The Ruined City of Eridu
King, Belshazzar and Daniel watched as the last of the Girtablilu slipped through the portal and into the subterranean ship. It had taken two weeks to do it, but the creatures, with the help of their human companions, had managed to repair the vessel enough to soon break Earth’s orbit. The remaining repairs, however, were best left to those genetically predisposed to such tasks.
“So are you going to tell us now?” Belshazzar asked impatiently, as the liquid metal door to the ship solidified.
“Tell you what?” King asked. He leaned back against a large stone that had once adorned the ziggurat.
“What happened in there,” the prince said. “You have been promising to tell me ‘later’ ever since you pulled me out of that cage.”
King glanced at Daniel, who smiled back at him. After several moments, King shrugged. “Sure, why not,” he said. “You know that the Girtablilu aren’t from this world, right?”
The prince nodded. “Are they from the spirit world?”
King smiled and shook his head. “They’re from another world out there,” he said, pointing up into the starlit sky. “Probably similar to our own, but with some vast differences.” He paused, trying to figure out how best to explain the next bit to someone with no concept of astrophysics or biology. “The Girtablilu had been…um, bred with a specific purpose in mind. They had been enslaved by another race…an empire that traveled to different worlds with the purpose of conquest.”
“Like the Assyrians,” Belshazzar said.
“Yeah, sort of like the Assyrians. And about three thousand years ago, this empire set their eyes on Earth. But they couldn’t breathe our air.”
The prince cocked his head inquisitively.
“Just trust me on that, will you?” King said, trying to head the next question off at the pass. “They couldn’t breathe our air, so they sent a vessel here that could turn our air into something they could breathe.”
“Only it crashed before they could do it.”
“Exactly. The ship could change the air, but the Girtablilu, in rebellion of their masters, had sabotaged it so it couldn’t fly. When it crashed, it spread its roots into the soil and attempted to proceed with its original mission, but the conversion was stopped before it could do any real damage.”
Daniel spoke up at this point. “I have already told you about the rebellion, as well as your ancestor, Nimrod’s, part in all this.”
The child nodded.
“Well,” King went on, “Just as the terraforming—air changing—device’s functions were automated—able to work without someone operating it—apparently so was the ship’s repair mechanisms. That liquid stuff we saw all over the ship? Those are really tiny, um, creatures. We call them nanobots in my time. Millions of mechanized creatures smaller than insects that constantly build and repair. It took them nearly three thousand years, but apparently they finally got the terraforming functions of the ship back online. They simply needed someone to enter the vessel to start the programming.”
“Which you did,” the prince said with a wry smile.
“Which I did,” King agreed. He went onto describe his encounter with Tiamat and the freeing of her hold on the scorpion men. “After I recovered,” he continued, “The Girtablilu shut down both the terraforming apparatus and the mechanism that powered the psychic control unit within Sereb-Meloch’s headdress.”
“Wait a minute,” Belshazzar said. “If the Girtablilu shut down the device that could help them breathe, how is it they seem to breathe our air just fine?”
King smiled at the question. The boy certainly had an analytical brain on his shoulders. “I’m not entirely sure, but I think I figured that out. After working with them these past two weeks, I’ve had a lot of time to think about how Namtar and Tiamba survived for so long in our world. I was also able to watch and study their physiology more closely, now that they weren’t trying to skewer me with their tails.” His hand moved to the non-existent scar on his abdomen where he’d been impaled. “Many creatures with exoskeletons—insects, crustaceans, spiders—do not breathe the same way that we do. They pull what they need from the environment around them through pores. Both alien species breathed this way, and I think it helps them survive in harsh environments.”
“There is something I am curious about,” Daniel said finally. “The Girtablilu treated you with such reverence. Such high regard. You said yourself that they knew the name you bore in your previous life. Did you ever discover why this is?”
King shook his head. “No idea. As you know, they are incapable of speaking, in the traditional sense. Just emotions and body language, as well as a primitive mental communication. They weren’t really able to answer any of my questions. The things I’ve just told you are pretty much pure speculation on my part.” He thought about the Girtablilu’s respect and admiration for him and he smiled. “I’ll probably never know.” Though, given his experience with time travel, he suspected his future self would likely discover the truth at some point.
The three sat in their camp, looking up at the stars for several long minutes. The air was warm, but not as fetid as it had been when King first arrived in Eridu. The damage done to the environment by the ship would take some time to heal, and so the temperature would remain slightly cooler than normal. King decided he could live with that.
Belshazzar broke the silence. “So what happens next?”
“Well, I imagine they’ll have the ship fully operational in a month or so,” King said. “Since the excavation of this place around my time didn’t reveal a huge spacecraft buried underneath, I’m willing to bet they’ll take off and head somewhere to enjoy their freedom.”
“No, not that,” the prince said. “I mean about us. About you? And about the heretic?”
King smiled. “I imagine Sereb-Meloch will be taken care of soon enough,” he said. “As for you, you’ll be heading back to Babylon with Daniel. Now that the threat is over, there is no reason for your grandfather to either kill you or use you to unseal the tomb.” He stood up, moved over to a large chest left by a general in Nebuchadnezzar’s army, and opened it. Reaching in, he pulled out a large piece of sackcloth containing Tiamat’s severed head. “Take this back to him. And tell him the man who did this to a goddess is watching over you. He tries to harm you in any way, this will be a reminder of what waits for him. You got that?”
The boy’s nose crinkled at the decaying smell already wafting from the cadaverous head. But he nodded slowly. “You’ll not come with us?”
King shook his head. “Best I don’t,” he said, picking up some of his gear and walking over to his horse. He began packing the horse down with everything he would need and looked back at the boy. “My life is...complicated.” And dangerous to mortals. He walked over to the prince and placed a hand gently on the boy’s shoulder. “But I’ll check on you. I promise.”
Belshazzar, fighting back tears, slung his arms around King’s waist and hugged him with all his might. After a while, he released his grip and dashed away, out of sight. After watching the boy go, Daniel strode up to King with a smile.
“Well done, my friend,” he said, holding out his hand.
King accepted the hand and shook.
“All right, old man,” King said. “Now it’s your turn. Before I left for Eridu, you mentioned you had something else to tell me, when this was all over. Let’s hear it.”
Daniel smiled up at him and chuckled. “Oh, that,” he said. “I was given a very specific message for you in a dream. Your betrothed and your daughter will both be well looked after until your return. You have nothing to fear. They are safely in his care.”
The news, coming from this man known the world over for his incredibly accurate predictions and wisdom, was almost more than King could bear. In over two hundred years, there had not been a day that went by where he hadn’t thought of Sara and Fiona in some way, praying to a god he hadn’t entirely been sure existed, that they would be cared for. That they would be watched over. And here the prophet Daniel was telling him in no uncertain terms…his prayers had been heard and answered. More than that, if he read between the lines, Daniel was telling him he would make it back to them, in which case, he’d be the one doing the watching over.
Smiling, he embraced the old man, then mounted his horse with a bit more of a spring in his step than before this adventure had started. As he spurred the horse forward and headed out into the desert, he entertained only a single thought: he had many years ahead of him before he would see them again, but knowing they would be safe until that time meant everything in the world to him.