About this ebook
Bad: mission control lost contact with the interstellar explorers on Concordia.
Worse: mission control now detects an unknown ship leaving the Alpha Centauri system. Heading to Earth at relativistic speeds. Driven by engines more potent than anything humans ever built. Silent about its purpose. Its crew unknown.
Leclerc, head of mission control, knows what he must do. If the ship comes to conquer or destroy Earth, the planet has only one chance. Its rival factions must set aside their cold war. They must turn their weapons of mass destruction to the common good. They must come together to prepare a mutual, desperate defense.
But powerful alien technology could give one faction a military edge over the other. Enough to risk blowing up the world for a chance to conquer it.
Leclerc must do more than find common ground with his former foes. He must face the lust for power of shadowy figures on his own side.
The fate of the world hinges on what one man does...
…and what he discovers about the crew of the alien ship.
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About the author
Raymund Eich is a science fiction and fantasy writer whose middle American upbringing is a launchpad for journeys to the ends of the universe.
His most popular works are military science fiction series The Confederated Worlds (novels Take the Shilling, Operation Iago, and A Bodyguard of Lies) and the Stone Chalmers series of science fiction espionage adventures (novels The Progress of Mankind, The Greater Glory of God, To All High Emprise Consecrated, and In Public Convocation Assembled).
He has over ten other published book-length works and more than forty published short stories. His short fiction has appeared in Analog, Odyssey, Boundary Shock Quarterly, and the anthology Surviving Tomorrow, and has earned honorable mentions and a semi-finalist award in the Writers of the Future contest. His works are available worldwide in ebook, trade paperback, and audiobook editions.
After circling the world by age five, he grew up in the Ozark Mountains of southwest Missouri. He earned a B.A. and a Ph.D., both in biochemistry, from Rice University. Though he’s no longer a working scientist, hundreds of papers cite his graduate research.
In addition to his writing career, he works in patent law, won a national quiz bowl championship, is a husband and father, and agrees with Robert Heinlein that specialization is for insects.
He lives in Houston with his wife, son, and daughter. His last name has one syllable and is pronounced “eye-sh.” He can be found online at https://raymundeich.com.
