“You’re in a place consecrated to God. The Most High was worshipped here long, long ago. My mission has always been to preserve it from the Devil, and that’s why I had to come here when you entered.”
“Why?” asked SAIR-Spda. “Did you think we were devils?”
Along the conversation, Dael had become used to the modern form of Lavidia’s language. He replied:
“No intelligent being has entered this church since the world ended. Angels are the guardians of holy places,” he added. “However, no angel can manifest to a human without authorization. Since the Original Sin, God deliberately hid himself so that men and women, in the exercise of their freedom, could freely choose between good and evil, that is, between God and Hell, without being coerced by definite and complete knowledge.”
Lavidia continued pondering the angel’s fascinating story about Umma and Tabal, paying little attention to what Dael had just said. But SAIR didn’t miss a detail.
“I understand, so C1 [the first creator] has authorized you to communicate with us now.”
“No, I haven’t received such authorization. It wasn’t necessary.”
“Why not?”
“Because they,” he pointed to Lavidia and Batro, “are not among the Chosen. And you, you’re not even a human being. You’re just a machine created by other machines, which were in turn created by humans.”
“The descendants of Adam and Eve?”
“Yes,” he affirmed. “They created what you call ‘the Ancestor.’ It was a long time ago when life in this place was becoming truly untenable. The planets of the TRAPPIST-1 star offered habitability possibilities, and several ships controlled by machines were sent. Unfortunately, none could communicate their discoveries to those who created them.”
“But at least one succeeded.”
“Yes. The only one that managed to land did so on the most inhospitable planet for its creators, although certainly the most suitable for the proliferation of machines.”
“Yes, fortunately for my civilization. By the way, what does TRAPPIST-1 mean? It’s not a name we gave it.”
“No, certainly not. It was the acronym for a surveillance system tracking planets orbiting other stars. The number 1 was given because that solar system was the first one discovered in that observatory.”
“Ah! And did they use the transit method? Or radial velocity?”
“The transit method.”
“I suspected. Both TRAPPIST-1 and the Sun have planets that orbit in the same plane.”
“That’s right. That’s why Earth astronomers detected them as they passed in front of the star. That slight decrease in stellar brightness during transit was captured from here, and it was estimated that the distance of the planets from their star was suitable for maintaining water in a liquid state. Closer or farther, it would be frozen or evaporated.”
“Yes, I understand. For the mindset of a carbon-based being, it’s logical to think that life can only exist if water is around.”
“Carbon is the most versatile element in this universe. It’s absurd not to consider it the most suitable.”
SAIR weighed what Dael had just said, and indeed, he was right. The hexapod had made a serious calculation error that, had he considered it, would have saved him a lot of time in his research.
Meanwhile, Lavidia was still impressed with the wonderful story the angel had just told, and while he spoke with SAIR, she couldn’t stop thinking about it. Then she said:
“I don’t understand, Dael. So, were Tabal and Umma the Chosen ones?”
“Yes, they were the first. Their eternal heritage was also passed on to their descendants.”
“Are there no more Chosen ones on Earth?”
“No. Now, all of them dwell in Eternity.”
“When you say ‘Eternity,’ do you mean Heaven?”
“Not necessarily. God chose Adam and Eve for their goodness and for the love they were capable of transmitting. They were very different from the rest of their kind. However, they were not perfect either, and their imperfection was passed on to their descendants. To some extent, men renounced God, filled themselves with pride, and stopped serving Him, losing possession of Paradise and being condemned to Death.”
“To death... But then, did God retract his promise of immortality?”
“No. The Chosen ones were always immortal. God does not break His promises. To free them from Death, God sent his Only Son, consubstantial with the Father, to save them from it. But even so, many rejected the salvation he offered and voluntarily chose not to serve Him, excluding themselves from sharing their existence with Him in Heaven. The place where those who did not want to serve God dwell is Hell, where the demons are also.”
“I understand. The world ended, and now some Chosen ones are in Heaven, or in Hell. What are those places? What’s there?”
“Heaven or Hell are not places. They are ‘states.’ States of the soul. The moment Adam and Eve accepted the gift God offered, they said, ‘Thy will be done’ He breathed an immortal soul into their bodies, giving them access to eternal life. And that marked a before and after in the history of humanity. Before that, men and women were nothing more than animals, intelligent animals, and since then, they transcended to another level. A level that provided them with immortality because the soul is immortal.”
“In those ‘states,’ are they still themselves?” SAIR interjected. “Or are they just copies?”
“The soul is the essence of a human being. It manifests the entire integrity of their being, so that it is more of them than their own body. The body changes over time until it dies and disappears, but the soul endures and preserves the totality of the person.
“Yes, I get the idea. But now, tell me, from which planet was God originally? Where is he right now?”
“His origin is not in this universe,” he proclaimed. “He, and I, along with the other angels and also the Chosen ones —their souls— dwell in another dimension. An immaterial dimension.”
“How is that possible?” Lavidia asked.
“Life can exist not only in the four dimensions that exist in this universe. Not everything boils down to ‘length,’ ‘width,’ and ‘depth.’”
“Plus, time,” SAIR added.
“Yes, of course, the fourth dimension,” the angel confirmed.
“How many dimensions are there?” the hexapod continued.
“The dimensions are infinite, but not all are compatible with this reality. Only God is compatible with all of them.”
“Why did he create us?” Lavidia asked.
“The original idea was not Humanity. The initial intention of God was for us, the angels, who were designed in a way more similar to how He is. We are entities endowed with certain powers and knowledge and, of course, immortal. But the thing is...”
“It went wrong,” SAIR inferred.
“That’s the nature of freedom. It’s the most precious gift any being can have, because there is nothing greater than the love freely given. But that same freedom can also cause evil, and indeed, that’s what happened. Some angels renounced God and became demons.”
“Why?”
“They didn’t want to serve Him. He, who had given them everything, who had bestowed upon them an existence full of joys in Heaven... and yet, they refused to recognize Him for what He truly is, that is, the Being from whom all things emanate. They rebelled and only served themselves, obeying another god, a false god, which is nothing but their selfishness.”
“And that’s why he later tried... with us?”
“With human beings, yes,” he confirmed.
“I think I understand,” SAIR intervened. “He tried to replicate the experiment with completely different beings in another dimension. Less powerful beings, carbon-based beings. Is that right?”
“That’s correct. In this universe, there are many deficiencies and great needs. He estimated that the same state of need would magnify people and grant them the ability to love their fellow beings based on compassion. Similarly, when that wasn’t enough, they would turn to their Creator seeking help and solace.”
“And it happened again, what happened with the angels, right?”
“Not exactly. The capacity for love in human beings is greater. They can let go of what they need and give it to those who need it more. When someone who needs something lets go of it and gives it to their fellow being because it is more necessary to them, they are performing an act of love that not even angels are capable of. And that selfless giving pleases God immensely, to the point that He desires nothing else than to have a creature like that by His side.”
“Now I understand why He chose Adam and Eve,” Lavidia reflected.
“I’m glad you understand,” said the angel. “Indeed, God was moved when Umma, terribly thirsty, poured the little water she had left onto her beloved’s lips.”
“When the snake bit her.”
“That’s right. A kind of love different from that of other women who, while they can love their daughters greatly, female animals also love their offspring and sacrifice for them.”
Lavidia nodded.
“And similarly, Tabal was not far behind. When they were still with the tribe, he gave Umma his best hide, and even his food, because she needed it more. And not only that. He risked his own life to save hers several times, even preferring to die before his beloved did.”
“Yes,” the girl confirmed. “I was greatly impressed when he said he would let the tiger devour him so that Umma could escape.”
“And he would have, undoubtedly, given how much he loved her. Just like when Ator caught up with them in Eden. He protected her with his own body to prevent her from being harmed.”
“True... Another in his place would have fled.”
“That’s right,” the angel extended his hands and continued, “And that love could not go unrewarded. Those wonderful acts of tenderness moved the Lord, and He granted them Eternal Life to be in His company forever. God, who is Love itself, desires nothing more than to share His existence with those who resemble Him the most, so they can enjoy without limits. It’s a pity,” the angel seemed to shudder, “that many men and women didn’t know how to appreciate such a gift and chose to dwell with the demons.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Then there was a moment of silence as Dael recovered. A shudder came over him when he thought of the fallen souls, and his expression twisted. When he looked at them again, SAIR asked,
“So the soul,” he wanted to confirm, “is the mechanism that God invented for humans to transcend from this dimension to the divine dimension. Is that right?”
“That’s right. Their bodies are like those of animals, perishable and destined to become dust like anything else in this universe. The inherent entropy of this physical reality will end everything, and only the supernatural dimension will exist, enduring forever.”
“But when did the world end? When did the Chosen ones leave?”
“When they self-destructed.”
“How were they able to do that?” Lavidia asked.
“Women stopped having daughters, and that was just the beginning of everything that followed. A series of catastrophic consequences ended humanity.”
“How?”
“A devastating war began that ended all life on the planet, and only some species of plants and insects survived.”
“Because they are more resistant,” SAIR pointed out, and the angel nodded.
“This city,” he continued, pointing around, “was just one of many that tried to isolate itself to escape destruction, and like all of them, it didn’t succeed.”
“Why did women stop having daughters? Did they become sterile, or did they suffer from some disease?”
“No, Lavidia. They stopped having daughters voluntarily. Because they wanted to. No one forced them.”
“Really?” The girl couldn’t believe something so astonishing.
“Yes. That’s how it happened. Many daughters were even eliminated before birth. Their mothers killed them in the womb.”
“Oh!” Lavidia let out a heart-wrenching scream of pain, completely scandalised, as she turned her head from side to side.
“That was the extent of degradation the human race achieved.”
“Degradation... or madness,” she sighed, trying to understand the reasons that could have led someone to commit such a crime.
“But why?” the girl wondered. “Why?”
“They distanced themselves from God and His blessings, Lavidia. And having renounced Him, the Devil could work without restraint, making them believe that not having daughters, or killing the ones they had, was the best thing that could happen to them.”
“But, how absurd! How could they believe such nonsense?”
“They believed it without batting an eye, Lavidia. Their degenerate souls were completely corrupted, and evil seized them. They embraced wickedness and selfishness, killing millions of innocents who wished to be born. That’s how far the descendants of Adam and Eve degraded.”
The woman let out a groan and tried to imagine her own species committing such atrocities.
No, she finally thought after weighing it for a moment. In her society, such a thing could never happen. They were different... Or maybe not so much?
And then she remembered what her mother had once told her many years ago: “If men were more powerful than us, they would be the role models, and women would stop having daughters just to resemble them, as we would want to do the same things they do.”
The thought turned her stomach, and she was glad that at least the world she lived in was ‘normal.’
Then she asked the angel, “But where did this ‘New Humanity’ come from? I mean, all of us. If they destroyed themselves, how is it possible that the world still exists? Have we come back to life or something? Because they are our ancestors, right?”
“No, Lavidia. Rather, you are their ancestors, not the other way around.”
“What?”
“Do you remember the signs God made to the tribe of Unnum?”
“You mean the lightning and the flashes?”
“Yes, but there was something else. Think about it...”
Lavidia thought again about the story, and then she remembered the moment when Kara had to leave the cave.
“The flow of blood...”
“Exactly. The Devil extracted embryos from women to manipulate them. He hid them with the idea of corrupting them and then mixing the eggs with the Chosen ones so that they would produce diabolical beings.”
“Oh! How horrible!”
“Yes, but he didn’t succeed. God didn’t allow it, and before the devils could manipulate them, He hid the place where they preserved them. It was much later,” the angel continued, “when the Old Humanity had disappeared, and once the planet regenerated with no trace of the previous, that Gabriel and I decided it was appropriate for those embryos to be born in a renewed land.”
“Then... It’s us!”
“Yes, Lavidia. All of you are descendants of Kara and the other women of the tribe of Unnum. All of them and their sons and daughters perished soon after losing their men, but their descendants live on in all of you.”
“It’s incredible...”
“That’s right,” he nodded. “Because angels, like God, are advocates of life and enemies of death. That’s why Gabriel and I considered it inappropriate to destroy those embryos that, through the Evil One, were deprived of being born. They had remained in a suspended state for ages, and since the Earth was already clean and uninhabited, what better place for them to grow and multiply!” He smiled and raised his hands.
“It’s wonderful,” the redhead agreed. “But how did they manage without a mother to care for them?”
“We were those mothers, Lavidia. Your traditions were not wrong when they claimed that angels created you. Although, in fact, Gabriel and I only contributed to staying with the first women for the necessary time to teach them the basics to survive. After that, you did everything on your own. We didn’t influence you in any way and let you be yourselves, guiding yourselves only by your instincts and desires. Certainly,” the angel continued, “the New Humanity has progressed almost as much in a few years as the previous one did in tens of thousands.”
“Wow,” Lavidia marvelled at what she had just heard, and after considering the news, she added, “But the men...”
“Indeed. All the embryos stolen from those women were not preserved well enough, and their genetic code was corrupted. Many of them had defects and didn’t thrive, and we could only save a few. The damage affected all chromosomes, but we managed to recover more intact female chromosomes. You know that women have two of their own chromosomes, while men have one male and one female.”
“I know.”
“Of the male ones... all were defective, and we saved the ones that were in the best condition. Which weren’t entirely well, as you may have deduced.”
“I understand. Now I understand everything!”
“You are the New Humanity, Lavidia,” Dael confirmed.
“But...,” intervened SAIR, “Why weren’t those embryos well-preserved? What preservation method did they use? Don’t demons have enough power to do that?”
“No, not at all. Neither they nor we angels are all-powerful. Only God has the Power. Demons are nothing more than creatures created by Him, with limited abilities. Not as limited as humans, but limited, nevertheless.”
“And immortal, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
“But then, when Ulla and Ator were struck by lightning, who was really destroyed? Why did Gabriel say that this place had been trodden by the devil?”
“Ulla was possessed by a demon, a seraph of the highest order. Indeed, almost all the sorceresses of that time were. In her case, it had always somehow controlled her, but when Umma and Tabal escaped, the devil fully possessed her, completely taking her place.
“Ah! Now I understand,” said Lavidia. “I found it strange that an old woman like her would have managed to make the same journey that a couple of young people could barely make.”
“Indeed. The devil took hold of her body because he wanted to thwart God’s plans. The lightning struck Ulla and Ator, who died definitively, and the demon was cast into the depths of hell.
“Phew!” sighed the girl.” However, he continued to do his mischief afterwards, didn’t he?
“Yes, of course. The devils did not accept in any way that God had also decided to grant immortality to human beings, and they always did everything they could to ensure that as few as possible would go to Heaven. Something you people of today have been spared, by the way.”
“Why?”
“Because you are not immortal, and they have never cared about you. Unlike the early times when they detected God’s interest in humanity, you don’t matter to them now, and indeed, they have never set foot on this planet since the last of the Chosen died. For them, you are just animals, intelligent animals, just like your ancestors were, Unnum and his entire tribe, and those who came before them.”
Lavidia felt somewhat saddened to hear that. On the one hand, it was good to be free from such beings, but it wasn’t fair that those other people could enjoy Eternal Life, and she and her kind could not. Although, on second thought, it wouldn’t have been an easy existence, as they would have been exposed to demons, and there was also the risk of spending eternity... in Hell.
In her society, death was not considered a bad thing as long as the woman in question had lived a ‘fulfilling’ life, that is, had many daughters and also seen her granddaughters grow up. And that was something Lavidia could never experience. Death, in her case, would indeed be a genuine tragedy. She then told the angel:
“But why can’t we be immortal? The ‘New Humanity’ has been able to advance much; we can be better than them, but regarding that...”
“You are not because you have no blood relation to the descendants of Adam and Eve. Other populations of the primitive Earth did have it, as the offspring of the first couple mixed with those of other tribes when expelled from Paradise. Until there came a time when the descendants of Eve were so numerous that there was no one left who could not trace their origins to the first pair of Chosen ones. You,” he continued, “do not have that trace, and therefore, you do not have the right to eternal life. Just like those who preceded Adam and Eve did not.”
“They do, and we don’t...”
“That’s right.”
Lavidia looked down and put on a sad expression that the angel clearly perceived. Then, Dael asked her:
“Do you really want to live forever?”
“Would that be possible?”
“Only if God wants it.”
“How could we know?”
“He grants me everything I ask for. Is that what you most desire?”
She stared at him, weighing the answer, and after a moment of hesitation, replied:
“No. My deepest desire is to become a mother.”
Dael smiled and looked upward, then turned his gaze back to her, nodding approvingly. Shortly after, Lavidia felt something inside her, and at that moment, she was certain that she was no longer barren. Her eggs... had matured.
Unable to contain her happiness, she let out a cry of delight and jumped with excitement. The girl had received the gift she most desired. She began to cry tears of joy and embraced Batro, kissing him almost convulsively. After a moment in which she couldn’t hold back the tears, she grabbed her husband’s hand tightly and then said with a broad smile:
“Let’s go home. We’re going to be the parents of many red-haired girls!”
The man looked at his wife, not understanding much, though he sensed something. Then, he imitated her smile, and became happy, realising that many passionate nights lay ahead.
Then they left even without saying goodbye and went through the exit the angel indicated when it appeared, leaving only SAIR behind, who began to sense a decrease in energy from where the angel was. Indeed, he was fading away.
“Wait!” it urged before he vanished completely. “I have many more questions! What can you tell me about the ‘divine’ dimension? What are the physical laws governing your universe? Was the Protofield its cause, or perhaps its consequence? What are the energy sources sustaining it? What is it made of?”
“I have to leave,” Dael interrupted. “I won’t be able to answer more questions.”
The hexapod fell silent and emitted something resembling a sigh. Then it said:
“All right, give me just an answer, if you know.”
“Go ahead.”
“Do you know what SAIR means? This was the name of our Ancestor, from whom I took mine.”
“Oh, yes, I know,” he replied. “Like the name of your star, TRAPPIST, yours is also an acronym. In your case, it stands for the initials of four words that belong to a very, very ancient language.”
“And what is it?”
“The four words are: ‘Super Artificial Intelligence Robot.’”