S2E25: The End is Nigh

“Abgal reporting to Lyran Station, I repeat, Abgal reporting to Lyran station… Eridu is now considered empty. All resources were moved to the mountains… Evacuation protocols followed… All Anunnaki have left… 45 sympathizers and 2 prisoners, together with over 600 humans, 19 of the Adamu lineage… I repeat, evacuation is a success. I’ll now head over to meeting point. Abgal out!”

“This is Tukumbi, Human Militia at Babylon, reporting to Lyran Station, do you copy? I repeat, Tukumbi, human Militia at Babylon reporting to Lyran Station. We are now on route to the Pyramids, convoy includes the last humans we could find… I repeat, Human Militia convoy returning to Pyramids with the last humans we could find. Please dispatch healers to entrance, we have an Anunnaki in labor… I repeat, please dispatch healers to entrance, Anunnaki woman in labor. Tukumbi out!”

“This is Tower Chief Engineer, Hilimaz, reporting to Lyran station, I repeat Hilimaz, Tower Chief Engineer reporting to station… Tower of Babel is now secured… Evacuation succeeded! I repeat, evacuation of Tower of Babel is now a success. All monoships secured underground… major flyers left for Maldek, I repeat, a total of 8 spacefarers on way to Maldek. Heading back to Lyran station. Hilimaz out!”

“This is Enki, recording ship log entry 465. I have just arrived back on Earth after orbital depressurization. Will meet everyone at rendez-vous point… Thanks to everyone helping evacuation protocols. Be safe. Will meet everyone for debriefing at Lyran Station. Please advise any urgent matters… we will meet soon. Enki out.”

As I flew over the once great city of Babylon, a feeling of emptiness and loss washed over me. Where there were once crowds, bustling markets, and magnificent temples, there is now only stillness and echoing silence. The evacuation orders went out swiftly, and the inhabitants did not hesitate to flee the coming devastation.

It seems like only yesterday that I first set foot on this planet with my crew, marveling at the untamed beauty and potential of the land. There were no cities then, no roads, no sign of civilization beyond a few scattered tribes of native pre-humans living simply off the land. From those humble primitive nomads we helped nurture the foundations of society – agriculture, language, culture. It was our hands that stacked the first bricks of Babylon, carved its monuments, and forged the chains of bureaucracy. How quickly our proudest creations can be abandoned when survival is at stake.

I landed my craft in the central plaza, where crowds once gathered for the market and public rituals. The stone pavements stand vacant, almost haunting in their stillness. The only sound is the whistling of wind and birds through abandoned homes and temples, punctuated by the occasional crumbling of an untended building succumbing to rush. As I walk the empty streets, I think of the families who filled these houses, the lovers who whispered in the gardens, the priests who held aloft offerings in the temples. Were our kind and the humans truly so different? Our bodies may have been born of separate worlds, but beneath them beat the same current of life.

We aimed to be benefactors, to share our knowledge and guide the humans toward enlightenment. But extremes of rivalry and control developed – the risk, I suppose, of an imbalance of power. Hope remains that the humans we evacuated may survive to build again, learning from our failures. And if they prevail, may they remember us not as gods or tyrants, but simply as fellow travelers on the long road of mortal life. Our time here was but a brief glimmer in the infinite vastness of cosmic time. But in that glimmer, there were moments of beauty, wonder, and connection that made the journey worth undertaking.

I had finished my solitary walk through empty Babylon and returned to my ship. As I climbed back aboard and took off, I set a course for the ancient Pyramid Complex built long ago by the Lyrans. Little did they know their warmongering ways would one day be used for compassionate acts of unity. I secretly thank them for this sprawling underground stronghold, reawakened by our allies the Igiggi, now serving as a refuge against the coming storm.

My mind was troubled as I flew over the deserts and mountains of this adopted planet. I thought of my children, Marduk and Inanna, who even now are shepherding frightened refugees into the safety below the sands. I remembered my dear love Ninki, mysteriously vanished from all contact or news… And I pondered the unfathomable mind of my brother Enlil. What destructive power has he summoned to scour the Earth? Not even I, who know him better than any, can predict the extremes he may go to.

As I near the pyramids, their mighty forms loom out of the desert, strange alien geometries cutting the skyline unlike any other form around this planetary globe. How many centuries did they stand sentinel here before our arrival? And how many more will they endure after we are gone? Will they withstand Enlil’s incoming wrath… will we survive what is to come?

I guide my ship down into the hidden underground hangars, carved into bedrock aeons ago. My heart races as I feel closer and closer to my son and daughter… my heart races knowing that today may be our last day… my heart races, but I need to be strong to offer support to everyone else.