Space Wars

By John G. Cunningham

"And as it was in the days of Noah . . .," Jesus said, that is the world the writer believes we are fast approaching and for which we must prepare ourselves. The hero, Japheth, is an ordinary person, who feels as if he is less than ordinary. He learns the meanings of failure and frustration and being forced to do things he otherwise would not do. Spiritual giants are not to be found here but people who often found themselves overwhelmed by temptations that they could have overcome but sometimes did not.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781304758996

Book preview

Space Wars

Space Wars

John G. Cunningham

Space Wars / Copyright © 2014 John G. Cunningham

All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-304-75899-6

This work of fiction includes names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents that are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Other than historical figures in the Book of Genesis in the Holy Bible, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other — without the prior written permission of the author.

John G. Cunningham

P.O. Box 358

Smyrna, GA  30081

Printed in the United States of America

Cover Illustration Copyright © 2013 by John G. Cunningham

Editing by Carolyn Cunningham

Author photograph by Carolyn Cunningham

Table of Contents

Introduction: What We Are Heading for Is What Happened Before

I.The Dragon

II.The Hidden Message: War

III.Football on Luna

IV.Being Watched

V. Titan

VI.Rahab

VII.The Planet of Soldiers

VIII.The Planet of Women

IX.Two-Faced

X.In the Army

XI.Uranus Tilted on Its Side

XII.It’s Your Fault

XIII.Into the Ark

About the Author

Introduction: What We Are Heading For Is What Happened Before

This possible scenario of the pre-Flood world depicts a past that is advanced beyond our own. They have colonized the entire solar system and are thinking about expanding into the galaxy. Their computers and Internet system are far better than ours. It depicts a real world in which the righteous are far from perfect, and it shows romances that fail far out and away more than they succeed. Eventually, one comes to fruition - possibly because it is forced due to impending doom.

As it was in the Days of Noah . . ., Jesus said; and that is the world that the writer is trying to depict. It is the world the writer believes we are fast heading toward and we must prepare ourselves for it. The hero is a very ordinary person who feels like he is less than ordinary. He learns the meaning of failure and frustration and being forced to do things he would otherwise not do. Spiritual giants are not to be found here but people who often find themselves overcome by temptations that are too big for them.

I ~ The Dragon

There is a dragon coming from the forest, a voice that seemed to come from everywhere broke the silence of the village. Startled, Japheth looked down at his me that he wore on his left forearm, which had suddenly come alive with a warning buzzer and menacing voice. Yes, the display on his me showed the warning was real. He looked around him at the sudden flurry of activity as people began grabbing their weapons and taking up positions. Japheth pulled his lightning gun from his holster, set it on anti-dragon, and looked around again to see if he could see the dragon.

Since most of the animals in Japheth’s world were instinctively tame, invasions from the wilderness were rare – but they happened. Japheth reflected, It seems these episodes with wild animals are becoming more common as though all of Creation is in a state of uneasiness. What is making the animals either restless or less afraid of humanity? It was not that they thought they could win. These days, mankind had weapons that easily could fell even the biggest of dragons. Then what was driving these creatures to have an insane urge to invade human territory? Maybe the fact that human population was ever encroaching on animal territory had a lot to do with it, or maybe there was less food in the forests. Whatever the reason, civilized man was encountering these creatures more and more. Japheth had never experienced a dragon encounter till now, but he had heard a lot about them here of late. Somehow, he never thought it would happen here.

I await further instructions, Japheth said to his me, which served as a computer, watch, phone, thermometer, map, global positioning system, radio, television, game toy, companion, camera, and a host of other useful functions. Once you were connected to Central, you had all of the information mankind had gathered right at your fingertips.

Animal Control has been notified. A trained dragon expert is on the way. Try to avoid provocation, but keep an eye on the creature. Stay in groups and organize yourselves in formations, so you will be ready for combat if that should be necessary. Do not resort to violence unless you are forced to, Central replied. Japheth recognized it was a robot reply, a standard answer to this type of inquiry. Central had been aware of the wayward dragon before the town of Shuruppak had, and they would deal with it as soon as they could. 

The community watched and waited. Among them was old Methuselah, who had been through this type of crisis many times before. However, when he was young, the weaponry used today to combat these creatures did not exist. That must have been terrifying, Japheth thought; and it was true that these creatures – the ones that turned out wild – had once inspired terror everywhere they went. Also watching in anticipation were his relatives on his mother’s side: Tubal-Cain, Jabal, and Jubal. All of these men were lined up with the womenfolk some distance behind them. In fact, Japheth observed, every man in the village was standing shoulder to shoulder in military formation – though somehow it never occurred to Japheth that he should be joining a formation. After all, at ninety-nine years of age, he was younger than most of the men in the village and was not sure whether he was considered a child or an adult.

Soon the noise of heavy foot-stomping could be heard as the behemoth made his way toward Shuruppak. All of the older men in the village had experienced dragon encounters before, and Japheth found that thought comforting. He failed to notice they were doing as instructed by Central. Somehow that part of the instructions did not register with Japheth, who continued to stand alone; while everyone else was in a tight formation. After all, they had experienced combat and Japheth had not; so he decided to rely on them for his protection.

There was a loud crash as a tree fell and revealed the behemoth. As trees go, this one was small – only about the diameter of a man’s head and just tall enough to conceal the dragon; but the fact that it could be knocked down like a toothpick told a lot about the creature’s strength. Japheth was impressed by the size of the dragon, which he estimated to have been seventy feet long from head to tail. It was a fire-breather with heavy scales that looked like steel armor. Japheth found himself thinking about the many ways it could kill a man. It could burn him to death, trample him, swish its mighty jagged tail and cut a man in two, or swallow him whole. Yet there were persons who could somehow handle these creatures, but Japheth had never figured out how they did it. 

For the most part, dragons and humans inhabited different areas of the land. Where dragons lived, humans seldom ventured; and where humans lived, only a few dragons came out. When they did, they were often killed, which should have given them incentive to stay away from humanity – though dragons did not always seem to think logically.

Why this one had ventured out was anyone’s guess. Most of the world, animal and human, was vegetarian; so hunting was an unknown art. Eating meat had been forbidden by God in whom Japheth believed; and as an added incentive not to eat flesh, the few people who ate meat lived noticeably shorter lives than the rest of humanity. Perhaps this creature had grown so large he thought he did not need to fear humans. For whatever reason, he had ventured out and obviously now was planning to create terror in the neighborhood.

Animal Control would decide whether the dragon would be killed, tranquilized, moved further from human habitation, or put in a zoo. The townspeople were instructed to keep their eyes on the dragon, follow its movements, and keep out of its way as much as possible. If it went on a rampage, then it would be necessary to confront it; otherwise, just let it roam.

Japheth had his sidearm ready – though he would not use it unless he had to. He looked at the dragon through his me camera and decided to make a video of the approaching dinosaur for him to view later. Again, Japheth wondered, why did it come out when, in today’s world, it had no chance to win a fight against modern weaponry? However, the creature seemed unaware of impending danger to itself as it trudged confidently along while looking around with its wicked eyes. Whatever brought it here was not important right now. It had to be dealt with – hopefully by someone who was used to dealing with dragons.

Suddenly, the dragon looked right at Japheth, who felt a cold chill come over him. Unlike the computer games he had played, this was real and he found he did not know what to do in this unexpected combat situation. Yes, he had a weapon; but would it really stop this creature? Japheth did not know, at this point, if he should wait or do what he had been told to do. The creature, shaking the Earth with his tremendous weight, took a step toward Japheth. He realized the creature likely could detect his fear and sense he might be an easy meal. Japheth was able to raise his lightning gun, but he heard a voice on his me, Don’t fire. I am almost there.

The creature made a hideous growl, and Japheth was certain he was going to lunge at him. He wondered if he should pull the trigger despite being told not to. The dragon took another step toward Japheth, who stepped backwards as he was filled with sheer terror. The dragon made a huge growl and belched a flame from its mouth – though Japheth was still a safe distance away. It kept eying Japheth, who was, by this time, almost frozen stiff with fright. The dragon appeared to be about to take another step toward Japheth, who backed up; but Japheth tripped and fell over backwards. That was the last thing he remembered.

When Japheth awoke, he was inside his father’s home. Though at first he could not tell the extent of his injuries, Japheth knew his palms were burned and he had aching muscles. As he shook off his daze, he heard the voice of his great-grandfather Methuselah, You froze in fear. That was the worst thing you could have done. If you had appeared calm, the creature would have turned from you to someone else.

Noah, Japheth’s father, joined in, As it was, we had to kill the dragon. It was about to burn you alive and we moved in. The dragon slayer arrived; and when he saw it was about to get you, he opened fire also. The dragon was killed instantly.

In my day, you would have been a goner, Methuselah broke in. We did not have the weapons of instant destruction we have today. We never could have killed a creature that size in time.

The muscular blacksmith, Tubal-Cain, chimed in, You were away from the rest of us. If you had joined in with the crowd, the dragon would not have picked on you. You should have joined with us instead of remaining alone near the edge of town.

This last remark stung Japheth noticeably. He was in the habit of being alone – even to the point of standing off from a crowd. This time his habit almost had been the end of him. He should have done the obvious, become a part of the crowd, and blended in as he now remembered Central had instructed him to do. That way he would not have been picked by the dragon as a target.

We have examined your wounds, Jabal the herdsman stated. You were only mildly hurt. You must have passed out from sheer fright.  

Japheth was glad to hear he was not badly hurt. Some of the flame from the dragon had mildly burned him on the palms of his hands, which had taken the brunt of the fire, leading him to believe he must have put out his hands when the flame came at him. Fortunately, his clothes were not burned or his hair; or he would be in even worse shape. He tried to tell himself he had passed out when he hit his head as he fell; but when he felt for a lump, there was none. Maybe he had fainted from sheer fright as Jabal had said. He made up his mind to go to the town hologram later and, using the video he had made, learn what had happened after he passed out.

He then noticed his younger brothers Shem and Ham. Shem was far more spiritually minded of the three brothers, and Ham was the more carnally minded – with Japheth somewhere in between. Otherwise, both seemed to have more on the ball than he did. Japheth learned later they had been busy elsewhere when the dragon approached and did not see it until after it was killed. Would they have fared better against the dragon than he had? Japheth was the oldest and was supposed to be the leader; yet he was always referred to last by his relatives: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

His brothers seemed to outdo him in everything. They were bigger, more athletic, seemingly smarter, and had more pleasant personalities – or so Japheth had heard whispered. In addition, they were much darker. Dark skin was looked on as being attractive in those days with white skin being seen as a sign of weakness. If that were not enough, now that Japheth’s courage had been tested in a real combat situation, he had come up short. His seeming weakness had invited the dragon to look and come at him – at least, that was what he believed. This would seemingly give the brothers all the more reason to appear condescending when they talked to him. Not wanting his fears confirmed, he decided not to speak to them but instead to get up and try to go about his business.

Japheth rose, noticing his aching muscles and telling himself he would do better next time. Show some self-confidence; show he was not afraid; and . . . but could he really do it? When would the next test come; and when it did, would he do any better than he had this time? He would practice these situations on his me and learn what to do next time an emergency arose.

Once home, he unstrapped his me from his wrist and set up a computer simulation of fighting a dragon. He was glad he had recorded the encounter on his video me since he now could learn what had happened after he passed out. Essentially, the dragon had lunged right at him, breathing fire and moving at top speed. These big reptiles could move very fast but only for a few seconds and a short distance. Only the quick action of those nearby – firing their weapons – had saved him. He was determined to learn if there were something different he could have done and decided that computer simulations were the best way to find out.

In his first simulation, Japheth received instructions from Central to become part of a formation. This time he did so. He stood beside muscular Tubal-Cain and waited with weapon drawn – even as the others were doing. The result was that the dragon bellowed until it was overcome by a tranquilizing blast from a Central Animal Control agent. That was just too easy, Japheth decided. Suppose he were alone when he encountered a similar creature?

So he adjusted the simulation until his me presented him with the same scenario he had encountered earlier – except this time he was not in the village and he had to battle the dragon alone. In his simulation, Japheth found he could win only if he used his sidearm set to its highest setting. Otherwise, he was burned up, eaten up, or cut up by the dragon’s claws or tail. Was there another way other than killing it? He learned the hard way that his sidearm was insufficient to tranquilize the creature. When fighting such a large creature, it was either kill or be killed. What if he could not get to his sidearm? he asked himself.

Japheth researched what to do in this type of situation. Yes, there was a way to win an encounter with certain dragons. One could make a sudden lunge for the dragon, which certainly would surprise the creature. Furthermore, the dragon would be unable to see you if you were underneath his head; for his eyes were on top of his head. The dragon would have to step backwards to find you; but if you moved fast enough, you could reach up, grab one of the dragon’s small arms, give that arm a mighty twist, and break it. The dragon then would run from you and wind up bleeding to death. It was a painful death, but it was a way many dragon slayers had used to destroy these creatures – particularly before the invention of the lightning gun.

To practice fighting this way called for more computer power than was available on one’s wrist computer me. The community me hologram, which could give very realistic and life-size images as well as depict convincingly real situations, was the best place to practice this maneuver. Japheth planned to do just that in the days ahead.

*                    *                     *

The next morning, after a fitful sleep, he was a little sore; but he decided to try out his me hologram. Holograms were mainframe mes with much more me power than one could carry on his wrist. Once there, he was assigned a room where he requested a program to fight the dragon that had been killed yesterday. As he fired up the community me, he learned that others had made videos of the incident; and at his request, they e-mailed their videos to him. After all, everyone these days wore wrist me computers; it was a part of their regular dress. He fed the data from the videos he had available into the simulator so that, as much as was possible, the scenario from the day before could be repeated. With the aid of the hologram, he could figure out what to do better. This hologram was a three-dimensional scene-maker that could duplicate almost anything imaginable and make one think he actually was experiencing whatever he wanted. He stood in the hologram, waiting for the computer-generated image to come at him. He actually could be led to believe he was facing the same dragon all over again – except that here he would not really be clawed to ribbons or burned alive.

Presently, the same dragon he had seen yesterday came out of the simulated underbrush. The simulation was three-dimensional and very realistic – so much so that as the creature stomped and snorted at him, Japheth actually felt the ground shake beneath him. Therefore, he did not dare rush toward the dragon. Ignoring the messages on his wrist me to hold his fire, he instead drew his lightning gun, set it to maximum, aimed, and fired. He hit the dragon squarely, and that was the end of the fight. You won, his me said. For Japheth, the whole thing was almost too easy; and it was not what he had come here to do.

Japheth set up the simulation again, but this time he was determined to rush the dragon – no matter what. As was the case before, the dragon came out of the forest, knocked down a tree, and looked squarely at Japheth, who made a move to rush the creature. He was burned to a crisp.

You lost, his me said as it showed him his body burned beyond recognition. Timing is everything, his me advised. You must not hesitate but go full speed and rush right underneath him as fast as you can.

He set up the scenario again. This time, Japheth made the lunge. He was able to surprise the dragon. However, when he reached up to grab one of its arms, the dragon’s claws got him and ripped him to shreds.

Japheth kept trying but could do little better. Once he actually got hold of the dragon’s arm but found he did not have the strength to twist it enough to break it. Shortly afterward, he decided that dragon fighting was for someone stronger than he. Tired and sore, he gave up, resolving that if he ever again met a real dragon, he had better use his lightning sidearm right away if he hoped to survive. Every time he did that, he won the simulations and he decided that going for one’s weapon was the only way to survive these encounters.

He turned to playing space war games, which was more to his liking anyway. He had been playing the games using his wrist me but had not played them in the community hologram in a while. Unlike when fighting the dragon, when playing space games, he was able to consistently outmaneuver his opponents and finish