Angels of a Distant Realm - Rise of the Dark Forces

Synopsis

In Angels of a Distant Realm - Rise of the Dark Forces, characters from The Roswell Factor: Sartarian Intervention*, which was set in 1947, are revived 78 years later, in Earth year 2022. Muha’i, the ET Sartarian whose sidekick was Rudy Greely in the former book, now travels with Rudy’s 15-year-old grandson Dante, continuing a legacy of human-alien cooperation. Dr. Julian Rose, who has moved forward into the service of the Elders with his beloved Jade, an Elder agent, are directing efforts from T’e Sonew’a aspen glen, a place of power in northern New Mexico, elev. 11,500 ft, near Taos Pueblo’s sacred Blue Lake.

Shorty (Walks-in-Thunder) a Navajo/Hopi/Zuni shepherd and his canine companion, Josie, guided by the spirits of traditional Native American wisdom—Crow and Fox, engage pueblos in New Mexico and plains clans of West Texas to follow the plan of Red Cloud, who has returned to ask for their help to save the Earth from climate disaster, to stymie the Dark Forces and unstable humans with weapons of war, and to restore Indigenous property rights.

The Elder agents focus on legislative efforts in New Mexico and surrounding states as they combat the darker nature of humans who are mired in selfishness and the desire for power and material acquisition.

At the Uvalde tragedy of May, 2022, Uvalde County Coroner Regis Santero is traumatized at the scene. Two victims, Gabriel and his sister Sadie/Angel are reincarnated and taken in by a childless west Texas couple. The two children are inhabited by ancient souls working through them to project with ET tech, the images of the disaster to state legislatures. The goal is enforcing current laws and enacting common sense gun laws. Santero becomes a central character through his efforts to reconcile the senseless violence he witnessed firsthand.

Capt. Vernor, now Monseigneur of an Alpine Jesuit abbey, and his brother monk Petr, along with their 5-year-old charge Marie, work from the Abbey to sustain efforts of those in the Southwest USA to coordinate efforts for climate legislation and to protect those who would advance human evolution. They employ a plan to use an ancient technology of shielding vulnerable humans and sentients called Shield of Will.

The theme of this story is the strength of relationship and community in resisting, together, dark forces who would bring earthly terror and disaster. In the Distant Realms world, these forces must be contained and subdued continually, at times with the help of transcendent beings: Elders and agents, who, through super abilities and perceptions, assist mortal humans to evolve and transform themselves into a higher nature.

Characters:

{For reference: Please skip ahead to "Author's Note"}

Muha’i: Sartarian— Native to a planet far away in time and distance, the same ET race which crashed two patrol ships in a lightning storm in White Sands, New Mexico in 1947.

Age, about 4000 earth years. He is a shape-shifter, working often in human form but returning to his 2-brained Sartarian form for difficult endeavors, but if startled will fall out of human form with unpredictable results.

Muha’i works with the Elders (ancient caretakers and overseers of planet Earth) for millennia, aiding and intervening when a crisis emerges. His gender is considered male, but his race has no gender and can reproduce between agreeing parties. His transportation is a highly advanced interstellar craft that travels at light speed in a singular universe but can move freely between time periods. The 4D ship is capable of expanding internally to accommodate whatever room needs to be made for travelers. Time travel is employed when intervening in planetary crises, with the ever-present concern to avert changes in the time-line of any encounter. Muha’i worked with Rudy Greely, of Ft. Worth, TX in his last earth encounter (The Roswell Factor, 2005) and will engage with Rudy’s grandson: Dante, teen, lives in Ft. Worth with his mother, Alyssé, a US-Egyptian diplomat. They travel frequently to Washington, D.C., and to conferences around the world. Dante is a student of international diplomacy, is capable and inventive, yet a typical American teen, with angst, pals, and teen social life.

Dr. Julian Rose and his partner, the other-worldly Jade have re-united physically on earth after many years of separation. Their inter-species relationship is unique and under scrutiny by the Elders, who still consider the pairing to be “on probation”. Julian and Jade reap the benefits of combining the perspectives of their two cultures, and their love for each other endures, flourishing after years of separation. The two are given a temporary reinstatement on the physical plane to engage technologies both ancient (Jade’s) and new (Rose’s science) to counter the forces who work against human progression and evolution.

Shorty White, A.K.A. “Walks-in-Thunder” and Josie, his canine companion are the go-betweens of the Elders and the Native peoples of the American southwest, a key group to understanding and combating— sometimes on the ethereal plain and sometimes in earthly form— the crises: 1- climate change and 2- domestic terrorism, and a 3rd, restoring land and returning territory to the original Native owners.

Red Cloud, the ageless Elder, is the director and coordinator between the Elders and the Native people, working with Dr. Rose, Jade, Shorty and Josie, Muha’i and Dante, Regis Santero, Gabe and Angel’s family; and Vernor, Marie and Petr on the European front.

Vernor, Petr, and Marie, also non-ageing transcendent humans, work from a Jesuit Abbey in the European Alps, occasionally visiting their American counterparts, toward applying the Shielding techniques being taught by Jade and emanating from Points of Power globally.

Along with Gabe and Sadie (Angel) and their adopted parents Ben and Marcie, other new characters have emerged in the work to affect the New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas state legislatures, and effect changes of heart in hard-hearted members, creating new avenues of approach in solving the climate and school-safety issues of the day. They invite Allison, a new teen mother into their fold to give her and her baby protection.

14-year-old Rosa, of Roswell, NM, whose mother Annie (Dr. Montaño) is a member of the New Mexico State Legislature, sets off to impact world culture, and engages with two young influential celebrities who are known around the world, the three of them working together to escape a hostage crisis in Mexico City.

Throughout the story, Regis Santero, County Coroner of Uvalde, Texas, investigates the fascinating coincidence of two young victims that he has discovered while working out his grief from the shootings in Uvalde, and is drawn into the circle of agents at T’e Sonew’a.

Milo, a monk from the abbey is a new intriguing and capable character who interacts with the motion and progress of the tale; the various segments flame up and trail off into disparate corridors of the imagination, our chief driver of engagement and curiosity in this life.

“Llamas” is a fictitious town in West Texas. “Llamas” in Spanish can have two meanings, depending on the context. It can be the 2nd person singular present tense of “llamar”, which means “to call”. “Cómo te llamas” .i.e., “What are you called?” Or plural form of “llama”, which means “flame”. “Las llamas del fuego son rojas y amarillas”. (“The flames of the fire are red and yellow”.) “Llama” in Spanish is the same as in English.

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{Author’s Note}

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I was out bicycling in San Antonio, TX, the morning of May 24, 2022. It was a sunny, warm day, and I enjoyed the ride through a parks trail system on the west side. My wife and I had just motored in the day before, driving from our home in Missouri 12 hours over the previous two days. We were visiting our daughter Camille, a radio journalist for Texas Public Radio. I set out on my bicycle that morning from her home in southwest San Antonio at about 11 AM and was gone until about 1 PM.

A little while after I got back from my ride, Camille told us there had been two student fatalities at a small school just 75 miles west of San Antonio, "just two". But soon, further horrifying reports started coming in. Camille, education liaison at TPR (on vacation for the six days we were visiting) called in to ask if she was needed to report on the situation at Uvalde. She was told it was not necessary, as another TPR reporter was being sent to the scene.

Trying to cope with the unfathomable news, I fictionalized that if, instead of bicycling that morning, I had somehow known before, I might have gone there, 90 minutes away—to intervene, and prevent the tragedy. Or just be another statistic.

But the Robb Elementary massacre was not fiction.

My grief sought an outlet in expression; in this case, writing to appease the pain and somehow put the tragedy into perspective. That was the major factor in writing this book.

I decided to write a story reviving characters from “The Roswell Factor*” dealing with 2023 issues: Climate change and gun control, framed in the timeless problem of the human capacity for unethical and destructive behavior. It is my attempt to cope with the frustration of government agencies in slow motion when addressing hugely critical—and time-sensitive— issues, but with the hope that humans might eventually overcome our selfish and dark natures, allowing our descendants to live in a brighter world, in some beautiful and distant realm.

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*{In my former novel, (available on Amazon) “The Roswell Factor: Sartarian Intervention”, the “Elders” combine forces with Sartarian (ET) agents to save the world from nuclear destruction in the WWII era years, 1939-1947. They employ time travel and dodge the Sci-Fi trappings of altering the future in order to protect the earth from disaster at our own hands.}

Disclaimer: Characters in this novel are fictitious and do not reflect any persons living or dead with the exception of the characters "Greta" and "Malala", whose fictitious counterparts in this story echo their highly positive and often sacrificial real-life personalities. Especially, there is no intent to disparage in any way the real-life counterpart of the character "Regis Santero" or the Uvalde County Coroner, or any real-life persons associated with the event.

Angels of a Distant Realm - Rise of the Dark Forces

Rod Phillips

CHAPTER 1

The beginning.

4 PM, May 24, 2022, Uvalde County, Texas

Regis Santero, Uvalde County Coroner of the past 15 years, carefully laid back the colorful cactus-themed Red Cross blanket over a small figure and choked back a gasp. He rose slowly, sighed heavily, and surveyed the room. Immobilized and dismayed by the desecrated classroom, he felt nausea. It threatened to overtake him at any moment. This senseless act of terror could not be comprehended. It seared into his brain, never to be erased. The scope of tragedy could not be understood or justified. Father God, how could you allow this to happen to these innocents?

His once-personal tragedy was a mere foreboding: The loss of his entire family in an accident a year ago December was now pre-empted in tragic proportion.

A double whammy.

The task at hand, a professional role he abhorred: Child fatalities; to be the official liaison to frantic, anxious parents, at times confirming their worst nightmares. He knew this would haunt his sleeping and waking hours for the remainder of his life… a blackness, a tormenta oscura, as if forced to stand in a freezing rain that ceaselessly chilled him to the bone. If others hated heat, he detested cold. He knew he was in for another round of symptoms; insomnia, night terrors, chills sometimes, and others, in a feverish sweat, his mind and body’s reaction to cold.

Medications, did not work for him. They just made it worse.

He heard a familiar voice and looked up to the doorway of the classroom. Friend and counselor Padre Clausent spoke softly, “It’s time to report to parents, Regis. I’ll come with you and we’ll make the best of this.”

Coroner Santero’s professional façade withered away; he burst into tears. He spoke in a broken, uneven breath: “Dios… nos… ayude…” he managed.

Clausent made his way over, past other blanketed bodies, making the sign of the Cross at each one. When he reached Regis, he wrapped his arms around the man and felt his shaking sobs. “I know, I know… come,” he managed. “We will face them together.”

<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>

Present Day (2022-2023); Location: 2.7 light years from Earth

A Sartarian vessel cruised along a tentacle of the galaxy Andromeda; its lone occupant, Muha’i, considering the directive he had just received. He was aware that the communico meant he would soon be returning to that green-and-blue planet in the solar system Sol. The memory of it swished through his two massive cortexes, producing a feeling akin to pleasure— although, as a bi-cortex race, his pleasure was always mixed with equal amounts of caution and projection of the task before him. He both heard the report audibly and stored it as text information.

Muha’i’s tentacles hovered and pivoted gracefully over the controls as he manually set new coordinates.

“You are prompted to return to Terra at the request of the following Agents of the 5th quadrant: Elders Dr. Julian Rose and Jade; Brothers Vernon and Petr of the Jesuit Abbey of the Alps, and their charge, 5-year-old Marie; Shorty White (Walks-in-Thunder) and his creature, Josie; and a new assistant, Rudy’s grandson, Dante, whom you will meet shortly. You know all of these from your previous encounter in Terran year 1947, with exception of Dante. He will be your liaison on Earth as a final request of Rudy, who passed into the ether realm in 2016.

You will have to gain the trust of Dante, just as you had to gain the trust of Rudy nearly 80 earth years ago— although Rudy was a ready recipient, while Dante, a pre-adult 15-year-old is a practiced skeptic…”

Muha’i dutifully noted the caution and set .2% of his right brain to the task.

“The others will meet with you at the assigned coordinates, an aspen grove near Sacred Blue Lake, New Mexico, USA, in three days/Terran rotations. You will be assisted by some elevated souls, who you knew formerly, and will reincarnate to assist in carrying out a plan. You worked together as a team with great effect in the nuclear crisis; we anticipate that you can re-create your former success.

“There is a planetary crisis rivaling the previous threat of The Devil (Atomic Threat) of 1945-47. This development is more insidious and difficult to manage, as it involves the sudden evolution of the Terran populace, human beings. This evolution has been threatened by the efforts of the negative forces—dark forces that are karmically connected to this planet. For the present time, those forces have been prevented from incarnating en masse by the Elders who are charged with guiding the inhabitants of this planet.

“You will work out of the local territory of the Southwest, United States, where you were placed 80 years ago. Then, you were charged with keeping the downed Sartarian vessel out of the hands of the military forces of the United States, to keep a proper balance of power among Terran sovereignties.

“Others, namely Dr. Rose and Jade, with the help of Walks-in-Thunder, Josie, and the Mac Brazel family, helped avert a planetary catastrophe from the misuse of the A and Hydrogen bombs being unleashed.

“The balance is once again reaching a critical stage, compounded by the looming environmental disaster that is a warming planet— which is not being seriously addressed by the major Terran powers.

“That balance is precarious; the Dark forces have amassed their strength to prevent one state, New Mexico, from moving forward in consciousness to create a favorable environment for change. If our efforts are successful, from this one focal point on the planet, it will spread outward in ripples to the edges of the Terran plane and move humanity forward in a unified movement. This time period, pre-ordained by the Ancients and the Elders, is known as the Age of Aquarius. It was prophesied by mystics and known by them as an inevitable force, and the time has come to implement this Plan of the Elders.”

The transmission faded, and Muha’i was left to his thoughts, which were many.

An occasion to rejoin the team that saved the Earth from nuclear annihilation 80 years past. My challenge: Prepare for the changeover to the alien Human body.

I have so much trouble staying in that form.

He practiced his shrug and his wink, neither of which translated to a body that resembled a hypothetical marriage of a Terran octopus and a giant arthropod.

His 4-dimensional pyramidal thought, with “plan” at the apex:

duty/service

(plan)

preparation variance

I will need a name. “Muha’i” worked before, so…Muha’i, it is.

________________________

4:57 PM, May 27, 2022 Office of Uvalde County Coroner, Texas

Coroner Santero hung up the phone and placed it in the cradle, closing the next-to-last case. Twenty-one deceased. He had one more unresolved call. Only a few of the parents were still on scene; most had been sent home. An aura of violation hung over the entire town, especially on his office. Padre Clausent was concerned; he had steered Regis through the tragic loss of his family just 18 months before— but Regis assured his friend that he would be all right, thanked him and sent him on his way. “I promise I will take some time off, after I’ve closed up this work.” So, in the past hour, he’d completed all but one of the most difficult set of disclosure calls he had ever made in his life.

At the moment, he was considering two siblings listed among the victims. He called a phone number listed for them; it rang and was answered by an EMT who was on-scene; a neighbor had found the 70-something female owner of the house, the legal guardian of the siblings— lying motionless on the floor, an apparent heart attack. The EMT confirmed she was deceased and he was completing the paperwork. Regis would be making that determination soon enough; her body was being delivered to his lab.

The only living relatives, their aunt and her husband, had been the brother and sister’s guardian for the past 27 months, and according to the files, the husband had died 13 months ago. There were no documents, no information on the student’s original home or parents. A call to Children’s Services produced a dead end.

After some digging around, Regis discovered that, tragically, the brother and sister were monitoring the class that day in advance of a “grade acceleration” (“skipping ahead”, the Principal explained.)

That puzzled him. Skipping grades? They still do that?

There were no more leads to follow. He placed the folders in a filing cabinet behind him, swiveled back around in his chair, and folded his hands in his lap. He sighed heavily.

Eight-point-five, and seven years old. Siblings, 16 months apart. In a 4th-grade classroom? What were they doing there? How are two English-as-2nd-language children that capable? And their tia, their only caretaker…dead, with the news. A broken heart?

Too many questions. We may never know...

But, gloria Deo. One small blessing, perhaps: All three together, gone from this life.

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After her transition, Angel’s kindly anciano Mateo brought her to a serene seaside and explained that she would not be seeing her tiíta again in that world; that she and her brother would soon be in a new place where they would have new caretakers and be loved and cherished. In an instant the currents changed and she found herself in a sunny, flowered, fragrant meadow. She heard an animal sound and turned her head to see a bounding furry black-and-white puppy plopping down in front of her, inviting her to play. She got down on her knees and wrapped her arms around it, but it wriggled and bounded away; it turned back around and barked playfully, whirling in place. Diablo de polvo Angel thought, and smiled, enchanted. I'll call her “Little Dervish”. They played a long time until the animal tired and lay down.

“Are you ready?” The voice emanated from a flowering bush next to her, the sound seeping from the blossoms. “Gabriel will join us now.” She saw a long tunnel and at the end, her brother walking toward her, nodding.

She answered the voice. “Yes. We are ready…ready for someone to care for us.”

<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>

At the same time

Red Cloud came to Jade in the esoteric plane.

“I am here to discuss your request made to the Elders. This is their decision.

“You and Julian will be working together on the mission; If your connection blossoms again, then we can be certain the bond is real— and you can choose your future as agents of the Elders when the mission is finished.”

“You will be under watch and on probation until then.”

Jade asked, “When will this new relationship start, and how much of our former life will he remember?”

Red Cloud held up a finger. “If you agree, it will start immediately. He will remember things you experienced together— but as a couple, you will start over with your relationship.”

“So, it is up to us to start over again? What if we have moved on or have changed as beings?”

“That is exactly why you are required to start over: To be assured that the former spark—in 1945— was not just the biological attraction of two young people in wartime.”

“Jade, I believe in you and I think this is a fine opportunity to prove your eternal connection with Julian.” He smiled conspiratorially and said, “I think there’s a good chance that spark will rekindle, even if it has been 80 years; like a council fire that has been smoldering overnight, waiting for a good breeze to light it up again.”

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