Gods Without Men (10 page)

The sun was low, a great orange smudge on the horizon. At the sides of the stage, members of the Cohort lit flaming torches and fixed them into brackets. Joanie took up her position in the front rank, her arms folded and her feet slightly apart. The power stance, the Guide called it. Rooted to the Earth, ready to make contact with the sky. As the crowd surged forward she tried to stop herself from grinning, to adopt the stern expression of someone who understood the epochal changes about to take place on Earth, who was prepared to play a part in the
tumult that would inevitably follow the first moment of mass contact. It was so difficult! She was too excited. The desert floor had turned a soft peach color, with hints of cool watery blue, as if the sand were turning to sea before her eyes. She wondered whether the fluttery feeling in her chest heralded another visitation. Could it be that the Command would choose this moment to make themselves known to their terrestrial helpers? Oh, that would be too wonderful!

Just then the Guide and his consort took the stage. As they mounted the steps, they waved, receiving a rapturous cheer in return. Approaching the microphone, the Guide tapped a couple of times with his finger to check that it was working, then began to speak. At the sound of his voice everyone and (so it seemed to Joanie)
everything
became silent, as if a giant bell jar had descended, shutting their gathering off from the normal noise of the world.

“Brothers and sisters,” said the Guide. “Brothers, sisters, dearest friends—I bid you welcome. As you know, the human mind is the most powerful force in the Universe, and yet we use not a hundredth, not even one hundred thousandth, of that power. I come before you this evening to talk of many things, but firstly of a number that is key to unlocking the potentials of this wonderful force. This is the sacred number four hundred and eighty-six. The latitude of the Pinnacle Rocks, where we’re gathered, is precisely 2057.6215 minutes of arc north. The reciprocal of this value is 0.000486. The original height of the Great Pyramid was precisely four hundred and eighty-six feet. This means that the latitude of this powerful place is the precise harmonic reciprocal of the height of the Great Pyramid of Giza, an ancient communications device of unsurpassed importance in connecting humankind with the directors of the spiritual program for our planet. The number four hundred and eighty-six also plays a central role in the harmonics of space and time, connected as it is with the universal interdimensional constant
aum
. Four hundred and eighty-six is a key that will unlock the gateway to dimensions. It indicates the cycle of challenge and transformation on which we are about to embark. Remember this number. Hold it in your minds as you listen to what I am about to say.”

Joanie knew the rocks were located in a special place. Many of the
Cohort talked about the lines of power that intersected at this location, and not a few of them had dowsed along those force lines, but this was the first she’d heard of a relationship to the pyramids of Egypt. She tried to fix the figure in her head, muttering it a few times under her breath to help. The Guide asked the crowd to join with Oriana in chanting the hymn of welcome. She stepped up to the microphone, opened her arms wide and began to speak.

“O Great Ones! O Brothers of Light! We pour out our libations of love upon you!”

After each line she paused, and the crowd repeated her words. The effect was electric, and Joanie became increasingly sure that something extraordinary was about to happen.

“We pour out our libations, knowing that every drop—”

We pour out our libations, knowing that every drop—

“Brings a blessing on the one to whom it is sent, and to the sender!”

Brings a blessing on the one to whom it is sent, and to the sender!

“Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!”

Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!

By the time she’d finished, the desert had changed from peach to lilac and the sun was shivering over the horizon, about to vanish. The Guide took the microphone again, and started to tell the story of his Experience.

“I am here with you today,” he said, “because of something that happened to me in this very place. Eleven years ago, I was alone and friendless. I’d come out to the desert in search of an answer, a truth I knew I must find or perish in the attempt. One night, as I lay beneath the stars, contemplating my insignificance before the infinitude of space-time, I received a visitation. The craft was of a type that I know will be familiar to some of you, a silent carrier like a huge topaz flying through the starry night. It landed before me, its descent so perfect and soundless that as it touched the ground I could still hear nature—the insects, the wind, the distant howl of a coyote, a beast as lonely as I. My body felt charged with spiritual electricity, a feeling of excitement such as I had never known. Before my eyes, the hull, whose surface had appeared as a perfect flawless sphere, opened up to reveal a ramp. On that ramp
stood two figures, human, or so they appeared to me, people of such noble aspect and bearing that I felt I was in the presence of demigods. They were of a pure Aryan type, pale-skinned and gray-eyed, dressed in simple white robes, like our fathers of old.

“ ‘What do you want of me?’ I asked. They told me not to be afraid, and bade me accompany them into their ship. They spoke not in the crude voices that you and I use to communicate but in a speech of the mind, a mental telepathy. Language took shape in my brain, clothed in what I understood as voices, beautiful, clear and mellow. When I stepped aboard, I entered a realm of wonder. The inside was curved and bathed in a soft warm glow, a comforting and womb-like space. I realized I was very thirsty. As if in response to my craving, a long-stemmed crystal cup appeared in my hand, filled to the brim with a clear liquid, into which was immersed what looked to be a green gemstone. In my surprise, I almost dropped it.
‘Do not fear,’
said my hosts.
‘Drink. You will be satisfied.’
I looked closely at them. More perfect beings I had never encountered. I felt they knew everything that was in my heart. I trusted them implicitly, though at the same time I had the uncomfortable feeling of being completely transparent to them, a sort of mental nakedness quite as embarrassing as the physical kind. When I drank from the cup I found it contained the most delicious nectar. All my fatigue disappeared, along with all the depressive thoughts and negative feelings I’d been experiencing before these wondrous men landed at my cave. My hosts asked me to make myself comfortable, which confused me, as there appeared to be nowhere to sit down. However, at a gesture from one of them, an aperture appeared in the floor and a sort of padded booth rose up through it. The three of us sat, and I noticed that the upholstery of my seat was subtly moving and shifting to adapt to the contours of my body.

“ 
‘We are Merku and Voltra,’
announced my new friends.
‘We have come from a place that you may choose to think of as far away, but in another sense is no farther than the distance between your thumb and forefinger. We are representatives of a group known throughout the worlds as the Ashtar Galactic Command. The Command has had your civilization under observation since the dawn of recorded history. Our seeing disks have absorbed much information
.
Our auditory rods have monitored the psychic vibrations of humanity with profound attention. For many thousands of years we have followed a policy of non-interference on Earth. Occasionally humans have experienced fleeting contact with us, but this has happened mostly by mistake. Now, however, we have decided to break our own rules. You are living in a time of grave danger. Your race has discovered certain crude ways of manipulating matter, the technology of atom splitting that you know as nuclear power. You have in your hands an energy source that is capable both of great good and of great evil. We are sorry to say that though your level of technological sophistication has increased, your moral capabilities have not. Humanity is still a primitive race, governed by savage emotions. You are ruled by anger and fear. Because of this, you have already succumbed to the temptation to use your new tools in war. Now, you have divided into two atomic-armed camps and risk the absolute destruction of your fledgling world. We of the Ashtar Galactic Command experience a deep sense of brotherhood when we contemplate you, O People of Earth! We undergo feelings of immense compassion and kinship, and we of the Command, who represent the highest flowering of the great civilizations of the galaxy, have made the decision to wade into the tide of human affairs, to try to halt the destruction before it happens
.

“ ‘You must cease all nuclear testing immediately. Your meddling with the forces of nature can bring only horror, unless it is carried out with love and foreknowledge. We have contemplated long and hard the best method of steering you onto a peaceful path. At first we considered taking over human communication systems and broadcasting a message to the leaders of all world governments, commanding them to make overtures to one another, to start talks to bring about the cessation of war. However, our calculators have determined that the sudden appearance of higher beings, and the trauma associated with the realization of the relative backwardness of your evolution, would have negative consequences. In short, we fear that within your leadership structures are many individuals with unstable mentalities, who would fear usurpation, and provoke nuclear auto-destruction rather than relinquish their grip on power
.

“ ‘Instead, we have determined that the message of change and redemption can come only from within humanity itself. We have chosen to make contact with certain gifted humans. We have identified a number of individuals whose mental vibrations are at a higher pitch than those of the majority of your race
.
This makes them more suitable for use as communication channels. You are one such individual.’

“As you can imagine, I was most concerned to hear this. The possibility that the world would imminently end was, I admit, something I’d often considered. But to have it confirmed, and from such a source! I doubted I was strong enough for the vital task these alien visitors had entrusted me with. They told me that though they’d embodied themselves for this first communication, henceforth there would be no need to engage in physical travel, as there would be a permanent psychic channel open between us. In effect I was to become a kind of living transmitter, a tool to bring their message to humanity.

“ ‘You are a special one,’
they told me,
‘for you have dared to raise up your eyes, to look beyond the material world into the etheric. The etheric plane is where we have our existence, and your senses are not adapted to detect our presence. We are beings of the seventh density, and humankind can apprehend only the first through third. However, through our advanced spiritual technology, we are able to step down our vibrations and the vibrations of our craft to the frequencies of the atoms on the physical plane.’
I realized with a shock that this perfectly explained the reports of extraterrestrial visitors walking through walls and other so-called solid objects, as well as the ability of their vehicles to perform in a manner that seemed to contradict basic laws of physics.

“After that, we talked further. They introduced concepts of extreme complexity, ideas that ought to have required many hours of conversation and hard study to explicate. Amazingly, these concepts flashed into my mind in seconds, placed there by some instantaneous process, a sort of mental imprinting like a stamp on a piece of wax. I asked them about this wondrous method of learning and they confirmed they could absorb and transmit huge bodies of information in the blink of an eye. All human history could be transferred from one entity to another in as little time as it takes to listen to an episode of a radio serial. And so began a new phase of my life, that part that has been dedicated to the mighty task entrusted to me by my friends Merku and Voltra. Since that fateful day eleven years ago, I have received hundreds more communications. This very evening, they informed me that they would be monitoring
proceedings from a spaceship orbiting 2340 miles above the Earth. They wish you, my friends, to know that the crisis grows ever more acute, and they are actively looking for more humans to join with them in preventing it. Under the guidance of Merku, Voltra and the other members of the Command, including Aleph, Lord Maitreya, Sananda-Jesus, the Comte de Saint-Germain and on occasion Director Ashtar himself, I have worked tirelessly to spread the word, and to recruit and train a band of volunteers, men and women of higher mental abilities who will prepare the ground for the next stage of human history, the transcendence of war and the advent of the galactic age, when our race will take its rightful seat at the congress of the Federation of Light. Now I will introduce you to those volunteers. Please give a big round of applause for the Universal Cohort of the Green Ray!”

As the crowd clapped and cheered, Joanie felt as happy as she ever had in her life. She hoped Judy had a good view. She’d be so proud to see her mom standing there, to hear her spoken of as a person with higher mental abilities.

As they left the stage, Manny Vargas tapped her on the shoulder and whispered that there was to be a special additional conference in the control room. Only certain people were to be invited, and the Guide had specifically mentioned her name. She was flustered, and bombarded him with questions. By name? Really? Was he sure? Did she have time to go back to her tent? She wanted to check on her daughter. He told her to get Wanda or Michelle to do it. They were going to start in ten minutes. Joanie grabbed Wanda and asked her to be a dear. Wanda made a face but squeezed her arm and told her not to worry. Joanie could tell she was jealous. Apart from anything else, she had the most obvious crush on Manny. Real schoolgirl stuff. Joanie wished she could set Wanda’s mind at rest. Much as Joanie liked Manuel, there could never have been anything between them.

It was the first time she’d ever been down into the control room. It was a real cave, hollowed out right under the Pinnacle Rocks. Apparently, it was very ancient. The Guide had uncovered it after being told in a dream where to dig. Despite being underground, and the only air coming from a couple of little skylights up near the ceiling, it wasn’t
dank or smelly at all. In fact, it was kind of cozy, lit up with oil lamps and furnished with throw pillows and low benches set around the walls, leaving a space in the center. Apparently the Guide used to do all his inventing here, but now he’d built a little house some distance away, where he and Oriana lived and worked. There was only one device left, a complicated-looking brass thingummy, with lots of rods and disks, and a little handle to turn it round, and a sort of cage into which was fixed a big clear crystal. Attached to the machine was a wooden box, and from the box ran a length of wire, attached to a set of headphones, the sort of thing a telephone operator might use to connect calls.