Chapter 1: The Threat

Dark clouds gather fast

Thunder rumbles in the sky

A storm is coming.

Ancient Haiku by the AI GPT 9456.

Earth’s business was a fuss about everything and often about nothing. Most nations pursued agendas without a long-term plan. Parts of the world lived in luxury while others battled to survive. Inequality, prejudice, and discrimination were rife.

Yet, that was all to change, but it was to worsen.

Blissfully unaware of unfolding catastrophic threats, Earth carried on as usual. International alignments constantly changed while nations waged wars and sent troops to desolate parts of the world. Terrorists bombed, abducted, and raped with impunity. Democracy, a much-vaunted political system, became increasingly unpopular while leaders eager for power bought votes, and malicious forces undermined the society’s fundamental beliefs. If they voted, voters felt they voted for those they hated the least.

Dictatorships suppressed seething dissidents while many in power enriched themselves or grabbed more power.

Theocracies suppressed women and those who did not believe as they did. Many felt that Earth was a political mess. Earth had a mishmash of competing beliefs, each using propaganda to hide greed for power and influence.

There was no concept of a unified Earth.

Some hypothesized there must be other intelligent life in the Universe. Others believed the Earth was flat and we were the only sentient life in the Universe.

Economic, political, and climate refugees flooded America, Europe, and Australasia. Climate change increasingly wreaked havoc.

Russia futilely hoped to take over the world. It worked relentlessly to turn America and the democracies against themselves and each other, stealing what they could when they could. They took the first bite out of Ukraine while the world looked on. No response.

Slumbering China was moving its plans ahead, growing the military while acquiring intellectual property wherever it could and buying strategic companies in the West while giving aid with a sting in its tail to those with resources or a strategic location.

While blissfully isolated from reality, SETI raised funds to detect signs of intelligent life. SETI had no idea! Not a single, sophisticated self-respecting alien used technology SETI could detect. Looking for smoke signals on the horizon would have been cheaper and equally effective.

No one who had evolved from the apes on Earth knew the Empire of Cassius had discovered Earth thousands of years ago, and many citizens of the Empire had lived among them for centuries.

Illicit stowaways on the Empire battleship approaching our solar system had a plan for the inhabitants of Earth. They presented a constellation of threats. Few threats appear in isolation.

Existence comprises opposing forces: benevolent and evil, creation and destruction, light and dark, and Yin and Yang. Some say they are not opposites but endlessly turning spheres.

On the other hand, the battleship crew offered the seeds of hope and an excellent opportunity.

One hand takes, another gives. Someone creates, and another destroys. Someone works, and another steals. Someone gorges themselves while a starving family walks through the desert seeking salvation.

Life is like that. It is not fair. We must all painfully learn life is not a game. Yet one can play a carefully crafted game and learn to live life.

The gigantic battleship nosed its way into our solar system and orbited Jupiter. On behalf of the Empress, the crew wanted to find the young Duke Jason Kargo while the stowaways launched their search to find and assassinate him. Those that wished to kill him did everything they could to hinder the crew and prevent them from locating him first. Those who sought to kill the young Duke had a secondary plan, one that was to prove a threat to the survival of Earth.

Papa Zora looked down at the teenager’s tousled hair, Zora’s thick brows knitted together, and his cheeks flushed.

“Boy, I have run out of patience, and you have run out of time!” He leaned forward, encircling the boy’s neck with his arms, the youth’s slender shoulders clasped between his knees. He twisted the boy’s head rapidly as far round as he could, waiting for the satisfying click, then pushed the lifeless naked body backward.