In Who's Hands: Cause & Effect

By Wilburn Knowles

This story, the first in a trilogy, begins in a Barbaric world, thousands of years in the future, where scientists, known as “the smart ones”, have spent generation after generation planning and preparing to bring down their ruthless rulers. These “smart ones” have written a story, it, and the development of time travel,

• Language: English
• Publisher: LitFire Publishing
• Release date: Nov 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9781646740574

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In Who’s Hands: Cause & Effect

Copyright © 2019 by Wilburn Knowles

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher or author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Although every precaution has been taken to verify the accuracy of the information contained herein, the author and publisher assume no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for damages that may result from the use of information contained within.

ISBN: 978-1-64674-057-4

Printed in the United States of America

LitFire LLC

1-800-511-9787

www.litfirepublishing.com

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Contents

Preface

Chapter One The Beginnings

Chapter Two Vilar

Chapter Three Thaylos’s Fury

Chapter Four The Book and Technology

Chapter Five The First Time

Chapter Six The Book, the Plan

Chapter Seven Leap of Faith

Chapter Eight Lynn and Efram

Chapter Nine Paradox? What’s a Paradox?

Chapter Ten No Choice

Chapter Eleven Jochebed-Moses-Hatshepsut

Chapter Twelve The Burning Brushes

Chapter Thirteen The Ten Commandments

Chapter Fourteen The Birth of a Savior

Epilogue

Preface

In this story, the first in a series of novels, you will come to the realization that perhaps, and quite likely, things that we all have taken for granted, our whole lives, may not be what we think.

This story begins with a group of scientists eighty-six hundred and forty-four years in our future; then, by means of time travel, these scientists jump to several different time intervals in their past, ending up in their present. But it’s what’s really going on all along, which will be revealed in the third novel of this series, that will make you think that maybe life is not black and white; the grey seems possible.

This is not an ordinary sci-fi story filled with odd-looking aliens and impossible scientific wizardry. You need to imagine that this story could be based on events, or at least events similar to the ones described here, that could very possibly be true. Events that may have happened in the future, here on earth.

We’ve all read novels and watched movies that challenge our beliefs. While reading this story please take, very seriously, into consideration the advancements science has made in the past seventy-five years. Science truly has advanced at an incredible rate in a very short time. How advanced do you think we will be eight, nine or ten thousand years from now? It’s not a far stretch to imagine that scientific developments in the future may just affect the past and, in turn, the present and even that very same future itself.

Imagine that our history is not one of mankind living in a God-fearing, scientifically advanced world, but one of mankind living, since the dawn of time, with no concept of God! The result is a world in which all people are slaves to Barbarians even eight thousand years from now.

In justifying the title, I describe what caused the scientists of a future world, as described in the above paragraph, a world not at all what we would imagine it to be, to want to carry out a particular plan and the effect that-that plan has had on the world’s history—past, present, and future. Virtually, with the flick of a switch, a one-dimensional existence will change into an existence of endless possibilities. BUT a seemingly perfect plan will have its challenges because of one word absent from these scientists’ vocabulary, or if you will, a word/concept absent from these scientists’ knowledge, in the world they live in.

Are you intrigued by science? Is evolution more sensible to you than Adam and Eve? My answer to both these queries is yes, and I ask you, what if science were linked to Adam and Eve? Could there be a common thread between science and God? This story says there is! Writing it and knowing the ending makes me want to jump right to that end and tell you what happens, not eighty-six hundred and fourty-four years, but over ten thousand years in our future, but yeah, that would spoil all the fun.

To get a sense of the nature of this story, consider a Barbarian setting in an area near the western slopes of the Sarawat Mountains near Egypt. Certainly there could be many Barbarian-ruled sects throughout Europe, Asia, and other areas of the world, but we will focus on this one area.

This is a world where the time line in which Christopher Columbus discovered the new Americas, which would have occurred centuries earlier, has not transpired AT ALL; Columbus, in fact, has not ever existed in this time line, so such a journey could have never occurred. This isn’t the time line WE know; this is a time line in a world of Barbarianism, only Barbarianism. However, the effect of the actions taken by the group of scientists in this story will make Columbus’s discovery and countless others a CERTAINTY.

Time-travel stories can be quite confusing, that confusion is by design; you may have to reread some parts to put it all together. Time travel is like a puzzle: sometimes the right piece is sitting there in front of you, but you have to look at it two or three times to realize that it’s the one you need.

The first four and a half chapters describe the time line of the happenings leading up to the time-travel event of our main character, a scientist named Efram.

Efram is having flashbacks that he does not understand and that you certainly won’t understand either until later on, and even when you think you have it figured out, DO YOU REALLY? These flashbacks are of significant relevance in this series of novels; clues to the answers of these flashbacks are scattered among the words, but will you see them? If not, you MUST TRUST that in the end, all will be revealed.

As you read beyond chapter 5, it may occur to you to think:

Some of this cannot possibly happen because there are elements missing from the story, elements that need to happen for certain events to even be possible.

I can promise you that your questions will all be revealed in the third novel of this series.

Barbarianism, time travel, mistakes and profound realizations will keep you glued to the pages of this novel. When you have finished reading it, you will know it’s not over, and you will be excited to find out what’s next!

Briefly, this story, as I have said, begins in a barbaric world eighty-six hundred and forty-four years in the future, here on earth! A scientist named Efram and a group of his colleagues, living in hiding from Barbarians in a small underground compound, are the result of an evolution that has occurred over many centuries. After this beginning, I take you back in the history of this world to describe to you the events that lead to this beginning.

Note:

Be sure to read the epilogue; it reveals what may be to come in this series, that it could be much more than you think. Also pay careful notice to the passage of time, several different time intervals occur that are key to unraveling the mystery of this story in your mind. Twelve moons equal one year. I have left several notes throughout the story so that you will more easily stay on track. Also note that I have used real names and phrases from our actual history in hopes that it will give this story credibility.

Chapter One

The Beginnings

Swoosh!

There it was again, Efram having another flashback.

What are these? Is that me I am seeing? What kind of lab is that?

For over a year now Efram has been having flashbacks. Sometimes he sees what he thinks is himself, sometimes a lab very different than his own, even other scientists, but not ones he knows. As he and his colleagues near their first time travel event these flashes have become annoyingly more frequent, but they do not seem harmful, he will deal with them later, his focus is on reality, not a daydream.

Okay, good to go, Brabus, Bree said. She had just finished correcting the glitch in her device’s programming, and now was confident that tomorrow’s events would unfold as planned.

Bree looked over at Efram.

Are you alright, Efram?

Yeah, I am okay. Just those damned flashes again.

I could tell. Well, you had better call it a day and get some rest, we have a huge day tomorrow.

Yes, I think you are right.

I think we are ready everyone, Efram announced in a loud voice. Get some rest, we go tomorrow.

Efram sounded surprisingly calm, given that he was on the cusp of fulfilling the dream that he and generation after generation of his ancestors had been planning for. The next day he and his team would set in motion a planned series of events that would rid the world of chaos, chaos that has dominated throughout the history of the world.

It had been fairly amazing what they had accomplished in this dank but incredible setting. This lab was a miracle! Twenty-five hundred years earlier, when discovered by Trumis and Kaylee, a young Barbarian couple, it could not have been imagined that this same lab, most certainly improved upon from its original state, would be the birth place of a new beginning, a whole different world. Unbeknownst to Efram and his colleagues, the origins of this new beginning would never be known in the new world they were about to create.

Note:

We now will jump back five thousand years to a time when Barbarians recruited the smartest of the slaves to design buildings, aqueducts for running water and weapons, etc. For five hundred years, after the recruitment, these chosen few slowly evolved into scientists, architects, and healers or doctors. They were treated only slightly better than slaves, but that changed in time. Over the next five hundred years this very small group was treated better, yet still yearned for freedom. They had suitable living quarters and, by all comparable means, were making strides in scientific advancement, in many different fields. Consider, though, that what they would call advancement, we would consider barely noticeable. Certainly some machines—such as conveyors for moving grains and straw and elevators for taking rulers to the top of their monuments, driven by a maze of gears and ropes, powered by slaves turning wheels—were present, but other advancements would be things such as having built a better knife and the discovery of roots with healing powers.

Now, a thousand years since the first smart one was recruited, and although treated somewhat fairly by the Barbarians, these scientists could not escape the feeling of oppression bestowed upon them and were not intent on living under this oppression much longer.

They worked in a laboratory carved into the mountainside. Their Barbarian rulers approved every experiment and addition to the construction, of this laboratory, over the centuries.

However, when unobserved by Barbarians, during the latest hours of the night or when most of the Barbarian warriors were out on a hunt, these scientists began to dig and build a 2nd, secret, lab directly below this lab. Moon after moon, year after year, for almost two centuries, digging and building, pushing toward their goal in an unrelenting manner, one shovelful of earth, one chunk of rock at a time. This secret lab was built to give them the freedom they longed for.

Eventually, the underground lab was easily accessed by pushing a false wall in their original facility. All they had to do was push lightly on a wall full of shelves that held innumerable baskets of odds and ends. This action triggered another wall several meters away and around a corner to move, exposing a short hallway with steps at the end that lead down into the secret lab. It was built deliberately this way so that the Barbarians would not accidently discover it. Being a long ways away and around a corner, a Barbarian could not accidentally push the wall and discover the secret entrance.

Within this lab the scientists let their imaginations run wild. There was something about being out of sight of prying eyes, about working covertly, that fueled their imaginations and inspired dreams of true freedom. There was not enough room to build massive arms or bombs, but there was plenty enough room to experiment with chemicals, metals, and the natural toxins produced by plants in their environment.

Several years after the completion of this lab, a highly concentrated liquid was nearing development. When heated, it would turn into an invisible vapor, a silent killer, that they planned to deploy into every living and sleeping area of the Barbarian habitats.

This was the very sort of plan Barbarians feared scientists [or smart ones, as they were known to the Barbarians] would one day unleash upon them if they let their guard down, so they made sure they didn’t let their guard down. However, these scientists were one step ahead of their rulers, and one day, soon enough, they would exact their revenge.

Creating the delivery systems for this substance was the only thing holding up their plans. They had ideas ranging from arrows, to bullets, to time-release bombs, but how would they deliver and heat the liquid at the same time?

Agreeing on this plan of attack was difficult, including issues of who would risk their life to carry out this plan. There was also the volatile and brutal nature of Thaylos, the ruler of the Barbarians at the time. If Thaylos were to become at all suspicious it would no doubt mean death for ALL of them.

Tall, powerful, long-haired, with a neatly trimmed beard, Thaylos used eyeliner, derived from ashes, to accent his fearsome eyes and add to his menacing look. He backed up that look with ruthless decisions whenever he sensed even the slightest hint of rebellion in his kingdom. Enemies were not just killed; they were skinned and then stuffed and marinated in ales and wines. Announcements that betrayers would be EATEN at feasts in the evenings were practically a daily event. On many occasions Thaylos would merely kill a slave and say he was a betrayer just for the fun of it, and the fun he had at the feast. Gruesomely, Thaylos had acquired a taste for human flesh.

Displays of this nature did wonders for order during the reign of Thaylos. He was unchallengeable, and if anyone were foolhardy enough to do so, they would end up as an entrée at one of his many feasts.

Of course, being of high intellect, these scientists had deliberated, literally for moons, on whether or not a peaceful solution to their bondage could be reached with Thaylos, but because of his merciless nature, the scientists agreed that any type of discussion or negotiation with him would probably be futile and most certainly deadly.

Certainly there were those among the scientists that were opposed to the killing of women and children, but despite their misgivings, and dedication to the betterment of human life, they concluded that if even one Barbarian were saved it may come back to haunt them or their future descendants. This was unacceptable. It was decided that all Barbarians—men, women, and children—would have to die.

Portable heating devices that would also carry the poisonous liquid would have to be built. They would have to be small enough to be carried under one’s clothing.

In time, small metal blocks with tiny holes in the top were built to carry the liquid in. Trials were done, using rats in a fairly large but confined space, to see how long it would take to heat the metal blocks up enough to turn the liquid into a gas [the gas filtering through the holes in the block] and kill the rats. They determined if they gave these devices enough alcohol/fuel to run for twenty minutes that would do the job.

The plan to deliver these metal blocks to all the Barbarian living quarters was spread out over a whole moon as to not raise suspicion.

After the deliveries were completed, Toblan, the doctor/healer and leader of the scientists asked Thaylos if he would hold a gigantic feast where a new invention, a small metal panel with long wires attached to a piece a crude glass, would be unveiled.

What is this new invention? What does it do Toblan? Thaylos asked.

When the metal panel is put in the sunlight, this piece of glass will glow, creating light, light created by the sun but not from the sun. You can put the metal plate on the outside of your palace, run the wires through a small hole in the wall, and have light inside without the use of torches. Toblan replied.

Thaylos beamed with pride, as if he’d invented it himself, and called for the largest feast he’d ever had. It would be in two days’ time. He would show his followers his great invention at dusk, then a feast and party would follow in the evening.

Their plan was working. Near the end of the great party, the scientists would sneak into the living quarters and light the burners of these crude heating devices and have plenty of time to retreat to safety. Of course, some of the Barbarians would have left the party early and gone back to their quarters, but they would be drunk and passed out cold. In fact, the passed-out drunk ones would be the least of their worries.

Chapter Two

Vilar

Now, only one day before their plan to overtake the Barbarians was to be put in motion, Thaylos woke in the morning to cries from his first wife, Treanis. The cries were somewhat distant from his private bedroom but loud enough to stir a restless sleeper like himself. He instinctively grabbed his nightshirt and sword and followed the sound to a room that he did not anticipate visiting, the bedroom of his only son, Vilar. Walking through the opened door, he found Treanis screaming as she held the boy’s head in her lap. Thaylos moved quickly to the bed; he wanted a better look at what he thought he was seeing in the early morning grayness.

Move your head, Treanis. I want to see.

HE IS DYING, HE IS DYING, CALL FOR THE HEALER NOW! Treanis screamed.

LET ME SEE! MOVE BACK! retorted Thaylos.

Thaylos looked at his handsome son’s face and saw crimson, clotted blood streaming from his nose. He wondered what could have caused so severe of a nosebleed. What would make his son unable to wake up.

He is bleeding from his ears too! He is not long for this world, my lord. Get help PLEASE! Treanis pleaded.

Thaylos gently turned his son’s head to the left to look at his ears. Treanis was correct; blood was coming from his ears, although not as profusily as from his nose. She was also correct in determining that certainly Vilar’s life was on the line. There was indeed no time to waste. Thaylos, almost in a panic, shouted for his servant.

KELON.

Kelon stepped swiftly to the doorway of Vilar’s bedroom.

Yes, master.

"Go find Toblan immediately. Wake him up if you have to. Bring him to this room NOW!"

Yes master.

Toblan had extraordinary capacity to cure many of the illnesses that dogged the Barbarians. In the official, above-ground laboratory, Toblan had specialized in what we would call homeopathic cures for many of the common diseases in Thaylos’ kingdom, concocting liquids and pastes and powders that cleared lungs, cured stomachaches, and relieved congestion and migraines. Obviously, when truly deadly diseases struck the Barbarians, not even Toblan could help, but Barbarians understood that he was not able to defeat death. His track record for curing everyday aches and pains was outstanding. Vilar, however, did not appear to have an everyday ache.

Thaylos hoped that Toblan would at least know how to stop the bleeding and be able to examine Vilar’s body in a way that might give him clues regarding what was threatening his life.

Ironically, Toblan was not only the healer; he could also be called the mastermind, given his central role in fabricating the poisonous gas they were about to deploy upon their rulers the next day.

Kelon sprinted to Toblan’s quarters, bursting through the entrance to a shabby but well-kept quarters. Toblan was sitting at a table, eating breakfast with his family and an unfamiliar male guest, Kelon paid no attention to this guest; he was on a much more pressing matter.

COME TO THE PALACE AT ONCE! VILAR, MY MASTER’S SON, IS ILL.

Toblan quickly washed, grabbed a sack of crude medical supplies and potions, kissed his wife, Leah, on the cheek good-bye, rubbed his two children’s heads and as he left, turned to his guest and said.

What ever happened to us? to which his guest replied.

You will be fine, my friend.

Safe journeys, Toblan replied as he hurried away.

Leah knew as well as anyone the limits of her husband’s healing abilities, she always feared what could happen to him if he failed in a major way. Treating the ruling family qualified as major.

Toblan sprinted behind Kelon as they headed towards the palace. They hurried by the guards and went to the private compound of Thaylos and his family.

It was thirty minutes since Thaylos had dispatched Kelon. Vilar was still unconscious but breathing as he lay in his bed, his mother stroking his hair and whispering encouragement to him as the two men walked in. Thaylos had left to dress for the day and check in with his advisers regarding the day’s events. He would return to Vilar’s room soon.

Not seeing Thaylos in the room caused Toblan to relax, which he knew would help him as he made a diagnosis. He grabbed a chair in the room and pulled it to Vilar’s bedside.

Hello young one, he said to the unresponsive Vilar. You are not doing too well, eh? Let me have a look at you and see if we can figure out what is ailing you.

Toblan always talked this way when treating a Barbarian. They were always suspicious and ignorant enough to need a point-by-point update on what he was doing. Saying all of this out loud was purely for Treanis’s benefit.

Toblan felt the boy’s head and neck, searching for inflammation of the glands. He did not discern any noticeable swelling. His first thought was that the brain had malfunctioned and seeped blood. If that were true, Treanis was right; her son was not long for this world. The knowledge of science had nowhere nearly yet extended to care for the brain. They had no means of using x-rays or other diagnostic equipment. They had not even scratched the surface of the healing arts, at that time.

Toblan went on to listen to the boy’s chest through a crude stethoscope. His breathing was faint, another negative sign.

WHAT DO YOU HEAR? asked Treanis.

His breathing is very weak, replied Toblan.

WILL HE LIVE?

Toblan did not know how to answer that question. He did not want to kill all hope, but he did not want to deceive and give false hope either. He chose a middle ground:

I am not sure. I hope so.

Toblan knew that there was little use examining the boy’s arms, legs, feet, and hands, but he checked all of those body parts anyway to give the appearance that he was doing a thorough job and also to buy time while he thought of how to break the news to Treanis and Thaylos: that this young boy had a brain injury, there was absolutely nothing that Toblan could do about it. Toblan knew that he could never let that prognosis escape his lips, so he just said nothing.

IS HE GOING TO LIVE? Treanis asked again, wanting to hear a different answer this time.

I am not sure. Please let me work, Toblan replied flatly.

PLEASE TELL ME MY SON WILL LIVE, Treanis said urgently as she broke into tears. "PLEASE." she beggingly pleaded.

Toblan did not answer; he continued with the examination. There was no different answer to give.

Toblan pretended to be gathering information as he made soft sounds in his mouth, pressing the boy in different areas of his extremities, stalling for time, trying to think of a way to get out of a