Flash seized the opportunity afforded by the slight pause in Truth's speech to ask excitedly, “When shall I schedule the invasion itself?”
“At this stage, I only want a report that all the preparations have been completed. Make sure that the electromagnetic hooks onto the light chords have not been created. At ease!”
Flash looked into Truth's eyes, the only father that he had ever known. “Your orders will be carried out immediately, commander.” He lowered his gaze and stiffened his body. Releasing the electromagnetic hooks meant that the invasion was imminent. He spun on his heels and turned toward the door.
There was something different about flash; Truth could see this clearly. Usually, Flash's feelings were clear to him. But this time, Flash was opaque. Smoke had also failed to make contact at the scheduled time. Truth wondered if he should shake off his suspicions but decided that it would be best not to. He must be alert.
CHAPTER 20
Smoke had tasted a glimpse of the beginning of his life. He wanted more.
He had not always been a Gnostic. The encounter with the image of his mother had stirred his awareness about his own identity: where he was born, his house, the warmth in which his family had enveloped him. All of his longing was focused on the figure of his mother. He wanted to return to the simulator and was hung up on the illusion that he was pretending to cooperate.
“Trust your body,” Sophia instructed Smoke. “Your body will tell you what is right for you. I directed the control panel in such a way that it will simulate your internal balance. The red ring of light that you see on the display represents your balance. The closer you come to your center of gravity and become more balanced, the smaller the ring will get and the lower the sounds will become. The less you tremble, the less it will vibrate and the sounds will become fainter. Close your eyes and allow the images to wash over your mind! I will monitor your ring on the display while you listen to the sounds of your balance.”
Sophia was wary of the fragile relationship that that they had begun to weave. The fate of the galaxy was dependent on her ability to develop a relationship with him. But she quickly remembered the fact that she was no longer Pythagorean; she was not meant to have all the answers.
“What will I see?” he asked, secretly hoping that he would begin to see his mother.
“That depends on you. The images that arise in the simulator emerge out of your consciousness. There is no reason that you, as a Gnostic, should fear the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.”
Despite his doubts, he was drawn to the simulator like a moth to light. He could not resist it. He craved more. Smoke listened to the instructions, crossed his legs on the pillow, straightened his posture and allowed any thought to come to him. The sound interface immediately reacted with a loud, strong, piercing sound.
Truth's figure shook Smoke out of his peace. He opened his eyes and concentrated on the ring of light, tried to take uniform breaths and balance his composure. The ring and the sounds relaxed a bit. Smoke closed his eyes again and listened to the melody that was growing ever fainter. He wanted quiet.
The melody fell silent. The ring contracted, floating lightly in space. His brothers in arms appeared on the display. Gnostic warriors in all shades and sizes, with unique features and bodies, those who fought alongside him in blood-drenched battles, with whom he had shared the intoxication of victory. They all looked sad now. Sophia felt a proud satisfaction at Smoke's ability to activate the feelings of his imagination. Later, this ability would serve him in influencing another consciousness. Like the ring, the figures did not move. The warriors faded. They became children wearing uniforms. Smoke had separated from some of them a long time ago, but only now did he feel the pain of separation. The sounds became fainter.
The industrial backdrop of the Gnostic world was replaced by the yellow desert on the outskirts of the compound. Smoke began to rock slightly back and forth. The audio interface sounded mournful. Sophia looked back and forth from Smoke's closed eyes to the beating ring. The tones were low, without vibration.
Smoke's imagination painted a shining sun onto the ceiling of the simulator. He directed his closed eyes at the sun. Sophia shaded her eyes from the blinding light. Spot approached him, wagging his tail. The hyena licked his hand and returned at a slow trot to the horizon. Smoke smiled silently. Silence fell upon the desert. The ring had become a tiny dot and the sounds were silent. The silence lasted a few more long minutes and the field of vision remained empty. Then, something began to happen. The snake appeared in the holographic area, with Smoke's figure alongside him.
Smoke was indifferent to the appearance of the Master of Light, and for a moment Sophia mistakenly feared that the simulator had conjured up the snake from the previous simulation before Smoke had conjure it with his own mind. The snake slithered slowly and rubbed against Smoke's crossed legs as they appeared in the holographic area. The snake approached his right hand. Smoke caressed it while it progressed from his hand up his arm. Its forked tongue brushed his skin and its head swayed from side to side, making its way to his upper arm.
When it coiled around Smoke's neck, Sophia was afraid that the snake would strangle him. After all, even though it was only a simulation, Smoke could choke if he imagined himself to be choked. The simulator could be dangerous for one who did not remember that it was only a simulation. She continued to glance back and forth from Smoke and the snake on the display to the flickering ring of light and the real Smoke sitting before her.
The snake brushed against Smoke's lips and they parted. It then continued to coil around his head. It became increasingly longer until it appeared as if it was going to completely cover Smoke's entire body in its coils. Smoke's face was relaxed. The ring of light softened. The boundary between the snake's body and Smoke's body began to blur. Sophia knew that Enosh was watching them and cast a worried glance at the monitoring camera in the simulator.
There was now a snake in the place where Smoke's folded arms and crossed legs had been. Smoke's limbs were colored in a yellowish shade with the diamond pattern on them. Although the display showed his body writhing, in reality he was frozen in place as the ring contracted almost to a dot. The snake had already conquered the majority of Smoke's body, wrapping itself around the remainder of him that was still human. Smoke's actual head was leaning back, his eyes shut. The light in the room dimmed. The red dot of light was nearly extinguished.
Sophia closely examined the expression of devotion on Smoke's face. When she looked at the display, she was sickened at the sight of a snake's head in the place where Smoke's head ought to have been. Smoke's figure and the snake's figure flashed on the holographic display. When she looked again from the actual Smoke to the hologram, she saw neither the snake's head nor any trace of Smoke. The snake had become one large writhing loop without a head or tail, with neither beginning nor end.
Enosh continued to watch Smoke and Sophia joined him in the control room. “He is coming full circle,” he explained. “He is entering himself, detaching himself from the world and undergoing an internal change.”
“Where is this taking him?”
“There is no way of knowing.”
“Should I switch off the simulator?” asked Sophia.
“No!” he whispered emphatically.
“This could threaten his life. That is why we did not bypass your amnesia in the simulator.”
“That is a risk we must take,” whispered Enosh.
Smoke lay sprawled on his back like a marionette whose strings had been cut. He continued to appear as a writhing snake on the display. The snake's movements were extremely slow. The red dot that reflected Smoke's balance was still. The sound of his internal balance became a faint hum.
“We're losing him. He might die,” said Sophia in a panic. “The balance is not supposed to fall to such dangerously low frequencies.”
Enosh did not respond.
“What will we do?” asked Sophia. Smoke was unaware of his surroundings. “Maybe we
should switch it off despite everything.”
“No!” said Enosh with firmness that surprised Sophia. “Not yet.” He softened his tone. “Sophia, does the display have the ability to show Smoke's vital signs?”
In response to a few finger strokes on the control panel, the display showed a few signs on breathing and pulse. They saw how frail Smoke's vital signs were.
“I am switching it off!” said Sophia, and rose to move toward the control panel.
“No!” yelled Enosh and grabbed Sophia tightly.
Smoke was still completely detached from his surroundings.
“You'll kill him!” Sophia screamed, and tried to free herself from Enosh's grip.
“Don't turn it off! Don't turn it off!” Enosh repeated emphatically. Enosh understood that his identification with the snake was an early stage on his path of separating from the Gnosis. It was likely that Smoke would not survive such a separation, but there was no choice: risking Smoke's life was absolutely necessary.
Another long and nerve-wracking minute passed. His vital signs became weaker. Sophia decided that she must turn off the simulator. She tried to free herself by force from Enosh's arms, but was unsuccessful. She looked at him in astonishment, unable to understand the forcefulness he was demonstrating. He ignored her gaze and continued to hold her back as he concentrated on Smoke, the snake and the vital signs.
The cry was blood-curdling. Smoke began to convulse wildly. His muscles tensed, his head thrust back at an unnatural angle, his limbs twitched, froth came out of his mouth and sounds of asphyxiation emerged from his throat.
Enosh continued to restrain Sophia, hoping with all his might that Smoke would survive. The display began to flicker and its colors dulled. Suddenly, a jumble of dismembered body parts of a snake and a man appeared on the screen, with clumps of skin and bones covered in blood and masses of hair and scales.
The vital signs indicated breathing and a pulse, but there had been a drop in brain activity. Sophia fought to release herself but Enosh did not let her out. After a few long minutes, Smoke began to writhe in pain, screaming while lying on the floor of the room with his hands clutching his abdomen. Sophia could not take her eyes off of the dismembered organs emerging and disconnecting from each other in the hologram. She could make out parts of hands and human fingers between the pieces of snake.
“Murderer!” shrieked Sophia, struggling again with Enosh. He held her in a bear hug when she tried to leap toward the control panel. She jabbed her elbows into his stomach, slammed her head back into his face, stamped her feet and screamed with all her might. Smoke continued to writhe.
Enosh did not relent. He did not take his eyes off of the vital signs that were growing ever fainter in Smoke's body.
“Let me go!” she sobbed, mustering strength that she did not even know she had. She punched Enosh and herself indiscriminately. In one swift motion, Enosh caught her hands, crossed them and pulled them backward, restraining her as he leaned forward, head pressed on hers, preventing her from swinging backward. Sophia was completely unable to move. Every time she tried to free herself, he tightened his grip, ignoring her cries as he concentrated on Smoke's vital signs.
The display showed a heap of amputated limbs and sparkling snake scales. Mingled body parts belonging to Smoke and the Master of Light moved slowly as if they had lives of their own. On the floor of the room, Smoke writhed and contracted. Froth came out of his mouth and the odor of sweat coming off his wet clothes mingled with the sickening stench of the blood on the display. Enosh breathed heavily. He could still see a tiny amount of movement in Smoke's vital signs. Enosh continued to restrain Sophia, one eye watching Smoke while the other monitored his faint vital signs. Slowly, the strips of flesh left a trail of blood as they moved toward each other. Fingers attached themselves to hands and hair connected to a scalp dotted with scale fragments. Slowly, his vital signs began to strengthen. The red light became a tiny flickering ring. The audio interface became increasingly louder and sharper. Enosh did not release Sophia even when the hands on the display attached themselves to the arms and the thighs to the hips. The parts of the snake mixed with each other, and a deep cleft along the length of its body healed with the formation of a scar. Signs of life continued to indicate his recovery as the image on the display became clearer.
The holographic image of Smoke lying naked and wet with blood. The snake slithered away and disappeared, leaving behind him a transparent skin that the simulated Smoke gripped in his fist.
Smoke reclined, panting, face to the floor. Enosh released Sophia.
It was only after a long time that his vital signs returned to their normal states and the ring appeared in its original size. Smoke was exhausted. His limbs were heavy and his muscles ached, but he felt a wonderful relief: he was free of any burden. He did not know that such liberty was even possible up until that moment.
Sophia was about to turn off the simulator. She was going to utilize the first opportunity—maybe when Smoke was asleep—to express her rage toward Enosh. But before she could even stand up, the face of a woman appeared on the ceiling of the simulator. The face filled the ceiling. It was Smoke's mother.
He opened his eyelids. His limpness was gone when he stood to his feet, erect.
Sophia looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. He breathed at an even rate, his composure relaxed and his gaze was clear. The debacle was over. He realized that ever since he could remember, he had been running away, running away from himself. Erect and proud, confident in himself and in his identity, he bore the love of his mother.
He looked toward his mother longingly and she returned a gaze that was full of compassion and tenderness. He wept with joy. “Gabriel,” he heard his mother's voice.
The music fell silent and the lights went out all of a sudden. Thunder rocked the station.
CHAPTER 21
Just a few days earlier, Diotima was unable to enjoy the water splashing over the river rocks or the green dragonflies circling the orange tiger lilies. Despite the broad canopy of the ficus tree that allowed the sunlight to dance upon the thick grass, she could see nothing out of grief and anger.
'The Gnostics are on their way to Samos and they will arrive within a week to ten days.' In her head echoed the message that they had received just a few minutes earlier
from the chief of general headquarters, Bruno. He sat opposite her in an alcove of the garden, mortified to the depths of his soul.
The previous information that Bruno had received and then passed on to Diotima was transmitted by various sources both near Uruk as well as inside of it. The information accurately mirrored what those sources had known at the time. In the end, they reached the same conclusions: The Gnostics had not yet begun to develop the accelerator for the module and would require about three years to do so.
“So where did we go wrong?” asked Diotima fiercely.
“Truth be told,” replied Bruno with a bleak expression, “we did not accurately gauge the strategic abilities of Uruk's commander. He established a laboratory for developing the accelerator in underground compounds near Aleppo. The lab was manned by select scientists from among the Gnosis. They were instructed to build the accelerator, a very complex component of the module. In the span of three years, they were completely isolated from the world and the Gnostics avoided any direct contact with them. In fact, only Truth knew of their activity.”
Bruno was the most decorated officer in Dust. His past achievements lent him the image of an all-powerful general and contributed to his appointment as Chief of General Headquarters. This intelligence failure embarrassed him.
“So how do we know this?” she continued in her rage.
“When the Gnostic forces did not return from their training at the usual time, our agent in Uruk began to get suspicious. He discovered that the module had been removed from its place in the temple. He investigated the computers in Uruk and found that it had been included in the list of cargo of the father ship. Then he als
o found the accelerator on the list.”
Diotima's face yellowed. “And how do we know about the laboratory in Aleppo?”
“We knew about Truth's reconnaissance missions for some time now,” said Bruno dryly. “We also knew that on most of his patrols, he stopped in Aleppo. Only now do we understand that that was apparently the location of the accelerator lab.” He was silent for a moment and then continued, “I'm sorry, Diotima. This time, they have the upper hand. Truth has won this round.”
This intelligence failure still did not diminish her appreciation of Bruno. The beginning of their joint careers had not been easy ones. He had struck her as a narrow-minded military man, and she appeared to him as a woman of academia and politics who was out of touch with reality, coming to disturb him from his work. During the course of their work together, she discovered his honesty, dedication and even his surprising compassion. He saw that her courage, judgment and leadership surpassed most of the soldiers he knew.
She decided to forgo her anger; she must focus on the mission at hand instead. She paused for a moment as she composed her thoughts and continued matter-of-factly.
“Okay, let's move to the next round.”
“Yes, Minister.”
“First of all, I want you to halt the investigation of the disinformation that caused us to miscalculate the time of the Gnostic invasion.”
Mesopotamia - The Redeemer Page 28