Terah, if he knew the extent of the bombs devastation, chose not to share it with Martin.
What Terah did tell Martin was many things about his own history. That he was son of Telar, who was the son of Meshah, begotten son of Almeg, the son of Javan, who was the son of Japheth who had come through the deluge. He has two sons, and is eighty-seven years old. Martin thought that he looked to be in his mid-fifties. His grandfather was one of the builders of the henge, and that was about one hundred and eighty years prior.
Javan was one of those who had worked on the Tower of Jupiter Belus, when the light came and bound their voices. From then, many could no longer communicate directly, and had to revert to verbal communication. They could no longer understand each other’s, languages and were forced to return whence they came.
Martin was then taken into the tunnels beneath the henge. One of the tunnels connected the henge to a burial chamber where ashes and bones of the dead were stored. Terah showed Martin a set of tunnels that was used to drive pulses of air into the center of the henge to produce the seismic message pulses that Martin had felt the previous evening.
The pyre of the previous evening had served as a crematorium for one of the elder men who had died a few days before.
Martin asked Terah about the seismic messaging, and how it worked. He told Martin that each henge that was used for communicating, and had a series of tunnels of set lengths and orientations. These tunnels were closed off when the pyre at this site was ignited; they then became resonant receivers. They could receive messages being sent from elsewhere, providing they matched the same resonant frequency. The tunnels were closed off on the end that otherwise opened to the outside. A large skin was stretched across the tunnel, near its opening. The reader stood at the skin and could feel the vibrations of the message. In this way, some of the messages could be sent over a distance of three or four days travel.
The henges were used on a regular schedule or for special ceremonies such as last night. Tonight they will worship per their regular schedule. It is not a message night for this henge but they will have a fire and will be in harmony with about one hundred and fifty other henges. He said it would be an exciting night, because the clouds would be low, and the lights from other fires would be plainly visible for many miles. Martin was invited to go down into the tunnel and listen to the “voices of many people”.
The group of people attending tonight would be a larger then had been there on the previous night.
Martin was invited to eat with them. ANGL explained this privilege as probably great honor. People in this time did not break bread with anyone who was not in good standing with them. Terah’s extended family amounted to fifty or sixty people. Though the families cooked over several different fires, it was difficult to separate the groups as they wandered freely from fire to fire. This feast was special; this was a monthly worship meeting. There was a regular worship, every seventh night. The henges were divided into seven groups. Each group used a different night to lead worship. Readers were posted every night to hear the news from other groups. Some people could also read the messages as they flicker off of the clouds.
Everyone prepared to head for the plain as the sun set. They all seemed to know exactly where they were going to sit or stand.
Terah and Martin would join the families later. First we were going underground to hear the ‘humms’; the “voices of many peoples.” By the time they reached the tunnel that was near the tree line, the fire had been started. The two men sat near the entrance to the tunnel with several dozen other listeners. As the pulse began Martin thought that the main fire would drown any sound coming from the tunnel. Carefully he listened.
“Martin, do you hear it?”
He strained harder to distinguish the sound. Then almost as if he was listening for the wrong sound, he heard it; a resonant harmonic overtone. He listened harder. What he was hearing was the combined effect of several henge drones. It seemed that if the fire had not been going he would have heard nothing. But the minute bias of the other seismic waves combined to make a sound like a Gregorian chant of angels. It was a sound you could feel, almost taste; like a sound from heaven.
“I hear it. It’s beautiful. Is there meaning in the music?”
“Yes, I can only interpret some of it, but the readers can both read and send. However, to send they have to be in the tunnel system leading from the center of the henge. But this is not a message night for this henge. Shall we go? It is time to be with the families.”
“Yes, of course.” They headed out onto the plain. On this evening, their place would be in the outer ring where Martin would be able to tolerate the pulse. The next ring in was for the people in service of the henge, and the inner circle were the leaders of worship for this community.
As they stood watching the column of flame spiraling into the sky, Martin realized that, for as far as he could see, the underside of the clouds were dotted with pulsing spots of light; other henges in the distance. From his new position, closer than on the previous night, Martin could hear almost the same humming as he had heard at the mouth of the tunnel. The pitch of the sound was now dropping out of the audible range and the light pulse was becoming even more pronounced.
At the edge of the henge air was being rapidly drawn into the fire. A layer of ground dust raced inward between the columns. The robes of the leaders standing in the inner circles flapped in the in rush of air.
Martin; how many miles per hour did you say that column of flame is traveling.
ANGL: The surface visible to you is traveling between one hundred twenty and one hundred twenty-five feet per second.
Martin; What was the part about the Aurora Borealis.
ANGL: You may not see it with the cloud backdrop, but these columns of flames are traveling fast enough to generate an electromagnetic spike that can influence the character of the Northern Lights.
At that moment a bolt of lightning pierced out of the clouds and the thunder pounded immediately. The bolt passed right through the center of the flame column, scattering the flame and muting the pulse. Within a few seconds the column had formed again.
ANGL: Oh, and . . . .
Martin; What’s with the ‘oh and’ stuff? Were you planning on keeping the advent of that tidbit a secret? That scared the crap out of me.
ANGL: That was next on the list. Not only does it draw lightning but an ice blue spritz will leap from the cloud top into space as the lightning strikes below. The spritz dissipates into the magnetosphere in thousands of tentacles. In your time, the spritz have been witnessed by airline pilots and astronauts. They are not readily visible from the ground.
Martin; Is that color, on the underside of those clouds, the Northern Lights?
ANGL: Yes but the colors are very muted by the clouds. It would be a very dramatic light show, otherwise.
The pulse in the air was now becoming very noticeable and almost uncomfortable. People here and there had lifted their hands skyward in praise. The young girl, who had waved at Martin that same morning, was standing nearby. She was slowly daviting. Then she carefully lowered herself toward the ground, slumping over backward. It seemed as if she was asleep.
Martin’s focus returned to the other people.
Martin: Terah; where are the bubbles coming from?
Terah: I don’t know where they come from, heaven probably. I can only tell you that they appear during our times of worship. Notice that they seem to be present over those who are deep in worship, the ones with uplifted hands. They are in greater numbers over some groups. We call the bubbles “hosts”. They appear to be mobile, in a state of excitement, almost frenzy. Sometimes you can hear them sing. The size of the bubble has some relationship to the prominence of the host that inhabits it.
Martin: Inhabits?
Terah: Yes, watch them closely. You can see a face in the bubble. The bubble even appears around the heads of
some of the people.
Martin: You mean above?
Terah: No I mean it envelopes their head. All I can tell is that those people are generally known to be highly devoted worshippers.
Martin; ANGL, do you understand what he means by “host”.
ANGL: Not exactly. The resource is scant, but the meaning lies somewhere between cloud and messenger. I think Terah is describing your understanding of angels.
Martin; What about the bubbles?
ANGL: In classical religious paintings and icons, some people are depicted with what you call haloes, which, look like these bubbles. These bubbles may be temporary realm definitions.
Martin; Do you really think so? I mean I thought that haloes were just a symbol of some sort.
ANGL: The theology module and your memory would tend to support the notion of a symbol. But, it looks real enough to indicate otherwise.
Terah: Look over there, at the man standing behind that group? The man with his hands raised.
Martin; Yeah.
Terah: Can you see the bubble over his head?
With a nervous giggle, Martin responded
Martin; No I can’t see . . . wait! I do see it. Wow! That is really strange. What are they there for?
Terah: They’re present during most of our worship. Their presence encourages us. It reinforces our belief that God is listening. That man is presently experiencing the presence of God in a way that few can understand. That man may even be present in heaven at this moment.
Martin; I don’t remember hearing anything like that in church.
ANGL: The theology module makes reference to a sense or gift that has been present over the millennia; to a greater or lesser degree. Only recently was the phenomena known to have reemerged at the turn of the century.
Martin; What phenomena?
ANGL: The presence of bubbles. They show up in some worship meetings and some claim to have recorded it with digital photography.
Martin; I’ve never heard of that. Do you think that it is an ability that we’ve lost over time?
ANGL: It may not be lost. You don’t seem to have lost it. You may just have been denying it.
Martin; I wonder what else I’ve been denying?”
A bit later there was a break in the clouds. The Aurora Borealis could be seen in the distance, dancing above neighboring henges, about ten to fifteen miles distant. Martin was even able to see a spritz explode out the top of a thunderhead, while lightning danced on the underside.
From his close vantage point, the pounding of the seismic sound was all pervasive. It was readily apparent that those who stood much closer had to have conditioned themselves over time to withstand the tremor.
From time to time people would sing chants that would be picked up like a slow wave at a football game. Worship continued into the night. By midnight the fire and sound had diminished and coalesced into one large campfire. And one by one, the people had drifted back to their places in the woods.
MARTIN, IT’S TIME TO COME HOME.
Martin; What did you say?
ANGL: Nothing, however, I have achieved some reliable measurements on celestial orientations and with predictable orbital decay I can make safe projections of time and distance.
Martin; Okay. But didn’t you say anything before that.
ANGL: No. What did you hear?
Martin; ? ? ? Oh, nothing. I must have been mistaken. When can we leave?
ANGL: When we get back to Beta Site.
Martin; I guess that will have to be tomorrow afternoon. I’d better get some sleep. I’ll stay with Terah and his family and leave in the morning.
* * * * *
Chapter 29 – Omega translation
The question shouldn’t be “do you love me?” but “do I love you enough?”
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