On the dark side of the horizon, where the ocean of stars met the blackness of night, a tiny point of light gradually grew brighter than all the others. It was the station, reflecting the starlight. As they came closer, the man-made structure gradually took shape: two narrow wheels running at cross-purposes to each other around a fat central cylinder with long antennae on either end. Isaac gripped the flight stick a little tighter and rechecked the nav-computer to make sure that they were still on course. Down below, a flash of pale blue lightning lit up a tiny patch of the planet\u2019s atmosphere, but only for an instant. Whatever tempest swirled in the clouds below them, it preferred to brood in the shadows.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re coming up on the station,\u201d said Aaron. \u201cOne klick and dropping.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you try to contact them as I make the final approach? Be sure to try the shortwave too\u2014if anyone\u2019s still alive in there, chances are better that they\u2019ll have something rigged up on those bands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aaron shrugged, but he went ahead and did it anyway. Isaac kept an eye on the main screen as he made the final maneuvers to put them in a parallel orbit just 500 meters away.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo this is Alnilam station,\u201d he mused as he peered out the forward window. The station\u2019s hull was a dark gray, the beacons at the ends of the antennae a deep flashing red. The starlight was too dim to give anything more than the basic shape of the structure. On the inside of the wheels where the windows should have been, there was a blackness as dark as the night on the planet below.<\/p>\n
==========<\/p>\n
Brothers in Exile (Sons of the Starfarers, Book I)<\/strong><\/a> is my latest book, due to come out later this month. It expands the Star Wanderers<\/strong> universe and starts an epic new story arc that will eventually tie in with the Gaia Nova<\/strong> books as well.<\/p>\n To be notified when it comes out, be sure to sign up for my mailing list<\/a> if you haven’t already.<\/p>\n Thanks for reading!<\/p>\n Excerpt 1<\/a> On the dark side of the horizon, where the ocean of stars met the blackness of night, a tiny point of light gradually grew brighter than all the others. It was the station, reflecting the starlight. As they came closer, the man-made structure gradually took shape: two narrow wheels running at cross-purposes to each other… Continue reading Brothers in Exile — excerpt 3<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Brothers in Exile -- excerpt 3","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[862,855],"tags":[474,756],"class_list":["post-9326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ssf-i","category-ssf","tag-excerpts","tag-new-releases","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-2qq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9327,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9326\/revisions\/9327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nExcerpt 2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"