Mesopotamia - The Redeemer (43 page)

A susurrus of surprised murmurs
rose from the audio-visual system.

Truth knew what he must do and what
he was going to say to his soldiers, even though he feared that
they may not accept what he was about to say. The metamorphosis
that had occurred within him was so significant that he himself had
trouble defining it.

“Gabriel is the redeemer!” he
said.

The commotion in the audio-visual
system became louder. Flash was dumbstruck. He knew that whatever
he would say would have no bearing on what was happening.

After a moment, Truth continued.
“The redeemer will liberate humanity from the burden of ignorance,
and in doing so will redeem the divine spark from its material
prison. While each of us internally possesses the ability to redeem
the divine spark from its shell, only Gabriel seized the
opportunity that was provided to him. Gabriel is the redeemer, the
true Gnostic among us. He reached self-enlightenment and acted on
it. Gabriel spoke in the name of Authentia, the supreme Gnostic
authority.”

“If you ensure me safe clearance, I
will bring the tablet down to Samos myself,” said Diotima.

“We await your arrival,” said
Truth.

Diotima shot a glance at Bruno.
There was no need for words. Bruno remained alone in the commanding
ship with an immense responsibility on his shoulders. His finger
rested, ready, on the ray's safety. The destruction ray of the
Atheist fleet would destroy Samos if Diotima were to fail and there
was an immediate danger that the module would be connected to the
processor.

Truth waited in excited
anticipation for the moment in which he could hold the tablet of
his forefathers in his own hands. His blood coursed fiercely though
his veins. What elation, he thought. A small tear trickled from his
eye, rolled down his face over the blue tattooed spots on his skin
and made its way down the wrinkles of his cheek. But that tear
suddenly turned crimson.

“Traitor!” screamed Flash as he
wrested himself free from the soldiers that had been restraining
him and shot the launcher on his belt directly at the commander's
forehead. Blood spurted from Truth's head. Pandemonium broke loose
in the simulator. It was unclear where the shot had come from. The
guards did not stop Gabriel as he leapt toward Truth, who was lying
on his back on the pearly floor. Gabriel cradled him in his
arms.

“No, commander, we need you now,”
he said out loud. “I need you,” he whispered in his ear.

Truth looked into his eyes and
began to murmur the Mandaean deathbed prayer.

The sweet redemption of death,

Go now, my soul,

Leave the earth,

Escape from the anguished body,

Flee from the world of sin and
darkness,

From hatred and zealotry and
struggle,

Arise, arise O soul,

Enshroud yourself in light.

The Mandaean's eyes closed
forever.

Even the most toughened Gnostic
soldiers watched the events unfold with jaws agape. The
audio-visual system was silent. Truth muttered his prayer as he lay
dying while Gabriel leaned over him. Out of the fifteen pilots and
badgers that filled the simulator, six of them, including Flash,
were members of the Brotherhood. They cocked their weapons and
pointed them at their Gnostic brethren. No one dared to shoot. No
one was out of the range of fire. Everyone waited for the
inevitable, wondering who would take that critical first step.

G
abriel
looked at the man who had been his teacher, commander and father.
He would have given anything to bring back Truth. Despite his
intense pain, he made an effort to act rationally. He knew that all
eyes were on him now; he was supposed to lead them. He felt,
however, that he did not want to inherit this role, especially
because of the tragic way in which it had come to him. After he
pulled Truth's eyelids closed, he stood up and faced his new
subordinates.

“Listen to me, my Gnostic brethren:
Our dear leader is no longer with us. In due course, we shall take
proper leave of him. We have an urgent, unprecedented task before
us. You know me and know who I am. Some of you have fought
alongside me. You are all witnesses to what has happened here. You
heard what Truth said. You heard his last order that he left us
before his death. 'The extraction of the divine spark from its
external shell is not to be performed in the Pleroma, but rather in
the souls of each and every one of us.'” Gabriel's measured tone
was mature and confident.

“You have seen the transformation
undergone by Truth and myself. With your very eyes, you saw how
Flash and his fellow dissidents used the guise of righteousness in
order to cover up their own craving for power. We all know that,
according to the Gnostic tradition, we must arrive at the moment of
redemption with complete faith. This moment has yet to come.

“As Truth has commanded me, I
accept upon myself the mantle of Gnostic leadership. I shall bring
us to the service of the Lord though life, not through death. I
call upon you to follow me. Together, we can forge a new path
toward redemption.”

“Smoke is a traitor!” cried Flash,
brandishing his drawn weapon with both hands. He recognized that if
he tried to shoot Gabriel he would be shot back immediately. He
gambled on rhetoric while members of the brotherhood took or would
take control of the processor. “Smoke has fallen into the trap set
by the Pythagorean Lilith and has deceived our dear leader. Our
commander is no longer our leader. He failed in the past when he
came to the aid of those who were falling; he failed when he
rescued Smoke during the exercise; and he has failed once more
right now, before your very eyes. The tablet of Uruk is not the
Redeemer's Tablet. If it is not a forgery, it is no doubt tainted
by the hands of he whose name has been erased, after he stole if
from our holiest sanctuary. Cursed are the Atheist infidels who
defiled the sacred tablet! Pay no heed to the Atheist female!”
Flash's eyes burned with messianic fervor. “In the name of the
Master of Light, our mission of liberation is not yet finished.
Only those among us who are pure and innocent will merit joining
the aeons in the pleroma; only those who are loyal to the
Brotherhood of Purity and follow me will merit redemption. From
this moment, I am the sole, indisputable leader of the Gnosis. Join
me! We must liberate the divine spark from the impurity of the
material world. The moment of redemption has come!”

The warriors in the simulator and
those listening via the audio-visual devices were shocked by the
events unfolding around them. Some of them were motivated by hatred
toward the man who had killed their leader, but many of them had
begun to digest the enormity of the metamorphosis that had occurred
in Gabriel and Truth and were beginning to experience it themselves
as well. The majority of them, however, felt confused as they
wavered between both positions, and were waiting to see what the
others would do before committing themselves to a decision. Almost
all of them sensed how the familiar ground that had shaped their
lives was now crumbling beneath their very feet.

Flash retreated with his back
toward the entrance as his followers covered for him.

“Don't shoot!” Gabriel commanded
his followers.

Flash and his followers slipped
outside.

“Not a single safety shall be
released,” ordered Gabriel on the audio-visual system, “nor a
single shot shall be fired without explicit orders from me. Do not
open fire on the Pythagoreans, the Atheists or our brothers the
Gnostic dissidents. I will give you further instructions soon.
Repeat after me: In the name of the Master of Light!”

Hesitant voices could be heard
murmuring over the audio-visual system.

“In the name of the Master of
Light!” repeated Gabriel in an authoritative and determined
tone.

“In the name of the Master of
Light!” echoed the audio-visual system more loudly.

Before the invasion began Thales
completed the final adjustments to the station's complex
observation system. When he heard the Gnostics run through the
passages he had ten audio-visual sensors, disguised as tiny
mechanical mosquitoes that would broadcast the events to displays
that Pasha and he carried in the corners of their eyes. By focusing
their eyes at specific points on the display and then blinking,
they could control the various functions of the observation system:
they could alternate between the various camera views; split the
display to simultaneously show different areas of Samos; or direct
the mosquitoes in a desired direction or destination, either by
mechanically steering it or by instructing it to a specified
destination. He released one of the mosquitoes in the simulator,
exited the simulator and released another mosquito. He placed the
remaining eight in his pocket. He contacted Pasha and filled him in
on the status of the invasion. Thales was apprehensive. If all else
failed, he must destroy Samos. Sophia agreed with him. Barring all
other courses of action, he and Pasha had planned on instructing
the processor to 'self-generate', which would cause Samos to
self-destruct.

From their hidden outposts behind a
wall that appeared to be completely solid, Thales and Pasha planned
their courses of action. There were a number of additional points
that they wanted to monitor via the mosquitoes. One mosquito was
deployed toward the docking platforms and another to the simulator,
leaving six remaining mosquitoes for Thales. They eavesdropped in
on the conversations of the Brotherhood of Purity, Flash, Thunder
and Spark. They heard Flash informing his cohorts that he was
leaving his post at the ship's command station in order to take
control and usurp Truth. Thales and Pasha followed his movements
from the moment he landed on the merchants' platform. Truth's death
and Flash's escape from the simulator sharpened their vigilance.
Thales was more alert than he had ever been, thinking rapidly and
lucidly despite the pressure and the fear. Finally, he knew that he
had freed himself from the constraints of the Pythagorean ethos and
was attuned only to his own will.

Diotima had already left the
spaceship as Bruno watched Truth collapse on the audiovisual
display. He opened the second safety lock. He understood that the
only option available to him was to deploy the ray and destroy
Samos. Despite his reluctance, he was prepared to destroy Samos
along with all of its inhabitants, all the Gnostics and
Pythagoreans, Enosh and even Diotima—but not yet.

Thales and Pasha heard Gabriel
instructing his followers to fan out throughout Samos in an attempt
to block Flash and prevent him from reaching the processor. Using
the mosquito that they had left outside the simulator, they
followed Flash and Thunder, who had joined him with the module.
They watched them step over bound Pythagoreans as they made their
way to the processor. Thunder took the lead with his loaded weapon,
prepared to kill anyone in his way. Under Gabriel's orders,
Gnostics did not attack them. Flash called on two squadrons, each
comprised of four badgers, to join him. One of Gabriel's loyal
pilots stood in their way but refrained from shooting them. Flash
shot him point blank.

Though this was only the second
murder that Thales had witnessed, he had already begun to develop
numbness toward killing. He was horrified when this realization
dawned on him. They saw the two squadrons rushing from the
direction of the platforms. One squadron was less than a minute's
distance away from the processor, with a mosquito tracking its
movements. Five mosquitoes remained in Thales' pocket.

“We won't be able to prevent Flash
and his badgers from reaching the processor. We must take over the
processor immediately and wait for them there,” said Pasha.

“How will we get there without
exposing ourselves on the way over?” asked Thales.

“Use the mosquitoes.”

They progressed slowly toward the
processor. Thales released all of the five remaining mosquitoes,
dispatching three of them as lookouts in the front and two at the
rear. The tiny sensors spread throughout the winding corridors and
broadcasted precise information regarding the available routes and
approaching danger. They changed courses a number of times with
Pasha in the lead, ready for battle without any weapon in his
hands, followed by Thales, who kept one eye on the path and the
other on the display. No one was more familiar with Samos'
corridors than Thales. He navigated through empty bypasses as they
rushed to reach the processor before Flash got there with the
module. They came to a stop at the bend before the bridge to the
processor. A squadron of badgers had beaten them there.

The audio-visual system echoed with
the voices of Gabriel's supporters. They repeatedly proclaimed
their allegiance with fervor and enthusiasm to the backdrop of the
spheres' heavenly melody.

“Gabriel the Redeemer!

Gabriel the Redeemer!

Gabriel...” A spray of shots
interrupted the cries of those who supported Gabriel, Shadow and
his unit who were stationed at the processor. Thales looked at the
bridge at the entrance to the processor via the display. A band of
badgers had opened fire and killed Shadow and his soldiers. The
band continued to progress down the corridor in formation, with two
soldiers facing forward and two facing backward.

“Thales, distract the two at the
front using two mosquitoes in front of them,” whispered Pasha.

Thales programmed the mosquitoes to
bother the soldiers at the front. “Ready.”

“Now, go out and strangle the
Gnostic on the right. I'll take care of the other three. Are you
ready?” whispered Pasha.