Revelation Station Alpha

The swirling desert dust storms circled and thrashed hard against the hidden entrance to the tiny complex's outer doorway like particles of blasted sand as the enormous gunship swooped in from the distance and quickly landed. Soldiers hurled themselves out and made for the opening, guns at the ready. Inside, three scientists were hammering away at their keyboards in a frenzy. Dr. Paul W. Jackson, the Chief Reactor Operator never even saw the alert light signaling their arrival. The special ops team they had frantically requested earlier that morning was now storming in. Professor David Gilbert, the centers Communication technician was hastily calibrating radio signals to the dish.

As the armed team quickly entered and the elevator door closed, Dr. Philip Marcus looked up in a panic. "Thank God! You guys made it here fast!" he said turning back to his blinking console. "We have a slight problem." Captain Stan Hawthorne used hand gestures to fan out his men around the bristling control center. They really had no idea what went on in the tiny lab. All they knew was the giant dish outside wreaked havoc with their instruments as far away as sevemty miles, and this facility was considered well beyond top secret. "Which of you is Dr. Jackson?" the burly captain shouted. Jackson raised his hand without taking his eyes from the control board. "Dr. Jackson. Is this an intruder alert situation? A breech? I mean, what do we have here. Your coded message gave no details."

"I wish it was that simple..." Jackson said after turning and eyeing the khaki clad soldier. "Are those guns loaded and ready to use?" "Yes sir." Hawthorne replied. "Do you know our mission here?" Jackson continued. "No sir. I need some reason as to why you scrambled us, Doctor." Hawthorne said with a stearn look. "Well then, the five minute tour is all you get for now. At least until we figure this thing out." he said. Basically, this is the nerve center for the communication satellites we've been launching and putting into orbits around the Moon and on out to Mars. In a nutshell, the idea was to stage satellites in various orbits over great distances in deep space to create a long powerful string of constant signals. Like a super antenna." Jackson went on. "Okay, I get it." Hawthorne replied. "So, what's the problem?" "Take a look at this." Jackson walked across the room and activated a panel opening a bright glowing vertical tube door. Inside, an enormous red ruby crystal lay in the center a a buzzing conducting field. It was at least 4 feet in diameter and pulsated with a rhythm of its own. "Is that what I think it is?" Hawthorne asked.

"Uh huh. It's 'this worlds' largest ruby-diamond combination. With some alien properties we haven't even figured out yet. Our Carina Three rover mined it out on Mars back in 2029. We found out later that it had some very special superconducting and radio-transmitting qualities and decided to finally laser it up to the satellites this morning." Jackson continued. "But the quality of power we discovered today is well beyond the expected scope." '"What happened?" Hawthorne asked. "Well, we think we actually caught something in the first signal boost that intersected the path and beamed it back here somehow. Look over here." Jackson walked over to a ten foot high steel reactor canopy that housed the transmission beams core. He reached for the control knob to open the hatch. As he grabbed the t-shaped lever the other keyboard pounding scientists suddenly stopped and stood frozen, just watching. "Maybe we shouldn't, Paul." Gilbert said looking nervously over at Marcus. "I mean, this could be some Pandora's Box. We don't know. Let's just let this thing go." Marcus nodded in agreement and the two men waited for Jackson to respond. "That's the problem. We don't know. We have no choice now but to analyze this thing. Besides, we have security now."

Dr. Paul Jackson looked around at each of the men standing at the ready in the room and pushed the lever forward. The servo motors began to hum. As the center of the canopy parted and it began to open, a bright glowing figure slowly came into view. "Keep that canopy energy field up, Marcus." Jackson said pointing at the panel. Hawthorne and his men were immediately dumbstruck. Inside the canopy chamber they could see a tall, brilliant white winged figure shaped like a man. It had a beautiful face that seemed to be made of smooth velvety pearl and was struggling to free itself from the pod floor. The creature was about eight feet tall and glowed with a pulsating ember of gold. When it saw the group of men staring at it in disbelief from beyond the pods energy field, it quickly stopped and stood upright, facing them. "What the hell..." Hawthorne blurted out. "It sort of looks like....like..."

"Like an angel or something?" Jackson said.

"Yeah. A friggin' angel! Geeze! This is Incredible...can it speak?" Hawthorne asked. "Well, in a fashion. It...uh...sings." Jackson continued. "It sings?" "Yeah. That's what we're calling it anyway. It sings out these pitches and tones and then somehow its words just happen in your head. At first we couldn't understand it until we turned down the outer energy field. Strange thing was, we all heard it say different things. And its voice...beautiful! But then it started directing us around the room. Making us do things. Change settings. Redirect power signals and stuff. We were forgetting everything we did within seconds of doing it. I think it was trying to free itself through hypnosis or mind control or something. If it hadn't been for Dr. Marcus's hearing aid filtering out some of its frequencies, he might not have been able to recover and re-engage the canopy energy field in time. I think none of us would be here right now. But I just can't remember." Jackson said.

"Well, what exactly did it say?"

"We don't know for sure. None of us can fully remember. We only have bits and pieces. However, we've devised a way to listen to it without fear of mind control. That's why we hit the panic button and coded you guys out here. We wanted you around before we tried this." All the while the creature remained motionless staring out. Waiting. It was clear the creature was still trying to sing but couldn't emit sounds because of the strength of the energy field. Gilbert was making his way around the room handing out special earphone headsets he had connected directly to the console. "Everyone put these on and keep them on, no matter what." he warned. Once all the men had fitted the devices Jackson motioned for Gilbert to begin. "Ready everyone?" came over the headsets. "Here we go." The lights dimmed and Gilbert slowly reduced the energy fields level. With each reduction the creatures voice came alive. Suddenly, bright and beautiful harmonic tones of silk blended in with soft yet demanding chords engulfed the room. Musical notes drifted in and out of the ears of the dumbfounded men who just looked at each other in awe. The headsets then began to chirp and crackle as the supercomputer quickly interpreted and then translated the filtered music. The creature realized its words were about to be heard and flared it's wings against the metal cage. It began to sing.

"I am the one of seven summoned by my father to sound his horn!" came from the speakers. "The time is at hand. Yet, I am held from my divine task!" The musical notes translated sporadically as the computer tried to keep up. "You are not him that dwells within the fire so what sorcery is this you use to keep me from my appointed travel?" The men just looked at each other. "Who are you?" Jackson asked. "Where are you from?" The creature squinted and sang. Once again the speaker echoed. "I am the first of seven to sound his horn on this, the last day. Release me that I may do my fathers bidding for I am the Hail, the Fire and the Blood which brings woe to men tis day." Gilbert suddenly realized the meaning of the creatures words. "Paul." he shouted. "If I'm not mistaken, it's speaking about the story describe in the Book Of Revelations in the Bible. The end times. I think we've somehow trapped an actual angel of the apocalypse or something in our beam out there!" Gilbert continued. "If that's the case, or if what this thing says is really true, then we can't let him go because it's doomsday or something!"

Paul Jackson quickly glanced at the faces of all the men in the tiny pale complex. All were dumbstruck and now glazed over in fear or disbelief. Could this be? In a split second the sheer gravity of the creatures words became clear. He sensed an honesty somehow attached to the translated tones and suddenly realized they had what appeared to be the power to prevent the end of the world. "But, if this is an angel...a real angel, how can we hold it here with this stuff?" Marcus asked. "I mean, can a real angel be trapped by mans devices or machines?" "I don't know." Gilbert replied. "And what's worse right now is, I don't care." "Me either. This is truly fantastic!" Hawthorne said. "So, we've intervened in the end of the world today?" Marcus asked. "It would seem so. But only if you really believe in that sort of thing." The men just looked at each other.

The creatures melody began again. "Release me. Or legions will descend upon you this day! My brothers cannot follow without hearing my horn. It is upon you now, so, behold!" The creatures wings fluttered violently against the canopy rocking the giant chamber. Then a high pitched squeal erupted from the pod. Dr. Paul Jackson, and two of Hawthorne's armed companions, suddenly fell dead. Within seconds their bodies withered into nothing but a pile of sand. The other men began choking and falling to the floor one by one. Marcus, having been afforded a slightly higher protection by virtue of his hearing aid, acted quickly and was able to raise the energy field until all the music stopped. Enraged at the creature for killing Jackson and the guards, he switched off the translator and pushed the power level to maximum sending shock waves of pure ruby light energy up from the pod and into the creature. The creature appeared to scream and shimmy as the pounding energy ripped into it.

"Look!" Hawthorne shouted pointing at the creature. As the continued energy burst hammered away, it began to change. The once brilliant white exterior started to fade away exposing an ashen, metallic underskin. The velvety face of pearl started to disintegrate leaving behind a leathery, rock encrusted skin. Its eyes changed to horrendous circles of molten red and horns could be seen emerging from the top of its head. Its wings dissolved leaving behind nothing by claw covered arms flailing and scratching against the machine, but to no avail. In all the excitement, none of the remaining men ever saw what happened next. Three new creatures dressed in white robes suddenly materialized inside the room. Without warning, one of the creatures raised a tall wooden staff into the air causing a loud clap of thunder and releasing the captive creature from the pod. The other two creatures immediately grabbed it and held it prisoner. The one with the staff walked into the middle of the room and look over at the men.

"Behold..." the white-robed creature said. "This day is newly written! We shall return this evil to whence it came. He shall impostor and pass no more! But take heed, sons of the great earth...the machines of men will never change what is written...they will only ensure it! Have you not learned the words of men shall be greater than the swords of men?" And with that, he raised his staff once more and they all vanished in a flash of thundering light. Hawthorne glanced over at the pile of sand that was once Dr. Paul Jackson. "How are we going to explain all this?" he asked the others. "We must somehow tell the world." Gilbert replied. "But we can't." Hawthorne said. "Something like this must be kept silent and covered up. We could panic the nations of the entire world. They will destroy us all with mere words alone."

"Didn't you just learn something here? Man is not our enemy. This gave us only a glimpse of what is to come. We cannot keep silent on this." Marcus shouted. Everyone in the now quiet room could only stare out and ponder their next move. Hawthorne, still in shock, walked over and got into the elevator. He pressed the button that would take him back to the surface. There would be a lot of explaining to do and choosing the right words to tell this story would be impossible. "Maybe I'll just keep silent on this whole affair." he whispered to himself. As the elevator doors started to close, he heard Gilbert's words echo from the distance.

"Just remember my friend. In the end, it's not the words of your enemies...but the silence of your friends."