Bernardo looked at Linda and they both shrugged with palms up just like the old man. They laughed at doing this and turned to once again view the three people on the deck and the other group behind them. A member of the group saw them and approached. Bernardo scanned him. “Linda, that’s Nuke Dimmitis, I thought he was dead.” Linda scanned and confirmed.
“Yes, he was involved in the Topeka Altercation and subsequently vanished at Jayne’s Korner Tavern along with several others. Let’s link and scan the others.” As she said this Nuke came up to them.
“No need to scan any of us, I’ll tell you who is here. That’s Sunny Day, Rafe Garcia and his brother Slim, Jenny Linn and Jack the Preacher. We are all in your files and you know our histories, but you probably thought we were all dead after the incident at Jayne’s.”
“OK, but who are the others, the four women?” Linda was always ready to challenge anyone if she thought she had to know something.
“Those are the star-women: Star-Brinda, Star-Vocce, Star-Laren, and Star-Angel, they would like for you two to link up and scan them.”
Bernardo and Linda linked and began the remote viewing scan of the four star-women. “I get nothing,” Bernardo was the first to speak. Linda kept at it until she nearly collapsed from the energy it took.
“Nothing, either, it’s amazing,” Linda regained her mental stability and watched as the four star-women and the four others began to surround the deck taking positions at the points of the octagon.
“That proves that they are not of this race and not from this planet. Since you can scan me and the others, it proves that we are. But as you will see, we have been prepared to go with the star-women and will soon leave. The two of you may also accompany us if you like.” Nuke said this with compassion and a look of longing and understanding. Linda backed up a step but Bernardo held his ground.
“Where are you going and where will we go if we decide to?” Linda was a little scared now.
“Christians call it heaven, Buddhists nirvana, Muslims paradise, Jewish people Sheol. It is all one place for all people of Earth. It is where we all go when we “die” and I emphasize the word because, you see, we do not die, none of us. We just go. We go to the land of the Star People.
“You mean you want us to die?” Linda was really scared now and began to walk backwards away from Nuke and Bernardo who stood his ground looking like he was pondering the offer.
“Nope, Linda, we want you to live.” Nuke turned and walked back to the others, taking his place on the octagon. Bernardo followed and Nuke turned around to prevent him from going further. He was about twenty feet from the deck.
“I’ve got a couple of questions,” he said and all of the others turned to look at him, smiling and giving off a compassionate energy that he could feel and was drawn to.
“Shoot,” Nuke said.
“First, of all who are the three people sitting on the deck?”
“The one on the far left is Star-Krystal, also known as the Star-Consort which is a sort of title. The one on the right is Stephen Darjeeling, you know of him, of course.”
“And the third one in the center?” As Bernardo looked he saw wispy lines of mist or clouds coming out of the tops of the heads of the two and conjoining at the top of the head with the third. He saw that they were all emanations of the Buddha, like in the Buddhist iconography he had studied for so long.
“That is the culmination of their combined meditation on the Buddha, and as you can see, they are represented as deity and dakini as you have studied in tantric deity yoga, and they are conjoined in celestial embrace.” As Nuke spoke, Bernardo perceived what he was being told and he became so nervous he was shaking. As he watched he saw the green shaft of light envelope the central deity figure and become bright emerald green vibrating and spiraling toward the sky. The two singular figures moved toward the center and merged with the third. At that, the figure standing in the shaft of emerald light turned toward Bernardo who looked on in amazement. He watched as he saw every Buddhist bodhisattva, dakini, and wrathful and peaceful deity appear before him in the green light and then rise up the column into the sky. Then one by one the others stepped into the column of light and were lifted up. Only Star-Brinda was left and she held in her hands a leather bound book. She came toward Bernardo and Nuke.
“Bernardo Limpio, you are welcome to accompany us to the higher realm,” Star-Brinda held the book out before him and opened it. He knew of the Voynich Manuscript and recognized that the first part of the book was the manuscript as he had studied it in the rare books section of the Beinecke Library. He knew that Darjeeling had been the one to translate the code but had never seen the results. Only Darjeeling and the other Earth people present knew what the Voynich Manuscript was. Bernardo turned and looked at Linda who had a look of terror on her face. She shook her head back and forth and Bernardo turned back to Star-Brinda whose emerald green eyes bathed him in a cooling and soothing compassionate green light. Bernardo was not afraid.
“What do I have to do?” he asked, his eyes tearing up.
“Just what the old one said, ‘Accept what you see and reject what you don’t’ and that’s all.” Nuke Dimmitis stepped toward the shaft of light. “Now let me depart in peace, for I have seen the salvation of the world.” With that he stepped into the green light and was gone. Bernardo was shaking all over and he had to gather courage to look into Star-Brinda’s eyes. They were peaceful and calm and he felt much better. She offered the book to him.
“Open the book to the place where it is marked. If you are a Christian, it will appear as the Holy Bible; if you are a Buddhist, it will appear as the Great Mandala of Avalokiteshvara; if you are a Muslim, the Holy Koran; if Jewish, the Pentateuch. Read the passage that you see and step into the green shaft of light. That is all you have to do. Don’t be afraid.”
Bernardo took the book and felt the power of it in his hands. His whole body felt like it was filled with brilliant light. He looked at Star-Brinda and watched as she stepped into the shaft of light. He opened the book to the place where it was marked. He saw the image of the living Christ and a host of angels, cherubim, and seraphim and he read the passage out loud, his voice echoing down the hills and valleys of all the Earth. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not.” With that he closed the book and stepped onto the deck. In the emerald green shaft of light he saw the Star-woman whose name was Star-Krystal, the one who had joined with Darjeeling into the Buddha. She was dressed in a pure white robe with gold sash. Around the hem was a brilliant red border, the Blood of the Lamb. She held out her hands toward him outside of the shaft of light and he placed the book in them. She held the book high above her head and it was taken up in the light. She looked at him with emerald eyes bathing him in green light. He stepped toward her and took her two hands. From her vantage point Linda Marble watched as her friend Bernardo stepped toward the light. She couldn’t believe he was doing this. As if he read her thoughts, Bernardo turned to look at her one last time. She heard him speak to her in her mind. “Let them that see, believe.” And with that he stepped into the brilliant emerald shaft of light and was taken up. Linda Marble found herself back at the hovercraft. She wiped the tears from her eyes so she could see the control panel and punched in the coordinates for her office in Denver. As the craft rose slowly she looked one last time. There was the crystal web and the shaft of green light as before and she thought about Bernardo and what he had done and she cried great tears of joy at the things she had witnessed.
The End
