I’m taking snippets from my most recently released scifi romance GABE: A Badari Warriors SciFi Romance Novel, the next book in the award winning series. (KIERCE, the next book in the series, is at the editor by the way…)
Here’s the link to the Weekend Writing Warriors central page, so you can visit all the participants sharing excerpts today…a fun way to sample new books and find new authors! (Also welcome to the Sunday Snippet visitors!)
Punctuation may be wonky to comply with our guidelines here. May be edited a bit from published version.
If you haven’t read any of my Badari Warriors books, here’s the background:
Genetically engineered soldiers of the far future, the Badari were created by alien enemies to fight humans. But then the scientists kidnapped an entire human colony from the Sectors to use as subjects in twisted experiments…the Badari and the humans made common cause, rebelled and escaped the labs. Now they live side by side in a sanctuary valley protected by a powerful Artificial Intelligence, and wage unceasing war on the aliens.
The excerpt – Jumping ahead a little, Gabe is dreaming, after Keshara has exhausted her healing powers to heal him as much as she can. In the dream, he finds himself in the great circle of trees where the Badari worship and Keshara is sleeping on the grass there. The first line is Gabe’s thought as he looks at her. I like to have some inexplicable-through-science, mystical elements in every SFR I write:
She wore herself out trying to heal me.
“Indeed she did.”
He straightened, searching the open area for the speaker but there was no one else in the glade. The voice had come from close by, he was positive, not from the misty area beyond the guardian trees, “Who’s there?”
“One who watches over her children – you know who I am.”
Oh no, I’m not talking to any goddesses, not even in my dreams. Besides, I need to get going. He must be even worse off than he realized if he was now hallucinating a dialog with the Badari deity. He took a few more steps toward the perimeter but hesitated and pivoted to stare at Keshara – leaving her here alone felt wrong but the urge or craving to leave was growing stronger in his mind, “Am I dying?”
“Perhaps my daughter and I hold you here temporarily between life and death.”
*******************************************************
Will he choose to stay with Keshara or keep walking toward the light outside the grove of trees?
The blurb for GABE: Gabe Carter, hotshot pilot and ex-Special Forces soldier, is far from his home in the human Sectors, kidnapped by alien scientists to be the subject of horrifying experiments. Shot down by the enemy over desolate territory far from his Badari allies and gravely injured, Gabe’s only hope is a mysterious woman on the run herself.
Keshara has to decide whether to abandon the human to die of his injuries on a windswept mountain top or give up her own quest for freedom and take him to a place he can be helped. The undeniable spark between them complicates matters.
His attraction to her is off the charts but when she betrays him to the Khagrish enemy, Gabe doesn’t know what to believe. Trapped inside an alien lab bursting with mysteries and lies, his only hope may be to trust her…again.
Because the renegade alien scientist running her own private experiments wants to use him to accomplish her goals and perpetuate the evil, no matter what she has to do to ensure his compliance. Keshara’s life hangs in the balance and Gabe has to make a choice.
Buy Links for GABE:
Amazon Apple Books Nook Kobo Google Play
What an interesting twist that takes the story in an unexpected direction.
I’m intrigued by what this dream will reveal to him. Great snippet!
I dunno about dying, but dreaming about deities sure isn’t a good sign.
yeah, that might be a little disturbing to me too, even if it were only a dream.
Mystical elements can be fun, although dreams might not mean anything.
I LIKE this mystical element!
We don’t know what is out there and how it operates. I know. I know. Obeying the laws of physics. Still, there is Clarke’s third law that explains so much about how our humble human minds work. Kind of a waste–that we only use a tiny portion of it. Perhaps across the universe, they use more. And that could seem like magic. 🙂
I like a bit of mysticism too. An understandable universe would be slightly disappointing 🙂
But this begs the question – how much is this simply a dream, and how much is it reflecting some sort of reality?
I wonder what will happen to swing him from one side to the other… 😀
I love your mystical elements! And I really like the idea that Kashara is holding him back from death.
That last line was a surprise. I like your mystical elements too.
Thanks for visiting and commenting – always much appreciated! Gabe is definitely in danger of dying, so it’s more than a dream, even if he isn’t physically in the sacred grove. If he doesn’t fight to live at this juncture, the book will be VERY short. I imagine you can guess he doesn’t die so early in the proceedings.He’s a stubborn guy!
I think he’ll find a reason to want to live–perhaps the one sleeping in the circle. 🙂 I hope so, at least. Great snippet! And yes, the mystical elements are always necessary in your books!
That was a twist. I’m curious to know how he’ll return to the living.
I like how you incorporate a religious aspect into this series. The Badari, though engineered warriors, have developed a deity to worship. This dream (or is it?) explains how Keshara healed him at risk to herself. Meanwhile, the deity is taking care of both of them.