Tibbs' eyes narrowed in an accusing look towards the nonchalant Vandalian laid beside the rifle and his big sidearm.
If Mucklebones' belief of demons had any merit -the small man thought, those devilish creatures resided in that altered
pistol because Ninurta's mind was too-scary of 'em.
Inwardly correcting his grammar, Tibbs continued with his story.
.................................................
With the quantum mechanics being finally understood in the Mainyu's universe, Ba'al's scientific bodies told him of the
theoretical possibilities that other universes could exist. Thousands of years had passed and under the great Ruler's
hand, traditional sciences and esoteric religions had combined to offer evidence that Ba'al's hunger to become more
than the deities of worship, was nearing point of certainty.
Still, running a multitude of star-systems was no easy task. Generations of of his family had assisted and sometimes
when the last of the ambassadors and emissaries had left the Palace and the sun that warmed his planet of birth had
moved low in the sky, the imposing emperor-of emperors would muse on what may lay outside of this reality.
Priests would timidly speak of heavens and enclaves of Gods, scientists would relate possible dangers of entering
places unimagined and meeting monsters without conscience. And all the while, Ba'al would listen to these serious
articulations until his own inner-voice drowned them all out, that mocking murmur that burns in all great beings souls.
'Will you never meet him...? Will the bars of this cage prevent your confrontation?'
Great Sages from Bylazcka had told Ba'al that somewhere out there in the unseen firmament was a mirror of himself,
a being as great as he -although they never said that part specifically and the sole reason was that nobody can walk
alone, nobody is ever truly only one.
Those seven wise men never made it back to their home-planet for some reason.
Time moved on.
Huge powerful empires placed strategically across the thousands of galaxies enjoyed a rich and fulfilling existence.
Technologies eased the trillion-or-more citizens of Ba'al's dominion and war became a forgotten word. Death was rare
and a choice, disease became a mere ghost-story to be told by those who remember such days of physical ailments
and when the King gazed out at what he'd built, he saw that it was righteous.
But at night in his sleep, the same monarch-of-all would hear that taunting voice in his dreams, a jeering echo that
boasted that Ba'al was merely peerless because of his failings to fly higher, to find the one who waited on the otherside.
.................................................
When his scientists collapsed two whole star-systems, a wormhole-like aperture existed in their king's universe for
approximately several of our seconds. It was this that began the rejuvenation of what he proclaimed as 'The Final Mainyu'.
Leaving the billions that perished during the initial test -aside, the academics informed their majestic leader that evidence
indicated that another 'something' could-well lay beyond the short-lived rolling clouds of substance we call 'gas' and the fleeting
cascades of disappearing light.
With a verve last seen during his eons-ago pillaging years, Ba'al instructed his people to focus on this latest project, a new
way to be more than they are. Planets were emptied of populations and valuable resources, special facilities were hauled
across the cosmos to arrange experimentation and the very essence of the Mainyu people strained under their sovereign's
demands.
As information was gathered surrounding the crumpled remains of that part of Ba'al's domain, new materials were
discovered and physical particles existed where they never had before. Decades of examination and research began
and for a thousand years, the substances were analysed with hopes of understanding what might lay beyond that
ephemeral Delphic crack in space.
And during that chiliadal of time, that voice, that offending night-uttering in Ba'al's sandman-hours... went quiet.
.................................................
With the hour late, Tibbs decided that sleep -the action that the character in his story had struggled with, would be a wise
notion and assuring his audience of... he was sure Ninurta wasn't totally asleep, three -that the tale would be finished in the
light of day, he pulled his robe closer and bedded-down for the night.
The night-sounds continued with the campfire morphing into glowing embers and as the troop snuggled in the arms of Morpheus
-except for Boy In A Dress (which is a long story), images of snorting stallion-faced tyrants wearing golden crowns galloped along
the synapses of the sleeping Tibbs and Mucklebones.
Whether Ninurta browsed such shelves of baroque imagery isn't known, for that wide-rimmed hat wasn't for telling.
If Mucklebones' belief of demons had any merit -the small man thought, those devilish creatures resided in that altered
pistol because Ninurta's mind was too-scary of 'em.
Inwardly correcting his grammar, Tibbs continued with his story.
.................................................
With the quantum mechanics being finally understood in the Mainyu's universe, Ba'al's scientific bodies told him of the
theoretical possibilities that other universes could exist. Thousands of years had passed and under the great Ruler's
hand, traditional sciences and esoteric religions had combined to offer evidence that Ba'al's hunger to become more
than the deities of worship, was nearing point of certainty.
Still, running a multitude of star-systems was no easy task. Generations of of his family had assisted and sometimes
when the last of the ambassadors and emissaries had left the Palace and the sun that warmed his planet of birth had
moved low in the sky, the imposing emperor-of emperors would muse on what may lay outside of this reality.
Priests would timidly speak of heavens and enclaves of Gods, scientists would relate possible dangers of entering
places unimagined and meeting monsters without conscience. And all the while, Ba'al would listen to these serious
articulations until his own inner-voice drowned them all out, that mocking murmur that burns in all great beings souls.
'Will you never meet him...? Will the bars of this cage prevent your confrontation?'
Great Sages from Bylazcka had told Ba'al that somewhere out there in the unseen firmament was a mirror of himself,
a being as great as he -although they never said that part specifically and the sole reason was that nobody can walk
alone, nobody is ever truly only one.
Those seven wise men never made it back to their home-planet for some reason.
Time moved on.
Huge powerful empires placed strategically across the thousands of galaxies enjoyed a rich and fulfilling existence.
Technologies eased the trillion-or-more citizens of Ba'al's dominion and war became a forgotten word. Death was rare
and a choice, disease became a mere ghost-story to be told by those who remember such days of physical ailments
and when the King gazed out at what he'd built, he saw that it was righteous.
But at night in his sleep, the same monarch-of-all would hear that taunting voice in his dreams, a jeering echo that
boasted that Ba'al was merely peerless because of his failings to fly higher, to find the one who waited on the otherside.
.................................................
When his scientists collapsed two whole star-systems, a wormhole-like aperture existed in their king's universe for
approximately several of our seconds. It was this that began the rejuvenation of what he proclaimed as 'The Final Mainyu'.
Leaving the billions that perished during the initial test -aside, the academics informed their majestic leader that evidence
indicated that another 'something' could-well lay beyond the short-lived rolling clouds of substance we call 'gas' and the fleeting
cascades of disappearing light.
With a verve last seen during his eons-ago pillaging years, Ba'al instructed his people to focus on this latest project, a new
way to be more than they are. Planets were emptied of populations and valuable resources, special facilities were hauled
across the cosmos to arrange experimentation and the very essence of the Mainyu people strained under their sovereign's
demands.
As information was gathered surrounding the crumpled remains of that part of Ba'al's domain, new materials were
discovered and physical particles existed where they never had before. Decades of examination and research began
and for a thousand years, the substances were analysed with hopes of understanding what might lay beyond that
ephemeral Delphic crack in space.
And during that chiliadal of time, that voice, that offending night-uttering in Ba'al's sandman-hours... went quiet.
.................................................
With the hour late, Tibbs decided that sleep -the action that the character in his story had struggled with, would be a wise
notion and assuring his audience of... he was sure Ninurta wasn't totally asleep, three -that the tale would be finished in the
light of day, he pulled his robe closer and bedded-down for the night.
The night-sounds continued with the campfire morphing into glowing embers and as the troop snuggled in the arms of Morpheus
-except for Boy In A Dress (which is a long story), images of snorting stallion-faced tyrants wearing golden crowns galloped along
the synapses of the sleeping Tibbs and Mucklebones.
Whether Ninurta browsed such shelves of baroque imagery isn't known, for that wide-rimmed hat wasn't for telling.
Edith Head Gives Good Wardrobe.