Sophia noticed. "You're tired. We'll continue at another time".
"I want to know," he insisted.
"Are you sure"?
"Yes"!
"Einstein also showed that matter and energy are two sides of the same phenomenon. The atom bombs that destroyed the Earth in the Human-Gods Wars turned matter into devastating energy".
"Which wars?" He asked.
"It's not important right now." Her face sobered. "We'll get back to it at some point. Have you had enough for now"? Sophia smiled understandingly. She knew it was a lot to take in the first time.
"I can go on." His head ached, but he wanted to stay close to her.
She stared at him as an unfamiliar feeling washed over her like a wave. 'Who are you? Why did you come to me? What is the cosmos trying to tell me through you?' she thought. "Einstein showed in the end that gravity is the slope that mass creates in space. Until then, it wasn't clear that different phenomena in the universe are actually just different aspects of the same thing. In Einstein's time it also became clear that gravity and space are different aspects of one thing".
"I think I understand," said the stranger, but his expression was hesitant.
"What did you understand"?
"Einstein showed that time and space are one, energy and matter are one, and gravity and space are one. Einstein must have been the biggest genius of them all," he said, and she smiled in approval.
"Almost. We haven’t reached Orpheus yet." She was satisfied with his ability to take things in. "I'm telling you all of this so that you can understand the greatness of Orpheus, the truth that is the base of the Pythagorean faith, and how the particle processor works".
"So what did Orpheus discover"?
"We'll get to that in due course. Ready to continue"?
"Yes." He no longer felt at all tired.
"The Superstring theory explained that energy, mass, space, speed, gravity, and even time, are all made of particles. The most basis particle that everything is made of is the string. It is two-dimensional, in other words a line, and it has two properties; length and vibration frequency".
"Okay," he nodded.
"The string's length and vibration speed, or its palpitation, give it its properties as a particle in time, space, gravity, and so on".
"I think my brain is turning into a homogenous mush. Further proof for unity." He smiled. Thanks to the information, he felt better, and now he felt less detached. At the same time, it appeared that her presence undermined his stability: when he listened to her, talked with her and looked at her, something inside of him wanted to break free.
"We'll carry on another time," her smile charmed him.
Thales felt uneasy and ashamed. He had never dreamed of following the stationmaster without her knowledge. If the truth be known, he had intended to follow the stranger, but since she devoted a large part of her time to him, it ended up that he was following her too. The tiny camera installed on the mechanical mosquito broadcasted their conversation to the holographic space in the simulator. He felt uneasy when Sophia gave details about the station to the stranger, who had still not been clarified as not being a Gnostic spy. She explained to him the cosmic importance of the station; explained with shining eyes the movement of the spheres as part of the universe and its mathematical rules. She painted Samos as a manmade universe, as being part of the work of creation. An un-ascetic jealousy bubbled up in his gut when he heard the enthusiasm in her voice, like the excitement she showed at the beauty of nature in the simulator. Suddenly, he saw in the hologram that the two were making their way towards the simulator in which he was sitting. He just managed to turn off the simulator before they entered.
"Thales – our head scout, meet… our guest".
Thales tried to be friendly despite the feeling of asphyxiation in his throat. "Welcome to Samos. Well, what do you think of us, the Pythagoreans"?
"It's very pleasant and orderly here. Sophie is treating me wonderfully," he said innocently, and was surprised to see Thales's face turn sour.
"We're looking for a thread of memory which will help our guest get his memory back. Would you be willing to go through our historical databases with him?" requested Sophia.
"Of course," Thales replied. The opportunity we waited for came his way.
"Well then, I'll leave you to it and get back to my own business." She turned to the stranger, "I'm sure Thales will be able to answer all your questions." She hoped the meeting between the two would cool off Thales's hostility.
"Has Sophia told you about the simulator?" Thales asked, playing dumb.
"Yes".
"In that case, we'll start with the Human-Gods Wars".
They sat in the space of the simulator, sunken in soft silk cocoons and blanketed with a homogeneous cobalt-blue color. The stranger felt like he was in a spaceship, moving at great speed in the holographic space towards a planet with hues of blue, green, brown and white. The narration began:
"Dismal Earth. The place where the human race came into being and where it also annihilated itself. In the year 2050, the majority of Earth's population was split between two main governing blocs: Christianity, headed by the United States of America, and Islam, headed by the United Arab Nations." Different colors covered parts of the globe according to the areas of control. "Then began the regional wars." Pyres on the borders between the blocs emitted smoke and fire. "The economic gaps and the neocolonialist standpoint of Christianity aroused the loathing of Islam, and caused a renewal of the theological rivalry of the Crusades from the end of the first and second millennia".
"Stop at any point you'd like me to expand on," said Thales.
"Thank you, I'm listening," the stranger replied politely.
The simulator continued. "In the past, Christianity had had a clear technological advantage, but this all changed after a series of ecological holocausts that left the Christian technological development behind, and allowed Islam to catch up to it and arm itself at an accelerated pace. Islam provided its believers with a messianic belief that constituted a human advantage in the global struggle. Starting in the year 2050, for a decade, the Muslim majority won the democratic elections, starting in France and Serbia, and then in Russia, Turkey, Greece, and the rest of the Balkan states. China was making a profit from the struggles, and therefore did not intervene. These countries united under the name 'The United Arab Nations', and put an end to the Christian supremacy that had kept a relative peace until that point. In the year 2062, the first of a series of wars broke out, eventually called The Human-Gods' Wars. In these wars, two-thirds of Earth's population was killed in the two opposing camps. The majority of the losses were caused by ecological damage; poisoning of water, air and food".
"That's terrible," he murmured. He appeared at peace, but he was shocked inside. He tried to imagine a "global struggle". He saw smoking spaces, littered with millions of dead. He saw demolished cities full of women, children, and people torn from their homes, starving, disease-ridden, and without limbs. He tried to distance himself from the thought of their distress, their despair, but some images refused to disappear. He felt like his stomach was churning. "I'm happy I don't remember a thing. How long has it been since then"?
"More than two hundred years. We're already in the year 2287," Thales smiled.
The simulator continued. "Humanity did not escape so quickly from all these. In fact, it was almost wiped out. A meaningless existence almost annihilated it. In the year 2107, the final deciding battle took place, and after it all that was left were traces of empires that had crumbled into small tribal groups which existed in the desolation and filth." The practical indifference in Thales's voice was a complete contradiction to the stranger's emotional storm.
Strange colorful pictures appeared on the monitor. For a moment, they seemed familiar, but immediately escaped him, and became alienated and threatening.
"The tribes returned to the ancient cults and religions, to the rituals of witchcraft and sorcery, to the
animistic faith in the powers of nature, to a social organization of tyranny, and established ceremonies based on commercial trademarks left over from the Capitalistic period.
"The Atheist organization, which was secret to begin with, was founded by people from both rival blocs. The Atheists recognized the anthropocentric theology as the root of evil in human history, and strove to eradicate all religions. They operated on the military plane, and recruited citizens to form an alternative global culture".
"Are the Pythagoreans Atheists?" Asked the stranger.
"No," replied Thales. The simulator stopped. "The Atheists saved Earth from the devastating consequences of treating God as human. The Pythagoreans, that is, us – the New Pythagoreans – appeared later. We returned the meaning, God, without ascribing him human form. The Pythagoreans settled on the planet Octavia. The Atheists settled on the planet Dust, and the Gnostics remained on Earth's chaos. Do you want me to go into more detail about the Gnosis?" Thales finally reached the point to which he had been aiming the simulator.
"Yes, certainly," replied the stranger. It seemed he had begun to get used to the tremendous amount of information he had been taking in over the past few days.
From a bird's-eye-view a great compound could be seen, crammed with smoking chimneys. From closer up, aircrafts could be seen, some on the ground and some in the air. He saw black cubes of differing sizes, and people in black uniforms dashing between the cubes. The narration began. The stranger didn't notice a difference in the narration or the hologram, but in actual fact, from this point on, the history lesson had been staged meticulously by Thales, who had labored over it the whole of the previous night.
"This is the Gnostic compound in Uruk, the most important of the three centers on Earth. The second is in Istanbul and the third in Jerusalem. On the ruins of the Human-Gods' Wars, grew the devastating Gnostic culture, headed by Adamas. The Gnostics who worked Earth's resources, gathered refugees and survivors of the destruction to their ranks, frequently by force. The ancient Gnostic belief in the impurity of creation and of man received a dangerous change in direction with the blossoming of the new Gnosis, who had at his disposal technological means to destroy humanity"…
Thales glanced at the stranger's look of concentration. He was watching the images of the compound. The Gnostic compound was very different from Samos. The colors were dark, the architecture sharp, and the atmosphere gloomy. Only the order and organization were common to both.
… "One of the tactics of the Gnostics is to recruit agents who are not Gnostic. They hold their families hostage, and force them to go out on spying missions at their enemies. Among their most sworn enemies are the Pythagoreans".
Thales continued to study the stranger's reactions. He tried to interpret every movement and tremor of his face and body language in order to figure him out. The stranger's forehead wrinkled. Thales was sure he'd seen a glimmer of deceit in his eyes. Within seconds, he was convinced the stranger was indeed a spy.
"Who did they take?" Thales asked.
"Who"?
"The Gnostics, of course".
"Hostages," the stranger gestured at the simulator.
"Your child? Your wife"?
The stranger blinked at Thales, grasped the essence of his question, and his breath froze; he opened his mouth, but was so shocked that he couldn't say a word.
"Doesn't it seem strange to you that you don’t remember a thing?" Thales continued.
The stranger regained his composure. "You think I'm a Gnostic agent?!" he shouted in astonishment. 'How does he dare'? He wondered, and immediately another thought popped into his head: 'But maybe he's right, maybe I am here on a Gnostic mission. I can't be angry, I don't know myself if it's true'.
"Doesn't it seem strange to you that you don’t remember a thing?" Thales asked sarcastically.
"The station's doctor says it's a known phenomenon," the stranger defended himself.
"Doesn't it seem strange to you that your aircraft has no identifying features"?
"I don't know".
"Why are you so interested in hiding your identity? Maybe because your intentions are less than pure"? Thales continued.
The stranger did not know if he should be afraid or angry. He guessed Thales provocation would not be acceptable to Sophia, but she might also have good reasons to doubt his trustworthiness. "Maybe because I have a reason to be afraid? I don't know".
"Of the Pythagoreans?" Laughed Thales, "Since when do we hurt anyone"?
"If I knew who I was and who you were, I might be able to answer you." His patience was about to run out; he was getting tired of Thales accusations.
They were silent for a moment and then the stranger asked: "Who do you think I am"?
Thales turned off the simulator and said seriously, looking straight into the stranger's eyes: "It's possible that you're impersonating no one".
"You think I'm a Gnostic spy!" the stranger declared again, incensed.
"And you can't contradict that," said Thales, rising to exit the simulator.
Left alone, the stranger restrained himself and was quiet. He sat anxiously, worried by the fact that his aircraft bore no identifying features. 'Maybe I am Gnostic? Maybe they pressured me or extorted me so that I would serve them?' He wondered. Then he became angry with Thales, and even with Sophia, for not protecting him from Thales, and especially from himself. He took out his anger on the bug that was buzzing around him, and knocked it with a blow to the ground. He didn't even pay attention to the fact that a bug could be found in such a sterile place.
At the time of awakening
Properly examine
Your plans for the day to come!
Before you sleep
Close your eyes!
Ponder the events of the day:
What is good,
What is not,
And what remains to be completed.
She played the words of the evening ceremony to the sounds of Samos turning on its axis, dancing with slow, stylized and amazingly precise movements. Her back was to the entrance, and thus she failed to notice the stranger taking in the feminine beauty of her body. The light that emerged from the walls was dim and softened, in sunset shades of oranges and purples. When she finished the dance in a kneeling position, the stranger turned his gaze aside and embarrassed, rearranged the bulge that had awakened in his loins. Without intending to, he cleared his throat. Sophia froze in her place for several moments, and then straightened, welcoming him with a smile.
"How are you?" She asked.
"Good. More optimistic". He lied. He was confused, but managed to gather enough strength to keep his sanity in a situation which was becoming more and more complex. He was aware of his desire to be in her company, of the fact that he was attracted to her like a bee to a flower. "What are you doing"?
"It's the prayer of the Golden Rule that Pythagoras himself wrote in the year five hundred BCE. We repeat it every morning and every night. What do you think"?
"It's charming".
"The prayer expresses everything we hold dear: order preciseness, harmony, and beauty".
"Yes," replied the stranger, although he knew in his heart that the dance had hypnotized him not just for the reasons she mentioned.
"I must apologize to you for Thales's actions," she grasped his hand.
The stranger did not respond.
"I must explain. Come." She put her arm in his and led him through the curved corridors of the station. To start with they walked in silence. Afterwards she said: "We believe that it is worthwhile to draw strangers close to us in order to share our point of view with them, the viewpoint of the beauty of creation".
"So then why is Thales so hostile"?
"Because bringing people closer to us is not the only thing that stands before us. The Pythagorean culture is a pacifistic culture. Because we don't fight, we have only one way of surviving – to be aloof. The Pythagoreans, especially the leaders on Octavia, but also the leaders of Samos, live in constan
t suspense between one thing, spreading Pythagoras's views, and another - protecting the Pythagoreans' lives from enemies. Thales would also have greeted you properly, if he hadn't suspected you were a Gnostic spy".
"I've noticed." He pulled his arm away angrily and stopped.
"I apologize again." She continued walking, and he followed her. "As the head scout, he is responsible for the security of Samos and he wanted to be sure you don't pose a danger".
"And his conclusion"?
"I'm convinced you're not a spy." Sophia avoided a direct answer.
"Why not? It could be that my loved ones are being held hostage, that I was sent to spy, and my memories were taken away from me so that I wouldn't even know that and couldn't be interrogated about it".
"So then what would be the point of sending you"?
"To gather information, information that you are sharing with me with no hesitation, and in the future, when I remember who I am and what my mission is, I'll release the information to them in return for the lives of my loved ones".
"Is that what you think?" Sophia asked.
"I really don't know. Maybe Thales is right?! Why are you so convinced it's not true"?
She looked at him calmly, radiating confidence, but did not add any further claims that he could hold onto. They were silent for the rest of the way to the simulator room. The stranger sank into one of the silver silken cocoons.
"What spurred such loathing between the Gnostics and the Pythagoreans?" asked the stranger.
Sophia walked to and fro, choosing her words carefully. "The Atheists released Earth from anthropotheism, from the worship of the Human Gods that imposed human instincts on Earth. They united many of Earth's inhabitants around the belief that there was no God, and lead a rebellion that caused the final collapse of the empires. But they only partially got what they wanted. Regional wars continued to rage for the control of natural resources, but the larger wars around the Human Gods stopped. In the year 2148, a colony based on atheistic purity was founded on the planet Dust."
Mesopotamia - The Redeemer Page 7