A Broken Paradise (The Windows of Heaven Book 3) (41 page)

iva stood by Khumi on the scaffold overlooking the ship’s bow. The vessel’s forward conning shack window, and its huge dorsal wind-foil fin towered over them. A’Nu-Ahki had prayed over and studied the school of physics originated by Q’Enukki, and determined that since the waters of World-end would cover the whole earth that they and the winds would obey the laws of fluid motion on a rotating sphere unbroken by land. Although not commanded by E’Yahavah, he had designed the foil to help keep the ship in a “following sea,” with the prow in the wind’s shelter, aligned with the currents. At least that was how Khumi had explained it to her.

Today,
A’Nu-Ahki had gathered his family for a big event. They even rolled Lumekki up the ramps in his wheeled chair.

Old Muhet’Usalaq
tapped his foot on the plank, as if to say,
“Get on with it, I’m late for my nap.”

Tiva felt her husband’s hand slip into hers. It seemed like their first physical contact in a long time.

“I’m sorry I’ve been so hard,” Khumi whispered for her ears alone.

She looked up at him and their eyes met.

For a second, he seemed again to be the boy she had first seen fire-dancing. “There’s never ever been any other girl. My father taught me.”

“I know.” She smiled for him. “It’s just nice to hear it more often.”

Khumi nodded. “I’ll try to remember that.”

A’Nu-Ahki signaled for everyone’s attention. He took position over the great bronzed bowsprit before he spoke. “After many years, we are finally close enough to completing this task that I feel some well-deserved rest is in order.”

Tiva could not have agreed more.

He continued, “The ship is complete, other than
some minor fittings, which we have ten years to perfect. You’ve all worked hard, both laboring yourselves, and in supervising pools of hired workers we’ve seen come and go over the years. There is no other vessel like this in the entire world. It has all the modern accessories—except an engine and effective helm control…”

Everybody laughed.

“No engine—hardly any steerage,” said Muhet’Usalaq. “I’m glad I’ll be safe and dead with Heh’Bul in the Comfort Fields before you all go!”

The laughter grew
.

“Anyway,” said A’Nu-Ahki, “before we take our
seven-month sabbatical, I’d like to use this opportunity to name the vessel. It will be the life raft of humanity to us, and our descendants, and stand for generations as a monument to E’Yahavah’s promise. Should New-world last a million years, this vessel will not decay, nor be lost to the memory of those to come.

“E’Yahavah could have had us make it from steel, like the great ironclads of the titans’ navies—but steel would rust and dissolve after a thousand years or so. Kapar wood, on the other hand, only grows more durable with the ages, as petrifaction continues. Therefore, our first work when we return from rest will be to inscribe this name on the starboard bow:
“In E’Yahavah’s name, after the style of ancient verse, I dedicate this ship
Barque of Aeons
!”

Q’
Enukki’s eyes widened as the creature he had once thought of as a “star chariot” slowed the fabric motion of the great void all around them. The planet Tiamatu —that fifth world in the Earth’s solar system, between red L’Mekku and the big gas giant planet of Khuva—passed close by.

He felt something akin to
forward momentum straining against his seat harness—a mere fraction of the force he knew his body would have endured by the laws of motion if he were actually in a “star chariot” instead of a “gate-creature-whatever” situated between the different “heavens.” He had explored such laws only in theory during his life back on Earth. As a sage and seer, Q’Enukki had even written three hundred and sixty-six tablets on topics that ranged from prophecy and law, to the arts and sciences. Celestial mechanics had been more of a hobby.

The Watcher Samuille took him
inside the “gate-creature” from that life only hours before—took him from that life many centuries before—it depended on where one counted the minutes from. Relative to the velocity at which the gate-creature moved space around itself, they had spent much of their “flight” near the speed of light. The world Q’Enukki had eaten breakfast on hardly existed any more.

Soon it would not exist at all.

The planet Tiamatu was not the only celestial body in the vicinity. Approaching it loomed the giant comet they had seen earlier.

Shortly before they had re-entered the solar system, Samuille had made both the
gate-creature and Q’Enukki invisible. They now appeared to hurtle through the void like sentient meteors, with an unobstructed view in every direction. The Watcher had also increased Q’Enukki’s ability to see, opening vistas into two additional dimensions that human beings could not normally perceive.

If
Q’Enukki became careless, the simultaneous futures playing out on the objects around him could be quite distracting. That was no problem where these two heavenly bodies were concerned. He rotated his transparent seat to take in the advance of the gigantic comet, as they passed between it and the planet. The distorted icy sphere was now close enough to the sun that a furious out-gassing of ionized nitrogen, hydrogen, water vapor, and dust erupted from its surface in tremendous plumes where the blast of solar wind struck it. These gases curled back around the icy planetoid in violent waves, driven into a diffusing tail that stretched almost perpendicular to its actual movement toward the planet.

The two bodies approached each other from near opposite directions in their su
icide dance. The comet’s elliptical path intersected the planet’s orbit at an angle that would have them collide with a combined velocity roughly three times the orbital speed of the planet Earth.

“
Are we not too close?” asked Q’Enukki. “The debris will explode outward at high speed!”

Samuille said,
“We will be well ahead of the first wave.”

“What will be the results?”

“About a third of the rubble will continue in a wide belt just inside the planet’s orbit, at nearly Tiamatu’s current velocity. Another third will absorb the impact, and either spray outward toward Khuva’s orbit, fall in toward the sun, or scatter from the orbital plane on oblique trajectories.”

“What about the remaining third of the debris?”

Q’Enukki imagined Samuille’s whiteless eyes hardening to obsidian ice. “Those are E’Yahavah’s arrows of wrath against Earth. Two super-dense irradiated inner core fragments, with a spreading stream of outer core asteroids will intersect Earth’s orbit at nearly the same point as your world.”

Q’Enukki asked,
“How many people will survive?”

“Eight.”

“Is that all—of over four billion people, only eight? I know that I prophesied a great winnowing before the end, but eight!”

“Have you also underestimated the situation? Even these eight are severely contaminated, and in need of total re-writing.”

Q’Enukki could only shake his head in horror, rotating his seat to watch as the “gate-creature” moved the comet and the planet rearward.

As
the comet approached the planet, both began to bulge toward each other until they took the form of giant eggs floating in space. The plastic super-hot mantle of Tiamatu made the planet more fluid than the solid ice ball, which began to crumble. Hours before impact—moments for Q’Enukki—the spheres seemed as though they would spiral around each other in a death-dance, while horrendous quickfire discharges shot between them in a flickering celestial duel. Vastly different charge potentials on the two worlds equalized through arcs of current that ionized Tiamatu’s atmosphere, and caused great chunks of the comet to break off just before impact.

Q’Enukki held his breath as the heavenly bodies approached the last stage of their mutual annihilation.

Appendix

A Chronology of the World-That-Was

Note:
This fictional timeline uses a hybrid of the Septuagint and Masoretic versions of the Genesis 5 chrono-genealogy, which have some differing numbers from each other in the ages of certain Patriarchs at birth of their sons and/or at their deaths. For example, the Masoretic Text (MT) has Seth born to Adam and Eve when Adam was 130 years old, while the Septuagint (LXX) text group has him born when Adam was 230. MT Lamech dies at age 777, while LXX Lamech dies at 741. This should not shake anyone’s faith in Genesis as a Divinely-inspired historic account.

The Christian Doctrine of Bible Inerrancy stipulates the original writings, and recognizes that minor deviations sometimes appear even in the extraordinarily accurate transmission of Bible texts—far fewer variants proportionally than in any other ancient literary collection of comparable size and age. What is more, the statistical science of text criticism (not to be confused with ideologically materialistic “higher criticism”) is remarkably efficient at sifting away deviant material. In the realm of certain numbers, we still may not have enough information to sift with, but this affects no teaching or event sequence described in the texts. We still have hard minimum and maximum limits for dating events. If that is all God considered it needful for us to have, then no one can justly accuse God of “error” here
in the transmission.

What we have today in our Bibles accurately portrays a historical sequence of events that occurred within a limited timeframe that can be taken seriously. At worst, we may not have all the original numbers in a single text group, which may be providentially why several variants have survived. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:18) Genesis, though a book of history, is also the first book of the Law of Moses.

Most modern Bible translations use the Masoretic Text almost exclusively for the Old Testament. My choice to make some use of the older (but not necessarily more accurate) Greek Septuagint text group was made for literary, not doctrinal, or spiritual reasons. I wanted a mature U’Sumi featured in later books, and the Septuagint gave me a couple more centuries to work with. I preserved those features of the Masoretic chronology essential to the plot, and to the relative age at death of Methuselah in the year of the Deluge. The MT has Methuselah dying in the year of the Flood, which matches the meaning of his name.

I affirm the full historicity of the Genesis account in its original autograph
s, but reserve the remote possibility that both text groups may have preserved minor details of the original God-breathed account that maybe were lost or less prominent in the other. Since God has seen fit to preserve both text groups for us, and since the New Testament most often cites the Septuagint (though that does not necessarily mean it is always the better text), the “historical novelist” side of me sees benefit in this approach.

Of course, I likely will be proved wrong about some of the details in the end—which is fine in a speculative novel series. Readers should never let a novel shape their theology, especially their view of Biblical Inerrancy—even if they find in the story something of sound spiritual worth. (As I hope you all will in these books.) I ask readers who might be distressed at my use of this Masoretic-Septuagint hybrid to pardon me—no scholastic, doctrinal, or even necessarily historical statement was intended as to which Bible text group is better.
This chronology’s version of events is fictional except inasmuch as it adheres to the framework described in the Book of Genesis.

Year
Event

0
Creation:
Atum and Ish’Hakka with E’Yahavah in Aeden.

C.
1-2
Ish’Hakka and Atum seduced by the Basilisk, and driven eastward from the Sacred Orchard, then south, to the Isle of the Dead at Paru’Ainu. The Great Curse changes the cosmos.

C.
2-5
Atum and his wife skirt the south flanks of the Mountains of Aeden, crossing the four rivers westward, and find the caves of Sa-utar.

9
Qayin born at Sa-utar. Atum renames his wife
Khuva
, meaning “Mother of All
.
”

14
Birth of Heh’Bul.

16
Twin girls, Lilitua and Aruille are born to Khuva.

24
Birth of Assuri.

26
Kush born at Sa-utar.

27-563
Khuva bears other sons and daughters to Atum in 7 cycles of fertility and rest, with roughly 20 years of fertility to 60 years of rest.

C.
35-55
Atum-Ra marks the solstices, and develops a sexigesmal number system and pictographic glyphs.

72
Qayin weds Lilitua.

84
Heh’Bul marries Aruille.

85-1
08
Aruille bears Heh’Bul six sons: Hadumar, Balimar, Khavilakki, Burunatu, Regati, and Satyurati, with five daughters. Lilitua draws her barren cycle first. Qayin begins to envy Heh’Bul.

128
Atum-Ra leads his sons on a pilgrimage to the First Altar. E’Yahavah
accepts Heh’Bul’s sacrifice but refuses Qayin.

131
Qayin murders Heh’Bul in the field. E’Yahavah sets a seven-fold wergild protection on Qayin’s life, and marks his forehead, but curses his attempts to till the soil.

13
1-134
To escape both Atum and E’Yahavah, Qayin takes Lilitua into wandering beyond the Four Rivers, into Nhod to “capture the rising sun.” He believes that if he controls the rising sun, he rules the world. The falling star Umara smites the fertile plateau of Nhod, and sends up a reek of poisoned dust. Henceforth it is called the Desolation of Nhod.

132-423
Atum assumes Qayin and Lilitua killed by Umara.

133-200
The Despair of Atum-Ra:
Atum attempts suicide repeatedly. Leadership at Sa-utar falls to Assuri and Kush, whose clans go to war for dominion. Atum and Khuva retreat to the Treasure Cave in Paru’Ainu.

C.
135-157
Qayin and Lilitua, having escaped Umara, wander north through the Pass of Strife, and find lands less plagued by fallout.

C.
157
Qayin and his wife settle by Lake Mataq.

158
After an extraordinarily long barren cycle, Lilitua bears Q’Unukku to Qayin by Lake Mataq.

160-210
Qayin names his settlement after his first son, Q’Unukku.

161
The sons of Heh’Bul leave Sa-utar to avoid the wars of Assuri and Kush. Their mother settles on the Isthmus with Hadumar.

168
Khavilakki’s clan settles near the Pisunu Fens.

C.
190 on
Dragons reach great size in growing numbers.

200
Aruille goes to Paru’Ainu to retrieve Atum-Ra, and convince him to retake leadership of the clans. The First Parents return to Sa-utar, and call a council of the clans. The Assuri and Kush skirmishes end.

210
Atum-Ra composes the
Ley of the Brothers Lost
,
the history of Qayin and Heh’Bul, using pictographs on baked clay tablets.

214 on
Hunting wurms become described in the lore of Atum-Ra as the servants of Dragon-prince, who is seen spiritually as the Basilisk’s vassal. Atum levies a permanent defense force of lancers.

C.
218-240
Qayin faces dragon problems also. Hunting and blood sport are glorified at first for survival, but later for ceremonial reasons.

221
Qayin takes his six youngest daughters as concubines. He beats Lilitua when she objects.

223
Q’Unukku asks that a sister from his father’s harem be given to him because he had already had her before his father. Qayin, upon hearing this, leaves the girl tied to a stake outside the village wall for the wurms. Q’Unukku vows to take vengeance on his father.

224-308
The Tyranny of Qayin in Mataq.

230
Seti born to Atum
and Khuva at Sa-utar. Khuva prophesies over her son. Atum-Ra names Seti his heir by prophetic gift.

253
Y’Raddu born to Q’Unukku near Lake Mataq.

264
Q’Unukku waits for an opportunity to usurp Qayin. Lilitua watches her eldest son, and perceives his intentions. She fears, lest he murder Qayin and fall to E’Yahavah’s seven-fold vengeance.

270
Foundation of the Saardom of Balimar son of Heh’Bul.

281
Seti begins to map the stars.

283
Lilitua confronts Q’Unukku about his designs on Qayin, and warns him of the Great God’s doom. She promises to help her son rid Mataq of Qayin’s tyranny, on condition of no bloodshed against his father, lest the Curse of Qayin’s Bane fall on them. She reveals their true origin. Q’Unukku vows to restore E’Yahavah’s
curse of wandering on his father only.

301-308
Q’Unukku develops the bow and arrow. Of little use against most dragons, the guardsmen of Qayin mock this weapon. Q’Unukku trains his sons and daughters with the bow under the guise of sport.

302
Khavilakki’s sons strike south past the Pisunu bend.

305
Seti founds the Order of Dragon-slayers.

308
Q’Unukku ambushes Qayin with bowmen. Qayin banished, with his loyalists, into the Desolation. Some of his harem plead, and are allowed to stay. Q’Unukku builds a wall and towers over the pass into Nhod.

309 on
The banished of Qayin wander southeast, and produce the mottled tribes of the prediluvian Far East.

310
Lilitua proclaims that, “kingship has descended from heaven” through a dream. She anoints Q’Unukku King-El of all the lands around Lake Mataq. She takes the title of Queen Mother and High Priestess.

C.
312
Lilitua develops early
Lilithuform
Runes.

317
Q’Unukku defines “kingship” through the “magic” of writing. He sets the
Code of
Three
down on tablets:
Do not kill a kinsman. Do not lay with a woman without giving her a gift. Do not rob your neighbor.
Mehu-ya’El is born to Y’Raddu son of Q’Unukku.

320-1160
Atum’s civilization hegemony by Copper Age technology.

324-328
With petty clan wars too common near Sa-utar, Atum-Ra mounts an expedition to map the wide regions south and west in order to grant lands dispersed enough to discourage tribal warfare.

328 on
Atum-Ra divides the known world between Seti, the sons of Heh’Bul, Assuri, and Kush, who subdivide it further for their sub-clans. The sons of Heh’Bul begin to take on the informal status of a priestly caste.

353
Seti marries his sister Arzura.

358
Kush founds the stronghold of Kushtahar.

C.
360 on
Sorceresses rise among the daughters of Qayin’s harem. Their leader, Zu seduces the King-El, and secretly worships the Dragon.

402-423
Atum-Ra reconstructs the inner ring of Sa-utar, and builds the earliest sections of the Palace of the Cave.

411
Seti’s
Vision of the Signs of Heaven
: The constellations describe the coming of the Promised Monster-slayer who will ultimately crush the Basilisk’s
head. Atum-Ra confirms the vision, and establishes a formal priesthood mainly, but not exclusively, of the sons of Heh’Bul.

415
The sons of Khavilakki discover gold in the Pisunu riverbed, and alloy it with rare minerals to produce the red gold orichalcum.

418-430
Great Plague of Q’Unukku
: Sores and madness strike from the brothels of Qayin’s old harem. Lilitua and Y’Raddu are convinced that it is a divine judgment against the followers of Zu, but Q’Unukku refuses their counsel. By now, Zu’s coven has influence over many judges in the gates.

420
Q’Unukku falls sick of the plague. The Queen Mother sends out a quest to seek the house of Atum-Ra for aid.

422
A remnant of Lilitua’s expedition reaches Sa-utar.

423
The Lost Daughter found:
A relief expedition led by Seti and Khuva arrives at Q’Unukku. Q’Unukku dies of plague, Y’Raddu becomes King-El. Lilitua banishes Zu and her cult into the Polar Moors.

423-430
The Sundering of Mataq:
Lilitua welcomes her mother’s legal and spiritual reforms, and thus alienates her own priestly class. Many priestesses follow Zu into exile, until their tribes roam the Polar Moors.

430
Seti and Khuva return to Sa-utar.

432
Lilitua and Y’Raddu enforce Seti and Khuva’s religious and political reforms. While they permit polygamy and concubinage, prostitution is abolished. A system of sacrifice is instituted. However, use of the Divine Name degrades into a mere magic word used for conjuring.