Star Wars, Star Trek, and 21^st Century Saints

Winkie Pratney

©1978 Winkie Pratney

DEDICATED

With love and affection to:

George Lucas
creator of Star Wars

Gene Roddenberry
creator of Star Trek

and Jesus, the Christ of God creator of the Stars

Chapter 1
STAR WAR ONE

"Long, long ago, in a galaxy far away...."

(Star Wars)

The time was long, long ago.
It was not so far away.
As a matter of fact, it was much closer home
than you might think.

You think it is lust pure fantasy, don't you? You think it's just a grand and glorious put-
on.
You think it's great fun, and there's nothing more to it.

Ah, but great fairy tales have a way of telling the truth.
Snow White.
Cinderella.
Pinocchio.
Sleeping Beauty.

Star Wars.

My friend, it's too good not to be true. Come with me, and I will tell you the story again.

Long, long ago, there was a Galactic Empire.
It was too, too real to be a nightmare. It
existed, alright.
It was far, far bigger than you might imagine.

Fortunately for our future, it was not as great as it made itself out to be. Unfortunately for the present, it did not die like the Death Star. It still exists.

And therein lies A Tale. A tale of
our past
your present
and Mankind's whole future destiny.

How did the bad guys get so strong?
There is a Book containing that record.
Many know of it.
Few have ever read it.
Even fewer understand it.

It recounts the history of a War that took place in the Universe before the Earth was born, an inconceivably terrible war in which the whole Rulership of the Universe was plunged, an unimaginably cosmic conflict under which one-third of the stars fell.¹

The first Star War.

And by the way, there was a Darth Vader.

Of course, he wasn't called by that name. (He changed his name so often, it hardly matters.) He didn't wear a mask. That is, not until later. That was when the nature of his strategy made it imperative that even his followers wouldn't recognize him.
A surprisingly effective strategy, at that.²

What do you think he looks like under that mask?
With a voice like that, with a figure so huge
hand powerful, with a grip so viciously terrifying.
What do you think he looks like under that mask?

The answer might surprise you.

First, he certainly isn't ugly.³
Secondly, the mask changes his voice. It's
actually quite musical.⁴
Thirdly, he isn't quite that big at all.

Oh, he's powerful, alright. And terribly cunning. But he's definitely not as strong as he would have you believe, although he is effortlessly superior to any unaided human you might like to name. And he's not as tall as he makes out. That all comes from a frustrated desire of his to be the one person who can look down on everyone else in the Universe.⁵

Fourthly. He's not dead. When last seen, he was still around,
mad
vicious
and murderously intent in getting back
everything he lost.⁶
The story is true. He was a traitor.
He betrayed a great and sacred trust
perverted vast knowledge misused incredible power.⁷
And without doubt, he is right now the Undisputed Lord of all the Bad Guys.

The company he let down were really the Guardians of peace and justice in the Galaxy. They were not called Jedi Knights, but they did indeed have light sabers.⁸
They were appointed under the Supreme Ruler to not only oversee and care for the happiness of the Universe, but also to guard the destiny of a tiny, but cosmically significant new race.⁹
This race was to be the end result of the greatest effort in the Universe.
A fantastically intricate species. Form and feature without parallel in all the creation.
Genetically engineered from sub-molecular levels to be the Designers' dream. The first Pair were brought into fully-functioning consciousness on a small green test planet in an odd little yellow dwarf system in an obscure corner of the Universe.¹⁰
The Race with unlimited potential,
The crowning glory of creation.

They were never to know their final destiny until they passed a fundamental test.

Their Designers had a dream, and that dream involved an awesome destiny.
No one to this day has more than a tiny inkling of what that purpose meant. And the Designers set the test -And the chosen Race never passed ft.
They grew up sadly and painfully aware of unfulfilled longings and half-remembered dreams.
They looked here and there and they tried this and that but nothing seemed to satisfy them and nothing seemed to fit.
For most of them, the only dreams that ever came true were nightmares, and so Sadly, painfully, One by one they accepted futility and emptiness as reality.

They became so sad and hurt that even their fairy stories had heroes in them that did not
dream and did not dare great and good things. Life became so ugly and empty and bitter that they sneered at all the dreamers in the world and taught their children not to hope -
That love was dead, truth was dead And goodness never really existed.¹¹

And sad people watched sad films
and read sad books
and lived sad lives
with ugly, empty endings
and went away even sadder than before.

But all through this, the Designers never gave up on their dream¹²

It is recorded in ancient history that an old, wise man was contacted by his Designer. He was taken out one night on a clear, cold plain and shown the silver sweep of the stars. And this man, today revered and remembered by the three greatest religious systems on Earth as the "Father of the Faithful," was asked an impossible question -
"Can you number them?"
And then, as the record shows, he was made a promise never to be revoked in history -
"So shall your seed be."¹³

Man was never made to be earth-bound for-ever.
His heart belongs to the heavens.
His future destiny has always lain beyond the stars -

We were never made to stay here.

And all our little, limited longings to push back the frontiers of Man, to plant our flags and our footsteps on the Moon, Mars and beyond, are not too big; they are too small.¹⁴

And yet daily we die, few ever finding this destiny.
Millions have passed, knowing all the time there was something there beautiful, some-thing that would put all the puzzle together, make all the heartache and suffering and agony worth going through, but it was some-thing so profoundly simple that a sad and cynical generation who no longer believed in dignity and goodness and truth simply walked past it forever.

Understand.

You were made to live forever.¹⁵
Our hunger to go beyond the stars is not alien.
It is normal. You were born to rule the Universe.
Our desire to plant a border beyond the edge of the Universe is but a dim, diluted echo of our true created destiny.¹⁶

Don't give up. Don't throw in the towel
because all the world seems filled with its small aspiring Darth Vaders -
Don't line up behind the Dark Lord.

Our awareness that our lives ought to be involved in a great battle
which somehow involves the whole future of Mankind is far, far more than fairy tale.¹⁷
Our dreams,
Our hopes
Our expectations are not big enough.
It is time we gave up our small ambitions and discovered our real destiny.¹⁸

But-
We've been in the Theatre a long time, and
the Film is running out.
We're in the last few minutes of the Movie of
Man and the final battle is going down.

The odds seem overwhelming -
Many strong and great men gone forever.
No sign of any of the Jedi Knights around Against us, near invincible technological might
Its ally, supernatural power twisted to evil and destructive ends.

One by one, the strong men in high places giving up the battle,
One by one, the few and the brave hunted down and killed.

And now, the Final Showdown.

Your heart is in your mouth.

They are scant seconds away from the final outpost.
Life after life has been sacrificially laid down to open the channel for an all-or-nothing frontal attack on the evil base -
And everything rides on a miracle.

But - I've cheated.
I've read the end of the Book.
I know the Director.
And believe it or not, it's really true.

The good guys are going to win.¹⁹

And somewhere in this century, there will arise a Luke Skywalker who hears that Voice, answers the call to destiny and takes that last, long ride down the trench to put a proton torpedo of righteousness into the heart of that Death Star.

Star War One is over.

The Last Star War has already begun.

Gentlemen, to your ships.
And - Follow the Leader.²⁰

Chapter Two - Where No Man Has Gone Before