Let's Get This Party Started

 

Hi all! (But not the All...eek.) Dark Empire Book Two: Infiltration will be heading your way in November...but you know I can't wait that long. As I did with the first of the series, Shadows Approach, you can look forward to a preview until the book's release. 

Today we begin with Galactic Council Secretary-General Mereta receiving a report from the inspection team that has just returned from Bi'is...and a whole lot more. Chapter One, Scenes One and Two follows for your enjoyment:

* * * *

Planet Jedver, Galactic Council of Planets central world

“The team we sent to inspect Bi’is has reported in, sir. You’ve been asked to meet with them right away.”

Dramok Mereta, secretary-general of the Galactic Council of Planets, regarded his assistant Tulbayn with mild interest. “So soon? They don’t wish to wait a day or two?”

Tulbayn, an emerald-furred Joshadan who typically wore a serene smile, appeared disconcerted. “I asked them, and they insisted it’s important they report their findings to you as soon as possible. I told them it wasn’t protocol, but Commander Nezlo said you’d want to hear their news immediately.”

“Most extraordinary.” Mereta leaned his elbows on his polished desk. His long fingers wove together, but for the indexes, which steepled. He settled his chin on the fingertips, letting the gentle music of a Plasian string quartet enter his senses. Such beautiful music, a feast for the soul. He directed his attention to Tulbayn once again. “Nezlo didn’t ask to call together the full council for an emergency session?”

“No, Secretary-General. He said you should listen to what they learned first, as his report is of a sensitive nature.”

Mereta considered, reaching for the quietest part of his mind as his gaze drifted over an arrangement of pure white flowers on his desk. The Bi’is inspection team had encountered a situation important enough to bring immediately to him, but not to the entire council. Had such an occasion ever come up in the past? If so, he hadn’t heard of it, and he’d been around a very long time.

Alneusians, the species to which Commander Nezlo belonged, weren’t known for excitability. Mereta wasn’t well acquainted with him, but he understood Nezlo was held in high regard. His competence couldn’t be in question, as only the best negotiators and diplomats were capable of dealing with the troublesome Bi’isils. Troublesome indeed, despite being kept under the Galactic Council’s thumb since their attempt to destroy Mereta’s home planet of Kalquor five years prior.

“I take it I have time to see Nezlo, as my last appointment canceled.”

Tulbayn, used to Mereta’s silences and contemplations, treated the lengthy pause after he’d last spoken as if it hadn’t happened. “There’s an hour free before you’re to address the Appropriations Committee.”

“Can the commander come now?”

“He’s in reception already, sir. He and the rest of his team.”

Surprise sought to disturb Mereta. He acknowledged it without a tremor of irritation, merely interest in his own reaction. “The entire team?”

“Yes, Secretary-General.”

“They came straight from docking their ship?”

“That’s my understanding.”

“My, my, Tulbayn. I wonder what it was they discovered on Bi’is?” He leaned back in his leather hover chair and contemplated the softly illuminated ceiling.

“It must have been notable.”

“Indeed. I suppose I should discover what the excitement’s about. Will you show them to the conference room? I’ll join them in a moment.”

“Yes, Secretary-General.” Tulbayn bowed as a Kalquorian would, despite knowing Mereta’s objections to such demonstrations. She hurried out of his office before he could rebuke her.

He smiled at the door, which had closed behind her. Joshadans were a most remarkable race. Simple, kind, unassuming. Above all, forgiving. The galaxy could learn from Tulbayn’s people. Civilization would be a more peaceful place to live if its residents did so.

Mereta closed his eyes and sank into a meditative state almost immediately. At nearly a hundred and fifty years of age, much of his adult years spent as a Temple of Life priest, it was more accurate to say he deepened the quietness his consciousness resided in. Calm flowed through him and blissful silence filled his mind.

Whatever Nezlo and his team reported, whatever malicious mischief the Bi’isils were up to after five years of quiet, the universe remained indestructible. The knowledge ruled Mereta’s outlook on life and kept him calm, even in the face of calamity. His unwavering steadiness had made him secretary-general when he’d have just as soon retired to teach his disciples on Kalquor. Duty and service were his mandate, however, so Mereta had allowed the approximately two hundred member planets of the Galactic Council to set the burden on his shoulders.

A few minutes later, he left his office. His pace unhurried, Dramok Mereta drifted down a short corridor to the conference room in his professional suite. Its door was open, but he heard no sound of conversation. Odd.

He entered the room. He’d traveled several steps before he noticed the myriad aliens awaiting him. Or rather, the strange, dark shadows sitting upon their shoulders, arms or tentacles ringing the inspection team’s necks.

The door shut behind him. Tulbayn’s trill of a voice called from behind him. “Door, lock.”

Mereta swiveled, his official white robes whispering on the soft carpet. Tulbayn’s eyes, emerald to match her fur, gazed at him from a few feet away. Her kindly features wore cold dislike, almost making her unrecognizable.

A dark blob of shadow clung to her.

“Tulbayn, you aren’t yourself,” Mereta said. His gaze swept the rest of the group, the inspection team. “None of you are. Is this Bi’is’ doing?”

“You see.” Commander Nezlo, stood, encased in their protective exosuit. It sealed the Alneusian aquatic resident in seawater. A shadow was inside and outside, somehow present in both places.

“I do.” His peripheral vision seemed more detailed than when he peered directly at the strange dark shapes clinging to his visitors. He had an impression of scaled skin, studded by many eyes. “Do I address sentient creatures or controlled parasites?”

“Parasites!” a Beonid shouted as expressions of rage filled their myriad faces.

“A better word failed to come to mind. Obviously, you are intelligent entities. What is your reason for coming here? For summoning me?”

“He sees us. He isn’t phased, but he sees us.” Nezlo’s bulbous eyes, murky in the water he peered from, riveted on him. “It is not good.”

Mereta was suddenly aware of movement at his feet. He glanced down to spy a bulbous shadow sporting multiple tentacles dashing up his robe. A dart of instinctive shock jolted his chest, and he attempted to brush the creature off. His hand passed through it without any sensation of contact. Nor did he feel it tugging on his robes.

“I take this as an act of hostility,” he advised them as he continued to try to push the climbing creature away, as it continued to climb to his abdomen, then his chest. “I shall resist—”

It scurried up and over his shoulder. Then darkness rose, deleting Mereta’s sight and hearing.

But not his consciousness. He was in that place he knew so well, an inner space where peaceful bliss reigned.

It would seem I’ve been overtaken physically. He detected a note of fear threading the darkness and contemplated it until it faded.

Death comes to us all, sooner or later. The creature has my body. A portion of my brain as well, as they used the others to communicate. Ah, poor Tulbayn, they did this to you too. I shall consider this unforeseen situation and determine if there’s anything I can do about it.

 

I am one with All.

The All hear you. A distant call. The collected atoms of the All’s greatness in the conference room felt the separation keenly. They strengthened their bonds with each other, and the call was louder. You have control over this Mereta.

I do. A hesitation. I…there is a portion of its mind closed to this piece of All.

A shudder ran through the assembled. Separation was an abomination.

It sees us yet doesn’t enter between dimensions.

Another of the atoms asked, shall we perform tests to discover the source of the interloper’s ability?

There was a lengthy pause. The Mereta is of too much importance as our emissary. You can control it? It is in a position of great power, beyond the reach of its own source. The All requires it do as we command.

I have possession. Only the small section eludes me…but it doesn’t prohibit me from the knowledge this unit (another shudder) contains.

It is good. By controlling this unit, we have access to the many species of this dimension. We will learn of them. We will stop them. They’ll pay for their desecration of our home.

It is good. I’ll first learn of those leaders we must control in this collection of units. Then we may destroy them.

After we have them destroy Kalquor, the poison source infecting our realm. Then the rest, so our home remains pure.

Death to the invaders and those who’d invade after them. Death to those in this dimension.

Their will was strong. The All was coming, and it would erase the Separate beings when it arrived, after they’d ensured the Separates posed no threat. The knowledge bolstered those who’d come before the All despite their aloneness, to ready for the erasure of the lesser species.

* * * *

The alien force dubbed the Darks has grabbed control of key positions on Kalquor and the Galactic Council of Planets. Other leaders are still unaware of the threat among them. The galaxy is wide open for destruction by an unfathomable enemy.

Former emperor Nobek Yuder has suspicions, but due to restrictions placed on him after his prison sentence, he can only stand by and watch helplessly. A renegade Royal Councilman has designs to bring him back to the political arena, but doing so could destabilize the Kalquorian Empire, leaving it vulnerable to invasion.

Meanwhile, one man on the brink of death, the only man who can detect the nearly invisible Darks, is pulled from a lifeless shuttle by Captains Kila and Nako. His incredible story tells them they’re in a race against time to save not only the empire but the whole galaxy…but are they already too late?

On Earth II, Governor Stacy Nichol’s relationship with Clan Rihep continues to grow. So does the danger, as opponents make deadly moves against her and the orbiting Kalquorian station where the clan lives. Nobek Kuran is determined to keep his clanmates and would-be lifemate safe, but how can he stop a faceless enemy?

Relationships, old and new, are strained to the breaking point at a time when Earthers and Kalquorians need each other more than ever. The Darks are closing in, and no one is ready to oppose them.

Pre-order coming soon!