“What’s that?”
“He doesn’t seem capable of harming anything?”
“Huh?”
“Whatever he is, some kind of protector of the Earth, he has to do it without harming anything.”
“Oh God. How the hell’s he supposed to protect something without being able to stop it properly?”
“Maybe he believes in more than using fire to destroy fire?”
“I don’t understand how he can …”
“If you act as your enemy acts, then you become like your enemy, you become the enemy.”
“Then what becomes of you?”
“Can’t beat em, join em …?”
“Maybe.” Lucinda seemed to stare off into space.
“Ok, so this thread thing,” Marion asked, still touching the coffin. “The first event, which was Fahwad being restored, resulted in the deaths of all of those people around the world?”
“Think of it more like this. When Fahwad and the threads here perished because of the flood, their life force poured out into the world and, over time, co-mingled with that of man’s, to create us somehow. Fahwad was already mingling himself with the people of Atlantis.”
“Shit, so I am … we are ...” Marion mused.
“All a part of something greater?”
“Well, it just seems so far-fetched.”
“Is it though? Take this glass of water,” Lucinda held up a nearby glass. “If I pour this into the dirt what happens?”
“It gets absorbed into the earth.”
“Which then does what?”
“Hmmm ... I’m guessing you want me to say it helps to grow plants?”
“Well, in a manner of speaking yes. Water and earth and seed create plant, then an animal eats the plant, another animal eats the animal that ate the plant, that animal dies and fertilizes the soil to create plant again. The circle of life continues, right?”
“Yeah, but ...”
“So, water creates life right?”
“Yes, in a manner of speaking.”
“The Earth had a new kind of water so to speak. When the threads perished it fertilized man.”
“So, by them coming here, the thread sort of moulded with human beings?”
“Enhanced what was already here, over time the two life forces bonded together and became one, a collective consciousness.”
“What? I thought you meant that they created us?”
“They are what changed us into what we are today, faster, stronger and much more capable of critical thinking. But not smart enough to know who we were or how to protect our own planet … the very place we existed. The new man may have been blessed with amazing intelligence, but it was also embodied with something at its core that made it dangerous to the Earth.”
“Greed?”
“Ego. It caused us to detach from our environment, our place. All of what we’ve done to the Earth has come about because of ego. Ego created ownership and therefore jealousy. Ego created greed and pride. Ego has slowly driven man insane and detached him from the world he depends on to survive.”
“You know at one stage I believe humans were in symbiosis with the Earth, cohabitating just as all other animals here do. Then we suddenly jumped forward in evolution one day, going from nomadic cavemen chasing mammoths to narcissistic drones working with Nano Technology?”
“Surely not because of that, surely it’s just natural evolution.”
“Well how about this then, have you ever considered that no other species, being or whatever has ever been as knowingly devastating to its environment as us. Almost everything on this planet acts in some sort of symbiosis, but humans, we don’t. We mine the earth, fell entire forests, overfish and pollute our waters, we’ve changed the rotation of the Earth, we created money and enslaved the many to satisfy the greed of the few. The list goes on … other similar species have predators, we have none.”
“Shit, you’re right. It’s almost as if we don’t really belong here, we’re like an infection, eating the Earth, consuming it to fulfil our own egotistical needs.”
“Yes, consuming ... until one day, there’s nothing left.”
“If I hadn’t have seen all those threads though, I’m not sure I’d even believe you.”
“What?”
“The threads, I’ve seen firsthand what people have done over the years. The greed, the filth, the things people will do to each other just to get ahead, just to improve their status. You’ve seen, especially with all this internet crap, how narcissism has grown like a plague on man. Jeepers Lucinda, I don’t even want to know what comes next.”
“When they came here, it changed us somehow and not for the good, it has upset the balance of this planet and has been steadily causing its demise over time.”
“And I’m a part of this?”
“Indeed, we all are.”
“You’ve known this all along?”
“No, I told you, it was only recently I discovered Sera, and from there have been learning more and more every day.”
“So the coffin?”
Lucinda continued. “From what Samuel told me he wants to rule this planet and then one day return to his own planet, as a God.”
“Typical,” Marion huffed.
“Well … I don’t know.”
“Do you know what we have to do next?”
“I do.” Lucinda bowed her head.
“What?”
“You’re not going to like it.”
“Hmmm … I never do.”
“We have to bring back Sera … well, you will need to bring back Sera.”
“Me?”
“Never has a species been so self-aware and yet still ignorant of its impact on its environment. What if the fate of the Earth rested on your decision, on your willingness to self-terminate in order to preserve something else? Would you do it? Would you wipe out the many to preserve the greater good? Sacrifice yourself for something bigger?”
Marion paused as she contemplated what Lucinda said, for it was not an easy thing to consider. Bringing back Sera meant potentially killing millions, or even billions of people. Twice this had already occurred on Earth and now Lucinda was asking her help to make it a third. Did she really want to be a part of something that was going to be responsible for so many deaths?
Did she really want to help wipe out the human race?
But then she realised they weren’t really deaths, for in fact it was just a reversal of life, kind of like winding the clock backwards on evolution.
“I need to think about this, I ...”
“What’s to think about, the fate of the Earth rests on your decision. Your finger on the throat of everyone …”
“So simple.”
“Let me ask you a question, do you think we belong here?”
“Yes.”
“Wait, what?”
“Whatever it was that created us then it created us here. So we are indelibly a part of here, meaning the Earth.”
“Huh. I didn’t think of it like that.”
“It’d be like if we went to Mars and took a whole bunch of water, tipped it on its surface and allowed life to do its thing, as you explained before. This water would create life and then what? One day we come back and we just take away whatever it created? That’s what you’re asking me to do now, Lucinda.”
“Yes, you’re right,” she admitted. “But what about if the water you dropped on Mars eventually turned out to be bad for it. What if that water sprouted humans who then went on to pillage all the natural resources of the planet, ruining it? Threatening its very existence.”
“So now you’re saying I should do this because humans are a plague on the Earth?”
“Well, we are, that’s a fact. No other lifeform on this planet is responsible for things like global warming, pollu
tion, continental shifts.”
“Continental shifts!?”
“The threads, they are literally splitting the Earth Marion.”
“Oh bullocks!”
“Believe what you want, but it’s true. Whilst we may be lifeforms, what right do we really have to exist here in an environment we continue to destroy?”
“Well why does it have to be me that has to make the choice?”
“It is what it is Marion.”
“Why don’t you do it?”
“I am,” she leaned forward knowingly.
“Huh?”
“Where do you think all that energy is going to?”
“You want me to transfer it to you?”
Lucinda nodded.
“That’s not possible.”
“It is.”
“You’ll die with all that energy!”
“So will many others, but I give myself to the greater good.”
“Lucinda, this is insane!”
“Sera will become me and I will become a small part of her.”
“And what about me?”
“You’re a part of this too Marion.”
Marion bowed her head, running her hands along the edges of the coffin. No amount of thinking or debating was going to change Lucinda’s mind. Even though Marion felt she was right, she had to be the voice of reason. Someone had to at least question this.
“What?” Lucinda asked, wondering what the look on Marion’s face was.
“I can’t do this.”
“You don’t have a choice here.”
“Of course I do. I can refuse if I want to.”
“Do you really want to do that?
“Like I said, I can if I want.”
“Marion, this is something far greater than you or I. You wanted redemption? Well here it is.”
Marion had to agree, she hated that Lucinda was right most of the time.
“Well, what will happen when I do it?”
“I told you already.”
“You become the thread right, Sera will be you?”
She nodded her head.
“And that will be it?”
“Yep.”
“Well, I ... I …” Marion struggled to find words.
“What?” Lucinda said impatiently.
“Well, then is this the last time that we ... you know, see each other?”
“Sera will take over, she will stop him, and yes, this is probably goodbye.”
“Hmmm …” she exhaled loudly. “Well I can’t say it’s been pleasant.”
“Stuff you too Marion,” Lucinda smiled.
“I will say one thing though …”
“What’s that?”
“I was right and you were wrong.”
“About what?”
“You can’t beat em, you join em.”
“Huh?”
“Think about it … what are you about to do?” she asked with a knowing smile on her face.
“You know what Marion,” Lucinda smiled back. “I think you’re right.”
- -
RECALLING
destiny
CAtlin
“Catlin! Can you hear me?” came an urgent call, via a walkie talkie Catlin held in her hand.
“Sousa? What?” she replied unexpectantly.
“He’s coming ja!” came the shouted reply, cackling over the radio.
“What?” She shifted on the lounge room couch, searching for where she’d placed the remote for the explosives.
“Now Cat, do it now!”
“What? I’m not ready, what’s …” She spotted the remote over by the window and raced over to grab it.
“Now Catlin, no time, do it, do it now!” he shouted again. “He’s coming!”
She didn’t think, only acted. Spurred on by Sousa’s erratic voice, she undid the safety latch on a small metallic device and slammed down on the button with the palm of her hand. The effect was immediate, a sharp crack popping on the exterior of the building in response.
The explosion was intended to split cables they’d affixed high in the skyline and once the detonation had severed them from the building, the cable spooled out rapidly and the net they’d built began to drop.
Her task complete, she looked over the edge of the window, taking in the scene unfolding rapidly outside the apartment. She could only marvel as she saw the immensity of their work come to fruition.
The thirty-foot-wide steel net they’d created had been cast. It’d been suspended on a slightly vertical diagonal axis and Catlin had just severed the uppermost part from the building. The top two cables, now detached, caused the net to fall downwards, pulled along by massive weights secured on the ends.
It was designed to cause a traverse effect, as the top two cables descended and passed the bottom two cables, which were secured at a distance of ten metres. The fall from the top two cables would cause the entire net to swing downwards with its momentum and then sideways as it neared the city floor, sweeping up anything in its path. At this point, Sousa was to detonate the second charge, thus dropping the net to the ground with their targets hopefully inside.
After constructing the cable and net, they’d cleared the street below to prevent any obstacles blocking its path and had waited. All they needed was for the pretty boy to waltz back into the street, to catch him in their trap.
Catlin watched it fall with a sense of pride, proud of something she’d a hand in building. She looked over to the opposite side in hopes of spotting Sousa, but could find no trace of him. He wasn’t in the apartment opposite like he said he would be and she felt a tinge of regret, she had grown to enjoy his company the past few days.
Despite the awkwardness of the first night the two had worked together, in relative silence, but also as if one. Catlin was unsure if this was due to her feelings of abandonment or something else, for she was indeed attracted to the man. Something about his gruff demeanour made her feel safe, made her feel protected.
She peered over the ledge, back down into the street and made out two figures below her, wait! What! Two people?
Shit, she thought to herself. Sousa said there was only meant to be one person to catch, he said he was going to lure Yonas into the trap. Catlin squinted her eyes, trying to make out who the two of them were but she was too far away to discern any features.
Feeling a little panicked she called into her radio. “Sousa, do you copy?”
No answer on the walkie she held tightly. She tried again, “Sousa, do you copy?”
Still no answer, she cursed loudly, “Sousa, there are two people down there, do you hear me? There are two people down there! We need to stop it, Sousa? We’ve got the wrong people!”
After she realised Sousa wasn’t going to answer she started to doubt herself, but wondered if there was anything she could do to stop it anyway. Their plan was simple, create a net to capture their prey and now it was playing out in front of her with no means of stopping it.
In only a matter of moments the two unsuspecting people below her would be caught.
She felt like an idiot, thinking the man would’ve been alone.
Sousa said he was going to spring the trap when the time was right, that this was the best way to capture the pretty one. Catlin had questioned his means, asking if perhaps there was a simpler way. But Sousa had told her of the power the pretty boy possessed and that no conventional means were going to work.
Catlin called him again on the radio. “Sousa? Can you hear me?”
But it was futile and she knew it, the top cables were moving too quickly and would ensnare the two people below them easily, exactly as Sousa had intended it.
The severed cables came to the ground and swung fast under the weights, moving in a sweeping arch movement that looked as if
it was brushing the street as it swung.
Catlin realised the net wasn’t going to hit the ground though, the secondary charges Sousa was meant to blow didn’t go off. Fearful of the outcome, she quickly stuck her head out and shouted a warning to the street below.
They must have heard her call, for she saw them both stop in their tracks and look up to where Catlin was at the window. But before anyone could react, the tight steel wire, with gravity hurtling it on, swung straight through the two unsuspecting people.
The cable continued its arching trajectory, past them.
Oh thank God it missed them!
The two people stood momentarily, completely still as the net passed by, but to Catlin’s horror they did not remain standing, instead they both dropped to the ground unsteadily.
They did not move.
Catlin didn’t waste any time in thought, she rushed out the door, anxious to get to the street below.
She hit the ground floor in a great hurry and headed towards the buildings exit. Just as she was about to jump onto the street she heard the twang of the cable, followed by a warning shout from Sousa. “Catlin, stop right there!”
She halted straight away and stood still, wide eyed as the cable net swung past her in another powerful arch. She composed herself and watched as the net they’d created swung back and forth like a pendulum, sweeping the floor of the street as it went.
“Keep an eye out for it hey!” Sousa called out. “It’s not so bad now, but just watch for it. Here, walk around.” He instructed.
She followed it cautiously and realised he was right, it was moving slowly now, but still enough to sweep her off her feet. She manoeuvred over to the other side where Sousa was waiting for her, running straight into his arms.
“What happened?” she asked him. “I thought you were going to blow the second cables, wasn’t that the whole point?”
“The cable, it didn’t pop and the net didn’t fall properly. I had no time, I was here in the street.”
“Why didn’t the second cable blow?”
“Ja, I don’t know hey.”
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