Steve Alten - The Mayan Resurrection

‘How’s that possible?’

‘The time loop began in what you’d call the distant future when the Guardian’s starship, the Balam, chases an asteroid-like transport ship through a wormhole 65 million years into our past. The time loop ends, or repeats itself sometime in the near future. A monstrous cataclysm is going to take place, one so devastating it will wipe out nearly every life-form on our planet. Only a handful of humans will survive by relocating to a colony established on Mars. A fraction of these survivors will travel through another wormhole to another section of our galaxy, inadvertently creating a closed causal loop in space-time.’

Manny starts laughing, a nervous laugh, driven by spent nerves and fatigue. ‘You’ve been reading too much science fiction; it’s warped that brilliant mind of yours. A closed causal time loop?’ He wipes tears from his eyes. ‘How do you know all this?’

Jacob shakes his head. ‘You won’t believe me.’

‘I don’t believe you now.’

‘Existence is energy, Manny, making transdimensional communication possible. I’ve been in contact with someone from the other side, someone who’s been… advising me.’

‘Who?’

‘Don’t tell Mother.’

‘Who?’

‘Our father.’

Immanuel covers his head. ‘Oy vey…’

‘What’s that mean?’

‘ Oy vey means the guys in the white coats will be coming for you soon.’

‘Manny-’

‘Mick’s dead, Jake. He’s been dead for twenty years. You’re never going to meet our long-lost lunatic father. Never. So get over it.’

‘He wasn’t a lunatic, and you’re wrong. Our father fulfilled his destiny, and so will we. Under the spiritual guidance of the Guardian, Mick made the ultimate sacrifice-to return to Xibalba in order to save the souls of the Nephilim.’

‘The Nephilim?’

‘The Fallen Ones, the ones whom the Guardian were forced to leave behind when they came to Earth. The Nephilim are being tortured. Our father was chosen to be their messiah, only he failed, just as the Guardian knew he would, just as is written in the Mayan Popol Vuh. Now it’s up to you and me to rescue him. We need to save his soul and those of the Nephilim. Open your eyes, Manny. Accept our destiny so I can prepare you.’

‘Maybe it’s your destiny, not mine. I’m not going anywhere.’

‘Ah, but you are, just as you have long ago. You are the Yin to my Yang. Only together can we hope to succeed.’

‘Okay, Dim Son, I’ve had it-I’m out of here.’ Immanuel tries to push his way past Jacob, but the white-haired twin is too strong. In one motion he pivots around his brother, catching him from behind in a choking headlock.

‘I love you, Manny. I gave you six years, but now it’s time-time for you to join me. Did you really believe God gave you these abilities so you could score touchdowns? The sooner you face your destiny, the better prepared you’ll be for what awaits us on Xibalba .’

A wisp of thought, in the consciousness of existence.

It took our secret band of scientists eight weeks to squirrel away a year’s worth of supplies and make one of the three Mars shuttles spaceworthy.

Our Guardian clan now numbered thirty-seven: Twenty men, twelve women, and five children-three of whom were first-generation infants born with elongated skulls. Through genetic manipulation, New Eden’s women could control their ovulations and times of conception. They could select boy or girl, even fraternal or identical twins. Most important, the mother could influence an unborn infant’s chromosomes while in the womb, preventing disease, even altering certain attributes-including the size and shape of the newborn’s skull.

This type of genetic manipulation seemed amateurish in comparison to the mind-boggling things Professor Bobinac and I had discovered down on the planet’s surface. Situated beneath the floating city was a vast genetics compound erected on the shoreline of an artificially created sea. Within this facility, the transhumans had left behind evidence of an advanced gene-splicing technique that combined cybernetics with synthetic artificial intelligence enhancements to produce a biomimeticbiomemnetic organism. These beings, dubbed Tezcatilpoca by their transhuman masters, had been weaned within the silvery exotic liquids contained in their artificial sea.

Holographic records showed the Tezcatilpoca had grown into immense cybernetic serpents-each silicon-tissued monster as large as a train-with sixteen nodes positioned along their frightening spines. Incredibly, these nodes were crystal lattices designed to amplify and focus gravity C-waves and fluxes in zero-point energy, a godlike source of power that had eluded scientists back on Earth. Apparently, the crystal lattices provided a form of synergy or harmonics necessary for the channeling of these incredible energies.

But for what purpose?

As unfathomable as it seemed, Professor Bobinac and I theorized that the transhumans had discovered a way to manipulate wormholes through the use of hypersonics. The Tezcatilpoca creatures created ‘magnetic bottles’ that bridged the gap between our own physical dimension and the higher realms of existence.

As the day of our secret departure approached, I knew I had to leave my fascinating studies behind. Devlin and his mother were creating a new religion that bordered on a Satanic cult, and the colonists, save our Guardian members, were becoming unquestioning followers.

My biggest concern then was Jude. As founder of the Guardian brotherhood, I had established strict rules regarding secrecy, each new recruit having to pass a number of ‘loyalty’ tests before they could be ‘brought in.’ Though I had been ‘testing’ her for months, Jude remained a steadfast Devlin worshiper, refusing to heed my concerns.

Jude’s refusal to listen would create a major rift between the shared consciousness of Michael Gabriel and Bill Raby.

Bill Raby loved Jude the way I loved your mother, his emotions soothing a void in our collective soul. As the moment of our departure grew near, his consciousness became more forceful, fearful of losing the woman he adored.

To complicate matters, two days before we were to depart, Jude told us she was pregnant.

Desperate, our shared mind began working on her more intensely.

‘Jude, I overheard a rumor today that Devlin’s guards dismembered another New Edener. If it’s true, that’s six in the last two months. Doesn’t that worry you?’

‘Our Creator speaks through Devlin. If there are nonbelievers and deceivers among us, then the traitors need to be dealt with.’

‘Traitors to whom?’

‘To our Creator, of course. He who brought us here. He who saved us from ourselves back on Earth.’

‘Then you believe the death of billions was a planned event?’

‘Of course. Read the Bible. Wasn’t Noah’s flood a planned event?’

‘I can’t accept that. I think you and the others accept it because we’re all so overburdened with survivor’s guilt.’

‘Bill, you’ll never be happy unless you open your heart to the Creator so that He might show you the way. Come worship with me tonight in our angel’s house. Listen to the truth, my darling, and the truth shall set you free.’

Jude’s brainwashing ran deep, yet I could not bear the thought of leaving without her. Realizing my only chance at luring her away was to learn more about her ‘angel,’ I agreed to attend Devlin’s service.

The Mabus House of Worship was an immense transhuman dwelling, its alien archways and flying buttresses giving it the feel of a futuristic Notre Dame. Inside the hall were thousands of hover pods-private antigravitational pews that formed a ring around Devlin’s pulpit.

Two ‘thrones’ were positioned in the center ring. In one sat Devlin, a crown of gold leaves situated atop his curly black hair, his wings folded in behind him. To his right was his mother, Lilith, the sheer material of her ‘priest’s robe’ screaming blasphemy to the Judeo-Christian values both Bill and Michael Gabriel had been raised under.