Inside Front Cover
Before Binky became Lord When's trusted companion, he was the best friend of another well known genius...Merlin the Magician. A Merlin who was both wise and kind. A man who won Binky's heart and soul, if not his AI implanted electronic, bionic body.
Come back in time to join with Binky as he lives through a golden age of man when there were Knights of the Round Table, and a young man whose future decreed that he one day rule all of Britain with a firm, but fair hand and bring the Light into the lands that were darkened by the hordes of Druids and ravagers of those times.
See how Binky helps and launches the career of a new Lord When, who will one day scour time and space to help those in need of his services.
Learn what Mordred and Morgana truly were during those times, and what their parts in the grand play of King Arthur's life were.
Then...time swirl on your next adventures with Lord When!
Novels (Young Adult)
Perihelion (All episodes of this Serial Novel)
Escape to Adventure, The Dreamers Awaken
Escape to Adventure, The Island of the God
Escape to Adventure, Gods of Air, Gods of Earth
Escape to Adventure Combo
War of the Worlds, The Forever Friends
War of the Worlds, The Nest
War of the Worlds, Earth, God of Destruction
War of the Worlds Combo
Serial Novels (Young Adult)
The Baker Street Adventures
A Strange Thing on a Strange Day
Hyde
The Land Beyond the Beyond
A Matter of Grave Perception
The Jungle Lord
The Power of One, the Power of Nine
"The Death of Conan," A Baker Street Snippet One
Cartoon
Episode One: Shades of Gray, the Portal is Opening
Episode Two: Ahoy Matey, Fire in the Hole
Episode Three: The Princess of the World
Episode Four: For Whom the Bell Tolls
Episode Five: Hell's Kitchen, the Love Triangle
To Hell and Back
Episode One: The Demon Lord
Episode Two: Death Comes in Seven Flavors
Perihelion
Episode One: The Convolution
Episode Two: The Plummet of Death
Episode Three: A World Gone Mad
Episode Four: Revenge of the Interlopers
Episode Five: Death in the Trees
Episode Six: On the Edge of the Abyss
Children's Serial Novels
Mister Wiggleberry and the Wishing Tower
Episode One, A Fine Adventure
Episode Two, The Snack Before The Adventure
Journey into the Unknown
The Moon Princess, A Clifford Snow Adventure
Acknowledgements
I'd like to thank all the wonderful people in my life who have made this journey an adventure and an exploration of the heart, mind, soul and body.
To all those who aspire to greatness I say keep on trucking, the road is a long one at times, but like the little train that thought it could, we all can with patience.
To all the great writers upon whose wonderful words, fantasies and characters I ride.
To my daughter Faith, who has been a cornerstone of my life for years before and hopefully many more to come.
To the planet without which I would have no home, and to all those brave enough and wise enough to want to preserve it for future generations.
To all my friends who have already crossed into the Light.
To all the new friends I hope to make before my adventure on Earth ends and I began my new one in the Light.
Time Swirl
"A Binky Adventure"
John Pirillo
Copyright 2014
Chapter One
Binky's head lights blinked on and off as he watched the screen before his bug-like eyes. His antenna twitched in anticipation as Lord When's graceful hands swirled over the light panel before him. On a large screen before them Binky could see the planet Earth, its greens and warm earth colors filling his electronic vision and exciting his deeply written, electronic computer heart.
Binky was Lord When's best friend and companion. Even though he was mechanical in almost every aspect, his consciousness was not. He was a very wise being from a planet long lost to history, but that had once orbited our sun. Now it was just a twisting stream of asteroids and meteorites that plunged in a sub orbit between Mars and Jupiter ---the so-called asteroid belt.
The asteroid belt which was now the forgotten world of Maldecelin, as the old worlders came to call it before its fall into darkness, after which it became the cursed Maldek, where science and philosophy had turned to the dark side of life, enslaving and cloaking everyone in a layer of darkness that only the death of a planet could ever remove. The Maldekians had been seduced by power and the need for it. The leaders no longer led, but subjugated their populations to hardships and deprivation in order to gain further power and wealth. Finally, they began to war on each other, using different kinds of mind powers to enslave and terrorize each other and the masses. The end result was that their world had finally been blown to thousands of pieces by their dark powers.
"Get ready for Time Swirl, Binky," Lord When uttered in a voice, hushed with anticipation and awe.
Binky's thoughts came back to the now. He shuddered electronically, shaking off the temporary darkness of his memories of that horrible planet. He smiled inwardly as Lord When leaned closer to the view screen, his eyes lit up with excitement.
Even after these many years of flights between time and space, he never failed to appreciate, nor be amazed by the wondrous energies that occurred during Time Swirl...the transition between planes of consciousness, time and space.
Without a Time Swirl, the Time Boat, which they rode in, would have merely transited from one portion of space to another, but never gone to another time and awareness. The Time Swirl used Newton's Tenth Principle, and Einstein's lost theorem, to navigate time and space and the consciousness of the Universe. It had taken the First Lord When many lifetimes to discover those principles, plying down one time stream after another, dying and being reborn, losing his memories, regaining them, and then again continuing his search.
Binky suspected the Old Man as he was wont to call him at times, but with humor, or else he might have gotten a sour look or two for a time; he suspected the Old Man was about to go into a different calling before he finally hit pay dirt, so to speak. The Great Light had seen fit to give him one more chance, as he kept reminding Binky.
Binky wasn't so sure about all those life and birth things, but sometimes Lord When came up with names and places there was no other possible way he could have known them, at least as far as Binky could see. And Binky could see quite far. He knew many races had telepathy, and some the ability to see into the future, but never to the degree of clarity that Lord When would surprisingly show at times.
"Penny for your thoughts." Lord When said, pausing for a moment in his work. "He gave Binky a knowing wink, which caused Binky's antenna to spark with surprise.
"Caught me again." Binky noted with pride, as well as caution. He hoped that his friend hadn't seen where he had hidden the birthday gift for him. "Caught me again." Binky repeated, before realizing he had.
Lord When reached a grizzled hand over and stroked the nose of his beloved friend. "No, my dearest friend. You have caught me again. And again and again. And so it shall be as long as I live in this body."
Binky blushed electronically, his body circuit lights flaring for a brief moment, until he could get his emotions back under control once more. He gave Lord When's last w
ords a lot of thought...almost ten Nano-seconds, and was about to come up with a quick, tart reply when the Time Boat gave a sudden lurch that sent him scrambling to hold his position with his electronic grapplers thrusting behind him.
"Sorry about that." Lord When told Binky, and then went back to his calculations.
Binky doubted any other being spent so many lives pursuing a truth like Lord When did. Now, don't get confused, Lord When is not a person, but an office, much like the President of the United States is not George Bush, or Barrack Obama, but rather they are the Presidents of the United States, individuals elected to their office by the will of the majority.
Chapter Two
And so it was that Gallius Magnus O'Brien came to be the first Lord When. He had been an honorable and noble soldier fighting with the forces of King Arthur as Mordred strove to overthrow the Golden Kingdom of Camelot and failed. He had thrown himself bodily in front of King Arthur to take the fatal thrust Mordred had intended, and thus brought upon himself what could have been a certain death.
Arthur had reluctantly slain Mordred, but not before stripping him of his sword and giving him the chance to repent his ways and start all over again as a student of Arthur and Merlin.
"Kneel before the Light, Mordred, as you once did as a youth in my court."
Mordred scowled at Arthur, then at Merlin who leaned on his staff beside him. "Your Light is nothing, Arthur, but a prop for your liberalism. You want everyone to have everything. That is not possible. Only a few are meant to have everything. Those with Magic deserve the power of the rule, not men of labor, who are not like the beasts of burden we use in our fields and eat on our tables."
Arthur was both horrified and stunned at the vehemence of Mordred's reply. His heart felt like it was going to break. He valued life so highly that even the thought of taking another's life caused him great inner remorse and pain. He weighed Excalibur in his fists, shaking his head.
Merlin shook his head. "Have you learned nothing?"
Mordred turned a feral glance upon his old Master. "Yes."
Arthur and Merlin leaned closer.
Mordred pulled a blade from his right boot, unseen by King Arthur or Merlin.
"Look out, My Lord!" Came a warning as Gallius dove in the air, thrusting his body between Arthur and Mordred, as Mordred plunged his blade towards Arthur's heart.
Merlin caught the sagging soldier in his arms and pulled him aside as Arthur, a sad look on his face, swept Excalibur in a quick arc that severed Mordred's head from its body. Mordred collapsed to the dirt and sod. A fallen man. A dead one who would fight no more, nor love no more.
Arthur watched sadly as Mordred's head rolled several yards, and then came to a halt beside the foot of a slain soldier.
The battlefield dropped to such a silence that a pin could have dropped and been heard.
As soon as Mordred fell, Morgana rushed forward and dropped to the side of her fallen son. She wept bitterly. Arthur started to go to her, but Merlin shook his head and Arthur stood back. Instead he went to the soldier that Merlin had lain down carefully at his feet. Merlin dropped beside him and took a pouch from his side, and began dousing the edges of the blade wound with it. Gently, he pressed his hands around the wound.
To the soldier. "What's your name, son?"
"Gallius Magnus O'Brien, Lord Merlin."
Gallius's face turned paler as Merlin pressed down on the wound. "That was a very brave thing you did for your king."
"I only regret that I will not live to do it again." Gallius uttered, his face turning paler.
Merlin looked at Arthur, who dropped to a knee beside him.
"If you could have one wish now, what would it be?" Merlin asked.
"That I could live to serve my fellow man a bit longer."
Merlin nodded and Arthur grabbed the blade and pulled it out, the same time as Merlin clapped a hand over the wound to stop blood from flowing.
Gallius screamed once, and then passed out.
Arthur took over for Merlin as he took another pouch, and then took out a glowing crystalline substance.
"From the Magic Caves?" Arthur asked.
"Yes." Merlin said, and then spread the crystals over the wound as Arthur gently removed his hands.
The wound on Gallius's chest puckered up and glowed, then began to close. Gallius let out a gasp of pain, threw his chest up and took a deep breath, and then his eyes opened into those of a smiling Merlin and Arthur's faces.
"What have you done to me?" Gallius asked.
"Not to you." Merlin answered.
"For you." Arthur added.
"But I'm alive." Gallius protested.
"That yet remains to be seen." Merlin said mysteriously.
Chapter Three
Binky watched the screens of the Time Boat and the swirling colors of light, time and space there. It had been a long time since their journey had begun together there on the plains of Camelot, but they had been good times. Surely, they would continue for a long time yet.
Lord When suddenly stopped, clutching at his heart a moment. "Oh dear, Binky, my ticker's starting to tick tock, when it should go tick tick."
Binky became alarmed.
Lord When hugged his head. "Don't worry, dear old friend. It's not yet my time to go into the Light."
Lord When sat up, took several deep breaths, and then closed his eyes.
Binky recognized the healing meditation and scooted back to consider what he had been thinking earlier.
Chapter Four
After Lord Arthur and Mage Merlin healed Gallius, they had nourished him back to life, and after he helped them win the battle before Camelot, he had, with their blessings, married Morgana Le Fey, who had turned away from the dark side in her later years.
The only reason why he knew all this was because what Lord When hadn't filled him in on, he had seen in person. He was able to cloak himself in the guise of a human for limited amounts of time. At that time he had chosen a female form, Nimue, who Merlin had taken quite an interest in, which had been flattering to Binky, but alas was a love not to be. He never had the heart to reveal himself to Merlin, though in Merlin's last years he suspected Merlin could see through his guise.
Binky as Nimue had helped Merlin to go to sleep in the Crystal Caves beneath the plains of Camelot, for the time when he would awaken again to help Arthur in his struggle to save a troubled planet. The Brits of today had gotten a lot wrong about King Arthur, their natures, their true relationship, and what they were striving to create, but they had succeeded in outlawing Dark Magic from the kingdoms, though other belief systems swept in to fill the void, some of them later bringing great loss of life and terror, all of which Merlin and Arthur foresaw to come, but realized that their fellow humans had to come to their own realizations of what was real in the world, and not have it forced upon them.
This was why and is why Camelot is still remembered as the Golden Realm, because it stood for freedom of spirit, the Light, and the truth of man.
Binky as Nimue had helped Merlin succor Gallius to good health, but as he did so, Gallius kept giving him odd looks, blinking his eyes as if seeing something he didn't dare believe was there. One day he had completed some relaxation techniques Merlin had taught him to help with healing, and Merlin had taken him aside by the Great Lake where the Sword would one day be hidden again.
"Good Gallius, something is troubling you. What is it?"
Gallius had looked to me then and gave a slight shake of his head when he saw me getting a worried look on his face. "Is it true there are other realms invisible to the naked eye?"
"More than there are grains of sand on the seashore." Merlin had spoken, a look of mischief in his wise old eyes.
Gallius had laughed. He always connected immediately to Merlin's humor, which is probably why Merlin had decided to personally attend to him. "You are both wise and kind. While remaining deeply troubling to my intellect at the same time."
Merlin wiped his lips with a
cloth, and then set his cup of tea down, where it simmered after he waved a hand over it.
"It's like magic. What appears to be magic now will one day only appear to be a thing called science."
"How could man ever deny magic?" Gallius inquired sincerely.
"How can man deny his Creator? Yet it happens every time he harms another in thought, word or deed."
Gallius had to consider that, and as he lay down on his simple cot of sheepskin and rocks, he had fallen asleep.
Merlin had turned to me, his face somber, and his eyes even more so. "I charge you to look out for this man's soul. His spirit is safe, but his soul is troubled."
I nodded my head, not sure what he meant. He put a hand on my shoulder, and at that moment I was sure he was going to admit he knew what I was.
"Good Nimue, if not for your certain companionship, I know this man would not be alive today."
I blinked at him in surprise. "What?"
"Some men look for a relationship based on carnal desire, touch of flesh, but he seeks the touch of something greater. You have that within you, as we all do, but you live in that greatness. This is why I feel so humble before you. So promise me."
"Yes."
"Promise me. You will guide this man to his true destiny."
I suddenly became quite alarmed. "What are you saying?"
Merlin shrugged. "Things change. Times change." He went to his hearth and warmed his hands over it, his back to me. "People change. You know now, as Arthur, that man is not here just for today and gone."
"I do, thanks to you."
"Remember that." He said, as he turned to look into my eyes, which were not at Nimue's height, but my own. Then he had laid down to rest.
Chapter Five
The next morning I had to hurry to Arthur with the news of what had happened.
Arthur was quite old then. Nearing ninety years, which for that time period, was ancient indeed. But he was still as strong as the bow he often used for practice and hunt.
"What is it Nimue?" He asked, yawning deeply, but when he saw my face, and then my
eyes. He had hurried to his mantle, pulled down a sword and bow and run for the door, where the Guards swiftly followed him down the corridor.
I reached Merlin's Cave the same time as Arthur, but not before he had reached inside. I heard his wails of sorrow and loss, even as far back as I was. I knew how hard it was for him. Had I the emotional makeup of a real human I suppose I would have been as heartbroken, but that was before Lord when had upgraded my circuits with a new AI that could help me feel more deeply.