TCM

From antiquity Keter knew Chokhmah contemplated teaching humans to cross the awesome gulf between the stars and do what Chokhmah himself was bound never  to do, make  two-way contact  with Ein Sof. To forestall this Keter  forced upon Chokhmah a  number of further accomodations. These bargains compelled Chokhmah to turn the inner Solar System into  a vast  prison, and even  to build what was essentially a guard tower at Jupiter.

Keter selected a moon that remained undetected  by humans until they sent their first Jupiter probes in the  20th Century. This moon, which  humans would  name  Thebe  when they  spotted  it, resembled nothing so much as  a giant  potato with a  crater so large it looked like someone with  a thirty mile wide mouth took a big bite out of it. The name Keter chose for it, Palato, even sounded potatoish.

The moon was a loose pile of ice and rock with a coating of red dust. It was left to Chokhmah to burn tunnels through it. This, he explained, required the  steam generated  in the  tunnels to vent to open space. The work took many centuries and to Chokhmah it began to  feel  like a  home remodel  that  was never  quite finished. When Keter was  happy with the  extent of  the tunnel network Chokhmah left it for  Keter to  send his own  people to seal  the tunnels  before  air  could be  brought  in. The work required pressure suits and power tools, which in turn required the bare bones of an industrial society. That did not yet exist in Heaven, so for centuries construction at Palato  ground to a complete stop.

Compared to the fits and starts of human civilization on Earth, Keter’s colony of world dwellers in Heaven moved forward at a more stately  and leisurely  pace, like courtiers  on promenade. And Heaven never experienced the massive setbacks of Earth-style dark ages. The bottom line was that the inhabitants  of Heaven harnessed coal and steam  about five  hundred years  before the inhabitants of the Earth did.

It began in Haaretz, perhaps influenced by  traces left behind, unintentionally, by latter-day B’nei Elohim during their many visits to the Heaven of the past. The new techno culture spread rapidly to the other lands of Heaven. At first it was strongly resisted by  Keter  and  Daat, but  the  military  implications finally sold them.

Scarcely a decade  after  the techno  revolution  took root  in Haaretz all  of Heaven was industrialized. The so-called Techno War broke  out within  the  following  decade, abruptly  ending centuries of  the  Long  Peace. Armies rapidly  mobilized  and moved to the front lines  by rail as  self-propelled steamships contended for advantage  on  the various  rivers  and lakes  of Heaven. Mass production using standardized parts  equipped both sides with vast quantities of war materiel, but by circumstance the earliest advances in industrialized warfare tended to favor the defense over offense. This soon brought all troop movement to a near standstill.

As the Techno War dragged on the introduction  of poisonous gas and projectile weapons with a high rate of fire made the battle lines intolerable. Analog computers were developed to guide the direction of artillery. The telephone brought more  effective command and control. But the art  of  rocketry was  forbidden by Keter, strictly  enforced  by  destroying launch  facilities with stellar fire  from his  own body. He would not have  the inhabitants of  Heaven flinging  themselves  into  the void  as Chokhmah desired the inhabitants of Earth to do.

Another line of inquiry that was stifled by  Keter was wireless communications. Keter knew it  was inevitable  that the  Earth would one day  become as  noisy as  a star  in the  radio band, alerting the aggregate of Elohim to  mankind’s existence, but he didn’t want to rush things.

Ultimately the great  Techno War  sputtered to  a halt,  twenty years after  it began,  when  Heaven  could no  longer  provide sufficient soldiery as fodder to be crushed into oblivion by the war machines of either side. The war itself became a deterrent against any future conflict. Further advances in science slowed to a crawl.

Yet technological  advances  continued  to  be  made,  if  only clandestine ones. And there  came a  day  when an  existential threat to Kemen forced the humans of Haaretz to seek a temporary arrangement with Elyon. There was no choice. If they did nothing only that plant  life native  to Kemen  in the  beginning would survive.

An aircraft which is both  familiar and otherworldly  in design rolls to a stop. A truck inches up with a metal arm arched over a flat bed. A gray metal cylinder slides out of the plane. This is grabbed by the truck's arm, which makes the transfer and lays the round on the truck. Attendants strap the load down.

The pilot emerges from the plane and is greeted by two men and a woman. The woman is the one  who speaks first, and  this all by itself seems to surprise and confuse the aviator.

TABAET: "I am Tabaet. This  is Xaphon  and Senciner. I  know it offends Adanites but they answer to me. So get used to it.

RAZIEL: There's a change of plan. I'll arm the round myself.

SENCINER: Impossible! Look up! There's very little time left!

RAZIEL: I've seen it. But I'm a pilot and you have a simulator.

TABAET: Elyon has dragged  his part of  this project  out until it's almost too late. Our vehicle only holds three individuals. We can't afford any more delay training a replacement.

RAZIEL: It is the unique nature  of this type of  weapon that a reasonable amount of delay  would be totally irrelevant. XAPHON: If you replace  one  of  us, Raziel,  it  is almost  completely assured that you will not return alive.

RAZIEL: Look up! It seems to me you have no other option.

TABAET: All right, damn  you. There's no time. You'll replace Xaphon. Mid-flight, don't say we didn't try to dissuade you.

And then Tabaet did look up. A menacing comet filled the sky.

A rocket rises on a massive column of flame in  a purple sky. A tenuous shock wave forms ahead of it, then dissipates.

RAZIEL: The onboard  computer reports  we are  now through  the region of maximum dynamic pressure.

SENCINER: Thirteen clocks after liftoff and we are still go.

RAZIEL (After some shaking): Engine two through four are out.

TABAET: Raziel  that  outboard  out was  too  early. Senciner, confirm outboard engines are down.

SENCINER: Affirmative, Lilith, but it's an orderly shutdown.

RAZIEL: You don't see any problem with that though, do you?

SENCINER: Negative, not right now Raziel. The inboard engine is still go, and we both know that's the one that really counts.

TABAET (stabbing switches): Auto guidance initiated.

SENCINER: Telemetry   reports  the   guidance  system   is  now correcting our accumulated eighty ji error.

TABAET (slowing allowing  herself  a grin):  It's working. The little red lines are right back on the little white lines here.

SENCINER: We  are  now  crossing twelve  hundred  fifty  ji  in altitude and two thousand two hundred ji downrange.

RAZIEL: Cabin pressure holding  at at point  six one,  which is normal. Senciner, what was the story on the glitching outboards?

SENCINER: It's still unknown why the shutdown was early, but the inboard engine is go, our gimbals are good, trim is good. Coming up on the computer's revised time of throttle down.

TABAET: Standing by for Main Engine Throttle Down Razael: MET-D.

The noise of the ascent engine lessens significantly.

SENCINER: Confirm MET-D, Lilith. And the radar at first glance says we look good on the dynamic ascent hyperbola.

The shrinking globe of Kemen is visible through the windows.

RAZIEL: Senciner called you Lilith a couple of times back there, Tabaet. Did your parents admire the Lilith of the scriptures?

TABAET: I am the Lilith of the scriptures.

SENCINER: It's true. I've seen her fly. Not fly like you fly, Raziel. I mean she herself, her body, can actually fly.

RAZIEL: Lilith hasn't been seen since the days of the dragon.

An exceedingly bright flare appeared on Kemen, near the edge of the sea called Thalury, drawing everyone's attention.

TABAET: That was quick. I hope everyone got away in time.

RAZIEL: What just happened? What was that flash?

TABAET: Asmodeus followed the trail of our vessel back to Menkal and destroyed our launch facility with fire from his own stellar body. He was counting on taking it out with the weapon, but now he has seen that we have gotten underway before it was armed.

RAZIEL: And we're next!

TABAET: No, Elyon will need five days to accumilate enough dark energy to open another shortcut and hit us. Besides, he'll just let the special weapon take care of us, the instant you arm it.

RAZIEL: Then the comet will strike the Slush Zone after all.

SENCINER: The weapon you delivered is a gun-type. Two slugs of uranium are welded togther with a charge of high explosives for a chain reaction. Impact at the comet will do the  same job as the explosive charge. So, Raziel, we don't need you after all.

RAZIEL: Asmodeus doesn't need me to arm and detonate the weapon. But you do need me to keep him from doing just that!

Raziel's fingers flew over his controls. The weapon drops away as the rocket  accelerates. It is incinerated  by the  inboard engine. Raziel looks up  from  the  board  and glares  at  his companions as though daring them to retaliate.

SENCINER: Do you feel no obligation to avert the comet strike?

RAZIEL: As I just told you,  Asmodeus isn't going to  let us do that. He never entertained it. But this way we avoid dying also.

TABAET: Xaphon and Senciner both knew full well this flight was to be a one-way trip. It's a chance to prevent a second Deluge and save the lives of millions. In a way, Raziel, I'm glad you insisted on coming. I am quite  fond of  Xaphon  back at  the facility who was displaced at  your own insistence, and  now he will survive, if we succeed in changing the path of the comet.

RAZIEL: That's impossible now. You don't have the weapon.

TABAET: The weapon was only to cover what we're really trying to do, which is to bring our inboard engine and the comet together.

RAZIEL: What do you mean?

TABAET: Do  you  think  we  could carry  enough  fuel  to  keep accelerating like this for as long  as we have? The inboard is just a big metal bell. The thrust is courtesy of Bat-El himself, fire directly from a sun's belly through a shortcut in reality.

RAZIEL: I'm confused. Why do you need the weapon as cover?

TABAET: Because Bat-El and Binah are going to make the shortcut so fat it will defy belief. It's too early for Elyon or Chemah to know he can do that. You don't reveal your capabilities to the enemy. We are willing to die to protect their secret.

RAZIEL: This is easy for you, with your beliefs, but I know when I'm dead I won't even know that I'm dead or  that I ever lived. So I must grasp every additional moment possible!

SENCINER: Are you not aware of the proof of  the afterlife that even our most skeptical philosophers accept? Astonishing! Then it falls to me,  Raziel, to  be your  teacher. Things that are verified exist. Things that  are not  verified,  but  are  at least verifiable  in principle, may  exist. Things that are not verified may not exist. Things that are not verifiable, even in principle, can not exist. Do you accept those premises?

RAZIEL: I do, Senciner, but only provisionally.

SENCINER:  The   afterlife   is  consciousness   after   death. Consciousness is exclusively self-verifiable. No one else can verify your consciousness and  you cannot verify  anyone else's consciousness. Provisionally, therefore we  can  say that  the afterlife may exist, because it  is verifiable in  principle by the person who is conscious of it, if in fact it exists.

RAZIEL: Good.

SENCINER: But if  the afterlife  does  not exist,  this is  not verifiable, even in principle, because consciousness is required to make any  verification. Now: since the  truth value  of the proposition 'no afterlife  exists' is  not verifiable,  even in principle, and the  negation 'the afterlife exists'  is at least not excluded, then the afterlife  must exist, by  the following rule: if not non-A then A.

RAZIEL: Your logic can be used to prove anything. For instance, Our Lady is defined as an Invisible Pink Unicorn in the sky who is verifiable in principle by whoever goes to Her post-mortem.

SENCINER: But She is also  verifiable publicly by  other people who go to Her, while consciousness is only privately verifiable.

RAZIEL: The IPU is not publicly verifiable by any of our senses. She can only be seen while outside of a living body. .

SENCINER: No! She  must  have  been seen  by  a living  person, specifically, that person who first stated that She is pink.

RAZIEL: Well then! The afterlife must have  been seen  by that living person who first stated that you go there when you die.

TABAET (looking up from her panel): Senciner, it's almost time. I just wanted to say thank you!

SENCINER: Your Majesty, it was a great honor to serve.

Overhead, the comet is a white peanut growing in a gray cloud.

On Kemen,   people  anxiously  watch. The  comet  is  already illuminated by the two suns of  Kemen, but now the  heart of it suddenly glows from  the impact of the rocket. A massive pillar of light rises from the point  of impact. And the comet moves. Slowly at first, but steadily picking up speed,  it passes over an Ice Wall that is  miles high. Then the sky behind  the wall glows blue-white with the impact. The onlookers all cheer. The sound of the impact arrives and knocks them all to their feet.

There was little by  way of  civilian applications  driving new technology in Heaven. By design of Keter they never experienced a golden  age  of  radio  and television,  nor  did  they  ever construct a global computer network.

But in the aftermath of  the war  Keter realized it  had become possible to restart the construction at Palato. He also realized that Palato offered an elegant solution to  the ancient problem of apostasy. In a theocracy any violation of civil law is also a sin against God. Keter sent the worst of his apostates to Palato to prepare it for use.

But at first the work was slow. Conditions were so miserable and dangerous the inmates preferred quick suicide to a slow death in a prison where they were told in no uncertain terms there was no return.

When Chokhmah heard of this he suggested breaking the workforce into several groups,  and dangling  the promise  of parole  for those individuals who led  their own work  party to  become the most productive one. Keter took this  advice, and  let matters take their natural  course. Soon afterwards the tunnels  were sealed and Chokhmah supplied them with air and other supplies.

Eventually Keter realized the whole point of his glorified guard shack at Palato was to  chase down and destroy  escape attempts from the inner  system, so  he  began to  allow rocket  science to flourish. Keter dimly  realized he  was  racing against  an invisible clock. Except for one time when Chokhmah revealed that humans had seen the four largest moons of Jupiter  and had even named them, he refused to offer Keter or Daat any information on the state of technology on Earth.

With the transfers between Heaven  and Palato no  more frequent than biweekly, even Keter understood that he would never be able to staff Palato quickly enough to get the base fully operational before humans attained the scientific knowledge  they needed to leave the  Earth. When Keter lamented this  Chokhmah mentioned, quite casually, that the world-dwellers transplanted  to Heaven were living beings fully capable of reproduction.

But later, after mixing  sexes in  a prison  environment, Keter lamented that the experiment was an unmitigated disaster.

Chokhmah reminded Keter once more that even the humans of Earth had observed more than one moon orbiting Jupiter,  and that the planet was a kind of  “failed star” with a  miniature solar system all  of its  own. And that  made Keter’s  next  move entirely obvious.

Keter wasn’t sure why Chokhmah was so full  of helpful advice recently but he rolled the dice and allowed one couple to leave Palato in a small ship. They were dead before the day was out. Just beyond Palato is  the inner edge  of a  permanent magnetic storm that rings Jupiter. Electrons spiral around the planet, accelerating to a fair fraction of the speed of light. The metal exterior of the ship shielded the couple from  this direct beta radiation, but when the electrons slammed into the hull all that kinetic energy had  to  go somewhere. That energy emerged  as x-rays continuously bathing  the interior of the ship. It was a silent and invisible death, and no one at Palato understood what happened to the crew until the ship was remotely piloted back to the departure point and doctors could examine the bodies.

After that, active shielding  was used. These devices built a magnetic  field  around  the  ship  in  imitation  of  the  belt around Jupiter, but they required significant amounts of power. Spacesuits used electrostatic  shields. These shields blocked electrons but not other particles,  and they operated  for only a few  hours. Later, as  the ships  built  at  Palato  became larger, passive shielding was used in the form  of liquid water propellant stored within the outer  layers of a  spinning metal sphere.

In these ships the crew lived and worked in  a central core. As the water was expended in transfer burns, the liquid oxygen used to supply air to breathe was allowed to expand as a gas to fill the void vacated by the water  and press the rest  of the water “down” (or out). Since the water  used for  propellant had to be  heated  to  remain  liquid,  this  offered  recreational opportunities for the  crew,  provided they  did  not dive  too deeply and  defeat  the  purpose of  the  shielding. Certainly it made  the  ship  seem  larger,  which  was  good  for  their psychological well-being.

The earliest  colonists made  a  mad  dash through  Jupiter’s radiation belt to the most distant of the  big moons, Callisto, which was fairly  safe with  “only” ten  times the  flux of ambient  radiation  found  on  the surface  of  Heaven. Seismic studies revealed an  underground  ocean. But the liquid  water under the surface of Callisto was too deep to reach. The surface ice had to be melted using nuclear reactors  from the transport ships to provide water to drink and (with  electrolysis) air to breathe. But plants could live in greenhouses on the surface.

To be  sure,  the dim  light  of  the  faraway  sun had  to  be multiplied  with strategically-placed  mirrors, but  this worked well, and Callisto soon  became the  breadbasket of  the entire Jovian system. The workforce at Palato rapidly expanded to match the new supply of food.

Looking closer to  Jupiter, the  next large  moon is  Ganymede, which is, in fact, the largest moon in the  system, even larger than the planet Mercury. But it lay within the outer reaches of Jupiter’s radiation zone. Colonists were forced to live aboard their ships. Fortunately, the sub-Ganymedan ocean of water could be reached by  digging deep  wells  and used  to replenish  the shipboard tanks that doubled  as radiation shields. From their vessels they ventured  out to  mine  what ores  could be  found nearby, and this metal could be traded for food.

Periodically the colonists returned to Palato to off-load their cargo, then returned to Ganymede  again to land in  a different place. Over time, they learned which areas of the moon were rich in ore  and they  tended  to  cluster  there, but  the  overall population remained small.

The moon Europa  lay deeper  still within  the radiation  belt. Nothing could live on its surface  for more than a  day or two. But the layer of ice coating the interior ocean was so thin that sometimes it would crack open and seawater would  ooze out like blood from a  wound. This water quickly  froze  to form  long criss-crossing ridges of ice. Europa’s underground ocean was actually quite warm, heated by tidal motion. The colonists could leave their ships and burrow  a few  meters down into  the ice, letting it protect them from the radiation.

The difference between the bathwater-warm subsurface  ocean and the near-cryogenic cold of the surface set up a thermal gradient that could be tapped to provide an endless source of electrical power. The colonists didn’t  need to  rely on  their ship’s reactors to stay alive. Europa was close enough to Palato that for the  required velocity  change  ships  powered by  chemical rockets alone could reach there  and land. As a result, Europa naturally became the Jovian moon with the largest population. It was essentially a huge water and people farm.

But Io, the nearest  Galilean moon to  Jupiter, was  a complete bust. There was not a  drop of water there,  and it was  at the very epicenter of the radiation  belt. Indeed, Io acted like a kind of rotor stirring up the  field to a much greater intensity than would exist otherwise. Pressure suits with their partial active shielding could  not deflect  enough of  the radioactive maelstrom to keep the wearer safe outside of their ship for more than an hour. Not even automated equipment could  function for very long before ionization caused them to fail. On top of all that, Io was constantly about the business of literally turning itself inside out, with volcanoes covering the whole surface of the moon  with a  meter of fresh  brimstone every  10,000 years. Throw in the brutal quakes, and the colonists decided to give Io a complete miss.

About two centuries after they were founded, Heaven’s colonies on the  Jovian moons  advanced  from  being a  state-subsidized bridgehead through a level of bare  subsistence until something of a self-sustaining economy wobbled to its feet  and stood up. Then came the Great Revolt.

There yet  remains some  debate  over  the  root cause  of  the insurrection. Many lay all the  blame at  the feet  of a  true apostasy that took hold among the Jovian  colonists, not merely that simple criminal behavior conveniently labeled and punished as apostasy  by the  Eyes  of  Keter. Others said the  revolt could be attributed to  just three things:  location, location, and location. Even Keter could  only  reach Palato  with  the willing cooperation of the two elohim who absolutely ruled this ancestral home star system of all  world-dwellers, Chokhmah and Binah. Perhaps the humans  who  were  transplanted to  Heaven, and the angels  and nephilim  many of  their descendants  later became, were so engrained with a reverence for  the elohim they instinctively shifted their loyalty to Chokhmah  and Binah once they were returned home.

There were stories among the rebels  of discovering unexplained caches of food  just  when  they needed  it. Fresh fruit when vitamin deficiencies were rampant  aboard their ship. Rolls of bread so fresh it tasted like it had just been baked, impossible as that must  have seemed. But no rebellion  could have  been successful so long as  Palato remained the  only source  of new ships and the sole depot to overhaul existing ships.

It did not escape  notice that the  Great Revolt  happened only after the  colonists at  Callisto  started  building their  own ships.

Beginning at roughly three times the distance  of Callisto from Jupiter is a swarm of at least one hundred  much smaller moons, ranging in size from 90 miles across down to less than a single mile in diameter. Some were just  debris left  over from  the formation of Jupiter. Other moons were asteroids captured from the main belt, or even the cores of comets grabbed in passing by the enormous gravity of  Jupiter. These tiny satellites varied widely in composition from simple monoliths, to  loose piles of gravel, to balls of water and ammonia ice.

The orbits of the moons varied as greatly as their makeup, with many of them spinning around Jupiter in  a retrograde direction like cars going the wrong way on a freeway. The first colonists to escape from the Eyes of Keter called this swarm of satellites the Eggbeater.

Keter’s colony, set up to watch the inner system as though it were a  vast prison camp,  now bore  watching itself. It was as though some of the guards climbed  down from their tower to join the inmates in general population.

“You knew it would happen,” Keter accused Chokhmah.

Chokhmah replied, “How  could I  know ‘it’  would happen, father, if I do not even know what event you are–”

“The moons of  the fifth  planet! In the very  beginning you seemed so helpful. But all along  you knew  my colony  in your outer system would escape from my control.”

“Father, unless you have grown stupid to the point of becoming totally blind, millennia of conflict in Heaven  must have shown you that world-dwellers possess an indomitable spirit. The only thing that  would  surprise  me  is  if  you  truly  never  did anticipate a revolt. You must have discerned by now that humans, nephilim, and  elyonim alike  will  endure  any oppression  and absolutely will not cease to struggle until they are free. That is why, ultimately, you and Da’at cannot prevail. I am humbled to have them as my students. But I pity you.”

The Jovian moon Europa was smaller than the Earth’s own moon, with an area of only six percent of Earth’s  total extent and no atmosphere, but despite all that there were almost no craters visible. The entire surface of  the satellite was  comprised of water ice about six hundred feet  thick, and this ice existed at a temperature only a hundred degrees above absolute zero.

Underneath the ice was a  saltwater ocean sixty miles  deep and every bit as warm as a heated swimming pool. Racked by tides as Europa orbited Jupiter every  three and  a half  days, combined with perturbations from the other satellites, the thin crust of the satellite  was always cracking  open in random  places. This caused liquid water to be  exposed to  the vacuum of  space and freeze.

So the surface of the satellite became a  chaotic jumbled mess. There were icy ridges  two hundred  feet high  alternating with ravines just as deep, and all of these features were oriented at crazy angles with  no rhyme  nor  reason. And the terrain  was constantly changing. It was impossible to smooth out  a road on Europa. Sections of  the  pathway would  soon  fall  into  new crevasses or be blocked by new ridges.

So despite being one of the smoothest bodies in the Solar System on a large  scale, with  absolutely no  mountains to  speak of, Europa was perhaps  the  most difficult  place  in the  Jupiter system for colonists from the  Centauri system to  actually get around upon except by  flying in  spacecraft on  parabolic arcs from point-to-point.

But the House  of Gerash  didn’t take  all those  things into account when they barged into the Jupiter system first and took over Europa. They went for what they assumed was  the sweetest meat. Apollyon, the latest incarnation of Keter, thought only of all that easy-to-reach water, which hyz ships with their fission reactors required for reaction mass as propellant. Hy soon found there were  absolutely  no  other resources  on  Europa  within equally easy reach. All the metals  they required  had to  be imported from the other moons, or even from Heaven itself.

The only advantage Europa had over Ganymede  or Callisto (which also had a  mix of ice and  rock) was that to  provide water the ice didn’t have to chiseled out and melted first.

Europa was a black hole sucking up Apollyon’s treasure to keep the large, scattered population alive, and  returning so little in the way of water revenues that it essentially broke even year after year. Apollyon operated Europa,  therefore,  only as  a prestige showcase,  just to say  the Black Beards had  a growing toehold at Sol.

Power was plentiful to be sure, obtained by taking advantage of the large  thermal gradient between  the frozen surface  and the warm underground liquid  reservoir,  but on  Europa  it was  an existence where almost nothing could be thrown away. Every piece of garbage had to  be weighed  in the mind  with regard  to its possible value after being recycled.

So the colony languished, and after a time  Apollyon thought of it  seldom,  if ever. Europa rarely  figured in  the  military conflicts of the colonies. Despite having a far  larger total population than the  rest of  Jupiter’s system  combined, the largest towns  on  Europa  numbered only  in  the  hundreds  of souls. The colonists of Family Gerash on  Europa shattered into thousands of individual families living in  homesteads or small communal farms  with  very little  communication  between  each other.

Dory's house was too cramped  to properly show Michael  what he had come up  with so Ithuriel led  him to the top  of the little knoll which  was  still  adorned with  Dory's  treehouse. Dory herself had gone on ahead to Franklin along with most of the Red Wing of the defunct Church. Ithuriel could not hide his pleasure at the rare presence of his father, the seraph Michael, who was the absolute lord of Earth and arguably at least half of Heaven.

To the north they could see where the Squaw River forked to form an island, but it was just a trickle now. Ithuriel brought that to Michael's attention. He said, "The town is dying a little bit every day, father. I've come up here many times and I've watched it shrivel."

"There is no wisdom in completely stopping the  flow of water," Michael said, knowing that Ithuriel was well aware the source of the Squaw River was actually in Nyduly Wood more than four years away as the photon flies. "But as you have seen I am reducing it by degrees. I keep it  just below the level  it needs to  be to fully support the declining population of the town as it is from day  to day.  That serves  to keep  them moving  out. Eventually DECON will own the whole town, but by then they'll need to bring all their water in by truck."

"One consequence I've noticed, father, intended or not, is that the White  Wingers who thought  it was  a bargain buying  up Red Wing homes  at seventy cents on  the dollar are now  grateful to sell their own homes to  the United States government for thirty cents on the dollar."

Michael allowed hymself a sly  smile. "Over the centuries many have attributed to me the virtue of justice."

To the north and west they saw the island that formed the center of Greendome, anchored at one end by the courthouse  and on the other end by the  sheriff's station. But half of  the business were closed so  hard they  weren't even  boarded up. They were simply abandoned by  their  former owners  and  left for  Clyde Tolson of DECON to remake them in whatever image he had in mind. But Tolson himself had not been around for  several months. The War in Europe had entered its final year and J. Edgar Hoover had given Tolson's leash a tug, made him put  whatever side project he had going  on  in  Greendome on  hold  to  hunt down  actual domestic enemies, not  phantoms,  infiltrators  who were  Third Reich saboteurs and spies.

To the east  over the  roof of  his grandchild's  home Ithuriel could see the bulk of the town platted out  south of the river. Dory's friends Robyn and Sofie used to live over  there but now it was eerily quiet, with very little traffic. Half of the homes lay entirely vacant.

South and  east  was  the little  bump  informally  called  Mt. Motorcycle. It was perhaps  fifty feet  taller than  Treehouse Hill. A very small  cemetary lay on  it's flanks. The railroad from back east  wrapped completely  around it  and merged  with itself, the absolute end of the line. Behind the rail yard the uppermost vale of the Squaw bent south, then  turned west again to wrap nearly halfway around  the small mountain  called Green Dome that dominated the western sky line. On its summit lay the charred ruins  of  the  temple, which  remained  more  or  less untouched since the Desecration.

Anael waited patiently next  to a giant  hubcab about  six feet tall and wide enough to fill a two-car garage. It was standing, as it were, on its head. In a recess that would have been in its undercarriage there was  a round  plate the  size of  a manhole cover that Ithuriel could move with  a hand. As he did so, the control stick in  the  crew compartment  moved  as well. After Michael look at everything closely he asked his son, "What gave you  the idea  for  this  shape? It's  hardly  the most  optimum choice, considering air resistance."

Ithuriel smiled. "That is attributable  to a  most interesting story,  father.  Last June  a  US  Marine C-46  transport  plane crashed on the  western side of the highest peak  in the Cascade Range,  and when  word got  around,  a private  pilot named  Ken Arnold volunteered to aid with  the search. While Arnold circled Mount  Rainier he  spotted a  cluster of  nine brightly  glowing meteors rushing past his plane  at supersonic speed toward Mount Adams in  the south. Because they  were pieces of a  fireball in the  process  of  breaking  up,  they seemed  to  be  flying  in formation, so Arnold assumed  they were aircraft. He interpreted their intermittent bursts of  brightness to be sunlight glinting off polished  aluminum. The pieces  were of irregular  shape and they were tumbling end over end, which made them hop up and down in the air stream.

"After his flight Arnold told a reporter that they  flew like a saucer  skipping over  water. This  sighting sparked  an ongoing national obsession  with 'flying  saucers' that borders  on mass hysteria because people insist on identifying them as spacecraft operated by aliens. Perhaps it is just more fun that way. But by July  there were  many more  saucer sightings.  Some are  honest mistakes  much  like the  one  Arnold  had  made, but  most  are outright copycat hoaxes. The reporter somehow garbled Arnold’s description. The pilot  merely tried to convey  that the objects moved like  saucers, not that  they looked like saucers.  But it was too late,  the erroneous quote was already in  print, so now everyone keeps 'seeing'  saucers. When I was stumped  on a final body  design Remiel  mentioned  the big  national flying  saucer craze that is going on. He said, 'If you make it in the shape of a flying saucer, then even if  people see us and report it, they won’t be believed. If they photograph us in flight, they will be accused of taking a snapshot of a hub cap.'

"Brilliant. But I don't see a motor. What makes  you believe it will fly?"

"Oh, father, I knew it would fly  from the moment I  lit off my copy of the  Golden Gift and pointed it down  towards the Earth. It  pushed  up against  my  hand.  I  knew the  basic  operating principle was negative energy, which acts like anti-gravity, and that is also  what you use to hold open  a fold-door. The source of this negative  energy is your own stellar  body, not anything in the relic itself. This I  confirmed when I took one apart and found nothing inside but a garnet.

"Now as  the scripture  says,  your  thoughts  are not  as  our thoughts,  but you  made  the first  Golden  Gift yourself,  and wherever it  was taken,  some corner of  your mind  continued to track that  garnet so  you could produce  the killing  effect on demand, and this  you continue to do even when  it is multiplied by Gabriel.  This saucer I  have made has  a plate instead  of a garnet, but if you touch it, your mind will track it also."

"And why would I volunteer to  do that, son? Since  the days of Lael Keter and  Da'at have each had their own  equivalent of the Golden Gift but they never allow a world-dweller to possess them because even  a sun can only  make so much negative  energy in a given  span of  time,  and  deploying the  Golden  Gift at  full blossom consumes  it at a rate  comparable to that of  opening a fold-door."

"Ah, yes, father,  but Binah  can supply  unlimited amounts  of negative  energy  from other  branches,  or  even bring  forward non-utilized  negative energy  from  this branch,  can she  not? Besides, ever since that debacle  with the FBI agents I've known what it  is you're really  after. It's  not enough that  you win and  break  through to  the  City  of  Stars  with news  of  our existence.  Elyon  and  Chemosh  must be  caught  red-handed  in active resistance,  and you're  enlisting Earthbound  allies for them.  Special Agent  in Charge  Tolson would  forget all  about schoolgirls with  buffalo horns if  he got  a whiff of  a flying saucer."

Anael winked at Michael. "My father has got you there, Lord."

"Yes, he always was a sharp cookie." Michael touched the pusher plate as his son knew he would.

"Thank you, father," Ithuriel said. "And now we're ready for you to do your part, Anael."

Then Anael applied hez talent to lift the saucer  from its edge until che was holding it over hez head. Che twisted it mid-air, and set it back down  with the flight  deck right side  up. The interior ribs of the saucer had been designed to permit Anael to do precisely that without  warping or  snapping the  vehicle in two.

"Thank you, Anael," said Ithuriel, and he opened the door in the side of the craft. It popped straight out,  then slid  to the right on tracks. "Shall we see if it flies?" He ducked his head and stepped inside.

Michael said, "That door is easily the most complicated part of this whole contraption,"  but  he, too,  stepped inside  after his son. It smelled like  the  interior of  a very  expensive automobile because the circular  couch was upholstered  in new leather. "Ah yes, a whiff of home," said Michael sardonically. "The tanners on Arcturus IV did an amazing job."

"We can let ourselves be seen skinning cows every  now and then to explain it, should Tolson ever capture a saucer."

"You go ahead, Lord," said Anael. "I prefer to watch the crash from here." Then che slid the door shut and watched it lift from the hilltop into the sky over Headwater.

The saucer didn't go very far, only to the summit of Green Dome where the charred remains  of the  Temple lay. Ithuriel didn't really have anywhere to go at the moment, he really just wanted to verify the concept would work and sample the maneuverabiulity of the thing.

Michael and Ithuriel got out and looked down on the little town. They could see the  tiny figure  of Anael  waving at  them from Treehouse Hill. Michael asked his son if  he had  any theories about how stars generated negative energy.

"I do have a tentative  idea, father, but  I am hobbled  by the fact  that  I  cannot  build  the  apparatus  I  need  to  fully investigate the effect,  and by the current state  of physics in this time,  which was advancing  rapidly but lately it  has been put on hold by  the war. I know, for instance,  that the core of atoms are made  of two particles, a proton and  a neutron, and I know that  a neutron all by  itself will decay in  about fifteen minutes into  a proton,  an electron, and  a particle  called an antineutrino we haven't  yet observed but we know  must be there to balance the energy books in beta decay.

"If a neutron decays  in fifteen minutes  how does  a deuteron, with just  a proton  and a  neutron, not  itself decay  into two protons after fifteen minutes?"

"We think when proton and neutron are close  together they keep changing  identities somehow,  a proton  becoming a  neutron and vice versa, and every time this happens the clock on the neutron is  reset. We've  also found  that protons  and neutrons  have a magnetic moment, which implies  some kind of internal structure, so they're not fundamental particles, but we haven't probed much beyond  that. If  nucleons  are made  of  smaller pieces,  these pieces should be  able to form other kinds of  things we haven't seen yet, not protons and  neutrons. So consider a magnet, which always has a north and south pole.  If you break it in half, you will have  two smaller magnets, and  each one has its  own north and south pole. Even the elementary particles that comprise them are just tiny magnets. So we see if a magnetic field line enters a magnet of  any size whatsoever, it also  must continue through and leave the magnet. The field lines are closed loops. But what if there existed particles that could  be either a source  or a sink of a magnetic field?"

"Ithuriel, you  are speaking  of  something  called a  magnetic monopole,  but again,  with my  access to  all of  the knowledge accumulated by the City of Stars, I can tell you the Elohim have never once observed a particle such as you describe."

"And yet,  father,  years  ago  you told  me  the  Elohim  have developed models describing the primordial universe, and some of these models posited an era when the universe was richly flooded with magnetic monopoles. That was, in fact, when I first learned of the concept."

"I do remember telling that to you, son," said  Michael, "but I also  remember telling  you  that the  most  elegant model,  one with the  most beautiful  simplicity combined with  the greatest explanatory power, remains merely conjecture if the most obvious details remain unobserved."

"Then, father, please allow me to mention an article in the May 1940 journal Physical Review  anouncing the synthesis of element 93. It has  a half-life of only two million  years, so any large amounts that  were present  at the formation  of the  Earth have long since decayed. It was not  until a sample of element 93 was prepared by  neutron irradiation  that anyone on  Earth actually observed it. So if magnetic monopoles are similarly unstable, it would come as no surprise the Elohim have not found one, if they never attempted to synthesize them."

Michael was beginning to enjoy  this unexpected battle  of wits with his beloved son. He said, "On the contrary, the Elohim have examined collisions from the  ejecta of collapsed  stars, which are quite a bit more powerful than anything mankind can assemble here, yet to no avail on the monopole front."

"I suspected as much, father, and I have abandoned searching for magnetic monopoles as fundamental  particles. But  ensembles of fundamental particles  can have interesting properties,  do they not?"

"The Elohim  have long  known  that  protons and  neutrons  are made  of  three smaller  particles,  and  they continually  swap things between  themselves things made  of two of  these smaller particles. You  are on the right  track, and no doubt  after the war this will be discovered by human researchers."

"Very good, father. But  consider an ensemble  made of  four of these smaller particles.  They would have four  dipoles with two quantum spin states each. Under normal conditions, in the ground state, each ensemble has two  dipoles with their magnetic moment directed in  and two dipoles  directed out, and entropy  forms a kind  of committee  which enforces  this. But  if you  raise the ensemble to an excited state, stochastic processes will flip the spins to a random state.  That's when things get interesting. On the  scale of  the ensemble  particle itself,  all is  well. The magnetic field lines pass through  the dipoles as loops, as they should. But scale things up a bit, and look at the particle from the outside. You might have  three magnetic moments pointing in, and one  pointing out. So  you have a  net sink of  the magnetic field.  Alternatively, you  might  have  three magnetic  moments facing out and one in, giving you a net source. As a result, the particle can be treated, mathematically, exactly like a magnetic monopole. It's easy enough  to  make  monopoles, or  at  least facimiles of monopoles,  but the  real  trick is  to keep  them separated long  enough to  put  them  to work. Ensembles with opposite net magnetic moments will attract each  other and drop to the ground state after the collision. They would perhaps even soon decay into normal protons and neutrons."

As hyz son continued to explain hyz device  Michael was reduced to staring at Ithuriel in open-mouthed awe. Hyz thoughts raced ahead to glimpse how magnetic  monopoles, the real  ones, might have reduced the prevalence of normal matter in the universe to the present five percent of reality.

Ithuriel went on to say, "At some distance from the monopole the electric and  magnetic fields  operate  under  an extension  of Maxwell's classical field equations that include a parameter for magnetic charge. But the two kinds of fields are not compatible. It'd be like  mixing oil and water. Since lines  of magnetic and electric flux  can never cross  there develops something  like a skin  between  the two  different  fields,  and that's  where  a wonderful  and  unexpected  thing happens,  father.  If  quantum excitations of an electromagnetic field cross that surface, they become  carriers  of negative  energy.  If  matter crosses  that surface  all the  mass remains,  and it's  still subject  to the gravitational  field,  but  it  no  longer  interacts  with  the electromagnetic field, so it  goes 'dark'. Or more specifically, it becomes  transparent. Electrons fly free  of their attraction to protons. From our frame  of reference  the matter  is simpy gone. This is exactly what happens when we use the Golden Gift, father. So there you have it, the best I  can do describing how it works without re sorting to a heap of equations, and I would have to explain  the symbols  I use  before the  equations made sense"

Michael said, "You may not yet see the full import of your deed, but I would  proudly rank  it  among any  of the  works of  the Elohim.  Perhaps  one day  men  will  have a  fold-door  network entirely of  your own.  And know  I know  every teacher  must be ready for the day when hy has nothing more to pass along, simply because he  has been surpassed  by his  own student. I  tell you that day  has now  come, and  I should be  melancholy, yet  I am exceedingly proud, for you are my own son."

"I don't understand, father. Why  should you feel sad  when you have fulfilled your role as teacher?"

"Perhaps it has to do with being a living star by nature, and a world-dweller only by choice. When I heard your explanation just now, I also saw the beginning of sunset for the Elohim."

"Then with your leave, father, grant your student another lesson for his teacher. Ever you have seen the Elohim  as the ones who teach, and humanity as the ones  who are taught. Yet what is the goal of such a relationship if  not that both should grow into a full  partnership?  Have you  never  considered  what the  B'nei Elohim will do after we aid in your victory over Keter and Daat? Do you  think their corruption  is unique among the  Elohim? Are there no  other living stars who  are held aloof from  the other elohim? We will find and ally with them as well."

"Michael bowed  hyz head  in  acceptance  of Ithuriel's  gentle rebuke, but at once a new  stream of thought came into his mind. He said,  "Are you fully  assured that you can  communicate with Doriel at once, at  any time, no  matter the  physical distance between you?"

"Of course I am, father,  but I also  happen to know  that Dory prefers to keep  such communications to a bare  minimum. I don't blame hem."

"Then are you also assured that no matter where you are, if you are in immediate  danger I can summon a fold  door and whisk you away?"

"There are the tales in the Green Book, but I  was too young to remember my mother before sha died. I have only known this place and time. But Dory told me that you once whisked har and Gabriel to the top of Green Dome in  such a manner, and I have no reason to doubt har."

"Then I have one more question, Ithuriel. Do you  think you can stand before seraphim, either Elyon or Chemosh, and lie to their face?"

"Now that, father, might need to be put to the test, and failing it, I would certainly be glad of a life line to Dory. But why do you ask?"

I would have you and your family leave this place, but I wanted you to be entirely certain I would never put you nor Beleth nor Remiel in any  sort  of  danger with  no  promise of  instantly retrieving you."

"What danger, father? Are we now to join Doriel  and the others who have already moved to the west coast?"

"Oh no, I had a place in mind that is somewhat farther away than just the state of  Washington. Something on  the order  of five hundred million miles away."

It did not escape notice that part of the surface of Europa was streaked with color. Some of the colonists  realized the  sea salts in those areas were rich with minerals  such as magnesium or iron or even gold  that could be painstakingly  extracted by electrolysis. Some families started operations to extract these minerals.

In short order the ones who did this not only went entirely off the Gerash dole, they turned a tidy profit in  their own right. Apollyon naturally demanded a cut of new these profits in taxes. Most did not comply, judging  it would be far  more troublesome and expensive to extract these taxes by force than could ever be obtained in the shakedown.

But they forgot the ancient principle of “kill one  to warn a thousand”.

The mining  operations  were  easily spotted  by  the  navy  of Apollyon from orbit  by examining the waste  stream. The melted, discolored waste water  was dumped  on the  surface to  freeze, leaving a tell-tale sign someone was living  and working below. Apollyon sent warships on random raids  to cow the rest  of the homesteaders with mining  operations into  paying up. Whatever else was taken in these raids  was pure booty for  the ship’s crew.

There were, however, a few devout families who required no such intimidation. One such family belonged to  Ithuriel, husband of Anael  and father  of  Remiel. Hy paid the  Gerash  tax out  of loyalty to Apollyon as the tribute  due a seraph, and, the truth be told,  hy paid  primarily  out  of  loyalty to  Michael  who commanded it when he first sent Ithuriel and hyz family to build a homestead on Europa.

But their substantial tax payments did not  redound directly to the  account  of the  offers  and  men  of  the Exiler. To the commanding officer  of  the  frigate  this  made  them  perfect candidates for a raid, off the books.