Echoing Time is part of a chronology of stories initiated by the miscreant Trillem Pax Kenroo and his search for universal intergalactic domination. However, he is thwarted early on by providence and the stalwart nature of a young Arapaho girl named Marin Wanderhorse. Marin is kidnapped by the ghostly spectre of Kenroo, whose mission was to gain corporeal form and rule the earth. Marin successfully hinders his efforts throughout history, returning his abominations to the normal flow of history as written. Eventually, Marin is successful in returning Kenroo toward his destined path of redemption, but she is lost in the paradox of quantum string and multidimensional travel.
Her parents don’t give up on finding her and, with the help a discredited quantum physicist and a hippie commune in the Sonora region of Arizona, discover and capture a quantum string. Eventually, they are able to use the string to travel between realities, stopping an international arms deal, returning lost art, taken by the Nazis to Jewish families and returning the antagonist, Kenroo, to his prescribed destiny.
Echoing Time Book
By Michelle StojicXlibris
Copyright © 2016 Michelle Stojic
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5245-1159-3Contents
Discovery, 1,
Anya's Tale, 43,
Like a Chinese Puzzle Box, 49,
St. Petersburg 1915, 69,
The Hunt for Mystical Artifacts with the SS, 78,
Wewelsburg Castle and the Quest for the Ark of the Covenant, 84,
Resonances, Vibrations, and an Electrical Surge, 88,
The Sonora Site, 1141,
Hope, Deceit, and Despair: The Second Materialization of Kenroo, 114,
The Prank, 119,
Time Well Spent, 121,
A Basket, a Bell, a Blanket, and a Boy Named Arslan, 123,
Sonora: Initial Sequence, 161,
Mellirt's chance, 174,
The Time Before Recovery, 244,
Trial Run, 293,
Retrieval of Marin, or Mellirt's final option, 348,
Countdown to disaster, 350,
Mellirt's ministrations, 368,
Initial rejoining, 374,
Coming home, 383,
Homecoming, 400,
Reality's Achievements, 405,
Back in the then, 407,
CHAPTER 1
Discovery
Trillem Kenroo was a foundling. His home planet and people exiled him after a sullen tantrum of greed, power, and lust, which resulted in the near annihilation of the planet. The council of the protectors decided unanimously that due to his age, and lack of beneficial parenting, he should be given the chance of redemption. He was cast adrift in his life pod just fifteen rotations after his birth. They could not interfere until his recreation was complete and he was placed with a family who would love and cherish him, allowing him to develop into the leader he was sorely destined to become.
His life pod was self-sufficient. He would have lived out his natural life without affiliations, without company, to atone for the sins of his spirit. It was the hope and belief of Trillem's people that in his next recreation Trillem would have learnt his life lesson and returned to them a better, more productive individual. There was no way of foreseeing this future; no way to warn the humans who found him of his true nature.
The capsule that transported this greedy, self-entitled yelp was destined to emerge through the time space continuum on a planet void of any cognizant life-forms. Unfortunately, it careened off a passing asteroid, damaging a rear thruster, forcing a landing in the desert on the third rock from a sun in the Orion arm of the Milky Way. The capsule, partially burnt on re-entry, burrowed itself into the soft sand of the Sonora Desert. The remaining life pod all but crumbled as it crashed into the yielding sand, near the ruins of the lost Sonoran civilization. Kenroo Trillem had survived, only to be abandoned once again.
— Signals —
Man, in fact, all species of life seemed to be in conflict with this otherwise peaceful planet. The recent storms and geographical changes that resulted from water and wind or lack thereof were massive. Fire-ravaged areas were visible from space as much-needed rain deluged storm-soaked flood zones. Seismic shifts invoked tsunami and volcanic eruptions. Populations were disseminated either through waring fractions, natural disasters, or mere indifference. Life went on. Cosmic abnormalities were a meager blip on news forecasts, unless it accompanied a monumental land disturbance. The landing of Trillem's capsule went largely unnoticed. Observatories noted a meteor in sync with the planet's orbit. When it disappeared and crashed in the Sonora Desert of Arizona/New Mexico, no one took notice — not even the alien hunters that annually converged on Area 51.
And so the Weyen fey continued their Shiva. Seven sat in deep prayer as two of the nine rotated between, allowing comfort and food breaks as needed. Trillem Pax Kenroo's grandmother was not allowed to take part in these proceedings. She was to act as gatherer, gleaning needed items as requested by the circulating two. It was her penance to serve. And wait.
Planet-side universities, whose staff of academics were convinced that natural disaster spawned societal disintegration, sent small groups of archeologists and naturalists into the various deserts of the world. Most renown was the dig site at Sonora. As hopeful PhD candidates strove for their papers' recognition, many offered their time and expertise to dig at the various sites in the Arizona/New Mexico desert. The atomic bomb testing during the 1940s created a wellspring for anthropologists, naturalists, and physicists alike. The abundance of iron oxide created a mystic allure for those in search of spiritual guidance. And true to form, the desert was resplendent in artifacts, which either bolstered or disclaimed every paper written.
Mark Wanderhorse headed the cultural paleontology department at Arizona State University. His current thesis dealt with changing weather patterns and the emergence or disappearance of ancient civilizations. He had been part of a find in Xinjiang province in China that predated the Neolithic period. It was there that he met Miles Jakison, an archeologist from Finland, who was writing a proposal on weather and its effect on mummification. The Tarim mummies lead to many fascinating discussions on weather, climate, and the advance and decline of civilizations along the trading routes of nomadic people.
Mark's study of fossilized plant life provided him with the input to conjecture that severe weather changes occurring in a short period of time lead to the fall of the dominant civilizations. The intense shifts from extreme hot to frigid cold with accompanying fires and floods caused massive shifts in the population's didactic. Advanced civilizations were cast back thousands of years, losing much, if not all, of the gains made by the indigenous people. Of course, this was just conjecture. He had to prove similar findings on a global scale in order to be taken seriously. The science community did not condone conjecture presented as fact. One needed hard, empirical evidence. However, for Mark, that evidence was slow in coming. Luckily for him Windsong Mourning Dove shared his exuberance.
Mark and Windsong were part of the Arapaho tribe. Both had been recipients of scholarships granted by the National Congress of American Indians. Windsong graduated from University of Montana with degrees in anthropology and forensics, while Mark excelled in the school of environment and natural resources from the University of Wyoming, taking graduate courses in archeology from Arizona State. His diligence served him well, and soon he rocketed from graduate assistant to associate professor to seated professor and then head of the department, surpassing all contenders. Some grumbled that his ethnicity was the real reason for his meteoric climb. Mark was good at his job. He was well liked by his students, many of whom he welcomed at his dig sites. He made great finds for the university and did so on a very limited budget. Of course, having a loyal following of graduate and undergraduate students to do all the heavy lifting was a plus.
Windsong was his soul mate. They met at a paleontology convention. Hers was a love of artifacts and the progression of man, from evolving tribal societies to the eventual collapse of complex civilizations. She was a forensic paleontologist. He was an environmental archeologist. They were two sides of the same coin; they both agreed that geographic changes, heightened by weather and climate, allowed society to develop, evolve, rise, and fall. They researched Mark's theory, traveling the world in search of artifacts, bones, fossils, anything that would support Mark's thesis.
Mark...