The Thrones of Eden 3 (Eden) Page 15

  She then took a few steps back as if to admire a painting in its whole, and then shook her head disapprovingly. “This can’t be right,” she finally said.

  “What?”

  She pointed to the Mintaka calendar. “This.”

  Hillary seemed perplexed, as did John. This was not a good sign.

  “This calendar begins during the autumnal equinox with a given date of December 21, 2012, which is amazing since the people of Eden apparently had the foresight to see that the Mayan calendar was a tool marking the celestial rotation of stars over a period of thousands of years. People thought the end of the Mayan calendar also marked the end of times. But the Mayan calendar was really a device to track the natural cycle and rotation of the star systems in the universe. All the map did was to tell us that the first cycle was closing on December 21st, and that the stars were realigning themselves for a second cycle. It’s like the hands of a clock,” she continued. “At midnight, when the day ends and a new day is about to begin, all the hands on the clock are at twelve. But when the second hand begins to move, it also starts the new cycle for the new day until the hands are no longer aligned, like the stars. The Mayan calendar did the same thing by tracking the path of planets and stars over millenniums, with the stars and planets serving as the hands of a clock. It was more than just a calendar,” she told them. “It was also a celestial timekeeper.”

  “So what’s not right about this?” asked John.

  “This calendar actually shows an end date of 2021, sometime between the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, with no exact day given.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Hillary.

  She nodded. “There doesn’t seem to be a disruption within the rotation of the planets. There’s just a disturbing finality about it without any given explanation as to how or why.”

  “Perhaps there is,” said Demir. He was standing to the right of the seal with his hand pressed against the wall. “There’s script etched into the wall here,” he told her.

  Not only did John, Hillary and Alyssa make haste, so did the minister and the rest of Demir’s team, the minister already grabbing his camera and notebook to photograph and chart the writings.

  Alyssa had not seen these characters since she had read the walls within Eden, old and very ancient, letters she had seen before inside the vessel they explored beneath the Yucatan Peninsula.

  There were three stanzas:

  “Can you read it?” asked Hillary. “Does the answer lie within?”

  Alyssa read the stanzas over several times, trying to make sure that she made no mistakes or errors, that her analysis was spot on.

  John put his hands on her shoulders. She was trembling.

  She read it over and over in her mind, the meanings never changing, the passages reading the same way every time.

  In the period between the equinoxes starting at Vernal,

  The Second Humankind who sit upon the Thrones of Eden within the temple of Alnitak

  Will rise from the ruin of man’s downfall and shall forever Reign

  In the period that began on Day One inside the Temple of Edin (Eden)

  Sits the First Cycle of Humankind

  Where he shall lay until the 108th Phase of the Full Moon

  Within the Second Cycle

  On the eve of the 108th Phase

  The Reign of the First Humankind will come to an End

  And a Second Coming of Humankind

  Will rise from the Thrones of Alnitak

  A light squeeze from John’s hand brought her back. “Honey.” His voice sounded distant.

  She reached up, grabbed his hand, squeezed his fingers gently, and continued to consider the writings further. The three stanzas were in three different languages, in three separate scripts, but posed no difficulty for her as she read them out loud for everyone to hear.

  She was slow and deliberate and did not editorialize. She simply read the verses exactly as they had been written.

  When she was done Demir was the first to speak. “It really doesn’t sound all too promising, does it?”

  Hillary traced his palms over the stanzas. “Are you sure that’s what this says?”

  She nodded. “Unlike the Sumerian writing on the seal, these stanzas show marginal similarities to three different languages that later show up in the Babylonian, Phoenician and Egyptian vernaculars.”

  She continued to read the script silently and tried to associate it to the meaning of the Mintaka calendar. According to the calendar’s agenda, the End of Times would happen sometime in 2021 with man’s downfall happening sometime between the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, the months between spring and fall. When man finally ceases to exists, then according to the stanzas, a new race of humankind will rise and take his place.

  Am I reading this right?

  But no matter how many times she read it, no matter the arrangement of the syntax or how many times she dissected every word or meaning, the answer was always the same: something cataclysmic was going happen during the vernal and autumnal equinoxes of 2021 that will wipe out mankind. And whatever is sitting upon the thrones inside the temple of Alnitak will rise and take control.

  She saw the configuration of temples in her mind’s eye, recalling the pattern as if seeing them from above, an aerial view, all in a design representing the exact placement of the three major stars in the Orion Belt.

  They had discovered Eden’s main temple as well as the temple of Mintaka. Alnitak had yet to be discovered—and according to the archaic script, this was the temple that housed the Keepers who will rise in 2021 and assume complete command.

  Alyssa became sickened at the thought, her hand delicately landing on her belly.

  John pulled her close. “Hon, are you all right?”

  She nodded that she was. But she wasn’t. Not really. She had seen enough of Eden to know that there was always validity in the statements that it made. Mankind was going to end in the year 2021. She didn’t know how. She just did. And the new emperors—the new kings or queens—were now sitting upon the thrones inside the temple of Alnitak, waiting.

  But logically, as her mind searched for hope, she had to wonder how it was possible for anything to sustain itself for a period of 14,000 years.

  How?

  The question boggled her.

  The answer eluded her.

  But she needed to know.

  Softly, she rubbed her hand against her abdomen. My baby never had a chance.

  Between March and September of the year 2021, mankind will cease to exist, including her child, whom she had already grown to love.

  “Do you think, Alyssa, that this wording and phrasing is just a cryptic message filled with allegories or metaphors? Perhaps you’re reading too much into it.”

  She wanted to believe that, she wanted to finally believe in something Hillary had to say. But the inscriptions had no ties to cryptic riddles, whatsoever. The Sumerians were the first known race to scribe their history, which included countless scriptures regarding the God Anu, the Creator of mankind. But this race predated the Sumerians by thousands of years, which showed an obvious link and influence within subsequent cultures across the world at that time. If there was one thing Alyssa had learned over the years regarding God, it was that God had many faces and many names, but only one voice. And He was certainly too big for one religion.

  Whatever lay in this crypt, she considered, whether it be under the name of Allah or Yahweh or Anu, it was nevertheless the God of all people.

  “Alyssa?”

  She bounced back from deep thought. She could tell that Hillary was fishing for hope by the pitch of his tone; by the way he asked her the question. So she finally answered him. “The Mintaka calendar and its corresponding stanzas were created in precise detail to indicate the end of mankind in the year 2021.” She pointed to the first stanza. “Here, it clearly states that mankind will fall during the periods between the months of March and September, between the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, and a new r
ace will rise after man’s ruin.

  “The second stanza indicates that the First Humankind—that would be Adam and Eve—shall lie within the tombs of Eden and rule until the 108th cycle of the full moon after the start of the new calendar sequence,” she said. “Which would be what? 108 months? Nine years after the end of the Mayan calendar?”

  “That would mark the year 2021. The year of our downfall,” said Savage.

  She nodded in agreement. “And here, in the third stanza, it clearly indicates that on the eve of the 108th month, which would be the month of December, man will cease to exist and the new humankind will rise from the temple of Alnitak.” She turned to Hillary. Her face remained neutral. “I hate to tell you this,” she told him, “but this script is pretty straight forward. There’s no riddles, no metaphors, no allegories, nothing to indicate anything other than what it states—that God’s intention is to destroy mankind in December of 2021, and that a new race will rise from the temple of Alnitak.”

  Everyone looked at the seal and the stanzas with serious eyes.

  “How can anybody predict something like that?” said Hillary. “It’s just another false prophesy to add to the already existing number of ‘end-of-the-world prophesies.’”

  Alyssa nodded. She didn’t think so . . . Eden, after all, was different.

  “Here,” said Demir. He now stood on the other side of the seal. “There’s more.”

  The congregation flowed to the seal’s left, where there was more lettering, more symbols, but less archaic than the stanzas on the right.

  Alyssa read: “For those who have made it to the Chamber of the One, prepare to set thine eyes upon the face of God, the Emperor of Edin (Eden), and the Creator of Mankind.”

  Hillary scanned the area, seeing nothing. There were no levers, no triggers, no buttons or tiles or anything to maneuver. “How do we get inside?” he asked.

  Everyone searched the area, finding nothing. But on the lower portion of the seal was an emblem of the Orion Belt. The star Mintaka, in particular, was surrounded by the design of a star-point diamond to emphasize the image. Raising her finger and allowing it to hover inches away from the symbol, she stood there as if debating whether to touch it or not, perhaps weighing the consequences of breaching the chamber of God.

  But when she finally did the image of Mintaka settled into the seal, which began to rumble and shake as weights and balances began to move within the walls. The seal then began to roll slowly to its right. The calendar was now a wheel, the seal turning over until it finally exposed a doorway.

  Alyssa could feel her heart skipping inside her chest as she took in a deep breath and released it with an equally long sigh.

  This is it, she told herself.

  This is the Chamber of God.

  They headed inside.

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  The room was incredibly spacious. And according to the schematic recorded on the minister’s monitor screen, they were in the center of the pyramid and directly beneath the cap, about 200 meters down.

  They moved ahead as a unit of one, all close together, shoulder to shoulder with Demir and the rest of his team providing security as they held their weapons high, the barrels pivoting from left to right, their eyes alert.

  In the center of the room was a rounded platform created solely of clear crystal. It was perfectly circular and rose ten feet above the floor with steps on the east and west ends of the staging area. Four columns rose from the stage’s floor—odd constructions of corkscrewing ladders emerging from the edges of the stage with the four ladder-like columns curling over the top and joining together above a massive sarcophagus that sat at the center of the stage.

  Although cautious, everybody was captivated as well.

  They stood along the stage’s foundation that looked like ice, giving the impression that the sarcophagus was floating on air. At the foundation there were rectangular openings that ran around the crystal base. Topside, sitting beneath the connecting overhang of the odd-shaped columns, laid a gold-encased sarcophagus that was approximately four meters long, about thirteen feet, and a meter and a half wide, nearly five feet across. It was literally the size of a lifeboat, the sarcophagus itself the symbolic craft of God’s celestial voyage back to Heaven, to the twelfth planet in the solar system.

  One by one they mounted steps that were difficult to see since they were constructed of clear crystal, and made it topside where they gathered around the tomb. On the gold-encrusted lid was the bas-relief carving of the Mintaka calendar surrounded by the ladders of DNA strands.

  Even the columns surrounding the sarcophagus were constructions of DNA helixes that curved over and joined together above the coffin at a mutual point, the mark of the four columns meeting above the sarcophagus appearing like the ceiling of a gazebo.

  Alyssa took a closer examination of the four columns, as did Hillary and Savage, each noting slight disparities in each one.

  “Each column,” Hillary began, “signifies a DNA strand.”

  “But to what?” John asked.

  Hillary looked at the sarcophagus. “Perhaps of what lies within,” he said.

  Alyssa traced a hand along the curved design of the supports, finding odd breaks that appeared purposeful in its making, a disruption in the chain.

  And Demir spoke. “DNA chains were not known 14,000 years ago,” he said. “How could they possibly be the designs of columns that surround this tomb?”

  Alyssa shook her head. “I don’t know. But that’s what they are. DNA strands.”

  “But the odd breaks,” said Savage. “Hillary mentioned them before. We saw them in the holographic images in the room with the scaled model, remember?”

  “They are extremely close to human DNA by design,” said Hillary. “But the odd severances alter the makeup and would create something humanlike, but also something that is completely different.”

  “How different?” asked Savage.

  “Something obviously humanoid . . . But then again, and depending on the breaks, it could be anything between primate to something greater than man on the evolutionary scale. You have to remember, John, the differences in the DNA sequence between man and the chimpanzee is less than two percent. Yet there are great differences in anatomy. But this appears to be less than one percent, which would keep in line with modern man.”

  Alyssa made her way to the sarcophagus and laid her hands on the lid. It felt cool to the touch. “The Tomb of the One,” she whispered. “The Tomb of Anu, the God and creator of mankind.”

  “He is not my God,” said Demir, sounding defensive. “My God is Allah. Not the god of the people who existed here 14,000 years ago. Whatever God lays within this crypt is the god of heathens.”

  Alyssa immediately contradicted him by shaking her head. “God has many images in many cultures,” she said. “Therefore, it is said that God has many faces but only one voice. In fact, Allah has more than ninety-nine names in the Torah. God also has other names in other cultures. He also has many faces. Many images cast in images to suit cultural needs. But in the end He has only one voice.” She continued to stroke the surface with gentle and loving caresses, as if it was the flesh of a newborn. “Whoever lies in this sarcophagus is the primary image of God, the first God, perhaps the one true God who had been adopted and shared by cultures all over the world.”

  Demir fought for calm. As a Muslim he believed that God had no face. So whatever lay in the crypt was obviously a false deity. “If anything,” he said, “he was nothing more than a king or an emperor of his time, someone who was looked upon as God.”

  “Perhaps,” she said.

  Hillary remained enamored with the symbolic columns, then said, “Ancient tombs were often decorated with allegorical and metaphorical images. And I would like to proffer the theory that the DNA structure is tied to whatever it is that lies within this sarcophagus. But I’m afraid that Mulazim awwal Abaza Demir is quite correct when he stated that the knowledge of the DNA strand did not exist
14,000 years ago.”

  Savage pointed to the columns. “Then what are these?” he asked. “What is the metaphorical representation behind them if they didn’t know? They sure as hell look like DNA strands to me.”

  “I’m just saying that it was impossible for such knowledge to exist so long ago.”

  “Are you kidding? Look around you, Hillary. This entire temple, as well as the temple of Eden, was created by lost technology that cannot be duplicated today. Who knows what these people knew or didn’t know back then.”

  Savage was right, he considered. These were definitely images of DNA helixes.

  “Seeing that the columned helixes curve over this sarcophagus and join together as a protective ceiling,” ventured Savage, “I’m willing to bet that Hillary is right, that it also represents the genetic structure of whatever it is that lies within.” Savage placed his palms against the sarcophagus’ edges and pushed. The lid didn’t even budge, not even a fraction.

  People stood idle and no one offered to assist him, which irked Savage to no end. “Let’s go, people. I can’t do this by myself. If you want to set your eyes upon the face of God, then I need your help.”

  Demir hesitated, as did his remaining team, which had been whittled down to three, and then he nodded to them, the simple gesture implying that it was all right to aid Savage by removing the lid.

  The men joined in, including Hillary, with Alyssa also pulling her weight, and began to force the gold lid aside.

  They pushed and grunted as cords of veins stood alongside their necks. The lid then gave, rose, then inched aside, creating a darkened gap. The opening grew, becoming wider, and then the lid slid over the edge and struck the platform hard, the entire stage trembling beneath the weight of its fall.

  Everyone had shown their lights inside the sarcophagus.

  Hillary’s eyes widened. “We are truly blessed,” he said. “For those who have made it to the Chamber of the One, prepare to set thine eyes upon the face of God, the Emperor of Eden, and the Creator of Mankind.”