The Gray Ones appeared all around the huge hole, their blank faces evoking a sense of apprehension in their human minion down below.
“Thank you,” Carl Bain said, standing up with gratitude. He nodded at the demonic leader materializing in the hole with him. “Yes, I’ll do whatever you want me to do. I won’t fail you again.”
* * *
Again, there were prophecies and rumor mongering by proponents of war. In X35.08.30, the nuclear arms race boasted a total of 500 countries, while only four nations had the most advanced explosive weaponry. Up to this date, science and technology had enjoyed a dizzying period of mind-boggling discoveries and inventions that had changed the world for the better, causing the addition of economics, climate and environmental activism to the list of job descriptions detailed at the World Museum of Redundant Occupations.
The best brains in mega companies had kept up the so-called techno-scientific revolution by filling the world with inventions of such brilliance that even better energy sources were deemed necessary for the good of all.
A need eventually fulfilled by the discovery of commercial quantities of Compound V, which finally banished nuclear energy to the doomsday list of destructive matter and gave rise to better vehicles with which Mankind could visit other planets and go beyond charted galaxies. The discovery of this cheap and efficient energy source also evolved communication gadgetry so much as to usher in the age of TelepathyG, rendering XiG obsolete, and making mind control communication a possibility.
Of course, the smartphone, the generic car module, and the jet engine lost their relevance after this milestone, becoming ancient relics fit for only collectors, artistic playboys and the halls and corridors of the world’s most renowned museums.
In the field of Planetology, the Earth headquartered the Federation of Earth-like Planets or FEP. This body coordinated the various Earth-like discoveries Mankind had made over the years, making the advances in science and technology available to the many companies investigating new planets with habitable promise. However, despite the marathon breakthroughs supporting world development and galactic frontiers, these Earth-like planets struggled with enormous challenges in their terraforming processes and were yet to be the viable vehicles of human migration their billionaire founders envisaged. Hence, primary Earth’s population could only be controlled until techno-science could make these potentially habitable planets habitable. The science of population control became the golden egg and companies looking into population control sprouted all over the globe.
Technology for Population Control or TPC had research facilities in almost all the capitals of the world.
Kimberley woke up in such a research facility.
“What’s this place?” the Portwood sergeant demanded, looking at the woman standing before her and holding her hand. “Mariah? Is-Is that you?”
“Yes, Kim,” Mariah replied. “In this establishment, I am an enhanced biologist and you’re my personal body guard.”
“Personal guard? H-How did we get here?”
“One of your friends must have written your name in the book, dragging you forward in time to this future. I was lucky to have correctly identified what was happening and grab your hand back in India when you started seeing double.”
Kimberley marveled at the sci-fi environment all around her. The elevating platform with no cables attached. The transparent wall panels adequately equipped for TelepathyG communication. The revolving security doors opening at the wave of a hand. The mini no-wheels platform transporting individuals and groups of individuals around the large hallway. She also marveled at the fact that she knew the principles behind these technologies. “Why do I think that today is X35.08.30?”
“Because, you’re right,” Mariah said. “Look, it took me some time to figure out who I am and how I got here, but we don’t have time to lose. Rachel and the boy will be looking for you right now and we don’t want to keep them waiting.”
Kimberley followed her. “Where’re we going?”
“To my office. We’ll be safe in there.”
“From the Gray Ones? They’re demons, remember?”
“Yes, I do. I was talking about their human servant.”
“The ankh can defend us against…”
“The cross, you mean…”
“Whatever,” Kimberley let out. “We just need a sharpie or some indelible ink.”
“I have some markers in my office,” Mariah said before the footsteps behind her stopped. “What now?” she asked her body guard, turning to see why the other woman had stopped.
Kimberley heard a freezing sound to her left. She stared as the rotating doors swung round and vomited two men into the lobby. They were dressed like her. “Something’s going on here apart from population research, right?”
“You’re a security personnel here. You should know,” Mariah said, turning away.
“Yeah, I knew what they were doing before you touched me,” Kimberley agreed, moving forward. “I’m just knowing again after you touched me.” Technology for Population Control might as well be The Plutonium Company.
Mariah’s cozy office had a small lab attached to it. “There is talk of war, Kim,” she said, looking for a sharpie in her drawers. “That’s why TPC is now producing weapons grade Plutonium-239.”
“The primary fissile material for nuclear weapons in the’90s. Why are they still using it?”
“Cause it still works,” Mariah said, drawing a cross on her arms and handing over the marker.
Kimberley drew ankhs on her arms. “What next?”
“We look for the kids.”
“Okay.”Kimberley saw the futuristic weapon hanging on the wall near Mariah’s window and took it down.
“Yeah, it’s yours,” Mariah replied to her inquisitive look. “You left it there before you went out this afternoon.”
“And you followed me outside, intending to change me when I wasn’t armed.”
“The proper precaution,” Mariah murmured.
“Okay, you have a point there.” Kimberley looked the weapon over and ‘rewarmed’ it. She marveled at the word. “Lazer?”
“Yes,” Mariah said. “High grade lazer. It kills instantly.” She picked her lab’s coded keys from her desk and closed her blinds by waving her hands. “Let’s go.”
“Where are we, exactly?”
“K9235.88.”
“Is that supposed to be the name of a city or what?”
“Cities have no names now. They ditched that a long time ago.”
“Yes, I know,” Kimberley agreed, scratching her head. “We should be in…”
“C’mon, girl,” her mistress urged her. “We have no time to waste.”
Outside, the streamlined boxes floating on the major roads and gliding past at breakneck speeds baffled Kimberley. “What’s the tech behind that?” she wondered.
“Elevator V,” Mariah replied, stopping before what should be a car park. Only more of the streamlined boxes lined the space from end to end. Mariah pressed a button on her key and one of the boxes beeped. “There’s my system.”
“You mean your car, right?”
“Vehicle is a better word.”
“Wow.”
Silent motors swung open the system’s doors and Mariah entered first. Kimberley noted the four stands jutting out of the vehicle’s four edges to keep it above ground before she joined her friend inside. Mariah’s lean figure sat on one of the opposing long sofas stretching across the system’s sparsely lit interior. “No controls?” Kimberley asked as she sat down. “So what do we do now?”
“I want to use the system’s UTS1 to track down your friends.”
“Aiden and Rachel? Have you noticed there are so many boys and girls on the streets outside right now? Holding hands?”
“UTS1 is a Universal Tracking System,” the Sikama explained, typing orders into a TelepathyG screen she materialized on her right arm. “It also measures human vital signs so we won’t miss any heightened heart
rates or blood pressure levels coming from any boy and girl duo on the streets.”
Kimberley gaped at the virtual TelepathyG screen. How did Mariah do that?
“Found them!” the other woman said. “They’re heading over to Street K9235.80 right now.”
The streamlined vehicle came to life and left the ground. Kimberley heard humming as the cube system retracted its four legs and left the park. “Sure it’s the kids?”
“Nope, but it’s worth checking out.”
“No driver?”
Mariah frowned at Kimberley.
“Of course, I knew that.” A nervous giggle followed.
The streamlined box swooped out of the area and joined other Elevator Vs on the main road. Mariah charted a route on her TelepathyG screen and the mysterious technology disappeared into her wrist band.
The Elevator V arrived at what looked like a school district. “We’re here,” Mariah said. “Keep your eyes open for your friends. A boy and a girl wearing brown and green cardigans respectively. They will…”
“Aiden! Rachel!” Kimberley moved to open the vehicle’s magic doors and they peeled back automatically. “Good to see you guys again.”
“Kim!” Rachel shouted, running towards the police officer. “I thought we’ve lost you.”
Kimberley hugged the little girl. “It’s okay, dear. I’m still here. A lot has happened since we parted ways after Greenland.” Aiden didn’t look too glad to see her again.
“Hi,” he said timidly.
“Hi,” she replied with a smile. Awkward.
“Mariah!” Rachel shouted, jolting Aiden. She hugged the Bookmaker and turned to Aiden. “Remember Mariah?”
“Why not?” Aiden blurted out, hands in pocket. “Who wouldn’t?” He thought of his mother.
“What’s wrong with him?” Mariah asked Rachel. “What has happened since I last met you guys?”
“A lot,” Kimberley and Rachel chorused.
“We brought Kim here with the book,” Aiden explained. “Then we came to her.”
“And I tagged along,” Mariah said. “I hope it will be worth it.”
“The world is…preparing for war?” Rachel asked herself. “Read that from someone’s TelepathyG screen right now.”
“Yeah, there are war rumblings. Two countries want to go to war,” Mariah said. “They’ve been showcasing their various weapons, both nuclear and conventional.”
“And how did you know that?” Aiden asked.
“I’m an enhanced biologist,” the Sikama said, “and my company is now building nuclear weapons.”
“Wow,” Aiden said. “We can leave this place right now?”
“I’m a guard in the research facility where Mariah works,” Kimberley added. Nobody laughed. “What now? Where do we go from here?”
Mariah cleared her throat. “We have to…”
“I wonder whether Aunt Shira and Uncle Ezra were right about the other book,” Rachel cut in. “Is it still here with us on Earth or has the Booklords taken it?”
“But I told you, dear,” Mariah began. “Shurabi and Aiden’s visions of the black book point us to the truth.”
“Your version of the truth,” Kimberley corrected.
“The truth, Kim,” Mariah emphasized. “David Hoyte and Aunt Shira lied to you.”
Kimberley frowned. “You killed those people in cold blood, Mariah.”
“Killed which people?” Rachel began.
“All in the past,” Mariah said. “I did it to help us in a tight spot in India, Kim.”
Kimberley’s frown deepened. “It’s not…”
“You were in India?” Rachel asked her, eyeing Mariah. The little girl no longer trusted the Bookmaker.
Kimberley sighed. “Uh, yes, we…”
Rachel disappeared.
“Where did she go now?” Aiden wondered, looking around.
“And she has the book!” Kimberley cried.
“No, she doesn’t.” Aiden raised the volume for her to see.
“Is that…”
“The book?” Aiden helped. “Turned into this gadget when we arrived here.”
“The books can evolve,” Mariah explained. “They change with the times.”
“So what just happened to Rachel?” Aiden asked her.
“Someone with paper from the book just wrote her name on it,” Kimberley reasoned. “We have to go to her through her name on the book.”
Aiden frowned. “Which one?”
“Anyone,” Kimberley said. She took the book from the boy and flipped it on. “Hold hands, everyone.”
“Remember your gun,” Mariah told her, going into the Elevator V and coming out with the weapon.
“Really? Do we need it?” Aiden asked.
“The weapon could become another weapon,” Mariah said. “It has happened to me.”
Kimberley slung the futuristic weapon over her right shoulder and opened the white book again. She searched for Rachel’s name and scrolled down to it. The name had a bluish glow and she marveled at this phenomenon. “Hold hands,” she repeated and pressed the glowing name with her right thumb once she knew the others had obeyed her directive.
As usual, flashing scenes sped past and a crazy wind sucked the three individuals into a vortex. Darkness finally swallowed everything.
Chapter 32: Two Factions of the Sikama Coin
BRIGHT light enveloped the three time-travelers and they realized a different environment surrounded them when their eyes adjusted to the light. It all looked like the hold of a cargo plane.
“Rachel!” Aiden called out.
“Aiden, let’s know where we are and the dangers we face before you announce our presence,” Mariah whispered.
“Sorry.”
Kimberley turned to Aiden. He wore a brown ensemble with so many zips and futuristic gadgetry, and held a kind of spongy sophisticated tool she had never seen before. “What’s with the overall?” she asked him.
“What’s with the military uniform?” he asked her, nodding towards Mariah.
Kimberley noticed that the other woman wore a white version of the tight-fitting blue garb she had on.
This uniform had a speaker TelepathyGi unit held in place by Mariah’s right ear. A high collar attached to a broad band wrapped around Mariah’s neck, while stiff shoulder protectors held in place by visible bands underneath the Bookmaker’s armpits covered both shoulders.
Mariah’s uniform tapered down to her waist and broadened beneath a black belt lined with small bags and a pistol’s holster. The leotard-like attire extended down to her legs and ended inside tough-looking boots.
“Looks like we’re in a plane,” Kimberley whispered.
“We’ll be in one if we had gone back in time,” Mariah pointed out.
“We’re in a spaceship,” Aiden said, looking around him. “A very big one.”
“And you have a very big gun, Kim,” Mariah said.
“Oh.” Kimberley realized she held an enormous black futuristic gun with a cube-shaped muzzle emanating a bluish glow. Display buttons letting off blue light lined the sides of this super equipment, making squeaky computerized sounds as they brightened and dimmed. “Wonder how to use this thing,” Kimberley said. “It has no trigger.”
“Check out the black button on the side,” Mariah said.
The blue flash wheezed out from the weapon’s muzzle and disintegrated the equipment sitting before them as well as the table on which sat this equipment. Kimberley’s mouth remained open.
“Hey, we have intruders in Cargo Bay 2!” the speaker above their heads cranked out before falling silent again.
Aiden frowned. “Intruders?”
“I think that means us,” Mariah said, looking around. “We need to get out of here.” She drew her pistol and admired it. “Hmmmmmm.”
“There’s the door,” Kimberley pointed out, moving towards a square outline on the white wall. “No handle, how do we open it?”
The door slid open and the three time-travel
ers froze in their tracks. Those outside the bay also paused in motion.
“That’s how,” Aiden said.
“She has a Q-gun!” one of the men on the other side of the door realized. “Open fire!”
Kimberley pushed Aiden away from a lazer blast, diving in the opposite direction. She fell behind cargo as she saw Mariah shooting at the newcomers while dodging lazer fire. Raising the Q-gun, the Portwood sergeant swung it out around the wooden crate protecting her and saw her opponents scatter like flies. She hadn’t even opened fire!
“Run for your lives! Abandon ship!” the speaker above crackled.
“Abandon ship?” Aiden looked at Kimberley across the bay behind some cargo. “They fear your gun, Kim.”
“Yes, they do,” Mariah chuckled.
“Why am I wearing the same uniform with these people?” Aiden wondered.
“We’ll find out soon enough,” Kimberley allayed.
“There they go, running like rabbits,” Mariah said, looking out through the many round windows surrounding a part of the storage compartment. Escape pods were flipping out of the space vessel in droves.
“Rachel!” Aiden shouted again.
“That may not be her name here,” Mariah told him.
“Why did they call us intruders?” Kimberley wondered, picking herself up.
“That’s the question we need to ask,” Mariah said, looking at the wall near the door. Her attention had been drawn to a symbol on this part of the wall. “Look at that,” she told the others.
“Look at what?” Kimberley asked.
“It’s an ankh symbol,” Aiden said.
“It’s a relief on the white wall,” Mariah said.
“So?” Kimberley looked at the white wall.
“Keener eyes would have missed it.”
“And?”
“It’s an ankh, Kim. My Sikama faction goes with the cross symbol, remember?”
“Yeah, I remember,” Kimberley admitted.
“And why is that important?” Aiden asked.
“There are two factions of the Sicarii Kabbalah Masada with two conflicting theories about the meaning of the hidden Hebrew words in the two books,” Kimberley explained. “Mariah’s faction protects themselves from the Booklords using the cross symbol instead of the ankh.”
The White Book Page 38