|
BOOKS
| |
Chapter Six
 DREAMS,
VISIONS AND WHATNOT...
Exploring the beautiful
city of ancient earth, talking to the friendly inhabitants and eating the delicious food
made the three time travelers feel like first class tourists with everything paid in
advance. The unanswered question in all their minds was...why?
Salamas, their angel guide, offered no answers, only a
knowing smile.
"Where are we going today, salamas?" Dan
questioned as the trio ran to keep up with the strides of their giant guide.
"You will see," Salamas boomed without slowing
his pace.
Gates to the city towered above them opening as the angel
drew near. This was a different gate that led to the base of the mountain behind the city.
Hardly noticing the changing scenes of lush grass, flowers,
trees and streams, they ran after the long legs ahead of them.
As they neared the base of the mountain, they could see a
large opening; a cave.
Salamas disappeared inside the darkness of the opening with
Dan close on his heels followed by the others.
He fell through total darkness. With his stomach turning
inside out from terror, Dan screamed and put out his hands to break his fall, hoping this
was just a bad dream and he would wake up before he landed. He could hear the screams of
the others as he hit the ground with a thud. His eyes popped open. Darkness still
surrounded him. He could hear moaning close by. It had to be Phil and Laura.
Strange. He should be in total darkness at the bottom of a
pit, but he could see the giant moon and dazzling stars of ancient Earth above. He also
noticed a haze he had never seen before and a faint, but deep humming sound...not from
voices; machine sounding. The low hum seemed to come from everywhere. He felt the familiar
muzzle of RC as he shoved his nose into Dan's hand. He trembled and made whining noises.
"You little character. I didn't even know you were behind us."
Dan stood and looked around for Phil and Laura. They were
nowhere in sight. Next to him stood a large, ornate house on the top level of the city.
How did he get here? He went down not up. In a series of weird events this had to be the
weirdest. The house was the only one with lights on. The lights came from the inside. None
of the houses glowed. Voices drifted out through an open window. The window reached from
ground to roof.
He peered inside, putting his hand through the opening.
Resistance stopped him. He tested it by exerting more force. but his hand could not move
farther. It had to be a force field of some kind. He could see only a slight haze.
The voices grew louder. People entered the windowed room,
which had a large conference table at its center with chairs of varying height to
accommodate...what or who?
Dan ducked back out of sight. He froze as a hand grabbed
him from behind. He wheeled swiftly, striking out, and felt his fists strike flesh. A body
hit the ground with a thud.
"It's me, Dan. Take it easy." It was Phil's
voice.
"I'm here, too." Laura said.
"Sorry, man," Dan whispered, as he pulled Phil to
his feet. "I'm sure glad to see you two, but keep your voices down." He set a
wriggling RC on the ground. He immediately jumped into Laura's waiting arms.
"Something strange is going down. Watch." Dan
motioned them to take positions out of sight next to the window. As he did he took note of
the fact that Salamas was nowhere to be found.
XXX
"But, He knows all things. We'll be punished."
Fear filled the gray's musical voice. His huge eyes never blinked. Lucifer pulled himself
up to his full height and stared into the eyes of each one at the conference table, angel
and mortal alike, giving them full benefit of his glory, beauty and power. They all leaned
back in their seats, as if trying to distance themselves. None of them wanted to be the
victim of Lucifer's wrath.
"God intends to make a race in the future called man,
and will make them members of His own family. His children!" Lucifer's face clouded
with jealousy and rage. "We are to be mere servants, including yours truly. He has
confided this to me, His friend. We are His first creation, but we are servants, not
family. Do you have any idea what that means? Lucifer drew himself up even higher.
Everyone in the room cowered before him.
"This future creation of His will rule over all of us!
Do you hear me? They will rule us! But I have a plan.
"This ridiculous rule about no intermarriage between
species, especially between species of different star systems needs to be changed. How
many would like to see it changed?" He narrowed his eyes and leaned forward with his
knuckles on the table. "We could create super races and great armies. Think of it.
Even God will not be able to win against us. Many in the angelic realm agree with me and
will use their resources including the races they rule over in other star systems, to be
part of this army."
A murmur went through the assembled representatives. Angels
from various star systems nodded their approval. The mortal ambassadors nodded, too, when
they saw the angels in agreement. The Atlanteans, reptilians, grays and others started
talking among themselves.
"We must join the assembly on my mountain. They are
waiting for us. We will continue to meek every week on the mountain and every day in the
sanctuaries to demonstrate to all the citizens of this planet who is the real god, the god
who insure their right to be and go wherever they want to to go and marry whomever they
wish. All of you will do the same on your home worlds.
"You mortals are dismissed."
The mortal members of the group filed out obediently, eyes
wide with shock, not daring to say anything.
The angels stayed behind. Lucifer raised his eyebrows.
"Questions?"
"This is a big step. There will be no turning
back," said an angel with copper colored hair.
"This venture is not for the faint hearted, Marduke.
Now you rule one planet, as do the others here. How would you like to help me run the
whole universe?"
Another angel murmured, "I don't see how..."
"We start by changing the hearts o9f minds of our many
civilizations. Make them our allies. Educate them from childhood. Teach them magical
powers. Reveal to them some of the secrets of the universe. Make them feel invincible so
they will thing they are as gods themselves. They won't want to trade that in for faith in
the Most High. Shower them with riches, recognition and power and then..." Lucifer
smiled a knowing smile that spoke more eloquently than words.
The questioning angel continued. "All this will take a
great deal of time. We'll have to let generations who have been devoted to the Most High
die out and raise up new generations that won't even remember Him."
Lucifer's eyes glowed and narrowed as he leaned forward.
"Exactly, but we have all the time we need. We live forever, remember? The mortals
live long, too, but not if they are killed in wars and ...unfortunate accidents.
That will hurry the process along. Let them war with each other. It should not be hard to
blame the followers of the Most High for anything that goes wrong. Make the rest of the
population hate them." Lucifer stopped to laugh with glee at the thought. The others
laughed with him, some in agreement, some because they dared not to. "Wars will give
them training for the purpose I have in mind for them>
Lucifer drew a deep breath. "We need to get to my
mountain. People are waiting for us."
"They are waiting for you, great Lucifer."
Lucifer smiled and glowed with blinding brilliance then
popped out of sight. The others did the same.
XXX
"Doesn't all that sound familiar?" Phil said
rubbing his sore jaw.
"This is where it all started." Laura stared
around. "Think of it. We've actually heard it with our own ears."
Dan pointed. "Look at the mountain. It's lit up like
the fourth of July; and just listen to that!" absentmindedly Dan grabbed at his empty
cigarette pocket.
They could hear the beat of music interspersed with shouts
and cheers.
"Sounds like a rock concert," Laura said.
"Think we should go up there?"
"No." Phil sounded adamant. "What purpose
would it serve?"
Dan motioned to the others as he took off down the road.
"Let's see if we can find Eri and Uza's house. We'll have to walk down two levels,
but there seems to be enough light." The moon reflecting on the glassy streets lit
the way.
"Things don't look the same." Phil looked around
him as he trotted to keep up with Dan and RC. Laura came up behind him. "The houses
don't glow and what is that humming? It sounds mechanical."
"I noticed it, too." Dan looked up. "Looks
like there's a slight haze of some kind above us. It's like the haze at the window. Force
field of some kind do you think?"
"What would they need a force field for?"
As if in answer to her question, they heard a loud roar
coming from the direction of the city walls and felt the tremor of heavy feet even from
the top levels of the city.
"My God, what is that?" Dan stopped in his
tracks. "Sounds like the sound track from Godzilla." I need a cigarette!
"Do you suppose some of those beasts aren't as
friendly as we were led to believe?" Laura asked in a tremulous voice.
She broke into a run. "Let's find the house and wait
till daylight to find out."
They all broke into a run until they finally reached the
house.
"This is the right house isn't it?" Laura
surveyed her surroundings in confusion.
The trees and plants grew in wild disarray almost blocking
the doorway. The crystalline coating over the stones of the house had worn away leaving
the stone under it crumbling with age and wear. No lights came from the windows. Moonlight
and starlight along with the green glow from Venus cast an eerie incandescence around
them.
Phil broke the silence. "The music is gone except for
that noise from the mountain."
"Sounds like my kind of music." Dan chuckled to
himself then sobered. "I don't like this."
"Let's go in." Laura stretched on tiptoe to reach
the touch spot to open the door. It cracked and moaned as it opened.
"It used to just swish. Wait, I'll find the light
control." Laura touched a place on a panel and the walls illuminated.
It appeared to be deserted. There were no footprints in the
thick layer of dust except theirs. Tables and chairs were scattered and overturned.
RC finally panted his way through the door. After sniffing
the overturned chairs and other furniture he say in the middle of the floor and cocked his
head from side to side as if listening to sounds no one else could hear.
"No one is home and they haven't been for a long
time." Dan leaned over to pat RC then moved toward the bedrooms. "Let's see if
we can find anything familiar or a clue about how much time has passed."
Phil and Laura followed with RC trotting behind.
"We must have stepped through another time portal or
something," Phil said.
"Some step," Laura grumbled. "I thought we
all really were going to wake up in Heaven."
Nothing looked familiar. Whatever clothes and furniture had
been in the rooms had almost disintegrated from age. They cleaned a corner of dust and
debris and fell asleep, waiting for a new day.
Chapter 7
ranksch1.htm
|
