Mesopotamia - The Redeemer (38 page)

Another long and nerve-wracking
minute passed. His vital signs became weaker. Sophia decided that
she must turn off the simulator. She tried to free herself by force
from Enosh's arms, but was unsuccessful. She looked at him in
astonishment, unable to understand the forcefulness he was
demonstrating. He ignored her gaze and continued to hold her back
as he concentrated on Smoke, the snake and the vital signs.

The cry was blood-curdling. Smoke
began to convulse wildly. His muscles tensed, his head thrust back
at an unnatural angle, his limbs twitched, froth came out of his
mouth and sounds of asphyxiation emerged from his throat.

Enosh continued to restrain Sophia,
hoping with all his might that Smoke would survive. The display
began to flicker and its colors dulled. Suddenly, a jumble of
dismembered body parts of a snake and a man appeared on the screen,
with clumps of skin and bones covered in blood and masses of hair
and scales.

The vital signs indicated breathing
and a pulse, but there had been a drop in brain activity. Sophia
fought to release herself but Enosh did not let her out. After a
few long minutes, Smoke began to writhe in pain, screaming while
lying on the floor of the room with his hands clutching his
abdomen. Sophia could not take her eyes off of the dismembered
organs emerging and disconnecting from each other in the hologram.
She could make out parts of hands and human fingers between the
pieces of snake.

“Murderer!” shrieked Sophia,
struggling again with Enosh. He held her in a bear hug when she
tried to leap toward the control panel. She jabbed her elbows into
his stomach, slammed her head back into his face, stamped her feet
and screamed with all her might. Smoke continued to writhe.

Enosh did not relent. He did not
take his eyes off of the vital signs that were growing ever fainter
in Smoke's body.

“Let me go!” she sobbed, mustering
strength that she did not even know she had. She punched Enosh and
herself indiscriminately. In one swift motion, Enosh caught her
hands, crossed them and pulled them backward, restraining her as he
leaned forward, head pressed on hers, preventing her from swinging
backward. Sophia was completely unable to move. Every time she
tried to free herself, he tightened his grip, ignoring her cries as
he concentrated on Smoke's vital signs.

The display showed a heap of
amputated limbs and sparkling snake scales. Mingled body parts
belonging to Smoke and the Master of Light moved slowly as if they
had lives of their own. On the floor of the room, Smoke writhed and
contracted. Froth came out of his mouth and the odor of sweat
coming off his wet clothes mingled with the sickening stench of the
blood on the display. Enosh breathed heavily. He could still see a
tiny amount of movement in Smoke's vital signs. Enosh continued to
restrain Sophia, one eye watching Smoke while the other monitored
his faint vital signs. Slowly, the strips of flesh left a trail of
blood as they moved toward each other. Fingers attached themselves
to hands and hair connected to a scalp dotted with scale fragments.
Slowly, his vital signs began to strengthen. The red light became a
tiny flickering ring. The audio interface became increasingly
louder and sharper. Enosh did not release Sophia even when the
hands on the display attached themselves to the arms and the thighs
to the hips. The parts of the snake mixed with each other, and a
deep cleft along the length of its body healed with the formation
of a scar. Signs of life continued to indicate his recovery as the
image on the display became clearer.

The holographic image of Smoke
lying naked and wet with blood. The snake slithered away and
disappeared, leaving behind him a transparent skin that the
simulated Smoke gripped in his fist.

Smoke reclined, panting, face to
the floor. Enosh released Sophia.

It was only after a long time that
his vital signs returned to their normal states and the ring
appeared in its original size. Smoke was exhausted. His limbs were
heavy and his muscles ached, but he felt a wonderful relief: he was
free of any burden. He did not know that such liberty was even
possible up until that moment.

Sophia was about to turn off the
simulator. She was going to utilize the first opportunity—maybe
when Smoke was asleep—to express her rage toward Enosh. But before
she could even stand up, the face of a woman appeared on the
ceiling of the simulator. The face filled the ceiling. It was
Smoke's mother.

He opened his eyelids. His limpness
was gone when he stood to his feet, erect.

Sophia looked at him as if seeing
him for the first time. He breathed at an even rate, his composure
relaxed and his gaze was clear. The debacle was over. He realized
that ever since he could remember, he had been running away,
running away from himself. Erect and proud, confident in himself
and in his identity, he bore the love of his mother.

He looked toward his mother
longingly and she returned a gaze that was full of compassion and
tenderness. He wept with joy. “Gabriel,” he heard his mother's
voice.

The music fell silent and the
lights went out all of a sudden. Thunder rocked the station.

J
ust a few
days earlier, Diotima was unable to enjoy the water splashing over
the river rocks or the green dragonflies circling the orange tiger
lilies. Despite the broad canopy of the ficus tree that allowed the
sunlight to dance upon the thick grass, she could see nothing out
of grief and anger.

'The Gnostics are on their way to
Samos and they will arrive within a week to ten days.' In her head
echoed the message that they had received just a few minutes
earlier

from the chief of general
headquarters, Bruno. He sat opposite her in an alcove of the
garden, mortified to the depths of his soul.

The previous information that Bruno
had received and then passed on to Diotima was transmitted by
various sources both near Uruk as well as inside of it. The
information accurately mirrored what those sources had known at the
time. In the end, they reached the same conclusions: The Gnostics
had not yet begun to develop the accelerator for the module and
would require about three years to do so.

“So where did we go wrong?” asked
Diotima fiercely.

“Truth be told,” replied Bruno with
a bleak expression, “we did not accurately gauge the strategic
abilities of Uruk's commander. He established a laboratory for
developing the accelerator in underground compounds near Aleppo.
The lab was manned by select scientists from among the Gnosis. They
were instructed to build the accelerator, a very complex component
of the module. In the span of three years, they were completely
isolated from the world and the Gnostics avoided any direct contact
with them. In fact, only Truth knew of their activity.”

Bruno was the most decorated
officer in Dust. His past achievements lent him the image of an
all-powerful general and contributed to his appointment as Chief of
General Headquarters. This intelligence failure embarrassed
him.

“So how do we know this?” she
continued in her rage.

“When the Gnostic forces did not
return from their training at the usual time, our agent in Uruk
began to get suspicious. He discovered that the module had been
removed from its place in the temple. He investigated the computers
in Uruk and found that it had been included in the list of cargo of
the father ship. Then he also found the accelerator on the
list.”

Diotima's face yellowed. “And how
do we know about the laboratory in Aleppo?”

“We knew about Truth's
reconnaissance missions for some time now,” said Bruno dryly. “We
also knew that on most of his patrols, he stopped in Aleppo. Only
now do we understand that that was apparently the location of the
accelerator lab.” He was silent for a moment and then continued,
“I'm sorry, Diotima. This time, they have the upper hand. Truth has
won this round.”

This intelligence failure still did
not diminish her appreciation of Bruno. The beginning of their
joint careers had not been easy ones. He had struck her as a
narrow-minded military man, and she appeared to him as a woman of
academia and politics who was out of touch with reality, coming to
disturb him from his work. During the course of their work
together, she discovered his honesty, dedication and even his
surprising compassion. He saw that her courage, judgment and
leadership surpassed most of the soldiers he knew.

She decided to forgo her anger; she
must focus on the mission at hand instead. She paused for a moment
as she composed her thoughts and continued matter-of-factly.

“Okay, let's move to the next
round.”

“Yes, Minister.”

“First of all, I want you to halt
the investigation of the disinformation that caused us to
miscalculate the time of the Gnostic invasion.”

“Why?”

“Because we must devote this time
to more pressing matters.”

Bruno nodded.

“Contact Admiral Fakonas and
instruct him to prepare the Atheist fleet for a mission to
Samos.”

“Isn't the sole authority to
instruct such a thing in the hands of President Filan?” he
asked.

“Tell Fakonas that this is an order
from me, pursuant to the authority entrusted to me by Filan. Tell
him that if he finds this difficult, he should refer to me,”
continued Diotima without pausing. “The fleet will leave in three
stages. During the first stage, we will send out an unmanned probe
that is not limited by human speeds, carrying reception,
broadcasting and destructive equipment.”

“Yes,” said Bruno. He wrote all of
her orders in his journal.

“Likewise, the probe will
distribute a series of relay stations.”

“Yes, Minister.”

“In the second phase, Fakonas, you
and I will go out with unprecedented force in the fastest spaceship
in our possession. I want you to be near me.”

“Yes, Minister.” Even if she had
not ordered him to do this, he would have requested it on his
own,

“In the third phase, the heart of
the Atheist fleet will follow us, except for the basic protective
forces on Dust,” she said flatly.

“Noted.”

“The probe will broadcast to us
what is happening in Samos before we arrive. If the need arises, we
can use the probe to activate a plan to destroy Samos. We must
leave at maximum speed in order to try and negotiate with the
Gnostics.”

Bruno nodded and Diotima continued.
“We cannot wait until the majority of the fleet is ready, and that
it why the majority of the forces will arrive after us. You will
fill in the gaps, prepare a critique and alternatives for all the
components of the plan and report back to me.”

“Yes, Diotima.”

“Let's get to work.” She rose from
the alcove and shook the gold sand off of her silver suit.

“Diotima?” Bruno turned to her.

“Yes?”

“Why don't we just instruct the
probe to immediately destroy Samos?”

“We will not destroy the wonderful
processor, we will not destroy the lives of the Pythagoreans in
Samos and we will not abandon Enosh who we have sent on our behalf,
unless we reach a situation in which we have no other choice.”

“What choice do we have?”

“You don't know Enosh.”

“I heard about him.”

“As long as he is in Samos, there
is hope.”

T
hey had
all memorized the algorithm of situations and responses to the
invasion. They knew that Samos was made up of a number of spheres
enclosed within each other. These were the solid spheres.
Surrounding these were another six spheres made of a network of
colored strings of light. These light strings were like spider webs
wrapped around the solid spheres. According to intelligence reports
about Samos, which were verified by Smoke's reports, Truth knew
that the light webs were impenetrable due to the rapid rate at
which they spun around the solid spheres. It was impossible to
ascertain the exact spaces between the stings and pass between
them. Truth knew that the only way to pass through the light webs
was to accelerate and synchronize the speed of the aircraft with
the speed of the light string. Electromagnetic means would allow
them to attach themselves to the string of light and then perform a
rotation into the inner side of the sphere. Truth hoped that the
electromagnetic hooks developed by the Gnostic engineers would
operate properly.

The badgers would lead the
takeover. Their job was to take over the station without damaging
it. Truth knew that the Pythagoreans were pacifists and would not
resist them, but his men were prepared for anything
nonetheless.

The operation began. The
operational commands were arranged and prepared in code form. Truth
commanded his men in a confident, authoritative voice. “One!”
Dozens of tiny aircraft aligned with the light strings in the outer
shell of the space station. “Two!” They flipped into the inner
portion of the sphere. “Three!” All at once, they disconnected from
the cord, flipped, and aligned with the next cord of light in the
inner sphere.

On the command of “Four!” they
could no longer react. They lost control. Despite the professional
skill of the Gnostic space engineers, they had erred in their
calculations. The material spheres, which included the surface
sphere, command sphere, residential sphere, processor and core,
remained solid and in place. The cords of light in the light
spheres, however, could not withstand the additional burden of
dozens of aircraft and subsequently collapsed under the pressure.
When the light strings burst, the surrounding space was filled with
arcs and rays of colored light, infinitely stretching out in every
direction. The tiny aircraft clung to them like spiders hanging on
to their webs in the wind. Without its surround light spheres,
Samos appeared small, fragile and pale. The music and the light
went out at the station.