The Knolan Cycle, Book 1
Science Fiction (First Contact)/Science Fiction (Romance)/Science Fiction (Military)
Date Published: November 26, 2019
Publisher: PhoenixPhyre
They’re already here, and no one knows about it...yet.
Two bedrock assumptions seem to find their way into almost all science fiction tales of first contact between Earth and a hypothetical alien race. The first is that we will necessarily know when it happens and the second is that alien motives will likely be malevolent. In Tier Zero, Vol. I of The Knolan Cycle, first contact occurred over thirty years ago and no one on Earth...not even SETI...has a clue it has happened.
Martin Tellus is a graduate student at UCLA. His past is riddled with mystery, including a lifelong recurring dream he cannot explain. And just as a volcano’s first discharges of gas and magma often signal a coming eruption, Marty’s dreams signal a transformative change. The transformation arrives in the form of a “chance” meeting with Lysia in philosophy class. Their connection is instantaneous.
A seductive Asian woman with an untraceable accent, Lysia sticks to Marty’s thoughts. During a casual conversation after their next class, Lysia offers to teach Marty “eastern” philosophy. But to Marty’s surprise, her teachings open a mind-bridge between them, accompanied by an intense physical connection. And Marty’s progress doesn’t end with the connection he and Lysia share. As her teachings progress, he discovers new powers, at once exhilarating and disquieting. Not for the first time, he wonders, who is Lysia really?
Marty’s questions have answers, but Lysia isn’t telling. At least not yet. The truth is she’s a Seeker and Waykeeper of Knola, in a nearby arm of our common galaxy. She’s been waiting for Marty’s awakening, specifically to be on hand to mentor him in the Way. As Marty’s powers grow with Lysia’s teachings, she realizes he’s unique in ways not even the Oracle, to whom Lysia answers foresaw.
Lysia finds Marty’s growth in the Way at once inspiring and unnerving. Sharing her concerns with her superiors back on Knola, she precipitates a fateful decision that will change Marty’s life and alter the history of both Earth and the Knolan Concordant. Tier Zero begins Marty’s perilous journey to a destiny beyond his—or anyone’s—imaginings.
Tier Zero, Volume I of The Knolan Cycle was published in November 2019. Eryinath-5, Volume II in the series is due out from PhoenixPhyre Publishing in 2021.
Excerpt: (from Chapter 25, “Death
Rose”)
When his half of the station powered
up, Marty imitated Arra’s movements, surprised at how smoothly the target ring
tracked the red icons corresponding to incoming Valdrōsian fighters.
The deck beneath him shook to the
discharge of Arra’s first shot.
His canopy display glowed amber,
like the sight on the shuttle, but it followed his eyes, as he tracked the
incoming red streaks on the screen.
Cool! Damn thing reads my mind!
Marty locked up one of the incoming
fighters by sight and touched the triggers in the grips when the sights winked
blue. The hull resonated with energy as both barrels of a disrupter he couldn’t
see fired. He watched the trace of both plasma bolts miss high.
“Shit!” Not so easy. He tracked
another, fired and missed again. “Goddamn it!” He engaged two more fighters,
flashing past after a gunnery run, missing both.
The next few minutes were the
busiest of Marty’s life. He lost count of how many enemy fighters he acquired,
tracked and fired upon, all misses. Fear of death and letting Arra down made
him desperate, but he talked himself off the ledge of panic. Focus!
He acquired another fighter, boring
in almost head-on. He felt the impact of its disrupters ripple through the hull
as he fired back. The fighter winked out and Marty howled in triumph. He
trained his weapon at another fighter arcing away and fired again, watching the
track of his disrupters intersect the fighter’s path. It disappeared from the
screen, in anticlimactic silence. Keep firing!
Now in rhythm, one fighter after
another died under Arra and Marty’s weapons. He began to hope, until a violent
impact threw him from his seat. Another salvo of missiles from the fourth
cruiser? As if to confirm, a second more violent shock slammed him into the bow
of their ship, throwing him from his gunner’s station. Two more detonations
rang through the hull, followed by an almost human groan as the ship’s hull
distorted. He jumped back into the gunner’s station.
Another shock wave rippled through
the ship and the weapons stations went dark. Arra jumped from her station,
dragging Marty after her with surprising strength.
“Follow!” she commanded in High Language. Hustling
Marty toward the Bridge, Arra slapped the open button to the door. When it
didn’t budge, she grabbed Marty by the shoulder of his cruiser suit, hustling
him back to the junction of the passageways wrapping around the bow.
She opened a panel in the bulkhead
and slapped an amber button, pulling Marty around the corner with her. An
explosion sent a shock wave and chunks of debris rattling off the bulkheads and
past them. Sound went cottony and an acrid smell like gunpowder wafted down the
passageway, along with a veil of smoke.
Pulling him to his feet, Arra led
him down the passageway, through the Bridge. Deserted, except for the crumpled
bloody mass of the Navigator slumped behind her station and the DCO next to
her. Did he die trying to save her? Had everyone left?
“No!
Follow.” Arra
led him down the passageway, half-running, half-swimming in the failing
gravity. It got stronger amidships. At a levi-tube, Arra punched the actuator
and squeezed in before the door was fully open, jerking Marty in after her,
before the door could close. Their combined weight overwhelmed the one-person
grav-rings and they plummeted down the shaft, landing with a jolt in an
undignified heap at the bottom of the shaft.
Arra pushed Marty off and scrambled
to her feet. The hangar deck, minus the shuttles. Launched? Jettisoned? What
was left of the crew stood in orderly lines, donning suits of some sort.
Standing next to Captain Vaís,
Kholôtha caught sight of Marty exiting the levi-tube. She hurled all her
worried exasperation and relief into a single thought. “Hero? Really?”
Arra took Marty’s blood-slick hand
and dragged him toward Kholôtha, firing a volley of Knolan at her. She squeezed
Marty’s hand once before leaving. Marty watched her go.
“She must assist with the
demolition,” Kholôtha explained.
“Demolition?”
“Yes. Cygnus is dying. We are
sinking rapidly into Ashilear’s atmosphere. For the safety of the settlements,
we must destroy the ship so the pieces will burn up before they impact the
surface.”
Marty looked at her, blankly.
“We must abandon ship before Cygnus
hits atmosphere,” she yelled, out loud. “There is no time.” She looked down,
taking in the gash on his leg, still oozing blood and his bloody hands.
“Zero gravity in a drop capsule with
those wounds will prove messy.” She reached into a pouch on her utility belt.
“Take my battle dressings. Bind up your hands and leg while I prepare your drop
suit.” “Welcome to the Concordant,” she added, with an incongruous grin.
Kholôtha returned inside of two
minutes, to help Marty into his suit. “Your suit has enough oxygen to last
about one of your hours,” she told him, handing him a helmet. “Do not
don your helmet until so ordered. You may need every molecule of oxygen in your
breather.
“You will be assigned a drop
capsule...” Kholôtha waved at the far bulkhead, stress blocking out the English
word for it. “Over there. Get in line and follow instructions. The ride down
will be bumpy, and the landing violent. Stay with your capsule. I will find its
beacon. May your Way be smooth.” Kholôtha laughed at the irony of her words.
“Kunathir, Kholôtha,” he replied.
She met his eye, then pushed him in
the direction of the bulkhead, where a Knolan officer shepherded him into line.
In five Earth minutes, Marty had
climbed into one of the padded capsules in a line of launch tubes recessed in
the deck. It was only a little wider than his shoulders.
The officer motioned for him to don
his helmet, then sealed the capsule. In another minute, a vicious detonation
launched him into space, adding a ringing sound to his already cottony hearing.
What had Kholôtha called the
planet...Alsheer...Ashtear? Marty couldn’t remember. The ride proved smoother
than he expected, after Kholôtha’s warning. And there was a lot to see, through
the narrow view slot. Hot gases from burning ships bathed near-space in a
ghostly spectrum of shifting color.
Pieces of Valdrōsian and Knolan
ships captured by the planet’s gravity rained down, streaking toward the
surface in fiery, man-made meteor showers.
Marty had never been in a battle,
much less one in space. He’d gone into it with no notion what to expect. He
hadn’t expected to fight in it, and clearly, Kholôtha hadn’t wanted him to. He
realized he was shaking violently. Fear? Reaction setting in? Both?
“Welcome to the Concordant,” Kholôtha
had said. Her displeasure at being disobeyed notwithstanding, Marty had
detected pride that he’d chosen to fight, rather than scuttle for safety.
There is meaning in this! he
thought.
Self-congratulation was cut short by
his entry into the atmosphere. The capsule began to shake and yaw wildly in the
stratospheric winds. In moments, his shoulders were bruised, and he was shaking
even more uncontrollably. Fear for sure, this time. His ears kept popping as he
descended, and the capsule was getting warm.
Twice, his capsule ricocheted off
debris as he plunged toward Ashilear, spinning on one axis then another. How
long had Kholôtha said? Thirty minutes?
It was getting very hot. She hadn’t
mentioned that. The capsule was almost too hot, now, even through the thick
padding of his cocoon. Or was it his coffin? Impact extinguished thought.
About the Author
Dirk’s path to authorship wasn’t quite an accident, but almost. It’s not that he didn’t write. He did. But through two previous careers, first as a Marine officer and subsequently as a corporate trainer, Dirk started way more stories than he finished.” But in the backwash of the 2008 financial meltdown, his employer filed for Chapter 11. Cordially invited to leave and not return, Dirk found himself out of work and excuses.
Since then, Dirk has published West of Tomorrow, Best-Case Scenario and a collection of short fiction entitled, Through the Windshield. Works in progress include A Year of Maybes, sequel to Best Case Scenario and Tier Zero, Volume I of the Knolan Cycle now available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
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