BOOK SYNOPSIS
Ten years have passed since the Axleth invaded Earth and a few hundred humans escaped aboard the ship Athena, piloted by the Artificial Intelligence who calls himself Ares. Now, the refugees approach Earth, determined to take back their home. But something has followed them from deep in space, and as war breaks out on Earth, humanity must decide who is the real enemy.
Lara had always been fascinated by red dwarf stars. Smaller and less luminous than other suns, they hid in the background. But they could last a very long time, outlive their brighter cousins. As the Athena approached Proxima, after five long years traversing open and depressingly empty space , she finally had the opportunity to see one first-hand. But while all the adults and kids alike hurried excitedly towards the front of the ship with its transparent dome, to view not only the star but also its two never-before-seen planets – one of them with rings, no less – she fought against the human tide to a secret rendezvous.
Slipping around a corner, she hesitated a moment outside her own quarters, then breathed a sigh of relief seeing that Nathan and David had already left. Entering the designated safe space, she sat on the edge of her and Nathan’s bed, awaiting Raphaela’s arrival. Her hands were restless and she gazed at little David’s storyboard decorating the curved wall.
While other kids did everything digitally, David used finger painting to describe their journey, their story so far as she’d described it to him at numerous bedtimes, in vivid primary colours. The first painting showed Lara and Nathan meeting for the first time with Sally –then a young, angry ten-year-old –in Manhattan. The rendering of the distant Chrysler building was pretty good. The next sketch chilled her every time she looked at it, but David, at the tender age of three, already had an eye for the unbridled truth. Adults killing screaming, pleading children, with knives and guns. She shuddered, briefly recalling that nightmarish week five years earlier. She skipped to the third, a battle scene, military ships sinking, their prows high, men drowning in boiling, blood-red waters, their arms outstretched, their mouths open wide in frozen, silent anguish. It was so hellish she wondered if she’d somehow re-birthed William Blake. It was the Norfolk Naval Base battle, of course, David doing the best he could as he didn’t understand nukes yet, thank goodness. The fourth vista was of the stingray-shaped Athena, the ship that had saved her and three hundred and fifty others, hurtling through the stars on its ten-year round trip back to Earth, with Proxima at halfway point. She couldn’t wait to see what he painted during the coming week, with a red dwarf and two planets as subject-matter. She felt a pang. There was a not-unreasonable chance she’d never see that painting. She steeled herself and moved on. The last piece was a painfully optimistic depiction of a possible future, the Athena having returned to Earth in five years’ time. Four figures – her, Nathan, David and Sally – standing triumphant on a hill before a gleaming city, Sally’s foot resting on the corpse of a dead Axleth invader. In the background was a hooded figure – Ares – the inscrutable alien Artificial Intelligence who was both their saviour and pilot, waving goodbye as the Athena departed, its job done, heading back into starry space, leaving humanity to its own devices on a restored, recaptured Earth.
‘I hope you’re right, David,’ she whispered.
Raphaela bustled into the room, crushing the moment, looking distinctly unhappy. Lara knew she’d try and dissuade her one last time, so she went pre-emptive.
‘I’m going to find out what Ares is hiding.’
Wrinkles appeared at the corners of Raphaela’s eyes, her elegant face fringed by the first salvos of greying hair. But her voice was iron.
‘You need to be careful.’ Lara said nothing. The sound of running footfalls in the tube outside was easing off. There wasn’t much time. She needed the watch-like device that Raphaela held in her fist, but sensed that she’d get a sermon first from their chief scientist and her long-time friend. ‘Nathan doesn’t know, does he?’ Raphaela said, barely a question, mostly an accusation. ‘What you’re planning?’
Lara shook her head . ‘If he did, he’d confront Ares, and then we’d never find out. Besides, this is what we agreed when we came on board. You, Nathan, Sally and the others work with Ares on the plan to re- take Earth, whereas I keep a watch on our unfathomable host.’
Raphaela clutched the watch tighter. ‘It makes you a lightning rod. You know that, right?’
She did. With Sally especially, and an increasing number of the adults who saw Lara as ungrateful. Without Ares, who’d rescued them from Earth’s demise, they’d either be long dead or ‘infected’, turned into child-killers. Never mind what the other adults thought, it was Sally who mattered . She’d be the leader by the time Athena returned to Earth, probably as soon as she turned eighteen. That much was certain. And Ares had Sally entranced, even though she was no fool with anyone else. Only Nathan could reach Sally when Ares’ suggestions about potential war strategy became too… too what ? Scorched Earth? Genocidal? You name it, it always came down to the same thing. They were inhumane. Because Ares wasn’t human, wasn’t fashioned by humans. His value structure was alien, even if he was ultimately a learning machine surrounded by humans. She had the feeling none of them, not even Sally, ever truly impacted his core coding. After five years, Ares’ reactions , interactions and – there was no other word for it –‘instincts’ remained alien. And she’d seen the way his eyeless head followed her, as if he knew she was constantly studying him, judging him.
Lara had few friends now. If she wasn’t with Nathan or Raphaela, she ate alone. Raphaela was right. She’d become the ship’s lightning rod.
AUTHOR BIO
After an accident with my back and two subsequent operations, I was laid up for a long while and couldn’t scuba dive - my other passion - so I wrote a thriller about a spy who was also a scuba diver, and the Nadia Laksheva series was (to my amazement at the time) snapped up by HarperCollins. They asked me to use a pseudonym, which is where the initials J F came from, borrowed from my late father, who loved thrillers.
Although I keep my work and fiction separate (some of my colleagues aren’t convinced) the fiction is always influenced by my psychological training, and an unending fascination with how the mind works, and how it can go off the rails. This most clearly comes out in my two new series, Greg Adams (The Dead Tell Lies) and Children of the Eye (When the Children Come).
My favourite scifi authors range from Asimov and Clarke, to Brin , McDevitt , Hamilton, Asher and Reynolds. My favourite thriller writers are Baldacci, Child and Nesbo. My favourite moment as an author is when I’m sitting with my laptop with an espresso macchiato, wondering what comes next in a story, when suddenly it arrives , and I can’t type fast enough.
Social Media Links –
Website: www.barrykirwan.com
Twitter: @Eden_Paradox
Facebook: https://. facebook.com/ EdenParadox
Purchase Links....
Amazon US - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B099GSNK9H
Amazon UK - https:// www.amazon.co.uk/ gp/ product/ B099GSNK9H
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Thanks so much hNicki for showcasing this extract!
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