City of IF

[Ravagerrr]

:biggrin: Pillbox - Chapter 4

A New Paradigm


Not sure if he wanted to spend any more time than necessary in the company of either the General or the Goatman, Mack replied, "I think a tour would be the best place to start. I have no idea how I'll be feeling after the proceedure and it'd be good to have my bearings first. Honestly, I'm not too tired either. I just have a few questions first though."

"Well, goddammit, what'dya wanna know, Mack?"

"Two things, Sternheim. First," Macks eyes narrowed and his lips curled upwards at the ends, "when will I get a gun like that?"

Raucious laughter echoed off the halls of the bunker as Sternheim leaned back roaring in applause. Soon the snickering of a goat was to be heard bouncing around the chamber, mingling with the General's bawdy guffaws, and chuckles from Mack's hoverchair bound friend, becoming a dizzying cacaphony of echoes. Unphased, Mack continued to gleam at the General.

"Ahem, heh. As soon as you Goddam can, son! As soon as ya goddam can. Y'll need ta be walkin on legs first, and right now I don't think ya could lift the thing with both arms but soon, soon yal be more than goddam capable! Hah, HAH! Yer a trooper Mack, a real trooper."

"And the second question... If we have another one of those handy," Mack pointed towards the hoverchair next to him, "I'd love to get rid of the wheels."

"THAT's something we CAN do now!" Looking up towards a previously unnoticed pane of glass above the bay door, from which he came, Sternheim stretched out his arm and signaled with a flick of his wrist. "They'll be bringin' ya one now, Mack. Will that be all, son?"

"Yes, s-Sternheim. Thanks, by the way."

"Don't thank me yet Goddammit! C'mon, Kape, lets give the man some space!" Turning, the General patted Kape on the arm, motioning him to follow as he walked towards the re-opening bay door.

"Beh-eh", and a nod, and Kape turned to pace him.

Just out of earshot, Mack spun to face Sydney. "You could have warned me!"

"About who, Kape or the General?"

"Either one would have helped!"

"As you said, sergeant, I hand out warnings in short supply. I loved the looks on your face too much." Sydney smiled crookedly. "I told you this place would blow your mind didn't I?"

"Why do I get the feeling I haven't seen the half of it yet?"

"Because you haven't I'm sure." Motioning to Mack to look behind him, "You're chair is ready."

"Ulp", Mack was swiftly and easily lifted by the two black dressed men he had seen twice before, and just as easily placed down into the hover chair seat. Once again, he couldn't remember seeing exactly where they went off to.

"Um, how do I work this thing?" Mack was patting down the chrome chair with his hands, scouring it for some sort of control panel.

"Simple, more simple than anything you've guided in your life," replied Sydney, "you just will it to move and off it goes, like this!" Sydney smoothly accelerated forward then circled around and returned to Mack's side.

"Huh?"

"Just think about moving and you move in the direction you are... ohp, you seem to get it!" Mack began to hover upwards. He rotated in place about ten feet up and continued his ascent.

"How high can this thing go?", he shouted down.

"There's really no limit, could take you to space I imagine, though in this chair alone, you don't have much protection for that... come down here and stop fooling around Mack!"

"Sorry," Mack said as he spiraled his way down to his partner. "This is the coolest toy I think I've ever seen! Can't help but feel like a kid in this! Almost makes me not want my legs back! Well... not really, but still, this is COOL!" Mack did an aerial sommersault in slow motion.

"Yeah, I feel pretty lucky to be working here, that's for sure! Certainly comes with benes!" Sydney smiled as he patted the side of his chair. "Now then, enough playtime, Mack, there's much to accomplish today!"

"Oh, alright.", Mack came to a halt in his antics. Hovering together towards the bay door, Mack turned to Sydney and asked, "Just tell me this... how does this thing work?"

Sydney let out a long, audible sigh. "I knew you would ask. Alright, let me start at the beginning, or else you'll be asking me questions all day. You should know this stuff anyhow, seeing as how you're now a part of the team."

Mack nearly panted in anticipation. "Will you be explaining how they're gonna fix my legs?"

"Yes, that should be included."

"Good, I'm dying to know how they plan to do this."

"You'll be experiencing it all shortly enough. By the way, this is the Mobile Hangar, if you hadn't guessed. Up there," Sydney motioned to the reflective glass panel above the bay door, "is the control room."

"Yeah, yeah, of course."

Sydney smiled, "Well, I'm supposed to be giving you a tour here."

"The story?"

"Yes, the story. Let me ask you something first, Mack. Why do you believe we're involved in Iraq again?"

Mack seemed a bit taken off guard, "Well, I, uh, I guess its for the oil. Thats what everyone seems to be saying. But I can't say I really buy that its all about that. I think we're really trying to do some good for the people over there."

"Hmph. Oil, humanitarianism, both convenient excuses."

"Excuse me? What do you mean, Sydney?"

"We don't care about Oil, Mack, the stuffs about to be vastly outdated anyhow. Sure there's a lot of people, powerful businessmen and such, that have a lot to gain from the oil, but it's largely just a political cover, something for the people to say, oh that's why we're REALLY there. Few people really believe the Government is there for humanitarian reasons, and the truth is, we're not. But that being the case we needed something to mask the reality of the situation and oil interests seemed to fit the bill."

"So you're saying that we aren't there to help the Iraqis? Why bother getting rid of Hussein then?"

"Hussein? I imagine you, like everyone else out there, believe he's really the enemy huh?"

"Well, yeah, we've got him out of power for a reason haven't we? I mean he gassed his own people among so many other horrible things he's done."

"Sure, but he wasn't the insane dictator he's posed to be exactly... let me explain."

"Go on..."

The hover chairs passed through the bay door into a hallway stretching off to the right and to the left, neatly curving out of sight both ways. The walls seemed to be cast out of alluminum, but the color was a bit more bluish, not quite something Mack could place. Veering off to the right, Sydney stated, "In the 1800's archaeologists made an important discovery in the Euphrates valley. They found the remains of a culture, very likely the first civilization of mankind, Sumeria. The Sumerians left behind a great deal of valuable artifacts, important in the fact that they had, perhaps, the first written language known to man. Since then, we have come to decipher much of what they left behind for us to read and some of it is quite shocking."

"Like what?"

"Well, they knew things. Things we didn't know until this century, like the existence of Uranus. They also knew things we didn't know until they told us."

"Is THAT what all this is about?"

"Yeah, well sortof. It gets more complicated than that, but that's the quick answer."

"So we're in Iraq for the archaeology?!?"

"You could say that. The technologies that power these chairs, that thrust the mobile headquarters, that will be used to heal your legs, the Sumerians left clues to them all."

"So you're saying they could do these things back then? How did we lose all that?"

"Well... the Sumerians couldn't, not exactly. They tried once but failed. It was largely a result of that failure that they were destroyed."

"Huh? How did they know all of this then?"

"Mack, the hints at these processes were left inscribed on clay tablets, not exactly the instrument of a highly advanced society would you say?"

"No, but now I'm really confused"

"Well, maintain your confusion for a moment. We've reached one of our stops along the way." Sydney pulled up in front of a door, the panel of which seemed to slide upwards at nothing more than a thought.

Entering through the portal, Mack found himself hovering over a complex laboratory. Computers lined the walls, blinking and flashing with a plethora of displays. To his right, a staircase wound down to the ground floor of the room, where tables, buried in bottles, bunsen burners, magnifying glasses and rows of categorized chemicals and test tubes, marched across the floor in spacious collumns. Amid the active boiling, steaming, and beeping, a short, wiry man with furry grey tufts of hair spilling out from the sides of his head, and glasses so thick you could hardly see his face from his enourmous blinking eyes, darted around from behind a computer terminal to greet them.

Descending the staircase, Sydney announced, "I wanted to take you here first, as it seems this will be your lifeline. Welcome to our biomedical facility, Mack. This, here, is our chief Biochemist, Sam Link. He's a bit nervous and shy, but friendly enough. SAM...," he called to the man, who was wringing his hands and twisting his foot into the ground.

"Uh, uh, h-h-hi S-sydney. I-is that h-him?", Sam meekly replied.

"If by him, you mean Sergeant James Mack of the US ARMY, here for leg replacement, then yes. Sergeant, Sam. Sam, Sergeant Mack." Sydney hovered down to situate himself between them for introductions.

"Nice to meet you," stated Mack, calmly, with his deep, resonate voice.

"Y-yyou too, M-mack, uh... b-be careful down here... y-you wouldn't w-want to knock anything over." Sams larger than life eyeballs nervously flittered over Mack's hoverchair.

"Ha ha, I'll be careful, don't you worry." Mack smiled in return.

"He means it Mack," stated Sydney, "You wouldn't want to come out looking like Kape now would you?"

"Oh Oh, heavens, he's met K-kape? D-don't worry, S-sergeant, y-you wouldn't be t-turning out anything like him! H-he was an a-animal to b-begin with, m-mostly... th-that and th-the remnants of a s-soldier d-doomed to die... n-nothing like you of course."

"You're saying you spliced him with a GOAT!?!"

"W-well... yeah. B-but you, w-well, y-you are going to b-be much like your usual s-self, but m-m-much stronger, faster, b-bigger, e-even smarter! W-who knows j-just how mmuch... we've never exactly d-done this b-before. S-sydney, he knows that right?"

"Yes, Sam, I've informed him that this is totally expirimental."

"S-sternheim just told me you had ch-chosen to g-go all biological. Th-thanks for your v-vote of confidence Mack. I assure y-you, this is far more l-likely to go w-well then B-beck's procedures."

"Beck? Who's he?," asked Mack

"Beck's our resident cybernetic surgeon. He's been doing work on dogs, cats, monkeys and such. He really wanted to get a piece of the action next, but I'm sure we'll have someone for him real soon. Soldiers are getting wounded over there every day. Not all of em are at your caliber Sergeant, but we'll only need a few more."

"Pah... B-beck's work is n-nothing compared to th-this.", Sams face lit up. "Have you told him about the pills yet?", he asked Sydney.

"Pills?", Mack asked with a raised eybrow.

"Ahem, lets leave that till after he's healed Sam. He's taking a lot in already.", replied Sydney flatly.

"Urgh...", exclaimed Mack in frustration.

"Oh, a-alright... sp-poil the f-fun."

"Well, Mack, we'd best be moving along...", Sydney was interupted by the hiss of another door to the lab opening.

Preceding her through the doorway was the most glorious scent Mack had ever smelled. It was like honey, a rich but most decidedly feminine scent that made him feel as if he were drifting off into a field of bright flowers.

As her pearly white legs crossed the threshold into the room, Mack sucked in a gasp as his heartrate exploded. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen! Dark, raven black hair caressed her down to below her voluptuous breasts which swelled beneath the blood red fabric of her dress. Bright green eyes smiled as wide as her plump, flush, lips. Brilliant white teeth showed through her smile as she sauntered through the room towards the group, not that she sauntered, exactly, but Mack would have thought her to saunter if she had galloped through the lab. Strikingly tall, her exquisite waist brushed well above the tabletops as she came to a stop next to Sam, who seemed to be unphased by her beauty.

"N-natalia, th-this is S-sergeant M-mack!"

"Hmm... much more handsome than I had imagined." She almost purred the words.

"Mack, this is Natalia Dragosava, previously a Russian Scientist. She's part of the Bio team here, and dressed a bit... unusualy today, aren't you, Miss Dragosava?", announced Sydney calmly.

"Awww, can't a girl have some fun every now and then?", her accent was thin, but recognizeable in Russian roots.

"Don't let her get her hands on ya Mack... God knows what she'll do.", Sydney warned.

"Perhaps after I get these legs fixed, I'll be the one to worry about.", Mack stated as he met her gaze with a smile. She smiled back, in knowing approval.

"As I was saying, we REALLY need to be moving along. If you'll excuse us Madame, Mack and I were just leaving."

"Oh, thats alright, Sydneyboy... there's always later."

"Get to work you two... he needs your efforts not your charms."

"One and the same Sydney, one and the same," replied Natalia, "I will be seeing you for some healing soon, no?"

"Sooner than I had thought.", stated Mack simply. He had to chase Sydney out of the lab as Sydney's chair already had a running start.

"You done fooling around Mack?"

"I haven't begun Sydney."

"Hmph" On they went down the long curved passage, the door sliding shut behind them.

"Why is she here?", inquired Mack.

"She is one of the researchers who were able to read the Sumerian writings. She's very well read. Her career began as an Anthropoligist, but has arrived here. She took a lot of inspiration from Zecharia Sitchin, you aren't familiar with his works are you?"

"No, not really. Never heard of him."

"Too bad. Woulda saved me from a lot of explaining."

"Thats right, you were telling me about the clay tablets... So how DID a people who were using clay for writing come to know the basis for so many of the amazing things I've seen here?"

"Well, they were trying to steal the technology actually. See, the story is all told in the Bible, just most of us haven't read it for what it's really saying."

"What do you mean? I should tell you, I've been raised a Christian."

"I mean that the translations didn't come across quite straight because of a lot of misassumptions and intentional misleadings, but in short the story is all there."

"What story?"

"You know, Adam and Eve, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus etc... pretty much all truth, word for word. The Sumerians have a bit of a different take though."

"How so?"

"Well, in Genesis, it explains how God makes man, but most of the translations you get don't make it clear that it was the god's', plural, not a one God, capitalized, that made us. This has been explained by many theologians as "the trinity", or another excuse has been that the multiple "gods", the term used being the 'elohim', was simply a way of giving the one God a higher form of reverance to call him many, as some Aramaic dialects did just that when referring to a king or lord. The truth of the matter, though, was revealed by the Sumerians."

"Um, you're kinda losing me here Sydney."

"Well, you asked. Ok, lets make this a bit simpler shall we? The Sumerians explain that we were made by an extra terrestrial race of beings they called the Annunaki, mostly for the purpose of mining the Earth for them."

"WHAT? Ok, Sid, that's a bit far fetched isn't it?"

"Not according to the Sumerians it wasn't. They say they were made from the splicing of an ancestral primate of ours, native to Earth, and themselves, making us a hybrid between the Annunaki and the primate.

We had enough intelligence to do their bidding with cunning and effective communication. The problem was, eventually, we began to show our animal side, the rebelious, sexual, and wild natures.

Originally, we weren't supposed to copulate. We were initially punished for our discovery that we could in fact replicate ourselves. That was the 'original sin' story in Genesis. It was at that time that we were released into the wilds of Earth to find our own way, but still the Annunaki guided and harbored us.

If you know the story of Genesis, then you know that eventually, we became so cruel and fowl that we disgusted the Annunaki and on a few occasions, they punished us greatly, the flood, the destructions of Sodam and Gamorah.

Eventually, we realized that if they can do such amazing things, then perhaps we could too. Turning to an ally we had from within the Annunaki, the same one who taught us to copulate, we stole a great deal of their technologies and attempted to build a ship capable of space travel, like theirs. When they noticed what we were doing they rained destruction on us and scattered us to the corners of the Earth. You might remember the Tower of Babel?"

Mack sat in disbelief, his chair having stopped in the hallway. "You're kidding right? I mean, that totally redefines everything about the way I was taught to read the Bible. You're saying that humanity was created by an alien race and that's the God we worship? Some Space monster??? I don't see how I can buy that Sydney."

"Well, Mack, the information they left us is the reason you're going to be healed... buy it or not, you're soon to experience they're testimony." Sydney hovered back to face Mack.

"What was in those tablets that tells you how I can get my legs back?", Mack's tone took a bit of disbelief and cynicism.

"C'mon, let's keep going, there's a lot more to show you."

At this point, Mack began to question his involvement in this, the basis for his beliefs and whether or not he could accept all of this.

What do you think? What would Mack do at this juncture, continue with Sydney, make him stop and demand answers to some further questions, attempt to pull out? How should he react to all that he's been told and what he's seen so far?