Finding Aeolus

Book excerpt: Human space has been long developed; and human history has been, typically, one hell of a roller-coaster ride. Mankind has, however, ensured the survival of the species by building homes everywhere, some of which are hidden. The Zeus System—encompassing the Twin Worlds of Diana and Apollo, a binary planet system orbiting Zeus of the Gemini cluster—is beyond Drago Leonis, 863 light-years from Earth. The year is 6229 of the terran-standard calendar. Having spent two thousand years clawing back from the hunter-gatherer stage they were bombed into, by the confederation, the Twin Worlders were finally back at the level of a late twenty-first-century civilization. It was a hard-fought struggle and was only possible because of the only significant technology that survived the initial onslaught—Latona, the Oracle. An artificial intelligence is inhabiting a facility buried deep under Mount Parnassus on Diana; and as a part of her systems, she includes the full Terran Encyclopedia, initially created by the Second Terran Republic. Now, the confederation has found them again, but memories are short, records are fragile, and two thousand years is a long time. The confederation has forgotten why they had attacked the Twin Worlds the first time. Indeed, it is not quite the same confederation anymore either. In some important ways, it was much worse. However, Latona does remember, and she knows that her time has just run out and her charges are nowhere near ready to defend their worlds. Latona must reacquire star-faring technology while keeping her secrets hidden. She must prepare her charges for the interstellar war that she knows will come while living under the very nose of the confederation and before the confederation discovers the secrets of the Twin Worlds.