CHAPTER 5

THE CUBE

SCRIPT:

The things I saw while in contact with the cube, were amazing, astonishing, and throughly impossible to fully relate to you. Nevertheless, I must try, for the sake of my story, and to justify all that has happened since the Cube arrived on Earth.

The things I saw, (Pause while searching for words) I lived more than saw. I was a (Emphasis) part of the things that unfolded around me, I was (Emphasis) living them, not just watching them. It was as though I had stepped through a door, and into another place and time. Were it not for the dream that I had previously had, of the people who had built the cube, I wouldn’t have been prepared for the clarity of this event.

If you have every had a dream that stuck with you, you may know what it is like when you first wake up, the sharpness of the memories, the realness of the events. You feel as though you really lived the events of the dream, to the point where you may have smelled smells, felt things, done things, which were as real to you as the waking world. But when you awaken, as time goes on things, (Emphasis) potent things, may stick with you, never to fully fade away, written onto those deeper parts of your memory, but the incidental things fade.

(With Conviction) This did not, has not, nor will ever, fade. Every moment, every second of what I saw, remains with me as sharp and clear as it did when I first saw it. I can recall any point in perfect detail, as though I have a recording of it in my mind that I can go back to any time I desire.

I understood, then, what Elis had been through when he touched the cube, and why he was so different after doing so. To have such a vision poured into you, is a life changing event.

The first thing I realized, was that I was back in the same building as my dream, the one in which the cube was being made. The cube was in an even greater state of incompleteness, sitting half made. Some elements I could see, and they looked, in only the vaguest sense, like circuitry. The rest was still hazy and indistinct.

‘You see me, before I was,’ a voice spoke into my mind.

Startled, I looked around, but there was no one in the building, not even the builder of the cube from before.

‘Before I was, my people were much like yours,’ said the voice.

(Excitedly) My point of view was suddenly whisked away, flying low across an alien, yet familiar, landscape, toward a distant city. The buildings were like the ones etched onto the side of the cube. They were elegant and beautiful, a handful of them stretching skyward, but the majority were low to the ground. The smaller ones seemed to be homes, shops, and the necessary fixtures of a city. The people, long limbed and thin as they were, went about their days completely unaware of my presence.

The voice spoke once again, ‘Though in many ways, different.’

I flew toward one of the taller towers. They were stark in their colours, one of gold, one of red, one of white. I was drawn towards the gold one. I passed through the walls like a specter and found myself in a room full of people. Someone in simple gold robes stood on a dais and was speaking to the rest.

The voice continued, ‘My people were united in purpose. For some time, they had been aware of the existence of their creators. They knew that they, as people, were being tested for some purpose, and that the creators would return to see their progress. Recently, they had grown aware that these creators were on their way back. The people had united around doing what they knew needed to be done prior to this. This is one such meeting.’

My vision was taken out of the gold tower and toward the white one. As I passed inside, I found another cube, like the one we had found, but different. The motifs on the side were different, it’s people and buildings unusual. Robed people stood around it, taking notes, while one spoke to them, their hand resting on the cube.

The voice continued, ‘The people were aware of all of this, because of the messenger sent to them, by another race that had come before them. In the pattern of the creators, any race about to reach the end of its test, was to create a new messenger to be left for the guidance and teaching of a next race to come. In this way, the cycle continued, those who had gone before, helping those who were following after.’

My vision was taken back to the building where our cube lay, still sitting open in it’s incomplete state. In through the door, walked the being I had seen in my dream before. He grabbed some tools and began to work on the cube.

As the voice spoke again, it seemed as though it was coming from the incomplete cube before me. ‘Our task was to complete our own Messenger, to prepare it for the sake of the race to follow us, your race, and to prepare our people for the final arrival of the creators, and the completion of our test.’

I watched as time accelerated, and the cube’s shape became more and more complete, it’s builder a blur of activity.

Then, I found myself in another building. This one was not well kept, and was in a state of disarray. People worked fervently around a black cube. The voice seemed to pause, while the people worked. Finally, after some time, it continued to speak.

‘But not all of our people worked as one. Some, were angry. They were disgusted that another race had created us, and was testing us in some unknown way. They did not believe the Messenger, they did not work with our people. Instead, bound in oaths of secrecy, they constructed their own messenger. One which would prepare another race, give it the means to fight the creators, to destroy their great work. A way to break the cycle.’

A scene from my dream came back to my vision, the cube’s flying up into the air, while people gathered outside, looking up at something I couldn’t see.

The voice spoke with a note of sorrow and said, ‘Their plan wasn’t made obvious until it was time for the creators to return. The Messenger was always sent to the next world at the time of the arrival of the creators. It had been that way for uncounted cycles. Those who worked against us had timed their moved exactly when I was departing. Their messenger attacked me, drove me back, robbed me of my power.’

(Pause) I watched, as the white cube fell back to the ground below, and embedded into the soil with the impact. The people in the crowd looked over, and then looked back up. There was a flash of light, and the people were gone. The megalithic structure of glass and stone now stood empty, save a single being wearing a white body suit and helmet that obscured his face.

The being walked toward the cube, striding with purpose across the empty field.

The voice spoke again, ‘The creators had seen what happened. They took a moment to comfort me. Though I was not alive as they, I am alive in a sense, and my disappointment was palatable. This development provided them with a unique situation, a variable to test that was exceptionally rare in all their countless cycles of testing. The world that the Black Cube was heading to, the one that I was meant for, would be a testing bed unlike any other. A people left to the devices of a Messenger cube designed to subvert their test. If the people of this world would see themselves to a higher state, despite the interference of such devious machinations that would be present, then they would be truly valuable in the grand community of the cosmos. They would be a people tried like few others, and made strong by it.’

The cube paused, as though collecting it’s thoughts. The being stood looking down upon it, though I could not see it’s face, I nevertheless felt its serenity. It was a familiar feeling, like the peace we had felt when we first found the Cube on the surface of Mars.

After a moment, the voice continued, ‘Though the test promised to create a class of beings better tested than most, it also still ran the risk of failure. It was the possible that the beings of this new world, of your world, would not rise up, but would instead sink beneath the tide of hate brought to them by the Messenger that made it in my place. It was possible that they would successfully subvert the test, and then cause their ways to spread across the heavens, to other world, their ideals carried across the stars by new Messengers built with the same subversion in mind as the first. This had to be protected against.’

The being put it’s hand on the cube while the voice continued, ‘They could not take me themselves. Their presence on the world I was destined for, after the world had already been seeded with life, would invalidate the test in some way, so explained the one sent to help me. They could take me closer, to the world on which you found me. From there I could watch your world, and if needed, influence some select few people.

‘I am sorry to say, but the illness of your companion, the one who first touched me, was my fault. The Messengers gain their power from the people of the world that they are sent to, but as I was not on Earth, my own abilities were limited. Whereas the Black Cube had the whole energy of all the people of your world, I only had a trickle that managed to cross the void between your Earth and this world you call Mars. As the orbits drew close, my power was stronger, as they pulled apart, my influence would wane, and whereas my adversary could influence countless people subtly, or tens of thousands more directly, I could only influence a precious few.

‘When your friend touched me, I had to draw from him to show him what I now show you, to help him understand. I had to use of his life force to use more of my abilities.

‘It is possible that he will never fully recover, though I hope that he does.’

(Quickly) For the first time in his narrative, I felt alarm. I wanted to pull my hand away, but I did not seem to have any control over my own body at this point.

The voice continued, ‘Do not be alarmed, we have drawn close enough to your world that I no longer need to draw as heavily from those who work with me. You will be fine. All who interact with me from here on out will be fine in that regard. But now, we must hurry, for there is another danger that comes upon us, and it is for this reason your companion sent you to me.’

My vision shifted. I saw, almost through a haze, what looked like one of the screens back at Mission Control. I saw our flight path on the screen, the same one we had uploaded to them. I also saw several other lines coming from Earth and intersecting our path at various points.

The voice spoke again, this time with some urgency, ‘Our enemy works to destroy you. They have convinced your colleagues that I am a weapon of a conquering race. They have sent weapons keep you from returning. You must change your course to avoid them, and you must not tell them.’

Suddenly my hand came free from the cube, the power that held me in place now gone. My heart was pounding and the words of the cube echoed in my head, they had sent weapons to destroy us.

I moved as quickly as I could for the cockpit.