The War in Heaven (46 page)

“I’m sorry?” she replied.

“It’s OK,” continued Cordon. “You have nothing to fear from me. Nor am I in any way angry that you escaped from your cell that day. It is just as well that you did. We were nearly out of time. Soon I would have had to return you to the cycles of torture that all humans must endure in Hell.”

“And you were comfortable with that?” asked Julie.

“I was numb to it,” replied Cordon. “I was neither comfortable nor happy with it. Sometimes I found some sense of irony in granting people what they asked for before they realized they had asked it. There are no pleasant destinies in Hell, Julie, understand that.”

“After I gave you the name, the name of the angel that saved Tom, what were you going to do to me?”

Cordon turned away. “Julie, you really don’t want to know that, do you?”

“Yes, I do,” replied Julie. “I’m trying to understand who you are…why you are helping us now.”

“Why I’m helping you now,” replied Cordon, “is because we must work together if we are to survive. A crisis makes strange allies.” There was a pause.

“Let me tell you something Julie, something that I wouldn’t tell just anyone. I have no love for Satan. In fact, I despise him. I would prefer that he never returns. In very fact, I do not believe that he will. This war in Heaven will be his downfall, but he is too mad, too egotistical to see it. The old order in Hell will soon pass away, and there is nothing that I can do about it. Indeed, I will be glad to see it go. However, I do not wish to be a victim of its passing. I can see in which direction the wind is blowing. I will not fight against it; I will soar with it. If that means allying myself with Abaddon, so be it. At the end of the day, I will still be standing, as will my people.”

Julie looked at Cordon in amazement. She wasn’t sure if she could believe him or not.

“You might find that this new order you seek has more problems than you or even Abaddon can now see,” continued Cordon. “I do not know if there is a solution to our problems, or if the lot of you are up to the challenge of solving it. I can only tell you this…if we can negotiate an equitable peace, I will not be one of the problems.” Again there was a pause. “Regarding your initial question, I had intended to melt a section of the permafrost in a particularly swampy portion of the Dark Continent using several fireballs. Then, after shackling you hand and foot and weighing you down with heavy ballast, I would throw you in. Where I intended to drop you, you would probably have sunk a dozen feet before the muddy ice froze around you. There you would have remained for all times, suffocating in the quiet frigid darkness. It would have been your eternal hiding place.”

A long silence passed between them as Julie digested Cordon’s words. “I know…there are no pleasant destinations in Hell,” Julie said.

Cordon hesitated. “I was under orders. I did what I was told to do. This has been the nature of my existence.”

Julie shook her head sadly. “In the history of Earth, so many people have done such terrible things, caused so much pain and sorrow, only to say later
that they did it because they were following orders. Why should it be any different here?”

Cordon placed his hand gently on Julie’s shoulder. Strangely, she didn’t pull away. “I truly hope that I have the opportunity to get to know you better in the new world we might forge. I hope that down the road, you might find it in your heart to forgive me, even to call me a friend.”

Julie nodded, a slight smile came to her face. “I hope so too, Cordon… really.”

It was three days later when construction of the last of the anti-graviton devices was completed. The craft’s equipment bays in the belly of the Spirit that normally held scientific instruments had been specially modified to hold launching racks that would send the projectiles on their way.

“I thank God for the ability to turn blueprints directly into a completed product through directed thought,” said Nikola, walking around the craft. “Without it, modifying the Spirit’s science instrument bays would have been a daunting task requiring months.”

“Your human technicians did a superb job of installing them as well,” noted Cordon. “To have made such a modification to your craft in such a short time is nothing short of miraculous. When we lift off, you may be assured that you will have total cooperation from my people.”

“I heard we had a visitor earlier,” noted Nikola, examining the starboard seam where the rack folded into the fuselage as several technicians continued to make fine adjustments on the port rack. “It seems strange that demons should be flying in and out of Refuge.”

“Perhaps it will become a common sight,” suggested Cordon.

“Perhaps,” replied Nikola. “We should be ready for liftoff in three hours. If you have any last minute preparations, you had best see to them.”

“I am always ready,” assured Cordon.

Three hours later, Nikola was carefully maneuvering the Spirit through the large tunnels that led to the surface. Reaching the narrow canyon just beyond the mouth of the cave, the Spirit made a vertical sprint toward space.

From the main deck, Cordon watched the Dark Continent drop swiftly away as they headed toward a curtain of aurora straight overhead. This was his first experience seeing Hell from this vantage point.

“We’ll make the jump as soon as we clear the atmosphere,” said Nikola, glancing back at his lone passenger.

They were surrounded by the auroral curtains when Nikola instituted the jump. The disk of Hell vanished below them, to be replaced by the shifting clouds of faintly glowing plasma usually associated with hyperspace. All the while his eyes were on the power levels. He was just barely crossing the barrier into hyperspace. It shouldn’t have taken much fuel. Yet, at the completion of the jump, he was looking at power levels below 10 percent. This wasn’t good.

“There it is,” said Cordon, pointing to a beam of brilliant blue light that seemed to erupt out of nowhere and continue into infinity.

Around the beam were swirling clouds filled with powerful bolts of lightning. The lightning shifted unpredictably, seeming to wrap around the beam. It was an awesome yet frightening sight.

“Bring us in slowly,” said Cordon. “Mind the lightning. It is no doubt several times stronger than any lightning bolts you have experienced on Earth or Heaven.”

Nikola swung the Spirit toward the beam. There was no way to judge distance out here. Radar didn’t work in hyperspace, and it was easy for the human senses to be fooled.

As he got closer, he was able to determine the dimensions of the phantasmal beam more precisely. The bright shaft of shifting luminous plasma at its heart was about 100 yards wide, but the coursing blue lightning and swirling clouds extended out from the beam for a half mile in all directions. It grew larger and more menacing as he drew closer.

It was 15 minutes before Cordon advised him to hold position. Right now, he was just beyond the reach of the lightning bolts. Cordon was standing at his side, eying the phenomenon over carefully.

“Follow the beam toward its source,” said Cordon. “We will need to hold position when we close to within about two of your miles of the rift. Then we’ll release the first anti-graviton device. Be careful…the rift doesn’t have a strong gravitational field, but it is unpredictable and shifting. We wouldn’t want to be swept into that beam of plasma.”

“Yes,” replied Nikola, “that might ruin our day.”

Cordon looked at Nikola and smiled slightly. “Or our eternity, as in the end of it.”

The Spirit was jostling and quivering in the gravitational eddies as they came to a stop and a port on the bottom of the craft opened to reveal the first of the three devices.

“OK,” said Nikola, “I show a green board for the first device. Everything is functioning normally.”

“Release it,” said Cordon. “It should travel about fifty yards and then go to station keeping.”

The 5-feet-long bomb was propelled out of the port and toward the rift. It stopped as programmed, 50 yards ahead of them.

“It has enough fuel to stay there about thirty-five minutes,” noted Cordon. “We need to position the other two devices and get to a safe distance before then.”

“I know,” replied Nikola, who was becoming weary of Cordon’s continual instructions.

He maneuvered the Spirit around the beam to the second release point. All the while, the gravitational turbulence fought with him. Several times he feared that it might pull them into the midst of the realm of lightning surrounding the swiftly flowing plasma, but he managed to keep on course. The second device turned out to be an easier placement than the first. He was well ahead of schedule. He moved in to place the third. That was when the trouble started.

“I’m getting an error light on the drive system of the third bomb,” said Nikola, pointing to a display that seemed to float in midair.

Cordon looked at the display carefully. “Could it be a false reading?”

“It could be, but I doubt it.”

“Go ahead and try to deploy it,” said Cordon. “If it doesn’t pull free of the rack, we will know.”

Nikola nodded. He opened the bay, activated the electronics, and engaged the drive. The device didn’t move. “We have a problem—no drive. Can we seal the rift with two bombs if we readjust their positions?”

“No,” said Cordon, “it requires three to shape the pulse properly. Does the anti-graviton emitter seem functional?”

“Yes,” confirmed Nikola. “Perhaps we could pull back a few miles, release the clamps on the bomb, and shoot it off toward the rift from there. Once it was in position, we could manually detonate the other two with it.”

“In the midst of those gravitational eddies?” asked Cordon. “It is hard to say where the device would end up. The three devices have to be precisely placed if this is to work. I could go out there and examine it, see if it is something simple that could be repaired in a few minutes.”

Nikola looked at Cordon incredulously. “It’s a vacuum out there, you would suffocate. Even if you didn’t, how could you maneuver?”

“With my wings,” replied Cordon. “You humans don’t know everything about the nature of angelic flight.”

“Then there is the radiation,” continued Nikola, “you’d receive a lethal dose in minutes. Yes, I know that it wouldn’t kill you, but it would take days for your body to recover.”

“If you have an alternate plan, I’d be more than happy to hear it,” said Cordon.

Cordon’s statement was answered with silence.

“I noticed that you have an airlock,” continued Cordon.

“It has never been used as such,” explained Nikola. “It is used mainly to prevent passengers from tripping into the stairwell, but it is airtight.”

“Good enough,” said Cordon, grabbing the tool pouch. “If I can’t repair it in ten minutes, then I suppose we will have to come up with an alternate plan.”

Nikola reached into a compartment to his left and pulled out a small breathing device. “Here, if you insist on going out there, take this. This won’t help much. You’ll still be exposed to the vacuum and the radiation, but at least it will provide you with breathable air. It is lightweight and will function for about twenty minutes, converting your exhaled carbon dioxide back into oxygen.”

“I don’t have time,” insisted Cordon. “Keep it. You might need it later. Open the airlock, please.”

Nikola nodded. “Be careful out there.”

Cordon nodded, but said nothing.

The floor panel slid open and Cordon carefully descended into the belly of the ship. It was close quarters with his large wings, but he managed. The panel slid shut above him. A few seconds later, the air in the small compartment bled away.

It was a most uncomfortable experience for Cordon. In fact, it was downright painful. Perhaps he had been just a bit too confident. The belly of the craft opened and the stairway extended. The port housing the device in question was only a few feet away from the open hatchway. Cordon pushed off, grabbing the edge of the port. In the weightless environment, working with the device was a frustrating experience. It required five minutes just to remove the housing. Inside, no obvious problems caught his eye. They had checked all three of these devices before liftoff. What could possibly have gone wrong? He had hoped to find a loose plug or tripped relay. No such luck. Whatever was wrong was more fundamental. He replaced the access port.