As the survivors of the catastrophe that turned Earth into a barren rock are settling on their new planet, an enemy from a past encounter finds them and a new fight for survival begins.****"There's a ship coming around from the dark side of the planet. I've tried communicating with it, but have so far received no response," Lauren informed."Is it the Cyroux?" Joel asked."It doesn't look like the original craft we saw." Then, as the vessel cleared the planet and moved away from the murky effect of the atmosphere, Lauren leapt from her seat and lunged for the captain's chair. "It's the ship that attacked us," she yelled."Get out of there," Joel called, "go anywhere, just get away."Lauren pulled on the headset used to control Terra's systems and was just about to instruct the ship to go to warp, when the screen was swamped by a powerful pulse of energy.As the alien vessel grew larger, Lauren realized Terra was moving towards it when a set of numbers, indicating their location in space, changed rapidly on the holographic display which appeared ahead the moment her brain waves connected with the ship's systems.She instructed Terra to go to warp. Space ahead blurred slightly, but before the craft could make the leap, a pulse of energy was fired from the attacking vessel again and the warp drive was disabled."They've got us in a tractor beam, we're being dragged towards them," she told the captain on the surface.She now instructed the ship to reverse. For a moment, the numbers on the holographic display held static and Lauren had some hope they might escape the grip of the beam until another pulse pounded Terra, resonating throughout the hull, and the figures returned to their previous state, continuing to climb."What about the force field?" Anton suggested, dragging his eyes away from the enemy ship. "Could we repel them with the force field?""It's on. It activated the moment the system sensed I was alarmed."A hiss, soft at first, but increasing with proximity, began to grow on the flight deck. It decreased slightly when the front of the alien vessel opened out to reveal a massive cargo hold. Then, as Terra continued to be dragged in, the hiss climbed again until it reached a painful level."What's happening?" Joel called."We're being pulled into the ship. They're taking Terra inside their vessel.""The force field is overloading," Anton informed. "The energy levels are into the red.""Deactivate it," Joel instructed. "Do everything you can to escape. We'll..." Then the link was severed as space behind Terra disappeared.
Patricia Smith is absolutely nuts about astronomy and writing apocalyptic thrillers. You can't shut her up about either. She has enjoyed writing stories all of her life and her first novel Time Split, which is on several best sellers lists, was published in 2011. This was soon followed by her Distant Suns stories and more recently Islands - The Epidemic. She started her career in computing, but presently works to help people improve their numeracy and English skills. The rest of her time is worked around her writing. She lives in Northumberland, England, with her husband. Her choice of genre stems from her love of apocalyptic thrillers and the 'What if?' scenario. She strives in her writing to give the reader a roller-coaster ride of emotions and excitement, mixed in with a good dash of fear - all from the safety of their armchair. You can contact Patricia at: patriciasmith@timesplit.co.uk
