Homecoming Chapter 17 (Serialized Novel)

Chapter 17

Once again, the landscape before them whirled away and vanished with a blink of an eye. Then, there was that familiar blimp as they faded in and out of the thinly veiled nexus point that connected the differing realms and dimensions of reality. Stephanie was quite aware that there were theories that there were countless planes of existence, but she was beginning to wonder exactly how many alternate versions of earth there were in this landscape of the higher dimensions. Were they finite or infinite, and how many of them did Niv intend on taking her to? Pondering these things over, Stephanie felt her stomach churn as she lost her bearing, for she was starting to feel disoriented and dizzy by this method of transportation. This sickening sensation was also a direct consequence of the grizzly and nightmarish world that now appeared before them that was so much more disturbing than any that Niv had taken her to thus far. Of the different worlds that he had shown her, the effect of what lay before them was much more visceral, having the greatest impact on her, for what she saw hit most at home, and resonated the most with her, and it suspended her in a state of disbelief. There was a part of her that was sickened, deeply and entirely. Another side of her was filled with anger and anguish, tears of mourning forming at her eyelids. As she took in the sight, she questioned to herself if what she saw before her was what had happened to her world in the time that they had been gone.

The place that she had been taken to was indisputably that of the location of her home in Washington D.C. But at the same time, it was not. Stephanie was only able to make this distinction by the historic landmarks, monuments, and buildings that she only just realized she had taken so for granted in all her years of living there. It is an odd fact of life that we do not realize what we have, even in the littlest of things, until the moment that they are taken from us. At the same time, there was a tremendous change in this distinction, in that most of these structures lay in heaps of rubble, that were cracked, separated, and torn asunder, reduced to nothing more than rocky ruins. There was almost no such instance where this was not the case, so that entire buildings had become mere boulders. It was only in the skeleton like frames of what remained of the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, or the White House that one could come to this revelation of the setting. But the horror that was almost intrinsic and innate to the scene before her did not end in this fact alone.

Stephanie looked all around her and took note as to how this world could be likened to the moon. Off in the distance, she took in a sight that shook her so. One that was felt all the way down to her very core. For what could be found was a tremendous crater, one that was nearly a mile wide, and of immeasurable depth, that was undoubtedly ground zero for nuclear impact. She looked down at the ground beneath her feet, and how it seemed to be covered in a thick blanket of ash that was combined with areas of rocky dirt that made all the ground a barren wasteland. In that moment, she immediately knew that this was a consequence of the fabled nuclear winters that were theorized would take place in the case of nuclear war. The crimson skies that were the lingering effects of the related firestorms, and the notable drop of some twenty degrees that Stephanie would have had difficulties adapting to were she not surrounded by Niv’s orb further confirmed this fact. However, the most soul crushing aspect to it all was found in the way that there was, all around them, areas that were scorched and burnt black, as if people, cars, and all manner of things had been cremated into the ground beneath them. The very sight of it brought Stephanie very near the point of fainting and made her want to vomit.

In this toxic wasteland, the air had become filled and permeated with a thick greenish-yellow fog, that swirled around in front of them, and that obscured one line of vision. So too, did the vast and mighty Potomac River run over with, and had become diluted with a greenish-yellow hazardous waste to the point that it looked like it had become a kind of sludge. Here, in this post-apocalyptic atmosphere, all around them was the residual and persistent effects of this substance that made the air intoxicating and unbreathable, and the waters filled with the death of the animals that had tasted its undrinkable contents. All of it was, without a doubt, the results of the long lasting consequences of prolonged radiation and its decay. As Stephanie took in more and more of her environment, she wondered to herself as to exactly how many locations had been devastated by the nuclear blast in this world. But the thought was as fleeting as the gigantic three headed elk that leaped past her, a sigh of the mutated wildlife that had evolved to survive the wasteland before them. Here, Stephanie was taken aback, startled to see that any kind of life could withstand such conditions.

Still, Stephanie looked through the fog, up in the direction of the amber colored skies, and its puffy orange clouds, and settled her gaze upon what was the wildest thing she had seen yet. A scene so startling that her legs buckled and caused her to almost faint once more. For up in these heavens, it did seem that a kind of advanced people lived there, and not only that but that they also thrived despite the harsh conditions of the world; almost as if they had come to realize that they could not live in such a setting, so they had all decided to take to the sky. The worse part about this advanced society, was the fact that Stephanie recognized it immediately for what it was. With the vast and countless pyramidal structures that filled the sky above, it was hard to see past the reality that this was the version of the earth belonging to the Zeta Recticuli. There was no part of here that could come to any understanding as to why Niv would take her here of all places.

Even so, Stephanie continued to stare at the sky-based city, and had to admit to herself that there were aspects to it that were impressive. In-between the pyramidal structures, the Zeta Recticuli had somehow managed to erect large mountainous platforms that spanned for entire city blocks in the space up above. These giant platforms contained on them several buildings and structures. It was here that Stephanie was able to identify the main difference between the new earth and this one, in that while the new earth was natural and organic, this other reality was highly mechanical, and material based. The buildings were like great machines complete with cogs and gears. These cogs and gears led to large metallic bridges that connected the various platforms. On others there were what looked like tremendous nuclear reactors. And beyond that was another section that contained a great number of missiles aimed at the heavens.

Upon closer observation, Stephanie noticed that there were figures making their way across one of the bridges. She waved her hand out in front of her, hoping that it would give her a better view. At first it was difficult to make out the scene unfolding before her, but there were clearly people walking across this bridge, and several other different extraterrestrial beings, some of which she had become frequented in her time at the Galactic Federation. They formed a kind of chain gang, being shackled at the wrists and feet. Behind them a large creature much like a troll pushed them along, cracking down on them with an occasional snap of a whip. By the looks of it the Zeta Recticuli had established a form of slavery on the planet consisting of the different races of the universe that they had abducted, although Stephanie had yet to learn that abductions were something that they conducted.

And there was something else that she missed at first, but as she looked further into the midst, she noticed that there was a kind of flying swarm that went spiraling all around these bridges as if on a kind of patrol. This swarm consisted of an incalculable number of flying machines and sentinels that almost seemed like mechanical octopuses. Each one of them had one large red glass optic at the forefront of its frame, and eight swiveling tentacles flailing around them. They picked, poked, and prodded at the slaves walking across the bridge, and it seemed to Stephanie that their purpose was to observe them, and to prevent any from escaping.

“Take heed and careful consideration Stephanie,” Niv started, stepping forward out into the barren wasteland. This is the last reality that I will be taking you to. As I’m sure your keen sense of observation has made out, this is the realm where the Zeta Recticuli rule supreme over the earth, and a crucial message for you to impart to your people can be found her,” he said, moving a rock that blocked his path from out from beneath his with his feet.

“But Niv, I have never seen such destruction and carnage in one place. What is there to possibly learn from this place,” Stephanie asked, as she followed in Niv’s footsteps, walking around the rock that he had kicked aside as she did so.

To this, Niv answered and said, “What you see before you is another reality where humankind has destroyed themselves as a result of nuclear forces. The sad truth is that the Zeta Recticuli are what is to become of humankind once they have lost all of their humanity and embraced their dark and destructive nature, knowing nothing else to feed off of. They are the next chink in your own evolution. In the Zeta Recticuli, you will find that these here are the mutated survivors of your nuclear wars, making them as cruel and harsh as their environment has forced them to become. The very fact that they are not only working with the Reptilians but are superior to them is revealing of the depths of their evil, vile, and destructive nature, and the extent to which they are feared throughout certain realms of the cosmos. Something that should be genuinely concerning to you. Also known as the greys, their intrinsic flaw is found in the fact that they are a dying race that is being destroyed by their own genetics and destructive nature. Because of this, they have forced themselves to become master geneticists to find a cure to their decaying bloodline, creating hybrids of themselves throughout the universe, looking for a cure to their ailment. But to date, this has been to no avail. This is one of the reasons that it is so important for Malduk to get his hands on you. In this way, you are an essential ingredient in his diabolical plans. He has grown aware that I am a version of what you will become in the future, and by now, I am sure that he knows that you have been imparted with the print of the light beds and of the Garden of Wisdom. This, it is his hopes that he can extract our shared knowledge on the Galactic Federation’s ways of healing for his race. In this, you can see why the Zeta Recticuli are a pestilence to the universe. Their kind traverses throughout the universe, abducting races from all worlds to this end. Just as they are master manipulators and experts of mind control. There is perhaps nothing more sinister than the torture techniques carried out by the Zeta Recticuli as part of their mind control tactics. Breaking every universal law of free will, they enslave their abductees to carry out their more menial functions as you can see here before you. While the Galactic Federation is also a tangible reality telling you of what your people can become, and something that you can all strive towards, it is every bit as telling that this too is something that you can become if your people do not change their ways. In every moment there is a choice. The difference between heaven and hell is but a decision made in the here and now. It is imperative that your people come to intimately know this fact of reality. That is why the present moment is so precious. Be that as it may, this is not the only cautionary message that needs to be imparted to the people of your world. On a final note, I cannot emphasize enough to you as to how time is of the essence, and the way that Malduk is leveraging it. It is the reason that he came to earth sooner than the circumstances would allow themselves to play out. For Malduk’s race, there is nothing more important to them than time. It is his way of buying a dying race extra time to find a cure to their malady. He feels it is their homecoming. At the same time, it is the result of his discovery of the other higher dimensional beings and races, and it is his ultimate plan of riding them from ever coming to be, allowing his race to reign supreme. As you can see, everything about his plan reveals how they are the epitome of destruction, but at the same time, it may be that very nature that will ultimately lead to their demise. To be destroyed by their own destructive nature, Niv finished, wearing a grim expression on his face as he faced Stephanie.

“I may not ever look at the moment, or every day decisions the same way. So much so that it is unnerving. Humanity seems a long way off from creating a society or reality like that established in the Galactic Federation’s version of the new earth, and there is a part of me that has doubts that they can accomplish it, and it is a scary thought that those things were once even remotely human. But what else other than that could be of as much importance than that though alone,” Stephanie replied to her mentor, mirroring his concerned expression as she did so.

“As of recently, you have been put in direct contact with the leaders of your world. There is a good chance that another opportunity to do so in your near future. I cannot emphasize enough how imperative it is that you articulate as clearly as possible to your leaders the dangers that nuclear forces pose to the people of earth. While the worlds that I have taken you to are just a few of the know realities, it is the most common pattern of your people to destroy themselves by these means. Even more concerning is the fact that the nuclear events surrounding Russia and the Ukraine, as well as other world powers, being actualized in reality makes this even more so the case. The higher dimensional beings of the universe, beings that operate in divine love, have been watching the activities of your world for longer than you would think, even before the people of your world knew of them and their existence, and they are all of the opinion that nuclear forces on your planet poses one of the biggest threats to your world, if not the biggest. They are also concerned with the thought of you bringing that threat out into the universe. The people of your world have, after all, shot a nuclear warhead out into space. What I am going to need from you is to be the voice to challenge the leaders of your world to rid themselves of these forces. I know it is not an easy task, but it is what the situation calls for,” Niv informed her, continuing along the path that he was walking down.

“I am not sure whether or not your aware of this, but the people of my world sort of view nuclear weapons as a symbol of power and control. It was after the determining factor that ended the last world war for us. How on earth am I supposed to suggest to them that we rid ourselves of all nuclear forces. If anything, I’m sure that they’ll take to the view that the only reason that this is being recommended of an extraterrestrial force is for the purpose of disarming us, putting us at a disadvantage. Especially considering the events at present, and the fact that we pale in comparison when it comes to the technologies of these races. I doubt it will be well received. Besides, how on earth would we even go about ridding ourselves of these forces as you call them?” Stephanie asked in response, looking down at her feet as they marched along, not wanting to trip over any debris.

I would begin by telling you what we did in the reality that created for the Galactic Federation and the new earth. The higher dimensional beings have technologies that can dematerialize just about anything. In our timeline, we called upon these entities to remove them from our world. Their collaboration in the process gained some trust by the people of your world. There are those amongst your population that are aware of them and what they are capable of, and these benevolent ones would be happy to do so. It is the reason why they have made similar demonstrations of their abilities in this area in hopes that your people would reach out to them to do so. I speak of course to the situation where your people shot a nuclear weapon out into space, and the scenario I know that you are aware of where UFO’s were sighted at nuclear bases, and where they rendered these control centers inoperable for a period of time from afar. Knowing what you do now with all that I have shown you, I would make this recommendation to your peoples,” Niv answered, stopping in his tracks as he finished the last of what he had to tell her.

Stephanie’s mind was racing at about a million miles per hour. There was so much to process, and she didn’t even know where she should begin. For starters, there was the whole future opportunity of being in front of the world thing. She hated the fact that she had been seemingly selected to play the part of messenger for all of earth, and she didn’t know why these higher dimensional beings felt that she was capable of doing so. God knows that she questioned it herself, so how could she expect anyone of significant authority to take her seriously when it came down to it?

Not only that, but Stephanie tried to wrap her mind around this message that she was supposed to deliver to the leaders of the free world. That too came with layers of content that she herself wasn’t even sure that she fully comprehended. The most obvious component was one that had to do with time. Stephanie thought of the way that Malduk had taunted her and her understanding of spatiotemporal considerations. Even as an expert in astrophysics as it relates to space and time, the totality of it all was challenging even for her mind to grasp. To her, it felt like Malduk was using time to play his own personal game of chess against the people of earth, and all the beings of the higher dimensions. Almost like the Star Trek multidimensional chess set that she kept in her living room. She strongly felt that somewhere in the future, when she was brought into contact with the certain leaders of the free world, that they would have a very difficult time understanding, or even believing that she had been in and seen future world and dimensions when at that time she would be in the very present now to them. God, thinking of it, she was sure that they would think her to be a loony. Maybe she would be sent to an asylum like her grandfather had been. And for similar reasons. Who would have thought?

But even that was just the tip of the iceberg. Stephanie wondered to herself as to how many people in a position of any real authority that could make any kind of a difference would understand any conceptualizations of differing timelines. That in a continuum of infinite pulsating present moments, that each and every single choice and decision determined if they would evolve into the benevolent beings of the new earth, or the extremely hostile Zeta Recticuli. If they could fully grasp that these extraterrestrial beings were versions of what we could become in the future, and that these timelines seemingly fought with one another over which would be the one that would actualize into reality. She didn’t know if she possessed the words to clearly articulate this message, and she had a feeling that she wouldn’t have the time to give them an introductory course in physics in order to do so. And she dreaded the conversation about how the situation brought with it the risk of causing an incursion.

Still, her thoughts turned over to another pressing matter. Her mind drifted back to a time when things had been simpler, and a paper that she had written for an anthropology course in college. In the article, she had argued that homo sapiens were the most destructive power on the earth, quoting the sentiments about how if the bumblebee where to go extinct that all of life would go with it, but if human beings were to disappear from the equation that all of life would flourish from it. She had gone on to explicate on how ironic that the bumblebee was of much more ecological significance than that of homo sapiens, and yet how we had the audacity to categorize ourselves as twice the wiser than any other classification of creature in the animal kingdom. Thinking back on it, even then, it seemed that she didn’t accurately calculate how truthful that was. She knew that humans created for more cases of death the world over, than sharks, rhinos, lions, or any other force on the planet. Similarly, she had sometimes entertained thoughts of apocalyptic scenarios, thinking that it was quite possible that humans would meet their untimely demise. However, she had always assumed that it would be as a result of something like a comet, a super volcano, climate change, or something of a more natural order.

The cogs in her mind shifted even more at full turn, musing over the reason that she was harboring these thoughts and feelings. Not only would she have to explain the complex related to time and extraterrestrials for the sake of all of humanity, but she would also have to give a cautionary warning that humankind must rid itself of all nuclear forces. She could already visualize whomever she would be telling all of this laughing at her for doing so, especially if she elaborated on the fact that it had been an alien that had imparted the message to her. Even from her perspective, she was sure that anyone in a position of any substantial power would see this as a power move from an intellectual race to disarm the people of earth, to gain the upper hand over them. But the thing that really haunted her was the fact that this hope for humanity ostensibly rested on her shoulders alone, and if she failed, then all of the people of earth could look forward either to a future as callous and ruthless sentient lifeforms, evolved out of the ashes of nuclear genocide, or perhaps even worse yet, although it was hard to determine, one with no future at all. No big pressure at all.

With her attention still consumed by her thoughts on the issue, lightning cracked above, spiderwebbing its way through the red skies, the sound of thunder rapidly following it. The effect was sobering, and brought Stephanie back to her senses, as well as the here and now. Not long afterwards, the ethers rang out with what sounded to be a droning trumpet or horn of alarm. From there spot, Stephanie noticed that the slaves to the Zeta Recticuli stopped abruptly in their tracks, as if taught to do so in the case of the sound, which they had. They were not the only ones to cease all movement. Suddenly, Stephanie watched as the swarm of flying sentinels all but froze in their tracks, creating a curtain of grey to blot out the sky above them.

Stephanie felt rain droplets grace her cheeks as yet another horn sounded. Catching her off guard, Stephanie looked upwards towards the heavens where she noticed one of the metallic octopuses swirling its glass optical lens around as if it were intently looking for something.

“I have a feeling that this isn’t good,” Stephanie murmured more to herself than to her extraterrestrial friend, observing the machines movements, without making any of her own. She felt like a cat burglar that had just robbed a bank and that was avoiding the searchlights of a nearby cop car.

“Neither do I. Get behind me Stephanie,” Niv responded, with Stephanie thankful for his Merkabah, and the little orb that separated. The words had hardly left Niv’s mouth when the whirling optic of the sentinel above them caught sight of them. The machine then shook itself like a rattlesnake’s tail, and then darted directly at them at breaking speed. Before either one of them could act, the sentinel was on top of them. Literally. Thankfully, they were protected by Niv’s glowing orb. Still, the machine wrapped each of its arms around it, as if it were trying to crush its way through it. When that had not worked, it loosened its grip on them and started ramming itself against the force field. “Brace yourself,” Niv cautioned Stephanie, and as he did so, a tremendous bolt of yellow light shot out from the orb and struck the machine, sending it flying off in the opposite direction.

Stephanie breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that all the danger and conflict was over, but this too was short lived. Once the machine had made its way out of their sight, they immediately saw off in the peripherals of their vision one of the mountain troll looking creatures bum rushing towards them. The thing looked like Shrek if he were naked and grey and was wearing nothing more than a loincloth while snot dripped down his face. Stephanie shielded her face, and braced herself for impact, when she felt that all too familiar sensation that Niv was about to teleport them somewhere else. Hopefully back to the Galactic Federation.