The Luna Cult Chronicles Trilogy Read online

  The Luna Cult Chronicles

  Illustrated

  Philip Wik

  A Blue Kitten Book

  Copyright 2017

  Praise for The Luna Cult Chronicles

  Five Stars— The movies Dune, Mad Max, Escape from New York, and The Matrix all rolled into one!

  A prolific, exciting, and energetic writer. From the opening chapter you are ready to join the team and arm yourself for battle.

  The author draws you into the fight so quickly and makes you one with each of the characters.

  Willcape

  Wow! This is a great story. It is simply marvelously written, covering a wide variety of themes and encompassing many, many characters. Every one of those themes is well elaborated and every character is splendidly portrayed.

  This is one of those riveting stories that consume you, make you feel whatever the characters are feeling, make you think the way they are thinking and got through what they are going. This is thanks to your style of writing, which is absolutely remarkable. Even though I was never a fan of fantasy, I am now really glad that I decided to read this story and it just might change my mind when it comes to reading fantastic novels. I was simply amazed and astonished. This is wonderful. I hope to read more from you.

  Author’s Note

  Here is a synopsis of The Luna Cult Chronicles trilogy. I have merged these three books form a single narrative.

  The Brain in a Vat

  A new religious cult is sweeping the nation. Tom, a Chicago reporter, is investigating the cult for its terrorist ties. The worship of the goddess Luna is attracting Julie, his girl friend. Intrigue in Asia and the Middle East that threatens to plunge the world into another world war entangles them. Their curiosity leads Tom and Julie to a laboratory of human heads in glass jars.

  Global Extinction

  The cult is now facing its greatest challenge along with the rest of the world. A comet the size of the moon will destroy the Earth in a month. Julie and her fifteen year-old daughter Selene travel from Michigan to Washington, D.C., confronting along the way rape, cannibalism, child sacrifice, and radiation poisoning.

  The War of the Hybrids

  It’s the year 2041 with moon colonies and space travel. Julie is now the leader of the cult and her daughter Selene is a twenty-five year old West Point graduate, the wife of Bill, a Moslem, who also graduated from West Point. The last world war has reached its climax as animal-human hybrids exterminate humanity.

  Themes

  The Luna Cult Chronicles explores the twilight and the tension between faith and fanaticism, science and scientism, and hope and despair.

  Enjoy reading The Luna Cult Chronicles. Read it for fun. Read it for the romance of ideas. Read it for the joy of entering a new and exciting world of imagination. But also read it for understanding. For, as you read this science fiction fantasy, you will find a better answer than the answer given by a death camp guard to Primo Levi. “Why?” an inmate asked. “Hier ist kein warum,” the guard responded. Here there is no why. Within the pages of the trilogy, you will see why fanaticism exists and why it’s one of the most desperate problems of our age.

  The fanaticism of mass movements becomes an especially potent problem when it is fused with religion or science. It cuts across history, politics, and psychology. And it has brought death and misery more than words can tell. The Luna Cult Chronicles gives answer to the question that Yeats raises: “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” The rough beast of fanaticism is always slouching to us. And it will destroy until it is destroyed. This problem is ripped from our headlines and will challenge us until the end of time.

  An Appreciation

  I wish to express my gratitude to my backers of this trilogy. Your financial support has allowed me to upgrade the book cover with original artwork.

  Philip R. Burns

  Cathy Schwartz

  John Truong

  Thank you most sincerely for showing your confidence in The Luna Cult Chronicles.

  Table of Contents

  Author’s Note

  Chapter One: 2041, The Sea of Tranquility

  Chapter Two: 4 BC - 34 AD, Bethlehem and Patmos

  Chapter Three: 410, Rome

  Chapter Four: 793, Lindisfarne

  Chapter Five: 1611, London

  Chapter Six: 1693, Salem

  Chapter Seven: 1974, California

  Chapter Eight: Chicago, 2015

  Chapter Nine: The Scoop

  Chapter Ten: Father Matthias Speaks

  Chapter Eleven: Moon Town

  Chapter Twelve: Mount Zion

  Chapter Thirteen: Camp Paradise

  Chapter Fourteen: A Hell-Bent Train

  Chapter Fifteen: The Vat

  Chapter Sixteen: Midnight in Iran

  Chapter Seventeen: Malaysia and the Nexus of Terror

  Chapter Eighteen: Australia and the Heart of Darkness

  Chapter Nineteen: In Peril

  Chapter Twenty: Behold the Man

  Chapter Twenty-One: Into the Twilight

  Chapter Twenty-Two: The Awakening

  Chapter Twenty-Three: Under the Light of the Moons

  Chapter Twenty-Four: The Situation Room

  Chapter Twenty-Five: Two Apocalypses

  Chapter Twenty-Six: Requiem

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: Looking to Luna

  Chapter Twenty-Eight: Genesis

  Chapter Twenty-Nine: Exodus

  Chapter Thirty: Castles in the Air

  Chapter Thirty-One: A Life on the Ocean Wave

  Chapter Thirty-Two: The Edge of a Knife

  Chapter Thirty-Three: The Maelstrom

  Chapter Thirty-Four: The Red Sea

  Chapter Thirty-Five: The Slavers

  Chapter Thirty-Six: The Mistress

  Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Doppelgänger

  Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Tempest

  Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Cannibals of Cleveland

  Chapter Forty: Pebbles in the Stream

  Chapter Forty-One: Child Sacrifices in Pennsylvania

  Chapter Forty-Two: The Crowded Hour

  Chapter Forty-Three: The Dead Zone

  Chapter Forty-Four: The Necropolis

  Chapter Forty-Five: A Comet Rips the Sky

  Chapter Forty-Six: Under the Light of the Moons

  Chapter Forty-Seven: The Revelation

  Chapter Forty-Eight: The Rise of the Hybrids

  Chapter Forty-Nine: The Hybrids Attack

  Chapter Fifty: Retreat

  Chapter Fifty-One: The Wormhole

  Chapter Fifty-Two: The Quest

  Chapter Fifty-Three: Christmas in Hell

  Chapter Fifty-Four: Slashing Satan’s Throat

  Chapter Fifty-Five: The Worm Is My Brother

  Chapter Fifty-Six: Forbidden Loves

  Chapter Fifty-Seven: Worlds at War

  Chapter Fifty-Eight: Frozen Tears

  Chapter Fifty-Nine: The Seventh Extinction

  Chapter Sixty: Reflections on The Luna Cult Chronicles

  Postscript

  Chapter One: 2041, The Sea of Tranquility

  "We're safe here," Julie said.

  Selene rocked David in her arms. He cooed in delight as she sang to her baby, “Lullaby and goodnight.” From the surface of the moon, she looked at Earth while baby David smiled at her. “Lay thee down now and rest, may thy slumber be blessed.”

  An orb of white and blue like a Christmas tree ornament, the Earth hung in the black void. It was morning in America, but night shrouded Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

  The other colonists in the Mount Zion dome on the Sea of Tranquility gazed in horror. Pinpricks of lights g
lowed over the cities on the seaboards of the United States. More lights winked like fireflies around the Great Lakes.

  "Chicago is gone," Selene said.

  "And LA and Manhattan," Julie, her mother said. "Look! London just went dark!"

  They continued to watch Earth's destruction unfold in front of them, like an unspooling silent horror film. They were watching the deaths of friends and family and the end of civilization.

  "Isn't that the Mediterranean?” Selene asked. “The holy cities of Abraham and Luna and Mohammed are no more. What else is there but a million corpses and armies of hybrids that have yet to slake their blood lust?"

  "We're safe here," Julie said.

  Jack ran into the lounge.

  “I’m from the observatory. The hybrids have launched an attack at us!”

  “How do you know?” Julie asked.

  “Their heat signatures came from Houston and Cape Canaveral. The hybrids have held them for the last month. Incomings are hostile!”

  “Contact centcom,” Julie said. “Deploy the tesseract!”

  “The tesseract?” Cindy asked.

  “A cube within a cube,” Julie said. “Now think of a cube so large that it envelopes the moon and an even larger cube that envelopes that cube. It’s a doubled-layer three dimensional force field. Our scientists tell us that nothing can penetrate these shields. This’ll be our first test.”

  Julie sent her warning. Central command deployed the shield. They braced themselves.

  At first, the shield held back the invaders. The saucers splattered against the shield like gnats on a window. But it wasn’t enough. Wave upon wave of ships blasted through it. The surface of the moon turned to fire and rivers of lava. Beams from the saucers struck the domes, making new craters amid the ancient craters. Depots and generators exploded in balls of flame. Sirens and the dying screamed. The colonists hurried to their bunkers and battle stations.

  As Julie and Selene with her baby ran to their cabin, they thought back to the start of their story.

  “What do they call us?” Julie asked Selene as they grabbed their luggage.

  “A cult,” Selene said, bitterly. “The Luna cult.”

  “We’re the Church of the Moon. The COM. And so they call us moonies. Commies.”

  “I've heard it all. We're zealots, traitors, and lunatics.”

  “I'm not bugged by the name-calling. Most of our wounds are self-inflicted. But I am haunted by the suspicion that our worst critics are on to something. We might be aberrant, a symptom of the cancer that is humanity.”

  “Religion and science are just two names to the same broom. Maybe the hybrids are using that broom to sweep our civilization into the dustbin of history.”

  “Try as we might, we’re still outside what most folks accept. And most of the reasons they hate us are valid. The events of Phoenix still cast long shadows.”

  “But we’ve come through and will come through,” Julie said. “And so when the wheel of fortune turns, it’s good to look back at our past for hope.”

  “For, as you know, our faith began two thousand years ago with a young girl about to give birth to twins.”

  Chapter Two: 4 BC - 34 AD, Bethlehem and Patmos

  The infants cooed in delight

  Mary rocked Jesus and Luna in her arms. The infants cooed in delight as she sang a song to her twins.

  After the resurrection of Jesus, Luna went through the countryside. She preached and performed miracles. Roman authorities acted to suppress the resurgent Jesus cult. They sentenced Luna to death on the Island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. They chained her to a rock.

  The monster turned the sea red. Luna's hour had come.

  Chapter Three: 410, Rome

  The Eternal City was aflame. Forty thousand Visigoths with torch and blade ravaged the farms and the hamlets. Then they sacked the palaces and the temples. Blood ran down the stairs of the basilica of Saint Paul. For the first time in eight-hundred years, a foreign foe had invaded Rome.

  It was evening. Cassiopeia and the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades sparkled. Lucretius and Marcella bridled their horses. And then they rode through Italy and France towards Britain.

  As they galloped up the Via Cassia, they asked themselves a question that has too many answers. Why did Rome fall? There's the moral answer. Rome fell because of a decline in character and discipline. There's the Christian answer. Rome fell to prepare for the City of God. There's the rationalistic answer. Christianity, teaching non-resistance and otherworldliness, disarmed the Romans in the face of the barbarians. There's the social answer. The war of classes and the institution of slavery suppressed incentives to change. There's the genetic answer. The old Roman stock dwindled through war and its mingling with barbarian breeds. There's the political answer. Rome fell because of the loss of public spirit and heavy taxation to fund distant garrisons,

  Lucretius and Marcella turned their horses to look on Rome for the last time. A thousand fires burned.

  "Why?" Lucretius asked.

  "Why not?" Marcella responded. “Everything that's born must die. Grass and dogs and kings all die. The empire grew to maturity. And now it must die. Like the sun, civilization rose in the East. We’ll go west. Innocence and faith draws us on. We’ll go on. The start is half the deed."

  Their horses held bags with gold and bread for the trip. It also had the treasures of Christendom, including a spike from the true cross, Luna's iron shackles, and the books. Poetry, history, geography, mathematics, and medicine were part of that knowledge snatched from the flames. Most precious of all were the sacred texts. These included the epistles of Paul, the letters of Mark and Luke, and The Revelation and The Gospel of Matthias of John.

  The light that was the glory of pagan Rome dimmed but it didn’t die. For the couple on horseback fleeing in the twilight preserved Luna’s light.

  Chapter Four: 793, Lindisfarne

  The Vikings took part in swift, cruel raids. Their axe spread terror into the heart of the Christian world. Centuries of forest dwelling had led to the perfection of the iron axe for felling trees and building ships. The men had tattoos. They filed horizontal lines into their teeth and painted them in red resin. These brawny, bearded sea warriors braved death for adventure, plunder, power, and glory. The Viking age began in 793 AD. Pagans with their dragon ships ravaged the land of the Northumbrians and raided Lindisfarne in England. “From the fury of the Northmen, deliver us, O Lord” was a prayer uttered at the time. They poured out the blood of saints around the altar. They trampled the bodies of the righteous in the temples of the Lord. They raped nuns. They abducted maidens. They sacked cathedrals. They killed monks.

  Adrian, a monk in the Lindisfarne Priory, gathered rolls of manuscripts. He put them into burlap sacks. Included was The Codex Patmos from the fourth century. Adrian galloped by horseback westward across Ireland. He then rowed to Achill Island, the home of the descendents of Luna’s son Matthias. Here he and other Christians preserved Luna's light amid the darkness of Odin and his valkyries.

  Chapter Five: 1611, London

  But the committee rejected The Gospel of Matthias.

  They burned Her books. At a conference with Puritan clerical leaders in 1604, King James I authorized a new English translation of the Bible. Forty-seven scholars participated in the work. But the committee rejected The Gospel of Matthias. Elizabeth, the wife of Ralph Ravens, who helped translate The Book of Revelation, rescued some of the books from the flames. She hid them in dark shelves under false covers in Oxford University’s Bodleian Library.

  Thus Elizabeth preserved the Christmas story of Luna and Her sacrifice, transfiguration, and ascension.

  Chapter One

  1 Matthias, an apostle of Jesus Christ and Luna Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus and Christ Luna.

  2 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lords, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

  3 O Zion,
that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength.

  4 For unto us the children are born, unto us a son and daughter is given: and the government shall be upon their shoulders: and their name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Prince and Princess of Peace.

  5 Of the increase of their government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.

  Chapter Two

  1 Hearken O ye people which profess my name, saith the Lords your God.

  2 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

  3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

  4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem. (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

  5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with children.

  6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

  7 And she brought forth her firstborn son and her firstborn daughter, and wrapped them in swaddling clothes, and laid them in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.