Release date: October 19, 2015
Subgenre: Space opera, science fiction romance
About Archangel Down:
In the year 2432, humans think they are alone in the universe. They're wrong.Commander
Noa Sato plans a peaceful leave on her home planet Luddeccea ... but
winds up interrogated and imprisoned for her involvement in the
Archangel Project. A project she knows nothing about.
Professor James Sinclair wakes in the snow, not remembering the past twenty four hours, or knowing why he is being pursued. The only thing he knows is that he has to find Commander Sato. A woman he's never met.
A military officer from the colonies and a civilian from Old Earth, they couldn't have less in common. But they have to work together to save the lives of millions--and their own.
Every step of the way they are haunted by the final words of a secret transmission:
The archangel is down.
Professor James Sinclair wakes in the snow, not remembering the past twenty four hours, or knowing why he is being pursued. The only thing he knows is that he has to find Commander Sato. A woman he's never met.
A military officer from the colonies and a civilian from Old Earth, they couldn't have less in common. But they have to work together to save the lives of millions--and their own.
Every step of the way they are haunted by the final words of a secret transmission:
The archangel is down.
Excerpt:
Noa’s body swayed. Why was she dizzy?
It couldn’t be Luddeccea’s gravity—the planet’s gravity was
the same as Earth’s and standard starship grav. Was it
malnutrition, or something more sinister? She bit her lip to stifle a
bitter laugh. She was being slowly starved to death. How much more
sinister could it get?
The spell finally passed, and she
surveyed the barracks. All around her were rough wooden bunks four
platforms tall. The beds were narrower than the single bunks on a
starship, but each was shared by up to three women packed chest to
back beneath thin blankets and without pillows. She could make out
their faces—just barely—but it was definitely lighter in the
barracks. Noa looked down at her bedmate, Ashley. Noa’s skin was
dark as straight Earth coffee. Ashley’s was what Tim’s people
would call “peaches and cream.” It made Ashley’s delicate
features easy to see, even in low light. As she slept, clutching her
crutch like a pillow, her face looked peaceful and her breathing was
gentle. Not wanting to wake her, Noa gently folded her side of the
blanket over Ashley’s sleeping form. Slipping down the slats at the
end of the bed, she padded to the window.
Peering through the dirty glass, she
caught her breath. Sure enough, thick white flakes of snow drifted
from the sky, sparkling in the camp’s harsh spotlights. Their
barracks was close to the barbed-wire fence that enclosed them, and
she could just make out snow catching on the Luddeccean pines in the
surrounding forest. Noa pressed a hand to the window. The snow on the
dense foliage would throw off heat-seeking scanners, and the thick
branches would throw off radar, but it wasn’t bitterly cold—yet.
If they were going to escape, now was the time. Her brow furrowed,
and she touched her interface. She squinted at the clouds as though
she could will herself to see through them. Somewhere above their
heads, the satellite that was Time Gate 8 floated just outside the
atmosphere above Luddeccea’s equator. The gate allowed
instantaneous travel to any other system that had a gate of its own.
It also sent and received data. Time Gate 8 and the other satellites
that orbited around Luddeccea’s equator acted as relay stations for
the vast data traffic of the ethernet. And, she thought more darkly,
if her neural interface couldn’t be activated, the satellites would
serve as useful landmarks for navigation … if the snow let up.
Dropping her hand to her side, she
balled it into a fist and bowed her head. As a pilot of the Galactic
Republic Fleet she’d been given POW training. She was taught to
stay put, to obey orders, and not to make foolish escape plans. She
closed her eyes. But there was no war going on, and she wasn’t the
captive of some pirate clan. She was in a concentration camp on her
home world, Luddeccea, which hadn’t declared independence from the
Republic. Opening her eyes, she looked down at her wrist. A black ‘H’
and a number had been tattooed there, barely visible against her dark
skin. She’d been captured, interrogated, and interned without a
trial for being, in the guard’s words, a “heretic.” Not an
admissible crime in the Republic. If the Fleet had known she was
here, she’d have been rescued by now. Her hands formed fists at her
sides. Kenji should have reported her missing. If he hadn’t
reported her missing, it had to mean he’d been interned, too …
spinning on her heels, she went back to her bunk.
Amazon
About C. Gockel:
C. Gockel got her start writing fanfiction, and she is not
ashamed! Much. She received emails, messages and reviews from her fans
telling her she should 'do this professionally'. She didn't; because
she is a coward and life as a digital designer, copywriter and coder is
more dependable. But in the end, her husband's nagging wore her down:
"You could be the next '50 Shades of Gray' and I could retire!"
Unfortunately, the author isn't much for writing smut. She is sad about
this; she'd love for her husband to be able to retire and just work for
her so she could nag him.
So, cool! Can't wait to read this!
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