Chapter 05 - The Atala

After my conversation with Proxima Centauri, I started missing Cala and returned to Earth.  As I said before, she was the youngest daughter of the High King and Queen.  Their kingdom consisted of their children, grandchildren, and further descendants.  Atal and Anta lived on an island in the middle of the ocean.  That is where they were first brought to life by the creator and modified by Gaia.  They called their island Atalantas.  No, they were not the most creative when it came to giving names.  They spent many years together, exploring the world around them.  Beginning their life on an island meant they became mariners early on.  The Atala were always legendary seafarers, and eventually they even built dwellings under the ocean due to their great love for that realm.

As they moved out into the world, they discovered seven large continents.  These were much different than the continents as they are today.  There were three in the northern hemisphere, three in the southern, and one straddling the equator.  Each continent was far larger as well.  Instead of the globe being two thirds water and one third land, it was more like sixty percent land and forty percent water.  Much of the Earth’s water was locked up in huge underground aquifers and encircling the earth like a gigantic cloudy blanket, making the planet look far larger from outer space.  The sun could not even be seen – there was just a soft hazy light during the day.  Due to these dramatic differences, the planet could support far more land creatures than it can now.  As the Atala had more children and grandchildren, the king and queen decided to give one continent to each son to rule.

One interesting trait about the Atala is that they can control how many children they have.  The king’s and queen’s decision to have fourteen – seven daughters and seven sons – was based on the number of continents.  When they later had an eighth daughter, I began to wonder what they were thinking.

Once they had settled the seven continents, they expanded rapidly.  On the one hand, the amount of time it took for an Atala to reach adulthood was about three times as long as a human took.  This, added to another thirty to fifty years of advanced training and exploration, meant they did not start having families of their own until they were about a century old.  On the other hand, since they did not die of old age; they could continue having as many children as they wished.  The population expanded rapidly.

An Atalan pregnancy lasted about eight months, and the birth was not at all difficult for the mothers.  The babies were very small and helpless, and children took longer to grow up, but this served only to make the family bonds that much stronger.  I’d estimate that the Atala families had between ten and twenty children each.  They reached a population of around ten billion after a little more than eight centuries, at which time the creator told them to stop reproducing.

The king’s youngest daughter Cala, whom I mentioned before, spent as much time with me as she could.  Even as a youngster she would dash over to me, take my hand, and drag me around her home as fast as she could run, showing me this and that, hardly letting me out of her sight until I had to leave.  As she got older, she continued to show interest in me.  She trained to be a mariner, as did most of her people, and also as a medic, which among a race of beings that never grew old or got sick and who healed rapidly was limited to the occasional serious injury resulting from an accident.  It was strictly a part-time job.  She’d accompany me on trips I’d take to the various continents to visit her brothers and sisters, and we’d explore the oceans and wildernesses.  Back on Atalantas she almost ignored her parents whenever I was there.  Then on her hundredth birthday, when she was fully an adult, we were going for a walk in their garden, and suddenly we just kissed.

“All my brothers and sisters are married and having families of their own.  Have you ever considered doing that yourself, Malkin?  I know who would be perfect for you,” she said.

“Who could that be?” I asked smiling, looking around me.

“Me, silly!” she answered, pulling me back to her.  “Don’t you want a family?”

“Yes, but I’ve been rather busy, and I have to travel around a lot,” I explained lamely.  “I do want to marry you, but it may have to wait a bit.  There could be some problems in the universe soon, and I want to make sure you and your people will be safe.”  I again avoided the issue of reproduction.

“What kind of problems?”

“I’m not quite sure at this point, so that’s why I’m gone so much.  I’m trying to gather as much information as I can so that we’ll be prepared.”

“I’ve never heard that there were problems anywhere in the universe,” said Cala.  “I know some of the agents had an argument a really long time ago, but I also heard the creator set them straight and there has been nothing but peace since then.”

“I was there that day.  I saw the perpetrators of that unrest and how they reacted, and I know in my heart they were not happy with their reprimand.  They are plotting to overthrow the creator and take over his universe.”

“That’s impossible!” she said, laughing.  “If they think they are that powerful, then why don’t they just create their own universe and live there?  Since that’s impossible, why do they seriously think they could overthrow the creator in his own realm?”

“In that, you prove that you are wiser than they are,” I told her.  “Unfortunately, their arrogance blinds them to reality sometimes.  Phos doesn’t believe he ever was created.  He was not conscious until he and all the other agents were fully formed, so neither he nor any of his colleagues were eyewitnesses to the act.  I was there – witnessed the whole thing in fact – but they’re not likely to believe me.  I am weaker and less intelligent than they are and have no authority over anything.  They treat me as if I were the creator’s pet dog.  Meanwhile Phos tells all his followers that they and the creator all came into being simultaneously, that the only reason the creator has more power than they is because he stepped into that position first and therefore has more power than the rest.  The creator has occasionally promoted or demoted spirits based on their ability or inability to do their jobs.  Plus if some don’t want to be in their current positions, the creator will trade them out with others, causing them to gain power and the others to lose theirs.  Phos thinks if he can just depose the creator and take his place, he will become almighty.”

“Supposing they even could depose the creator,” she answered, “they could never hope to create something out of nothing, nor could they possibly rule the universe well, could they?  In the absence of the creator, his creation would eventually waste away to nothing.  He not only made everything, but he sustains it as well.”

“You ought to be an agent, Cala,” I said smiling.  “Well, it would be wise if your people started learning the art of combat,” I concluded.  “I can help you.  We can make it look like a sport so as not to arouse too much suspicion.  I need to talk to your father about this, but if he’s reluctant, could you try to get him to agree with me?  I know he listens to you more than most fathers listen to their children.”

“If he doesn’t agree to your plan,” she said with a confident smile, “I guarantee he will change his mind after talking to me.  If that happens, you’ll have to spend a lot more time with us, right?  You and I could get married.”

“Well, yes,” I admitted, grinning at her cleverness.  “If your father agrees to let me train his people for war, I’ll stay here and marry you.  I’d have to be insane not to marry the most beautiful creature in the entire universe.  If I wait longer, I’ll have to beat away your other suitors with a stick.”

Cala, nearly bursting with joy, gave me a big hug and kissed me again with more passion.  “I’ll let them know they can stop trying.”

“Great,” I said.  I suddenly didn’t like the thought of other people trying to woo her.  “I better get started on your father.  I don’t know how I’m going to prepare so many of you for war though.”

We slowly walked back to the palace, and I said goodbye to Cala, promising to spend more time with her later.  I then went straight to the king and queen to explain my plan.  Queen Anta was overjoyed when I told her Cala and I would get married, and Atal gave his wife a knowing look when he heard.  Seeing that exchange of body language confirmed in my mind why they had had a fifteenth child.  They wanted me to have a companion too.

The high king was a bit reluctant, as I suspected, to train his ten billion descendants for war.  He said, “This ‘combat’ you talk of means every single Atala must spend twenty years learning how to injure, dismember, and kill other creatures.  We have to learn how to do this not only with our bare hands, but also with dangerous weapons, large animals, and our ships.  The foe you mentioned does not even exist yet, but based on the rumors of a few agents a long way away; you recommend we do this anyway.  Finally, we have to make it look like a game so as not to arouse suspicion.  Have I understood you correctly?”

When he put it that way, I felt foolish.  He was absolutely right.  It was stupid to waste so much time and energy on this pointless war-mongering.

However, I knew what planet Earth would be like many ages later.  The planet as it now existed was a pristine utopia, and it was worth defending that against what I strongly suspected was coming.  Phos was capable of making an entire galaxy explode with almost no effort.  He had thousands of dark matter agents, millions of galaxy agents, billions of stellar agents, trillions of planetary agents, and an uncountable number of lower spirit beings at his command.  Plus, with the universe steadily expanding, he would receive even more subordinates as the need arose.  Any one of the stellar agents or their superiors, alone and unaided, could have also destroyed the entire planet.  The Atala on the other hand were peaceful beings bound to the laws of physics who had literally never even hurt a fly.  Their existence could be eradicated in a millisecond.

“Yes, King Atal, that is what I am saying your Atala have to do in order to survive,” I answered after a long pause.

We talked some more about the dangers he would face and what sort of supernatural assistance he could expect.  In the end I won him over without having to use his daughter to twist his arm.  He told me I could start training in a month, once he could send messengers to his children to have them return to the palace.  His plan was that I train the first three generations of Atala, namely himself, his wife, their fifteen children, and their nearly two hundred grandchildren.  Once that first group of warriors had been trained, each warrior could return to his or her continent and train 50 to 100 subjects while I went out and periodically supervised their progress.

I did not know how much time I would have, but I figured it would take a good 20 years to train the first group on all I knew.  They’d have to learn unarmed combat, train against multiple assailants, learn how to wield various weapons, including swords, spears, daggers, lasers, and more.  We’d have to train some of them to ride animals so we’d have a good cavalry.  Then, we’d pick the best of the best and teach them how to organize their fighters into large units capable of coordinated actions.

Each subsequent group would also take 20 years to train.  I could only hope that my initial 200 would be able to pass on their knowledge effectively.  Since the Atala population was ten billion, I did some calculations and came up with the following plan:

No. of Trainees | Training Time | Total Warriors At End

200                      20 years            200 \ 20 yrs.

x 100                   20 yrs.              20,000 \ 40 yrs.

x 100                   20 yrs.              2,000,000 \ 60 yrs.

x 100                   20 yrs.              200,000,000 \ 80 yrs.

x 50                     20 yrs.              10,000,000,000 \ 100 yrs.

I started training the very next month on Atalantas with the two hundred eldest Atala, the kings and queens, princes and princesses of their civilization.  It was far easier than I expected.  It only took ten years to train the first group of two hundred – they learned much more rapidly than I expected.  However, they all felt that they could train a maximum of fifty in a class.  I did some quick calculations and figured out we could complete the training of ten billion at that rate in sixty years.  Faster than I thought!

We needed the speed, however.  The creator himself visited me after the second iteration was finished training with some advice for me.  He said, “You and the Atala are doing a good job.  Do not grow weary.  While you are doing this, go to the creatures of Venus and Mars that are visiting this planet and include them in your preparations.  They are ahead of the Atala in some ways.”

Of course!  I thanked the creator for his advice and started planning what to do next.  We would need a way to transport enormous loads between planets.  Unfortunately, this might mean talking to Helios and Gaia.

Meanwhile, the first Atala warriors passed on what they learned with faithful accuracy.  I designed the whole system to look like a sport and be fun.  We had archery, fencing contests, boxing matches, even team-based events where the Atala had to work together as small units to accomplish goals.  At first only the king and queen and their fifteen children knew the real purpose behind the training, but they made sure the sport-like aspect of the training never watered down its applicability in armed conflict.

After they all had been trained, we started developing massive space transports.  The Atala had to learn this from Helios and Gaia, with whom they maintained close contact, hiding their true intentions.  Older space vehicles were small, used only to explore and trade small amounts of cargo.  I knew enormous space transports would become necessary should we have to fight.  I also wanted them to visit the little Martians as soon as possible so they could start learning the art of weapon making.  Owing to their extensive travel, they had long ago suspected that a conflict was brewing and had started preparing for it in secret.  Once I told the Venusians, their High King Verelion took another route, breeding and training the enormous beasts on their planet.  I wish I had been able to train them all in combat as I did the Atala, but Proxima Centauri assured me he and Michael would have their agents secretly preparing them.  The native agents on the three planets preparing for war left the inhabitants alone and suspected nothing, thinking they would support Phos and were preparing for the rebellion instead of the exact opposite.

Once the first gigantic Atalan space transports set off to visit their neighbors, I started thinking we just might be able to survive an onslaught.  The Martians were more than prepared, and they gladly started constructing vast armaments for the Earthlings.  They sent contingents of Martians to live in Earth’s mountains where they worked tirelessly to build up the planetary defenses and construct weapons.

We hired contingents of Venusians to breed and domesticate some gigantic animals living on their planet and then send them to Earth so that we would have a suitable cavalry as well.  These were the dinosaurs paleontologists would later discover.  One type we liked using was the triceratops, a large plant-eating beast resembling a rhinoceros with a beak, two additional long horns protruding forward out of its skull, and a huge plate, or frill, that served to protect the neck.  This conveniently shielded an Atalan rider as well.  The triceratops also had a large reptilian tail which it could swing with incredible speed and force at any enemy behind it.

We also trained allosaurs – a smaller, more tamable version of the legendary Tyrannosaurus rex – to drive into an enemy’s flank at an incredible speed and tear apart their formations.  A brave Atala might ride one of these lightning-fast steeds and carry his own weapons, but most preferred training their allosaurs to attack, kill, and ‘fetch’ the enemy corpse for them.  I tried riding one once and realized why few chose this technique.  Only someone with fast reflexes and an iron stomach could hope to stay in the saddle much less kill as many enemies as the beast he rode.

For the air we had pteranodons, which looked like gargantuan bats with pelican-like heads, razor sharp teeth, and a long protrusion from the back of their skulls.  Two brave Atala, strapped firmly in place and armed with heavy crossbows would ride each one.

I’ve taken part in many battles over earth’s history, but nothing can compare to lines of heavy cavalry riding on triceratops, spearing and trampling everything in their paths.  Or what could withstand a pack of allosaurs, unleashed upon enemy infantry like a pack of hungry dogs?  Those two, combined with a vicious aerial attack from pteranodons and phalanx after phalanx of highly trained Atalan shock infantry would have been able to destroy anything, I believed.  Elephants and horses of later wars were nothing in comparison.  The later machinery of modern warfare that I had grown up with would probably have held its own against these battle trained dinosaurs and the incomparably elite Atala warriors, but who knows?  An Atalan archer or crossbowman, armed with Martian-made arrows and crossbow bolts, could hit targets like a modern day sniper.  Later on, they even had laser weapons which could hit things at incredible distances, leaving no trace as to the direction it came from.  Pteranodons could fly faster and maneuver better than any helicopter.  They were ready at a moment’s notice, not needing a lengthy pre-flight check or hours and hours of regular maintenance.  Plus, I’ve never seen a tank that could have outrun an allosaur.  I’m pretty sure one of those could have quickly outflanked a tank, flipped it over with a good kick or a flick of its tail, and eaten the crewmembers as they attempted to flee.

Yes, modern fighter planes and bombers would have dominated our meager air forces, but since such aircraft are designed primarily for invasions and assault, I did not want to focus on them.  Other than the pteranodons, we pretty much only had space transporters for traveling to distant planets and some mobile force field generators which would destroy incoming missiles, meteors, or low-flying aircraft.  On the ground we also built anti-aircraft artillery that would fire lasers, defensive missiles, or beams of dark matter at incoming objects.

I was hesitant to start developing firearms and bombs, lest we create a war machine destructive enough to annihilate the entire planet, as modern humans had created before I was born.  I was quite sure our army was capable of defending Earth from an invasion, however.  We got the help of Proxima Centauri and Michael in developing the missile shields, force fields, and anti-aircraft weapons, but we did not focus much on weaponry designed for assault and invasion.

Many generations later, the Venusians with the help of Proxima somehow managed to breed pyrokinetic beasts.  These “dragons” were difficult to train and very quick-tempered.  A well-trained one was virtually unstoppable in war, but some were untamable, feral monsters and equally unstoppable.  Most lay somewhere in between wild and obedient.

The legendary war-dragons of myth did not come into play until much later.  There were many variants.  Some looked like a classic dragon, with or without wings.  Others were like turtles, which could be used as intelligent landmines.  Others, snake-like and swift, could infiltrate and sabotage enemy positions.  Our most reliable were the fire-breathing triceratops – extremely dangerous cavalry beasts!

When the rebellion started, however, they had only managed to breed pyrokinetic rats, which were more of a danger to themselves than to others.  They kept igniting their own fur!  We later focused exclusively on hairless reptiles.  For now, all we could do was set a bunch of these crazy rats free in an enemy encampment and watch the place catch fire.

Along with my tireless preparations for war, I also spent as much of my free time as possible with Cala.  I helped her with some of the wedding planning, but something was bothering me.  She picked up on it instantly and asked me about it one day.

“Cala, I need to tell you something about myself.  I should not have kept it from you this long.”

“What is it?” she asked.  “It can’t be worse than this invasion you think is going to happen soon.”

“No, it’s not, but you won’t like it either.  I can’t produce children with you.  You’ve known all along that I am not an Atala, plus the creator specifically told me I would never be able to have children.  I’m truly sorry I did not tell you sooner, but the subject just did not come up.  You Atala just assume making children is like making dinner, and I never found a good opportunity to tell you we wouldn’t be able to.”

She looked downcast as I broke this news to her, but she took it well.  The Atala are remarkably good at expressing emotions at healthy levels.  “Well, I half suspected we wouldn’t be able to have babies, owing to your mysterious origin.  I wish you had told me sooner, but you’re right, we never really talked about it much.  Besides, if having children were more important to me than you are, I would have married someone else long ago and given up on you.”

“I don’t want us to wait any longer.  Let’s get married as soon as possible,” I said.

Within a week, the planning was complete, and we got married in her parents’ palace on the island of Atalantas.  The celebration seemed to be larger than the other weddings for Atal’s and Anta’s children, but I guess they had waited long enough for this one.  They gave us a small island partway between the continents which would later become Europe and Africa.  They had had a small palace built for us there, so we spent our honeymoon exploring that island, enjoying each other’s love uninterrupted from the affairs of the outside world and universe.  I was never happier than I was during those weeks and months.  We later traveled together to supervise the final preparations for the invasion, but during those first months of matrimony, we let nothing distract us from each other.  No, we never had any children, but it certainly was not for lack of trying.  I think she secretly hoped I was mistaken at first, but after years and years of no children, we resigned ourselves to a childless marriage.  Nonetheless we were always happy together, never had a serious argument, and had plenty of other things to do together.

At that time I wondered what the shepherd had meant so long ago when he said I’d experience an extreme amount of tragedy.  Until now everything I had experienced had started out amazing and just kept getting better.  I was sure the impending war would change that though.

Chapter 04 - Unrest

Each agent arranged his realm differently, but they were all prone to comparing their own to their neighbors’, and agents everywhere formed general opinion as to who had the better realm.

“Phos definitely has the nicest one,” I heard one galaxy agent in Michael’s domain say, “Not only had he made it so that there’s more energy available to their stars, but he’s gotten more involved in its development than the other two have in their realms.  He tirelessly helps the dark matter agents refine their galaxy clusters.  He even visits individual galaxies and lends a helping hand.  Some of them accept this with gratitude, but the rest of us think he’s overdoing it.  He’s trying to exert too much control over minute details, if you ask me.  It’s beneath his talent.”

Phos’ crown jewel was in one rather powerful cluster, governed by the mysterious, brooding dark matter agent called Bel.  It was here where the grandest galaxy resided – the Milky Way – run by an agent of light named Mephistopheles who welcomed Phos’ influence and assistance with open arms, much to the chagrin of his neighbors and even his boss, Bel.  More highly advanced civilizations sprang up within Mephistopheles’ borders than within any other galaxy in the universe.  In the Milky Way, the solar system controlled by the agent of light, Helios, was by far the most advanced, owing in turn to his acceptance of help from Mephistopheles.

Helios had eight large planets, several dwarf planets, and many smaller objects in his domain.  They all had very advanced races living on them, but his prized planet was the third, governed by Gaia, a powerful planetary agent.  It was here that the most beautiful physical beings in the universe resided.  They called themselves the Atala.  When I first witnessed their development under the careful hand of Gaia (and Helios), I came to understand where the mythology about nymphs, elves, sirens, and even gods and goddesses originated.  They were well designed to survive and thrive in their world, and they were stunningly beautiful, somewhat similar to humans, only flawless in form and breathtaking in beauty.  Whereas humans would probably look at the races on the other planets and find them extremely unusual and even ugly, no humans would find the Atala’s appearance unattractive.  The only major differences were that the Atala’s skin tended to be different shades of green or gray, whereas human skin was based on brown and red.  The Atala also had no body hair.  Only on their scalps, eyebrows, and eyelashes did hair grow.  You may ask, “How did they regulate their body temperature without body hair?”  Well, their skin would either reflect heat away by turning silver, or allow warmth in by turning green.  They didn’t need to sweat either, thanks to this interesting feature.  Their average height was almost exactly like ours, but there was far less variance.  They were almost all between 5’ 9” and 5’ 11” for males and about four inches shorter for females.  There was not much difference in strength and intelligence between them and the humans who would come later, but owing to their immortality and their dedication to discovery and discipline, the Atala seemed stronger and more intelligent.

Meeting the two progenitors of this race for the first time was an interesting experience.  I watched as Gaia manipulated the genetic code of the two non-descript beings the creator put on the planet until she had two absolute masterpieces of beauty and design.  When Gaia was done and the two creatures woke up, the female turned to the male and called him “Atal,” and he called her, “Anta.”  Both words approximately meant “You” in the universal language.

After they had gotten through this primal introduction, they turned and stared at me.  “Malkin,” said the one named Atal after a couple moments of contemplation.  This meant “old man.”  I was a bit put off by that, but for them I technically was older.  If only they knew I would be born WAY later, they might have given me a better moniker.  They never were that good at naming things.

On Helios’ remaining planets, other highly unusual creatures lived.  On Mercury, for example, there lived a race of beings made of molten metal.

Hydargyrus, their High King showed me around one time.  “Owing to our planet’s slow rotation,” he explained, “one solar day on Mercury lasts quite a long time.  The side facing the sun is warm enough to live on, but the other is deathly cold.  We’re a nomadic race.  We build nothing on the land that can’t be moved.  At first we had to live in tents, but as we advanced we started building floating cities to slowly orbit the planet in a way that keeps them in the light.  You all from the swiftly rotating planets measure time with the sun.  We do so by tracking the rotation of landmarks on the planet’s face.  When a certain mountain range passes by underneath, we mark off a year.  And since we can’t rely on the constantly moving landscape to know where we are, we measure the position of the sun in the sky to navigate from place to place.  If you don’t want to accidentally cross the deadly border between day and night here, just make sure the sun never leaves the edge of the sky!”

The other side of Mercury was initially uninhabited.  Settlers from the colder planets in the outer solar system eventually settled here once space travel had been invented.  These visitors came from the inhabited moons of Jupiter and Saturn as well as from the dwarf planet Pluto.  They too had to live as nomads, floating above the surface, measuring time by the landmarks that passed underneath them.  These creatures used the stars to determine their relative position instead of the sun.  They had virtually no contact with the native Mercurians, because neither race could survive on the other’s side.  Some brave souls from Earth, Venus, or Mars might visit this planet, but they’d have to stay on the border between night and day, a very thin strip of no-man’s land ringing the planet where the molten Mercurians and their colder neighbors had set up floating visitor centers.

The creatures on Venus were green colored giants.  Owing to the planet’s high atmospheric pressure and lower gravity they easily grew to double or triple the height the Atala and many times their weight.  They were the last of Helios’ civilizations to develop space travel, but that was not because they were primitive, as many others thought.  They developed their home as Gabriel’s people did, slowly and carefully.  Their true passion was tending the teeming plants and animals on their hot, tropical world; so the only reason they would travel to other planets was to study the flora and fauna there.  They of course had dealings with the other intelligent creatures they encountered, who often hired the Venusians to tend to their animals and plants.  Some of these giant farmers and herders came to Earth to live.  They settled in the hot jungles, lush with life, where they founded a few settlements of their own.  The Atala did not mind the visitors, since they preferred living near, on, or under the oceans.

The native inhabitants of Mars were quite a contrast to the Venusians.  These creatures were far smaller, growing to a height of merely two or three feet, but their hands had six very long, nimble fingers each.  Except for these digits, the Martians’ bodies were covered in hair.  This served to protect them from the cold, windy climates they lived in, but it made them appear unattractive to my human eyes.  Were it not for their clothing and upright posture, one might mistake them for chimpanzees or really tiny yetis; and were it not for their facial hair, they might be mistaken for children.  They were interested in geology and mining.  They also created magnificent feats of architecture, invented complex machines and devices, and developed breathtaking jewelry which they traded with the other civilizations within the solar system.  One thing they were exceptionally good at was building clocks and watches.  These devices were a combination of their skill in mining for jewels and precious metals and their ability to build very complex devices.  The timepieces they developed would shame the finest pieces humans ever would create.  Since the Atala did a lot of space travel, they worked very closely with the Martian architects and mechanics.

The Martians developed space travel soon after the Atala in order to trade, and soon architects and jewelers were setting up shops on all planets.  Although they grew quite wealthy, they were never greedy or small-hearted.  They sold their handiwork for very reasonable prices and bought things from other races for more than they were worth, though they did this rarely, owing to the inferiority of most other civilizations’ handiwork in comparison to theirs.  Their dominant role as traders and businessmen meant that the solar system used their currency, based on coins made of aluminum, gold, and platinum, to trade.

The creatures living on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune were all quite similar.  These planets were primarily gasses with a solid core upon which violent storms brewed incessantly.  The creatures living there were liquid or gaseous in form and looked somewhat like the molten metal creatures living on Mercury.  They had a thin, elastic membrane which held their gas-like organs together.  This enabled them to morph their shape, and they were surprisingly sturdier than one would suppose.  If someone were to attempt to cut one of their limbs off, the blade would either pass right through it, with the membrane healing over the gap almost instantaneously, or the entire limb would slip around the blade before it could make contact.  The only way to kill them would be to ‘vacuum’ them into a container and then add some sort of chemical that would dissolve their substance.

Some solid creatures lived deep within these four planets closer to their cores, but these were unintelligent animals, while the rational beings inhabited the airy upper layers of the planets.  These civilizations mostly stayed on their home planets or made short trips to one of their gaseous neighbors.  They could not live comfortably on the solid planets, so they didn’t really visit much.  A gaseous being on Earth would feel uncomfortably warm and bloated yet be forced to float across the ground like a pancake, owing to our thinner atmosphere.  When their more solid neighbors, mostly Atala or Martians, visited, they would usually set up mobile space stations orbiting the planet where both races could move about comfortably, not worrying about the effects of gravity or heat, or in our cases the violent storms and lightning.

Pluto as well as some of the larger moons surrounding Jupiter and Saturn had intelligent beings living on them.  These were unusual life forms.  They were not carbon based, like the inhabitants of Venus, Earth, and Mars; and since they could only survive in extremely cold environments, they rarely traveled to the planets closer to the sun.  Sometimes they’d visit the poles of Earth or Mars to use those places as a resort, sort of like modern day Europeans and Canadians visiting the Bahamas for vacation, and some brave souls settled on the dark side of Mercury, but most of them stayed among the icy-cold outer planets, rarely moving past the asteroid belt separating Jupiter from Mars.  These solid creatures had plenty of dealings with their gas-like neighbors on the giant planets, however.

Further out in the solar system beyond Pluto were some other asteroids and dwarf planets.  These had native living creatures on them, but none were intelligent.  One could invariably find the same sort of creatures inhabiting Pluto.  Actually the Plutonians used these mini-planets as farms.  When compared to the other intelligent beings, I would have to say the Plutonians spread themselves out within the solar system the most.  Granted the Atala spent more time exploring space than the beings from Pluto, but the Plutonians could call more places home in Helios’ solar system than any other race.  There were colonies or resorts on nearly every planet and on quite a few asteroids or moons.

All in all, the creatures living in Helios’ system got along well with each other.  However with the exception of the Venusians, Martians, and Atala – they enjoyed visiting and being visited by races outside the solar system – the civilizations and agents within this crown jewel of the Milky Way tended to disdain outsiders.  They coldly tolerated visits by other members of the Milky Way, but they flat out ignored or even tried to drive off anyone visiting from another galaxy.  This behavior did not go unnoticed by others.

While the creator never showed favoritism to any particular agent and praised each one for the good job he or she did, helping them if they had difficulties; the individual agents developed some prejudices.  If they found a particular realm pleasing or disappointing, they did not hesitate to voice their opinions.  Most agents did not do this with the express purpose of belittling their neighbors.  Most offered constructive criticism and not complaints.

The attitudes of the intelligent beings usually reflected the attitudes of the agents governing that particular realm.  The three biggest exceptions were the Venusians, Atala, and Martians.  The planetary spirits, Venus, Gaia, and Mars, were three of the haughtiest out there, but the inhabitants themselves welcomed anyone and everyone, displaying nothing but hospitality and kindness to all.

However some agents went beyond mere constructive criticism and mild disdain to downright animosity toward their neighbors.  These were primarily the agents who listened to Phos, Helios, and Gaia.  They were the absolute worst when it came to criticism.  Mephistopheles would often get grouped together with them owing to his unfailing loyalty to Phos.  However he was wise enough to keep his mouth shut about his neighbors’ realms.  The criticism, meddling, and ill-will got so bad that the creator eventually summoned the ringleaders and their associates to himself.

“Why do you feel the need to overstep your boundaries and meddle in the affairs of your neighbors?” he asked.  “Do not forget that I created and sustain all things in the universe.  I say all my agents are doing a wonderful job.  If I ever were to decide that an agent were performing in a substandard fashion, I would intervene and assist until he or she could continue without supervision, or I would directly commission his or her overseer to go assist.  I rarely have the need to do this, so why do you all feel you must?  If you continue this...”

“We still feel things could be improved,” interrupted Phos.  The seraphim surrounding the creator started swirling a little faster.

“Yes,” said Gaia, “Some of the creatures on Mars and Venus are downright ugly.  I’m embarrassed to be near them.”  This was quite ironic, because Mars’ and Venus’ agents were nearly as haughty as Gaia and looked down upon all the other planets.  They were giving her mutinous looks at that moment.

“Proxima Centauri, my next door neighbor is making a mess of his realm,” said Helios.  “He lets these planet-sized meteors get out of hand.  It’s bad enough they crash into his planets and cause utter chaos there, but he sometimes lets these rocks crash into my realm.  I’ve had to form three large belts of asteroids and floating debris in an attempt to shield my system from his mess.”

“The creatures on his planets need a certain number of large meteor showers on a regular basis in order to survive,” explained the creator.  “I’ve showed him how to keep the meteors in his own system, which he has done for a very long time.  I find no other problems with the way he runs his realm, and he is accepted by all there.

“As for you, Gaia, do not let the beauty of your creatures corrupt you.  I find the gigantic beings on Venus and the small cave dwellers on Mars to be quite fascinating.  They could survive on nearly any planet in Helios’ system with little need to adapt.  Your creatures are perfectly fitted for life on your planet, but they would be ill-suited to survive elsewhere.  Do not assume you are the absolute authority on the development of intelligent beings, animals, and plants.

“For you, Phos, my chief complaint is...”

“I am astounded sometimes that you could have created all this chaos,” interrupted Phos again.  The seraphim cloud was now swirling and humming ominously, “Give me a few eons, and I’ll turn your entire creation into a beautiful, idyllic paradise.  I already run about a third of your realm, and mine is by far the most powerful and advanced of the three.  Perhaps it’s time you retire and let someone with better taste clean things up.”

“Do not assume things you couldn’t possibly understand or control,” declared the creator.  “If you…”

“But I...”

“INTERRUPT me again, and I will have you governing cockroaches on a tiny asteroid near some remote black hole!” boomed the creator.  His shape now grew much larger, and the universe around him darkened and throbbed with anger, as if an enormous heart started pumping slowly.  His eyes glowed like suns, and pure wrath enveloped the rest of him like a smoke cloud.  The seraph entourage around him was livid with reflected rage.  All creatures, from little me to the greatest archangels present, including Phos, immediately went to their knees, weak with fear and panic.

“For all your power and talent and beauty, you haven’t the slightest ability to create or sustain things.”  As the creator spoke, planets and meteors began to form and swirl around his head and then explode into nothing.  It was quite unsettling.

“Your mere existence is because of me,” he continued.  ”You would be weaker than a worm without the life I have placed in you to sustain you.  You also show me you have the understanding of a worm, if you think you could do a better job.

“Now if I may continue:  If you dissenters continue to arrogantly meddle in the affairs of your neighbors, if I have to hear from one more agent about how you have tried to take over his or her realm, I will strip you of your authority and powers and place you in a prison of my own design – a place where you will learn humility and obedience or never be released.  Return to your realms this instant, and do your jobs properly.”

Phos, Helios, and Gaia, along with all the others summoned for this reprimand, did as they were told, but I could see the wrath behind their eyes as they left.  Something bad would eventually happen if they didn’t have a change of heart.  What little I knew about Earth’s history made me strongly suspect this.  If only I knew when!

After the Reprimand, it was a good time to be alive.  I still could travel through space as I desired, but eventually I would settle on Earth for good – partly because the creator told me it was my job to document history from a human’s perspective and partly because of the daughter of the king of the Atala.  However that is a story for another time.

As for the three meddlesome ringleaders, Phos, Helios, and Gaia, they went about their business without a single audible complaint.  Interfering in the affairs of others was at an all time low, and agents got along better with each other.  However in secret the three started plotting with each other and with like-minded agents and creatures, wherever they could find them.  I could not tell this was happening at first, but we all later started sensing it.

The three started making rounds, visiting as many realms as they could.  They would not only confine themselves to their own domains, but they would also visit their neighbors.  Phos would enter Michael’s and Gabriel’s domains, Helios and Gaia would travel far and wide, and Mephistopheles also assisted.  He seemed to be able to do the most at this time.  This was because the other agents still trusted him.  He had never meddled in their affairs, so they were apt to welcome him whenever he would travel into their realms.  Phos, Helios, and Gaia could also travel quite freely, though not at first.  Until their neighbors saw that they would not criticize or meddle with their realms’ management, they were wary.  But after a while, these three could move about nearly as freely as Mephistopheles.  Only Proxima Centauri remained absolutely stubborn.  He would never allow the original dissenters to visit his system after Helios’ humiliating critique.  He also would talk to Michael from time to time, which was quite unusual.  An archangel did not usually associate with a minor agent of light, especially not with one as possessive as Proxima was, and especially not when that agent was outside his realm!  However Michael and Proxima could be seen together nearly as much as the four wanderers could be seen outside of their realms.

I asked Proxima about this one day, for I too was becoming quite suspicious of things and curious about his dealings with my combat instructor.

“Let’s just say I am developing a new appreciation for warfare, and I am seeking Michael’s advice,” he said.  “You can find the wanderers spending more time in his realm than in Gabriel’s or even their own.  I think they are recruiting agents and beings from his domain to join them when they are ready to rebel.  The wanderers know not all of their people will join in this rebellion, so they need others to run those realms whenever they evict the loyalists.  Gabriel’s system, however, is stable and absolutely loyal to him.  Phos won’t get anywhere trying to seek allies there.”

“So you think they’ll actually rebel against the creator?” I asked.

“Of course!” he said matter-of-factly.  “I have friends who are quite steadfast in their commitment to law and order, but they still are friendly with the four.  They tell me the rebels are planning on who gets which realm whenever they start their coup d’état.  Michael keeps telling me I can have one of the vacated solar systems in his realm whenever I get evicted.  I just laugh and tell him I’m not going anywhere, but he’s not so hopeful.  I’m sure I’ll be fine.  I have powerful friends, you know!” he said with a wink.

“Where it will get messy,” Proxima continued, “is when it comes to the physical beings on each planet.  They can decide to rebel or remain loyal just as we spiritual agents can; only it’s not so easy moving them about.  Should I happen to get evicted, it’s no issue for me to travel halfway across the universe to another star, but they could never hope to do that!  That’s why it’s so important to fight to hold on to our domains.

“We’re pretty sure the creatures will follow suit with their spiritual agents in most systems and planets.  There are several places near the edge of Michael’s and Phos’ realms where the intelligent beings and agents have differing loyalties but where transport would not be too complicated an option.  Only in Helios’ and my systems is there a serious problem.  The Milky Way is centrally located in Phos’ domain – entirely too far to hope to transport large numbers of physical beings should they suddenly require evacuation.  We know there are some staunchly loyal creatures on Venus and Mars and some downright rebellious ones in my system.  It pains me to see mine like that.  They have a pretty good opinion of me, but they’re too easily manipulated.  I know the agents in my system will not rebel, but the creatures will.  Helios must have crept in and turned their loyalties while I was away one time visiting Michael.  On the other hand, it’s looking like all the agents in Helios’ system will follow him in rebellion, as will most of the creatures, but at least three civilizations will remain loyal, the Venusians, Martians, and Neptunians.

“One place we’re really not sure of is on Earth.  The Atala will do whatever their king and queen do, but nobody knows what they are thinking!  They’ve remained non-committal to Gaia, but whenever I or one of my agents visits them, they won’t assure us they’ll do the right thing either.  I’m convinced they’re cleverer than they look.  They don’t want war to break out on their planet, but they know they could get annihilated if they anger their spiritual overseers.  I think they’ll do the right thing, but who knows?  Michael and I will have to focus our efforts on that planet when the rebellion starts.”

“Well, I happen to have some insider information from the Atala,” I said.  I know their youngest daughter, Cala, pretty well.  She wouldn’t join in any rebellion ever.  She mistrusts Gaia, and she has more influence over her parents than they do over her.  Plus, after interacting with that civilization for a while, I’m convinced they are incapable of going bad.  They’re just too good-natured and unassuming, despite their most-favored-nation status within the universe and the haughtiness that could cause.  It is true they have a lot of dealings with the four wanderers, but they also care for and respect any and all civilizations they encounter.

Also, they don’t think in military terms like you do.  They’re not consciously riding the fence, as it were, to prevent a war or to curry favor with their spiritual overseers.  Their good nature simply makes them oblivious to any potential rebellion.  It would be wise for you and Michael to try to rescue them, should it come to war.”

“What are you going to do when it happens?” asked Proxima.

“I think I’ll stay on Earth and marry Cala,” I answered.  “She’s wanted me to marry her for some time. I’m just not quite ready to settle down on one planet yet.  Plus I have to figure out a way to tell her I am unable produce babies for her.”

“I don’t see why that should be so hard,” said Proxima.

I didn’t want to get into a lengthy explanation with an agent incapable of breeding about how most female creatures have a strong desire to reproduce, so I avoided answering him.  We wished each other the best and parted ways.  I can’t say I was encouraged much by the talk, but I did learn some useful information.  I decided to pay a visit to High King Atal to see exactly where he stood.

Chapter 03 - The Beginning

Seconds later a large flash of light and one of the loudest thunderclaps I’ve ever heard plunged me into absolute and complete darkness and cold.  I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t see, hear, smell, feel, or taste anything.  It was an utter void.  Not even ‘void’ properly describes it.  It didn’t feel like there was any space around me.  I couldn’t move.  The universe at that moment consisted of what was in my skin.
  
My new metaphysical sense was barely tingling, although previously it had been more akin to a raging torrent of sensation.  It was weird, and I started to doubt I was even there.  I couldn’t make a sound.  The only thing I was sure of was that I was thinking, barely; and if Descartes was correct, then I still existed.
  
This stifling state of limbo didn’t last too long, though I really couldn’t tell how much time had elapsed.  I was quite sure there was no such thing as time at that point.  Whatever time was seemed to be, just like space, completely within the boundaries of my body.  Soon, however, the ‘tingling’ I had been feeling earlier became stronger.  It was the presence of another being.  I finally recognized who it was, but he was not doing anything yet – just existing – so I could barely sense anything beyond who he was.
  
After a while he stirred.  I felt a rush – a torrent of energy – explode all around me.  The force was incredible, and I could feel many sensations impact my body.  Sometimes it felt like knives piercing me; other times it felt like water flowing around me.  Very little of it was pleasant though.  It was a sensory overload.
  
I heard a sound unlike anything I’ve ever heard before: a sort of explosion louder than any I could have imagined.  It sounded like a combination of all the sounds I’d ever heard – music, noise, bass, treble, loud, quiet, soothing, grating, and everything in between.
  
The first thing I saw was pure and utter white light, painfully brilliant to my eyes which had adjusted to the blackness of the void.  Then many colors came into focus.  Out of that brilliance, I also sensed ultraviolet, infrared, X-rays, gamma rays, micro-waves, radio waves – everything pulsating.  I felt searing heat as well.  I could have jumped eyeballs first into the center of the sun, and it would not have compared to that incredible temperature.  The external heat energy made my insides feel icy cold by contrast, and I didn’t think I would survive.
  
Strangely enough, I could also smell, and hence taste, things.  This was probably the least painful of the senses I was experiencing.  It was still a sensory overload, which soon became uncomfortable, but at least most of the odors and tastes were pleasant.  It was like winning a hamburger eating contest without even trying and later feeling really sick.
  
The most unusual thing I experienced was the metaphysical explosion.  This was perhaps the least jarring of the things I sensed, but it was by far the most noticeable, for beings arose out of this ever-expanding torrent of data.
  
The creator himself personally fashioned each being the way he wished.  He gave them many powers and taught them many things.  They were all amazed at what he was teaching them and what they could do.  That which they learned they turned into music, art, food, perfumes, and clothing.  They were trying to imitate the creator by showing their own creativity.  He accepted these gifts graciously and gave them something far greater.  He gave them the universe.  He would later delegate to these agents the task of organizing the rest of creation, but the creating and sustaining of life itself was entirely his doing.
  
I was in awe of this power.  Scientists described that moment as the Big Bang, but that was a pretty lame description in comparison to what I experienced.  In coming eons, I would go through many powerful cataclysms.  I would witness the formation of stars and galaxies, the explosion of supernovas, and the spinning of neutron stars.  I’m probably the only human who ever went into a black hole and lived to tell about it.  I experienced earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, wars, and violence on earth, but these also could come nowhere close to that first moment of creative energy.  I felt excruciating physical pain, though that would never happen again.  I thought I would die (again)!  I felt like a dry leaf falling into a pit of lava, yet after the initial explosion of matter, energy, and spirit, I was still there.  The shock waves moved out at a tremendous speed like ripples through the void and never stopped.  They’re still moving to this day, ever expanding and adding ‘being,’ breathing life, warmth, energy, and data into the former nothingness.
  
Galaxies, stars, and planets started to form in the aftermath.  Everything moved together in an extremely orderly fashion.  A mathematical precision was behind those early galaxies as they started spinning and as each individual star began taking shape.  It reminded me of a camera lens focusing – what started out looking fuzzy and unclear soon became sharp and detailed.  Not only that, but within every galaxy, star, and planet was a spiritual being given the task of tending its individual domain and enjoying that which the creator gave it.  The process took an extremely long time, though I had no way to measure it.  Time itself was not moving at a constant pace.  I couldn’t even begin to guess today what the age of the universe is.  Those first eons, or minutes, were utterly surreal for my former earthbound self.
  
I found I could move through the universe pretty quickly using a highly sensitive solar ‘sail’ the creator made for me.  I could take the energy of the photons flying out of a nearby star and use it to pull or push against the flow until I reached incredibly high speeds.  The creator also showed me a few other techniques that made travel even swifter.  I could use black holes.  The physical form of the universe was like a very flat yet ever-expanding balloon.  The black holes were openings on the surface of the balloon to tiny tunnels that connected one side to the other.  It almost looked like a slice of Swiss cheese, except the holes were very small in comparison to the whole universe.  These tunnels, or wormholes, connected separate sections of the universe in quite random and surprising ways.  I got hopelessly lost for a long time until I finally got my bearings.
  
Traveling through the event horizon – the boundary of a black hole where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape – was quite a rush.  I felt as if I were moving at an enormous speed, yet everything appeared to slow down.  For a while, my body would stretch out, with the feet or head, whichever entered the hole first, light years in front of the other end.  I would remain in that stretched out state for an unknown amount of time, feeling like I was moving incredibly fast, and yet nothing looked like it was moving.  It was almost like Alice in Through the Looking-Glass, who had to run very fast to just stay in the same place.  I just flowed like a light-speed spaghetti noodle through the wormhole and emerged on the other side in one piece.  At the last moment, when I resumed my normal shape, I felt I was motionless, yet the entire universe slipped before my eyes in a blurry flash.  I don’t think normal human bodies could have survived something like that, but for my new body, the rush was better than any a roller coaster could have produced.
  
After I got better at wormhole travel, the creator showed me how I could create my own black hole.  It required a tremendous amount of spiritual concentration, but once I learned how to do it, I could cause myself to implode, turn into a spaghetti noodle, and streak across space.  I had no control at first.  I once landed in the middle of a star and got belched out by a solar flare.  Another time I imbedded myself in a large asteroid and made it explode into dust, scaring the daylights out of a small spirit who was floating by.  This technique was quite dangerous and required a lot of empty space around me.  I could never have done it on a planet, for I would have destroyed everything within a ten-mile radius of me.
  
I would later stop using this ability to travel through space so easily.  Once humans were created on the planet Earth, I spent most of my remaining days there.  While the Earth was not the physical center of the universe, I soon found out that it would be a pivotal place in upcoming history.  Besides, it was my home, and my task was to be the universe’s human historian.
  
The spirit beings tasked with bringing order to the universe were at first in awe of everything they encountered.  They worshipped their creator for his gifts and creativity, and they busied themselves with the ordering of their individual domains.  The creator endowed these spirits with unusually powerful gifts and an incredible intelligence.  I was more intelligent now in my new body than I was in my former life, but these beings far surpassed me.  As the planets started to form and physical life began to appear, they were given the authority to develop that life – to grow and arrange their gardens, aquariums, and zoos as they wished.  I spent eons and eons traveling from galaxy to galaxy to observe the things these agents developed.
  
There was a hierarchy as well.  There were millions of individual spirits in charge of developing various aspects of each planet.  For example, one might work on the flying creatures and another would work on the land-bound animals.  One would regulate the flow of air and yet another the flow of water or whatever other fluid might be on a given planet.  Still others busied themselves with rocks, magma, or metal.  These lower beings took on natural appearances if and when they made themselves visible on the physical plane.  They might choose to look like the element or form of life they were in charge of developing, or they might take on a form similar to the intelligent beings that almost always inhabited a planet.
  
There would be several overseers on each planet, one guiding the caretakers of life, another guiding the weather spirits, and another governing the agents in charge of sub-surface functions on the planet.  Then there would be one agent in charge of the entire planet.
  
This agent would in turn answer to the spirit who resided in and controlled the star that served as a sun for whatever planets were in that domain.  The agents in charge of stars were classified as agents of light, and when they chose to make themselves visible, they would shine like suns.  They were quite powerful, possessing the same sort of power that drove the thermonuclear reactions inside stars.  If they wished, they could have easily destroyed a planet.  The one in charge of our sun was named Helios.
  
In addition to the planetary agents in the solar systems, there were agents in charge of the non-planetary objects.  There were agents that governed the motions of the comets and meteors, and each moon had an agent with his or her own underlings in tow.  Some of the larger moons around Jupiter and Saturn were as large as small planets, so they often had their own life forms and intelligent beings.  Around Pluto, in the second belt of asteroids called the Kuyper Belt, there were many large, round objects.  Some were as big as a planet; however, these distant worlds had no native intelligent beings on them.  The Plutonians would later use them as remote settlements, but even they found these places to be a bit too cold.  Except for a minimal number of agents governing the motions of these objects and the asteroids in the even more remotely located Oort Cloud, not many more beings were in Helios’ realm.
  
On the stars themselves, there were also lower agents that regulated the electromagnetic fields, solar winds, and temperature fluctuations within.  These agents were technically agents of light since they manifested themselves as glowing, flaming beings, but their powers were much more limited.  They answered directly to the stellar agent and interacted rarely with outside spirit beings.
  
Some solar systems had binary stars, which rotated around each other like two thumbs twiddling.  If one of the pair were smaller, the rotation would be less stable.  Matter and energy from the bigger one would be transferred to the smaller one until equilibrium was established or the entire system collapsed.  If it collapsed, the two agents would have to start again.  It was like a marriage.  Meanwhile, the planets could not form until the two-star rotation normalized.  Once the binary stars were stable, their combined gravity created unusual planetary rotations, but the entire system could progress in a stable manner.
  
The agents of light would in turn answer to an overseer at the center of the galaxy.  These were gigantic agents of light, but since they also were the caretakers of large black holes, they sometimes appeared on the visible plane as pitch-black beings of pure shadow.  They could emit photons, the building blocks of light, at different wavelengths than the solar agents did.   It was quite disturbing when they did this, so they usually just manifested themselves as glowing beings.  They also possessed powers that would boggle the mind.  Any one of them could completely destroy a star by sucking it into a black hole and consuming its energy.
  
There also was a class of agents that dwelt within the black holes and which regulated these unusual objects and the wormholes to which they were connected.  It was truly a rare day to ever meet one of these.  I didn’t want to know what kind of stamina they had to have in order to constantly dwell beyond the event horizon of a black hole or to never leave a wormhole.
  
The millions of galaxies in the universe clumped together into loosely organized clusters, and over these clusters was another type of agent.  These beings governed the dark matter and energy that held the galaxies together and bound them to their neighbors.  Their function was quite a mystery to their underlings, for their realm could not be sensed according to the laws of physics.  Scientists would later discover that over ninety per cent of the universe consisted of this mystery substance.  They called it dark energy or dark matter because they could not even come close to discovering its purpose or structure.
  
I was privileged to encounter and interact with more of these particular overseers than most beings could.  They explained to me that the invisible backbone of the universe consisted of a substance closer in form to that which made up pure spirit, i.e. data and emotion.  They said it controlled the interaction and stability of the physical realm, but they would not elaborate much beyond that.  Actually, they rarely said anything beyond these four sentences: “That is true,” “That is false,” “I like that,” and “I dislike that.”  When they were talkative, they rarely showed normal emotions or tact.  For this reason, their underlings somewhat feared them.  The dark matter agents rarely manifested themselves on the physical plane, but when they did, they appeared as typical physics-bound beings such as humans or Martians, only far larger.  They were always colored black and white like zebras, Dalmatians, polar bears, or black bears.  Once again, these agents had powers that would dwarf their underlings.  They could have easily taken an entire galaxy, undone the physical molecules and atoms binding it together, and turned it into quantum dust.
  
Over these galaxy-cluster overseers were three archangels.  They were each given roughly one third of the known universe to control.  They governed the pure spirit that was the backbone to the dark matter and physical matter.  Their powers were nearly limitless within their realms, and the beings that worked for them would have true reason to fear them, should they ever get angry, for they could destroy anything, be it dark matter agents, agents of light, planetary spirits, or physical beings.  If that happened, the being would return to the creator to await his judgment.  This never occurred at first because everyone worked together, but later on it would come into play.  Once the creator received them, he would either restore them to their former selves or imprison them, depending on why they were destroyed.  He never annihilated them though.
  
The archangels could not annihilate anything.  That was something only the creator could do, but even he did not do it often.  I once saw the creator do this to a cloud of stardust because it was not forming in a stable fashion.  The agent in charge of that galaxy was having difficulty, so he asked the creator to help him start over.  The act of annihilation was nearly as powerful as the initial act of creation, only on a smaller scale, and the entire universe felt the shock wave of that implosion.  Then he created a new cloud, which caused yet another disturbingly powerful shock wave, thoroughly rattling that particular galaxy’s agent.  Nobody ever asked for the creator to annihilate again.  If they messed up a particular part of their realm, they sought help from the dark matter agents or the archangels, who usually could fix the problem.
  
The three archangels had many names, but the ones most familiar to humans would be Michael, Gabriel, and Phosphoros.  Phosphoros, usually shortened to Phos or Phon, sometimes went by the name of Lucifer, meaning light-bearer, among the humans.  The other beings found this to be a bit presumptuous.  The name carried the connotation that he could create something – light in this case – out of nothing, and this was an act only the creator could do.  These archangels could manifest themselves as anything they desired, but they each had preferred forms.
  
Michael, whose name meant “who is like the creator?” usually appeared as a winged human with golden skin and eyes, armed to the teeth with various swords, spears, or even firearms.  He was a bit extravagant in his appearance, but he was quite unassuming when he interacted with people.  He simply enjoyed combat, sports, and competition.  I actually spent a large amount of time in the beginning learning the art of combat from him.  I learned quickly, but I couldn’t keep up with him.  However, I think he truly enjoyed such an avid student and would have trained me for the fun of it,.
  
Gabriel would manifest himself as a simple being mimicking whatever intelligent creatures were on the planet he was visiting, which is why the creator sometimes used him to send messages.  He was the least likely to scare someone to death, and he usually was the most eloquent.  I spent a good deal of time with him as well, for he was extremely wise and always had something important to teach me.  His name meant “man of the creator.”
  
Phos almost always appeared as a brilliant agent of light.  He would make himself shine more brightly than any agent near him.  He was also quite eloquent and could often get beings to willingly follow him if he wanted.  Since I was pretty sure what his fate would be, I avoided him.  I tried not to make it obvious, but I think he could read a lot in my facial expressions and my aloofness.
  
His long name, Phosphoros, meant “morning star.”  His nickname, Phos, pronounced with a long ‘o,’ meant “light.”  The name was often mistaken for ‘phon’ (also with a long ‘o’), which meant “voice.”  Phos would answer to all three names – Phosphoros, Phos, and Phon.
  
The three realms the chief agents ruled had subtle differences as well, reflecting the moods and preferences of their overseers.  Each archangel gave his realm a name of his own creation.
  
Michael’s realm was quite beautiful and rugged.  The galaxies spun swiftly, and the stars shone with a lot of heat and energy.  The planets in his realm were sturdier and more dangerous.  The creatures living there enjoyed exploring, sports, and building things.  This led them to be among the first civilizations to explore the galaxies and solar systems.  Granted, Phos’ realm had its share of advanced races capable of long distance space travel, but in Michael’s realm it was a universal phenomenon.  Even though the Atala in Phos’ realm were the first creatures in the universe to develop space travel, many of their neighbors had not.  In Michael’s realm, all of the creatures adopted space traveling technology and improved on it because they loved exploration so much.  They would sometimes visit other worlds to the neglect of their own.  Michael called his realm Mallachia, which meant ‘Realm of the Mariners.’
  
Gabriel’s realm was more unassuming.  His galaxies and star systems were stable and calm.  Order ruled his realm.  His creatures also enjoyed exploration and building, but they took their time.  They would first focus on their own planets, making sure they understood everything there and had fully developed it before moving on to visit their neighbors.  Even then, their exploratory visits were over short distances and for limited periods of time.  They were not at all warlike but were extremely loyal to their overseer Gabriel.  Their realm was called Gelashalem, meaning “Reveal Peace.”
  
Phos’ realm sought glory most of all.  They built wondrous things, explored space, and developed their worlds with more zeal than that of the creatures in Michael’s or Gabriel’s realms.  Their worlds showed the most balance.  They may not have explored all the galaxies and planets as thoroughly as Michael’s creatures did, but their planets were much more cultivated and comfortable than his.  Their planets were not as cultivated and beautiful as those in Gabriel’s realm, but they were far more prepared for combat or competitions than those, and they had a better understanding of their distant neighbors.  Phos also ensured that the stars in his realm shone more brightly than any others.  Some warned that by doing this they would not last as long, but he did not care.  A benefit of brighter stars was that there was more energy available for the creatures to harness in his realm than in others.  The solar winds were stronger and solar power was much more productive.  In this alone, Phos showed some foresight.  His realm was called Doxades, meaning “Glorious Netherworld.”
  
I personally feel that Phos’ heart had been corrupt from nearly the beginning.  He knew that by forcing his galaxies’ stars to generate more energy, he would be able to use that energy to dominate his neighbors if need be, even if it meant wearing out his realm faster.  Nobody else saw it this way, but I was reasonably sure that he had been secretly plotting all along to overthrow the entire universe and take the creator’s throne, even if it meant destroying his original realm.  I once asked the creator if he knew the exact moment Phos rebelled, but he would not tell me.
  
The last class of agents one could encounter in the universe was the group of agents that continually accompanied the creator himself.  They would fly in circles around him, forming a sphere of swiftly moving beings.  From a distance, it looked like a large atom with a brightly glowing nucleus and many electrons orbiting around it at multiple angles.  Nobody was sure what these agents did, but that only served to heighten their mystique.  They flew about with their faces and feet hidden from view at all times, yet they still knew where they were going.  Their boss was named Metatron.
  
Merely being near one caused me to suddenly feel very weak and fearful.  They even had this effect on other agents up to and including the mighty archangels.  Nobody would dare challenge these particular beings.  I likened them to some sort of secret service, though I highly doubted the creator needed any sort of protection.  Perhaps their sole purpose was to increase the awe people or agents had when they were in the presence of their maker.  Whenever the creator was headed somewhere to meet with someone, one of these mysterious agents would appear shortly before the creator arrived to announce his imminent presence.  Agents would stop what they were doing and immediately focus their attention on these heralds until they departed or until the creator appeared, whichever came first.
  
Another possible theory to explain their purpose stems from the fact that they always faced inward to the creator.  Normally, a bodyguard or a security agent faces outward from that which he’s protecting, looking for potential dangers that could threaten the person or thing being watched.  These special agents, or seraphim, faced inwards to perhaps protect the creation from the limitless power of its creator.  If an agent wanted to approach the creator to talk to him, they never had to go through any sort of security check from a seraph.  As they were leaving, however, they usually were stopped by one of these agents for a few minutes.
  
The seraphim seemed to have attributes resembling those of the archangels.  They had the same sort of control that only the chief agents had over spiritual substance.  They commanded the respect of any being that was in their presence as well.  The most disturbing of their abilities was to instantly reflect the creator’s mood at any given time.  If he was angry, the ‘secret service’ would simultaneously create an aura of pure wrath as they surrounded him.  If he was happy, these agents would reflect this much more agreeable state.
  
There was one final agent, if that’s what you’d call it.  The creator would not normally just appear before living creatures on the planets.  His size alone when he manifested himself was larger than a star.  Coupled with the ever-orbiting, mysterious entourage of his, he took up as much space as a small solar system.  Instead, whenever he wanted to visit a planet, he’d take on the form of whatever intelligent being inhabited that world and would walk about in quite an unassuming way as a farmer, animal herder, or hiker.  On Earth he either appeared as a lone wanderer or as a shepherd, calling himself Bar-Enash.  If someone with metaphysical senses were nearby, they’d swear he was an agent in disguise, although they’d be able to sense an immense power in him.  This ‘agent of the creator’ was a separate entity from the gigantic ‘star’ surrounded by seraphim.  Of course an omnipotent, omnipresent creator can be in several places at once in as many forms as he wishes.  Besides the star form and the small being form, he was always detectable on a metaphysical level anywhere in the creation.  If one needed, one could always talk to him and he’d be present, listening.  I had to ‘listen’ or ‘look’ carefully for him in this form, but he was always there like a gentle breeze on a sunny beach.
  
After many long eons, the creation was nearly complete.  The agents had finished forming their realms, and their intelligent beings were hard at work settling their planets and expanding their realm.  I was truly amazed at every turn.  Traveling through this wondrous universe, I had experienced a flood of new and amazing adventures, and I was excited to see what would happen next.