"Mission" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tilley Patrick)

~arlier model which, for the sake of this discussion we can label 'Proto-Man". The next bit made him smile.. 'You're what the U.S. Army might describe as an unofficial field moliification.'
'Don't knock it,' I said stoutly. 'I'm all I'v~'got. How many people did you have workinjhere?,'
'Twelve.' '
I looked at hini in uttej~ as.tonishn~nt. :"l'welve.. .?'
'You must remember tl~at'We'r~ not talking about human beings,' he said. 'These were. Cetestiab powers. Aeons from the Seventh Universe.'
'In other words, heavy cosmic dudes,' I said.
He smiled. 'It's a reasonably apt description. They might not be too happy with it but then, Aeons do tend to take themselves rather seriously. It's important to remember that the world was a very different place during the Second Age.'
"sVhen was that?' I said.
'Oh, a long, long time ago.'
'How long?'
'Way back. Thousands of millions of years,' he said, waving the question away. 'The Aeons were already at work here before the dawn of geological time. More pointless information. Your mind cannot draw any meaning from such a vast span of time.'
'It's still nice to know these things,' I riposted. 'I didn't realise we went back that far.'
'You don't,' he said. 'But you can forget all that stuff Darwin is supposed to have proved. You did not evolve from walking apes. Your ancestors began life on another plane of existence. Another wavelength which, during the Age of Darkness, was absorbed into the waveband of external reality. They were like dream images which slowly acquired a solid, tangible shape from which, finally, they could riot escape. In the Second Age, before this happened, the landscape was much more nebulous. There weren't the pressures there are now. This crushing force of gravity dragging everything down. If it were possible for you to see it through your twentiethcentury eves, or eveni through those of the people I've just left, you would think you were on another planet. Jupiter perhaps. In any case, it would he unrecognisable as the present Earth, And if you were to catch sight of Proto-Man as he was forged in the fire-clouds of the world's dawning, you would not recognise him cit her.'
In that case, I Won't ask you for a description,' I said. 'I ~ get
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back to the colonists. You said that you came here to make contact. How long had you been out of touch?'
'We lost contact with this galaxy during the Second War of Secession.' He paused. 'This is getting rather involved.'
'Just give me the broad outline,' I said. 'If there's time, I'll bone up on the fine print later.'
'Okay,' he said. 'But remember what I told you about George Lucas scenarios. I have to use your language but you must try to make your mind reach beyond the words.'
'I'm trying,' I said. 'But don't expect miracles. I'm new at this game. Uhh, by the way,' I added hurriedly, 'no offence intended.'
'That's all right' he said. 'Listen, Leo, before we go any further. You don't have to treat me like the Dean of Yale, or the head of your I .aw School. You're looking at one of the founder-members of the school of plain-speaking. So just say whatever's on your mind. If I'd wanted the red carpet treatment, I'd have asked for the address of the nearest college of Jesuits.'
'You got it,' I replied. 'On with the pre-history lesson.'
lie took a deep breath. 'Very simply, the Empire to which I belong was split by a rebellion which had its roots in the creation of the World Below. The forces supporting the Empire called themselves Loyalists, and the rebels were called the Secessionists. In Earth mythology, they are also known as the Black Legions, Forces of Darkness, the Satanic Hordes, the list is endless~
'Don't tell me,' I said. 'ihey are the bad guys.'
He shrugged. 'That depends on your point of view. lhey've evolved a very persuasive argument which casts us as the villains of the piece and them as the protectors of the universe which, according to this novel thesis, we are out to destroy. A neat twist.' He smiled. 'Anyway, to cut a long story short, we won the First War of Secession. 'l'he rebels were banished to the Netherworld.'
'The universe of ant i-matter . .
'Yes,' he said. 'It was a prison. That was the sole purpose behind its creation. We couldn't go in there, and they couldn't get out. Or so we thought. There was a period of relative calm during which we began the work of reconstruction, then the rebels broke out of the Netherworld through the I)ark ( ates and swept t hruugh the universe like a forest fire. Ihe Second War of Secession has been raging for about two htitido..'d million years.'
1 low's it going?' I said.
He grimaced. 'We're not doing too well at the n3oment. But don't worry. It will all work out.'
I wondered if he knew that, at that mom~it, I was not worried in the slightest degree who the eventual winner might be. I was busy telling myself there was no need to pick sides.
His voice broke mt9 my thoughts. 'One of our. problems is that the power grid - th~ network of channels linking the Empire with the galaxy primes which 'ser'tie as both ~ailing and signal lanes - was totally shattered in thч. first assa&ilr. We've been trying to reconnect the system ever since so that the Power of The Presence can once again flow through the cosmos. Until that day, it has to come in discrete packages - through people like me.' He smiled. 'All this may not seem important to you but to the Celestials in the World Below, The Power of Presence is the life-blood of the universe. It's like the human body. Stop the circulation to any of the limbs and they begin to waste away.'
'Is that what happened to the twelve Aeons you had working here?' I asked.
'In a way, yes,' he said. 'Except of course in our case the condition can never be fatal. Just a lingering agony.'
It had never occurred to me that immortality might have its drawbacks too. 'Tell me about the Aeons who were stationed here.'
'I will. But first, I'm going to have to throw a couple more names at you. Don't worry if you can't remember all this. It's a lot to take in first time around.' He paused to give my brain time to catch up. 'The word Aeon describes their degree of power in The World Above. All Celestials trapped in the World Below by the Second WarofSecession are know generically as the Am-folk. And the ancient name for Earth was Eardh-Ain. The last signal we received from Earth confirmed that the rebels had taken the galaxy and were poised for a final attack on the prime. This planet. The colony had turned dowmi a last chance to surrender and were preparing to make a last stand. And that was it. End of message.'
'And so, to continue the medical analogy, the colony begins to waste away until, a few zillion years later, you drop Out of the clouds like the Flying Doctor,' I said, testing the limits of his good humour.
He shrugged. 'That's one way of putting it.'
'And when Michael and Gabriel had been here before, under difTшremit pen-names, they were acting as paramedics. Checking the patient's pulse.'
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'Yes,' he said. 'But if! can use another, more aggressive analogy, they were like OSS agents sent in to organise the Resistance. Earth wasn't totally cut off from our influence. We managed to make the Dccasiona~ power input; slip a few of our people in under the wire. But it was mainly an undercover presence. We had human beings fronting for us. Noah - who was more than a floating zoo-keeper, Moses, Elijah, Zoroaster, Gautama Buddha. All making an input. Keeping up the pressure.'
'Now that you've mentioned Moses,' I said. 'Were the Jews really
the chosen people?' -
'You were once,' he replied. 'You know the place called Atlantis~
I nodded.
'Well, the myths about that particular long-lost continent have their genesis in the history of our Earth colony and its destruction by he rebels. Fortunately, a small nucleus of survivors managed to ~scape the final holocaust. The progenitors of what you now call the human race. And among them were the distant ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel.'
'So, in fact, what you're saying is that our forefathers, in whatever guise, came over on the Celestial Mayflower.'
'In a sense, yes. But by the time I got there, the situation had :hanged quite radically.' He smiled. 'To put it in modern terms -you no longer had an exclusive.'
'Nevertheless,' I insisted, 'you still turned up at Bethlehem.'
He shrugged. 'I had to start somewhere.'
'Oh, come on,' I said. 'We were expecting you.'