The Last Qumranian

Chapter 1

1

Present Day – Israel – 1000 Feet Beneath the Dead Sea – The Qumranian Compound

Lukas opened his hand. As he slowly rolled back his fingers, he saw he was holding a tiny cosmos. Planets rotated, stars burned, asteroids drifted from one side to the other, all in the palm of his hand. Catching a glimpse of what he intuitively knew was Earth, he reached his right hand into the cosmos and gently grabbed his planet with two fingers, pulling it out of its orbit and setting it on its new axis. A sense of curiosity and wonder caused him to let go of the cosmos and focus all his attention on Earth. Putting his right index finger alongside Earth, he pressed down until it stopped spinning. Once it had completely stopped, clocks appeared all around the planet, and all around Lukas. Looking at each of them, he saw they had stopped working at different times. Still more interested in Earth than the clocks, he started to push the planet in the opposite direction. Slowly at first, and then quickly, and that is when he noticed the clocks spinning backward in sync with the Earth’s rotation. Smiling and amazed that both planet and clocks obeyed his commands, he stopped the spinning abruptly to test a theory. Rotating the Earth forward, Lukas laughed as the clocks also moved forward in time. Stopping again, but this time not by his own volition.

“What?” Lukas said out loud.

Black strings, dripping with soot, were attached to each of his fingers, controlling their movement. With his other hand, he reached to pull the strings off, but that hand was yanked back by the slimy, ashy strings attached to it. Feeling powerless to move either of his hands, Lukas followed the strings upward, hoping to find its source, only to be terrified by an enormous figure in front of him. He could have easily mistaken the figure for a black hole had it not had continuously shifting edges, grotesquely large horns shaped into a pagan-like crown, and a laugh that sounded like a thousand children trapped in a roaring inferno. He was the master and Lukas his puppet. As though he were having an out of body experience, Lukas helplessly watched as this creature pulled his strings with speed and expert precision, causing Lukas to spin and spin and spin the Earth backward until the clocks became sundials. With a final tug, he made Lukas stop the tiny planet.

Turning Lukas’s open hand to a fist, the puppet master pulled it far back into a deadly offensive position only a Hedge Master like Lukas would be familiar with, then drove it forward with deadly force into the miniature Earth.

“No!” Lukas yelled as he felt his powerful fist sink deep into what felt like the soft flesh of a child.

The strings were gone. The creature disappeared. Lukas, as slowly and gently as he could, removed his deadly hand from the severely damaged planet. The moment he had fully removed his hand, the Earth spun forward as though someone had hit the reset button. Lukas would have been more captivated with the blood on his hand if not for all the changes he saw the Earth going through as it continued to spin. When it finally came to a stop, it was no longer the green and blue planet with a healthy dense cloud cover that he first saw. Now, most of the sky was scorched black, with noticeable holes in the ozone layer. The little bit of water that remained was a dark green, and the lines connoting the land formations had changed, with ninety percent of the land a dark brown with only a few visible green places.

With an overwhelming sense of guilt, Lukas quickly tried to remove the blood from his hand by wiping it on his shirt, but it wouldn’t come off. He kept wiping, trying to separate himself from his actions. “It’s not my fault. It’s NOT MY FAULT!”

Lukas leaped forward in his cot, breathing heavily, sweating, whispering to himself, “It’s not my fault.”

The dreams were always bad, but he never expected them to get this bad. They were normally some variation of the same; he saw the entire world—the world above as it had been, though he could only guess—open sky, glistening oceans, cracked deserts, lush forests. When he thought the beauty of it would tear him apart, the dreams shifted to give him a glimpse of his own reality, his world below, no less perfect for what it was, until the whole of it was consumed by darkness and fire. And he always woke with the screams of the dying echoing in his head. But this was different.

Lukas steadied his breathing and rubbed his hands over his face, removing some of his perspiration. Trying to reassure himself, he thought, Today will be like any other day… except, if I’m not successful. Shaking his head as if he didn’t recognize himself, he shifted to his normal determined disposition that had brought him to this point. “Well, that's not an option.”

Slowly, he slipped his bare feet onto the tiled floor and went to the window. He preferred to keep the blind down while he slept. It kept out the constant low glow of the simulated moon and stars so he could spend the nighttime hours in complete darkness, and it made his morning view that much more incredible when he opened the blind. He did this now, blinking against the yellow glare outside, and gave himself a few moments to stare out at the vast expanse of his home, his people’s hidden paradise on Earth.

The luminescent ceiling panels had already brightened, the light and heat and ultraviolet measurements meticulously calibrated to mimic the true sun, complete with the timing and rhythm of the Earth’s rotational cycles. Even this far underground, the timeline followed the natural order of things to near perfection, and when he did not think about it too hard, Lukas found himself able to forget sometimes where he was.

For miles upon miles, the ceiling panels stretched before him in this vast underground cavern, shining down upon the Agricultural Sector. Directly below him at the base of the cavern wall in which his quarters had been built, thick, lush grass grew right up against the rise of the gray stone. Then it gave way to an apple orchard, spanning some twenty acres, the tops of the trees a mere blur of green from where he stood so far above them. The plots of farmland spread seemingly without end—acres of rich soil sprouting corn, wheat, beans, potatoes, fruit in all varieties, and greens in thousands of documented strains.

Lukas took all of it in as if he were seeing it for the first time, then turned from the window and padded across the small room toward the cabinet built into the far wall. The overhead lights blinked on as he moved, softly adding to the manufactured and no less stunning daylight streaming in through his window. He opened the cabinet to remove what served as his daily uniform—slate-gray pants, thin and breathable yet durable, and a long-sleeved shirt of the same color that stretched when he pulled it over his head.

On the low table beside the cabinet, a crystalline box no bigger than his hand pulsed to life, emitting a soft blue glow with each syllable of the steadfastly optimistic female voice coming from it.

“Lukas. It is First Dimming. Your presence is required in the Sector One Main Laboratory in thirty minutes.”

With a pair of socks in hand, Lukas closed the cabinet doors and walked across the room. “Thanks. What’s the status of the power grid and energy lattices this morning?” He stopped at the small desk by the wall and leaned against it to pull on his socks. He glanced at the only two items there—a framed certificate with Hedge Master printed at the top in large, dark letters, his name slightly smaller beneath it; and the black, loose-fitting sparring uniform, pants and shirt both folded neatly, the frog-closure buttons of the shirt centered perfectly beneath the collar.

“Both are fully operational,” the box replied.

“Good. We need everything and everyone at their best,” Lukas muttered, slipping his feet into his boots and lifting a leg onto the chair to tie the laces.

“The Circle of Elders and the Teachers of Law all send their best wishes for today’s final test run and—”

“Appreciated.” Lukas gave an obligatory thumbs up as if the disembodied voice could see him, then finished lacing up his boots. “Give me a rundown of the energy fields.”

“Solar flare activity is within normal limits. Electromagnetic field activity is within normal limits. There are no reports of geological anomalies. You have prepared contingencies for all eventualities. There is no reason for concern.”

Lukas puffed out a sigh. “I wish I had your confidence.”

“You now have twenty-eight minutes until your presence is required in the Sector One Main Laboratory.”

“Yep. Got it.” Finished with his boots, Lukas turned toward the plain door to his quarters. A bowl of apples rested on the short, low counter beside the door—the only color in the entire room—and he grabbed one. He couldn’t start the day with an empty stomach, but this was about as much as he could handle.

Stepping out into the hallway, Lukas closed the door behind him and headed toward Sector One.

The entire Qumranian compound had been cut into the very stone of these caverns, the endless maze of passages a blend of roughhewn walls and smooth, tiled floors lined by metal paneling, track lighting illuminating the wide spaces with a soft glow. When he finally reached Sector One after navigating turn after countless turn through the corridors—all of which he could make successfully in his sleep at this point—the hallways were wider and lit with an intense white fluorescence. Lukas walked quickly, his footsteps echoing around him. Then he heard another set of swift footsteps matching his until a man in the same uniform with short brown hair turned into the hallway from the opposite end.

The men smiled at each other and met in front of the next passageway to Lukas’s left. “Good to know I’m not the only one running late this morning,” Lukas said.

“You’re the only one who seems happy about it,” his cousin said, his jaw set tightly as he offered a wan smile.

Lukas clapped Ben on the shoulder. “I would say expectant more than happy. After five years of work, we finally get to test it. We’ve been over every equation and simulation hundreds of times. The data tells me to expect success. Deborah will tell you the same thing.”

Ben frowned and took a deep breath. “I know.”

“After this successful run today—and it will be successful—we’ll prove to the Elders that we have nothing to fear from those Above. This technology puts us a hundred years ahead of them. Maybe even a thousand. There’s nothing we won’t be able to do, and nowhere we can't go.” Lukas nudged his cousin down the hallway toward the Main Laboratory.

“I know,” Ben repeated and rubbed the back of his head. “I just can’t help wondering about the unknown variables—”

“Well, we can’t account for those, can we?” Lukas said with a chuckle. He didn’t understand how his cousin could harbor so much doubt on a day like today. They had done everything right, never skipping a step, they would not fail.

They reached the end of the corridor and paused at the steel double doors of the Main Laboratory. Grinning, Lukas pushed open the doors and gently nudged Ben inside. Like the living quarters, the underground stone walls in the Sector One laboratory complex had been completely covered. One might even forget the thousands of tons of pressure resting above them this far underground. The walls were a smooth, sterile white, the tile floors polished enough to see their own reflections. In the center of the Main Laboratory sat a wide, circular platform raised six inches from the ground. Around it, a dozen computer consoles were spread in concentric rows, each with its own monitor and set of command keys.

Deborah stood at one of these, and the rest of their staff milled about checking the last-minute details. When Lukas and Ben entered, Deborah glanced up and smiled. Her long brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail above the same slate-gray uniform her brother Ben wore, but slightly different to her cousin Lukas’s, as he was distinguished as a Hedge Master.

“I’m still amazed by the fact that you two are always late.”

“We allowed for a thirty-minute gap in our schedule,” Lukas said. “I’d say we’re right on time.” He turned and elbowed Ben in the ribs, who then stepped toward Deborah.

“Right on time to get started on initial preparations.” Ben rubbed his hands together and peered over his sister’s shoulder at the numbers scrolling across the monitor.

“Everything’s already been done,” she said, leaning forward a little to wink at Lukas. “We’re all ready to go.”

Lukas raised his eyebrows in mock surprise and took his place beside his cousins while Deborah leaned back and called out to the rest of their team.

“Okay, everyone. Get to your stations. We’re about to begin.” As their team of eleven scientists took up their positions at the consoles around the central platform, Ben and Lukas stood on either side of Deborah, glancing together at the display on her monitor. “Just think,” she said, her voice low enough for just the three of them. “If this works, it changes everything. Lukas, you and I could go Above."

Lukas, without missing a beat, said, "All of Qumran could go Above—”

“Stop,” Ben interrupted. No one in the team seemed to have heard her, and he forced a smile onto his face before continuing. “The law is the law. Even suggesting something like that could bring this whole thing crumbling down around us. Not just our jobs.” He glanced at his sister quickly, but she only stared straight ahead at the center platform, her expression unreadable, but her tone familiar, “We have an incredible opportunity here. Resources and possibilities no one Above could even dream of—”

Ben cleared his throat. “The law is the law,” he muttered, his voice strained with tension. “You could both be executed for treason. Please don’t talk about this here. Not now. I’d also suggest not ever.”

“I’m not trying to fight the law,” Lukas said. “I understand its meaning and the purposes behind it, and I support it fully. All I’m saying is we may be opening new avenues with our success today.”

“We have been developing this technology for a reason, Ben,” Deborah said. “Do you really think the plan is for us to remain down here?”

“That’s heresy,” Ben hissed through gritted teeth. “We follow the law, Deborah. In everything we do. Two thousand years we’ve been down here waiting, provided with everything we need until he arrives, and we’ve been given a purpose. The fruits of that provision are all around us. And that purpose”—he gestured to the center platform and the low steel table resting upon it—“this is that purpose fulfilled. If this is successful, we can ensure our safety until the Messiah comes. If we are meant to leave this place, he will take us."

“When this is successful,” Lukas corrected. They would not fail in this today; he felt it in his bones. What they accomplished would go down in the records for all posterity—how this team brought knowledge that would change both worlds, Below and Above.

“Every Qumranian scientist knows the Above world has changed,” Deborah added. “Even you can’t disagree, Ben. And we’ve changed. What if we could live in peace with those Above? What if we could go to Jerusalem? The chosen city. We are so close to her, Ben! She is just above us, and the temple is there! And what if—”

“That’s enough,” Lukas interrupted, tired of the debate they have had so many times before. “Conjecture doesn’t produce results, does it? Until we perform this last test, nothing is certain. So let’s get to work, huh?”

This was what they were meant to do, not sit around and argue law and philosophy. Ben and Deborah turned to look at him, and despite the strain in Ben’s brow and the flush rising in Deborah’s cheeks, they both nodded. Ben left the station and headed toward the nearest console.

Lukas stepped toward the center platform. “You made all the final adjustments?” he asked Mark, another of the top-rated scientists on their team.

Mark nodded. “We set your new parameters and adjusted the internal web fields. We’re good to go.”

Lukas gave a curt nod and continued his path toward the platform. “Ben, set the codes for five minutes into the future. Return time at thirty seconds from now. Deborah, I want maximum data on this. Everything the web fields affect. The whole region, not just the lab.”

“Got it,” she said.

With a deep breath of anticipation, Lukas climbed the steps onto the platform and approached the steel table. He gazed down at the quantum sphere in the center of the table—their final test, the product of so much hard work and dedication. About a foot in diameter, the translucent sphere swirled within the outer membrane, its contents constantly shifting like cream stirred into a cup of coffee. Tendrils of circuitry lay beneath the sphere’s surface, coiling around each other, floating in stasis as if they were only waiting for Lukas to bring them to life. And that was exactly what he intended to do.

Raising his right hand, held as steady as his certainty, Lukas eyed the sphere and plunged his hand slowly and carefully into the swirling mass, passing through the exterior membrane as if it were water. The circuitry inside blinked to life, unfurling like snakes entwining around his outstretched fingers with just enough pressure to assure him they’d made the connection.

“All right,” he called, unable to look away from the sphere, feeling the power humming around his hand. “Give me a countdown.”

“Five. Four. Three. Two. One.”

The circuitry glowed a bright white, like metal coils heating over a flame, then the glow burst out from his hand, through the sphere, and past Lukas’s body to encompass him, the table, and the center platform. He glanced up at the glowing fluid dome curving above him, then turned his head to meet Deborah’s wide-eyed gaze. He only caught a glimpse of Ben before a blue wave of light followed the first, growing and then bursting around him. An icy cold blast rippled through his fingers, up his arm, and into each follicle of his scalp before another blinding flash erupted through the Main Laboratory. And then Lukas couldn’t see anything at all.