by Kim Merrill
Jessie Stern and the Time Shifters
By
Kim Merrill
Copyright 2013 Kim Merrill
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And thank you for reading my book
Cover image from of Dreamstime
Chapter 1 - The Last Entry of my 12th year.
I don’t want to be a hero, but it feels like I’ve been one the past few nights.
It happens in a dream. I am watching a young girl – a priestess. And, in that strange dream way I am the priestess too.
It happens in that twilight time between being awake and still being asleep. You know, the seconds of time when it’s hard to tell if you’re still in the dream world or back in the real world. That’s what this dream is like. I hate that mixed-up feeling. It makes me feel crazy.
The dream is about Shilona; a world that’s dying.
I’ve had the dream every night this week…
I always have the dream around dawn…
And the dream is always the same…
“You must not tell them.” The dream starts with this message. The message is broken, but clear enough. All other communication with the Shilonan people had been lost hours ago. Only the cabinet leaders are still in contact.
“Repeat, you must not tell them. If you do, they may not come,” the voice says again. She feels it is wrong, the girl that I watch, the girl that I am. Despite the warning the girl feels those that are coming need to be warned.
“This will be the last transmission. We wish you luck,” the voice dies in static.
She is alone. It is the first time in her young life that she has been truly alone. There have always been tutors and priests and, of course her parents- but now they are gone. They fled their dying world and left her to her destiny.
She proceeds down the hall to the stasis chamber; the place she will sleep until her rescue. She is cautious. She knows there are those who want to see her dead so they can seize power in the new home world. New factions that have risen and become stronger since their Sun started to die. The Unconstrained Ones they are called. It would be a great accomplishment for the Unconstrained Ones to kill the High Priestess of the Scrolls of Shilona. Her death would make it so much easier for them to grab the power they desire. The knot in the pit of her stomach tells her that danger is close and she thinks once again of how it is wrong not to tell the ones sailing towards her of the possible hazards.
She slips into the crystal chamber that will bring her slumber. She knows she must put the threat out of her mind for now. She has other duties that need her attention. She must give a message of thanks and welcome to the rescuers as instructed in the prophecies – and then she must release the gas that will bring her sleep.
The Prophecies are always right. As a child she remembered hearing the ancient tales of the Blending Time. The stories had been told over the millennia's. It was a story of the time when the Shilona galaxy joined with the galaxy they now called home. During the millions of years the monstrous sheet of stars loomed before them, some feared that Shilona and its Sun would be thrown out if its orbit into a new region or even into the nothingness of space. Others feared that their planet would not survive the shock waves of the churning 100 million degree gases. (Read More About It #1)
But the Prophets were not worried. They said the Shilona system would maintain a safe and steady orbit around her Sun as their planet joined the new galaxy. They said it would be millions of years before Shilona’s own Sun would bring about the planet’s death. The prophets were right.
Now that time had come. Their sun was dying. All the others had left and she, the Priestess of the Scrolls remained to welcome and thank those that would save her. The Sleep Chamber is soft and silky. As she closes the door a mist of gas envelops her. It is cool and white and smells of green growing things. She reaches out for the recording device. As the thought once again enters her mind, ‘The ones who are coming must be told of the threats.’ If they are not the rescuers that were prophesied then they must be warned off. If they are the ones, they would do what they must do to overcome the dangers and take her to her new home. The cabinet always spoke of politics, but she must follow her consciences and she knew what she must do. She closes her eyes and activates the recording device.....
Chapter 2 -1st for Entry My 13th Year on Earth
