Helia’s Shadow Part One
by K.C. Neal
(The Starlight Age Series #1)
Publication date: Fall, 2014
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Synopsis:
Nineteen years ago, aliens arrived on a dying Earth with advanced technology and the promise of ensuring human survival in exchange for a place to settle. They were hailed as the saviors of humans and Earth.
Today, 16-year-old Helia wants two things in life: to step out of her over-protective mother’s shadow and become an engineer, and to stop hiding her romance with alien boy Kalo. But the world definitely isn’t ready for a human-alien romance. And worse, the human-alien partnership is crumbling. Humans are being arrested without explanation. Some of them are never seen again.When the alien leader imprisons her mother on a false charge, Helia discovers the aliens never intended to help humans at all. Now, she must join forces with alien rebels and convince the young rebel leader that humans aren’t expendable. If she succeeds, humans have a chance at survival and she has a chance at love. If she fails, the dwindling human race dies out in slavery.
Watch for the Helia’s Shadow ARC on NetGalley in September! If you’re not on NG, sign up for K.C. Neal’s newsletter for a chance at a limited number of ARCs for non-NG reviewers (and giveaways, sneak peeks, and other goodies!).
EXCERPT
They were still a few blocks away from the Research Center, but citizens were streaming toward it. Many more than usual for this time of morning. Several of them were running.
Helia squinted. “What’s going on?” She pulled out her folio just as Ellerine did the same.
Ellerine was faster. “Newsfeeds have updated.”
They both picked up their pace, jogging and watching their folios at the same time.
An upbeat story about the progress of the Starlight technology transfer, delivered by an Earthborn feed caster, began to autoplay. Helia canceled it and switched to the daily reports reel, which had just finished. She impatiently restarted it.
Production at the lunar Helium-3 processing plant was up sixteen percent over last month. Helia grimaced. The rise was probably due to the recent increase of people sent to the lunar prison. The ration forecast had slipped 0.7 since yesterday, down to 72.4 days. The estimated global environmental toxicity index was steady at 8.5. The Haven air quality forecast was Good to Very Good. She waited impatiently as the rest of the daily report numbers scrolled by.
Finally, a male Talan feed caster came on to deliver the crime and security report, including the arrests from the last twenty-four hours. There were forty-three in all.
Forty-three Takings?
She switched over to another reel, which listed the arrests in alphabetical order by last name. First there was a mug shot of a teenage girl with a dirt-smudged face, wild hair, and coarse features that marked her as an Outlander. Text flashed under her picture showing her name, age, and the crime she was accused of. Unauthorized attempted entry into Haven. Probably a red-handed Taking, where the criminal was caught in the act and sucked up into a sentry ship like drop of water through a straw.
No doubt the girl would get sentenced to the moon to do labor at the Helium-3 refinery. A flash of pity tightened Helia’s chest. Outlanders shouldn’t trespass. They should know better by now.
A few more pictures of Outlanders flashed across the screen, then came a face that nearly caused Helia to drop her folio.
“Oh no,” she whispered.
It was Madel Flume, Head Administrator of Food Production and Distribution, and close friend of her mother’s. Her crimes included three counts of conspiring to violate the Talan-Earthborn Treaty, and one count of conspiring with known enemies of Haven.
Enemies of Haven…? Helia had never heard that phrase.
She and Ellerine slowed, mixing with the loose crowd gathered outside the Research Center’s main entrance and slowly funneling through the huge plexi doors. There would be a wait to get past security.
“What could a Head Admin do to get Taken?” Ellerine said, staring at her folio as if it would answer her. “It’s hard to imagine. The Administration and the Talans have always worked so closely. It must have been something bad. Really, really bad.”
“Not necessarily,” Helia said under her breath, remembering Gordon’s suspicions.
Ellerine swiveled her stare to Helia, her eyes so wide the whites showed around her pupils. “Why would you say that? Tal-Reku has never imprisoned someone without just cause.”
Helia gave a small shake of her head. “Later.” She tapped the shoulder of a woman ahead of her. “What’s going on, why is everyone rushing over here?”
“Two entire domicile complexes nearby had their residents’ folios crash just as the feeds updated. There was some panic, probably over the number of Takings,” the woman said. She wore a light brown maintenance uniform and cap. “They came here hoping to get more information, I’m guessing.”
Nearly everyone outside the Center had their folios out as they waited, but now Helia realized that some were listening to the day’s news while others were swiping at their folios in frustration or looking over at someone else’s folio. She jumped on the balls of her feet a couple of times, trying to see inside the Center. Past the security stations, there was a huge wallscreen in the lobby that showed the newsfeeds all day. A few dozen people were gathered under it, heads tilted back, watching it.
On her own folio, the Talan feed caster was only a third of the way through the list of new Takings. Helia half-turned, trying to listen to the list and take in all the low chatter around her. She caught snippets of hushed conversations.
“…she was Taken. She just didn’t seem like a criminal. But Tal-Reku would order someone Taken only if it were truly warranted….”
“The Talans say they’ll power up the Starlight system by year’s end, but last year they said the same thing…”
“…just read the new long-term ration forecasts, they don’t line up with previous calculations…”
“…Tal-Reku will come through for us. We’d be dead without the Talans.”
The crowd continued to grow behind them, and narrowed to a single-file line ahead at the Center entrance. Ellerine and Helia moved with the group, lining up and taking slow steps forward.
Helia glanced up as they drew closer to the entrance. The sign over the huge clear plexi doors read:
Cooperative Research Center
Leading the way into the bright future of the Starlight Age, together
The Starlight Age was the period since the Talan Arrival, named for the technology the aliens had brought with them. The Talans had explained that it used the light of far-off stars to generate energy, but had remained secretive about exactly how it worked. Supposedly once it was established on the scale the Talans envisioned, it would be powerful enough to clean up the Earth’s poisoned atmosphere and water.
Her mother had told her that long ago before the Final War and the Collapse, the Research Center was called the National Center for Advanced Energy Studies. When the surrounding area became the city of Haven, it was changed to Haven Center for Science and Research. The sign had been changed again soon after the Arrival, in a ceremony Helia had been too young to remember but had watched in the city’s vid archives. She looked up again. The word “together” was larger and etched with facets that made the letters sparkle when viewed from the right angle. She’d never realized it before, but tagline seemed quaint somehow.
Helia looked away from the sign and back toward the pristine white city-ship and the curls of smoke from Outlander cooking fires in the distant foothills beyond. Was Kalo with Tal-Reku right now? She tried to imagine him discussing official business with the imposing, crinkle-skinned alien leader.
Someone inside the Center cried out, and Helia turned back to the doors as a murmur spread from inside to those waiting outside.
She raised to her tiptoes, craning. “What’s going on?”
A man in a white lab coat up ahead turned. “She just learned her daughter was Taken this morning,” he called over the din of the crowd.
Helia looked down at her folio, and Ellerine’s arm pressed against her shoulder as they watched. There was a mug shot of a curly-haired young woman not much older than them. Her face was familiar. When Helia read her name—Naura Veng—she remembered that she’d graduated in the class two years ahead of theirs and now worked under the Head Administrator of Air Quality and Renewal.
Helia and Ellerine exchanged a long glance.
“She’s barely out of school,” Ellerine whispered.
Helia blew out a slow breath through pursed lips. “It doesn’t make any sense.”AUTHOR BIO
K.C. Neal works in publishing and writes YA books. She likes to surf and hang out on sandy beaches, where drinks are served adorned with tiny umbrellas. When she's not taking tropical vacations, she paddleboards, reads, writes, gardens, watches too many things on Netflix, and tells her dog, Oscar, how adorable he is.
Author links:
Published Titles:
- Pyxis (Pyxis Series Book One) (StoneHouse Ink)
- Alight (Pyxis Series Book Two) (StoneHouse Ink)
- The 'Naturals - Complete Season One (StoneHouse Ink)
Coming Soon:
- Helia's Shadow Part One: Into Darkness (Starlight Age Series) (Andara Publishers)
- Helia's Shadow Part Two: Into Light (Starlight Age Series) (Andara Publishers)
- Arise (Pyxis Book Three) (Andara Teen)
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