Across the Void

Across the Void

Book Two of the Celestial Serenade

Available on Kindle (and Kindle Unlimited) and in Paperback!

Two Civilizations struggle to rebuild.
Only one path leads from the ashes.

For 10 years humanity has struggled to withstand the deadly metal dragon that haunts its skies.

From beneath the ice of Antarctica, Gaia uses her unique deep space array to search for the deadly dragon’s masters – or some powerful ally that might assist their fight against it. A face fills her dreams. The face of a man she believes can help humanity reclaim dominion of their planet.

But sending a message to the stars will draw the dragon’s wrath, and Gaia risks destroying humanity’s final hope if her hunch is wrong.

It has been 10,000 years since the Caltarans fled the ruin of their homeworld to start again among the stars.

Using cold sleep technology to traverse the empty spaces between solar systems, Anten and Salis have survived the ages. Salis is still a lost soul, a shadow of his former self. And Anten is haunted by the inescapable demons of his past, relentlessly searching the cosmos in the vain hope his late wife’s final promise might yet be fulfilled.

The last thing Anten expects is to receive a message from a woman bearing his dead wife’s face. Worse, answering her desperate plea could drag his civilization back to the brink of destruction.

A thinning window of opportunity…
“The dragon just changed direction!” Shanice called as Gaia depressed the transmission button. “It’s headed straight for us!”

Gaia muttered a curse. We finally make contact with an alien civilization and we don’t have time to talk about anything! “If you wouldn’t mind making the journey, we’d be delighted to host you-”

“We need to shut that thing down, now,” Liam roared. “It’s moving fast. It’ll be here in minutes.”

“The shutdown sequence takes twenty-five minutes,” Shanice protested. “We don’t have time!”

“It’s no trouble,” Anten assured, apparently unaware of the frantic conversation taking place behind her. “We understand that communications will be limited, so we should establish a means by which to make our messages brief.”

“Where’s the goddamn plug?” Liam demanded, dropping to his knees to fumble with the wires closest to hand.

“Are you crazy?” Gaia hissed, missing the next part of the transmission. “You’ll fry the whole damn array!”

“…days from now, we will broadcast a message to your current location. If we do not receive an answer…”

“The alternative is death,” Liam retorted. “We can’t exactly save the world from beyond the grave.”

“…repeat the transmission…”

“He’s right,” Shanice admitted. “Fuck.” Her dark fingers closed around the appropriate cord and, before Gaia could do more than extend one hand in her direction, she yanked it free of the generator.

The array sputtered. Then it hissed. Then a shower of sparks issued from its interior, followed by a waft of grey smoke.

A sound boiled from Gaia’s throat, half-scream, half-sob. “What have you done?”

Sample Chapter:
Chapter 1 – Critical System Error