Chapter 62 - Window to the Past

They woke slowly the next day. No sunlight was entering the room, rather all light was streaming in from the ceiling. It remained constant throughout the night, evidence that it was not sunlight that was filling the chamber.

The people, as they awoke, wandered around the room, looking to see what all was in it. They could not find anything other than the plaque in the room, besides the metal tiles. And they were all bolted together, impossible to move or shift.

Jude read and reread the plaque, hoping to figure out what exactly it was that was hidden inside the tower. The plaque mentioned a gift, but the room was empty. What exactly was going on?

He decided to try a different approach. He lay down on the ground, closed his eyes, and focused his mind. He could feel the walls of the tower around him, and his mind groped around for something unusual, whether hidden in the walls, the floor, or the ceiling that was impossibly high above.

A strange signature was coming from behind one of the wall panels. Jude felt his way to it. It was a device that seemed to be activated by thought. Jude probed at it with his mind, and suddenly the room began to change.

Jude snapped out of his trance. The people had already ran against the walls, staring up at the ceiling in awe and wonder.

A hologram was projecting downwards. Floating in the center was a world, the same that Jude had seen on the map in the building when he had first seen the aurora-script. It was Earth.

It spun slowly around its axis. Cities were clearly visible on the surface, and the impact of humanity was evident across the face of the world. The hologram adjusted itself so everyone saw the same picture.

It was a city. There appeared to be a celebration taking place, when an explosion rocked the region. The hologram moved back out of the city.

Spaceships were gathering around the planet. They did not resemble the ships that Jude had seen in the children’s book, and so he was left to believe that they were kryon ships. They did not strike, but sat and watched, unwatched by Earth.

Earth, meanwhile, was at war. Planes razed city after city, and the people watched even New York razed by the humans.

The picture of the Earth was replaced by a picture of a man’s head. The man resembled Kysandra, although in all actuality, it was likely Kysandra who resembled the man. A name flashed underneath his head. “William O’Conner”.

He began to speak, his voice sounding like a masculine version of Kysandra’s.

“I come before the people of the world with the gravest of news. Aliens have attacked Earth. We are powerless to stop them, we simply do not have the means since we ensured world peace by disbanding the armies.” (This was clearly a lie, but had the year been the year this had been recorded, it would have been very believable). “We have no choice but to submit.”

The face faded away, and the ships descended upon Earth, which had reappeared. They stayed for a short time, then flew off. But some kryons remained. They built great towers, all resembling the one that the people now sat in. They rose from the rubble of many of the great cities of the world.

But nothing seemed to happen, and the kryons instead left in their ships, leaving the survivors in their wake. As true as it was that it was impossible to rescue all of the humans stranded, it seemed as though they were simply deserted.

The hologram faded. The people began talking quietly amongst themselves. They did not know what had just happened, but it did not seem to explain anything.

A great, low rumble began sounding from above. They looked up. Something was blocking the light.

It was a massive cylinder of steel. It lowered itself with a grinding noise, slowly reaching down to the floor. It touched it, and then a single section at the bottom shot up.

Inside was another hologram. This one resembled The Messenger. It spoke out to the people in the human tongue.

“Enter and elevate,” it said. It vanished from their sight. Tyra walked towards it, and put herself into it.

She heard a voice within her head. “Hold still,” it said.

The ground underneath her began rising, and then shot up with startling ferocity. So this was how they were to reach the top of the tower.

The people began entering the elevator, in groups of up to ten at a time, to reach the top, and to find out what was waiting for them there.