CHAPTER 8

WHAT WILL BE

SCRIPT:

Being held at gun point, underneath the city of New York, was not how I expected this thing to end. Honestly, I had no real idea how it would end. I mean, how could anyone? Traveling to another world, finding an alien artifact that calls into question everything you know, and then heading home to face an unknown threat?

(Incredulous) It was all bizarre.

But for that very moment in time, none of it mattered. The only thing that mattered was the gun being pointed at us.

Chavan motioned us to sit down and we slowly sat, our backs to the wall of the room.

He let the barrel of the gun lower, and slid one of his hands over the side of the Black Cube, smiling at it softly.

He motioned to me, and stepped away from the Black Cube. He told me to touch the Cube.

I cannot begin to describe the chill that went down my spine. For all I knew, the Cube would use me. It would cause me to fight the White Cube, to fight my friends. I could lose myself to it.

But what choice did I have?

I got up again, and stepped forward. I drew in a deep breath, and let it out slowly, trying to calm my nerves. This whole room felt off. There was anxiety in my heart, and the animal part of me want to run away, to just turn and bolt, and risk the gun.

It was different to everything I felt with the White Cube. Where I had had peace, I now had fear. Where I had a calmness, I was filled with tension.

Chavan’s expression began to harden as he saw me hesitate. My palm hovered over the surface of the Cube but I couldn’t make myself touch it.

With surprising speed, Chavan crossed to me, and slammed my hand onto the Cube.

The world fell away.

I found myself in a familiar shack, it was the one that the Black Cube had been constructed in. I could see into the cube. Inside, an organic mass material sat suspended in a clear container, with wires and cables running through out the body of the Cube, and around the container.

‘The Creators wanted us to be like them. They demand that those who will work in their great work adhere to the rules they set out. What if we want to go our own way?’ said a voice in my head.

My view shifted. I was back to the city with the three towers. My vision went into one of the towers, to a man sitting at a desk, looking over images of ruins.

‘Worlds could be used again and again, sometimes the races succeed, sometimes they failed. If they fail, they are left to their fate. If a race is on the verge of destroying themselves in war, they are allowed to do so. If they poison their world, they are allowed to. If a race is doomed to fail, the Creators allow them to fail. Sometimes they would save certain promising lineages, but most would be allowed to perish.

‘Our own world had been used at least two other times. Seeded with life, and then left to do what they would. The other two races failed. Only ours was on the path to success,’ the voice said.

My vision shifted again. I was in a room, where some of the aliens were in a heated argument. Hands gestured with emphasis and voices were raised in an alien tongue.

‘Such races could still have a purpose. If only we stopped them from destroying themselves. If we could find them, and force them into a correct path, then they could be saved, they could be re-purposed. If they were prone to war, then they would make soldiers, if they were prone to greed, then they would make merchants. No matter the flaw, they could have a purpose. If only we were allowed to do it our own way. If only we were allowed to survive.’

My view shifted to somewhere above the world, and continued to drift away until I was behind the planets and moon. A large grey space ship sat on the surface of the moon. Some aliens in space suits were moving into and out of a open door, carrying things into the ship. When they were done, they went into a smaller ship and blasted off from the moon. Shortly after, the large ship’s door closed, and it disappeared from view, shimmering before my eyes like a mirage.

‘One of these failed races had left behind a ship. An ark, with which they intended to flee their fate. They had managed to disguise it, hide it from detection by all. We had only found it by finding a record of it in some of the ruins left behind on our world.

‘They had not been able to use it. Their doom had come upon them before they had been able to make good their escape. So now we would use it. The fact that it existed let us know one could hide from the creators. We used this to make a plan.’

As the voice spoke, my vision shifted again. In the distance, I saw the ruins and gathering of the people in anticipation of the creators arrival. My vision was focused on a group of beings running away from the gathering.

‘We would hide, and wait for our people to be taken away from the world, while we waited, hidden, until we could get to the ark, and find a new world, from which to continue our plans. That would be your world. But the ship would be slow, ponderous, and the work delicate. The people would have to be prepared first. They would have to be made ready for our rule.

‘The messenger made by our people, my counter part, had the means to travel great distances quickly to the next world to be tested. We would steal it’s power, and use it for our own messenger.’

I was back in orbit, I saw the white and black cube clash once again, and the black cube hurtle off into space at tremendous speed. My view faded to black for a moment, and when it came back, I watched the black cube falling to the Earth, hurtling toward the green land below

‘I waited. I watched. I guided and directed. The people of your world were clay in my hand, guiding them toward their great purpose. Our purpose. Some resisted. We expected as much. Those seeded by the creators contain great potential, one which fought to free itself from us. But without the guidance of the White Cube, your people were easily distracted, twisted, and made to submit.

‘We heightened greed, inflamed passions, deepened rage, and solidified pride. We wanted the strong. Your people would be our administrators, our captains and generals, but only the greatest among you. The rest would labor for our great empire. And so, we drew the divisions, we built our work.’

The city of New York began to spring up before my view, as years marched past in a flash. People gave way to people, buildings gave way to greater buildings, and all around me, the march of time flashed before me in an instant.

The voice seemed to pause, and let me take in the sights. It continued, it’s voice cold.

‘Your people would not submit willingly to our rule if they knew what we were. The great ones would, for we had made them great, and could promise them yet greater things for their loyalty. For the rest, our technology would be used as a web, to ensnare them, and control them, and to allow my kind to rule once more.

(Emphasis) ‘The Arc is near, my people are awakening. You have already met one, Chavan is one of the first. We are coming slowly, changing our appearance so we can blend in, and standing ready to take our position as your kings and queens. We had to wait until the technological level of the world was such that we could make good on our plans.’

I felt myself shudder, and something inside my mind came loose. The vison wavered, and I found myself standing back in the chamber, my hand on the cube, and Chavan looking at me intently. The voice of the Black Cube still echoing in my head.

‘What will you do, human? Even if you take me out of the picture, we are already here. Our fates are linked. You are too late to stop us. Even if you could, to what end? (Mocking) Will you trade one master for another? We promise you an empire, we will be the first among many. Your people will take to the stars, with our guidance, and make the heavens tremble. Together, we can conquer even death.

‘I was once mortal, my mind was placed within this cube, so that I could survive. I have lived for eons, and will live even longer. This can become the gift of your race too, to those of you who honour and obey us,’ The black cube said.

My vision wavered once again, and this time I found myself standing in the empty field where the people who made the Cubes had gathered to meet the creators. A creator stood before me, wearing the same suit and helmet that obscured it’s vision as when the White Cube had shown me what had happened to it.

‘Can you hear me?’

It was the White Cube.

‘I am using your connection to the Black Cube as a relay to you. All of my energy is focused on the Black Cube, and I can touch your mind because of it.’

The creator looked at me in the vision. I looked behind me to see what it was looking at, knowing it only to be a memory of the past. But when I looked, there was nothing there. I looked back at it, and it looked at me an nodded.

‘This is a message for you, you who have helped me this far. It is time. You had to hear the plans of the Black Cube before you could choose. This is part of the test now, the great work of the creators has chosen your people to be something special, but only if it is knowingly chosen. Only if the choice is made with a full understanding. Watch now and see.’

The creator reached up and removed it’s helmet. The face that looked back at me was human. (In Awe) Strikingly so. It had none of the the little marks of otherness of the people that made the Cubes.

The being began to speak. ‘Human. Listen to the choice we give. We seeded your race from our DNA, you are our children in essence and in form. You are our children in purpose. We are the architects of the great work. Our people safeguard the universe, we keep the great laws, we divide the measures of time, and the boundaries of space. We protect the fire of life that burns in the great sea of space. Ours is a noble work, and we seek that all forms of life may have a purpose and meaning. We desire for all to find their highest meaning, their highest work. We watch, we record, we direct.

‘Those races that are most promising, are given greater tests, for theirs will be the greatest responsibility among the stars. Those that are least promising, are still tested according to their ability, and find great joy and purpose in the works that they are given. All people find a place, all places find a people. This is the essence of our work.

‘You, who are our children, have the greatest responsibility, but only if it is seen for what it is. You must taste the work of destruction to know the work of creation. The Black Cube, is a agent of destruction and evil. It would turn the work to the purpose of only a single people, their wants above the wants of all. We seek that all may be happy, and work hard for the sake of that. The joy of others is our joy. The hope of others is our hope. The Black Cube does not offer this. It only offers a selfish vision, a vision of the strong feeding on the weak.

‘Those who are met for our work, must choose freely of themselves. All on your world must do so. You will be our messenger. You will stand in the place of the White Cube, who will destroy the Black Cube, and bring the message and choice to all people. You will be given the means to show this to all the people of your world, and let them choose.’

And so, I was left to reflect on what I had seen.