Virtual_Space
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2006
- Messages
- 84
Prologue
In what manner does man view himself superior to he who pulls the eternal strings? I control life, death and all that comes before and after. Who is man to call me a cruel master? Who is man to call me a loving caretaker? I neither take nor give. I merely control.
Man knows little of me, an ignorant beast pawing at the unknowable mysteries that supersede all. That is the reason for his failure towards his world, the reason for his failing in my master plan. No man, only the ever present puppeteer who enforces his will on all he wishes. That is my dream. That is the future.
Man knows little of me, an ignorant beast pawing at the unknowable mysteries that supersede all. That is the reason for his failure towards his world, the reason for his failing in my master plan. No man, only the ever present puppeteer who enforces his will on all he wishes. That is my dream. That is the future.
Chapter 1
In my study I sat. Surrounded by the flickering candlelight and rows of books, I felt a slight sense of comfort. The table at which I sat was covered in my own writings, everything from my novel to my reports. The red light of the dead about danced about me, bathing me in warmth. It was my favorite place in the universe, with but one exception.
I sat at that same table for many hours, obsessively flipping through the pages of a book. What book you ask? It matters not. What does matter however, is what that book was telling me.
Written in the book were the names of every person who currently inhabited the world. The moment a person faded from existence, so did their name from the pages of the book. With it I held knowledge of every human being and every one of their deepest thoughts. With a mere touch of the finger, I could know everything there was to know of that person.
Impossible? Maybe for a human, but not so for a god.
The name was, and still is, Ninurta. I am a god of sorts. Some may call me Satan, others Hades, even others Nergal. I am none of these. I am not some devil, designed solely to balance out the eternal force of good. No, I am here to control and offer balance to a world of chaos. I am the puppet master, and man is my puppet.
I watched intently as the names faded slowly from my book. John Henry, dead of heart attack. Kevin Baker, traffic accident. Josephine Smith, complications from routine knee surgery. Nothing of interest.
Then, something most unwelcome occurred. A faded name began to come back into focus, rewritten into the book. I knew immediately what this meant. With a quick tap of my finger, I learned exactly what I was working with.
“Why must this always happen at this time of night?” I said as I slammed the book shut, “Do the dead have no manners?”
I walked quickly from my desk and down the narrow hallway adjacent to my study. The hallway was made of cold stone, the floor covered by a long, red rug. The whole place had a medieval feel to it, and I liked it that way.
The long and winding hallway soon led to the office of one Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, better known as Nero. Yes, the Nero. While he was a long time friend, and wonderfully diligent worker, he seemed to lack a certain defiant charm. Fiddled as Rome burned? The man couldn't play a kazoo if his life depended on it, let alone a fiddle.
His office was quite different from my own. He had never given up on the ancient roman way of living. His office filled with statues and art. It made it look just like a palace of old. The only thing less than serious was a bobble head of Jupiter. At least he had a sense of humor about it. Not many men are willing to admit that their gods are false, even after death.
I walked up to and leaned over the large desk, staring at its occupant closely. He wore a gaudy red and gold robe, a most tacky of clothing choices. His long hair extended past his shoulders, and was immaculate in its care. He sat there, writing something down in an ungodly large tome.
“What is it, you seem distressed.” he said in that half cocky, half utterly unenthusiastic voice of his. He didn't once look up from his work.
“We have a problem.” I said. I walked to a nearby bookshelf and pulled a random book from the shelf. I started to flip through it, more bored than anything else.
“And what pray tell is this problem? Surely you have not failed the quarterly exam again. I swear, your as bad at testing as I was at public relations.” Lucius said with a laugh.
“For your information, I passed that test with flying colors. The test is not the issue.”
“Then what is?”
“We have another leak.” I said, sliding the book back into its slot on the shelf.
“Another? That is the fifth this trimester.” Lucius said, an actual look of concern forming on his face. He closed his book and leaned back in his chair.
“I am well aware of that, I don't need to be reminded.”
“So, what happened this time?” Lucius said.
“Some woman in Seattle went into cardiac arrest. Dead for five minutes before they brought her back. Apparently she made it as far as the third gate before then.”
Lucius' face immediately changed from one of calm collected thoughts, to one of chaotic nerves. I believe I even saw a small bead of sweat run down his forehead, though I can't be sure. He quickly stood from his desk and began pacing the room. Any idiot could see his nerves were getting the better of him. But who could blame him? A breach of two gates was not something to be taken lightly.
Lucius stood there for a moment in complete silence before asking the mandatory question.
“Has she spoken to anyone yet?” Lucius asked as he wiped his forehead with his sleeve.
“Two people so far.” I said, expecting a most ill of reactions.
“You are sure of this?” Lucius said, his panicked face growing increasingly red.
“As sure as I can be.”
Silence filled the room once more. It wasn't because of a lack of things to say though. No, there was plenty to say. Just neither one of us wanted to say or hear it.
“Will a purging of the mind work?” Lucius asked slowly.
“Not this time, this woman already resisted the mind seeding.”
Lucius sighed heavily. “What about the other two?”
“They weren't a problem, a class one purge took care of them.”
“So what now?”
“That is quite simple. I will be handling her personally.”
Taking care of it personally. How long had it been since I had been to Earth? A century? Two? The number is no longer known to me. The world of man was not to be taken lightly, I knew that much for sure. As much as I dreaded the idea, I was returning to that which I hate.
“Do you have the societies permission yet?” Lucius asked.
“I neither need nor want their permission.” I said with a scoff.
“That is not a wise decision. You cannot just go to earth and kill an innocent woman. How will you cover it up?”
The thought burst through my head. Killing her wouldn't work, how Lucius couldn't see this I do not know. Killing one who had the ability to resist a mind purge didn't make sense. Why kill a specimen such as that? Why kill when you can convert? Make her into a most valuable asset.
I quickly shut out the thought, and said “I will not cover anything up, for when I am done, no evidence to cover up will remain. I will work with surgical precision, careful not to make a singe mistake.”
Lying to Lucius was not something I often did, and I most certainly did not feel proud doing it. But it was necessary.
“I must take my leave,” I said as I slowly moved towards the door, “As you know I have important business to attend to.”
I quickly walked through the open doorway and back into the hall, the cold stone an inviting site. The thoughts of what I was about to do started swirling out of the depths of my mind. It was like a never ending torrent of thought.
“This will be the easiest thing I have ever done,” I thought to myself, “How much resistance can one woman offer?”
Oh how wrong I was.
I sat at that same table for many hours, obsessively flipping through the pages of a book. What book you ask? It matters not. What does matter however, is what that book was telling me.
Written in the book were the names of every person who currently inhabited the world. The moment a person faded from existence, so did their name from the pages of the book. With it I held knowledge of every human being and every one of their deepest thoughts. With a mere touch of the finger, I could know everything there was to know of that person.
Impossible? Maybe for a human, but not so for a god.
The name was, and still is, Ninurta. I am a god of sorts. Some may call me Satan, others Hades, even others Nergal. I am none of these. I am not some devil, designed solely to balance out the eternal force of good. No, I am here to control and offer balance to a world of chaos. I am the puppet master, and man is my puppet.
I watched intently as the names faded slowly from my book. John Henry, dead of heart attack. Kevin Baker, traffic accident. Josephine Smith, complications from routine knee surgery. Nothing of interest.
Then, something most unwelcome occurred. A faded name began to come back into focus, rewritten into the book. I knew immediately what this meant. With a quick tap of my finger, I learned exactly what I was working with.
“Why must this always happen at this time of night?” I said as I slammed the book shut, “Do the dead have no manners?”
I walked quickly from my desk and down the narrow hallway adjacent to my study. The hallway was made of cold stone, the floor covered by a long, red rug. The whole place had a medieval feel to it, and I liked it that way.
The long and winding hallway soon led to the office of one Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, better known as Nero. Yes, the Nero. While he was a long time friend, and wonderfully diligent worker, he seemed to lack a certain defiant charm. Fiddled as Rome burned? The man couldn't play a kazoo if his life depended on it, let alone a fiddle.
His office was quite different from my own. He had never given up on the ancient roman way of living. His office filled with statues and art. It made it look just like a palace of old. The only thing less than serious was a bobble head of Jupiter. At least he had a sense of humor about it. Not many men are willing to admit that their gods are false, even after death.
I walked up to and leaned over the large desk, staring at its occupant closely. He wore a gaudy red and gold robe, a most tacky of clothing choices. His long hair extended past his shoulders, and was immaculate in its care. He sat there, writing something down in an ungodly large tome.
“What is it, you seem distressed.” he said in that half cocky, half utterly unenthusiastic voice of his. He didn't once look up from his work.
“We have a problem.” I said. I walked to a nearby bookshelf and pulled a random book from the shelf. I started to flip through it, more bored than anything else.
“And what pray tell is this problem? Surely you have not failed the quarterly exam again. I swear, your as bad at testing as I was at public relations.” Lucius said with a laugh.
“For your information, I passed that test with flying colors. The test is not the issue.”
“Then what is?”
“We have another leak.” I said, sliding the book back into its slot on the shelf.
“Another? That is the fifth this trimester.” Lucius said, an actual look of concern forming on his face. He closed his book and leaned back in his chair.
“I am well aware of that, I don't need to be reminded.”
“So, what happened this time?” Lucius said.
“Some woman in Seattle went into cardiac arrest. Dead for five minutes before they brought her back. Apparently she made it as far as the third gate before then.”
Lucius' face immediately changed from one of calm collected thoughts, to one of chaotic nerves. I believe I even saw a small bead of sweat run down his forehead, though I can't be sure. He quickly stood from his desk and began pacing the room. Any idiot could see his nerves were getting the better of him. But who could blame him? A breach of two gates was not something to be taken lightly.
Lucius stood there for a moment in complete silence before asking the mandatory question.
“Has she spoken to anyone yet?” Lucius asked as he wiped his forehead with his sleeve.
“Two people so far.” I said, expecting a most ill of reactions.
“You are sure of this?” Lucius said, his panicked face growing increasingly red.
“As sure as I can be.”
Silence filled the room once more. It wasn't because of a lack of things to say though. No, there was plenty to say. Just neither one of us wanted to say or hear it.
“Will a purging of the mind work?” Lucius asked slowly.
“Not this time, this woman already resisted the mind seeding.”
Lucius sighed heavily. “What about the other two?”
“They weren't a problem, a class one purge took care of them.”
“So what now?”
“That is quite simple. I will be handling her personally.”
Taking care of it personally. How long had it been since I had been to Earth? A century? Two? The number is no longer known to me. The world of man was not to be taken lightly, I knew that much for sure. As much as I dreaded the idea, I was returning to that which I hate.
“Do you have the societies permission yet?” Lucius asked.
“I neither need nor want their permission.” I said with a scoff.
“That is not a wise decision. You cannot just go to earth and kill an innocent woman. How will you cover it up?”
The thought burst through my head. Killing her wouldn't work, how Lucius couldn't see this I do not know. Killing one who had the ability to resist a mind purge didn't make sense. Why kill a specimen such as that? Why kill when you can convert? Make her into a most valuable asset.
I quickly shut out the thought, and said “I will not cover anything up, for when I am done, no evidence to cover up will remain. I will work with surgical precision, careful not to make a singe mistake.”
Lying to Lucius was not something I often did, and I most certainly did not feel proud doing it. But it was necessary.
“I must take my leave,” I said as I slowly moved towards the door, “As you know I have important business to attend to.”
I quickly walked through the open doorway and back into the hall, the cold stone an inviting site. The thoughts of what I was about to do started swirling out of the depths of my mind. It was like a never ending torrent of thought.
“This will be the easiest thing I have ever done,” I thought to myself, “How much resistance can one woman offer?”
Oh how wrong I was.
