Star Wanderers: Tales of the Far Outworlds (Omnibus V-VIII)

by Joe Vasicek

  Her long black hair shimmered like the velvet depths of space that he knew all too well. Everything about her, from her vacillating excitement to the youthful gleam in her eyes, drew him like a comet to a gravity well. The closer they got, the hotter it seemed, until he felt as if he would break apart and be consumed in a wave of passion.

  She gave a little laugh, tossing a strand of hair nervously behind her ear. “You know what my mother told me?” she said, looking into his eyes.

  “What did she tell you?”

  Her cheeks flushed red. “She told me she thinks we should get married as soon as we can.”

  “Do you disagree?”

  “No,” she said quickly—more quickly than she’d probably intended. She blushed deep red. “I mean, it’s an interesting idea, maybe even a tempting one, but you probably have places to go, other stars to see—”

  “My starship is down, and will take long time to repair. Until then, I am going nowhere.”

  “Right. Well, everything’s happened so quickly for both of us, and I’m sure you were never planning on settling down at a place like this, but even so … I guess, what I’m trying to say is what do you think?”

  He took her gently by the shoulders and looked into her gorgeous hazel eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but fell silent, her whole body stiffening with anticipation. The moment was electric, and he savored it a moment before closing his eyes and leaning forward. His lips met hers, warm and perfect, and she all but melted into him.

  “I think I am very lucky man,” he said softy as they parted to take a breath. The creamy glow of the planet reflected off of her smooth, perfect skin, making him feel as if they were caught up in a dream.

  “Not as lucky as me,” she whispered. Their lips met again, and he knew that he was giving up the stars for something far greater.

  Author’s Note

  When I wrote the first chapter of Star Wanderers: Outworlder, I had no idea what it would eventually become. Even after I finished Homeworld, I didn’t know how the series would end up. I had already written Dreamweaver and knew that I wanted to write more, but I didn’t know exactly what.

  Because the first four parts in the series were from Jeremiah’s point of view, I initially thought that the next four would be from Noemi’s. The more I considered it, though, the more I realized that I wasn’t exactly qualified to write from a pregnant woman’s point of view. Normally, I’d approach that as a challenge, but this time I decided it would be better to hold back until I had more experience with that aspect of life.

  I didn’t want to stop after Dreamweaver, though. It was so much fun to revisit the original storyline from another character’s point of view that I wanted to do it again. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that Noemi wasn’t the most interesting secondary character of all the books anyway. She certainly was for Outworlder, but for Fidelity, I was much more interested in seeing Jakob’s side of the story. For Sacrifice, I really wanted to get into Mariya’s head and see why an otherwise normal girl would want to insert herself into her best friend’s marriage. And for Homeworld, I wanted to see all the action that Jeremiah and Noemi missed.

  I think there are two major parts to the creative writing process: the broad overview where the story has its beginnings, and the actual shaping of the story as it is written. The overview is when you first tell the story to yourself, and often happens in a flash of inspiration where the ending becomes clear before you start. But it’s not until you actually put words on the page that the story takes its true shape and form. When I sat down to write the last four books in the series, I knew in a very broad way how each story would go, but the relationships between the characters, the details of the setting, the twists and turns of the plot—all of these revealed themselves only through the act of writing.

  There’s a Neil Gaiman quote that I’m fond of: “Everybody has a secret world inside of them … no matter how dull and boring they are on the outside. Inside them they’ve all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds … Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe.” If that’s true—and I sincerely believe that it is—then the difference between a well-written character and a poorly-written character is that no matter how small of a role the well-written character plays, you can still tell a compelling story just from their point of view. That’s what it means to make someone the hero of their own story. It’s not always necessary to work out all the details, but whenever I create a new character, I always try to figure out at least the broad outlines of their personal story—the one in which they play the starring role.

  One of the advantages of writing at novella length is that it gives you the chance to get very intimate with one or two characters. With novels, you usually have to juggle multiple subplots or point of view characters, so it’s difficult to capture that same sense of intimacy. Even if you do manage to capture it, there’s so much else happening that it often gets drowned out. With short stories, the problem is exactly the opposite—there isn’t enough space to get into a character’s head, or to stay there long once you’re in. But novellas fall right into the Goldilocks zone, where there’s just enough space to get close to a character without all the noise to pull you away. I found that time and again as I wrote each new part, exploring a different character with each one.

  The first four parts of Star Wanderers were written while I was living overseas in the Republic of Georgia, teaching English. I returned home on New Year’s Eve and spent most of 2013 immersed in the Star Wanderers universe. There were other projects that I started or tinkered with over the course of the year, but Star Wanderers was the clear focus. In some ways, revisiting the main storyline was like reliving the events that had prompted me to write the series in the first place. In particular, Jakob’s struggle in Benefactor echoes the same struggle that made it necessary for me to find work overseas. But my favorite character, and the one whose views come closest to my own, is Lucca. His personal philosophy perfectly encapsulates what I took from the experience of living abroad: “Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Follow the path of least regret.”

  I wasn’t initially sure whether to end the series with Deliverance or to continue with another four books. At this point, though, I’m fairly sure that this is the best place to end the series. Star Wanderers has always been very intimate in scope, so that branching out would feel like tacking on unnecessary sequels. The main cycle has been told satisfactorily from the points of view of all the important characters involved, and while it might be interesting to get, say, Master Korha’s story, or Captain Elijah’s, I think it would be better to leave things as they are.

  Which isn’t to say that I’m done writing stories in this universe. Far from it! I’ve already written the first book in a new series featuring Mariya’s brothers, Isaac and Aaron, as major characters. The series is called Sons of the Starfarers, and the first book is Brothers in Exile. As with Star Wanderers, each book will be novella length, though I have a feeling that they’ll skew longer just because of the nature of the story. Where Star Wanderers is about a small group of people trying to make a life for themselves on the Outworld frontier, Sons of the Starfarers is about the struggle to keep the Outworlds free. It’s much more epic in scope, though the personal journeys of the characters are still a major part of the story.

  If you’d like to be notified when Brothers in Exile comes out, the best way to do that is to sign up for my email list. I only send out an email when I have a new book out, and I send it as soon as it’s available, so that’s probably the fastest way to know. You also can find the sign up form on my blog, One Thousand and One Parsecs (onelowerlight.com/writing). I post regular updates there, as well as my thoughts on various things related to writing, science fiction, and life in general. You can also find me on Twitter and Goodreads, though I don’t spend a whole lot of time there. I do pop my head into social media from time to time, but the best place to find me online is my blog.

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nbsp; That just about does it for this one. Thank you so much for reading—after all is said and done, the greatest honor for any writer is simply to be read. A story doesn’t truly live until it finds a place in the imagination of a reader. My job is just to put the words onto the page and get out of the way. It’s an awesome job, and one that I feel very privileged to have. Because of you, I hope to continue with it for many years to come.

  Take care, and as always, thanks for reading!

  Acknowledgments

  There are so many people to thank for their help with these stories. First, I’d like to give a big thanks to Laura Christensen and Ailsa Lillywhite for their awesome, in-depth feedback. Ben Keeley, Nathan Major, Steve Dethloff, and Sarah Seeley also helped to shape these stories into what they are now. Nyssa Sylvester and Adam Bois both did an excellent job with the proofreading, especially on short notice. Most importantly, though, I owe a big thanks to all of my faithful readers, especially those who stuck through with this series. It’s because of your support and enthusiasm that I’m able to have this amazing career. The best way I can show my gratitude is to keep putting out more of the stories that you love, and I plan to do that for many years to come. Thank you!

  Thousands of years after mankind’s exodus from Earth, a band of starfarers fight for the freedom of the Outworlds in Sons of the Starfarers (Omnibus I-III).

  BROTHERS IN EXILE

  Deep in the Far Outworlds, a derelict space station holds the bones of a long-dead people—and a beautiful young woman locked in cryofreeze. When the star-wandering brothers Isaac and Aaron Deltana find the sleeping girl, they soon realize that they are her only hope for rescue. If they don't take her, then slavers certainly will.

  With no way to revive her, they set a course for the New Pleiades in hopes of finding someone who can help. But a storm is brewing over that region of space. After a series of brutal civil wars, the Gaian Empire has turned its sights outward. A frontier war is on the verge of breaking out, and the brothers are about to be caught in the middle of it.

  They both harbor a secret, though. Somewhere else in the Outworlds is another derelict station—one that they used to call home. That secret will either bind them together or draw them apart.

  COMRADES IN HOPE

  War has come to the Outworlds. An Imperial expeditionary force has taken the frontier systems and threatens to strike at the heart of the New Pleiades. The only thing standing in their way is a ragtag flotilla of starfarers and merchanters, their motives as varied as the stars from which they hail.

  Aaron Deltana can barely speak the same language as his Outworld comrades, but he isn't about to let that stop him. Though he has no military training or combat experience, he's determined to prove his valor. Besides, the Imperials have taken something very dear to him—something that he has sworn to take back.

  He isn't the only one with a score to settle. Mara Soladze, the only other Deltan in the Flotilla, has vowed revenge on the Imperials for killing her father. Where Aaron hopes to prove himself, though, Mara fully expects to die—and her fate is tied to his.

  Aaron isn't prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, but when the war turns against them, it looks as if he may not have a choice.

  STRANGERS IN FLIGHT

  For countless ages, Reva Starchild has slept in perfect cryostasis. Frozen in secret to escape a catastrophic death, she awakens only to find herself the sole survivor of a people whom history never remembered. Light-years from her homeworld, among a culture she finds both perverse and obscene, she must somehow build a new life for herself where misplacing her trust could be fatal.

  With nowhere safe to run, she finds refuge on a small starship with a mysterious young man who seems to be fleeing something as well. Where others have sought to enslave her, though, he treats her with unexpected kindness. As they slowly open up to each other, she learns that he too carries a burden—one she can barely comprehend.

  Isaac Deltana indeed carries a burden. The failure of his mission at Colkhia has brought untold calamity to the Outworld forces and almost certainly led to the death of his brother. Now, he flees from the Gaian Imperials to prevent them from obtaining the secret technology he carries—one that will change the face of interstellar war forever.

  Little does he know, the Imperials aren't the only ones hunting him.

  CLICK HERE TO BUY SONS OF THE STARFARERS (OMNIBUS I-III)

  A science fiction romance from the author of Bringing Stella Home.

  A TALE FROM THE FRINGES OF AN INTERSTELLAR EMPIRE THAT HAS FORGOTTEN ITS HOLIEST LEGEND: THE STORY OF EARTH.

  He was the sole heir to the Najmi camp, a young man raised by tribesmen after falling to the desert from his home among the stars. She was the sheikh's most beautiful daughter, promised his hand in marriage—if she can convince him to stay.

  Together, they must travel to a land where glass covers the sky and men traverse the stars as easily as tribesmen cross the desert. Here, at the ancient temple dedicated to the memory of Earth, they hope to find the answers that will show them the way home.

  But when love and honor clash, how can they face their destiny when it threatens to tear them apart?

  CLICK HERE TO BUY DESERT STARS

  A coming of age sci-fi romance from the author of Desert Stars.

  THE ULTIMATE VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY ENDS WHEN YOU LEARN THE TRUTH ABOUT YOURSELF.

  Michael Anderson never thought he would set foot on a world like Earth. Born and raised in a colony of scientists on the farthest edge of the solar system, he only studied planets from afar. But when his parents build mankind's first wormhole and discover a world emitting a mysterious artificial signal, Michael is the only qualified planetologist young enough to travel to the alien star.

  He is not alone on this voyage of discovery. Terra, his sole mission partner, is no more an adult than he is. Soon after their arrival, however, she begins acting strangely—as if she's keeping secrets from him. And her darkest secret is one that Michael already knows.

  Twenty light-years from the nearest human being, they must learn to work together if they're ever going to survive. And what they discover on the alien planet forces them to re-examine their deepest, most unquestioned beliefs about the universe—and about what it means to be human.

  CLICK HERE TO BUY GENESIS EARTH