The World of NightsEnd

How do Christians discharge this trust committed to them? They let three fourths of the world sleep the sleep of death, ignorant of the simple truth that a Savior died for them. Content if they can be useful in the little circle of their acquaintances, they quietly sit and see whole nations perish for lack of knowledge.”

Adonirum Judson 1811

Judson sat alone in the dimly lit confines of the GRAV-LEV tube. He looked down the tunnel that seemed to run on into infinity and closed his eyes. Ever since he was a child he had dreamed of finding what was beyond the sea and now he was headed there. “Oh Master,” he breathed a soft prayer, “forgive me for wanting the right thing for the wrong reason. Give me the grace to do this thing your way.”

“Second thoughts?”

Judson looked back to see his friend Wesley standing behind him. “No, more like first thoughts. I watched that machine with the vids on it. Wesley, the world out there was in a mess when the vids stopped and it’s probably worse now. What can one person do to change that?”

Wesley couldn’t really argue. The last vids stopped at the time the Chinese scuttled the secret project that lay beneath Haven. But even then the world was indeed in a fix. From what they could glean the great congregations they dreamed of were gone from the earth. Something called TruePath claimed to preserve the one true faith. But from Wesley could tell TruePath was far more interested in perpetuating itself than the truth all on Haven so loved.

“Do you know who the Teacher was?” asked Wesley.

Judson nodded.

“Sure, he was a Christ follower who came here to tell us about the true way.”

“That’s right. They called them missionaries. His specialty was translation. Well Judson, he came here, only one man. But look what his influence has done over the last one hundred years. I guess it all depends on how sold out that one man is to the destiny the Creator has given him.”

Judson stood and looked down the tube. Only yesterday the first test run had been made on the tube car floating in place not a hundred meters from where they sat. The car left silently and returned exactly one hour later, intact. No one understood how it worked but they did understand how to program it.

“Where do you think it will take me?”

Wesley looked over Judson’s shoulder down the tube and sighed deeply. How he wished he could answer that question. “Don’t know friend. I just wish the Counsel would allow me to go with you.”

Judson shook his head slightly. There was no need to explain further. He was the Dreamer and he must go alone. What he carried with him would have to be enough.

Later that afternoon the Counsel reconvened and prepared for the final days before Judson departed. The Speaker rose and opened the session. “Brothers and sisters, as you know, no one has left this place in over one hundred years. Had it not been for the influence of the Ti juice no one would have left then. We’ll never know if that poor crazed soul in his outrigger made it anywhere.

Now we are sending another kind of craft out into the unknown. Yes the tube car has left and returned unscathed but we have no idea where it actually will end up.Judson, are you ready for this adventure?”

Since the last time Judson had faced the Assembly he had grown up quite a bit. It had been less than a year since the discovery of the GRAV-LEV tube and the words of Matthew but Judson had aged much more than that time warranted. He looked wiser and had lost his slight cockiness that always bothered Wesley.

His newfound maturity was even more evident when he spoke. “There was a time when all I did was dream of seeing what was out there. I feared nothing and chaffed for some way to explore beyond the sea. But now, I do fear. I fear failing to follow the calling of the Dream Giver and the authority of his holy Word.”

The young man sat down, his bronzed skin glimmering in the torch light.

“Then we bless you in the name of the one true God.”

“Maranatha,” responded those assembled.

The Speaker waited for the hall to grow still again before resuming. “Judson, as you know, it is our custom for the elders to reveal the meaning of your name on your thirtieth birthday. This allows time for a person to become what he has been named without undue influence. We are going to bend that rule a little tonight. Though you are but twenty three, tonight the Counsel declares to you the meaning of the name Judson.”

An older woman rose across the longhouse and opened a tattered but well protected book. She quietly turned the pages, cleared her throat, and read. “Adonirum Judson was a young man from the Americas who gave his life in a place called Burma. There he gave up two wives and the better part of his adult life for a people he had never heard of before going there. He spent his years tirelessly translating the true Scriptures into the language of the people and declaring to them the truths which those Scriptures contained. It is for him and his legacy that your parents named you, Judson.”

The woman closed the book and sat back down. All were silent as they awaited the traditional response from the name bearer.

Instead Judson stood and faced the group. He closed his eyes for a moment and then upon opening them, spoke. “Friends, traditions are good and noble things much needed to carry us through the tedium of the years. But this is not a normal time. I fear I leave for a world that has sold itself to evil forces and a people that has lost itself in traditions. At least that is what we can best determine from the vids. It is at this time that I am supposed to thank God for my name and assure you I will live up to that name. But I do not know whether I can or not. What I do know is that I am gladly willing to die in the effort.”

The air was thick with expectation as Judson paused. Every eye followed him as he stepped higher on the platform. He looked as though he was trying to communicate directly with the spirit of each person there. “Our Lord left the safety of heaven itself to bring to us life and hope. He died to make us right with the Creator Himself. I can do no such thing for the world out there. But I can point them to the one who can.

I have dreamed one last dream in Haven and this is it. The GRAV-LEV will be a one way trip for me. With the permission of the Speaker I will destroy it once I arrive at the other end. No one can be allowed to find Haven before your work is complete. I have seen another way to come back to you when the time is right. It is a way that cannot be misused by more corrupt men. I pray the blessings of the one true God on all of you and look forward to seeing you on the other side.”

Judson walked to the Speaker and with a simple gesture all knew his desire was granted. Judson walked quietly from the building knowing he would not see most of these people ever again.

________

Eight thousand miles away a young GPP officer stared at the input he was receiving over a secure channel of World Net. He rubbed his eyes and cracked his knuckles. This was the twentieth time he had viewed this screen, unable to decide if he should forward his findings to a superior or not.

All that kept him nailed to his seat was the fact that what he thought he saw could not be. There had not been a new transoceanic GRAV-LEV tube built in fifty years. New ones just weren’t needed and they were quite expensive to build. There was no way one had just popped into existence without the GPP knowing it had been under construction.

In spite of this, the young officer was sure he was seeing a new GRAV-LEV signature being formed somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean. By its nature a tube had to be in constant operation for 72 hours before it could be positively identified by satellite tracking. These signatures had finally gone steady about 24 hours earlier and remained constant since.

So the officer sipped from his mug and decided to move to another area of the world to monitor. Nothing ever happened new in the world anymore anyway. He wasn’t going to jeopardize his advancement path by taking the risk it had.

Twenty levels above him Hampton Smyth, Secretary General of the United Federation, entertained his sister and Jonathan Pearson. Alicia Farmington was the General Counsel of True Path and leader of the Speakers. Her counterpart Pearson was Shepherd of the Keepers. Neither had much real love for the other.

“I have had enough of this constant religious quibbling between the two of you!” As leader of the United Federation, Smyth was used to getting what he wanted by decree. Why it didn’t work with his sister and this Pearson fellow was beyond him.

“The UF allows TruePath to exist in the Americas because it is convenient to both sides.” He turned and stared directly at the Keeper. “But you Keepers are becoming less convenient every day. Your constant harping on minor violations of your religious law does not concern me. In fact they greatly annoy me.”

Pearson huffed and rose to his full stature. His blue and yellow silks gave him the false appearance of some kind of royalty. “TruePath has obeyed the UF in every way possible. But we will not continue to allow Ruger and the GPP to treat us like children on the school yard.”

Smyth slammed his fist to the false mahogany top of his desk and glared at the man sitting across from him. “The GPP is not a group you allow to do anything. It just does it, period. I may be the voice of the United Federation but Ruger is the strong arm. Even I have my limits when it comes to that man.”

Pearson started to speak again, thought better of it, and leaned back in his chair.

The Secretary General turned his attention to his sister. As leader of the Speakers and General Counsel of TruePath she held more power than anyone else in the North American Province. She walked with the elegance of a petite spinstress but dripped with the blood of millions of people whose souls she had sold out to the GPP.

“Mr. Secretary,” she cooed, “if the Shepherd wants to argue over religious legalities let him do it on his own time. We have a much more serious matter at hand.Franz Ruger and I both have some certainty that a subversive is being sent to disrupt the proper order of things.

Smyth considered this new revelation for a moment. “Does this subversive have an organization?

“Not that we know of.”

“And does he or she have the backing of any within the GPP or UF?”

“No sir.”

“Then what in this world are we doing worrying over one person?”

Alicia Farmington stood up to all five feet of her height and glazed up at her brother. “Now you hear me Jonathan. You had better listen to what I am telling you. If it happens this won’t be the first time one man has upset the apple cart for everyone.”

“And what can this man possibly do?”

The General Counsel of TruePath sat back down and took a long measured breath. She shook her head as she looked at her brother. Her cool exterior hardly veiled the disdain she had for his leadership. Franz Ruger was the real head of everything and she knew it.

“What this man can do dear brother is remind people of things best forgotten. Once reminded, they become dissatisfied. And once dissatisfied, well the results can get ugly very quickly.”

The man behind the desk stared at his sister for a full minute before he finally composed himself enough to continue. “If the people cause a problem, Ruger can handle them.”

Formality cracked as Alicia Farmington’s responded. “And do what,” she shouted, “ban the other half of the cities that are left? Our great civilization is rotting from within all around us. There hasn’t been one major innovation in over fifty years. And that hellish Gene Pool Project has turned us into a bunch of neutered farm animals.”

Neither Pearson nor Smyth said a word. Both men seemed frozen in their place. Alicia Farmington whirled to leave and then turned back to point her finger at her brother. “Hear me Mr. Secretary. A dreamer is coming and dreamers are trouble. They come claiming to have heard from God. I don’t trust people who say God talks tot them. They encourage people to believe in a Savior. Once that happens your farm animals will no longer be so content to feed at the trough of the United Federation. Think about that!”

Hampton Smyth sat and considered what his sister had told him. She was often more right than wrong. Thirty minutes later he waved his hand over the vid phone. Within moments Franz Ruger’s face appeared on the screen. “Yes Mr. Secretary.”

“Put out an alert on the World Net for anyone who claims to be called ‘The Dreamer.’ I want him brought to me and I do mean directly to me.”

Franz Ruger smiled, “I shall do just that Mr. Secretary.”

In a distant room of the UF headquarter building Franz Ruger raised a cup to his guest and smiled. “It seems the Secretary wants us to capture some dreamer and bring him directly to his attention.”

His guest raised a glass and smiled back. “Excellent. Of course you won’t mind if I have a talk with this dreamer first will you my friend.”

“Of course not General Counsel. I wouldn’t think of taking such a man anywhere except to leader of the Speakers. Then you can decide what is to be done with him.”

Alicia Farmington looked down to a book her people had only recently intercepted. It was a book of the Watchers. In the flyleaf of the book were written the words: “When Judson comes Night’s End is near.”

“Night’s End indeed,” she scoffed. “He will be the undoing of us all if we are not careful.”

Alicia Farmington hadn’t gambled her career playing both ends against the middle to lose it all to some God talker.

_____________________

NightFall: Second Revision July 2008

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