local settlement date 35,993
Most everything is nearly impossible.
King Namor Zujahrah
30 authority of necessity
"This doesn't look good, Namor."
Smoke, more than the normal smoke of burning animal fat and plant oil, wood and presmoldered in black suffocating smoke black coal from close to obliterated forests. Endless black charred mountains and plains. Enough to suffocate the sky.
It was all obvious before their eyes and no one in Gadavida, no one in Barbancor had made the connection between their destructive plundering of the planet's resources and the dire condition of life.
They did not send boats out to bring in any of the crew of the 36 ships and 14 schooners.
"We could empty the rest of the ammunition on the city. Let the whole thing be built from the ground up again."
"No, King Namor, no more guns. We will go in. You and I. In the morning. And they will listen."
"We better drink a barrel of water. In case they want to burn us again."
"They will try our sorcery. They burnt us one already. It obviously doesn't stop us."
Barbaralba laughed. Like a little devilish angel.
Barbaralba and Namor took the rest of the evening slowly and enjoyed a clear sky with a gentle wind keeping the stench of Gadavida away from their ships and schooners. Like was often the case with full moons, the weather took an abrupt turn before the night was through. Morning brought clouds and wind. The sun was still under the clouds when Barbaralba and Namor climbed down to the rowboat and with the help of four others, rowed their way to the shore.
Just before they reached the burnt harbour front, the sun broke through the clouds for a moment. But instead of with light, with blackness. Round blackness. Everyone in the rowboat and in the city and on the ships saw it.
"Come, we must hurry. We have the blessings of the gods with our timing."
"The sun is burning black."
"Yes. A not so seldom event from this planet's point of view. But not likely anyone here has seen it. It is one of the moons passing before the sun. It will pass quickly. We should take the real life theater opportunity to get to our place of burning before then."
"The city is full of terrified lunatics."
"Yes. Barbaralba. Because they think their world is ending. Which it is. Their world. But we'll bring them light."
Barbaralba did not understand the plan completely until they had left the rowboat, climbed over rubble and the ruins of the wall and prison and ran to the courtyard. As the sun went out, the wind picked up and blew torrents of rain with it. Everyone looked toward their feet and hid from the elements.
Barbaralba and Namor made it to their place of execution before the moon started relinquishing its shadow.
Thousands had seen Namor, Barbaralba and the others that had been with them burned alive. The few priests in charge of the prison knew they had escaped. A few knew it had been arranged by highest Priest Myast. It was, however better to burn a few others to appease the crowd. No one cared to notice who burned. The thrill of witnessing such theater makes it easy to ignore the identity of the screaming faces in the flame. If there are bad people they must die to protect the good of the flock.
Most of the city was waiting and praying in the rain that there were not too many bad among them when grey daylight returned.
Barbaralba and Namor stood in the rain waiting. Watching the people praying for redemption and salvation.
"How long will it take to teach these people there is no God. That life has burst out of the rocks screaming."
"Well, King Namor, You better teach some teachers to help you. For today, get these people to their feet and give them a little hope."
Everyone knew of Barbaralba and her king. They knew they where great sorcerers. They were not certain what a sorcerer was. If they could turn on the sun after God had turned it out, perhaps they were not so bad. If they could die in fire and come back in the flesh. If they had come to raise them to their feet and wash away their sins with torrents of rain.
Namor and Barbaralba walked among the frightened people bringing them gently to their feet. When they had a crowd, they told them that there was work to do. That the monster God of the priests had been revoked of his authority for crimes of propagating ignorance on a paradise rock of fish and angels. He kept his images simple so they would understand and gave them hope so they would over stand and take on the role of angel beasts and bring paradise rock to the garden that it could be and needed to be to give a healthy and long life to them and the children of their children and the animals of the new forests and jungles and the birds of the clean air and the fish that everyone loved to eat in the clean rivers, lakes and oceans. There were no options. God was dead and his job had been left to the people of Barbancor and Angel Island and the work to save the planet had started and everyone was employed.
"Everything is backwards, Barbaralba. They see everything backwards."
"It doesn't matter as long as they are looking. And they can hear you. They are still confused about loosing God but they can see and hear you. Give them what they need to get started and they will wake up as they go. Drave King."
So they talked thirty-six days, Barbaralba and Namor. After the sixth day, 600 from Angel Island who understood, left the ships and taught the basic laws of life. They told of a future Gadavida with clean air and water.
"Jacob be cursed. Bloody bleeding beast of the lie. If we don't get the poison out of our minds."
The reluctant to give up the lie priests were still many in Gadavida and they had quickly used the rebirth of the evil King and evil Queen of the Island of the Damned as proof for their propagated lie that had said that Satan would raise up its bride and make a nation of demons. The words in the Word of God were somewhat vague so no one cared to notice that the story was both insane and not even true to the original mind manipulation merchant sales pitch.
That signs of the raising up of Satan and his bride. White clouds. Sorcery of lightning and thunder. War and hunger. The blotting out of the sun.
God would take the righteous believers; the rest would perish.
So Namor's job was not easy. He repeatedly explained that God was an empty lie brought on the space ship. God was not coming to take away the righteous to a paradise where women were slaves to the men who lived for eternity in a garden paradise where sheep slept with wolves. Paradise was the planet they stood on. And the planet was suffocating. Even if they could build star ships to take people away, there was room at most for a few. Maybe they could squeeze on 144,000 but even that was unlikely. After so many days, Namor started getting quite silly and though he made less and less sense to his listeners, they did laugh.
"No matter what you believe, there will be no salvation for those who wait."
"You have won enough of them for now. I can't bare to see you so tortured, Drave King. You are showing signs of loosing your reason."
"They need to know, whoever or however it is we got here, it is how it is because our forefathers walked hand in hand with ignorance and hatred. We must act not because our guns make it so. We must act because life makes it so."
"Let the reporters print it."
"That is what we will do, Barbaralba. Tell them we will sail for Adrone in the morrow."
Most of the crew and passengers were Barbancorian. The first immigration other than those on the ship of the high priest, in over thirty thousand years. Adrone was quite different than it had been for less than two years but it was a very different world for the Barbancorians.
The city thrived with many small businesses and entertainment small and big. Streets were shaded with trees and gardens. The air was clean. Fresh water flowed in open wells. Salt and fresh water was won from the ocean. No one needed to struggle for food. The island was wealthy enough to make certain all were fed. It was the Barbancorian story of the promise land.
For the few days that the citizen from the outer world dwelled in Adrone, they were taken in by the curious. The reporters. The business people.
Those fascinated with the idea of worshiping and God fearing.
In the few days they were there, the Barbancorians were shown how a busy city could function at a sustainable level, thirty thousand years, sacrificing the lust for power and elite luxury for a city and island living in peace without hunger or slavery.
Snow city had managed a sustainable system acceptable by its inhabitants for their 2,000 years with limited resources and thus a simpler life.
The illusion of unlimited resources made Castle City into a prison of slaves and sleeping royalty wallowing in lazy luxury. And cities of devastation on Barbancor applied a similar system of disregard for the life that gave them life.
Namor's illusions had been blasted clear out of his surroundings with the shock of Barbancor.
They had created the hell their word had called for. They had followed the book of dome to create death worship. Turning life and the goddess to hell and the law.
Along with the cleaning of the water and end to the burning of the forests and jungles. The people making the paradise rock their home needed to learn how to see. To see that they were. To see where they were. To make a conscious choice how to be.
After a few days of telling those in Adrone what he thought, Namor sailed with Barbaralba on the white battle ship Barbaralba from Adrone back to the canal 36. The ship was hauled with many beasts of burden up the canal to salt lake 36. Namor watched the land that was slowly becoming more green and Barbaralba watched with him and sometimes left the ship to swim beside it.
"I'm going to teach her to fish like a Drave."
"Her."
"Our little girl."
Namor did not ask how she knew it was a little girl. He had heard old Drave women talk of signs but Namor did not buy into old tales. They tended to become religious belief. People ended up beheaded or burnt or any other torture treatment. And little girl or little boy, if it wanted to learn to fish or dance or make machines or invent a new pass time, Namor did not much care. As long as the child did not have to go off and kill people for whatever reason was in vogue.
Back at Salt Lake 36, the news of the last trip to Barbancor had been read by millions. The reports had included things said by Barbaralba and Namor. Photos of the seat of God. The walled temple city of dogs, pigs and priests. And a field of rock. Pictures of burnt landscape and filthy poverty.
The Old King and the Old Priest were waiting to greet them with new news from the study of books and minds of students. A meeting was held in the ship yard for those who were there and the press that would report for those who were not there to witness the Drave King return with his Drave Queen and foreigners from Barbancor who had come to live and learn in Salt Lake 36.
Namor explained how volatile peace was going to be and he exclaimed the urgency of raising the standard of life and with it the reverence for life. He told of the burning of forests and jungles and the stink of burning animal fat that clogged the city air.
"Solar. We have already some simple prototypes that work well. It is not so new. We have always used very simple forms of it in the castle for holding water warm in the sun. Even in the villages water is heated with the sun. But there are patents that turn the light of the sun into energy that can be stored, moved through cables to move even a light wagon with no animals. But most importantly for Barbancor, to make light without burning. To heat without burning. To cook without burning."
"You are a genius, Old King."
"Genius is just full use of common sense and the desire and aptitude to learn. And I have had many years at it. Genius is fun and anyone can do it. Drave King."
"Perhaps you should write a book about how to be a genius and save the planet."
"I will. We will. It will be our first objective. The trick will be to make it as fun as it has been for me since I had your first visit. Looking for a lost library with the knowledge of our species, what we had nailed down, into clear patents. With enough people, we could build sustaining floating cities on the ocean. Perhaps even cities on the moons. The planet we are on was once without life. Or very little. That is what the patents are all about, King Namor. We have brought life to this planet."
"That is good to know. Have you learned why we took a 30,000 year break to try to kill it."
"No. That is a little beyond me. That will be your question to answer."
"Okay, Old King. I will take some time to think over it while Barbaralba and I are slowing down by the ocean. We are going to spend some time at her village. To have a quite place for mother and child. After that, we will be back."
After a few days in Salt Lake 36 and visiting in the village, Barbaralba and Namor left for the coast. They did not hurry back. News came to them. Visitors came to them. And a couple years after Janyah was born, her little brother Estan was born.
News told them that the rivers in Barbancor were not yet clean but the forests were no longer burning. Sustainable cultivation and irrigation were slowly working their way through the cities and villages.
Ships from Angel Island traveled back and forth to Barbancor without guns. And almost everything else. Barbancorian ships sailed from port to port also without weapons of war.
There was no longer a dreaded fear of God on Barbancor. There was no meaning to the relevance of the royal family. And the infant called peace was being nurtured for the first time in the history written.
chapter 31
|
