The Remnant

Prologue Aboard the Annunaki mother ship NB46 The shimmering silvery light shone upon the specimen, depriving him of the typical flesh colour of his race and so modelling his features as to appear other than human. On the operating table under the pervasive overhead light, seventeen-year-old Mark Fisher from Grimsby in the United Kingdom was the subject of observation by an advanced race of whom he did not have any cognisance. A long, pointed finger, the vestigial scales of which the reptilian creatures were so proud, caught the light and transformed it into the entire spectrum of colours, indicating the specimen. “I say that it is unethical to erase all of the creature’s memories.” “Why?” replied Commander Ninki. “The human’s memories are mediocre. Even if we deprive him of his circle of friends and family, it will be no great loss. In exchange, he will receive benefits unimaginable to others of his race and create a future glorious and unimaginable to him and his kind. We have discussed this; it was decided in the Great Council of Nibiru after many years of debate. The all-wise Enki himself decreed that the only course of action to save the planet Earth, without the direct intervention of our people, was this, which we are embarked upon.” Ninki’s yellow-barred eyes bored into those of his comrade, and he tilted his head, so that his hooked beak mask with its sharp point glinted in the light. “In the greater scheme of things, the erasure of the creature’s accumulated memories and their substitution is a matter of trifling importance. No doubt, his demise will be felt deeply by his parents, but his fragile race, which we genetically engineered, I might remind you, with all its virtues and defects, is used to grief. His procreators will not forget him, but all the others will have banished him from their thoughts within a short time. So, brethren, I insist, as your Commander, that we proceed with the operation.” The Annunaki lifted the human’s head and encased it in a helmet of a light alloy lined with sensors. No cables connected the helm to the multiprocessor because the pulses emitted were captured by the screen, then stored and processed by the master board. Every memory and incomplete thought stored in Mark Fisher’s brain transferred into the powerful computer in seconds, where they would be scrutinised, analysed and elaborated. Meanwhile, Mark was nourished artificially with nutrients that kept him alive and compensated for deficiencies in his diet before being beamed aboard the mother ship. His vegetative state depended entirely upon the neutralisation of his brain activity and could be likened by an earthling, inaccurately, to an induced coma. “Commander, I still have scruples. I suggest we take the specimen to Nibiru to let the All-Wise decide on this ethical matter.” “Come with me, Abzu. You will understand why that is impossible, and cease your prattling and insubordination, after you have seen what I wish to show you. Is the transfer complete, Nammu?” “Yes, Commander. We await further instructions.” “Excellent, take a break. We shall continue when I return.” Commander Ninki led Abzu along the shiny corridor to the dragon blood wooden door of his command station. Three rapid spoken commands from Ninki and a screen demonstrated a document. “As you can see, Abzu, these are my orders sealed by Enki himself; item three is specific, no time to be lost in effecting the mission,” he read and pointed a long, curved nail at the screen, “which means that there will be no time to return to Nibiru to question the All-Wise’s precise orders. Do you wish to set your face against Enki?” The cold reptilian eyes bored into the junior officer’s over the curved beak. The menace in them was uncompromising. Abzu trembled, well aware of the awful fate others had encountered by provoking Ninki’s wrath. “No, Commander, I do not wish to question your authority nor the wisdom of the All-Wise. Sometimes my scruples make me reason badly.” “I can see you are penitent, so that is settled. We shall now proceed to reprogram the earthling. I will need your medical skills, Abzu, to make the transition perfectly smooth and so the specimen experiences no trauma.” “I promise to do my best, Lord.” The shorter pointed beak mask that distinguished Abzu’s people from the southern polar region of Nibiru, bobbed up and down in a sign of obeisance, as Ninki was one of the mighty family of Enki, and, as such, among those who had saved their home planet from extinction with the gold from the Earth and other outlying planets thousands of years ago. They had been the ones to genetically engineer apelike creatures and transform them into slaves to mine the vitally-needed gold and transport it to the Nibiru reactors. The human beings created by the Annunaki were imperfect creatures. Their faults had now reached the stage where they threatened the destruction of their planet and the space surrounding it. The infallible Enki had decreed that the experiment would begin. One of the homo sapiens would correct the errors of his species after the remedial work on his body and brain. The only intervention of the Annunaki would be to condition the specimen to succeed alone in the future, without direct alien intervention.