Chariot 3: Conception
Chapter 28 – Goodbye

Flumen then issued the suku to the rest of the crew while observing their size, “considerably oversized” in his opinion, and thought how soon those things containing sufficient nutrients and fluids to sustain their bodies for over twenty four hours were likely to become obsolete with all the new advancements on space nutrition he had learnt about.

“Soon, we will not even need to eat anymore,” he thought.

And he said to me, “Son of a man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll”…

—Bible, Ezekiel 3:1

With care, Flumen unpeeled the pellicle from one of its sides and folded it to the back turning it into an outlined sticker.

He then silently approached the man who was still asleep and politely awoke him up. “Son of a man, have this patch I am giving you and fill your stomach with it”, Flumen tried to make it as easy as possible for him to understand. He handed the sticker to Ezekiel, who thereafter held it on the palm of his hand without the slightest understanding of what that object was as it certainly did not resemble to any eatable thing he had ever tasted before.

When the man was about to place the unappealing meal in his mouth, Flumen respectfully held his hand and then lifted the right side of his uniform’s waist, placing the sticker on his brown-grayish skin next to his abdomen.

After the visual instruction Ezekiel understood how to make use of it, even though he did not comprehend how the holly aliment would in any way extinguish his hunger, until the moment he stuck it onto his body.

He felt a momentarily, at the same time pleasant and difficult to describe sweet taste in his mouth. It finally made sense after all.

His hunger was gone and so was the thirst “Thank you sovereign Lord”. The thankful and invigorated smile made Flumen fulfilled.

The others grabbed their share and attached it to their bodies, barely acknowledging Flumen`s intellectual presence. He was about to return to his seat when he perceived the tension that Sissy had mentioned the minute before, laid heavy in the air, contaminating.

“Chariot 3 sensed several aircrafts approaching us in approximately one minute.” Captain Shoffer had a rather serious expression, looking straight ahead.

“Several?” Flumen swallowed it dry, trying to figure out how many such a word could actually encompass. He stood steal before reaching his seat and waited for orders he was sure were about to come.

“Cai Yiu, we shall not place the life of this man in risk again and we shall not take him to ‘when’ he has never been. Take Flumen with you and send this man of faith to the safety we abducted him from.”

Captain Shoffer finished his words and looked to the side, leaving V-Nus in charge of Chariot 3 on his own for a farewell instant.

Confident, V-Nus agreed with what was an almost imperceptible nod.

The grateful leader stood up, turned back, and faced the man who could barely believe his journey on the glorious chariot was about to reach its conclusion. Shoffer placed his right hand on Ezekiel`s shoulder and after hearing his thoughts, said out loud “believe me, your journey does not end here”. Shon felt troubled, in certain way, thinking of the distance the man was about to travel on his own.

Ezekiel, a man of faith in his time, whom the word of the Lord came to, would indeed give the word ‘journey’ a much more meaningful fate.

“Thank you Ezekiel, son of a man. Shall your path be safe.” Said the Captain.

V-Nus partially beheld the Hebrew with the corner of his eye and respectfully raised his left hand in the air as a gesture of goodbye.

Cai Yiu tapped his back and signalized to follow him. They were running out of time.

As the man stood on his feet, his seat liquefied and once again became part of the deck.

On the rear, Flumen followed them down to the Flight Deck.

As they left the Bridge, V-Nus smiled and commented to himself “I hope he`s not afraid of heights.”

Musing, Captain Shoffer returned to his seat. “Sissy…”

“Yes sir.” She replied.

“Once the time comes, this Earthian shall not remember this day. You know what to do.” Shoffer`s tone was merciful, but he knew exactly what was best for the man.

“His BCI shall erase from his memories all the events that took place today one by one once his heli-ring lands. It will then fly back to the ship as per its standard settings.” Sissy`s cold voice acknowledged the Captain`s orders.

In the meantime, on the lower deck, a compartment opened from within the deck head once V-Nus touched it with his hand. He could not avoid noticing how strange the room looked with the absence of the magnetic pole.

One of the rings then descended from the compartment and, with precision, landed next to the magnetic passage.

Flumen grabbed a helmet from the adjacent compartment. “Your turban”, he patiently waited for the man to remove it and then attach it to his waistband.

Flumen then respectfully placed the head gear on Ezekiel, noticing the man stared at it with certain fear in his eyes, trying to comprehend how such a thing could cause great pain such as the one his enemy had experienced not much before.

The nauseating image of the Grey leader having his eye shattered paralyzed Ezekiel for a second.

He felt a goosebump.

“You will be fine, this will protect you.” Said Cai Yiu.

“You shall speak to us should you need and we shall hear.” Cai Yiu was aware they would be able to communicate through the brain computer implant despite the distance as long they were all on the same planet and time. “Hopefully, not for long.”

The man stepped on the platform at the center of the ring lying on the deck. It then split in two. One of the parts slid, intersecting each other successively.

In no time, the heli-ring was assembled with the two rings set apart by equal distances between each other.

Everything looked so surreal that the man wondered if soon he would wake up from his usual nap by the margins of the Kebar.

Dream or reality, it did not matter. The man was ready to go, ready to move on.

He was ready for something bigger. Bigger than himself.

The adrenaline flowing through his body intensified the overwhelming excitement he was feeling. His heart accelerated as if it was going to jump out of his chest in a way he had never felt before.

The man then realized. He could not wait to start spreading the word of the Lord. At that very precise moment, he knew his prophetic life was about to start.

Cai Yiu then pointed to the base in the center of the ring. The man understood and stepped on it. A seat extended on his encounter. He settled down, comfortable.

He then sensed an immediate coldness and shivered.

Confused, he measured the panel and its controls, wondered what they were and if they would be of any use at all. The man remembered seeing the gods touching them. “You shall not touch anything. This chariot will take you back where you came from by its own.” Cai Yiu pointed to Ezekiel whose hands paused half way to the lever.

The magnetic passage opened. The enchanted scene of all that metal moving in an incredible spiral motion was something he, Ezekiel the son of Buzi, could have never conceived before, not on his own, not in his dreams.

The blinding sunlight conquered the deck. Ezekiel fought to keep his eyes opened in an attempt to not miss anything, but he could not avoid closing them.

Determined, he tried to open his eyes once again, he blinked and then tried it again and again, until he finally kept one of his eyes opened. Worth the discomfort, the breathtaking vision of the sky he was about to defy just underneath was magnificent.

Flumen pushed the sensor on the chin of his helmet; the plasmatic looking lid slid down and covered his face. Its surface gradually turned into a shiny amber and his face disappeared almost completely except by the vagueness of his head`s contour and the outline of his beard.

Flumen stepped back and agreed that was probably the last time him and the rest of the crew would ever see that man again. For a second he wondered what he should say.

“Shall your…”Flumen hesitated…“Shall god be with you”. He smiled, lowering his head in a polite reverence.

The man was speechless…

The four blades detached from the upper segment of the ring, flattened up and formed a helix.

“Chariot 3, please set his course to the same location where we found him.” Cai Yiu ordered.

“Affirmative, coordinates have been set. Heli-ring`s controls locked. Launching.”

“Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a loud rumbling sound. May the glory of the Lord be praised in his dwelling place! The sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against each other and the sound of the wheels beside them, a loud rumbling sound.” —Bible, Ezekiel 3:12-13

The flying chariot levitated from the deck and finally crossed the passage, loose, free in the air.

The man looked at the cherubins for one last time, waved his hand, and finally said “Goodbye”.