Lucky enough to be chosen as an astronaut, Lieutenant Robert Sears finds himself on the Mayflower, a brand new D-75 ship, hurtling towards Mars on a hunt for Martian gold with his captain and two crewmates. Lt. Sears and his fellow crewmates find war instead of gold when they witness an intergalactic battle between the Centaurians and the Zendorans leaves one lone Centaurian survivor and severely injures the captain of the Mayflower. Seemingly desperate to help, the Centaurian survivor, Drayden, transports the Mayflower’s captain and crew back to Centauri to render aid. Yet, when the captain never recovers, one crewmate mysteriously dies at the hands of a Zendoran droid, and another comatose after a deadly fall, Lt. Sears finds himself seething with anger at the Zendorans and willing to do anything to exact his revenge.

But who is really behind the deaths of his captain and crewmate? Will Lt. Sears discover the truth before it’s too late? Or will he, like his friends, end up a victim of Centaurian cruelty?

Readers are entranced by the reality woven by author Ken Bush in this tale of betrayal, redemption, and deceit, saying, “wow, what a read!” and “I lost track of time, I couldn’t put it down!”

“A real page turner!”-Kathryn

“This is a great story!”-Loki

“Awesome!”-Ken

“I typically don’t go for sci-fi but this was cool!”-Nannette

“Cool!”-Sam

Excerpt:

On the surface, Hills and the others heard the sounds of soft explosions coming from the sky which grew louder every second. They looked at each other with odd expressions.

“What is that?” Dana asked.

They looked up to the sky in confusion. The sounds of explosions grew louder and were accompanied with engines and other strange noises. All the starships descended and drew near to the surface. It was still in full motion. The silver starships fired away at the rusty ones constantly without pause. Another rusty starship exploded and then another. A large fireball erupted just above the surface. Fiery parts of star craft flew to the surface and recklessly rolled in all directions. The battle was now an imminent threat to Hills and his crew.

“Back to the Mayflower, now!” Hills commanded.

Peters jumped on Hill’s Crawler with him. Sears and Dana powered up the other two and hauled ass toward the Mayflower at maximum power leaving the Jackman behind. The air battle continued just over their heads. Explosions erupted and more pieces of burning starship flew down from above nearly hitting them. A large piece of smoking, burning wing crashed down in front of Dana. It was dingy gray, full of grooves and crevices with sparking wires. It exploded sending flaming pieces in all directions. She was caught off-guard and collided into one of the pieces that were on fire. The impact knocked her from the Crawler and violently to the ground. The Crawler crashed into more burning pieces of smoking destroyed starship; an arm-wing of a tatty ship made with peculiar metal and laden with cracks and fissures. The Crawler tipped over and was consumed in the flames.

“Dana!” Sears hollered.

He looked back and watched her tumble and roll in the dirt. Sears eyes filled with terror as he and the others slammed on their brakes.

“Head to the Mayflower, I got her!” Sears yelled.

He quickly turned around and drove towards Dana. She got up and ran towards Sears with a limp as fast as she could. Hills and Peters drove to the Mayflower as fast as their Crawlers would take them.