Sharab

  ERABON PROPHECY TRILOGY

  BOOK TWO

  SHARAB

  RANDY C. DOCKENS

  Sharab

  ©2021 by Randy C. Dockens

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

  Published by Carpenter’s Son Publishing, Franklin, Tennessee

  Published in association with Larry Carpenter of Christian Book Services, LLC

  www.christianbookservices.com

  Edited by Robert Irvin

  Cover and Interior Layout Design by Suzanne Lawing

  Printed in the United States of America

  978-1-952025-13-6

  CONTENTS

  PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

  SHARAB

  BOB

  MICHAEL

  REUNITING

  CRAZY PLAN

  UNDERSTANDING

  CH’KXL AND CH’KXL’X

  TRIBULATION REQUIRED

  CH’TSK’S TRIBULATION

  TRIBULATION: NUKE AND FRIENDS

  THE TEMPLE

  DISCUSSION

  SECRET MEETING

  MISUNDERSTANDINGS

  THE DREAM

  THE PLANETS ALIGN

  RAMAH

  LOST TEMPLE

  HEADWATERS

  FOUND

  FEELINGS

  THE ARCHIVES

  E’OA’S REDEDICATION

  CONVINCING

  REQUEST

  CONCESSIONS

  KIDNAPPED

  DECEPTION

  CH’KXL’X’S TRIBULATION

  TAKING A STAND

  RESTORATION

  REJOICING

  GOODBYE TO RAMAH

  GOODBYE TO SHARAB

  QERACH

  SAMPLE CHAPTER FROM QERACH: MISUNDERSTANDING

  PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

  Aiya (ā ī’ yä)

  Alpha Centauri (ăl’ fǝ sĕn tȯr’ ē)

  Andromeda (ăn drŏm’ ĕ dǝ)

  A’oa (ā ō’ ä)

  Aphiah (af’ ē ǝ)

  Authocantryx (ôthō kăn’ trĭks)

  Ayia (ā yī ä)

  Bicca (bĭk’ kä)

  Ch’kxl (chǝ kĭks’ ǝl)

  Ch’kxl’x (chǝ kĭks’ ǝl ĕks)

  Ch’tsk (chǝ tĭsk’)

  Chrysora (crī sō’ rä)

  Diangile (dī āŋ’ gīl)

  E’oa (ē ō’ ǝ)

  Erabon (ĕr’ ǝ bŏn)

  Eremia (ǝr ē’ mēä)

  Glk’l (glĭk’ ǝl)

  Halayal (hä lā’ ǝl)

  I’ya (ī’ yä)

  Jake (jāk)

  Kxtsk (kĭks’ tĭsk)

  Machshev (mäk shĕv)

  Mashiach (mä’ shē ăk)

  Michael (mī’ kǝl)

  Myeem (mī ēm’)

  Natalidide (nä tăl’ ǝ dīd)

  Neptune (nĕp’ tyün)

  Ngtk (ĭŋ tĭk)

  Nuke (nūk)

  O’em (ō’ ǝm)

  Pentalagus (pĕn tăl’ ǝ gŭs)

  Qerach (kǝr’ ăk)

  Qoftic (kŏf’ tĭk)

  Ramah (rä’ mä)

  Rhicerotide (rī sĕr’ ō tīd)

  Sharab (shăr’ äb)

  Ti’sulh (tĭ sŭl’)

  Triton (trī’ tǝn)

  Tskdsk (tĭsk dĭsk)

  Ya’ea (yä ē’ ǝ)

  Y’din (wī dēn’)

  Za’avan (zā’ ǝ vǝn)

  Z’zlzck (zǝ zĕl’ zĭk)

  ONE

  SHARAB

  When aliens become friends, the definition of home changes.

  That’s what happened to Nuke. Through a freaky interstellar gate accident, Nuke, a skilled pilot, had been unexpectedly thrown into another, unknown part of the universe with no hope of returning. He had since, by some miracle, found himself on a mission to help six clans—differing alien peoples, looking vastly different from himself, who had existed together millennia ago on one planet—reunite across six separate planets. A previous civil war between them must have been fierce, Nuke realized, since they were now forbidden to travel to each other’s planets. Yet here he was helping two friends—yes, friends—from Myeem, the planet on which he first arrived, and two . . . friends? . . . maybe . . . from the planet of Eremia to bring the message of hope they had discovered to Sharab, the third planet in their system.

  Nuke smiled to himself. If someone had told him at this time last year he would be friends with someone blue in color with tentacles on top of her head, he would have thought that person insane. After all, who would have thought such a creature existed? Still, despite the obvious differences between his race and hers, he thought Ti’sulh beautiful with her delicate and feminine facial features. Over the last many months, the two of them had become friends. Good friends. Maybe . . . more. That excited and scared Nuke at the same time.

  Now he and two others from Myeem, the water planet, and two from Eremia, the desert planet, were in space above Sharab, the fire planet, to bring the message of Erabon, their deity, to this planet as well. When the civil war had separated the clans, apparently Erabon had given each a piece of a larger puzzle that could only lead to Erabon’s return if they reunited and overcame their prejudices against each other. Apparently, Nuke was somehow in the position of Erabon’s prophet to these people even though he didn’t even know of their existence until a relatively short time ago! A great deal of effort on the first two planets had been required to get them to see the need to reunite. Most on those planets now saw it. Not all.

  Now, as Nuke flew closer to Sharab’s surface, he shook his head. How does anyone live here? He had never seen so many volcanoes peppering a planet’s surface. There did not look to be many decent places to land. He circled several times around the planet’s continent that had the largest population registering on his instruments, but still the number of places to land five jets—the number in their emissary party—were few.

  Nuke pressed the communications piece in his ear that also served as a universal translator. Most of the clans had the same language but had developed different dialects over the centuries. He used the device now to communicate to his traveling companions, his “crew.”

  “Let me land first to be sure the area is stable,” Nuke radioed to the others.

  Za’avan, from Myeem, spoke. “We’ll circle until you signal us to land.”

  “Just be careful, Nuke.” That was Ti’sulh.

  He smiled at her concern. “Roger that.”

  He flew between two mountains, both containing volcanoes, around several steam vents, and over to a flat area that looked just large enough to handle the jets if each landed straight down without any rolling.

  His landing went without incident. Nuke glanced at his instruments. The surrounding air seemed fine, breathable. He opened the jet canopy and took a deep breath. The air had a slight sulphur smell and also felt humid. After being on Eremia, nearly all desert, humid air was a welcome change. As he walked around, the ground appeared stable. Yet their overall position looked precarious. He could see lava flowing down from both volcanoes that now lay in front of and behind him. One of the lava flows went over a ledge and created what looked like a waterfall of fire. A constant flow oozed down both mountainsides with the small valley in which he had landed between them.

  Nuke climbed several boulders at the base of one of the mountains to get a better view. From this position he could see a path winding between the two mountains. He looked up and cringed. Any type of rockslide could be devastating: not only from the deadliness of falling rocks, but such a slide also could change the lava flow and direct the slow-moving caustic stream into the valley where he stood.

  When Za’avan’s jet approached close to his, Nuke waved him down. Za’avan landed his jet behind Nuke’s, popped his canopy, and hurried to exit his jet. Nuke noticed his reddish anemone-type mohawk, with a touch of yellow, fluttering on top of his blue head, just as a sea anemone on earth would do. Following Za’avan came Bicca, and then Qoftic, the two Eremians, who landed behind and parallel to each other. In contrast to Za’avan, these two had features that were more insect-like with long, bony arms and legs and two antennae above their bulgy-type eyes; each eye could focus independently on different objects in their view. Of all the Eremians he had encountered, these two had probably been the friendliest toward him.

  Nuke heard a noise behind him. If the Myeemian and Eremian jets didn’t produce so little noise, he may not have heard the sound. He looked but couldn’t see anything. Yet the noise persisted and now seemed to get louder. He kept looking and began observing movement quite far down the path ahead of him. The animal . . . creature . . . was coming fast. In only a matter of moments the creature had gone from far away to extremely near, and the size of the animal continued to grow rapidly. Nuke tried to determine what the creature could possibly be, but the animal looked unlike, and larger than, anything he had ever seen. To him the creature appeared similar to an overgrown reddish-hued rhinoceros with scaly skin but with the agility of a cheetah, had what looked like a mohawk of bright reddish-orange hair along its entire spine, and also displayed a long tail which had a bushy end the same color as its spine mohawk.

  Nuke looked back at his friends. Ti’sulh was landing her jet. His heart sank. Her craft was setting down next to the trail on which the creature was running where it spilled out into the small plain area now hol
ding the landed jets. He rushed down the boulders to the valley below and ran toward Ti’sulh’s path, waving his arms, trying to signal her not to land. She evidently thought he was only waving at her; he saw her wave back as she began to set her jet down.

  As soon as she touched down, the creature exited from the path and pounced like a cat finding its prey. Everything seemed in slow motion from Nuke’s perspective. The creature must have bounded several meters into the air and came down, full force, on one of the wings of Ti’sulh’s jet. The other side of the jet lifted. When the wing broke, the snap caused the rest of the jet to flip up and over the creature and onto the rocks next to the path opening. The motion apparently frightened the creature; the animal bounded forward and up the rocks on the other side of the small plain.

  Nuke’s heart sank at the same time he felt his heart was going to beat out of his chest. He ran as hard as he could toward where Ti’sulh landed. He quickly climbed up the rocks and gasped. The plane lay upside down with a crack visible across the cockpit canopy. He rushed over to see if she was all right. He got to his knees and peered in.

  “Ti’sulh!” He pounded on the cockpit. “Ti’sulh!”

  She slowly turned her head, looking dazed. He kept looking to see if there was any blood. He didn’t see any. Breathing a sigh of relief, he motioned for her to try and retract the canopy. When she did, the enclosure moved only slightly, then hung on the rocks.

  “Watch your head,” Nuke said. “I’m going to try and push the jet back a little so you can get out.”

  Ti’sulh nodded. Nuke went to the back of the jet wing and pushed with all his might. The jet budged a little. He kept pushing and got the canopy to move about half a meter.

  Breathing hard, he asked, “Can you get out now?”

  Nuke leaned in and helped her release her restraints. She managed to drop into the cockpit canopy and then ease out the opening he had created. He instinctively gave her a big hug. Pulling away, he rubbed her arms. “Are you sure everything’s OK? Are you hurt anywhere?”

  She shook her head. “I’m fine, Nuke.” She looked back at her jet. “Surprisingly.”

  Za’avan arrived where they stood. “Ti’sulh, are you unhurt?”

  Bicca and Qoftic arrived shortly behind Za’avan.

  Ti’sulh gave a weak smile. “I’m fine, Za’avan.”

  He put his hand to his chest. “You gave me such a scare.”

  Qoftic nodded. “What was that thing?”

  Nuke shook his head. “I don’t know, but the creature was big—and quick.”

  Ti’sulh grabbed Nuke’s arm. “I thought you were running over to greet me. Then I saw . . . something. The next thing I knew, I was flying through the air.”

  Bicca put his hand on her shoulder. “We’re just glad there’s no damage . . .” He looked at her jet and then back to her. “. . . to you.”

  Ti’sulh followed his line of sight. She shook her head. “Is my jet even repairable?”

  Nuke took her arm. “Let’s not worry about that now.” He did a three-sixty. “I’m surprised we haven’t seen anyone yet.”

  Ti’sulh’s eyes widened. “Didn’t we?”

  Nuke gave her a smirk. “Surely you’re not saying that was a Sharabian.”

  She chuckled and shook her head. “No. I don’t know what that creature was.”

  Bicca got their attention. “We should see if we can find the Sharabian clan.” He turned to Nuke. “You said they were near here?”

  Nuke nodded and pointed up the mountain in the direction from where the creature had come. “They should be up that way somewhere.”

  Bicca’s eyes widened. “You mean from where . . . that thing came?”

  Nuke nodded and headed in that direction. “Just keep your eyes peeled.”

  Their journey turned into a slow climb as some of the rocks weren’t stable. After getting up one tier of rocks, Nuke found a quasi-trail that appeared to wind up through the rocks without end. Several times the path went extremely near the flowing lava. Each of the five of them walked ever so slowly, pressing themselves to the sides of the large boulders which lay across the path from the lava’s flow.

  Ti’sulh wiped her brow. “Wow. I’m glad the trail didn’t get any closer to the lava. That was almost too close for comfort.”

  Za’avan nodded. “Nuke, are you sure they’re in this direction?”

  Nuke shrugged. “That’s what my instruments said.” He pointed. “The crest of this incline is just ahead. Maybe we can see something from there.”

  Once they reached the crest, Nuke heard groans from the others. He felt the same way. Still another incline was all they could see ahead of them. After they took a few more steps, Qoftic grabbed Nuke’s arm and pointed.

  “There. Just above that large boulder. I saw movement.”

  Nuke looked but didn’t see anything. “Where?”

  Qoftic pointed again.

  “I see it.” Nuke’s heart rate increased. Why are they hiding?

  Nuke picked up his pace. The others followed. When they got to the boulder, they saw three individuals going over the crest. Nuke only got a brief look at them, but their bodies had a reddish tint, and they each had some type of yellow tuft on their head. Hair? Or was this part of their anatomy or something else? Nuke reminded himself: on these planets he couldn’t take anything for granted.

  They picked up their pace once more. Who are they running from?

  Once Nuke reached the crest, one of them jumped in front of him, startling him so much he fell backward. The man . . . he assumed the figure to be male . . . raised some type of spear over his head. Nuke froze for a moment as he noticed the man’s face appeared concave, like someone had taken a blunt object and beaten the middle of his face inward. This made his eyes almost hang from his forehead so they could look forward. Seeing the spear come down toward him, Nuke quickly rolled away from the blow and then leapt to his feet. Another individual came up behind him, but before he could turn, Ti’sulh felled this Sharabian. The spear the man held fell to the rocks. Nuke picked the implement up just in time to defend a second blow from the other individual who had attacked him first. Qoftic felled this Sharabian by clipping his legs from behind. The Sharabian went down hard.

  Nuke felt another presence behind him. He turned with a quick jab and just missed this attacker. The other figure came down hard with a round thin rod. Nuke blocked the blow with his spear. His eyes met those of his attacker. They both stopped with weapons held high in front of them. This attacker also had yellow hair—but he was, in an instant, a familiar sight.

  Nuke’s jaw dropped. “Michael?” He shook his head. “Michael? Is that really you?”

  The other man dropped his rod. “Nuke?”

  Nuke did a slight nod and dropped his spear. His eyes filled with moisture as he fell on Michael’s shoulder and gave him a bear hug.

  “Michael. I . . . I just can’t believe it’s you.” He pulled back and took another look at him. “How? Why? How are you here?”

  Michael chuckled and pulled Nuke in for a second bear hug. “I don’t know, buddy. I just am.”

  Nuke closed his eyes and hugged him even tighter. Here was his best friend in all the universe. His friend whom he thought was light-years away. Had he been this close all along?

  The touch of home was almost too much for Nuke. Tears formed. Nuke wasn’t sure if they were tears of joy, relief, or both, but he didn’t try to hide them. Finally, someone from home. Someone familiar. Someone from the time before he reached Myeem.

  Someone who could validate all of this was really happening. He knew he could go on now. With Michael beside him, he could truly embrace his destiny.

  TWO

  BOB

  Nuke found it hard to believe he had come upon his best friend, Michael, on this planet. How did Michael get here? Nuke knew how he had gotten to this part of the universe—well, sort of.

  Both Nuke and Michael had been using their jets and installed tail hooks to separate interstellar gates just beyond Neptune’s moon, Triton. Somehow Nuke had gotten caught between the two gates when they inadvertently activated. With him linked to both gates, and Nuke’s jet passing continuously through them, they threw him farther and farther into the universe—away from Neptune. Away from home. Into the unknown.

  Now Nuke guessed that Michael must have tried to help even though he had radioed for Michael to stay away from the danger. Nuke arrived at Myeem. Evidently, Michael arrived here. So close and yet so far away. Home had become something of a distant dream. Perhaps Michael could bring back the reality of home to him.