Worlds Apart

Book excerpt: It has been nearly 5 years since the Pathfinder Ship Pegasus left the Eventide system; more than a century since it entered the Orion Quadrant on its quest to find Earth. The worlds it has called upon have been, in turn, abandoned, primitive, and desolate. At Eventide, the crew of Pegasus detected a signal and decided to follow it. They hope it will lead to an opportunity to reconnect with their homeworlds. In fact, the signal is calling the ship to its end. A lot has changed in the galaxy since the ship left its home quadrant. Those now in power have determined that Pegasus is an obsolete relic of another Era. Its mission to find Earth is no longer important. Pegasus is to be decommissioned, its crew scattered, its mission concluded. Some of the crew refuse to accept this destiny, and will resort to defiance, mutiny, even sabotage to prevent it. At the center of the storm, Lt. Commander David Alkema finds himself caught in the crosswinds of personal ambition, family drama, dirty politics, and forbidden lust. Saving his ship may require sacrificing everything and everyone he loves. What will be the final destiny of Pegasus? Scrapyard? Museum? Orbital brothel? Or, will the ship live to fight another day against something more terrible than any of them can imagine. The eleventh and penultimate Worlds Apart book is about the way fate smashes through our best-laid plans like a Tyrannosaurus Rex through a church window, shattering them into fragments that glitter in the light just long enough to taunt us with what almost was before they fall to the ground and ruin it for everybody who was planning on going barefoot.