\u00a0<\/p>\n
SK: This constant chatter about age is starting to annoy me. <\/span><\/span>I came here to find out about the Microsoft Wars, not listen to yarns about a world that might not have existed.<\/p>\n JS: Do you have any idea how long the human species has occupied this planet?<\/p>\n SK: No, but I’m certain you will tell me another story about it and that you were there at the beginning.<\/p>\n JS: No. <\/span><\/span>I don’t know the answer, either. <\/span><\/span>Neither did my grandfather and he had a lot of recorded history to draw upon.<\/p>\n SK: Then what is the point of your question?<\/p>\n JS: When men and women first emerge from the cycle, they always seem to believe their history started with them. <\/span><\/span>At least, the newer generations seem to grow into that belief. <\/span><\/span>Eventually higher minds<\/i> come along and start wondering how humans got here, then they go searching for a missing link.<\/p>\n SK: What missing link<\/i>?<\/p>\n JS: The animal that proves man evolved from some form of chimpanzee or ape, since those are the animals found in the wild that most closely resemble humans.<\/p>\n SK: You mean they resemble men in both look and personality. <\/span><\/span>Women couldn’t possibly have come from such a creature!<\/p>\n JS: Be that as it may, all this has happened before and it will all happen again.<\/p>\n SK: What?<\/p>\n JS: Pity your world didn’t manage to save that.<\/p>\n SK: Save what? <\/span><\/span>Isn’t it your world, too?<\/p>\n JS: A copy of Disney’s Peter Pan<\/i>. <\/span><\/span>It provided joy and inspiration to billions of children around the world.<\/p>\n SK: And I’m just supposed to believe such a statement?<\/p>\n JS: There is a copy of it on the book shelf behind you. <\/span><\/span>My grandfather used to read it to me when I was a child. <\/span><\/span>He said it was important at least one copy be saved this cycle.<\/p>\n SK: What cycle?<\/p>\n JS: Depends on who you ask. <\/span><\/span>The Mayan calendar had a 5,125 year cycle. <\/span><\/span>Others say a Mayan sun age is somewhere between 4,000 and 4,100 years in length, while a galaxy cycle is 26,000 years or so in length.<\/p>\n SK: So which one are you talking about?<\/p>\n JS: I cannot be certain.<\/p>\n SK: What is the point then?<\/p>\n JS: You need to understand one of the beginnings to understand what happened.<\/p>\n SK: One of them? <\/span><\/span>How many have their been?<\/p>\n JS: That’s unknown. <\/span><\/span>There have definitely been two but most survivors believe there were many more.<\/p>\n SK: What survivors? <\/span><\/span>What makes them, or you, if you are them, believe there were more?<\/p>\n JS: The pyramids and the starting date for the cycle.<\/p>\n SK: Pyramids? <\/span><\/span>Starting date?<\/p>\n JS: Earth That Was had a country called Egypt\u2014at least for much of the last cycle. <\/span><\/span>During ancient times, leaders were known as kings, at least until the 18th<\/sup> dynasty and Thutmosis. Grandfather claimed he was \u201cone of our people,\u201d but I didn’t really pay attention to that. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n During this dynasty, kings started being called pharaohs. <\/span><\/span>Originally, pharaoh meant \u201cgreat house\u201d and referred to the building of the king, not the person or the family. <\/span><\/span>Over the years, it came to refer to the king.<\/p>\n Egyptians developed a tradition of building a pyramid for a ruler when they died. <\/span><\/span>The first pyramid was the step pyramid at Saqqara, built for King Djoser (Zoser) in the 27th <\/sup>century BC. <\/span><\/span>That tradition turned out to really suck for the personal slaves, since they ended up being buried with the ruler so they could be with him in the afterlife.<\/p>\n SK: But they weren’t dead yet.<\/p>\n JS: Well, if you are sealed up in an air-tight room without food and water, eventually that will be a moot point.<\/p>\n SK: So a pyramid is a tomb of some kind?<\/p>\n JS: Yes. <\/span><\/span>A great stone structure with many hidden rooms and passages. <\/span><\/span>Every face of the structure is the shape of a triangle, which is how the structure got its name.<\/p>\n SK: Why would a building like this make you doubt the number of beginnings and what is this starting date you are talking about?<\/p>\n JS: The starting date is most important, or I should say, the most befuddling. <\/span><\/span>Prior to this last disaster, there had been three major geological changes during this galaxy cycle. <\/span><\/span>For reasons unknown to anyone now, the first was in 20,200 BC and that was chosen as the starting date for this galaxy cycle. <\/span><\/span>Many survivors believe there was a why<\/i> behind that choice but all record of it has been lost. <\/span><\/span>This date also happens to be the peak of the last glacial expansion known as the Ice Age. <\/span><\/span>Adding insult to injury is the fact that the starting date for the galaxy cycle is roughly seven centuries after<\/i> the step pyramid was built, which was many centuries after the last big polar shift.<\/p>\n SK: Well, assuming you are correct about that, what do the pyramids have to do with it?<\/p>\n JS: It’s about what is recorded in them\u2014more importantly, the fact we went back to recording in stone within protected structures. <\/span><\/span>This level of durability for basic information tells us they, our ancestors, knew information got lost using other storage methods.<\/p>\n SK: Other storage methods?<\/p>\n JS: What are you writing on?<\/p>\n SK: Paper.<\/p>\n JS: Just how well does that hold up in either a flood or a fire?<\/p>\n SK: Oh. <\/span><\/span>Is that why we have so few books, at least according to your statements?<\/p>\n JS: Correct.<\/p>\n SK: What basic information is recorded in the pyramids then?<\/p>\n JS: Previous earth alignments. <\/span><\/span>This allowed us to track and predict future polar shifts at cycle ends. <\/span><\/span>We may not be able to predict which<\/i> cycle end will cause the polar shift but we can predict where the new poles will be and what land masses should<\/i> survive the geological upheaval.<\/p>\n SK: How is it so few people survived, then?<\/p>\n JS: Those who studied built their bunkers in the safe places; stockpiled food, water, information and technology; and then hunkered down to ride it out. <\/span><\/span>There was no attempt to share bunkers once things went south.<\/p>\n SK: That’s a damned cold and selfish thing to say.<\/p>\n ***********************
You are reading a special promotional version of \u201cJohn Smith – Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars.\u201d This is the third book of the “Earth That Was” trilogy. You can obtain the entire trilogy in EPUB form from here:<\/p>\n