Dark Empire: Secret War - Chapter One, Section One

 

Dramok Mereta, secretary-general to the Galactic Council of Planets, is down but certainly not out.

* * * *

Galactic Council space, planet Jedver

Dramok Mereta, secretary-general of the Galactic Council of Planets, caught a glimmer of light and welcomed it. As it grew larger and brighter, he sent waves of calming bliss to the mind that had invaded his.

The alien presence was heavy, suffocating as Mereta’s Kalquorian consciousness emerged. He felt his opponent stir, reacting to the soft blurring of focus he fed it. It knew something was wrong, but it had no idea what.

Mereta found its ache, its loneliness, its separation. He fed it warmth and a sense of belonging. It submerged into the sensation, hungry to be one with the alien All again, from which it had sprung.

Having successfully distracted it for a few precious moments, Mereta looked out onto the world he knew only in bits and snatches nowadays.

He was in his office, seated at his desk. His computer was on, a holographic screen hovering over it. He read it over quickly, knowing control of his body was brief, counted in minutes. Perhaps seconds.

It was a disturbing message to the heads of member planets, not only from himself but from many members on the council, urging them to relax sanctions against the planet Trag. The Tragooms were a troublesome species, mere children in a spiritual sense but destructive. Experience had taught most sentients the Tragooms were best kept to their own area of space.

There was little Mereta could do to keep such nonsense from being sent. Doing so would awaken the creature riding him to the fact he was overcoming it on occasion. He marveled for an instant at how the tone and speech of the message it had composed sounded just as he would…if he’d indeed supported such nonsense. How could anyone believe he’d want to ease the boundaries keeping the Tragooms a part of the rest of the galaxy’s society without allowing them to do too much damage?

He had no time to ruminate on the matter. He opened a new document and typed a hurried message, the latest in several. He noted the date as he did so. Had he really been locked away in his own mind for so long? Apparently none of his earlier attempts to communicate had been discovered by the recipients.

Then again, his activities had yet to be discovered by the creature running his body, so there was still hope. More hope since Kalquor had yet to be overcome.

“Send via com route labeled Mereta Home Path,” he told the device when he was done. “Recipient, Nobek Emperor Bevau.”

The com beeped its compliance in the nick of time. The room was fading from Mereta’s vision, his dark passenger waking from the mists that turned their attention to Mereta’s consciousness.

He returned to the quiet deep, where the true All awaited him instead of the territorial other-dimensional being his rider had emerged from. Mereta drifted in peace, waiting for the light to beckon him to his next chance to warn the galaxy it had come under attack.

* * * *

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Time is running out to halt the Darks’ march to the Kalquorian Empire’s annihilation.

Finally home on Kalquor, Dramok Ilid is haunted by his encounter with the Darks, which he barely survived. His struggle far from over, Ilid’s sanity and the empire’s existence hang on a quickly unraveling thread. When he learns the Darks have arrived on Kalquor, even his family’s love may not be able to keep him from an unthinkable end.

On Earth II, head of planetary security Nobek Kuran’s hands are full: meeting his potential in-laws, training his replacement, and keeping tabs on a rogue lieutenant governor with a secret agenda. His troubles are only beginning when a deadly attack on those he loves drives him to the brink of murder. Meanwhile, spy Nobek Selt finds himself growing far too close to his subject, reporter Blythe Nelson. Does his clan dare to romance a woman devoted to uncovering the truth, including their secret activities on her world?

Having wiped out the entire Bi’is civilization, the Darks have seized control of the Galactic Council of Planets and attempt to bring the Kalquorian Empire to its knees. Clans Tranis and Piras are desperate to stop the enemy from destroying Kalquor and its allies. Can Hope Nath and Chief Engineer Lokmi capture a lethal enemy capable of passing through all known barriers?

Releasing January 26.

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