Heaven and Hell (67 page)

They were moving into their third orbit with the swollen sun rising once more above the horizon, when Chris rose to his feet. “Johann, what can you tell me about this corridor that the angels use to travel to and from Heaven and Hell?”

“It’s what we call a stable wormhole,” replied Johann, stepping to the railing that encircled the command console and looking toward Chris. “Using it, angels can travel back and forth at will, expending very little energy of their own in the process.”

“Yes, but where in Heaven and Hell does it lead?”

“To several places, as I understand it,” said Johann.

“Between the Judgment Hall of God and the waiting cells of Hell for one,” said Serena, rising to her feet. “Believe me, I know.”

“Yes, but where did the angels who supported us enter and exit from?” asked Chris.

“That place is located on a vast plain right where the daylight meets the darkness. I suppose you might say that it has some historical significance. It is the gateway through which satan and all those who followed him in the Great War originally entered into Hell and their eternal exile. It is a sort of gigantic stone archway, by my understanding.”

Abruptly, a large sphere materialized in their midst, a representation of Hell. Johann drew their attention to a great peninsula of land jutting out into the sea of fire. “It is here, nineteen-hundred kilometers west northwest of Abaddon’s island.”

Chris appeared to be onto something and he had everyone’s attention. “How long would it take to get us there?”

There was a moment of silence. “If we follow our current orbit, make a trajectory correction, about two hours and ten minutes,” said Nick, consulting the readouts.

“And how much time do we have left before we have to return to Heaven?”

“Just under six hours,” said Nick, who had now turned toward Chris as well.

Chris hesitated, then continued. “I need to speak to David.”

Nick motioned to Chris to join him and Johann on the upper deck. Amid the cryptic readouts suspended before Nick, an image of David, still sitting in the study, appeared.

Chris leaned forward. “David, you need to go to Zion, to the holy place, to confer with God. How long would it take you to get there?”

At first David seemed confused. “About two hours, maybe less if I run.”

“Now listen carefully; I need you to relay a message from me to the Father. You’ve got to convince Him to intervene on Serena’s behalf, to reconsider her sentence to outer darkness. I should have gone to Him long ago with this petition, but I didn’t. Now I must depend on you to deliver it to Him. Will you do this for me?”

David seemed nervous. He looked at Chris, a trace of fear on his countenance. Then he saw Serena standing behind him. She desperately needed his help and he couldn’t deny it to her. He’d witnessed her suffering, strength, and courage from the unique perspective one gained in the Hall of Records. His resolve was strengthened. Until now he’d been a minor character in the incredible drama, largely relegated to the sidelines; but now he had the opportunity to make a real difference. “Tell me exactly what you want me to do and say.”

Chris took only five minutes to prepare David for his most important meeting. Then David made his last report to Johann and departed for the City of Zion.

Johann looked at Chris. “I know how you feel, but I must tell you that I don’t see how this is going to help. Going back down there into harms way and waiting at the gate for a decision from God is a very reckless course of action. It is most unlikely that God will reverse His decision; surely you must realize that. There has to be a better way.”

Chris remained uncharacteristically calm. “Johann, you’ve had nearly five hours to come up with a plan. If you’ve got something, I wish you’d let the rest of us in on it.”

For a moment, Chris’s challenge met only with silence. “They’ll be monitoring our movements; you realize that.”

“Yes,” confirmed Chris. “I’m counting on it.”

“We go down there and they’ll be on us in a matter of minutes.”

“I suppose so.”

Johann threw up his arms in frustration. “So why are we doing it?”

“I have a plan,” replied Chris, with a growing smile. “I’m not telling you it isn’t risky for all of us…it is, but I think it’s our only shot.”

For the next ten minutes Chris laid out his proposal in detail. Johann heard him out, yet when the telling was through, he was even more skeptical.

“Look,” Chris said, placing his arm around Serena, “I have no right to ask so much. You don’t have to stay. If you want, you just put the Spirit down long enough to drop Serena and me off. I wouldn’t blame you for a second, but this will work better if we all pulled together.”

“You realize what you’re asking of me?” confirmed Johann.

“I do,” Chris said, “but I really believe that it won’t come to that; this is going to work.”

“It’s absolutely reckless…but I’m with you,” Nick said.

Johann turned and walked down the steps to the main deck. He sat in his chair gazing at the barren world below. He didn’t much relish spending eternity here. He’d seen too many of its horrors from the safety of the Hall of Records. Yet, if they did succeed;

what an incredible concept it was. It might be well worth risking one man’s eternity. “Very well, Chris, we’ll do it your way this time. I only hope you’re right.”

“OK everyone,” announced Nick. “Return to your seats. We have a course correction to make in a little less than three minutes.

Then I suppose you’ll need me to come up with another technological miracle.”

“That was the general idea,” said Chris, sitting at Serena’s side.

“I’ll have it ready for you when you need it,” Nick said. “The rest is up to you.”

Satan paced back and forth in his audience chamber like a restless lion in a small cage. He had dismissed nearly all of his entourage. Only Governor Moloch and General Krell remained.

“What is it that we have seen this day?” satan asked, his frustration only too obvious.

“I believe that it was a rescue, not an invasion,” replied Krell, approaching the master. “Less than six hundred angels were involved in the attack. They engaged our forces for but a brief time before withdrawing once more through the great portal. The battle was fought above a remote island in the great sea of fire, an island suspected to be under the dominion of one or more dark warrior angels. A human female dressed in black was spotted by several of our soldiers. We believe that human was Serena Farnsworth. She was, in fact, seen in the presence of a group of dark angelic warriors. We believe two of them to be Semjaza and Abaddon, the highest ranking members of this fallen clan.

Apparently it was one of them who rescued her from the sea of fire.”

“And the strange intruder from the sky, the one that radiated so much of the Father’s power, what of it?”

“It appeared to be some manner of crystalline sphere. We believe that it was some sort of vessel, under the command of a group of humans.”

“Humans?” roared satan. “That is utterly impossible! They are weak; they do not possess the wisdom or power to create such a thing!”

Moloch hesitated to challenge the wisdom of the master when he was in a mood so foul. “Apparently we have underestimated them.”

“Yet this thing, this sphere of power, has not departed our realm?” observed satan.

“No my lord,” confirmed the general, “it has not. Even now it whirls about our world.”

Satan turned to Moloch who was deep in thought. “What thing are they up to? Why go to so much trouble to rescue one insignificant human wench?”

“Is she insignificant?” posed Moloch.

There was a moment of silence in the chamber. “No, perhaps not,” replied satan.

A lieutenant of satan’s imperial legion entered the chamber. He bowed before the master.

“Yes,” replied satan, “you have something for me?”

“Yes, my Lord,” he replied. “The sphere has changed course. It is descending and decelerating.”

“Where is it heading?” asked the general, approaching his subordinate.

“We are not certain as yet, but we believe that it is preparing to attack again.”

“We had best be prepared for another angelic assault,” suggested Moloch.

“The first one might have been no more than a ruse. A full scale attack could come at any time.”

“None of this makes any sense,” complained Krell, “at least not from a military standpoint.”

“They’re playing with us,” insisted Moloch, “prodding us, probing our defenses, searching for weak points. I fear this is only the beginning. We need to move as many legions as possible to the portal so as to fend off any future attacks.”

“Calm yourself, Moloch,” insisted the general. “We are in no immediate danger.” Krell turned to the master. “Shall I order our legions to attack this sphere once it is within our range?”

Satan stood in silence, twirling his goatee with his left hand. “No, let us allow them to make the first move. Let them land, then we shall see what happens. Only when the enemy’s intentions are clear shall I respond. For the moment, the move is theirs.”

The Spirit descended over the darkened hemisphere of Hell. Below them stretched the insidious Continent of Darkness.

“Two hundred and ten kilometers altitude, three thousand kilometers to target,” announced Nick, who had the sphere aimed forward toward the point where the sun would rise in another twenty minutes.

Chris, Serena, and Johann sat facing the planet’s cold, darkened surface. Here and there they could see an area engulfed in a red glow, lava pits in a realm of unimaginable cold and eternal night.

“Do you figure that David has reached the most holy place yet?” asked Serena.

Johann pulled his timepiece from his pocket. “Probably not. He’ll arrive in another twenty minutes or so.”

“About the same time we will arrive,” noted Serena.

“Approximately,” replied Johann.

Serena looked deep into Kepler’s eyes, as if trying to discern the contents of his soul. “You have great doubts about what we’re about to do, don’t you?”

There was a pause, and it was not reassuring. “Yes, I do.”

Serena’s countenance took on a greater intensity. “Professor Kepler, if you don’t believe this is going to work, why are you going along with it?”

Johann smiled. “I’m not really certain. It could succeed, I don’t know the mind of God; no one does. Yet I feel that this quest must come to an end by one means or another. There must be some closure; and as I see it, this is the only way by which it may be obtained. Otherwise, your husband will continue to pester me throughout all eternity.”

Johann’s comment brought a much needed hearty round of laughter from everyone.

Fifteen minutes later, the light of day flooded into the vessel, even as they swept in low over the coast. The skies around them seemed free of demons, at least for the moment. Apparently their landing would go unopposed.

The Spirit once more extended its metallic legs and hit the rocky ground about 50 feet away from the great portal. It was more than Serena or Chris had expected; a great arch of dark gray marble over 100 feet wide and 80 feet high stood before them. It seemed strangely incongruous, a lone structure on the barren rocky plains. The hatchway opened, and Chris and Serena wasted no time stepping from the Spirit and back onto the rocky wasteland of Hell.