An excerpt from 'The Truth about Terra'

Zorell woke to the sound of buzzing in her ear. It was light but after a glance at her watch she found it was a still before six in the morning.

"Everything is arranged but you need to come immediately." Rahis's voice sounded urgent.

Zorell was on a bottom bunk beneath Anneke, She could hear her friends snoring peacefully while along the other end of the dormitory, all the men sounded to be asleep,

"Shall I awaken the others?" she communicated.

"No, we can only carry you. Quick, come outside and we'll shut the door behind you."

She slipped into her nearest clothes consisting of a top and shorts but never even had time and climbed off the hovercraft. The hanger door was open. Outside were the long shadows from the rising sun. It was cool but by the look of the sky, going to be another hot day. On the tree branches nearby were bees, hundreds of them.

"This is the third and fourth flights from our home hive," Rahis said from Zorell's shoulder. "With me is Flight Commander Laru. I'll let her explain."

"We need you to see something and the only way is to take you over it," the second bee said. "Our kind are far stronger in relation to our mass than humans. You will be perfectly safe."

"Perfectly safe?" Zorell said using her ordinary voice. "What do you mean?"

"We will fly you out over the desert," Laru said.

"Fly! I can't fly!"

"Come," the bee said.

She saw Laru fly out before her and along the track. They went around a corner where a net about three by two metres in size was lying on the ground. More unusual though, were the two lines of bees sitting on each side of this net. No, they weren't sitting but hovering for their wings were a blur. The net rose on each side but still touched the ground in the middle like a giant hammock she had once played on when she was a child.

"The net has a strength to easily hold your sixty kilogram weight.  We have twenty carrier bees on each side, each registered to carry a five-kilogram weight to the height of four hundred metres for an hour before they become fatigued. As long as you don't try something like trying to turning over, you will be safe. There are straps to hold you secure."

Zorell felt her heart race. "You want me to lie on the net and be lifted above the trees?"

"Yes. Lie on your stomach so you can see the ground below with greater ease."

  She trusted the bees but they were a different species that were used to flying. What if she swung into a tree branch or couldn't breathe? She now knew about aeroplanes but they were like the hovercraft with the humans carried inside. Mind you, they did have balloons that carried people in a wicker basket back home. This would be like that. She gulped. Perhaps it would be fun!

*

 It wasn't!

It was terrifying as she shot straight up in the swaying net with the buzz of the forty bees being the one reassuring thing between her and certain death as the ground and trees shrank beneath her. She was on her tummy with straps across her back, butt, and knees to hold her to the net. Her arms and lower legs were free but she dare not move them.

They continued higher until the trees looked like toys and the valley track that led to the cave disappeared beneath the foliage.

"Relax. You're too tense," said Rahis after she landed on the net just above her eyes and folded her wings as she scurried along one strand, "Turn your head to the right."

The net dug into her neck and chin so it was a relief to turn, Once achieved she did relax a little as she lay back so her hair cushioned her left ear from the net. She could now see over the adjacent hilltop and further out the brown desert that stretched into the distance to rolling parched hills that were completely different from the green ones beneath her.

The whole net swayed and dipped as they turned out towards the desert.  She stifled a scream and held the netting so hard the rope cut into her hands.

"Okay we are way above our valley and heading out into the desert, but why?" Above the buzz of flapping wings and the hiss or the wind it was easier to just think the words now.

"See the base of that far hill shaped like a wave in the ocean? What do you see there?"

Zorell squinted in the morning sunlight. There were long shadows that played patterns on the ground but nothing more. Perhaps the bees had keener eyesight than herself!

But what was that! At the edge of one shadow several thin lines of white curled into the air.

"Smoke!" she cried out loud.

"More than that Zorell. It's an army and it is heading straight towards our valley."

"But who?"

"That is what we need you here for.  We are from the village where Anneke was enslaved and have not encountered human armies before. We need you to determine whether it is your Pioneer Mounted Constabulary or the Theist Parishioner Co-ordinators from Anneke's homeland."

"How will I do that?"

"We will fly closer. There is a risk we will be seen but I doubt if either side has weapons capable of hitting us. If they try the third flight are under orders to attack." It was Laru now talking.

Zorell shifted her head slightly and saw a balloon shaped swarm of bees about a hundred metres away. She thought back. She had seen this army before. They were the line of lights she had seen out in the desert when they had spent the night on the hilltop. An ominous feeling hit the base of her stomach. These were the forbidden lands but they were far closer to Theist territory than their own.  Huang may have sent a military force out to help her but if he was going to do that, surely he would have told her.

"Take me in!" she said.

*

If anything, the drop was more terrifying than the climb out of the valley. Desert below appeared to rush up at her and for a second she was certain she was about to crash. However, the land tipped away below and she now had the sensation of desert rolling backwards beneath her eyes. At this lower height the smoke had disappeared below a saucer shaped hill. She moved her chin up and saw a whisk of smoke rise around the far side and she could smell a meal being cooked

"Keep you eyes peeled. We are going in low and fast!" Laru said.

Suddenly the net swung out as they changed direction and she felt as if she was about to slip out. The straps holding her cut into her body but held. But her stomach reacted. She felt violently ill and only just managed to swallow vomit that rose in her throat.

There was no time to feel sorry for herself for in front was a long line of camouflaged brown tents, lines of horses tethered to a line and half a dozen cooking fires with soldiers sitting in circles around them, perfect circles of a highly regimented army waiting for a meal.

The camp whizzed by beneath but not before she noticed a larger tent near one of the fires. The side flap was open and a man stepped out and stared up.

Zorell gasped. He was dressed in military fatigues but she recognised the long beard and narrow face. She was also sure that in that second, his eyes were focused directly upon her and he knew she was in the net flying overhead!

"I know that man! He's the one who placed the splinter in my hand. It's  Bishop Cyrano Palas, the enemy!" If it was possible to shout thought out words, she did! "Get away now!"

They rose and swung off to the left. As they did she saw the bishop run out with his arms waving. She was sure she heard a distant shout and definitely heard the report of several weapons being fired. There was a whizz past her ears, the whole net wobbled, dropped for several metres before the bees' buzz became louder and they rose at a phenomenal rate to safety.

"Do you want him attacked?" Laru snapped.

"Will it stop his army?"

"No. We can wound, possibly kill him but many of our fighters will also be killed. There are too any humans there to stop."

"Leave him. I want no bees hurt."

"So be it!" She saw Laru fly off and Rahis circle in,

"The Third Flight would have attacked, you know," Rahis said. "They are still angry about the way Anneke was treated."

"I know but it is more important to get back and warn the others. How long will it take them to reach our valley?"

"They will be there by nightfall."

"And the hovercraft will be ready to leave by noon."

"I believe so."

Zorell watched the land become smaller below and the line of forest come closer. It seemed that they had half a day's grace. She shuddered.  Without the bees they could easily have been surrounded and defeated before they even realised the enemy was there. Palas would have achieved his aim of finding the hovercraft and no doubt, all of them would have been killed without one gram of compassion. A cold tremor went though her body at the thought of Anneke's treatment. No, the men would be killed but they would be enslaved and subjected to gang rape that would make being killed the preferred option.

"Thank you, Rahis," she said.

"You confirmed what I suspected but we are not out of danger yet. Patrols will watch them throughout the day and continuous reports will come in. My advice is to get the hovercraft out of there as soon as possible. And one more thing!"

"Yes"

"Our hive in the hovercraft is big enough to hold both of Laru's flights. Would you like them to accompany us?"

"I do," Zorell replied. "I think we will need you all."

She relaxed a little as they flew back and approached the hanger. There in the morning sunlight she saw everyone looking up. Evan pointed up at her net, Anneke waved frantically with both arms while Corban had his eyes shaded against the sunlight and Lei stood back on a little knob with his hands behind his back.

They slowed and hovered above the group who moved back to give the bees room to lower the net to the ground. She staggered to her feet, brushed her clothes down and grinned at them all.

"Hi," she said. "Is breakfast ready?"

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My New Science Fiction Novel

Chapter 1

Zorell was flushed as she staggered out onto the topmost turret of the Redstone Castle. It wasn't just the seven hundred odd steps that circled up there but also the size of each step that had exhausted her.  They had been built hundreds of years earlier for a long extinct species who would have been larger than the humans who now populated the area. Each step was almost half a metre high while; in contrast, the support rail was a mere twenty centimetres above the steps. Archaeologists had discovered bones of the original inhabitants so she knew they were six limbed creatures with the middle pair of limbs seemly used as extra arms, hence the low rail.

She sat on an enlarged stone seat gathering her breath, brushed strands of hair out of her eyes and rubbed her aching calf muscles. She loved this turret and used it as a retreat whenever she wanted to get away from the crowded rooms below.

It was another summer day with a high of close to thirty degrees Celsius predicted. Now, at eight in the morning it was still cool and a perfect time to think about … she sighed...well everything ...the rumours, her own situation and   the future?

The Theist were humans, too but their values and life philosophies were based on ancient superstitions that had been long discarded by the modern society of the enclave in which she lived. Nothing could be proved her history professor at the local university she had graduated from had suggested that, like themselves, the Theist were not native inhabitants of Terra. Though not supported by other academics at the university he maintained that the Theists came from the same planet at themselves, a supposedly mythical place called Earth that orbited a star called the sun a thousand light years away.

The trouble was that all historical records had been lost in antiquity so much was based on rumours and opinions that led to the Great Split three generations earlier.  This was the war that became a stalemate. The following treaty kept the Theist and her own kind, the Pioneers separated into zones. In the original agreement their own enclave of Redstone, a rural farming community in a valley ten by five kilometres in size, was all that the Pioneers kept in the Southern Zone. There was a twenty kilometre long right-of-way; it could hardly be called a road, that they used to connect with the Northern Zone controlled by the Pioneers.  Surrounding both zones were deserts called The Forbidden Lands and further still in the east were forests while in the opposite direction was the Western Ocean, something she had never seen.

After she recovered from the effort used to reach the top, Zorell walked across to the parapet that reached almost to her chin. She glanced down at North Redstone that had been her home all her life. It had increased in size over the last five years as rural families and also those from the Pioneer Zone had shifted in to take advantage of the lower taxes, subsidised housing and the educational opportunities available. Now over ten thousand Pioneers lived within the city limits while another couple of thousand Theorists crossed the border from South Redstone every day to work in the local factories. In her eyes, it was a sad situation for only male workers were allowed to leave the Theist Zone and had to return before nightfall or their families would be punished.  In the distance she could see the three-metre high stone border wall with the workers filing in on foot with an occasional horse and wagon coming through the ancient raised gate. On agreement with Theorists the gate was lowered at nine o'clock and not reopened until sixteen hundred hours for the workers to return back to the south

The only other exit from the Redstone Enclave was a smaller gate to the right-of-way that only Pioneers were permitted to use to reach their own zone.  Theist Parishioner Co-ordinators, the feared TPCs who were really military police, made sure that no Pioneers left the right-a-way or Theist parishioners became polluted by trespassing onto this trail. Of course their own PMCs, Pioneer Mounted Constabulary patrolled the road and made sure no infringements of the international treaty were made. Their advanced muskets were more than a match than the pistols the TPC used so confrontation between the two opposing forces was rare. Though both sides spoke the same language they seldom said a word or even glanced at each other across the shoulder of the right-of-way.

Zorell remembered that as a teenager she almost giggled at the sight of two mounted men five metres apart, one on a sleek black PMC horse and the other on an equally sleek but brown TPC horse, completely ignoring each other.  Even then she thought how childish the opposing forces were and if the situation hadn't been so serious she would have told them so. She was though, proud of the blue jackets, khaki lemon squeezer caps and riding trousers her constabulary wore compared with the completely white capes and coats with black trousers that was the Co-ordinators' uniform.

A cough made her turn to see the Redstone Shire Council secretary and her friend standing at the top of the stairs gasping for breath.

"Zorell, do you always have to come up here to get away from everyone?" Adair Dunstan spluttered. "Those damn steps..." She coughed into a handkerchief and wiped her perspiring brow. "The council wants to see you, as of ten minutes ago!" Her eyes rolled. "Took me that long to get up here."

Zorell frowned. The shire council wasn't due to start their meeting until that evening. As one of the nine elected councillors and chairperson of the Health and Welfare Committee she was due to give her yearly report. One of the reasons she'd come up to the turret was to give herself time to think about her recommendations. The health budget was exhausted with almost half the costs going towards provision of emergency health to the day workers from South Redstone in the local hospital. However, their central government had refused to increase their allowance that was based on their permanent population and didn't take into account day workers from over the border.

The shire council was divided on the issue with four councillors insisting that their own citizens should have priority while two supported her own reasoning that it was only humane to treat the workers and they should request more funding. The remaining two could swing either way in the vote that was to be taken after her report was presented.

"Forget the Health Report," Adair retorted as if she had read Zorell's mind. "This is something more important."

"I'll come," Zorell whispered. Her friend was unusually serious and a morning meeting was also unusual.

*

 ... So the scene is set

Azure Sea Gold

It is April 1945 when U-boat U-2072 heads out of Hamburg for the last time. In its hold, the torpedoes have been replaced by gold and Nazi loot. The destination is Argentina. On board, ruthless Kapitanleutnant Falk Friedrich has brought his fiancée, Kristin Dassmer.

The U-boat is attacked by American torpedo bombers off the Bahamas and sunk. Kristin finds herself in a lifeboat with three others including Bern Munkelt, the man she is to spend the rest of her life with. They are rescued by Danardo Rolle and taken to Little Toe Cay, a remote island where Kristin's adventures begin.

"Azure Sea Gold" is an adventure, a love story and the story of greed, jealousy and ruthless people as well as a family story centered around three generations of women and their loved ones.

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Cosmos Quest- Science Fiction at its Best!

SYNOPSIS

Starship Human Dawn is only the second deep space starship to evacuate the last residents from a dying Earth in search of a new world in which to live. The first, Human Sunset, went missing  generations earlier. 5000 humans are in suspended animation while the vessel travels through post-light speed infinity drive under control of computers. Commander Sophie Copland wakes up in deep space because of an emergency drop to sub-light speed.

A human woman, Kyla Adair has caused this. She is escaping from an alien world of human type beings called benefactors who, it is later found out, cloned her from a long dead member of a Human Sunset. After no senior officers are found to be alive, two other junior crewmembers, Penny who has the ability to 'feel' the truth, and Jack, an electronics expert are awoken.  The three find the starship is occupied by of human terrorists who have killed the senior officers and are torturing two benefactors, Daz and Foxin. They rescue the pair and attempt to gain control of the vessel. They are only partially successful but manage to blast the three self-life-supporting drones containing the suspended animation humans away from the Human Dawn before it is destroyed.  They also escape in the Dawn Rescue 'lifeboat' and Kyla's damaged Zarel 29 benefactor spaceship.

Daz and Foxin prove loyal but will other benefactors help the humans, which they regard as inferior to themselves?

Sophie finds the computers have the ability to mutate into advanced forms! Are they really the new life species that supersede the 'inferior' humans and benefactors?

Are any planets that support intelligent life safe?

Only Sophie and her four friends can keep humans and benefactors from becoming extinct in a hostile cosmos. 

Paperback  219 pages   $US14.50

EBook  Epub .PDF, Palm,  Kindle  formats $US4.99

Emerald Eyes Trilogy

Our fantasy trilogy is available as three ebooks.

1, Emerald Eyes Destiny:=Ebook

Teenager, Cindy Meikin has a strange experience that puts her in contact with Sylvia, a girl her own age from another world. After taking Sylvia home she discovers that her mother, Natasha and herself came from this world.

The trio visit this war torn land through a void where Cindy finds that she is an Emerald Eye Wizard with strange magical powers that come to her without being called upon.

2. Emerald Eyes Mist:-Ebook

When Cindy and Sylvia are ice skating, a strange mist carries in a little bird with a message on his leg. Through a magical void they meet Gikre, a dwarf who is with Tulco, a girl with emerald eyes like their own. She is caught in a bear trap set by human invaders trying to catch her. They help Tulco  but must cope with strange mists; a white one helps them but a red one is a terrible enemy.

3. Emerald Eyes Pyramid:-Ebook

In this 3rd adventure, the emerald eyes wizards are sent a millennium back in time. Xentrix the dragon is with them and they rescue a flying girl, Kondel who is about to be sacrificed by priests on a pyre in front of a pyramid. These priests are determined to eliminate all flying creatures from their land. Birds have already disappeared and Kondel is the last of her species left. But is she?

Our Titles at Smashwords

We now have nine novels, on sale as eBooks at Smashwords.

Left to right/top to bottom

Young Adult Adventure| Historical Novel 1961|Historical Novel 830|

Fantasy|Science Fiction|Science Fiction|

Contemporary Drama | Contemporary Drama | Contemporary Drama

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