By Allen D. Furford
CHAPTER 2
"I was a senator at the time of the Thomas confirmation, remember? He looked at miles and shrugged. Were we right or were we wrong? They both are on the court now, so you decide."
"I was younger at the time and at sea. Sorry I missed you."
"You didn't miss much. Where were we?
Oh yes.."
"And the name
of the second river is Gihon; It is the one encircling the entire
land of Cush. And the name of the third river is Hidekel; it is
the one going to the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is
the Euphrates."
He stopped
reading and looked up."I know a little about this. The Euphrates
is definitely named, one is highly suspected to be the Nile, and
two are lost somewhere in antiquity. Then of course, where did
Moses get this information? It was along time from man's beginning
to 1500 B.C."
Miles just stared at the man in front of him and slowly began to speak. "Mr.President, Moses had a map...and it was in the Ark of the Covenant along with stone fragments that had text inscribed by what only could have had atomic and laser power. You see, sir, Landau was not only looking for Eden, he also was looking for the Ark of the Covenant.
"This sounds like an old Indiana Jones movie!"
Miles bitterly smiled. "I am afraid George
was hardly the type."
The day came when the
special delivery truck from the airport showed up and delivered
a small box to ship. In the box was the worst trouble since Eve
talked Adam into playing with God's toys.
"Crazy George Landau" went crazy. At least that is how it appeared to the crew. Miles knew all the computer induced symptoms as he watched George's eyes turn baggy and swollen, his free time chit-chatting with the crew dropping off to nothing...
Landau was hot on the trail of something but he was not saying just what he was tracking to anyone. Everything depended upon the wreck they had come to finish excavating. There is too much theory, George thought as he looked at the screen print outs. He really needed fresh input without the academic mind structuring he was fighting.
Another puzzle had come to light through the system. A paper he had been involved with when he was a grad student, a paper he knew was published, was missing from the Library of Congress. It was missing from all the records in Europe, also. He spent days trying to electronically trace it through all known Internet systems and drew a blank. The mail inquiries had the same result. He had been flatly informed by Cambridge in England that the document never existed, and that was where it had been published first. The very detailed and definitive work on the Prophet Ezra was gone. After thinking about it, he tried another tactic with the small unit at his disposal...
While George was hogging the small but powerful unit, Miles put in a requisition for additional remote terminals so the rest of the crew could get their work done. The multi-function network capability of the small unit was impressive. This was coupled to the fact the remotes did not have to be wired into the main machine, but worked off radio signals.
It was during this period Miles first noticed something about the computer system he had not seen in any other. It seemed to have more memory when grounded or "earthed". At least certain internal programs were not available when the main supply power was shifted to a battery pack source.
Landau was at his terminal when a message suddenly flashed on his portable expandable projection screen. Another innovation. The liquid crystal readout monitor had the ability to project itself against flat backgrounds up to twelve feet away. "We should personally talk,..M.H." George was shook. How was Miles able to act on his screen when he was under his private access code? George quickly left his room to go speak to Miles, not surprisingly meeting him in the passage way between their respective state rooms.
The chief took him by the arm and before he could get a word out, Miles spoke. "Professor, you are working too hard! We have a date ashore together, remember?"
George looked into the taller man's eyes and realized the name of the game they were playing was called "being watched". It was time for a little excursion away from all electronics and George realized it.
"I forgot, Miles. Advanced electronic senility has set in and my brain is slightly numb. We need a cab."
"I took the liberty of calling shore transportation up for us. Private shore transportation from Doc's buddy."
" Demitri ?"
"The most general knowledgeable guy in the area. He owes us a night on the town. Besides, he was looking for the excuse to drop the rest of Doc's stuff off, seeing our boy is too busy with his French lessons to get them himself."
"Isn't love beautiful?"
"Certain girls sailors know that are in business for themselves never mention beauty, only profit and body depreciation. Let's get the hell off this ship."
Their ride dropped them off at a small cafe they knew well. Once inside the dim, smoky interior, they started evasive action.The men also knew the route out the back door and used it quickly, running down the alley and jumping on the first bus they came to. "Crazy" and Miles did not know it, but they were heading into history, both past and present.
Another man ran from the cafe into the street and looked for his backup across from the establishment. Too late, he thought. Headquarters is not going to be happy...
He pulled a handset out of his pocket, dialed and started talking fast on the special unit. Athens was modern enough to have portable phones and his was scrambled. He asked for more help and David's men were in the "field now".
Miles and George got off the bus at the Acropolis and moved away from other tourists for private conversation. Miles grimly pointed out a few new technical specifics to the leader of the expedition and George suddenly began to talk about what he was really up to. It was like a flood of information, suddenly released.
"...as you are well aware of, Miles, we have been excavating the ship for three years and are almost done. A few pieces of the keel are all that we think is really left, plus anything we may find under or by it. Do you know what really makes this find so exciting?"
"Nope..."
" It is in the Black Sea, Miles. For some reason there was no commerce before the time of Moses through the time of the Mycenaens into that area, at least none that are recorded. There were secret mines in that area and other things were going on that are just coming to light."
"Hell, the Dardanelles were not open until after the ice age, as near as we can figure out. The Black and Caspian seas were just lakes."
"And before that, Miles? You see, 130,000 to 100,000 years ago when our modern ancestors showed up, conditions were very much like today. 18,000 years ago we were herding reindeer by the Mediterranean. That is quite a change. Because of orbital influences and axis precession, the Earth's climate is cyclic, and we have not fully explained the causes."
Miles had heard and read about this before, but he really had not applied the knowledge to any deep thought. The Earth wobbled through space. It was out of his area. Some people suck down information for the love of learning. Miles did it for the love of building and creating concepts and objects.
"The straights were opened for sure after the floods in the Mesopotamian area, long before the Biblical Floods, which supposedly occurred 5900 years ago, or possibly much farther back."
"How can you be sure of that?"
"Someone or thing got tired of the same problem modern man had seen twice so far. In the Bible, in Genesis which was written by our friend Moses, God told the survivors he had fixed the problem of possible extinction and it was never going to happen again. Unfortunately the more ancient texts did not quite make that same promise. One of the papers I know for a fact that was published has completely disappeared, and others I thought would be available are also missing."
Miles was quiet. The data base suddenly came to mind. All kinds of thoughts raced through his head. Data he had read about for years suddenly began to correlate. It really had started when he was a kid and found the most unusual science fiction book he had ever read. What had set it apart from the others was the story line which in essence had brought in the fact Earth was really run by the spirit world, and to travel back and forth from the physical Earth to the next plane or dimension, one had to die. The hero had found this out when he sought out the people who had killed his wife for political religious reasons. When Miles tried to get another copy after his had disappeared, they were all gone off the shelves of his favorite book stores. He ordered one, and it never came...
Later, he had tried to get copies of certain critical political exposes involving the U.S. government when he was writing a paper for his history class, they too were unavailable. It was all in the interest of national security, of course... at least that is what J. Edgar Hoover said. "George...."
"I know what you are thinking, Miles. Just use the computer data base, but run it on battery power and direct key board in case what you suspect is true. The data base pattern can be quite frightening. I need a fresh, unsullied view. I need a mind that is relatively virgin, yet mature enough to seek out patterns and put very puzzling and seemingly unrelated data together. Will you try it?"
Miles already had seen a pattern but had not taken the time to inspect it. "About the ship then, George. What are you looking for there?"
"A map or directions to one that will lead us to the most important find in the history of man. Directions to a library of some sort, Miles. At least this is what I have suspected for some time. When the Book of Ezra was originally published, the Prophet Ezra finished up his work for the Lord with the help of five scribes. They produced 74 books according to the record of Esdra, and of these books fifty were supposedly for general use. Twenty-four volumes were the secret knowledge that Ezra transported back with him to his people. God provided the transportation some way. One other thing was brought to light in the missing portion of the newer bibles, and that was the implication of two worlds. The scholars passed the passage off with the old spiritual/physical slight of hand. It is still unexplained. Now Ezra was supposedly a direct descendent of Aaron, the first priest during the time of Moses."
George looked around, then spoke again."The Bible gives us the rough location to start from, but the map is much more specifically local. What is the Tree of Knowledge if not a library?"
"A map was handed down through the tribe of Abraham?"
"Yes, and kept with the most precious possessions of the Hebrews."
"In the Ark of the Covenant....a map of Eden?"
"Why not? It would explain a few phenomena occurring around the center of civilization. For example the total destruction of all of our known libraries 3190 years ago, or 1190 B.C. if you wish."
"What does that have to do with the Ark?"
"Samuel tells us the Ark was captured by the Phillistines who had direct ties with the Mycenaens. The box was passed around and great sickness followed it. That sickness with the associated bleeding symptoms suggest something radioactive inside. Supposedly pieces of the original carved stone laws of God, Moses writing, and other processions were in there. Rumor has it some of the texts explained what the "Knowing" was that got Adam and Eve kicked out of the sheltered paradise."
Miles grunted. "That is not all the story, George. The way the Ark and the materials it was constructed out of was interesting also, as well as the way the Hebrews carried it. They used long poles which rested on their shoulders, and kept their distance. Later on the Holiest of Holies was kept in a special room and the head priest was only allowed in that room once a year for a very short period of time. Everything points to radiation sickness."
"You got it. It seems the Phillistines and the others decided the Hebrews should take the box back. The Hebrews asked them what it was worth to them, and it turned out it was worth plenty. The Jews got back their precious toy and some very nice trade and land concessions."
"What does that have to do with the Mycenaens?"
"Maybe nothing, unless they had a copy or took the original map. Now here is the odd part. The mass destruction that totally smashed the Mediterranean cultures also hit the Hebrews. Moses writings had been discovered later, the implication was that they had been hidden, and Samuel began to add to them. The original Ark had disappeared and a copy was made by Solomon, that copy reputed to have been hidden from the Babylonians when the later began their conquest. It was removed to Egypt to be discovered by the Templars and transported to Ethiopia, where it now supposedly resides."
"Enter the Dark Ages...."
"...and not the first setback, either. How many times had man been dispersed and for what cited reason? The Creator made it clear to man there were good guys and bad guys. The word Nephilim translates to "cloud beings" and Genesis states they were present and living in an underground facility. Moses carefully differentiates the lords in the ground and on the surface. We could have two different factions working here. Don't forget the rest of the world, things were going on elsewhere too. Like India, China, South America. For example, 500 years before Christ there was a hell of a resurgence of religion in one form or another all over the world. They all had reincarnation in common, but the Christians thoughtfully cut that section out of the Bible in the 1300's. Flying was also big."
"Like sky beings and angels?"
"Take the word "Shem". It had been translated by early scholars to mean "name". The latest translations and evidence from Ur and Babylon suggest it actually means "missile". Interesting, isn't it."
Miles looked off into the distance toward the clouds in the sky. "Nephilim" was the word that suddenly came to mind. Literal translation from it's Greek origins meant "Cloud Beings", and to the engineer in him that meant one thing above all, flight. He needed more data, data that had not been distorted by theology to suit religious power structure and purpose.
Miles had seen a flying saucer, and he was not alone when it happened. The craft had flown between the T.V. towers on Seattle's Queen Anne hill and right down I-90 to the Lake Washington area. Redmond and Bellevue police departments were involved and the story was transmitted on the channel four news that night. The Air Force then stepped in and "Swamp Gas" was the result of the investigation. The story suddenly died and the police officers involved couldn't remember a thing about the incident... but Miles and his family never forgot it.
"Have you ever seen an U.F.O?"
George shook his head negatively. "I knew an amateur astronomer who had once and I saw the photos he took with his Nikon night lenses. They were impressive."
"What happened to the photos?"
"He sent them to Washington D.C. A week later his house mysteriously burned down, and the negatives were destroyed. No one believed him after that except those of us who saw the proofs." George looked at Miles and sighed.
The chief turned back to his friend. "George, draw me a picture of Moses's time in words as you have concluded."
George leaned back against the bench and closed his eyes. Using total recall, he was going back in time....
Miles listened carefully, the pictures created
from George's words took him back to a simpler yet highly complex
life, Greece over 3000 years before...
Milos walked
the narrow streets of Mycenae toward the water front where his
ship awaited him. The smells of the city were strong when the
wind was not blowing, and he longed for the clean air of the sea.
How long would he be gone this time? It would be far different
if he owned his own ship, but coming from a coastal fishing family
and having to slowly build his funds, he was along way from ownership
of a large vessel of fifty feet in length.
As captain, he received a fair percentage of the profits, what profits there were left after all the bribes were paid and the scribes with their fast stylus couldn't think of another place to hide the gains. It was a risky business for several reasons, the use of counterfeit seals being one of them, the mere procession of a seal kit for duplicating purposes meant death in all ports.
Of all the trade goods flowing, such as Baltic amber, glass, jewelry, wine, pottery, tin, copper, silver and gold, arms were still the most profitable. Iron had been around for centuries but was not in wide spread use for two reasons, one being the amount of labor it took to produce the metal, the other reason was strictly military. In short, the process was secret. Steel was not unknown, just unavailable except for a very special chosen few. The metal smiths on Alashiya were under heavy guard at all times and had been for centuries.
The process was controlled by the Sea people and even Egypt with it's political clout was excluded from receiving any. To make a long story short, Egypt did not control the Seas. The Sea peoples had a long understanding with the coastal under kings. In essence, give us ports and you will receive goods. They were felt to be of no threat to existing land political systems for two reasons: Sea peoples were democratic even before the word was invented, therefore had no leaders who could aspire to take over the existing world, and there were not enough ships in the world that could possibly field and army of any size on the mainland, much less supply a military campaign.
Milos would not get the amber run this time, instead he was to sail to Crete, unload Mycenaen goods for transshipping else where, and pick up a load of arms which were to be delivered on the coast at Gaza. The company agent had been contacted by someone called Joshua who needed the arms badly.
There was one catch to the deal. The Pharaoh of Egypt was upset with the group who wanted the arms. These people were holed up somewhere in what was called the wilderness, and had been for forty years, at least their so called "God" was living in that hell for that length of time. Rumor told of a scribe causing all the problems for Egypt in the first place, which undoubtedly had to be true according to Milos's thinking.Scribes were always causing problems, especially if any cargo was missing from the manifests.
Milos wondered if the caravan masters to the east had the same problems. Most likely, he reflected. They had to get through the tribes of robbers along the routes, a problem Milos did not have to contend with. His people had been pirates before they went legitimate and the first thing they did was eliminate any other seafaring crooks. The glorious days of continuous pillage were past and only the sagas and poems of that era remained. What a shame, he reflected as he transported out to where his now fully laden vessel was anchored.
He also would have to avoid the Philistines,
once part of the Sea people but now a separate country. While
they still retained close cultural ties, they did not think the
same anymore. Word had it that they felt the people stranded by
the wilderness were going to create nothing but problems for everyone.
The Canaanites felt the same way, as well as the Kassites and
Assyrians. Rumor had it they were in league with the gods. Possible,
he thought to himself while climbing aboard the vessel. Sky gods
could be fickle and were not to betrusted. They seemed to have
an agenda of their own...
Miles shook his head.
"They were that advanced?"
George open his eyes. "Think for a moment, Miles. Everything that it takes to run a shipping business today was true even at that time. Agents and trade stops through out Europe, Asia and Africa. Thousands of people and millions of accumulated records."
George got up and gazed outwardly."Place Egypt in its geographical position, physically isolated from the rest by the Sinai desert, it controlled the trade for the continent of Africa, and above all had the longest stable government anywhere at that time."
"What about Babylon?"
"Large but always under ferment. The Kassites had the Assyrians and Hittites to justifiably worry about. The Mesopotamian area had other problems. They slowly but surely had been killing the bottom land with over irrigation, water which ultimately salted the soil. That was from the mouth of the delta up, progressively speaking, and that is why that area power base kept moving north. They had a food problem. Mass urbanization required mass amounts of food."
Miles had a sudden thought. "You just told me the people who controlled the trade routes controlled the cities?"
"Bingo! If you controlled the goods man had come to rely on, if you controlled the routes and kept them secret in some cases, you did not have to live on the mainland to move it in the direction you so desired. Remember, water is still the way to move the most amount of cargo with the least amount of effort."
"You forgot one thing, George. They also controlled the metal."
"I didn't forget. Check the Bible under the listing in Genesis called "Cain"....metal came from his line, and there seemed to be a lot of metal coming from some where."
Miles then stood up."Well George, as I see it we ground the computer system, suck Try-Omega dry for information and store what we need separately. As long as were run the computers on battery power and don't "earth" them, information only flows one way except...."
"Except what?"
Miles grinned... "Disinformation"....
They made their way off the Acropolis by bus and
went to Demitri's place where they knew they would get a good
Internet connection, as well as a ride back to the ship. The connections
were good but each country had its own major router which acted
like local censorship. They could ask for any kind of information,
but that did not mean they were going to get it. There were only
two main computer systems in the world, the US Government's and
Tri-Omega Services. There were several major networks and a million
lessor ones, with multi-tetraflop abilities to choose from, and
over a billion people world wide were on line. The world had finally
agreed to one language, and that was the latest version of HTML
machine code.
Miles had first seen the Internet in January of 1996 while at a friend's home in Seattle. By the time he got to Elma that night he had reached a decision and called one of the PAL Oil System engineers that was a close friend of his living nearby, and asked about the web. Before the week was over Miles had already signed up with Techline, the server in Aberdeen, and had purchased an Apple Mac from Stoltz Computers in Lacy. He had a 150 megahertz machine with an 8 speed CD ROM, 1.5 gig hard drive, a 2400 Ink jet Apple printer, and 32 megabytes of ram pushing a 28.8 modem. By the fall of that year, chip speeds of 250+ were offered, 33.6 modems, 4.5 gig hard drives, multiple processors, twelve speed CD ROMs, and up to a gigabyte of ram. They announced the G-1 and G-2 chips from Apple/Motorola. Clock speeds of 500+ megahertz on a 40 million transistor chip with an embedded Chirp operating system for bolt on items...
The Browser Wars were in full swing and when Miles stopped in at Techline in Aberdeen one day, he played with their new line of Mac Clones as well as Techline's own locally produced version of the PC, which ran a smooth as a baby's bottom. There finally was full support for the Apple platform as well as IBM in Grays Harbor and the staff in the store pointed out to him that he really should take an Internet class, which he did.
That was when Miles realized the most powerful computer in the world is one the individual could actually use. He added another processor to his machine, upgraded his modem and got a back-up hard drive after boosting his ram to 100 megs. The machine was faster than he could blink his eyes and that was fast enough. That had been only 8 years before the present, and key boarding had still been in style. All of this flashed through his mind as Demitri led them to his machine...
Demitri merely spoke to his Macintosh computer
and suddenly they were on the net. A conversation in Greek between
the man and the machine ensued as Mile's list of questions were
verbally fed in. When they were through three hours later, Miles
had a highly compressed 500,000 KB data disk to take back to the
ship with him, fully translated into english.
The
President was making notes. "O.K. what happened after you
got back to the ship?"
Miles leaned back in the chair and closed his
eyes. "I grounded out the case and we asked for information...
and pulled it electronically right out of the National Archives.
You have a copy in front of you, Mr. President."
NATIONAL ARCHIVES 1990
MAN'S EARLIEST RECORDED HISTORY
SOURCE: FIRST NOAH
In the deep Above where you have been residing,
the Kingly House of Above" have I built. Now, a counterpart
of it I shall build below, so when from the Heavens for the assembly
you shall descend, there shall be a place for the night to receive
you all. I will name it "Babylon", the Gateway of the
Gods...
"You
must pardon me, Miles. I am not much for prose of this type..."
"I think they must have been singing it
first, sir. There is a definite rhythm and man could sing before
he could write. The key names changed with time and the language
used. Some of it is very sophisticated..."
After kingship had been lowered from heaven
After the exalted crown,
The throne of kingship
had been lowered from heaven....
Enlil, whose command is far reaching;
whose "word" is lofty and holy;
whose pronouncement is unchangeable;
who decrees destinies unto the distant future..
The gods of Earth bow down willingly before him;
the heavenly gods who are on Earth
humble themselves before him;
they stand by faithfully,
according to instructions...
He....perfected the procedures, the divine ordinances and founded five cities in pure places, called their names and laid them out as centers.
The first of these cities,
ERIDU, he gave to Enki the leader
the second, BAD-TIBIRA,
he gave to Nugig.
The third, LARAK,
he gave to Pabilsag.
The fourth, SIPPAR,
he gave to hero Utu.
The fifth, SHURUPPAK,
he gave to Sud.
The lord of the watery-deep, the king Enki built his house. In Eridu he built the House of the Water Bank. Eridu, like a mountain, he raised from the earth; in a good place he built it.
"When I approached Earth, there was
much flooding. When I approached its green meadows, heaps and
mounds were piled up at my command. I built my house in a pure
place... My house, its shade stretches over the Snake Marsh; the
carp fish wave their tails in it among the small gizi reeds."
The President muttered,
"This seems to be a quote!"
Mile looked at the document and nodded his
head. "A god who loved his area..."
The world below the Equator, the Land of UT.TU,
a rich land beloved of Enki; bursting with riches, perfect in
fullness, whose mighty river rushes across the land. To thee,
Apsu, pure land where the great waters rapidly flow to the Abode
of Flowing Waters, Enki in the pure waters established in the
midst of Apsu, a great sanctuary he established.
In the distant sea,
100 beru of water distant
The ground of Arali...
It is where the Blue Stones cause ill,
Where the craftsman of Anu
the Silver Ax carries,
which shines as the day.
The President frowned,
"Radioactive materials, Miles?"
"That's my guess also, sir... and the
Silver Ax must have been a high energy mining tool."
The Colonists, the rank and file gods, assigned
to Anu to heed his instructions; three hundred crewmen in the
heavens he stationed as a guard, the ways of Earth to define from
the Heaven. On Earth, six hundred he made reside after all their
instructions he had ordered; to the colonists from Heaven, on
Earth he allotted their assignments.
Anu, institutor of the colonists, was their
heavenly king; their Lord Chancellor was the warrior Enlil. Their
Chief Officer was Ninurta, and their Sheriff was Ennugi. The gods
had clasped hands together, had cast lots and divided the crew....
"I have seen some
of this before, but continue with your story, Miles..."
Miles looked up. "This is a good part
of what I have to say. I'm glad you had this document readily
available..."
Milos's Mycenaen crew was typical
for the times, the Sea peoples actually were a loose mix of outcasts
from every culture, the ones that could not socially fit or the
dreamers, and their ranks had a continuous replenishing gene stock
over thousands of years. They were also prone to violence even
if they were patient with others up to a point.
His first mate was from what would later be called Cypress, he was from a country that became Greece; the rest were Canaanites, Arzawa, Hittites, Mitanni and one Assyrian. One Assyrian was enough for any crew, he maintained. They had been able to avoid the Egyptian customs patrols off shore and were making their way as rapidly as possible to Gaza. It was time to meet the savages.
The round stone anchor went over the side with a soft splash. They most likely would not get it back because the devices had a tendency to sand down, or the hemp line would chafe off with the swinging of the vessel in the tidal changes. They had eight of the round disks with the holes in the center left on board. Some day they would really have a good anchor with a winch to raise it over and over. He thought of the load increase his little vessel could carry without the expendable and worthless ballast of these hard to store mooring devices.
They rowed into shore in the small boat, and Milos looked at the moon. The tides would be on the rise starting tomorrow. They could beach the main ship and get off on the next tide before anyone could see them, if the gods were willing. Speed was the factor...
Beaching the craft and leaving two of his crew
to guard it, the rest started of them followed Milos into the
rocks above the water line. The were met and rapidly surrounded
by well armed Hebrew scouts. These people leave nothing to chance,
he thought. Milos was surprised at the warm reception as they
talked. He liked this fellow Joshua, who could speak Old Tongue
and Egyptian. He just hoped the man could pay....
When
the first Offworld ship touched down on Earth, it was more of
a crash landing due to the haste of the political fugitives in
the vessel, and considerable damage was sustained to the drive
unit. Of the 1000 persons on board, two hundred casualties were
realized with thirty-seven un-redeemable deaths. The area was
not completely as flat and arid as it looked from space, and the
vessel rested in a marshy area between two small hills. The atmosphere
was not unlike the original planet they had traveled from, though
it was noticeably denser and had a heavier feeling to it. They
were safe for awhile...
Alalu sat at the console and waited for the captain to switch circuits so he could better view the surrounding terrain. The little two man flitters, as they called the particular version of an ultralight, could be seen scouting in all directions. He turned from the scene before him and questioned the captain.
"Can we be easily spotted from above?"
"No my lord! The cloud cover is much too dense, and the crew will have all the covering paint finished before the weather clears. This planet is unexplored by Nibiruiun probes, unlike the other two inner planets. Anu's Naval Command think we are heading for the galactic center..."
Alalu waived his hand to shut the flow of hopeful information off. "Anu was my best advisor, and he will not rest until my location is determined. This entire situation would not have come to pass if I had listened to him about Nibiru's atmosphere."
"There is still plenty of time to stabilize what is left..."
"Only with the right elements. To regain my leadership I have to be the one to supply the location of the elements before my time is up. I want my son to rule in his proper place. After all, kingship was handed down to us by the Creator."
That was always the final argument, the captain reflected, and a degenerated one at that. Well, let the old man have his dreams. They still had the four small auxiliary vessels intact in the main cargo hold, and when the time came, one of them was sure to get through to the home planet. To be loyal was one thing, but to suicide for it was out of the question. It was well known that reincarnation of the essence of a being occurred in the physical proximity of the area from which the spirit departed the flesh. They had been born on Nibiru and if their existence was to carry on in the same manner, they had to die on Nibiru. At least that is what the theologians maintained...
Alalu strode from the bridge and went directly
to his quarters. He was 110 shars old and did not want to pass
over on a strange planet, only to reincarnate into a degenerated
animal form. The spirits of those who had died in the crash would
now be wondering the planet's surface in search of a proper life
form that would accept them. The closest thing thus far found
was what was to be known later as Homo Sapiens, an Ape man that
used fire but did not know how to make it, a being who used the
crudest of stone tools but was not smart enough to use clothing
and ate the same members of its own species when it hunted. The
beast seemed to be the top of the line on this planet. Leave the
power seeking to the young, he thought. Khumarbi, his son, wanted
his share of that. I just want to pass over with honor, where
I belong...
Anu looked up from his
office chair as his son entered and smiled. He had two sons he
held in high regard more so than his other children, and Enlil,
the one before him now was the politician of the two. The other
was Ea and he was the most curious, spending more time with the
scientists than others of his age group. One of the young men
would secede him if they could hold the present family position.
"I hope this is important, Enlil..."
"Is Alalu important?"
Anu sighed. A year had passed on Nibiru, 3600 Earth years, and it did not surprise the new ruler that the old leader had suddenly surfaced. "Where is he..?"
"Inner planet 3 according to the prisoner we picked up in sector five. The crew of his ship is dying and the ones that are not afflicted are sealed in stasis capsules. They seem to be dying of old age, as well as other things."
"We have a life expectancy of 120 shar and Alalu has lived most of them, and so have most of the people with him. Who is handling the debriefing?"
"Ea and his group. We do not get the prisoner until the scientists are done, unless you over ride the council..."
Anu glared at his son. "When will you ever learn that you cannot force people to bend to your every whim? Alalu still has many loyal followers here and we have just risen to the throne. The reason he was deposed was the fact he overruled one too many council recommendations, of which I was chairman if you remember correctly."
"How can I ever forget? I hope that someday I will be able to run a planet as I see fit, without councils to hamstring me."
Anu sighed. "If you do not keep your dreams to yourself, I can tell you right now it will not be Nibiru. Every person on the council comes from a family as powerful as our own. If we can not solve the environmental problems, our rule will be much shorter than Alalu's was. Have your brother come to me as soon as possible."
"I already ordered him to do so."
"That was most likely very amusing. What did he tell you to do in response?"
Enlil turned red in the face. "He will not take my orders!"
"He sits on the council, Enlil. He was appointed by the others not because he was your brother, but in spite of you. Open your eyes and ears, and seal your thoughts from the rest until you can properly cloak your emotions. It has been suggested to me to get both of you off the planet for awhile, which really is not that bad an idea..."
Ea, standing in front of the council, finished his report and looked around the table at the others. "The elements we need are in abundance and we do not need special equipment to survive on the surface. In fact the planet seems to be quite beautiful, if one takes in account the bacteria and is immunized against it. What we have to artificially propagate here is a natural process there, and the genetics of both of the systems are related. We think it is the missing collision planet from our own genesis era."
Anu nodded thoughtfully and stated, "Proceed with your recommendations."
"We should mount an expedition to the planet and verify the findings we now have before us. Alalu should be allowed to return as a reward, but his present company, his power base, should be kept there until his natural passing into a higher state. They can stay in stasis, hidden and on a timer which will release them long after Alalu has ceased to be a problem."
The council fully discussed the matter and made the proper arrangements. Both Ea and his brother were to go with the expedition...
Science for the planet Nibiru was advanced because it had to be. With the long elliptical orbit and a 3600 period around the sun, population had long been stabilized and the creation of hydrogen anti-matter provided power for everything, including the drive engines of the ships that were used to first explore its own little system which comprised of the parent planet, four moons and lessor remnants of the planet Earth from the collision 4 billion years before. The system was surprisingly warm due to radioactive core heat and rotational movement of the orbiting bodies. The orbiting moons were the size of small planets and had been colonized and mined.
The inner planets had all been explored and in some cases, exploited for raw material, until the logistics drew a natural line at what was to be known as Mars. The probes of the Nephilim had sent back data on Mercury and Venus, but all early Earth probes had failed for one reason or another. Using the data from Venus and Mars, an interpolating factor was used in conjunction with the last probe information which had been sent from a machine accidentally crash landing on the dark side of the moon.
Nibiruian science felt the Earth was going to be just another hot planet with a steamy atmosphere and they had easier access to the outer planets for materials they needed over the ages. They could work in low temperatures much easier than in the hot hell of planets like Venus...
When George and Miles got back
to the ship, they found the rest of the expedition had finally
arrived, and it was quite a mix of Arabs, Jews, Europeans, Americans,
and Asians. All races, colors and creeds, as Doc put it, the surgeon
finally coming up from his infatuation with Heidi long enough
to realize where he was and what he was supposed to be doing.
The first thing Doc did was vaccinate them against everything, including childbirth. He didn't even notice the Miles and "Crazy George" as they slipped away to the radio room where the mini main frame was housed. It was in this room that Doc finally noticed things were not happening the way they were supposed to. Medical data that had not been available before was suddenly there. He decided to run down Miles and find out what was going on.
Miles and George were entrenched in the print outs when Doc finally found them up in the forepeak of the vessel. The two men had the small locker area all to themselves until Doc arrived.
Miles looked up and merely stated, "Close the door, Doc."
Doc closed the watertight door and dogged it. "There! Now why are we being so secret?"
"If we told you someone had provided us with pictures of you and Heidi during one of your more intimate moments, what would be your first reaction?"
Doc just looked at the two men. They were kidding, and yet they were serious about the hypothetical question. "I would assume I was being monitored. Does this have something to do with the computer system?"
George turned another sheet over and wrote some notes on it. Ahh, George thought, Doc had noticed something also. He looked up at his designated executive administrator and merely stated, "What took you so long to come to that conclusion?"
Goldstein flushed red. "I haven't exactly been using the system that much for anything but medical information. The medical data base seems to come and go. One time there, one time not. It seems to be back again and before I put my data into the system, I thought it would be wise to inquire if the system was reliable. Is it?"
Miles dropped his papers and stretched his arms. "It is a little too reliable...Gentlemen, it is time to do some serious talking. There seems to be some questions that come to mind on historical events laced with bad or purposely disinformation. George, I want to play questions and answers. To answer your question about reliability Doc, use the machine for medical purposes and put nothing about this expedition in it that we want to keep privileged. Here is a question to you, George. What seems to be the reason for sacrifices? Especially human ones?"
Doc looked at them both with a puzzled expression. "Now just what in the hell is that all about!??"
Landau scratched his head thoughtfully and waved the surgeon toward a seat before replying to the engineers question. "Religious theology seems to dictating sacrificing something for belief in one form or another. God even sacrificed Christ, remember?"
"George, your interests lie with Moses and the Ark. I have a fresh look. Let me run this by you guys...The Creator was still turning out life in Eden when man was there, according to the Bible. Man was getting into things he was not supposed to so the boss kicked him out of the original facility."
"Remember East of Eden, Miles, "Doc remarked softly.
"Noted! Anyway, God tells man it is a tough world out there but he will keep an eye out for them. When he gets into real trouble, signal him with a fire. Man was easily capable of that. Man lived outside, but as close as he could to his protector, or as close as the Creator would let him. The Bible states the first to call on God was Enosh. Yet it also states Cain killed Able over jealousy involving sacrificial rites, supposedly long before God was called on as a deity. This would mean Cain or the tribe of if you prefer, happened after Enosh, or Enosh became the founder of actual ritual. Take your pick."
George pushed his glasses up higher on his nose and just stared at the engineer. Doc was quietly listening.
"Now just who was Cain? He was a farmer! He grew things. What was Able? He was a sheep herder...Now what is the difference between the two?"
Doc grunted. "The farmers and the cattlemen or sheep men wars? I just got here, remember?"
"It had to start somewhere, Doc. Man was still confined to a very small area. Without fences....anyway there is trouble between the individuals or groups. They decided to call upon the Creator to straighten things out. He whose fire smokes the most receives the attention. Animal fat smokes considerably. That was Able's signal. Cain's signal was not noticed as suddenly. Who was accusing who of what?"
George gentle shook his head. "Miles, the judgment went to Able..."
"The second judgment did. It doesn't matter if Cain by then was a tribe. It doesn't matter if Able was a tribe by this time. The result would have been the same. If Able was a tribe, then the tribe of Cain wiped out every last man, woman and child of that group. That was not defense, that was murder. Eden was a big breeding ground if we take the Book literally. Snakes could walk and talk, etc. This was all done in the part of the garden that man could be and was kept out of."
"Small winged creatures and a flaming sword," Doc interjected.
"Obvious high tech. The result was Cain was marked and left east of Eden, no longer a farmer. It is tough to farm semi-desert country, especially when that area is filled with herders which the land could support. The Mesopotamia area was a desert then. Keep in mind our pre-ice age maps. The only good ground was to the north along the Caspian Black sea lake. This was only a small strip. From there the closest good soil and rainfall was up the Danube River valley and east into the Steppes."
Doc just looked at him, analyzing his friend. Talk like this would have gotten him burned at the stake five hundred years before.
"Miles, You are making God awfully mortal. Weren't you the one telling me about your out of body experiences when you died?"
Miles shook his head. "That is what got me so wound up. I know where I have been and how real it was. Others that went through the same experience can testify in my behalf, your honor. God is very real, but as it was made clear by the Book, there was more than one or one type. What were called the sons of God were resented from the way Moses put down the material in the Bible. Women seemed to be the problem cited. Mutants taking wives."
"What is new?"
"Doc, I am not joking. Someone's wives
and daughters were chosen for breeding purposes. They didn't like
it one bit. The real God is of the spirit, he is seen as light
or is heard inside as well as out. He created all life. This is
our God. The others came later. They were of the flesh and they
were genetically manipulating us. Look at this printout..."
Anu had gone up to heaven,
Leaving the earth to his subjects.
The seas, enclosed as a loop,
They had given to Enki, the prince.
When the gods,
like men,
bore the work and suffered the toil..
the toil of the gods was great,
the work was heavy,
the distress was much.
They were complaining,
backbiting,
Grumbling in the excavations.
Let us confront our foreman, the Chief Officer,
That he may relieve us of our heavy work.
The chief officer
listened and proclaimed, "Now, proclaim war; let us combine
hostilities and battle."The King of gods, the hero Enlil,
let us unnerve him in his dwelling! The gods heeded his words.
"Have you ever
seen a mutiny, fellows? I have! I was on a ship where the crew
took over and locked the officers up. The Coast Guard stepped
in because the auxiliary engines ran out of fuel, the gensets
shut down, and it got damn cold where we were anchored. This was
a mutiny. Read it!.."
They set fire to
their tools;
Fire to their axes they put;
They troubled the god of mining in the tunnels;
They held him prisoner as they went
to the gate of the hero Enlil.
It was night, half-way through the watch.
His house was surrounded,
but the god, Enlil, did not know.
Kalkal observed
it, and was disturbed. He slid the bolt and watched... Kalkal
roused Nusku; they listened to the noise of battle and Nusku roused
his lord. He got him out of bed, "My lord, your house is
surrounded, battle has come right up to your gate."
Nusku advised the Council of Gods: "Transmit a message the Anu come down; have Enki brought to your presence."
He transmitted and Anu was carried down;
Enki was also brought to his presence. With the great Anunnaki
present, Enlil arose...opened his mouth and addressed the great
gods.
"Note the
word "transmitted", guys. Not called down... but "transmitted"
and the head honcho was carried down to the surface, which implies
a ship of some kind.."
Doc looked up and negatively shook his head. "I don't know , Miles... your trying to read an awful lot into this script..."
"Read it, Doc! Just read the damned thing
and think!"
"Is it against me that
this is being done? Must I engage in the hostilities? What did
my very own eyes see? That the battle has come right up to my
gate! Who is the provoker of hostilities?"
The Anunnaki stood together: "Every single one of us gods has war declared! We have our troubles in the excavations; excessive toil has killed us, our works is heavy, the distress much."
Enlil heard the list of grievances; causing his tears to flow; asked for the death of the leaders, and stated to Anu, who from heaven ascended: "Take the office away, take back your power, and I will to you in heaven ascend."
Anu listened and then replied: "What
are we accusing them of? Their work was heavy, their distress
was much! Every day we listened to their transmissions; the lamentation
was heavy, we could hear the complaint."
For 10 periods they suffered the toil;
For 20 periods they suffered the toil;
For 30 periods they suffered the toil;
For 40 periods they suffered the toil.
"Now just how long was a period? You should know
this one, George..."
"A period was a "shar" and 3600 years in duration, so you are either dealing with a time factor of a total of 40 or they are additive, which would be 360,000 years. In any case your talking thousands of years."
Miles looked at Doc and grinned. "Damned patient, huh!"
Doc shrugged. "The gods were almost immortal,
sport. It is the result of this uprising I find interesting. Read
on Miles.."
Enki a suggestion put forth
to the Council: Let a lulu, a "Primitive Worker," be
created. "While the Birth Goddess is present, let her create
a Primitive Worker. Let him bear the yoke... Let him carry the
toil of the gods!"
The Council of the Gods accepted: "The Worker", 'Man' shall be his name. They called for and asked the goddess, the midwife of the gods, the wise Mami, "You are the Birth Goddess, create Workers! Create a Primitive Worker, that he may bear the yoke! Let him bear the yoke assigned by Enlil, let The Worker carry the toil of the gods!"
"I will produce a lowly Primitive;
"Man" shall be his name. Let him bear the yoke assigned
by Enlil, Let The Worker carry the toil of the gods! He will be
charged with the service of the gods, that they might have their
ease.
"Of course,
this is just considered myth, right? Never mind all the videos
and pictures floating around now of UFOs and the Roswell Incident
never happened.. huh Doc?"
Doc sighed. "O.K. Miles, why did they come here and
where did they come from, assuming you can put forth the
rest of a theory to support your conclusions?"
" I can...and we will start with the solar system. When the solar system was forming planets, roughly 4.5
billion years ago, ten were formed. We found nine, ten actually because our own moon is a planet in its own right, and if we add the sun, it adds up to eleven major bodies but by Bodes law there should have been one more about 2.4 astronomical units out. That would be between Mars and the big guy, Jupiter. As are telescopes got better we picked out the largest pieces in what we now call the asteroid belt. Remember the meteor strikes that changed our climate and possibly wiped out the dinosaurs? Check it out in the data base."
"Because of the Earth's ice ages, we spent a lot of time in hibernation. We know Mars died one billion years ago. We know planets cool faster the farther away from the sun they get. That should speed cooling which would give evolution an earlier start. If they had a few million years head start on us, they would have had a chance to get a few survivors off, maybe more from the looks of the activity that seems to have been registered on this planet."
George just looked at the engineer. "There are many variables, Miles. The Earth was much "hotter" due to radioactivity when it was younger. This planet still supplies us with its own internal heat, a considerable amount at that."
"That just proves the other world could have been operating in a similar mode. If it carried its own powerful heating source with it, it would not be as sun dependent as we are. Maybe their home world got hit by a comet. Something they could see coming. Maybe they just blew themselves up."
Doc looked at George and rolled his eyes up then winked. Miles did not even notice, being so deep in thought.
"Keep one thing in mind. Remember back in 1989 when those photos of the pyramid on Mars were published. N.A.S.A. refused to comment on them and before long the issue was dead. I saw those photos and they were all what they were cracked up to be. Omni was the magazine, or Scientific American. It is also in the data base. I know because I checked it out to make sure I was not slipping. The entire United Nations was shown the photos, as well as other items. In 1996 the Internet was hot through the Art Bell link to Richard Hoaglund with those very photos and others."
George looked at Miles and nodded in agreement. "We are still listening..."
"Now all the temple carvings from India and stories depict a considerable amount of light or fire from these vehicles the "gods" traveled in. That limits the propulsion systems down to something we can understand. They did not seem to have anything like anti-gravity at the time. That means they were located close by. They were shuttling from something larger. They may even have been fueling it, using the Earth's resources, water for one, and petroleum products for hydrozine."
"Maybe they were colonizing. Maybe they were so far ahead of us in genetics they were trying to adapt. Maybe they are still here, and maybe not. We might even be them as far as I know, but it is the only thing that fits. They did say one thing though. They said they were coming back...and these are not necessarily the good guys...at least from what you told me about 1190 B.C.."
George politely smiled. "Are you sure your planet count is right? There is not enough debris in the asteroid belt to make up a planet, and then as you stated the Moon is now considered to be one because it was never a part of Earth. Keep checking into it...and may I suggest more of the Sumerian translations, the modern ones?"
"Why are you playing with me this way, George..."
Doc shook hid head. "I knew I should have never left you two alone with that machine. George was babbling earlier about the Ark of the Covenant and now you are seeing things that go bump in the night. I thought we were here to finish our little ship up and receive our just rewards?"
Landau grinned. "That too, Doc. That first...."
Miles chuckled. "You know I have been
on a lot of ships, but I just wonder what was going on in the
mind of this Mycenaen when he found out he had to sail into the
Black Sea."
For several generations the Mycenaen
family had been doing business with the Hebrews, and the shipping
council had decided they would help them one more time. It was
always one more time with those people, Spiro thought to himself
as he left the meeting chamber.
It was about that Ark. He just had the feeling in his bones. According to his grandfather, the tribe lost it to the Phillistines, one of the Sea peoples, in a battle. It seems the box had strange powers that blistered men's skin and made bleeding ulcers and piles issue forth before death. According to the old man, the box was moved around from city to city, always with the same result except for the last one. It was by far the worst. Someone had enough courage to open the box. He died first and quickest within the week.
The box was supposedly full of historical records, and something else the Mycenaens needed above all. A topographical map depicting the world. As the story went, the map had been handed down from generation to generation, was made of some strange permanent material, and had strange markings in places man dared not or could not go. The markings were crosses in the unknown lands. Who ever drew the map could see down and it was said to be an Old Ones map. It could open up the world for man if he had a boat. There were also gold pieces in the container but none were taken because they caused the worst sickness, fragments of gold with strange writing on them.
The Phillistines and others begged forgiveness, worshiped the strange new God in front of Hebrew witnesses, gave the Hebrews land and other concessions, and were extremely quiet for awhile. They were very happy to get rid of the box. No wonder the Hebrews carried it on long poles and all took turns in rotation on the long handles, time marked by so many steps. It was the only way men would not get so sick as to die. And now they were offering the use of the map for steel weapons and that meant a trip into the Black Sea to the secrete mines. The arms could have come overland but the smiths insisted on seeing the map. Now matter how you looked at it, the metal workers got what they wanted. They were the oldest craft in the Mycenaen culture.
Legend had it the first Mycenaen found the first metal in the darkness of Hades after crossing the river Stix. Spiro found fables interesting. Of course the other legend that said man found metal in the ground after crossing what would be known as the Danube was more reasonable. He preferred that one. Music and art had come from there also, or so it was said.
The map would be in a special container and be guarded by some sect of Hebrew scouts. They wanted to be let off in the area of Troy on the way back, after copies were made in bronze of the precious document. The ship was then to deliver the arms and two additional metal copies to the Hebrews, the original going with the scouts because of the light weight for size of the map.
The Mycenaens were not about to break their word on any deal cut with the Hebrews. If their neighbors killed them for the small shipments of arms, worth far more than gold or silver, that was the way of the gods. Trade concessions after conquest was the way of the Mycenaens. The Hebrews agreed. If the Hebrews could extend their borders to the Red Sea, they would go into the shipping business with the Greeks and cut Egypt out of the sea trade for Africa. The entire deal centered around the map. It showed the Red Sea and the Persian gulf as well as the Atlantic and Indian oceans. All unknown to the Greeks, including the way to the fabled land of Atlantis, rumored South and West from the Isle of Tin.
How many times could he make the round trip
before his luck ran out? Maybe it was time to sacrifice to the
Sea gods again....after all, he had seen a comet the other night
and they always signified misfortune for man. He wondered if the
people of the future would feel the same.
Miles
and Doc were out on deck taking the air and watching the meteor
shower that was putting on quite a display. If they were going
to find what they were looking for, it had better be tomorrow,
for the dive would be over in two days. Having sucked and cleaned
the entire bottom around the vicinity of the wreck, the keel was
the only thing to try to lift. It was an oddity made out of some
type of gum wood that resisted sea organisms.
"Well Doc, how many times have you read Genesis now? Three? four?"
Doc softly chuckled. "You want to know ahead of time what I am going to say in my report to George."
"Is that acceptable?"
"Why not, it isn't going to change in a few hours. The story generates two pictures of god for me when coupled with what Moses saw. I accept your version of the real God, Miles, and something else. Let me explain myself. Picture Moses trying to get a tribal history down and organized, one that reached back 40,000 years or more. They do not have a real written language of their own, yet they keep their most precious religious objects with them. Their songs are their earliest history, their maps drawn on animal skin, any earliest possible modern writing coming from a Semitic base. Moses had to see and hear it all. They had to sing and tell creation, and they are singing and telling two stories, which someone thoughtfully mixed up.
As a doctor, I got to thinking about blood, blood types, and RH factors. What if RH factors were opposite and Eve had a hard time conceiving. She stipulated she was expecting with the help of God. That would be in Creation 2. In Creation 1, we get a very simplistic view. In 2 we get detail, a frightening accurate picture of evolution as we know it, unfolding from a man writing from old information handed down through hunter gatherer songs and concepts.
A picture that tells of sons of God with special abilities, a switch back and forth between the singularity and plural implications of God, a resentment of the theft of their women who where and had been breeding with the new species, to no good result to man, according to the Bible. We are shown two creators, one that gave us the Ten Commandments, the laws He lives by, and the other? Would the God that gave us our basic laws behave like the one that has been knocking the hell out of us for years? During the breakout 40,000 to 50,000 years ago, the first thing we did was breed grain and the next step was a quick calendar, because something may have been coming and going through our skies on some sort of schedule. We had to have seen that type of science before to develop it so specifically and quickly."
"You are saying we had an extremely good education in genetics and astronomy?"
"Think about it...we did that before we invented the bow and arrow, 15,000 years before we invented that weapon.
Someone had to show us."
"Don't leave out the concept of religion"
"I thought that was what we were talking about."
Miles laughed. "Seriously though, Doc, what about this blood thing?"
"We have two basic blood groups, A;B and O has no antigens. There is a + and a - RH factor. O is considered the universal type. Where did we get them? Why not just one blood type? Genetics again and yet blood has always implied life force to man. When you ran out of blood, you were dead. It might not be the first law of medicine, but it is a good one."
"Then we get around that by transferring life force, universal if necessary."
"If the definition fits..."
"Could the fabled Tree of Life have something to do with blood?"
"We are what we eat..."
"They were eating immortality?"
"That's what the Book says, that is until God 1 told them it was not good for them. God 2 suddenly became plural and was afraid of man, keeping him from the food. Remember the ancient Greeks reference to ambrosia? How about, You shall have no other gods before me...?"
"I'm sorry I asked. I think I'll just look at it from an engineering stand point and let you pick apart the
theology."
"Then there is this snake thing..."
"Good night, Doc."
"It walked and talked, you know. And did you ever here of Medusa?
