Jesus and the Angels

Far back in ancient times, our small blue planet was visited by a tetrad of young Xilon. They were students, first-time explorers, and not yet familiar with the protocols of visiting worlds inhabited by less developed life forms. Having met humans in the past (or rather, far in the future), they decided to visit the species' place of origin, both for fun and as a step forward in their learning process.

Choosing an era at random, and not yet skilled enough to pick a more precise and inconspicuous point of appearance, they found themselves in the city of Nazareth, facing a shocked young carpenter who dropped his tools and fell to his knees in their presence. Assuming that this was some sort of local custom, one of the youngsters asked his name and was told, Jesus.

The visitors attempted to introduce themselves but quickly realized that there was no term for their species in the Aramaic language. Furthermore, their grasp of the local dialect was mediocre at best, as they were still in their early days of learning and had fully mastered only a few thousand languages, only one of which was spoken by humans. So they told the young man that they had come from beyond the stars, from a faraway world of peace, prosperity and infinite knowledge. The carpenter, of course, understood this as the visitors being of divine origin and, as might anyone who had just witnessed the sudden appearance of four otherworldly beings, assumed that they were messengers of his god.

Jesus asked the strangers what he should do, what gifts such wise, powerful angels had brought to mankind, and was told by the befuddled students simply to pass on the message of acceptance, understanding and love to his fellow man. At the time, none of the four youths imagined that they had just played a significant role in the shaping of the future of all humanity. As they would find out upon their return home, this was one of their most important early lessons - the place of their species in the progression of the universe, however inadvertently at times.

After the brutal crucifixion, two of the students, having recognized their part in the terrible event, returned to ancient Earth. They found the carpenter's body entombed in a cave and, unwrapping the burial cloth, saw the horrific damage that had been done to him. Feeling guilty and very much responsible for what had befallen the young man, they transported the corpse home to Acadia Minor and placed him in the Chymeron Forest, where regenerative chemicals in the rain often revived the carcasses of local wildlife. Hoping that it might do the same to a human body, they left Jesus there overnight. Returning at first light, they found their old friend sitting on a pile of nettles, alive and well, and quite disoriented. The students had still not mastered the Aramaic tongue, but did their best to explain to the human that he had been brought back to life by the chemical elements of their world. However, much was lost in translation.

Upon returning Jesus to the tomb from which they had taken him, the youths found themselves facing a distraught young woman, crying over the empty burial cloth. Jesus approached and spoke to her, assuring her that he was very much alive, that he had been resurrected and given new life.

Fearing that their best intentions would ultimately endanger the timeline, the boys apologetically informed Jesus that he could not logically return to life on this world and that he would have to return home with them. The young man had seen their paradise and was in no hurry to leave it after all that he had suffered, but he requested that, if it were not too much trouble, they first take him to say goodbye to those whom he had loved.

Assuming that there could be no harm in this request, the youngsters moved him through time and space, from one point to another, to bid his followers farewell. Forty days after his shocking reappearance, all final words had been said and all affairs handled. In the presence of his eleven closest friends, the two Xilon grabbed onto Jesus and disappeared in a blinding flash of light, transporting him far away from Earth for the very last time. They returned to Terra Firma, where he was given a home in one of the most beautiful lakeside villages, and there he lived out the rest of his days in peace. Whether he ever truly understood where he was, or with whom, remains unknown.

As the four youths grew, they learned to control their jumps and to use their incredible abilities with increasing care. Three of them would never return to Earth, traveling elsewhere through the stars over the course of their long lives. But one, an adventurous Kappa Crucian, would later discover that his destiny was intricately tied to the human race and to their planet. His story continues in The Converging Timelines.