Fire and Ashes

His new world born out of the fire and ashes of a nuclear exchange, a rogue warrior searches for ways to undo the past. With brother-in-arms Grant and the archivist Brigid Baptist, he dares to seek out the secrets of time....

Kane and his fellow exiles are thrown into a reality where the nukecaust didn't happen - instead, the inhabitants had driven the enemy from the planet. But now the dark forces are back for a final confrontation in a war that may bring the ultimate freedom or final destruction.

The Conclusion of the Lost Earth Saga!

First Printing: September 1999

Total Pages: 347

Written By: Mark Ellis

Outer Darkness

The novel opens with Abrams approaching the area controlled by the natives.  He realizes that its revenge that motivates Baron Cobalt, nothing else.

Kane and Grant have been working for a couple of days getting the war wag up and running again. Domi is with them and is busy getting the weapons that the natives had in hiding cleaned and working again. This work goes a long way to building trust between the two groups.

Auerbach meets with Brigid to voice his opinion about the engineer and Beth li, and wants to bring it to Lakesh’s attention.  Brigid at this time is hunting for information on Thrush, some sort of connection.

Lakesh comes in and Brigid voices her and Auerbachs opinion on wegman and Rouch. He dismisses it but she pushes it by asking what would have happened to them if there was a power failure while they were caught in the jump.  Lakesh tells her they would die at the best, be caught as energy forever in the worst case.  Brigid also finds a connection she was looking for.

Auerbach returns to his quarters and meets Rouch.  She wants to know if the bug was placed. Turns out that she is playing them all and plans on doing Kane in for scorning her.

Kane and Skydog discuss the impending arrival of the Magistrates after a group of warriors arrive and report a brief encounter with tem. He plans to show a great deal of bluff and theatrics in dealing with Abrams and the others.

The Magistrates, led by Abrams arrive and are stopped by a group natives, led by Skydog.  He tells Abrams that they are not allowed to cross their land and to turn around and go back the way they came.  It is clear that Abrams is not going to listen. Skydog gives the signal and Kane drives the War Wag out from hiding, shocking the hell out of the mags.

As Kane figured, Abrams opens the battle. Skydog is wounded and several of the warriors are killed outright.  Kane pushes the War Wag ahead and smashes into the Sandcats. Domi fires a LAW rocket on one of the Cats and damages it.  The armored Magistrates get out and end up killing more of the natives before they are finally taken down.  But in the end Abrams has no choice but to give up or be killed.

They allow the surviving Magistrates to leave unmolested, but are forced to leave their weapons behind, taking only food and knives with them.  Abrams and the survivors leave. After the battle, they change Kane’s name to Unktomi Shunkaha, trickster wolf.

After a night of celebration and mourning over the loss of the warriors Kane, Grant and Domi return to the redoubt. At this point it has been six days since the last jump into the second casement.

Kane and Brigid meet and she informs him that the repairs are complete. They talk about Rouch and go to his quarters. Here the discussion continues and they delve into the other casements.  They wonder if they are real or just figments of Kane’s imagination, and the fact that in every casement their doppelgangers are all connected.

Lakesh contacts them and requests a meeting. Reluctantly they go to see him. During the meeting a lot of interesting points and theories are discussed regarding Thrush and the casements.  A great deal of it based on what Brigid discovered.

When the meeting is finished Kane goes outside and contemplates the ideas they talked about. Beth Li approaches him and apologizes for shooting him. Kane acknowledges her and they talk for a few minutes before she leaves.

Brigid is swimming to relax when Auerbach comes to see her. His attraction is painfully obvious and he tells her honestly that he is worried about her safety when it comes to the next jump.  She kindly shrugs it off.

Dafore is giving Grant’s healing wounds a check up. Despite his ignoring her orders he is healing quite well. To defuse the situation he asks her what her first name is. She tells him its Reba. This surprises him because it was the name of his doppelgangers lover in the second casement.

They prepare for the next day’s jump.

Kane is in the new casement. This one the holocaust was averted at the last second, and not only that but President Kennedy wasn’t assassinated in sixty three.  Kane is the commander of a Ranger Starship and they are on a patrol. They were sent to investigate an intruder.  They catch up with it and are taken by surprise at its speed and maneuverability, as well as the fact that it seems to be using gateway jumps to travel. After the encounter they head to Parallax red.

At the space station Admiral Salvo meets with the Rangers and the governors of the four colonies. It is to discuss the pact with the Archons that has obviously been broken.  They then view a message from Thrush. He demands the unconditional surrender of Earth to the Archons. After the message it is clear that several of the governors are willing just to let the Archons have earth figuring that they will be safe in their colonies.

During the meeting they also see an attack by the Archon directorate that destroys one of their newest ships right in the shipyard.  Again it is clear that the Archon ships are using gateways to travel. Salvo wants Kane to go out and find the origin of the Archons and see if it is possible to put an end to them.

Fand and Brigid arrive to discuss the situation and to go on the mission as well. Fand is there to help them find the natural jump points that the Archons are using to travel from one point in space to another.

Kane informs the crew that their usual leave time has been cancelled and that they are to take off the next morning on an important mission.  Domi and grant get into a heated argument over this turn of events.  She wants him to have his own life, his own command and she feels his loyalty to Kane is destroying his future. During the fight, it allows the other Grant to gain control of this casements body.

Fand is suspicious of Kane, knowing he isn’t this Casements Kane. She attacks him in his quarters.  They get into a fight and it allows the other Kane to gain control of the body.  Fand isn’t surprised at all. In fact she understands completely. They discuss it and give into their passions.  She is determined to help the other Kane succeed in his mission.

At 3 AM the next day the ship pulls out of Parallax red, all hands on board and head out to find the natural jump points with Fand’s help.

Kane takes Brigid aside in an attempt to help the Brigid from his casement to take control. But no mater what he does nothing works other than to take make it appear as if he’s lost it.

On the way the ship encounters a Gaka Deki class ship called the Okami Maru. Captained by Jozure, the Asian captain insists on going with them on the mission Kane has no real choice but to allow them to come along.

Fand locates the jump point and both ships enter it using technology developed by this casements Lakesh.  They jump out and find themselves in another solar system. The Okami Maru is still with them when they re-emerge.

On the other side they come face to face with Thrush’s dreadnaught.  They try to fight but the ship quickly disables both ships.  Thrush contacts them and gives them no choice but to surrender or be destroyed.

The memories of this particular casements memory come rushing back in and he realizes why the fusion took so well.  This casement is tired of making life or death decisions and wants someone else to run his life for a short time. He retires to his quarters and Brigid comes to see him. She refuses to accept what happened but the fusion eventually happen. They both go back to the bridge.

Thrush orders Fand, Brigid, Kane, Grant, And Jozure to come over to his ship.  They arm themselves and do as they were told.  After a quick demonstration of his superior technology on Jozure, he demands that they all head to the ships Bridge.

When they arrive they see the Thrush’s from the other Casements, all beaten, decaying and barely functioning. Thrush forces them to take a Mat Trans and they find themselves on a special ship, a nexus of the Archon technology and a neutral point from which all realities can be reached.

Back on the Saber Domi gets word from the Maru to counter attack. She and the others will end up dead firing the Shrikes (the ships missiles) in an attempt to destroy the ship.

Brigid realizes that it’s a trap. Thrust revived the old fears of the Archon directive in this casement and plans to use it to start a devastating war between the colonies. In this particular casement the plans were all discovered and defeated. Here Thrush failed.  While they talk they learn that the stones hold all the knowledge of the Archons. Thrush intends on scaring them by showing them his un-adorned robotic body. At the same time the station shakes from an attack.

Domi is in the launcher on the saber and sets the shirkes to manually launch. They fire at the sphere and the damage causes the tractor beam that is holding the two ships to weaken and they regain communications.

The Japanese Captain fires on Thrush and is instantly killed by the robots defenses in the ship. Thrush disappears.  Grant wants to start destroying all his bodies that are waiting to be activated but they don’t have the time. At this time they are contacted by Cotta. Kane tells him to get in contact with the tiger ship and to inform them that their captain is dead.

When the tiger ship hears the news the fire on the hub and do enough damage to shut off the tractor beam. While this is happening Brigid fires into the room they are in and damages the wall, discovering that it is a holographic projector. Kane and Grant leave the room, making Brigid and Fand stay behind and watch the stone. They have to defeat him or they will be stuck here for ever.

As the attack causes more damage on the hub, cotta orders a full volley to be fired at the location they hit before. They unload all the weapons.

Kane and Grant hunt for Thrush. Due to the size of the ship they could hunt for decades. But Thrush brings the fight to them.

The tiger ship fires a full load on the dreadnaught and in the end rams it. The ship is destroyed but the dreadnaught is badly damaged. The ship is dead in space and no longer a threat.

During the fight Kane learns from Thrush that the Archons began to fear their creation and in the end they tried to destroy him. But before Thrush can continue, he feels the onslaught of the saber. Thrush demands that Kane order his crewmen to break off the attack. He is actually afraid because he didn’t take into consideration. Kane, of course, refuses. Thrush projects a pair of probes from his fingers and drills them into Kane’s mind.

The pain in unreal. Kane can’t separate himself from the pain. Fand, with Brigids help, allow him to regain control of his body and Kane forces Thrush’s hand back and causes the probes to drill into his own skull.

The attack causes Thrush’s head to explode and a black wave of energy seeps from it. Kane and Grant race back towards the room where Brigid and Fand are waiting, the energy wave following closely after them. When they reach the two women they jump into the mat trans and arrive on the dreadnaught.

During the jump Kane, Grant and Brigid leave their doppelgangers and return to their own casement. Kane however doesn’t want to go he wants to stay. He doesn’t want to go to the slagheap. He is even willing to stay lost between the casements forever but Brigid brings him back with her.

Back in the other casement the other Kane and his crew discover that the hub disappeared entirely and decide to take a leisurely trip back to the natural jump point so they can explore before going back to earth.

Beth Li finally makes her move. She tries to get Auerbach to cause a power surge that will kill the three of them. Wigman intervenes and with Domi’s help prevents her from doing what she wanted to do. Domi is so enraged; she beats the other woman senseless and then drowns her.

After Kane and the others have recovered they talk to Lakesh. He is excited over the possibilities the stones present. Kane however knows the danger they present. He takes the stones to the edge of the redoubt and tosses them much to Lakesh’s horror over into the abyss.

End of Outer Darkness