Forge of Creation

Architect of Babylon — Part 1

CA. 9,500 B.C.E. The Tower of Babel

“Behold, they are one peo­ple, and they have all one lan­guage; and this is only the begin­ning of what they will do; and nothing that they pro­pose to do will now be impos­si­ble for them“
–Jah­veh (Yah­weh) as quo­ted in Genesis.

The dust soa­red upward as the ship sett­led on the valley floor. The occu­pants wai­ted, kno­wing that to leave too quickly would sub­ject them to quick­sil­ver fumes and the mad­ness that results for those who breathe them. Mar­duk hated having to use this ric­kety old ship, but was also gra­te­ful to have it. The Sar­gon was one of the few sur­vi­ving craft left after the deluge cau­sed by the des­truc­tion of Aleph. This old Seraphim freigh­ter had been one of the first cargo ves­sels desig­ned to shuttle gold ore bet­ween the pla­nets. Now with tech­no­logy scarce and no infras­truc­ture left to build new ships, he would have to be con­tent to fly in this old deca­ying Vimana. He loo­ked over at his crew, an exaus­ted group of Igigi and dis­con­ten­ted young Nephi­lim who had come from sur­vi­val shel­ters all over the pla­net. The rest had cho­sen to remain mired in tech­no­lo­gi­cal poverty, scat­te­red across the con­ti­nents, rather than to dare oppose Lord Enlil, who was now in poses­sion of the Raft of Hea­ven and most deci­dedly to blame for this current state of affairs. After all, had he not been a sup­por­ter of the Sons of Darkness?

Des­pite the fact that Enlil con­trols the Raft, which is the lar­gest bit of tech­no­logy for­tu­nate enough to sur­vive, he’s mis­sing a cru­cial item that would allow him to make full use of it’s power…the Tablet of Des­ti­nies, which con­tains the sum of all Annu­naki tech­no­logy in it’s crys­tal lat­tice memory. Only one such tablet is allo­wed to exist in any star sys­tem, and belongs to the Lord of the sys­tem. This one was right­fully the pro­perty of Enlil, lord of the Ersetu and Waters.

Had the Tablet of Des­ti­nies remai­ned in the hands of the Grand Coun­cil, it would have been des­tro­yed along with Aleph and most of the Annu­naki civi­li­za­tion during the acci­den­tal cataclysm five hun­dred years ago. Yet he, Mar­duk, coun­ted him­self for­tu­nate that he had sto­len the tablet in an attempt to end the war in the hea­vens bet­ween his uncle Enlil and his father Enki. This was a war of birthright, which can never be contested. In the end howe­ver, one foo­lish bid to con­trol the quan­tum gate built to tra­vel bet­ween worlds, means Aleph his home is now lost and there is nothing left but to use the know­ledge sto­red in the Tablet to rebuild the empire for his father.

Mar­duk thought about what his father had accom­plished since the disas­ter. Father Enki was not to be defea­ted. He had spent the last few cen­tu­ries living with his crea­tion the hu-men, teaching them and buil­ding a thri­ving eco­nomy of more than forty-four thou­sand peo­ple in the land of the great Nile river.

These hu-men are all chil­dren of the sur­vi­vors of the cataclysm. It had always ama­zed Mar­duk how loyal and hard wor­king these peo­ple could be, given the right moti­va­tions. They had rallied their sup­port rea­dily to Enki, as he was a kind god, and quite lite­rally their crea­tor. His goal is nothing short of the rebuil­ding of the Annu­naki empire in his own image, if only he can take the Raft of Hea­ven from Enlil by force, claim Enlil as a false god, and strip him of all his tech­no­logy to live as a vaga­bond nomad in a yakhide tent, doo­med to roam the desert lands for the rest of his days.

Unfor­tu­na­tely, Enlil orbits the world on the Raft, while Enki is bound to Ersetu by the moc­king pull of gra­vity. One mise­ra­ble old Vimana would not even scratch the sur­face of the assault that must be waged to unseat Enlil in all his sto­len glory. If the Tablet of Des­ti­nies holds the total of tech­no­logy sec­rets accu­mu­la­ted by all Annu­naki before the colo­ni­za­tion of this sys­tem, surely there is some key to unloc­king the mys­tery of conquest?

Fresh air came rushing into the cabin imme­dia­tely after the vapor alarm went dark. The six crew mem­bers sti­rred and star­ted remo­ving safety straps, atmosphere hel­mets, and suits from their bodies. Mar­duk loo­ked over to see Semi­ra­mis, his best Igigi tech­ni­cian, care­fully pre­pa­ring the ship for it’s next jour­ney by chec­king dials and adjus­ting coo­lant levers.

“I am sur­pri­sed that you take this jour­ney so eagerly” said Mar­duk with a con­fu­sed frown. “You could have lived in com­fort on the Raft, to serve Lord Enlil.”

Her face quickly tur­ned from the focu­sed expres­sion of work to the gri­mace of anger. “Do not speak of him” she spat, “I res­pect his autho­rity no lon­ger than the time he gave my hus­band to escape the blast.”

“Ah… He betra­yed your husband’s life to save his own. That is rea­son enough. But I sense there is more to this story.” Mar­duk smi­led kindly and tried to look into her eyes.

Semi­ra­mis loo­ked up at Mar­duk, tears of pain welling up. “Bel! Please!” then loo­king back down at her work, “I am Annu­naki. Enlil has betra­yed us all! Other­wise, I would never have left the Raft of Hea­ven and come to seek you. Surely you understand?”

“Yes, but surely one such as you would be mis­sed. Enlil has need of trai­ned pilots and engi­neers to rebuild. And then there is the mat­ter of your husband.”

“I left in shame. It is cus­tom to accept the bur­dens of a spouse, my hus­band fai­led. Thus did I in the eyes of Enlil.”

Mar­duk was sur­pri­sed to be addres­sed as Lord (Bel) by a fellow Annu­naki. He knew she had given the truth, but not yet all of it. He did not per­sist. “Of course. The Sons of Dark­ness have done enough to spoil our lives. They had even per­sua­ded Lord Enlil to join their sel­fish quest. Thank the Archons that we were not all des­tro­yed when they com­mit­ted their mis­ta­kes to history.”

“Yes. Thank the Archons.” She had regai­ned her com­po­sure, hoping that Mar­duk would not pry further. He didn’t, so she chan­ged the sub­ject. “What do you know of Nimrud?”

Mar­duk rela­xed. He had not meant to inflict pain and was glad to follow her lead. “Though he is of strong blood. His loyal­ties lie with him­self and it may be dif­fi­cult to get him to follow our plans. All he desi­res is con­quest. He has taken five cities, but rests now because his bor­ders grow too distant.”

“Then maybe we can steer him to lar­ger and more deser­ving prey if he but rea­dies his armies for a sea­son.” On her face was a gro­wing smile hin­ting of deep thought. “I think I could pro­vide toys to amuse him while he gathers his strength.”

Mar­duk nod­ded. “Of course he wants to have more power over his armies. unfortunately, even though some of his gene­rals are Nephi­lim, others and most of his warriors are hu-men, with their own sel­fish desi­res of great­ness and con­quest; I expect they are too disor­ga­ni­zed and uncon­tro­lla­ble to afford a vic­tory over Enlil, even on a level batt­le­field with little technology.”

Mar­duk pau­sed a moment, then mused:

“Enlil has told me of something desc­ri­bed in the Tablet that can give us the advan­tage we need to take the Raft of Heaven.”

“Yes, but I do not unders­tand how we can get into orbit to attack the Raft?”

“I do not posess that ans­wer, but Lord Enki has a plan he has not yet explai­ned to me. He claims to know of a method that requi­res the use of only one ship. I have searched the Tablet, but have not found such a thing.”

They exchan­ged thought­ful looks as a crew mem­ber announ­ced that a group of warriors riding camels had top­ped the hill near the city. The party milled about, uncer­tain as to whether to approach the vimana or to turn back and report the strange thing sit­ting on the valley floor. After a few minu­tes, they sepa­ra­ted; one group held ground, while the other rode back to the city at top speed.

“We should show our­sel­ves.” Mar­duk deci­ded. “Nim­rud will be along soon.”

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Nim­rud awoke to the sound of trum­pets. “Strange”, he thought. “There are no cam­paigns or fes­ti­vals plan­ned. What could be so impor­tant. War trum­pets were soun­ded only when ene­mies attac­ked or…Visitors! I hope it isn’t Enlil again.”

He pulled him­self out of his beds­tead and lim­ped to his war­drobe. His musc­les ached to be left alone. “This was the price of suc­cess? To grow old without an heir at the height of his king­dom?” He knew he couldn’t turn back time, but at least he could pro­duce an heir before these old bones became com­ple­tely use­less. Unfor­tu­na­tely, It was not likely that he had inhe­ri­ted an extre­mely long life from his father Cush. Ins­tead, it was fairly cer­tain that he was des­ti­ned to grow old and die nearly as quickly as the hu-men do. For­tu­na­tely, This would take many more years, since Nim­rud was past his first hun­dred years and still fee­ling strong. A mere hu-man had less than a cen­tury before he would be gone and forgotten.

He pulled his gar­ments on around him and hea­ded for the sta­bles, motio­ning to his ser­vants to attend him and assem­ble his guard. “We must meet them before they approach.” He said to his nod­ding servants.

By the time the crew of the Sar­gon had disem­bar­ked, the mor­ning sun drenched the valley in gol­den light. A throng of villa­gers had assem­bled on the rise, curious and fear­ful that the flying ship hadt brought rou­ble. They mur­mu­red among them­sel­ves, spe­cu­la­ting as to whether this was a good thing or not for Baby­lon. Occa­sio­nally, one of the villa­gers would scold the others in his­sing tones and a sha­king head. Mar­duk gues­sed that there was disa­gree­ment among them as to whether his ship was sent from the gods or if they may all be Djins, demons sent by Enlil to tor­ture the city for some wrongdoing.

The crowd par­ted as a solemn pro­ces­sion of warriors and priests came nea­rer the ship. As they assem­bled, they spread out around Marduk’s crew, being care­ful not to come any clo­ser than a few cubits away. As the last of the priests assem­bled, a very hea­vily laden camel was led by another, more color­ful camel with a large man on it’s back. The man was dres­sed in bronze armor with a spi­ked hel­met on his head. The lead camel strode to within a pace of Mar­duk and stop­ped. A tense silence follo­wed as Mar­duk and the man regar­ded each other. The rider was the first to break the silence.

“Who are you and what is it you want in Baby­lon?” This bold ques­tion was met with some noisy con­fu­sion among the villa­gers who imme­dia­tely began to dis­cuss and ges­ture. Some even fell to their knees, frigh­te­ned by his tone of voice to the outsi­ders. Des­pite asking the ques­tion aloud, the rider remai­ned friendly, but sud­denly tur­ned a stony stare to the crowd that had gathe­red. “Silence!” He com­man­ded. The crowd did indeed fall silent but con­ti­nued to show expec­tant fear on their faces toward the new­co­mers. The tem­ple priests echoed the same facial expres­sions while the warriors sho­wed no emo­tion. “Now go away and stand vigil over my affairs from a dis­tance”. At that, the priests were visibly sha­ken as they and the throng wan­de­red away, loo­king over their shoul­ders in bewil­der­ment. The guards only moved a bit further away and tur­ned to stand bet­ween their lord and the now more dis­tant onlookers.

Mar­duk glan­ced at Semi­ra­mis, then back at the rest of his crew, then ope­ned his mouth to speak. “I greet you in the name of Mar­duk, son of Enki, and I come to hold coun­sel with the great hun­ter Nimrud.”

A broad smile spread on the rider’s face as he dis­moun­ted and strode up to Mar­duk. “It has been long, cou­sin. What of your father?”

Mar­duk smi­led back, “He is well, des­pite Enlil’s many attempts to hin­der him. And you have fared well with what for­tune has left you.” as he exten­ded his hand and ges­tu­red to the city and to the crowd of peo­ple and with a flou­rish, out to the North as if to inc­lude the cities of UR and Eridu in his pronouncement.

“I hunt hu-men and con­quer their cities. Then, I com­bine my cities in trade and com­merce to build great works in my name.” Nim­rud glea­med with pride as he poin­ted to the city in the dis­tance. “Lately, there are so few left uncon­que­red that I have taken the task of trac­king the wild beasts that tor­ment my peo­ple; and in gra­ti­tude, they serve me with fervor.”

“You have indeed inc­rea­sed your talents. How fare you with lord Enlil?”

“He lea­ves me in peace. He has no use for hu-men, but does what he can to entice the Nephi­lim to aid his cause. Two of my best gene­rals have gone to serve him, but I serve myself and that does not please him.” Nim­rud confessed.

“I come to offer aid in return for yours. Does this inte­rest you?” Mar­duk smi­led, con­fi­dent that what he had to offer would be gree­dily accepted.

“I have con­que­red cities at my whim. None have yet oppo­sed me and I rule everything within weeks’ ride in any direc­tion. What could you offer?”

Marduk’s party shif­ted their posi­tions as Semi­ra­mis step­ped for­ward. Mar­duk nod­ded to her.

She spoke with little hesi­ta­tion, like she had rehear­sed her part. “A great king such as you must have a long life and power­ful wea­pons with which to smite his ene­mies. Lord Mar­duk can offer sec­rets that were used by the gods a thou­sand years ago.”

Nimrud’s face became impas­sive, almost smir­king, he ges­tu­red to the Vimana. “And what could I pos­sibly do for you in return, that you can­not already do for…yourselves?”

Mar­duk smi­led. “you have fierce warriors; unat­tached to Enlil, to start with… Is there somewhere else we can dis­cuss this? or shall we stand in the hot sun?”

Nim­ruds expres­sion imme­dia­tely chan­ged to emba­rrass­ment “…And my hos­pi­ta­lity is amiss! Bring me camels and shade!” He clap­ped loudly as his atten­dants jum­ped to ful­fill his commands.

Before long, five camels, com­plete with car­pet sadd­les and pro­tru­ding sunsha­des appea­red and Marduk’s crew was bec­ko­ned to embark for the pri­vacy and com­fort of Nimrud’s palace.

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The palace did not par­ti­cu­larly impress Mar­duk at first sight. Howe­ver, he con­si­de­red that Nim­rud was a hun­ter and warrior, rather than a rec­li­ning monarch with soft unble­mished hands and little to do. There will be time enough for him to enjoy the splen­dor of true kingship once Enlil is pro­perly depo­sed. Then, would he expect to give the King con­trol of the whole region from the les­ser sea to the cypress forests, while Mar­duk him­self would be king of the Nile valley from the great sea to the moun­tain jungles.

Mar­duk loo­ked around. It was sim­ple to locate all six of his own peo­ple among Nimrud’s hu-men atten­dants, who were much shor­ter in sta­ture than the Nephi­lim. Mar­duk was taller than any of them, except pos­sibly Nim­rud, who also towe­red above the others as he ente­red the room.

Nim­rud shushed and waved his hands as the atten­dants vanished into the tapes­tries on the wall. “There will be a feast in your honor. My peo­ple will sac­ri­fice a bull and pre­sent it to their gods as we nego­tiate our future con­quest. Please relax and refresh from your jour­ney.” He indi­ca­ted expec­tantly to one side of the room where ser­vants were hol­ding tapes­tries open for entrance into the bath hall.

Mar­duk hung back as Semi­ra­mis led the group through the cur­tains. He noti­ced Nimrud’s eyes follo­wing her intently as she dis­sa­pea­red from view. “She is hand­some?” this was spo­ken more as a sta­te­ment than a ques­tion. “She leads my crew and is the most talen­ted tech­ni­cian I have seen in cen­tu­ries.” Then he chan­ged the sub­ject. “Shall we dis­cuss some things now while we are alone and leave the details to the feast?”

“You want man­po­wer. I have warriors, some Nephi­lim, but the rest are mostly hu-men, all unlear­ned in the ways of the Igigi. The rest are sim­ple far­mers and rough arti­sans. What can they offer you?” mused Nimrud.

“I want you to build a tower”. Said Mar­duk. “One that will reach the hea­vens. And when it is com­plete, we will send your warriors to snatch the very Raft of Hea­ven from the grasp of Enlil, for the glory of Enki.” Mar­duk paused, he knew that the whole plan would hinge on Nimrud’s reaction.

“Our crafts­men are not advan­ced enough to under­take such a work. It would cost gold and goods to even get them to try.” Nim­rud was openly skep­ti­cal now.

“That is one rea­son why Enlil would not oppose your efforts. Though he does not honor you, he also does not demand your loyalty, nor does he tax your peo­ple. You are free to build your king­dom as long as he does not know that Lord Enki sup­ports your cause, or you his. I will send crafts­men from Egypt to teach your peo­ple. They will bring gold to spend at your bazaars. Your merchants will send cara­vans to Nubia where we will supply them with goods at dis­count. I will send fine seed and new tech­ni­ques for your far­mers to feed the wor­kers. All you must do is to act as if this is all your own plan. Claim that you are buil­ding an altar to honor lord Enlil with sac­ri­fi­ces. Tell him that the tallest altar brings the honor clo­sest to the gods. Tell him that when you are finished, all he need do is to pluck the sac­ri­fice from the altar. He will think you have become wise in your old age and may even assist you to completion.”

“So you pro­pose that this tower would reach to the hea­vens! I do not believe it pos­si­ble. You would make a fool of me. They will say that old Nim­rud has lost his sense. I will be the sub­ject of laugh­ter in my own palace.” Nimrud’s face now beco­ming red with anger.

“The tower need not reach com­ple­tely to the Raft of Hea­ven.” Said Mar­duk, “It must reach only to where the air thins; a tall moun­tain height, yet taller than any that exists within a month’s jour­ney. The remai­ning dis­tance will be tra­ver­sed by Enlil’s crew with a tether of gos­sa­mer lowe­red from the Raft, this tether will be used as a hoist to trans­port goods (and your warriors) up to the Raft of Hea­ven. We will smug­gle the warriors as tem­ple priests who care for the sacrifices.”

Nim­rud frow­ned. Calm retur­ning. “This is indeed a mad under­ta­king. But, if it were to suc­ceed, we would then be in poses­sion of the Raft of Hea­ven, a cove­ted prize for anyone.”

“For Lord Enki.” Mar­duk correc­ted, rela­xing now that Nim­rud was com­ple­ting the puzzle on his own.

“Then what is the pro­fit for me?” asked Nim­rud, now ready to negotiate.

“The pros­pe­rity of your king­dom for one. Also, there is the know­ledge you would gain along the way. Finally…” he pau­sed just a moment to be sure he had full atten­tion, “Some of my crew are life-code spe­cia­lists. You are gro­wing old. There are ways to dou­ble and even tri­ple your lifes­pan. You could be youth­ful again as a result. Of course, this plan of ours could take years to accom­plish anyway…”

“I have no heir.” Nim­rud said care­fully. “So am I to unders­tand that I would have your hand­some Igigi cap­tain at my side?” He said this more as a request than a question.

Mar­duk was a bit sur­pri­sed at the request, but not enti­rely ama­zed. “I will allow Semi­ra­mis that choice.” he coun­te­red, kno­wing that a deal had been made. “Yet I will tell you this. She is the life-code spe­cia­list of whom I speak.”

Nimrud’s grin was wide.

Mar­duk smi­led too. “Remem­ber cou­sin, our deal is held close. Sec­recy is an essen­tial ingre­dient of our suc­cess.” They both nod­ded and clas­ped hands. “For your feast, my name must be Mel­karth. If my true iden­tity be revea­led, the word would go far and wide to rest in the ear of Enlil and con­found our plans. Ins­tead, let Sema­ra­mis be the guest of honor at your feast.”

Nimrud’s grin became wider.

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As the day wore on and the sha­dows grew lon­ger, the chaos in the streets gra­dually inc­rea­sed until the din became that of a bazaar at mid­mor­ning. The smell of roas­ting Buf­falo per­mea­ted the air, punc­tua­ted by the vague tex­ture of herbs, on the breeze that flo­wed into the palace win­dow. “Mel­karth”, drin­king libe­rally from the wine vase pro­vi­ded by the ser­vants, dis­cus­sed the situa­tion with Semi­ra­mis while breathing in the pro­mise of the night’s feast.

“He seems to unders­tand the risk.” said Semi­ra­mis care­fully, hoping to coax more stra­tegy from the inc­rea­singly drun­ken god, who was now dres­sed as a wan­de­ring sage.

“Risk.” Said Mel­karth, nearly pushing over the table in front of him. “The real risk…is that Enlil will sus­pect revenge from you. What of that?”

“Bel, it is true that I want revenge for his con­duct. Yet I did not make it known to him when I left, which is pro­bably why he let me go…out of pity. Yet I would kill him if I had the opportunity!”

“Is your desire strong enough to allow you to give up mour­ning your husband’s death early, so that you may pur­sue a poli­ti­cal means to revenge?”

“What does mour­ning have to do with poli­tics?” Semi­ra­mis sud­denly felt a little vulnerable.

“Nim­rud favors you. whether we suc­ceed or not, you could easily become his consort…”

“…And have his ear, among other things.” She finished for him. Now aware of the mag­ni­tude of the risk. “If we suc­ceed, I could kill Enlil myself.”

Mel­karth took another drink of wine and sat back to take another large breath of meaty air. “if you insist… You could actually save me some con­si­de­ra­ble effort.”

“Tell me then, oh wise father, for­sooth, what kinds of gifts can one such as I offer a king that can­not be had from a com­mon ser­vant or daugh­ter of a wealthy merchant?”

“Just give him what he wants. An heir worthy of a king? Stout war beasts? Use your ima­gi­na­tion.” Mel­karth, waved his hands in the air to exag­ge­rate his point.

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Mel­karth arri­ved to the feast as late as he dared, without offen­ding his host. As it was, Nim­rud was much more inte­res­ted in the lady Semi­ra­mis than in the old wan­de­ring sage, and made it abun­dantly clear as Mel­karth pre­sen­ted him­self and offe­red his “mea­ger” ser­vi­ces to the great king Nim­rud. Eyes met, but the ruse was kept close, so when the king waved him away in disin­te­rest, no one was the wiser. The old sage sett­led in amongst some of the wealthier merchants who tur­ned a cold shoul­der to his intrusion, until he star­ted pla­ying games of chance with the chil­dren. Even­tually, they were paying Mel­karth good she­kels to tell their for­tu­nes. No one was dissapointed.

Nim­rod pou­red on the charm. Uncaring that the beau­ti­ful woman beside him could easily be four times his age. He repea­tedly called for more ale and each time toas­ted to her beauty. Even­tually, when ever­yone was quite drun­ken with baby­lo­nian beer, the King awk­wardly stood up and made his announcement.

“Because of the great riches of this king­dom and my good for­tune in love and war, I will open the trea­su­ries to build such a monu­ment to the great god Enlil that has never been built by Hu-men. The likes of which will bring us to the very hea­vens, so that we may worship the good­ness of Enlil, and the­reby gua­ran­tee the con­ti­nued pros­pe­rity of our great kingdom.”

Nim­rud tot­te­red a bit in his seat as he rai­sed a cup of newly pou­red beer. His atten­dants asto­nished at his ani­ma­tion, rushing to serve him. “I drink to the beauty of this fine lady beside me, the pros­pe­rity of our land, and the glory of Enlil, Lord Anu­naki of the Earth and Air.”

By this time, the merchant who was inte­res­ted in Melkarth’s story about the flood, tur­ned away toward the throng gathe­red around the king and star­ted jab­be­ring about how bad this was for busi­ness and how unfair it was that he must be for­ced to choose sides and alie­nate his cus­to­mers that follo­wed the other gods. Soon, the whole cor­ner of the room con­tai­ning merchants was abuzz with cur­ses and wails so much that the din over­came the musicians.

Semi­ra­mis expec­ted anger from Nim­rod, and won­de­red what he could do, if anything, to esta­blish his power in this unex­pec­ted situa­tion without alie­na­ting his own sup­port. Ins­tead, the drun­ken king strode over to the merchant and sta­red him in the eye. He reached down and grab­bed the hilt of his sword, but thought bet­ter of dra­wing it. Then he said softly, so only those nearby could hear: “So what would you have me do? Spurn the gra­ces of the most power­ful, and pos­sibly the right­ful heir? He still com­mands the sky. They say that Enki is gone. Des­tro­yed in the deluge, the flood that des­tro­yed our world. We must have allies…”

“But our for­tu­nes have fared well as it is” Said the angry and bewil­de­red merchant. “why must we dec­lare our loyal­ties and com­pli­cate things?”

Nim­rod rai­sed his voice so that all could hear. “That will be dis­cus­sed tomo­rrow. Attend me when the sun rises. My advi­sors, Gene­rals, and Merchant lea­ders. I will chart the course for Baby­lon in the mor­ning.”  With that, he waved at the musi­cians to con­ti­nue pla­ying and wal­ked sha­kily back his for­mer spot next to the lady Semiramis.

“You must not tell anyone the real rea­son for the pro­ject” mum­bled Semi­ra­mis into his ear.

“I dare not” whispered Nimrod, then he waved for more beer.
—

—Coming next—-
Semi­ra­mis designs war beasts (chee­tah, horse)
The tower of Babel is built
The tower dou­bles as a form of communication