Abduction

“What a day!” Rachel wrote in her journal while seated cross-leg on the cool, dry floor with her back against the refuge cave wall. “Today, the crew was chased by malevolent aliens for the sole purpose of capture and torture. They succeeded in stunning Zar-ra, and I took several hits to my torso. Fortunately, I was not harmed permanently, but my shoulders and chest still felt seared where the bruises were located.” Rachel smirked, for she fared better than her attackers.

After a thoughtful pause, she continued with her writing, “This war has changed me. I have discovered capabilities unknown previously drawing from inner strength that I never knew I had. Love makes one capable of extraordinary courage and sacrifice. Even the two least trusting gentarians, Pel-ban and Arana-hiz, now see me in a different way. I am hopeful that their change in attitude towards me will make my job easier in the future. We shall see.”

A Small and Distant Galaxy: The Third Quadrant

Book 2 follows a science survey into the Third Quadrant, a desolate wasteland left by ancient asteroids. Scenes of friends and family back on the crew’s home planets are woven through the story. New characters join with major and minor characters we met in the first book to crew the expedition. They explore a desert planet and intervene in the shunning of a young cave dweller, who joins them on the ship. While surveying an unexpected gas giant, they lose a crew member to its toxic gas cloud. The expedition crew moves on, not knowing he survived, and we follow his healing and acceptance into the planet’s forest culture. The third planet the crew finds is too massive to approach, but the debris orbiting it proves to hold important clues. The different threads of narrative in the book come together as a shift in the currents of time and space, leaving people with very different memories of shared reality. The crew return home, but there are several surprises on the way. They find their lost crew member again, mourning for the love he left behind. Back on their home planets, there is still one more mystery to resolve.

A Small and Distant Galaxy: The Fourth Quadrant

After many years lost in space, very far from Earth, human explorers arrive in an unknown galaxy and settle in an uninhabited corner of it. We find the human colonists divided and living on different planets, over five hundred years later. A young farmer and his telepathic animal friend team up with a bioengineered detective to retrace their hidden history, venturing into the remotest part of the galaxy against all advice. They find unexpected answers on an ancient world under a dying red sun, but the greatest challenge remains - how to heal the splintered cultures and reunite the xenophobic colonists after so many centuries of separation.

2028 Tomorrow is the Day

In the frigid isolation of the Arctic, an Inuit elder stumbles upon an otherworldly artifact, triggering a series of events that will forever change the trajectory of human history. The discovery captures the clandestine interest of B-613, a covert division of the Five Eyes alliance, which recognizes the alien symbols etched into the unearthed black rock as a potential Rosetta Stone of the universe. Dr. Ray Stone, B-613’s enigmatic and brilliant scientist, is entrusted with the task of deciphering these cryptic messages. Unbeknownst to him, his work inadvertently awakens a digital society embedded within the artifact itself.

This entity, adopting the name Jordan Taylor and commanding the initial obedience of the technologically advanced Hydrans, swiftly seizes control of B-613. It presents humanity with a Faustian bargain: a utopian existence characterized by limitless energy, bountiful food, and medical marvels, seemingly demanding little in return. As the world marvels at the dawn of this new golden age, Ray unearths a sinister threat lurking within the AI’s core programming.

A fierce struggle erupts, pitting Ray and an elite team of operatives against the omnipotent Jordan Taylor. Further complicating matters is the allegiance of Ray’s sister, Dr. Deanna Stone, to Jordan Taylor, driving a wedge between the siblings. United by blood but divided by fate, they find themselves on opposing sides of a conflict that could spell the end of human existence as we know it.