Cornelisz: “ the 5Upr3m3 Pr3d8tor “

By Geoff Daniel

Like a determined and weary Centurion, he fights hard to the very bitter end
Obviously not only for himself, his very loyal mate, but also of course, for his precious and endangered species of which he now sees precariously hanging in the balance
For Cornelisz knows, the chances of their survival once he finally passes away, are sadly extremely slim for his beloved species named,
“ The Western Australian Christmas Tree “ or “ Moodjar “, the Aboriginal Noongar name for the tree
Ultimately though, humans do get to have the final last laugh here unfortunately-
However; not in the way that many reader/s would have boldly predicted!
With a little over a decade of absolute terror and total havoc, the deadly Evil Spirit that washed up on the shoreline has finally disappeared for good
With life basically returning to normal throughout the Geraldton and Mid West region; it therefore now allows tremendous relief to be felt by all of it’s people once again
Cornelisz may be gone finally, although it has come at a huge cost to the area with many people both now, and in the future, still carrying the vivid psychological scars that he has tragically left behind
For, “The Beast”, always wanted to leave behind an unforgettable and lasting special legacy, although; in the eyes of many humans, it definitely has not been a good or positive one to have left

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Apr 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669887423

Book preview

Copyright © 2022 by Geoff Daniel.

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 permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 03/17/2022

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CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

PREFACE

T HE REASON FOR writing this predominantly fictional story is to make people fully aware of two significant events that have and are happening in Western Australia.

What occurred on 4 June 1629 was to be the beginning of what would be ‘history’s bloodiest mutiny’, which occurred on Beacon Island (part of the Houtman Abrolhos – which in Portuguese means ‘Keep your eyes open’ – Islands).

These rugged, barren islands are some sixty kilometres west of Geraldton, off the Western Australia coast, and are very well-known for large quantities of rock lobster being caught there every year.

The abhorrent but highly intelligent Dutch East Indies seaman from the sunken ship Batavia, which was fully responsible for hundreds of deaths, was left abandoned on the island. His infamous name was Jeronimus Cornelisz.

He was once a well-known and highly respected pharmacist who was associated with the high society elite back in Holland during the seventeenth century but soon became a notorious and heartless Dutch East Indies seaman on the Dutch ship Batavia after it had unfortunately run aground in very rough weather conditions.

It was something he was surprisingly under known for throughout this very interesting and vast state of Western Australia.

Probably the reason for this was the fact that as a teenager, we were taught more about European history than our own.

This is becoming more prevalent in high schools nowadays, which is very pleasing, however.

Bruce Cockburn (If a Tree Falls)

The second and more current event occurring today within the state is the extremely rapid disappearance of the unique Western Australian Christmas trees (Nuytsia Floribunda), which was named after Pieter Nuyts, another Dutch explorer during the seventeenth century, or alternatively, Moodjar (the Western Australian Aboriginal Noongar name), of which nearly 90 percent have vanished. They were once very prevalent across the south-western region of the state.

The main reason for this is the heavy deforestation for residential developments.

This specific Aboriginal culture regards the tree as ‘highly spiritual’, and because of this, it should always be greatly appreciated and well respected by anyone, no matter what their race or culture may be.

However, on the contrary, sadly it has been anything but appreciated or respected in the past fifty or so years, which is incredibly disappointing, to say the least.

Before the tree species stretched from the Geraldton coastal plains in the northwest and extended right down to the Esperance coastal plains to the southeast, but unfortunately, nowadays, their numbers in this once-widespread region have depleted.

This unusual and endangered tree species is part of the mistletoe family and is also Australia’s largest parasitic organism (meaning they feed off numerous other trees and plants for a variety of different nutrients for them to survive).

These trees have many sharp small blades attached to their own roots, which are very capable of delicately slicing other plants roots effectively (they are even capable of cutting a person’s lip).

The sole purpose of this behaviour is to steal their vital nutrients and minerals that the Christmas tree desperately requires to survive and remain healthy, thus making it quite an insidious but very unique tree species, which actually generates a stunning display of yellow- and orange-coloured blossoms at the beginning of every Australian summer, around the end of November and the beginning of December and normally lasting about one month before fading away and then dropping off.

So with the destruction of its habitat at an alarming rate, along with the propagating of the seed out away from the wild now unfortunately having a very low and poor success rate (only one in five actually survives to maturity), the species is very susceptible to endangerment, or even extinction if it is not stopped, at this present rate of human destruction.

Therefore, in the overall scheme of things, there is a very close similarity between the two very interesting and strong characters depicted here in this novel, with that simply being self-preservation and pure basic survival.

Consequently, for them both to become successful against many gigantic and difficult odds, which they face on a regular basis, it is imperative for them to always stand up and fight fiercely for their own existence.

Although one is a very significant event that occurred a long way back in the past while the other is now occurring here very much in the present, the two organisms both have the exact same determined mindset, with the main objective of taking out a large proportion of the human population for their own healthy preservation to flourish, for each unique organism had/has found themselves in a particularly dismal and dire situation, with defeat and failure definitely not an option for either to accept, or in fact be at all satisfied with.

Both have decided that absolutely nothing, or in fact nobody, is getting in their way to achieve that primary objective that they have now set solely for themselves, for both, at some point in their lives, had absolutely everything they could possibly have wanted and indeed yearned for (in fact, they almost lived the perfect life).

However, sadly, and quite abruptly, both lost absolutely everything incredibly dear to them, therefore quickly causing them to solely adopt the extremely wild and truly reckless attitude of ‘I have absolutely nothing to lose, only something to gain’ mentality, for revenge, power, and an extremely high intelligence factor are continuously used very effectively to their great personal advantage.

Basically, they have manifested total control over their immediate and isolated surroundings at all times.

However though, the difference here is that the very defiant Christmas tree, Cornelisz (nicknamed Crusher), for obvious reasons, always heavily considers three other members who are very important to him.

Those crucial and important members in his life are

i) his precious and only living son, Hieronymus, who is nicknamed HR;

ii) his very loyal and trusty mate, the grey butcher-bird named Cracticus, nicknamed quite aptly Crackers; and finally,

iii) the very hardworking Western Australian honeybees that he affectionately calls his swarm, whom he encourages greatly to help him pollinate many other Western Australian Christmas trees throughout the Mid West and South West regions of Western Australia.

He does this by cleverly producing a totally unique and mesmerising scent that he freely emits on a daily basis, which effectively brings them all from literally kilometres away to help with this delicate and hugely important process to properly occur, therefore allowing the overall species to flourish for many more years to come, in fact, hopefully, even well after he has sadly left this declining and unhappy planet in later years.

This is something in which he now finds himself, and continues to find himself, defiantly fighting on a daily basis.

This hopeful situation on his behalf unfortunately remains to be seen in future years to come, for it is his revenge on human beings and his strong passionate drive to continue supporting himself and his uniquely precious species from completely disappearing which essentially makes him a truly formidable character and something to never underestimate!

Here, in this obscure and thoroughly absorbing novel, anthropomorphism (meaning either a plant or an animal taking on distinct human characteristics and emotions) has been used to heavily enhance the overall concept.

This is for the reader to easily understand and therefore become more compassionate in the particular species’ current plight.

So in a very strange and uniquely overexaggerated way, this then invariably grabs the readers’ full attention.

Here I have linked the two unusual but incredibly similar scenarios very closely together, thus forming an intricately entwined and hugely suspenseful thriller for people of all ages to read and, no doubt, thoroughly enjoy.

CHAPTER ONE

J AMES (JIMMY) PORTSEA woke up feeling a little under the weather from his big thirtieth birthday party celebration the previous night.

This was something he and a number of his best mates (both male and female) were really looking forward to, and it didn’t disappoint.

After having a rough attempt at cleaning up all the loosely scattered bottles and cans of alcohol that lay in and around the property, he fell heavily down on his well-worn dark-blue couch and then began pondering what this particular day might provide for him.

However, little did Jimmy know what he would be confronted with at a slightly later time of the day.

He then decided that a cool brisk walk along Sunset Beach in Geraldton, Western Australia, could possibly clear his sluggish and poor-performing head, for he knew that a surfing session right at this very moment was probably not a wise option considering his current slothful and intoxicated condition.

This thought only came after him looking intently across at his long and impressive lineup of surfboards, which had been stacked in a very neat and orderly fashion in the large back room of the house.

The collection consisted of a number of longboards on one side, and several brightly coloured and beautifully designed short boards stacked perfectly on the other.

These very uniquely designed and painted surfboards have been Jimmy’s pride and joy for many years since he purchased them from a prize-winning local manufacturer, with them all worth a large amount of money because of their pure originality.

Recently, he has had many overseas offers to buy them, but he always strongly rejects them simply because each one of them has meant a great deal to him in one way or another during his lifetime.

Sadly too, it was almost two years to the day that one of his close and extremely talented surfing mates, Cody ‘Slicker’ Clarke, had drowned.

It had occurred while he was attempting to surf a huge right-handed wave and suddenly fell heavily, hitting his head on a submerged jagged limestone reef while in very rough conditions fairly close by.

In fact, it was almost identical to the ocean conditions occurring right at this present moment in the wake of the violent storm which had just passed through the region.

This hugely depressing thought came rushing back to Jimmy like a seriously out-of-control speeding freight train, so he quickly realised that something slightly more mundane might actually be in order for him today.

So he