Awake

By Viola Grace

Kaliana has lived as a relay in a tank, processing data streams and having her personal thoughts as her own. When blowing her tank open is her last resort, Kali chooses death over whatever the kidnappers had planned. If she is going, she will take as many of them with her as she can.

Odin has been a Nameless since the Orb chose the second generation and his duty is to retrieve the body of the Host. Her act of bravery touches him but when she floats out into space he has seconds to act.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eXtasy Books Inc
• Release date: Aug 14, 2012
• ISBN: 9781771112451

Viola Grace

Viola Grace (aka Zenina Masters) is a Canadian sci-fi/paranormal romance writer with ambitions to keep writing for the rest of her life. She specializes in short stories because the thrill of discovery, of all those firsts, is what keeps her writing.An artist who enjoys a story that catches you up, whirls you around and sets you down with a smile on your face is all she endeavours to be. She prefers to leave the drama to those who are better suited to it, she always goes for the cheap laugh.

Book preview

Kali has kept an open mind but now that a dead universe has moved into her body she is having second thoughts.

Kaliana has lived as a relay in a tank, processing data streams and having her personal thoughts as her own. When blowing her tank open is her last resort, Kali chooses death over whatever the kidnappers had planned. If she is going, she will take as many of them with her as she can.

Odin has been a Nameless since the Orb chose the second generation and his duty is to retrieve the body of the Host. Her act of bravery touches him but when she floats out into space he has seconds to act.

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Awake

Copyright © 2012 Viola Grace

ISBN: 978-1-77111-245-1

Cover art by Martine Jardin

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by eXtasy Books

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Smashwords Edition

Awake

A Terran Times Tale

By

Viola Grace

Chapter One

Through the layers of liquid that protected her, Kali felt her station rock. The staff on the relay station sounded the alarm, and her tank was separated from the station itself.

Six weeks of nutrients surrounded her as she floated in her home, and her mind left its role as relay for high-priority transmissions. Whoever was attacking her was going to have to deal with the automated systems, and if they failed, Kali was ready to take over.

Changing her links to let her manipulate the interior’s systems took seconds, but it was still too late to save the maintenance staff of Lor station.

Kali brought the interior guns to bear on the foreign bodies and blasted away. The speakers translated shouting, cursing and cries from those who were struck. With every surge of new attackers, her targeting refined and more died.

The outer sensors showed her data that she could not believe. Raider ships surrounded her.

The Alliance had installed a defensive cannon, but it had not yet been integrated with her systems. It was dependent on staffers on the station to manoeuvre it, and they were all dead.

Kali wished that she could scream when her system feedback started to go dark. Fear ripped through her body and pooled in her mind. All she had was her wiring to the outside world, and as her impulses were turned back on her, she was trapped in her own mind for the first time since she had joined the Alliance.

Kali bit her lip and slowly lifted her hands to press them against the interior of her tank. The pressure of the plexi against her palms reassured her that she had not yet entered the afterlife.

She closed her eyes and concentrated on thinking about her friends, family and her entrance into the Alliance.

Kaliana Borning had never felt right, never fit in with her life back on Earth. Her thoughts were always her own and her mind still as a pool. This was a situation that few of her romantic entanglements could handle. They always wanted her to be thinking about them but that was just not what she had in mind.

Part of her mind was dormant. She knew it, and the staff at the Volunteer centre had confirmed it. She was a perfect candidate for a position as a relay, and after some cursory training and a short stint as a receptionist at the Alliance information centre, she was placed in the tank and encased on Lor station.

Kali had made friends on the station, and support staff rotated on a six-month basis while she remained in the tank with only her handlers for company.

She used her training to keep her mind calm, but she still opened her eyes wide when the tank shifted suddenly.

Lights streamed toward her, and she slowly covered her eyes. The people around her were large blurs, but they seemed intent on moving her tank somewhere. In the grip of shadows, she tried to remain calm but her heart started to pound heavily.

* * * *

The life signs are going berserk. Our little prize is upset. Foros grinned