BOOK BLURB
The sequel to The Widening Gyre, praised by Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal and more!
Reclaiming Earth from the Zhen was only the first battle. Now Tajen Hunt and his fellow colonists must fight for their fledgling colony s survival. Tajen s mission to seek aid from the Kelvaki Assembly is cut short when the Zhen invade Earth. Now he, Liam, and Kiri must return to Earth and liberate the colony from brutal occupation. When Tajen learns the Zhen plan to destroy a human fleet amassing in preparation to help Earth, he and his crew must escape the planet once more and warn them.
CHAPTER ONE
Tajen Hunt
I stood in front of a huge window overlooking Earth and fingered my collar. Kiri slapped my hand. " You're going to mess it up after all my hard work."
"It itches."
"It's cut almost exactly like the uniform you wore for more than a decade."
"I hated how that felt too."
She tried not to laugh, but her smile gave her amusement away. "It'll be over in a bit. Liam's on his way." She gave Katherine Lawson, my second-in-command of Earth's space forces, a long-suffering look. Katherine sais nothing out loud, but her expression made it clear she got my niece's point, and agreed.
My partner, Liam Kincaid, entered a few moments later, skidded to a halt just outside the room. He composed himself before entering the observation lounge. A small group of friends stood in loose ranks,which parted to let Liam through. His suit was as elegant and as uncomfortable-looking as mine; Ben Delani stopped him halfway through the crowd, reached to adjust the suit. After a few seconds of shifting and tugging at the jacket, Ben flicked Liam's hair back into place, gave him a once over,then nodded decisively and pushed Liam toward the front of the room.
"Sorry," Liam said."Had a little training accident to deal with."
"Everyone all right?"
"Yeah, everyone's fine," he replied. "But I had to give my team The Talk. It took a while."
"The Talk" was what everyone called Liam's patented " This is why you listen to me, morons!" lecture. He'd given it enough times in the year since we took Earth back from the Zhen and began training our defense force volunteers that it was nearly a rote speech. It was also entertaining enough that an audience inevitably formed as he was giving it. I looked him in the eye and raised an eyebrow at him. "You sure you didn't embellish it a bit for the audience and lose track of time?"
"Of course not!" he said in an aggrieved tone. Then, after a beat; "Maybe a little,"
"Well, you're here now," I said, offering him my arm. "shall we?"
He linked his arm with mine,and we turned to Katherine. She smiled and looked around the room. "We who stand here today have been witness to several 'firsts.' We are the first humans to see Earth in over a thousand years. We are the first humans to break free of the Zhen Empire and declare ourselves free of their treachery. And now, we in this room are witnesses to the first marriage ceremony since we founded our colony."
She took a breath, looking down at the book in her hand, and said, "When Tajen and Liam first met, it was an instant connection. They got along so well, and so immediately,that it took the rest of us by surprise. And their attraction was obvious to us all, too. So much so that the rest of us had a betting pool going for how long it would take."
"I won," Ben crawled, drawing a laugh from the audience.
" Indeed he did," Katherine said, her sour tone cueing even more laughter. She waited for it to die down, then said, "Liam and Tajen have written their own vows, which they will give now."
We turned to face each other. We'd agreed Liam would go first. "Tajen, I was no saint before we met. But the moment you first spoke to me, I knew that I was going to spend my life mooning after you. Do you remember your first words to me?"
"No," I lied.
"Who the hell are you and what are you doing to my ship?" he quoted, getting another laugh. "I was smitten. You cannot imagine how relieved I was to see my affections weren't one-sided." He paused and smiled. "I pledge myself to you, and to your family,blood and chosen both. From you I will hold nothing back, and give wholly of myself. I am yours,for now and always."
"Liam, I first saw you half buried in my ship's electronics bay,with only your legs sticking out. And even then I knew you'd be trouble. I tried not to fall for you, but... it was impossible. We live a dangerous life, but I want to spend as much time with you as I can, for as long as we've got in this universe. I am yours, for now and always."
We placed our hands over each other's hearts. Katherine said, "Liam Kincaid, do you take this man as your husband, to love in all ways,for as long as you can?"
"I do."
Tajen Hunt,do you take this man as your husband, to love in all ways,for as long as your can?"
"I do," I said, unsure whether I was going to cry or grin like a idiot.
"Then by the power placed in me by the Provisional Government of Earth, I now pronounce you married."
Before the words were finished, Liam and I were leaning in for a kiss. We had just completed the act when the sudden blare of the Earth Orbital Station's klaxon pummeled my ears. My comms implant sounded, a panicked voice filled my head. "Captain Hunt, this is command, We're reading seven ships coming out of slipspace."
I was running for the tower before he was finished speaking, Katherine and Liam on my heels. I took the stairs two at a time, stumbling into command. The officer on watch, Kaz Simmonds, welcomed me with a salute. I'd tried to put a stop to that, but nobody would listen to me. I ignored the salute until I realised he wasn't going to stop until I returned it. I sketched a quick salute and snapped, "Report!"
Simmonds answered in the precise speech that I'd grown accustomed to from him. "Seven ships, all of Zhen manufacture. They came out slipspace, then used chain drive to get to the inner system. They're waiting just outside luner orbit as I instructed them to."
"Who are they?"
"They claim to be refugees. Lead ship is called the Steller Wind, registered to the Faded Sky Shipping Cartel. The captain Liz Orozco." He cleared his throat. "She is refusing inspection, and she is asking to speak to you directly, sir."
I motioned him to put it on the screen and stepped into the comms visual pickup. "Earth command to vessel Steller wind. As you've been informed, all ships coming to Earth are required to submit to inspection. I'm told you don't want to. Explain yourself."
The woman who appeared before me was in late middle age. She looked almost embarrassed when she recognised me. "Captain Hunt, it's not that we refuse inspection. As I've tried to explain to the young man, we're carrying some... well, something that could get us into trouble. We wanted to explain to someone in charge what we've got aboard before you scanned us. Tempers flair, and that could be a disaster, you see."
"I raised an eyebrow. "And what is it you're carrying?"
"Weapons, Captain."
"What kind?"
" Mostly ground - about a hundred Zhen pulse rifles, some smaller sidearms. But we've also got fifteen starfighter-class pulse guns, ready for mounting, and a few crates of explosives. It's all yours."
" And your asking...?"
She grinned. "Nothing, sir. But I suspect you'll need em. I had em sitting at my - well, my employer's - warehouse. Thought you could put em to better use here than he could."
" we could indeed, Captain Orozco."
She looked embarrassed. "Please, call me Liz. I'm not a captain. I stole this ship and will be turning it, too, over to your colony."
"It's not my colony. Liz, I'm grateful for what you've brought us, but I'm going to have to ask you to stand down and submit to inspection. Nobody gets ---" I was cut off by a new alarm blaring across the command deck. " What the hell?"
In the battle tank, one of the ships in the Steller Wind's formation was accelerating towards the station. "What the hell is this?" I snapped at the screen.
" Orozco blanched. "I don't know!" She pointed to someone outside the field of view. " Get him on comms!" she shouted. "Deveraux, what the hell are you doing?"
I couldn't hear the reply, but Orozco's eyes widened, and she drew a finger across her throat, then turned back to the pickup. "Captain Hunt, he's lost his mind, says he's here to--"
I cut the feed and turned to the defense officer. "Fire at that ship!" He relayed the order, and the stations gunners, as well as the system patrol ships that had responded, focused on the vessel. I could see, though, that as powerful as our guns were, they weren't going to be enough. The freighter was too big, and our ships were too few.
"Sir! Another ship on the move!" the sensor officer called.
I looked at the holotank and cursed. "Get Orozco back!" I roared. The comms officer signaled me, and Orozco appeared before me again. "What the hell is going on?"
She waved her hands in a warding gesture. "I don't know!" she said.
I started to give the order to fire on the ship too, but stopped when I noticed what was happening. The second ship was on an intercept vector with the first. As the two connected, the smaller ship crumpled. Her drives blew, and the small ship was gone.
I looked at the plot and realised the freighter had Bern knocked of course; it wouldn't hit the station - but it was headed right for one of the arms of our shipyard. I turned to the comms officer. "Signal the shipyard and tell them to evacuate."
"Will they have time?" Katherine asked.
I didn't look at her as I replied, "Not all of them."
We watched in sick horror as the freighter slammed into the shipyard. Moments after impact, the freighter's drives blew, and the resulting star vaporized the dock and numerous ships. "Brace for impact," the comms officer called, and we all grabbed for supports.
When the shaking was over, I looked to the watch officer. He scanned his boards and said, "No casualties on the station, sir. But the shipyard...." He gestured at the screen.
We'd lost over half the shipyard, and what was left was in pretty bad shape. Barely any of our docking ships had managed to detach and get away on time. The loss in lives was devastating. I cleared my throat and spoke softly to him. "Get a list of the dead. The council meets in a hour. I want a detailed status report by then."
" Yes, sir."
I turned back to the screen, which was showing Orozco once more. Her face was pale, her breathing shallow.
"What the hell happened?" I said.
"Captain Hunt, I'm sorry," she said, "Deveraux... he had told us he was one of us. But when he tried to ram your station, he broadcast a denunciation. He said that we - and you - are criminals, making things worse for people back on Zhen and Terra."
I blinked, not knowing what to say. I'd known there were human elements that didn't approve of what we'd done, taking the Earth from the Empire and declaring it our own. Despite finding out the Zhen had wiped out Earth civilization and then lied to us about it for eight hundred years, despite the Zhen treating us like second hand citizens, despite everything they had done, many humans still thought of the Zhen's as the good guys. After all, they hsd found our drifting, nearly dead colony ship. They had saved our people, given us a home. It didn't seem to matter what had happened centuries after they'd already destroyed our homeworld while we had been drifting through space. The Zhen Imperial news sources had taken advantage of this divide: there were commentaries all over the slipnet about us, making us out to be villians and cutthroats who had turned against the 'benevolent' Empire. Far more humans and Zhen than i thought possible just fell for that nonsense without a second thought.
"The second ship?" I asked.
" The Avo Grande, captained by Mel Kramer. She sent a message just before impact. All it said was," At least i saw it. This way, my death means something."She paused, clearly emotional."She was a dreamer, Captain. The day your message was broadcast, she called me. It was she who convinced me to come." She paused to get a grip on herself. "She was dying, you see. She wanted to die on Earth."
I nodded, "How many were on her ship?"
She attempted to smile but faltered. "That's the one piece of good news. she didn't have any. Her ship was a scout - ship she'd bought second hand. She didnt have space for a crew. She'd planned to volunteer it for your defense fleet."
"What about Devereux's ship?"
Orozco looked down, troubled. "Well... there we weren't so lucky. The Harbinger had a crew of five, and six passengers. But he had all the weapons in his cargo."
"I don't care about the weapons," I said. "Tell me there were no kids on board."
"No, none."
I let out the breath i hadn't intended to hold. " Well, that's something." I looked to Katherine. We'd been working together long enough now that we didn't really need to speak. She nodded, and i turned back to Orozco. "Given what's happened, I'm almost sorry to say it, but we still need to complete the inspection."
She nodded. "I understand, sir."
"When that's done, though assuming - as I do - that nothing untoward is found, you and your fleet are home. Welcome to Earth."
"Thank you."
As her visual faded from my view, I turned to my chief of security. "Be thorough - don't cut any corners - but try to be respectful to them. They're just lost people." I glanced back at the wreckage of the shipyard. "As have we," I added.
"I think we can handle the job, sir." She saluted and left the control room.
I led Liam back into the hall, then sighed as my Neuronet displayed a priority message. I turned to Liam. "So much for the celebration," I said. "Diana's called an emergency meeting. I'll catch up with you at home?"
"Of course," he said. "I might as well go out on that exploration survey I was putting off." He leaned in and kissed me, his lips tender.
I breathed in his scent as we separated. "Bad timing," I muttered.
"Seems like that's a way of life around here," he said.
AUTHOR BIO
Born in the San Francisco bay area and raised in Napa, California, Michael R. Johnston grew up steeped in everything Science Fiction and Fantasy from Asimov to Zelazny, as well as endless terrible SF TV shows he still has a slightly embarrassed fondness for.
Faced with the choice between moving back in with his parents and continuing school, or paying his rent, he took “a year” off from college. He spent time as a court process server, a retail sales associate, a sandwich maker, and a data entry tech, before finding himself in a management role. A decade later, burnt out from his job in political research and facing 30, he decided he’d had enough and returned to college, graduating with honors from California State University, Sacramento.
In fall 2006, he became a high school English teacher, a job he likens to herding a swarm of angry bees. It’s the best job he’s ever had.
In 2013, he attended the 17th Viable Paradise Science Fiction Writing Workshop. The experience of having his story critiqued by other writers, some of them professionals he’d been reading for years, helped him realize he could write professionally, and introduced him to some of his best friends.
He currently lives in Sacramento, California, with his wife and daughter. When he’s not writing or teaching, he spends time with his family, plays video games and tabletop RPGs (often with family), and reads. He blogs at MJohnstonBooks.com, and can be found on Twitter @MREJohnston.
PUBLICATION DATE: 20th February 2020
PRINT LENGTH: 288 Pages
PUBLISHER: Flame Tree Press
ISBN-10: 1787583139
ISBN-13: 978-1787583139
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