Kindle Edition
Amazon
Amazon
Category:
Science Fiction
Copyright: May 25, 2014
Price: $3.99 (eBook)
Book 4 in the War for Terra series concludes the epic story of a small group of humans who embark on a mission to retake their home planet. Action, romance, sacrifice and loss might lead to Victory if the human race can survive themselves.
Humans have won their first battle with the Ch’Tauk Empire but a new player has entered the game. With Lee Pearce behind bars and his crew suspected of treason, intrigue from within the ranks of the human race threaten to derail a new Allaince of Races.
While Admiral Chang struggles to hold together his patchwork fleet, the crew of Resolute begin a quest to save humanity from its own shortsightedness.
On Earth, Henry Moore gathers new allies and discovers that the war for the planet may depend on more than just the battle in space. He will be tested to the brink of despair by the ruthless forces of the alien invaders.
For Banu Rao, a chance for redemption may be his path to greatness and the last weapon of the fallen Confederacy is his chance to save humanity.
A hidden threat will be revealed as the life and death struggles of the refugees of Terra will hinge on the sacrifice of only a few.
Excerpt
The Convocation
Filaments of energy coalesced in the dimension between thought and deed. The tendrils took shape in the flickering existence of the Convocation. Bipedal shapes formed around a central point. Images projected from the minds of beings that existed beyond form appeared on the vast empty plain of thoughts.
There were no leaders in the Convocation. Every one of them was equal in this place. Black on black eyes stared across the circle. A tone, not heard so much as imagined, radiated across the assembly. As the sound rose, more of the creatures appeared, each identical to the others.
They were small compared to most other creatures in the galaxy. The forms taken by the creatures were overlooked and ignored because of their diminutive size. The spirits that inhabited those bodies, however, were enormous and nearly immortal. They’d witnessed the birth of the universe, and would likely see its end before they disappeared. They knew secrets forgotten by more races than existed in our time.
A single thought raced around the Convocation. There was no beginning to the concept; it was simple and then moved between minds. The tone-thought grew louder in this place without end, each moment transmitting more data than any human computer would ever use. The thought existed as a multi-dimensional image understood before fully received. In all its existence, the Convocation never understood one subject.
War.
A moment ago, or thousands of years, the beings came to a small planet with flowing plains of red grasses and a vast sea. The planet’s primitive inhabitants, hard-shelled bipeds, did not understand who the beings were, only that they brought gifts of fire and vitality. Science that bordered on magic aided the evolution of the primitives, twisting their amino acids and proteins to create a new form of life. The beings believed they were helping the young species understand the world around them. A moment later, they left and travelled.
It took the merest blink of the black eye to return to the primitive planet to see what they’d created. It was a sad moment in time, as the primitives had proven destructive with the knowledge of the beings embedded in their bodies. Once again, the beings affected change in the basic structure of the natives and departed to explore other realms. Returning again in only a moment, the beings witnessed their handiwork. A subtle change had been meant to remind the primitives of the help they’d received: the native’s skin grew over the shell and turned as black as their benefactor’s eyes.
In this moment, the beings saw the primitives had created a rudimentary society. The beings understood so much of the universe that was hidden to the lesser natives. In this moment, the Convocation decided to intervene in the primitive society as part of the whole. They took the form of a smaller creature with pure white skin. Advanced senses needed new appendages to perceive the galaxy as the primitives did, and so they grew new feelers from their bulbous heads. Disguised as small, harmless primitives, the beings began work on transforming the primitives into an evolved culture.
As the Convocation had no leader, the beings worked to understand the hierarchical nature of the native society, looking for a way to give structure similar to their own. To facilitate the structure, the beings tested the primitives for a pure genetic strain. The alterations made millennia ago had become diluted over time, but one family retained the most essential evidence of the alteration. The language of the primitives was guttural and reflected the rigid structure of their mandibles. The family line was given to the name of the entire race.
The beings came to be named ‘Engineers’ in the simplistic language. The Engineers attempted to impart a more complicated language form, but the primitives were unable to convey the subtleties of the language of the immortal beings. What remained was a simple dialect that granted names only to those who earned them through work or knowledge. The ruling family became the title for the people themselves.
Time passed and the engineers adapted to the limitations of their new form and the species they had created. They became complacent in their work, believing that the novel sensation of time passing was purpose. Eventually, the Engineers began to forget their old existence between the dimensions. They began to rely on the regular passing of the planetary sun to monitor time. Their own freedom became eclipsed in the work of guiding the Ch’Tauk to true awareness.
|
