Welcome to the
Slipspace: Harbinger Blog Tour,
sponsored by
Bewitching Book Tours!!
For my stop, I'm featuring
an excerpt with mini-review!!
Slipspace: Harbinger
P.C. Haring
Trade Paperback, 336 pages
CreateSpace Independent Publishing
Platform
April 21, 2017
Kindle Edition, 337 pages
Off The Deep End Multimedia, LLC
May 1, 2017
Science Fiction, Space Opera
A fringe colony world
has gone dark, and Captain Cody Amado and the crew of the ISPA’s newest
battle cruiser, Mjöllnir, must respond and investigate.
No one is prepared for the destruction that awaits them.
Agendas
collide as the bonds of duty, loyalty, and family are tested, and the
major governments position themselves to prepare for what is to come
next.
With interstellar tensions rising, the crew of the
Mjöllnir race to discover the connection between the colony’s
destruction, an alien society so reclusive it has only been rumored
about, and an enemy that disappeared a decade prior.
Is this merely an isolated incident, or is this a harbinger of much darker things still to come?
The minute I saw this cover, I KNEW I had to feature this novel! I LOVE SF covers with spaceships on them! I know, this is a bit of a cliché, but I happen to ADORE spaceships, for some reason.
Then I read the synopsis, and, after that, the excerpt, and found something else to delight me: this novel has a definite Star Trek vibe. Of course, I'm a DIEHARD Trekkie!! While the plot has original elements in it, plus what is obviously great world-building, there is that bit of wonderful ST influence, so I'm definitely sold on this novel! Oh, and I'm also intrigued by all the tech terms that I would like to learn more about! I KNOW this is one SF book I'll enjoy and treasure!
(Besides, I also like that there's
a married couple working on the same ship!)
October 13, 2832
06:30
Mjöllnir - Captain's
Quarters
Morning came too soon
for the Amados, much to Nira’s chagrin.
Together, she and Cody made their way through the endless
corridors. With the Mjöllnir just a few
minutes out from Artez, the decks were buzzing with activity as the crew
prepared for as many contingencies as could be planned.
They exchanged a brief
kiss before going their separate ways- Nira towards the Med-deck and Cody to OpCom as Cassie’s voice echoed through the
ship’s public address system, announcing their pending arrival and setting the
ship at condition two. He stepped
through the hatch and found the ship’s command center no exception to the activity
about the rest of the ship. The traffic
on deck paused to give the Captain room to move to his station and log in.
“Give me a sit-rep,” The
Captain ordered.
Cassie stepped to the
opposite side of the central station.
She betrayed no anger or frustration.
Any animosity she had towards him lay buried behind as much
professionalism as she could muster.
“We can’t find an exit
aperture. According to navigational charts, we’re well within range of the
outer guide-buoys, but there’s no sign of them.
We’ve also tried to raise the gate on comms, but no luck.”
“Deploy a replacement
buoy,” he spoke to Cassie. “We’ll have
to make a blind exit. Hopefully it won’t
be in the middle of an engagement.”
He paused and reviewed
the data. “Still, best be
prepared.”
He stepped away from the
console and turned to the deck. “Sound
General Quarters! Set condition one
throughout the ship!”
The order relayed
through the chain of command. The
Mjöllnir’s klaxon rang out only seconds later and the already busy decks burst
into further action. Two minutes later,
Cassie turned from her console.
“All rail positions are
manned and armed. Main cannons are
charging. ECM is charging and calibrated
full negative; frequency coverage at ninety seven percent. Replacement nav-com buoy has been
deployed. ETA to Artez...,” she paused
to check her watch. “Three minutes.”
“Good work.”
“Captain, we’re close
enough to pick up preliminary data,” the navigator reported. “Without the buoy, we’re without detail, but
I’m detecting over one hundred separate energy signatures. The data is too obscure to plot an exit
trajectory.”
The display in front of
Cody updated, a wave of distortion sweeping out from center, erasing old
information and leaving new data in its wake.
“There go my hopes of
not walking into a fight,” Cody muttered.
“Pilot, overshoot the combat area!
Tear us an exit to normal space and double back!”
“Aye, Skipper!”
The deck rumbled as the
ship tore itself into normal space.
Without the aid of a functioning gate, the transition came with far more
violence. The ship shuddered and bucked,
throwing both Amados off balance, and a few crewmen to the deck. Cody and Melor exchanged looks of tepid
relief. He noted that even as an
emergency maneuver, one within the ship’s tolerances, the blind exit always
carried dangerous risk.
Power transitioned to
the Mjöllnir’s sub light engines as the pilots brought her about and proceeded
on course at flank speed.
As they approached the
edge of the zone, the first signs of debris floated past the ship. The pilot and navigator avoided it with ease
but soon found the ship surrounded by hull fragments from broken fighters. This was no surprise, as fighter wings always
took high casualties.
“ECM to full, activate
all fixed weapon positions and roll the Gryphons onto the tarmac,” Cassie
ordered.
Cody continued to study
the out-of-focus holograms on the central display. The objects still showed as general spheres,
indicating the sensor’s inability to obtain a full resolution scan.
“Can we clear up this
interference any time soon?” Cassie asked.
In response, Melor
turned to a secondary console. “I’m
trying, Commander. There are a lot of
cross signals out there preventing us from getting a full resolution scan on
the area.” She transferred a data module
from one console to another. The device
whirred to life as she accessed its programming. “However,” she muttered as she worked, “I
have a couple of algorithms up my sleeve.
I’m bringing them online right...”
At the same time, all
screens and displays showing the battle zone refreshed to show its data at full
resolution. Melor, Aler, and both Amados
looked to the center and watched.
“My God,” Cassie
muttered.
No one responded. Everyone’s eyes locked on the displays and
the sensor returns. Op-Com fell silent
save for the humming of the ship’s engines and the beeping of the
computers. No one moved, as they stood
locked in a trance of awe and horror.
The Mjöllnir’s engines powered down as they arrived at the
coordinates. What should have been a
fully functional slipgate was little more than a field of burning hulk and
slag.
“The station...it’s just
gone,” Cassie said, to no one in particular.
After what seemed like
an eternity, Melor turned back to her console.
“Sensors are detecting no weapon signatures, no power signatures...”
“This isn’t a battle
zone,” Cody stated. “It’s a graveyard.”
Purchase Links
A fan of Science Fiction from an early
age, P.C. Haring has always been one of those who looked up at the night sky and
wondered “what if…”
P.C. Haring made his debut as a writer
and podcast novelist on 01/01/10 with Cybrosis. This production met with a
strongly favorable response that propelled it to number four on the
Podiobooks.com Top Ten list when it was re-launched there that October. His
audio fiction can also be heard in Scott Sigler’s The Crypt: Book 1 — The Crew
and in Philippa Ballantine’s Chronicles of the Order anthology. His
contribution for Tales from the Archives, co-produced by Philippa Ballantine
and Tee Morris, won him the 2012 Parsec Award for Best Short Story. This
momentum propelled P.C. Haring into publishing Cybrosis, as well as his latest
project, Slipspace: Harbinger, independently.
When he isn’t developing new projects for
podcast and publication, P.C. Haring works as a corporate accountant in the
Chicagoland area and as a husband to his beautiful wife.
To access the complete tour schedule, just click on the button below!!
