Kleos Prime - Paperback

by P. W. Schuler (Author)

After decades of destructive wars against several aggressive alien civilizations, the human race has emerged triumphant and transcendent. A mighty Alliance of human populated planets now controls a large area of the Milky Way.

Bitterness and suspicion of other races pervades the Alliance due to the bloody conflicts they were forced to endure, and now an attitude of prejudice and discrimination has taken hold in the corridors of power.

Set against this backdrop, we meet Professor Abigail Thornwell, a dutiful citizen of the Alliance, as she begins her trip to join an archeological expedition on a distant, uninhabited planet; her very first time in space. For reasons she doesn't yet understand, the expedition is shrouded in mystery, and powerful minions of the Alliance authorities have taken an inexplicable interest in the expedition, and her.

Kleos Prime takes you on a whirlwind journey thousands of lightyears across the galaxy as Abigail confronts danger in many forms, and must decide which of the many characters she meets are trustworthy and which have unsavory, ulterior motives.

Along the way she makes new friends, comes face to face with sinister enemies and visits alien worlds in pursuit of a legendary archeological treasure that could very well change the course of human history and determine the future of the galaxy.

Excerpt from Kleos Prime:

There was a terrific roar, and the Avernus shuddered noticeably as the MIP cannon spit out it's lethal bolt of hydrogen plasma. I pulled my eyes up to the main viewscreen as a blinding flash painted it in hews of purple and red similar to when you stare at a star too closely for too long. I closed my eyes in caution, and as the colors faded from my eyelids I once again ventured a look at the screen. The frigate lay in several smashed and ruined pieces; our plasma bolt had clearly impacted their weapons storage, creating a devastating explosion. The blast had pulverized every vehicle and person in sight.

Those soldiers and sailors, who had only this morning bid good day to each other, had breakfast together, perhaps even spoken with loved ones over the great distance from home, now existed only in that sea of pulverized, floating particles. Particles which hopefully, sometime in the distant future, may serve a useful purpose again. But it that moment I watched them float amid the dust from the vehicles, with no individuality, useless. In an instant, gone.

I realized, in a bout of introspection, that the euphoria villains feel when causing havoc and death during war, was strikingly similar to the delight spoiled, rotten children feel when they use fireworks to blow up frogs on Founders Day. That thrill of raw, sadistic emotion comes from the same horrific place in one's soul; at once satisfying and sickening. I felt ashamed of myself for wishing death on those people down there. Even the detestable Gordon. Sebastien had told me to be careful what I wished for; I was horrifyingly aware of what he'd meant.