Giles Kurns

* Likes to wear clothes like a leather "patch" elbow sport coat like 1950's-60s' profeessors.
* Had a relationship with Arlene 70 years prior to Cloaked in the age of Expansion
* While he physically portrays, the mature college professor he has an Indiana Jones penchant for highly dangerous adventures across the various series.
* Arlene has taught Giles how to tap into planetary power and perform "magic", although definitely easier when he is with her.
* Giles was involved with Bill on the Namachron venture, the proceeds going to a remote account in a system Giles doesn't go to.

## Summary of Events

### The Kurtherian Gambit

#### Life Goes On

General Reynolds tell him that he is invited to travel to Earth with Bethany Anne as she needs his help with some Kurtherian technology. He is very immature and excited about going and Lance has to have a stern talking to him about the way he acts around Michael.

### The Second Dark Ages

#### Dawn Arrives

Giles, Yuko, and Eve are in their storage warehouse going through the crates with Barnabas on guard when they are attacked, but Barnabas handles it all himself and when he returns to the rest of the group he has to take Giles aside and remind him that he is and will be around even more people that can read minds and that Michael will see him borrowing one of the Kurtheiran pieces without mentioning it to anyone as dishonorable and dishonest and may will just kill him outright.
Giles seems to take the warning seriously as he immediately goes to Eve to have it "logged" that he has the piece for research.

Later Yuke and Eve take Giles out for some night life and Giles discovers that there may be a new religion starting up about Bethany Anne and Michael. It is also noticeable that while Giles has been enhanced in some ways, enough alcohol will make him very drunk.

Giles finds a group of individuals in the desert trying to migrate to a better place. He helps the leader find a better place and starts to migrate the hundreds of people with his single pod. Archangel had been monitoring his activities and Bethany Anne sent John Grimes in the G’laxix Sphaea to complete the movement. Later Bethany reminds him he has a team and a comm unit to bring in help when he needs. Also that he needs to get run through the pod doc to eliminate the drunk phase of alcohol consumption.

### The Ascension Myth

#### Rebirth

Giles lectures at the ArchAngel on parallel evolution across the galaxy. Species that do not have a common ancestor yet have strong physical similarities.

#### Retribution

Giles is tasked by Lance with finding a talisman. Giles had someone hide it and first needs to find that person.

Lance, Molly and Giles meet to review Giles theory of a gene planting race who went across the galaxies planting species on planets that did not need terraforming. Giles has traced DNA patterns across races and believes he can trace their path over hundreds of thousands of years. Molly reviews the data and agrees.

Unfortunately Molly and the Sanguine Squadron have to back to Sark to follow up on an exiled Zhyn general who appears to be restarting his clandestine war machine. Giles and Sean Royale take *The Scamp Princess* to hunt for the talisman starting at Teshov. Sean recognizes Giles contact, Robin, as Estarian gun runner Mac Kerr. Mac recognizes Sean as part of the Sanguine Squadron and in attempting to kill Sean is killed by Sean. Fortunately Giles has been to Mac's lair and finds the talisman and papers Mac had collected.

The Squadron is revisiting old business when the General Shaa, exiled for running a clandestine military effort. has started to rearm. When their first assault fails, Giles volunteers to go in covertly and sabotage them from inside. Sean vehemently disagrees with the plan and goes to Lance. Giles tries to recruit Arlene who he worked with in the past to help me get in with less risk. He is determined to go on the mission even though Lance lets him know there is no safety net. The Squad is all he has and they are running off the Federation books.

Giles is outfitted with visual and audio enhancements that are necessary, but will also self-destruct before falling into enemy hands. Sean tries again dissuade him and again fails. Once on Shaa's asteroid Arlene is able to see and hear all that is going on. She is also able to sense the individuals Giles in contact and read their emotional state, Just as Molly is learning to do.

Giles effort to convince General Shaa ultimately failed and he is staked outside the base in the weak atmosphere to die. When the Squadron arrives to save he insists on saving a dungeon acquaintance Anton because of Anton's knowledge of the Zhyn's culture and destroy Shaa's base because of the Federation secrets he revealed trying to convince Shaa he really was a traitor.

#### Cloaked

Giles works with Arlene to determine how the talisman he recovered in Retribution fits in with both the Estarian and Zyhn past histories. He finally understands Arlene was not pushing him away 70 years ago but trying to get him to commit. Instead he completely bailed on the relationship thinking it was an ultimatum. Unfortunately for him in the last 70 years she has moved past wanting any intimate relationship with him but will work with him.

Arlene and **Giles** agree to teach at Molly's Staðall University, her in interplanetary sociology, and Estarian spirituality, Giles in anthropology.

#### Bourne

Giles is teaching at the Molly's University when is class is attacked by 3 young males throwing smoke bombs. He jumps out of the school window, chasing them down and stunning 2 of them with a stun gun he shouldn't have but carries anyway. After discussing the incident with the police he gathers a set of his students to go after whoever prompted the bombing.

#### Invasion

An unidentified object is approaching Esataria from deep space. Giles is concerned it is the Ascension Fleet drawn by Giles and Arlene's activities with the talismans.

Giles and Arlene have a theory that Anne not only can receive power but is also an antenna to broadcast use of the power. They suspect the Ascended Race is homing in on her. As the Squadron and the Zhyn "mercenaries" approach the AR fleet, Sean and Karina plan to take Anne and the Little Empress away from the system. However, as the AR approaches Molly, Anne and Arlene all go into a trance.

Molly, Arlene and Anne's trance state is actually a meeting with the Ascended Race. They are very large, very wise, very technically advanced and very loving beings. They welcome the 3 as part of their family.

### Confessions of a Space Anthropologist

#### Rogue Operator

Rogue Operator's dialog starts after Giles and Arlene take a role in Molly's academy in Cloaked but goes into stories from Gile's past. While this is subseries of it's own the book is also identified as Ascension Myth 7.5. However, Anne's kidnapping which occurred before or concurrently with Cloaked is in this book.

Giles found his first Talisman on Earth within the materials recovered of the Sacred Clan space ship. Awhile later he made a trip to Estaria and gave it to the Estarian Elders for safekeeping. Arlene explained to the team that the talisman has power that can be controlled by the being holding it. Arlene tried to kill Giles in order to acquire the talisman after the elders were killed. Giles need to find another hiding place for the talisman.

Giles also suspected there were other copies of the talisman based on the multiple constellations on it including Estaria and Zyhn.

Giles and Arlene take The Scamp Princess to Kurilia to ask the Zhyn Emperor for permission to visit the Moons of Orn. They are granted permission but are surprised when the Justicar Beno'or requests to accompany them. The Justicar also probes Giles to see if Arlene is available for dating surprising Giles since many Zhyn would not find an Estarian atrractive.

The three with Scamp figure narrow down the search for the temple to 3 moons after the most obvious, tourist moon proves to be a fake. When they find the temple on the Aibek moon they also find the moon protected by a force field and protected by Zhyn guardians. Giles and Arlene find a cave by the temple and are quickly trapped in the cave behind a barrier Giles and Arlene, They find a hollow at the end of the cave that has oxygen and filled with carvings that they send to Scamp to evaluate.

Arlene does confront Giles about Giles increasingly risky behavior. Giles relates he feels he has done so many "dumb" things in the past he needs to make up for it by doing something heroic. Arlene points out essentially that dumb and dead does not always equate to heroic. In return Giles expresses to Arlene that while they couldn't make it as a romantic couple she would always be one of his best friends.

Scamp deciphers a spell that allow Arlene to reveal a door that leads to a burial area where they find the second talisman behind another force field. Scamp breaks through the forcefield allowing them to get to the talisman. As they are leaving the guards about to kill them when guard Jendyg attacks his fellow guards and helps them escape.

Giles and Arlene realize the long-term goal for solving the puzzle of the talismans is with The Order of the Sacred Ascenders.

#### Rogue Instigator

While Molly and most of the Squadron head off to save Sean, Giles and Arlene take *The Scamp Princess* to search for the next talisman on Mallifrax-8 in the Ferrai Quadrant. Mallifrax-8 was originally known to the ancients as Gaumix. Formerly home to the Essiehkor Kurtherian tribe, long before they evolved and became the race we know of today. It currently colonized by the Queegert and is mining colony extracting etheriam and run by a monarchy that controls access to the planet.

They are given permission to go to the ruins of the temple but are forewarned the Queegert had inspected the temple in the past and taken artifacts. When they arrive at the temple they find it guarded by panther like animals with black and purple fur. After a day of searching they find nothing and return to The Crown. He wines and dines them proposing they help him overthrow the company that dominates the colony in return for reviewing the artifacts the Queegert took from the temple.

Arlene goes to talk with the miners while Giles goes to talk with the MacKegans. Arlene finds the miners ready to rebel, Giles finds the MacKegans fixated on a business model that denies the miners a fair return on their labor based on an agreement only The Crown can change. Arlene and Giles approach the Crown about the change and he pushes it back on them to change the mining and refining situation.

Giles goes off to find a mining engineer and Arlene decides to terrorize the MacKegans. Afterward the miners refer to Arlene as Arlene the Terrible.

The last known position of Bill the engineer is on the Phoenix-Delta Outpost. Giles sets the timer with Scamp at 48 hours at which time if Giles has not returned the Scamp Princess will return to Arlene and Anne. Android TRX9978 aka Trixie is at the dock to take Giles to Bill.

Anne meets with the miners while Arlene is away. Based on her questions and comments the miners label her Anne the Wise. They teach her about etheriam. The main use now is for its structural properties but it also is considered magical by some people if highly refined. In a highly refined state it could also store DNA and even information for millennia. As Anne heads back to the compound she sees Queegert guards unloading a large, lethal machine and heads back to warn the miners.

Arlene sees the war Mechs when she returns and goes to warn the minors who tase her unconscious. When she wakes up she is tied down and the miners accuse her of being a traitor because they saw her go to MacKegans. When Anne finds the miners with Arlene she becomes furious and unleashes her power on the miners.

The guards and Mechs attack the miners with Arlene defending them. Just as Arlene is running out of energy one of the Mechs takes out the other remaining Mech. Giles and Scamp gained control and have essentially ended the battle.

Giles does arrange the final settlement where The Crown has changed the rules, the MacKegans have been bought out by a more ethical company and the refining processes are significantly enhanced.

Anne combines research from the miners, from Giles and from her intuition to show the talismen are actually data storage devices made of etherium. Anne reveals she also has a talisman given to her by her uncle meaning the team now has 4 talismen to evaluate.

## References

1. ↑ Clark, Ell Leigh; Anderle, Michael. The Ascension Myth Complete Omnibus (Books 1-12): Awakened, Activated, Called, Sanctioned, Rebirth, Retribution, Cloaked, Bourne. Committed, Subversion, Invasion, Ascension (p. 957). LMBPN Publishing. Kindle Edition.
2. ↑ Clark, Ell Leigh; Anderle, Michael. The Ascension Myth Complete Omnibus (Books 1-12): Awakened, Activated, Called, Sanctioned, Rebirth, Retribution, Cloaked, Bourne. Committed, Subversion, Invasion, Ascension (p. 1231). LMBPN Publishing. Kindle Edition.
3. ↑ Clarke, Ell Leigh; Anderle, Michael. Giles Kurns: Rogue Operator: Age Of Expansion - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Confessions Of A Space Anthropologist Book 1) (p. 131). LMBPN Publishing. Kindle Edition.
4. ↑ Clarke, Ell Leigh; Anderle, Michael. Giles Kurns: Rogue Instigator: Age Of Expansion - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Confessions Of A Space Anthropologist Book 2) (p. 172). LMBPN Publishing. Kindle Edition.