Just a little over a week before the book is out! Meanwhile, a little hint of shared attraction between Stacy and Nobek Kuran as they head for the Government House and a first look at Earth II:
With every passing mile they flew, Stacy’s nervousness and exhilaration mounted. Outside the shuttle Kuran piloted, Earth II was a sparkling jewel. From the metal-and-glass buildings of its first city, lying outside the spaceport, to the lush wooded areas beyond, to the seashore where the largest of the planet’s ocean lapped, it was as beautiful as Haven. Soon it would be teeming with Earthers, whom had been displaced a decade prior from their dying home planet.
“What do you think of it?” she asked her companion.
He shrugged. “Considering this was a lifeless rock less than five years ago, it’s impressive. Terraforming an entire planet is difficult, from what I’ve been told. The engineers outdid themselves when they cooked up your second Earth.”
“They invented groundbreaking processes to make it happen quickly. Barely a century ago, it would have taken fifty years to do this, and there was no guarantee it would take. This became reality in a mere five years, if you count surveying potential planets and narrowing the candidates down to the right one. Once they started establishing the atmosphere, it became viable within two years. All that was left then was putting our native flora and fauna in place.” She gazed in awe at the distant mountains, verdant with trees and foliage. The seeds had come from the original Earth, as had the animals, birds, and fish, which now proliferated on its namesake.
“Too bad you’re spoiling it by erecting all those buildings. You couldn’t just use the natural landscape the way we do on Kalquor? Natural is so much better.”
“Says the man living on a space station.”
“Says the man who gets to be planet-side for most of my waking hours. If I were cooped up on that orbiting nightmare day in and day out, I’d probably blow it up.” He assumed a fierce expression to back up his claim.
Stacy chuckled. Kuran had been in and out of the Kalquorian fleet, depending on the manpower needed, in recent wars. He might prefer to live on a planet, but he coped fine shut up in a ship or space station.
It was the perfect opportunity to dig for a little information. “How are your clanmates handling Station Alpha?”
“Rihep can handle anything. If you threw a wooden box at him and said, ‘live in there,’ he wouldn’t bat an eye.” Kuran’s smile deepened, his affection for his clan leader obvious.
“And your Imdiko?”
“Etnil’s complained nonstop.”
Stacy eyed him with confused concern. “Why are you laughing about it?”
“You have to understand Etnil. If he’s bitching, then everything is probably all right. I don’t worry until he goes quiet.” Kuran shook his head, snickering. “Our window vid stopped working last night. He said the view of Earth was the only reason he took the job. He got hold of sheet metal cutters this morning before I left and pretended he was cutting a window in the hull. He said, ‘The vacuum of space will kill us, but what a wonderful view as we gasp for air.’”
Stacy’s laughter joined his. It wasn’t the only tale she’d heard of Etnil’s sense of humor. For a psychologist, he was quite the cutup.
She quieted as they approached the outskirts of another city. Kuran didn’t take them as far as where the tallest buildings stretched skyward. It was on the outer border where Government Hall, also the governor’s residence, sat in the middle of ten acres of manicured grounds. It would be her home until voters tossed her out or she ran the length of allowed terms.
Kuran might have been dismissive of Earther building and landscaping preferences, but Stacy thought the stretch of green grass and plots of flowers and vegetable gardens were lovely. He banked around the white building itself, an impressive edifice with two wings and columns reaching its four-story height. It was elegant but not overly showy, in her opinion. The Saucin’s residence on Plasius was far more ostentatious, and the Dantovonian prime minister had a compound that stretched a square mile.
“Home sweet home,” Kuran said. “We should have brought a booster pack, so you could jump from the shuttle and land on the lawn for a dramatic entrance.”
“Don’t start on our first day, now.”
They grinned at each other.
* * * *
A new planet. A new enemy. Is the end coming for the Kalquorian Empire?
In the aftermath of the Kalquorian civil war and the defeat of the Bi’is invasion fleet, the empire has enjoyed peace. A new Earth has been born. A Kalquorian leads the Galactic Council of Planets. An era of harmony seems assured.
However, new dangers arrive on the horizon. Governor Stacy Nichols finds herself at odds with powerful opponents who want Earth II to return to the old ways that led to the demise of their original planet. They’ll do anything to stop her, especially when they discover her newfound romance with Clan Rihep of Kalquor.
After five years and a terrifying encounter with an unknown entity, Clan Piras is finally leaving their spy duties in Bi’is space. Now they must face enemies closer to home: the families of those they sacrificed while on a secret mission during the Kalquorian civil war.
A new threat to the
existence of Kalquor and the entire Galactic Council of Planets arrives in the
midst of these challenges, a dark menace unlike anything faced before. One
young, inexperienced spyship ensign is all that stands between the galaxy and
utter destruction. Can he warn the empire in time…or is it already too late?
Dark Empire 1: Shadows Approach releases August 4. Pre-order now at Amazon, Amazon UK, Nook, Smashwords, Kobo, Apple, and print.
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