Author's Foreward

No one knows exactly what the next day of their life holds for them. This book, The Guardiana, is intended to be the first book in a series that tells the story of an alternate Star Blazers universe. This book was first inspired by this first verse of the hymn, The Sands of Time Are Sinking, by Mrs. A.R. Cousin.

The sands of time are sinking,
The dawn of Heaven breaks,
The summer morn I've sighed for,
The fair, sweet morn awakes:
Dark, dark hath been the midnight,
But Dayspring is at hand,
And glory—glory dwelleth
In Immanuel's land.

Prologue

The young Gamilon prince's footsteps echoed down the empty hall. To his relief, no one else had seen fit to wander this part of the palace. Though, truthfully, he needn't have worried about being followed. No one ever seemed to be around these days – at least, no one was ever around him, or so it seemed to the blue-skinned fifteen-year old. Only Masterson, his faithful shadow was ever anywhere to be seen. His brother Deun on the other hand, couldn't seem to get away from the attendants, the tutors, or their father and those cursedly boring meetings.

Deun was being put through extensive training in preparation for the day that he would take the throne and become Leader Deun II of Gamilon.

His father had always favored Deun over him. In the recent years things had begun to get worse. Ever since his mother, Queen Talonka's death, his father had shunned him. Sometimes it seemed as though his father actually hated him, or perhaps the Leader did not care if his younger son existed at all.

He hung his head and continued plodding along until he came to the end of the far wing of the palace where his parents' room used to be. After his mother's death, his father had refused to stay in the old chambers. In fact, he had moved all the way to the opposite side of the palace and into the guest's suites.

Even after almost five years, Leader Deun I had not gotten over the death of his beloved wife, and he had chosen to take his grief out on his younger son whose only sin had been being born with a partially white left hand, a fluke birthmark just like the one his mother had. Even covering the imperfection had not gotten him back into his father's good graces.

In reality, he probably should have been shipped off to some far-away planet – perhaps a new colony or something else suitably unassuming where the unwanted royal son could live and die in obscurity without ever revealing his heritage – and especially not his blood right to the throne if anything should ever happen to his brother... Or if… But that would never happen. Deun was not capable of something like that.

According to the tradition of the royal line of his people, the Leader and his Queen only raised up one heir. This purportedly prevented family in-fighting and united the people around the single heir. His very existence broke with that tradition. He had asked his mother once about why she and his father had kept both he and his brother instead of spiriting him away somewhere... or worse. Queen Talonka had told him that she loved both of her sons and that she would not wrong her own flesh and blood simply to follow a tradition.

Some days the second-born prince wondered what it might have been like if he had been the elder twin. If everything had been different by a matter of minutes, everything would have changed completely.

The teenager stopped abruptly as a door, forbidden to him these past several years, filled his field of vision and he stopped in front of it.

Memories swirled in his head like waves crashing over the breakers. Before her death, the Queen had not allowed her sons' education to be parceled out to private tutors. She had taught them herself, often in this very room, especially in their younger years. Many things were made easier by the fact that the brothers were the same age. There was only one lesson to prepare, and sibling rivalry kept the boys from ever getting too far behind in anything. Throughout his academic career, he had bested his elder brother, not so much to impress anyone as to prove his worth to his father…

Quietness swathed the secluded pocket of the palace in its comforting embrace as he reached out and punched the seven digit sequence he had found hidden in his father's current chambers, into the control panel inset in the wall beside the long-sealed door.

The hiss of the door opening broke the silent embrace with a force more violent than it should have been. The prince took one last look around to make sure he was alone before darting into the musty room and resealing the door behind him.

The former royal chambers looked exactly as it had five years ago. Nothing was out of place. The only difference he could see was that there was a thick layer of dust almost everywhere and the sight almost made him cough.

Why had his father not even allowed the servants to come and air out the room? What secrets lay here that his father wanted to remain buried so badly that he would cut off all memories of the only woman he had ever loved?

He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and read what was written on it for the hundredth time before stepping carefully, and quietly first one step then another until he finally reached an old plant, at least, he thought it was a plant, though how it could still be alive he did not know. He whispered something almost inaudible to the organism and received his answer.

A portion of the plant melted away, revealing a shallow recess within the heart of a very unplant-like machine. In the little pocket, a small device lay waiting, just where his mother's letter had promised it would be.

He picked up the device and the recess melted closed again. He crossed the grand room and settled onto the bed, stirring up a thick cloud of dust that sent him into a bout of coughing. Following his mother's instructions, he set the device down in front of him.

He almost fell off of the bed in surprise and shock when an image of his mother sprang forth from the tiny mechanism. The sight was so powerful that he reached out his hand to touch her beautiful face. He almost wept when his hand passed through her and the raw grief from five years ago nearly crushed his heart afresh.

"Desslok, my dear son, I hope you are well and that you have been able to let go of the bitterness that I have no doubt rose in your soul after my death. I have prepared this hologram for you in the event that I am not able to tell you this story in person. I pray that you never have to find it."

Hearing her voice again after so long overcame his adolescent ego and he failed to staunch the sudden flow of tears – the first he had shed in many years.

"Desslok," the prince was jerked back to reality at the sound of his name.

"I know your brother Deun is to inherit the throne; it is his right as the firstborn. But I wish to leave you an inheritance of your own – one that even your father does not fully know about."

Desslok's forehead wrinkled as he raised his eyebrows, intrigued and strangely comforted by his mother's posthumous gift.

"The inheritance I leave you is the legacy of my family – the followers of Guardiana, and how I escaped their fate. Much of what I must tell you will not be easy for you to hear, my son, and some of it you will not believe. To tell you this history, I must begin at the beginning… with a prayer that shaped the universe."

Chapter 1: Great Is Diana of the Ephesians

"Lord, I am Your humble servant, and I will follow You even unto death. I do not understand why Your Holy Spirit has forbidden me to go into Asia. I believe You would have Gospel to be spread throughout the world, but I trust Your wisdom and plan. I know that You want me to go to Ephesus – to give them the message of Jesus Christ. I know it will not be easy, but I also know that You will be with me wherever I go."

Priscilla opened her tent flap and looked up at the sky. The air was cool tonight and the stars shone brightly above her. Her husband Aquila had gone for a walk about an hour ago, and she was starting to wonder where he had gone. She walked past their traveling companions' tents. A few minutes later she stopped beneath a sycamore tree – much like the one Zacchaeus had climbed some years ago so that he could see Jesus above the crowd that had gathered around Him.

Not an eighth of a mile away from where she was stood Aquila looking up at the sky with a thoughtful look on his face, his arms folded across his chest. Almost as if he sensed his wife's gaze he looked at her and waved, a smile spreading over his face as he turned from his meditation and came to her.

"Husband, it is late." Priscilla rested a loving hand on Aquila's shoulder. He took her hand and laid a tender kiss on it.

"I know, my dear. I was coming back when I began to think about how God has blessed us. After we were forced from Rome, God led us to Corinth where we met Timothy and Paul and were able to be with them through everything they endured there. Now we are on this journey with them to Ephesus…" he looked back up at the stars and both of them were silent for a moment.

"Aquila, we should get back to the tent. I'd rather not have any wild goats eating our inventory." Priscilla took her husband's hand and began walking back to the tent. Aquila chuckled as he followed her.

A few days later, the four traveling companions entered the city of Ephesus. Paul preached in the local synagogue, and some believed the message he brought. The new Christians begged Paul to stay and teach them more about Jesus. He stayed as long as he could, but soon he had to leave the Ephesian believers and journey back to Jerusalem for the Passover.

Aquila and Priscilla stayed in Ephesus with the new believers and Paul set off for Jerusalem with Timothy and a new traveling companion, Silas. Paul promised that he would return to Ephesus.

A few years later, Paul set out from Antioch of Syria and traveled back to Ephesus to fulfill his promise. In the interim, Aquila and Priscilla were able to disciple many believers in Ephesus, including one young man named Apollos.

Once Paul arrived in Ephesus with Luke, Silas, and Timothy, he spent three months in the Jewish synagogue preaching Jesus Christ until the Jews would not tolerate his preaching any longer. When his access to the synagogue was denied, Paul arranged with a man named Tyranus to use his lecture hall to preach to the Ephesian believers and anyone else who would come to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Two years passed this way and Christians from Ephesus scattered themselves throughout Asia, spreading the news of Jesus as they went. In the city of Ephesus, great things were beginning to happen.

In an average Ephesian Jew's household, several men gathered together to talk.

"My brothers, the teacher Paul must have some magic to be able to cast out these evil spirits." The eldest son of the chief priest Sceva said to his six brothers. "If he can do this thing, what is stopping us from doing it? We have some experience with magic. Let us try it."

The six younger brothers looked at each other, nodding. "Alright brother," the second eldest brother said, "we will go with you."

The seven brothers set out to find someone possessed by an evil spirit. The brothers searched the city and came to a house where they found a candidate – a man tormented for years by the evil spirit within him. The man's family welcomed the Sceva brothers into their home when they told them the purpose for their search. The family watched and hoped.

The eldest Sceva evaluated the condition of the man standing before him.

"We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches!" The son addressed the devil.

The possessed man looked at the brothers, his eyes crazed and rolling. To his family's horror he snarled, "Jesus, I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?!"

The eldest Sceva's eyes widened in surprise. This was not how it was supposed to happen. The magic was supposed to make the evil spirit leave.

Without warning the possessed man jumped on the eldest brother ripping at him with insane speed and ferocity. The other six sons leapt into the fight while the family ran and hid within the house. The crazed man fought all seven brothers easily, the devil igniting superhuman strength within him. The man overpowered the seven and the brothers fled.

News of the brothers' encounter spread throughout the city. Paul was not using magic; he had something far more powerful than the dark arts – he had Jesus Christ.

Soon after the Sceva brothers' misadventure, many Ephesian believers came forward and revealed that they had been involved in magical and occultic practices. A great bonfire was built; the believers gathered their spell books, talismans, and other tools of magic and threw them into the flames, watching their former lives melt away and realizing the freedom they had in God.

As a result of their new beliefs, the Ephesian Christians stopped buying the silversmiths' finely crafted images of Diana. With each new convert to Christianity, the smiths lost more customers – and more importantly, more money. The artisans' greed prodded them to stir up the people who still believed in Artemis Diana – who still spent their money at the silversmiths' market stalls. The crafters devised a plan to gather everyone into the city's amphitheater. The meeting would surely draw Paul in – he never missed an opportunity to speak about his Jesus.

On the day of the "impromptu" meeting, the amphitheater was packed. Paul, as the crafters thought, came to see if he could seize the opportunity to speak to the people, but his fellow believers stopped him. The silversmiths and their sympathizers would surely kill Paul if they knew he was there.

The whole scene was chaos. One silversmith got up in front of the crowd and began chanting, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" over and over. The crowd unified around his chant.

Outside the amphitheater, one priestess named Nuray listened to the cacophony. These Christians were becoming a real threat to the worship of her deity Artemis Diana.

"No one will take my goddess from me!" Nuray thought to herself.

She looked down at her six year old daughter Simay and an idea began to fester in her heart.

Ch. 1 References:

- Picirilli, Robert E. Paul the Apostle. Moody Press. 1986.

- The Holy Bible: The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 19. Zondervan.

- Wikipedia, Various articles