Chronicles

Trung's two guards were on them now, firm but forceful.  "Hold still, hands visible. No sudden movements. Just nice and slow." The taller of the two moved a hand to his belt as he began to reach for Chase, deeming him the biggest threat. The other shifted toward Rainer. Trung's face was dour at best. Arms folded across her chest, she watched, clearly unconcerned. Chase stepped backward as the tall guard advanced, his eyes meeting that unconcerned face. "Hold on, I thought we had an agreement!" The guard continued his advance, his blank helmeted...

A Citadel is not measured by its population or geography. It isn’t measured by its breadth or military. And neither is it measured by its economic output or its citizens’ prosperity. In Chase’s mind, these were all antiquated appraisal tools trying to quantify the preceding citizenries of human history: tribes, countries, and early interplanetary alliances. In the end, Citadels were always measured by their choices. And there were few Citadel leaders more decisive in their choices than Ruolan Trung, the Servetus Citadel Leader. Chase had come across Trung in his studies...

Mila had never seen alien ruins before. Neither had Rick, as he peered over her shoulder. In all her readings on xenolinguistics the thought of a species away from Earth communicating through architecture was incredible, but also, merely a thought. A theory, waiting to be proven. As she clutched the screen displaying Einar’s vision between her white-knuckled hands, she could not look away. The surface of CS-79C, which Mila had no doubt would be renamed following such a discovery, was beautiful. Einar and his ground team, including Savannah, had touched down on the cusp of one of the...