A Novel's Perspective

Frontiers

NOW AVAILABLE

ISBN: 9781629890869

Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeEEMYd4Cow

FRONTIERS: BOOK TWO IN THE CYBERS@CE SERIES

*A Dream to Unite Humanity...*

Scientists discover the technology to successfully construct Earth's first interstellar spacecraft, code named Frontier. Hank Reynolds, a gifted and courageous test pilot for the United States Air Force, is assigned to test

pilot humanity's first interstellar spacecraft on a historic flight to Alpha Centauri. Under the command of the fledgling Earth Space Alliance the spacecraft will carry human beings to the stars, and beyond.

*A Plot to see it Fail*

Someone doesn't want to see this happen and will stop at nothing to see it fail--including murder... When Frontier is sabotaged, it leaves Hank stranded and alone to die in the Alpha Centauri system. With their dreams

crumbling around them, will they be able to discover who is behind the plot to steal the alien technology, and to murder those closest to it?

Excerpt from Frontiers:

Prologue

“Mankind’s journey into space, like every great voyage of discovery, will become part of our unending journey of liberation. In the limitless reaches of space, we will find liberation from tyranny, from scarcity, from ignorance and from war. We will find the means to protect this Earth and to nurture every human life, and to explore the universe…. This is our mission, this is our destiny.”

Ronald Reagan, speech at Houston, 1988

One-day humanity will leave the confines of this cradle we call Earth, to venture out into the vast unknown that lies beyond the edge of the solar system, and will travel to the far reaches of the cosmos; but when will that day come, and how will we get there? Author

The day the universe flung open its doors to humanity began very much like any other day. People woke early to go to their jobs, worked hard all day, and then went home.

Toward the end of this seemingly uneventful day, Kate Reynolds climbed the stairs, opened the bedroom door, and flipped on the light switch, all while carrying her two-year old son into his bedroom. He was growing rapidly, as most children that age do, and Kate felt a slight twinge of regret that one day soon the time would come when such precious moments would be behind her.

She had just finished pulling the covers over her sleeping toddler’s chest when she was joined in the room by her husband, who placed his hand on her back and began stroking it as she quietly tucked the boy into bed.

“He looks really tuckered out,” Nick Reynolds said to his wife, placing his arms around her waist as they watched their son’s chest rise and fall with each breath.

“He is; he had a busy day at pre-school today from what I hear,” she answered before turning around.

The two wrapped their arms around one another, tenderly kissing for some time, and Kate once more felt as if she would melt in Nick’s arms. When their lips finally parted, she smiled at him.

“What?”

“Oh,” she began playfully, “I was just thinking that my man still has it…that we still have it.”

“We still have what?” Nick asked, feigning ignorance. She gently pushed him away before pulling him close again, into an even more passionate kiss. “Oh, that,” he said quietly, looking into the fiery, sapphire pools that were the eyes of the woman he adored above any other. Kate turned off the lights and the couple walked out of the room holding hands.

"Honey…do you think we could work it out somehow so we could live here in Vegas during the week as well? I’m sick of staying on the base night after night, and I think it would do Henry a lot of good. You know how lonely he’ll soon be on the base, and we both know that he needs to be around more children his age.”

The pleading in her eyes touched her husband, who furrowed his brow as he sat down with her on the sofa and pulled her close.

“Well, I agree…it would probably do all of us a lot of good to get away from the base more often, Kate; but at the same time, you know how hard and how dangerous it would be. We’d both have to commute to the base once you go back to work, and we’d have to find someone to watch little Henry, including picking him up from school; or we’d have to take him with us to the base.”

A cough from outside the door suddenly reminded them of the constant surveillance they were under. “And you see how tight security is when we’re off the base, Kate…how tight security has to be. The Frontier project is so incredibly important, not just to America but to everyone; we can’t risk anything happening to any of us, especially Henry.”

His wife nodded in response. She started to tear up, knowing how unlikely it was that her son would ever experience a normal childhood.

“Poor Henry. What kind of life is this for a little boy, Nick?”

“C’mon, Kate; try to remember that what we’re doing now is, in large part, for Henry. I know it’s hard Kate, believe me I do.”

“I’m just beginning to question whether it’s all worth it,” she stated, as much to herself as to Nick.

“It will be, Kate, I promise,” he said, gently stroking her dark hair.

She looked up at Nick a few minutes later, a slight twinkle in her eye. “I’m suddenly feeling a little tired,” she said with a smile. “Are you ready to go to bed yet, mister?”

“You bet I am,” he replied with a grin, jumping off the sofa to follow his wife up the stairs.

***

Five hours later, inside the home the Reynolds family was fast asleep. Outside, under the darkness of a moonless sky, all was peaceful and still except for an orchestra of cicadas, which had been playing its evening symphony before abruptly stopping. Nick and Kate would have been grateful had they known that the agent who had been continually coughing outside their front door had grown unexpectedly silent as well. They would have been terrified, however, had they known the reason for the agent’s unexpected silence, for both he and his comrade now lay unconscious on the porch outside the front door.

Bright, multi-colored lights suddenly exploded out of the darkness above the house, resembling the effect caused by shining light through a prism, intruding upon the tranquil darkness surrounding the home before finally settling on the window outside of little Henry Reynolds’s bedroom. Beams of red, orange, yellow, green, and blue light flashed around inside the child’s room in a rotating, repeating pattern for several minutes. Shadowy figures soon appeared next to the bed of the sleeping boy, and by the time the lights disappeared a minute later, the child’s bed was empty.

***

When NSA agent Michael Pierce awoke the following morning to a fierce yawn and blinding sunlight on his face, it took him several moments to remember where he was, and to his dismay, he realized that he’d fallen asleep while on duty. Relegating concern over the consequences of his actions to a later time, he shook his partner, who lay next to him still sleeping. Panic set in when the agent realized that,

with both agents asleep outside, the family had been exposed, vulnerable to yet another kidnapping attempt.

“Check out the back door and make sure it’s still secure,” he told his younger, junior partner after helping him to his feet. Pierce then turned and banged loudly on the front door several times, and after a moment of hesitation, was preparing to break in. The door suddenly flung open on its own accord, however, and he found himself staring up at Nick Reynolds, standing there calmly with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand, looking a bit perplexed.

“Can I help you Agent Pierce? Is something wrong?”

Pierce looked over the shoulder of his charge, and saw Kate at the kitchen table, busily pouring cereal into a bowl, which sat next to a glass of juice on the table in front of their young son, Pierce let out a heavy sigh.

“No, sir…I mean, everything’s fine, I think. Is everything…okay inside, Dr. Reynolds?”

“Yes, of course, Agent Pierce,” he answered, smiling back at his stunning wife, who just smiled at the two men. “We should be ready to head back to the base in an hour or so…is that okay?”

“That sounds fine, Dr. Reynolds, whenever you’re ready; take your time sir, no rush.” A perplexed Agent Pierce turned as the door closed behind him, and walked around to the back of the house, where he found his partner, Guy Peterson, still looking around groggily, as if trying to shake off the numbing effects of a hangover. He seemed surprised to see Pierce approaching, and struggled to clear the cobwebs.

“Everything okay back here, Guy?”

“Sure, Mike, err…no problems at all. Everything’s secure,” he answered, nodding his head as if slightly doubting what he’d just said. “I don’t know––I don’t understand what happened last night, Mike; why didn’t you wake me up?”

Pierce held a finger to his lips to quiet his partner, and walked up to the other agent until he was only a foot away.

“I have no idea whatsoever, Guy,” he answered, staring at the other man for a moment.

“You mean that you…?”

Pierce quickly nodded.

“So…I suggest we keep this to ourselves, what do you think?”

“Yeah, I think we’d better do that,” Peterson agreed.

“Good…well, okay then. I was just told that the family will be ready to go in an hour or so. Are you good?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, Mike, thanks.”

The two NSA agents pulled out of the driveway of the isolated house an hour later in the black SUV, with the husband, wife, and child in tow.

***

No one ever noticed the slight indentions in the dirt of the back yard, or the strange footprints all around it.