THE PREFACE
When considering destiny, we typically recognize four belief systems. On one hand, people think their own actions determine the direction of their lives. On the other end of the spectrum are people who rely on a higher power for guidance. Borrowing from both beliefs, are people who behave as if they have the greatest impact on their own lives while dipping into the well of faith on occasions of personal difficulty. Some meet their fate through a life-altering event that could not have been predicted or avoided. Most people rely on the premise that destiny is determined through a sequence of key decisions.
Then there are the atypical: A very select number of individuals have been granted a life mission, or perhaps a divine assignment, that has put them on a predetermined path. Those that have been designated a specific role in life do not realize it until that role has been revealed, usually in the form of a personal epiphany. Only after they realize the path taken, the critical forks in the road that led them to where they stand, do they begin to understand destiny itself. Until that moment of realization, they are like most people; they think they are in control. It takes a certain amount of courage and trust to accept each of us has a role. It takes more trust and courage to follow others as they are in the process of learning their role themselves.
CHARACTERS
Louis Silvani:
Louis is the main character. He developed his own belief system as a young Catholic, uncomfortable with the religion’s teachings. Space travel and science fiction captured his imagination. As an adolescent, he learned about passages in the Bible that described encounters with highly technological beings. In time he evolved to be a part-time researcher and blogger. The story begins with Louis Silvani, divorced, living alone, approaching retirement.
Mary Ellen Velarde:
Mary Ellen is a Jicarilla Apache woman in her early 40s. She was an orphan, raised in Albuquerque. After her sixteenth birthday, her adoptive parents took her back to the reservation where she was born, to rejoin her clan and tribe in Dulce, New Mexico. Velarde is highly spiritual and psychic.
Anne Stoneburner:
Anne is Mary Ellen’s elderly, psychic, spiritual mentor and friend. She is a Hurricane Katrina survivor and made her home, alone, in Aurora, Illinois.
Deborah Swift:
Deborah was raised in an Air Force family and is a United States Air Force Security Police veteran. She is an African American in her late forties, is gay and an atheist. Deborah is one of Louis’ closest friends on the social network. She lives with her partner, Susan Koenig, in Saint Louis.
Kaja Jorgensen:
Kaja is an autistic woman in her mid-fifties. She is also an artist, using her talent to draw technical diagrams of UFOs, and portraits of various extra-terrestrial races. Kaja has trouble trusting people, but is close with Mary Ellen. Kaja lives alone in Wichita, Kansas.
Gerald McGeorge, Colonel, United States Army:
McGeorge became a good friend with Louis during a joint military assignment. McGeorge was raised Catholic. He has retained the religion’s beliefs, but has had reservations about the church’s recent history and philosophy. Gerald McGeorge, like his mother is highly psychic and spiritual. The colonel is stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado.
Katrina Hermann:
Katrina is in her mid-forties and is psychokinetic. She can use her mind to remote view, and to project energy onto other energy sources, causing electrical equipment to overheat, malfunction, or explode. She is a former CIA asset and lives with her boyfriend, Robert Ladd in Taos, New Mexico. Katrina and Mary Ellen met through Native American outlets as Katrina is part Cherokee.
Robert Ladd:
Robert is a former U.S. Army Ranger and a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. He suffers from PTSD.
Tara Everly:
Tara is a United States Air Force senior airman stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. She works as a radar specialist.
Trevor Hugo:
Trevor is Louis’ friend, living in San Fernando, California, working as a Lyft driver. Trevor has dreams of other planets and technologies and draws scenes and star charts the next day after waking up from his dream.