Whatever Gods May Be Read online

  WHATEVER GODS MAY BE

  George P. Saunders

  © 2012

  Published by George P. Saunders. Copyright 2011 by George P. Saunders. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law, or in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  For one brief, shining moment…

  Here in Camelot…

  Lerner and Lowe - King Arthur

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  FOR BRUCE…AND KATHERINE…for being the first to read this so many years ago, and enjoying the adventure. May your adventures be as interesting, wherever you may be. And may your sense of style and talent for accessorizing never be absent in your life… thanks for the memories.

  And special thanks to Lisa … and she knows why.

  And of course, to Rose. All my love for making it possible.

  PROLOGUE

  It was a curious scene to behold. A visitor from another world would have been hard-pressed to guess what was to come next. The careful arrangement of the crosses on the hill of a place called Golgotha, the precise measuring and shaping of each of the three mens’ bodies against the planks, and the strange parade leading up these events moments earlier all seemed grossly insidious, with no foreseeable purpose in sight.

  Only the aura of immense sadness and tragedy indicated a solemn ritual versus that of some grand, poorly played theatrical spectacle which held little promise for a happy ending.

  A strange quiet descended across the land, broken occasionally by a cry or some other expression of grief from the crowd. Then it started: the sound of metal clashing against metal. And the sickening noise of flesh being punctured and bone cracking. Screams followed within seconds; tormented, searing wails of agony that defiled reason; the sounds -- the inhuman sounds associated with the grizzly practice of crucifixion.

  Finally, the work was finished; and the crosses, now with the three men pinned to them by jagged, iron nails, like drying skins, were raised to a vertical position side by side.

  Gradually, the crowd began to disperse. The sky had suddenly grown darker, forewarning a storm perhaps, and the general interest in the gruesome festivities was beginning to wane. Only a select minority of family and friends continued to linger near the crosses and the dying men thereon. Most members of the military rabble that had officiated over the executions were now drunk -- and were well on the way to getting drunker, as yet more casks of wine were produced, opened and consumed with deliberate abandon. The executioners had done their job -- yet it was evident that their performance was not one that favored a continued state of sobriety.

  One last duty remained, though. And it was one that was welcomed by both executioner and condemned alike. A centurion, older, more haggard and a little less intoxicated than his compatriots, approached the crosses with a long, pointed lance. Experienced with such a duty, the centurion worked with accuracy. There were no cries this time as the spear did its mindless work of eviscerating its victims, thus bringing a speedy conclusion to the horrific proceedings. Suffocation and shock, coupled with this latest attack, promised only seconds of life remaining to the three hapless men who, even at this point, were able to engage in some kind of weak, disjointed conversation, audible only among themselves.

  It was the young man on the center cross to whom the other two deferred. Following the lance's visitation to each of them, only a few more words were exchanged, and then silence. Two of the three prisoners were dead.

  Now, for the first and only time, the young man, his mouth filling with blood, screamed out. His words were clear --frighteningly clear -- for one who had endured several hours of slow asphyxiation, blood loss and shock. Then he, too, died.

  Those who had earlier decided to forego further involvement in this picnic of death, due to the weather, would later be accredited with a mild gift for prophecy; for with the final words of the young man, hailed as the King of the Jews, a great wind, laced with rock and ice, descended upon the land. The drunken soldiers and persistent entourage of mourners were quickly forced to seek shelter, leaving the three corpses to be ravaged by the elements.

  The old man, known at one time as Rzzdik Zolan, was a time traveler from another planet and he did not move from his position, about fifty feet from the base of the entrenched crosses. He had been there for only a few minutes; but he had seen enough. The fierce winds and stinging rains did not seem to impress him much; because of his present vaporous state, he was not affected by the natural discourse of this primitive planet, where Man would not walk on his nearest satellite for two thousand years. His eyes did not leave those of the young man's, now dead and unseeing; they were eyes, the old man knew, that were from another world -- one far different than this place, or his home planet nearly a thousand light years across the galaxy.

  The old man studied those eyes carefully. He would not forget them for the rest of his life. Bizarre circumstances of late had altered the course of his destiny; as he began to fade gradually, amidst the storm that raged on unabatingly, he knew he would remember what he had witnessed on this day for a very long time to come.

  But for now, he was off again. Tossed about by the winds of fortune and time, Rzzdik Zolan continued on his way, within seconds spanning the epochal layers of centuries and space. His adventure was not over; perhaps, he mused, it would end in death.

  Visions of the young man flooded his mind again. Yes, Rzzdik Zolan would remember this day very well.

  Perhaps, one day, a long time from now, he would understand…

  Here where the world is quiet;

  Here where all trouble seems,

  Dead winds' and spent waves' riot,

  In doubtful dreams of dreams;

  I watch the green field growing

  For reaping fold and sowing

  For harvest-time and mowing

  A sleepy world of streams.

  Algernon Charles Swinburne

  The Garden of Proserpine

  ONE

  The Future

  The scene of Christ dying was one that Rzzdik Zolan replayed in his mind at least once a day. He had seen much in his time travels – and travels across the span of stars. But none had left him more profoundly moved. Even now – one million years in the future, on this barren world, the evocation of that day loomed large and poignant in his soul.

  Perhaps on this day, it loomed more crystalline than ever, though Zolan was not sure exactly why.

  And then another thought invaded his consciousness.

  A prhase, a line of poetry from long, long ago…

  Tis better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven.

  Zolan mulled over the verse and chuckled to himself. How naive that poor little Earth poet was! John Milton had obviously been possessed of a romantic whimsy when making such a statement; had he spent one day on this world, Zolan mused, a good chunk of poetry would have undergone considerable revision.

  Zolan stared out at the desert and scowled. Even at night, it radiated ugliness. Here was a place that almost out-helled Hell; indeed, until the real thing came along, Zolan felt that this fetid wasteland would do nicely as a substitute. Harsh, treacherous and unforgiving, the desert was an entity that catered solely to the survivor, and then, only reluctantly. It possessed an undisputed mastery over the dead and buried -- for which the civilization of Man had served as a favorite subject for ten thousand centuries. Often, the desert had tried to coerce Zolan into joining its elite, and quite deceased, constituency of quiescent subjects.

  Thus far it
had failed in all attempts. It would not do so for much longer.

  Zolan coughed painfully for a moment then sniffed the predawn air. He was very old and his senses were dulled, but even so handicapped, Zolan could see and hear things no other human could. The desert had taken much from him, but it had also been unusually generous as well; for now, it allowed him to understand its most intimate secrets. In a moment, Zolan could discern how hot it would be that day, how much moisture was in the air, or if a breeze would be forthcoming later in the morning. By remaining alive for so long, Zolan had achieved some triumph over the desert and like a woman partially seduced, it had capitulated to his will by teasing him with selective favors that would insure his persistence. Zolan had taken full advantage. And he had survived.

  For a few moments, Zolan just sniffed and listened outside of his igloo-shaped shelter of baked clay. His home was perched aloft a mesa, some two hundred feet above the valley floor, but this did not hinder his ability to hear what, if anything, was transpiring in the desert around him. The mesa boasted sheer vertical cliffs that would have taken trained climbers an entire day to scale. Anything human attempting to pay him a visit would be immediately detected. Zolan smiled. Like some eccentric, private ruler, it gave him great pleasure to know that his small patch of ground was all but inaccessible to man and beast alike.

  There was, however, one desert inhabitant that would have no difficulty in reaching Zolan's house, and fortunately for him, it was a friend. Zolan's eyes squinted suddenly as he spotted the massive cloud of dust swirling in the distance.

  Thalick was on his way.

  Zolan smiled again, then turned and walked towards the opposite cliff behind his house. He stopped at the edge near a large boulder and stared out at the valley and distant mountains. The scene was nothing short of spectacular, offering a visibility of fifty miles in all directions. But today, neither the picturesque view - nor the relentless cloud formation approaching behind him - occupied Zolan's interest for long. His eyes were fixed points of intensity staring at the dawn gleaming over the horizon. Watching the dawn was a ritual Zolan had not missed once since he had crashed to this world over five hundred years ago.

  There was good reason; for the dawn in this place never arrived without a most unusual escort.

  Slowly, the enormous sun swelled above the skyline, melting the desert floor into waves of ghostly mirage. Within seconds, beams of intense color and heat spoke out in all directions, twisting and distorting shapes into hazy, nondescript blurs of light and shadow. It was not the dawn of a million years ago; a bright, orange sun oozing gracefully upwards was the dawn of an alien place that this world might never see the likes of again. Instead, this sun, for this daybreak, seemed to struggle against the planet it promised to warm like some desperate creature agonizing in the labor of birth.

  Zolan held a hand above his eyes, squinting into the increasing glare. For one brief, uncanny moment, the sky went mad. A panoply of color exploded overhead, as if a thousand silent detonations had been ignited simultaneously. Zolan's eyes struggled to adjust; this was the most difficult moment, but if he could hold on for just a little longer, his efforts would be well rewarded.

  As with every morning before this one, Zolan was not to be disappointed.

  Suddenly, it appeared.

  The Little One - a defiant freak to the known laws of celestial dynamics - exploded over the horizon and began its morning chase after the larger, slower primary that would never win the race with the young upstart to its rear. Within seconds, they two suns joined -- or rather, seemed to join. The eclipse produced would only last a few minutes, but its effect on the planet would be dazzling and beneficial.

  Zolan chuckled and applauded. It had been a fine performance, as always.

  The Little One, as Zolan had named the dwarf star so long ago, was a unique creation. It was an artificial sun only five centuries old, lacking both the mass and heat of a genuine dwarf. Consequently, having cheated the multibillion year processes of conventional stellar evolution, the Little One was a star with limitations. It had never given birth to a planetary system or destroyed one with the inevitable nova it would have produced through the collapse of its fusion core. Nor was it a star that could even now provide enough warmth to a world on its own. Its biggest drawback was that it possessed virtually no gravitational pull, and was therefore unable to command a stationary position in space.

  Upon its formation, the Little One had locked into an independent orbit around the planet Zolan now called home, sling-shooting its light mass around the world at astounding velocities. So fast did the Little One transit the globe, that within a twenty-four hour period, it always passed over the same spot twice a day. Now, with every diurnal appearance, the Little One gave the skies a morning and evening star; something this world had not possessed for over ten thousand millennia.

  The Little One, however, was not a freeloader. The small sun served a critical function to the world that had adopted it. Out of its startling creation came the restoration of the planet's atmosphere which had so long been enshrouded in a sooty blanket of radioactive petrotoxins. Soon, the vampire Redeye, a profligate parasite from the Dark that had multiplied here for eons, began to die out. Most importantly, the Dark itself was sucked out of existence by the Little One's explosive entrance, and it was for this achievement alone that Mankind would have to revere the dwarf devoutly for as long as it survived.

  In the days before the Little One, Man was an endangered species. The Dark had scoured the land, and transported into the world a host of monstrosities from its rank bowels to feed off the last remaining vestiges of humanity. For a million years, the Dark's powers continued unchallenged, marring the planet and it's population with unchecked rampancy. Had it continued on its murderous plunder, Mankind would have eventually succumbed to complete extinction.

  The Little One had prevented such a catastrophe. But the price had been quite literally astronomical. Five centuries had passed since the Little One's coming, yet Zolan found himself still shedding a bitter tear when recalling the tragic price tag attached to a world's salvation.

  Zolan's thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a disturbance behind him. Dust wafted around him, while rocks and a wet sod that could only be found several feet below the sand level sprayed passed him. The ground begin to tremble; somewhere on the mesa's steep slopes, a landslide had started. Abruptly, the small quake ceased as quickly as it had started.

  Though by all accounts Zolan should have registered fear - or at least concern - only a weary smile passed over his grizzled features as the tremor subsided.

  An old, old friend, Zolan realized, had finally arrived.

  "Mornin', Thalick," Zolan said, not turning around but keeping his eyes glued on the corona blazing around the Little One high above. "Pull up a rock and make yourself at home. I've got something to tell you."

  Zolan was not from this planet – and his original language had not been utilized for some time – thus, he had become fluent in the the most prevalent language of 21st Century Earth.

  The response to his greeting was far from human.

  HSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

  TWO

  Zolan stared out across the wastes and thought about the dreams. They had begun one year ago to this day. At times they were difficult to understand; for they were scenes of his own tumultuous past coupled with images of places and things he had never seen before. This in itself was not terribly puzzling in the abstract, disjointed way of dreams; by their very nature, they were ghostly things created for the express purpose of battling linear and conscious thought. What haunted Zolan, however, was the persistent repetitiveness of the dreams; it was as if a collage of picture riddles were being created just for him -- and if he did not find the proper punch line to them, they would never cease to visit his psyche for as long as he lived.

  But today Zolan had solved the riddles. One particular memory had done it; one so powerful, so indelible, that every detail could
be recalled. The memory belonged to those early days when he had first arrived to this place, when he had known John Phillips, the astronaut from the past; and his daughter, Valry. And of course, Thalick.

  Zolan smiled to himself.

  Those early days when he understood everything -- and nothing.

  Those beginning, final days. Zolan sighed.

  HSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

  Zolan turned around and stared; he had almost forgotten that Thalick was there, waiting as patiently as ever. All eight of his friend's eyes gazed at him in turn. Zolan wondered if he should have waited awhile longer before calling Thalick here.

  He realized a moment later that such a decision would have been entirely unfair to the Stinger. Today was a day of revelations; Thalick would have to know everything. And soon -- for there was very little time left.

  Resolved, Zolan cleared his throat and folded his hands over his robe.

  "Bug," he said, using Thalick's nickname, "I want you to listen carefully."

  HSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

  "No, I feel fine, thank you. That's not why I asked you to come."

  Thalick snapped his claws together and was silent. His enormous tail, which had been lowered over his head for Zolan's disposal, returned to a lazy droop at the rear of his body.

  Zolan turned quickly to look at the eclipsing Little One. The sun was already totally shadowed against the disk of the primary. Long ago Zolan recalled, this planet had lost a moon that had earlier performed similar celestial acrobatics with the ancient sun. An excellent mimic, the Little One now appeared to be just that: a dead satellite vainly usurping the mighty mother star's position for a few moments of worldwide attention. It was, of course, much more than this, and in a few moments it would prove itself worthy to occupy the same sky as its life-giving counterpart.