The Earth Hearing

by Daniel Plonix

Lee pushed down the welling panic.

  She squeezed her eyes shut. This helped her pretend there was some substance out there. She then started breathing heavily. This helped her mask the deafening sound of silence. Next, Lee willed her legs to make walking motions. Nothing, her feet didn’t connect with anything. She pretend-walked some more, until—there! She felt some traction against the soles of her feet. She kept walking and the pressure underfoot grew firmer. Lee opened her eyes and resumed regular breathing.

  She marched on and shortly heard the faint and reassuring sound of her footsteps. She was now treading on some hard surface.

  A soft light appeared straight ahead. Lee could make out the dim shape of a structure in the center of a barren plaza paved with worn-out bricks that gleamed brown and black. The structure resolved itself into a dilapidated small shack with a human figure standing next to it. She was walking now under waxy yellow light in the heart of an ocean of blackness. As she got closer yet, she felt a gentle, steady breeze. Above, sky materialized and blazed deep amber flecked with gleaming coal.

  On the shack’s wall, above a small window, a neon sign outlined a nude female figure in a suggestive pose with the word “open” underneath it. The sign was turned off.

  Lee came to a stop in front of the figure: a tall, lean man with an overcoat who held a Tommy gun.

  He deigned to give her a once-over. “We’re closed, lady.”

  “I am here to see the three gods.”

  “Is that so?”

  “I am Lee.”

  The man opened the door slightly and stuck his head in. “There is some broad to see you.”

  “Tell her to get lost,” came a voice from within.

  Before the sentry had a chance to tell her off, she pushed past him and found herself in a commercial kitchen. In the center was a gleaming metal table laden with food. Three old portly men in dark three-piece suits looked up, their meal interrupted.

  “Hey Vito, you want me to shoot her?” said the doorman from somewhere behind.

  “Aratta and Hagar sent me,” Lee said quickly.

  “Why didn’t you say so?” demanded one of the three men, pulling down the napkin from the neck of his shirt and turning to face her. “The lady is stayin’.”

  The sentry nodded, then retreated and closed the door behind him.

  “Sit down,” another told her, gesturing to an empty stool by the table. A gold chain glittered on his wrist.

  “I’d rather stand,” said Lee.

  “I said sit your ass down!”

  She complied and studied the trio openly. “The father, the son, and the holy spirit, I presume.”

  They exchanged glances. “You got quite the mouth on you, lady.”

  “This is Big Carlo. This is Vito the Barber. I am Fat Frank,” one of them said. For a moment, he examined his teeth in the metal surface, then looked up. “And you need to show some respect to gods, capiche?”

  “Capiche.”

  “Let’s drink to that.”

  They poured her some wine. She tasted and then downed it. By that point, she’d needed a drink. “I am sorry,” she said after draining the glass and putting it down. “I don’t speak Mafia Italian.”

  “You hear that, Vito?” said Big Carlo. “She doesn’t speak Mafia Italian.”

  “Don’t play stupid, kid,” Vito the Barber said, chewing his food. He gulped it with wine. “You did good enough imitation at the skit in that youth summer camp.” He shoved a steaming bowl of chicken soup her way. “Yo. Eat now.”

  Lee was shocked. How could he have known about that?

  “What’s the matter? You think we’re trying to poison you?” demanded Big Carlo. For a moment, his chair creaked ominously as he shifted his bulk.

  “You really are gods,” she blurted.

  “Hey, Vito! Walk on water for her. Show her some fuckin’ miracles!” They all chortled at that.

  She took in a mouthful but then put the spoon down. “How much do you know about me?”

  “We know it was you who let out the hamster from the cage the day you stayed home sick from kindergarten,” commented one of them. “Eat up, it’s getting cold,” said another.

  She complied meekly and took a few spoonfuls in silence.

  “Hey, what’s going on with Aratta and Hagar? How come they don’t come around?” inquired Vito. “Cavolo!” he exclaimed as he picked up from Lee’s mind what had transpired a few days earlier on Earth. And next he was on his feet. The two others followed suit, looking thunder­struck.

  “That’s what I was trying to tell you,” said Lee between gulps. “An overmind, or whatever that thing is, has been preventing Aratta and Hagar from punching through. It was worried the hearing will not go in humanity’s favor.” But the three portly figures were not listening. They were now moving about the kitchen, opening drawers and cabinet doors. Lee took a bite and watched the men with a measure of satisfaction. Handguns were tucked into shoulder holsters, double-­barreled shotguns loaded, and magazines inserted into submachine guns. They were about to take on the human overmind. Lee couldn’t help herself: she tore a chunk of bread, dipped it in the soup, and muttered under her breath, “This punk messed with us, he messed with the whole famiglia.” She shook her head in mock disgust, then gave it her best John Wayne voice, “Why, that lousy, low-down, no-good, Yankee overmind!

  “Wait,” said Lee, as realization sunk in. “You’re not actually going with guns against the human overmind, are you?”

  “Don’t go softheaded on me, kid,” called Vito, shoving shells into a shotgun. “Do you really think you are in a kitchen and those are firearms?”

  She stopped mid-bite. “No?”

  “We worked off some of the mental images you have collected and then created this representation of reality, giving you a familiar point of reference,” he said as an afterthought, his attention obviously elsewhere. “Locked and loaded,” he announced.

  The two other gods nodded, put on fedoras and overcoats, and headed out.

  Vito stopped by the door and glanced over his shoulder. “Coming?”

  She jumped up and hurried to the door he held open for her. It appeared that their assault on the overmind was about to get underway. She reckoned whatever else one could say of the three gods, they couldn’t be accused of dragging their feet.

  Outside, under the wavering yellowish light, three gleaming black limousines were parked. Next to them stood a dozen armed men.

  Lee was shown to the middle car and ended up in the back seat squeezed between two goons in dark suits. Momentarily, the car she was in jolted forward and soon it was moving at high speed in close proximity to the other two vehicles.

  They traveled through a world devoid of stars. The three cars were the only source of light, illuminating a short stretch of black asphalt in front of them.

  Shortly, they were passing unlit houses spaced widely apart.

  A few minutes later, the cars came to a screeching halt next to a shadowy multistory house. The henchmen sprung out. Some opened the doors for the gods, others deployed themselves around the unlit house, blazing torches held high.

  Lee got out, but Frank laid a restraining hand on her shoulder. “This is as real as it gets, Lee. Even if this representation isn’t very reflective of the prime reality, of what actually unfolds.”

  She lowered her head in acknowledgment and got back into the car with some measure of relief, content to watch out the showdown between the human overmind and the three gods from the window.

  No one talked. The flames flickered and blazed.

  Submachine guns held at ready, the three gods walked toward the dark house. As if on cue, hundreds of beasts streamed out of it.

  They arrayed themselves, one row after another, forming a snarling, growling living wall in front of the house with innumerable teeth gleaming in the torch
light. To Lee, they resembled wild boars with wolverine snouts.

  With some of the beasts still rushing out of the house, the three gods opened up, spraying the house with bullets. Lee covered her ears. Above the roar of thousands of rounds being discharged and torrents of casings bouncing off the asphalt, she heard the occasional sharp sounds of glass shattering.

  Teeth bare, first a few, and then an ever-increasing number of the beasts slunk back or otherwise retreated. A few that held their ground were hit with shotgun slugs and were sent flying back, crashing through walls and windows.

  Then silence.

  Lee dared to raise her head. The shooting stopped. And the only sound she heard was the thud of her heartbeat. Through the clearing smoke, she saw the men heading back, the spent cartridges crunching under their feet, the beasts gone. She didn’t comprehend what she’d just seen, maybe she never would. But that much was clear: there was a cosmic showdown of some sort and the human overmind on Earth had been beaten.

  The ride back was as quiet as the ride in. This was just as well; Lee still had a ringing sound in her ears.

  Minutes later, she was ushered back to the kitchen, feeling somewhat revived and composed. The three gods were already seated, much as she’d first seen them.

  They turned to look at her. “Come here, kid,” said Frank and patted an empty stool placed between him and Vito.

  She joined them, and Frank poured each of them wine in small shot glasses. He raised his. “Salute!” he said. “Salute!” the others replied, and they all downed the drink as one.

  Vito the Barber came around the table and put a heavy arm on Lee’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s go for a little walk.” He led her toward the back door. He held it open, and they both stepped outside, the door shutting behind them with the distinct reverberating sound she’d heard before when crossing from one realm to another.

  They stood on a softly illuminated tiny patch of land surrounded by total blackness.

  She asked, “Is this where you dump the bodies?”

  Vito chuckled and his white teeth gleamed in the dark. “Speaking of which, I took care of the body you left behind in New Mexico—and all traces of him, both in your house and otherwise.”

  He extended one arm, and a path sprang ahead of them. The soft glow from the gravel under their feet was the only light in the world they inhabited.

  “The human overmind is out of the way. What happens next?” asked Lee in a low voice.

  “Now we organize a hearing, and the Earth people will be judged.”

  “By you?”

  He shook his head. “By their peers. This is how it always works.”

  “And if they are found, well, I mean if the verdict is not in their favor?”

  He glanced at her. “But you were told. You’ve always known.”

  “Yes,” she said and lowered her eyes.

  She thought some more. “Are you sending me back to Earth?”

  “If you want. Or I can send you home.”

  She stopped walking. “Home?” She felt a sudden spike of excitement coursing through her.

  “The parallel planet you went through in Sri Lanka island isn’t simply any old world; it’s your home world, Qataria. That was home, Lee.” But he could read in her mind that she’d known this.

  “Yes,” she whispered, “I’d like that very much.”

  They strolled some more, and she absently kicked at the gravel along the way.

  “And yet…” he offered, a suggestion of a smile in his voice.

  Her eyes flicked his way then back at the path. “And yet, the time is not right. I started something in motion, I ought to stay on Earth a bit longer.”

  “Lee, the hearing will not take place in a week or two,” Vito said, reading her surface thoughts. “It will take the survey groups a couple of years to research and collect data.”

  Lee bit her lip. “So be it,” she said. “I will stay.”

  “But of course,” Vito responded and stopped walking. “Whenever you are ready to move to Qataria, just say the word, Lee.” He tipped his hat her way.

  And she found herself seated on a sofa in her living room, back on Earth.

  Chapter 19

  The Foothills of Organ Mountains, New Mexico, Earth

  Two days later, someone knocked on her door.

  Lee opened it. Aratta stood at the doorway, dressed in a linen sum­mer-­­suit.

  They looked at each other, faintly smiling.

  “Won’t you come in?” said Lee, beaming. Aratta nodded and she led him to her drawing room.

  Lee padded barefoot to the kitchen and came back carrying some drinks. Aratta murmured his thanks and took one. She seated herself across from him.

  “I’ve heard about your meeting with the three gods,” opened Aratta. “How was it?”

  “Memorable,” she laughed. “But I think such encounters are best served in small portions.” She winked. “For little mortals like me, at any rate.”

  “Of course,” he said, a twinkle in his eye.

  Hagar was in touch with her the night before. It turned out that after Lee got herself through the rift on Earth, Aratta and Hagar transported themselves to the netherworld, where they waited out the anticipated storm between the higher powers. Lee had recounted to Hagar her bizarre experience of the cosmic battle that ensued among the gods, but evidently it was not anything that Hagar and Aratta registered in the netherworld. All the same, as the clash came to an end, and the overmind defeated, they could move at will between worlds, once again.

  Lee sipped and then regarded Aratta.

  “I’ve wanted to ask you something ever since Haiti,” she said, putting the drink down. “Why did you do it? I mean with Hagar, back in the 1930s.”

  Aratta stared off into the distance. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  “Which was what?”

  His eyes focused on her. “I always had this uneasy feeling that we have been too quick on the trigger; we’ve convened hearings and have made rulings before humanity had a chance to transcend its adolescence. Through the ages, I have brought it up several times, suggesting we wait a few decades once mankind enters the phase in which knowledge explodes and the pace of progress takes off, but each time Hagar rejected such an idea out of hand. That is, she didn’t want to postpone a hearing once the conditions on a given planet turned dire.”

  “So this time you have decided to take—what’s the word?—unilateral action.”

  Aratta gave Lee a level look. “Fabricating the reports that reached Hagar and deceiving her for years felt utterly wretched. But more was at stake than infuriating Hagar.” His eyes had a faraway look. “Things on Earth did not play out as I’d hoped. But they could have. There was no real way to know ahead of time. It is conceivable that during the all-critical twentieth century, humanity would have embarked on an ecologically-regenerative economic path.”

  Lee pondered it. “What about the next planet assignment? Would you want to—”

  “No. The stakes for the biosphere are too high. If not for my interference and fabricated reports, we would have pulled the plug on things and had a hearing about a hundred years ago. Ecologically, the world was a different place then. I feel one time it had to be tried on one planet, and that ecologically one time is all that should be accorded.”

  “I probably would have done likewise,” admitted Lee. “All of it.”

  They shared a brief smile.

  “Then there is the matter of your accomplices,” said Lee. “I presume they belonged to the same organization that sent someone to take me out.”

  Aratta made a dismissive gesture. “Yes, and I will tell you about the original group members another time. No need to sully a perfectly beautiful morning with this piece of ancient history. They are long gone.

  “The thugs you and Hagar hav
e taken out were little more than unwitting accomplices. They followed instructions laid out decades earlier, carrying out orders of men long dead, and paid out by an elaborate system that drew funds from a fat bank account set up generations before. You took out some of them. And while you and Hagar were enjoying the hospitality of El Shaddai, I took out the rest. It’s over.”

  “How did they track me down?”

  He grimaced. “A century ago, I equipped the original group with a tracking device, a stripped-down version of the bracelet you wear. Frankly, I all but forgot about its existence.”

  Aratta gave Lee a smile that sent her pulse racing. “Hagar told me yesterday about the sleeper agents she had put in place.” He looked at her with amused wonder. “The agents that ended up saving us all.” He gave her a bemused look. “We both owe you a debt of gratitude.” He stood up, bowed, and then hand-kissed her.

  Lee felt herself blushing. She wasn’t sure what to say.

  He sat back down and fixed her with a curious stare. “You are not truly from Earth, are you?”

  She regarded him for a moment, then shook her head.

  “Where then?”

  “Lee is short for Lee’chelle. My actual name is Lee’chelle Lainraad.”

  He looked startled. “Your parents were from Qataria?”

  “Yes.”

  “But...Earth was isolated, and Hagar brought no one to Earth since at least 1914.”

  “It was 1866. That was when she brought them. Come, let me show you.”

  She took him to the basement. Her bracelet glowed and part of the wall dematerialized, revealing a small room behind it. Two vacant stasis boxes rested there.

  “Three married young couples came from Qataria. Two of the three couples were in timefold, one couple was active and about,” she was telling him. “In 1915, the active couple grew old and deactivated one of the stasis boxes, letting another pair take over. The same thing basically took place in 1963, when the second team became old.”

  Aratta nodded in understanding as Lee continued, “Hagar was no­where in sight. The years went by, and the third, last couple was run­ning out of options. They decided to do something that was not in the plan. They decided to conceive a child to keep the sleeper-agent operation going a little while longer—and before they were too old to do so. That was me, I was born in 1970. My parents died in a car crash in 1984, when I was fourteen. I was the last of the line. Mom wished to have more kids, but had complications during delivery, and there were to be no more.”