With the kind permission of Bernd Lehahn, it is my great pleasure to be able to announce to members of the Egosoft community the publication of Armageddon's Daughter for the Amazon Kindle, B&N Nook and for Apple iBooks.
Ivan Tefalco has been a member of the DevNet community for many years and is responsible for a great deal of the text content for X games over the years. Over this time Ivan's experiences prompted him to put fingers to keyboard in the pursuit of a science-fiction work that will pose some interesting questions about mankind's future. I have been assisting Ivan with the editing of this book since January 2010 and we are both very pleased with how it has developed. We hope that the book will resonate among the science-fiction fans here in Egosoft's community.
Advances in genetics and biotechnology have taken humanity further than ever imagined. One barrier remains as mankind lives longer and the population grows ever larger: deep space. Company Alliance hold the key to unlocking this frontier in the form of Leise Trexler, a hybrid born of decades of research and development. Leise's parents have wider-ranging plans for her however.
From the icy wastes of the Arctic circle to the freshly-terraformed plains of a new world, the battle for the future of humanity rests in the hands of Leise as she wrestles with her identity and those around her come to terms with the seemingly unstoppable momentum of a movement opposing their ideals. The corporate might of the Company Alliance Research Network is under attack from a dark nemesis, who has harnessed the worst of humanity's ever-growing movement against bio-modification.
As Leise learns more about her true nature, she realises what she must do, the consequences of which will change what it means to be human. Earth stands at an evolutionary crossroads and Leise's personal trials will shape the journey to come.
The book is available from the following online outlets:
For the benefit of community members wishing to find out more about the book before committing to purchase, please see below a sample of the book's prologue. We welcome comments and feedback and we hope you enjoy what you see.
Thank you for your support.
[updated - 22 Oct - Available for Nook and iBooks]
Last edited by Toastie on Sat, 31. Mar 12, 20:14, edited 4 times in total.
One by one, the stars began to fade from the sky above, each one blinking out of existence as daylight lifted her veil from the world below. As shadows lingered in the distance, the vision that stood before Colonel Nathan Ardene was CAV Equity, the first of perhaps many such ships capable of entering the very fabric of space and time in order to reach their destination.
The morning had brought with it slow but steady winds that blew small pockets of dust up to the sky, each one a tiny mote that flickered and shone in the glare of floodlights that sketched out Equity in all her glory. By any standards she wasn’t a large ship, no more than one hundred meters in length. There were high-orbit freighters and frigates that dwarfed her in size, outweighed and outgunned her at every step. But she was capable of far more than they could ever hope to achieve: Dual-Space. It was all she had been created for. Earth was a far, far smaller proposition than the ventures Equity hoped to one day become a part of.
Ardene pulled his jacket tighter and flicked open his comm unit as the winds began to tousle his hair, long past the shaven buzz-cut that in another world and time would have belied his military standing. But here, it no longer mattered. He was master of his own world and destiny, chief test-pilot of a vessel that was born of far greater dreams than anything he thought himself capable of.
“Is she ready?” he asked pensively.
The voice that returned to him from comms was cool and quiet, measured in appropriations of time and expectation.
“She’s ready. Pre-launch systems initialisation underway.”
***
Angled into the gentle warmth of the morning sun, Equity sparkled as if enveloped in a myriad of jewels. Her launch engines were standard hybrid-ion, nominal affairs that gradually whined into activity, pushing back at the launch-pad with partially invisible thrust. Stabilisers punching downwards in one final effort to push the ship into a controlled departure vector, one that would end at the very limits of Earth’s orbital control.
She flew, and she flew beautifully. At this time of the day freighter and passenger traffic was minimal, barely warranting course correction or notification from mission-control. The skies were for Equity and Equity alone. Reaching ever higher, her engines flickered from pale blue to nothing, ionic thrust softly bracing the ship into an arc of momentum that would leave her in a controlled drift, awaiting the moment that their departure from Earth would be more than just a dream.
***
Daniel Trexler surveyed the rows of consoles ahead of him, each a hive of activity as technicians and scientists anxiously monitored the preparations for this momentous event. He, like most of the other personnel in CARN’s primary control centre, had one eye on the large wall display at the front of the room. The massive screen showed a live feed from the CAV Equity’s bridge as her crew completed their final checks before making the perilous first jump through Dual-Space.
Daniel surveyed the faces of the crew through the visors of their environment suits, seeing only a steely determination to ensure nothing was amiss before they took the next step. Daniel’s gaze rested on the visage of Colonel Nathan Ardene, the mission’s commander and primary pilot. Daniel and Nathan both knew the risks involved in this maiden jump, but their collective desire to punch through this ultimate barrier to humanity’s progress to the stars was enough to mitigate it. Thousands of hours of preparation and billions of dollars of investment should have been enough for that, but the spirit of the pioneer has always been there to help man chart new frontiers.
“Everything is showing green, Sir,” came the call from the Operations chief.
Daniel took a deep breath and gently exhaled before stepping forward and addressing the visored faces on the screen, “Equity, the board is green. Let’s make some history, Nathan.”
Nathan Ardene’s head tilted towards the camera fitted into his control panel and he smiled. “Thanks, Daniel. See you on the other side.”
Nathan proceeded to flick command switches above his head and took one final look around at his crewmates before addressing the expectant flight controller back on Earth. “CARN Control, Equity. Deploying streamers…” Nathan looked down at his countdown display as he positioned his finger over the final execute command. “Now!”
CAV Equity slipped gracefully away from the blue pearl of humanity’s home as two streams of energy spewed forwards ahead of the ship. The streamers contained dark matter, which as they met created an expanding and glowing ribbon, a rift in the fabric of time and space that Equity slipped effortlessly into as the emitters stopped. Within a second of Equity’s entry into the rift, a bright pulsating light flashed for a moment and then was gone, along with Equity.
***
For a moment Nathan felt as though he was standing still. The vision of space before him was static, unmoving as if time itself had been frozen. He looked across to his crew who stared back behind helmets with a look of mild confusion. Perhaps something had failed with the vector initialisation, maybe the streamers had aborted.
And then the feeling, as if something was pulling them forwards. Of almost falling towards an unseen horizon before the ship kicked hard, the sound of screaming, not human, but of a vessel that was passing through an environment at such speed that the very fabric of space was being torn asunder in their passage.
“Navigation, mark ship-comp alignment vectors, re-route on my command.” Nathan shouted across, wondering why his team hadn’t loaded the first set of trajectory coordinates. The timeframe for doing so would be understandably small at the rate they were travelling.
Looking across the cabin, his vision seemed blurred, almost as if a secondary image had ghosted over the primary. Nathan blinked and yet still the cabin remained blurred. Dual-Space side-effect? Nothing the test probes had reported.
“Colonel Ardene, I don’t feel…” The words trailed off into silence, his navigation officer now all but motionless at his station. The faint sound of gurgling registered in his earpiece for a moment. Unsure whether it had been a figment of his imagination, he requested a repeat. Nothing.
Equity hurtled forwards, course unchecked.
Col. Nathan Ardene tried to stand, anxious to get to the Nav array to relay the updated trajectory. Nothing happened. The connection between his mind and body seemed missing, or inert. Confusion and panic set in. Sweat dripped from his brow. Only it held neither the colour nor taste of sweat. Yellow in hue, and sickly sweet in smell. His eyes widened, “No, please no. Blood serum, cell integrity…”
His hands gripped the flight console fiercely, looking downwards, blood began to seep through the membrane of his suit. “Abort! Command Abort! Mayday! Equity to Con…” The words trailed off in a haze of consciousness as Nathan slumped back into his chair. His flight-suit oozed fluid, dark and viscous. Blind and barely coherent, his last thoughts were not of the crew who perished beside him, but of the ship, his ship, Equity, and the journey that would continue onwards without him.
Navigation within Dual-Space was far from a simple affair. In the vast reaches of space, any object with a large enough mass could be used as a gravimetric sling, programmed into shipcomp and locked onto. The resulting velocity and course change would allow for further projections, onwards to the designated target. Without high-level AI combined with human intervention, the resulting exit-point would be nothing more than an approximation. Anything more than that would be dependent on end-point probe beacons, should they exist. Once Equity came within range of Ensina's relay beacon and no manual attempt was made to exit Dual-Space, the shipcomp initiated auto-exit protocols. But where Equity would end up, only the ghosts of a ship, heralded as the dawn of deliverance for humanity, would know.
***
In CARN’s control centre the assembled employees continued to stare anxiously up at the screen, now displaying the type of static which only served to heighten the tension already abounding there. Several minutes passed as a number of technicians and other officials monitored their screens, counting down the time they anticipated that Equity would remain in Dual-Space. Daniel’s face remained transfixed upon the display, his eyes flitting occasionally to the real-time clock displayed on the bottom right of the screen. After what seemed an eternity to Daniel, a weak signal began to return to the screen. When, at last, a full video feed was restored, a gasp filled the room and Daniel’s eyes turned wide in horror. The gasps were replaced almost immediately by a shocked silence as the assembled staff of CARN’s control centre came to terms with what they saw.
Daniel turned sharply to his left and barked at the flight controller, “Raise the Equity!” The young controller fumbled around his console, trying to regain his composure, as he attempted to re-establish voice communications with the spacecraft.
“Equity… Equity, this is CARN control, do you copy?” After several attempts the controller turned to Daniel. His report was matter-of-fact and calm considering what now confronted them. “Sir, the Equity’s engines are going to idle but she still has considerable forward momentum. By my calculations she will be beyond the Dual-Space relay beacon in approximately ten minutes and we’ll lose the datalink completely."
Reflecting briefly on the controller’s words, Daniel held his hands over his face, seeking some respite from the image on the screen. Suddenly his hands dropped and his face once more looked up at the screen showing the motionless environment suits on Equity’s bridge, with nothing more than a pink mist staring back at him from behind the visors. “Get that screen off! Ops, continue to collect telemetry until the Equity is out of range. I want a meeting of the management team in 12 hours and I want some answers!”
Toastie wrote:It most certainly is, although I'm not sure which of the sites is closest to your Xenon K blindspot!
Whats a Kindle edition?
Edit: Oh so thats a kindle.
I see that the UK site has a kindle edition and I dont see a hard copy yet. UK is the closest to India.
Is the hard copy in production?
Toastie wrote:A hard-copy version has been considered, but we want to see how it goes in eBook format first, as eBooks are a growth area.
I do hope to see a hard copy come out as the Kindle is not a device for everyone; I'll certainly make the purchase the day it is.
But congrats to Ivan on this publication and tell him to get his finger out! - Those that enjoy Armageddon's Daughter do not, I am sure, want to wait another decade for the sequel!
Toastie wrote:Navigation within Dual-Space was far from a simple affair. In the vast reaches of space, any object with a large enough mass could be used as a gravimetric sling, programmed into shipcomp and locked onto. The resulting velocity and course change would allow for further projections, onwards to the designated target. Without high-level AI combined with human intervention, the resulting exit-point would be nothing more than an approximation.
Crap, I'm using gravimetrics in my current Space Opera, except I call the act a Null Shunt, passing through a zero dimensional, mathematically absurd realm called 'Null Space'. Otherwise 'Dual Space' sounds all too familiar.
Good Luck on the E-format! I think Stephen King's 'The Plant' broke the first hurdle, so hopefully this gets better word of mouth!
![[ external image ]](http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk208/metalven/sig23-1.gif){kind=link}