Deb CarverOwens

Deb CarverOwens
PO BOX 2214
Foley AL 36536
txshewolf@swbell.net
Full Length Science Fiction Novel, Humorous Short Story, Poetry, Editorials, Articles

$6.99
$4.99 Epub Ebook
ISBN #: 978-1-365-23561-0

Excerpt: Deadly Appendage Cup your hand to your mouth and tell a lie. The tongue will do its damage by and by. This small appendage has a razor's edge. People's lives can be viewed from a public ledge. The Bible talks about this abuse of the lips. People who engage this are called gossips. It can cause people to, back to the world, dart. It can also tear GOD's churches apart. Everything will go smoothly for awhile. Then out comes the tongue, to GOD's people beguile. Gossip is so overlooked and commonplace. We don't recognize it when it slaps our face. We must guard ourselves and use GOD's advantage. Beware the danger of this deadly appendage.

Price - $0.00
ISBN: 978-1-312-12670-1

Excerpt:

Part One
The Cataclysm

Chapter One

"I hope the flight isn't delayed."  Makayna thought as she glanced out the window of the sub-station that she was hurrying through.  The sky was filled with dark clouds and the wind had begun to sway in the trees outside like dancing figures.  Of course, she was the last to arrive at the ship that would take her to Kanah's sister planet, Vallour, to complete an experiment that was crucial to her planet.  She adjusted the light colored topknot of hair that swayed as she walked quickly to a gate at the end of the large room that was the waiting area.  Her slender hand came up to massage the back of her long slender neck.  She hadn't gotten much sleep in the last few days running simulations and collecting sub-data.  The case she carried held all her research and she couldn't wait to talk to her father about her findings.  If her computations were correct, the science team was making a big mistake.
  
Since her mother had passed when she was sixteen, she and her father had become close.  She respected her father so much that she wanted to be just like him and carry on his research.
Her steps faltered as she thought of the conclusions that she would have to share with him, but that could wait until she arrived at the compound on Vallour.  She picked up her step again afraid that the transport would leave without her.  Running through the gate, she surged up the ramp just in time to get inside the door before it closed.  The computation machine that she carried in her travel bag scraped the door as it rolled shut.
Walking to the front of the fuselage, she placed her bag on the table next to her seat as she sat down and made herself comfortable.  Looking around at the chairs placed at intervals, she placed her hand on the arm-rest and felt the warmth of the two suns on her dark walnut skin.  Beside each chair was a table similar to the one on which her bag rested and she relaxed at the spacious room that surrounded each seat.  If she was going on a long journey, she could actually lie back and sleep if needed.  The company spared no expense when it came to their scientists knowing that the future of the planet was held in their hands.
  
Unfortunately, her father was not going to like the results of the tests she had run.  She closed her eyes and willed herself not to think about that right now.  Instead, she forced herself to think of more pleasant things as the ship launched from the station and rose to the sky.  Her mind went back to a time when she, her mother, and her father had just moved to the house allotted them from the company.  Her father was starting a new position.  He had met the scientists that he would be working with at a special dinner for them.  Makayna and her mother had accompanied him as did the other spouses.  
  
Everyone was friendly except one person.  Sylar Jebbs scowled at them and Makayna wondered why this man was so hostile.  He was handsome and young, but the look of hostility on his features made him look more evil that anything.  Makayna made a mental note to stay away from him.  The other people who attended were jovial and had a real thirst for knowledge, or so it seemed.  
  
Thinking back of her visits to the lab, she remembered that Sylar was always the one who objected to the suggestions her father made.  There was no knowing why the two men were at odds with each other.  Her father had never been malicious to any of them including Sylar.  Maybe something had happened in their past that caused the animosity.  
  
She looked out the window and saw the stars shining brightly and winking at her.  Smiling, she closed her eyes and dosed while the ship speeded on its way.  When she awoke feeling refreshed after her mad scramble through the sub-station, she realized the ship was no longer in motion.  She picked up her bag and walked to the door that was now open.  Pausing before she went down the ramp, she studied her surroundings.  In front of her like a huge city stood the compound with its high walls and hydra-cement buildings.  After she had walked down the ramp, she looked behind her and saw a mountain that reached its summits to the sky.  On the sides of the mountain were trees and green grass growing tall and statuesque against the backdrop of the suns that warmed Kanah. 
  
Vallour was similar in size to her planet which was the reason that the experiment was held here.  "Too bad its uninhabited."  She thought and walked in through the compound gate.  Makayna had expected her father to meet her when she arrived and was disappointed when he was not there.  Making her way to the information area, she asked for the key and location of her apartment assignment. 
  
Finding the lift that carried her to the second floor, she found her apartment and unlocked the door.  Stepping inside, she looked around to orient herself with the space.  The door opened into a living area with a couch along the right wall.  A table was placed next with a chair on the other side.  It looked cozy and comfortable.  On the left wall was a visual screen for entertainments and communication that sat on a wide shelf atop a cabinet filled with digital videos and games. 
  
She smiled as she remembered her father once telling her that those who work hard also play hard.  Closing the door, she put her bag on the table just to her right and walked to the opening just beyond the visual screen.  There was a kitchen there with cooking stove and cooling device so that she could prepare her own meals and a table in the center of the room.  Walking back into the living area, she went to the door on the other side of the room and entered her bed-chamber.  The bed situated along the far wall was big enough to accommodate her seven foot three height.
  
The dresser was on the near wall and there was a door on the back wall that she assumed was her bathing room.  The closet was located on the right just inside the door.  She walked over to the bed and lay down.  It was very comfortable and sturdy.  She figured this was the standard issue for all of the apartments and sighed resigned to the fact that she was shorter than most of her colleagues so the bed engulfed her.
"Well, this isn't going to get any easier.  I better go find father and tell him the bad news."  She said aloud as she rose from the mattress.  Leaving her apartment, she went back down the corridor to the lift that took her down to the first floor where the lab was located.  Once she found the room, she opened the door and looked around for her father. 
  
She didn't see him around the device that was in the center of the large room.  The Energy Extractor rose just over 10,000 feet and was held in place by wide cables attached to high poles that surrounded it.  Above the machine was a special sky-light opening that had been specially built to open when the experiment started in order to get the much needed sunlight to the solar-heat absorbing panels.  She had to lean back her head in order to look at the top of the machine.    No wonder the simulations returned the data she had collected.  Behind the device on the far walls - left, right, and center - were the machines that would analyze the experiment.  The door on the far side of the room between the machines was used for evacuation, she knew.  All contingencies were considered in the making of this venture. 
  
Dr. Bralt, her father's assistant, was talking to one of the interns when he glanced up and saw Makayna.  She watched as a myriad emotions flashed in his eyes.  She saw fear, determination, and finally resignation as he walked slowly toward her. 
  
"Hello, Dr. Bralt.  Has my father come down from his room yet?"  She asked as she put forth her hand to shake his.
"I haven't seen him today, Makayna." He answered as he hesitated before he shook her hand.
'What is going on?' She thought but said aloud, "I really need to talk to him.  Do you know when he will be in?"
"Well, about that."  Dr. Bralt said.  The look on his face was one of trepidation and Makayna began to get an uneasy feeling.  "We haven't actually seen him for the last five months.  We thought that he had become sick or went back to Kanah."
  
Makayna gaped at her father's associate with her mouth open.  What did he mean?  Her father would never just abandon a project as important as this.  Besides, he loved his work and was a highly dedicated man.  When she finally got command of her speech, she asked, "What do you mean, you haven't seen him?  Has anyone looked for him?"  As she talked, she became angrier and angrier, her incredulity almost choking her, until the emotion strikingly resembled rage.  She wanted to strike Dr. Bralt for his complacency.  It too a lot of effort to get herself under control, but when she had accomplished that she said, "You mean to tell me that my father has disappeared and no one has had the courtesy to look for him?"  She was almost shouting by the time she was through with that one sentence, her tenuous control slipping completely.
  
"Now, Makayna, calm down.  We have all been busy here in the lab.  We haven't had time to go looking for someone who probably just wondered off."  He said trying to placate her she realized.  Her father had never "wondered off" in his life.  He was not a doddering old fool, after all.  He was one of the top scientists of their planet!
Makayna stared at the doctor.  She felt her cheeks heat and knew that they were red with her rage.  She was so angry that she turned and went back to her apartment.  Slamming the door, she went to the little balcony outside her living area and stared at the nameless mountain.  How could they do this to her father?  How could people know that something was wrong and not try to help?  There had to be something wrong in order for her father to have been missing for this long.  What was wrong with these people?
  
Returning to the living area after closing the terrace doors, she went into her bedroom.  There she flung herself on the bed and for the first time since her mother had passed away, she cried herself to sleep.  It seemed that she was alone now.  That couldn't be!  Her father would never just disappear especially in the middle of such an important project.  She had to do something, but what?  As the tears coursed down her face, she couldn't understand why there was not a full scale search being conducted.  No one seemed to be concerned about her father.  There must be something else going on.  In the morning, she would talk to the head security officer and find out what he knew about this.  Her heart was so heavy that she couldn't imagine living without her father too.  She fell asleep with these thoughts circling in her mind.
                                                  ******

Malen watched the woman go back into her little space and smiled.  He and his people lived in the mountains not too far from this abominable facility.  They wanted these intruders off their planet in no uncertain terms.  As the leader of his people, Malen was responsible for his their safety and well-being.  He took his position seriously and there was also the fact that he liked the idea of not having to share his world with anyone else.  
When these intruders had first come to the planet with what looked like a scouting crew, he had taken his people to the other side of the mountain in the abandoned village that had been left behind when they moved.  The trees were starting to thin out on that side of the mountain, but there were deep caves that he hid his people in so as not to be detected by the scouts.  It was to their advantage for these people to think this planet uninhabited.  He had worried about the battle Tarlans that had to be left behind.  He had his warriors take off their diamond-fused saddles and reins and turned them loose in a dense part of the forest.  The large four legged animals had powerful bodies with muscle on their withers and flanks.  The bits were taken from their mouths very carefully and the gear carried by his people to leave no trace of them.  The horns on the Tarlans' slender heads grew just behind their small ears and pointed back towards the riders.  
  
Barro, his own mount, led the animals in the dense thickets so as not to be seen by intruders until they were needed.  Malen returned from his reverie and decided that he needed to get back to his camp.  
He knelt outside the building just below the balcony on which the woman had been standing.  Tucked back in the shadows, he had no fear of discovery.  Her form was like his and he wondered if they had started out as one species.  She had looked angry, but that would not matter.  He had to be successful in his self-appointed mission.  When the council had met all those months ago, Benhadrid, his high advisor, had suggested that it would be a good idea to kidnap the leader of the scientists.  Then they would have a bargaining chip with which to compel these people to leave them in peace.  
  
Unfortunately, the scientists acted like it was no great loss that their leader had been taken.  He really couldn't understand them.  If it were one of his own people, he would have tried to find them to the exclusion of all else.  Of course, there being only a few villagers and warriors to begin with, he couldn't afford to lose anyone.  They were a small band and loved the idea that they had the whole planet to themselves.  Vallour was not quite as large as Kanah, but Vallour was his and his people's world.  Yes, he knew about the sister planet, but, never paid any attention to it until now.  
  
Malen figured that it would have come as a surprise that anyone else was here when the science crew arrived to build their complex, but, he and his people stayed out of sight.  They were not ready to reveal themselves just yet.  He and his people had watched as the men had laid the foundations.  The little accidents that his soldiers had arranged had had no effect on the crews.  To his chagrin, the men fixed whatever wrong had occurred and kept working.  They reminded him of the worker insects in the foothills.  No matter what happened, they kept on with their task until it was finished and then went to a new one.  These people didn't look any different than he did, but, they were much more like automatons. 
  
As he quietly slipped out of the complex, he thought he might want to kidnap this woman as well.  The first one didn't have any effect.  If he didn't know better, he would think that someone had hoped something like this would happen.  Malen shook his head at the vagaries of some people, at the downright maliciousness of some of them.  He would have to become malicious himself if he was to prevail against these intruders.  He didn't know why they were here and he didn't care.  They shouldn't be on his planet, they didn't live here as he and his people had for generations. They had to be up to no good.  Thinking about the large machine that had been erected in the center of the large building inside the square, he was confused as just what these people intended to do with it.  He decided that when there were two people missing from the team, they would have to do something.  Then Malen would reveal himself and his people and demand that the scientists leave their world.  He had formed half a plan by the time he arrived at his camp.  Getting a good night's rest would enable him to solidify his thoughts.  He was weary from riding down the mountain, finding a way in to the complex, and then waiting hours beneath a window hoping someone would come onto a balcony so he could see just who would be next. He was definitely taking someone else, but the woman he had seen would be easier to kidnap.  She was smaller than the other people he had seen around the compound.  Yes, he would take her soon.

$10.99
$7.99 Epub Ebook
ISBN: 978-1-365-23743-0