Judas' Gospel

“I’m alone,” replied the imposing figure with wavy hair, continuing to scrutinize her sternly from behind the massive wooden table, on which a computer and various high-tech devices were settled. “Besides, where the hell have you been all these days? I looked for you in all the conventional places to warn you not to come here; you know well that we must make sure that we are always available.”

“But why, what happened?” she asked abandoning for a moment her bold ways. Staring him that way, had it not been for the reddish streaks on her straight, dark hair, and for a slight asymmetry of an incisor tooth that gave her a sweet appearance, she would have looked much older than her twenty-two years.

“We have to get out of here now, Andy will comes to take away all the stuff soon.”

“Okay, okay… but do you want to tell me what the hell happened?” Shasa asked again.

“I had finally managed to break into the Historical Archive using a Trojan Horse, but while I was reading some confidential information on the “Revelation’s Day” and on the “Antennas”, someone else connected in turn revealing the violation. The firewall was immediately restored, and if before they suspected it only, now they know with certainty that we exist. They will make a merciless hunt for us throughout the city, for a while we will have to be very careful and we will not be able to see or hear each other. We will each have to carry out our own tasks without having any contact with the others, it would be too dangerous. And now we have to get out of there quickly, this will surely be one of the first places they will come to check.”

“Damn,” she twitched her mouth in a grimace of disappointment, “just now that I had found something interesting.”

Fred scolded her with his eyes, she shrugged.

“Know that this is an order, and this time try not to do your own thing or you’ll drag everyone into trouble. Think about what we are risking, if they discovered the identity of even one of us we would have wasted years of work … the Sect would be wiped out like a miserable house of cards.”

“And the Plan?” Shasa asked looking at him puzzled.

“We will implement the Plan, but not now. We still need some time, but as soon as we are ready we will find a way to blow up the Antennas. That is the most important thing, then, if we have worked well, the rest will come by itself.”

“How are we going to meet?”

“When the time comes, Tony will activate the usual chain. For now we cannot do otherwise, we have to wait.”

“But if we can’t come here anymore, then will our operations center change?”

“We’ll only find out later, when it’s time to meet again.”

Shasa looked around sadly, having to leave that old disused factory saddened her.

“Come on, now we really have to leave. Staying here becomes more dangerous with every minute that passes,” Fred urged, putting his arm around her shoulders, to push her towards the door.

“Make sure you complete your explosives experiments,” he added, “but make sure that never, for any reason, anyone suspects anything.”

“Wait a moment!” the girl exclaimed, pointing her feet. She ran to the closet, took some packs of cigarettes and put them in her shirt, then closed the door and put the key in her pocket. Finally she gave one last melancholy look around, then turned off the light and walked to the exit.

Nicole could not stay still; her baby bump prevented her from finding a comfortable position. She was half seated on the adjustable armchair in the empty waiting room, with her legs stretched forward, trying to distract herself, she kept nervously leafing through a magazine without reading it. She wished she could finally let off steam, put aside paranoia and feelings to let herself go to a long, liberating cry, without thinking about anything. But she knew that at any moment they could arrive, and she did not intend to be surprised with her cheeks streaked with tears. She did not want to give them this further satisfaction; she wanted to drive away remorse and fears so that she could look those evil men straight in the face, to show them all her contempt. She had had to agree to lend herself to their crazy plan to protect the people she loved, but she wasn’t sure what she was doing was the right thing. Her loved ones would not even have known that she had sacrificed herself for them; she would have left them only some empty lie. She had had to keep feeding them the hope that all would be well, that they would return and be the happy and perfect family ever, when in reality she knew very well that it was not true. And what hurt her most of all was not having been able to greet them as she wished, although she was aware that she would never see them again.

“Glad to see you again,” Dr. Lorentz began, looking out the door. Her lips, parted in a pleased smile, left his sharp yellow teeth exposed. “He’s really slimy as a rat”, she thought, looking in disgust at his greasy hair, which was starting to turn gray at the temples.

“Come on, follow me!” he hastened to order her abruptly, he was resentful of the reproach he had read in that look. She got up indolently, dropped the magazine to the ground just to spite him, and followed him with her head held high. They entered the laboratory and went through the hidden door to enter the secret room, where Sir Jonathan and Dr. Lorentz had prepared the delivery room, convinced that they could act undisturbed. Sir Jonathan was waiting for them sitting in a corner, anxious and excited, he sought her gaze but she ignored him. She went straight behind the booth, put on with difficulty the smock and went to lie down on the cot, trying with all her might not to think about anything. The doctor connected various sensors to Nicole’s body and made a final check.

“You have to be patient a little longer, lady,” he informed her in a confidential tone, to make her participate in that absurd atrocity. At the end of the check-up he slipped a needle into her forearm and opened the drip valve, the mild anesthetic began to slip through her veins drop by drop. Nicole began to feel groggy, and at that precise moment she understood the meaning of the word “hate”.

“You have nothing to fear, everything will be for the best,” the doctor reassured her seeing that the woman was about to panic. The Elder observed ecstatic what was happening, he was intent on mentally recording every little detail with a maniacal greed. For him it was a unique moment, one among the many that would have helped to engrave his name forever in the Great Book of the History of Humanity.

“You must be proud of having been chosen for the Sky Project, you haven’t the faintest idea of how many candidates there were. And you must consider yourself lucky, soon you will be able to meet God in person,” he told Nicole. She closed her eyes and did not answer, the contractions were becoming more frequent and the pain did not permit her to think other things, now she simply had to do her duty towards Nature. They did not allow her to hold her son in her arms even for a moment; they quickly loaded her into an ambulance to transport her to the hospital.

While not agreeing with the resigned way that Nicole chose to live that terrible situation, Judas had forced himself to accept it and had tried in vain to be as close to her as possible. His nerves were now completely worn out, even that morning he had left the office with an excuse because at the workplace he felt suffocating. Although over time he had almost learned to control himself, he was still sometimes struck by occasional paralysis due his strong emotional instability. But whenever the chip interpreted the excess adrenaline in his blood as a threat to himself or to others, it intervened ruthlessly to put him on standby. Some time before he had been seized by a crisis while driving the car. Realizing that he had risked causing a massacre, he had run to install the Directional Computer, a sort of automatic pilot. Walking along the avenues along the coast, adorned with manicured lawns and slender palm trees, slightly swaying, he suddenly realized that summer had arrived. He wished with all of himself to be inside one of those relaxed bodies, enjoying the warmth of the Sun through the Deviant Filter. They dived into the crystal clear water and after a few moments re-emerged to swim in the midst of a mosaic of colored sails, diving buoys and surfboards. His pager suddenly vibrated, he pointed the car and accelerated promptly in the direction of the hospital.

Judas was still clinging to the thin hope that everything could go well, but it was just for Nicole’s sake and not because he was really confident. He was waiting for the verdict in front of the ward’s door, breathing deeply to try to control the cramps in his legs, which made him stagger. The door opened and the midwife came to meet him with a slow step, shaking her head and without looking him in the eye. He realized he hadn’t heard any cry and felt the world finally collapse on him.

“Nicole!” he said after a few moments, returning to reality after the shock that had annihilated him. “I have to see my Nicole.”

“For now it is not possible, she must rest because she is very tired,” the midwife explained, handing him the glass of water she had taken from the vending machine.

“Now sit there and try to stay calm,” she suggested, taking him by the arm, she wanted to accompany him to a row of armchairs.

“I can’t stay here … I have to see her, I have to go comfort her,” he insisted with tears in his eyes. He freed himself from the nurse and tried to head towards the entrance to the ward, the woman nodded to the two Lords of the Guard Order and they blocked his way. Judas tried to pass by force and they pretended to let him pass, then they grabbed him from behind and he felt a needle penetrate his arm. He screamed and tried to free himself for just a second longer, when he opened his eyes again he was lying on a litter. He still felt groggy from the sedative and all his perceptions were distorted, the Lords of the Order accompanied him to his wife supporting him by the elbows because he could not stand up. As the door opened, Nicole’s puffy, purple-rimmed eyes lit up, after all she felt relieved that it was all over. Judas lived what happened next as in a dream, with the outlines of things blurred and the sounds echoing in his head. He knelt by the side of the bed and took his wife’s hand, which was hanging sideways, in his own.

“Leave us alone,” he murmured. The nurse and the Lords of the Order went out, he leaned over her, trying to hold back the tears. He caressed her face and her hair, still wet from sweat, which clung to her forehead and neck. The veins were still dilated from the effort and some capillaries now appeared on the velvety cheeks, streaked with blue, a machine periodically emitted a mournful “beep”.

“How do you feel?” he asked, she smiled slightly to encourage him.

“It went wrong, but we couldn’t do anything about it. I’m happy to have tried and to have stayed right … even so, with his eyes closed, our baby was beautiful … but now I feel cold, so cold.”

“Don’t talk, you don’t have to force yourself … as soon as you get out of here I’ll take you to the sea,” he said, rubbing his cold hand hard, then pulled the sheet up to her neck. “If you could see how beautiful it was this morning, so blue and calm. And then we will also go to the mountains, in front of our fireplace, to drink our preferred liquor, distilled by me. And we will hold tight each other. We will also take Jodie with us, in recent weeks we have not been very close to her…”

“Don’t lie, you know this won’t happen,” she scolded him.

“But what you’re saying?” he replied, squeezing her hand even tighter, which was growing colder.

“I only hope that one day you will forgive me for abandoning you and Jodie… a little while ago I saw a beautiful lawn, there was an open door from which an intense light came out. Our baby was there, in the distance, and then I also saw my parents and many other souls. They were dressed in white tunics, which smell of perfumes so wonderful that I had never smelled anything like them before.” The “beep” accelerated and she gave a start, but continued to smile looking at an invisible point.

“Don’t talk nonsense, you’ll see that in a little while you’ll be better” Judas wanted to tell her, but the words died in his throat. He turned and nodded to the nurse, who was looking at them through the glass without having the courage to enter, Nicole opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but was silent.

“Please don’t leave me alone!” he pleaded.

She gathered the few strength that still remained, now she was breathing hard.

“You’re not alone, you have Jodie. Promise me that you will always protect her and that you will respect the Law. Promise me that you will make her a just person, an honest person … the baby and I will watch over you from up there, we will wait for you together. Promise,” she repeated.

“I promise you, I promise you, but don’t leave me. Don’t leave me, please … nurse … nurse!”

Suddenly, Judas realized that he no longer wanted anything. A dull pain had plunged him into an abyss made of confused memories and guilt, until it was completely annihilated. Jodie had stopped eating and talking, all she did was keep staring at him in silence, with that perpetually sad expression of her, and he didn’t feel strong enough to be able to console her. He was fully aware that the System would not let him raise his daughter alone, if he hadn’t quickly found a new partner they would have hibernated him to entrust Jodie to another family. So, even knowing that he would never be able to forget Nicole, he still tried to start over, to prevent fate from taking his daughter away too. He would have contented himself with finding a good woman to help him make my daughter feel less alone, but every time he knew one he would come back to realize that no one, ever, would be able to fill the void left by his wife. Then each time the usual absurd ritual was repeated: Judas would leave with an excuse and return home, where he spent the rest of the night looking at old photographs in the company of Jodie, crying together.

PART III

THE ALIEN

Due to the precipitous descent through the Earth’s atmosphere, the great golden metal disc had heated up to an incandescent red color. The humanoid looked out the porthole and observed in shock the immense expanse of arid and inhospitable land, barely surmounted by some light-colored rock protuberance.

“I ended up in the middle of a desert”, he said to himself, disheartened, and then he went to the command console and started typing frantically on something like a chessboard. “Primary thrust motors out of order due to lack of power. Battery charge time with a single star, quantified in thirty-four Earth years. Temperature of the structures in the settling phase”, meant the cuneiform marks that appeared on the yellow screen. Disappointed, the Alien disinterested in the computer and went back to look over the porthole in the hope that he would come up with an idea, but immediately gave up. On its planet, the light energy provided by the three stars would have recharged the batteries in no time. But on Earth there was only one Sun, he had no way of amplifying the effect of its rays on the spacecraft’s receptors, he did not have the necessary material or tools. He realized that the problem was clearly unsolvable and he resigned himself to the idea of passively waiting thirty-four long and boring Earth years. He had a fit of annoyance and went back to interrogating the computer, to get the data from the Environmental Analysis.

“Outside temperature 40 degrees on earth. Quantity of light clearly insufficient for energy needs. Atmosphere made up of Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon, percentage humidity tending to zero. Probability of survival in this area of the planet less than three percent, caused by the scarcity of water and the minimum concentration of carbon dioxide dominated by the high percentage of free oxygen. Time limit of stay in the external environment estimated at ten terrestrial days. Subsequent phases resulting from excessive exposure to the external environment: energy deficit, immobilization, prolonged state of sub consciousness, total loss of consciousness, death due to progressive poisoning. Recommended solution: Body Transfer. End of report” ordered the on-board computer, merciless. The Alien let his back slide along the wall, slowly, until he found himself sitting with his arms folded around his slender legs. He thought back to the documentary about Planet Earth, one of many he had seen during the long space voyage, and bowed his head depressed.

“Damn it! With all the inhabited worlds that exist, I ended up right on the planet populated by the dumbest of evolving races! They do not have a technology to help me, moreover they are extremely superstitious and devoid of any open-mindedness. If they saw me in this guise they would consider me a monster, they would not hesitate to kill me instantly. I have no way of looking for a more livable place, but even if I found it I would not be able to stay hidden all that time. I have no choice but to carry out the Body Transfer. I will have to transform into one of them and for many years I will be vulnerable, at least until my conscience of myself takes over. To be able to survive all that time in such an uncivilized world, I will need a good dose of luck, but by then the batteries will be charged and I will be able to leave for Igos. No, I have no other choice … then I must to do it as soon as!”

The being went into the small laboratory and opened a refrigerated drawer containing some transparent test tubes, pulled down a small probe from a niche in the ceiling and extended the flexible fluorescent tube to which it was connected. He dropped it in the sector bearing the inscription “Human Male Exemplary Race”, a few moments later the probe determined which was the most suitable subgroup of spermatozoa for his purposes. The Alien thought for a moment about the being from which they had been extracted, the last time he saw it he was lying lifeless in the garden of his palace, now reduced to rubble blackened by the destructive fury of the war. He couldn’t feel sorry for him even when his sad eyes came to mind, staring at him in disbelief from inside his personal zoo cage. To him, this was just an inferior being that one night had been taken away from his small and insignificant world, without understanding the how or why. The thought of having to transform into such a stupid animal aroused a deep anger in him, he continued to stare at the jar selected by the probe without being able to make up his mind, almost tempted to destroy it. He sighed repeatedly until he managed to calm down, and then went to carefully place the test tube on a metal surface. Touching his trunk in a particular point, he stimulated a gland in the center of his chest, to cause the opening of the petals placed to protect the inflorescence. Using a spoon-shaped instrument he took a sample of his own semen and placed the semen in a container, which he placed next to the first one, then covered both of them with two small hemispheres connected to each other through a machine. This quickly did its job, emitting a purplish light.

“Chromosome correction and genetic enhancement procedure finished,” the computer announced after a moment. The Alien nodded and went to sit in an armchair surrounded by cables and circuits, put on a helmet on which a multitude of electrodes were implanted and typed a code on the small keyboard he had worn on his forearm. After a few moments he fell into a state of trance, an infinite series of images and events crossed his mind for a time that seemed to never end, causing him joys and sufferings in confused succession, then the mad rush of memories came to an end and he felt drained.

“Memory transfer to clone procedure successful,” confirmed the computer in an impersonal voice after a brief buzz.

When he recovered, the Alien took off his helmet and looked out again, suddenly melancholy. He tried for a long time to convince himself that that further torture imposed on him by fate could somehow turn into a positive experience, but he did not succeed. He realized that continuing to brood would only serve to fuel the confusion he had inside, it would lead him to foolishly waste energy and make irreparable mistakes, with the consequent risk of ending his existence in that miserable wasteland.

“Now I just have to find who will make me reborn”, he considered, forcing himself to return to reality. After a hearty meal, he cut off most of the flat, broad green hair that his body was rich in, to reduce perspiration as much as he could. After completing the necessary operations to increase his chances of survival, he made a mental report to verify that he had not left anything out.

The Elder was at the height of exaltation, as always he threw himself into Ann’s office without bothering to knock on the door or to give her a formal greeting.

“Where are you with the investigation? Have you identified the mole that entered the Archive?” he asked euphorically, interrupting her work abruptly.

“Not yet Excellency,” she replied, lowering her eyes, afraid of his reaction. She hated to be scolded, but looking for the author of the intrusion was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

“We are trying, but at this point I seriously doubt that we will succeed because the author of the crime certainly knew what he was doing. He used a public terminal to which many people have free access, so that he cannot be easily traced. Furthermore, at a certain point the data traffic split on two separate lines, as if two computers and not just one had violated the Archive.”

“This is not at all comforting,” Sir Jonathan commented gravely, “I hope you are at least able to assure me that such a thing will never happen again.”

“Of this you can be more than sure, Excellency. Our best experts have worked hard to create a new barrier against the risk of any interference … unfortunately, however, there is more!” then added after swallowing, the Elder looked at her worried. “The Security Services have noticed the suspicious movements of a number of people; it would seem that there is some kind of organization that meets in secret. We still don’t know what their aims are, but everything suggests that they certainly don’t meet to play Bridge. We were studying them, but after the violation of the Historical Archive they went into stand-by and disappeared. This leads us to suspect that those responsible for that ignoble act are really them,” she said. She neglected to tell him about the technological material they had found in an empty lair, which equipment had not provided her with any useful information for the investigation and she had no intention of undergoing another lecture by the Elder. Sir Jonathan became thoughtful, what Ann had just told him was really bad news. But for that day he had decided not to be upset, he wanted to enjoy the joy of learning that all the different phases of his project were progressing in the best way. He told himself that the Security Services would take care of getting rid of any small group of dissidents; he had much more important things to think about.

“Don’t let go, keep an eye on them and tell me everything about it,” he replied to still give the girl a little satisfaction, but the reason why he had gone to see her was quite different. “In a few days there will be the half-yearly meeting of the Hibernation Unit. There is a person who must absolutely be subjected to the Treatment so that he does not hinder the Sky Project! Choose any name from the list that will be provided and replaces it with this “he ordered, handing her a sheet with a name written on it. She read it, and then questioned Sir Jonathan with her eyes.

“Remember the oath: “Never ask!” Don’t forget it!” he admonished her in response. “Do your duty properly and you will be adequately rewarded,” he concluded, then went out as hastily as he had entered because he had to go to give orders to Dr. Lorentz.

Judas continued to spend his days together with Jodie. That day they had been on a trip to the countryside and they had lived it like a nightmare, like all the previous ones. They had done nothing but walk for hours looking straight forward, immersed in an abysmal silence interrupted only by the rare whistle of some bird. Throughout the return trip he kept wondering what he would prepare for dinner, when they got home they found two Lords of the Order waiting for them in the garden.

“Mister Judas 1091?” one of them asked, reading his name from a file.

“It’s me,” he confirmed apathetically, “is there something wrong?”

“Nothing serious, we have been instructed to take the child,” the soldier informed him without using a minimum of tact, showing him a sheet underwritten by the Elder.

“… Pick up the girl?” Judas echoed, incredulous. He turned to the street and saw an elderly couple get out of a car parked not far from his; the woman was holding a large colorful package and continues to stare at Jodie, smiling.

“Someone decided to relocate your daughter into a regular family. As you know, only a small percentage of incomplete families can remain in the de facto state, so as they are, “one of the two Lords of the Order explained professionally. Jodie immediately ran into the street to escape that kind of kidnapping, one of the soldiers chased her and caught her back just before she ended up under a car, then they escorted both of them into the house so that she could take her things.

“I don’t want to be taken away!” suddenly began to shout Jodie, kicking and tugging at the Lord of the Order who tried to immobilize her. “I want to be with my father … I want to be with my father!”

Exasperated by her tears, Judas threw himself against the Lords of the Order and fought with all his might, so that she too was not taken away from him. When he regained consciousness, he discovered he was in a hospital room. As soon as he was sure he could understand it, a guy in a white coat read him the reports:

“Unsocial and depressed, frequent states of mental disorder, signs of schizophrenia and conviction of being persecuted… I would say it’s not bad! Anyway you can rest assured, we will heal you!” he said him smiling, and then checked that the straps that immobilized his arms and legs were well secured.

The walls of the old warehouse smelled of mold, some fans hanging from the ceiling continued to sprinkle the heads of the six people gathered around the table with dust. The technological material had been placed in the center of the worm-eaten shelf and clashed with the rest of the furniture, made of old furniture covered with sheets and cobwebs.

“How long will we have to go on living like this, hiding like rats?” snapped suddenly Tony, breaking the silence. He was tall and thin, tanned, his small, crescent-shaped eyes lit up every time he smiled or looked at something carefully. Two thin black mustaches softened the excessive protrusion of his slightly pointed nose. He was nervous in body as well as in character and meticulous by nature, whenever there were those meetings he constantly ranted for every trifle. The others were absently trying to find the most comfortable position to face the wait, which presumably would be long.

“How long will we have to endure our family members and friends being deported?” he continued. “The Temporary Hibernation is nothing but a lousy scam, how long will we have to continue to provide our hearts and lungs to the elders of the Council?”

“That’s enough now,” Shasa interrupted, “it’s always the same story every time. Every time you overwhelm us with your paranoia, like when you think that some of us have looked at you in a strange way and then you want to know why at any cost. You know I don’t like these speeches, nothing you say has been proven. Personally, until I have seen it with my own eyes, I refuse to believe in such cruelty” she concluded, then inhaled from the cigarette and blew two wires of smoke out of his nostrils. They reunited without haste and wrapped each other, then climbed towards the ceiling creating imaginative spirals, the transversal light that entered from the window above cut them into slices, creating fascinating arabesques.

“And you, instead, stop smoking; inside this gloomy hole the air is already heavy enough!” told her in a resolute tone Jack. His temper was in stark contrast to his physical appearance. He had narrow shoulders and a pronounced belly, fine straight blond faded hairs, and a perpetually pale face. Under the very pale skin of the face his veins could be glimpsed at times, while the tiny blue eyes, too much distant from each other, did not show themselves at all. The mouth was set in a neutral fold; he gave the impression of being a person who is always okay with everything.

“I’m glad we had to leave the other den, so when you’re done with those damn cigarettes you won’t be able to get more!” he added.

“Yeah, I’d like to know how they got there, to discover the other hiding place. Maybe you know something about it!” she replied maliciously looking him straight in the eye, then purposely puffed the smoke in his direction.

“Ok, so I didn’t talk clearly enough …” he said rising up, and then he went menacingly toward her.

“Stop!” Andy intervened, grabbed Jack by the arm and made him sit again. “We have reached a good point, as have our brothers from the other communities. Finally, in a while, the time will come to take action, this is certainly not the time to get lost in these silly games!”