THE ASSEMBLY OF THE ALL MIGHTY

Tempéra talks in front of a group of people standing in line, all dressed in white scrubs, their arms crossed, their eyes lively and curious. They are all ancestor people. Gaëlle is sitting at a table behind them, completely absorbed by her tablet. A strange feeling of déjà vu knots Tempéra's stomach, but he continues to talk as if nothing. He speaks passionately about genetic manipulation and artificial birth, his sentences punctuated by sweeping gestures of arms and hands. His gaze reflects the same vigour and curiosity as that of the audience hanging on his lips. The words come out like an automatism. This is because the professor knows his science well and he also knows men like them very well; men like him. He is determined to no longer let the money or those who hold the money that funds his research, hold him back. This time, he won't leave without a plausible answer.

***

"Professor Akheeli?" The voice of a young man says out loud behind him.

Tempéra is squatted next to his daughter. At the sight of the young man, he lowers his head in disappointment, seemingly annoyed. He straightens up to stand facing the young man before saying in an irritated tone:

"Karl, I've already told you that I don't need a chaperone! It's a safe place here, isn't it?" He continues more calmly as he starts to walk away, holding Gaëlle's hand firmly in his." I don't need a bodyguard or a spy."

"It's just that you and I don't really have a choice," Karl replies, following him before continuing seriously: "The Assembly doesn't trust you enough yet to let you wander around unsupervised, and I'm one of the few here smart enough to keep you company."

Tempéra stops short, surprised and amused by the young man's statement. Tall blonde with light eyes, no one from the ancestor people ever spoke to him so boldly.

"What's your story, Karl?" You know what brought me to the Assembly, but what brought you here?" Tempéra questions, keeping Gaëlle at a safe distance way from Karl.

"It's a long story," Karl begins like a warning.

"I have plenty of time," Tempéra says, shrugging his shoulders as he is already guessing a fragment of the young man's story: an expatriate with the first colonies, a refugee before the destruction of his new planet; he has never set foot outside the Assembly's gates; he doesn't know that today's world no longer belongs to his fathers or to him.

The Assembly has hired Tempéra to succeed in artificially recreating the Babel gene and implanting it in embryos or adults. He finally possesses all the money and all the time he needs to continue his research. However, he doesn't believe the outcome will benefit anyone, except the head of the Assembly, the Supreme Goddess as they all call her here with admiration and deference. Although they have assured him that the only reason for him being at the Assembly is his research, Tempéra remains suspicious. After all, once his research is completed, they will either have to get rid of him or keep him under control so that he doesn't share their precious secret with anyone else.

Making the professor a member of the Assembly would indeed be the safest way to keep him quiet with the same unwavering loyalty that all the other members show, with the exception of Karl. In front of Tempéra, the young man openly mocks the discipline and rites of the Assembly even if he plays obedience and servitude in front of the other members. Karl loves to tell him detailed anecdotes about the personality of his aunt, the Supreme Goddess whom he jokingly calls the Supreme Madness. Unlike many members, Karl only converted to the Assembly of the Almighty when he was a teenager as his stepfather, the Supreme Goddess' brother, finally decided to join the Assembly too after their short exile on Mars. His mother and him followed reluctantly, clinging to the rich man's money and privileges like to hope.

For Karl, nothing has never made any sense right from the beginning, and he sees only a huge masquerade behind all the rules and all the prohibitions imposed on members. He has seen with his own eyes things that still give him a fright. On the other hand, his mother has become a fervent follower who has found a new sense of purpose for her life. Tempéra recognises himself in the young man's story: a child tossed from one corner of the world to another, ten years of boarding school which taught him to hate authority and discipline, parents who were always absent and full of mysteries.

"Why don't you leave the Assembly?" Tempéra finally asks.

"Here, I'm someone important," Karl begins seriously. "You think I don't know what's going on outside the Assembly? Why would they be so desperate to control this Babel gene if it didn't matter to us, the supposedly only ones God himself has chosen?"

The young man goes silent as he looks up at the window, staring at the reddish landscape of a sunset.

Tempéra would like to laugh at the irony that has brought him here, but a growing bitterness eats at him. He is trapped, made like a laboratory rat whose fate is to run tirelessly inside its wheel until the end of the experiment. The Karims may be behind this story from the start unless this is just a twist of destiny playing him. After all, such a crook like him has gotten away pretty well so far. There can't be any better word than 'dishonest' to describe Tempéra's choices for the last fifteen years, all his choices more dishonest than the other. Surely the irony of fate can't drag him lower than that.

Suddenly, the sound of soft footsteps pulls the professor out of his thoughts. He gets up from the armchair to walk towards Gaëlle standing at the entrance of his bedroom, her face ruffled with sleep. She presses tightly against her a stuffed blue elephant.

"Hey, sweetheart! Why aren't you sleeping?" Tempéra says softly, taking his daughter in his arms.

The little girl doesn't answer. She looks vaguely around the room then she rests her head gently on her father's shoulder as he takes her into the living room.

"How about going on a trip with Daddy? Would you like that?" Tempéra whispers in his daughter's ear before saying softly: "Athena, natural panorama scene, please".

Suddenly, all the lights go out, plunging them for a split second into the dark. A savannah landscape magically appears at their feet. The little girl lowers her head, leaning forward to see the animals moving below them. Then, she looks up at the blue sky with a clear, warm light above their head. Finally, she gives her father a look of wonder and smiles at him. Soon, the sky is filled with a flock of brightly coloured birds as the landscape below them accelerates. Gaëlle bursts out laughing and holds out her arms towards the sky and the birds. Tempéra also starts laughing, carried away by the surge of happiness of his child, the most beautiful of all his creations. Their laughter rises high in the air where it gets caught by the flying birds that will then take it further, much further, further than America, up there to the sun.