The Alboran Codex

by J C Ryan

  “Mm . . . just as long as you didn’t hear them talking back, we should pass all sanity-related psychiatric tests.”

  “I would certainly hope so.” She laughed. “Carter, maybe if you explain to me in simple terms what you’re thinking and wondering about, you might just perchance get your answer. If you can’t make any progress with my method, then Liu might be able to help when she gets here.”

  “Not a bad idea — definitely beats having a soliloquy or talking to giants who refuse to reply,” he said. “Okay, let’s begin at the beginning. All we know up until now is that the giants left that city about fifty thousand years ago — in other words, long before Adam and Eve and long before the flood. We also know, as I explained the other night, giants lived until long after the flood, until about 3,400 years ago — fairly recently.”

  Mackenzie nodded. “No brain damage yet.”

  “It’s difficult to say, at least until I can do more research, whether the giants of the City of Lights and the giants of the Bible spoke the same or related languages.”

  “But that’s a possibility, is it not?” Mackenzie asked.

  Carter nodded. “Yes. Absolutely. In fact, for now, I am assuming that’s the case, because the language of our ‘modern giants’ was almost certainly Semitic. And the language of the ‘old giants’ bears a strong resemblance to the Semitic languages.”

  “And the Semitic languages are?”

  “There are scholars who believe that the name Semitic refers to Shem, one of the three sons of Noah, and that might be so, but I’m convinced he was not the father of the Semitic languages. Aramaic is classified as Semitic but was spoken long before Shem’s time. In fact, many people believe that was the language spoken by Adam and Eve. There are some who believe they spoke Hebrew.”

  “Aha, now I know what you were saying before when you were talking to the giants.” Mackenzie chuckled.

  “There are more than 330 million people today who speak one form or another of a Semitic language, such as Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Maltese. In the era 3000 to 2000 BC, Semitic languages were widely spoken in the Mesopotamian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian civilizations.”

  “But what about the verse in the Bible that says all people had one language?” She opened her Bible on her desk to find the correct verse. “Here it is, Genesis 11 verse 1 ‘Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.’”

  She stopped for a few moments and then continued reading out loud to the end of verse nine. “And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

  “But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore, its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.’

  “So, if I understand what I’ve just read correctly, Adam and Eve must have spoken the same language as Noah and everyone else before and after the Great Flood, until the Tower of Babel event?”

  “It’s one of those ‘maybe’ answers,” Carter said. “It certainly looks like there was just one language up until the time of the Tower of Babel. And the Tower of Babel has been the subject of a legion of religious and scholarly debates over the ages, even though the whole account given in the Bible consists of just nine verses.

  “And just as the chronicle of a Great Flood is present in the history of every civilization on earth, there is a similar narrative about the confusion of languages — in other words, their versions of the Tower of Babel.

  “I’m not supporting any version, as you know, although I believe the Bible is true, I also believe that the Bible does not cover everything that has happened in human history or the history of the earth for that matter.

  “The Bible’s description of the beginning of creation creates a lot of questions for which I have no clear explanations, only theories. It’s clear in the early parts of Genesis that there were other people around at the time of Adam and Eve. For instance, in Genesis 4, after Cain has killed Abel and God confronts him about it, verses 13 to 15, ‘And Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.” And the Lord said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.’ The question is, who were they who could kill him? The Bible mentions only three people on the earth at the time — Adam, Eve, and Cain. So, there must have been other people around at the time, but the Bible does not tell us who they were.

  “It’s only around the time of Abraham that the questions start to become fewer for me.”

  Mackenzie nodded. She and Carter and his late grandfather, Will, had many of these discussions.

  Carter continued, “So I guess what I’m trying to say is there is no other evidence in the Bible about the dispersion of Noah’s family across the face of the earth to cover all the continents, yet we know that people have lived on all continents for at least two hundred thousand years. Long before and after the Great Flood.”

  “Okay, so let’s assume for now that Adam and Eve and everyone up to the Tower of Babel in that region spoke one language,” Mackenzie said. “Which was it? You did mention early on that some scholars believe they spoke Hebrew or Aramaic. Didn’t you?”

  “Yes, I did. But what I see here is not Aramaic or Hebrew. I suspect it’s proto-Semitic, or in other words, an earlier version of one of the Semitic languages.”

  “So, what is the reason why some academics are saying the first language was Hebrew?”

  “Some Jewish researchers base their viewpoint on the fact that the Bible is the only historical source providing trustworthy data of the origin of the Hebrew language.”

  Carter picked up his Bible and read some verses out loud as he explained. “Genesis 14:13 starts like this: ‘Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew . . . .’ Abram descended from Noah’s son Shem, Genesis 11:10-26. God blessed Shem, Genesis 9:26, and they believe that it is reasonable to assume that Shem’s language was not affected when God confused the language of the disapproved people at Babel. In other words, Shem’s language would have remained the same as it had been before Babel.

  “There is no secular source that explains the origin of Hebrew or for that matter any of the ancient languages, such as Sumerian, Akkadian, Aramaean, and Egyptian, so that’s how they concluded that Hebrew was the first language.”

  “Really? I would have thought there would be some explanations about Sumerian and Egyptian at least. Why would that be?” Mackenzie asked

  “That’s a question with a very interesting answer.” Carter smiled. “Those languages appear already fully developed in the earliest written records found by historians. That means, any arguments that Hebrew stemmed from Aramaic or some Canaanite dialect are hypothetical.”

  “Hmm, interesting, very interesting,” she murmured. “Okay, so, let me see if I’ve got this whole thing correct. Your giants wrote on those metallic sheets with nanotechnology or something akin to it. The language they used bears semblanc
e to the Semitic languages. On track so far?” She smiled.

  “Yes, one hundred percent.”

  “Okay, so far so good then. I take it that all or most of the Semitic languages, the same as most other languages, have been captured electronically in dictionaries and writings?”

  “Mm . . . yes, all of them, even Sumerian and the Egyptian hieroglyphs . . .” Carter paused suddenly, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets. “Mackie! You beauty, you . . . oh my goodness . . . you did it!” By now he had reached her and lifted her clean out of her chair, swinging her around in his arms, screaming and shouting.

  Liam and Jeha heard the commotion from outside where they were playing and stormed into the study, and Beth started crying. Carter looked around as Mackenzie wiggled out of his embrace and went to Beth’s room.

  “What’s happening, Dad?” Liam asked, out of breath. “Why were you screaming and shouting like that?”

  Carter became aware of Liam and Jeha’s presence. He took a deep breath to calm down before he spoke. “Sorry, Liam. I didn’t mean to scare you. Mom just discovered something very, very big. It’s so exciting I couldn’t help myself.”

  “Ah, okay,” Liam said in a deflated tone, “then Jeha and I will go and play again.”

  Carter nodded and smiled at his son.

  ***

  Mackenzie came back to the study after she’d lifted Beth from her crib and pacified her. With her she brought the little one, who, when she saw her dad, started smiling and put out her arms to him.

  With Beth, happy and content on his lap, Mackenzie continued the discussion. She wasn’t exactly sure if she and Carter were thinking about the same thing.

  “So now that you have scared the living daylights out of your entire family and the poor dog” —she giggled— “let’s see if you and I are thinking along the same lines?”

  “You first,” Carter said, smiling broadly.

  “Well, I was thinking maybe you could get some computer genius to set up a data warehouse consisting of all the Semitic languages and the language of the giants. Then you can get him or her to write sophisticated queries to compare the giants’ language with all the Semitic languages.

  “I’ve seen some pretty intelligent questions developed by those database sages while working in the biology labs on campus. I know there is a query called ‘SOUNDS-LIKE’, and if I’m not mistaken, that command will search a database for words that not only match the word or phrase you’re searching for, it will also find anything that sounds like it. That’s apart from partial matches and exact matches and a lot more than I can even remember.”

  “Mackie, you’re the best,” Carter said with a big smile. “Absolutely, undeniably, without doubt, I am the luckiest man on this planet.”

  Mackenzie was beaming. “You’re not too bad yourself,” she jested as she winked at him.

  “Okay, let me get hold of Rick Winslow,” Carter said as he handed Beth off to Mackenzie.

  “Sounds like a good plan,” Mackenzie punned.

  “I’ve got a few databases to query.”

  After the call with Rick ended, Carter called up the calculator on his laptop and spoke as he typed in the numbers. “There are close to ten thousand of these metallic sheets, each with 3,750 nanodots, and each dot contains about eight hundred thousand words. The print collection of the Library of Congress is said to be ten terabytes. If the giants’ library consists of text only, it will be almost three hundred times bigger than the print collection of the Library of Congress. Mind-bending, to say the least.”

  Mackenzie did a quick search on the Internet and quoted from the official website, “The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with more than 162 million items on approximately 838 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than thirty-eight million books and other print materials, three-point-six million recordings, fourteen million photographs, five-and-a-half million maps, seven-point-one million pieces of sheet music, and seventy million manuscripts.”

  “We’ve got a giant task in front of us — pun intended.” Carter smiled.

  “I’d be willing to bet there’s much more than just text. Surely there will be pictures, drawings, and music in there,” Mackenzie said. “Considering their technological advancement — in many ways far, far ahead of us — I’m sure they would have stored information not only about their history but also about their technology and culture and the world around them. Who knows? We might just find a few fifty thousand-year-old videos in there! Won’t that be great? The giants’ version of Netflix.” She chuckled.

  “That’s what I’m hoping for,” Carter replied. “I’m expecting to find an answer for our ancient nuclear dilemma in that library. And who knows? Maybe even something about respirocytes.”

  Chapter 20 -

  The new members

  Councilor Alireza Karimi-Shah, had a rewarding meeting with Hassan Al-Suleiman three days after the council meeting. The fact that the two of them came from bitterly opposed religious sects in the Muslim faith — Karimi-Shah a Shiite and Al-Suleiman a Sunni — never featured in their conversation. It might be possible that they thought about their religious differences, but neither of them voiced it. The councilor was impressed with Hassan and extremely pleased with Graziella and her son Mathieu’s choice. Hassan was an intelligent man with rapidly expanding influence in the Middle East, and his political views did not clash with those of the Council of the Covenant of Nabataea. Hassan was definitely not going to be another Algosaibi.

  Karimi-Shah kept the first part of their conversation at a high and inquisitive level as a final measure to ensure that they were not making any mistakes with Hassan’s appointment. When he was convinced that they were doing the right thing, he started to lead the discussions to the real purpose of the visit and lifted small parts of the veil of secrecy.

  Even with the little bit of information he got, Hassan was speechless. He could not begin to explain how it came about that these people knew so much about him. In some cases, they literally knew more about him than he knew about himself. Karimi-Shah was careful not to reveal the name of the organization and skimmed over their purpose and objectives. Nevertheless, when it was time for Hassan to say yes or no to taking the next step, it didn’t take him long to accept the offer — The Sons of the True Prophet just got another lease on life — and the backing of unlimited funding.

  With his acceptance to proceed came the conditions. Once he accepted and arrived in Paris and went through the induction ritual, there was no turning back. He was in it for life. And “for life” meant exactly that—it was made very clear to him that he could not resign nor walk away, ever. If he ever tried to do that, it would also be the end of him.

  Hassan understood all of it and agreed. The next step was for him to travel to Paris, where he would undergo a three-day induction process culminating in a formal ceremony. At that time, he would meet all the councilors, take the oath, and take up his position as new councilor.

  Karimi-Shah accompanied Hassan to Paris three days later. From the airport, Hassan was taken to a house on the bank of the Seine in the third district of Paris. When they arrived at the house, Karimi-Shah led Hassan to his quarters, five levels below ground, where he would remain for the duration of the induction.

  Hassan was surprised at what he learned during his meetings with Karimi-Shah prior to his arrival in Paris, but he had no way of preparing himself for what he was going to learn over the course of the next few days.

  ***

  Late afternoon, a few days after James Rhodes and company departed, the Devereux family was out for a walk. Beth was in her usual place in the baby carrier on Carter’s back making happy sounds and laughing at Mackenzie and Liam. Jeha, full of energy, was running around chasing butterflies and making a lot of noise.

  About two miles from the Freydís homestead, Jeha stopped in her tracks, lifted and wiggled her nose as she smelled the air. Next, she pulled her tail between her legs and scurried back to
Liam, as if she wanted his protection. Her eyes were fixed on some trees about two hundred yards away.

  Carter noticed the little dog’s behavior and turned in the direction she was staring. “Aha, that’s what got your knickers in a knot — it’s Mackie’s wolves.”

  “Where? Where?” Mackenzie wanted to know.

  Carter showed her and Liam where the wolves were waiting for them under the trees, and they changed their course to meet with their four-legged friends. When they got closer, they could see that the whole family was there — Loki, Keeva, and the four pups.

  Carter and the rest of the family stopped about ten yards from the wolves and waited for them to approach, which they did immediately. Jeha made sure she was behind Liam, clearly respecting these big animals. The wolves undoubtedly noticed her right away, but as always ignored her as if she didn’t exist. From a human perspective, it seemed as if this tacit arrangement suited Jeha well — as long as she had Liam between her and the wolves at all times.

  After the usual interspecies greetings and socialization of sniffing, licking, tail wagging, talking, patting, back scratching, and rubbing, Loki turned and disappeared behind some trees.

  Carter and Mackenzie found it strange that Keeva and the pups stayed behind with them. But the mystery was short-lived when Loki returned a few minutes later followed by a wolf mother and two pups they’d never seen before. The newcomers were very human shy, staying about twenty yards behind Loki. Despite him turning around, looking at them, and making soft noises as if to say don’t worry, we know these people — they are our friends. You can trust them; come now, don’t be shy, they remained where they were — suspicious of the humans.

  Mackenzie and Carter knew it was not a good idea to approach the strangers. They had to wait for the new wolves to build up enough trust to draw nearer to them when they were ready to do so.

  “Carter, this is weird. I’ve been reading a lot about wolves and their behavior since I met Keeva and Loki years ago, and they almost never allow other wolves into their packs. As far as I know, they will only allow outsiders to join their pack if the outsiders were in some sort of danger or hardship. But more often than not, they are just left on their own to die or survive.”