Hello again! Remember me? It's been a while.
First off, semi-retirement is anything but relaxing. I’ve been crazy busy with my son’s various programs as he embarks on adulthood as a special needs individual. Mom’s Taxi Service (along with many other hats I must wear) is a very real thing. I’m not complaining though. Being Kiddo’s mother is the most fulfilling role I’ve ever had.
In the midst of it all, I have managed to get some writing done…a whole book’s worth, in fact. Who’s ready for a new Kalquor Dark Empire adventure? The sixth installment of Dark Empire is titled Advance and Retreat. The ebook will be out August 8 and is up for pre-order now (links below). The print book, which doesn’t have a pre-order option, will be out August 1 for those of you who like to get your mitts on Kalquor early.
So without further ado, let’s enjoy a preview. First up, Emperor Clajak makes a proposal to the least likely of heroes:
Kalquor
Dramok Rorix fought not to gape at Emperor Clajak. “A Coydidak fleet, my emperor?”
“Of a sort.” The muscled Kalquorian royal, his shoulder-length, steel-sheened hair tucked behind his ears, offered a grim smile. “Fifty ships of varying design. A new explorer-class flagship for you to captain, fifteen marauders, a hospital ship, several raiders, and various other decommissioned vessels we pulled from stockyards. None except the flagship and marauders are new, but the older vessels are being modified and updated for your use for deep space exploration. You’ve been lobbying the Imperial Clan and the Royal Council to allow your group to do so for years.”
Rorix, for once in his life, found himself at a loss for words. He glanced at his companion sitting next to him at the low table across from the Dramok emperor.
His Nobek clanmate of almost twenty years looked dumbfounded. It was an expression Rorix couldn’t remember seeing on Signis’ handsome but typically stoic features. Signis’ gaze met his, his almond-shaped eyes damned near round in shock.
Rorix had indeed campaigned for the Coydidak, a band of Kalquorian space wanderers, to be given the means to explore the outer reaches of the known galaxy. For the last four years since being voted by the Council of Elders as the Coydidak leader, he’d made intermittent speeches to the three emperors and their empress. He’d also appealed to the Kalquor’s Committee of Exploration, expounding how the empire had a ready means at their disposal…namely the Coydidak…eager to find new planets and precious resources for Kalquor to capitalize on.
The Coydidak, a name which loosely translated to “blown about,” were a faction of mostly men who had no interest in putting down roots on Kalquor or any of its moons, stations, or colonies. For various reasons, they preferred to live on a motley ensemble of ships, visiting inhabited areas where there might be money to be made.
Merchants, entertainers…and opportunists, according to their detractors…the Coydidak were the nomads of the Kalquorian Empire. Their members were incapable or unwilling to stay in one place for any amount of time. They lived by their own rules for the most part and eschewed what they saw as the typical Kalquorian lust for rank and promotion.
Rorix had been born among them. His mother’s parent clan had essentially stolen him as a toddler from her and the Coydidak to raise him as a “decent” Kalquorian. Unable to shake an inbred wanderlust and hatred for regular society’s rules, he’d emancipated himself and returned to the wanderers and his parent clan at the age of fourteen.
He now sat before one of the four Kalquorian rulers in Clajak’s official office, having been summoned as soon as his ragtag caravan of spacecraft had entered orbit. They’d shown up on Kalquor in hopes of scoring supplies for the next leg of their wanderings. Clajak had invited him to visit. It was a welcome change from Rorix begging for an audience to renew his plea for the imperial assignment that would grant his people sustained funding to live free as they wished.
He was aware of the figure he cut before the formally purple-robed emperor, Clajak’s longtime aide Dramok Korkla in his impeccable blue uniform, and the red-armored Royal Guardsmen. The grim-faced Nobek guards surrounded the fine table where the visiting Coydidak pair sat on floor cushions. Rorix thought the cushions alone probably cost more money than the Coydidak had seen in six months.
Rorix’s loose sapphire blue shirt, open at the chest, and his snug black pants were hardly business attire. Signis was less appropriate in a screaming scarlet sleeveless tank top, which showed scarred and muscled arms. He was easily a physical match for any of the royal bodyguards watching them with murder in their eyes.
The Coydidak pair were out of place amid finely carved furnishings, rich fabrics, state-of-the-art technology, and no doubt priceless artwork. As casual as the emperor’s corner seating arrangement attempted to be, it was still an opulent setting.
“Why now?” Rorix managed, suspicion lending him the strength to recover from his shock. “After four years of me telling the empire how perfect the Coydidak are to search out resources and new worlds, why are you suddenly dumping ships and supplies on us and telling us ‘Do it’?”
Clajak grinned. Rorix was reminded of the stories of the emperor’s youth, when he’d been a prince running about the galaxy, getting into life-threatening scrapes. The Coydidak elders loved to tell of Crown Prince Clajak’s escapades, because he’d seemed so much like their people. He’d been a true adventurer, unable to sit still even for duty, honor, and empire.
The emperor wore the smirk of such a man, his purple eyes glinting pure mischief. “I won’t pretend I don’t have an ulterior motive, Captain Rorix. Thanks to the Darks, the Coydidak are in the best position to become the empire’s insurance policy.”
“You want us to fight the aliens who took over the Galactic Council?” Signis didn’t hide his disbelief or disdain. His tone was downright rude.
Clajak appeared to take no offense. “Hell, no. If you knew the odds we’re up against and how unlikely it is our military fleet, the best in the GC’s membership, can pull us out of this mess…”
The boyish smirk disappeared and Rorix was shocked to see how old Clajak suddenly appeared. The emperor was only fifty-one years old, nowhere near Kalquorian middle age. His steel-colored hair was from a mutation, not the onset of years.
“This is why I called you,” he told the visitors. “The All, the entity dispatching pieces of itself, which we refer to as the Darks, appears to be bigger than two planets. Because it exists between two dimensions, there’s no weapon we currently possess that can fight it off. It has the Galactic Council of Planets under its control. From all indications, it’s coming for the entirety of the membership. Even beyond, to the worlds unaffiliated with the GC. Not to defeat or enslave, but to eradicate.”
* * * *
Pre-order Now! Ebook releases August 8
Amazon, Amazon UK, Nook, Smashwords, Apple, Kobo
Print version and link will be available August 1
Victories against invasion have been won, but the galaxy may be lost in the end.
There may be no escape from the All’s extermination plans for the dimension. Emperor Clajak has one last card up his sleeve, however: a band of misfit renegade Kalquorians called the Coydidak. Only with their help and an impossible mission to beyond the known reaches of the universe can Kalquor hope to preserve life.
A determined engineer is at the top of the list of Coydidak leader Dramok Rorix’s least favorite humans. She’ll stop at nothing to board his ship for a one-way voyage that’s to last a lifetime. Is ultimate freedom from the empire worth dealing with the beautiful but unrelenting Laughter Lorenz?
As the clock ticks to the end of Dr. Cassidy Hamilton’s pregnancy and potentially life in the dimension, she works feverishly to find a way to destroy the All. A visit from an undiscovered entity brings to light her greatest hope and worst fear. Only time will tell if this new being is friend or foe…but Cassidy’s time and that of her soon-to-be-born child is almost up.
Adventure. Danger. Intrigue. Romance that outburns the sun in any galaxy. It’s all here in the sixth installment of the Dark Empire series.
Pre-order Now! Ebook releases August 8
Amazon, Amazon UK, Nook, Smashwords, Apple, Kobo
Print version and link will be available August 1
