The Chronicle of Belthaeous
by John W. Steele
Chapter 40: The Foreign Instillation
part 1
The lizard men were standing behind me. One of them nudged my shoulder. We stepped onto a moving walkway that ran through a glazed tunnel; it appeared to have been vaporized by intense heat. Its walls were smooth and polished like fired terracotta.
We traveled rapidly through the passageway until we reached an immense cavern. The ceiling of the vast release gleamed with orbs of silver-white light that showered the yellow floor with a sunburst luminescence.
Vulpeculan time cruisers sat like fighter jets on the deck of a floating fortress. The saucers extended as far as the eye could see. Their burnished hulls shimmered with plasma energy, and their stealthy profile gave them a menacing presence.
Hordes of support personnel both human and alien hovered around the ships. Many of them were suspended in midair on platforms that had no base or wheels but were fluid and maneuverable like skirtless hovercraft.
The flight line buzzed with activity. The maintenance engineers appeared to be preparing the ships for deployment. The towering Reptoids in capes were everywhere. Even from a distance, they looked terrifying. I regretted deeply that I’d agreed to this rendezvous.
We traveled beyond the hangar for perhaps ten minutes until the conveyor stopped at the mouth of a diagonal passageway. A bronze plaque mounted at the entrance revealed an ominous symbol; an embossed letter C with a caduceus standing beneath it. The standard had a skull at the crown of the staff and it sat at the apex of a lemnescate.
In a voice as hard as stone, one of the Reptilians growled, “Welcome to Hell, Dr. Neumann. You know where to go. The arachnid awaits its meal.”
A creaking laugh echoed in the hall, followed by a low faraway rumble. I turned, and they were gone.
Stainless steel walls lined the tunnel and the corridor looked like an enormous sterile chamber. I followed the walkway past a number of aseptic barriers that must have housed surgical suites until I arrived at chamber 33.
I could find no way to access the compartment, and it appeared to be sealed from the inside. I stood for moment pondering how to enter. Then the door slid open. The dimly lit cubicle revealed little of its purpose. There could be no escape. Because I felt like little more than a marked man anyway, I took a deep breath, and strode boldly inside.
The room was quite dark, and my eyes adjusted to the pale shadow that obscured its features. The scent of apricots hung like incense in the air. There was only one person I’d ever known who had a natural fragrance so sweet, and I knew Mindy was nearby.
The light increased slowly in a long crescendo and, as my perception, arose from nothingness, the chamber took on form and color. Blurred shapes grew recognizable, and a gynecological examination table appeared in the center of the room. Mindy lay supine on its bed, her feet propped in the stirrups.
“You look frightened, Dr. Neumann. Is there something about me that makes you uneasy?” She laughed, and in a graceful flowing motion lifted her feet from the supports and hopped to the floor. I stared at her for a moment, pondering a feeling of anger and disappointment. She approached, and we shared a long sustained look.
Mindy was fully clothed. She wore a black bodysuit that augmented the maddening curves of her figure. Her eyes burned like star sapphires, and her lustrous sable mane shone in the radiance of the surgical lamp overhead.
“Why did you bring me here?” I said gruffly.
“Bring you here? You came of your own volition, Rodney. No one forced you to do anything.”
“You win by default, Mindy. The note was a nice touch. Why didn’t you just talk to me about it? I thought perhaps you might want to—”
“Would you have come to Adrian’s little shop of horrors if I had asked you to? Without the glimmering allure of temptation, would life be perfect? Eyes and ears are everywhere in this place. Sometimes words only complicate things.”
I looked away from her eyes, so deep, so steady.
“Mystery is the power of hypnosis, honey. It causes perfectly rational people to do and believe things no insane person ever would. Besides, this is the only place I know of in Adrian’s private Hades that is not wired.”
She walked closer and ran her finger along the contours of my face. Her touch felt like the winged caress of a butterfly. “You needn’t fear me, Rodney. I didn’t bring you here to seduce you, although the idea had crossed my mind. You have something else I want very badly, and I want you to give it to me.”
She knows, but that’s impossible...
Mindy lowered her hand and rested it on my shoulder.
“What is this place?” I asked.
She smiled, her perfect teeth gleaming beneath the flame of her crimson lipstick.
“Let’s call it a temple of self-knowledge. There are many ways to access the realm of the spirit, Dr. Neumann. Pain and pleasure are not the least of them.”
She turned and paced slowly while rubbing her brow gently with her fingers. “Adrian did things to me here. Terrible things. But under the right stimulus, the extremes of sensation blur until ecstasy becomes anguish. Adrian taught me about extremes, and I learned the power of sensuality under his — shall we say — tutelage.”
I looked about the room. Restraints hung from the walls and suspension devices dangled from the ceiling. Large mirrors reflected every section of the exam table. Pleasure machines and electro-stimulators of various designs were scattered about the premises. I now understood purpose of this room, and it began to look like a medieval torture chamber.
“I’m sorry, Mindy.”
She laughed. “Oh, Rodney, you’re so sweet. Don’t feel sorry for me, honey. So few on this planet have ever explored the borders of ecstasy or tasted the tantric glory of the Kundalini. Nature has placed man under the authority of two masters: pain and pleasure. That is why the will of men is so predictable.
“Most men are as weak as piss, Rodney. Every beautiful woman knows this. I’ve found tremendous self-discovery here. Any lover I’ve ever known has taught me something that could never be fathomed by any other design than the primal energies of carnal knowledge.” She returned and faced me.
“What do you mean other lovers? Dr. Nacroanus is insanely jealous of you,” I said.
Her forehead knitted. “Surely you don’t think Adrian has the ability to satisfy me. He believes sex is for animals and that he’s above that sort of thing. But he allows me an occasional truffle, something sweet on which to exercise my talents and satisfy my cravings.
“After he used his knowledge of neuro-physiology to stimulate my Kundalini, I was addicted. There are magical energies in the chakras of souled beings that lie dormant. The Kundalini is one of these. Once it is aroused, it is insatiable. Adrian’s knowledge of the sympathetic nervous system created a monster in me he could not control.
“After he enlightened me, I told him I’d kill myself if he forced me to live like a nun. So he complied. Despite his power and importance, he’s insecure around women. He fears them in his own perverted way.”
“You mean Adrian allows you to have sex with other men?”
“Dr. Neumann, what am I going to do with you? You’re a genius and yet so childlike at times. That’s one reason I’ve always admired you. Adrian wants me to be happy. As long as he thinks he controls my mind, I can have a lover if I don’t get attached to him... or her.
“It took me a long time to understand the true power of passion. There is a union that transcends the physical and borders in the sublime ecstasy of infinite delight, but its root is found in the lower chakras.”
“In the beginning, chakra euphoria is delightful beyond words, until it becomes a blazing inferno so powerful that it dominates one completely. One cannot truly understand the meaning of rapture until one is deprived of it.
“I discovered too late the chakras are just another shackle inserted into the emotional body, but by then I’d lost the ability to contain them. Adrian knew this. That’s why he made sure I would be thoroughly addicted to the cravings of sexual tension.”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
Mindy circled me slowly, rubbing her fingers on my chest and back like a hungry vampire. “I’m a genuine Aphrodite, Rodney; a nymphomaniac programmed by Adrian’s advanced neurological technology.
“In the beginning, the men I chose we’re always virile and strong, but they lacked the mentation and spiritual development necessary for advancement on the Tantric path. In time, I chose lovers more intelligent and mature. But they were all clones of one another, too stupid to understand the power of psychic ascension. Their true love was only Mammon and his treasures.
“I began to believe Adrian was correct in his pitiful assessment of mankind, and I accepted that he was the only one worthy of me. He claimed that his methods of shock and ecstasy would unite our will, and we would become one. Because I could find no other ideal, I believed him. But that all changed the day I met my true master, the one with whom I shall merge completely until the sum of our minds is greater than its parts.”
A silver tear trickled down her cheek.
“I’ve searched my whole life for an equal, Rodney, someone to possess the fire in my soul and feed its flame without burning to ashes in the tempest of its searing heat.”
“What makes you think any man can do that? It sounds like you’re in love with a god,” I said.
Mindy lowered her head and did not answer.
“Who’s the lucky guy, and what makes you think Dr. Nacroanus won’t destroy him?”
Our eyes met; her gaze was a virgin flame. “His name is Belthaeous, and we are destined to fuse in heart and soul. Adrian needs him as much as I do.”
“Belthaeous, you must be psychotic, woman! The man is dead.”
The siren laughed. “Now, Rodney, we both know that’s not true. Adrian has plans for him. But my lover has plans as well. Belthaeous holds magic Adrian is only beginning to understand, and we must act before it’s too late.”
“What kind of powers?” I asked.
“There is a portal near the borders of the physical dimension. It is the Achilles heel of Mammon’s hologram. The demigod could not fully enjoy the pleasure of flesh and matter without entering into a body. He chose Belthaeous because of his perfected DNA and the splendor of his mind. We must return the Eye to the Avatar. If Mammon gains control of it, he will reign unchallenged on the earth and curse mankind for eternity.”
“How did you learn about the Eye? No one knows about it!”
“Really, Rodney whose is the voice that spoke to you on the mountain? Belthaeous has channeled through me and shown me great knowledge. He’s promised to release me from the bondage of the chakra control grid and the burning torment of the Kundalini fire.
“There are realms of mind near the rim of the Matrix that Mammon does not bother to defend. These are places where the black hole is weak, and it is possible to escape from the mind-state of ignorance.
“But so few have the endurance to journey there that Mammon no longer has the power to control them. If a warrior is formless enough to penetrate the gaps in the program, he can gain access to the Astral realms. But there is an Astral matrix as well. A program developed by the demiurgos and his Archon Angels over billions of years.
“The heaven realm is impossible to breach. It is controlled by advanced beings that pose as gods. Belthaeous claims he can burst through this barrier and open a stargate to the Pleroma if the Eye is returned to him.
“And what good will that do?” I asked.
Copyright © 2014 by John W. Steele
