Short story: 'Babel's Tower', Chapters 10 & 11 (Final two chapters)

Chapter Ten.
WAR IN THE HEAVENS

So it began. Many thousands of Perfect Men crossed over into the higher plane, as did the minds of the Spiritual Men allocated to the task. Intellectual Men were left behind as planned, with the intention of Spiritual Men passing constantly between planes to take orders and pass on information. A planet in the higher plane was chosen as a base, one that was far enough away from the creator’s planet as not to be noticed by the bronze men and not so far away that the journey into battle would take an excessive amount of time.

When the time came the hordes of Perfect Men, accompanied by the disembodied Spiritual Men, took flight towards the said planet. The bronze men they passed along the way looked upon them with surprise and worry and immediately fled back to their home planet. On reaching their destination they found a vast army of the bronze men awaiting them, floating gloriously around the planet with looks of resentment upon their faces; however Perfect Man outnumbered his enemy two to one. It was a representative of the Perfect Men that spoke first, in the language of the beings they were confronting (through a method of telepathy which all could hear) ‘Intelligent beings, men of great worth, we come to you now in both an act of brotherhood and hostility. We, as highly intellectual beings are here to request an audience with the creator whom you serve, the lord of all, the star maker, the man behind the curtain. We hide nothing from you; it is with malice and contempt with which we look upon your God. But know that we hold nothing against you our brothers; we are understanding that you have been tricked or forced into the servitude of this awful being and it is with open arms that we welcome you if you wish to join us. We should be fighting together, not apart. This is our offer, what say you?’. The reply was both courteous yet fully threatening ‘We understand your plight perhaps more than you know friends, yet do not insult us with such an offer. You pretend to know exactly what it is we protect here yet really you know nothing. An audience directly with him you cannot have. He is a being far too great for you to shame with your ignoble plight. I am permitted to speak for him and I tell you now to return from whence you came immediately and we shall not lay claim upon your lifeless corpses. I warn you men, if he knew you were here you would not be presented with such an easy escape’. After discussing among themselves Perfect Man’s representative retorted with ‘Do not ridicule us. If the creator is unaware of even an enemy knocking on his door he is as we thought, not a being as noble and powerful as you say. Enough of this’.
And such a battle as had never been seen before started on the edge of this magnificent planet. Thousands of Perfect Men and bronze men flew at each other in unison against the backdrop of the intense golden light radiating behind them. Perfect Men made excellent use of the powers at their disposal, but were matched with far superior powers. Perfect Men hurtled bronze men into each other with telekinesis, bronze men healed their injuries with regeneration. Perfect Men, through a lack of natural elements to manipulate, used their immense physical strength to tear the bronze men apart limb from limb, bronze men retaliated by conjuring fire out of nothing and propelling it across space as though it did not need oxygen to survive. Perfect Men tried to confuse and confound the bronze men with telepathic manipulation, bronze men paralysed Perfect Men with a mere thought. The Spiritual Men all the while commanding the Perfect Men telepathically and sending other Spiritual Men back and forth into the Earth’s realm to report and receive orders. The battle echoed the biblical war between angels in heaven when Lucifer challenged God for the throne. Such ancient nonsense did not seem so foolish here, to my eyes at least.

Once it reached the point where Perfect Man’s numbers had dwindled too greatly and even the reinforcements had been destroyed, bronze man brought the battle to a halt and looked upon what remained of his vanquished foe. Perfect Man’s number had diminished from the countless thousands strong to a mere two thousand pitifully wounded creatures. A vast sea of bodies, of both species, slowly spread out into space away from the planet; yet bronze man’s number looked the same now as at the start, with a seemingly endless supply of reinforcements being supplied from within the planet. With great fury in his eyes the same bronze man spoke out as before, his words searing painfully the minds of the remaining Perfect and Spiritual Men; ‘You are a treacherous and arrogant race of men, each and every species of you. You shall look now into the eyes of the life giver and know true punishment. You are not the first men to bite the hand that feeds it but know you shall be the last’.

Our minds were immediately filled with a shockingly painful clarity. In each of our mind’s an eye burned brightly before our sight, one which we could not turn away from no matter how hard we tried. With it came a shocking realisation in our hearts at what we had done and how foolish we had been in our endeavours. Not foolish in the way that we believed what we had done was wrong against the creator, but foolish in our believing it was possible to destroy him as we had destroyed our predecessors. Coupled with the sight the continuing voice of the bronze man rang in our ears; ‘Know it is he the life-giver whom you look at now, and hear forth his punishment’.

Chapter Eleven.
THE SCATTERING

I am writing in the first person because I am, of course, one of the Spiritual Men who observed and played a commanding role in that battle. Upon that moment a voice entered my head so clear and commanding that I immediately blocked out all the anguish and the pain in order to focus intently on it. The tone was fierce, the words themselves vanquishers of all hope. It was explained to us that mankind should never have reached this stage in committing such an offence towards his creator, and by committing such atrocity he would be doomed to a slow but eventual extinction. Each single man, woman and child would be taken and placed into his own separate universe, one which was fully devoid of any intelligent life and held no prospect of escape or happiness. He would live out the rest of his days on a habitable planet until every last person had died and mankind had become extinct forever. This was to be our punishment. After his last sentence I do not remember anything.

When I awoke I found myself in a lush jungle with springs and thick vegetation, though one with no animal life except the smallest of insects. It has been thirty years since that day and I have since lived in complete solitude, doing nothing but wandering this world in silent contemplation. Over time I have managed to produce many writings etched on thin bark and it is on such that I write this now. I have been able to give so detailed an account due to my vast knowledge of man’s history and my role played in the war. All of my connections to the higher plane were taken from me; I am now nothing but a ‘normal man’ as it were. This irony of man’s depletion back to his original stage has both taunted and humoured me throughout my days.

Looking in retrospect over these events, I believe this punishment was set upon us to put mankind in his place before his final demise. In being scattered among the cosmos we have each and every one of us been shown just how small and insignificant we are compared to the creator and his multitude of creations and have been forced to experience loneliness on perhaps the grandest scale possible. The number of universes must indeed be infinite if every man was put, like me into his own to become lord of it’s cosmos before he perishes.

I am confident that this will find its way into your hands and it will do you and your kind the greatest service, I am confident because I have a very secure method of preserving this manuscript for many a thousand years at my disposal on this planet, one which my knowledge of science has allowed me to develop. So if the creator does decide to fill this wondrous Universe with intelligent life again after my demise, you will hopefully one day excavate these writings.

In truth I write this story as much for myself as for you and your people. I write it now, long before I expect to die, so that I can organise my thoughts clearly and sanely, for the loneliness I endure will inevitably bring me to the edge of my sanity at some point, probably very soon. Once I have laid this completed document in its secure place I will wander again across the plain to make further exploration of this vast and magnificent planet. I only hope that the men who outlive me in other universes have been given as beautiful a planet as I to live out their last days on. I find it poignant that the very last man will know no more of his significance that if it were to be me right now. Perhaps it is, who can know. Or perhaps time does not flow in these separate universes in the same way one would expect it to. Know though, whoever you are, of what we as a species endured, and also of what we achieved. Learn from our mistakes so that you may not commit such atrocities. I leave you now.

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Short story: 'Babel's Tower', Chapters 8 & 9 (out of 11)

Chapter Eight.
REVELATIONS

For a long time a divide existed between Intellectual Man (with the few remaining Physical Men) and Spiritual Man. Trade ceased between countries, cooperation ceased in all fields of scientific experimentation and communication between the two species was in general non-existent. Each race made locating the creator its primary goal and desperately tried to achieve this goal before the other.

Eventually an agreement was reached, with both races acknowledging the futility in working separately when they were both trying to achieve the same goal. A meeting took place, in which a representative from each of Intellectual and Spiritual Man took to debate amongst a crowd of their peers. Spiritual Man starting by stating that although he had quite despised normal man and his existence on this Earth he did thoroughly not agree with what Intellectual Man had done, yet for the sake of mankind achieving the ultimate goal, he was willing to put aside their differences and fully cooperate with each other again. It was also revealed, to Intellectual Man’s astonishment, that Spiritual Man’s religious beliefs had changed over time to that of the hostile faction, though he would only condone violence towards God: not any other being.

Intellectual Man retorted by saying that although he had been deeply offended by Spiritual Man’s lack of unity at the time of war and in his neutral stance, he was willing, for the sake of brotherhood and for the goal, to accept the proposal. Also, he stated that he was very pleased with Spiritual Man’s change of faction over this time and spoke of how this would bring each race even closer. Intellectual Man was first to reveal his discoveries. It was explained that a long time ago, he had come to the conclusion that since the cause was now a hostile one against the creator they would have to create, like normal man had done before him, a far stronger and more capable man than any that existed at that moment. Intellectual Man admitted that over the time of the dispute he had used the few remaining Physical Men to experiment on in aid of this cause, for he realised that a creature must be made to contain all the abilities and more of the three existing races. Spiritual Man could not be studied of course because of the dispute, and neither could a peace offering be made to solve the problem, so a different measure had to be taken. It was revealed that a handful of Spiritual Men had been contacted and had willingly crossed the border to subject themselves to experimentation for the sake of the ultimate goal. It was explained to Spiritual Man’s representative before he could react angrily that both the Physical Men and Spiritual Men used in the research had given themselves up of their own free will, knowing that death would await them at the end of it, due to the extreme testing of their power’s limits. The representative replied that each Spiritual Man had the right to govern his own. Intellectual Man’s representative then went on to reveal that, coupled with the study of their own race, phenomenal progress had been made, and that they now had the precise blueprint for the ‘Perfect Man’ (as he put it). He said that with Spiritual Man’s consent and cooperation they could begin the process of creation which would result in a great milestone for mankind. The Spiritual representative expressed his doubts on the quality of this idea, asking what would stop this new race eventually reacting precisely as Intellectual Man had done in destroying their creators. The representative replied saying that, because these new beings would have a perfect incorporation of all three races, he would have the sense and clarity in perception of Spiritual Man, who he noted would never act in this way.

Then the turn came for Spiritual Man to share amongst them precisely what he had achieved over the vast amount of time they had spent apart. Their representative started by saying that although Intellectual Man’s achievement over this time had been truly great, what Spiritual Man had achieved was even greater and far more beneficial towards the ultimate goal. He described how Spiritual Man had made a huge breakthrough in locating the creator’s whereabouts. He told of how Spiritual Man took to studying in full the spiritual plane they connected with so easily, in the hope of understanding it fully. It was discovered that this force did indeed exist across the universe that had so far been explored. They realised that the only way they could achieve their goal was by gaining full access to the plane itself. Spiritual Man took to observing the plane as a complete Universe unto itself, one that existed on top of his own but was at the same time completely separate. Up until now, Spiritual Man had been existing half in one Universe, as it were, and half in the other. It became his goal to give a few selected men full access to this other world. Once a method had been attained (one involving much altering of the volunteer’s mental construct) these men were sent into this other Universe with high hopes. This method though, could not send a Spiritual Man through in body but only in mind. This was safer for the men, for if they encountered a hostile alien race in their journey they would at least be physically invisible to them. Each man was assured that he would have full movement in his state on the other side as a disembodied spirit and had only to use his mind to get him where he willed to go.

Only one of the handful sent returned and what he had found was described to the council as the greatest discovery in mankind’s history. Here follows some excerpts from the exact account given (from what I can recall from memory) by the man upon his return, which was shared with the council;

'This other realm, Universe or plane, whatever one wishes to call it; had the precise layout of my own Universe, yet none of its inhabitants or unique characteristics. In this world, Mars, Saturn and all Earth’s nearby planets were exactly where one would expect them to be, yet they looked nothing like one would expect. Here it seemed, a different history had taken place, one with very different results to our own…. ….In my movement about the stratosphere I had come across these beings quite coincidentally. They had the exact form of a man, but with the height and stature of that which would have put even Physical Men to shame; a bronze skin with a metallic quality to it, as though if one were to touch it, it would feel like steel; and a manner in their movements and apparent discussion that suggested a high level of intelligence. What I found most astonishing though was that these beings were able to move through space without any means of transport. They had small dark coloured wings upon their back, but these showed no sign of movement in propelling them along. They simply floated much as I did, though they in physical form, across space without any struggle and seemingly with no need to breathe. What advanced beings these must be to have found a way to achieve such a thing. Luckily they took no heed of me in my observations…. ….There existed one planet, very far from where Earth would be in my own Universe, which was more magnificent than anything I have ever witnessed or could ever describe with justice. This planet, abnormally large in size, seemed to radiate light from itself, in a very different way to which a Sun or a Star would as we know them to, which obscured my vision of the planet’s very surface. This wondrous planet was the only one I came across in my journey that I could not descend upon and observe among its surface. Something seemed to block my movement completely at every try. Many of these strange men went to and fro from this planet (disappearing from my view the second they passed through this light) making me believe that this place could perhaps be the very place we are looking for…. ….It seemed (due to my eventual comprehension of these men’s languages) that my theory was in fact correct. In their conversations when travelling these men talked about how pleased their leader would be with their work, which seems to be the observing of races such as our own. This leads me to believe that these men are able to view our world at will when at a certain point in their Universe and that this is in fact the very disruption we have so long pondered on that gives us such a period of bliss. They discussed how our races and others were progressing, how long each will last before its extinction, and through these conversations I even learnt that there exists a multitude of Universes, all of which are connected to this higher one in the same way as ours. These revelations, I think you’ll agree, are beyond astonishing. Mankind has finally discovered his origins and is very close to meeting his maker.’

Much debate then flowed, primarily on the credibility of the account then on what this meant to mankind as a species if it was true. The Intellectual and Spiritual Men left the meeting with renewed vigour in their hearts: this astonishing collaboration of intelligences meant that the goal they and their ancestors before them had strived towards was now very close to being realised.

Chapter Nine.
THE CREATOR FOUND

Thus Perfect Man was born. Intellectual Man designed him to have the ability to pass fully into and out of the ‘higher plane’ as it was being called, both physically and mentally, now that Spiritual Man had completed his research. His intelligence was just above that of Intellectual Man, his physical capabilities twice that of long-gone Physical Man’s; with such powers as no Physical Man could ever have dreamed. Whereas each Physical Man had been reared to have one special ability, Perfect Man had at his disposal every power that had ever been developed in Physical Man and more. This being had the power of flight not only within Earth’s atmosphere but also in space. More beings had been sent into the higher plane to observe these strange men until the method of flight had been discovered. This being could manipulate all of the Earth’s elements at will, could heal itself from major wounds and could even change its appearance to give a near perfect effect of invisibility. It seemed there was nothing these beings could not achieve, making them very intimidating, yet perfectly equipped to achieve man’s ultimate hostile goal. Upon having explained to them their purpose at an appropriate age they seemed to share the hostile reasoning of both races and showed no signs, as Intellectual Man had predicted, of rebellion towards their immediate creators. These beings were bred in huge quantity and in this way Intellectual and Spiritual Man built up a vast army.

Meanwhile, further research was taking place in trying to find out more about this strange planet on which all these men seemed to live. Men had speculated that these beings were perhaps the creator’s own personal race that he used to do his will. Why they had been chosen it was not known, most were in general agreement that the creator had created them himself. It was also generally accepted that the creator lived on the planet; or even, as some speculated, was the planet. Whatever the theory, it was realised that war must be launched upon this world and its men before they realised they were being observed. A ‘final meeting’ was called, which lasted over a period of several days, where Intellectual Man, Spiritual Man and Perfect Man all debated both the ultimate goal itself, whether it was an ideal past its time, and how applicable it was to their modern society. They also discussed battle strategies on the war to come. It was concluded with this strategy; contact would be made with the bronze men, in which a peaceful meeting with the creator would be proposed. If they refused, the planet would be attacked, and upon being breached, they would confront the creator themselves with their questions (whatever he may be): he would then be destroyed. If they accepted, then man would meet with the creator and find out what he wished to know, then continue the attack as planned. Either way a conversation would take place in which certain questions regarding his indifference and existence would be put forth, and then he would be attacked regardless with full strength, and annihilated.

Perfect Man would be man’s infantry, Spiritual Man his leaders and Intellectual Man his tacticians. Spiritual Man would be in the higher plane in mental form only among the fighting Perfect Men, and Intellectual Man would have to stay in his own Universe (for they could not pass through), and would have to give tactical command to the Spiritual Men which passed back and forth. Supreme confidence was heralded all around in Perfect Man and his (hopeful) superiority over the bronze men, and eventually over the creator. It was rationalised that if the creator needed such men to guard him then he must not be so all powerful, and it was thought that if they could defeat the bronze men then defeating the creator would be an easy task.

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