XXXIV.
New Houston Area, Site-A
“Val, wake up… Val!” a gruff voice called as an even gruffer hand shook him at the shoulder. “It’s time. Break’s over. Jeez – you die or something?” Val opened his eyes, the augmented reality HUD of the Chief Engineer’s data-pad ghosting over the bearded man standing above him. With a groan, Val disconnected his neural-interface, rubbing the bags under his eyes with his index and thumb to give the impression he had really been sleeping. Malcom wouldn’t even think to question it. They had all been put on such tight shifts the last few weeks as the power requirements for the Gate neared the necessary levels, that sleeping odd hours in odd places had since become the norm. Val himself had just come off a twelve-hour shift only thirty minutes before, proving there was no rest for the wicked. Thirty minutes, that was all the time he had needed to do all the damage he had to so that nothing would interfere with the activation of the Gate. In thirty minutes, with a little help from the esteemed Dr. Cain to make it look natural, he had unlocked the mandatory power dampeners hooked up to the device. Now it had full access to the Dyson Grid. It had taken him five tries to get through the systems safeguarding it, but finally he managed.
Thankfully Dr. Cain had been able to mark the failed attempts off as freak anomalies in the system, and no one dared question her, her being the AKOSHA A.I.’s most senior designer. “Fifth’s the charm, Eddy,” Dr. Cain had said darkly. “I won’t cover for you after that. I want this as much as you, but if you think I’m irreplaceable, well, you’d be wrong. None of us are irreplaceable. So, it’s do or die, Eddy.”
Do or die, she had said, and he chose to do.
“I’m alive, Malcom – somehow…” Val uttered as he pulled his mess of red hair into a loose ponytail. “Ugh – the batteries charged already?” It was a question he full well knew the answer to. “That was a lot sooner than we thought… I was hoping I’d get at least an hour or two in.”
“Against your best efforts, right?” Malcom suggested snidely whilst pantomiming a bottle before shaking his head. “There was a sudden burst of energy from the Gate,” he announced with a huff. “Scared the shit out of the night crew. Don’t know where it pulled it from, but it charged them right to max. This thing wants to be opened…”
“Would seem so, wouldn’t it?” Val replied with a hiss and a halfhearted glare at his companion – at least partially aimed at his lack of excitement. Was he on to him after all? “It hasn’t done that before, right?”
“No, it has,” Malcom corrected, “just never under direct view. Dr. Cain has this written up as the fourth or fifth occurrence, and I believe it. You know how close she watches that thing from her booth. Same as you and the book.”
“Well, then lets not keep it waiting,” Val returned with a snort and a cock of his eyebrow. “Once more unto the breach, dear friend, once more.”
Malcom looked him up and down, the judgement plain in his stare. He could smell the booze on him but was just declining to press the issue further than the jab. Little did he know, it was celebratory. “Fifth’s the charm, Eddy,” Val thought to himself, trying his best to give his friend a reassuring smile as he pushed himself to his feet to follow him down the hall. “Any news from Peter? Last report said that their ‘Specialist’ was actually making progress with the Beacon.” He sniggered to himself before saying, “I doubt some ex-jarhead could do what all their entire geek squad couldn’t – and they had theirs built before us even.”
“Hey – I’m an ex-jarhead and part of the geek squad, remember?” Malcom said with a knuckle wrap on his head. “How can you still be salty about washing out of P.E. in your thirties? Jeez. But no, nothing. You know how Peter the 1st island is – weird…”
Weird was right, Val thought, letting his longtime friend’s words trail off with the thought. They had two sites there on the island, but kept the second one secret for some reason. What he would give to know what was really going on down there. “Ah-ah-ah! Hold the elevator!” Malcom suddenly shouted, snapping Val out of his encompassing thought. Down the hall were a group of techs in full safety gear, no doubt heading to the same place they were. “Do you know who this is?” Malcom continued, jabbing a thumb at his companion. “If you make us late you can kiss your next break goodbye! I’ll invent plasma conduits for you to scrub.”
“Yes, Malcom, we know,” replied one of the techs dryly as they stuck out a foot to hold the door. It was obviously the head tech herself, Carla Brooks, the third to their office trio, but, like usual, Malcom couldn’t resist a chance to choke on his own foot. “And you’re lucky you’re cute, fucking nerd,” She said coolly as she removed her protective cover, letting her mop of curls fall over her shoulders. “Did you just reference a two-hundred-year-old T.V. show?”
Even after all their years, it offered no end of enjoyment for Eddy to watch his friend try and blubber out an excuse for being belligerent. “I – I was only…”
“Swinging your dick around?” the Head Tech finished with a huff and a roll of her eyes. “I’ve seen that thing… Probably best not to embarrass yourself too much and keep it to yourself.”
“Shit, Carla… mean, but okay,” Malcom whimpered as he pushed into the elevator with a chortling Val in tow. The pair were getting ready to go off for vacation, the idea of which bewildered him to no end. How could they even think about leaving the project behind when they were reaching such a pinnacle point? Didn’t they realize the gravity of the breakthrough they were about to make? “You two will have to tell me how Maui is,” Val commented, feigning interest, still unsure if Malcom was on to him or not. “Hell, tell me how vacation is. Pretty sure I’m going to be down here until the day I die.”
What they were about to do – no, what he was about to do, make sure they do, would change the course of history forever, and all they could think about was mundane shit? Every word felt like needles being pushed into his eyes. Narrowminded, that was the word that came to mind. They were too stuck in the now, that was why he had kept his plans from them. But they’ll forgive him, he was sure of it, when their names were etched in stone and remembered for generations. The elevator came to an abrupt stop, chiming loudly when it did so. “Level – 4B: Gate Room,” the A.I. system announced before listing off its less than eager prisoners. After a brief dispute between Malcom and the AKOSHA system about playing favorites – which it did, Val having made sure of it on an earlier dive into its systems – it offered them freedom into the room beyond to do their work. The group of scientists and their engineer cohorts spilled into the room as soon as the doors parted. Val practically ran to his station, a console at the center of a large white octagonal room. If he had to suffer one moment longer hostage to their mundane blathering, he didn’t know what he’d do. Val slid a hand over the screen in front of him to wake it up, waiting with bated breath as the computer did its final scan. “Fifth’s the charm, Eddy…”
“All processes are complete,” Akosha announced over the intercoms, causing a wide smile to bloom upon his face. Just like the rest of the team, it was wholly unaware of his tampering. He offered them an encouraging thumbs-up as the system chimed, “Energy containment levels meet the optimal parameters for device activation. Do you wish to activate the test procedure?”
Val glanced over to his companions for the final confirmation – nine nods and the test would proceed. It was all song and dance. With or without their go the device was being activated that day. He had taken all say in the matter upon himself, having rerouted all admin privileges to himself and his console. They couldn’t stop it if they tried, but luckily for him they didn’t. Nine nods – the ‘test’ would proceed. Eddy Valentino stared down at the console, the flashing lights reflecting off his face, the Adamic words suddenly reverberating in his thoughts. They were words of activation, words of power, but not just. They were words of sacrifice. He looked to all his colleagues, to all he had to offer it, the infernal machine. He swallowed hard, making a show of counting the confirmations, counting his lambs. He returned his stare to the console before him, awaiting his input. Val had been so eager before, wanting nothing else in the world but to turn it on, make his mark, but now a welling of dread stalled him.
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“It needs more power, Barbra,” he had told her, Dr. Cain.
“That’s not what it says, Eddy,” she corrected. “I’ve read it too, you know, and we’ve all seen your notes. ‘Power’ could mean anything… The same word is used for the trinity of body, mind, and soul.”
“I don’t believe in the spirit, and sentience isn’t quantifiable,” Val retorted shortly. “I highly doubt that such an advanced civilization would be so superstitious, don’t you?”
“Well, that still leaves ‘body’ doesn’t it, Eddy?” Dr. Cain offered firmly, behind cigarette reflecting glasses. “The device eats all the energy we give it, but it always requires more… It needs more”
“Maybe, so what? Lets give it more!” Val exclaimed, throwing his arms up. “Are you going to report me then – for tampering? Can you stand in the way of knowing?! Of making history, Barb? You?!”
“No,” she replied coolly, burning the drag out in the tray upon her desk, “I won’t… this time. I’ve always believed great risks and sacrifices are warranted to accomplish great things. That’s to say, I want to be in the know as much as you do. But, I’m unwilling to sacrifice my career due to a lack of patience. You’re like a child, Eddy, playing with fire… I’ll sweep this under the rug – again. I just want to you to understand, Eddy, really understand exactly what you may be sacrificing. It isn’t just your career and reputation. Body, mind, and soul, Eddy. It wants them all.”
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“Body, mind, and soul,” Val whispered to himself, doubt and fear plain to see in his reflection as he stared down at the repeating line of ‘Confirmation Required’ on the screen. He did his best to banish the thought as idle superstition. It wasn’t wholly uncharacteristic of the good doctor to dip her toe into pseudoscience nonsense like psionics and machine souls, he reminded himself with a huff. Her fears were only her imagination getting the better of her, he was sure of it. And besides, Val thought, steeling himself; he had already gone too far and broke too many laws to go back now. Everyone would find out what he had done, eventually, through success or catastrophe. So, if he ever wanted to see the light of day again, he had to offer them something. The test would proceed. “Confirm,” he replied firmly. “Activate the test procedure, Akosha. Let’s turn this thing on, people! Let’s make history.”
“Confirmation received,” the A.I. relayed. “All systems are standing by for command phrase. Speak clear the Kelhsterg to continue.”
Eddy let out a deep sigh of anticipation as he slid a hand down the closely cropped beard of his face. This was it, he thought, he was about to do the most important thing of his life, of humanity’s life. He was about to make history. But, he had to get it right, exactly right – the word of power. He adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. ‘A scar upon the soul’ Malcom had called them, those fel words inscribed in the tome, left over from the fall of Babel; aching, warning of the approaching storm. Val scoffed at the memory, at his friend across the room clutching his crucifix tight against his chest. Malcom had never been a believer before, but now he was muttering a prayer under his breath. “A scar upon the soul,” Val echoed in thought with a huff, watching as his friend finished with an ‘Amen’. “Like GOD above, the soul doesn’t exist.”
“SoPeth gwedh Ħeme…” Val uttered in practice, feeling the great power in them despite the lack of commitment. He looked to the pedestal before him, besides the console, to the book encased in a shield of adamantium. At the wave of a hand, the Libro ex Portarum’s protective cover retracted, leaving him with a clear view of its alabaster cover, gold trim, and the wholly alien figure carved into the face of it. Eddy placed the palm of his hand upon it and traced the omega-like symbol etched into it with his finger. “Do or die…” the words echoed in his thoughts along with some of his own, “Do or die, with this I’ll live forever.” He repeated the phrase, emphasis drawn from his very soul, “SoPeth gwedh Ħeme!”
“Command phrase validated,” Akosha announced. “Warning: Pneumatic ignition detected.” In that instance things began to blur with excitement as the gate activated, as theory turned to fact right before their eyes. Val watched in amazement as the pneumatic ignition burned to life, blooming petals of plasmatic energies never seen before. He had done it! He had made history! And, with this, he had become untouchable.
Val grinned widely at what appeared to be an overwhelming success, one with none of the ‘sacrifices’ Barbra had been so sure of. Nothing – not a single hiccup was presenting itself. The machine was, by all signs, stable. He had done it, whatever it truly was, and Val was sure they’re all be kissing his ass by morning. “It’s beautiful!” shouted one of the nameless technicians from Carla’s team, their bubbling excitement plain to hear. “Chief, do you see that?! Wow… Just wow!” Val didn’t know what their visual enhancement showed them behind their blacked-out visors, but what he saw with the naked eye was already the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He stared in overwhelming pride and fascination as the blossoming energy grew into snaking vines of amaranth lightning, crackling plasmatic cobras that seemed to be taking on a life of their own right before his eyes.
Body, mind, and soul… Those haunting words just kept reverberating through his thought as he watched the striking bolts dance across the glass, seemingly reaching out not at random but with almost predatory intent, striking at whoever stood closest to the barrier. Whatever the cause for the attraction, it was contained. There was no need for the fear or welling dread he could see growing on the faces around him as the others made the connection as well. Val shook his head in distain for them. Everything was under control, his control. Now that they made history and he had secured his spot in it, if anything truly went wrong, he could just shut it off at the flip of a switch. But nothing was going wrong, and nothing would go wrong – the fools.
It wasn’t scary, it was fascinating! A truly gorgeous display of forces, as of yet, beyond their comprehension; their collective dream come true! Cowards, the lot of them, Val thought with a sneer. But, it was of no matter in the end. Even if their fear got the better of them, they couldn’t shut it down prematurely if they wanted to. He held all the keys, and he wasn’t going to let superstition or fear prevent him from seeing the dream through to the very end. “Energy levels are dropping, Val,” Malcom shouted suddenly from his station, a potential wrench in his plans. “The A.I. didn’t catch it, but they’re dropping fast! Whatever it’s doing is consuming all of it!”
“System report, Akosha!” Val hollered, frantically tapping at his console. The sudden total burnout of power didn’t make sense. He had given it all it needed and more. He had given it the sun! “What’s going on? System report, dammit! Carla, run a diagnostic, quick!”
Out of the corner of his eye he could see her working, throwing her hands this way and that, tapping at screens only she could see. It was futile it seemed. She threw her helmet to the side with a curse and darted over to a physical terminal. “I can’t, Val! I can’t access the systems at all,” she cried out frantically. “Akosha is offline – the A.I. is down!” Offline? How could it be offline? They still had power, there wasn’t some great recoil to the systems that would cause an outage across the entire A.I. web. The lights didn’t even flicker! It didn’t make any sense at all for a system that could survive orbital burn up or an EMP burst to just crash! That was unless, Val realized with gnawing dread sinking its teeth into the nape of his neck, it didn’t crash, but was turned off.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Yes, that was it, he thought with a weak chuckle, he was sure of it, it had to be. He stared up at the blacked-out windows of the overseeing office above – Dr. Cain no doubt staring right back at him. He couldn’t believe how stupid he had been in trusting her. They had never been on the same side, she had said it herself. She was more than willing to make the sacrifice, just not personally. She had told him straight to his face, but he had been unwilling to see the threat her words really were. Instead he had agreed to them – ‘Lets give it more!’ And she did – them, all of them. He had disregarded her warning as superstition, and now she was feeding them to the fire. She had warned him, told him exactly what he was about to pay, he had to give her credit for that.
Val looked away, his gaze drawn back to the transteel glass of the Gate’s cell, at the lightning rattling the proverbial bars. He watched in a mix of fear and resignation as the pneuma ignited again, transforming from lashing cobras into a monstrous hydra that hid away the infernal device behind it’s daunting form. The pneumatic energies burst, crackling with such ferocity that Val couldn’t hope to hear the screams erupting all around him. He could see them, however, the fear, the utter terror, and need for escape. He could see Carla trying to manage them, to take control of the situation – control he had stolen from her. Carla was directing her crew toward the doors in a futile attempt to escape. However, Dr. Cain, having shut down her creation, had effectively sealed the room. They would die there, trapped miles underground, just like she had planned. They were lambs, Val thought, just like he always had, but now he could see the truth of it. He wasn’t the shepherd, but the judas. Lambs to the slaughter, and Val had led them right to it. This place would be their tomb, and Cain’s next greatest achievement – her mark on history and not his.
There was no escape now, and Val didn’t even try, even as Malcom shook him by the shoulders, trying to pull him away. He was mesmerized, watching his dream sink before him into the depths of nightmare, and as the captain, he was keen on going down with the ship. If anything, Val thought with a maddened laugh as he pulled himself away, he would die knowing. He stared deep into the energy hell before him, watching as a hairline crack inched its way up the glass. The transteel gave way like the shell of a hatching egg, letting free the monster of his will and alien design. Plasmatic arms reached out, grasping, groping, clawing for those piling up at the elevator doors. Those screams he could hear.
Bolts of eldritch energy deconstructed everyone they struck, turning them from living, breathing people that Val had known for years into unrecognizable sludge that splattered the floors and walls. Val stared in shock and terror. He had been so willing to sacrifice everything, everyone moments before, full well knowing his eagerness could cost them all their lives if something went wrong – something he hadn’t thought possible. And, in a cruel way, he was right in that. Nothing was going wrong, not in a technical sense. No, the device was doing exactly what it was designed to do, what he had wanted it to do, and what Dr. Cain had made sure it could: translate matter. The Gate was working exactly as designed, Val recognized that as he watched in horror as the pink slime that used to be his colleagues began slithering across the floor, drawn into the chamber by some horrid force. Would they wake up fine, he wondered, reconstituted somewhere across the universe? Would they all laugh about this one day – how scared they were over nothing? The writhing feeling of cold reality knotting up in his guts warned him against such wishful thinking. They were gone, dead and gone, and he had killed them.
And for what? Why would it need their bodies? They had given it all the energy it required to function! He had given it everything, except, Val thought dreadfully, something to channel all that energy into. Not even something so fantastical could create something from nothing, he realized. That’s why. They were the nothing, the missing piece, and that something was coming through, built upon their basest parts. At some point, despite the apparent futility of it, Carla and her crew had since breached the door to the elevator shaft. Val could hear her calling to him, pleading, crying out as loud as she could, but it was distant, the voice of a ghost. What did they think they would do, he wondered, climb the line to the next level? Then what? Hold tight to the line until death crawls up after them? No, there was no escape, only delay. Val ignored her pleads, unmoving from the spot. He didn’t think he could move if he wanted to, entranced as he was. All he could do was watch in awe and horror at what he wrought. Val stared unblinkingly, gawking until his eyes burned and even that faint desperate voice faded away, until all that was left in the world, it seemed, was him and the infernal device – his grand success, his call to fame.
Like the workings of a 3D printer, the biomass began drawing out humanoid shape and form, layer by accursed layer. In that world, faded to a dull and colorless drone, Val watched for what felt like hours for the form to be completed. In truth it had taken only mere moments, and as soon as that breath forced its way free from his lungs it was complete, and the pneumatic ignition faded like everything else. It stood tall, the anunnakian horror, so tall it was spawned in a crouching position and still filled the chamber wall to wall, ceiling to floor. Six-fingered hands pressed up against the glass and at the lightest pressure the transteel shattered. Finally, Val was able to look away, if only to avoid the shower of shards. “E-Eddy…” Uttered a soft and quaking voice, the sound of the world returning to him. “What… what is that thing?”
It was Carla, standing in the breached doorway with Malcom half-slung over her shoulder. They had returned for him – the fools. If only they knew the truth of it, that none of this was an accident, that all the death and destruction around them was his fault. Would they ever look at him the same way again, knowing that he had been so readily willing to sacrifice all of them? Would they hate him if they knew that even now some small part of him felt as if it were worth it? No, he didn’t think they would ever look at him the same way again. Disgust, that’s how they’d look at him. He knew that for fact, because that was how he looked at himself. “Why didn’t you just run…?” Val asked dully, snapped out of his stupor. The entire room was stained with the being’s makeup, with his colleagues, his friends – blood that also stained his hands – and, he felt nothing. “You should leave, now. Get out, before it’s too late. The price has been paid, but I don’t know what’s to come, or if you’ll get another chance…”
“Val, come with us!” Carla urged, desperation and worry plain in her intense stare. “The elevator is working – we can escape before it… whatever it is comes to!”
Val looked up to the control room feeling a mixture of relief and distain. It appeared that Dr. Cain couldn’t condemn them all to such a fate after all and had turned her machine back on. He on the other hand could commit and wasn’t about to waste the opportunity before him. Even if it killed him, he would still die knowing. He chortled half-crazedly and uttered admittedly, “I did this, Carla… I chose to do this, don’t you see? I locked you out, made sure we could turn it on… I wanted this to happen.” Carla stared at him for a minute, her eyes searching for a reason he would say such a thing, guilt, madness, a concussion, but she only found truth. “You sonofabitch…” She cursed, eyes wide with fury. She wanted to hit him, she wanted to strike him dead, but with Malcom on her shoulders the best she could do was spit and leave him to his fate.
Carla didn’t even look back as the elevator doors shut behind her. Good, Val thought, letting the breath he was holding go – no one else would die today because his foolishness. He stuttered an inhale as he tried to steel himself once more, and wiped the tears from his eyes. It was better they hate him than die for him. He never deserved such loyalty. “I’m sorry…” He uttered as Carla’s first question returned to the forefront of his mind – what the entity before him was. He was wracked with regret, tortured by the blood on his hands, but even still, the draw to know overpowered them. What was done was done, and there was no going back, only forward. Val turned his attention to the overwatching office. “Cain, you piece of shit,” He shouted up to her booth, “you better be recording everything!”
“Of course, Eddy,” Dr. Cain’s voice rang out with a static chirp from the speakers, as solemn and cold as ever. “Everything has been documented thoroughly. Proceed with contact, if you will.”
Val looked away, shifting his focus back to the entity before him. “What…” He began, his voice breaking. Val cleared his throat and began again with a shout, saying, “What are you?!” It ignored him, so he cried out again, this time in Adamic. “K-kwis hes tuħ?!” Val barely managed to stammer out before the being turned their horrible gaze upon him, and forever more he sorely wished it hadn’t. “Kwis hes t…!”
“Kwos hes ħeme?” the being echoed muddily, its voice as hauntingly deep as whatever chthonic prison he had freed it from. The great bloody thing reached out and gripped the jagged edges of the ruined chamber. It pulled itself free and stood before him, manlike but muliebral, with a circular crown of horns upon its brow that scraped the ceiling twenty feet up. Nebulitic eyes bore down upon him out of the veil of crimson, and the sheer weight of that gaze forced Val to his knees. The being then spoke again, its cavernous voice an earthquake upon his very soul. “soĦme hes…” the being said, “kapyeti? I am held captive? Why do you keep me beneath the earth?”
For a moment, all Val could do was gape up at the towering figure, staring wide-eyed in awe and fear. “Captive…” he stammered out after a breath. “N-no, no, not captive. I… I don’t know what happened, but we thought it was a matter translator, a teleportation device! We didn’t know what would happen, that this would happen! That you would… I-I just thought…”
“I know what you thought!” the being viciously spat in Adamic, sneering as it pushed him up against the wall with a finger as thick as his arm. “Your mind is open to me, little one, and your thoughts are clear! It was pride, ignorance, and vain curiosity that propelled you to draw me here. But, not just yours…”
The being then reached up, towards Dr. Cain’s blacked-out window, and pulled. The blood-slick entity didn’t even have to touch it. At the slightest wave of its hand, the glass and surrounding wall buckled outward before exploding, showering the Gate room anew in shards of glass and cement. Out of the corner of Val’s eye, he could see Dr. Cain floating out, carried by forces unknown. Clutching at the jagged edge of the shattered wall, she screamed and writhed in the unseen grasp, but was wholly powerless against the psychic pull. It drew her away bloody-fingered and shrieking, down to the floor where it laid her out flat on the ground. “You… You were the mind of it, weren’t you?” the entity howled.
“N-no!” squealed Cain, her body spasming in her vain attempt to rise and flee, unable to raise even a finger against the force against her. “It wasn’t me! It was his idea to turn on the Gate! I warned him against it, I warned him but he wouldn’t listen!”
“Yes, you did, knowing full well that it wouldn’t deter him” uttered the giant darkly. “Such a pitiful attempt to avoid justice will not work upon me. So, tears and fear in your eyes, I ask you: was this gross desecration worth it?”
“I’m – I… I’m sorry,” pleaded Cain, her eyes bulging with mortal fear of the being’s judgement. “I only wanted to know…”
“To know?” The demonic entity echoed in mocking disgust. “You murdered your fellowmen to know?” It snorted as a vicious grin spread across it’s face, a tiger’s smile of such wicked intent that Val had to dig his nails into the palms of his hands in a bid to prevent his bladder from releasing. “And know you shall… As a gift for my awakening, I’ll let you know… everything.”
The summoned being leaned in, pressing the tip of a long fingernail into Dr. Cain’s forehead, causing her to howl in a harrowing panic as the nail sunk into her skull like a hot knife into butter. Now, no matter how tight Val clenched his fists, there was no saving his dignity. He screamed in absolute terror as the piss drained down his legs, unable to look away as Cain wailed and seized violently besides him. However, he had seen so much fear, so much pain in that short amount of time, that seeing the hellish torture play out before him no longer was the worst of it. It was the laughter that followed; Cain’s screams dying down into maddened giggles of wonder, as sights unimaginable filled her mind. Val wretched as the chthonic giant pulled free it’s nail, leaving a raw hole and exposed brain where it had been. It then turned back to him, quaking as his terrified stare darted between it and the nail pressed against his chest, pinning him to the wall. “Poor toy of a thing…” the horned giant uttered, more scorn than pity in it’s cavernous voice. “How willful you’ve become since we met last. Where are your Weħǵhekw, small thing? And, where is the Udug? To let such heresy play out – tch!”
“I… I don’t know what those words mean,” Eddy admitted pleadingly. “All we found were the books, and I – I’ve only ever seen this one. There’s no mentioning of… Seers,” he stuttered out, trying to piece together the meaning, “or g-guards?”
“Watchers,” the giant corrected with a hiss before suddenly pulling away, letting him fall to the floor. Val heaved as he tried to catch his breath. The summoned entity seemed more annoyed now than angry, but even so, he dared not take his eyes off of it for even a second. “Stupid thing…” the being cursed, glaring down at him like someone looking upon a disobedient pet. “You cannot lie to me,” it admitted, “and yet, I cannot believe you… When I went to my rest, I left my children under the care of my Watchers, under the Udug’s guardianship.”
“Your children?” Val dared to ask, eyes darting back and forth between the antediluvian giant and the elevator door. Dr. Cain, somehow still alive, lay between them, a stark warning of how hopeless an escape attempt was. Val grit his teeth and banished the thought. “I’m sorry, but we found no children, no watchers, or this Udug. The books were buried deep underground – lost to time! We found them by pure chance when tapping thermal vents. Before that, we didn’t even know your kind existed. You’re one of them… right? Our precursors?”
“You have forgotten me? Have they as well?” the creature uttered, a deep sadness mirroring the depths of its voice. “Or abandoned?! I cannot sense them at all… Why?” The being growled and shook its great horned head before meeting his eyes once more. “I see now that you truly have no idea what you have done. My Watchers were supposed to guide you, keep you safe from yourselves, temper you so not to burn bright enough to attract his gaze.”
“I… I don’t rightly understand,” Eddy said softly, “but, if you were imprisoned in the machine, in a buffer, then maybe they’re… I’m sorry, but they must have died. It’s been millions of years. The fact the Gate kept you alive all this while is… unfathomable.”
“Do not try and console me with your insectile ignorance of things far beyond you,” the giant said sharply. “Death is of no consequence! They will live again, once we’ve completed our work, little thing. It may not seem so from your blindered eyes, but fate is on your side today. We must do what we can before the Reaping begins.”
“W-what do you mean?” Val sputtered, eyes wide with confusion and a sliver of hope that he might just survive their encounter. He had been so willing to die, for others to die, to accomplish what he had – but now, all he could think of was living one more day, one more minute, one more second. “I – I can be useful!” he blubbered out pleadingly. “I can… can tell you everything you need to know about our world! I can-…!”
“Stop groveling, worm!” the being snapped, it’s voice a thunder clap that forced him back to his knees. “Do not mistake the need for haste as an offer of mercy. You have forgotten yourself as well as me, it seems. You will pay for your heresies, against me and your fellowmen, make no mistake about that!”
“Who…” Val began, his voice cracking. “Who are you?”
“Forgotten… I am Nintu, the Shassuru,” the being uttered as it turned away with a hiss. Its nebulitic eyes fell on the Gate device and it sneered with distaste at what must have looked crude and tribal by its standards. “I raised you from the clay of the earth, gifted you with Wehroshenh – with True Life. I am the Mother.”
Val sat bewildered, struggling with his understanding of the universe. Never, not once in his entire life, did he believe in GOD. It had always been superstitious nonsense that had all but died out more than a hundred years before. But now, hearing the giant’s words, knowing now what he knew, he was shaken. And, curiosity overriding his fear, he had to ask the question.
“Are…” Val began, pausing to steel himself and wet his lips, “Are you GOD?” Nintu stopped what she was doing and turned to face him once more, her shimmering eyes searching him up and down. “In a sense. One of the first even,” she told him. “There are others like me, but aligned with your concept and understanding, however, yes. I am GOD, your god. I chose you as mine and I breathed sentience into you.”
“I… I’m sorry, I never believed in you,” Val offered frantically. “I – I’ve… Oh my god,” he stammered, the gravity of his crimes finally weighing upon him as his eyes drifted over all the carnage the room withheld and down to his own hands, stained red. “Am… am I going to Hell? I’m going… to Hell, aren’t I? Oh god, no-no-no! I… I-I-I… I’d deserve as much,” Val admitted soberly, the fiery desperation in his voice dying to cold acceptance.
“You would,” the giant returned stoically, “but thankfully for you, such a place doesn’t exist – yet. After this, I may just see that it does. The price for this communion was clear,” Nintu said firmly, “a price you willfully ignored, and kept from your fellowmen, the both of you. And out of curiosity too… Such blind selfishness deserves no lesser fate than eternity bathed in tongues of fire. But, the blame lies not solely with you… I left behind my Watchers and an Udug to temper you, keep you bridled so not to burn so bright with foolish ambition. I do not know what has happened to them – but they weren’t here… Arguably a worse crime than your own. Tch – you are not ready for what is to come… Advanced as you’ve become, he would have not yet turned his eye upon you. But now that his machines have awakened, drawn me forth from my rest in Kur, he will come. He is probably already here…”
“H-him? What do you mean? What’s to come?” Val asked desperately. “How do we stop it? Please, I’ll do anything! ANYTHING! Please, I have a wife, a daughter on the way… Please GOD, let me make this right! Let me save them!”
“I believe you,” Nintu uttered with a snort of disgust. “I believe you would do or say anything to breathe a moment more, to escape judgment. But, as you are now, you’ve always been – a worm. You don’t have a choice, you never did. You were her puppet, as she was the puppet of others, always watching, as she watched you. My will has commanded them here, ties to their design that they cannot deny. They will gather and wait for us here – for my judgment.”
“Wait, wait for us?” Eddy asked meekly, feeling the tingle of pneumatic energies dancing up between them. “Where… where are you taking me?”
“To my Forge,” she said firmly, “where your kind began, and where they shall be remade.” She drew him near with a roll of her finger. Eddy Valentino shut his eyes tight, feeling the psychic grip squeeze tight around him as she spoke the words of power. “SoPeth gwedh Hheme!”