“One of the biggest changes I’ve seen since moving to Tikal – aside from the huge difference it makes to live on a planet’s surface instead of under it – is the matter of diet. I have gained at least thirty pounds in the past three years and show no signs of stopping. In the old days one ate protein paste, and that was all. The food dispensers in Tikal, however, offer a variety of amazing delights – chicken, bacon, donuts, lobster, pies, bread, juices, and more. I now understand why Amy so detested our cafeteria food. If this is the sort of fare she was accustomed to then I don’t blame her at all! I would find it extremely difficult to go back to living on the unappetizing glop we used to eat.”
–Noel Lawson
July 8, 7243
 

Monroe Araiza had returned to the balcony that was outside his office in the chambers of his Order. This morning Elwood was nowhere to be seen. His friend Doyle was with him, however. As the sun rose over the horizon the men looked down over the newly-built road.

“General Maldonado made short work of it,” Doyle commented. “I’m amazed he was able to clear all that rubble away so quickly! It must have taken a serious effort.”

Monroe shrugged. “I think it was to be expected. He told the council that he would complete the road by the 8th, and he did so. Given his intense desire to complete the neutron bomb project I can’t say I’m too surprised. You also have to keep in mind that he commands a significant portion of the city’s resources. The council has invested heavily in him. What disturbs me is that he did not obey the council. He flagrantly disregarded their very specific instructions.”

“What do you mean? The road has been rebuilt – I can see it from here. What did he do?”

“Yes, the road is fine. He did obey that part. But remember, the council ordered him to stop working on the bomb project until he finished the road. He did not obey that part. I found out today that the first shipment of lithium arrived last night, and the rest of the shipment is expected to arrive this afternoon.”

“But how is that possible? I thought he tapped out the mine he was using earlier! It would have taken him weeks to establish a new mine, obtain the lithium, and truck it here. He would have had to start the replacement process on the same day that the accident happened – perhaps even before he gave the report to the council!”

“Exactly! He did not stop his efforts at all; in fact, he must have redoubled them. When I heard what had happened I immediately went to speak with Forbes, but he dismissed me. Since the road was rebuilt on time and Adrasta can now replenish its oil supply he doesn’t really care. The general’s disobedience is not important to him.”

“You already talked to him?” Doyle asked, surprised. “But the sun rose while we were standing here! Did you get him out of bed?”

“I didn’t have to. When I heard about the shipment arriving I went to see it for myself. I just couldn’t believe that the news was true, but I was wrong. Down in the truck depot I saw the three lithium tankers myself, with my own eyes. General Maldonado was also there, talking with Forbes. I don’t know if they had risen exceptionally early or if they had been up the entire night. But both of them were there.”

“So he had the blessing of the council, then,” Doyle said. “They must have known what he was doing.”

“I don’t know. It’s possible that Forbes had no idea that the tankers were coming until after they arrived. He might have hurried to the depot as soon as he found out. I don’t know what was said, but the general must have gave him an answer that satisfied him because the councilman was not willing to censure Maldonado. Forbes told me that the general had repaired the road, as instructed, and he was satisfied with that. The neutron bomb project still had the blessing of the council and was going to continue as planned.”

Doyle glanced down at the road. Now that the sun had risen he could see it better. The road was wider than it had been before and all of the debris was gone. He had to give the general credit – he had done a good job rebuilding it. He knew how to do quality work and how to get large projects completed in a short amount of time.

“Wait a minute,” Doyle said. “Did you say that the lithium had already arrived?”

“Yes, I did. What about it?”

“Well, what about the Rangers? I thought they were trying to stop the project! Yet the road looks intact, and you tell me that three replacement shipments have already arrived safely. Doesn’t that concern you?”

“Not particularly. After all, if the cliff had collapsed a second time I’m sure even the council would be thinking it was sabotage. A thing like that can only be done once without making it plain that it was not an accident. I suspect that the next problem the general will have will be just as decisive but will come from a different source.”

“Are you sure about that?” Doyle asked. “Have you seen Amy recently?”

“No, I haven’t. The last time I saw her was when the cliff collapsed.”

“Then how do you know they’re still interested in us? Perhaps they’ve been distracted by other concerns. It’s hard to believe that a civilization that spans the galaxy – as the Rangers must by now – can possibly be that concerned about a single city on a single planet. They must have many other, more pressing matters.”

“Perhaps,” Monroe said. “But I think it’s premature to assume that they have abandoned us to our fate. Give them time. Let’s see what the rest of the day brings.”

Doyle nodded. “Don’t get me wrong – I think there is still hope. There are many things that could still happen that might stop the general. I just do not have as much faith in the Rangers as you do. At any rate, I hate to leave you but I’m afraid I have work to do. My students will be upset with me if I’m late to class.”

Monroe smiled. “I’m sure you are right. You know, I’m surprised that you haven’t retired yet – you’ve been teaching for more than twenty years now. Don’t you find it difficult to continue to teach at the University when you face such constant opposition? Our views are hardly popular.”

“Our views haven’t been popular since the days of the Founders. I suspect that they were not even popular them, or else the Emperor would not have attacked the Rangers. Teaching is a difficult job, but someone has to tell those young minds the truth. They think that they know everything but the reality is that a lot of what they were taught before they came to the University was nothing but lies. Their heads are full of misconceptions, half-truths, and pure falsehoods. If I don’t set them straight then who will? If those who know better abandon the fight because it’s hard then Adrasta really is doomed. We must wage this battle, and we must continue to wage it as long as we are able. I assure you that if we abandon it no one will take our place.”

Monroe sighed. “Then what are we going to do in the future? My life is coming to its end, and one day yours will as well. You and I will not always be here and new people have not arisen to take our place. The future is looking bleak, friend. If we have a future at all.”

“Oh, I think it’s a little early to be that depressed. I have some students who might make fine leaders once they become a bit more mature. There is always hope. If there was truly no hope then the Lord would have ended our race ages ago and we wouldn’t even be here. After all, all of the other cities have been abandoned, one by one, and yet ours is still standing. The day may come when the Lord decides that He has had enough and destroys this place. But that day has not come yet.”

Monroe nodded. “Perhaps. I suppose I’d better be going as well. I need to go talk to the general.”

“Why? Doyle asked. “Has he asked to speak with you?”

Monroe shook his head. “Oh no! Definitely not. I’m quite sure that he does not want to see me. But he must be made to see reason. General Maldonado is the driving force behind this entire project. If I can persuade him to drop it then a great many lives would be saved.”

“Do you honestly think that he will listen to you?”

Monroe shook his head. “No, I don’t. But I have to try. I’ve opposed him in public meetings and I have argued against him in front of the council, but I have never talked to him in person, one-on-one. It may be a waste of time, but it is the only option open to me right now.”

“Very well. I hope you succeed, my friend. Let me know how it goes.”

“I will. And good luck teaching – may your students actually listen to what you have to tell them.”

The two men shook hands and then went their separate ways.

Monroe left the chambers of the Order of Scribes and made his way to the industrial section of Adrasta. Once there he walked down a series of narrow passages until he reached the truck depot. The lithium tankers were still there, although they had been unloaded hours earlier. The general, however, was not present. Monroe asked around and discovered that he had left earlier that morning and gone to the city’s airfield.

The scribe left the depot and climbed up long flights of stairs until he reached the surface. Most of Adrasta was located underground, but at the highest point of the stone fortress was a door that led to the peak of the mountain. There, at the summit, was an ancient runway. The Founders had created it thousands of years ago when the city was first established, and it had been maintained ever since. Large hangars were carved into the side of the mountain and held the city’s last remaining planes. At one time the hangers had housed more than a hundred aircraft, but today there were only a dozen left. Centuries ago airplanes had been used to visit other colonies, but as they collapsed and went dark there had been less of a need for air transportation. Now robotic trucks were used to reach the remote, automated mines that Adrasta depended upon for supplies. These days it was a rare thing for an aircraft to take to the skies. There was simply no need.

That was why Monroe was so surprised when he arrived at the airport and saw that it was bustling with activity. There were only three planes left in the hangar and they were being warmed up for flights. Three more planes were lined up on the runway, preparing for departure. The city’s other six planes were nowhere to be seen.

“Excuse me,” Monroe called out to a mechanic who was lounging against a wall. “What’s going on here?”

“Oh, the general is all upset,” he replied. “He’s just fit to be tied! The aerial surveys that his men have been doing are all messed up, and now he’s having to do them again. He is not a happy man.”

“Aerial surveys?” Monroe asked. “What surveys?”

“Oh, you know, of the tribes. The newest map that the Order had of the tribe locations was a hundred years old. The tribes move around quite a bit, so he needed to get a new worldwide survey done to see where they all were. His men have spent weeks doing high-altitude surveys and using fancy cameras to pinpoint the tribes. Only today he looked at the data and saw that it was all garbage. Something went wrong with the recorders, or something. Whatever it was he’s awfully mad about it.”

“I don’t understand,” Monroe said. “The council didn’t approve this use of aircraft! Why, the fuel costs alone must be staggering. Gasoline is quite hard to come by and the city doesn’t stock very much of it. In fact, since the road collapsed we haven’t been able to get any new shipments in.”

“Oh, I know. That’s why he’s in such a tizzy! He used up most of Adrasta’s supply earlier, and now that he has to do it all over again he’s in trouble because there isn’t enough left. He’s got men working around the clock to obtain more, but of course that’s going to take time.”

Behind him an angry voice called out. “There you are! You’re behind this, aren’t you? This is all your fault!”

Monroe turned around and saw Evan Maldonado hurrying toward him. The general was quite angry and was shouting at the scribe in rage. “You deliberately destroyed my mapping data, didn’t you? How dare you interfere here!”

“How could I have possibly destroyed your recordings? I didn’t even know that you were doing aerial surveys until this morning – and I suspect the council doesn’t know either. What are you going to do when they find out that you stole the city’s oil supply and wasted it?”

“That was your fault!” Evan screamed. “It would have been fine if you hadn’t sabotaged me. This is all your doing!”

“And just how did I do that?” Monroe asked. “Did I somehow magically alter data recorders that I didn’t even know existed, while your planes were illegally flying out there in the sky? That’s a preposterous accusation. You know that I don’t have the ability or opportunity to alter your data, and you know that I certainly couldn’t have altered them while your planes were in flight. If the data was already bad when the planes landed then there must be a problem with either the recorders or the cameras, which reflects on your men, not on me. But if I were you I’d start worrying about what will happen when the council hears about what you’ve done. I’m quite sure you weren’t authorized to be doing any of this.”

“This is your fault!” Evan screamed. “Somebody did something to those cameras while the planes were in flight. It had to be you – it had to be! Don’t give me any of your nonsense. You can hide behind the council all you like, but they won’t always be there to protect you, you hear? One day you’re going to cross the line and they won’t be able to save you. Just mark my words!”

Evan stormed off, angry. Monroe shrugged, thanked the mechanic, and walked off.

As he was walking off the airfield he saw something out of the corner of his eye. In the back of the hangar, sitting on top of a stack of wooden crates, was a young girl with dark skin and long black hair. She looked at Miles, smiled, and then vanished.

I’ve decided to upgrade to a new computer monitor:

That’s a picture of my computer, using my HTDV set as a monitor. You might ask – why would I do such a thing? For gaming, of course! There are some games that, sadly, don’t come out for the XBox 360 (Torchlight 2, I’m looking at you). This allows me to play PC games in my living room, on my TV set. I’ve got a wireless keyboard and mouse that works nicely, and the remote can effortlessly switch TV inputs between the PC (which is connected via HDMI cable) and the cable box.

What about getting things done? Well, most of my coding is done on my laptop. My laptop is plugged into a docking station and connected to a full-sized monitor and a split keyboard, so it’s comfortable to work on. Plus, thanks to VNC, I can remotely access my home computer from the laptop whenever I need to. So far it all seems to be working pretty well. Best of all, now that the desktop is out of my office, it’s a lot cooler in here. (The desktop was putting out a lot of heat.)

There was one tricky part that I hadn’t expected. Connecting the TV to the computer was easy; just plug an HDMI cable into the computer’s graphic card and you are set. The tricky part is getting the sound to work. In my case, the sound didn’t go over the HDMI cable automatically; to get that to work I have to connect the graphics card to the SPDIF pins on the motherboard via a cable that is almost impossible to find anywhere. (I’ve ordered it; it hasn’t come in yet.) That’s the only wrinkle I’ve found so far.

The next project will be turning the PC into a DVR. The DVR that Comcast hands out does work (usually), but it doesn’t let you copy TV shows and save them locally. It’s time to replace their DVR with something a bit more open.

You would think that replacing your DVR would be fairly simple, and it is – but there’s a catch. Cable providers encrypt their television streams. If you want to decrypt them you have to get something called a CableCARD, which your cable company will rent to you. However, those devices have lots of rules that they enforce. If Comcast flags a channel as “Don’t allow anyone to copy these shows”, then you can’t copy those shows, and that is that. You can stream them and watch them, but they are locked up tight – and CableCARD only works with software that honors its rules.

I think the rules are utterly insane. People who are paying for cable service, who have these cards, are given severely restricted access. But people who just download the shows from torrents don’t have that problem! Their access isn’t restricted at all – they can do as they please. The only people that DRM affects are the paying customers. Companies have invested millions of dollars into DRM solutions that do just one thing: give their paying customers a poorer, more limited experience. That is all DRM does: it hurts the people who are actually paying for the product. It’s a lot like finding grocery shoppers who actually paid for their groceries, and then throwing rocks at them as they try to leave the store.

You know those FBI piracy warnings that you see whenever you try to play a DVD? Guess what: only paying customers see those! Pirates don’t have to mess with those incredibly annoying, unskippable warnings. No, the only people who are forced to watch them are the people who ACTUALLY PURCHASED THE DVD. What a brilliant idea: let’s annoy people who aren’t pirating the movie and remind them that, if they had, they would already be watching the movie by now!

People who download movies are free to do as they please with them; people who pay for them are forced to deal with all kinds of restrictions. Companies have gone out of their way to make sure that customers who pay for their products are given a worse experience than people who just download them. Then they wonder why so many people go and download their stuff. It just boggles my mind.

I have no real idea what I’m going to discover when I try to turn my computer into a DVR. I don’t know what channels are flagged as copy freely and which ones aren’t. It will be an adventure, I think. We’ll see how it goes.

For the past few weeks I’ve been working on an app that can automatically generate random summaries for Tom Swift books. There’s still quite a bit of work to do, but it’s coming along:

The summaries have three parts: the beginning, middle, and end. Right now I’ve almost completed all of the templates for the beginning section. I don’t have any for the middle, and I only have one template for the end (which is what you see in the screenshot above).

Last year I tried to make a plot generator, and it failed pretty hard. I’ve learned from that and I have to say that the Tom Swift summary generator is pretty sophisticated; I think it has an excellent chance of working. What I’ve got so far is looking pretty good. The key is to avoid throwing random things together, and to be very intelligent about the word choices you make. (You also have to know what invention was randomly selected, because the summary has to talk about it.)

I’ve probably got at least several more weeks of work to do before I’m ready to release this. But it is coming along! Once it’s done it shouldn’t be too hard to adapt it to creating other types of summaries, although that won’t be my next project.

II Peter 2:9: “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:”

One point that we often overlook is that the wicked do not receive their punishment in this life. This world is not the place where justice is handed out. God never promised to make sure that, in this life, every evildoer was punished and every righteous man was rewarded. That is not how it works. If you are looking for justice in this life then you may find yourself greatly disappointed.

The truth is that God has a different plan. The godly, Peter says, God will deliver – but the wicked are being reserved for the day of judgment. There is one specific point in history when all of the wicked will be judged for all the wicked things they have done. That day is the Great White Throne judgment. On that day every single person who died without Christ will stand before the throne and will be judged for every last evil thing they have ever done. Not one thing will be overlooked. It will be a complete, total, and perfect judgment.

But the judgment that awaits them will not happen until that day, and that day is still a long way away. The judgment will not happen until after the Rapture, after the Tribulation, after the Second Coming, after the Millennial Reign, and after the last battle. Considering that the Millennial Reign will last a thousand years, that tells us that the day of judgment is a long way away. It is certain and it will come, but it is not near.

The day of judgment is the final act in human history before God ends death, evil, and this world once and for all. After that day God will create a new Heaven and Earth and a new chapter will begin.

The true judgment of evil, then, awaits for the final closing chapter in this age of history. It will happen, but we must be patient for it. We must not give up just because injustice abounds in this life. God warned us that this would be the case; He did not hide that from us. But injustice will not abound forever. A different day is coming.

A Ned Steele Space Explorer adventure!

II Peter 2:5: “And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;”

It is very common today to deny that the Flood was a global Flood that wiped out the whole Earth. Even among Christians there are few who believe that it was global in scope. Yet, despite this, the Bible really does teach that the Flood was global and really did wipe out all of mankind except for those on the Ark.

This verse is one of many that support this. Notice that this verse does not even hint at a local Flood. God “spared not the old world” – indicating that the entire world was judged. The Flood was not brought upon Noah’s local area; it was brought “upon the world”. Moreover, there were only eight survivors. Just eight!

The Flood is not myth; it is history. God does judge the nations. He has destroyed the world before and He has promised to do so again – but next time it will be by fire, not by water.

I have attended quite a few different churches in my life, and almost all of them have been dead-set against the consumption of alcoholic beverages. (Interestingly, some of them get far more upset over drinking a beer than they do things like adultery and fornication, but that is a subject for another time.)

With that in mind, when I was reading Proverbs this morning I came across something interesting: a passage that actually recommended drinking! I will admit it is only recommended in a specific circumstance, but even so, it is intriguing.

First, the passage forbids drinking for a certain group of people: those charged with laying down legal sentences and passing laws.

Proverbs 31:4: “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:
5 Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.”

That makes a great deal of sense. The last thing you want are drunk judges, drunk police officers, or drunk legislators.

However, the passage then goes on and says this:

Proverbs 31:6: “Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.
7 Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.”

Do you see that? The Bible – yes, the Bible! – recommends giving “strong drink” to people who are depressed and utterly miserable. Why? So that he can get drunk and “remember his misery no more”. I have never, ever heard a church propose this, but it’s right there in the Bible. People take Proverbs 3:5-6 seriously; they ought to take Proverbs 31:6 seriously as well.

For what it is worth, Jesus did consume alcoholic beverages. He was not opposed to drinking wine – yes, real, actual alcoholic wine. We know this because He said this:

Matthew 11:16: “But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows,
17 And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.
19 The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.”

Here Jesus is contrasting Himself with John the Baptist. John, he says, did not drink, and the Pharisees called him demon-possessed. Jesus, on the other hand, did drink, and the Pharisees called him a drunkard. You really can’t escape the implication that John abstained from alcohol, and Jesus did not abstain. After all, the passage does not say “John came neither eating nor drinking, and I have done exactly the same thing that John did”. Jesus is contrasting Himself with John.

The point Jesus was making was that John abstained from alcohol, and the Pharisees condemned him for it. Jesus did not abstain, and the Pharisees condemned Him as well. The Pharisees were impossible to please.

Is it a sin to abstain from alcohol? Nope. John the Baptist abstained, and that was fine – which was part of the point that Jesus made. Is it a sin to not abstain? Nope. Jesus drank, and that was fine.

Does the Bible have a lot of warnings against getting drunk? Absolutely. Does it have a lot of cautions about being careful around strong drink? You bet it does. But this whole “drinking is an evil evil sin, and is ten times worse than adultery” is nonsense. Somehow the church has gotten to the point where it has no problem with real sins, but really cracks down on what the Bible would call “the traditions of men”. It’s time to wake up and get real.

“One of the first things we realized when we started exploring Tikal was that the entire city was networked. After a year of careful analysis we discovered that all of the wiring led to a secret data center that was buried deep beneath the city. It took us a while to repair the computer and get it operational, and there’s still a great deal of damage that we haven’t been able to fix. What we have seen, though, is quite impressive. The computer is actually some sort of highly advanced intelligence, and it has immensely aided the city’s reconstruction. It can give realtime status information on all buildings that are connected to it and can even pinpoint the exact areas that are in need of repair. It is the best troubleshooting tool that I have ever seen.”
–Noel Lawson
June 25, 7243
 

As soon as Amy left to return to Adrasta, the Sentinel left as well. Since the planet Tonina was not going to become part of the supercomputer the Sentinel decided to use it as his base of operations. From that central world he would design the new supercomputer and manage its construction.

When the Sentinel returned to Tonina he found it quiet and still. The massive cities on the planet were empty, devoid of even synthetic life. There was much wildlife and plant life but no human life. Alex had been the last inhabitant of the planet, and now that he had rejoined Amy the world was once again deserted. Before the Sparrow arrived the world had been vacant for millennia. Now it was vacant once more, and that would probably not change. When Amy finished her task on Earth she would not be coming back to live on Tonina.

The emptiness of the world gave the Sentinel an unsettled feeling. It was not that long ago when hope had burned bright. The Stryker family had taken up residence in La Venta and were eagerly discussing the future of the survivors on Xanthe. They all thought that it was just a matter of time before the city was filled with people going about their lives. Now the Sentinel wondered if anyone would ever live in the cities that his father had built. Even if the tribes were cured it would take centuries – perhaps many centuries – before they traveled this far out into the galaxy. The same could be said for the remnant on Mars. The worlds of the network were thousands of light-years away from where the Ranger colonies had once stood. The last time mankind tried to reach the stars they did not get very far before they destroyed themselves. Would this time be any different?

The Sentinel pushed those thoughts aside. He had a job to do; it was time to do it.

Over the next few days the Sentinel worked on the plans for the new galactic supercomputer. As a starting point he took Dr. Mazatl’s original designs for the Artilect and customized them in order to focus the computer on a single specific task. He hated using a design that old, but by the time he was created the Artilect had already morphed into a giant machine that spanned multiple planets. Attempting to scale that back to one world would simply take too much time. All he really needed was a giant calculator – not a sentient being who could monitor thousands of cubic light-years of space in realtime.

The design he settled on was fairly simple. Each world would represent a separate node in the machine, capable of processing work independently. In order to simplify the design each node would be identical. Since no two worlds in the network were alike, this would force the Stewards to perform a rather drastic overhaul of their planets. Each world would need to have the exact same mass and configuration so that they would all be identical. Since some worlds were closer to the right size than others, that would mean that some worlds would take much longer to convert. The Stewards did have the ability to alter the mass of the planet but it was a difficult process that took a fair amount of time. Still, it had to be done. The Sentinel was glad that all of the worlds could be converted at the same time. Without that it would have taken millennia to complete the construction.

Back when Elder Lane had destroyed the Artilect the Sentinel had built a new central hub so he could search the stars for Amy, who had disappeared. He now took that hub and reconfigured it so that it could send work requests to each of the hundreds of millions of nodes in the supercomputer, and then receive and process the results as they completed their tasks. That hub would be the Sentinel’s interface to the supercomputer; he would give it an assignment and the hub would distribute the work across the stars.

The processing power that the supercomputer would have when its construction was completed was truly staggering. The Sentinel himself was taken aback at its massive, unfathomable computational ability. It made the Artilect look like a child’s toy. He had no doubt that if there was a way to cure the disease, this galactic machine could find it. He also knew that it would be capable of a great deal more than that. The Artilect, acting alone, had achieved amazing scientific breakthroughs and taken science to new heights. Armed with this much computing power, Amy could go far beyond anything the Artilect ever hoped to accomplish. Her power, already tremendous, could be increased still more.

The Sentinel wondered if she was really going to throw away all that power once the tribes were cured. As he thought about it, he realized that she probably would. She had no interest in taking science to greater heights, or amassing more power, or establishing a dynasty for herself. She just wanted to finish her job and then go home to her family. The temptations of power, which had corrupted so many others, were simply not interesting to her. Her heart was elsewhere.

Once the Sentinel finished his design for the nodes and the new central hub, he temporarily shut down the network and disassembled the old hub. He then created a new one, using his new design, and brought everything back online. After making sure that everything was working he uploaded his plans to the new hub and had it distribute the commands to all of the Stewards.

After that was done he settled back and watched. He knew that the Stewards would take the plans and use them to reconfigure the planets that they controlled. They would take their worlds and convert them to programmable matter, and then take the design the Sentinel had given them and apply that to the matter. Some of the worlds could be reconfigured in a day or two, while other worlds – especially the smaller ones – would take a full week, as their mass had to be altered. Reducing the size of a large world was a lot easier than increasing the size of a small one.

The Sentinel was quite pleased as he watched the Stewards begin their work. If all went well the new galactic supercomputer would become fully operational on July 3. How long it would take to create a cure – or to determine whether a cure was even possible – was something he did not know. But at least they now had a fighting chance.

A while ago I finished my commentary on the New Testament. (Well, the first draft, anyway.) With that done, I decided to do something different. Since my commentary provided a detailed look at the verses of the New Testament, I thought it might be a good idea try to briefly summarize the chapters instead. It would be the opposite of a commentary. My goal was to create something that offered a brief, high-level overview of each chapter in the New Testament.

For example:

Mark 6
JESUS TEACHES IN NAZARETH, BUT HE IS REJECTED
JESUS SAYS “A PROPHET IS NOT WITHOUT HONOR, BUT IN HIS OWN COUNTRY”
JESUS SENDS OUT THE TWELVE TWO-BY-TWO TO PREACH REPENTANCE
KING HEROD BEHEADS JOHN THE BAPTIST
THE DISCIPLES RETURN TO JESUS; JESUS TRIES TO GO AWAY TO TEACH THEM PRIVATELY, BUT THE MULTITUDE FINDS HIM
JESUS FEEDS THE 5,000 WITH FIVE LOAVES AND TWO FISHES
JESUS SENDS HIS DISCIPLES ON TO BETHSAIDA WHILE HE DISMISSES THE CROWD
JESUS WALKS ON THE WATER
IN THE LAND OF GENNESARET, MULTITUDES COME AND JESUS HEALS THEM

I find this sort of thing pretty useful. It’s interesting to take a birds-eye view of the Bible. I am a big fan of analyzing each verse, but sometimes when you take a step back and look at the bigger picture you see things that you never noticed before. Sometimes it can be helpful to take a step back from the trees and look at the forest as a whole.

Anyway, I have just uploaded my summaries of the four gospels. You can find them here:

Summary of Matthew (PDF file)

Summary of Mark (PDF file)

Summary of Luke (PDF file)

Summary of John (PDF file)

That’s all I’ve written so far; I will post more as they are completed.

Thanks!

Last year the Starman team wrote a new Starman story – The Caves of Mercury. This story (which, at 5000 words, is really more of a short story than a book) told the story of the first Starmen, and the origin of all Starmen – something the series itself never really talked about.

This story was released last year, but we didn’t really do much to advertise or promote it. The only way to get a copy was to buy the collector’s edition, which at $30 was pretty expensive. However, the story has now been released as an inexpensive paperback:

For those of you who just want to read the story, you can download the entire text right here, free of charge:

The Caves of Mercury – PDF file; 54 pages.

For those who would like to have your own printed copy, you can get them here:

The Caves of Mercury – paperback; $6.

I hope you enjoy the book!

II Peter 2:4: “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;”

The word “hell” in this verse is actually unique. It is the word “tartarus”, and the only place it is found in the entire Bible is in this one verse. This verse is not speaking about the normal place of damnation that the rest of the Bible warns of. This Hell is quite different.

Long ago, in the days before the Flood, fallen angels intermarried with human women and produced the Nephilim – terribly powerful and terribly wicked men. God took the demons that committed this sin, bound them, and placed them in the Hell that is mentioned in this verse. No human is cast into that place; it is a holding cell, reserved for fallen angels that committed sexual sins with human beings. There are a great many demons that are allowed to roam the Earth, awaiting judgment, but what these demons did was so horrible that their judgment could not wait. They had to be put away and held so that they could not corrupt the human line again.

I’ve discussed this topic more fully elsewhere so I won’t repeat it all here. But it is worth nothing that there are actually two Hells, not just one. There is the one where the lost go when they die without Jesus, and then there is this place – reserved specifically for demons who committed a very specific type of sin, and who are bound there awaiting judgment.

A Ned Steele Space Explorer adventure!

II Peter 2:1: “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.”

This is another reason why Christians should be very familiar with the Bible, and not depend on others to tell them what it says. After all, if we haven’t read it for ourselves then how can we possibly distinguish false teachers from good ones? We need a personal knowledge of the Bible so that we can develop discernment – and that discernment is needed so we can tell the truth apart from heresy. This is especially important in the modern era, when heresy abounds. It is a sad thing, but it is unfortunately true: your chance of hearing a good, Biblically-sound sermon on Sunday morning is quite slim – and the bigger your church is, the less likely it becomes.

We must not outsource our study of the Bible; that is something that we must do ourselves. Otherwise we risk agreeing with heresy or condemning those who are telling the truth – both of which is quite common today. As Peter said, these false teachers will be very effective:

II Peter 2:2: “And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.”

This verse is so relevant to modern times that it could have been written this morning. False teachers abound, and they have led a great many astray. However, these teachers will not go unpunished. God will hold them accountable:

II Peter 2:3: “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”

God warns us that the judgment of evil men, along with the judgment of the entire world system itself, is rapidly approaching. I believe that this verse is speaking of the Second Coming. Although Jesus has long tarried, “their damnation slumbereth not”. For a time they can continue to sow darkness, but the Lord is returning and when He returns He will put a stop to it. They may not fear Him now, but their attitude will greatly change when they find themselves standing in front of an angry God. There will be no false bravado in that day.

“One thing I have realized about Tikal’s observatory is that it presents a realtime view of other planets. You can’t use it to view Mars – which I find quite odd – but I have been able to virtually set foot on Earth. The planet is quite beautiful, but unfortunately its only inhabitants are primitive forest people. I find it heartbreaking that the once-mighty civilization that ruled Earth has been reduced to hunter-gatherers who live like animals. I wonder if there’s some way to help them? Since we have no way to reach other planets right now it’s a purely academic question, but it is something to think about. I’m sure that we’ll eventually find a way to launch things into space. When we do we’ll have to see if there is any way we can help the poor people on Earth.”
–Noel Lawson
June 24, 7243
 

Elwood stared down at the rubble, horrified. “Monroe, you monster! What have you done?”

“What have I done?” Monroe exclaimed, startled. “I haven’t done anything! I was just standing here right next to you. You can’t possibly blame a landslide on me! I had absolutely nothing to do with it, and you know it.”

Elwood sighed. “And what a pity that is! I sincerely wish I could pin this on you, but I suppose you’re right. You don’t have the guts to do something like sabotage. You and your pathetic followers are content to write whiny letters to the editor and protest in council meetings. That’s why you always lose – you won’t do what it takes to win.”

“Winning isn’t everything,” Monroe replied. “The way one wins is very important.”

“Is it, now? Then you must be a bigger fool than I thought. By your way of thinking the lives of an entire race are at stake. Yet, despite this, you still insist on playing by the rules and keeping your fingernails clean. Even when the lives of millions are on the line, all you dare to do is file a couple feeble legal protests. You are just pathetic.”

Monroe shook his head. “I am a man under authority. I am constrained by the laws that God has put into place, and those laws forbid me from taking matters into my own hands, no matter how high the stakes are. God does not permit His children to commit horrific acts of evil, no matter how many lives those acts might save. Moreover, you fail to understand that I am trying to stop others from committing a grave sin. If they ignore my warnings and commit it anyway then they are the guilty ones, not me. It will not be on my conscience, although I will grieve for the lost lives.”

“I think what you’re trying to say is that you people are a bunch of losers. And I guess that’s a good thing, because it makes you so much easier to defeat.”

Elwood sighed and looked at the ruined road. “What a disaster! It couldn’t have happened at a worst time. The council is not going to be happy about this. It’s going to cost a lot of money to fix the road, build more tankers, and obtain more lithium. I have a feeling that their meeting with Maldonado tonight is going to be an unpleasant one. This is a huge setback. Earth suffered a serious blow today.”

“A serious blow?” Monroe asked. “That’s not quite how I’d describe it. But at any rate, I’m afraid that we must part ways for now. If there is going to be a meeting tonight I want to make sure that I don’t miss it. Sometimes these meetings have a way of going unreported.”

“Oh, grow up,” Elwood growled. “The reason they don’t tell you about them is because they don’t want you to be there. Can’t you just take a hint?”

“No, I can’t,” Monroe shot back. He then left the balcony, leaving Elwood alone.

After Monroe left Elwood he spent the rest of the morning trying to find Forbes. When he finally found him he forced him to admit that he was going to talk to General Maldonado, and he also managed to coax out of him the meeting time and location. Monroe was disappointed to learn that it wasn’t going to be a public meeting, but he did get him to admit that Monroe’s position as head scribe gave him a right to be present. Monroe knew that Forbes didn’t want him anywhere near that meeting but he was determined to not be excluded. He was going to take every chance he had to oppose the general and shut his project down.

With that in mind, late that evening Monroe entered the private chambers of the council. When he walked into Forbes’ office he saw that the only other person who was there, aside from Forbes himself, was the general. “Will no one else be here?” Monroe asked in surprise, as he took a seat. “I was expecting the rest of the council to attend.”

“This is quite sufficient,” Conrad replied. “General Maldonado will make the report to me. I will then summarize my findings and relay them to the rest of the council. They will go over them at their earliest convenience, and if they have any questions I am sure they will not hesitate to ask.”

The general spoke up. “I still don’t see why he has to be here! This doesn’t concern him.”

“All of the doings in Adrasta are of concern to my Order,” Monroe replied. “It is our duty to record the history of our people. I’ve spent my entire life doing exactly that.”

“You’ve spent your life being a pain in the neck,” Evan shot back.

“Enough!” Conrad Forbes interrupted. “Monroe is not the one who is on trial right now, general. I demand to know what happened today. What have you done?”

“What have I done? You should be asking him! I didn’t do anything.”

“Don’t be absurd,” Conrad snapped. “You know perfectly well that Monroe had nothing to do with the collapse of the cliff. And don’t try to tell me that it was just a freak accident! That cliff gave way just moments after your convoy of tankers started climbing up the mountain road. There must be a connection.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Evan replied.

Conrad Forbes glared at him. “Do not trifle with me, general! You are walking on very thin ice right now. I am very tempted to fire you and replace you with someone who is actually competent. Your first idiotic attempt to wipe out the savages resulted in the poisoning of the entire landscape around this mountain. Thanks to you we are now forced to depend on robots to obtain our supplies! Your second attempt, with that neutron bomb of yours, resulted in the total destruction of the only forest in this area. You aren’t saving this planet; you’re destroying it! Now your carelessness has demolished the only road that leads out of Adrasta. I have warned you on six separate occasions that the mountain road had fallen into disrepair and needed maintenance. Your own men told you that it could not bear heavy loads and you ignored us. I hold you entirely responsible for what just happened.”

“There was no way we could have known,” Evan protested. “It was an accident. These things just happen sometimes.”

The councilman’s eyes narrowed. “There had better not be any more of these ‘accidents’, general. Your incompetence is truly staggering. That road is our lifeline. Without it we cannot bring supplies into Adrasta, and without supplies this city will die. You are going to fix that road and you are going to fix it immediately, do you understand?”

“Yes, but–”

“Enough! You are going to repair that road before you do any more work on making bombs. Let me repeat that: you are to stop the bomb-making project entirely until the road is fixed and we can start receiving supplies again. Moreover, once the road has been repaired you will not be allowed to destroy it again. In the future the road will be limited to one vehicle at a time.”

“But sir, be reasonable! I can send some of my men to fix the road. That’s not a problem. There’s no reason to stop the neutron bomb project. Both projects can be going on at the same time.”

“My decision is final,” Conrad replied.

“Fine,” Evan grumbled.

Monroe spoke up. “For the record, how long do you expect this to take? Is it going to be another six months before our access to the outside world is restored?”

“No. I’ll have the road rebuilt by July 8th. I should be able to have a new shipment of lithium in by the 22nd. This is going to push things back a bit.”

“By about a month, it sounds like,” Monroe commented.

“I will expect regular progress reports,” Conrad said. “I want that road rebuilt, and I want it rebuilt now. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, sir,” Evan mumbled.

“Very well. Monroe, do you have anything to add?”

Monroe thought for a moment. “As I understand it, the neutron bomb project is on hold until the road is repaired, correct?”

“Yes, yes, that’s what I said,” Conrad replied, irritated. “I’ve already made myself quite clear on that point. Is that all?”

“Yes, that’s all,” Monroe said, pleased. Knowing that the general had been stopped for now gave him a tremendous sense of relief. He knew that it was not a permanent injunction, but it still gave him hope. There was always the chance that something else would happen, and the general would never be able to continue. At the very least, it was a promising development. The Rangers are starting to have an effect, he thought.

“Then this session is adjourned. You are both dismissed.”

After the meeting Monroe returned to his apartment. When he reached his home he saw that Doyle was waiting outside the front door. Monroe smiled when he saw him. “Ah, there you are! I was wondering if you might stop by. Please, come on in.”

The scribe unlocked the door and the two men went inside. Monroe then closed the door behind them, walked into the living room, and sat down in his favorite chair. Doyle took a seat across from him.

“So how did it go?” Doyle asked.

“Quite well, actually! Evan tried to blame the landslide on me, of course, but Conrad told him he was being ridiculous. The councilman was actually quite angry with the general. He blamed the landslide on the general’s convoy of lithium tankers and demanded that he fix the road before doing anything else. For the time being the neutron bomb project is officially dead.”

“That’s great news! I wasn’t expecting that. It sounds like the project has been set back quite a bit.”

“About a month, to be exact. Today’s events have indeed bought us some time. You were right to have hope.”

Doyle smiled. “As I said, it’s not over until it’s over. There is always a chance that something might come up. I just wasn’t expecting an accident that devastating. General Maldonado was extremely unlucky. That one landslide managed to wipe out his entire convoy of tankers and his entire supply of lithium.”

“Which is why the council thinks that his convoy caused the landslide. But I think they are wrong. I don’t think they had anything to do with it – well, not directly, anyway.”

“Really? So, do you think it was the Rangers, then?”

“I think there’s a very good chance of that,” Monroe replied thoughtfully. “You have to admit that the landslide was perfectly timed, and it only happened when the convoy was on its way home filled with lithium. If you were trying to wipe out the general’s lithium supply you really couldn’t have picked a better time, or a better accident. But there’s more. Right after the landslide occurred I saw a girl standing on top of the cliff right above where the landslide happened. As soon as I saw her she vanished, so I only caught a glimpse of her. But I’m sure that it was Amy.”

“That’s fascinating! So you think that Amy triggered the landslide on purpose?”

“I think that’s far more likely than the idea that the landslide just happened to occur at exactly the right moment. The road has been in poor repair for a long time, but trucks and tankers traverse it regularly; there’s no particular reason why it should collapse now. That cliff has also been there for generations. It seems quite unlikely that it would pick that exact moment to utterly collapse – and to collapse in such a spectacular way, too. No, I believe that the Rangers are responsible. Amy did promise that she was going to stop the general.”

“It still seems a bit strange,” Doyle remarked. “Why take that particular approach? The way things have turned out, everyone believes that it was simply an accident. The road will be rebuilt, new tankers will be made, and the general will simply try again. Nothing has been accomplished. If the Rangers are now guarding the tribes then why don’t they come out in the open and say so? That would put an end to all this foolishness.”

“I wouldn’t say that nothing was accomplished,” Monroe replied. “She did delay the project. Perhaps that’s all she wanted to do for now. What if the Rangers do intend to publicly reveal themselves but are waiting for the right moment?”

“What could they possibly be waiting on?”

“Oh, it’s impossible to tell. In 1867 they had a hundred star systems; they must have thousands, perhaps even millions by now. There’s no telling what they’ve become. There could be political dynamics at play that we can’t even imagine. But I am sure that they have their reasons. At any rate, it is encouraging. Perhaps the general really is going to be stopped after all. Amy seems to wield more power than I gave her credit for. Her immense confidence is backed by ability.”

“And then what?” Doyle asked. “Will the Rangers simply save the tribes and then go away? Can we honestly expect them to not seize control?”

“I don’t know. They haven’t seized control yet, and they’ve certainly had the opportunity. But, as you are so fond of saying, time will tell how all of this will shake out. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.”

II Peter 1:20: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

In other words, we are not at liberty to interpret the Bible to mean whatever we want it to mean. We cannot assign it arbitrary allegorical interpretations. These are not our words; they are God’s words. We are to listen and obey, not edit and rewrite.