A Time Not yet Forgotten a Time Before Hope

PROLOGUE

I n the far reaches of our galaxy, a sinister race prepares for the pending harvest that occurs when their solar systems rotates into close proximity to ours.

Prime Minister Sargon did not have time to play these silly political games because he still had ships to prepare, or he would not be ready before the passage that connected the Babylon and human system opened. If he had learned anything in his years as an understudy, Prime Minister Sargon understood that all that people would remember was whether or not the Empire’s five hundred and fifty Class C Warships were ready when the passage opened.

Most of the Empire’s Class C Warships were thousands of years old, and Prime Minister Sargon only had about twenty years to make sure all the ships were ready to make the trip.

Prime Minister Sargon knew that would not be easy to do with the limited number of slaves that he had been given by the empire.

If he did not have enough to worry about, Prime Minister Sargon was not sure if the Regional Governor Zahn planned to stay on Babylon until the passage opened or whether he was just here to examine the fleet.

Prime Minister Sargon did not want the problems that came with entertaining a Royal such as Regional Governor Zahn, but he did not have any say in the matter because as everyone knew Royals could do as they pleased. Prime Minister Sargon barely had enough slaves to repair the ships as it was, but if Regional Governor Zahn continued to take his slaves, it would not be long before he would have to use the soldiers to help prepare the ships for the harvest.

Prime Minister Sargon could remember as little as two hundred years ago there were plenty of slaves and soldiers, but now the empire barely had enough slaves to manage the day to day operations. Although the Empire was not losing the war, it had taken its toll especially when it came to availability of slaves. Prime Minister Sargon thought This will change with the coming of the harvest because there will be slaves to spare, soldiers to fight and a new fleet that will drive fear into the heart and soul of the enemies of the Empire.

Prime Minister Sargon understood all too well that soon the passage in space would open as it had for millions of years and a new cycle would begin. Prime Minister Sargon assumed that as commander of the Babylonian fleet he would be responsible for enslaving a world of seven billion people, but he would also be responsible for planting the seeds of civilization on another world.

The next harvest would not return for another 5000 years, but if Prime Minister Sargon had anything to do with his own destiny, then he would not be stuck in such a mediocre position after this harvest. Prime Minister Sargon did not care if millions died in the process because the empire needed slaves, and he wanted his promotion so that he could get out of this isolated section of space.

~*~

Roughly 5000 years ago in our solar system the last human race on Mars is about to be harvested, and what remains of the previous human race on Earth was not sure what if anything could be done.

It had been twenty years since Gabriel had been back to Earth, and there was a lot that he wanted to discuss with the Elders. Gabriel had not yet settled in when an old man started knocking on his door.

The old man told Gabriel The Elders have asked to meet with you if it is not too much to ask.

Gabriel was tired, but there was so much that he wanted to know. Gabriel picked up the few possessions he had brought with him and went to meet with whichever Elder had asked to talk with him.

Once at the meeting, it did not take long for Gabriel to realize that he was not being invited to a meeting, but a meeting was being held to speak to him.

It seemed as if the Elders had a thousand questions, but Gabriel tried not to be rude and answered as many as he could. Although Gabriel did not mind answering the questions, he had his own fears and needed some answers. Gabriel spent hours answering questions but when he thought everyone had left, two Elder Leaders remained behind.

Gabriel could only guess these two Elders had questions about Mars, but to his surprise they were there to apologize although he did not yet know why.

The old man explained to Gabriel The people of Mars need to be told what is coming so that they can start to prepare.

Gabriel had always known the aliens that drove his people underground would someday return, but he assumed that he would have more time. Gabriel asked How much time do we have and what about the people here.

After a few moments, the old man explained I have little doubt that anyone is safe and once the aliens had harvested the people of Mars they will come for those us left here on Earth.

Gabriel asked Is there nothing that could be done, but the old man just shook his head and replied not that I can see.

After a few moments, the old man took a deep breath, and then explained to Gabriel You will need to return to Mars so that you can teach people how to survive by living underground. The old man explained There is nothing that could be done for these people now, but maybe some piece of knowledge could be saved for the next human race.

The other Elder, an old woman suddenly grabbed Gabriel’s arm and told him No one sees the absolute truth, but all that can be seen is the most likely outcome. After a few moments, the old woman added Hope remains even if we cannot see beyond the death and destruction of both worlds.

The old man just shook his head before he asked Gabriel Please return to Mars to see what can be saved, but you will need to return Earth because soon people will live on the surface again where they would need to be inculcated to this planet.

Gabriel had returned home in hope of finding answers, but all that he found was dispute. The old man’s face told Gabriel all that he needed to know, so he said Goodbye and left to return to his ship.

As Gabriel left, the old woman turned to the man and said If he returns to Mars the aliens will come for us, they will find us and the people of this planet will be made to serve them.

The old man nodded and replied I know, but the process must be started if we are to have any hope. The old man then added Even if the child did not return I think our destiny is already set.

The old woman bowed her head and prayed May God help him for this boy does not know the pain that he will have to endure.

~*~

While Gabriel’s ship was preparing to return to Mars, there were six Martian ships about to enter into the Earth’s atmosphere.

It had been six months since the convoy had left had left Mars to start the colonization process on Earth. With the blue planet within visual sight, everyone was excited about their historic mission and ready to land so that they could get off these ships.

There were some worries about the high hydrogen levels in the atmosphere from the experts back on Mars, but it looked as if the ships would enter orbit in the next few hours.

For the last two days, the Alliance ships had been just out of the gravitational pull of the planet waiting for permission from Mars to orbit the blue planet.

Although the convoy finally had permission to proceed, the plan was to orbit the planet for a few days. The ships would gather information about the abnormalities in the atmosphere and the greater than expected vegetation on the planet.

The Alliance’s plan was for five of the six ships to land them about forty miles apart on a large land mass, or as close to the equator as they could get. The sixth ship or command ship would remain in orbit and serve as a relay station for the other ships.

The ships had only been in orbit for a few hours, when all six ships started reporting electrical problems on every part of their ships.

The ship named Druid II was by far in the worse condition, and was going to attempt to pull out of the orbit so that they could make repairs. As the ship was trying to pull out of orbit, the crew realized that the ship was not going to be able pull out of orbit as they had hoped. In the crew’s efforts to escape, they had caused considerable damage to their engines. At this point, the captain of the ship decided to land because the ship could no longer maintain a stable orbit and was going to fall out of the sky. Somehow the pilot was able to maintain just enough control of the ship to keep it from crashing, but it was thousands of miles from where the captain wanted to be. Although the pilot had missed the landing site, everyone cheered because at least they were alive. It did not take long for the crew to realize there was no way that the ship would ever take off again.

The other five ships were also having serious problems, and it was only a matter of time before they would also need to land.

Because of the ionized atmosphere, the rest of the ships were not even sure where Druid II had gone down because they had lost communication with the ship not long after it landed.

The ship named Xia had lost an engine, and after two hours of trying to maintain an orbit managed to land somewhere on the largest land mass. Although the ship was nowhere near the planned landing site, again most of the crew were still alive even if the ship had caught fire.

The ships Indus and Nile also tried to land, but both ships crashed at different sites in the northern hemisphere.

The colonel’s ship the Cycladic tried to maintain an orbit so that it could communicate with Mars and the other ships, but had to land somewhere on a group of islands in the northern hemisphere.

The last ship Atlantis was not as lucky as the other ships and had to make a water landing in the middle of one of the large oceans.

~*~

Gabriel returned to Mars as he promised, but few people would listen to what he had to say.

Although Gabriel believed he could save them, most people who met him thought that he was insane or found him irksome.

After a few years, Gabriel was able to articulate his message more so as to convince a group of young people he was telling the truth. Gabriel methodically taught the students everything he knew about the aliens and how to survive once the aliens abandon the planet.

When Gabriel had taught the students all that he could teach them and could no longer convince people to join his cause, he decided that it was time for him to return home where he would try to help his people.

Gabriel did not see it at the time, but he had drawn the attention of these aliens who were about to harvest the planet.

Almost as the old woman had predicted, less than a year after Gabriel returned to Earth the aliens invaded.

The people of Mars never stood a chance even with their advance technology which seemed almost obsolete. In less than month, most major cities had surrendered, and in less than two months, the aliens were using Mars’s own ships to transport people to some unknown place somewhere outside of the solar system.

A few people managed to hide beneath the surface of Mars to escape the aliens. The few people were led by the people whom Gabriel had taught.

As the Elders had predicted, it did not take long before the aliens were hunting for Gabriel’s people. It took a few years to find everyone, but the aliens worked without any mercy until they unearth every single person that lived below the surface of the Earth except Gabriel.

Gabriel did not understand at the time, but he was not captured although it was quite reasonable the aliens could have taken him many times.

After a few years, Gabriel found himself on an island with the survivors of one of the ships that had crashed on his planet twenty years earlier.

Gabriel taught these people how to build stone walls in which they would be safe from the creatures that had kept his people underground for thousands of years.

Later Gabriel taught the new human race how to hunt and cultivate the ground so that they could feed themselves. As other human civilization emerged from obscurity, he also taught them but little did he realize as the years would pass they would not remember what he did for them.

THE NEW WORLD OF EARTH

CHAPTER 1

I n all his eighteen years, Michael had never seen so much activity from the people of Mars.

All that Michael was told was that the Elders would be here soon arrive and that he needed to provide assistance if needed. Michael did as he was told, but he was still not sure why he had been asked to attend or even what the agenda was for this mysterious meeting. By far this was not the first formal meeting that Michael had attended in the Great Stone Chamber after all he was an assistant to the regional constable, but it was the first event that someone had asked that he attend.

Michael knew remarkably little about the history of the Great Stone Chamber, but what mattered was the creatures that had plagued his people for so long could not get in to it. Michael did not know who constructed stone chamber or even how long the structure had protected his people. Michael did know it was dank, musky and fairly dim, but it was safe and that was better than most places.

Michael by far was the youngest member of the regional constable’s team and had never seen more than four or five Elders in one place.

No one including the constable had anything to say about the meeting, or at least no one had anything to say to Michael.

Over last few years, Michael had met at least seven or eight Elders, but the only Elder that Michael knew personally was his grandfather. Michael’s grandfather had asked him to attend this meeting. At this point, Michael just wished that he understood the importance of this meeting.

In the last two hours, dozens of Elders had shown up but from what Michael understood it could be hours before all the Elders arrived. Every time more people showed up, the villagers would bring more food or water, and Michael would help distribute to the ever growing number of people. Although this helped to pass the time, there was not a lot for Michael to do.

~*~

It was now fourteen hours since Michael had opened the Great Stone Chamber, and there were now at least a hundred and fifty people in the main setting area. Even though, it could seat several times that many people, it had been many years since the Great Stone Chamber had seen so many people.

The part that confused Michael the most was that no one was asking any questions especially about the purpose of this meeting. Michael clearly did not understand what was going, but he was far too embarrassing to ask.

Suddenly everyone in the Great Chamber started shifting around to take their place around the old wooden table and wooden benches near the center of the chamber. Moments later a group of five guards began escorting an extremely old man into the Great Chamber.

As a child, Michael had heard the stories about the legendary soothsayer Abraham Yates the oldest of the Elders and the spiritual leader of the people of Mars.

Michael did not share the psychic or second site abilities of most of his people, but suddenly he was overwhelmed by a feeling of fear and significance that he did not yet understand. Although Michael was never sure that the great soothsayer was even a real person; there, he sat at the head of the table getting ready to address the other Elders.

Michael was surprised to see how alert the old man acted despite his age of at least three hundred years.

Everyone in the great chamber seemed to be mesmerized by the old man who had not even spoken yet.

Abraham Yates began by saying Everyone in this room knew this day would come and now we must decide what is to be done.

Michael could see the anxiety and fear on the faces of everyone in the Great Stone Chamber. Michael did not fully comprehend what was going on, but somehow he knew that the old man was telling the truth.

After a long, awkward pause, the matriarch at the other end of the table asked what about the others are we to abandon them and leave them to the same fate that we have suffered.

Abraham Yates took a deep breath and then replied that the fate of the others was not up to him or this council. Abraham Yates then added As far as I can see their fate is quite doubtful at best, but is not yet written in stone.

The old woman mumbled to herself for a few moments before she asked Have we lost all our humanity.

Everyone stared in silence at the old couple who did not take their eyes off of each other.

Several minutes pass before the old woman added We are obligated to warn our brothers and sisters, and to see if we can help them.

Abraham replied I do not see how we can help, but I agree we are obligated to at least see where they were. The old man stood up and look around the great chamber as though he was looking for someone he knew. After a few moments the old man asked Would anyone be willing to make this trip to Earth to see if anything could be done for our brothers and sisters.

The Great Stone Chamber was extremely silent as everyone tried to find the courage to say anything but could not.

The old woman stood up and looked around the room, but yet no one had the courage to volunteer or the resolve to say anything to the old man who stood waiting for someone to answer.

Michael did not know why he suddenly stood up and asked if he could be the one to go.

The chamber remained painfully silent as everyone started staring at Michael while they waited for Abraham to respond.

Abraham looked across the great hall until he found the single voice that had the courage to speak. Abraham then asked Michael What if anything do you know of the people we call the others, and after a few moments the old man asked what do you think you can do for them.

Michael responded Until this moment, I was not even sure that the others really existed. After a few moments, Michael added that his great-grandfather use to tell him stories about these people and how they gave up everything to warn us of what was to come, but clearly there was nothing one person could do to help them.

As Michael waited for the old man to anything, he thought I am younger than anyone I know therefore, I am the most expendable. Michael also wanted to see the others for himself o again he replied I would like to go if that is OK".

Abraham looked at Michael for almost a minute and then immediately expressed No one was expendable, and I need a moment to think about this. Abraham had foreseen this day for a long time, but did not expect Michael to be so young.

The old man looked toward the old woman who once again, but if she made any effort to influence Abraham one way or the other Michael could not tell.

The chamber remained silent as Abraham stared across the table for several minutes, and then announced The decision had been made. Abraham told Michael The council agreed, this was his destiny.

~*~

Once everyone had left the great chamber, the old man explained There will be many things that you will not understand, but that would change in time.

Abraham told Michael You will need to learn everything about these people so that you can teach others. Abraham paused for a moment, and then added We need to know such things as where they are with their technology and how these people are politically divided.

Abraham came closer to Michael and put his hands on Michael’s shoulder. In unassuming voice, Abraham told Michael I wished there was more I knew about the others, but I honestly could not even surmised what you might expect to find there.

~*~

Although Michael had prepared for this trip for months, he was not accustom to being on his own and found so many people distracting.

It had been many years since anyone from Mars had been to Earth and few people had any advice for Michael.

Michael was given a long list of items that the Elders wanted information about, but as of yet he was still not sure where to start. Although Michael did not understand the word technology when he agreed to go on this trip, he quickly learned that almost everything in this strange culture was based on circuit boards and signals.

Michael found himself in the center of a relatively developed country where he learned that the people of Earth believed that the year was 2025.

Michael found that most countries at this time were facing bankruptcy or other political problems because of their dependency on a naturally occurring substance called crude oil.

The United States and Russia had started sharing their technology to develop a reliable alternative energy source to use instead of this crude oil. The modest goal for this partnership was only to find a way to reduce their fossil fuel consumption by as little as five percent over the next ten years.

Associations such as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries controlled most of the world’s supply of crude oil, and they had no problem manipulating the production of this substance to their advantage.

Over the last decade, both the United States and Russia had doubled their consumption of this fossil fuel, which had tripled in price because of its short supply.

Although Russia was a leading oil producer two years before the partnership, most of the world’s financial experts had calculated that Russia only had about five years left before they defaulted on their loans.

Russia’s failing economy forced the United States in to a partnership that they might not otherwise entered into, but they did not understand what would become of their nuclear weapons and massive military surplus. This anxiety and fear partially helped establish the partnership between the two nations.

Although the United States faced a politically divided country at home and enormous financial problems abroad, they still managed to salvage some political and economic power in which to lead this new partnership.

Michael believed this partnership was probably more out of basic need to survive or desperation rather than peace or goodwill.

If thoughts of going bankrupt were not enough to drive both countries to some alternate source of fuel, it seemed like every six months or so an oil rig would blow up, or a tanker ship would sink to the bottom of the ocean causing considerable damage to the environment. The toxic oil spills would create an economy downfall for everyone involved which in turn would drive the price of oil up to an all-time high.

The oil rich extremist countries of the world soon discovered that the emerging markets of the world were far more profitable than supplying oil to the United