved and was replaced by a three dimensional image. It took me by surprise and I stepped back to investigate what had happened. It was like a holographic portrayal of the ship, fuzzy but recognizable as an ellipsoid. I reached out and it rotated to display various components. I found that I could rotate the image and magnify certain parts. Mostly it was empty space, but I could see places with objects moving. I magnified and saw David, in bed. Beside him was another body. I magnified. Susan!
Damn them! Were they making babies, as demanded by Gilgamesh? Why David? Did Susan find me so unattractive–even in bed? She's my wife. She should be by my side, not David's. I magnified again. Was she smiling? Her skin was darker than usual. I magnified again–then fell back into a chair. It wasn't Susan after all. It was Tiesha. But where was Susan? And why Tiesha? Did she oscillate between David and Gill, sexually promiscuous? Tiesha had even come on to me.
I diminished the size of the Godship image and rotated it and magnified the parts which seemed to contain objects. There was what seemed to be a liquid-filled compartment. Something was swimming in the liquid. I zoomed in but it was still blurry, out of focus. Maybe it was because of the liquid. In any case, I was sure Susan was not swimming in a pool. I rotated and magnified and rotated. Then I saw a large compartment with many moving objects. I enhanced the image by pulling it apart from side to side and saw that the objects were the natives of Panama. Fine! I would enlist their aid. Perhaps, if we all thought alike, Gilgamesh would listen.
I reduced the image and tried to find my location. I waved a free hand, hoping to see an object with an arm in motion, within the holographic image. There I was! Not that far from the native quarters–or so it seemed. I tried to memorize the image. I could imagine a route that would take me there...if the walls would only cooperate and dissolve as I came through. I stepped back from the image and walked to the nearest wall. From the corner of my eye I could see the holographic image fade. When I placed a hand on the wall it dissolved and I strode through with ease. So far, so good. I was in an empty room. I hurried to the next wall. I walked through into another empty room. From the image I had memorized, I imagined the native quarters were just beyond the next wall. I pushed against the wall, but it remained solid. Damn!
I thought up a chair and collapsed, next to the wall. I tried to imagine an opening, a portal through the barrier wall. No luck. Then I heard a buzzing and what sounded like voices. The entire wall began to vibrate, shimmer, change color from grey to rust. Then it vanished, very abruptly, and I was in a much larger area, bathed in fake sunlight and surrounded by natives. They didn't look very happy. Maybe coming here was a bad idea. One native carried a flag, a swastika–no, it was the mirror reflection of a swastika. There were many women with gold rings in their nose, very colorful blouses, rouge-painted faces, red shawls. They were all pregnant. One held out her hand and I assumed that I was to take it. She led me through a maze of what looked like huts made of sticks and straw. I was pushed into a hut and a small but rather muscular male stood inside, by the door.
I didn't like this one bit. Looking about I could see that the hut was not made of natural materials, but something synthetic, plastic. Clearly the Godship had fabricated the huts in order to accommodate the natives. I sat and waited for some time before another male appeared at the door. He came with a very young female, covered in a multi-colored poncho. As they entered the hut she fell to her knees and placed her head on my lap and made curious whining sounds. The guy backed out of the hut and lowered a flap and it became quite dark. I tried to slide across the floor, away from the girl. She followed, always with her head on my knee.
Was this some kind of mating ritual? I climbed to my feet and pushed her aside, made for the door and fell through into bright sunlight. There were many natives and they seemed to be waiting. When they grunted I saw that the girl had crawled out of the hut. She was now naked. The natives cried out, laughing and jumping, apparently happy with the outcome. What outcome? What had they expected?
"Does anyone speak English?" I asked.
The laughing and jumping stopped and one old guy came forward.
"Yes," he said. "English."
"Good. I'd like to propose a mechanism for escaping from the clutches of Gilgamesh. Some procedure which has a greater chance of success if there are many involved, many, such as..."
"Yes, English," he said. "Speak English."
"Do you know Gilgamesh, our Godship?" I asked.
"English?" he said, obviously confused.
He took the naked girl by the hand and pushed her toward me.
"Make baby," he said. "Erragon say make baby."
"Erragon?" I said. "Who is Erragon?"
He smiled, revealing a single crooked yellow tooth. I looked about. Many of the natives had left, no longer curious. I backed away from the old native and began to wander back to the wall where I had entered. Without a common language, this wasn't going to work. When I got to the wall it dissolved and when I passed through it materialized once more. I was very confused and imagined a soft sofa and collapsed.
Part 6.6
It seemed like only minutes before I fell asleep and was awakened by a tap on my shoulder. When I opened my eyes, Susan was standing there with a silly smile on her face. I jumped to my feet and embraced her.
"I'm so happy to see you," I said. "God, have I been worried. I got caught up in some native ritual and..."
Susan pushed me away and smiled.
"Making babies, right?" she said. "That's what they do. That's what Gilgamesh has asked them to do through the voice of their God, Erragon. Did you enjoy the sex act? Did you contribute to their citizenry? Was it good?"
Susan giggled. I've never heard her giggle so much.
"What act? Nothing happened! I got out of there as quickly as I could. I thought we, you and I, that we were supposed to..."
Susan grabbed me by the hand and pulled me to the far wall. She was still smiling that silly smile. Why? We passed through several walls in quick succession. The partitions seemed to anticipate her moves and opened before we reached them.
"How do you do that?" I asked. "The Godship predicts your moves."
"Oh Gordon. You've become so thick-witted. Mind interaction. Telepathy."
Susan now had a look bordering on disgust. That was not my wife, not as I knew her. She could sometimes be so loving, so affectionate–now so remote. Her attitude was so volatile, variable, capricious. I didn't know this woman.
Most rooms were fairly dark, but soon we were in a large room with subdued lighting and she dragged me to a corner. There was an alcove and a window. She pushed me to the porthole.
"See?" she said.
I looked out to what seemed like an endless array of bright white stars.
"Yes," I said. "It's beautiful. We don't see so many stars back home. But at the cottage it's often..."
"Not stars," she said
. "Godships. Hundreds. We're on a mission."
She pushed me aside and stood at the window. The lighting was dim but I could see it quite clearly: the purple scar on the back of her neck.
"It's quite exciting, don't you think, Gordon, my boy?"
I turned to find David, standing with Tiesha. They were both smiling now. Susan joined them. It was scary, three of them, grinning, beaming. From the shadows, another person joined them. Standing beside Susan I could see that it was her synthetic twin, Hydra. Beyond I could barely make out other shadowy forms. Androids. Gill was with them. The room was full of individuals. Godship trials, prototypes. Why did I feel so alone?
CHAPTER SEVEN
Part 7.1
It was several days before our Godship reached the edge of the solar system. Actually, I didn't know that. I was told by both David and Susan who seemed to be joined at the hip, connected–mentally at least. I hoped it was not physically.
"It won't be long now, Gordon," David said. "It will be a glorious day for all of us. Our assignment is so important to life on Earth. If you only knew..."
"Damn it David! I don't know anything! What assignment?"
"Oh Gordon," Susan said. "We are to act like God. Imagine! Like God!"
"What the hell are you talking about? The only thing I need to know is whether I'll be able to hop off this galaxian bus and stay permanently fixed to solid ground."
Susan looked at David who was smiling. That stupid smile! I hated it!
"Gordon, we have a mission on this planet." David looked serious. His brow twisted, his mouth grim. "But when we are finished," he continued, "we have other missions, elsewhere, perhaps equally important. Life on Earth has not gone as planned. I had believed that civilization had progressed far beyond what it was when we left. That is true, in fact, but not as I had imagined. There has been a disastrous sun storm, a coronal mass ejection, a disruption of Earth's magnetosphere, a series of solar flares. The sun storm was initiated by Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star in the constellation Orion. Going HyperNova, Betelgeuse provided the impetus for the sun storm...and it was the sun storm that was disastrous for Earth."
"The Betelgeuse HyperNova was too far away to cause any damage directly," David continued. "Indeed, a powerful neutrino burst from Betelgeuse was observed days before the intense gamma radiation reached the solar system and, in particular, the sun. Fortunately, astrophysicists were prepared many years before the effects of the nova explosion reached the sun. The supergiant is over six hundred light years from the solar system, so the nova explosion actually took place well before we were living on planet Earth. Its effects, however took that many years. I don't know how scientists on Earth knew it was coming, but they seemed to be prepared…in a manner of speaking."