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A Disservice to Both...


More on COSMOS, and a little commentary:


I've personally encountered the impassioned defense of "creationism/intelligent design" and personal direct attacks on me as "I don't know science." Holding my ground, it turned out these particular individuals didn't know much at all.



My questions are simple:



1. What other country is addressing this "debate" of creationism/intelligent design"?

2. What other country has attempted to introduce this "debate" into their science classrooms and curriculum?
3. What other country has a tax-funded "Creation Museum" (apparently, in financial difficulty)?

4. Are the top countries in the O.E.C.D. results advancing this in their science classrooms?

5. If not, why are WE insisting on doing this?



The answer is, this has nothing to do with religion or science, and is a disservice to both.


The Founding Fathers were at most Deists and Free Thinkers that crafted a Constitution separating Church and State, despite David Barton's refuted obfuscations. Deity does not need "talebearers," and there are more noble pursuits: income disparity, gender equality and the reduction of violence towards women in society and the media; gang violence, imprisonment inequity, re-fighting the Civil War to our own detriment as corporations ship jobs overseas are good fields to till; science and politics are not.

We are inundated with sociopathic, manipulative shysters - that we tend to sadly elect because of insincere, memorized 3-point sermons on "family values" - encouraging all to chase chimeras and unicorns; dueling windmills as the republic crumbles.

Quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Huffington Post) regarding science and religion:

"Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary. Science keeps religion from sinking into the valley of crippling irrationalism and paralyzing obscurantism. Religion prevents science from falling into the marsh of obsolete materialism and moral nihilism."

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Hello everyone!

 

The campaign for our, “Earth Squadron” Movie has been underway for a couple weeks now and we have made significant gains on the campaign. We still have a long way to go and we would humbly ask that If you like Black Sci-Fi, if we have purchased your books or contributed to your campaign to please support us now.  This is serious business. We often ask why we do not have this or why we do not have that, it is because we have to make it ourselves and support others when they venture to do positive things for our community.

 

This project is just the tip of the iceberg. We plan to use this as a means to open the door for future 3D, cartoon and live action projects.  I am asking for your support by donating what you can afford toward getting this movie done. Our team is fired up and ready to make this film a reality! Our community and children in particularly deserved more positive images and role models to emulate. Be a part of making that happen now.

Click here for more info and to support today:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/earth-squadron-movie-project


Sincerely,
Jarvis Sheffield, M.Ed.
Administrator

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Schwarzschild Kugelblitz...

Source: Discovery link below

The fastest object ever built by the human species is the Voyager 1 space probe, moving at a speed of 18 miles per second. If it were heading toward Proxima Centauri (which it’s not), Voyager 1 would reach our nearest stellar neighbor in about 80,000 years.



Clearly, if interstellar travel is to be accomplished on human timescales, much greater speeds are required. At 10 percent of the speed of light (a thousand times faster than Voyager 1, but a conceivable speed for likely soon-to-be-realized fusion engines), Proxima Centuri could be reached in approximately 45 years -- less than a human lifetime.



In his 1955 paper Geons, John Wheeler, one of the pioneers of the theory of black holes, coined the term "Kugelblitz" -- which translates literally to "ball lightning." He suggested that if enough pure energy could be focused into a region of space, that energy would form a microscopic black hole, which could be described by the equations of Karl Schwarzschild -- a "Schwarzschild Kugelblitz" (or SK).



Fast forward 19 years to the ground-breaking work of Stephen Hawking, who realized that quantum mechanical effects near a black hole’s event horizon (the boundary beyond which no light or other radiation can escape) would give rise to the emission of radiation, so-called "Hawking Radiation." The smaller the black hole, the greater its radiated power and the less its mass, but the shorter its lifetime until it completely evaporates.



To be useful, a SK would need to be small enough to expel the required energy, light enough to be reasonably accelerated, but large enough to have a sufficiently useful lifetime. Such a Schwarzschild Kugelblitz would be incredibly small, smaller than even a proton, which is one of the basic constituents of an atom.



Despite being so miniscule, Schwarzschild Kugelblitzes are incredibly heavy. A typical SK weighs more than two Empire State Buildings, and has a power output of approximately 129 petawatts (1 petawatt = 10 quadrillion watts). This is 10 million times the July 2013 power consumption record of New York City!

In 1993, Schwarzschild Kugelblitzes pierced the realm of popular culture, albeit under a pseudonym. In the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Timescape", an artificial quantum singularity (i.e. Schwarzschild Kugelblitz) is revealed to be a Romulan Warbird’s power source.




Thermodynamics: the study of energy and its transformations (description from my undergraduate textbook). Along with fusion power eventually becoming a reality, this could substantially change the way we generate power, wean us of our need for fossil fuel from countries not-to-friendly and change the Calculus of our geopolitics...hopefully for the better.



Discovery: Kugelblitz! Powering a Starship With a Black Hole
Jeff Lee, Icarus Interstellar
Harvard Abstracts: Geons, by John Wheeler
(Note: Dr. Wheeler taught at UT Austin, Texas)

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The Darkside Trilogy Exposed As Non-Fiction!

Enormous Craft Detected On Moon, The Secret Is Out (Photos)

At least one enormous object of unknown origin has been visually verified as having landed on our moon. As a result, on Wednesday, January 15, three Terrier-Orion rockets blasted off within a span of 20 seconds from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. EST (0600 to 1000 GMT) on hush-hush missions for the Department of Defense (DoD).

TRN has obtained photos of the unknown spacecraft and has an audio interview with an outside consultant from NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) who confirms that for almost two years the U.S. government used the MacDonald Observatory in Texas to track the approach of two of these enormous objects. A year ago, in January 2013, the objects had gotten to within 200,000 miles of Mars when they suddenly vanished.

Realizing these two craft were approaching earth and might not be visible to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbital Camera (LROC) depending upon where they went, the Government reactivated the previously cancelled Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) to be launched to the moon on September 6, 2013. It took almost 100 days for LADEE to be placed into proper lunar orbit. By December, 2013, both LADEE and the LROC found at least one of the two enormous objects had landed on the moon, in a crater the size of the City of Chicago.

All of this was kept secret until, quite by accident, the LROC images (which are generally made public) were uploaded to the publicly available GoogleMoon service, where intrepid users came upon the enormous object. Now, the whole world can see this "object" on the moon --- the secret is out.

Click here for the full story

Enormous Craft Detected On Moon, The Secret Is Out (Photos)

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Scheduling Your #Writing

It's important that you get your family involved in your writing process. If you're like me, then you have to actually work for a living. Also, if you're like me, you have a family. Both require a considerable amount of attention and thus, take away from the time you have to write on a daily basis. If you've read my previous post on setting writing goals, that's only half the picture. I've fallen way short of meeting mine simply because when I've been able to write has been sporadic at best.

Again, get your family involved. Work, you really can't do anything about unless you can set your own hours. But it would be to your benefit to create a schedule, discuss it with your family, make your adjustments, and then implement.

I've enclosed my Writing Schedule. The green are my blocks for writing, but that doesn't necessarily mean those are the only times I can write. I still use my smartphone when I walk the dog to write using Google Drive. And I tend to stay up later than my wife at times and I might steal a moment or two then.

Liked this post? Why not check out a book or two? A couple of them are free.

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Wide Bandgap Semiconductors...


Hidden inside nearly every modern electronic is a technology -- called power electronics -- that is quietly making our world run. Yet, as things like our phones, appliances and cars advance, current power electronics will no longer be able to meet our needs, making it essential that we invest in the future of this technology.



Today, President Obama will announce that North Carolina State University will lead the Energy Department’s new manufacturing innovation institute for the next generation of power electronics. The institute will work to drive down the costs of and build America’s manufacturing leadership in wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor-based power electronics -- leading to more affordable products for businesses and consumers, billions of dollars in energy savings and high-quality U.S. manufacturing jobs. 1



*****



President Obama has declared 2014 a year of action, and while he will continue to work with Congress on new measures to create jobs and grow the economy, he will also use his executive authority to get things done. After shedding jobs for a decade, our manufacturers have added 568,000 over the past nearly four years, including 80,000 over the past five months. Manufacturing production has grown since the end of the recession at its fastest pace in over a decade. The President is committed to building on that progress.



In last year’s State of the Union address, the President proposed a series of three new manufacturing institutes that the Administration can create using existing resources—this is the first of those institutes. In May, President Obama launched a competition for these three new manufacturing innovation institutes with a Federal commitment of $200 million across five Federal agencies—Defense, Energy, Commerce, NASA, and the National Science Foundation, building off the success of a pilot institute headquartered in Youngstown, Ohio. The additional two institutes led by the Department of Defense—focused on Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation and Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing—are still in the selection process and will be awarded in the coming weeks. 2


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I stumbled over another one of these scams on Craig's List. Here's another example of someone trying to make money off you without you really getting paid. I'm not saying you can't find a legit publisher on Craig's List, but one that wants to pay you $100, at most isn't one of them. Now I'm not necessarily against getting paid as a ghost writer (which is what this comes off as), but if you're going to take a flat-fee as payment for up to 40 pages of writing, $100 is nothing but a rip-off. If they really meant business, they would cut writers in for a percentage (10% is fair for new or unproven authors, 25% at least for authors who are established).

And I've made no changes whatsoever to the posting as it appeared on CL's site. Why don't they put the name of the company in here? Is there a reason this is kept secret? Again, not that that locks this in as a scam, but it certainly is indicative along with the fact there are no terms put forth outside of the meager stipend they offer.

We are looking for writers that can write structured, well organized content in an ebook format. We are looking for different subjects. 

Some sample categories:
- Weight Loss
- Stress
- Health
- Psychology
- FictionWe need books in all categories, so please email us with your areas of expertise. You will be provided with reference material to use as inspiration which you can then rewrite in an original way.The ebooks should be about 30-40 pages long. Pay is $50-$100 per book depending on the subject. If your work is satisfactory there is more work available immediately.Please email me with:
- the subjects you would be qualified to write
- Sample(s) of your work
- Your estimated delivery of such an ebook

Thanks!
***MUST INCLUDE SAMPLES OF YOUR WORK.. Otherwise your message will be ignored



  • Location: anywhere
  • do NOT contact me with unsolicited services or offers
  • Compensation: yes

Instead of losing money on your manuscript, why not make the most of it? If you don't know how to publish your own story, pick up a copy of How to Publish on Amazon Kindle, Smashwords, & Nook the Easy Way! Only $2.99!

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Seeing Bifrost...

Credit: Link below

A breakthrough using data from the Gaia-ESO project has provided evidence backing up theoretically predicted divisions in the chemical composition of the stars that make up the Milky Way's disc -- the vast collection of giant gas clouds and billions of stars that give our Galaxy its 'flying saucer' shape.



By tracking the fast-produced elements, specifically magnesium in this study, astronomers can determine how rapidly different parts of the Milky Way were formed. The research suggests that stars in the inner regions of the Galactic disc were the first to form, supporting ideas that our Galaxy grew from the inside-out.



Using data from the 8-m VLT in Chile, one of the world's largest telescopes, an international team of astronomers took detailed observations of stars with a wide range of ages and locations in the Galactic disc to accurately determine their 'metallicity': the amount of chemical elements in a star other than hydrogen and helium, the two elements most stars are made from.



Immediately after the Big Bang, the Universe consisted almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, with levels of "contaminant metals" growing over time. Consequently, older stars have fewer elements in their make-up -- so have lower metallicity.



"The different chemical elements of which stars -- and we -- are made are created at different rates -- some in massive stars which live fast and die young, and others in sun-like stars with more sedate multi-billion-year lifetimes," said Professor Gerry Gilmore, lead investigator on the Gaia-ESO Project.



Science Daily:
Milky Way May Have Formed 'Inside-Out:' Gaia Provides New Insight Into Galactic Evolution

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Can't wait until the walkers are moaning at your door? Try The Butterman Cometh. Only $0.99.

A new teaser trailer for The Walking Dead has been revealed - scroll down and click to watch. The 31-second-clip focuses on Andrew Lincoln's character Rick Grimes, as he tries to build morale among his fellow survivors following a confrontation with David Morrissey's The Governor. The zombie show is set to return from its mid-season break in the US on February 9. It was revealed in October last year that The Walking Dead had been renewed for a fifth season. It is currently the most-watched show in America among adults aged 18-49 and the premiere episode of season four drew a best ever audience of 16 million viewers.

Read more at http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/new-teaser-trailer-for-the-walking-dead-revealed/329544#J8pqUpLZXUk4oHE4.99

Check out Fleshbags, the 'Sickest. Zombies. Ever' according to Zombiephiles.com.

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Kaizen Text Webapp Update

Just a quick update to the Kaizen app. 

Kaizen Text app has been updated with some bug fixes and some minor functionality upgrades.

the most important new feature is the addition of the Average number of words per sentence calculator. 

The Oxford Guide to Writing - provides that sentence variety is key to maintaining a overall effective style. The Guide provides a handy short cut by stating that sentences should be between 15 and 20 words long. Shorter and you run the risk of choppy statements. Longer, and you risk losing the reader in a sea of commas, semi-colons and adverbial phrases. Of course, different lengths, in the right pen, can make magic. However, it never hurts to evaluate your writing relative to some of the metrics the style mavens think are essential to good writing.

Simply enter your text into the Kaizen text field and see how it shakes out.  Use the Kaizen Text App here

Moorsgate Media 




On the bug list side, a bug that prevented the complete analysis of a text where there were words without syllables (such as made up words) has been fixed.

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        Here's a snippet of things to come.  Aura, The Art of Winston Blakely is my first art book and

        its almost here.

         Chock full of goodies from all genres, Sci Fi, Horror, Sword and Soul, Humor, Pulp Adventures

          and Fine Arts.

          It has a special introduction by Jarvis Sheffield, creator of Black Science Fiction Society.com,

          so you know it must be good.  Thanks to William Hayashi for his fabulous interview on

    

          me, months ago... which by his wonderful inspiration that propel me to do this book.  I  had

         always wanted to do an artbook, but never felt the right motivation until that faithful interview.

           Its good when creative people inspire each other, makes for an excellent product.

              Now... in order of appearance...

                1. Kotas, The Dragon ( cover from Immortal Fantasy, created by Winston Blakely )

                2.   Midnight Phantom Strikes ( Black Pulp Hero from the 1930's, based on

                       the writings of Jemir Johnson

                3.   The Road  ( illustration from Leopard's Moon- illustrated tales of Sword and Soul

                       by Melvin Carter

          

                      

                 

          

       

           

       

          

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Dr. King: Science Advocate...


I often admired Dr. King and my own pastor during this time period: Dr. Warnie C. Hay (deceased). Neither man seemed at all threatened by science, its conclusions and its implications. In Dr. King's case, illustrated by what's said in the embed above from Ms. Nichelle Nichols, he knew the power of imagery and its implications/impact on the self-perceptions of young people. This, and the responsible teaching of scientific reasoning and critical thinking skills will be the "rising tide that lifts all boats." (JFK)



Quotes are from the article: "Martin Luther King: Science Advocate," by Cara Santa Maria on Huffington Post.



"Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary. Science keeps religion from sinking into the valley of crippling irrationalism and paralyzing obscurantism. Religion prevents science from falling into the marsh of obsolete materialism and moral nihilism."



On the Vietnam War:



"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."



On the "amoral majority" bending scientific findings to fit their ideology:



"So men conveniently twisted the insights of religion, science, and philosophy to give sanction to the doctrine of white supremacy...they will even argue that God was the first segregationist. 'Red birds and blue birds don't fly together,' they contend...they turn to some pseudo-scientific writing and argue that the Negro's brain is smaller than the white man's brain. They do not know, or they refuse to know, that the idea of an inferior or superior race has been refuted by the best evidence of the science of anthropology. Great anthropologists, like Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, and Melville J. Herskovits agree that although there may be inferior and superior individuals within all races, there is no superior or inferior race. And segregationists refuse to acknowledge that there are four types of blood, and these four types are found within every racial group."



"Slavery in America was perpetuated not merely by human badness but also by human blindness...Men convinced themselves that a system that was so economically profitable must be morally justifiable...Science was commandeered to prove the biological inferiority of the Negro. Even philosophical logic was manipulated [exemplified by] an Aristotelian syllogism: 'All men are made in the image of God. God, as everyone knows, is not a Negro. Therefore, the Negro is not a man.'"



On man's brotherhood:



"Through our scientific and technological genius we've made of this world a neighborhood. And now through our moral and ethical commitment we must make of it a brotherhood. We must all learn to live together as brothers--or we will all perish together as fools. This is the great issue facing us today. No individual can live alone; no nation can live alone. We are tied together."

...and I am grateful sir, in the time of your brief light, that you "did not sneeze."

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A Black Out of Black Heroes

A Black Out of Black Heroes


    
It all began when in the late 80's I would stop by the corner store to buy a Captain American comic book for 75 cents.  Then in the early 90's when I was a young man in the US Army.  This man would sell me once a month, Brother Man, Dictator of Discipline.  That was the first black superhero comic book I ever saw with excellent writing and great artwork.  That's when I started to seek other black superhero comic books.

     Sadly, there wasn't any I could find.  All the comic book stores were covered from top to bottom with comic books. But none of them look like me.

     Now in the 2014, I have a company called Heroes Like Me Entertainment that is dedicated to presenting stories of sci-fi, action, mystery and fun with heroes that look like me and you.

     I have created a short video called The Alien Ambassador: Nightmare of the Gorans.  It is an attempt to present a black teenage superhero to multimedia thru YouTube.   

     It is also a launching pad for my endeavor to seek funding from the Internet community to produce The Alien Ambassador; The Movie. 

     As I began to send out press releases about my project. I noticed I was getting little attention and no responses back from comic book websites and sci-fi companies.  I even turned to African american websites and have gotten positive responses from a few. One of them is Black Science Fiction Society

     I was upset when Marvel Studios didn't green light a Black Panther movie but instead green lighted Guardians of the Galaxy.  A group few have heard of, but since it's Marvel it will make millions of dollars.

     I firmly believe there will not be any black superhero movies on the screen until a black creator makes once for everyone (Black, White, Latino, Asian, Indian) to see. 

     Dragon Ball Z and Speed Racer are Japanese cartoon shows that were made into movies.  Instead of the lead characters being Japanese, they replaced  them with white actors.

     That was wrong.  The movie could have been successful if the movie studios stayed true to the original material and kept them Japanese.

     I know that if my characters where white that I would have gotten a better response for my project from both white and black audiences.

    Several years ago a black cartoon movie was made called The Golden Blaze. It had a A-list cast of black actors, but it wasn't commercially successful.  Even balck folks didn't support it well.   

    Nichelle Nichols of Star Trek fame once considered to leaving the show in the sixties because she felt that she was a glorified telephone operator.  Martin Luther King Jr heard about this and asked her to stay on the show since she was a positive black woman on a sci-fi show.

    She did.  That is why we know who Nichelle Nichols is.

     Another project worth looking at is Earth Squadron by the creator of Black Science Fiction Society.  I will definitely contribute to it's development. 

     We need to see heroes in tights of color, we need to see heroes of color too fly space ships and chart alien worlds.  We need to see heroes that look like me an you.  I love Superman, Spider man, Batman and Wonder Woman but we have been denied the opportunity from the major movie studios to see a black hero on the screen.

     We have to make our own, We have to support those who are trying to make that happen by any means necessary.

-Christopher Love   
  
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Troll Taming...

SMOSH: The 18 Types of Internet Trolls

My wife often asks me: "WHY do you engage these people?" I believe I've encountered a few of the eighteen in some epic exchanges.



My answer is very simply stated: they engage me, as the example illustrates below often by name. As you know, I don't look for confrontations. But some trolls I assume feel I've upset their sensibilities, or their viewpoints I've intruded upon as a resident of the "reality-based community" (no apologies that science as an enterprise is "the substance of things observed; the evidence of things measured, defined and cataloged"). Here in this instance for once, I wasn't discussing science, though I can see where the sensitive would feel umbrage with my general assessment. The exchange is brief and I hope you find my rejoinder at the end of the embed entertaining.

Hey: for one Sunday, I'm not ranting...(and hopefully, Gollum will not self-identify).

 

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Of Comets and Gods in the Making

Asferit had not grown up; she didn’t know where she came from; could not conceive of childhood. No memories of parents, no recollection of family. On the vast empty world that served as her lab, she built the probes and put a little bit of herself in each one.

Her machine-form, ancient, slow and sputtering came to life, wheezing through the long corridors of the silent lab, its darkness masking the distant empty spaces which Asferi imagined were once filled with life.

She looked through her thoughts and realized she had lost any hope of memory, that part of her was already circling a distant star aborning with life. She looked in on those places when she woke to see the results of her work; on so many worlds life spawned.

With the next launch, she would lose the memory of those places, there was so little of her remaining. Enough for three, no four probes. Then she would cease to remember why she was, what she was. She would forget how to exist. But not yet.

She completed the next probe, winding the engine and orienting it along the galactic plane; her sensor array aligning the probe with a wandering comet; she planned to deposit herself within the life-giving molecules within its frozen mass.

She knew little about her past, but knew that she must not be able to be found. This was the only memory that remained; hide from the Darkness.

As she loaded the last probe, she considered the first probe she ever sent, millennia ago; there were monuments within the halls of the lab in her hubris then, she considered them a successful reincarnation of her people.

Each representation was filled with the temporal signature of that once great race; a temporal residue of failure. It spoke of a great race, masters of time and space; they flourished in the dark between the stars. Then the Darkness came. She was overconfident. She slept assured of their success her mission completed.

In the time between sleeping and waking, her cycle of regeneration before attempting to seed again, the great race was gone.

Found. They did not heed the warnings she sent in those early days. She gave far more of herself then. She came to them in visions, taught them secrets to harness the hidden nature of matter; revealed to them the nature of energies, both planetary and interstellar. They would worship her, revere her and believe her to be a god.

In the end, it was not enough. They were consumed, their greatness undone. She sent less and less of herself from then on. Godhood failed them. Perhaps obscurity would serve them better.

She sent less each time, only tiny packages of micromachines capable of changing matter, capable of modifying genomes, empowering the creatures spawned of her with abilities even greater than the First Race. Psychometric representations of them were all that remained, echoes in the timestream of history. In their hubris, they ruptured time and space and like the world her lab hung above, cracked the crust of their world and were lost in a temporal vortex of their own making. They had such potential. Squandered.

Then she began sending only the memory of what she was, embedded within complex epigentic echoes. No longer would she shape the universe for them, they would have to work for their survival, perhaps they would be stronger for it. She appeared to her descendents only in dreams; visions of what they were, memories of who she was, memories she no longer possessed.

Her memory was great once and she seeded thousands of worlds with it. But like the ephemeral nature of memory, so few knew what they saw. Many went mad. Most dreamed of demiurges, mad deva whose powers ravaged worlds. These memories destroyed half of them before they could achieve spaceflight and reach for the stars themselves. Religions they spawned consumed them.

Now, she sent only cells and precellular matter. The very least of herself, the essence of who she was, the final matter of her being; hidden in comets, cloaked in meteor swarms, hidden on the boots of other starfarers.

Time had taught her patience, though she had lost her memories, she was confident of this final strategy. To hide herself on millions of worlds, her final probe-ships would leave a legacy on millions of worlds. She found the last star she would use and loaded the final probe-ship with the hardiest constructions she had ever made. She deconstructed the worldship; her lab, her home for millenia of millenia, breaking down every part of it, reforging it for a final effort.

The planet below was also consumed, her last effort would require everything. It was a long dead world lost to antiquity when the universe was young. Of the Darkness, she could not remember, but she knew this: as long as there was light, her people would survive.

The final instructions to her probeship would have her descending into her planet’s unstable star. It’s final fluctuations revealed what she knew was the inevitable outcome; and she planned to use it to her advantage. Her final self would not be aware of the result. The final cells of her body were distributed within millions of pieces of her world and her lab. Each calibrated to arrive at a star somewhere in her galaxy. Each single cell would find a world ready for life.

She could no longer coerce planets into life. She could no longer force matter or energy to take the shape she deemed. She was now only able to influence the tiniest aspects. Asferit would only be able to nudge a planet toward Life. The Darkness would always be ready to claim her people but now they would be scattered; to worlds with the galaxy and without.

She seeded the galactic wind and waited for a supernova to blow them where it would. Her starseeds hardened against the impending blastwave, they would, with the tiniest bit of her final design, travel faster than light toward their final destinations.

As the star which lit her world, gave her people life, watched them die and patiently waited until they could be reborn, exploded, Asferit now waited in turn.

In those last seconds as the waves of radiation and coronal debris swept over the remnants of her cannibalized world, she subsumed herself within the starseeds and the near-immortal being Asferit, last of her kind, was no more.

And yet now she was pure purpose, no ambitions, no plan, no dreams of godhood, no longer a radiant harbingers of dooms lighting the skies of primitive worlds.

She would be the essence of Life itself; the Darkness be damned.

Of Comets and Gods in the Making © Thaddeus Howze 2013, All Rights Reserved

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Comic-con and COSMOS...


The promised "more"...



Rebooting Carl Sagan's seminal "Cosmos" miniseries three decades later is almost impossible — unless you happen to be renowned astrophysicist and science educator Neil deGrasse Tyson.



For those who may have missed the original back in 1980, "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage" was a documentary series on PBS that explored the universe as well as the history of scientific discovery. Sagan's topics of discussionranged from Japanese folklore to debunking astrology to the ultimate fate of the stars and galaxies that surround us.



During a roundtable discussion at New York Comic Con this past October, Tyson explained why it's time for a new iteration of the beloved astronomy documentary, and how he and his team of scientists and entertainers hope to engage and enlighten a new generation of viewers. SPACE.com sat in on this roundtable, which also included Ann Druyan, Brannon Braga and Mitchell Cannold, all producers for the 2014 reimagining of "Cosmos."



Druyan is the producer of the original "Cosmos" as well as Sagan's widow. Braga was a producer on three "Star Trek" series, while Cannold is a major Hollywood producer with a background in journalism. Not present was Seth MacFarlane, the creator and voice actor behind "Family Guy," who first went to bat for "Cosmos" on Fox and is now its executive producer.



Space.com: Rebooting 'Cosmos' by Marshall Honorof

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Mortality

Your mortality is a thing with which you must accept, become accustomed to and intimately familiar with until it becomes a part of you, but you must also learn not to dwell upon it.

 

 

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PROLOGUE

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

                                                                                           -Lord Acton, British Historian

 

      Originally part of a letter written to Bishop Mandell Creighton by British Lord Acton in 1887, the above and widely known quotation highlights a tragic aspect of human rule: the pursuit of absolute power. The insatiable desire for absolute power by various political rulers has known few bounds. Centuries of human rule by some of the world’s great empires such as Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece (Macedonia) and Rome attest to this indisputably grim reality. Hans Morgenthau, considered by various leading authorities to be among the world’s most renowned political scientists, expounded in his critically acclaimed book Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace: “At the bottom of disputes that entail the risk of war, there is a tension between the desire to preserve the existing distribution of power and the desire to overthrow it.”

     Throughout human history, many among the world’s powerful elite have employed nefarious and brutally repressive methods-in addition to political, economic and military action-in their attempts to achieve absolute power, as well as to remain in power. Sadly, the vanquished in many of these military conflicts, which at times comprised entire populations, were afforded only two choices: obedience or death. Often, those who were in positions of great power had adamantly claimed that such actions-despite the insidious brutality of these actions-were ultimately for the “good” of these vanquished people. Evidently, those who were at great risk of losing their freedoms, land and ultimately their very lives for this so-called goodness concluded otherwise. As history has often attested, oppressed people, with fierce zeal, fought back against their brutal and merciless oppressors. This unfortunate situation is just as pervasive in other inhabited regions of the galaxy. Deadly Artifact, a time-progressive novel, confronts this troubling issue at various social and political levels. In essence, the actions of two individuals will form the underlying basis for this unfolding and highly emotional drama. Slovas Theamas Larian is this first of these two individuals. Eminently skilled, Slovas is employed by the most powerful corporation on his home world.
 

     Strikingly handsome, highly educated, exceedingly articulate and fiercely aggressive, he is considered by many people within the scientific community to be the most brilliant physicist in his field. Slovas’ in-depth knowledge of quantum physics has made him highly esteemed among his colleagues, as well as the absolute envy among other physicists throughout the world. Presently, he is heading one of the most revolutionary and highly perilous experimental projects that the scientific world has ever known. The successful implementation of this experimental project, via Slovas’ expert direction, will enable the military to become the most powerful force in the galaxy. Interestingly, the second individual, a female exoplanetary archaeologist, is determined to stop Slovas. In time, a fiercely contentious struggle between Slovas and this young female will trigger worldwide social-political turmoil.

     The root cause of this bizarre situation gives us a compelling reason to step back, as it were, and examine closely some of the key historical events that gave rise to this present situation; a situation that will inevitably become one of the most devastating conflicts in this planet’s entire history. As such, Deadly Artifact involves numerous multinational, multilingual, multicultural and multiethnic planetary civilizations located throughout the galaxy. As you progress in this story, you will encounter unusual situations. During certain scenes, you will be transported into the distant past while in other scenes; you will be transported into the distant future before being brought back into the present. Yet, these past, present and future scenes are all part of the very same story. Bold-lettered date markers will indicate where and when you will be in the stream of time. Thus, you will “engage” in conflict with the akerians of planet Mewau. You will “establish” diplomatic relations with Surăvian government officials of the People’s Union of Surăvia, one of 160 nations located on planet Akrosia. Be aware that some officials within the Venquost United Delegations Complex have given dire warnings about the Surăvian military.

     Located on the planet Harcon, Akrosia’s interplanetary neighbor, the Venquost United Delegations Complex is a government agency created to maintain interplanetary peace, a most difficult venture to say the very least. Speaking in behalf of these concerned individuals, Arrak Naluras, the Pratovian or supreme ruler of the Harconian nation of Eusoria, have warned that unsuspecting individuals who had chosen to become close associates of Surăvian military officials had somehow “disappeared.” Continuing tensions between planets Akrosia and Harcon, due to a previous interplanetary military conflict, are decidedly major factors in Pratovian Naluras’ warning.


     Therefore, good prudence is highly suggested when “dealing” with Anapov Grugor Morvanyic, the Tasurian (supreme ruler) of the Akrosian nation of Surăvia. Fortunately, not all political rulers, whether located on or off world, are malevolent individuals. Thus, if you are into interstellar trade and commerce, feel free to “shake hands” with the ilari, the indigenous biological species of planet Xendira. A socially progressive and very friendly people, the ilari, under the benevolent leadership of Kwame Namumsa, are always in search of new technology and other goods. At times though, the ilari have had to prove-militarily speaking-that friendliness is not necessarily a sign of weakness. Namumsa’s supreme ruling position as the Kaaria becomes a critical factor in future interstellar commerce. In stark contrast, though, you may want to be extremely cautious around Ashumu Saguto.

     Saguto, of planet Tibrak, is of the indigenous biological species called rabanian. Born in Yashani, a country located on the continent of Temir, Ashumu Saguto is one ambitiously proud and fierce individual. She is also her government’s imperial warlord. At length, you will come across the technologically proficient and highly militaristic thaons of the planet Meiros. At times, thaon high military officials offer their interstellar neighbors an “interesting” trade deal. Thaon officials will offer you your life in exchange for your planet. Obviously, many people would scoff at such a seemingly ludicrous trade proposal. Be aware, though, that the thaon high military possesses exotic weaponry to “persuade” potential clients of this once-in-a-lifetime offer. Moreover, thaon military high officials do mean once. Along with this, many people are concerned over a rumored and ominous threat that is causing considerable fear and apprehension to spread among the inhabitants of numerous planets located throughout the galaxy: the emergence of a central galactic empire. Many others, however, regard the notion of a single military power subjugating the entire galaxy as the very height of absurdity. Despite persistent rumors to the contrary, various military analysts contend that the success of such an enormous endeavor would be impossible.

     Most likely, many people would favor this consensus in lieu of various published estimates regarding the galactic population. According to the most conservative of published estimates, the number of known inhabited planets within the galaxy range approximately from three to four million, while inhabited planets orbiting stars outside the galactic periphery are deemed as far too scattered and insignificant. Regardless, two diametrically opposing concepts, the fight for justice and the so-called right of conquest, will form the first of several major aspects of this story.


     Deadly Artifact will present this first aspect from various social, ethnic and cultural perspectives. The central location of this burgeoning conflict between Slovas Larian and the female archaeological student is Dabenar, a planet orbiting Abraleon-Sul. One of many typical medium-sized stars, Abraleon-Sul is located within the galactic habitable zone. Ranging approximately 23,000 to 29,000 light-years from the galactic center, the galactic habitable zone is where all the necessary chemical elements for supporting complex biological life forms are found. In addition, supernova explosions play a considerable role in enriching the interstellar medium with higher mass elements, particularly carbon, oxygen and iron. With its eight continental landmasses, Dabenar is the planetary home of a technologically and highly advanced and ethnically diverse race of over 7.2 billion people whose indigenous biological species is selothian.

     Like many other worlds within the galaxy, Dabenar possesses sufficient gravity, abundant life-sustaining water and a breathable atmosphere. This includes beautiful land areas, lush forest, prodigious amounts of plant, animal and marine life, huge oceans, tall mountains, majestic cities and one inhabited moon, Oberion. With its multinational, multiethnic and multilingual civilization, Dabenar comprises a number of highly diverse cultures dating back to antiquity. In addition, this industry-rich world has long been a major center of interstellar trade and commerce throughout various inhabited regions of the galaxy. Among the various languages and dialects spoken by Dabenar’s diverse inhabitants, Ethrosian, Lacocian, Eucosian and Umanjii are among the principal languages. This language situation was primarily brought about due to a series of major events that dramatically altered this planet’s history. As indicated earlier, a brief and concise summary of these devastating historical events can thus shed significant illumination on the present day situation. To begin, let us travel just over 4,200 years into the past. At this time in history, Dabenar’s entire civilization comprises two hundred nations. A considerable number of these nations are fighting among each other.

     Nearly unimaginable worldwide change, however, is on the horizon. The year 2027 U.E. (Udician Era) will mark the beginning of a period of social-political upheaval the likes of which Dabenar’s inhabitants have never seen before. The catalysts for this upheaval are two very powerful rulers, Emperor Teranus Accasior of the nation of Perasia and Emperor Omarus Clasian of the nation of Udicia. These two emperors are the very best of friends. On the hot summer evening of 23 Ithar 2027 U.E. during the course of a stately dinner, Emperor Accasior makes a stunning proposal to Emperor Clasian.


     “My fine and wonderful friend,” Emperor Accasior begins, “many nations are in a state of severe crisis. Come! Let us join our forces and together we will bring peace, security and prosperity to all. We will unite the world! Our world!” A few seemingly long seconds pass before Udician Emperor Clasian fully understands Perasian Emperor Accasior’s unique proposal. “My fine and very wonderful friend,” Emperor Clasian replies with a profuse smile and enthusiastic laugh, “let us do just so.” Emperor Accasior is ecstatic with his best friend’s reply. The foundation for vast worldwide change has been laid. Militarily, Perasia and Udicia, located on the southern continent of Coradias, are the two most powerful nations on Dabenar. In addition, Coradias and Prosias are among several continents that are located in Dabenar’s western hemisphere. By the early autumn of the year 2027 U.E., Emperor Accasior and Emperor Clasian have formed a powerful military alliance.

     Nearly four years later in the spring of 2023 U.E., the Perasians, led by Supreme Commander Belshacian Nazzar, and the Udicians, led by Supreme Commander Zucabien Sulaceas III, embark on a military campaign of world conquest that would last for thirty-two years. The first to fall to Perasian-Udician forces are four smaller nations located in western Coradias; Macedia, Thessonia, Stolitica and Corathias. Within one year, all four nations are subjugated. Knowing that resistance is futile, a few other national rulers sue for peace and relinquish control of their national sovereignty. The Perasian-Udician military campaign comes to a near completion twenty years later in the late summer of 2003 U.E. Thus, one hundred and ninety-three nations have been brought under Perasian-Udician rule. For Emperors Accasior and Clasian, total world domination is within reach. Only one obstacle remains.

     Enter the Sarcatian Empire. Comprising seven nations, this mighty empire is this last remaining and highly defiant obstacle to Perasian-Udician world domination. Unbelievably distressing reports from distant nations around the world regarding Perasian-Udician military conquests had been reaching the Sarcatian people many years earlier. However, only within the past several years have Sarcatian military rulers come to learn of the devastating extent of the Perasian-Udician military campaign. Subsequently, Sarcatian military rulers had long begun preparing for what they knew was going to be the largest military invasion that they would ever face. Respectively, Perasia and Udicia are the first and second most powerful nations on Dabenar. Sarcatia is Dabenar’s third most powerful nation, a fact that quite a few Perasian-Udician military commanders have known for quite some time. Still, this fact does not deter Perasian-Udician military commanders from completing their goal.


     When the enormous Perasian-Udician naval armada enter the territorial waters of the Sarcatian Empire, Perasian-Udician naval commanders dispatch three highly courageous representatives to Sarcatian naval commanders. The Perasian-Udician ultimatum to Sarcatian military and government officials is unmistakably clear: surrender peacefully or face the alternative. Enraged by this ultimatum, Sarcatian government officials have two of the Perasian-Udician representatives put to death. One surviving, yet wounded Perasian-Udician representative is allowed to return to deliver the Sarcatian response: prepare to die. Sarcatia, Sohay, Unasia, Swahea, Uguma, Monomo and Akumu, the seven nations that make up the Sarcatian Empire, are located on the eastern continent of Afarika. Together, these seven nations make up North Afarika. Sarcatia is the undisputed ruling center of this centuries-long mighty empire.

     Among the many languages spoken among the Afarikan people, Kutu, Xitsonga, Swati, Setswana and Umanjii are the dominant languages. Warrior Queen Asantewaa is Sarcatia’s sovereign ruler. Queen Asantewaa and her people have vowed to fight, to the very death, the invading Perasian-Udician armed forces. A brilliant military strategist in her own right, Asantewaa takes the lead in battle against the one million-strong Perasian-Udician army. For the next twelve years, Queen Asantewaa leads her military forces in this offensive and defensive battle. The fighting between Sarcatian forces and Perasian-Udician forces is on a level unseen in Dabenar’s entire history. Like streams of water, blood flows freely. Employing the most deadly and sophisticated weaponry of that historical period, Sarcatian warriors deal a humiliatingly crushing first blow to Perasian-Udician military forces. In the first few days of this battle, 60,898 Perasian soldiers and 35,689 Udician soldiers suffer an ignominious death at the hands of these highly skilled and fierce Sarcatian warriors. The number of Sarcatian deaths amounts to 5,654.

     Initially, Perasian-Udician military commanders were confident of a quick and easy victory over an entire people whom they had ostensibly labeled as primitive and uneducated savages. Such overconfidence, however, had in time proven seriously flawed. Perasian-Udician military commanders came to the hard realization that they had wholly underestimated the sheer resolve and determination of the Sarcatian people to resist subjugation. In the face of these devastatingly bloody losses, Perasian-Udician military commanders had come to despise Queen Asantewaa, as well as respect her. Still, Perasian-Udician military commanders are highly adept in adapting their battle strategies in the face of these difficult challenges.


     Despite suffering further bloody losses in subsequent years, Perasian-Udician military commanders continue to refine their battle strategies, which enables them to eventually to gain the upper hand in this war. The turning point comes in the year 1993 U.E. during Andar, the first summer month of the lunar calendar year. Near the base of Mount Atieno located in Northwestern Sarcatia, Queen Asantewaa’s warriors suffer their first major defeat. Afterward, the tide of battle begins to turn in favor of Perasian-Udician armed forces. Regrettably, Sarcatian warrior losses continue to mount. Thus, the Sarcatian Empire has entered its last days. Despite her fierce resolve, Queen Asantewaa finally suffers defeat in 1991 U.E. in Nithra, the first of the three autumn months. Although losing a substantial number of her own people, her forces had slain 340,890 enemy soldiers, just over one-third of the Perasian-Udician army.

     No other foreign ruler, a female one especially, had given the Perasian-Udician forces such unusually fierce and bloodied resistance. Nevertheless, by 1990 U.E., Dabenar’s entire civilization is under total dominion of the Perasian-Udician World Empire. More than any other major historical event, the fall of the Sarcatian Empire will dramatically impact international politics for many centuries to come. The enduring legacy of this historical event will have a profound effect on the social attitudes of many cultures. “Peace and security for all!” Emperor Accasior and Emperor Clasian shout in grand unison before a throng of 25,000 Perasian and Udician subjects. “The Perasian-Udician World Empire,” Perasian Emperor Accasior proudly boasts, “will unite all nations and peoples under a single world government and thus usher in an era of peace, security and prosperity never before seen in this planet’s entire history.” In agreement with their beloved emperors, the crowd shouts in grand approval. The passing of time, though, reveals a far different outcome than what either emperor had originally predicted.

     Internal strife, bitter contention, power struggles, numerous social-political and armed military conflicts between succeeding Perasian and Udician emperors, as well as their subject nations, wreck continual havoc, ruin and destruction throughout the Perasian-Udician World Empire. This turbulent situation comes to a devastating head 1,451 years later on 12 Vophar 539 U.E. In a nighttime surprise attack, Udician General Cybrus and his 50,000-member attack force descends upon the Perasian capital city of Barsathius during the Perasian holiday of Harmagdon; a day of grand festivity accompanied by wild revelry, live music, heavy drinking and licentious behavior.

     Obviously, inebriated Perasian soldiers are not particularly well prepared to fend off a major military invasion. In just one night, Barsathius, the mighty Perasian capital falls to her former military ally. In compliance with Emperor Ahasuerus’ direct command, Udician military commanders hang Perasian Emperor Azian Belshasus III from a fifty-foot pole. Due to many other well-coordinated attacks by various Udician military commanders, Perasian fortified strongholds located throughout the world suffer a similar downfall. Nearly three years later on Thuan, 15 Vagien 536 U.E., this devastating military conflict between Perasia and Udicia ends. The Perasian death toll is truly horrific: 8,365,654 soldiers. The Udician death toll comes in second at 6,276,432 soldiers. Even more disheartening is that over 4,200,000 civilians had perished horribly in this cataclysmic worldwide war. “Brutal war,” as one historian later lamented, “respects no one.”

     By the autumn of 535 U.E., the Udician capital city of Carsathia reigns as the supreme capital of Dabenar’s newest world power: the Udician World Empire. This time, though, no one dares to utter any promises of peace, security and unity. Socially and politically, the legacy of this devastating military conflict will have a major and lasting impact on world history. From 535 U.E., we fast-forward 2,862 years to the present day Betracian Era (B.E.). The year is 2226. Dabenar’s modern day government is vastly different from her ancient form of rulership. The selothian military is among the most powerful military forces in the galactic region. The former and ancient capital of Carsathia is now merely one of many popular tourist attractions. Lethasius is Dabenar’s present day planetary capital. A major metropolitan city, Lethasius is located in Gothian, a country situated on the west coast of the continent of Prosias. Alonias Lesamius Gandrien is the Aprincior, in essence Dabenar’s supreme ruler. He is also the commander-in-chief of all land-based, sea-based and space-based armed forces. Although Aprincior Gandrien wields great power and authority, his executive powers is by no means absolute. Aprincior Gandrien shares his power with two other agencies of the government, the Ahira Legislative Body and the Kijorian Judiciary Assembly.

     Various other alien planetary governments, such as the aforementioned akerian government of planet Mewau and the Iotian government of planet Valasus, are highly distrustful of the selothian government. Selothian political and economical influence has become a pivotal factor in interstellar relations, as well as tensions. Unfortunately, the people of Dabenar are undergoing a major crisis. The aforementioned female exoplanetary archaeologist, whose name is Quafeira Ta’ahnn Sibekk, has become the central focus of this crisis.

     Born on the spring date of 21 Naru 2113 B.E., Quafeira attends the Brasdean Educational Center in Pelepos, a large city located in Gothian. At 5’11”, the taller-than-average female has a slight medium build. Her dark amber-color skin accentuates her dark indigo hair. She had originally set her sights on traveling throughout the galaxy in search of ancient ruins located on different planets. By the time she reaches age twenty-five, dire circumstances compel her to put her archaeological career on hold. She becomes locked in a legal battle against Slovas Larian’s employer: Tavus-Alverand Corporation. This legal battle brings upon her physical, mental and emotional trauma that few females have ever experienced. In addition, this legal battle is triggering major social unrest among large segments of Dabenar’s civilian population. Law enforcement, government and military officials are also being drawn into this burgeoning crisis. Two major events have spawned this crisis.

     First, the creation of a gravitic weapon of nearly inconceivable and planet-pulverizing power has raised profound fear among various other planetary governments. Second, the creator of this fearsome device, Daljik Ra’as, another brilliant research physicist employed by Travus-Alverand Corporation, had mysteriously disappeared while en route to a business meeting. Sadly, Daljik has never been seen or heard from again. Yet, there is an unusual twist to this second event. Daljik’s disappearance occurred six months before Quafeira was born. Thus, her deep interest in Daljik began to grow only after she became old enough to fully understand many of the turbulent events that surrounded his disappearance. At the tender age of nine, Quafeira became troubled over the fact that no one within her family would answer any of her questions regarding Daljik Ra’as. Unable to gather the answers she wanted, she began her own investigation to discover the truth about Daljik Ra’as. She began her investigative efforts on 21 Naru 2129, her sixteenth birthday; a day that would prove to be anything except sweet. In her quest to uncover the facts, the days turn into months. The months turn into years. The more facts she uncovered, the angrier she became. Many people who know Quafeira are bewildered by her acute interest, as well as her profound anxiety over the disappearance of this long-missing research physicist, that is until they learn a shocking revelation: Daljik Ra’as is her father.

     Astonishingly, the missing, yet critical element to this crisis is located on a distant planet called Earth. Brothers Vernon and Ronald Clark and their best friend, Victor Williams, are residents of Anonwood, a coastal metropolitan city located in Northern California’s Humboldt County. These teenagers were coming up as younger children during the turbulent decade of the 1960s.

     During that decade and later on, tens of thousands of young American men and women were protesting against various events such as the Vietnam War and the “secret war” in Cambodia. In their battle against racial discrimination  and segregation, black Americans were fighting to obtain equal rights, better employment opportunities and decent housing. Along with their fight for equal status and equal pay in a male-dominated work environment, many thousands of women of all races were protesting against sexism and rampant sexual harassment. Fierce rioting, especially during the summer, would break out. Yet, despite the hardships and hostilities that these teenagers endure, they are ill prepared for the one encounter that will thrust them into the midst of the aforementioned alien conflict; a conflict that nearly tears their lives apart and plunges them into multiple life-threatening situations.

     Their roles in this alien conflict begin shortly after they make a gruesome discovery: three skeletal remains in a long-abandoned cave. Two of the skeletal remains are of human origin; the third are the skeletal remains of an extraterrestrial being. In addition, these teenagers discover two alien devices of unknown functions. By meticulous research, the teenagers uncover a troubling link to their macabre discovery, a man by the name of Silas Jeremiah Baldwin. Born on 18 June 1812 at the start of what was called the Second Revolutionary War between the United States and Great Britain, Silas was a staunch southern loyalist who witnessed firsthand many of the violent and devastating events that ignited the bloodiest conflict in U.S. history: the American Civil War. Sadly, tragedy befell Silas nearly seven months before the 12 April 1861 Southern Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. In the early morning hours of Monday, 17 September 1860, Silas, after a brief encounter with a strange individual, is killed by an unearthly weapon. Silas’ untimely death initiates a series of unusually bizarre events that will last well into the latter part of the 20th century.

     In essence, numerous human and alien individuals of various ages, nationalities, languages, ethnic cultures, professions and historical periods will become principal factors in this situation; a situation that will intensify the teenagers’ burgeoning role in this intergalactic conflict. Two processions of dark and tumultuous events running concurrently on Earth and Dabenar, two planets spaced over 13,000 light-years apart, will merge at a critical point in the distant future. The culmination of these events will be the catalyst for what could potentially become the galaxy’s deadliest conflict. Now, in part one of a triple trilogy spanning four hundred years-beginning in 1860-and involving numerous and diverse alien civilizations, an epic journey begins.


 

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