“It could mean you are just a magician.”
“Hardly.” He replied, “I am much older than I look, Debira. I was there at many places in history. Though I did not see David slay Goliath or many of the accounts in religious texts, I walked with them during their time.”
“This is unbelievable. I really can’t just believe all of this. It is unrealistic, that would mean you are over a thousand years old.”
“It is you who asked and jumped to such conclusions.” He replied but she shrugged the remark, it was impossible for her to believe it. “I would show you to the stars in the sky myself, if you were of my people.”
“You don’t look any older than the oldest Muslim generals, and they have full grown beards. But yet you bear no age? You are a liar, perhaps I misjudged you.”
Sheppard felt disheartened. “So instead of believing I mean truth and good deed you would call me a liar.”
“You must want something, then. Why would you free me from slavery if you had nothing to ask of me?”
He did not have a response for her at the time. “What if I told you that I may yet have something to ask of you?”
She shrugged, “I respected you for everything you did for us but now all I see you as is a braggart, spreading wild stories...I feel sorry for you, you’re worse than the Muslims of these lands when they banished the Jewish tribes.”
His countenance grew tense, he felt he had lost her trust.
“Look at my people!” She said.
He looked down at her. Perhaps he had lost a friend that day. “I am not those men…” He whispered, “War can make people do many evil things, it is the nature of men to create conflict. And it is the nature of conflict to instill disorder in the universe.”
She refused to answer to him.
“Do you believe from my character that I am a good man?” Sheppard asked
She hesitated to respond but nodded.
“Then would you look at me the same way if I told you I have been responsible for killing countless innocents many years ago?”
In her eyes he had neither the look nor the demeanor of a heartless war-mongerer, but what if he was telling the truth?
“Mankind is capable of horrible deeds, but those who better themselves and learn from their actions can be the great people. And while I am not a prophet or a saint, I know that you of all people do not judge people so lightly. Understand that I speak truthfully.”
She believed him.
“I may not be able to prove it to you just yet, but I ask that when you and your family arrive in Jerusalem, seek a tavern known in the streets as the ‘Najma’. You will be unharmed, and everything will be explained to you in time.”
He walked up to his horse and mounted it swiftly. He whistled to his camel to follow suit. As he strode back through the desert Debira could not help but feel sorry for what she had said to him.
He deserved better of me…
By the time Sheppard arrived at his home again the sky grew dark and windy. The winds blew torrents of sand and drizzling rain in every direction. He raised his armor’s neck guard over his nose and mouth leaving just one slit visible for his eyes. He covered his face with a thinly knit veil allowing him to see through the dust easier.
He was close to his home, he could feel it. As he dredged on through the lurid storm he looked into the sky and saw the graying and dark clouds enveloping the sky, it was dusk and the failing light pierced through what clouds it could.
It took him some time but he and his animals had prevailed through the worst the desert had to offer. He rushed to stable his horse and camel. Another dark stallion was in front of the stable, it was Ali’s. He helped the animal inside and provided it food and water before rushing back to his home.
He raised his hands as he gazed into the distance, the rain drops grew heavier while mixing with the dust in the air. As the colloidal droplets hit his skin he could not help but stare. It appeared as if he was bleeding, the dusty droplets drained down his gauntlets and armor like crimson blood.
“Brother Shep!” It was Ali, he was calling to Sheppard from inside his home. “I am sorry for entering your home unannounced but the storm was picking up pace outside.”
Sheppard looked at his hands one more time. He was not dying, but he felt purified in light of it. He entered his home and shrugged off the rain from his armor. He removed the mail slowly as to not dirty his carpets.
Ali helped lay his armor on the wall. “The men are proud of what you did today Sheppard.” He nodded in apathetic agreement, “You show them that there are still good men in this world. They say you may have been one of the messenger’s greatest companions had he known you.”
“How wrong they are.” He said resigning to his dining table.
Ali smirked as he checked on the tea, “I hope you do not mind if I had prepared tea for your arrival.”
“Ali you are as welcome to this home as any other man,” he motioned for the tap, “some water please?”
As Ali looked at the spout he saw the container holding the water, “Is this zam-zam water?”
Sheppard nodded.
“I’m sure when Hajar and Isma’il had found the well they could not help but believe it a work of God, the aquifers that feed the well are abundant in chemicals.” Sheppard poured another cup for Ali and they both sat and conversed. “Do you know why I have called you to my home tonight Ali?”
“I hope it is to pray, the sun is about to set.”
Sheppard smiled and obliged, Sheppard allowed Ali to lead the prayer as a guest in his home. Though the winds howled outside the two were lost in another place. They prayed as if it were their last prayer.
Afterwards they remained kneeling next to one another.
“I called you here today Ali to ask you who your parents were.”
“You know as well as I do Sheppard that my mother died during childbirth, the orphanage told you and me that.”
“And your father?”
Ali shrugged, “You were the only father I ever knew, you took me and the other children at the orphanage and treated us as your children.”
“So you truly do not remember anything of your father?”
He shook his head.
“What if I told you that there are things beyond this world Ali? Things that perhaps want to remain hidden.”
“You speak of the djinn?”
The djinn…what a curious device of myth…
“The djinn may be among them, but I speak of people like you and me. On the stars that line the heavens farther than one could ever imagine.”
“Then I would ask who told you these wild stories?”
Sheppard looked upward at his ceiling and began to breathe heavily. “There are people that God may have fated to banish to the heavens, our people.”
Ali looked at Sheppard and saw a characteristic silvery glint around his pupils.
“You have the mark of the djinn as well?”
“Mark of the djinn, perhaps. But I am still human, bound to this Earth.” He looked at Ali. “You are a descendant of my people Ali.”
Ali smirked, “You were an orphan as well?”
“Tens of thousands of years ago.”
His smirk turned to utter disbelief, “Thousands of years?”
“Have you wondered why you do not age as others do?”
“At first I thought God had blessed me with youth, but…” he looked into Sheppard’s eyes, “Now I do not know what to believe.”
Sheppard laid his hand on his shoulder and reassured him, “I am forever an exile. A man seeking redemption. But I know there has been something watching over me…”
“You realize that you are not alone in life…”
Sheppard let out a hearty laugh, “I think you know me too well.”
“When you realized you had no family you felt alone…like the Earth itself…”Ali began, “You felt as if something told you that other people no matter what they did or believed…were your family as well.�
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He nodded, “I realized humanity is my family, and while I may be its eldest sibling I nonetheless feel obligated to protect my family and their descendants for ages to come… Do you now know realize why I asked you to come here now Ali?”
He shook his head, feeling so vastly inferior to his friend and mentor.
“I want you to help me lead my people. And when I pass from this world I want to entrust part of this vision to you.”
“You want me…to lead your people?”
“They will not accept you as an equal at first, being an outsider. But stay by me for some time and learn their ways and I promise you, you will command the fiercest and most valorous soldiers humanity has ever known.”
“Are they Muslims as well?”
Sheppard shook his head, “Most are not. Like the people of this world each has their own beliefs. I am one of the few exceptions… I was once a shaman, a theist, a pagan, and a polytheist for quite some time. At once declarative and non-conforming to the ‘beliefs’ of such worldly religions.”
“What turned you to God?”
“I have faced death many times, more than you could imagine. I have died a thousand deaths and faced a thousand rebirths. Each time questioning who or what had brought me back. Was it the cells in my blood demanding new life? Or something greater?
“Ultimately I realized everything I did, every time I thought I could change my fate; I was ultimately fulfilling it. And each time something was to be learned from it. And every time I questioned it…fate, love, destiny…I realized I was coming closer to the truth of who, or what, was guiding me.
“And then…I found on this world people who began to believe the same things I was realizing. People who despite all odds believed in something I had pondered for millennia.
“I strived to be like them, hiding amongst them like I did other civilizations; learning their customs, their language their heritage. And, as I have done now, I had helped them against their foes to give them a place in the world.
“And for a time, it was good. I was once a Jew in ancient Israel. A Christian in a new Rome. And each were proud nations. I had the utmost respect them.”
“Why did you leave them?” Ali asked.
“They are all good people and we have much to learn from their successes and mistakes. I still respect them with all my heart, for they will prevail with their deeds the way that was prescribed to them. But I did not leave them. I believe this faith has completed God’s plan on this Earth, a fulfillment of the previous covenants. But such is my belief, it does not reflect my people…”
Ali cocked his head to the side in reflection.
“Granted, I never saw the prophets preach what they preached,” Sheppard continued, “it was through the goodness and deeds of the people that I saw the truth. And as I had once fought alongside the Roman legions and the tribes of Israel before them, I helped lead these nomadic people to establish themselves in these lands.”
Ali stared into the wall in front of him, this man’s journey was so long and arduous it demanded much respect.
Sheppard looked at Ali. “I saw in you a part of myself that I had lost many years ago. I have taught you everything I know of this world and everything that I had learned through my travels so that you could become someone greater than I…”
“Thank you Brother Shep—”
Sheppard nodded and finished his story, “I do not expect others to accept what I believe. They will ask me ‘Sheppard, why do you do it? Why do you believe such trivial things as God and the afterlife, you are the most eternal.’ And you know what I will tell them?”
Ali shook his head.
“Absolutely nothing, they will never understand... Religion is between a man and God, no one else can say otherwise. If a man was intended to find God, then a path will have been laid in front of him. It is not our place to question that fate. The way I see it, we are destined for either heaven or hell, but we do not know which we are destined for just yet, so through our own free will we can strive toward the better. And if we fail then we fail because of our own short-comings, not because God did not provide us salvation.”
Ali could not agree more.
“Though I believe this nation must finally overcome its former tribal ways, the honor killings and slavery of their olden days, I think they are destined to rise from obscurity and help others lead humans to a new age.”
He saw Ali wracked in thought, “But come now Ali, I believe you and I have many years to discuss such things.”
“And you realize we are not perfect either Sheppard.”
“We are not the ones to say what answer is right or what is wrong, or if our own faith in the Creator is perfect. Our connection with God is in our hearts and minds. Everyone is entitled to what they choose to believe…”
“And what of those who do not accept us?”
“Let them see our people, mortal and immortal, stand united in what we believe in. Let them see us rise above race, color and creed and accept fate. Let them learn from our example. Even if our people are not Muslim they are still good people and they deserve to stand by our side to create this future. We have our own beliefs, and they, theirs. So long as we can cooperate, the world…nay mankind will know true peace.”
Ali nodded at those words, there was strength in diversity. They both stood and returned to the table to drink their tea.
“And what of the people who question us?” Ali asked.
“Let them believe what they believe, if we wish to make change then let us take the initiative. They do not have to believe what we believe to understand our intentions. When we stand united, let those who wish to claim this world see our people fight back with such force that it will shake the very foundations of the Universe…”
“And if we fail?”
“Then we will fail, we should not question why we failed. Rather we should only rise up to try again until what was intended is done.” He put his hand on Ali’s shoulder, “Any religion can be the ultimate light for mankind…or the ultimate bane of it. I want to show the world that change is possible, and I believe that it is not just Muslims, Jews and Christians who hold a monopoly on it. The rest of the world also has the will and the way to create such change.”
Ali hesitated to ask Sheppard anymore, the conversation was truly enlightening. But he begged to answer the question of departure. “So when shall I meet my people?”
Sheppard nodded, “I ask that you come with me to Jerusalem. There we will find our people, and our new friends on this planet.”
“Jerusalem?”
“Our first friend in a world that may never fully understand us has presented herself.”
“The slave girl?”
Sheppard nodded, “Her name is Debira, and she was of the Banu Qurayza captured at the Battle of the Trench years ago. I think she and her people may be able to help us in our struggle in the centuries to come.”
They both drank tea that night and conversed as the winds picked up outside their home, of life, of existence and of the future.
Chapter 24
Disclosure
Minutes later.
Aboard the Battleship Eternity
Monica smirked as the story ended, “The way Debira acted sounds like me.”
Ali thought about Debira for a moment and smirked, “From what I hear you are quite like her. In fact Sheppard’s plan for you may be similar to the task he entrusted to Debira long ago.”
“Which involved telling a story?”
“It involved protecting humanity’s interests in a stable future. In this case your plan involves recovering ancient secrets to preserve them. Perhaps those will come in handy in the near future.”
“But he sounds like he is still looking for answers… what do you think he is looking for?”
“He taught me everything there was to know in this world and in the stars, even if it was not from religion. He is wise beyond his years and does not like to press his beliefs onto others. But desp
ite everything I know about him, I cannot read the man. I doubt anyone else has had much luck in this matter.”
“That doesn’t give me much to work with in this task…”
“Not even the other commanders and I know how much we can help you on this task. What you should do is as good a guess as ours.”
Ali added, “What is in our minds right now is the rising mortality rate. Genetic conditions are arising on planets across the galaxy. And if that were not enough, dwindling food reserves are threatening many planets and populations to the brink of civility.”
“Why is all of this happening now?”
“Perhaps this is what God intended? Or what Sheppard intended with this war, who knows? There are only so many habitable worlds capable of supporting agriculture. On top of that people are dying, in large numbers, a consequence of our own immortality; our newborns are resilient to mutation but it doesn’t help us adapt to other worlds. In a way our only real home remains the Earth, and Sheppard has forbidden it to us, instead giving that to people like you.”
Monica could not fathom why he would condemn his people. Ali hesitated to add any other speculation to the matter. Regardless of the reasons Sheppard was still the man he indebted his life to. He had tasks himself to accomplish for the man.
“Now that I think about it, there is something you could investi-gate during your travels. Have you heard of the ancients?”
“The ancients?”
“Immortals claim lineages from ancestors, each of those lines descended most likely from an ancient; a family from Sheppard’s original tribe. Very few are alive who could claim to be directly descended from that tribe. Many now have mixed parents or were immortalized like yourself. The woman who do claim descendance from that tribe are well sought after, because some claim they are the true immortals. As such it is not unusual to see an immortal noble married to more than one woman, especially one who may be from that tribe.
He paused for a moment. He spoke of deep rooted problems that even he did not fully comprehend.
“But I digress, Monica. I do not know where such questioning may lead you, but Sheppard had a vested interest in it. Perhaps you could explain it to us in time.” He shrugged the thought, “In the end I will follow Sheppard, and believe in what is right until the end of my days.”
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