The Destiny Stones

By G.J. Busiko

In the aftermath of the United Nations Investigation Taskforce being falsely accused of crimes and its operatives hunted down, Jean-Luc Renouf and Joshua Carver’s team find refuge on the secret island hideaway of billionaire criminal Xian Ho.

From this new base they continue to protect the portals of the Universouls, and uncover a devious plan that could not only jeopardise the very future of mankind but prevent the planet from entering a new era.

At the outer edge of the solar system, the newly formed opening in folded space time allowed the alien craft to enter this system from another, hundreds of light years away. Primitive signals were immediately detected emanating from the blue orb closer to the energy source of the system. Further investigation is necessary.

The destiny of Earth is at risk.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Dec 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781925959949

G.J. Busiko

G.J. Busiko resides in Queensland, Australia, with his partner, Donna, their adopted animal rescue dogs, Darby and Xena, and the true ruler of the house, Khan the cat. After thirty-five years of working in a pathology laboratory, following procedures, G.J. Busiko decided that it was time to let his imagination loose. A few exotic overseas holidays and the works of other science fiction / action adventure novelists have inspired him to give it a go himself. As a kid G.J. Busiko read everything he could find in his local library in the Australian outback country town of Charleville on myths and legends from around the world. As a teenager his interests changed to action adventure and murder mystery novels, with the ‘Biggles’ and ‘Boney’ books early favourites. A life long enjoyment of reading has progressed to crafting his first novel.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

The spear flew towards the intended target, its path not impeded by the low lying leaves of the tree. Joshua’s enhanced hearing detected the flight of the projectile and he dove forward as it passed over his left shoulder and embedded itself into the trunk of the tree behind him. As he hit the ground he twisted and fired his weapon, not to where the spear had been thrown from, but a few feet to the side where the assailant had attempted to gain cover. The tranquilliser dart struck the man’s upper arm and as he turned in pain the powerful drug dropped him like a stone.

Marcello came thundering out of the shrubs brandishing his weapon in the direction of the fallen warrior. Joshua, you are injured?

No. Luckily he missed, Joshua slowly stood and gingerly rubbed his elbow which had taken the brunt of his fall.

Leroy and Jim followed Marcello out of the bushes and raced to where the ornately garbed man had fallen.

Nice shot boss, Leroy pulled the dart free and carefully placed it into a plastic container.

The three men stood over the body whilst Joshua checked the man’s vitals. He’s well and truly out to it.

Leroy looked at Marcello, Your turn, I carried the last guy.

Marcello holstered his gun and bent down to hoist the unconscious man over his shoulder. At least these men are rela­tively small.

Jim walked over and pulled the spear from the tree, Emma will want to see this. She can add it to her collection.

Joshua glanced at his watch, Come on, let’s get back to the portal before it closes. I don’t want to have to explain this guy to the local authorities.

It was a thirty minute hike to the ravine where the shimmering portal was located. This latest episode had proven to be the most difficult of the recent portal openings. After Emma had sensed the opening it had taken the team almost three days to reach the location. Fortunately, Jim Smithman had been on Pechos Island and jumped at the chance to accompany them into the Mexican jungle. Unlike previous openings where they had nothing to do but guard the shimmering until it closed, when they had reached this one, Jim had observed the tracks of five barefooted men that had most likely come through the day before they arrived. His tracking skills proved invaluable and they had followed what turned out to be a Maya hunting party. Sadly they had been too late to save the lives of two hikers who had been slaughtered by the fierce ancient warriors but they had caught up with the Mayans and using the new tranquilliser darts, subdued four of the warriors easily. The fifth man had eluded them for almost another day but now he too was ready to be returned to the Maya world on the other side of the shimmering. The death of the hikers would be put down to drug cartel involvement, something the team regretted but it was necessary to maintain the secrecy of the mission.

Using stealth technology, Emma had located the source of the portal, which was, as always, a black pyramid. The pyramid was found next to a similar sized Maya temple. She remained concealed in the jungle fringing the bustling Maya city, recording everything she could before it was time to leave. Joshua had not been happy to leave her alone, but she had insisted that at least four people were needed to capture the wayward Maya, and she was right. Besides, she argued, she was probably safer hidden here than with them hunting down warriors. Her only regret was not being able to enter any of the numerous structures before her or lay her hands on the pristine, intricate codices. Before the rest of the team left to pursue the indigenous Maya who had passed through the portal, Leroy’s advanced detection monitors determined that they had an estimated viable portal opening of another forty-eight hours. So far his predictions had proven accurate to within less than an hour. She glanced at her watch and noted that she still had a good ninety minutes before she had to retreat to a safer distance to make contact with the rest of the team and leaving her plenty of time to pass through to the other side of the opening.

So far she had observed routine daily life within the city, children playing a crude game of soccer and women bartering with the various merchants that lined the outer city fringes. She was amazed at how normal it all seemed. These people had no idea how dramatically the modern world had changed. Their way of life ceased to exist nearly a thousand years ago, yet here they were. Even their conversations were normal. With her enhanced abilities, it hadn’t taken Emma long to learn the dialect. Occasionally the villagers passed close enough for her to hear them talking amongst themselves. Complaints about the quality of the latest harvest were common, however in one heated discussion a woman accused another of having sex with her husband without her consent or receipt of payment for the privilege. Other topics discussed included recipes and the weather. It felt surreal to Emma to witness these everyday interactions.

Suddenly there was a scream from further down the avenue. Emma lifted her head as high as she could from where she lay to try and see what caused the commotion. Two warriors were carrying a third on their shoulders and the crowd parted to let them pass. Emma could see the third man was unconscious and was covered in the ceremonial garb of a hunter. She could just make out the buzz of talking amongst the people. Apparently, he was part of the hunting party sent into the jungle a few days earlier that had disappeared. When they had failed to return by the following day another party had been sent to find them and they had returned with the tale of finding four of the five men in a deep sleep from which they still had not awoken. Emma realised that this man was the last of the hunting party that Joshua was tracking and obviously had found.

Time to go, she mumbled to herself.

Emma carefully eased herself back into the jungle brush that was behind the market stalls. Her stealth camouflage clothing adapted to the thick green surrounds rendering her almost invisible. Even though she still had some time before the portal closed she felt that the increased activity caused by the mysterious fate of the hunters was too much to risk, besides she had captured ample digital footage, another hour or two would make little difference to her research. The stark reality was that no matter what she discovered it could never see the light of day without exposing the existence of the portals to the world. Emma moved quietly towards the mountains in the direction of the portal. Behind her, the inhabitants of the city were gathering en masse to witness the priest’s attempt to waken the uncon­scious hunter.

Emma moved quickly through the surrounding wooded area, her stealth ware adapting seamlessly to the changing foliage. After thirty minutes she started to slow down, the humidity and the weight of her attire started to take effect, even with her enhanced physical stamina. All around her the jungle was so alive with the sounds of insects and birds that it was almost deafening. Perspiration was pooling on her forehead beneath her headwear and stinging her eyes as it cascaded down her face. Her vision was beginning to blur and she stumbled slightly as she rounded a curve in the trail. Two strong hands suddenly appeared and grabbed her waist as she fell forward.

Whoa there, Joshua steadied her as he stepped from the bushes. I think someone has had a little too much sun for one day.

You think? Emma sarcastically responded with a grin. She reached out and grabbed Joshua’s arm to steady herself, These uniforms are great, but they need some sort of climate control built in.

I will ask Jean-Luc to upgrade one for you.

Please do, I think I have lost five kilo’s since I left the city, Emma pulled her thick headwear off and shook her hair free, almost splashing Joshua as her drenched hair whipped around.

Come on, the others are waiting on the other side and I think there may still be a cold drink in one of Leroy’s packs.

You’re my hero, Emma laughed and smoothed her hair down as she walked. The Maya found your recovered hunting party and the priest was trying to revive one of the men. I thought it was a good time to pull back, besides I have more than enough video to analyse. I trust there were no problems?

None worth mentioning, Joshua replied.

Up ahead the trees of the jungle cleared as they entered a ravine where the portal was open. Emma stopped and turned to take one last look at the valley below and through the jungle canopy she could just see the tip of the ceremonial pyramid.

CHAPTER TWO

The enormous creature emerged from the newly formed ring of energy, its massive body scraping against the barely visible boundaries leaving a layer of itself to form a solid opening in folded space. No sooner had it fully extracted itself than another appeared, followed by several more, each leaving another solidifying layer behind further stabilising the energy ring. The size of the creatures was almost impossible to comprehend. Each gelatinous form was approximately a hundred kilometres in diameter and five hundred kilometres in length. The head of the gelatinous creatures was covered in billions of short jelly like mounds of varying heights while their tail had a rounded tip giving them the overall appearance of giant slugs. The herd moved away from the now solid ring suspended in space and started to move towards the distant sun which was in the centre of this solar system.

As they moved in a singular file their bodies reflected the surrounding stars making them appear almost invisible. Opening the energy ring had weakened them and it would still be several weeks before they were close enough to the sun to optimally feed on its life giving radiation and reenergise. Once fully gorged on the emitting solar energy they would join together in one long entity and aim their combined energy towards another distant sun, opening another portal in folded space just outside that sun’s gravitational field on the edge of its solar system. The creatures moved from pasture to pasture, absorbing only what was required to generate the fold in space time. This was their existence, their purpose.

The age of the creatures was unknown, their origins lost in time and their name as varied as the number of systems they had visited, but their legacy of opening passageways between solar systems was known to many different species. This was the primary means of interstellar travel within the galaxy. Their internal biology was unknown, as no intelligent species had ever been able to study their makeup. All matter or energy that contacted the organism was absorbed and every attempt to communicate had failed. The mechanism of folding space and projecting their energy beams the vast distances between suns was only able to be theorised, but not proven over the eons. Apparently indestructible and immortal, they were what they were.

Some planetary inhabitants had developed their own interplanetary travel systems but the vast distances between most solar systems had taxed even the most advanced of their superior technologies. The discovery of the passages left by the solar herds had enabled millions of years of development to be shared and it was found that the galaxy was connected by millions of these portals suspended in the vastness of space. Each opening led to only one destination so over time some solar systems had thousands of these rings circling their outer perimeters like an asteroid belt. Each one a direct link to another system within the galaxy.

As time had progressed so to had the number of rings and inhabited solar systems. There was a legend among the collective interstellar lifeforms within the galaxy, which humans call The Milky Way, that in the outer reaches of the galaxy there could be intergalactic portals but as of yet, no travelling race had found one. The herds moved slowly by interstellar standards but what they lacked in speed they made up for in numbers. One or two herds could converge on a single sun at the same time connecting several systems at once and then they would depart in different directions thereby increasing the web of connections exponentially. This was the expanding universe.

Billions of galaxies were similarly inhabited and herds had indeed crossed the inconceivable distances. The expanding Universe was continually being rewritten as the folds in dimensional space pushed the boundaries of existence into realms incomprehensible to the human mind. This was the reality that the human species was soon to be exposed to. The Universouls, unlike other inhabitants of the vastness, such as the herds, had no need to generate energy to create folds in space time as they already existed within a different realm. They were everywhere at once and yet not. Every living physical form within the boundaries of this singular expanding bubble known to humans as the universe, at some point becomes a connection to the Universoul consciousness. The concept of everything in the universe being connected is theorised by many different species but proven by only a few. At this point on Earth, only a very small handful of individuals were aware of the Universouls existence.

The craft was small by interstellar standards, in fact some of the collective lifeforms would describe it as a probe. To the humans of Earth however, it would be considered a super vessel. At five kilometres in length and two kilometres in diameter at its base the triangular object resembled a spearhead as it came through the newly formed gateway, rotating on its central axis. The crew on board were explorers and galactic mappers. They followed the herds and relayed the coordinates of the new destinations to the central systems where they were then disseminated to all the contacted species.

This particular craft was part of the fleet that originated in the system’s designated Sagittarius Arm located close to the galactic centre. For thousands of Earth years, they had followed the herds and progressively made their way towards the edge of the known galaxy. Each new gateway was explored and it was hoped that eventually, one would lead to another galactic cluster of systems.

The sensors on the craft immediately detected the presence of artificially generated signals originating from the third body orbiting the energy hub of this system. A new species was always exciting to discover as the mutual sharing of knowledge and resources had proven time and again to be beneficial to most lifeforms within the collective. However, the presence of signals warranted careful and detailed investigation, as some worlds had proven to be too primitive for contact whilst others had been deemed too violent and unstable.

The craft slowed its interplanetary drive and began to survey the artificial bodies that orbited this particular planet. The presence of minuscule satellite objects that had originated from the surface of the third body indicated that the new species possessed some level of advancement. First contact was always at the discretion of the survey vessel and only after a careful review of the planet’s inhabitants compatibility with the discovering species. On occasion, it had been necessary to allow another more comparable species to initiate the contact. The presence of these tiny objects and their intricate structure was a good sign for this survey crew.

Initial indications were that these were built rather than organically developed as were some contacted races technolo­gies. The primitive propulsion systems were simple but similar in design to early historical records that they had of their own development which could mean that this new species was similar in physical form. Although the galaxy was teeming with life forms, similar environments tended to breed similar inhabitants. It was a strange phenomenon that occurred time and time again, where comparable genetic codes were found in locations light years apart. The odds of finding an almost identical species was relatively small, but not unprecedented. To date, they had encountered over one hundred similar species to themselves and at all stages of evolutionary development. This could prove to be another.

Their craft slowed its propulsion engine further to allow the onboard Enhanced Biotech Intelligence Units to analyse the signals that they were receiving from the small water based planet. So far all indications pointed to a race of intelligent beings with limited capabilities but potential for development. Only a closer more detailed survey would enlighten them. The possibility of an initial contact situation excited the crew.

A deeper search of their vast data base immediately yielded surprising information. It would seem that they were not the first interstellar visitors to this outer system. Brief notes had been made of this third planet by both the Angelica and more recently by the Voidian explorers. The Angelica’s had touched this system a few thousand cycles ago and the Voidian’s had reported to the Collective that they had only briefly studied the inhabitants. The disappointment of not being the first was soon forgotten as neither race had made true contact. The Angelica’s, although a race of interplanetary explorers, were more like opportunists who used primitive worlds like playthings and the Voidian’s were known to be more devious with encounters of primitive races. Neither had the backing of the Collective. The fact that both had been here was not surprising as the technology they possessed was advanced and neither were limited by the absence of the gateways from the herds.

The more detailed examination of the signals they were detecting enabled the survey ship to determine that the inhabitants of the water planet had a rudimentary technology which could be used to their advantage. The EBIU could trace the signals to their sources and access all the information in the primitive devices the planet’s inhabitants called computers. Multiple forms of communication were detected and the primitive languages were absorbed into the craft to be uploaded to all the crew. It was quickly apparent that the inhabitants of this world were divided into a multitude of colonies and were not unified like most of the Collective worlds, but this was changing it seemed. The devices called computers were a wealth of historical information and even the contacts with the Angelica and Voidian races had been noted, not as factual encounters but as something called myths and urban legend.

Another signal was now also faintly detectable from the planet, dark matter emissions. Only the most advanced lifeforms in the galaxy had utilised the foundations of the universe. How could these inhabitants use dark matter energy and yet appear so primitive? This was a planet of contradictions. It seemed strange that they could develop rudimentary space travel, yet their world was divided. The data so far retrieved indicated that the differences between the predominant species caused conflicts often leading to violence and destruction. It was a ruling of the Collective worlds that only a planet that was unified may be approached and first contact made. Previous contacts with planets that were not unified had led to disastrous results with one faction often fighting another to gain the technological advancements. But the presence of dark matter emissions could change that ruling. Indeed a more thorough investigation was warranted before any details could be sent back to the Collective planets.

CHAPTER THREE

Yu Lingling stepped forward holding the seedling in its container with both hands. She had been given the honour as today was her seventh birthday and this was her first official day of school. With a serious expression and all her concentration focused on her task she slowly walked towards the group of very important visitors to her brand new school. To her right, a group of journalists and a camera crew jostled for the best position to capture the moment she would present the gift to the waiting dignitary.

With her eyes focused on the plant in her hands, she didn’t see the slight depression in the ground and she stumbled forward, the precious seedling flying out of her hands and spilling onto the ground with herself right behind it. Without uttering a word she crawled forward scooped up the dirt and the seedling, carefully replanting it into the small container and then she stood and continued forward. Behind her, a horrified teacher began to rush forward but the dignitary raised his hand to stop her. He stepped forward and knelt to graciously accept the repotted plant and smiled as Yu Lingling handed it to him still maintaining her best serious face.

The President of the People’s Republic of China, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, Chairman of the Central Military Commission and former resident of this town, Mao Jintao shook her outstretched hand and whispered, Well done.

He stood and addressed the media, Even when we stumble and fall, we carry on and get the job done. This is the China that we all believe in and this is the future we are building.

He held the tiny seedling above his head as the politicians behind him and the gathered crowd in front began to applaud. He held the little girl’s hand and she smiled for the cameras. Mao Jintao knelt and thanked her for her service before allowing her to return to her classmates and an obviously relieved teacher.

The new school complex was one of many that his government had authorised and funded. The buildings were state of the art in both design and functionality. The external walls were vertical hydroponic gardens, the roofs were solar panelled and several small wind turbines were at the edge of the school grounds. The seedling was from the first harvest on the main building and he took pride in accepting. This new school was located on the same ground where he first went to school. The old original school had long been torn down and the townspeople had to bus the students to the next province for their education. As a younger up and coming politician, he had argued long and hard to re-establish a school in this district but had always been put down by the governing bodies. It was a promise he had made to the town and himself, and today he finally honoured it. The school was also part of a new national scheme to provide less restricted high speed internet connectivity for the masses.

After the speeches and the tour of the buildings,