by Bruce Burk
The Thunderbird landed in a remote area near Lake Ontario. The One State still had rural areas but most people lived in the main cities. “So what are we supposed to do?” Gavin asked. “The book says to look for something called the Standing Stone. Maybe we can ask some of the villagers if they know about it and they can help us find it. Clark, stay here and guard the ship,” John said. “With my life. I’ll see if I can make some improvements while you’re gone,” Clark answered. The Knights exited the ship to find themselves next to a lake. “Come on, there’s a village up ahead on the hill,” John said. “I’m so glad to be outside. The lake is beautiful. Look at the colors. It’s so much better then grey walls I stared at for so long,” said Sophia. “We’ll make sure that never happens again,” John said. “The hole planet is in a prison cell right now. We have to insure that they are freed,” John said. “What if they don’t want to be freed? What if they want to stay in the cage?” Sophia asked.
“They will want to leave. The human soul longs for freedom. Its longings can only be clouded by a tainted mind,” John responded. They entered a rural village on the hilltop by the lake. There were various tents, people living outside, and villagers picking berries from the bushes. Most of the villagers gave the Knights a strange look. A young boy ran up to John in a curious and innocent way. The young boy walked around the rebels inspecting them; touching their equipment and grazing his hand across their clothing. He signaled back to the other villagers who were watching from the trees with weapons drawn.
“Skʌˀlhiyo,” the boy said. “I hope that means he likes us,” Gavin said. Suddenly, a spy drone flew overhead. All the villagers rushed into their tent. “Hao!” Hao!” The boy cried as he pulled John’s arm toward one of the tents. The rebels followed the boy into one of the tents in the camp.
“I guess they don’t like the One State either,” John said. They were now amongst the tribesman. They seemed frightened by the drones, almost as if they thought it was trying to kill them. One of the elders walked up to John.
“The boy sees that you are good people. He has a good sense of that sort of thing. I guess that means you aren’t part of the OSS, the Oneidas tribesman said. “You speak English?” said John. “Yes. Most of us know English, but we do everything we can to preserve our original tongue,” he responded. “Does the OSS bother you? Have they come here?” John asked. “They came a while ago, but they didn’t see much interest in us. They gave us some flags and told us that we had to follow certain rules but they don’t check on us but for those drones flying above. But may I ask, what are you three doing in the Oneida village? We rarely get visitors from the outside,” the tribesman said. “We are here to find a very important artifact near something called the standing stone,” John said. All the natives that had been cowering in groups stopped their conversations, gasped and turned their heads in shock toward John.
“So I guess you do know where it is,” John said. The native replied, “The standing stone is on forbidden grounds. It is a death sentence to go there. Hundreds of years ago, some of our people went to this land and they vanished: never to be seen again. We have since forbid anyone from our tribe from going there,” the tribesman said. “Will you take me there?” John asked. “Are you mad?” he replied. “I have a promise to keep. I must find the standing stone. I believe it might contain something very valuable to humanity,” John said. “Very well. I will take you there, but I will not enter with you and neither will any of our people,” he replied. The native led the rebels in a canoe to an island just off the coast. The water was brackish. Gavin and John pushed the paddles through the water making tiny world pools shooting from the paddle at the end of each row. “So what’s your name,” Gavin asked. “Black Bear,” the tribesman replied. “I don’t think I could live out here with just trees and animals,” Gavin said. “The city dwellers think they find happiness in their stone towers and electronic devices. But living off the land and putting back what is taken is the way humans were meant to live,” Black Bear responded. As the canoe was grounded, the native told them, “This is as far as I go. I will wait for you here. The standing stone is straight in front of you. I wish you good luck.” “Thank you for your kindness,” John said as he, Gavin and Sophia bowed to the native.
“This way,” John said. The beach sand turned to rock and the rebels began climbing a rock face. “Here give me your hand,” John said as he pulled Sophia up. The sun was beating down on them quite heavily. “There! Behind those leaves!” John said. The rebels saw the entrance to a temple and began pulling branches that had grown over the entrance. They saw breathtaking Native American art and symbolism that decorated the entrance. The rebels stepped into the water that flooded the temple up to their knees. John assembled a torch from a dead man’s clothes that he found near the entrance. The temple was covered in Native American symbolism. In it, various major events in history had been predicted. “This is amazing. How did they know all of this would happen?” Gavin said. “Starting to believe there is more to the world than what we see?” John asked Gavin. “Look! They predicted the Magna Carta. Look here’s the renaissance and there’s the industrial revolution,” Sophia said. The rebels finally made it to the room of the standing stone. The room was surrounded by mystical sculptures and stones.
John cracked open the standing stone. The bits and pieces of the rock tumbled all over the floor. John lifted the blue branch from the open rock and held it in his hand. “What does it say?” Sophia asked. John glazed his eyes over the strange ancient language. “I can’t read it. It’s in some sort of ancient language,” John said. “Maybe Clark can decode it. He’s good at that sort of thing,” Gavin said.
Suddenly, a blaster shot grazed passed Sophia’s shoulder. “Watch out!” John said. Three of the Will of Cross members flooded into the temple. “Drop the branch.” Said David – the one of the leaders within the Will of the Cross. These intolerable priests had shaved heads and wore red and white robes. “I hate these guys,” John said as he slowly put the branch back into the standing stone. “May God cruse you!” David said as he punched John across the face. “How arrogant you are to go against God’s will. He has sent a clear message that Heaven’s gates are closed and no one else shall be worthy to hear God’s word.”
“This isn’t God’s word. Those were all destroyed.” “Oh we know. Now you seek to reveal God to the people through other means. We simply cannot allow that. Now which one shall I kill first? Your best friend? Or your girlfriend?” David said. “How can you be so selfish as to think salvation is not intended for those born as we speak?” John inquired. “That is not for us to decide. It is clear that God has made his choice. Now we will make ours. Shoot him.” The priest cocked the blaster toward John’s head. A loud blaster shot rang throughout the temple. Gavin and Sophia gasped in horror. They looked to see that the priest had been shot through the torso. He fell to his knees then onto his face in pool of blood. Clark stood with his blaster smoking up at the entrance to the standing stone. He then threw his matter sword at some hanging rocks that fell over David and the remaining priest.
“Thanks, Clark.” John said. He then ran to pick up the branch. “Clark we need you to translate this language,” John requested. “They put the language into Clark’s computer which deconstructed it and compared it against every language known to man. Clark then projected the English translation on the wall for the rebels to see. It seems that each branch had a main natural law as well as other laws that were derived from it that were written on the smaller branches that grew from it. The words illuminated onto the temple wall:
“Within every human being is a conscious living soul. God is within the very fabric of the human soul and the matter of the human heart. All humans shall pursue self-awareness and commune God’s presence within them. In doing so, they shall reject their baser urges and their animalistic, unconscious desires. All humans are equal in their status of God occupied human souls. Because we are all equal, pride, arrogance, and the ego sh
all be stricken from the mind of a human soul. Humans shall forgive those who do wrong against them and not keep a ledger of transgressions. Selflessness shall be pursued by all humans. Charity, hospitality, and giving where you could receive are of the highest of virtues. All human souls have the capacity to commune with each other through soul speak.”
The rebels stood awe-struck at the beautiful language that was before them. “It’s beautiful,” Sophia said. The rebels could feel movement within themselves. Perhaps their souls rejoiced inside their heavenly bodies from seeing its truth broken down in such plain language. It was as if their very souls shook their head in agreement. They could feel a chill run through their body.
“Can you imagine if all of humanity knew about this?” Sophia asked. John’s mind raced through the pages of all the religious texts that had been destroyed. “I’m certain that all of these laws are within every major religious text. I remember seeing similar verses in the Quran, the Buddhist writings and the Bible as well,” John said. “This branch is thousands of years old. Is it possible that the religions all copied from this?” Gavin asked. “I guess it’s possible. Perhaps the members of the Iam tribe revealed them in stages to various cultures and they each were described in their own light by the prophets,” John said. “It’s easy to see how the One States seeks to hide these truths from the population. They distract them with nonsense and tries to drive them away from the presence of the divine that is within. In doing so, they become easily manipulated and docile.”
“You can deduce other things from these laws,” Gavin said. “For instance, slavery is clearly wrong if we are all equal because that would imply that the owner is superior to the owned,” Gavin added. “Yes. Yes.” John said. “War would also be difficult to justify because it would imply keeping a ledger of wrongdoings by a culture. War would then only be justified if someone is in clear violation of a number of natural laws.” History has been the story of one group oppressing another. The employment of these laws would have saved millions of lives and prevented mass injustice. We must reveal them to the rest of the world,” John said.
“The constitution also employed these virtues as well,” Gavin said. “This reveals the very reason why the 5th, 13th, and 14th amendments are so important. Is it possible that these values were revealed to some of the founding fathers?” Gavin asked.
“There are drastic implications for women, relationships and love as well,” Sophia said. “If men and women adhered to these laws, and were in touch with their inner consciousness, perhaps they wouldn’t fight so much. Perhaps so many relationships would not be a struggle for dominance and ego gratification. I feel like these laws redefine what true love is.” Sophia felt her soul united in oneness of the world around her. Her vision seemed to change and she saw things differently. She felt like she understood what love was for the very first time. Her thoughts filled with images of all the time she spent making herself beautiful because she had a deep seated desire to feel loved by a man, most recently by John.
“I feel … different,” Sophia said to John as she looked at him through the lenses of consciousness for the first time. “What’s different?” John asked. “I … I don’t know. I feel like I’ve been asleep for a long time and that I just woke up or something,” Sophia said. “I’m sure we’ll all have a lot of soul searching to do with the more of the laws that we uncover.” John said. The projection on the wall faded. “Come on guys, let’s head back to the ship and try to figure out where the next branch is hidden,” John said. The rebels tracked through the knee-high water and returned to the canoe, only to find their guide had been killed: surely by the priests.
CHAPTER 14 - TREES
The man in the wilderness sat in a forest next to Aiyana. Some of the native boys ran past them as they skipped along and played. “They know nothing of greed. They know nothing of selfishness or anger,” Aiyana said. Aiyana took a long look at the trees around her. “The trees, they tell us everything,” she said. “For years, we studied the trees of this forest very closely and we learned a great deal. The trees … they are alive. Truly alive. They have an entire civilization where they take care of one another. We discovered that the roots of the trees can hear each other. The trees share sunlight and are able to limit their growth so that they do not steal light from under trees. They truly defy the survival of the fittest mentality that we find in biology. Most importantly, trees can sense when another tree is week and will assist it, even if it is not from the same species. They are amazing creatures. Parent trees intentionally deprive their children of sunlight to limit their growth so that they do not grow too fast; they want to give them a strong foundation that will stand strong in a storm. The trees live in harmony with several other lifeforms such as fungi, birds, and insects. They have their own language and communicate with one another just like we do. We believe that they do it through electrical impulses or scent to communicate. We took all of this, combined with what we know about Fysi and conducted an experiment,” Aiyana said.
“We took some of the children and placed them in different areas of the island and did not tell them about the others. The first village, we called village X and the second village we called village Y. Ten children were placed in village X. In village X, we spread the resources and food out so that two of the children had significantly more than the others. The children were also surrounded by violent tribal images of warriors and weapons. We found out quickly that the two children with more food tried to control the other children and constantly explained that they were better than them. Eventually, the eight unequally yoked children became violent and began to show signs of aggression; perhaps a primal urge for dominance. The eight children killed the other two and fought over who would control the food. They would have all killed themselves in a bloody show of dominance, had we not intervened and stopped them. But in village Y, we distributed food equally among the children. We taught them that that they were to share and treat each other well. They were only surrounded by beautiful images of nature and were taught nothing about dominance, violence or control. It was miraculous what happened. The children grew up and treated each other with kindness. They acted as a unit. When they wanted to hunt, they elected leaders amongst themselves to lead the tribe. When that hunting trip was finished, the leader relinquished his post and allowed the others to have a chance. From this we learned that there is a direct proportion between how many people are controlled and the amount of time the leader should be in power. The more people that are controlled, the less amount of time that person should be in power. If they are in power for too long, it will bread contempt and violence,” Aiyana said. “That's incredible,” said the man in the wilderness. “One of the children from village Y is in charge now,” Aiyana said. “He’s been in charge for several sun cycles and we expect to have a new one soon,” she said.
Back at the One State capital, Aiden sat in his chambers in a hot tub amongst several OSS officers with multiple women, drugs, and a blaster in his hand. “Tell me who's the greatest? Aiden asked one of the girls. “You are baby,” one of the girl said. An OSS officer brought in a new girl ... it was Elizabeth. “Ah, what do we have here?" Aiden asked the guard. “This girl is a Jewish prisoner who has defected. She has decided to side with the One State,” the guard said. “I'm so glad you joined us Elizabeth. I'm sorry we couldn't have met sooner,” Aiden said as he slowly walked up the steps out of the hot water. Aiden stroked his blaster across her chest and up to her neck, pulling her chin up to his attention. “Quite a nice specimen. I shall keep you here in the capital for ... personal services,” Aiden said. As he said this, one of the other OSS officers was violating one of the girls. She had been in Aiden's chambers for a while being touched and used by several OSS officers and she just had reached her breaking point.
“Stop! Get off of me,” the girl said, as she scratched his face. Aiden turned and pointed his blaster directly at her. “Do you not like your place young one?” Aiden said as he walked towards
her, corning her over a hollow walkway. “If the One State tells you you're a whore ... then you're a whore!” Aiden said, pressing a button which caused the metal floor beneath the girl’s feet to fall out. The girl screamed as she fell into a pit of Komodo dragons. She screamed as they ripped her to shreds. Elizabeth stood there watching. Her emotions were completely numb and where she would have been outraged before, she was indifferent.
Suddenly, Eidolon came onto the screen and Aiden rushed to attention. “Yes my Lord. What is your command?” Aiden asked. “We have detected unsanctioned seismic activity in a small village. The Knights are still at large. The One State is not secure until they are all dead,” Eidolon said. “I will seek them out and bring you their heads,” Aiden said. “See to it that you do. And there is more. The GSA has detected from the public's social posts and phone conversations that they still have memories and are practicing non-religious traditions. In Old China, the children are still taking care of their parents. They bow to their food when they eat. They are sharing and doing other things that represent a value system from the Traditions of Old. These Old non-religious traditions contain values that a slave population cannot be allowed to possess. You must slowly begin to remove these remnants of Old Cultures from the Universal Database. Do not permit new information to be uploaded that contain these traditions. Continue to promote the culture and traditions of the One State. People must be loyal to us over their families,” Eidolon commanded. “It will be done,” Aiden said.
