Galactic Collapse--Agents of ISIS, Book 10 E-Book

Stephen Goldin

• Herausgeber: Stephen Goldin
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Welcome to the first great space opera decalogy of the twenty-first century! Agents of ISIS is the 21st century re-envisioning of the Family d'Alembert series by its original author, an epic saga describing the fight to preserve humanity from the forces of chaos and destruction. Finally the evil conspiracy reveals itself in all its true power, bringing the Empire to its knees. Even the Imperial Special Investigation Service is helpless in the face of the unexpected, overwhelming attack. But the Empire strikes back with all the resources at its disposal--hoping against hope that will be enough to save humanity.

Leseprobe

Agents Of ISIS: Book 10

GALACTIC COLLAPSE

Stephen Goldin

Galactic Collapse. Copyright 2010 by Stephen Goldin. All Rights Reserved.

Cover photo courtesy of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

dedicated to Ron Fortier

still a fan

still a friend

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: A Stranger to New Zion

Chapter 2: Family Reunion

Chapter 3: Return to Newforest

Chapter 4: Tas the Tyrant

Chapter 5: The Resurrection of Pias Bavol

Chapter 6: Brainstorm

Chapter 7: A Somber Picnic

Chapter 8: Attack on the PCC

Chapter 9: Imperial History: An Alternate View

Chapter 10: Disintegration of Empire

Chapter 11: Slow Recovery

Chapter 12: Conversation with a Ghost

Chapter 13: Return to Purgatory

Chapter 14: Inside the Enemy

Chapter 15: New Hope

A Reader’s Guide to the Empire

Ranks

Runglish Words And Phrases

The Use of Yiddish in This Series

About Stephen Goldin

Other Books by Stephen Goldin

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Chapter 1: A Stranger to New Zion

The heavy-gravity world of New Zion ranked reasonably high in galactic commerce. Although it was sometimes called the “slag heap of the Universe,” it had turned its natural assets into profitable commodities. The planet was rich in heavy metals and precious stones, and did a creditable export business in those resources. Le Vaudeville Galactique, run by the Bar Nahum family, toured throughout the Empire and brought a sizable amount of income into New Zion’s coffers.

Even the citizens themselves were a valuable commodity. With their lightning reflexes and their above-normal strength, Zionians were always in demand as bodyguards, Marines and, sometimes, as criminals. By mining its physical and human resources, New Zion had turned a hellish environment into a prosperous place for its people to live.

One industry that wasn’t big on New Zion, however, was tourism. People from worlds with more standard gravities—which included all but a tiny percentage of the human race—dared not visit New Zion without being surrounded by specialized equipment. If those people weren’t in superb physical condition, the constant two point six-gee pull could easily provoke heart attacks and breathing difficulties. If that weren’t bad enough, a simple fall—at close to three times the speed it would happen elsewhere—could prove serious, even fatal.

People from offworld usually dealt with Zionians via topspace communications. If more personal contact was required, the Zionian normally had to visit the offworlder; sometimes a compromise would be reached and the offworlder would rendezvous with his Zionian contact on one of New Zion’s three moons where gravity was only one-fifth gee and everyone could relax. Only the most desperate of circumstances could compel someone from a normal-grav world to visit the surface of New Zion itself.

There were other high-grav worlds, of course, the most well-known being Purgatory and Newforest, but their citizens seldom traveled. The Purgers shunned the spiritual contamination they felt would be inevitable if they had much intercourse with people less wholesome than themselves. The Newforesters were a clannish group who’d kept apart from the mainstream of galactic society until quite recently, and preferred their own sometimes backward ways. It was unusual for Newforesters or Purgers to travel anywhere, and their commerce with New Zion wasn’t especially great.