The Eden War - Book 3 of Re-Forge

Treachery in Council

Storm said: "Just one day to go for us to have some well-earned, R&R on the Moon. Sharon, do you know that Matt said he will take me to the life caverns in the lunar colony?"

Sharon answered: "I know he promised to take you, Storm. I just hope he gets the time. Anti-war protests are happening in the lunar colony right now. The last thing we need is to be seen sightseeing when so many of our good people have died. I doubt that people will appreciate seeing Matt having fun when so many are grieving for lost ones."

Storm said: "I'm so excited about so many things. Thank God we don't have punishment for thought crimes or I'd be court-marshalled.

Sharon asked: "So, what have you been thinking that is so terrible... and about whom?"

Storm said: "Oh, just... It's nothing." Storm directed the conversation away from her fantasy topic by saying: "Anyway, now that I've heard that, you are probably right about my lunar tour. I'll be satisfied watching videos and pictures until Matt takes me."

Then Storm said: "SP1 is contacting me now. Its monitoring the lunar situation, and it says that the mining corporations and some powerful council members are stirring up a lot of ill-feeling toward Matt and the NINE in the public sector. They're using the deaths of our military personnel as fuel to pour on the fire that is already raging."

Sharon said: "Everyone with any sense knows that Matt did his best. We all did our best. It's a sad fact that deaths happen in battle, but what I do know, is that Matt will never give up running this war while he knows that there is no-one better to run it."

The Storm avatar assigned to Sharon as her companion and protector nodded its beautiful human face and said: "Well, we will definitely find out tomorrow, that's for sure."

Sharon thought she would change the subject and she said: "Storm, you know; the lunar colony is very much like Eden. When I read the bible as a child, it talked about the 'Garden of Eden,' and even back then, I thought of some mystical wonderland where humans were created. It's fantastic that Eden also has an exotic garden, hundreds of square kilometres in area. There are too many coincidences between the Bible and human history that is only coming to light now. Based on what we see now, so much in the bible could be written from the perception of the writer, based on stories passed down from father to son. To think that all this was from a distant reality amazes me."

Sharon said: "It's about perception. After humans were altered, they really 'were' cast out to live with other humans already struggling on Earth. The other humans mentioned could have been earlier batches of altered humans ferried to Earth from orbit. There was something like forty thousand humans on Eden at the time, according to Calemon. It would have taken time to filter them all down and set them up with basics."

"Yes," said Storm: "Your theory certainly fits the current circumstances, and I really loved to see the garden vista. It's a shame that we could only see it from the observation lounge on the garden level."

"Who would ever believe that the garden of Eden is real? No wonder it could never be found on earth... Sharon, it looks like all the old legends are coming true. Even the day of reckoning."

Sharon took her theory to the next level and said: "I wonder if the snake in the garden of Eden legend 'symbolises' the reptilian enemy. The snake was 'Evil' incarnate, its rogue behaviour is portrayed in the bible as the instigator or reason behind humans being cast out of Eden. Early humans were petrified of snakes as to be bitten is to die in most cases so I could see how they could have replaced alien reptiles with the feared local version that everyone understood."

Storm said: "Sharon, your insight could actually be true. Facts get twisted into legend over time. Only when it becomes data does it remain timeless, so legend could have become factual belief when it was included in the bible. Religion is supposedly there to nurture the best behaviour as a balance to the bad. I wonder if it was all part of the strategy to temper the savage as it was re-forged. God, what a mystery."