Divine Destruction (The Return of Divinity Book 1) (2 page)

They faced the east and waited. In time the darkness yielded to metal gray, which yielded quickly to a marriage of pinks. Then orange. When the yellow wave of sunrise washed across the horizon Gabriel allowed the inner voice to speak to the fisherman. The programming didn’t allow this behavior. But there was no stopping his other voice.

“Thank you for your service to God. There are wonders you have witnessed as we have shared this body. Knowledge you cannot understand. I’ve heard your questions, your comments. I’ve watched your thoughts. I am sorry.”

The fisherman began to cry. His face warmed by the rising sun. Blots of light assaulting his vision.

“We will speak again,” the smaller voice said.

Gabriel’s energy form stood but the fisherman remained seated. He stepped away from the fisherman and looked at the sky. The sun was chasing the stars away. A deep blue took over and softened the sun’s crash through darkness. Gabriel clinched his fists and his form was shot into the sky as light. A thin line racing to Heaven.

The fisherman closed his eyes. His body shuddered. His mind was his alone again. What had happened? And as his mind attempted to structure and comprehend, it crashed. A headache cascaded over him. Blood vessels dissolved. There was nothing the fisherman could manage but to scream. When the coyote’s reply was over the fisherman’s body was cooling. It’s soul no longer there to keep him warm.

Watching

Two thousand years later; Gabriel stood, his eyes closed, right hand outstretched onto the transpanel. In his mind he watched Banthid children playing on a river bank. Each child attempted to toss a stone upsetting another child's stone formation. Gabriel witnessed a warm day, on a tranquil planet, the children seemingly making up the game as they went, throwing stones in relation to another stone. Now and again the children would laugh, as children do. They spoke to each other in a limited language but complete enough to convey action and sentient thoughts. One of the girls was half interested in the activity of her playmates. She looked often into the distance as if waiting for something to come over the horizon. The others would shrug into her and prod her when it was her turn to move a stone. But her attention always returned to the sky or the horizon. The other children began to make rude sounds to redirect her attention. But the other children only increased her agitation. Gabriel made a mental note of witnessing yet another child on yet another distant planet within yet another universe able to detect an Archangel's observation. Would he lead his report with this news or finish it with this footnote? Gabriel could decide this later. The likelihood this protocol would be rewritten was slim to none. Besides, he enjoyed watching the children play.

The transpanel conveyed more than visual and audio data. The images and sounds were clear within Gabriel's mind, and live. This day was happening in real time in the universe, Gamma. From his transmitted vantage point, Gabriel also felt the coolness from the heavy cover of trees and the occasional breeze. When the breeze parted the trees above, he could embrace their Sun's warmth upon his face, shoulders, and arms.

Gabriel liked Submergence Room Twelve not because it was currently and probably permanently connected to the Gamma universe; he liked coming to this room because the room smelled of his colleague, Urial. The memory of her filled his senses. The way the Archangel looked at him. The thrill the presence gave Gabriel. Distracted, his viewing nearly filtered into gray and he had to force himself on the task: evaluating Azrael's messenger work upon these beings. Gabriel enjoyed watching the Banthid people. The Banthid were just beginning to act in an organized and civil manner, building small settlements. They grew, cultivated, and shared crops and live stock. The education of the children was shared among village elders. The Banthid were struggling with the written language, and were finding it difficult to record and interpret their growing list of village laws.

Gabriel focused his attention onto the voices of the children, listening for any reference from Azrael's last visit. Gabriel knew the first words of God, and with each sentence spoken Gabriel compared them against Heaven's encoded encyclopedia. But during this morning’s review there was no reference. Nothing. No mention. Gabriel forced the transpanel to point six on the Banthid world — the town center of the second largest population area. Although the indigenous people named themselves, they have yet to collectively decide upon a name for their planet.

A tone sounded within Gabriel's mind signifying his viewing time was at an end.  Slowly the images of native terrestrial beings, simple buildings, plants, animals, and the untold number of other life forms began to fade from Gabriel's mind.  Gabriel remembered a time, eons ago, when he used to try to hold onto the images.  An uncountable number of viewings later, Gabriel knew when he heard the sound it was for a purpose and he needed to move on.  Usually, someone was waiting to use the room.  But time limits were set to keep Archangels from becoming attached to their subjects. Delivering the word to dwellers and planting seeds of the positive consciousness were attributes Archangels searched out.

An Angel came into the submergence room to prepare it for the next Archangel, and looked apologetically up at Gabriel in surprise.  This Angel was here to inspect the room for anything out of the ordinary and to reset the transpanel. He could not understand why someone would be tasked with such work. But no two Archangels were alike, and Archangels were set apart from other Angels. Did others not reset the panel themselves? Gabriel made it a habit to leave the room as he found it: sparkling clean, with the transpanel reset as to not offer residual data for the next observer. Gabriel returned the look with a smile and acceptance, putting the Angel at ease.  Angels, common Angels, were significantly smaller than Archangels due to their task and nature of their work. The difference in size, about eighty percent to an Archangel, communicated volumes on stature, area of expertise, and roles, without words being exchanged.  The smaller Angels were never called upon to fight. Well, not “never”.  And now Angels simply did everything within the confines of universe prime: Heaven.  Gabriel guessed he had lingered too long and that his thoughts of others had allowed his presence to build.  With a nod of further compliance, Gabriel released his mental hold on Submergence Room Twelve and left through the open archway.  Thankfully, there were few institutional doors in Heaven.

Gabriel collected and compartmentalized the report in his mind as he walked, adding a note of how neutral—boring, really—today's report would be.  But not all viewings were exciting events and breakthroughs of civil awareness.  Moments later Gabriel arrived at his flat and with his right hand palmed his door and walked inside.  His heart warmed immediately, as always when entering his apartment.  Gabriel looked around and smiled.  His apartment was spacious as all Archangels’ apartments were, but his had no extra amenities.  His apartment was decorated with deep rich colors from Earth: dark brown wooden floors, deep blue and red cotton chairs, pale green walls, and live plants always made Gabriel glow—especially when returning from the stark whites and beiges of Heaven's institutional buildings.  As he always did, Gabriel touched the granite surface of the entry table as he walked into his larger main living space. The granite was cool, solid. The surface always comforting, and reassuring.

There were only seven apartments of this configuration in Heaven, but none were a terrestrial “home”.  Gabriel smiled again, thinking of Urial's expression when she first came to his flat.  This was the only place Gabriel felt he belonged to a physical space.  This was home, even though everything within these walls was an energized simulation. It was still home. Gabriel wondered again how the other Archangels could make their dwellings into view ports stolen from far away. Michael’s dwelling was a constant view of the same region of space, looking back at Heaven. If you turned around from the scene the floating chairs, communication panel, and entry arch ruined the scene. Gabriel thought the whole environment was rather interesting but wore off quickly. You could only stare at a scene, painting, landscape, ocean for so long. As Gabriel looked around his apartment again, he banished those thoughts. He relaxed. This was home with a roof, walls, and rooms that held individual purpose. Home.

Gabriel faced the flat, off-white comm panel, the only part of the wall he wasn’t allowed to paint. He placed his right palm against the glossy, identification area and began to file his daily report.  Relaxing his shoulders further and with a long exhale Gabriel recalled the Gamma designation, his first viewing location, and played through his observations.  Next location, designation, observations.  Next location, designation, observations.  And the next.  And next.  And next, until he had replayed the children playing with the stones.  He smiled slightly, seeing the children in his mind again.  The raw joy of friends, their Sun's warmth, laughter.  He observed their playful physical contact with one another; Gabriel could feel the unexpressed love each felt for the other. And he focused on their thoughts.  Gabriel replayed the innocent scheming, immature sharpness, and the pure exactness of their thoughts. That emotion would come through over the report and he would, again, catch "Hell" for it.

At the closing of his report, Gabriel sensed a small dataset indicating he was about to receive a communication.  That was rare, even for Archangels, even for him.  He furrowed his brow as the panel went dark and all communication ended.  An awkward silence broke open the mental clutter of Gabriel's mind and his surroundings. The morning’s report and observations were swept away. In their place was an emptiness Gabriel experienced from so long ago. He was nearly afraid of the nothingness. Two knocks sounded from Gabriel's main door. As he turned toward the sound, Gabriel spoke his first words of the millennium, "Oh, no.”

 Gabriel approached the door and tried to relax before opening it.  "Only during times of great need or high purpose are Archangels called directly upon,” Gabriel thought. Gabriel could feel the swell of anxiety from whatever entity stood on other side of the door, and he struggled against his natural tendencies to absorb those feelings.  He stepped forward before the feelings could permeate him and opened the door.  

A small angel took two quick steps through the doorway and placed her left palm upon Gabriel's right chest muscle.  Her motion happened so fast, that to Gabriel, it seemed his opening the door had sucked her into his apartment.  When angels from different classes needed to communicate they could speak aloud, of course, but speaking conveyed far less than mental passage of thought. Touch conveyed in high fidelity. The closer one touched another near the heart the better the transfer; more emotion, more expression, more color, more sound, more depth of image. Male Angels touched with their right hands, females their left. That relic of gender distinction was more a social norm than a technical requirement. Most standard Angels appeared nearly gender neutral given the blanched garb that passed for clothing and total passionless expression of hair style. The smaller Angel nodded her head up to Gabriel and opened her eyes.  She was blind, her eyes were solid white orbs. This struck Gabriel as odd and unnecessary. Gabriel knew to question design was frowned upon, but what was the purpose of a blind Angel? Gabriel was drawn to her eyes, milk white against the brilliant natural colors of his apartment.  He noticed her hand trembled as she fought to complete her task. From the small gasp she made, Gabriel knew she was terrified.  And there were many things to be terrified of, in Heaven. 

She continued to look up at Gabriel through those blinded eyes. Waiting, Gabriel witnessed only silence from the angel's mind. Are my thoughts blocking hers, Gabriel worried to himself.  "Why are you here?" Gabriel thought towards the frightened Angel.  She shuddered violently and was brought into the present.  "I am Sophrael—“ Before she could continue, Gabriel placed his hand over hers on his chest, as gently as a human child would hold a kitten.  She flinched as to break away and run, but did not. Though her thoughts of terror—that Gabriel was going to break off her arm—were alarming, Gabriel mentally spoke "Be at peace.” "Be at peace,” he repeated aloud.  

Sophrael shivered at hearing another's voice. After another moment, she gained her composure and leveled her head to think directly into and through Gabriel's chest: "Master Gabriel, you are summoned before the Principles.  You will be under the Dome of the Principles within the afternoon."  She paused then raised her head towards his and returning the gift of audible voice said, "Metatron will be there!" Lowering her head and removing her hand from beneath Gabriel's, Sophrael turned, walked out of Gabriel's apartment and was silently gone.

Called Away

Gabriel couldn't move.  A few moments ago he was on another planet with a warm Sun watching children play, and now a summons from the Principles. This could only mean he was going to be transplaced to another universe. Metatron was proof. Metatron often used lesser Angels of the Dominion to transplace Archangels when there were many messages going out, but Metatron himself meant more. Something important. He was going to be sent out again. "How long would I be away?" Gabriel thought. "Which message would I be taking?" He stared into the hall without seeing.  A few moments passed and Gabriel saw that he'd not let go of the door since he opened it.  He carefully closed the door and walked back to the comm panel.

Placing his right hand again on the glossed area, Gabriel thought of Michael. Other than Urial, Archangel Michael was the only other friend he enjoyed within his own Angel class. Michael and Gabriel had many experiences in common, Michael knew humankind — having been to Earth himself. The two Archangels had many long conversations, in the past, and Gabriel welcomed the thought of having one now. Having no family, Michael was the closest bond Gabriel knew. "I need to see you,” Gabriel thought into the panel, adding a visual of where he wished to meet. The panel replied with a familiar tone of recording success.