Avalon, the Pilot Episode

By M. G. Kizzia

When Lincoln’s wife Alexis goes missing, he begs the mysterious Kairos for help to get her back. The Kairos determines her father has kidnapped her and dragged her unwillingly into the deep past. He brings Lincoln and his whole mission team to his home on Avalon, a place normally hidden from the human race, and to the chamber of the great crystal called the Heart of Time. This crystal has recorded all of human history, and it can be used for time travel if one knows how.

Through the Heart, the Kairos transports the entire mission team to the beginning of history; but there are complications. In order to save Alexis, the Kairos is required to sacrifice himself. That leaves the mission team with only one option. To return to their proper time in the future, they will have to travel the hard way, through the time gates and across the time zones. This will bring them through all of recorded history, many unexpected and unknown historical details, and some nasty surprises.

Written in episodic form, each time zone centers around a different lifetime of the Kairos, a person who has lived 121 times since the beginning of history. Each time zone presents unique difficulties. The travelers have to try not to disturb history, which is hard to do when they are fighting for their lives. But the Kairos, you understand, never lives a quiet life. And then, not too many years ago, certain ... things got driven into the past. Some of those things may be content to follow the travelers back into the future. Most have picked up their scent, and some are hunting them.

Avalon, the Pilot Episode is all you need to begin the journey.

Don’t miss Avalon, Season One. Same E-read, same E-channel.

And Avalon, the prequel. Invasion of Memories, where the Kairos in our day comes out of a time of deep memory loss too quickly. In order to keep his mind from becoming overwhelmed and incapacitated he tells stories from his past, stories from when he remembered who he was, the Kairos, the Traveler in Time, the Watcher over History. He knows he cannot afford to become incapacitated, because there are three Vordan battleships on the dark side of the moon, and they are preparing to invade.

Enjoy ...

• Language: English
• Publisher: M. G. Kizzia
• Release date: Mar 12, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311284426

M. G. Kizzia

I live, work, and dream in the southeast United States, where I occasionally wipe the dust from my shoes.My stories stretch back to the beginning of history and forward to the horizon of the future. They stretch out to other dimensions, other universes, other earths. They stretch up to the heights of human potential, and down to the depths of human depravity. And I always tell stories.Give me a cave, a bonfire in the night, the distant howl of a wolf under a full moon, and a listening, attentive ear, and I will tell you a story.Other than storytelling, I continue to walk with my family and friends, day by day, and only now and then wonder how long this road may be. I can't wait to see what happens next.--MichaelM. G. Kizzia

Book preview

Avalon

The Pilot Episode

M G Kizzia

Copyright 2011, 2019

MGK Books, Second Edition

Revised and Expanded (version 2.24)

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting and supporting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Part I: Various Nefarious

Thief, Kidnapper, Father.

Meanwhile, Back on Earth

The Tower of Bricks

Humanity

Part II: Missing Person

Mission Team

Avalon

The Heart of Time

The Middle of the Night

Before the Beginning

Part III: The Beginning of History

Myths and Legends

Ararat

The Plains of Shinar

Nimrod

Babel

Kairos

Bokarus

Avalon, Moving into the Future

Avalon, The Pilot Episode, Introduction

Avalon is designed as a television show in written form, with each episode forming a chapter, and thirteen chapters making a whole season, or a book. Like any good television show, seeing one full episode (or reading one full chapter) should give enough information to grasp who the characters are, the relationships between them, as well as understanding that this is a time travel adventure, where this small group of people are attempting to get back to the twenty-first century.

Thrown back to the beginning of history, the travelers from Avalon must get home the hard way—through the time gates that surround the many lives of the Kairos, the Traveler in time, the Watcher over history. Plainly stated, the time zones are dangerous. The Kairos never lives a quiet life. And the travelers also understand that they are not the only ones lost in time. Other people, beings, and creatures are surviving around the edges of the time zones, and some have picked up their scent. Some are following them, and some are hunting them. The travelers face a long, hard road to get everyone back to the twenty-first century, alive.

The pilot episode immediately follows the prequel, Invasion of Memories, which is available from your favorite e-book retailer, or from Amazon in hard copy, under the author M. G. Kizzia. The prequel will help flesh-out the characters, but The Pilot Episode is a perfectly good place to start.

After reading Avalon, The Pilot Episode, I encourage you to continue with the Avalon stories, which are neatly divided into seasons, where you can follow the travelers in their impossible journey through time. You might also want to look at what is posting on the website: mgkizzia.com, where I regularly post stories for free—that is, for zero money.

Only one warning. I have never been good at the distinction between science fiction and fantasy. It is like the amulet that leads the travelers from one time gate to the next. It is a marvelous combination of sophisticated technology and magic. Thus, you will find science fiction in these episodes, like space aliens and their technological wonders. You will also find elves, spirits, ancient gods, mythical creatures, and magic of all sorts. And often, you will find aliens and elves in the same story. Be prepared.

Thank you for reading. Happy reading, and enjoy.

--MGKizzia

Cast

Robert Lockhart, a former policeman, now assistant director of the Men in Black, the one organization on earth in the twenty-first century that deals with strange and impossible things. He is charged with leading this expedition through time, though he has no idea how he is going to get everyone home—in one piece.

Boston (Mary Riley), a Massachusetts redneck, rodeo rider, and technological genius who finished her PhD at age 23. A Man in Black, she loves all the adventure, and all the spiritual creatures they encounter, which suggests she may be a bit strange.

Benjamin Lincoln, a former C. I. A. office geek, now working for the Men in Black, determines to keep a record of their journey. He tends to worry, and is not the bravest soul, but sometimes that is an asset.

Alexis Lincoln, an elf, who became human to marry Benjamin, and also went to work for the Men in Black. She retained her healing magic when she became human, but magic has its limits. For example, it can’t make her father happy with her choices.

Roland, Alexis' younger brother, a full blood elf and gifted hunter. He came to keep his father Mingus under control and out of his sister's face. He discovers there is something in humanity worth saving and protecting. He knows many of the creatures in the spirit world that they face, including the nasty ones inclined to rise-up out of the dark.

Mingus, father of Alexis and Roland, an elder elf. He ran the history department on Avalon for over 300 years. He knows the time zones and the lives of the Kairos but tends to keep his opinions to himself. And he believes his children are being ruined by so much human interaction.

Doctor Procter, a half-human, half-elf who worked with Mingus in the Avalon history department for years. The old man, with the long, white beard, also knows the many lives of the Kairos, but at first, he speaks in half-sentence, and soon, the others can hardly get a word out of him. He carries the amulet, a sophisticated combination electronic GPS and magical device that shows the way from one time gate to the next.

Lieutenant Katie Harper, a marine and a PhD out of the pentagon whose specialty is ancient and medieval cultures and technologies. She is torn between her duty to the marines, to her boss at Groom Lake, and her desire to be part of this larger universe she is discovering.

Captain Decker, a seal trained marine special operations officer who will do all he can to keep everyone alive, even if it means shooting his way back to the twenty-first century. He is a skeptic who does not believe half of what they experience—even if he does not know what else to believe.

The Kairos. But that is a different person in each time zone.

Part I: Various Nefarious

Present day, Between Avalon and Earth. Kairos 121: Glen, the Storyteller.

Recording…

Mingus, a well-respected elder elf, nearly eight-hundred years old, a true academic and head of the Avalon history department for the last three-hundred years, a peace-loving scholar by reputation, dragged the elderly human woman to an obscure closet on the campus in the castle of the Kairos. She struggled, but her hands were bound behind her back and her lips were magically sealed so she could not cry out. Her eyes got big when Mingus opened the closet door and a cloud of dust greeted them.

You wouldn’t, she thought. Mingus, a master of mind magic, caught her thought because she directed it at him. You can’t do this. Lady Alice will find out. She will know.

Hush, Mingus said out loud, as he forced her to sit on the closet floor beside a broom and dustpan that hardly looked used. He raised his hand, and the woman widened her eyes.

You wouldn’t, she repeated her thought. Father! Her mind cried out and her whole being objected when he touched her forehead. Her eyes rolled up and closed as she fell into a trance.

Alexis. I am just trying to save you from yourself, Mingus whispered. He left the light on when he gently closed the door. He paused to make sure the light did not leak out the bottom or around the edges of the door frame. Satisfied with his work, he stepped out of the first-floor door and headed across the green toward the history building.

The great, wooden tower on his right reached for the clouds. He understood it was the first building in Avalon. The rest of the castle got built around that ancient structure. It housed the Heart of Time, the glowing crystal that beat with light like the beat of a living heart. The Heart of Time held a record of all human history. It got created when the old god, Cronos and the Kairos, Alice, held hands, the angel presiding. Alice made a three-pronged stand to hold the great crystal, built the tower to house it, and there it rested through the ages, beating from its own internal light, capturing a record of everything that happened on the earth.

Mingus shifted his eyes to the spring beside the tower. The spring and the stream that came from it supplied all the fresh water in the castle. People called it the spring