Four Horsemen Chapter Three

Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

Four
(4)

Horsemen

Chapter Three

Once upon a time, in a future, far far away…

The EC James Cook continued with its successful escape from Babylon space in complete ignorance of the situation that it left behind. For Babylon, though, it would be a different story. The Entity, on the other hand, whilst pursuing the James Cook, soon sensed a great desire to feed its hunger not far away. Only a few light years away as it happened. In doing so it realised that a great harvest was to be had, especially if it forego its current prey & investigated this other sensation. Considering the Entity’s location in space, compared to the planet Babylon, it took but a short time to arrive at Babylon.

As in the initial meeting with the James Cook, the Babylon authorities were quick to threaten the Entity with its destruction should it remain for much longer near the planet. This was exactly what the Entity wanted to hear. Clearly an entire planet before this Creature had nothing else but fear & hatred to offer. Considering the wonts of the Entity, such a place was Utopia to it. Never before had the Entity experienced such concentrated evil in anything but itself.

Still, the Babylon authorities were not mucking around. Within a minute of their warning, their planetary defence grid began to fire nuclear missiles at the Entity. In response it merely surrounded itself in its blue mist which absorbed the missiles causing no damage. Surprised by this action, the Babylonians tried again, yet their renewed attempts met with the same result. By now the Entity was on a high as the hatred & fear could be more or less smelt coming off the planet. Before the Babylonians could fire again, however, flames of dark evil blue lashed out from the Entity only to consume the satellites which had fired their missiles.

Then it happened. The Entity launched itself at the largest Babylon city, burning its way through the atmosphere, & crashed to earth. Millions of people were instantly consumed by the Entity, having their souls swallowed whole by the evil within. The Entity roared with pleasure as it feasted on 10 million people. The Babylon authorities were horrified by the sight & vowed vengeance. Soon, Babylon’s entire military forces began attacking the Entity in a desperate manner in order to kill the Beast in revenge for what it had done. Nothing, not even several nuclear blasts, seemed to wound let alone kill the Entity.

Then, at the height of battle, the Entity let forth with an army of monsters that had never been seen before. Thousands of them, no millions, launched a massive attack that began to destroy everything in their path. The Babylonians stood no chance &, even though several nuclear weapons annihilated several of these armies of monsters, the Entity would merely replace them with more. Soon, whole cities were in ruins, & millions of people were either dead or dying. Nothing could stop the monsters.

In a war that seemed to last no more than a few hours, the planet of Babylon was destroyed. What the armies of the Beast did not destroy, the Babylonians had done themselves. The Beast, though, continued to eat the souls of the living as tens of millions died in the process. And the Beast grew in power & strength, now a million fold what it had been only the day before. Its harvest of Babylon would go on, as there was none to stop the Entity. Even returning Babylon warships could do nothing but conduct reckless attacks which often ended in their own suicide. The Beast, however, enjoyed all of this as destruction, fear & hate powered it onward.

Thus, with the taking of the last soul of Babylon, the Beast could sense that more could be taken. It sensed, from the souls that were now part of itself, that a great planet, some 900 light years away, was there for the taking. Billions of humans lived on this planet. And with the harvest that could be found, it would become God itself, a desire that it wanted. And now that its thoughts were dwelling on this distant planet, a memory began to make itself known. A long lost memory. One from a thousand years ago. The Entity could not make much sense of this memory. It new it was not from one of the souls that it had recently harvested. Instead it seemed to be one of its own. But, for all that it could reason, yes even this evil Entity could reason, it had only existed in its dark hidden cave until recently.

Not all of the Babylon ships had been destroyed by the Beast. Some of the Babylon explorer ships, especially those at some distance from Babylon, survived completely ignorant of the situation back home. One, however, having had orders to return to Babylon immediately, managed to get part of a communique coming from one of the Babylonian warships as it tried to organise an attack on the Entity. The captain of the X-60 watched on in horror as he witnessed the end of Babylon. He saw the monsters destroying everything in their path. He saw the blue mist suffocating his fellow citizens. And he saw the blue flame destroy powerful warships. Nothing could be done. Everything was lost. He was so shocked by the ordeal, which he just saw, that he replayed it so the entire crew could watch. Without consulting any of them, which was not unusual for the captain of a Babylon vessel, he gave orders to head for Earth.

It was lucky for the crew of the X-60, that it was a new ship. Although still behind anything that the Earth Commonwealth built, it could still travel at 650 times the speed of light & had enough storage space to allow it to conduct two year missions without resupply. Having hardly gotten one month into their first mission, they had plenty of supplies thus to reach Earth, even though that was a long way off their original course. But the captain saw no reason to continue with their original mission, nor did any of the crew. Knowing full well that Babylon no longer existed, although all of them were angry, there was no other avenue of hope other than finding sanctuary on Earth.

Meanwhile, on Earth, there was no doubt about it. The small group that made up the Four Horsemen knew that something dreadful had just happened somewhere in the galaxy. They were not sure where it had happened, but it was at some great distance from Earth. Suddenly, they all felt the great increase of power. Previously, it had been a little twitch in the back of their minds, but now it was like a headache. Somewhere, in space, a great force of evil just grew by an incalculable magnitude. Furthermore, they sensed that a great number of deaths took place at the same time. It was as if the two were interconnected, but no one knew that for certain. But what was certain was a great darkness had awoken & it was thinking about Earth.

The group, which had come together only recently for the first time in a century, did not know what to do. False alarms had been raised before, which only meant reticule & scorn. Furthermore, fewer numbers made up the group after each such event. But unlike previously, there was a feeling which had not been felt previously. This was different, although only the oldest in their group could tell the difference. The younger members had not been called upon yet to risk their lives should the great evil return to threaten humanity with annihilation one last time.

On previous occasions, it had always been about looking for signs. There had been several occasions when several of the signs had taken place suggesting the return of the Beast. At times, such alarms had even caught the public’s imagination, in part wonder & in part cynicism. Every time, even when it appeared that, without question, the signs meant the worst was at hand, nothing had happened. They might have been ready each time, yet every time they were wrong. After the last such event, some forty years ago, not even the Four Horsemen came together, as most of them had become as cynical, as had the rest of the population.

The population, it would be safe to say, never really believed any more that great harm could come their way. Living in a civilisation which no longer knew crime, hate, or fear, they had every good reason to be complacent. Even those explorers, who travelled in unknown space, seldom came across something dangerous. Sure, space travel always had its risks, but by 3 000AD, accidents seldom happened. More importantly, most new civilisations that were discovered were either friendly or, if hostile, avoided. And, more often than not, the hostile civilisation blew themselves to pieces long before they were a threat to anyone in the galaxy around them.

Nonetheless, when the EC James Cook arrived earlier than expected from its three year mission, the Earth Commonwealth government wanted to know why. At first they felt disheartened by the reaction of their fellow humans at Babylon & could not understand their hostility. It was so contrary to the ways of Earth, that it was rather frightening to see humans behave in such a fashion. Only a handful did on Earth, but these were anything but a danger to anyone else. Still, by the fact that Babylon acted in a warlike manner, discussion soon started about establishing a new military just in case.

If there was ever a topic which would cause great controversy, in the Earth body politic, then such a topic would be reintroducing a military into Human civilisation once more. Since 2675AD, the Earth Commonwealth had foregone any military whatsoever as there appeared to be no reason for one. The only slight hint that Earth still had any force, which could apply physical coercion, was in the form of the police service & the explorer ships. The police, though, gave up lethal weapons centuries ago, whilst the weapons on explorer ships were nothing more than defensive in nature. In fact these weapons on explorer ships were rarely used, if at all, against an asteroid which may have gotten too close for comfort or some similar event.

The Human body politic, which was a popular participatory system of government, soon became divided over the issue of a military. For many, it was seen as the return to more barbaric days. These, everyone agreed, were best forgotten & kept in the past. Babylon, in fact, was citied as a good reason why Earth need not have a military as it was clearly evident that this military meant oppression & tyranny. Whilst the pro-military group agreed that this was indeed the case on Babylon, that did not mean to say that the same situation would be repeated on Earth.

More chilling, however, was a second debate started over the incident which the crew of the James Cook had with the Entity. This debate was, more or less ignored for a while, until it became linked to the debate over the military. The debate now took off to levels unprecedented. More were interested in the Entity, though, than any threat from Babylon, yet most could not make up their minds over what the Entity was. The crew of the James Cook could offer little more than what was recorded, except when they mentioned the feelings that they had during the encounter.

This was scoffed at by most, but then the captain confessed that at one point the crew of the James Cook completely panicked & lost control of their ship. Alas, even though the captain thought he was doing the right thing, his admission became counterproductive. Instead of the body politic realising that the Entity was the real enemy, countless inquiries were started examining why the crew of the James Cook were so reckless. This meant, for most anyway, that the debate over having a military lost focus whilst debate over the conduct of the crew took over instead.

It was not, however, lost on everyone. David Gideon, one of the four leaders of the Four Horsemen, did not take long before contacting the captain of the James Cook. Far more interested in the crew’s feelings at the time, the description that Gideon got was more or less the same description he could say of himself. For Gideon, it was enough, even though ironically, few other signs were obvious yet in regards to the Apocalypse. Still, even armed with this information, not everyone else in the Four Horsemen agreed. Importantly, though, the three other leaders, Marcus Goodwin, Michael Khan, & John Wong, all sided with Gideon’s thoughts on the matter.

The matters in hand, however, were soon to change again when the Babylon explorer vessel, X-60, finally arrived in Earth space. Thankfully for the captain & crew of the X-60, they did not get the same reception that the Babylon authorities had given the James Cook. Instead the Earth authorities did not quite know how to deal with these Babylonian visitors. As far as anyone knew, the Babylon ship could be hostile. In fact if it was there was probably little that Earth could do about it as they had nothing to match the weaponry on the X-60.

Still, the Babylon ship acted in a non-hostile manner, even though tensions were high. The Babylonian crew had no idea what fate awaited them, whilst Earth had no idea if the X-60 was about to attack. Still, diplomatic communications were soon going back & forth between the two sides & finally the captain of the X-60 wanted to make a deal. Naturally no one on the Earth side a clue what he was talking about until he mentioned the fact that Babylon had been destroyed.

Of course there was no way the Earth authorities could prove this claim one way or the other. In fact at this point they were becoming suspicious as the James Cook had only been in Babylon space about eighteen months ago & everything seemed perfectly fine on Babylon then. This fact was relayed to the X-60 which declared honestly that it knew nothing of the James Cook other than the fact that a brief encounter took place prior to the destruction of Babylon. Furthermore, as part of the deal, the captain of the X-60 would provide proof provided he & the crew were granted sanctuary.

Needless to say, this was a very unusual request as it had not happened within a century. But the offer of proof was far more important that figuring out how to offer fellow humans sanctuary when such things are not required by humans. Still it was offered & immediately accepted. The proof of Babylon’s destruction, however, proved much harder to get. Still being suspicious of the Earth authorities, remember Earth & Babylon had completely different civilisations in basically every facet of society & politics, pointless negotiations continued for some time until the crew of the X-60 were satisfied with the conditions of their sanctuary.

The Earth body politic where, however, grateful for the latest information. Even though the debate over having a military had more or less run its course by now, the data over the destruction of Babylon would soon fire it up again. What was far more important, though, was the information over the Entity. By comparing the data from the James Cook, & that from the X-60, it became very clear that this Entity was extremely dangerous. For although the James Cook encounter was open to much interpretation, the destruction on display, from the X-60, was clear & precise. The only problem for Earth, though, was how could the Entity be defeated.

So it was in this light, that the debate over the re-establishment of the military once more took off. Meanwhile, the crew of the X-60 could not believe what they were witnessing. Here before them were millions of humans all debating the pros & cons of an extremely important governmental decision. There were no closed doors or council chambers were a small number of people made decisions & government policy, instead anyone, who had an interest on the topic, were directly involved in the decision making process. It all seemed like anarchy & chaos to the survivors of Babylon, yet it worked nonetheless.

Although it took days for a consensus to be formed, the majority of the body politic eventually rejected the idea of a military, especially one to combat the Entity. Based upon the evidence at hand, there seemed little point in threatening the entire Human civilisation with tyranny, whilst any military action against the Entity seemed pointless anyway. Furthermore, there was no proof whatsoever that Earth would become a target of this Entity. Similarly, another important point was raised, which gave further weight to the final decision, & that was Babylon, being hostile as they clearly were, may have brought this devastation upon themselves.

This point, although wrong, raised the issue that if Earth did have a military, & took on a more hostile nature because of this possible danger, that Earth too might unintentionally invite a similar fate as that which befell Babylon. Hence, in the end, there appeared to be far too many negatives than positives. And this is besides the fact that Earth’s neighbours in space may grow some concern as to why it decided to introduce a strong military force. Thus, in doing so, Earth might start an arms race with its friends which could destroy everything that had been achieved through the pursuit of peace & friendship.

The leaders of the Four Horsemen could not blame their fellow humans for reaching their final decision. The wisdom of the body politic had made its conclusion & with much merit. There was no doubting that. The point over, whether Babylon brought on its own destruction, could not be easily dismissed. As everyone knew, thanks to the reception that the James Cook received, the same hostile reception could have been offered to the Entity. Yet the reaction was very different. As such, the response of the Entity was probably deserving. For not only did the X-60 hand over all its information on the matter, but its crew began to give testimony about living conditions on Babylon. To say the least, it was a very different world from Earth. And the People of Earth watched & listen to the stories of tyranny & brutality with a sickening feeling in their stomachs. Many wondered how things could have become so, considering Earth had long ago abandoned such ways. Still, these stories only further confirmed to everyone the likelihood of Babylon’s fate. Earth, however, would follow a much different path.

The Entity, though, could not care less for such niceties. In fact it had far more in common with the people of Babylon than anything on Earth. Still, it had tasted Human flesh & far more importantly their souls. Now, having conquered Babylon, it pondered on what to do. Clearly the thoughts about a blue gem of a planet beaconed it on, but it began to have its own identity crisis. It kept on recalling a time in the past when things were different. When it was alive & different existence from what it was now. It recalled that once it was flesh, not the Creature that destroyed whole worlds & ate the souls of the living. There was another life once. Or possibly the same as now, merely in a different body. Whatever it was, though, they were all tied to the same place, the same planet, the blue gem planet many, many light years away.

Still, what the Entity foresaw as its own memories of the long distant place, it could also feel from the souls of the harvested. There appeared to be a link between the two. That somehow, at some past date, the people of Babylon had once lived on this blue gem planet known as Earth. And for this reason, as much as any other, the Entity decided to travel the vast distance, in order to come to Earth. But it would not be coming in peace, but in order to harvest once again. For the Entity knew that the offerings that could be taken from Earth were far greater than Babylon. And it would not take all that much time as, unlike previously, its power would ensure that a mere handful of months would go by before it arrived at Earth. And then it would rule the galaxy if not the universe itself.

Gideon, after watching the captain of the X-60 give an interview about life on Babylon, became even more concerned than ever before. He was not one of the older ones & had missed the last false alarm, some 40 years ago, yet things were slowly falling into place. The most important one, never to have taken place since the end of the Tribulation, saw the four leaders of the Four Horsemen as descendants of the leaders who, at one point or other, opposed Drache - Goodwin, Khan, Wong & himself. Never before had this happen in the history of the Four Horsemen.

The next was the fall of Babylon. Ancient prophesy once described this event, but everyone believed it meant the actual city in Iraq, which was destroyed by the 1st UN Army almost 1 000 years ago, & not the planet by the same name. But considering what he had just watched, Gideon now wondered whether the prophesy had been misinterpret for all this time & only know it was being fulfilled. Other thoughts too, began to busy Gideon’s mind as the Entity, having not menaced Humanity before, had started its path of destruction near the 1 000th year since the Tribulation on Earth.

Then there were little things which Gideon could not quite picture exactly, but nonetheless it all meant something was going to happen soon. And that something was far from good, as everyone could feel this evil lurking somewhere. It was like a constant headache, but with a feeling of paranoia. The only problem was, there was nothing self evident to be paranoid about anywhere near Earth. And then the James Cook arrived with disturbing news, not only about how hostile Babylon was, but also about an alien object in deep space. On the heals of the James Cook, then came the X-60. It too came with stories of the alien Entity & the horror of war that it unleashed upon Babylon.

And then there are the dates of some of these events. Especially the last one. Because, as everyone in the Four Horsemen knew, the stronger feelings only began eighteen months ago. There could be no lucky coincidence about it. For when the stronger feelings began, the Entity attacked Babylon. And this happened exactly at the same time. Furthermore, by just watching the great violence of the war on Babylon, not only the attack of the Entity, but also the response by the people of Babylon itself, it was war on a scale where not even the wars of the Tribulation came close. It was total annihilation of the planet. The Earth may have been greatly wounded during the Tribulation, but was far from being destroyed.

As Gideon contemplated these things, the other three leaders shared similar thoughts. Even the older members could see that the Apocalypse was coming, even though the rest of Humanity could not. Yet it was not their fault, as such an event was supposed to take place with the Human race ignorant of its approach. Again, this was another sign that this time there was no false alarm. Furthermore, the most important ingredient in this mix were the unmistakable feelings that most in the group shared. And they, like Gideon, did the maths too. So it came as to no one’s surprise when Gideon announced, to the group, his thoughts on the matter.

Yet if Gideon & the rest of the Four Horsemen thought that anyone else would have taken notice of what they had to say, then the Four Horsemen would be disappointed. In fact, even though they raised the issue in the body politic, the great majority rejected their position claiming that the debates over the military had been concluded. Furthermore, it was pointed out to the likes of Gideon, that, even though they might be right about the Entity, that it was truly evil & destructive, there was no evidence that Earth was in any danger. They were right, of cause, based upon the evidence at hand. All Gideon & his small band of brothers had was a feeling. And even in a participatory democracy, you just cannot make important & fundamental decisions based upon a feeling.

To Chapter Four

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