The Mothership (59 page)

She’d thought she was the only survivor of
the entire campaign, but they corrected her misunderstanding. Only two ships
had been lost, both in the system where her ship had crashed. The rest of the
fleet had appeared at their objective, only to discover their technology did
not function. Weapons and sensors had all been instantly destroyed by
technology the like of which her species had never encountered, and every
ship’s propulsion system, along with tens of thousands of drones, had inexplicably
failed. Even the fleet’s Inter-Command Nexus, with its twenty-eight guiding
intelligences, had fallen asleep to awaken later with no memory of the event.
Out of all the thousands of technologies within the fleet only life support
continued to function. Several minutes later, the entire fleet appeared in
orbit over their homeworld, with only maneuvering propulsion restored to
maintain orbit. In the hours that followed, hundreds of other Intruder ships
appeared in orbit in the same condition, removed from the conquered regions of
their far flung empire.

It was an inexplicable disaster that would
take years to repair.

After their crippled fleets had appeared,
communication devices on every channel across thousands of light years of
Intruder space received the same message:

HOSTILITY AGAINST OTHER SPECIES WILL NEVER
BE TOLERATED.

Every scientist they had was working
feverishly to understand how every armed ship they possessed had been captured,
disarmed and returned, how their technology had been neutralized so easily and
how their communications system had been compromised on such a massive scale,
but as yet, they could not explain any of it.

Nemza’ri stood up, feeling a strange
sensation. Without speaking to the doctors, she checked her biostatus implants,
discovering she was sterile again. She felt no disappointment, only
understanding. It had never been intended that she would breed. The doctors,
once they discovered her condition, simply reversed the process, returning her
to her appropriate biological status.

Nemza’ri walked toward a view port through
which familiar yellow-orange sunlight shone. She discovered she was in one of
the orbital cities. Through the window, she saw thousands of orbitals and
ships, and below a beautiful blue world with steel capped mountains and quilted
oceans. It was a strangely comforting sight.

Kaleezsha(Alashra-Warm)Nemza’ri was home.

* * * *

Fifty thousand
microscopic eggs drifted down the Goyder River. They’d been poured into the
river’s ashen waters by two med drones, emptying the mothership’s last
surviving clone tank. Once the Command Nexus had given the order, it wiped all
trace of their existence from its memory. When the med drones had been
destroyed during the orbital bombardment, the clone tank had gone with them. It
had been assumed by the fleet in orbit that the blast had destroyed the eggs,
as no trace of them remained. Even Nemza’ri was unaware of their escape, as the
Command Nexus had not informed her of its plan.

 With no tell tale technology implanted,
the microscopic eggs were missed by orbital sensors during the cleanup
operation. Their presence on this unusually fertile world was hidden by a mass
of microscopic and complex life forms so dense, it had few equals anywhere in
the galaxy. Some eggs attached themselves to submerged rocks and fallen trees.
Others reached the sea, and were carried along the coast to mangrove lined
estuaries or out to teaming coral reefs. Everywhere they went, they found warm
tropic waters offering a habitat idyllic by their standards.

There was little difference between the
warm tropic waters of the Timor and Arafura Seas, and the temperature
controlled amniotic fluids of the clone tank. Imbued with the myrnod growth
hormone, their cellular structures would experience accelerated growth, both
through gestation and as hatchlings. Later, their battle for survival in a
world of predators would be strangely similar to the life their distant
ancestors had led millions of years ago.

Some hatchlings would perish, as the
natural environment would be harsh to a naked amphibian, even one with
prodigious intelligence. Sharks and crocodiles proliferated throughout the
region, and would quickly acquire a taste for them. Without technology or
education, they would start life with nothing but their intellects and their
predatory instincts. As was their natural inclination, they would form family
groups and evolve strictly hierarchical structures around matriarchal concepts.
They would not understand from where they came, or why the hot bloods were
intent upon their extermination, but they would quickly come to understand
which species was the superior.

In time, they would thrive.

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The
Kremlin Phoenix

by

Stephen
Renneberg

“Renneberg
delivers a typically exciting thriller, with plenty of sharp turns, heavy weapons
and
touches of science fiction”
         
-
Kirkus Reviews

In the 21st century, Craig Balard, a young New York lawyer, is
unwittingly swept up in a conspiracy of global proportions that threatens to
trigger the fall of the West and the rise of a new totalitarian world order.

Hunted by agents of the international conspiracy, Craig encounters a
mysterious woman who knows his every step – before he makes it – and who
intervenes to keep him alive for her own purposes.

He discovers she is a hologram, transmitted back in time from the
late 23rd century, where a small group of survivors of a cataclysmic war are
trying to use him to change their past in order to save mankind’s future.

Under her guidance, Craig becomes the fulcrum of time, where his
every move triggers changes in the timeline that will either save humanity, or
guarantee its extinction.

Paperback Length 334 pages

ISBN:
978-0-9874347-7-7

The
Siren Project

by

Stephen
Renneberg

When a top secret 'black' project turns
rogue, a shadowy organization entraps disgraced former Secret Service Agent
John Mitchell into tracking down the missing scientist behind the project. What
he uncovers is an insidious conspiracy reaching to the highest levels of the
military and the government. The discovery makes him the most hunted man on
earth, pursued by a ruthless enemy armed with a sinister new technology.

Aided by a woman with extraordinary
abilities, and an enigmatic defector from deep within the conspiracy itself,
Mitchell challenges the greatest technological undertaking since the creation
of the atomic bomb. To his horror, he finds that rather than destroy entire
cities, the monolithic Siren Project threatens to destroy the free will of
Mankind itself . . . without anyone ever knowing!

Paperback Length 499 pages

ISBN
: 978-0-9874347-2-2