The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell (29 page)

  “Well... I’m certain that it will never happen, Ikknustll.” Mad Dawg said.

  “Yeah... don’t worry about it.” Ramirez added.

  “I think we now know why General Ydxx’od’omaa did what he did. But what WAS it that invaded your home world?” Mad Dawg said. He wanted to hurry everything up since he had to go to the bathroom.

  “It was never known if it was a government conspiracy or if it was related to extraterrestrial origins, but the Apollinarian race, in Ydxx’od’omaa’s day, was on the brink of extinction. In either case there is only circumstantial evidence to support either possibility.

  If it was a government conspiracy than the argument was this: you have a hyper-power that would naturally keep secrets from people, and an ultra secret military laboratory that conducts biological experiments. Something happened at that laboratory that resulted in, not only its destruction, but also the lost of its archives. Later investigations revealed that those archives were deliberately deleted.

  Hey sis... what type of measurement do humans’ use?”

  “In this reality they use the English system of measurement. In another reality they use something called ‘Metric’ - except for the Americans.” Vaistll responded.

  “So how far was it from our parent’s house to lake Nyuo’xytl (new-o zee-to)?”

  “Approximately five miles.”

  After Ikknustll finished calculating the distance in his head he continued on. “To continue on from where I left off at. Approximately seventy-five miles from that laboratory in a small farming town, an incident occurred that touched off a global war. It was that war, along with the conduct of high ranking officials, which brought the Apollinarian race to the very brink of extinction.

  The counter-argument to that conspiracy theory is this: that government was the government of the civilization Kase’hyn’nkk (ka-say h-inn knock), which is where General Ydxx’od’omaa came from. The people of Kase’hyn’nkk were independent, proud and freedom loving who held their government accountable to its actions. The Kase’hyn’nkk government may have been incompetent, but it was not so incompetent as to allow one place to hold ultra sensitive military information. If the Kase’hyn’nkk government was at fault, then it would have been either, turning a blind eye to what the laboratory was doing, or the people at that laboratory was doing something conspiratorial.

  There were some circumstantial evidence to support that it was individuals at that laboratory doing something conspiratorial. Three years before the incident at that laboratory a military contractor went to the newly discovered extraterrestrial race known as the Hun’narlians. The Hun’narlians were a race were it was in their DNA to be both the manufacturer of arms, and the arms dealer. What’s more, their history was considered so secret that only a Hun’narlian could have access to it. The Hun’narlians had only one government, whereas the Apollinarians had 215. So like any other planet with multiple forms of governments, the Apollinarian attention was focus globally rather than inter-planetary. Taken all of that into account: how many greedy business men wouldn’t have smelled a golden opportunity in the form of the Hun’narlians?

  The counter-argument to that conspiracy theory is this: Iakuoyr said that the name Hun’narlian sounds like Oo’yrdian, which was the name that the first Apollinarian civilization gave to their gods. Oo’yrdian meant, ‘The eternals,’ and it was said that they came from the sky. Their behavior suggested that they were peaceful, kind, compassionate, whose actions were transparent. Then a race came whose behavior was eerily similar to that of the Yxxk’nuos (e-ick news). They were a race of people that the Hun’narlians warned us about, but they never gave us any good of enough reason why. Anyway... the story said that the Oo’yrdians and that race was at war with each other.

  Basically the Yxxk’nuos were an oppressive race who had it within them to create some type of a weapon that could, or would, wipe out an entire civilization. Those Apollinarian business men went to the Hun’narlian home world to acquire new technology in case if the Apollinarians went to war with the Yxxk’nuos. However, the Apollinarians did have contact with the Yxxk’nuos who were more open with their historical archives. And those archives said that we got it backwards about the story of the Oo’yrdians.

  Can I ask you this question Mad Dawg? Have humans ever created a weapon that could wipe entire civilization out of existence... and used it before?”

  “Yeah... don’t we all.”

  “Exactly. And that was the dilemma that confronted the Kase’hyn’nkk civilization. Was it their own government? Was it their own greedy business men in cohorts with the Hun’narlians? Or maybe it was only the Hun’narlians? Or maybe it was the Yxxk’nuos? Which ever it was, nobody will ever know who was responsible for the catastrophe.

  The catastrophe came in the form of a genetically engineered ‘hive mind.’ The main part of the hive mind was called Tylkuoply (tee-look-o-pie). What it was, was the equivalent of a neuron whose cell body was about six feet across, had a mitosis axon, the nucleus acted as some sort of ‘brain,’ and it had three different type of ‘dendrites:’ Collector, Transmitter, and Meiosis. The nucleus was able to divide itself and create a symbiote that could be put inside of a person, via the mitosis axon. The nucleus had the ability to choose which skills, talent, experience, etc, to place into the symbiote. The Transmitter dendrite was used as its name suggest. The Meiosis dendrite laid two different types of eggs. One type of egg produced a creature called Prid’yn’nkk (pre-inn knock), while the other egg produce one that was called Kryc’ool (crick o).

  The Prid’yn’nkk was some type of a bird with a stinger for a tail. It could spit a neuro toxin into a person face causing temporary blindness as well as numbing of the face. Its tail could inject a neuro toxic that causes sedation in a person. In the language of the Kase’hyn’nkks, the word ool’k meant ‘the,’ and kryc meant ‘thing,’ so Kryc’ool meant ‘the thing.’ That would be the best way to describe what it look like. It was about two feet high at the shoulders, no back legs, two tentacle like arms, no head, and a short snout with an opening that was as large as your fist. After a person was sedated from that of the Prid’yn’nkk, the Kryc’ool would ‘shoot’ a ball out of its snout at the person’s face. When the ball hit their face it would burst with these black thumb size worms that would try to enter any orifice on the person’s head. Once it got inside the person’s body those worms would try to get to the person’s brain. Once they reach the brain it would control the person making them protect the hive at all cost. Although the person was under control of the hive, they did not become some mindless drone. An infected person was called Xynx’nyuo (zee-knee new-o).

Either at the request of the hive mind, or at the request of the infected person, the Xynx’nyuo could have their brain collected from the Collector dendrite. Once that has occurred that person’s knowledge, skills, memory, talent, so on, would then be added to the hive’s brain. Luckily for that infected person, the hive has told people like General Ydxx’od’omaa, that the only thing that is not collected is the soul of the person.

  The hive does have the capability to upgrade itself. It can extract DNA from a person, and then place it into the symbiote. Any symbiote can have the DNA of five hundred people in it. Whether or not it upgrades itself, when it places the symbiote into a person, and that person finds a safe, secure location, the symbiote using the person’s body as fuel for growth, can become a new hive. This new hive, which is called a ‘cell,’ whether it is through its Transmitter dendrite, or that of telecommunications, would try to connect with any other cell. What that means is this: in effect the hive becomes some sort of super-brain.”

  “Did the hive control the Prid’yn’nkk and Kryc’ool?”

  “Yes. But there is something that I must ask each of you. Did any of your people open up a biohazard cryo-chamber on that EOD ship?”

  “Not to my knowledge. Why?”

  “Because the wife of General Ydxx’od’omaa is in there. And she has a Tylkuoply symbiote in her.”

  Words cannot begin to describe the look upon the faces of Vaistll, Ramirez, Taylor and Mad Dawg. Mad Dawg, who was struggling to say the word what, finally said it “What!? Why in the hell is she in there!?” Mad Dawg yelled.

  “The only way I can answer that... is to tell you why he went back in time and collected us.”

  Taylor, scared and visually nervous said, “Okay... let me confirm the status of that chamber. Then you can tell us.”

  After several agonizing minutes that felt like an eternality, they finally got the information that they were hoping for, the chamber is safe and secure and is under armed guard. Taylor with a sigh of relief said, “Everything is fine... the chamber is safe and secure. Okay Ikknustll... please tell us why he went back in time and got you and your family.”

  “In General Ydxx’od’omaa’s day, Apollinarians had the technology the change a fllustl and a fllaistl, allowing both of them to have the physical strength of the other. Meaning: a fllustl who could give birth. The wife of General Ydxx’od’omaa was one such woman.

  Being a fllustl she would naturally be strongly bounded to a man. Having the ability to give birth only strengthen that bound. Most still maintain their independence - including Ydxx’od’omaa’s wife. His wife gave him several children, who in return gave them lots of grandchildren. Both of them were very much in love with one another. That might explain why she would want to have surgery to correct a biological defect that all fllustls have.”

  “Why would a fllustl be strongly bounded to a man?” Taylor asked not knowing such details about Apollinarians.

  “When men and woman do things together, without it being sexual in nature, over a long enough time period, they will develop a strong bound. The biological consequence for the woman is that her body will adapt to her not wanting to have any children, making it harder for her to give birth. It was nature that caused that. Apollinarians, minus the traditionalist, decided to correct it.

  The war was going very badly for the Apollinarians as you might expect. But the Tylkuoply hive mind underestimated General Ydxx’od’omaa. He was too brilliant, clever, cunning and ruthless to be taken down so easily. He may have lost his children and grandchildren, but at least he still has his wife. After awhile, the Tylkuoply hive started to fear him. His victories started to seriously hurt them. For a time people started to think that they might actually win the war against the Tylkuoply hive. But his victories greatly increased the pain and suffering of the people. He waged a scorched Earth policy that was close to being suicidal. Not for him, but of the Apollinarian race. He actually kept a score card of the total number of cells that he destroyed.”

  “How many did he destroy?”

  “Fifty-nine out of 104. The Tylkuoply hive finally turned the tables on him when it realized that his wife was his weakness. They lost six hives just trying to capture her. As you can tell he obviously re-captured her. When he did the hive lost additional fifteen hives. Despite the additional lost in hives, the war started to go downhill for him. The hive started to recover. His efforts to re-capture her created an astronomical lost in lives on both sides. Five million lives lost on the low end, fifteen million on the high end.”

  “Other than his love for her, why would he risk losing the war for her?”

  “Because the hive pulled a dirty trick upon him. The hive realized the following: if the hive turned her into a Xynx’nyuo, he would kill her to put her out of her misery. What’s more, out of rage and hatred, he would risk all to destroy them having nothing to live for. If the hive put a symbiote in her, then the symbiote would want to create another cell. So he would still risk all to destroy them. In either case, it was a risk that the hive could not afford.

  So the hive came up with a third option. The hive realized early on that Ydxx’od’omaa’s desire to save the Apollinarian civilization was equal to that of his love of his wife. If the Tylkuoply hive were to change the desire of the symbiote to produce a new cell, place the skills, talent, muscle memory, etc of the very individuals who could restart civilization, into the symbiote, then put the symbiote in his wife, the affect upon Ydxx’od’omaa would be complete.”

  “Why would that have a significant impact upon him?”

  “Because of what it would symbolize.”

  “And what would that be?”

  “His desire to save his wife would become symbolic of his desire to save the Apollinarian civilization and vice versa. If he fails to save her... what would that symbolize? If he kills her... what would that symbolize? If he re-captures her... what would that symbolize? What would any of you do if you were him? Would you kill her? Would you save her? What would you do?” Nobody answered that, because nobody wanted to.

  “How many people... um... um... is in that symbiote besides her, sort of speak?”

  “I cannot answer that only she can. Its only when you add the memories, along with everything else, can you say that a person is, quote-in there-end quote.”

  “What about the knowledge and skills of the people? How many would you say would be in there? And what type of people are in there?”

  “The low end number is ten thousand; the high end number is fifty thousand. But both numbers are still an approximation, it could be much higher. As for who is in there? If you wanted to save your civilization, and you needed certain groups of people, who would you pick? Would you pick artists, painters, actors, musicians, directors, authors, poets? Who would you pick? Would you pick scientists, military officers, economist, doctors, lawyers, historians, professors? Would you pick just anybody from those groups? Or would you pick the very best of the very best? Who would you pick if you had to restart civilization? She is the personification of the Apollinarian civilization.”