A Paradox in Retrograde (16 page)

"It is so good to see you again my young prince. It is truly a
great day." "Yes father has my mother yet awoken?" He peered
over his shoulder to see his still sleeping queen. It appears she
has yet to awaken." A look of concern was on young Leif's face
as he processed the possibilities. He knew that each year some
did not wake from their hibernation. Aaralaat was quick to sooth
his boy's emotions by allaying his fears. "Your mother is young
and strong and it will be many years before she is claimed by
the sleep. You my son will be an old man for a long time before
that time come. Now don't you waste another moment with worry; for before you know it I promise you she will be here among
us."

This promise seemed to do the trick. There was however no way
to make such promises because any other form of natural death
was a truly rare event. The chances were high however that she
would awaken just as she had for the last thirty eight previous
years. It was not an untruth for it was mostly theold and very
young who succumb to the ravages of the sleep. The melancholy
that had seemed to possess the boy had now passed and he was
anxious to run about the palace. Leif's youthful energy was difficult to resist as he urged his aged father to rise and join him.
Aaralaat tried but could not rise as quickly as hisson would
have liked, so he urged him to go along without him. "My
prince, I will be along presently" He watched as the boy disappeared, scampering along down the corridor. He sat up straight by
lowering his legs over the edge of the stone platform. He now felt
every bit of his fifty nine years. As part of the hibernation process
his nervous system that had long ago been blunted, now shot back
to life. In a surge of neural activity, each and every ache and
wound that he had ever suffered screamed for his attention. He
could recall each insult and misstep that he had taken over his
long life. This was a common experience for his kind. Though
these effects were intense it would be short lived and as was expected by those of his office, he bore it well.

He let his legs slip to the floor. His hyper sensitive nerves sent
lightning bolts of pain through his body when his bare feet contacted the cold marble floor below him. He nearly fell, but righted
himself with his hand against the sarcophagi. He placed one foot
in front of the other and soon he had made it to one of the columns where he stopped to rest a moment. He breatheddeeply and
counted to ten and again began to walk. After several minutes of
walking, these effects had begun to subside. Soon he made it to a
court yard that opened up to the sky above him.

He stood there a good long moment searching the daylight heavens for the unique blue star. Soon enough as he gained his bearings he was able to find what he had been looking for. With his
head pointed upward he did not see his young prince come along
side of him. In a soft voice he asked of his father. "What are you
looking for father? Looking down at him he spoke, "I am looking
for the life giving Earth." Leif's expression looked puzzled, so the
king elaborated. "Each year as we awaken preparations begin for
the harvest. Some say it is the home of our origin, as no life could
have naturally evolved here. And so it is to here we return in the
great ships to wage war with its savage inhabitants for domination of this world. For many thousand seasons we have so returned. During the harvest we pay homage to its life giving power. It is through the grace of its divine power that we must perform the rituals to prove that we a worthy of the boon it may bestow. And if we prove worthy we may have earned the right to
feed and refresh our stocks." "Father, is Earth not a paradise?"
"No son far from it. Though it is a sacred place considered by

our people to be the birth place of all life, it is also a place
caught within a never ending cycle of birth and death. It is forever consuming and recycling itself. Its tangible violence would
consume the weakest of us. We of Nibaru are sheltered from
that cycle, but we as in ages past must return to the source to
recharge that vital energy. We in a way live as parasites to it. So
we must also be careful to live at equilibrium with it. Through
the ritual of warfare we are made to remember the thin margin
between life and death."

"Son you should not need to worry about that for several years.
However you are not too young to learn the sacred liturgy."
Sensing the young prince's curiosity he reached outhis hand to
him. "Come we shall visit the temple."

The temple of Earth stood in the center of the royal city. It could
easily be seen in the distance for it was the largest building by
far within the walled city. They walked together hand in hand
down the palace stairs and on to the great mall. As they roved,
all around them their world was springing back to life. One
could even see there in the surrounding gardens where the
spring time plants were beginning to break the surface of the
once frozen ground. As the mass of the domed temple grew
closer it began to dwarf in comparison all other structures about
them. By now there were others who had awoken they too had
come to assemble unto the temple to pay homage or to contemplate the coming season. Together in the quadrangle before the
temple entrance they gathered. Some there recognized the king
and stood back in respect and reverence. An opening in their
ranks formed into a path through which the king and the prince
walked through. Aaralaat now felt his strength returning easily
matching in exuberance his young prince as they climbed the
stairs to the portico. Soon they had reached the great marble
arch and passed under into the cavernous interior beyond.

It was a truly opulent space, as young Leif would soon discover.
He was awed, having not before been afforded a chance to see
how truly majestic it was. As magnificent as the exterior gilded
surface of the dome was, it paled in comparison to the splendors
held within. Once inside, there were arranged the static figures
that represented the pantheon of their myths. At the center there
was a monumental figure that dwarfed them all. It was a representation of the Earth goddess. She stood fifty meters tall and was
dressed in long flowing robes woven from fine strands of precious metals and bejeweled in the rarest of stone cast in crowns
and bangles. Her arms were held below her swollen belly supporting the weight of new life. Leif tried to avoid her gaze but her
large black eyes seemed to follow him as he moved. There in her
shadow around the circumference of the dome stood the effigies
of her servants, the past kings of Nibaru. Aaralaat pointed up toward the figures and said, "Look there my son, one day we too
shall likewise be ensconced. "He had a warm glow about his face
for this continuity gave him and all of his kind a sense of comfort,
for their effort was not in vain. They moved closer with the shadow to an area alit with candles. There within this space was a
chapel dedicated to a lesser god. Within the circle of light was a
marble slab where lay a sarcophagus not dissimilar to their own
yet markedly older. They approached the altar and as they did the
two royal priests who had just completed lighting the candles
bowed to the king and left.

Young Leif walked up and looked within the sarcophagus that
was in fact a reliquary. There within he saw a magnificent suit of
armor. The dim candle light cast an eerie glow upon the empty
suit. There too by its side lay an array of weaponry that had been
collected over the many centuries, each to which could be recited
an epic poem of glory. "What is this father; it is not one of the
effigies?" "No it surely is not. It is the captured armor of the redeemer himself; Hector the King of Earth men." He pointed upwards above to a graven image of a man's face. It was an unusual
sight. He had never before beheld an image of a face so strange.
The man in the image wore his long dark hair down to his shoulders and his face was covered in a long dark beard. The lines in
his face and his dark eyes sent a chill up through young Leif's
spine. His father must have noticed the pall of fear cast upon his
son's face, so he spoke to again allay his fears. "Be not afraid it is
through combat to this worthy enemy that we are redeemed and
we earn the right to live again for another season. We live on a
razors edge. To know no bounds, to be out of balance with the
vital life forces, would be both our folly and our downfall. It is
through the rite of combat through Hector where balance to the
equation of life and death is restored. For without the ritual we
would surely perish." High above them through the oculus of the
dome, the priests patiently peered. They awaited the alignments
of the planets for when they knew that within months it would
be high summer and the raids would again begin in earnest.
There was however much preparation to be done.

Leif asked a question of one of the priests assembled there,
"Priest, how is it this situation came to be?" The priest looked
down at Leif, then back up to his father. His father shook his
head slowly back and forth. His father then spoke, "Leif, to answer such questions it is best to ask one of our many learned
scholars. These priests are functionaries, and have many duties
to fulfill. Is that not correct priest?" To which they responded
with a solemn nod to the affirmative. "On our return trip we
shall visit the great library; there you will find the answers you
seek."

On their return trip they came upon a building though grand in
its way had gone unnoticed in comparison to the temple. Leif
would discover he had entered another kind of temple dedicated
to knowledge. Within the ornately decorated rooms they walked
until they came upon a crystalline room that glowed and
hummed with life. They entered within the chamber and they
soon sensed a living presence that immediately spoke. "My
King, I am the Oracle how may I serve you today?"

"Oracle, it is not I who seeks answers; it is my young son the
Prince." How may I help you, my young prince?" Leif looked
around confused, not knowing where the voices came. His father once again intervened. "My Prince there is no one there, the
oracle has accessed your mind directly. He can act as your spirit
guide to the deepest levels of knowledge. Do not be afraid, ask
your question." Leif was skeptical but if his father said it was
the way and he had no reason to doubt him. He spoke tentatively, "Oracle how can it be that such a relationship exists between
the worlds of Nibaru and Earth?"

The Oracle speaking directly to Leif now said, "Young prince if I
am to share such knowledge with you first you must understand
that along with possession of this forbidden knowledge comes a
solemn responsibility. Outside the few holders of this knowledge,
these facts are unknown. It is then forbidden to relay what you
have learned here today. Do you understand, young prince?"

Without any further ado the lesson began. "Though this bizarre
relationship of which you ask, had for untold eons existed between these two worlds, its origins may be forever lost in the
murky depths of time. Even to our most learned historians it was
shrouded in an impenetrable cloak of religion and folktale. Logic
dictates however that the origins of life on these two worlds must
be, of one common ancestry. These assumptions for this common origin are based on the following evidence. Firstly, life
could never have evolved independently on Nibaru. It is a barren
Ice chest of a world devoid of any of the raw materials required
for life. Our species and those genetically altered to do so are the
only ones that have ever inhabited this world. Earth by comparison is boiling with species each competing to inhabit the top spot
on the food chain. There is mounting archeological evidence that
suggests that it was there on Earth, many hundreds or perhaps
thousands of years ago that the original species evolved. In all of
our studies on the biosphere of Earth, never before had there been
categorized such a high degree of divergence between species of
a common origin, in such short a time. One theory suggests that
scientific alterations to our organisms were made in the distant
past to help us to survive the long deep sleep." The Oracle paused
for a moment and asked the King, "Does the prince yet know of
the true length of our year? It would be useless to say anymore
without an explanation of the time discrepancy." This time the
King only nodded solemnly. "Very well, I will continue." Cast
about the air in the space before the prince in holographic light,
was an animated image of the solar system. The Oracle waited for
the boy to see the images in front of him and then he began again
to speak. "My Prince this is the system of Sol, our home sun. Do
you recognize it? Here within the realm of the rocky inner worlds
is the orbit of the Earth. And here from the dark frozen region
comes Nibaru. Here in lies the secret that is kept from the people. The sleep duration during the long winter period is not the
five months you have been taught to think, but rather it is much
much longer. To give you an Idea of the length of time I will
put it in terms you are familiar with. Your year around Sol is
comprised of a seven month period of Spring and Summer followed by a winter period of 149,988 equivalent months." For
descriptive purposes, a sped up holographic animation of Nibaru's orbit, ran in a continuous loop. Leif stared in amazement
at the animation as his brief summer period in the scheme of
things barely registered in as an event.

After a moment, when the oracle was satisfied that Leif understood the meaning of what he had been told he continued. "What
we think may have happened is, Long ago an Earth outpost was
established during Nibaru's short summer. Some random catastrophe on Earth may have left the colonists isolated. Whether it
was due to scientific alteration to the genetic code, the isolation,
radiation or a combination of all three that caused the change, no
one knows. It is speculated that by the time they again reached
back around to Earth the divergence was too great to be reconciled. This relationship much like our own bodies has evolved
over the eons into what it is today. As is true with all competing
species conflict arose and therefore a perpetual state of war
broke out between the planets. This desperate situation as you
call it in which, we are the predator, and they are the prey is for
better or worse, a biological fact. It has become a codependent
relationship which we cannot retreat from, lest we become extinct. For our people our myths have evolved into the bedrock
of our cultural identity. I hope you can now see as the future
ruler how the ritual is both a rite of passage, and a practice in
necessity."