Chapter 4

Factors totally beyond their control or prediction had painted Enoch and Eli as portents of Armageddon, and now the Euphrates River situation punctuated that dire forecast because it was yet another piece of the 'end times' puzzle!

Truth is, they did have an agenda, but it had nothing to do with evangelism.

They were escaping their home world because they predicted that Saiph was about to become a red giant, and that would wipe out all life on Vicara.

Enoch and Eli assimilated the biblical writings they read. The two of them saw the parallels that were taking place. They were also ashen to learn that the ultimate one had been here after the initial pilgrimages of 12000 years ago!

NOW they understood why they were forbidden to visit the planet of the knowledge of good and evil. They had tasted the 'forbidden' fruit and their fates were sealed. How ironic it is that they were to alight in the harbor of "The Big Apple"!

There were several briefings about the plethora of crazies that might take a potshot at them, but they accepted the risk that fate dealt them. They had a few counter measures.

Nikola Tesla was one of the most gifted geniuses in history, and whose experiments were so beyond most men's abilities to even comprehend, much less master, that upon his death in 1943, the FBI confiscated volumes of his legacy and secreted it.

Fluorescent lights, AC electricity, turbines, transmitted electricity, vertical takeoff and landing craft, lasers, particle beam weapons, and ominously, the Philadelphia experiment and possibly Russia's 1908 Tunguska 'meteor blast' have all been connected with Nikola's experiments, and that only scratches the surface!

Had Tesla been allowed to delve into ID space more readily, the Philadelhia experiment could have become the basis of interstellar travel.

Enoch and Eli knew that humanity could never travel far into space as long as they limited their abilities by trying to induce incomprehensible speeds into the equation. It's like high speed time travel into the past - fanciful, but totally impossible, except in relative terms.

Earth's humanity still didn't fully grasp what Einstein postulated - that matter cannot exceed the speed of light within our continuum, and achieving the speed of light could only be attained at the loss of half the matter accelerated, never mind trying to dismiss the effect of deadly delta radiation, commonly known as cosmic rays.

Eli and Enoch had planned to develop Tesla inventions (the Freedom of Information act paved the way for all to review these awesome works), but so much evil was possible with these inventions, if mishandled, that even humanity sealed them up. They would have to tread carefully.

It was now a foregone conclusion that someone would try to capture their ship and learn its secrets. This could never be allowed to happen.

And could they successfully steer Earth into not blowing itself up by misusing some of Tesla's power experiments?

Recent world events have shown that when the rich live so lavishly while allowing the poor no quarter, death becomes the better choice than living so plebeanlike, never mind if that death leads to Armageddon. It is the self justification used by suicidal terrorists.

One such terrorist had decided that since Enoch and Eli were coming to America first, they must be infidels, and he made it his gilt edged priority to see that they were killed in full view of the world, thus punctuating yet another scene from Revelation. Time was short.

Molly Holmes was a young girl that did not have long to live. She had been diagnosed with inoperable cancer in one of her kidneys, which had metastasized to her bladder.

Her parents tried to make the last of her life enjoyable, and they certainly had the means since they were multi- millionaires, but even their millions could not buy back their child's life.

They were also convinced that Enoch and Elijah were THE biblical personas and they made the pilgrimage to New Jersey to let their daughter see the two of them, but they couldn't get close enough to see clearly.

The skies above showed no signs of any craft whatsoever, even as the hour was approaching when the promised landing would occur.

Major Ted Flagget was in charge of the air support group that had a twofold purpose: Escort the friendlies, or if they became a threat, take them out!

When the entire area became immersed in this loud vibratory hum, even though no craft could be seen, Ted ordered his men to assume the craft had advanced stealth capabilities and to stay close to the noise as it approached New York City and the harbor, but this hum seemed to knock out many computer systems, forcing the pilots to operate manually.

Suddenly, as they approached the Verrazano Bridge at the southern tip of New York's inner bay, from one of the 'pleasure' craft in the upper bay came a blast from a hand held launcher!

Too late to maneuver without letting this heat seeker kill anyone else, Ted offered up his life for his fellow pilots and for the possibility that the space men were true peace emissaries.

As his F-16 dove straight for the missile, another rocket was fired from his undercarriage right at the contrail that led back to the source.

Suddenly, the water hissed with steam as 'lightning in a bottle' seemed to spring forth. It was perhaps a particle beam weapon and it intercepted the rogue missile, vaporizing it instantly!

Ted's rocket had better luck and blew up the perpetrator's craft, leaving no survivors.

The radio blared with reaction: "Major, they fired on you from under water! Break right and we'll cover you."

"Negative, NEGATIVE!" shouted Ted. "The beam took out a rogue missile fired at me. They're FRIENDLIES, and they're damned smart too! If we fired on them, our rockets would explode on contact with the water! Escort the ripple until the Coast Guard cutters get here."