The Book of the Messiah

By Merlin Turtle

Two thousand years ago, two-time travellers are involved in a tavern brawl, resulting in one free room at the inn. It is all downhill from there. Fighting the zombie apocalypse in AD 27 while searching for a cure on Noah’s ark, two friends embark on a mission to put their world right once more. Using their advanced technology in order to perform miracles and an abridged online copy of the Bible, they endeavour to recreate Christianity, becoming involved along the way in a revolutionary war to over throw a corrupt monarchy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Jan 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781984505026

Merlin Turtle

Merlin was born in Sydney, Australia in 1960. This was a time when owning a scooter made you a social outcast. He grew up on the edge of the Kuringgai Chase National Park, north of Sydney. He attended a small school in bushland on the edge of Middle Cove. After finishing school in 1977, he attempted to find work in the city. But his heart belonged to the bush. Soon after moving to the country, he attended a rural University as a mature-age student, completing; a Bachelor of Social Science, double major in psychology; Graduate Diploma of Counselling, family counselling; Bachelor of Social Science (Honours), major in forensic psychology; and a Master of Social Science (Honours), major in children’s reading disorders. Previously, he had also been awarded a Doctorate in Divinity (Honorary) by the Order of St. Basil; and an Order of Merlin, first class by OBOD (Aust). While working for the NSW government in 2004, Merlin was diagnosed with PTSD and clinical depression from a workplace injury. To aid in his long-term recovery, he started writing. In the ninth book, he concludes the Trilogy of Nod. A tale of bear with PTSD.

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The Book of the Messiah

Merlin Turtle

Copyright © 2019 by Merlin Turtle.

ISBN:      Softcover       978-1-9845-0503-3

                eBook             978-1-9845-0502-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Inspired by a True Story.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 01/29/2019

Xlibris

1-800-455-039

www.Xlibris.com.au

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CONTENTS

PART 1       EARTH.

Chapter 1    THE UNEXPECTED STUDENT.

Chapter 2    LECTURES, CLASSES AND TUTORIALS.

Chapter 3    PARADOX SCENARIOS.

Chapter 4    RAIN.

Chapter 5    ROME.

Chapter 6    BOB THE BAPTIST.

Chapter 7    GILBERT THE CHRIST.

Chapter 8    PUBLIC RELATIONS.

Chapter 9    CAPERNAUM.

Chapter 10    A MIRACULOUS CATCH.

Chapter 11    NAIN.

Chapter 12    VIVORTUIS.

Chapter 13    BACK TO THE BEGINING.

Chapter 14    ARMAGEDDON.

Chapter 15    DEAR DIARY.

Chapter 16    WEDDING.

Chapter 17    CANA TO JERUSALEM.

Chapter 18    THE POOL OF BETHESDA.

Chapter 19    THE ROAD TO JERICHO.

Chapter 20    JERICHO PENGUINS.

Chapter 21    GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS PAST.

Chapter 22    THE MIRACLE AT GENNESARET.

Chapter 23    ACANDON AND EDOM.

Chapter 24    DISCIPLES.

Chapter 25    MAGDALA.

Chapter 26    NOAH’S ARK.

Chapter 27    PHILOTERIA.

Chapter 28    THE DOOR.

Chapter 29    THE ESSENE ARK.

Chapter 30    HARBOUR CONTROL.

PART 2       BELOW.

Chapter 31    AND THE DEVIL MAKES TEA.

Chapter 32    4 DAYS AND 4 NIGHTS.

Chapter 33    BLOOD MONTH.

Chapter 34    THE NINTH LEGION.

Chapter 35    LAW OF PROVOCATION.

Chapter 36    COMMON LIFE.

Chapter 37    THE MANOR.

Chapter 38    PLAN B.

Chapter 39    THE WINTER PALACE.

Chapter 40    RAINING ON THE ROCK.

Chapter 41    1 COHORT.

Chapter 42    THE MEANING OF LIFE.

Chapter 43    CARTOGRAPHERS.

Chapter 44    THE BATTLE AT KRASNOYARSK BEGINS.

Chapter 45    MAINFRAME MAZE.

Chapter 46    GROUND ASSAULT.

Chapter 47    BOB AND THE DEVIL.

Chapter 48    DEATH OF THE KING.

Chapter 49    NEWS AT 6.

Chapter 50    A WATERY HELL.

PART 3       ABOVE.

Chapter 51    A NEW GOSPEL.

Chapter 52    MYSTERIOUS PARADISE.

Chapter 53    MIRACLE.

Chapter 54    JUMP CAGE.

Chapter 55    A CHURCH AND A HALF IN EVERY GLASS.

Chapter 56    A SHORT SHARP SIEGE.

Chapter 57    LETTER TO THE CHURCH AT CORINTH.

Chapter 58    THE MOTHER ABOVE HEAVEN.

Chapter 59    THE CHURCH.

Chapter 60    THE SECRET OF LIFE.

PART ONE

EARTH.

Chapter one

THE UNEXPECTED STUDENT.

"In a hole in the ground there lived a student. Not a comfortable warm Hobbit hole full of places to sit and work, with plenty to eat; it was a student hole and that meant it was dark, damp and draughty, thought Bob, as he searched the first-year campus notice board for part-time work. Among the usual manual labourers and experimental subjects wanted, between the android maintenance and waste extraction workers, only one job caught his eye. Partly because it seemed the most interesting and partly because it seemed to be addressed to him specifically. The notice read: Theoretical physicist requires engineer for time travel experiment. Time variable. Bring notice with you, knock three times and announce that you are the plumber. This is for you Bob." There was then an address, that very days date and a time for later in the afternoon.

With more than four hours to the appointed time, Bob could either return to his hole in the ground or explore the campus surrounds and peruse the service clubs available. Campus student accommodation is essentially a bed sized cubical with common shared ablutions. The cubical is windowless and often little more than a bed with a single low voltage light above it. If you are lucky enough to have a little more money and are able to afford a double cubical, then they come with all the entertainment options, including all the popular mind jacks. Bob however, had only the basics and dreaded returning to it.

Accordingly, he decided to explore the campus and its clubs. On a university campus there is a club that provides for every kink or hobby. By far the most popular club appeared to be the Foodies. Bob found the prospect of a guaranteed meal every day, five days a week, very tempting, but very expensive. Some clubs were free however and he joined these, if only for the personal contact that they offered. Walking from club to club, back and forth across the common soon became tedious; but there were few places to sit, among the other bodies already on the ground. From a distance he noticed a gap in the mass of red garbed students open up against a wall and hurried over to it, hoping that nobody else would notice. Pushing his way through and over the bodies of the first-year campus corpus, to the prime position with his back to a wall, he stepped on more than just a few fingers as he went. He managed to reach the wall before any of the other obvious contenders and slid his back down it, to sit on the dry cold ground between the writhing flesh of his neighbours. "At least I am out of the wind, he thought, as he turned his Camo-garb thermostat up two notches. Bob, now took the opportunity to examine the collection of club show bags in his possession. There were the usual pliable sheets of digital advertising, free give a ways and propaganda; two fusion based dimensional calculators; a toy antigravity Wheel; three tofu cubes and a soy lent red jerky. Not a bad haul," he supposed, deciding to eat the tofu, but keep the jerky for later in the evening when he would receive his water ration.

Despite universities being considered by many as old fashioned, since the advent of mind jacks, most potential employers still preferred to hire people that had been classically educated. Of course, a university degree was often prohibitively expensive and class sizes could number in the thousands. For most there was a significant advantage in simply downloading knowledge directly into the mind. However, this literally produced millions of people with identical thoughts and identical tired ideas. Some even considered mind jacks a source of mind washing, after the famous Chicago cult of the early twenties, when whole populations were conditioned to elect specific and select persons to the city council.

The address given on the notice turned out to be a cavernous looking warehouse, on a narrow service lane opposite the university’s old boiler building. The building obviously abandoned years ago and full of student squatters, didn’t appear to be the sort of place one would loiter around if he valued the contents of his pockets and the contents of his body. Still he couldn’t very well turn down a potential job, so Bob did his best to remain unnoticed. Hoping as he did so that the old bearded man in the shadows between himself and the squatters might at least sound the alarm if trouble started.

At the appropriate time, he gingerly crept out from the gloom and knocked three times on the only suitable door he could find. A deep voice with a strange accent from behind the door asked: "Who’s there? To which Bob dutifully replied: The plumber." The door opened with the sound of a solid clunk as the lock was disengaged to reveal a younger man than Bob had expected, but one who he instantly assumed to be a lecturer from the blue luminescent bar across the upper third of his Camo-garb. Like many students at university for the first time, Bob found lecturers as a rule intimidating. Yet, the man standing in the doorway looked no older than himself and may have even been younger, his beard an obvious attempt to look more mature, didn’t fool Bob for a moment.

"Come in. -It’s over there, said the lecturer as he pointed to a dark corner of the ware-house. Bob stepped through the doorway from the lane, looked into the dimness beyond the single light above the incredibly large unoccupied space behind the door and obviously asked: What’s over there? The sink, -of course, replied the lecturer in such an offhanded and confident manner that Bob almost felt compelled to have a look at it. Nevertheless, while the lecturer shut and bolted the door behind him; Bob stood his ground and shook his head. To the lecturer’s obvious surprise Bob did not move from the entryway, but rather retrieved a scrap of paper from his top pocket, passed it to him and disclosed: I am not here to fix the sink, I’m not a plumber."

The lecturer seemed truly astonished as he frowned, rapidly taking the scrap of paper from Bob and stepping under the only light behind the door to read it. As if to be sure, the lecturer seemed to read the notice twice. Looking up at Bob and abruptly smiling he reached out to grab both of Bob’s hands; shaking them so vigorously that Bob felt his tofu cubes summersault in his stomach. "This is a most auspicious start. Clearly this is my handwriting, but I haven’t written this yet, said the lecturer. Bob wasn’t sure what to make of that statement and he was beginning to feel as if coming was a bad idea. As if sensing Bob’s mind, the lecturer composed himself, stood up straight and said: Let me introduce myself, I am professor Gilbert Josephson, chair of theoretical physics. From the notice, I know that you are Bob. Bob mirrored the Professor’s smile and said: Bob Baptist, Sir. None of this Sir stuff. Call me Gilbert, said Gilbert as he held up the notice for Bob. Do you see this little mark, here in the top corner, said Gilbert rhetorically, it is my own short hand and dates the notice. I don’t write this for another three years. Bob felt confused by these strange statements and said: Professor Gilbert, I don’t understand. No Professor either, said Gilbert, just Gilbert. Bob cast his eyes down for a moment, then looked up and said: Gilbert, I don’t understand what you mean by, you haven’t written the notice yet, it’s in your hand. Gilbert smiled once more and beckoned for Bob to follow as he led the way across the entry space, to another door in the shadow of the back wall. Opening the door, Gilbert said: Come into my office and I’ll try to explain."

The room within was well lit and appeared very comfortable and spacious, incredibly even bigger than the domicile that Bob’s family had grown up in. Ancient Persian rugs covered the floor. In the few spaces between the rugs, Bob could see burgundy stained polished floor boards, that appeared to be real wood. The walls were covered with bookshelves on to or in to which every kind of conceivable book had been haphazardly stacked or placed. Amid the books there were journals and magazines. Every other space, whether it be chairs or table tops had been covered with pads, laptops, boxes of memory crystals and even old-fashioned papers. An open fire well ablaze sat against the far-left wall, which seemed to be, but given the expense could not be burning actual wood. There were two fortuitously empty old leather-bound chairs placed, in front of the fire, apparently ready for fireside chats. In the center of the room three large white boards stood, propped up against three separate tripods and all facing the fireplace. Gilbert closed the office door behind them, presumably to keep in the heat from the fire, then walked over to the leather-bound chairs, motioning for Bob to follow.

Standing with his back to the fire place and feeling its comforting warmth over his back, Bob gave the first white board a quizzical glance, then said: "The Ehrenfest paradox, in regard to relativity linking separate points in spacetime. Gilbert moved to stand beside him and said: If any other first year had stood here, looked at those equations and said that, I would have been astonished. But I knew from the moment I read that notice, that you would understand a transcendental bijection of the spacetime continuum. Bob nodded and replied: When I first read about the original Einstein–Rosen bridge as it had been described in 1935, as a child during its tricentenary; I was hooked. Now of course any asymptotic projection of the Calabi-Yau manifold as manifest in Anti-de Sitter space is second nature to me."

Moving to the second board, Bob pointed to each line of equations in turn as he came to terms with their implications, turned to look at Gilbert and said: "You are combining both geometrically and topologically defined wormholes to compact spacetime into a trivial region, in order to create a quasipermanent intrauniverse wormhole. But that will create a closed surface, how will you be able to make a traverse without the exotic matter needed to create the negative energy density necessary for stabilization?"

Gilbert simply walked over to the third board, tapped it twice with the index finger of his right hand and said: "I propose that tiny wormholes are continuously appearing and disappearing spontaneously at the Planck scale; which are in themselves the best candidate for dark matter." Bob with some dubiousness looked at the first few equations on the third board and said: "But dark matter makes up 90% of the mass in the universe; that would mean that these wormholes are everywhere. Gilbert nodded and replied: But so short lived, that they have no physical effect, other than the consistency of their gravitational reservoir, on the rest of the universe. Bob considered Gilbert’s words as he examined the last equations on the board. After a moment he turned again to face Gilbert, clearly stunned, apparently to Gilbert’s delight, and whispered: You have transposed four-dimensional space mathematically as two congruent sheets, corresponding to u > 0 and u < 0, which are joined by a hyperplane in which g vanishes, to create a bridge. Yes, replied Gilbert as though this monumental achievement was nothing at all, a static spherically symmetric solution. But, stammered Bob, that means you have eliminated the possibility of singularities in real space time without denominators in any case where m = 0. And that, said Gilbert, means that we can open a bridge between any two sheets, to any point in time and space of our choosing."

Chapter Two

LECTURES, CLASSES AND TUTORIALS.

"What do you mean we? asked Bob. Gilbert looked at Bob as if the question had no real meaning at all and answered: My good fellow, of course you will accompany me on this most excellent adventure, you are the only person I have met in the past sixteen years, that has any understanding of my work at all. Bob shook his head and said: Gilbert, I am here for the promise of part-time work, I have lectures, classes and tutorials to attend. Gilbert moved over to the leather chair on the right side of the fireplace, sat and declared: Sit and we’ll discuss it. Bob feeling that there was really nothing to discuss, sat just the same on the left chair. The armchair was at once both comforting and relaxing as he sunk into it like a hot brick into a feather bed. The intuitive software within directly sensed what the occupant needed and provided the same without any need of conscious interaction. From the motion of Gilbert’s shoulders Bob guessed that he was receiving some type of deep shiatsu massage, and so he was a little surprised when Gilbert asked: Can I offer you a drink? Bob feeling more relaxed than he had been all day, and more mischievous than he had been in some time replied: I don’t know, can you offer me a drink? Gilbert grinned, but his eyes positively beamed, as he said: Bob, you can have anything your heart desires. Then as if to emphasise the point said: Beaujolais, sixty-three. A conveniently placed pedestal, adjacent to Gilbert’s chair rose from the floor, on which sat what appeared to be an actual glass, wine glass. An articulated arm then deposited a few grains of a fine red powder into the glass, whereupon a different articulated nozzle deposited an appropriate amount of unmeasured water. The powder then seemed to both dissolve and self-mix without any external action needed. Gilbert picked up the glass, savouring the aroma of the Beaujolais before taking a sip; then sighed and fell back into his chair while still holding the glass with both hands. Bob looked earnestly at Gilbert and said: My parents never permitted alcohol in our domicile and I don’t intend to start drinking it now. A pity, replied Gilbert, it really is one of life’s luxuries. Well why not have a Martian sparkling then. Bob had never had imported water, growing up on the usual recycled like everyone else he knew and so of course said: Sure, Martian sparkling. Another pedestal conveniently placed to his chair rose from the floor, on which sat another real glass glass. An articulated nozzle then deposited an appropriate amount of unmeasured water in the glass. The water seemed to be lightly filled with little bubbles. Bob had only ever seen sparkling water once before, but that was in a movie and he had never been sure if it was at all real. Placing the glass to his lips, Bob felt the sensuality of the glass first, then the vibrant capability of the water. This was not like the water he had grown up on, with its flat bland grey taste; this water faintly tasted of lemons and somehow felt like silky flowers in his mouth. Bob sighed and said: All this luxury makes me dread going back to my student hole. Gilbert opened his eyes, he had been lightly dozing, and said: My good fellow, evidently I require an assistant, naturally full room and board comes with the job. Bob grinned and asked: Is there anything to eat? Gilbert, once more falling asleep said: Just ask."

Bob’s first course assignment on the applied mechanics of anti-gravity Wheels was to be submitted as a PDF using the Moodle system in the CIV1500 Study Desk; childishly simple and Bob felt rather insulted to be given a month to complete the task. In contrast, Bob’s first assignment for Gilbert, on the application of transcendental number theory to temporal mechanics, he found considerably more interesting and emotionally satisfying. Bob soon found that he could complete his full-time course work in a fraction of the time assigned, which left him more than enough time to deal with the Infinite Probability Generator needed for the third stage application of the time travel Pod. However, it wasn’t long before the mundane nature of his course work with its algebraic numbers and rational number coefficients became an anathema to him. How could it compare with the intricate beauty of numbers like e and π, or the simple joy in the relationship of any algebraic number raised to the power of any irrational number. Obviously with such chalk and cheese computations, it wasn’t long before Bob had deferred his course work completely and given his mind over in its entirety to work for Gilbert on a full-time basis.

Chapter Three

PARADOX SCENARIOS.

"I call it the Flux Initiator, after that old classic movie. The four graviton beams focus three dimensionally and simultaneously on a single hydrogen atom suspended in a static field, creating an artificial spherically symmetric point on our sheet, which will spontaneously trap and hold a natural Planck wormhole; that we can then use as our travel initiator," explained Gilbert as he demonstrated the device to Bob. "Once you have finished the Infinite Probability Generator, continued Gilbert. Bob held up his hand, stopping Gilbert mid-sentence and said: I finished it last night. Gilbert looked truly surprised and for the first time since Bob had known him, lost for words as a broad almost hysterical grin crept around his face. Bob patiently waited for Gilbert to catch his breath. Of course, Bob felt the same elation as Gilbert, but Bob had been raised in a Stoic order and seldom felt the need to show his true feelings. At last Gilbert blurted out: That’s incredible, do you know how long I have been trying to solve that problem, years. I mean I heard that Stoics were good at seven-dimensional math, but you solved it in less than a month. We should have a drink to celebrate. Beaujolais and Martian sparkling all round, no, no this calls for something stronger, a real drink. Gilbert only stopped babbling when Bob held up his hand and said: Let’s go to the Uni bar to celebrate and I will have a real chocolate milk, not the synthetic stuff I usually drink." For only the second time since meeting Bob, Gilbert was surprised, this was an extravagant side to Bob he hadn’t seen before, but he liked it.

"Generally speaking five standard paradoxes have occupied the minds of theoretical physicist for the last three centuries and they of course fall into two broad categories. These categories are, Closed Causal Loops and Consistency Scenarios," said Gilbert while holding a glass of his favourite wine in one hand and half a chocolate covered beetle in the other. Unlike Gilbert who never stood if he could sit, Bob stood by one of the many new white-boards that now crowded the office. With a marker in his hand Bob divided the board into two columns appropriately headed, CCL and CS. "To save time, said Bob, I will outline the CCL paradoxes, but state first that all my probability analysis rules these out from the get go. Bob took a sip of Martian sparkling before continuing, then with a strong clear voice stated: The Predestination Paradox occurs when the time traveller becomes part of past events, that ultimately make possible the future that allows for time travel in the first place. More precisely, Event 1 in the past influences Event 2 in the future (time travel to the past) which then causes Event 1 to occur. This ensures that history is not altered by the time traveller and suggests that things are always destined to turn out the same way and that whatever has happened must happen. The so called Bootstrap Paradox is simply an ontological variation of the first paradox, where some physical object or entity from the future creates itself in the past, allowing it to travel back in time in the future. You contend that both of these are improbable, stated Gilbert rhetorically, while reaching for another beetle. Bob took another sip of the sparkling water and said: They are nothing more than frameless word play."

Gilbert nodded and said: "What of the other three scenarios in the second column. Bob grinned and stated: These three are certainly more plausible. I cannot help but feel a sense of excitement and urgency to discover if they or their solutions are possible. Gilbert looking up at Bob during his statement declared: Apart from the uncharacteristic grin, I would hardly know from your stoic manner that there was any excitement at all on your part. Bob took Gilbert’s words as a complement and continued: The Grandfather Paradox is based on the premise that if the time traveller kills an ancestor in the past, presumably before that ancestor can contribute to the familial line, then the time-traveller cannot exist to commit the crime. Either chance will conspire to protect the time line or committing the act will create for the time traveller an alternate time line. I personally believe that any little change we might make in the past will be washed out by the tidal forces that push events in a particular direction. But go back in time and Kill Hitler, a major player in our shared history; that would create a huge shift in the time line and of course lead to the Paradoxical question; as to why you would go back in the first place to kill an obscure painter? Polchinski’s Paradox is again just another variation of the Grandfather Paradox and really resolves nothing at all. Perhaps the only way to know one way or the other, is to make the trip."

"Bob you are a romantic. The way you describe time, it is like a living creature shaping history to feed some primal drive, said Gilbert. Bob nodded and replied: This is another question on the nature of time, I hope we will answer." Gilbert