Sound the trumpets! Roll out the red carpet! Yours truly has a novella of her own released TODAY, readers!
While removing a prototype sensor from the prow of her new Alliance battleship, the Ausa, Captain Elizabeth Goodwin and her crew encounter a setback when one of the engineers sent to remove and stow the device is injured in an accident. Before the other engineer can help the man, the two are surrounded by amoeboid creatures which seem immune to the effects of vacuum.
Thought to be hallucinations experienced by early spacers who had been alone in deep space too long, these creatures – known as “angel fish” – startle the crew by their sudden appearance. Despite her misgivings, Goodwin allows three of the aliens to be taken aboard for study. But less than an hour after the aliens have been brought on the ship, one of Goodwin’s men is killed and another is seriously wounded.
Her search for both the murderer and the escaped “angels” soon leads to a disturbing revelation. Eventually, Goodwin must decide which threat is greater: an old enemy of the Alliance, or the fabled “angels” encountered by the first explorers from Terra.
The idea for this novella hit me several years ago when a trailer for a horror/sci-fi film came out. I could not escape the trailers for this movie, which irked me because I thought the premise more than a bit trite. Alien creature with a taste for human flesh eats people - as if we haven’t seen this idea before.
Listening to and/or watching that trailer for the umpteenth time, I began flipping the idea around in my head about how to use that type of plot in a less horrific manner that would also be more interesting. The result was Contact: Angeles, a sci-fi mystery and first contact story. You can thank VixenArt for the fantastic cover (I certainly have!).
Once again, the Books2Read link will take you to Amazon to purchase Contact: Angeles. Be sure to leave me a review telling me what you think of the book, and if you know someone who likes alien first contact stories with a dash of mystery, pass the word on! I would like as many people as possible to enjoy this novella and have a good time considering the reversal of that horror movie’s premise. Why think inside the box? There is more room to maneuver outside of it, surely.
Let’s go exploring already!