The Mayan Resurrection (62 page)

Jacob circles the female elder. ‘The
Nephilim
, the Fallen Ones. These are your fellow castaways?’

‘Yes. All evolved into transhumans within years after being exposed to the planet’s water supply.’

Dominique fights to remain in control. ‘What does any of this have to do with Mick, or my sons?’

‘Michael and your sons carry the Hunahpu gene.’

‘I know that! What I don’t know is what a damn Hunahpu is.’

The female answers, her motherly demeanor intended to soothe. ‘Before they escaped from
Xibalba
, our Guardian founders took samples of posthuman DNA. The samples were taken onboard the
Balam
when it journeyed through the wormhole, chasing after the
Xibalban
transport vessel carrying the creature. The Hunaphu are a
Homo sapiens
bloodline genetically enhanced with posthuman DNA.’

The older male takes over. ‘The Abomination’s plan was to send one of the Tezcatilpoca on a transport ship back through the wormhole to Earth, where the creature’s presence would create a cosmic bridge between both worlds and time periods. Fearing the Abomination would attempt to lead her people to old Earth, the Guardian downed the vessel, only they failed to kill the creature.’

‘Fortunately,’ Jacob says, ‘my father, possessing Hunahpu blood, was able to circumvent their plan.’

‘I don’t understand,’ Dominique says, looking to the elder Guardian male. ‘How can Lilith be Hunahpu? I thought Mick was your chosen one?’

‘Michael Gabriel was only one of several hundred possible genetic anomalies the Guardian hoped would evolve in time to activate the
Balam
’s weapon system. Lilith’s great-uncle found a way to manipulate the Hunaphu bloodline. This mutation causes a deeply rooted schizophrenia that was passed on to Lilith.’

‘And where is Mick? What happened to him?’

‘Michael and our fellow colonists are trapped in a netherworld, a bubble of existence created by Devlin Mabus.’

‘Devlin?’

‘Lilith’s son, a pure posthuman, very powerful, conceived from two Hunahpu parents.’

Jacob sits, suddenly light-headed.

‘Who’s the father?’ Dominique asks. ‘Jake?’

‘I don’t know, Mother. Yes, it’s possible. For that matter, it could be Manny or another Hunahpu in our time.’

The three Guardian elders go silent, their minds exchanging thoughts at light speed.

Dominique loses patience. ‘I don’t care about this Devlin or Lilith, I came here to find Mick. Tell me what happened to him and how I can reach him.’

The younger male is first to speak. ‘Michael Gabriel journeyed into Devlin’s realm to save the
Nephilim
, but Lilith and her son had been forewarned. He remains trapped in the netherworld. Lilith uses his light to control her followers and keep them in line. Michael’s light attracts them like a moth to flame. It gives them hope, but Michael cannot escape. Now, only the combined strength of the Hero Twins can free One Hunahpu and the Fallen Ones.’

The elder Guardian male looks hard at Jacob. ‘Which means our mission has failed. Your brother should have made the journey, not First-Mother.’

Dominique ignores the remark. ‘How many years have passed since Mick’s arrival?’

‘Just over a
Xibalban
century,’ the female answers. ‘Approximately 114 Earth years.’

‘Oh … God, how’s that possible?’

The female takes her hand. ‘Dominique, Michael hasn’t
aged in a physical sense. His body remains in suspended animation. It’s his mind that is being tortured.’

‘Tortured?’

‘By the Abomination. She is a leech to his soul.’

Jacob stands. ‘I came here to save my father and rescue the
Nephilim.
Tell me what I have to do?’

‘You may already be too late.’ The older male points a finger.

A volumetric display activates. The astrotopographic projection races through space, approaching a monstrous blazing red fireball of a star. As the red supergiant grows closer, its surface cools in color to that of a soft lightbulb—

—revealing the presence of a second star lurking behind its mass. The smaller star, a white dwarf, is under tremendous turmoil, its surface bloating.

‘The red supergiant will go supernova in thirty-one hours, seventeen minutes. When the event happens, it will disperse massive doses of radiation and energy across this sector of the Galaxy. Nothing on this moon or the planet will survive.’

‘What will you do?’ Dominique asks.

The image changes, zooming past
Xibalba
to focus upon the planet’s smaller moon—an immense potato-shaped starship. ‘This damaged transport was left behind by the transhuman culture that vacated the planet. Our scientists have effected repairs. With the wormhole’s passage now secured, we’ll be able to use the vessel to escape before the star explodes.’

‘We’re going back to Earth,’ states the female. ‘Back through time to save
Homo sapiens
from the caldera.’

Dominique perks up. ‘You can do that? Change history?’

‘It’s possible,’ the younger male answers. ‘Unfortunately,
Jacob cannot possibly hope to defeat Lilith and Devlin alone.’

‘He won’t be alone,’ Dominique says. ‘I’ll be with him.’

‘You?’ The male elder shakes his head. ‘You are not Hunahpu. You’re not even a transhuman. Devlin and his followers would crush you like a bug.’

The female Guardian holds up her hand. ‘Don’t rush to judgment. First-Mother’s presence in the Underworld may actually confuse the Abomination and her son, who are still expecting both Hero Twins. Once Dominique reaches the Dark Road, her mind will remain cloaked to all trans human telepathy. It may present her an advantage.’

‘Advantage?’ The elder Guardian’s eyes blaze at his female comrade in disbelief. ‘They’ll never make it past the Dark Road without Immanuel. Or have you forgotten the
tlachtli
?’

Dominique looks puzzled.

The younger male explains. ‘The entrance that leads into Devlin’s netherworld is guarded by a band of sociopaths. Lilith has convinced these transhumans that they are reincarnations of cannibals who lived thousands of years ago in ancient Mesoamerica. These Devil-worshipers exist only to serve the Abomination and her son. To enter Devlin’s netherworld, you must defeat these warriors in a game of
tlachtli
, and the battle is to the death.’

Jacob turns to his mother. ‘The battle in which you’ve seen me train for the last seven years.’

‘And what about weapons?’ Dominique asks. ‘Can’t we just shoot them with an ion cannon or something?’

‘Modern weapons do not function within the spiritual
realm,’ the female answers. ‘The laws of physics as you know them do not apply in the Land of the Damned.’

‘One of our transport ships will take you to the surface facility where the last remaining Tezcatilpoca is penned,’ the younger male says. ‘Jacob, use your Hunahpu powers to summon the beast. The creature will allow you access beyond the nexus into the Abomination’s netherworld. The Guardian brotherhood have programmed the serpent to safeguard a weapon, one we believe is capable of destroying the Abomination and her son.’

‘My sword,’ Jacob tells his mother. ‘I’ve seen all of these things in my visions.’

‘Remember,’ the female cautions, ‘you only have thirty hours before we must depart through the wormhole. If you haven’t returned by then, don’t bother coming back. The radiation from the supernova will kill you.’

Dominique allows the female Guardian to assist her into a black temperature-regulated exoskeleton bodysuit.

‘This suit was designed by the transhumans to access the nexus. It should allow you to survive in Devlin’s realm as well. As you move, the battle armor and its neural connections will collect and recycle your body excretions, providing you with water. Drink through this extraction tube. Attached to your back is a thin, flexible air tank and oxygen processor, which supplies air through this nostril tube. There is no oxygen in purgatory; this unit creates your air supply by extracting oxygen from the CO2.’

Dominique finishes dressing, then joins Jacob, who is already wearing his white body armor.

The Guardian lead them to a launch chamber.

Lined up in rows along the chamber’s periphery are dozens of two-man transport ships, their bows encased in launch tubes angled at forty-five degrees.

‘One of our transports will take you directly to the Tezcatilpoca genetics site,’ the younger male explains. ‘May God’s highest light shine upon you both.’

‘Let’s not keep my father waiting any longer.’ Jacob climbs into the two-seat pod, a flat, triangular-shaped vessel, twenty feet long from the tip of its bulbous nose cone to the end of its propulsion device.

Dominique straps herself into the seat next to him.

The entry of the vessel reseals, activating the ship’s controls. A forward screen switches on, presenting them with an exterior image.

Stars and the blackness of space loom beyond the tunnellike launch tube.

Docking clamps release. The engine activates, its deep thrum causing Dominique’s skin to tingle.

Expelling a blast of energy, the transport accelerates through the launch tube, leaping into space. They pass high over the lunar base and the barren surface of the moonscape until the entire forward screen is filled with the silvery red world of
Xibalba.

There is no sign of the
Balam
.

Dominique’s heart pounds with trepidation as she stares at the surface of the alien world.
He’s down there somewhere, suffering from an eternity of mental anguish. Will he recognize me? Is his mind even capable of a sane thought?

WARNING: ENTERING PLANET’S ATMOSPHERE.

The transport plunges through dark magenta atmospheric storm clouds. Moss-covered volcanic rock appears beneath the overcast sky. In the distance is a continent-sized mass floating several hundred feet in the air.

‘New Eden,’ Jacob says. ‘The habitat abandoned by the original trans human culture.’

‘Incredible …’ Dominique whispers. ‘But who were these transhumans? What happened to them?’

‘I don’t know.’

Coming into view on the shadowed horizon is a silvery breeding pond the size of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. The transport follows the artificial shoreline for several minutes, then lands next to an arena-sized complex.

The domed roof of the facility has been shattered, destroyed long ago by a tremendous force.

Jacob turns to his mother. ‘I can handle this. Stay here where it’s safe.’

She unbuckles her harness. ‘I’m coming with you.’

‘Fine. At least plug your air hose into your nostrils and set your regulator. Remember, there’s no oxygen on
Xibalba
, just carbon dioxide.’

Breathers in place, they exit the vessel and head for the lake’s edge. Jacob points to the domed facility on their right. ‘The posthumans’ genetics lab.’

‘Yes, but what happened to it?’

‘I don’t know, but I get the feeling there’s a lot the Guardian prefer we didn’t know.’ Jacob stops at the silvery shoreline and closes his eyes.

Several minutes pass, and then, a mile out, the once-tranquil surface begins to froth.

Dominique watches an enormous wake build, rising higher as it moves inland.

‘Okay, you handle it.’ She hurries back to the pod as the head of a monstrous alien being emerges, its viperous head dripping silvery ooze as it looms thirty feet over Jacob.

The genetically enhanced biological resembles a monstrous alien serpent, the creature’s girth as wide as a train, its skull as large as the mixer on a cement truck. The beast regards Jacob with two of its cybernetic eyes—vertical slits of gold, surrounded by incandescent crimson corneas.

A thunderous snort causes Jacob to jump backward as the serpent expels a stench-laden breath through its synthetic nostrils. The frightening jowls part, revealing rows of ebony, scalpel-sharp teeth.

Jacob returns the creature’s gaze, refusing to yield. A surreal moment passes as man and beast contemplate one another—

—and an overwhelming sense of déjà vu washes over Jacob’s brain.

The suddenly docile creature lowers its head to the ground, keeping its right eye focused on the twin.

Jacob stands. He steps forward, placing both palms against the creature’s oily, scalelike emerald green feathers, registering the being’s deep, intense reverberations of breath—

—as a white haze envelops his mind …

*

Jacob’s consciousness soars across time and space.

He remote-views the Nile River.

Moves inside the hidden chambers of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Enters the Queen’s Chamber.