The Passage

There was an obscure channeled work by an Ohio

dentist, about a hundred years ago. Oashpe, I think

it's called. Talks about a Red Star that travels and

causes a lot of death. Says that souls are harvested

at that time. That's the term used - harvested.

Glancing at her husband, and seeing an opening, Jane jumps in.

Edgar Cayce saw California covered with water.

But Frank has the prize prophecy.

And then there's Mother Shipton, several hundred years

back, who pretty much predicted the same thing back in

merry 'ol England. She had a good track record on

predicting our technology, too.

Frank stands up and quotes Mother Shipton.

For seven days and seven nights

man will watch this awesome sight.

The tides will rise beyond their ken

to bite away the shores and then

the mountains will begin to roar

and earthquakes split the plain to shore.

Still emotionally unwilling to accept the situation, even if his intellect is

telling him otherwise, Danny interrupts.

Aw, come on! You can’t be serious! Do you really think

that’s going to happen?

Jane comes to the rescue, as she always does when opinions differ.

Let’s see what the cards say.

Jane pulls out her Tarot Cards and shuffles them, spreading them out in a fan

like fashion, face down on the blanket below which has been spread out over

the pine needles. She turns the top cards over, one by one. The first card is

the card of Death. Danny, eager for some reassurance at this point, raises his

eyebrows. Danny says,

Oops!

_______________________________

Colonel Cage is talking to a Zeta from the Zeta Reticuli star system. The room

is dark, lights off, as a private conversation is going on. Standing in the

shadows is a middle-aged man, fit with no signs of middle-aged spread or slack

muscles. A military man, Colonel Cage considers being fit the first bastion

of discipline. Tightly disciplined, he lives by rules both military and

personal, which often are at war with each other.

The colonel is talking to a figure taller than he, bone thin, with an enormous

head seemingly too heavy for the stick thin body. But there is grace in the

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motions made by the long lanky arms, and the colonel seems not to notice or be

alarmed by the shape of his companion. He has long been accustomed to

conversing with this visitor from Zeta Reticuli. Where a conversation is going

on, only the voice of the colonel can be heard. Yet the intensity of his

words shows that an interchange of ideas is clearly going on.

We can't tell them. Don't think I don't want to. It's

orders, and orders are orders

Colonel Cage breaks down a bit, moving his hands in front of him in an

emotional way, as though groping for an answer, a resolution that will not

come.

My God, don't you think I want my neighbor's children

safe? They practically live at my house. But if I say

anything I'll disappear. What will my Mary and the

kids do then, for God's sake.

_______________________________

Back at the campground, the foursome has been camping together for a few days,

hitting it off. During this time the days seemed inordinately dim, as though

overcast to the point of not being able to see the Sun. Due to the cloud

cover, they took this to be an extremely cloudy day, but Frank has been

nervous. Danny as he is leaning into his car, retrieving some item with the

car door open. Frank comes up behind Danny. He says,

It’s so damn dim I can hardly make you out! I’ve never

seen it this overcast, it’s eerie. We’ve not seen the

sun for the past few days.

Danny ducks out of the car, looking around him to ensure that Daisy and Jane

are not in earshot, before replying in a low voice.

Did those prophecies you were quoting the other night

say anything about something like this? This gloom?

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Frank raises his eyebrows, suddenly realizing something he’d forgotten. He

raises his hand.

Be right back.

Frank dashes off into his tent, rummaging around, coming out with a book he is

flipping through frantically. Finally, after pausing, he quotes.

Here it is. The Biblical three days of darkness

predicted. And in the Book of Amos ‘I will cause the

Sun to go down at noon and I will darken the Earth in

the midst of daytime.’ And the Greeks, in the

Phaethon, ‘One whole day went without the sun. But the

burning world gave light.’

Frank pauses, looking at Danny.

Damn!