Thunder Stone Realm

By Weaver and TBD

Four space travelers must rely on their own ingenuity and willpower to escape a hostile alien world. Danger awaits them at every turn as they struggle against limited resources and creatures they know nothing about as well as a looming evil darkness deep in a mountainous region of the

planet continually invading their thoughts and dreams.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eugene Weaver
• Release date: Jul 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798988657811

Book preview

Old World

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The enormous jet-black, shiny meteor breached the atmosphere, smashing into the planet, lodging itself deep into the rocky terrain and sending fragments of the mineral skyward until the shards plummeted back down to the surface far and wide. Gray smoke and fire filled the air. Upon impact, the parasite inside awakened, opening its red eyes and immediately beginning its telepathic search for life on a planet nearly devoid of life. In its search, it sensed another presence. One buried deep in the planet’s soil.

Centuries passed.

A boy and his father were hunting in the forest, something they did often. Their people survived on the animals they killed in the forests near an area they had named Pivoron. The father was teaching his son the art of stalking prey. The hunting was good here, with lots of beasts that ran on four legs that were fast and difficult to kill.

Both hunted with bow & arrow, as well as spears and a knife each had bartered for.

The father went by the name of Aizen and was over six feet tall and muscular with long, flowing hair and a short beard. He was the provider for his family which included his mate, Hadassah and their four children: a three-year-old girl named Honoria, Itzel, a seven-year-old girl, Cassius, their ten-year-old son, and finally, Oriovas, who was thirteen and now hunting with his father.

When not hunting in the forests, Aizen grew crops to feed his family and barter with in the nearby village. The villagers were always happy when Cassius and his younger sister, Itzel would roll in on their two-wheeled cart loaded with fresh produce. Bartering was usually done for clothes and other household items in these ancient times. It was a prosperous era for everyone in villages far and wide on this small planet.

The people attributed much of their good fortune to the brilliant shining stone that had been found long ago by one of their ancestors, a legendary woman named Aleeza. The stone was the lifeblood of this world and a considered sacred item for which a temple had been built in the side of a mountain. The various sects from far and wide came to pay homage and honor the powerful stone.

They lived simple but fulfilling lives, though it wasn’t always easy. Storms could be severe at times. Some of the creatures of the forest were to be steered clear of, and there were legends of large rocks that could form into beings that spoke.

On this particular day, the sky was overcast with another storm on the horizon. Aizen knew this and told his son Oriovas that if the Nimithon they were hunting could not be spotted soon, they would need to head back to their home to avoid getting stuck in what would be a hard storm.

They had been tracking the Nimithon through the forest for several hours. Its green color made it blend in with the trees, making the hunt incredibly difficult. But the meat from this animal was regarded as the very best in the region. This would be a large payday and many good meals for Aizen and his family.

Oriovas wandered away from his father, thinking he had heard a rustle in a large brush nearby. Hoping it was the Nimithon they had been tracking, he crouched low and moved forward, stalking his prey while his father silently crept in the opposite direction assuming his obedient son was behind him.

They were at the very edge of the forest now, where normally Aizen would not venture. It was too close to the area known by all of the villages as Pivoron.

Pivoron was talked about in hushed voices. Mothers warned their children to keep them far away from this area. You’re safe if you stay in the forest or village, but if you set foot in Pivoron, the horned Beast will cook you and eat you! Men told stories of what they had seen from a far distance in those mountains. Heavy cloud cover draped the land. A mountain made almost entirely of the same mineral they used for fire—a black stone. Plant life was minimal if non-existent. It was said that a heavy oppressive evil lived deep in the large hole in the side of a mountain that they had named Mirnare. The cave entrance looked like a large open mouth ready to swallow all who entered.

Some stories had been passed down through generations that Minare was actually a huge rock-filled creature with lava as its life force that had travelled from the stars, landed on this world, and planted itself here in the midst of the other tall mountains. The mountain itself, it was rumored, had brought the Beast living deep in its darkest cavernous regions. Some even theorized there were others like the one in the Pivoron region spread out through different inhabited planets in the vast galaxy. But those were just tales that continued to change and get re-told over many years.

The boy had his spear drawn. He was too close for his bow and arrow. If he was lucky, one sharp jab would mortally wound the creature. Oriovas jabbed into the bush, hoping this would be his big moment to impress his father. His spear however, didn’t sink into a Nimithon hiding in this tall foliage. Something grabbed his spear. He pulled it back to try to free it.

Right past the foliage in the distance, the mighty Pivoron mountains loomed. Oriovas knew this, he saw them as he continued to tug on his spear trying to release it. He had never been this close to those mountains, and even at this distance he felt unsafe. Especially now that something had taken hold of his spear and was not releasing it.

Oriovas was about to let go of the spear when it was abruptly yanked backward, sending Oriovas flying forward into the tall brush. In mere seconds, a creature as big as he was, slightly over five feet and covered in short brown hair, grabbed him and wrapped its wings around him, engulfing him completely.

Luckily, his father had seen the boy being yanked into the tall brush just as he vanished behind it, grabbed by the unseen assailant. Aizen ran toward the location as quickly as his legs could carry him.

Inside the winged cocoon, Oriovas had his first clear view of what had grabbed him. The creature’s eyes were black and too close together, recessed into its skull. It had a flat, upturned snout-like nose and teeth like a rat. Its arms and legs were short and skinny with sharp claws. The creature opened its mouth and hissed at the boy who returned with his own scream of shock and terror. Oriovas tried but was unable to reach his knife, and since the spear was ripped from his hand, he was defenseless.

Do this for me, a whisper inside this creature’s mind hissed.

The creature looked into the boys’ eyes and saw the fear running through his mind. Usually, a creature such as this stayed far away from humans, afraid of their spears and flying objects. Its kind lived in cavernous regions on this planet and usually only came out at night to hunt for smaller, more defenseless creatures.

But this creature had one day inadvertently flown into a cave where no creatures go. It flew until its mind sensed danger, but by then it was too late. The Beast deep in the cave had sensed it too, and now the creature was caught like an insect in a web.

The creature wasn’t highly intelligent and so manipulating it was quite simple once it entered the Beast’s cave through the hole in the mountain. The Beast didn’t know its own origins, how it was born into existence, but it knew instinctively that it was able to control the minds of simple creatures. The Beast also knew this creature was carnivorous and could be dangerous to humans.

It put a plan together in its corrupted mind: use this worthless creature to get to the people of this land that were hoarding its property in their temple. It knew the stone desired to be united with it. Together, they would be an unstoppable force on this planet. So, it had laid in wait for the opportunity, bound by the constraints of the cave in which it came to exist.

The winged creature, on its master’s command, now bit down into the boy’s shoulder with tainted infectious fangs. The boy shrieked in pain and terror. Skin had been broken and blood flowed from the open wound. That was all that was necessary, the creature knew, through the fog that corrupted its mind.

Suddenly, it felt its wings being pulled apart by a strength it couldn’t resist, and it opened its wings, dropping the boy. The boy fell over and grabbed his bleeding shoulder, still crying out in pain. The furry winged creature, known as a Flying Ratoclus, was about to launch itself upward and away. Aizen wasted no time, grabbing his sharp knife out of the sheath and plunging it into the creature’s open chest. Aizen released and plunged three times to ensure this disease-spreading flying vermin was killed.

The creature felt its life blood pumping out and its already foggy mind slipped quickly into forever darkness. It died quickly, but back in the cave, its master rejoiced that it had achieved its goal.

Aizen picked up his boy and started running back to his home as fast as he could while cradling his bleeding, injured son in his arms.

Once back at his homestead, Hadassah greeted him at the door ready to give him a scolding for being so late when she looked down and saw her son, unconscious and bleeding from his shoulder as blood trickled onto their doorway entrance. Aizen brushed past her and set his son down on the table, clearing away various cooking utensils.

What did this? she shouted at Aizen, horrified at what she was seeing.

Aizen explained frantically while looking down at his wounded son.

Oh no! Hadassah cried.

The other three children came into the kitchen to see what all the commotion was about. When they saw their oldest brother lying in a pool of blood with rat-like bites on his shoulder, they screamed in terror.

Aizen ordered their second oldest, Cassius, you and Itzel go to the stable, get the carriage ready! We need to take Oriovas to the village to see Nassor. He will have medicine and be able to stitch this wound!

Hadassah said to Aizen, Yes, but from a Flying Ratoclus bite? What happens if one is bitten by such a creature?

It will be okay. We will be there soon, he replied unconvincingly as they continued cleaning the wound of a now very sweaty Oriovas.

Cassius, you stay here and tend to your sisters. We will be back later. You are the man of the house! Aizen said to his second son after he had fetched the carriage they used to go to town.

Cassius looked up at his father and replied back in a brave voice, Yes, Papa.

Aizen and Hadassah gently picked up their son Oriovas and carried him out to the carriage, laid him in the back, and got in. Time was not on their side, as Oriovas was continuing to bleed out.

The doctor of the town had been tending to an elderly villager sick with fever when they arrived at his small home. The village doctor was getting older but was still able to tend to the sick and injured. He had a gentle face and a full head of white bushy hair.

It had been nearly three hours since the incident in the forest took place when Cassius and Hadassah burst into the doctor’s home carrying their son.

Help us doctor! Hadassah cried. Our son was bitten by a Flying Ratoclus!

Nassor was taken aback by the sudden barging into his home by this Aizen and Hadassah couple. Set the boy down here on this cot. He pointed to a small cot in the corner of his room. How long ago did the bite occur and where did this happen? He asked in as calm a voice as he could muster as he quickly washed his hands in a wash basin close to the cot where the boy now lay.

Aizen told him the whole story as the doctor cleared the wound himself. He looked up abruptly when Aizen told him their location with terror in his eyes, then looked quickly back down at the wound where the blood had now turned an odd brownish color.

This is not good, the doctor said gravely shaking his head pointing to the brownish blood. I have never seen anything like this! Doctor Nassor then bent down to hear the boy’s breathing. It was very shallow. Sweat was dripping off of him. The doctor noticed that the boy’s hands had begun twitching.

Aizen, your son may have been infected by a fast-moving virus from the creature’s bite. If you say it’s only been three hours since this happened and he is already showing these symptoms… Nassor trailed off as he continued looking at the boy becoming increasingly worse as the minutes ticked by.

You must do something for my boy, please, doctor! Hadassah begged with tears in his eyes.

We need to disinfect the wounds. This will be painful, and he will need to be held down, the doctor told them calmly.

Aizen and Hadassah took ahold of Oriovas’s arms which made him shake more. The doctor retrieved a jar with a clear liquid in it, opened the lid and soaked a cloth in it.

This will sting, but I hope it will disinfect and stop any more spreading of whatever that Flying Ratoclus gave him.

The doctor took the soaked cloth and put it against the boy’s open wound. Immediately, the boy screamed out in pain and anguish. Tears ran down his sweat covered face.

Hold him tight! the doctor yelled, glancing up at the boy’s parents. They complied and held on tight as Oriovas kicked and screamed. His mother lost her grip on the bloody arm with the wounded shoulder, trying to be careful and not cause her son more pain, and he was able to break free.

Oriovas swung his arm forward in a slashing motion, connecting with the doctor’s face. The boy screamed out as his fingernails, now becoming more pointed and starting to extend, cut across his face.

Four slashes appeared across Nassor’s face as the doctor stepped back dropping the wet cloth onto the ground and putting his hands to his face in agony, shouting out at the pain.

In the confusion, Aizen also lost his grip on his son and Oriovas was able to completely break free. He leapt up onto the cot and howled, his voice now a gurgling and guttural sound, otherworldly. The wet cloth had slowed the blood flow down slightly on the boy’s shoulder wound but it was clear that the blood was no longer red at all. It was brown.

Aizen and Hadassah backed up slowly toward the door of the doctor’s home as their boy continued to change before their eyes, growing taller, less human. His arms extended while the skin around them compressed and tightened around his bones. His parents screamed as Oriovas’s eyes slowly moved back into their sockets until fully engulfed in his skull.

Deep in the cave of Mirnare in the Pivoron Mountains, deep in the abyss of that darkest cave, the Beast’s features contorted into a smile. And now, it shall be mine! it bellowed, then it hissed, and it waited.

Chapter 1

Awakenings

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The shiny silver orb slid across the galaxy as if on a string being pulled by an unseen mechanism. Smooth in body and shape, it looked like a large torpedo with no rear propeller. On top, toward the rear of the vessel, was a smaller orb, the escape pod used only in the direst of emergencies. The spaceship wasn’t large or intimidating; it was, however, fast. Traveling at the speed of light, it had been on a trajectory for three Earth years.

Inside The Cauldwell, the command center faced a front window barely visible from the outside. Two empty chairs attached to the floor behind this command center filled with various gauges, digital readouts and buttons, all of which were currently on autopilot, guiding the ship to its destination. On either side of the command center, toward the rear of this front station, two more seats attached to the top of the interior of the ship, both of which could easily swivel to nearly any part of the piloting station due to a track system located on the ceiling. They too, were empty.

The rest of the spacecraft consisted of several small rooms for the occupants, a small kitchen and a wash room. Toward the rear were the propulsion units that powered the ship. The world this ship traveled from had perfected magnetic engineering, so this ship was on a magnetic trajectory to its destination, preprogrammed by its creators.

One additional room on the ship housed hibernation chambers for all four of its occupants on this journey. Set up in a row, to the human eye they resembled caskets made of white metal. However, inside these tubes were four humans, breathing shallowly but very much alive. The ship’s AI hub kept them alive and safe, preventing them from aging while in the hibernation tubes. They had been in the tubes for the three years of their mission, which was to last a total of ten years, until they returned safely back to their home planet.

On each hibernation tube, names had been laser etched along with digital readouts of the humans’ vital signs: heart rate, metabolism, oxygen levels, and other various health levels. The names and titles of the astronauts on this mission were as follows:

Commanding Officer: Ben Newstead

Executive Officer: Justin Schwartz

First Pilot/Engineer: Ramsey Conner

Medical Officer/Co-Pilot: Carol Blake

The crew went to their hibernation tubes once the ship was safely in outer space and all the pertinent diagnostics checked. Getting into a tube was relatively easy: the individual would strip down to their undergarments, lie down into the comfortable setting and hit a button inside the tube marked Begin Hibernation Process.

The outer tube would then close and a breathing apparatus would release from the top portion of the sealed lid. Once the tube was inserted into the individual’s mouth, a spiderweb like substance would gently drop from the top lid onto the user’s face. Nearly invisible, this weblike substance would seal snugly, and within seconds the individual would be rendered unconscious.

Breathing would be slowed down to one breath every hour while the tube did its work, pumping in nutrients and maintaining a constant state of non-aging hibernation. It was peaceful and dreamless. Upon reaching the destination, all of the ship’s pods had preprogrammed timers that would gently pull back the web and mouth piece. Within less than a minute, the individual would awaken.

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The crew was small but the mission was important. They had been traveling for three years now as surveyors of planets, searching for life outside of their own world. Their planet, Trilaxus, had numerous other missions just like this one. Its inhabitants were good people who wanted to learn about other civilizations and chart unknown territories in space.

Each crew consisted of four people, enough to see their missions through. It had been decided on Trilaxus through numerous trials at headquarters that four was the ideal number. More than this wasn’t optimal for the size space craft that had been developed for deep space exploration and time in the hibernation tubes. Typically, a doctor, a mechanic, a captain and a first officer were selected for each mission.

Each ship explored one sector for a total of ten years before returning home. Much of that time was spent in hibernation as they traveled through the galaxy, only awakening once they were within a week of touching down on the planet’s surface they planned to explore and chart.

This particular mission was to explore an uncharted region known as Alpha Sector Eight. The rotation of the star in this galaxy signaled that there could be potential life on one of its planets. A total of five planets orbited this sun, and it was the second that was of great interest to the leaders of Trilaxus.

Through research and their own telescopic machines observing other galaxies, they had discovered a small planet that seemed to be able to sustain an atmosphere and showed signs of life. Ben, Justin, Ramsey, and Carol had all come with the highest of recommendations for this mission from the Space Travel Explorer Association or, STEA.

Ben Newstead was the commanding officer heading up this mission, his first non- training mission. At twenty-nine years old with brown eyes, shaggy brown hair and a not-too-imposing size—five-foot-ten inches and 165 pounds—he could definitely hold his own. Trained in self-defense and weapons handling, Ben excelled through the various ranks at the academy, including hand-to-hand combat and firearms training, and he showed strong leadership tendencies among his classmates. Before this mission, he had logged enough man hours in the simulator to warrant commanding a ship of his own. Ben could be headstrong at times and even a bit arrogant, which made him work quite well with his second in command on The Cauldwell.

Justin Schwartz, age twenty-seven, was much more intimidating in stature than Ben. The executive officer was tall, slightly over six feet, and muscular, naturally tough and strong even without the strenuous exercise his peers endured. However, he was a man who respected authority and was not one to overstep his bounds, even if his short blond haircut and steely blue eyes gave him an authoritative look. His drive and strong leadership abilities, as demonstrated numerous times in his training, guaranteed he would succeed in whatever mission he was given. Some in the training academy at STEA would say that Justin would contemplate too long and not be decisive enough. However, this was far from the truth. Justin thought of solutions to problems many other cadets would simply give up on altogether. His steady demeanor was just what Ben needed on this mission.

Twenty-five-year-old Ramsey Conner was the ship’s handsome and dark-complected pilot and engineer, which is another way of saying he fixed things. Shorter than the rest of the crew at five-foot-seven, his size was deceiving. Ramsey was strong. A boxer on his home world, he had wanted to answer a higher calling and joined the STEA several years prior to this mission. Always inquisitive, Ramsey’s thirst for learning was a blessing and a curse at times for his classmates. He, along with Ben and Justin, came with the highest recommendation.

The lone female on this mission, Carol Blake was the kind-hearted, twenty-six-year-old medical officer who had been a lead surgeon for the past six years. She had sensed space travel calling her shortly after the missions began and put her request in. Due to her spotless reputation for tending patients, she was immediately selected for a mission. Her job was to be on call not just for her crew but also for possible civilizations they might discover. Her research into their anatomy would be invaluable at STEA and Trilaxus.

Along with her medical experience, Carol had trained in flight school where she took military courses and learned how to survive in harsh conditions and how to treat wounded soldiers on the battlefield. This, she knew, could come in handy when dealing with interstellar space travel visiting new civilizations.

All four of these courageous explorers knew what they were getting into when signing on to this mission. On their home planet of Trilaxus, life would continue as usual while they would barely age in the ten years they would be gone. All of them were single, another key factor in the decision by STEA to recruit them for this huge undertaking.

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While the ship’s AI, on this particular vessel known as Beta, did a good job of keeping the crew healthy and metabolized in hibernation, providing various muscle massages and muscle tension programs, it was still challenging to stand up for