Nest Among The Stars

The Purpose - Part 18

It did not take long for the Earth Forces shuttle to return to the control center in New York. Straight up, slow downward movement to level, momentary flat slide across the mesosphere, then abrupt drop back through the stratosphere just above the Atlantic a few kilometers off the eastern seaboard of North America; less than twenty minutes. The entire journey flanked by bright human size objects floating around the planet and through all layers of the sky above the Earth. Some of the objects moved downwards with the shuttle, but the great majority simply remained in place as if observing ...everything.

Gabe landed the shuttle in the immense public square next to the control centre. Michael sat in the pilots chair pondering what came next, and what had brought him to where he now found himself. In finding his aged winter coat buried in the ancient desert cave, he now had the physical evidence he had sought to establish that his displacements in time were real. And if the displacements were real, then the events he had witnessed were also factual. He sought the required proof and had found it. What now?

If all of Nathaniel's statements about 'God' were as equally valid as the time displacements and the events within those displacements, then where did that leave him? What was his 'purpose'? The 'purpose' Nathaniel had come to help him find? The 'purpose' for which Nathaniel's kind, the 'Aliens' humans called them, the 'purpose' for which they had destroyed Mercury and Venus and had demanded that all humans abandon the Earth. But no, the two inner planets had not been destroyed. It had been the 'Aliens' creating a limited spatial time displacement around them, showing the future destruction of those planets. Humanity, not aware that they were looking into the future, took it as the present destruction of the planets being used to serve as a warning that we were to do as we were told; 'all must leave ...only one may remain behind'. Only one ...him as it turned out to be.

He still felt the loneliness he had so quickly experienced when the last human had left for the colonies, leaving him to watch the final shuttle depart. A loneliness which created a pain in his heart unlike any he had previously felt ...other than the loneliness experienced when his wife died. A pain so great he feared for his sanity; a pain which during the 'departure' had began to leave the mental containment in which it had been trapped, once again to threaten to possess and destroy his soul.

'Soul'? Why had he thought of having a 'soul'. Acknowledging a soul meant acknowledging things unprovable by science. Things ethereal, spiritual ...things do to with an existence beyond the real universe. The 'real' universe or merely the physical universe? At one time 'atoms' and 'photons' were merely unseen speculation. Tachyons were once thought to be only a hypothetical particle that travels faster than light, until they were harnessed and then manufactured by humans, enabling us to travel to the stars, to communicate with faster than light ships while in transit, to use tachyon transmissions to explore to the edges of the universe. Yes, to explore to the edges of the universe, and then to finally realize that we were truly alone ...trapped within its immensity. An unimaginably large cage, but still a cage. There was nothing else but us. We would explore endlessly down the corridors of time, and yet we would remain forever alone. Thus did the greatness we thought we possessed became only an emptiness. We were nothing but ourselves and we forever would be.

However, although the 'Aliens' brought fear with their appearance, to many they had also brought hope. We were no longer alone. There were others. There was a reason for 'us' that was beyond ourselves. But they had come to threaten us ...although they never did actually say anything threatening. The threat, as it now seemed, was a product of our own fear. A fear born of not 'knowing', rather than one of knowing we were in danger. Yet we had found hope in the fear. A hope because the fear gave us 'purpose'. The purpose of surviving, of going on living, of acknowledging something greater than ourselves. Something greater, which Nathaniel showed was the very thing that could not be acknowledged due to humanities perception of its own greatness. And if that something was true, was real, was an existence that humanity could now acknowledge ...then he might some day once again be with her, and the pain no longer needed to be accepted ... it no longer would continue its destructive work within him.

Michael stood and went to the back of the shuttle. After using the sonic shower, he put on a dress uniform that had been placed in the storage closet prior to leaving the small German village.

"Gabe?"

"Yes Michael?"

"Are they inside ...waiting?"

"Yes Michael."

"How many?"

"Visuals indicate only one. It cannot be scanned, so I cannot verify conclusively."

"Thank you Gabe. Thank you for everything."

"Everything Michael?"

"Yes ... for everything."

Reaching into the tunics breast pocket he removed a picture of his wife. His heart skipped a beat as it always did when he looked at her. Softly he said "I love you", his voice holding a passion long absent from his life.

Returning the picture to the pocket from which he had removed it, Michael moved towards the door with a confident stride, "I'm ready Gabe."

The shuttle doors opened and Micheal crossed the short space to one of the control rooms immense doors, already opened for him. He walked a straight path defined narrowly by lighting embedded in the floor. Moving with steady strides and a certainty of purpose, he crossed towards the low platform in the centre of the room.

Three chairs sat on the platform, slender metal desks encircling each. Suspended without attachments over this small island in a hard flat sea was a single dominant globe shaped light. Below this light stood a humanoid form wearing a uniform similar to Michael's own, the only difference being what appeared to be a golden breastplate covering the tunic.

Michael ascended the two backlit steps providing access to the platform. "Hello Nathaniel", he said as he grasped the other 'mans' hand and strongly pulled himself into a hug.

"Are you ready Michael? Do you realize your true purpose my friend?"

Michael thought on all he had experienced. He realized there was more than could be explained by reason alone when reason remained held within confines of doubt. 'O day and night, but this is wondrous strange', he thought, 'And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy'.

Releasing his grip and standing back a little, Michael thought of his wife and his longing to someday again be with her. Then looking into Nathaniel's eyes he answered without hesitation, "I have made my choice. I accept all you have shown me and told me. I have made my choice and am prepared to serve the truth".

Nathaniel smiled, "Doubt brings fear. Truth removes doubt and brings freedom from fear. Now let's go forward and see wonders never known, glories denied though always present, life flourishing but never discovered... it's time for humanity to truly explore the universe... and everything else."