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ClaytonGrahamSciFi
Amazon
Clayton Graham
Category:
Science Fiction
Publisher: Self-published
Type: Fiction
Pages: 476
Copyright: Dec 1 2019
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
Go beyond First Contact...
Mysterious and chilling events on an alien world threaten the interstellar survival of the human race…
The exciting Milijun sequel.
They have awoken surrounded by alien stars. Following their abduction from Earth, Laura Sinclair and son, Jason, lead a group of desperate humans in a bid to forge their own future and that of their home planet.
To succeed, they must solve the puzzle of extraterrestrial races in the throes of a perplexing and historic conflict.
But they are in a strange, new universe; on a bizarre and dangerous planet.
Who can they really trust as they struggle to understand the challenging and hostile environment that holds them in a grip of iron? And what do the aliens really plan for them and their hybrid children?
The exciting sequel to highly rated science fiction novel Milijun: Enter a world like no other as the truth will out in a realm as far away from home as it ever gets.
Excerpt
EXCERPT FROM ‘AMIDST ALIEN STARS’
Jason was not in the best of moods. Not only had his mother left the station, but the Gliezans had also taken Simon Cordell for what Rjebni had described as medical reparation. Susan Carmody had told him what happened. She had also told him why Cordell had suffered his painful fate. She had said, “He thinks he has broken ribs, but it will only be severe bruising. There shouldn’t be any permanent damage.”
He was walking along the wall, welcoming the soft feel of grass under his feet, fingers of one hand intermittently brushing its surface. He had little sympathy for Cordell and even less of it for extreme vigilante action by a member of the group who, as a member of an elite organization, should have known better.
Earlier, he had secretly watched the appearance of the Gliezan spacecraft, had watched his mother and Tala Hughes enter the vehicle and vanish within seconds. He worried about their fate, not that of Cordell. But the group had to remain united; there was no room for dispute.
He came to the spot where the spacecraft had been. There was no sign of a landing; the grass was not even compacted, and there were no indentations anywhere. The recent events were out of the ordinary, even when everything else was far from ordinary. The fact that the approaches to his mother had been so clandestine suggested other forces at play. He wondered whether Rjebni knew anything about it.
Helena Belmonte suddenly appeared from behind a nearby tree. As always, she was dressed in her Eucla clothing: a white dress blouse and dark uniform trousers. Her blond hair flowed free, and her face carried a nervous smile. She carried her tunic under one arm. She doesn’t look like someone trained to kill with one well-placed blow, Jason thought. Still, appearances are deceptive. He briefly wondered how she could have been so stupid as to succumb to the moronic advances of Simon Cordell.
She took a step towards him. “Can we talk?”
Jason shrugged and sat down with his back to the wall. Helena came and sat beside him, a metre distant, her slim legs almost up to her chin.
“I suppose you heard about Simon?” Helena said.
Jason glanced at her. Her eyes were red from crying. The smile was gone, and her face was a picture of misery.
“I heard. Did Susan Carmody send you?”
With tears threatening, she shook her head. “She told me what she had done to Simon, but she did not ask me to speak to you.”
“I don’t know whether Simon Cordell deserved what he got, and maybe only you can answer that, but I don’t agree with what Susan did.”
Helena looked into the distance, a faint tremor on her lips. “We were stupid. I was lonely and frightened of this place. It’s not natural. None of it.” She managed a faint smile. “They tell me the aliens will fix his injuries in next to no time.”
“I don’t think he will bother you again,” Jason said.
“I can heel-kick as well as any officer here,” Helena declared. “I do have some strength. I think Susan meant well. She was trying to protect me.”
“One of her girls.”
Helena almost laughed, then her face grew serious. “I said Susan didn’t send me. She didn’t. It was me who wanted to see you.” She appeared nervous. “You know the aliens more than anybody here. Can I ask you some questions?”
Jason could feel the tension in her voice, see it in her aura. He just nodded. On Earth, he had been the First Seen. Chosen by the aliens, or, rather, by the RNasia. His vacation with his mother had been savagely interrupted, and he had been forced into adulthood more rapidly than seemed good for his mental well-being. But now, what storms had raged through his mind had abated. Turmoil still existed, but it was a gentle, thought-provoking turmoil, one that led him to accept his role among the human captors. Schooldays were a mere candle in the roar of a nuclear sun, a distant memory buried in a distant world. He remained the First Seen, and perhaps would always be so.
Helena said, “I know we have provided the hybrids for the aliens. I know they are supposed to be an improvement on both our races. I even think I understand how they will use them to explore the galaxy without fear of physical or mental degradation.” She turned her face towards Jason, and he saw such a loss of future hope, such despair, that he felt his own strength and beliefs beginning to crumble under an assault of uncertainty. “But I don’t know how the women fit in, even how you and your mother fit in. Have they finished with us? Are we eventually to be discarded once the hybrids are free of the tanks? Will we meet them, see our own offspring? And what happens then?” She put her head in her hands. “Will they want more hybrids from us? Will we ever see Earth again?”
The possibility that the Gliezans would repeat the hybrid experiment on this orbiting station disturbed him. He wondered whether it was the obvious thing for them to do—produce more hybrids with their captives, and never return to Earth at all. That would devastate everybody and would rule out the need for interplanetary collaboration.
The thought made him sick to his stomach. The Milijun enhancements and direct contact with the aliens had matured him well beyond his fifteen years, somehow increased the power of his mind, but there were times when teenage naivety broke through.
“I wish I could answer your questions,” Jason responded eventually, “but I can’t. I can only repeat what we have been told. We are part of an alien plan for future cooperation between our two worlds, and that might have a great and wonderful outcome, or it might turn out to be a genetic and spiritual disaster. We are, if you like, an experiment that will enable both worlds to explore the cosmos as allies. If it fails, there will be no further alien interaction with Earth, and, barring a few individuals, Earth will be none the wiser.” He shrugged. “We have no choice but to believe until we know any different.”
“Then we should be able to talk to them as equals. If we cannot, we are really prisoners, like mice in a cage.” Helena looked at him, wide-eyed. “Aren’t we?”
She was right, of course, and Jason nodded. “I have tried, but they will tell no more. Maybe because they are not sure about what’s in the tanks. The hybrids have to be compatible both physically and spiritually. If they are not, we may have produced anomalies.” As soon as he said them, he regretted his words and rushed to add, “I didn’t mean—”
“I do not understand their spirituality,” Helena interrupted, clearly not wanting to discuss the conception of the hybrids or the status of her own child. “They profess to believe in the afterlife, as I do now in my own way, but they do not mention a creator of any kind. That is not how it is or ever was on Earth.”
“Their faith is apparently underscored by some evidential proof,” Jason stated, “unlike ours, which needs absolute belief. I think it is a result of their scientific investigations, thousands of years of dedicated research, not just on reaching other worlds, but on breaching other dimensions. Even combining the two.
“You have seen what they can do within the material world. Some humans believe that physical creation, whatever the method, has its source in an invisible realm wherein the creator and spirits dwell. Our world is physical; the Gliezan world is both physical and inter-dimensional across boundaries we can only suspect. They traverse the curtain between our dimensions and others.”
“Dimensional shift,” Helena said. “Raising energy levels, vibrations.” She looked quizzically at Jason, a demure expression on her face. “And where is heaven, do they say?”
Jason smiled. “They have not talked about heaven, at least not to me. But heaven may be another dimension further. We may not be so lucky as to have it directly adjacent to our realm.”
Helena clapped her hands, the sound echoing from the wall to race out among the trees and the grass and the sky. She leaned over and kissed Jason lightly on the cheek. “From now on, I will regard you as my brother.”
“You fill a void,” Jason replied coyly. “I do not have any siblings.”
Silence descended for a while, then Helena asked, “Can you talk to the Gliezans about what we have discussed?”
“Maybe we should have a group discussion, all of us together, with their council.”
“Will they allow that?” Helena looked hopeful.
“I don’t know. We can only hope. It will maybe test their true motives.”
“What can we do if their motives are not what we think?” Helena’s face suddenly grew dark, not only from the shadow of a passing cloud.
“We must try to find out more. Keep asking them to tell us more.” Jason took a deep breath. “We have a role to play here even if we cannot be certain what it is.”
They both stood, and Helena stretched, arms to the sky. “Would they kill us?” she asked out of the blue.
Jason, shocked at the question, took a moment to respond. “No, I don’t think so. They seem a peaceful race.” He paused, then added, “Do the other women feel the same as you?”
“They feel lost, I think.” Helena frowned and looked at him earnestly. “To some extent, they blame you, the part-father of their children. They see you as an ally of the aliens. They are so short of answers I am afraid they may do something ill-advised, something born of desperation. They want some kind of action.”
Jason nodded thoughtfully. “We need to discuss things together. I’ve had conversations, but nothing meaningful.” He missed his mother already. She was much better at this than he was. He looked at Helena, eyes full of pleading. “Could you get everyone together, tonight?”
“Me? Surely it would be—”
“No,” Jason interrupted, “better from one of their own.”
“Better, I think, from Laura—but I will do it.” She pursed her lips. “After dinner?”
Jason nodded.
“And Simon?”
“I will talk to him, if he has returned.”
“Better sit him away from Carmody,” Helena said.
“And you,” Jason added.
Helena nodded. “Suits me.” To his surprise, she held out her hand for him to shake. It felt strange, as if he was just meeting her. Her grip was firm but gentle, not limp as he might have supposed from her earlier demeanor.
She turned to go, stopped, and looked back. “Thanks, Jason. I like my child better now.”
After she had gone, Jason sat back against the wall and wondered what he had let himself in for. He tried to recall his recent conversation with Rfinsa. She, as usual, had been the epitome of evasion. He had found out more about Rkapth, and the fact that the RNasia needed a master for universal exploration, but precious little about the immediate future or the Gliezan plan.
He wondered whether humans could really voyage outside the solar system in partnership with an alien race, especially when the initial contact had been sorely marred by mistakes on both sides. The problems facing collaboration seemed overwhelming. Jason did not believe any power on Earth would readily sanction cooperation with alien robots that could enter the physical space of a human body and control its actions. But surely the aliens suspected that already. They had studied human behavior for centuries.
Above all, Jason doubted that humans could be trusted to react peacefully to an extraterrestrial approach, even with fellow humans and hybrids accompanying the alien emissaries.
Indeed, are the aliens to be trusted? Maybe that is the more pressing question. He needed to know all the details, and he needed to know their tactics. He shook his head vigorously. Carmody’s words were certainly getting to him.
He sorely wanted the Gliezan plan to work. It promised a huge step for humanity. After the devastation of the last global conflict, humans had just started to regroup: mining the moon and planning flights to the solitary Martian colony established prior to hostilities. But compared to the Gliezans, they were babes in arms, and therein lay the rub. They were well out of their depth.
Jason clenched and unclenched his fists, took a deep breath, and forced his troubled mind to return to more immediate problems.
He had no idea how to gain access to the other spheres. Asking politely was out of the question. Rfinsa’s rebuke of his request had been short and to the point: You cannot visit. Searching for the portal, whilst it kept the party occupied, appeared futile and would ultimately lead to frustration.
Please ask the council to reconsider, he had demanded of Rfinsa. That would be in your best interests. How would the Gliezans react to that? He now considered it a foolhardy thing to have said. The humans had nowhere to go and very little to do other than turn upon themselves, and—most importantly—they had lost control of their own lives.
His thoughts turned to the upcoming meeting. Susan Carmody, in his mother’s absence, would try to take control. What would she propose? Disobedience? Violence? Perhaps even taking an alien hostage. Maybe he should give her free rein, let her make a fool of herself. No matter what she proposed, the aliens would have the upper hand.
There was one other thing. Only he knew what had happened to his mother and Tala Hughes. He needed an explanation for their disappearance.
Jason rose and gazed along the wall. It curved away into infinity. Perhaps it was a circle, embracing their artificial terrene world. He considered how long it would take to walk its length, probably to end up back at the starting point. It was inside a sphere, but how big was the sphere? Add it to finding the portal—another fool’s errand.
Walking back to the communal building, he cast a glance at the sky and said a brief prayer for his mother. He was starting to despair. The alien plan was just that, alien, and his part in it, the human part in it, was just a grain of sand in a cosmic desert. He wondered whether the aliens understood that the human race would not tolerate being used, would not, in fact, tolerate anything but being an equal partner, and that only with a guarded finger on the trigger. Perhaps the aliens did not really comprehend the nature of man; conceivably their mindset could not understand humans at all, despite their prolonged observations.
As he approached the building, words from the past sprang to mind, whisperings from a ghost. Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Nelson Mandela. School or the nanos? It didn’t really matter.
Time to make a stand.
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