What’s Clavius Deep About?Clavius Deep: The Story: In the year 2251, an international consortium named MMDI operates from Clavius Base, a top-secret facility hidden deep within the crater Clavius. Time travel agents are sent back to various points in Earth’s history to repair timelines and prevent societal collapse–the prime purpose of time travel. Agents discover that their ability to time travel is actually a byproduct of a brain alteration caused by invisible extraterrestrial energy beings called the Ezuoia. These beings from a far distant galaxy use human males as biological conduits (sexual slaves) so the beings can experience sexual pleasure by siphoning the energy of men’s ejaculations. Three MMDI agents travel to the past to investigate a rival facility known as the Ranch at Amargosa near Las Vegas. The ranch is a tourist venue for men only built by the Ezuoia to increase their control over human males. Meanwhile, a religious cult worshipping the Ezuioa forms on the moon and threatens the base’s stability. Internal politics and brutal assassinations follow in attempts by MMDI to clear out the religious cult. When any time travel agent finds himself on a mission that leads to his death, he arrives at the ‘Barefoot Dead Guys Bar,’ a purgatorial waystation in another dimension where all the recently departed go. The story concludes as agents learn that the past and future on Earth are irrevocably linked together through the Ezuoia’s influence and ownership of the human male sexuality. Ultimately, the two veteran agents are sequestered at the lunar base and then released in exchange for giving up their work as time travelers. They seek a semblance of peace in a future Earth completely out of reach of MMDI. However, the cycle of karma remains as ghosts from their past missions return to haunt their new reality. CharactersThe main character Ted Avila was born in Sedona, Arizona in the 20th century. But now he works from the moon for the large international quasi-military organization MMDI (nicknamed Moon Men Deep Inside.) He writes a personal log in which he says he considers himself a repairman. But Ted does not fix washing machines or vacuum cleaners or car engines. His job is to make corrections in timelines in the past on Earth. He relies upon MMDI choices for how exactly he shall change the past to bring about a future that MMDI believes “is supposed to be.” He starts to experience lapses in his memory. He is sent on missions in a time machine to Bullhead, Arizona in the 1990s from a 23rd century lunar base beneath the crater Clavius. He feels lost when his memories begin to fail him. He must rely upon a map of the area showing where he does field work:  |
On one especially significant mission to the 1990s Ted encounters Vincent Wauneka, a native-born Navajo, moments before the man’s death in a ritualistic hanging in the Arizona desert.
But Vincent Wauneka does not die from being hanged because of a secret way of restoring him to life. Ted enlists Vincent’s help to find answers as to the motives behind the time travel agency’s efforts to alter timelines.
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Set in a near-future society a few hundred years from today, Clavius Deep transports you to a world where gay men are valued for the work they do to save our species by changing events in the past, even though their sexual behaviors definitely would be considered immoral and illegal in the real world in which we live. This is an essential men in peril adventure set within the genre of science fiction time travel adventures. Here you get plunged into a universe in which there is no almighty creator who intervenes in the lives of human beings on planet Earth. Time travel makes it literally possible to resurrect from the dead. So, of course, a new religion must be created to fill humanity’s needs.
The Moon
I believe that some day in the future time travel might become possible. I’m not so sure that time travel by humans will require a lunar base, however. There’s a practical reason you’ll learn as to why time travel takes place beneath the lunar surface But more importantly, I chose to set several episodes of my time travel adventure on the moon under the crater Clavius because I believe science fiction should take risks in telling stories that will be of interest to readers. I chose that particular crater as a way of honoring Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick. In the late 1960s, they situated their fictional lunar base at Clavius for the motion picture 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Agents
At its most simple level, Clavius Deep is about repairmen. My fictional repairmen have a fairly unusual job, however, compared to repairmen who fix washing machines or computers. They are repairmen who use a time machine to travel on missions back to the past to fix timelines.
In my story, the main reason for the existence of time travel is not to take the reader on a showcase of dazzling technology that produces grand and sweeping adventures. No, not at all. My time travel agents are repairmen whose secret missions are to change people and events in the past to keep timelines from becoming worn down and generating chaos for humanity.
What matters most is the human adventures that they experience as men—not that they are on top-secret time travel missions from the 23rd century. Their moral code in the future differs greatly from how we gay men of the 21st century are. My characters do not believe in an almighty creator who intervenes in the lives of human beings on planet Earth. The moral code of the time travel agents is a most unusual aspect of my storytelling that will leave your mind reeling!
The Technology
At the core of the story is technology that enables time travel. The MMDI base beneath the lunar crater Clavius maintains several circular chambers that each is made of a transparent blue compound. Each time travel chamber is shaped like a giant hockey puck turned on edge and is large enough to fit one seated man inside when the chamber is sealed tightly shut. In order for the technology to work, time travel agents must be completely naked when they sit inside the chamber. Their bodies need to be drenched by a thick, milky liquid which enables the technology to work.
The Brain
I gave the narrator, Ted Avila, the capability to remember multiple events and outcomes even after he goes back in time and changes the past. I knew that this would be controversial since the human brain is locked within the one timeline, so to speak, that we each inhabit. Time travel stories usually do not deal with what happens to the memories of the time traveler so I ran with this concept wholeheartedly.
As far as I know, the human brain can only process memories from within that one timeline. But, having a character with brain damage that somehow enables him to preserve and recall memories from multiple timelines that he visits proves to be a very compelling storytelling aspect!
The Navajo
One of my main characters is a young Navajo male named Vincent Wauneka. I created this character out of the great respect I have for the Navajo people and their culture. Unlike the often stereotypical way that Native American Indians are depicted in fictional storytelling, in my time travel trilogy the Navajo character will never remind you of the cardboard Indian characters you’ve seen in a lot of Hollywood movies. Within the Navajo Nation is the famous Monument Valley, the site where many iconic Hollywood cowboy movies were filmed, including works by Clint Eastwood and John Ford. Monument Valley is way off the beaten path—no interstate freeways or major airports are nearby. So, most Americans never venture to this remote area. I have consistently found that being there in person in Monument Valley always is an experience of great spiritual and emotional impact.