The Twelve Chapters of the Infinite Night, page 37
‘Thanks.’ I look at my partner in crime, annoyed that his cyborg insensitivity just overshared with the group … on purpose! All eyes turn to me to learn my reasons for being here.
This could be tricky. My aim is to disclose only enough to get me into the complex without alarming anyone.
‘You conversed with it?’ Shankara is clearly horrified.
Timelines have altered a little since they created me to join with Tamous and learn what he discovered from Naga before he died. There is no point trying to explain, it’ll just confuse the issue and upset people. ‘If the Archons are put down and human ego rendered redundant, then what is binding humanity to this planetary round anymore? Shouldn’t humanity have ascended?’
‘You think it is because the Heart has not been returned?’ Mother realises my point first.
‘Exactly.’
‘But you may not be the last of the line, Akashi.’ My mother is loath to even consider that might be the case.
‘It is a choice. Don’t you see? No one will be the last of the line until they decide that they are ... that we are done here.’
‘I don’t understand?’ Tears well in my mother’s eyes. ‘Everything has worked out perfectly, humanity’s future is finally assured in the inner and outer world.’
‘If the Heart pacifies the creature and you remove it to return to Sophia,’ Father adds, ‘then won’t you just stir up the beast, and start the destruction all over again?’
‘Precisely,’ I award. ‘That is why we must use our advantage before we lose it.’ I see Achiever heading towards the entrance of the massive building, and I follow accompanied by Chi. The last thing I want is to upset the wonderful beings who brought me back here to finally face this ancient conundrum.
‘I’m lost. What are we supposed to do?’ Mother appeals to Shankara and Herodotus. ‘I want to get her out of here, and I certainly don’t want to allow her anywhere near that creature.’
‘We brought Tamous back to guide us,’ Shankara defends my insistence.
‘My guess is that we watch and learn.’ Father suggests.
I conceal a shy smile - how wonderful it feels to be walking into this situation so supported; the last time I was here, it was a very different matter.
This complex is grossly larger than the original temple, and bland and soulless by comparison. The front doors are metal and have no visible exterior control panel to hack into.
Achiever is stumped. ‘Hello?’
I reach him. ‘There is this eye-’
We both jump as the small and zippy orb drone shoots out of a hidden compartment in the metal facade, and darts around sizing us up. With its camera shutter open, it looks just like an eye. ‘Are you the last of the Kaundinya?’ It asks in a very pleasant voice, not at all robotic.
‘I am that I am.’ I respond before Achiever can get a word out. ‘That’s how I responded in the vision.’ I explain my interjection, then note that Achiever has a tear in his eye.
‘Tian.’ He states surely.
The eye looks to and zooms in on Achiever. ‘Wei?’
‘Yes.’ He nearly chokes on the joy that confirmation brings him.
The huge metal doors retract to leave a double doorway-sized gap in between, and awaiting us in the foyer is a young man appearing very much like Achiever. Tian does not appear trans-human, however, nor has he aged a day in aeons.
‘How?’ Achiever had not taken a step towards his brother, nor had Tian taken a step towards Achiever.
‘You also appear greatly improved since I last saw you.’ Tian made a fair point. ‘How is it that you are still hanging onto life?’
‘That would be thanks to us.’ Jeroke and Gozin float in to investigate, and Tian does not seem to register their presence. ‘We had to trade in all our favours with the Arcturians to get that heart.’
‘You’re a hologram.’ Achiever realises.
Jeroke and Gozin give him the thumbs up to confirm that. None of the technology is able to register their presence.
‘It hurts less this way.’ Tian explains and Achiever nods in understanding.
‘No more shakes.’ They both conclude at once and smile.
‘I always preferred the pre-crash me,’ Tian refers to his fully human projection. ‘You are looking good for a hunk of junk that’s a few thousand years old.’
‘I had some ET friends put me back together.’ Achiever explains, finally stepping over the threshold and into the building. ‘I think one of them was dating Annchi, but I’ve yet to get a confession.’
My godfathers disappear through a wall to avoid the subject.
Tian smiles. ‘I miss our sisters ... but I’m so glad you came.’
‘You have the Archons contained, you said?’ Achiever asks the vital question as I am joined by my parents and Shankara, who prevent me from following Achiever right away.
‘I do.’ Tian replies.
‘How?’ Achiever is now face to face with his brother, who appears completely solid and real, yet his hand passes right through. ‘And why can’t I connect to your network?’
‘Because I trust you about as much as you trust me at this point. As far as securing the beast, I didn’t have to do much. It was already hibernating here, having exhausted all its human resources, when a couple of its minions found my head and fired me up just for amusement. Once they connected me to the system, it didn’t take me long to find one of the back doors we’d built into Father’s network, and once I was in, I took control of everything, including this complex.’
‘Like a virus.’ The lovely irony is not wasted on Achiever.
‘Just.’
I know that Achiever is only trying to determine whether or not his brother is lying, but the truth is, it doesn’t matter. ‘Do you have the Heart?’ I ask.
‘I cannot see it,’ Tian admits, ‘but I am told it is here among the other holy relics, brought here when other deposits were transported from all over the world. But if you are truly of Kaundinya descent, you will see it.’
‘Goodness.’ Mother took a deep breath, conflicted between wanting to leave immediately and venturing further inside to see the mysteries she’d only ever read about.
‘Why gather the clusters here in the middle of the uncivilised world?’ Achiever wondered.
‘The Heart.’ Shankara, Mother and I all answer at once as my father ventures into the foyer to look about.
‘That was my conclusion also.’ Tian smiles. ‘When I took over, I had all the TI hardware lay itself to rest in quick dry cement.’
TI or Technical Intelligence refers to what a transhuman becomes when they physically die and are post-human, which is what I believe Tian is now. His soul is certainly not connected to this projection. Rather than a ghost in the machine, Tian is more likely a picture of his former self, which the Archons have extracted from his memory chip and are using to gain our trust.
‘Would you like to see?’ Tian invites us all into the crypt.
I thought he’d never ask. I gently pull away from Motherand enter the foyer, as does Shankara. I would have asked my company to wait here and proceeded alone, but there was not the slightest chance of any of them obeying me.
It is only my mother who replies to the negative about proceeding. ‘This is so dangerous.’
My father grins. ‘Fun, isn’t it?’
‘No.’ Mother represses a smile.
‘Are they the original walls from the old temple?’ Father points to a huge glass case featuring a whole wall of ancient text.
‘Yes, they are.’ Tian concurs. ‘It outlines the legend of the Kaundinya in several ancient scripts.’
Dilan is over the threshold in a shot. ‘Holy mother!’ She approaches the case reverently, staring at the contents in wonder. ‘This is the account Limrani wrote about in the Satura texts?’
‘Shall we come back for you?’ Father calls to her as we follow Tian into a cloakroom. Mother abandons her examination and makes haste to catch us up.
But the answers she hoped to find in her pursuit of knowledge, all await in the next room in any case.
‘It is extremely cold in the crypt.’ Tian warns.
‘Akashi.’ Mother catches me up to put the coat on me, and as we move down the corridor we pass through a double set of security doors to enter a dimly-lit crypt of stadium-sized proportions.
An enormous pool of black ice sits at the centre of the complex, surrounded by tiered platforms of Archon TI’s - a stark, white mosaic of horror that extends all the way to the ceiling.
‘How horrible.’ Mother utters, grabbing hold of me to comfort me.
‘They are just machines.’ Tian reminds her. ‘I got them to prepare their own graves.’
I break free of my mother to approach the pool.
‘No Akashi-’ She tries to grab me back, but I allude her.
‘It’s okay, Mama, it is dormant and suffering so much.’ Tears well as I sense the pain and anguish.
In the battle of good versus evil, the war is not over until everybody wins. My Inter-dweller reminds me.
‘This is not winning.’ I utter to myself.
‘Can you see it? Can you see the Heart?’ Clearly Tian is excited to finally ask the question. ‘Will you be the one to free us all and take the Heart back to Sophia?’
Interesting, if Tian is an instrument of the Archons, then why is he encouraging me to take the Heart back to Sophia? I glance aside to see if Achiever has caught my thought, and as he is staring me back, I guess he has. Because taking it away will free the Naga Raja?
‘It will enrage the Naga Raja.’ Tian replies, obviously he has a silent speech interface of his own and has also picked up on my query. ‘But I can hold the beast here in check until you complete your quest. This creature destroyed our family. I may not be all I once was, but I am still on the side of humanity.’
‘Akashi...’ Mother crouches beside me. I know she can see it as clearly as I can. ‘We can leave now, you do not have to be the last-’
‘But I am.’ It is sad to see tears rimming my mother’s eyes. Yet I feel nothing but a sense of calm resolve.
‘You’re just like him,’ she chokes on the realisation.
She refers to Tamous. ‘Walk with me?’ I invite.
She kisses my cheek, squeezes me tight and rises.
We walk the length of the black ice pool, our company in tow. At the far end of the chamber, a statue of Tamous sits upon an intricate altar, with a light beaming from his chest. It is the Heart, but only Mother and I see it. Before the altar platform is a large stoneware vessel, and behind the altar platform is a tall processor that runs like a giant art installation up the height of the crypt to the steel-reinforced ceiling.
‘Wait.’ Achiever came forward to look over the effigy of Tamous. ‘This cavity in the chest was not here before, it looks like an electronic dock for something?’
‘The Heart.’ Mother informs him, for we both see the set-up.
The jewel is no longer on a chain, but in a metal harness that locks into the statue.
‘I believe it may be powering Tian and the security system.’ She concludes, sadly.
Everyone looks to our host, who will cease to be if we take the Heart. ‘It will take a good while for this pool to defrost. Plenty of time to return the Heart to Sophia.’
‘No. We don’t have to do this.’ Achiever protests.
Then the lights go out and only the stable illumination of Chi remains. Mother and I have the additional light of the Heart to see by, and she gasps when she sees the holy treasure in my hand; she is the only one who can see I have it.
From Achiever’s shoulders spring a couple of spotlights, which shed more light in the darkness.
‘Thank you.’ My father and Shankara are very grateful. But Tian’s haloform is gone.
It doesn’t take Achiever very long to figure out what has happened. ‘One of you removed the relic.’ He looks to Mother first, but he knows the truth. ‘Why Akashi?’
The sound of ice cracking startles everyone. This is followed by another crack and another, until all that can be heard is a cacophony of shattering ice.
Achiever turns his spotlights out into the stadium. Not only is the black ice-field cracking, but all the TI soldiers, cemented into graves, are now ravenously trying to claw their way out of the ice. ‘Tian lied.’ He realises. ‘We have to get out of here.’
Transporters are thrown down ready to make our escape, but I back away towards the defrosting pool.
‘Come on, sweetheart,’ Father urges me towards them, and is baffled by my refrain. ‘We shall get you to Sophia.’
‘The Heart was not Sophia’s to give.’ I advise them. ‘Just as we are not Sophia’s to protect.’
‘No, no, no.’ Achiever believes I am being manipulated by the dark stone I took out of him.
I take the dark crystal from my pocket, and now that the pool is not so cold and forbidding I have no problem returning it. ‘Welcome home, little guy.’ I cast it back to its cluster, and it is immediately absorbed into the melting goo.
‘You need to come with us.’ Achiever takes a step closer as the dark goo rises up behind me. ‘Akashi, whatever it told you, it is lying. They want to keep you trapped here forever.’
‘No, you have it all backwards. It is Sophia keeping us trapped here, with her beauty, abundance, adventure, and nurture. How horrid does the Demiurge have to make things before we want out of the illusion? How many more times do we go around the reincarnation loop before we realise those earthly desires we keep coming back for are the trap? Even in Agartha our spirits are still contained within the Sophia distortion we call Earth. She.’ I motion back to the creature in the pit. ‘Is the insurance policy released by creation to counter Sophia’s defiance.’
Everyone before me gasps.
‘You know I am telling the truth.’ I look to the Creator, who has gone very pale.
‘Ultimately, Sophia is responsible.’ Shankara is unnerved to admit.
‘They distort,’ Achiever insists, tears of love and desperation forming in his human eye. ‘You said so yourself. Please come with me.’
‘Sophia is a distortion also, albeit a seemingly more pleasant one.’ I feel the calm reason of Tamous and the Inter-dweller flowing through me as I speak. ‘It hates love, you said, but I say how can it possibly know love, when it has no heart?’
‘The Arcturians took the Heart from the Archons for a reason.’ Jeroke and Gozin float into the commotion just as several of the TI soldiers break loose and come running at us.
Everything stops and my surroundings are frozen in time - except my large, floating, blue godfathers, Chi and me.
‘It was because humanity could not be trusted not to misuse AI technology again that the Arcturians destroyed all the AI, and humanity was plunged into a tech-less dark age for aeons. As the protector of humanity, Sophia was given the hearts, fashioned into one jewel, for safekeeping, in the event that the beast was ever released from the abyss. But of course the Naga would mourn the loss of their connection to the creator, as would we. We all dream of going home.’
Both my godfathers appear very perplexed. ‘You’re supposed to be frozen little physical.’
‘Maybe it’s the...’ Jeroke whistles as he refers to Chi flitting about.
‘Are you here to see that I take the Heart back to Sophia?’ After all, their father was on her council. The Pleiadians had been overseeing humanity’s evolution since the conflict of which I spoke.
They both appeared offended by my suggestion. ‘We are not permitted to interfere.’ Jeroke assures me.
This makes me smile as that’s never stopped them before. ‘Then you can let them loose, no one will be harmed. Isn’t that right, Shesha?’ The Naga Raja leans in close behind me, unaffected by the Pleiadians time freeze, and as passive as a puppy.
‘You know her name?’ Jeroke appears most impressed. ‘You went there?’
‘I went there.’ I nod, most impressed with myself for venturing into the darkness within darkness, for there lay the gateway to understanding.
‘You know what this means?’ Gozin is oddly excited.
‘Father will be-’ Jeroke notes another light anomaly, and draws our attention to the fact that Saegoi the White is manifesting in our midst.
Why is he here? Gozin sounded wary for me. I have heard the White state that they serve Sophia.
We protect Sophia’s interests. He corrects.
I was still uncertain of the master’s intent. ‘Are you here to persuade me from my course?’
We are here to observe. The White looks at Jeroke. Continue.
Jeroke releases time, and as he does the unfrozen TI legions resume their sprint towards my parents.
‘Shesha, I permit you to see your Heart!’ I hold it high and all the Archon forces - machinery, etheric beings and the shapeshifting goo - stop dead and look to it. ‘Humanity’s gift to you for your service.’ I see all the dark faces of the creature's unseen minions gazing at the Heart in absolute awe - along with the Naga Raja, who snatches the item from my grasp and swallows it.
All behind me gasp to see our one item of defence disappear down the creature’s throat. But unlike when it had previously swallowed objects or people, it did not regurgitate the Heart. Instead, she began to glow from the inside. Maybe when she had swallowed Tamous, she had mistaken his sacred energy for the Heart?
Saegoi teleports himself to the Creator’s side after noting Shankara’s gaze upon him.
‘I thought human affairs were of no interest to you?’ She queries his presence again, perhaps attempting to determine if it is a good sign or not.
We underestimated the impact your little project would have on this round, Creator. Solaris is most impressed and sends his regards.
‘Solaris?’ The Creator, bemused and awestruck, looks back to me and the shapeshifting entity at my back.
Shesha begins to sparkle silver through the dense blackness of her being, and all her tech units fall down defunct as etheric minions abandon their tech to join with the shining celestial presence of their source.
‘What is happening?’ My father is bemused, yet amazed, pulling my equally enchanted mother in close for an embrace.
