Crystal Universe

By Martin A. Sadler

Welcome to the Crystal Universe!

Amid the backdrop of the forever beautiful Hawaiian Islands, we follow the journey of five magical crystals left on earth thousands of years ago by Ancient Cosmic Mariners.  Undiscovered, untouched and unused for centuries, they have been hidden away in the tropical rainforest atop Oahu’s tallest

• Language: English
• Publisher: Book Vine Press
• Release date: Nov 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781950955862

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 by Martin A. Sadler.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Printed in the United States of America.

First Edition: August 2014

Book Vine Press

2516 Highland Dr.

Palatine, IL 60067

Contents

Chapter 1: The Discovery

Chapter 2: The Lookout

Chapter 3: Crystalized

Chapter 4: The Cottage

Chapter 5: The Accident

Chapter 6: The Empath

Chapter 7: Thieves Kimo and Keoni

Chapter 8: The Rescue

Chapter 9: The Briefing

Chapter 10: The Escape

Chapter 11: The Seagull

Chapter 12: The Gathering Place

Chapter 13: Food for the Fishes

Chapter 14: The Cottage Revisited

Chapter 15: I Could Rule the World

Chapter 16: The Crouching Lion

Chapter 17: Another Gust of Wind

Chapter 18: The Cave

Chapter 19: Mission Accomplished

Chapter 20: The Residue Effect

Chapter 21: Collateral Damage

Chapter 22: Divine Intervention

Chapter 23: Friend or Foe

Chapter 24: The Plan

Chapter 25: OMG

Chapter 26: The Manifesto

Chapter 27: Thresholds of Complexity

Chapter 28: A Little Bit of Mystery

Chapter 29: The Gift

Chapter 30: Forever Yours

Synopsis

A creation myth and supernatural adventure worthy of the attention of modern audiences unfolds at the confluence of the predestined characters in Martin Sadler’s absorbing novel Crystal Universe. A cosmic seed beckons its guardians to the North Shore of Hawaii’s big island, where a battle between good and evil engulfs them, elevating their connection to one another and the world around them to new heights. As their consciousness expands, and the strings that bind them together are illuminated, so too is an inevitable power struggle between strong archetypal themes of life and death, light and darkness, as well as good and evil.

Sadler’s novel offers an exploration of the creation and nature of mankind that does not overextend or come across as presumptuous. The characters, and there are many, are all very well developed, and it is easy to engage with them, even at the quick pace with which they are presented. Shifting the focus of each chapter among the deck of characters keeps the reader entertained and wondering who will contribute next and what that contribution will be. The author’s experience as a songwriter and musician surely contributed to the complex and interesting structure of the novel. As the crystals that draw his characters together do, Sadler’s novel will leave the reader enthusiastically questioning their place in the universe with a fascinating new lens through which to look.

Cast of Characters

Andy Martin

Colonel Luther Paul Barker

Rayna Sue Taylor

Don Leopold

George Bellrose (North Shore George)

Jonas Sabastien

Keoni Lee

Kimo Lee

Private Timothy Hicks

Redbird

Sam Nagashimi

Sasha Benoit

Sergeant Max Tripler

Sergeant Will Apana

Chapter 1

The Discovery

George had been climbing all morning and by now his fingertips were raw from pulling himself up the jagged lava rocks. His knees were bruised and cut up from constantly slipping on the soft wet grass that had grown in between all the cracks and crevices of the mountain. He was exhausted, and the muscles in his legs and arms were starting to feel like stretched-out rubber bands. He was using muscles he hadn’t used in a long time.

He couldn’t recall how many times he had sat on the sands of Waimea Bay and stared at the beautiful green-covered lava slopes overlooking Waimea’s waters. From the water’s edge, the lush green cliffs had always had the appearance of being soft and friendly. Now that he found himself halfway up the slope, clinging to every rock for dear life, he was thinking about how inhospitable these cliffs really were.

Through the pain and exhaustion came an exhilaration he had never experienced before in his life. It was as though he was undergoing a reawakening. He was on a mission.

Granted, he had no idea why he found himself climbing these cliffs in the early morning light, but he knew that it was just something he had to do. For the last couple of weeks, George had been having dreams that kept waking him up every night. It was as though someone was calling out and he was hearing the echo. He had always been able to wake himself up, get a drink of water, relax for a couple of minutes and then go back to sleep. But last night had been different.

Last night he hadn’t been able to fall back to sleep. No matter how hard he’d tried to relax, he just couldn’t get his eyes to close. Four o’clock in the morning and he was still wide awake. He just couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something he had to do.

So he had left the safety of his warm bed and jumped into his car. He’d headed north towards Waimea Bay, which was only about two miles up the coast. Without knowing why, there he was. Where he was supposed to be. For some reason.

He’d parked his car at the foot of the highest peak he could find and, in the early morning darkness, started to climb up the rockface. As he’d slowly made his way, inch by inch up the mountain, he could feel the warmth of the rising sun over his left shoulder. He’d welcomed the early morning sunlight, as it was easier to climb now that he was able to see where he was going.

After close to an hour of struggling up the mountain, he had decided to stop and take a rest. As he’d turned around to face the sun rising in the east, his back against the hard lava wall, he reflected on the course of events that had brought him to this place. This remote corner of the North Shore of Oahu.

Ever since George Bellrose could remember, he had saved everything. He’d started his collecting at a very young age and learned never to throw anything away. His first collection was comic books. Over a period of two years, he had managed to accumulate a fairly large collection of his favorite comics. He must have had over two thousand of them in those cardboard boxes that he stored on his family’s wooden back porch. Unfortunately, tragedy struck one afternoon when a fire not only wiped out the entire back porch but also devoured all ten boxes of his comic book collection. To this day, no one is really sure how the suspicious fire started. George was the only one who was aware that the timing of the fire just happened to coincide with his smoking experimentation under that same wooden back porch.

From comic books, he’d gone on to bottle caps, aluminum cans, baseballs cards, autographs, coins and stamps. You name it; he saved it, organized it and protected it. He was a born collector. George was about twelve when he’d started his rock collection. By the age of fifteen, he had graduated to collecting rare gems. He was sixteen when he settled into studying and collecting what would turn into his ultimate love: crystals.

These beautiful, naturally made miracles of nature were of special interest to George. He had always felt a positive energy force with every crystal he had ever handled, and had realized that he had this special, unique ability to draw the inner light from them. He had taken the initiative to educate himself on all aspects of their physical properties. He had studied their place and relevance in human history, and had found he had a particular interest in the myths that surrounded them. Being the eternal optimist that he was, he lived for the day when humankind would finally open their eyes and recognize the power that can be channeled through these precious minerals.

He had come to the North Shore over ten years ago to teach and enlighten others with his special gifts and knowledge. Through word of mouth around the island, his reputation of being spiritually in tune and an expert on gems and crystals had grown to the point that he had become simply known as North Shore George. If you had any questions on this unique subject, it was common knowledge that George was the guy you went to. He had quite a following.

But over the past couple of weeks, George had been experiencing some very strange and bizarre dreams that had grown more powerful and confusing with each passing night. It was as though someone were summoning him, calling for help. He was being given information but in bits and pieces that made no sense at all. Until this morning.

This morning he knew what it was that he was supposed to do. He just didn’t know why. Now he found himself halfway up the side of this mountain for a reason he had yet to discover. The short break had given him a chance to rest and get his second wind. As he started his climb again, he realized he was now more than three-quarters of the way to the top, and really struggling. The rock surface was treacherous up this high and any kind of slip now could be disastrous.

As he reached out his right hand to explore the surface for an opening between the rocks so he could find a secure grip, his fingers did not find the usual hard, jagged rock to which he was accustomed. This time his hand came to rest on something that felt soft and leathery. It was wedged between two rocks and startled him at first. His first reaction was to pull his hand back, thinking he had stumbled onto some little creature’s habitat.

Since there was no sign of movement, he reached back up and gently pulled it out from between the rocks. It was a small brown leather pouch with what looked like strings of rawhide pulled tight and tied in a knot at the top. He brought the pouch down to his lap, turned his back to the mountain wall and sat down.

As he sat there, he knew that this was what he had come for. He looked down at the pouch he was holding in his lap. There was no doubt about it. This was the same one he had dreamed about many times. It was one of his recurring dreams, the kind that every once in a while will just pop into the middle of another dream and take that dream down a completely different road. Stumbling onto this leather pouch had interrupted many of his dreams over the last couple of weeks. What had been driving him crazy was that he could never stay asleep long enough to open the pouch and see what was in it. He would always wake up before he could find out.

As he looked straight ahead into the beautiful Hawaiian sunrise, he knew that, from this day on, he would always look back at this morning as the morning of his rebirth. Ever since George had reached the age of awareness, which was sixteen years of age for him, he had always had the desire to effect change. Not just changing himself or his immediate surroundings, but having an impact on all life as we know it. He believed that everyone is just a part of the whole. As human beings, we are all linked together and therefore all our actions affect everyone else in some way. He dreamed about accomplishing things that could change the course of history, alter the path of human destiny and affect the universe forever.

Why were we put here in this space at this time? Was it not to influence all that surrounded us? To leave our mark, so to speak. He had never wanted to come and go through his existence and have it make no difference to anyone. Although he didn’t realize it at the time, he had finally gotten his wish.

He began to loosen the strings at the top of the pouch. He pulled his oversized tee-shirt away from his body so that he could spread it out over his lap and under the pouch. He wanted to make sure that he wouldn’t drop anything that might fall out. As he stretched the opening, he gave the pouch a little shake. Whatever was inside made a rattling noise, like stones being smashed together. Great, he thought to himself. I spend three hours climbing a mountain and all I find is a bag of stones.

He set the pouch down in his lap and peeled back the opening. There, right in front of his eyes, were five of the most beautiful crystals he had ever seen: each one perfect; each one the same size; yet each one unique. George had always had a voracious appetite for information on the common mineral quartz, and had read everything he could find on the subject. He had learned that the word crystal was actually a shortened English version of the Greek word krystallos. This word was derived from the ancient Greek word kyros which means icy cold. These ancient Greeks felt that crystals were actually water that was frozen so hard, it just never thawed out.

He had learned that there were basically six different crystal formations: isometric, tetragonal, hexagonal, orthorhombic, monoclinic and triclinic. Strangely, the crystals he held in his hands didn’t fit into any of these known categories.

Each one of them was different, with its own shape and personality, and not like anything he had ever seen before. He had seen a lot of crystals in his life, and he knew the rules of nature that produced this phenomenon, but he had never seen any like these. They had not been created by the normal laws of nature that other crystals live by.

As he rolled them in the bag and they rotated in his hands, he could see hundreds of thin strands of blue light intersecting deep within each crystal. These blue streaks of light were bouncing around inside like tiny impulses of electricity. George could have sworn that they were alive and passing along messages inside the crystals, just like the human brain passes along electronic impulses when we think.

He laughed to himself as he felt them beginning to get warm. He laughed a little harder as they started getting warmer and warmer. Now they were actually beginning to get hot. All of a sudden, he started feeling a tingling sensation deep in the pit of his stomach. It started to expand outward through his body. The tingling sensation turned into a warm glow that swept through him, one wave at a time. Wave after wave kept emanating from his stomach, shooting out to the outer points of his body. Since it took a couple of seconds for the waves of energy to get from his stomach to the ends of his extremities, he could feel the birth of each new surge before the previous one had left his body. He had never felt anything like this before in his life. He felt energized and reborn. He felt at one with the universe. A crystal universe.

As George slowly descended the mountain that morning with his new find, his mind and soul were on fire. He was thinking more clearly than he ever had before, and for once in his life he had more answers than questions. Wherever the crystals had come from, George couldn’t help but feel that it was no coincidence that he was on the mountain that morning. It was meant to be that he would be the one to find these gems of the universe. After all, he had been preparing for this all his life and it only seemed appropriate that he should be the caretaker, protector and student of this powerful force. What he could not escape was the unmistakable feeling that he had done this all before.

Chapter 2

The Lookout

It was a night like every other night for Private Timothy Hicks. The Marines had spared all expense in erecting the tiny aluminum shack he called home each and every night on this isolated rock sticking out of the middle of the Kailua Bay. Stationed out here alone with just his thoughts and radar screen in his little cubbyhole of a lookout, Private Hicks had spent the last eight months of his life observing. Watching his screen for anything that didn’t look like normal background flows of energy.

Every night had been the same. Nothing going on. He had even developed the bad habit of reading comic books instead of watching his big green screen. What the hell! Nobody checked on him anyway. Nobody really cared about what he was doing out here.

When he was first assigned this post months ago, he had been very diligent. Very alert. On top of it. He was going to be the best watchdog spotter this man’s army had ever had, but after months of staring at that screen and seeing nothing, he had started to slack off. He rationalized to himself that there was probably nothing to spot anyway. Who cared about invisible electromagnetic energy fields anyway? Certainly not Timothy B. Hicks of Charlotte, North Carolina.

This definitely wasn’t what he’d had in mind when he signed up three years ago. He’d been a nineteen-year-old with no direction at the time. Feeling bogged down in his North Carolina hometown, to the surprise of everyone including himself, he had made the grand announcement he had enlisted in the Marines. It had been a dream-come-true when he was assigned to Hawaii. He loved Hawaii. It was the job assignment he hated.

So he figured he would just finish out his remaining days on the island in solitude and boredom and then get reassigned to the East Coast where he could be near his family and friends. He was definitely too far from home. Hawaii was nice, but it sure wasn’t home.

There was nothing out of the ordinary that night to make him think that things would be any different. Same old, same old. As usual, he was turned away from his screen when the first flash hit. He caught the flash out of the corner of his eye, at first thinking his reading lamp had blown its bulb, but as he turned to check his lamp, he saw a second flash appear. It started out as a small spot in the middle of the screen and quickly expanded outward until the bright green light completely filled his monitor. It only lasted a couple of seconds, then disappeared. What the hell was that? he said to himself. He didn’t realize that the words had fallen out of his mouth. He had always been very careful to not start talking to himself aloud out here. As everyone knew, talking out loud to yourself with no one else around was a sure sign that you were starting to lose it.

Whatever