Heart of the Nebula

by Joe Vasicek

  “And now that you have, what’s next?”

  He looked at her and smiled. “We start over again—together. This world is a clean slate, and we’re free to write the story of our lives on it.”

  His smile made her feel warm all over. He leaned over, and they kissed. In the sky overhead, the golden arc of the planet’s rings traced a wide, unbroken path to the unknown shores just waiting to be explored beyond the horizon.

  Author’s Note

  FRIEND: I was never fully convinced that James felt he had closure

  ME: I see

  FRIEND: But I was satisfied with the thought that he would get it sometime after the story ends

  he’s still young, so he’s still maturing

  even at the close of the novel

  ME: yeah

  hmm

  interesting

  This was the online exchange that planted the seed that eventually became this book.

  It happened with one of my first readers for Bringing Stella Home, about a year before I published it. At the time, I was still pursuing a traditional book deal, though the self-publishing option was on my radar. The conventional wisdom for writing for a traditional publisher was that your book should be a “stand-alone with series potential,” and that was what I was doing with my Gaia Nova books. Writing a direct sequel to Bringing Stella Home was a bit of a risk, but the idea captivated me so much that I decided to do it anyway.

  In particular, I wanted to put James in a position of leadership and responsibility. In Bringing Stella Home, he’s basically on his own. Danica takes him in, but he still does things his own way, which leads them to clash with each other quite often. Part of that is due to James’s personality: he’s a determinator who will stop at nothing to accomplish his goals. But when you have a responsibility over people besides yourself, things become more complicated because you have to weigh in the needs of the group, or the needs of the individuals within the group.

  As I outlined the book, one scene in particular stood out to me: the rescue at Zeta Nabat, where he goes back to save the girls who willingly sacrificed themselves for the good of the whole. The ethical dilemmas presented in that scene really fascinated me. Was it right to risk the lives of everyone to go back and rescue those girls? Did it negate their sacrifice? In that particular situation, when some of your people willingly sacrifice themselves for the good of the whole, what would be the right thing to do? Of course, there was no question in my mind what James would do—he would go right back for them, shouting “damn the torpedoes” as he went. But what would be the ramifications of that, and how would he pull himself out of it?

  With that scene firmly fixed in my mind, I started with a generic “five years later” scenario after the end of Bringing Stella Home and wrote my way toward the confrontation. The idea for the exodus in the nebula actually came from my original outline for Desert Stars, where I intended Jalil to find another girl and basically join a colony of refugees for a “pioneer trek in space” type story. It made a lot more sense for the people of the Colony to do that, though, especially with the Hameji breathing down their necks.

  All of the stuff about the General Assembly of Citizens came at least a year before Occupy Wall Street became a thing. From the beginning, the Colony was supposed to be a perfect techno-democracy, where every decision is put to a general vote, using futuristic technology to expedite the process. When I started seeing General Assemblies with the Occupy movement, I immediately realized that people were going to think I pulled that idea from there. But I came up with it on my own—and really, if you look at the way the two are organized, they aren’t the same thing. Not even close.

  There were a few other things I threw into the first draft, some of which didn’t work so well. I knew the story needed a romantic subplot, so I tried to turn the thing with Sara and James into a love triangle by introducing Kyla. That ended rather poorly, and actually nearly destroyed the book. James isn’t the sort of person to be caught up in a love triangle: he’s very direct and very honest, both with himself and with the women in his life. It’s not in his nature to cheat or play games—or to be very indecisive, for that matter. But it took me at least three drafts to figure that out.

  I finished the first draft in May 2011. It was abominable. Still, I was a fairly new writer, and was following the advice to not worry how bad a story is, but to finish it and worry about fixing it later. This was a case where the standard advice was wrong—very wrong, in fact. I knew that what I’d written was bad, but I had no idea how bad it was. Turning it into something good would take three more drafts and several years.

  The second draft was finished by the end of 2011, at which time I started to realize how bad the story was. Then I went overseas to teach English. The culture shock of life in a developing country threw me into a creative funk, and for a couple of months, I hardly wrote much of anything. Still, the break was good, because it allowed me to approach the book with new eyes. This was how I put it when I started the third draft over the summer:

  “Basically, I let some of my darlings live, and they grew some extra limbs and started drooling acid without my realizing it. But now, I’ve put enough distance between myself and the first draft that I have no qualms about grabbing the ax and chopping off heads.”

  The main thing that needed to get axed was the love triangle. There were also a few extra characters, like Kyla’s siblings, and some characters that needed to be fleshed out more, like the patrician (who never got a first name, by the way—I think he would approve), and James’s parents. Also, James had turned into something of a Mary Sue and needed to be taken down a few notches.

  The third draft was where I cut out most of the stuff that was broken, but it wasn’t until the fourth draft that the heart of the story really came out. By then, I’d gotten discouraged with it so many times that almost four years had passed since the genesis of the story idea. This was the story that should have come together at the very beginning, and probably would have if I’d deleted the first draft instead of trying to power through it. By the end, I had something that was pretty good, even if it was a little rough.

  By this time, I’d self-published somewhere around twenty books, most of them novellas and short novels. Heart of the Nebula was the fourth book in the Gaia Nova series, after Desert Stars and Stars of Blood and Glory which I’d published in the interim. It took a lot longer to write Heart of the Nebula than I had originally planned, but at the end of the fifth and final draft, I feel that it’s something I can look back and be proud of.

  If you enjoyed this book, please share it by posting an honest review! Those really do help in getting the word out and helping people find great books. For updates on my latest projects, be sure to check out my blog at One Thousand and One Parsecs (onelowerlight.com/writing), where you can sign up for my email newsletter for updates on special offers and new releases. You can also find me on Twitter as @onelowerlight.

  Thanks so much for all of your support! It’s readers like you who make it possible for me to write them—not only that, but to make a career out of writing them. It’s been a fantastic journey so far, and with the books that I’ll write in the years to come, I hope that it will only get better.

  Thanks for reading!

  Acknowledgments

  There are so many people who helped out with this book, I hardly know where to start! First, thanks to my first readers Mykle Law and Liel Boyce who helped me suss out the story and read some of the early drafts. Thanks also to Kindal Debenham’s writing group for critiquing the first chapter: Kindal and Emily Debenham, Aneeka Richins, Chris Lambson, Ben Hardin, and Megan Hutchins. Thanks to Mykle Law again for reading the penultimate draft, as well as Logan Kearsley and Stephen Dethloff. Josh Leavitt did the copy editing, and Lorenz Hideyoshi Ruwwe did the magnificent cover art. Thanks so much guys!

  Thousands of years after mankind’s exodus from Earth, a band of starfarers fight for the freedom of the Outworlds in Sons of the Starfarers (Om
nibus I-III).

  BROTHERS IN EXILE

  Deep in the Far Outworlds, a derelict space station holds the bones of a long-dead people—and a beautiful young woman locked in cryofreeze. When the star-wandering brothers Isaac and Aaron Deltana find the sleeping girl, they soon realize that they are her only hope for rescue. If they don't take her, then slavers certainly will.

  With no way to revive her, they set a course for the New Pleiades in hopes of finding someone who can help. But a storm is brewing over that region of space. After a series of brutal civil wars, the Gaian Empire has turned its sights outward. A frontier war is on the verge of breaking out, and the brothers are about to be caught in the middle of it.

  They both harbor a secret, though. Somewhere else in the Outworlds is another derelict station—one that they used to call home. That secret will either bind them together or draw them apart.

  COMRADES IN HOPE

  War has come to the Outworlds. An Imperial expeditionary force has taken the frontier systems and threatens to strike at the heart of the New Pleiades. The only thing standing in their way is a ragtag flotilla of starfarers and merchanters, their motives as varied as the stars from which they hail.

  Aaron Deltana can barely speak the same language as his Outworld comrades, but he isn't about to let that stop him. Though he has no military training or combat experience, he's determined to prove his valor. Besides, the Imperials have taken something very dear to him—something that he has sworn to take back.

  He isn't the only one with a score to settle. Mara Soladze, the only other Deltan in the Flotilla, has vowed revenge on the Imperials for killing her father. Where Aaron hopes to prove himself, though, Mara fully expects to die—and her fate is tied to his.

  Aaron isn't prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, but when the war turns against them, it looks as if he may not have a choice.

  STRANGERS IN FLIGHT

  For countless ages, Reva Starchild has slept in perfect cryostasis. Frozen in secret to escape a catastrophic death, she awakens only to find herself the sole survivor of a people whom history never remembered. Light-years from her homeworld, among a culture she finds both perverse and obscene, she must somehow build a new life for herself where misplacing her trust could be fatal.

  With nowhere safe to run, she finds refuge on a small starship with a mysterious young man who seems to be fleeing something as well. Where others have sought to enslave her, though, he treats her with unexpected kindness. As they slowly open up to each other, she learns that he too carries a burden—one she can barely comprehend.

  Isaac Deltana indeed carries a burden. The failure of his mission at Colkhia has brought untold calamity to the Outworld forces and almost certainly led to the death of his brother. Now, he flees from the Gaian Imperials to prevent them from obtaining the secret technology he carries—one that will change the face of interstellar war forever.

  Little does he know, the Imperials aren't the only ones hunting him.

  CLICK HERE TO BUY SONS OF THE STARFARERS (OMNIBUS I-III)

  Thousands of years after mankind’s exodus from Earth, a young starship pilot and his accidental bride wander the stars in search of a homeworld in Star Wanderers: The Jeremiah Chronicles (Omnibus I-IV).

  PART I: OUTWORLDER

  When Jeremiah arrived at Megiddo Station, all he wanted was to make some trades and resupply his starship. He never thought he'd come away with a wife.

  Before he knows it, he's back on his ship, alone with his accidental bride. Since neither of them speak the same language, he has no way to tell her that there's been a terrible mistake. And because of the deadly famine ravaging her home, there's no going back. She's entirely at his mercy, and that terrifies him more than anything.

  Jeremiah isn't ready to take responsibility for anyone. He's a star wanderer, roaming the Outworld frontier in search of his fortune. Someday he'll settle down, but for now, he just wants to drop the girl off at the next port and move on.

  As he soon finds out, though, she has other plans.

  PART II: FIDELITY

  Oriana Station: a bustling frontier settlement between the Outworlds and the Coreward Stars. A popular port-of-call for free traders and independent starfarers alike—and the latest target in the aggressively expansionist plans of the Gaian Empire.

  Life was simple for Jeremiah and Noemi before they arrived. Though neither of them speak the same language, they've reached an understanding that goes beyond words. But when the colonial authorities make them into second-class citizens of a fractured empire, even that might not be enough.

  Their newfound friends in the immigrant community can only do so much. With Noemi and her people depending on him, Jeremiah must find a way back to the Outworlds—before they lose everything that they came for.

  PART III: SACRIFICE

  When Jeremiah found himself alone on his starship with an accidental bride, he had no idea how much his life would soon change. Now, with Noemi's quiet confidence supporting him as she carries their first child, it's hard to imagine life without her.

  But life in the Outworlds isn't so simple. Good men are hard to come by, and Noemi's friends expect her to share. As part of a colony mission bound for an unsettled star, Jeremiah can't say no without causing a rift in the community. But if he says yes, his new-found happiness may soon come to an end. One way or another, he will have to make a sacrifice—one that could tear their starbound family apart.

  PART IV: HOMEWORLD

  For years, Jeremiah has wandered the stars in search of a home. With his wife Noemi about to have a baby, he thinks he's finally found a place to settle down. The Zarmina system lies on the edge of the Outworld frontier, but together with their friends, they hope to establish a thriving new colony. The only problem is that the system is already inhabited—by pirates.

  The colonists no sooner arrive than they fall prisoner to Captain Helena and her band of rogues from the New Pleiades. She gives them an ultimatum: live like slaves on the planet's surface, or breathe vacuum. With all their dreams about to be shattered, they have to find a way to fight back. But to do so may endanger everything—including the lives of the ones they love most.

  CLICK HERE TO BUY STAR WANDERERS: THE JEREMIAH CHRONICLES (OMNIBUS I-IV)

  A coming of age sci-fi romance from the author of Desert Stars.

  THE ULTIMATE VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY ENDS WHEN YOU LEARN THE TRUTH ABOUT YOURSELF.

  Michael Anderson never thought he would set foot on a world like Earth. Born and raised in a colony of scientists on the farthest edge of the solar system, he only studied planets from afar. But when his parents build mankind's first wormhole and discover a world emitting a mysterious artificial signal, Michael is the only qualified planetologist young enough to travel to the alien star.

  He is not alone on this voyage of discovery. Terra, his sole mission partner, is no more an adult than he is. Soon after their arrival, however, she begins acting strangely—as if she's keeping secrets from him. And her darkest secret is one that Michael already knows.

  Twenty light-years from the nearest human being, they must learn to work together if they're ever going to survive. And what they discover on the alien planet forces them to re-examine their deepest, most unquestioned beliefs about the universe—and about what it means to be human.

  CLICK HERE TO BUY GENESIS EARTH