Conflict with Christianity?

Book signing at the Lion & Rose Pub in San Antonio, Tx.

I'm going to share some pictures with you from my book signing at the Lion and Rose Pub in San Antonio while I talk about a few things. I've had several interesting discussions recently with people about Harmonic Wars. Some people are already asking how my storyline conflicts with the story of creation in the Bible. First things first: this is a Science Fiction story. There are aspects of this book that are way out there away from reality. But other aspects will have you questioning the narratives that historians and Egyptologists insist upon. But nothing that I've said or written is to be taken as in conflict with the Bible. I included my Christianity in this book, rather than to exclude it.

"But Doug, your book is about humans coming from another planet. How is that not in conflict with the Bible?" So many Ancient Aliens theorists insist that all great things accomplished in our past had to be done by the aliens. Sorry, but that sells humanity so short, and I just can't accept that.  There is nothing in the Bible that identifies the location of Earth. I know that can seem in conflict, but remember that this is a SciFi story. From that aspect, Harmonic Wars is no different than C.S. Lewis's Narnia series, but more on the edge and written for adults. So to put things absolutely clear, I believe firmly that God created all that is in six days. I don't understand how, where, or even when. Those things really don't matter to me.

Marissa helping me set up

People also get wrapped up in time, and I think that is the most dangerous thing we can do as believers. First, you're putting humanly constraints on an omnipotent God, who exists outside of time as we know it. How many times have self-proclaimed prophets tried to predict the end of the world, only to come out looking foolish? The same thing can happen when looking at our history and trying to force it to fit a preconceived notion of timelines. With that in mind, some biblical scholars claim that humanity has been here for roughly 6,000 years, while others may go as far as 10,000 years. Modern archeologists have uncovered several ruins in the 10,000-year range and older. For example, Gobekli Tepe in Turkey was covered up by its builders roughly 10,000 years ago. For me, this does nothing to change my view of creation as told in Genesis, because time doesn't matter to me. So whether God created everything 6,000 years, 12,000 years or 120,000 years causes no conflict for my belief in the Scriptures.

My Lion and Rose family! 6-25-2016

Let's take the 12,000-year road for fun and say that humanity originated here roughly 12,000 years ago. Now, look at how far humanity has advanced from 1900-2000. We went from a horse and buggy society to building space ships that reached the Moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars and several asteroids. Voyager 1 is now 20 BILLION km away from Earth and has now exited our solar system for parts unknown. All of this happened in roughly 100 years out of 12,000. That's it. So, what's to have prevented humanity from becoming this advanced in our past? Absolutely nothing.


I know that's too hard for people to believe because in our arrogance we believe that we are at the height of the greatest civilization this planet has ever known. To suggest anything else is heresy, or is it? Actually, I think it's Biblical!

The rest of my Lion and Rose family, 6-25-2016

When God cast Adam and Eve out of Eden, He didn't just say "Boy, did you kids mess up! Good luck, 'cause I'm outta here!" No.  He would have made certain that Adam and Eve would not only survive, but they would also be able to thrive. What types of things would an all-powerful God teach them? What perfect knowledge would He have passed to them? I can't imagine the information being something that would have been out-of-harmony with nature, like a petroleum-based society. In fact, it would have been perfect as God intended. Only mankind would have perverted it into something else.

How many of you have ever played the "Pass-it-on" game in grade school? Teachers put their students in a circle and then tell a secret to the student beside them with the strict instructions to pass the secret to the next student exactly as they heard it. When it gets back to the teacher the secret has changed completely in only 10 minutes after going through 30 students. Imagine the same things happening through our history as it was passed down for 6,000 years through billions of people? How far off could what we believe happened in our past be from reality? Now, what if people were actively trying to hide things in our past? How easy and effective could they be? I would say that we are a people who has lost our history.

Jena coming back to say hello to us at the Lion & Rose

If you want to know what I believe about our origins, read Genesis, Chapter 1. If you want to know about my religious beliefs, read the Nicene Creed. Harmonic Wars is simply a SciFi story. Nothing that I wrote is in conflict with my Christianity, so don't let it be in conflict with yours.

Have a blessed week!
~D.B. Stearns

Did a highly advanced society once exist globally?

I reposted this Feb 16, 2015, blog post on July 6, 2016, so that people could enjoy the information again this year as it was relevant to several radio shows that I have been on. I originally created this early in 2015 as one of my original posts on this blog. In my research for an upcoming show with Heather Wade on "Midnight in the Desert" I came upon another blog that ripped off every single word and picture that I used here. I'm not sure if I'm flattered or offended. I will tell you, that these words ARE my own, and my thoughts and conclusions are based on what I have found through diligent work and careful studies while looking at things with a modern eye. I freely admit that I reference and build upon the efforts of Brien Forrester, Michael Tellinger, Chris Dunn, and countless others. But I certainly do not just copy and paste their work, their efforts, and specifically their words. In any event, please enjoy the rest of my blog.

In one of my first posts, we talked about the Great Pyramid of Giza and how our ancestors were far more advanced than we could have imagined. But there are more sites that are far more advanced that make Giza look like child's play.

One such place is Puma Punku, Bolivia. High in the Andes mountains close to the shores of Lake Titicaca, the ruins of this once beautiful structure lies strewn across the countryside, destroyed from some unknown cataclysmic event.  No evidence of a written language was found amongst the ruins, and archeologists cannot identify the original purpose for this structure. The stones found at this site are mainly andesite, which is very hard with a high concentration of quartz. Today, we would have to use diamond-tipped, high-speed tools to recreate these cuts. The cost for us today would be prohibitive because of the amount of time for all these inside cuts. How could they have created such an elaborate and intricately detailed structure without a written language? Most people in the construction business understand that a structure does not come together by accident. The more detailed the building, the more complex and detailed the plans. So, where are the plans to create Puma Punku, much less the Great Pyramid of Giza?

In spite of locations like Puma Punku, historians still insist that the cradle of humanity is in current day Iraq, once known as the land of Sumer. Ancient Sumerian texts tell a number of stories that appear very similar to passages in the Torah or Holy Bible. These Sumerian clay tablets are much older than the oldest known copies of the Torah, leading many agnostics to believe that mean the Hebrews and Christians incorporated these stories into their scriptures. I don't believe so. I believe that the original scriptures from the God of Israel simply have yet to be found. How many times in our past have the certainties that we understood be proven wrong? Is the Earth flat? No. Is the Earth the center of the universe and everything orbits around us? Again, no. So the search continues. Maybe the answers are all around us, and we just don't recognize it?

Historians have a general idea based on archeological finds on many of our ancestors back to about 4,000 years. However, they do not have a complete picture of how they did things. Historians understanding of ancient technology has huge holes in it. The very thought that ancient Egyptians could have cut granite with copper chisels is laughable at best. I liken it to using a plastic knife to cut down a giant California redwood tree. What's more, our understanding greatly diminishes as we go further back in time.

Moving from Sumer to the Giza plateau, we once again come across the Great Pyramid, aligned along the 31st Longitude line, and perfectly squared off with the four cardinal points of a compass that had not been created at the time the structure was built. Many people will immediately say "It was the aliens" without considering the fact that just maybe our HUMAN ancestors were far more advanced than we thought. The proof is all around us, but we must put our arrogance aside in order to accept that. But what's more amazing, is what else is found on the 31st longitude line.

Deep in South Africa there are many sites made of stones with such a high quartz content that they are called bell stones.

One such site found on the 31st longitude line made of these bell stones is Adam's Calendar. There are strange issues with GPS coordinates and cell phone connectivity inside the circle of stones. What energy forces are at work here? I have found no convincing proof just how old Adam's calendar is, but some have said it is many thousands of years old... much older than historians believe that mankind has been on Earth. Some have said as far back as 75,000 years.

Here we must take caution. I like to think of timelines as practically useless whether for predicting the future based on prophetic writings, or to establish a timeline of the past. It always seems to make people look foolish when proven wrong, which frequently happens. For those who have faith and believe in God, why would you dare to place human constraints upon an all-powerful God who lives outside of time as we know it? I accept that things will happen in the time they are intended, and the past occurred sometime prior to yesterday. I accept that and don't care one way or another if it was 12,000 or 150,000 years ago.

But one thing is undeniable: the flood of Noah's time is a widely accepted fact. So little is known about that time prior to the flood, both in the Bible and historically. But archeologically we can see evidence of a thriving society that once existed in the most surprising location: South Africa.

The picture below is accepted by mainstream historians to be cattle "kraals" or pens used by the hunter-gatherers that inhabited the area thousands of years ago in limited numbers. Most historians believe there were only 10,000 or so inhabitants, firmly discounting any thoughts that a thriving society once lived here. However, the ruins just don't make sense with the narrative. First, there is no entrance to these pens. So how would you get the cattle in and out?  Second, the walls range anywhere from 8 feet to 12 feet in height, though many appear now to be filled in with large amounts of sediment. Sounds like a massive flood to me. :-)  Lastly, there are thousands upon thousands of these ruins. There are also miles of terraces created on the mountainsides, assumably to plant crops. That's lots of food capabilities for a few thousand people sparsely spread across the countryside.

Looking at the picture above, you can see the connecting lines of stones that branch out like a network. What is going on here? Why was it built and by who? It certainly does not make sense to be livestock pens. There is nothing close to this today, but then again we have not really studied sound technology, have we? These kraals are also made of the bell stones that I talked about earlier. It is well known that quartz has many properties. They can be used to store large amounts of data, and rocks with a high quartz content will also ring like a bell, and reverberate to outside sounds.

If you have a perfectly tuned guitar, when you strike the low E string, the high E string will reverberate on its own. So what effect would sound have on some of these ancient sites? This should be humanity's next greatest endeavor is to discover how our ancestors harnessed sound and its effect on these ancient locations. We have examples all over the internet of researchers using sound to levitate small items like ping pong balls. If you could harness massive amounts of sound energy could you levitate some of the massive stones used to build the pyramids? I believe if you controlled the frequency and provided enough amplitude you could indeed levitate stone. You have to wonder if Nikola Tesla and Edward Leedskalnin rediscovered ancient technologies.


So what is the one thing that ties in all these locations? Stone structures built using massive stones with a high quartz content. They are found in Egypt, South Africa, South and Central America, China, India, Pakistan, Bosnia, France, Great Britain, Turkey, and even on remote Easter Island. Additionally, pyramid structures have been found on nearly every continent. How much more evidence do you need that a highly advanced society once existed on a global scale that would rival any of todays? I've really only scratched the surface of this. Do some digging for yourself ... this will keep you up at night! :-)

So where are the plans to build all these structures? How do we know they are not saved electronically in the very stone that was used to construct them? I wonder what other wonders we would find there? I would love to see the hackers all over the world spend their time on this, rather than the destructive things they do today. If you REALLY want to change the world, think how things would certainly change if you discovered free, limitless and wireless energy and GAVE it away. Wouldn't this wreak havoc with the big energy corporations? How much easier would your life be if you didn't have to pay for electricity for your home or fuel for your vehicles? :-)

Happy Fourth of July!

This Fourth of July lets not focus on the pathetic politicians of today, but rather lets focus on the great people who founded this country based on moral principles. They sacrificed so much against overwhelming odds because they had a vision of a better life. I think we have lost some of that vision and have replaced it with too much political correctness and indecision. Starting from today, lets start anew, coming from a place of integrity, honesty, equality, and respect. Those words have lost their meaning for many of us, so let me explain:

Integrity - this is doing what's right, even when nobody is looking. That means that you would come to a complete stop at an intersection where nobody was around for miles. My neighbor found an endorsed check in his yard yesterday. He could have cashed the check with no problem, but he went up and down the street looking for the owner. Finally, after no success, he called the police and handed it over to them. That is integrity.

Honesty - This means telling the truth, even when it's not popular or is likely to get you in trouble. Being honest and up front is key in earning TRUST. In business, this is what brings you repeat business. In friendship, this is what brings you life long friends who will do anything for you. This is all but lost on our politicians who work harder to hide things from the public to "protect" them from some unseen danger. We need more of this in our society across the board.

Equality - This is a tough one, and things with this too are out of balance. Many young people with the "entitlement" mentality believe they must have the same opportunities as those who have done more and earned more. That is not how our society was set up. Those who work harder should get and DESERVE more. But the odds are against the common person. I believe every time we look for a person for a job if we have to determine if we met a quota for diversity in our workforces then we are not hiring the most qualified person for the job. We should be able to look at the person and their accomplishments, period. We must do this without regard to anything else. But to keep down one person to raise up another is wrong. There are people of privilege today who are consistently brought up to the front of the lines and those more deserving, more qualified, and better people all around are forced to struggle. This too is wrong. Every US CITIZEN should have the same education opportunities to help level the playing field, and we do not. Does that mean that a person with an IQ of 85 should be allowed to go to an Ivy League school? Probably not, but we owe it to that individual to train and educate them to the best of THEIR abilities so that they too can become valuable and contributing members of society. Everyone has an important role to play, and a medical doctor is no more important than the person collecting your trash in the morning. In fact, I respect both equally.

Respect - This is our biggest failure today. Respect. It is a sign of reverence for someone other than yourself. We need respect for elders, for they have the experience that we do not. We need respect for life. All life. If it has a heartbeat, we should show it reverence and respect. That doesn't mean we all need to be Vegan, but we need to treat others as we would want to be treated. Respect each other's privacy, for we all deserve that. Respect each other's beliefs does not mean you have to agree or follow them. But by showing respect, it is a sign that I understand that "this" is important to you and I will not ridicule you for your beliefs, and you will not ridicule or belittle me either. Respect allows the Catholic and Protestant churches to exist in peace beside the Jewish and Sikh temples. Muslims could learn much from this, as can we all. Respect for our borders, respect for our customs, respect for our individual rights. Your rights end where it infringes on another. PERIOD. Respect and kindness for each other will go far to eliminating all the other problems in our country.

May you all have a blessed, safe and happy Fourth of July!

Aliens, Ancient Advanced Civilizations and Christianity?

I had a wonderful experience as a guest on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory (October 12, 2015). In the interview, we talked largely about the inspiration for my SciFi book Harmonic Wars: Guardians of the Crystal Skulls which was the Great Pyramid of Giza.

The premise for Harmonic Wars is that an ancient civilization once existed on Earth thousands of years ago that was much more advanced than we are today. This is a major problem for many people, particularly modern historians, and Egyptologists. But there are many archeological finds that fly in the face of the most "accepted" narrative. One of those narratives involves the Great Pyramid of Giza (GP) specifically. It supposes that the people who constructed the GP were primitive in comparison to us, used nothing more than human labor, block, and tackle, and copper chisels to cut, move and place 2.5 million stones into place, weighing anywhere from 2-70 tons each, and do so with laser precision. Right. Let's just focus on using copper chisels on granite: that is the modern day equivalent of using a plastic knife to cut down a red tree. Sure you could do it eventually, after thousands of man-hours and millions of plastic knives. But at what point exactly does human nature take off and say "There has to be an easier way"? Would that be at 500,000 knifes? Or maybe 200,000? It wouldn't take me more than a few minutes of hard work before I would see the senselessness of the project. "Necessity is the mother of invention" and I can't imagine that human nature would not find an easier way. 

The only reference we have to the construction of the pyramid indicates that the Egyptians had a force of some 100,000 workers to complete the project in roughly 22 years. In order to accomplish the great feat, they would have had to cut, transport and place each stone with laser precision roughly every 2 minutes without fail. Didn't they ever get tired? At some point, quality begins to degrade seriously if you maintain a high ops tempo. But the GP is perfection from start to completion. Geologists have identified beyond a doubt that the granite used came from the Aswan quarry some 500 miles away. So how did they accomplish this? Some of the heaviest granite blocks are over 70 tons each! We would have extreme difficulties moving them today across the desert. One must also consider that 4,500 years ago geologists have determined that Egypt was still a desert, so there were no forests close by to use as much needed resources to move the large blocks. Any trees that would have been found at that time in any fashion of abundance in the desert were either fig trees or olive trees. I find it doubtful that a desert people would be agreeable to destroying a much-needed food source to build a monument for a dead guy, even if he was considered a god.

Speaking of which, if the pharaoh was their god, then how come there were never any religious writings found inside the GP? In fact, there was never a mummy found much less any remnants to suggest that it was a tomb. Egyptologists claim that the tomb had long ago been raided, but even tombs that had been raided show some prior existence of painting, reliefs carved into the walls, broken pieces of pottery, etc. But not in the GP ... in fact it was almost sterile in comparison! And the most compelling piece of all is the sarcophagus in the King's Chamber. It is starkly different from all other sarcophagi found. 

Compare it to the King Tut exhibit, which showed a box within a box within a box, etc., with the outside of each box beautifully decorated and adorned with jewels and gold. The top craftsman of the day worked to make the outside of each a true work of art. But the sarcophagus in the King's chamber, arguably the crowning achievement of any society is a rough-hewn solid piece of unremarkable granite ... to bury their god-king? And this is believable to who?

If we are to believe the narrative, it also claims the GP was built some 4,500 years ago by the 4th Dynasty Egypt and is one of three pyramids on the Giza plateau that represents the stars in Orion's

belt. This placement of the pyramids is a problem for modern astronomers, since the star charts 4,500 years ago would not have shown those stars in it's current configuration. The Earth wobbles in its orbit and causes the constellations to move slightly with time. The pyramids are aligned with the stars of Orion's belt in our current star configuration. But 4,500 years ago the stars would have been in a straight line. So either the so-called primitive people in Egypt had advanced knowledge of the exact placement of those stars, or the pyramid was built much earlier. In fact, you would have to go back at least 10,000 years to see those stars in the current configuration with Mintaka slightly off-center as it is today. Now we really start having a problem with the timeline. 

I believe anytime we try to put a timeline together based on ancient history or especially trying to prophesy the end of the world or future events in general, we are just asking for trouble! So normally, I try to avoid this at all costs. This places atheists and Christians at stark odds at times, because from our current knowledge we realize that civilizations require time to build and grow to a point where they can hope to create structures like pyramids and obelisks. Many Christians believe that we have been on this earth for 6-8 thousand years while some are willing to entertain as many as 10,000. But for a primitive society to grow from genetic Adam and Eve to building the pyramids could take several thousand years. So arguably, we could assume humanity has been in existence for 12,000 years or so. 

More troubling to me is the growing insistence that humans could never have built these wonderful structures without the help of aliens. Sigh. I think that sells humanity short. Look at the major advancements we have collectively made in the last 50-60 years alone. In the US, we went from a country where black and white TVs were not uncommon, but certainly not in every home, and color TVs were a luxury. Now, we have more raw computing power in the hands of millions of people using smartphone technology, than a room full of computers in the early 1960s ... and that IS in every home in the US. So, if we can advance so quickly in the last 60 or so years, why could we have not done it in the past 12,000 years? In 200 years we went from horse and carriage to Cadillac Escalade, but many would rather believe aliens built the pyramids than we were once much more advanced than we are today. I find that arrogant.

I believe we were much more advanced in our past, and that we lost the technology and our history. Is that so hard to believe? For some it is, but it is really simple if you to think about it. What would happen today, if the electrical grid was totally destroyed? What would you lose? Well, in short you would lose everything, including knowledge. We are a society being "dumbed down" by the convenience of the internet. When you research stuff today, how much do you print and save, or do you just bookmark it for future reference? If the electrical grid goes down, how will you get on the internet? What happens to the web? It's gone, and if the grid cannot be restored it will be gone forever. How many pictures do you have on your smartphones that are not printed? Even if they were, how long would they last? Would they last 100 years? Probably not. How many documents have you passed off this week alone that were saved to the cloud, or only on a server or your hard drive? Now move 10 years into our future and realize that very few paper copies of anything will exist. Bookstores, newspapers, and magazines all over are migrating to an e-book. So, is it really impossible to believe that the plans to build the Great Pyramid have never been found?

How could this happen today? It could be a terrorist attack using one well placed EMP, and that will take down the entire grid in the US. But terrorists of today would never rely on a single attack ... they would do coordinated efforts, making it impossible for society to return as it once was. The chaos created would be devastating. But we don't need a terrorist attack for this to happen. We could be hit with a supermassive solar flare and that would be more devastating than a terrorist attack. One only needs to see what happened during Hurricane Katrina, Ferguson, Occupy Wall Street, Oakland, Baltimore, etc., to see the kind of devastation when mobs rule. Think how much more so it would be when they have no food or water.

People would go into a "survival mode" and basically, forget about the comforts of yesterday. Those memories would only be told around the campfires as "tall tales" of a time long forgotten. The "Great WiFi god" and magic like electricity would be passed on to future generations. In fact, within two generations nobody would even understand wireless technology like cell phones or wifi as anything but magic to a generation still trying to live in survivor mode. If you don't believe me, ask yourself how many kids of today have ever seen a rotary phone, much less used one? How about listen to Elvis sing "Hound Dog" on a 45 record, or even seen an LP? That technology is not so long ago, yet it is all but forgotten. In fact, we have come so far with wireless technology that when I went for the interview with Coast to Coast I was required to call in on a hard line telephone. I could not find anyone that I personally knew within 100 miles that owned a hard line that I could use, so I had to get a room at a local hotel! Most people that I know have migrated fully to cell technology and have given up the older tech. In a few years, broadcast television will also be a thing of the past as people opt for broadband programming instead. We gave up our cable long ago in favor or internet shows and news.

How does all of this relate to Harmonic Wars? In SciFi, a writer can afford to let their imagination run a little wild, and so I did. But I also used many of these facts to help provide at least a level of believability in my SciFi story. But I wanted to do this without compromising my Christianity. So I chose to make this planet as a colony and NOT the Biblical Earth as described in the Scriptures. In doing so, things fell into place very nicely, including a society landing on this planet 12,000 years ago to establish a colony. Then war broke out and scattered the settlers into a survival mode until they eventually forgot their own past. Not so unbelievable once you put things into context and consider the possibilities, is it?

Harmonic Wars: Guardians of the Crystal Skulls is available on Amazon, Kindle, iBooks and Nook. For a limited time, you can get signed copies for $5 off the regular price only through my publisher at http://3lpublishing.flyingcart.com

Prologue: A Little Peek of "Guardians of the Crystal Skulls"

I'm reposting the first several chapters of "Harmonic Wars: Guardians of the Crystal Skulls" which I've placed on sale for all e-books. For a very short time you can find Book 1 of Harmonic Wars on Kindle, Nook and iBooks for only .99 cents. Please enjoy, and pick up the book for the exciting conclusion!

Prologue

“I’M COMING,” ANA’KA TUA’AGAR SAID dreamily as she heard her name being called out. She dreamed that she got out of bed and noted that her life mate, Ukit Took, was up as well. She paused for a second as she looked at his lean, muscular figure in his short clothes. She loved how his muscles rippled with his every movement. An avid outdoorsman, he was darkly tanned. He had a handsome smile and kind green eyes. He preferred to keep his thick, dark hair neatly trimmed; as it grew longer, it became wavy.

   Ana’ka heard the musical voice call her name again. I must be dreaming again, she thought as she reached for her robe to cover her thin nightshirt. She was very short compared to Ukit. Where he was a tall, lean and muscular warrior, she was a tiny and curvaceous young woman. Her auburn-colored hair, full lips, and large, slightly slanted green eyes contrasted nicely against her lightly tanned skin. Like most of the Grand Council members, she had the telltale sign of the somewhat-elongated head of the Balsarius descendants.

   Ukit Took, the Mayan King, was a tall and lean warrior and a strong leader. Together they led the Mayan Grand Council that was left in charge of the colony by the human settlers from the planet Balsarius. The Grand Council stayed in contact with the Balsarius outpost, even though the majority of the colonists there had long forgotten the past. Together Ukit Took and Ana’ka exited the cavern that served as their home.

   The musical voices called out again as a light floated in front of Ana’ka and Ukit. They followed the light and soon joined the rest of the council in the main tunnel that led out of the cavern. Wordlessly, they walked into the night air.

   The musical voices called out to them from the lights. Ana’ka thought dreamily, That’s strange. Why is the Grand Council out in public in their night clothes? The guards slept as the lights led them to follow the lakeshore around to the smaller hill that stood out close to the river that fed the lake. They followed the lights around the hill until they arrived at the backside where they noted anopening filled with a warm and inviting light. The musical voices now called them into the inner chambers. They found themselves in a tall room of polished limestone. At the far end of the room stood a magnificent being who towered over them. His golden hair fell in soft curls on his shoulders. He had large dimples on his cheeks, a cleft chin and large blue eyes that glittered and stood out against his fair skin. He was heavily muscled and dressed in gold and silver armor. Four strong wings protruded from his back and extended out 12 feet to either side as he flexed them. The wings resembled his armor with rows of alternating gold and silver feathers, each edge razor sharp. Twin scimitars that glowed and shimmered with heavily worked gold and silver inlays hung on a belt around his waist. Ana’ka smelled a sweet-spicy scent in the air.

   Follow me and speak not, he commanded with his musical voice that was not spoken, but rang out in his subject’s mind. Ana’ka walked in a dream-like haze. She was not frightened, but she thought the whole dream strange.

   They followed the being through a passageway at the back of the room. Ana’ka was vaguely aware of where she walked. She smelled the damp earthy smell of the passageways mixed with the spicy scent of the being. She followed Ukit and the being as they climbed the passageway that wound up through the center of the stone structure inside the hill. She looked back and saw that the Grand Council followed behind her. Just as she began to wonder if they were lost, the being led them into an altar room with highly polished granite walls.

   At the back of the room was a dark-green granite altar with a giant crystal sphere that rested on top. The bottom of the altar was a large, roughly cut granite block. The lid on top of the block was a thick piece of polished dark-green granite with golden-winged horses at each of the four corners of the lid. On top of the wings rested a thin, pink granite circular shelf. A large crystal sphere rested above the shelf on a golden band two feet wide at the base. It cradled the huge crystal sphere that rested gently on pads that protruded from the golden band. The golden band was decorated with visions of men with falcon heads, jackals, snakes and other animals as well. Golden dragons were set at equal distances across the gold band and between each dragon there appeared to be a small golden door with a silver skull inlayed in the center of the door.

   Choose your place. The being silently directed the Grand Council members to a series of thick, woven mats of dark wood evenly placed in a semicircle in front of the sphere. Ana’ka approached the altar as she tightly held Ukit’s hand.

   After each couple stood together on the mats, the crystal sphere began to glow and spin. Ana’ka watched as lights flashed from the sphere. Musical notes filled the room changing with the flashing lights. Then the golden doors opened to reveal highly polished crystal skulls inside of each compartment. The lights that flashed out from the Crystal sphere now were drawn back into the sphere and with it the music diminished to almost nothing.

   In a rush, lights shot out of the crystal skulls into each couple. Each couple was locked in a different musical note and color, in a sudden explosion of music and light. Ana’ka felt the warmth of the blue light that locked on her as the music of the universe filled her heart and mind. Strange visions flashed in her mind as the music and light filled her until there was nothing else.

   Ana’ka awoke with a start. Her heart raced as she labored to breathe. A second later Ukit was up and had to catch his breath too.

   “What a dream!” Ukit exclaimed.

   “Me too,” Ana’ka said as she leaned over and kissed him. “I dreamt we walked to the Pyraportal, but it was open ...”

   Ukit snapped his head around to look at her. “Did you see the angel, too?” 

   Ana’ka nodded with her eyes wide in surprise. “And the Crystal Skull?”

   “Something tells me this wasn’t a dream,” Ukit said as he pointed to the dresser.

   Ana’ka looked to her left and saw the perfectly formed and polished Crystal Skull on the dresser beside them.

*   *   *

   The Artisan Guild Elder, Shanle Galen, flipped his long red hair out of his face as he stood patiently painting a portrait of a beautiful nude brunette who had just taken a bite out of an apple. He smiled at the gentle curves of her body until he was interrupted when his holographic personal assistant suddenly materialized in front of him.

   Galen had highly customized Androdika, so she wore a skin-tight black leather body suit over her petite body. Her bright-red hair was shaved on the right side and cropped close on top while the left side was braided and hung down over her left breast. She glanced over her right shoulder at the object of Galen’s attention and rolled her eyes.

   “Elder Galen, your meeting with the Council of Elders begins in two minutes. Elder Sandowski sent you this reminder, and hopes you can make it on time.”

   “Oh shit,” Galen exclaimed. “That insufferable man won’t let me live down being late again. Get dressed, dear, and I’ll see you same time tomorrow.”

   Galen blew the model a kiss as he hurried out of his private art studio and stopped to wash some of the paint off his fingers. He pulled the painter’s smock off to reveal a very colorful set of tights that covered his entire body. Galen looked at his figure in the mirror and smiled as he put on the white elder robes and the sash of his office. The Artisan Guild sash was purple with an inkwell and quill crossed over an artist’s paintbrush and palette in full color. Instead of simply wearing it over his shoulders as was customary, today he put it on like a scarf and started out of the office.

   “Elder, did you forget something?” Androdika asked at the receptionist desk as she pointed at the stack of colored pencils and notebooks that sat at the edge of her desk.

   “Oh yeah. Thanks, Androdika!” Galen said as he messily scooped them up and hurried to the conference room down the hall.


   “Well, of course the Fruitcake is late again,” complained Elder Gregory Sandowski of the Workers Guild as he rubbed his bald head with strong hands that showed the scars of the years in the smithy. He had a weathered look to his face, as though he spent the majority of his life outside. He hated his position and would rather have been back with a hammer in his hand in his shop than at this meeting, but he was a man of duty. His green sash had a hammer and wood saw crossed over an anvil all in gun-metal gray, which he chose to wear around his waist like a belt. Sandowski was neat and orderly, with a pen and small pad of pa- per precisely placed in front of him to the side of his cup of coffee and personal recorder. All of which were perfectly spaced apart and in line with the table, exactly six inches from the edge.

   “I’m here. We can get started now,” Galen said as he stormed into the room and unceremoniously dropped the pencils and notepads onto the table in front of him. Sandowski rolled his eyes and huffed.

   “Glad you could fit us into your busy schedule, Fruitcake,” Sandowski said sarcastically, to which Galen simply stuck his tongue out.

  “Gentlemen, if you please. Thank you all for joining us. Now let’s get to the point: We’re losing this war,” Shihan Marcus Kahn said to the Council of Guild Elders. The silence was deafening in the Great Hall, where they had met for this important meeting. He ran his hands along the four-inch-wide red sash with the golden crossed swords embroidered down the center which signified that he was the Elder of the Warrior Guild. It was his responsibility to protect the colony, and he was tired of all the resistance from the other elders. Shihan’s well-trimmed beard and long dark-brown hair were now peppered with gray in the thick braid that hung to the middle of his back. The tall, slim warrior had a steely glint in his piercing blue eyes as he let those last words sink in to the other elders in the room. “The G`Alad have more weapons than we do, so this becomes a simple game of numbers, and Admiral Ares knows that.”

    Elder Danshe of the Religious Guild ran his fingers through his thick, silver hair. His small, dark brown eyes looked from elder to elder as the portly, aged gentleman stood up to address the council. His guild sash was dark blue with silver triangles embroidered down its length. He stood up beside Shihan and asked, 

  “Why can’t we try negotiation? Maybe we can reason with them?”

   Shihan sighed deeply at the portly man’s suggestion. “Because the last time we negotiated he broke the treaty and raided our military supply depots. Now, we can barely defend ourselves. Oh, Ares will meet with you so that he can rebuild his broken MARs units while we try in desperation to hold our ground. Time is on his side, not ours. We need something that will change the tide in our favor before Ares wipes us out.”

   Galen shook his head as he drew and scribbled on several notepads at the same time, sometimes using both hands. Being ambidextrous had its advantages. “We’re not getting anywhere like this. Elder Kahn, what do you need from us to win this war?” Galen asked.

   Shihan sighed deeply. “We want to use anti-matter weapons.”


   “Absolutely not!” cried Elder Roberto Salvatore from the Science Guild. “We would’ve been better off if we had never created those damn things. Excuse my language, Elder Danshe, but it’s impossible for us to prevent a singularity from forming after the explosion. As we learned in the Crystalline War, the results can destroy entire solar systems if ample material feeds into it. Millions died as each planet in the Kaldori system was swallowed up by the black hole. The Science Guild will not make one, period. Find another way, Shihan.”

   Roberto’s red face clearly showed his determination. The short, thin man had a face like a rat because of his buck teeth and big nose, but he was a brilliant scientist. The sash for the Science Guild was yellow with a glass beaker containing an atomic structure. The protons and neutrons at the center were red and blue while the multiple electrons orbiting the nucleus were dark gray.

   Shihan shook his head. “We’re fast running out of options, gentlemen. Unless the Science Guild can activate the Space Portal so we can get reinforcements, our MARs units will be overrun within the year.”

   Elder Salvatore shook his head. “We have some new projects that show some promise. Give us a month to kick some things into gear. We’ll see what we can do about the Space Portal, but right now the last Pyraportal must remain hidden. Our Balsarius ancestors built it in secrecy because they didn’t trust the G’Alad. God only knows how they have not found it before now. They’ll stop at nothing to destroy it like they did the others. We’re just lucky it can still channel this planet’s energies enough to fire its weapon. It’s the only thing that stands between us and their warships.”

   “Well, that and this base station,” replied Shihan.

   “But even Ark 1 has its limits,” replied Sandowski.


   “We have many challenges ahead of us,” Elder Galen commented as he scribbled on two of several small notepads in front of him simultaneously. 

   “What kind of challenges would those be, Fruitcake?” Sandowski asked as he sneered across the table at the very messy Galen.

   Galen looked up and smiled as he shredded up both pieces of paper and casually threw them out on the table without another word.

   “Gentlemen, if you please!” Shihan interrupted. “You’re worse than an old married couple. You can annoy each other on your own time.”

   “Is there no room for negotiation at all?” asked Elder Danshe again as he sat back down beside Shihan. “Are we not a civilized society?”

   Shihan looked at Elder Danshe who was seated beside him, and then gently placed his hand on Danshe’s shoulder. “Yes, my dear friend, we’re civilized but our enemies are not. Words can seldom be used to put out a forest fire, but water or more fire will work. Sometimes you have to fight for your way of life if you wish to survive. We’ve certainly been at that point for a long time. This war has been going on for thousands of years, and I see no reason to believe that the G`Alad wish it any other way.”

   Elder Danshe nodded his head sadly, “I suppose you’re right Shihan. For everything there is a time and place. The Religious Guild will support the decision of this council.”

   “The Artisan Guild shares your concerns, Elder Danshe,” replied Elder Galen. “We would like to see an end to this conflict.”

   “So do we all,” answered Shihan. “Adjourned until the Science Guild can come up with a solution?”

   “So adjourned,” seconded Elder Danshe. As they rose up from the table Danshe grabbed Shihan by the arm and said aloud, “Elder Salvatore, I wonder if I might have a word with you and Elder Kahn in private?”

   “Certainly. Meet me at my chambers in 10 microns?” asked Shihan. When they both nodded in agreement, Shihan bowed his head slightly and left the Great Hall. Within minutes he arrived back at the door to his private quarters.

   “Hello, Elder Kahn,” said the female computer voice that had scanned him before the door opened. “Would you like some tea?”

   “No thank you, Sarah,” Shihan replied as he walked through his living quarters. The quarters were simply decorated. A comfortable set of red leather lounge chairs sat in front of a stone fireplace. The walls were cream-colored and led to the kitchen and bedroom to the right of the entry. Shihan headed into his private study to the left.

   Against the front wall next to the door was a small table with two unlit candles close to each end. They flamed to life as Shihan approached. He knelt at the small but simple altar of the Holy Warrior that few people had ever seen. A symbol made of wood rose from the surface of the table and floated in between the lit candles. The “Great Circle” symbol was a carved wooden circle with a twisted purple crystal triangle in the center. The circle was carved with dark flames that spun off the outside in a counter-clockwise motion, while the inside of the circle had light-colored flames that spun clockwise toward the twisted crystal triangle in the center as if drawn to it. This represented the “Circle of Life” that surrounded the “Creator” and served as a reminder that people lived in the circle of life and served the Creator at the center. Those who rejected the Creator were cast out, but all were welcome. On either side of the small table were the two pieces of his “Qatassendor” staff with its curved, purple crystal blades that gleamed in the low light. This was the main weapon of the Holy Warrior. It was his direct link to the Creator that gave him strength, protection, and prolonged his life. 

   This was one of the ways that he had lived for so many thousands of years. Stasis chambers had helped him sleep through the centuries that the G`Alad were not overly active. But whenever a major offensive began, the Guild Elders woke Shihan up out of his stasis. This time his generals had foolishly waited too long before they requested Shihan’s help, and it had cost them the central lands that tied the southern and northern continents together. The last skirmish had cost them the majority of the northern continent. The G`Alad had used the huge settlement on the northern pole they had named Hyperborea as a point to launch and infiltrate the commoners settlements all over the planet. Shihan had tried to warn them, but the council ignored him. The commoners viewed the G`Alad as magicians or gods as they were so far removed from the truth – they had become so involved with the daily struggle just to survive.

   Shihan pulled a golden “Great Circle Medallion” out of his shirt, which also had a twisted purple crystal triangle in the center. He placed his hands on the Qatassendor, which immediately caused the blades to brighten. The crystal triangle in the center of both Great Circles glowed in response as Shihan closed his eyes and cleared his mind. Visions of a crystal skull in the right hand of an elderly man with long white hair braided back and a long white mustache filled his mind. His name was Master Yen Tsu, and this man was his mentor and fellow Holy Warrior.

   Yen Tsu pointed to Shihan and said, “Answer the door.”

   Shihan looked up as he heard the chimes at his door. Has it been 10 microns already? The door slid closed behind him as he exited his private study and an- swered the front door.

   “Come in,” said Shihan. Elder Salvatore and Elder Danshe entered with two colonists dressed in long red linen robes. Their darkened skin and dark hair stood out in stark contrast to the elders dressed in white silk. Shihan immediately recognized the male as a capable warrior who was nearly as tall as Shihan. The much shorter and shapely woman was beautiful by any standard and was obviously his mate. In her right hand she held a black cloth bag that had a strange bulge in it.

   “May the Light shine through you,” greeted Shihan as he welcomed them into his living quarters and offered them a seat.

   Elder Danshe slightly bowed his head. “Shihan, let me introduce to you King Ukit Took and his life-mate Queen Ana’ka. They’re of Balsarius descent and are the leaders of the Mayan Grand Council on the colony. They’re fully aware of our history.”

   “Well met,” Shihan said as he slightly bowed his head to them both. “What do you have on your mind?”

   Elder Danshe smiled, “Shihan, I had a vision during my prayers on how we can activate the Pyraportal. Queen Ana’ka?”

   Ana’ka reached into her bag and pulled out a perfectly formed crystal skull that immediately began to glow. She lifted the skull in her right hand for Shihan to see and was surprised when the skull gently lifted out of her hand and floated over in front of Shihan of its own free will. Shihan placed his hands together palm-up in front of the skull as it set down in his hands.

   Shihan closed his eyes and visions filled his mind.

*   *   *

   Admiral Ares watched as the pilot guided the shuttle from his flagship the Argus down to the settlement on the northern pole that the G`Alad called Hyperborea. The fortress was grown from quartz crystals, which provided a tremendous advantage. First, it was more easily hidden from the commoners who lived on the many continents across the globe. Second, the very walls of the fortress were used to focus and generate the majority of the energy and data storage needs for the settlement.

   Ares was pleased that Commander Apollon had done so well. Because of him the commoners worshipped them as gods. Anything to keep them from the truth. Ares smiled as he heard the voices of Klaxon sing out in his mind. The sentient sword had spoken to him for many thousands of years now, and this sword was the source of power that allowed him to live for so long.

   Thou must feed me. I hunger, Klaxon begged. Ares looked over at his political officer Commander General Menelaos who also heard the voices of Klaxon. Menelaos had greasy, dark hair combed to the side in typical military fashion. His short, dark mustache and goatee were neatly trimmed and were equally as greasy as his hair. His slender build and pasty-white skin reminded Ares of a funeral parlor director. 

   Menelaos looked instinctively down at the bracelet and rings on his left hand and the silver pendant that resembled a lightning bolt, which was pinned to his dark-blue military uniform’s lapel. The stones on the bracelet and rings, were colored in a deep, dark blue, and matched the stone in the hilt of the small golden-bladed scimitar that Ares held. Runes circled a band of gold just above the scimitar’s hilt where the large, blue stone brilliantly displayed. Ares held Klaxon in his right hand as his left hand absently reached up to the large pendant that hung around his neck under his crisp, white uniform. Menelaos’s many pieces of jewelry and Ares’s knife and pendant were a matching set that shared one thing in common: the brilliant blue stones that pulsed like a heartbeat.

   The shuttle landed as Commander Apollon greeted the admiral with a sharp salute. He was dressed in a sharply pressed charcoal-gray uniform and at his waist was a golden-bladed kukri. Its blade glowed and the blue stone in the hilt pulsed. Runes circled the base of the hilt and continually changed. The sentient blade called itself J’Anx and talked more and more to Apollon. Music from J’Anx now filled his mind as the Admiral approached. Time to feed? Please feed us, too!

   “Admiral on the deck!” Apollon shouted. Be patient, my friend. I’ll feed you soon. J’Anx laughed insanely. The shuttle docked in a large bay beside multiple other shuttles. Several Mobile Attack Robots, more commonly called “MARs” units, were being loaded aboard a ship in the next dock.

   The blue and white MARs units stood 30 feet tall. Its torso was the size of a van, and the round head sat upon its shoulders like a small command module capable of holding a full-grown man inside. The left shoulder had a block of rocket launchers while the right shoulder had a small cannon that protruded at a downward angle to be able to stay in the cargo hold. Both arms had pulse cannons attached to the sides of the forearms. Each arm ended in a forked claw that could be manipulated to pick up and hold items – and it was used in hand-to-hand combat.

   The nuclear-powered MARs had a neurological interface that the operator accessed through recessed tanks in the command pod that the operator placed his hands and feet inside. The tanks were filled with a biological gel that bonded with the user’s nervous system, and it allowed them full control of the MARs unit. Holographic screens and displays appeared in front of the operator to provide them operational information at a glance. The command pod became a stasis pod that, in case of emergency, provided ejection whether on land, sea, or even space.

   The weapons platform was considerable, with machine guns, rocket launchers, and lasers that could cut through the defenses of most armored vehicles. Maneuverability was hampered only by the operator’s limitations. The unit was designed to respond to the operator to run, walk, and jump as if it was an extension of the operator. With the rocket boosters in its legs and arms, it could fly for short distances in the heavy atmosphere. The jetpack on its back allowed it to maneuver in space and even under water. Its built-in force field could extend outward for 75 feet to protect support ground troops. The torso held a squad of 10 soldiers for very short distances for troop deployment.

   “As you were, Commander,” Ares responded. “Walk with us. I trust that you have things ready for us to feed?”

   “Yes, Admiral. If you would like to follow this way we can make that happen right away, then after you clean up we can continue with the briefing. Or would you prefer to get business out of the way first?” Apollon asked.

   “Just tell me, are we still progressing like we were in your last report?”

   “Yes, Admiral,” Apollon answered with a smile. “Our forces push the colonial forces back at every battle. We expect they’ll run out of MARs units in six to eight months. The last two raids cut their supplies in half. We’ve also infiltrated each guild, but not at very high levels. That’ll still take some time.”

   “You’ve done well, my friend,” Ares said with a smile. “A promotion may soon be in order for you. Now, let us feed and then after we rest you can finish your report.”

   Apollon led them out of the bay and into a corridor that opened into an auditorium. Inside the auditorium were a thousand men, women, and children dressed in plain farm clothes. The majority of the colony had reverted to a pre-industrialized society as they struggled to survive with the sudden loss of electricity after the destruction of the world power grid. In only two generations the vast majority of survivors had no knowledge that electricity had flowed freely in a wireless power grid that all the colonists had shared.

   Ares looked at Menelaos and watched as his eyes became pitch black, and he felt Klaxon’s voices grow to a fevered pitch. Feed us, yes, Love. Feed us! Likewise, Ares’ eyes turned pitch-black as he approached the first farmer and plunged the knife deep into his heart. He felt the farmer’s memories fill his mind with needless dribble such as how to care for a horse, when to plant, when to sow. Who cares about this mindless stuff? he thought to himself as he reached down to feel the core of the man’s life force. Ares drank it into himself and felt himself get stronger by the second. He could smell the fear all around him.

   He smelled the burned flesh and hair as he pulled Klaxon from the charred man’s smoky husk of a body. Ares stomped his foot down hard on the man and smiled wickedly as his body burst into dust before the other peasants. 

   Yes, brother. Let’s fill ourselves with their energy and make better use of it than they ever would, Menelaos called out through the mind link they shared through Klaxon.

   Ares looked over and saw that Menelaos had already placed his hand out to another peasant and started to draw the person’s life force into himself. Ares was the weapon, but Menelaos was the well of power that Ares could draw on to do so many wonderful things with Klaxon. He hated to depend on anyone, but they were indeed stronger together than apart.

   Yes, brother, Ares replied as he stabbed Klaxon deep into another pathetic peasant.

*   *   *

   The demon Legion licked its giant maw. Legion was a collective of demons that had banded together and had become of one purpose. They were nearly as powerful as the Dark Lord himself – nearly. Legion had carefully planned their rise to power in a way that didn’t threaten the Dark Lord. Legion had seduced many lower-ranking demons to join the collective with the promise of strength in numbers.

   They knew they were not strong enough to challenge the Dark Lord directly, and they would never survive a direct attack from him either. By banding together into a collective, and with a hive mentality, they had become strong enough that the Dark Lord would have to use so much energy to destroy them that it would leave him vulnerable to the others. So Legion had to carefully balance its actions and not overplay the hand it had been dealt.

   Today they had chosen the form of a black dragon, as they had done for many centuries. The many shadows convulsed together to create the form, and they could still be seen as individual shadows by the more powerful demons. Legion stretched its leathery wings out as it gave a mighty yawn.

   The Dark Lord would be happy with the progress they had made in the Realm of Man. More souls for him, and the tide of war rolls as the Dark Lord instructed. Taste sweet, it will!  Legion had set things into motion that guaranteed a great many souls would join them, one way or another. If not mankind, then the others would join once the space portal was opened again. Now all they had to do was wait. This time it would be different because time was on their side.

   Savor this, we will! Legion said to themselves as they licked their maw.


More to come!
~D.B. Stearns

About the Author

DOUGLAS “D.B.” STEARNS is a happily married father of five. They are also very proud grandparents.
D.B. was born January 10, 1965 in Reno, Nevada and moved to Georgetown, Texas where he stayed through high school. He entered the Air Force on October 4, 1983 and retired at Scott AFB Illinois 20 years later filled with many rich experiences, a wonderful wife and family. After a short tour overseas as a logistics manager for a contracting company during the Iraq war, D.B. returned home to the St. Louis area and became an IT project manager for a defense contractor.
   In 2011, their youngest son decided to follow the family tradition and joined the military. With this big change they suddenly found themselves to be “Happy Nesters,” and they took a long, hard look at the direction of their lives. They decided that the corporate world was just not worth the heavy toll on the family. So, he resigned and moved back to Texas. D.B. became inspired by a special on the Great Pyramid of Giza and was fascinated by the advanced engineering built into the pyramid. There are many theories to explain the purpose of the Great Pyramid, but D.B. was certain this was never a tomb. After a full year of research on ancient mysterious sites, a rich storyline unfolded in front of him. D.B. signed on with 3L Publishing and began to write the Harmonic Wars series.

You can find D.B. at the following social media platforms: 
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