Stellar

Well, the fleet wouldn't have wiped out the entire urban area, as they would have approximate locations for the landing points of the enemy ships and could target accordingly, but just bombarding those alone would probably constitute casualties in six figures. It is a luxury to have easy decisions during a war. I am inclined to agree, Mira is wonderful. Though, he isn't in this chapter, so you may be crediting him for something he didn't do.

Well, we can trace the universal origins back to the Big Bang and may eventually be able to deduce many of the physical laws down to very refined theory, but I understand your point. There are things, in both a literal and metaphorical sense, that will remain forever unanswered and undescribed. Don't worry, I didn't take real offence.

I'm not sure if I'm misconstruing what you are saying here, but none of what I write is unclear to me. The detailed mechanics of some things are literally impossible for me to explain in scientific terms because they deal with aspects of cosmology or advanced technology that are beyond current human understanding. So, by that measurement, yes, you could say there is some lack of clarity in that way. However, everything I have represented, I know conceptually how it all fits together even if I cannot break any given thing down into perfect explanation. That is the nature of science fiction when dealing with the future -- the author has to fill the gaps with plausibility, or else this would be the fantasy genre instead. It's not Yugan that surprised him -- the human introduction to the Mishith has already occurred, directly before this. It's because Ayize has seen the Herald, which is huge, like a medium-sized asteroid many dozens of kilometres across. Bear in mind: he knows essentially nothing about it -- and at this point, Shay too has only heard its name, not laid eyes on it -- so witnessing something that big appear in orbit is both shocking and terrifying. You are free to imagine the ship as whatever gender you like, though it has no such self-image because it's more like an organic AI than anything else. Though, the female pronoun would fit with human maritime tradition of referring to ships as women. You can feel safe with the knowledge that Liberty survived unharmed through to the end of this chapter. Thank you!

His actions at Mars will earn him a place in history, assuming humanity comes out of this in one piece. Why would Sulin appear any differently than Dagen in their original time? At this point they are both pre-Sundering Mishith during the war era of their civilisation. I can clarify that their appearances match the holographic imagery Shay and the others saw of Dagen in Veil of Shadow, which is to say they are around thirteen feet tall and proportionally more massive. The real question is: how did they go from that to the present-day Mishith -- Yugan, Ralot, Mikom, etc. -- who are at most eight feet tall, and much lighter? It is no spoiler to say the Sundering is the cause, but why? For what reason are they physically different? On the matter of Shay being recognised as Sulin: it has nothing to do with Shay's appearance, and everything to do with the quantum signature within his body, and trace genetic markers that corroborate this information. I wouldn't call it mystical so much as an advanced form of personal identification. Don't forget, aqumi is an autonomous particle field that may operate free of physical hardware. Where human technology might perform a retinal scan, or take a fingerprint, or even a DNA sample, aqumi has other means to validate that are far more refined and precise than our present day methods.

Oh, Mira's imagination has Shay as a pregnant boy. Nothing about his fantasy makes realistic sense, because it is a reflection of latent psychological desires, but it is quite specific: he fell in love with a boy, so it must be a boy to give him children, of course. Naturally this is impossible in the strictest sense because of ... well ... basic biology. You are right though, it would be fun. They would enjoy the process of attempting to create a baby quite a lot. Lack of success would mean repeatedly trying a great many times, just to make sure.

This is accurate! I am very glad you recalled such detail! However, in the intervening time, Shay's first perspective is not so simple. Let me quote: This should make clear that they are flexible in what they enjoy but that either will prioritise a certain position. Without being too crude, Shay likes being on the receiving end, and Mira likes being the one giving it out. The dynamic between them reflects this.

There is. The final book of the trilogy, Lucid Truth, exists in an incomplete form. Whether you read it piece by piece or wait until completion is your choice. Just a reminder than unless you SEE a character die in the text, you cannot assume they are dead. Like all Mishith, Mikom is very tough and capable of surviving much. You are most welcome.

Then I am doing my job as an author. This is all any writer ever wishes to hear. His escape from Lucere with Nyx was one of the most enjoyable stretches of the plot to write. I think you've misunderstood (or stated incorrectly) this part. Mira's train of thoughts included a fantasy of Shay being pregnant, not himself. He is a little obsessed, no doubt, but it's clear he wants much more with his beloved.

Oops, missed this one too. Sorry! Who's to say what tipped the arbiters off? Maybe they just thought something wasn't right. A hunch perhaps. This is answered in more detail in my chapter 17 comment. Well, returning to Earth might not be the top priority for Shay, as you will later see.

Forgot to respond to this one. Some of my favourite parts are just writing the two of them together; I get a lot of fulfillment from it.

The danger for Lucas is not from CorpSec but from the military hierarchy itself. He would be in a world of trouble if they knew he was undertaking political fraternisation and breaking rules. As for CorpSec's legal standing, it is has no legitimate authority beyond what exists de-facto through MFM's position. That is to say: CorpSec has no lawful mandate but functions as both a paramilitary and a police force (to some degree) because the monolithic corporation that controls it is a vested and irreplaceable part of the world system -- as was stated in an earlier chapter, it's like a parasite that would kill the host if removed. Thus, MFM shields CorpSec (again, in a limited fashion, not everything can be excused) from certain consequences. If MFM managed to gain full control of the federal government, CorpSec would be free from legal checks restricting its behaviour. Think of some combination of state security and secret police -- that is what they would become. So, no, CorpSec has absolutely no democratic input, and is literally commanded at the whims of MFM's directorate. On the other hand, the federal military functions something like those that exist in certain first world countries today. It is deliberately and outwardly non-partisan and both servicemen and the upper command are expressly forbidden from civilian political affairs. This is strictly enforced and taken quite seriously, to minimise the temptation for some ambitious ruthless admiral or general attempting to seize power. The strategic management, in normal circumstances, is done by an administrator appointed by the legislature and executive -- chapter 10 was all about how that happens. In the case of external threats, the premier is able to order limited operations, with broader actions requiring the senate's approval or emergency dispensation. For internal issues, the federal police or other state security forces must deal with any problems, and the military would not be involved out of constitutional principle. It would take a extraordinary threat to the government's basic integrity on a major scale for the army or fleet to be called in, and the requirements for this are so steep that it has never happened since the global union was formed. I hope this lengthy comment makes sense to you and clears any misunderstandings. A big theme of the plot as it progresses on 24th century Earth is about how the democratic system is functional but flawed, and heavily abused by competing interests that have nothing to do with social progress and the common good. I hope that's not cynicism in your comment? I can't tell. To be honest, if I were that age, I would find that kind of attention from someone like him very heart-pounding.

Well, not everyone will make it out alive, but be wary of writing off anyone who doesn't clearly die in plain view. This part of the chapter was hard for even some native English speakers to comprehend. It's very abstract and conceptual, so it may not be easy to immediately grasp. I took special amusement in Shay not realising how great his butt looks until Mira makes a thing out of it. It's the little things that bring us joy. Thanks for reading.

Thanks for reading. I am assuming you mean the dialogue between Yugan and Mikom is archaic? I would say this is true, mostly because you are reading an alien conversation rendered into human language. It will not have the word use, jargon, slang, contractions, etc., that make up modern English. There is a more formal style and a particular type of phrasing that the Mishith, and dagenith in particular will prefer, having spent so long in isolated and primitive conditions. As for the Sundering and what it meant and means for their race: yes, that is an ongoing plot thread and a very important one. More information will emerge on this in due course.

Thank you.

Except Elia knew they were not able to escape. She literally tells Nyx to leave so they aren't both captured.

Who said the sensors need to be physically connected to a system for either power or communication? This is 24th century human capability, not present day. This is correct. I will quote here a line from that final scene: Down through the night sky descended a ship. It was a larger breed than the scout-destroyer, one of the harbinger's own Emissary caste. The above-mentioned 'scout-destroyer' is the type of vessel Shay and the others have commandeered, and it hasn't yet received a classification name. However, what arrives to retrieve Elia on Lucere is larger, and is known to the arbiters as an Emissary type. It transported her to the Herald, which is too large to make planetfall itself.

Of course I have! The answer is that devising an entirely new annual calendar based on Lucere's orbit would have been a lot of work for very little point. This also occurred to me during the writing, but I opted not to do it. The in-lore explanation (existing in my mind, and not written anywhere) is that the local days and years would be similar to Earth -- Lucere is very habitable because it exists around a similar star to our own at a similar distance from its sun, with similar surface conditions. So, it is already very Earth-like in terms of its day-night cycle and orbital speed/distance around the parent star. Any differences that accumulate over a duration would not matter because there would be kept two separate calendars; a local Lucere variation and the original Earth calendar. Given that humans raised on Earth -- and this would be most colonists even in 2104 -- would think in terms of the Gregorian units and standard 24 hour times, for simplicity's sake, the dates you see in Hidden Sunlight are the equivalent Earth versions and are essentially transliterated. Something like this would probably be the standard on other colonies too, though I never had the time nor inclination to explore it in detail. Also, the colonies were wiped out, so ... the aliens solved that for me? Background information is certainly building here, though you will have to wait until Chapter 10 to get the lion's share of it. Lindani and Kenji are also getting some spotlight; they aren't quite in the middle of a starfaring adventure like Ayize and Rashid, but they have their own roles to play. Well, you'll just have to see! One would certainly assume this has to happen eventually, right?

To be fair, they were both able to fight effectively, but the situations were difficult. Whether Mira would have killed the arbiter he was facing without serious injury -- if Ayize did not intervene -- is an open question. Conversely, Rashid definitely saved Shay's life. What happened with him was more complex, as it was not simply new power being 'unlocked' through the stress of combat. Detail on this will be expanded in later chapters. Elia is much like Mira in that she is unafraid of sharpelings and has the natural combat ability to kill them. If you think back to their origins, you will know who that connection is to, he who had 'broken their chains.' Well, if they should appear on Earth, we're all in trouble. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

I took a lot of pleasure in their reunion, and how oblivious and instinctual their attraction to one another is. Ayize certainly wasn't expecting that. He has certainly realised that he is in a unique position to pull strings and change what is going on. He feels guilt because of what he did, even though it was justified in his mind as an act of future prevention and vengeance. It's an example of how even an intelligent mature boy might need the guidance of an adult from time to time; Ayize has seen a lot of this kind of thing. I will reiterate: they most definitely can hunt. They may not be creatures of bestial speed and raw power like the hounds, but they are absolutely able to do the dirty work. There is no reference list, as the novel is now several years old and during its writing I did not receive any requests for one, so it was my belief that such a thing was never needed. The cast of minor characters isn't actually too big. Outside of Shay, Mira, Konstantin, and Yugan, you will only need to really pay attention to: Ayize, Rashid, Lindani, Kenji, Lucas, Elia and Nyx. There will be a couple more peripheral actors who have not yet been introduced, but that's largely it. As for acronyms, they were generally meant to be realised through context by the reader, but I can break that down a little for you here: MFM is the mega-corporation that dominates a large chunk of human politics and economics; Manufacturing, Finance & Mercantile. RDA is the research branch of MFM, responsible for their scientific advances: Research, Development & Acquisition SDCP is the full acronym for Society, the main loyalist bloc that opposes the corporatists in politics and has been in control of most government bodies, i.e. the legislative and executive branches, for a long time: Society for Democratic Cultural Preservation. CS or CorpSec is a contracted portmanteau of Corporate Security and acts as both police and military under MFM's control. They are nominally subordinate to federal control, but in practice they are often acting with impunity.

A little trivia: Janaya was a real-life coworker of mine at the time this was written. She was the only one at my place of employment who knew I was an author, and asked if I could write her in. So, I did! Canonically I hold that she didn't get in any trouble, mostly because Mira killed all the attending federal officers, allowing her to leave the site unnoticed and able to tell the weird story of how she once met a blond blue-eyed European boy in Japan who cut down a bunch of cops like a mythical supernatural ninja. But ... who would believe a tale like that? As for the arbiters, well ... they are perfectly capable of getting their claws bloody and doing the work themselves when needed. Thanks for reading.

To be fair to Shay, he was in a high-pressure emotional situation where his priority was escape and survival ahead of any kind of negotiation. Given his experiences so far with people trying to control him -- especially when it involves Mira -- his reaction is quite understandable. Regarding his captors: they were RDA scientists hiding on a secret offworld base precisely in order to avoid Earth's federal law. Their employers are MFM, the monolithic corporation who kidnapped Shay and Mira. These people are free from ethical concerns in this pursuit and even explicitly encouraged by the corporate overlords to get results before anything else. The goal was, as this chapter should demonstrate, to reverse engineer aqumi. If they had been successful in doing so without Shay's disruption, once everything of value was learned, both boys would have been eliminated and disposed of. You will see this experience leave a mark on Shay's conscience though.

Oh, if you think there's commotion now, then just you wait until later! It will get worse before it gets better, of that you may be assured. I wish to note here that you are perhaps one of the only readers who explicitly noticed and named all five 'beacons' at this early stage of the second book. The assumption that Yugan might possess aqumi is a sound one, and the question of Konstantin's role will be answered before too long. I am glad you are enjoying it!

Ah yes -- Yugan is seeing something very dire in the future of this alien he's connected to. The question is if he's done anything to avert or warn about that bottleneck. Thanks for reading! I love that you're enjoying it.

The second book's plot expands quite a bit to include other places and characters not seen before. There's Earth, with the complexities of politics and human infighting, and you will see a lot more of this through Konstantin's eyes -- and also through others he meets. There are Elia and Nyx, who are indeed still on Lucere, having experienced an awakening not unlike Mira's own. There is the alien Mishith youth Yugan on the world Dagen's Grace. Lastly: Shay and Mira. They will appear, but it won't be straight away. There's a reason for this, and it will become clear once you do see them.

No problem. First-time readers tend to have commentary along the lines of 'how could you do that to Mira?!' only to take it back after chapter 12. Your reaction is completely normal!