AZARIAS TOR: THE HISTORY MAKER

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Richard Abbott-Brailey

Author

Hilary

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Azarias Tor

SYNOPSIS

Azarias Tor: The History Maker - synopsis

History! ‘Do we make history or does history make us what we are? Are our lives influenced by all those who have been there before us, the ancestors we have superseded; attempting to improve the ‘lot’ of every generation as we produce progeny? To that end, do we allow our lives to be dictated by history or do we attempt to make our history the ‘new’ future; do we have an impact in history, and the future, or do we allow ourselves to be the ‘victims’ of the impact of history upon us, having the future shaped for us by others?

Imagine, then, that there are people out there, many of whom we have never met, who will make us part of their history, and make their future our future; world leaders, governments, artists, authors, playwrights, scientists, and so on; all those extraordinary gifted and talented people. But what of the ordinary people – those people living next door, in the neighbourhood, or that person, alone in their car, passing you on the A19, as you prepare to enter the southbound toll at the Tyne tunnel and the impact that they might have on your future? Is that person, alongside you, harbouring secrets that you could not even begin to comprehend? And what if that person, a fairly sort of average person had secrets that even he was not aware of; secrets that could have a major impact on the lives of everyone, throughout the whole of time?

And what if one of those people, who you ignore most days, as you go about your ordinary day-to-day rituals, discovered that they could travel through time and space? What if you discovered you were a dormant time traveller and three of the people you loved the most had died? Surely the next question is not ‘what would you do’ but ‘what wouldn’t you do to bring them back to life’, in spite of the rules regarding travelling through space and time?

This is the dilemma faced by the protagonist, Azarias Tor, who, at the age of 42, has spent the last four years coming to terms with the death of his wife, and his ‘undercover police’ partner – from the days when he was ‘in the job’; both deaths, for which he blames himself, seemingly linked to the same case, where no one is brought to justice for those crimes, or any of the associated crimes that were being investigated – corruption in high places; very high place silence Azarias Tor, but he never forgets. Each day he sends the same text message to his dead wife, every time he arrives at work – a college of further education, where he teaches – and that text message always reads:  ‘Arrived.  Love you always. X’. 

Azarias Tor is a man haunted by his past, and the dreams; the vivid dreams, and it is the dreams, and his continuing depression, which causes him to seek help from a colleague – Alan, a lecturer in psychology, who is still a practising psychologist. Under hypnosis, during therapy with Alan, Azarias discovers more than he bargained for, as long forgotten memories are revealed to him; presenting him with the key to unlock his past, his present, and his future. Having never met his father, he is reminded of the sketches his mother had created, which he had stored away following her death – seemingly through misadventure, involving her medication. At the same time he remembers something he was told to forget, by the woman with the emerald eyes; the same woman who is in his dreams; the lump of leaden metal, and the words, “when the time is right”.

Meanwhile, in the far distant future, in the year 2198, the movements of Azarias are being monitored by people with a vested interest in the Emergent; for that is how a rogue time traveller of their past is known. An Emergent, an emerging time traveller, unaware of their potential, is the progeny of a time traveller, or time travellers, seemingly attempting to corrupt history to suit their benefits and needs; perhaps creating a loyal army – each of them being implanted with a chip at birth. Gabriel Damarov, Superus, of Genetikos, the law enforcement arm of Geneticorp, heads a team responsible for investigating cases of rogue Emergents that come to light, with  a view to either educating or eradicating them, to prevent these people from infecting history, thereby having a serious impact on the future; Damarov’s present. With the aid of his team, Commandant Saluki Damarov, his daughter, Vice-Superus Raphael Antinori, and lower ranking officers, Gabriel Damarov, in the eyes of the world – at least EFRON (European Federal Republic of Nations) – has to be seen to be investigating time travel corruption, but all is not what it seems; both Superus and Vice-Superus are investigating each other, suspicious of motives and actions.

Commandant Saluki Damarov, tasked with establishing the Emergent as an ‘educated’ time traveller – introducing him to the Ten Commandments of Time Travel - or eradicating him, arranges to meet with Azarias, using tricks and strategies, such as the advanced technology will afford her. At the same time Gabriel Damarov, with his hidden agenda to usurp the President of EFRON, and strengthen the foundations for his own people, in his own time, sends one of his agents, Augustin Le Feuvre, to spy on his daughter. No one, though, with the exception of Raphael Antinori, would suspect the Superus of Genetikos of corrupting time to suit his own needs, and Le Feuvre keeps a record of all meetings with his superior, perhaps with a view to blackmailing him, if he ever should get the opportunity; Damarov is always one step ahead of everyone else. Nonetheless, Azarias meets at a secluded location with Saluki, observed by Alan, who has hidden himself amongst nearby trees who, in turn is observed by Le Feuvre, who is tracking Saluki Damarov.

Augustin Le Feuvre takes great delight in quietly killing Alan, while Azarias begins to learn some truths about himself and his potential ability to travel through space and time, using nothing more than an old mobile phone. And when he inadvertently saves the life of Alan by accidentally intervening on his timeline, before the event where Alan was killed, Azarias begins to realise his potential, in spite of ‘the rules’ and plots to save the lives of those he has lost; at great cost to himself and the whole of the future for everyone, and making the greatest sacrifice of all – prevent the first date between him and his wife-to-be from ever happening; “if you had the ability what wouldn’t you do to save the lives of those you have loved and lost?”

At the moment those events in history are changed Saluki and Azarias, locked together are sent crashing through time into her future, where Azarias is left clinging precariously to life, in a place and time where he does not belong; there now being at least two Azarias’s in different places and times; if the one in the future survives. Azarias is cared for by Raphael, who is, as far as Damarov is concerned, dead; but then time can be cheated, by those in the know! Saluki is sent to confront her father, Gabriel Damarov, who is living in an alternative future, near to realising the fruition of his plans to preside over the whole of EFRON, ensuring the dominance of ‘his kind.’ In a final twist Saluki discovers that Damarov is not her father, but he is the father of Azarias who, having made an incredible recovery, possibly due to genetics, is sent to protect Saluki and bring his father to justice, but Damarov escapes through time and space, leaving only his right forearm behind, and the threat of the destruction he may bring on everyone, and all of time, and humanity, as Damarov continues to ‘play God’ throughout history; they must stop him at all costs, and Azarias requests that he is allowed to be of a team involved in attempting to bring Damarov to justice before he can have an impact on time, with the belief that Gabriel will do anything to protect the Azarias living in the past, because he is part of his future.

This book ends with Damarov making a home the mid-1970s, from where he intends to develop his ‘time army’ and take control of what he rightfully believes to be his by rights; the ultimate control of time, through the manipulation of history – and who would know any different, accept for those who have the ability to see all of time from a distant future, and can travel back to change events to suit their own needs? Any normal mortal will only see history for what it is; how it is presented to them at the moment it happens to them. There is a moral in the tale, regarding man playing God or, rather, being God, and to what ends, and for what purpose, we use our abilities. Meanwhile Azarias is visiting the grave of his mother, with Saluki, when they encounter a man grieving the first anniversary of the death of his 20 year old son, who was killed in a racially motivated attack; the father being the person to find the body of his dead son on the night of his death. Having ascertained all the facts, regarding the events of that night, against the wishes and commands of Saluki, Azarias sets off to travel back in time, leaving the grieving man with the words: “None of this ever happened”, and this moves the story into book two, ‘Azarias Tor: The Day Before Yesterday.

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