When one being comes to know and love another, a new and beautiful thing is created,
namely the love. The cosmos is thus far and at that date enhanced...Olaf Stapledon
"Your brain activity after your concussion was highly unusual." Wouldn't it be? The Xix turned a host of eyestalks back to monitors and equipment, keeping several on me. "In predictable ways, yes. Your brain scans were not like anything we have ever seen." "I'm not a Reader, doctor, if you are wondering. Tested three times. Believe me, my parents hoped so much I'd turn out to be one like my cousins. Since the Calamity, the only thing better than a doctor for Indian parents is becoming a Reader." My smile faded, the humor apparently lost on the alien.
"We need to understand as much as we can about you, Lieutenant. Your heroics have made quite an impression. I have been informed that you are in consideration for a special transfer."
My heart nearly stopped. Could it be? After two years of failed applications? After devoting myself to the MECHcore training with a passion matched only by that of my dearest hope--had I succeeded? "Do you mean...?"
"Appointment to the Temple Guardians." The Xix seemed to know what was in my heart. A few moments passed in silence. "You will receive a visit from your superiors as soon as I clear you medically. As soon as we are satisfied that your vitals are acceptable..."
Troops were already marching on board. Most were infantry to be deployed at one of the six Cities surrounding the Temple in the middle of the Sahara. Six Cities to house the human and alien engineers operating the massive network of power plants and more esoteric equipment used by the Daughter to commune with the Orbs...
We entered an enormous room located directly below the gargantuan tower reaching toward space.
The tower loomed above us constantly, impossible to grasp in its height and our path soon within the five-mile radius of
the supporting base.
We passed the massive columns of a strange Xixian metal that plunged underneath the desert sands. The base supports themselves were as wide as buildings. The webbed shadows of the structure fell across our path from the setting sun. We came to rest at the entrance of a beautiful building, some well-realized combination of human and Xixian tastes blended harmoniously.
The structure rose to a height of seven or eight stories like some strange plant or deep-sea creature. A large portion was at the top, a toroidal curvilinear solid that looked something like a sphere that had been pressed in deeply from the top. It seemed to float above the desert sands but in fact was supported at six points by tapering columns that became ellipsoids at their apex. The larger top portion was therefore resting on smaller round objects that appeared to almost flow into the desert floor. The material seemed to be the same indestructible concrete found in the buildings in the Six Cities, the tan color blending into the sands around us.
Most strikingly, the walls seemed almost porous in places, complex, flower=like geometrical patterns of different sizes arrayed across the surfaces of the bulbous toroid. As our local star dipped below the horizon, the day faded quickly in the Sahara and a golden light radiated outward from those thinner regions of the walls. It was like looking at some enormous Japanese lantern, or perhaps some strange bioluminescent jellyfish from the depths.
~~~
His name is Nitin Ratava and he is a MECHcore Lieutenant. But he is more than that...He knows he was born to love a goddess...
 |
"False Dawns, Captain Ratava." We all exchanged
confused looks. "Biological clones of the Daughter
constructed from the eggs stolen from her when she
was a prisoner of the Dram two hundred years ago.
Eggs that have been used to create, to breed, to
engineer--we don't know exactly what has been done
a number of replicas that have been raised effectively
to recapitulate many of her powers.
~~~
After that first attack, Ambra Dawn knew
that she would have to investigate what was
happening. She chose to take Captain
Ratava and his team. His team by the way
was an interesting group. Two of them had
a religious connection to her, while the
others had not much experience or thought
about the person they were to guard,
but they did notice the relationship between
the Captain and Ambra Dawn.
|
It had been the Dram that had been forced off of Earth and now they were back... with unbelievable help! Somehow, they had discovered a way to create False Dawns! And these biological clones were coming off production in the thousands... And then there were the shadows...ghosts... And not long after Captain Ratava and his team arrived in the desert, the Dram had arrived through a transport tunnel, with the False Dawns. Both, or all, of them were quickly defeated, but then the shadows came...which they soon learned was anti-matter which sought to destroy all matter!
 |
"Their attack has been long planned. Once they seized the
central Time Point, multiple attacks across the Time Tree occurred simultaneously. Nearly every system targeted has fallen." "Oh, my God." whispered Kim behind me. "Our forces find themselves unable to repel the attacks and hardly able to communicate anything useful about them. We only have strange reports, contradictory statements that even the XIX do not know how to interpret..
~~~
|
One of the first things she offered was the ability to merge thoughts! Only one refused, but later capitulated.
The ship created might have been something like this, so that the crew could stand up, see outside but still be invisible unless they wanted to be seen. The exterior could be changed so that they could, for instance, encompass a False Ambra Dawn right off an enemy ship which is exactly what they did...
When Ambra Dawn had seen all of her clones, she was naturally affected--were they all bad or
could they be salvaged? Unfortunately her entering the false Dawn's mind quickly told her that they were not able to be saved...Now, there was nothing to do but kill all of the thousands that had been created!
For those who read Stebbins' first book, Reader, it might have seemed that his creative imagination had been surely spent on that first book! NOT SO! This book is far superior in content and Stebbin's imagination seems to be unstoppable. One amazing thing for me is that because of the scope of the book, Erec has still spent considerable time on detailed descriptions of the various creative equipment he presents for readers' enjoyment.
The ending and climax is truly out-of-this-world! Can you image 10,000 readers merging into one mind, using the power of their brilliance to bring about what needed to be done!? Me, I'm already wondering how Erec Stebbins can surpass this second book. Will he? Or will it be used to close out what is to happen to Earth sometime in the far future. And will Ambra still exist? And, oh, by the way, a small giveaway...Ambra and Nitin got married! Will they remain as a married couple, that just happens to be a part of...one mind...
Weird, fascinating, Beyond Belief...and yet a page-turner that even with over 400 pages leaves you wanting to know what's coming! Don't Miss this incredible SciFi Fantasy Thriller!
GABixlerReviews
Related articles
No comments:
Post a Comment