The thirty souls watched the holographic images in silent horror. It was in part over the destruction of the Crux system & in part that, even though they all witnessed the most destructive force known to mankind, the Entity seemed none worse for wear. Furthermore, there was not even a farewell message from Harvey. Just the raw data that the X-60 had collected during the conduct of this business. Then, as the Entity got closer to the ship, the holograph went blank then turned itself off. No one said a word.

Everyone was dumbfounded. All hope, it seemed, disappeared without a trace. Indeed, depression had set in. Even Gideon, the strongest member of the group, barely had the energy to speak up. Suggesting that they submit this information to the Earth body politic, hardly anyone said anything let alone object  to Gideon’s suggestion. Yet, deep within Gideon’s thoughts, he knew that the Earth body politic would not have enough time to react to the coming danger. They would, as was their right, debate the issue until a consensus had emerged indicating what action would be required. But, if their calculations were right, the Entity would arrive at Earth well before a decision was made.

Gideon was, unfortunately, right about the body politic. Upon submitting the data from the X-60, two things happened. The first was inevitable: debate commenced at once among Earth’s citizens. And because of the very nature of the issue, the debate was long & furious. Furthermore, it opened up older issue such as the military. Soon millions of people were completely occupied by the debates & the same old arguments were renewed. Essentially, though, it came down to two issues: whether to have a military or not & what ramifications could having a military mean for the greater good.

The second happenstance, one which surprised Gideon, was he & his friends would have to explain themselves before a court what role they had to play in the theft of the X-60. As it turned out, this was almost taken as serious as the coming of the Entity & the debates taking place. Although not as many people followed the court proceedings against the Four Horsemen, it nonetheless concerned many that such a small group could have conducted, what was considered by many, as a serious crime. Ironically, whilst many thought that the Four Horsemen were guilty, the court case also publicised the situation in how desperate the defenders feared what could happen to everyone in the near future.

In this respect, the debates over the Entity was fed new fuel. Yet if Gideon thought that the court case may bring the debates over the Entity to a quick conclusion, then he was wrong. All it did was to add a new dimension to the debates which dragged them on even further. Furthermore, the actions of the Four Horsemen, or more exactly the twenty-two souls that had stolen the X-60, were brought into question, even though the court proceedings were still under way.

It was probably this slip, by the Legislature into the realm of the Judiciary, that somewhat saved those on trial. But other factors also emerged, which without a doubt, were true. The most important of these were questions of ownership of the X-60. As was argued, the X-60 was not Earth property, nor did anyone on Earth lay claim to the vessel. Although taken into Earth custody, the rightful owner was the Babylon government. Even though contact with Babylon was impossible, a representative of the Babylon government, that being Hussain, was present even of he did claim sanctuary. Technically speaking, Hussain was allowed to do whatever he wanted with the X-60, provided no Earth law was broken. And even if he did break a law, or several, it was he who was answerable & no one else. In the end, the court ruled that the accused were innocent & thus realised. However, an entire week had gone by with no gain.

Contrary to the opinion on Earth, the Entity had been gravely wounded. Although its survival of the supernova was, more or less certain, some of the damage was probably irreversible without a great harvest. Earth was, now more than ever, its only target as if that was not going to happen all along. But now it needed millions of human souls soon, otherwise it could die. Having said that, its powers had not been completely removed. It could still travel unaided. It could still produce armies of monsters when it wanted however reduced. And it could still fly at around 800 times the speed of light if needed. This may have been slower than previously, but it was enough to catch the ship that dared to kill it &, needless to say, it was fast enough to get to Earth.

Apart from its wounds, which truly troubled it, there was something else which it could not understand. There was a deep internal feeling that something was wrong other than its wounds. It began at the same time when it had consumed the souls from the X-60. Although there was the taste of fear & hatred coming from some of them, a taste identical to that it had enjoyed at Babylon, there was something different about the several of the other human souls. It tasted bitter, almost like a poison it reasoned. Maybe it was because these were the tastes of Earth. It was somewhat confusing,  if this was the case, because all the Entity could tell was the humans from Babylon & Earth were the exact same specie.

Furthermore, another thought struck the Entity. If the humans were prepared to destroy, not only one of the planets they lived on, but also an entire solar system for no other reason but just to attempt to kill it, there was also the chance that the humans might do the same thing to Earth’s solar system once it arrived. For the first time ever, the Entity truly became concerned about its own existence. But, far more importantly, it was more so worried about being denied a great harvest. For if Earth did commit suicide en masse, it would most likely die as a result. There seemed little it could do, hence, other than being fully committed. It could not hesitate if Earth defended itself with warships. It would have to attack the largest city on Earth immediately, reap as many souls at once, then deal with any attacks which might follow.

It was in this dedicated mind-set, hence, it left behind the dead hulk of the X-60 & headed for Earth. The X-60 would be the last of the Babylon ships ever to grace the emptiness of space. Although some 90 Babylonians still survived on Earth, they, like the seven billion people who lived on Earth, would suffer whatever fate now awaited them. For the X-60,  though, it would now float for eternity throughout space. It was a shame, in many ways, as the ship had conducted several important missions in recent years which would have an enormous impact upon the future. But now it would be a ghost ship for the remaining existence of the universe.

The Four Horsemen, though, would be constantly reminded of the X-60 for the next few weeks at least. Having been released from custody, they went back to their job of analysing the recent data that had already caused controversy in the Earth body politic. Debates still continued on without any indication that a decision would come soon. All the while, without question, the Entity was coming closer to Earth. Yet the general consensus, within the Four Horsemen at least, was that the evidence on hand indicated that the Entity only attacked when it was possibly threatened, or felt threatened as in the case of the initial with the James Cook,  or was under attack either at Babylon or by the X-60.

There seemed to be no evidence, whatsoever, that the Entity attacked first. But, although the evidence supported that conclusion, after witnessing the attack of the Entity on the X-60, no one actually believed it for a second. In fact it was Goodwin who first raised the possible creditable piece of evidence to the contrary by discovering a little bit of evidence of what the Entity was doing just prior to the attack by the X-60. Although scanner data was limited, due to the reduction in electronic signals at the time, Goodwin was able to piece together enough information to suggest that the Entity had attacked the research station on Crux Number 3 without any provocation from the Hydrus. Although the evidence was not firm, a simple check on the station’s blueprints clearly indicated that it had no weapons of any description. Nor did the Hydrus carry any weapons on their ships. The only conclusion, then, was the Entity attacked first.

Even though Goodwin’s theory seemed most likely, it still did not explain why the Entity attacked. Khan reasoned that, because it was pure evil, that it did not need a reason. Everyone more or less accepted Khan’s observation, but it still did not sound right to Gideon. About the only thing Wong could think of was they could try to salvage the X-60 & try to gather whatever evidence was available, but even he admitted that such a mission would be fruitless, as the Entity would be at Earth soon, whilst the mission to find the X-60 may have not even discover the Babylon ship’s location, let alone any evidence.

Then there was still the problem of combating the Entity. Nothing so far had worked. Even with a supernova, created by a large anti-matter bomb, the Entity had survived. And such a bomb, besides the fact that such weapons had been banned long ago by every civilisation, would destroy the solar system akin to the Crux system. No one on Earth, the Moon, or Mars, would survive such an explosion. That would mean a holocaust for the seven billion humans & aliens on the Earth, not to mention the five million living on both the Moon & Mars. No. Such a strategy was out of the question & the Four Horsemen were united on that issue.

For Gideon, the answer always seemed to come back to his initial thoughts on the matter. The way to fight the Entity was not to fight it at all, until it showed its venerability whatever that may be. And that could be anything. Upon mentioning this to the group, no one really had an answer. It seemed that it was Earth’s destiny to die once & for all. It could be that God was punishing the peoples of Earth for all the wrongs that Humanity had done down through the centuries, even though many great things had been achieved within the last thousand years.

This was how depressed the group was, even though each one of them wanted to at least try something to defeat the Beast so that Humanity could continue to survive. There was at least the hope that the three billion Humans who lived elsewhere in the known galaxy would continue on. That they, like other humans had with Babylon, find a new Earth like planet & continue on for a better future. But Gideon thought that that just did not sound right. Earth was mother, in many respects, & Earth needed to be defended.

So, with this defiant thought, Gideon demanded an answer from the Four Horsemen. Again there was not one. Then he tried a different track. What was the Entity & what was it made from? Although this angle had been casualty looked before, this time all their resources & minds would concentrated on an answer. It did not take too long before a shocking realisation came to the fore.

The Entity was completely ignorant of the activities of the Four Horsemen. Its single thought now was its own survival. As it flew along at 800 times the speed of light, with nothing but the emptiness of space around it, its mind began to wonder. Everything looked black ahead, whilst the distortion of lights dazzled from behind. It was always a creepy look, even to space veterans. And yet even veterans, who may have been all alone for long periods of time at such high speeds, went mad by the darkness to the bow of their ship & the distortion of stars behind them. Now the Entity was not going mad, but its mind once again began to philosophise who it was & what it wanted. It was at this point that feelings of a family curse troubled its mind. Something about the name of Harvey got stuck in its mind. And then some other name, one which it could not exactly remember, played with its thoughts as it sped onward to Earth.
 

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