Accompanied
by Yaneta, his beautiful alien bride, Turtan travels across the stars to Cross
Imperial Station. The Jax, Overseers of
the universe, have given him an amazing navigational device which can enable
the Cross to quickly defeat their seemingly invincible enemy, the Cen, and end
their five-thousand-year-old war.
But
will the Emperor welcome him to the station or order the execution of both him
and his wife? Turtan is, after all,
endlessly resourceful and may learn the emperors’ terrible secret and act of
betrayal concealed these past five hundred years. Even if spared, Yaneta is still a member of
the enemy and may be killed instantly.
To
succeed in his mission, Turtan faces an almost impossible task, one requiring
not only luck but the full range of all the skills he has acquired in four
thousand years as an elite agent.
It
is his greatest challenge ever.
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Excerpt:
“Kit,
what’s the quickest way out?” he
asked.
She
pointed to the right. “This way,” she said as they left the tunnel. She turned
to the settlers behind them. “Stay alert,” she called. “Watch the
children.”
No
casualties so far. Turtan held his laser ready, wondering if he’d need it. So
far the Radiants had been fifty times more efficient than when he’d fought
Assan. They shot out, killed the enemy, and returned to him. An endless,
inexhaustible supply of ammunition.
Caves
and tunnels, crannies and dead ends, and hidden nooks built to ambush—deadly
confusion was what this place was made of. It was an intricate warren of
mind-warping turns and corridors which seemed to go somewhere and often didn’t.
He sensed the flights of stairs he’d entered this puzzle place by were above
and to his left, but despite the indispensable compass he carried in his head,
he wasn’t sure he could find them readily. Maybe he couldn’t find them at all.
Had there been a master architect or designer? Someone who sat down in advance and drew a blueprint of this labyrinth? Somehow, he hardly thought so. At any rate, such a visionary could hardly have anticipated the divinely beautiful cave waiting at the bottom in payment for their efforts.
There were no beautiful caves here though. Kit led them to a dark cramped hole where they had to walk hunched over and to a slightly larger one smelling like an armpit. Something in the dim air made his eyes sting. They passed through it into a narrow tunnel and turned left onto a slight incline.
Several Cen soldiers leaped out from hiding and opened fire. As settlers fell around him, Turtan returned their fire with his laser. His real attack, though, was through his eyes, where the Radiants zeroed in and launched forth with deadly effect. Half a dozen Cen stiffened abruptly and did a dance of agonized delight, fighting to control their weapons as they aimed them away from their enemy and toward each other. Rapturous screams rent the air as they died one by one.
When the enemy lay still, Turtan glanced around. They’d lost as many men as the Cen. Sky and the kids, thank God, were still alive.
“You love her more than me, don’t you?” Kit asked.
You picked a swell time to bring this subject up, he thought. Look, you’re a sweet girl, but I just met you. Besides, I love Yani. I will always love Yani. He decided not to answer.
“It’s all right,” she said. Ignoring the dead bodies, she raised her eyes toward the world above. “It’s her I have to worry about.”
As it turned out, they all had a much bigger concern. Turtan heard an explosive rustle of movement in caves far below and behind him.
Kit
cupped her mouth with both hands. “Bats!” she hissed to nearby settlers.
The
communal code word was passed down the line. Tense faces swung to each other.
Turtan saw Albert hold Sky closer.
A
moment later, he heard bat wings beat the air and furiously take flight,
accompanied by high-pitched squeaks. Hundreds, thousands of bats, probably
flying around and around before escaping through an air vent into the sky.
Seconds later, the earth began to rumble deep in its bowels as if straining to
give birth. It continued for a minute then died out. No reprieve, though! Soon
the walls of the mine creaked and shivered, vibrating underfoot. Turtan glanced
at Kit whose lips formed their common fear.
Earthquake!
Cave-in!
Now
the whole mine shook and trembled. Rock dust sifted down, glinting in the air
and scratching his eyes. He had a vision of boulders crashing down on their
heads, crushing them to pieces, of God’s Jewel Box collapsing in a Satanic
shambles.
A
rock half as large as his head bounced off the side of his boot. He bit back
the pain, hearing other fragments fall. One settler gasped as a rock struck his
chest. He was lucky. A few meters away, a black shard larger than a man crashed
to the floor.
Turtan
waited for the quaking to subside. It didn’t. Several settlers lost their
footing and fell. Like the born mine dwellers they were, not a single settler
looked afraid.
“Let’s
get away from here!” he shouted. With Kit’s help, he led the settlers back to
an open tunnel, hoping it would be safer.
“Has
this ever happened before?” he asked Kit, aware Cen soldiers might be nearby.
“Six
months after I was born. Nine of us were killed, including my grandpa. Some
enemy, too.” She panted. “God’s Jewel Box wasn’t even touched. It was a
miracle.”
What
a pity. Maybe this time, the quake will smack everybody, human and Cen alike,
and end this stupid subterranean war. He imagined himself lying dead with
Kit in his arms, his quest ended forever.
John,
a retired English professor, has published 300 stories in Writers on the Wrong
Side of the Road, Weird Tales, Whitley Strieber's Aliens, Galaxy, The Age of
Wonders, etc. He’s also published twenty books, including SF novels such as
Beyond Those Distant Stars and Speaker of the Shakk (Mundania Press), and Alien
Dreams and A Senseless Act of Beauty (Crossroad Press).
MuseItUp Publishing released three SF novels:
Dark Wizard; Dax Rigby, War Correspondent; Inspector of the Cross. Kingdom of the Jax, a sequel to Inspector of
the Cross, has just been published in May 2013.
MuseItUp has also published The Blue of Her Hair, the Gold of Her Eyes
(winner of Preditors and Editors Annual Readers Poll), More Stately Mansions,
and the dark erotic thrillers Steam Heat and Wet Dreams.
Two of John’s major themes are the endless mind-stretching
wonders of the universe and the limitless possibilities of transformation—sexual,
cosmic, and otherwise.
1 comment:
Thank you for having me as a guest, Lindsay. The presentation looks terrific.
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