The Gathering: Part One, The Woodlands Series
Carl Read
First Published 2014 by Classic Author and Publishing Services Pty Ltd
This edition published 2018 by Woodslane Press
© Carl Read
All rights reserved. No part of this printed or video publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electrical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright owner.
Designer / typesetter: Working Type Studio (www.workingtype.com.au)
Cover artwork: Jerome Baxter.
Email: [email protected]
Editor: Ormé Harris
Digital distribution: Ebook Alchemy
Conversion by Winking Billy
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
| Author: | Read, Carl, author. |
| Title: | The gathering / Carl Read. |
| ISBN: | 9780994183781 (eBook) |
| Series: | Read, Carl, Woodlands series ; Part one. |
| Target Audience: | For secondary school age. |
| Subjects: | Science fiction. |
| Dewey Number: | A823.4 |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
To Lyrane Hill
At certain times throughout a person’s life you come across special individuals who alter your perception of life. For me it was when I rang Heartstrings Astrology Service and spoke to the astrologer Lyrane Hill. Neither of us could have imagined the impact that meeting would have.
Over the years our friendship grew into profound respect for each other. Lyrane’s ability in astrological interpretations surpasses the mere physical and transcends into the metaphysical.
I am extremely fortunate to be surrounded by genuine friends who have encouraged my flagging belief in my ability to impart my knowledge into the written word. But it is to Lyrane I give my heartfelt appreciation and love for her constant support and encouragement.
Having no formal training in the English language, my writing was, at the least, atrocious. It was she who continually inspired my writing and did the first edits of my work. Her unwavering faith in my abilities over the years to master my writing skills has been the driving force behind the Woodlands Series.
I can say without any hesitation that had our paths not crossed, the Woodlands Series would never have been written. So how does one express in words the love you feel for someone who has filled your life with such an abundance of genuine friendship? There are none that I could find, so I shall simply say thank you.
Your friend Carl
BEGINNING
Were there sounds of rejoicing at the moment of Oletha’s conception into life? None can say for the awareness of life had not yet begun. What consciousness could begin to comprehend the enormous complexities involved in creating a wakefulness of being? Or was it simply an innocent act of becoming which brought about what is thought of as a perception of life? Whatever the circumstances, Oletha was the outcome.
From Oletha’s compassionate radiance of love she conceived the spiritual and material realms of Chimera. Then, drawing from her spiritual heart, she produced a life force and called it Gaia, bidding her make fertile all the material worlds of Chimera.
Oletha then birthed into being, countless essences of angelic awareness of herself calling them souls, her children. She bid each of her children create an eternal spirit and infuse it with their essence.
To bring about free will she created a choice. This choice would be between a Balanced awareness of creation, herself, and an Unbalanced spiritual entity devoid of compassion that she invested with great power and named Slegna.
Oletha then fashioned a sphere of existence she called the Astral Plane. This sphere encircled all the spiritual and material realms of Chimera. She instructed each of her children to personify their spirit throughout these realms to learn the consequences of their actions, advising them that every action has an opposite and equal reaction, cause and effect. They would be held accountable for every choice and deed perpetrated against themselves and others. This she called Karma.
It would be on the Astral Plane that the soul would assimilate all that the spirit had experienced through their chosen life, thereby determining their next life lessons and karmic obligations. Recognising that some lessons could cause huge emotional and physical disfigurement, Oletha placed each of her children (the soul) within a protective sphere of living energy. In this way the soul would be able to integrate all the knowledge and awareness the spirit had gained, without any tangible deformity that the spirit may have accumulated. The Astral Plane would also serve as a rest and recovery area for the spirit.
Oletha watched with interest as each of her children chose their life lessons. Half her flock instinctively chose a Balanced way of life, advancing to the Angelic realms and beyond. Of the remainder, half again found that once they had entered the material realms of Chimera accepting responsibility for their actions was confusing as they were losing faith in themselves. The remaining half divided yet again, becoming entrenched within the prevailing karmic responses of cause and effect. The last group moved completely away from a Balanced way of life choosing Slegna’s path of the Unbalanced.
To maintain accord between the different realms of awareness, at Oletha’s request Angelic beings offered their wisdom, becoming overseers to help maintain harmony throughout the realms of Chimera. These Angelic souls Oletha called Keepers and the definitive Keeper of the realms of Chimera would be the Keeper of the Astral Plane.
EXPULSION
Telluric’s ancestors were, in fact, political protesters. They were expelled from their home world of Cadby for speaking out against the authoritarian rule of the government and its continued mission to subjugate other worlds under its regime. The government advised the populace of Cadby that three million citizens, representing the four clans of man, had decided to leave their home world to explore the solar system at the far end of the known galaxy.
The truth was that the government had rounded up every freethinking person along with their families and given them an ultimatum, ‘death by lethal injection, or a chance to find a habitable world at the galaxy’s end’. The evictees knew that all attempts by the government to locate a planet fit for human habitation in that section of the universe had proved unsuccessful. It was a no-win scenario and everybody knew it. Either way, it was a death sentence.
Fate, however, took a hand. Cadby explorers had recently progressed from travelling in interstellar starships to inter-dimensional craft capable of transporting them instantly to wherever in the galaxy they wanted to go. This rendered most of the starship fleet obsolete; as a result there was a surplus of interstellar ships orbiting their planet. The government in their ‘benevolence’ offered the evictees their pick of these ships.
The detainees were under no