Elohim III: The Return (18 page)

"Elohim knows these things," says the Ancient of Days. "The use of Dragon Fire had to be suspended on Eris in order to allocate resources for the new ones that Anna's nurses have been birthing, at least until they are relocated to Earth. It will all change again soon. Eris can only sustain so many. Mankind has grown beyond the planet's ability to sustain them all. It is time to separate the sheep from the goats." The Old One turns his gaze to Immanuel and says, "The goats must be sacrificed for the sake of your flock."

Immanuel finds the words of the Ancient of Days disturbing.
"Is there no other way?"
he asks himself. Then he says, "I will confess as well. From the time of my change, I can recall the memories of Marduk, from whom I was taken. I am indeed my father's firstborn son. Twice born and twice dead. Yet I live still and have told no one of all the things I know. Berasus, the high priest of the Temple of the Gods at Cuthah, was a true prophet of the Creator of All. So was Daniel and John... just as I am. Your kinsman, the Old Ones from before the time of the Anunna seek to return to Earth, as the Creator of All promised them. The burden is mine to make it happen, and so I shall. You have my gratitude in all things, Ancient One. The mission will proceed, but first I must consider these things."

Tetu and Immanuel leave the Ancient of Days on the flagship and return to New Jerusalem. Immanuel then instructs Gabriel to order the fleet to remain cloaked and proceed directly to the New Horizons probe. Before retiring to the king's quarters that lie between the command module and the throne room, he asks Tetu a question.

"We are going to Earth to make war. Tell me this. Who is our enemy?"

"You know, Lord. It is Baalthazar and all those who do his bidding," says Tetu.

"And why do they do his bidding?" asks Immanuel.

"He has made them rich with wealth and power," says Tetu.

"Are they not deceived?" asks Immanuel.

"Indeed they are," says Tetu. "Baalthazar is the father of all lies. But we shall soon end their deception, and they shall know the truth."

Immanuel considers what his brother has told him and says, "I once said to those who believed my words, 'You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.' Should not the truth we have heard today in the words of the Ancient of Days do the same? We have but one enemy. The rest are deceived by him. We shall give mankind truth before we call any of them our enemies. Each in turn will side with whom they choose. When their choice is made, and all our enemies become ashes under our feet, why should we raise them to life again?"

Tetu is unable to respond. Immanuel says, "It may take another thousand years for us to learn to love our enemies, but for them to love us in return will take much longer, if we do what we have planned. Should men be destroyed for having been deceived? Elohim spared Nineveh. Perhaps we will spare Rome."

16. Know Thy Enemy

"Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously."
--Isaiah 24:1,18-23

"We must be wiser than our fathers, or death and suffering will never end," says Immanuel to the 144,000 who serve him in New Jerusalem. "Are we not planning for war against mankind? Will we now become predators ourselves, destroying those who refuse to serve us? The Ancient of Days has said that Earth is for Man, and I am to be their king. I shall be king to all, including those who fear and hate us. You who have been in your graves for three shars or longer do not understand. Those who persecuted and killed you are long dead. We shall not raise them up to punish them. Let the knowledge of their final demise satisfy your burning calls for revenge. The people of Rome today are not those on whom you seek vengeance. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. The innocent shall not be made to suffer for the sins of their forebears. But each one who continues to make the innocent suffer shall be our enemy."

Gabriel receives the signal that the New Horizons probe is approaching. Immanuel tells Gabriel to order the fleet to approach and surround it. When it comes within visual range of New Jerusalem, a shuttle is sent out to assess the activity of the probe. The shuttle commander reports that the probe is observing a small planetoid several thousand miles away, which is much smaller than Eris's moon, Dysnomia. It is classified as a large asteroid or comet.

Immanuel asks Abgal, "Can we turn that object toward a collision course for Pluto and have it collide with the surface before the probe reaches the planet?"

"The New Jerusalem can do it, my Lord," says the ship's commander. "We can use two shuttlecraft to maneuver it into position above the command module and then push it slowly forward until the necessary acceleration is achieved."

"Gabriel, inform the fleet to uncloak all ships. Have them remain in formation and proceed with us to the asteroid. Prepare another shuttle for the maneuver, Commander. I want those on Earth to understand what we are capable of doing."

"Aye, my Lord!" says Abgal.

Abgal calls for his next in command to inform her of their plan and make the necessary preparations for the task. An inflatable, doughnut-shaped buffer is fitted outside the ship above the command module to serve as a safety bumper for pushing the asteroid forward. They arrive at their destination in a matter of minutes. Two shuttles, one on each side of the asteroid, move it into place above the peak of New Jerusalem's command module, which is now facing forward in the direction of Pluto. Abgal informs all crew and passengers to prepare for the initial contact and engages the ship's rear thrusters. The massive, icy boulder seems to slowly grow larger and larger ahead of them until it covers the entire forward viewing area. Abgal knows that he must calculate the precise trajectory before proceeding and instructs his copilot to double check her calculated trajectory. Minor course alterations will be required to insure they hit the targeted planet, but Abgal feels certain they will not need to repeat this procedure once acceleration has begun.

A slight bump is felt by everyone on board when the ship makes contact with the asteroid. Abgal eases forward on the controls. When he feels confident that the maneuver is working, he engages the main engines and accelerates slowly until the ship, the asteroid, and the fleet are all moving at about the same speed as the New Horizons probe. The crew of New Jerusalem is now unable to see ahead of them, so they have opened a secure, encrypted channel with the flagship to insure they are on course for Pluto.

Radio signals from the New Horizons probe at this distance in space take approximately four hours to reach Earth, but when the visual data of the fleet operation begins to stream into NASA headquarters, a general alert is sounded and all systems are placed on secure lock-down. Outside telephone communications are shut down, and all cell phone and wireless communications are blocked. The President is contacted immediately and all of the scientists, engineers and management officials in the facility are restricted from leaving their assigned stations.

Those arriving for their shift to begin are informed by NASA security personnel at all entrance gates that there has been a security breach, and they are told to report back to work on the following day, after communications are reopened. Mixed emotions are expressed by those who have seen the latest photos and video data. About half are completely surprised by what they have witnessed. The other half are concerned because of the boldness demonstrated by the Anunna in performing such activities and wonder what it all means. None have even the slightest hint of a clue that the alien fleet and its operation is being orchestrated by a man who died over two thousand years before, though they all know his name. A few are even wearing the symbol of his means of execution around their necks.

They are unable to get an accurate count of the number of spacecraft captured in the visual evidence, but it is easy to see that they number in the hundreds, if not thousands. Within a few hours, the asteroid that was being observed, the pyramid-shaped craft that moved it out of orbit, the similarly-shaped flagship, and the smaller vessels surrounding it fade from the probe's cameras. After a round of meetings, navigational programmers send signals to the probe with digital instructions that will point the camera equipment back in the direction of Pluto. After waiting another eight hours, the servos have made the camera angle adjustments, and the fleet comes into view again, showing all of the ships moving directly into Pluto's orbital path ahead of it.

The President soon has his first opportunity to examine the photo and video evidence of the event. He orders a general debriefing of all NASA staff who have witnessed the event to consider it top secret information that is not to be shared with anyone, including spouses, friends or family members. Those who relieve them in the upcoming hours and days are told before being allowed in the control room that they are possibly going to witness unusual photo and video data coming from the New Horizons probe and that the same restrictions will apply regarding the sharing of this information.

When all of the Anunna are satisfied that the intended collision by the asteroid on the surface of Pluto is on the proper course trajectory, Abgal orders the fleet to an
All Stop
. As the New Jerusalem begins to decelerate, the asteroid continues on its predestined collision course. Immanuel then tells Gabriel to have the fleet reverse course and proceed to Earth once the probe has passed by them in the wake of the asteroid's path. Those in the NASA control room watch things unfold as the probe passes by the fleet. Engineers order the cameras to move 180 degrees. Eight hours later, they begin watching the fleet fade from view and calculate that it is now heading toward the inner solar system. When the last ship fades from view, the mission resumes, and the cameras again refocus on Pluto and the asteroid ahead of them.

Several weeks pass before the probe and NASA observers witness the asteroid impact. When it takes place, all eligible staff crowd into the control room to witness the spectacle. Pluto's colorful surface normally varies between charcoal black, dark orange and white. According to Marc W. Buie, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, it is "significantly less red than Mars and much more similar to the hues seen on Io with a slightly more orange cast". Within less than a day after the explosive asteroid impact, it becomes evident from the images being returned by the New Horizons probe that Pluto has undergone a massive, planet-wide change, and the entire surface has become a dark grey, hiding all surface features from the visual spectrum. NASA observers begin to fear the worst, knowing that this same fleet of ships which orchestrated the Pluto impact is heading in the direction of Earth.

Reports from well-known professional astronomers of strange images in the shape of two giant pyramids surrounded by a cloud of smaller craft begin pouring into major national and international newsrooms around the globe. The President begins a series of daily updates with NASA officials. The impact on Pluto is estimated to have been comparable in size to the impact that resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs. NASA is ordered to begin making attempts to communicate with the alien fleet, but all initial attempts are met with silence. Gabriel relays each message to Immanuel as it is received.

"Take us to Saturn," says Immanuel. "Take us to Titan!"

17. The Arrival

"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given... to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things..."
--Ephesians 3:8-9

"The captains have a question, my Lord," says Gabriel. "They want to know why we are headed for Saturn, instead of proceeding directly to Earth."

"Men believe what they see," replies Immanuel. "They will see our fleet descending toward the surface of Titan and believe we have remained there. They will not see us again until we are on their doorstep. Baalthazar will think we have a large, functioning base there, and we will use that to our advantage."

"Instruct the captains to break formation and enter into Titan's atmosphere when they arrive. Once hidden below the clouds, each ship must re-cloak and remain hidden after we depart."

"By using the gravity of Saturn to accelerate, we will proceed more swiftly to Earth. Our fleet will rendezvous with the Igigi surveillance ships behind the moon when they have completed tagging all of Earth's nuclear weapons. All must remain hidden from Earth's view until it is time to make our final approach."