I hesitate to write much of this chapter for I know that the reader will never believe me. That he or she will say with good justification that what I experienced that night on Mars was only a very vivid hallucination caused by the side-effects of Lorr venom upon my mind and the lack of oxygen. That would be my own answer had someone told me the tale I am about to relate to you! I have never believed in the Christian Bible as anything more than a collection of Jewish folklore, and while I suspected that there was "more" to the Priestesses of Lys than what first appeared when Janis told me about them, I never even suspected the TRUTH! I often wonder if such TRUTHS are not meant to be understood by the finite minds of mortals, be they human or alien like those of the Lorr. I am myself still a bit confused over what I experienced that night on Mars, although Tais, who is First among the Priestesses of Lys says that what I experienced has been experienced by others. In this case at least there was no Lorr "trickery" involved to make primitive humans "behave themselves". What I saw, what I experienced for myself that night will always remain burned into my memories as doubtlessly they also remained burned into Raspa's! Who like me finds it hard yet to believe!!! THAT "GOD", "LYS", "SHE-IT-ALL", ACTUALLY CAME AND TALKED TO US!!
I had never felt so "ALONE" in my entire life as I watched Raspa disappear from my field of vision, the venom she had injected into me putting me into a near state of suspended animation where I could not move a muscle or do more than just slowly breathe, my respiratory rate having been "slowed" to perhaps a third of its original rate. There was no pain, no discomfort, nor for that matter any feeling of sensation at all! A synthetic version of Lorr venom is now used on Earth as a general anesthetic, I might mention here. It is quite superior to what was used back in my own era, and leaves less side effects after its use, although it is like the actual venom itself quite dangerous and in large enough doses, quite fatal to anyone injected with it!
There were scattered here and there a few of the "Life Plants" that grow everywhere on Mars except at the poles. Living on the water and carbon dioxide that they draw from the atmosphere, using the weak rays of the Sun for energy. Mars does have somewhat of an atmosphere similar to that of the Earth in that it will burn up small meteors and stop the more dangerous rays of the Sun from reaching the surface, although you can get very badly sunburned on Mars without realizing it, the ionosphere being considerably thinner than that of the Earth due to the lack of oxygen. It is because of the plants that Earth has an atmosphere that supports life as we know it. In perhaps another thirty to fifty years Mars will be suitable for life once again as it once was long ago in its history before its lighter gravity allowed too much of its original atmosphere to leak away into space. Already its surface gives life to numerous Earth plants, both natural and those modified by the Lorr to be more suitable for the severe conditions found there on the surface of Mars. The thinness of the atmosphere, the bitter cold at night, the heat of the day, all make it hard for life to survive upon the hostile surface of Mars. Mars having temperatures that range from about 80F during the summer time at the equator down to temperatures that get so bitterly cold at the polar caps that carbon dioxide sometimes actually freezes out of the air into solid dry ice! It is an excellent world for those with a "pioneering spirit", but at the same time it is not a world for the careless, for death comes quickly to those who foolishly fail to take the proper precautions with their life-support equipment! That is why no one ever goes strolling off by herself without a companion, the "buddy" system being the only way that you can survive for long on Mars!
I am told that if you find a deep enough crater carpeted with Life Plants that given "Mars Lungs" that you can survive until help arrives. Only the Lorr and certain Earth reptiles are able to walk the surface of Mars without having to carry oxygen. The Lorr because of their unique "compound lungs" like natural air compressors, and the reptiles because of their lower oxygen requirements as compared to warm blooded forms of life. The tortoises that you see on Mars burrow beneath the surface of the planet at night to survive, coming out only during the daylight hours when they nibble at the Life Plants for food and water as do the smaller little scaly creatures that you see from time to time leaping from one place to another in Mars' lighter gravity.
There was little that I could do but lie there buried in the sand and think. Think about what had happened. Worry about if Raspa would make it back in time. Wonder about if I would ever see Sharon again. I missed Darlanis. I had few friends here. I once again thought of how much "An'na" resembled Darlanis. About the woman Aurora, one of Raspa's own "Servitors" who seemed to have considerable "authority" here on Mars. What about the Priestesses of Lys? What "role" did they actually serve in this?
It grew dark, the sun sinking down in that incredibly deep blue Martian sky until it dipped beneath the edge of the crack. I hated to see darkness come, although Mars has no dangerous life forms and the only danger was of freezing to death in the night. I saw Jupiter in the sky, brighter than what you see it from the Earth, and in the west a large bright object like Venus seen from the Earth with another dimmer object just by it. Earth and the Moon! I felt homesick for my world, dangerous as it might be with its hostile people, its dangerous animal life, its barbaric civilizations almost constantly at war with each other. We were, as Raspa had once said, a bunch of barbarians, uncultured savages who delighted in mortal battle. Creatures incapable of self- government. Yet we possessed a "curiosity" about our surroundings that the Lorr did not possess. They were a "stagnant" race content to live on as their ancestors did thousands of years ago. It was dark now, night, the rocks around me only dim shadows in the darkness. Mars has no big Moon to light the night, only the various planets and stars with Earth the most beautiful. The stars however are a glorious sight unknown to those of Earth! The thinness of the atmosphere making them incredibly brilliant points of light that stare untwinklingly down at you from that utterly black vault of a sky. I thought I could almost see Jupiter's four major moons, but my vision wasn't quite that good! I saw the Earth-Moon double star set below my horizon, Venus now long gone, with Saturn now also glowing down upon me from above. Uranus is a "naked eye" planet from Mars, although you have to know where to look. Binoculars help a lot too, especially those big 10x60's that are commonly used on Mars by its lovely women.
As time passed I could see the beginning of frost on the rocks around me, the Lorr venom in my blood preventing me from feeling the cold or anything else. Raspa had warned me that I might suffer from hallucinations. That the venom would effect my mind to a certain extent. That was why when I first saw HER standing there before me that I thought it was only a figment of my imagination! Something caused by the Lorr venom in my blood!
SHE was tall, golden, incredibly beautiful, so BEAUTIFUL that even Darlanis would have looked "plain" beside HER. A long white Grecian type gown hung beautifully from HER body. I knew I was seeing but an hallucination as no human woman could walk the freezing night time surface of Mars so clad! And without a oxygen mask no human could live more than minutes upon its surface! As SHE had neither, I knew SHE was but a figment of my imagination caused by the effects of the venom that Raspa had injected into my neck. I did not believe what I saw standing before me.
"You do not believe what you see?" SHE said to me, giving me a warm friendly smile. As I could not speak or even nod, I merely regarded HER, puzzled by how clearly I could see HER considering how dark it was. Obviously one went on a real "trip" with a dose of Lorr venom in your bloodstream! A great hallucinogen!
Giving me a smile, SHE extended a hand to me, and suddenly I was standing there beside HER, with my body still buried up to my neck there in the ground before me! Wow! Was I ever hallucinating now as I looked at myself! My own attire some sort of shimmering material totally unsuitable for bitter chill of the night! Yet, I could breathe perfectly well despite the lack of an oxygen mask! The thought going through my mind that in Edgar Rice Burroughs' "A PRINCESS OF MARS" the hero, John Carter, was separated from his body much like I had just been just before being transmitted to the planet Mars where all his adventures took place. The reality of course being that he would have died in a few minutes here on Mars gasping for breath, the atmosphere at the time Mr. Burroughs' wrote his book having been even thinner than it is now before the Lorr started "terraforming" their planet!
"You don't believe, do you?" SHE said to me. I told HER I didn't, quite surprised to find that I could talk now! Obviously this was all some "dream" that I was having thanks to the venom!
Turning to me, SHE extended HER hands to me, and as I clasped them in mine, SUDDENLY WE WERE MIND-LINKED! HER POWER SO GREAT THAT RASPA'S OWN MIND WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A LITTLE TINY CANDLE COMPARED TO AN ENTIRE UNIVERSE OF BLAZING SUPER-NOVAS!!! "I didn't know," I whimpered, going to my knees before HER.
I had never really believed SHE existed! I had always thought SHE was just something people had "invented" so that they could live off of other people! I KNELT IN THE AUGUST PRESENCE OF SHE WHO WAS QUEEN OF EVERYTHING! SHE WHO HAD LIVED BEFORE TIME, WHO WAS ETERNAL, EVERLASTING! SHE WHO WAS EVERYWHERE, EVERYPLACE!
"You're GOD!" I gasped, seeing HER smile. I had always thought of GOD as being an old man, but that is just Jewish folklore. SHE is without form or shape. We make HER in our own image and likeness. Raspa saw HER as a Lorr. I saw HER as a very beautiful woman. Others have seen HER differently. SHE is a sixth dimensional Being, to whom Time and Space mean nothing. SHE can cross the billions of light years of the Universe in less time than light itself would cross the diameter of the smallest of atomic particles. Her intelligence is that of all the intelligent races of the Universe combined. She is LYS, GOD, JEHOVAH, ALLAH, MAZDA, MITHRA, ZEUS, SHE-IT-ALL. Her names are beyond numbering. SHE is LIFE, INTELLIGENCE, TRUTH, GOOD, the INFINITE.
"I have been called that among other things," SHE admitted with a smile. "Currently I am generally referred to as `LYS' by the people of your world thanks to the Priestesses who follow my teachings as best they can." I wondered if SHE even had a Name?
"Have you ever appeared to others?" I breathed, thinking, remembering the teachings of my childhood. SHE nodded, smiling. Once SHE had mind-linked with the son of a Jewish carpenter. He had tried to tell everyone what he had learned from HER, but they crucified him, not understanding such truths. Another time SHE had spoken to a man in Asia, but he had not understood HER. What SHE wished him to do. The son of the Jewish carpenter had done the best job so far of any SHE had spoken to directly, although SHE was more delighted with the efforts of the Priestesses of Lys and what they had done for the human race. Saying that they did not exploit the people like others had done in HER name for their own gain. Or tell lies about HER as others had done in the past! I understood now why the Priestesses of Lys were the only legal religion left on Earth. Why Christianity had been "stamped out"!
SHE told me without words why in HER eyes it had finally become only an instrument of THE EVIL ONE who delighted in doing things against HER teachings, who fought HER for every SOUL that yearned towards UNITY with HER! I felt that same yearning, the urge to be Held in HER arms, to "lose" my own Self in HER utter Goodness!
"Raspa is dying," SHE suddenly said to me, there being an instant of "blurring" and then SHE and I stood there on the sands of Mars looking down at the giant ant lying there on its side, Raspa feebly extending her antennae towards SHE. I saw SHE touch the tips of Raspa's long whip-like antennae, and then I was MIND-LINKED with Raspa! I sensed Raspa's thoughts, saw SHE as Raspa saw her, as a Lorr, but different in shape from that of a Lorr Princess, the abdomen being larger, different, that of a Lorr whose life is dedicated to reproducing more of her own kind!
Then there was a soft warm glow that seemed to surround Raspa, and I saw Raspa get to her feet, her broken forelimb instantly healed, her damaged ruined dying heart repaired, for Raspa had overstrained her heart in the thin atmosphere of Mars by running too fast, too long for even her lungs to supply her body with enough oxygen! I shared with Raspa that feeling of yearning, of love for SHE-IT-ALL as the Lorr refer to HER as. SHE standing there, watching us both, glowing in the darkness, the chill sands of Mars untouched by HER feet. To me SHE appeared as an incredibly beautiful woman, but to Raspa SHE was a beautiful Lorr Queen.
"It is best," SHE said to us, "That you continue on as you have." I understood the questions that would be asked were SHE to teleport us both to safety so easily. I understood why SHE did not interfere in the affairs of Men even when THE EVIL ONE did so. I understood why SHE, with her awesome powers, permitted THE EVIL ONE to exist when she could have with a mere thought snuffed THE EVIL ONE out of existence for good! That we, humans, Lorr, all forms of intelligent life everywhere in the Universe, had to seek for ourselves the TRUTH. That only after reincarnation after reincarnation would we develop the PURITY of soul necessary to merge and become part of HER. To lose our "SELF's" in HER and become part of what SHE is. PURE INFINITE PERFECT GOOD!! With this suddenly there was a "blurring" and once again I found myself there buried in the sand, with only my fevered thoughts for a companion! I knew too that when I returned to Earth there was a woman, a tall golden haired woman, with whom I would have to speak. With whom I would MIND-LINK so that she too would see, understand. Tais, First Priestess among the Priestesses of Lys, would be waiting for me when I was returned to the Earth. SHE had promised me that much. As SHE knew neither time or space, I had no doubt that what she had told me would soon come to pass!
Now you are probably thinking at this point, assuming that you haven't merely thrown my story down in disgust, that if I had indeed spoken with LYS, GOD, SHE-IT-ALL, that I should have some stunningly important information for the human race. That Raspa should have the same for her own kind. That we both should be sitting down writing out "Bibles" for our respective races to follow! Telling everyone how they should live so that they won't have to go through so many incarnations to "purify" themselves before they can "merge" their souls with HER! Sorry, the information I received wasn't of that nature at all, but instead was partly in the nature of a "warning" that I was to give to First Priestess Tais. The warning, "BEWARE `THE QUEEN OF DARKNESS'" meant little to me then, although I "suspect" what it meant now!
On the other hand Raspa believes that our mutual experiences were merely the result of a lack of oxygen, stress, the effects upon me of her own venom, etc! I do know, however, that Raspa suffered a broken left forelimb in the fall, and later on she had six perfect limbs when she reached the little farming community the next afternoon! I had cracked ribs, a broken or badly sprained ankle, but yet when Raspa and the others came for me, I was perfectly sound, without any sign of injury at all. Not a single bruise anywhere on me! HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THOSE "FACTS"?
And what great "Universe-shaking" information did SHE give ME? No secrets of how to build space ships that could travel faster than the velocity of light. No great scientific secrets. Nothing but the words as once spoken by another 2500 years ago. "DO ONTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD WISH OTHERS TO DO ONTO YOU." That was the great "secret" that SHE gave me. That I now give to you.
(.txt)