The Wisdom of Solomon

by Ronald Dunn

Overview

While on vacation, Rob discovers an alien space ship that had been entombed in a mountain cavern for centuries. They exit the cavern together and their future becomes inexorably intertwined, both mentally and spiritually. The ship, named Solomon, and Rob discover time travel with the help of an alien woman, Torena. Rob becomes obsessed with returning to his boyhood days as Torena becomes his mentor in his quest. The Wisdom of Solomon is a compelling story of how we influence each other as we speed down the rocky roads of life. Many decisions will affect the future, but some may even affect the past!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781456720056
Publisher:	AuthorHouse
Publication date:	12/30/2010
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.51(d)

Read an Excerpt

THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON

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By RONALD DUNN

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Ronald Dunn
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4567-2005-6

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Chapter One

DISCOVERY

The scenery was beautiful! Fantastically blue skies were the norm, along with myriads of dark green pines interspersed with groves of aspens that had turned a brilliant golden yellow. Waves of lavender, yellow, blue and white wildflowers nestled in the thick mountain grasses, and watching the clear stream water cascade over the large smooth stones was peaceful; almost mesmerizing.

Even with all the beauty that surrounded me, being in the middle of a trout stream was not a good place to be when nature was calling. The frosty morning, cold water and all the coffee I drank for breakfast had come to a critical point just as the fish were starting to bite.

Wading to the shore and stepping out, I slipped on a mossy rock and, struggling to right myself, fell backwards into a small aspen tree. It broke at the base and, at the same time a pile of rock and slag at the bottom of the cliff gave way. I threw my hands up to try and protect myself but several rocks tumbled down on my head.

I laid there on my left side feeling my head to see if any damage had been done. Removing my hands from my head, I saw a small opening at the base of the cliff that had evidently been covered up by the aspen tree and the rocks that had dislodged. I reached up to move a rock that was blocking my line-of-sight into the hole. My view into the hole revealed something strange.

A small glint of light came out of the opening that looked like a reflection off a glass or metallic object. I looked back towards the stream and saw that the sun was reflecting off of a patch of still water on the far bank. It was bright, even with the sunglasses that I wore to help me with the glare when fishing. So the light was external to the opening, but what was it reflecting off of inside this hole at the base of the cliff? Looking back into the hole again, the light had disappeared!

I sat up and thought about what I had just seen. Over the many years of coming to northern New Mexico, exploring caves had held a special attraction to me. The opening was not very big and might not lead to a larger chamber, but it extended back under the ledge for several feet. The rock and slag at the opening appeared loose, but it was apparent that further exploration was going to require a small shovel, gloves and, possibly a flashlight.

Later after supper, while sitting on the front porch of our cabin watching the hummingbirds swarm around their feeder, I thought about my family. We were a close knit group. Our annual trip to this area was an opportunity to visit with my father-in-law, a widower, my sister-in-law, her husband and all the kids and grandchildren. Our excursion normally occurred somewhere between late September and early October, and had begun thirty years earlier when my children were only two and three years old. Even after the kids went to college, married and began their own families, everyone planned for our trip. It was, indeed a family tradition, even though circumstances sometimes prevented every family member from making the trip.

All my life, my dreams had been long and tedious, with most of them being maddeningly unexplainable. This night, however, my dreams were both pleasant and in sync with my conscious mind, because in them, I discovered a large cache of gold nuggets in the cave that I was going to dig into. Ironically, the area of northern New Mexico where we always stayed, was in the mountains about twenty five miles south of Taos and had several flourishing gold mines in the late eighteen hundreds and the early nineteen hundreds.

Sitting on the porch after breakfast the next morning, I was reluctant to tell my family what my plans were. They would worry about me, a sixty five year old man, getting hurt. If nothing else, they would find it curious that I was using my time for something other than fishing.

I knew the right thing to do was to be honest with my family; simply tell them what I had found and intended to do. However, I really wanted to experience this by myself. I felt foolish when I thought about it, because what in the world was I going to find? It was probably nothing, and my efforts were just going to waste time that could be used to fish, which was by far, the most favorite activity of my vacation. But still, the reflected light coming from the hole had piqued my curiosity.

My concern about what my family would think was unfounded. My father-in-law just asked where I was going and my wife gave her usual spousal comment, "Be careful honey." It was a relief that no one was particularly interested in joining me.

I drove to Taos and found a small building and home supply store. In addition to the shovel, gloves and flashlight, I decided that a construction helmet would be a sensible purchase considering my initial experience with falling rock.

The Santa Barbara campground was an out of the way place that was maintained by the National Forestry Service. The road up the mountain was rough and narrow, so even though it was a scenic area and the fishing was usually pretty good, you normally did not see many people using the site. The start of the school year in late August further reduced traffic in the park. But even so, I certainly did not want to run into any park rangers, because they might frown on me digging on federal property.

I parked a few hundred feet from my dig site, put on my wading boots, collected my gear and was soon directly across the stream from the hole. Excitement about solving the mystery of the reflected light gave me a sudden rush of adrenalin as I crossed.

The flashlight had a strong beam and the first thing I did was to shine it into the hole. Nothing! I really thought that the beam of my flashlight would show something. Disappointment crept in and my first reaction was to give it up and spend the rest of the day fishing or reading on the cabin porch. But then, my stubborn streak took over and I decided that I had to find out what was on the other side of the hole.

The digging was tough. Every time I dug out a shovel full of rock, it seemed that as much, or more slid down to take its place. I finally decided that the pile of rock and soil that was building up below my feet needed to be hidden. It would be very noticeable to any fisherman or hiker who might walk or wade along the stream. I took my knife and cut a few small pieces of brush and, along with the aspen tree that had broke the previous day, did my best to shield my diggings from the opposite shore.

I was getting tired and hungry, but had not brought along anything to eat. I thought seriously about driving back to the cabin, eating lunch and resting awhile. However, if that was my decision, it would take me at least three hours to do so. I decided to dig for another thirty minutes or so, and then leave if no progress was made.

Instead of trying to increase the size of the hole by digging away the loose rock at the bottom, I began to use my shovel blade to try and pry out some rocks at the top of the hole. I wedged the blade in the crevice between two rocks and leaned on the handle. What happened next caught me by surprise, because not only did these rocks dislodge, but the roof of the hole began to cave in from front to back. I quickly knelt down and watched as chunks of rock disappeared at the rear of the hole. I could not tell how far they were falling or how deep the fissure was, but now could see that the hole extended into some larger area.

Even though the roof of the hole had caved in, most of the debris was rocks that I could simply roll out of the opening and the work went much faster than with the shovel. The rock was rolling back into the edge of the stream where it could be seen, but impatience kept me from trying to cover my tracks. In just about the thirty minutes that I had allotted myself, I realized that I could probably squeeze through the opening. Knowing that I couldn't make it through with my helmet on, I removed my belt, hooked my helmet and shovel on it and tied it to one of my belt loops.

I began to move through on my left side with my flashlight in my left hand and had to keep my head down against my chest as I inched along. Every few inches or so, I would raise my head and use my light to peer ahead of me. Nothing but blackness! After moving about seven or eight feet, a rock that I hit with my left hand fell with a thud. I took my light and looked over the edge of the hole and saw with relief what appeared to be a relatively smooth floor, of what was evidently a large cavern. It was only about two feet below me, so grasping the roof of the hole with my right hand and pulling myself over the lip, I fell below to the stones that had dislodged earlier, cutting both hands and bruising my left shoulder. I got up, put on my helmet and took a couple of steps.

The size of the cavern quickly became apparent. I shined my light around and saw that the height of the ceiling must have been at least one hundred feet. The length and width appeared to be about at least two hundred feet in each direction. My hole at the base of the cliff had turned into a huge subterranean chamber!

The floor was covered with a layer of dust that sparkled as my light hit it. It appeared to be small particles of rock or some kind of mineral. I scraped it away and found that beneath it was a surface that was virtually smooth and seemed to be similar in composition to the dust. The floor of the chamber had been created by something other than natural forces!

I carefully walked toward the middle of the chamber, not knowing what lay beneath the fine grains of material. Going only a few feet from my entrance point, I shined my light about thirty feet in front of me and noticed a mound of very fine particles that was about eight or nine inches high. I shuffled up close to it and found that it was symmetrical looking with a cross section being like a triangle with rounded sides. But the most astounding thing was that it ran in a perfect arc to either side of me and, as my light followed it around, I realized that this pile of dust grains formed a large circle!

Just as I stepped inside the circle, something struck me on the top of my head, knocking me to my knees. Good thing that I had thought to put my helmet on or I might have been knocked cold. What had hit me? A falling rock? I looked up but could see nothing and there was no rock or debris around me. I put my helmet back on and slowly stood up; again my helmet came into contact with some invisible object. I reached up and felt an incredibly smooth surface that ran down toward the inside of the circle, and up and outward from where I stood.

Getting on my knees, I carefully moved inward until I could touch the surface about twelve inches off the floor. The surface of the object created absolutely no friction with my hand! I began to straighten up and kept my hand on the surface as I slowly backed up. The surface began to tilt up sharply and, as I stood at my full height, the realization came that the outer edge of the object was nearly exactly above the triangular ridge that formed the huge circle on the floor. The surface of the object was so slick that even particles of dust did not stick to it!

Even with all the excitement, it dawned on me that, since I didn't show up for lunch, my family would be worried and possibly be out looking for me. It would not be good for them or anyone else to see me crawl out of the hole I dug. Taking care to not disturb the mound of dust, I entered the access hole and, as fast as possible, I wormed my way outside. Peering around, I was relieved that nobody was in view. Quickly cutting a few more pieces of brush, I covered the hole and made my way across the stream. While walking quickly to my car, I tried to wipe the dried blood off my hands and dust off my dirty clothes.

During the ride back to my cabin fear gripped me as I felt certain that the invisible object encountered in the cavern was alien! The feeling continued to remain that I was in this situation by myself, but how was I going to handle the questions that surely were going to be asked about my clothes, my cut hands and what had kept me occupied for most of the day. More importantly, how was I going to be able to continue my exploration in secret?

Sure enough, as I pulled in beside the cabin, my wife rushed out of the cabin and asked, "Where have you been all day?"

"Honey, I just became so interested in exploring a hole that I found at the base of a cliff, that time simply got away from me." I was able to explain away the cuts, bruises and dirty clothes as we sat around the supper table that night.

The next day was Thursday and we would be leaving for the drive home early Saturday morning, so only two days remained for me to try and make some sense of what had been seen and even what had been unseen, but felt. Convincing everybody of my need to return to my dig site was difficult but, due to their own prearranged activities, I was able to leave soon after breakfast.

I always carry a tool kit in my car and took a small hammer along with the rest of my gear. Fortunately no one was in the campground upon my arrival. I edged into the entrance from the side so that the brush would stay in place and disguise the hole, and taking care to not hurt myself again, entered the cavern.

Inside, it seemed warmer than the day before which was strange since subterranean spaces normally maintained a relatively stable temperature year round. Moving to my right, I went about one hundred feet and inspected the back wall of the chamber. It was remarkably similar to the floor in that it was very smooth, just another indication that the whole cavern was not created by natural forces.

So as to not lose my bearing, I retraced my steps back to the opening and then to the inside of the dust pile. Reaching out and touching the invisible object, I tapped it softly with the hammer. No sound! Hitting it increasingly harder, the object still produced no sound that I could hear. With my hand as high as I could reach, I began to walk slowly and see if the surface changed at any place and if the object was truly a large circle.

It was indeed a circle but no deviation or break was found in the skin. Placing my hand down as low as possible and while still on my feet, I again began to make the circle. At a point about halfway around, the skin seemed to be interrupted by a very minute seam which extended from as far under as I could reach straight up to the height of my shoulders. Further inspection revealed another seam about five feet to the left. Continuing on around the object, I had moved only about ten feet when a soft hissing sound occurred, similar to air escaping.

I saw a light. No, I felt it. It must have meant me no harm, because it did not hurt me. The hole in the side of the cavern appeared right before the light came. An earthling is touching me. How did it find me? What is its purpose? I must protect myself.

ENLIGHTENMENT

I looked back and simultaneously the object became visible and two panels began moving where the tiny seams were located. One panel lifted up from the bottom and then retracted into the upper part of the opening that it had created. The other panel moved smoothly from the bottom of the opening created by the top one and appeared to be an entry ramp.

The object was immense, as suspected when I had traced its outside perimeter with my hand. Shining my light upward, the cupola-shaped top appeared to rise close to fifty feet and the diameter was at least one hundred twenty feet. Looking underneath, the object was suspended several inches off the floor of the cavern!

Stepping back outside the circle, I moved to a point opposite the portal and shone my light inside. There was nothing but a five foot wide corridor leading towards the center of the object, enclosed completely by the floor, walls and ceiling. The interior was apparently of the same composition as the outer skin; an almost translucent gold colored material.

Fearing for my life, I forced myself to enter the opening. It was the most difficult thing that I had ever done, but at the same time, it was the most exciting moment imaginable! Could this be some advanced government project, or was it an alien ship or object that had been here for a long time?

An alien ship! I grew up just half of a mile down the road from a great aunt and uncle who were like grandparents to me. In the sunroom on the south side of their home was a bookshelf that contained a book that was special to my brother and me. The title was Flying Saucers Have Landed and we never tired of reading it.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON by RONALD DUNN Copyright © 2010 by Ronald Dunn. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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