Synopsis of Story Lines

Quest of the Mad King

Listen, my friends, and I will tell you the tale of ancient days; of kingdoms lost and warriors long forgotten.  Of the season of the mad king of Earth; a prince without a crown was sent to find a queen that was not his own to save a kingdom he did not want.

In ages past when Imperial Earth ruled over human space, tradition demanded the prince regent should make a quest in search of his queen.  But Prince Gregory had refused.  Smitten by his love for Lady Miranda, a mysterious woman from the colonies beyond the Rim, he announced his intention to take her as his bride.

Furious upon hearing the news, King Thadeous rushed back from the wars against the alien races only to be ambushed before he could reach Earth.  With none to stop him, King Gregory ascended the throne of Imperial Earth with his queen at his side only to descend into the clutches of the madness.  The royal physicians had no cure for the unknown affliction, a lunacy that drove the king to seek the death of his newborn son after the queen died in childbirth.  But the Brotherhood of Sangree rescued the infant and spirited him away to their fortress on the frozen surface of Pluto.

Now, King Gregory lies upon his deathbed, consumed by the madness.  The borders of his kingdom are under constant threat by the alien races humanity once held in check by the unity of the humans under the royal flag. Earth needs a king to sit on the Lunar Throne and rule the Empire before it breaks apart.

Summoned to the Lunar Palace, Prince Alexander is ordered by the mad king to take up the ancient quest.  Rumors have reached Earth that a princess who waits in a far away castle for her prince to come for her.  Except, Alexander not only refuses the quest but rejects the plea to take the crown under any circumstances.  He has no desire marry a woman old enough to be his mother.  A woman, in fact, who should have been his mother.  And he despises the mad king.

Baron Beastro presents himself as Alexander’s friend.  He sympathises with the young prince and encourages him to find his own way in the universe.  He has no need to feel duty bound to a myth or a father who exiled him to a frozen planet.  So, the prince leaves, intent on disappearing.  But his little space craft is ambushed by Count Hisp and his Lizoid forces.  Saved at the last moment by Marcus, the prince flees to the badlands, a lawless sector of human space where even Imperial troops fear to go.  Nevertheless, he is found in a seedy bar by Carr, a member of the Brotherhood, and Marcus, Alexander’s cousin and next in line for the throne.  They attempt to convince him to take up the quest when molemen, using Adriana as bait, try to capture Alexander.  Instead, the aliens kidnap Marcus.

Imprisoned with a confused Adriana in the burros of the molemen, Marcus meets Count Hisp and learns of the treachery behind Beastro’s bid for power.  Adriana was specially programmed to appeal to one of royal blood but Marcus was snagged instead of his cousin.

Alexander feels compelled honor to rescue Marcus.  He travels to Minnite space with Carr and two Imperial troopers, Jerome and Quan.  Since the molemen live on otherwise uninhabitable planets in Minnite space, he must negotiate the right to search for Marcus.  There he discovers that Jerome is a Minnite, forced to leave because he was abnormal-born, a Minnite phrase for someone not born a little person.  The Minnites are a race of little people who abandoned Earth to establish their own colony.  The Minnite King Frank grants Alexander the permission to rescue Marcus and provides assistance.  The prince and his team slip into the mole holes and retrieve Marcus and Adriana.  They learn what Marcus knows about the plot to take the throne.  Marcus now insists they must return to Earth and defend the throne from the plotters.  However, Alexander refuses.  The way to the salvation of Imperial Earth lies in completing the quest Beastro has tried to stop and his means to vengeance for the deceit.

The key to finding the lost princess lies within a hologram of Adriana dropped by a moleman and picked up by Marcus.  Quan discovers the image was taken near a window, a window with a view of the Royal Palace of the Minnites.  King Frank, enraged that a plot against Earth could be traced to his world, sends his soldiers to arrest the occupant.  They find it and Doctor Fletcher who claims not to have known about why he was hired to create Adriana but she discovers another hologram of Miranda, Alexander’s mother.  Fletcher is forced to lead them to a long lost colony where he says he met the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

Circling one lone planet they find thousands of ships.  When they are chased into the ring by small fighters, they board one ship and find the crew sleeping in a kind of suspended animation covered in dust.  All the other vessels show life-signs of a similar nature.

They push on to the planet itself and a large white castle on a hill.  There they find robots maintaining it and rooms of people covered in the same dusty substance.  The robots attack them, as though they are guarding the slumbering people, except the robots will not venture into the rooms where the people lie.

The team splits up with Alexander and Carr together.  Carr is hit by a weapon blast from a robot and Alexander discovers he is an android.  Then they stumble on a large white room that appears to be a mausoleum with the body of the princess lying on a slab.  All is revealed to Alexander by Carr.  He was created to be Gregory’s advisor, made to grow old with the king.  But when the prince rejected the tradition of the quest, Carr returned to the lost colony, to tell them of Gregory’s betrayal.  To his astonishment, if an android can be astonished, the princess determined to wait and placed herself in a deep slumber.  In support of their princess, the people joined her in sleep.

Alexander cuts his arm and soaks a piece of cloth in his blood before using it to hide Carr’s damaged arm.  He is captivated by the beauty of the sleeping princess, slowly circling her stone bed.  Then he kisses the princess…

In the Lunar Palace, Baron Beastro prepares to take the crown and sit on the Imperial Throne of Earth.  The doors suddenly blow from their hinges.  Alexander enters with the beautiful princess on his arm and Carr, Marcus, Adriana, Jerome and Quan behind him.  Beastro draws his blaster but Alexander draws faster and ends his bid to steal the throne of Imperial Earth.  All that is left is for Alexander and his new queen to take their place.

Mustard Seeds

Dr. Benjamin Goodman is a selfless physician running a clinic for the poor and disadvantaged.  His life is filled with the struggle to fund his practice and meet his own personal needs.  Benjamin glories in his self-sacrifice and knowing what is best for his patients until Walter arrives for his appointment and announces that he has been healed.  Dr. Benjamin rejects the idea and accompanies Walter to the park to meet the so-called healer, Chris.

Synopsis

The mysterious Chris does not deny the healing and hints that he is, in fact, the return to Earth of Jesus Christ.  Benjamin attempts to reason with him, trying to explain that God does not work this way when Chris mentions his sister is in trouble.  Benjamin is incredulous.  What kind of charlatan is he?  The type who investigate someone’s life so they can pretend to know about them?

Nevertheless, the doctor feel compassion for the two men, Walter is just recently homeless, and takes them home for dinner where he also calls his sister.  How better to disprove Chris’ claims than to find his sister in good health and spirits.  But that is not the case.  She is sick; he can hear it in her voice despite her denials.  Something is very wrong and he decides to drive from New York to Chicago to see her personally.  He is not prepared for when Chris and Walter insist on accompanying him.  He wants to refuse but knows they have no where else to go.

In Chicago, the news is worse than Dr. Benjamin could have thought.  Sarah is a prostitute, for which he is in denial, and has the late stages of Aides.  The doctor within him wants to run every test possible in hopes of finding something the other doctors missed.  But Sarah has had enough.  She is out of patience and out of money.  So, he convinces her to return to Los Angeles where she can die surrounded by her family.  He also hints of an incident between her and their father, Thurman J. Goodman, Jr. which caused her to run away.  Reluctantly, Sarah agrees, considering her financial situation.  Secretly, she envisions a form of revenge toward her father for what he had done to her.  Benjamin has another goal; he want to put his father into a position of admitting his part in the incident.

Jasmine, Sarah’s roommate and fellow working girl, tags along.  On their way to California, they pickup two other members of their growing band; Fat Boy, a biker, and Megan, a woman uncertain about her past.  The mystery of Chris increases as miraculous, unexplainable events occur and yet, Benjamin refuses to believe.

In Los Angeles, mega church pastor Thurman J. Goodman, Jr. runs his organization with a firm hand, assisted by Elder Board member Sheriff, a shadowy character with a touch of wickedness.  Thurman’s goal is to build the largest church in the world and to receive the rewards and accolades that come with success.  He is at the peak of power; his church is an influential force in the community and soon to be the whole country.

When Thurman learns of his daughter’s return, he is furious.  In his mind, the incident was Sarah’s fault.  Her failure to live her life as he saw fit resulted in her shameful development into a hooker.  He refuses to allow Benjamin, Sarah and their friends to stay in his home.  He will speak later with Benjamin in hopes of salvaging his life but, Sarah is dead to him.  Colleen, Thurman’s wife, sends the band to her oldest son, James and his wife, Emma.  Over his objections, Emma welcomes Benjamin and the others into their huge house.

James is the good son who obediently followed his father’s guidance.  He resents his younger siblings because they ran away while he remained under the pastor’s control.  But he is miserable.  One of the best and most successful trial lawyers, he is wealthy and respected.  His pastor father is pushing him into politics where he would be of value to the church on a state level.  Yet his personal life is falling apart.  He is a stranger to his children and constantly battles Emma and her insistence that he spend more time with his family.

At breakfast the next day, the three siblings reminisce about the past and better days when their father was a man who did his best to provide for his family through difficult situations.  But James reminds them that he was the one who stayed and supported their father.  His resentment bubbles over.

Then Sarah takes a turn for the worse and is admitted to the hospital.  Dr. Benjamin must confess that he is unable to do anything to alter her condition for the better.  While visiting the hospital, Chris heals the son of two church members.  Thurman protests.  The prognosis is premature.  Something else is responsible for the boy’s improvement.  However, the two church members refuse to listen.  They credit Chris with their son’s miraculous change.

Later, Benjamin has dinner with Thurman and Colleen where he confronts his father and the incident is revealed.  A pregnant teenage Sarah was beaten by Thurman to the point of having a miscarriage.  In anger and shame, Sarah ran away and her life as a hooker began.  Benjamin heard the entire episode that fateful night and kept it hidden from everyone including his father and mother.  Now he demands Thurman J. Goodman apologize to his daughter and publicly accept his blame.  Thurman refuses to see his guilt.  Benjamin is furious.  Keeping the secret all these years has weighed him down with guilt and remorse.  He could have, should have stopped the brutal beating that fearsome night but did nothing.  Now, he storms from the house.

Thurman blames Chris for the disruption of his well-ordered life.  He brought back the daughter living in sin, he caused the good son to question Thurman’s judgment and convinced the prodigal son to falsely accuse his father of an atrocious act.  The pastor conspires with the Sheriff to remove Chris and, therefore, return his life to what it was.

An earthquake adds to the turmoil.  Some church members, led by Monty, the Lead Elder, want to house refugees in the church building but Thurman resists.  It disrupts the orderly operation of the Sunday services.  Thurman call for a congregational meeting where he demands each member take refugee home so the church can resume its normal routine.  Monty and other members object.  Chris embarrasses Thurman by insisting on knowing how many refugees the pastor will take into his house.  An argument ensues and Thurman throws Monty off the board even though he does not have the authority.  Following the meeting, an accomplice of Sheriff tries to pick a fight with Chris and assaults him.  The Sheriff has Chris arrested for disturbing the peace.

Thurman insists James represent the church and help put Chris in jail for a long time.  But with Benjamin’s encouragement and the sight of a battered Chris, the beating was arranged by the Sheriff, James is convinced to defend Chris.  In court, James learns the fix is in.  Thurman’s considerable contacts make it almost impossible to win.  His partners insist he recluse himself for the good of the firm but he refuses even though he knows it will damage his career and all but end any political aspirations.

Thurman faces the effects of the earthquake and refugee fallout.  The church split results in significantly lower cash receipts threatening a tight budget.  Creditors, fearing default, demand immediate payment.  The pastor is defiant in the face of imminent collapse of his church.  He alone can save it.

Benjamin surrenders to his inability to control events.  He admits that he is powerless to heal Sarah, rescue his father from his guilt and save Chris from prosecution.  He returns to his sister’s deathbed.  Consumed by grief at her upcoming death, he falls asleep.  When he wakes to Sarah’s gentle touch, he sees eyes are open and there is life in them.  She smiles…

In the courtroom, James waits impatiently.  The jury has returned with a verdict but Chris has not yet appeared.  District Attorney Summers and the Sheriff sit in a hushed conference.  The judge enters and demands the whereabouts of the defendant.  Embarrassed, the Sheriff must admit that he has disappeared, escaped.  The judge orders him to find the missing defendant and declares a mistrial.  James is surprised to find Sarah along with the others outside the courtroom.  “What does it all mean?” he asks.

Thurman rushes through the empty outer offices and into his own.  He hurriedly closes the drapes and cowers in the corner.  There is a KNOCK on the door.  He yells at the door that the church is closed but the KNOCK continues.  He tries to curl into a ball and conceal his face while the KNOCK persists.

In Tokyo Airport, Chris passes through customs…