Peace on Earth
Jane McCaa
Author Bio
Scotswoman Jane McCaa has been writing pretty much since the moment she could hold a pen – she was writing science fiction before she even knew what it was. Her academic background is in Classics and Archaeology ans she has taught and published in these fields, with specialist interests in the history of everyday life and the history of religion. She has also managed to fit in some Business Studies, work in publishing, P.R. and journalism, and Diocesan admin – and even jewellery design. She is also a qualified teacher of R.E. as an academic subject. She has worked with various charities. Her outside interests have ranged from rock-climbing and karate to embroidery and representing her university in cha cha. She studied Singing for many years. Much of her range of study and experience gets fed back into her work.
Jane McCaa was born in the Scottish town of Clydebank, educated at the famous Mary Erskine School in Edinburgh, then at the Universities of Bristol, The West of England and Edinburgh. She has taught at every level from junior school to university and remains in touch with quite a few former students. She now lives in the Scottish Borders. Jane McCaa is a pseudonym.
Description
In the second volume in the Delos series, things were looking good for the new Delian League when an invitation for a state visit came in from Eirene – rich, strategically vital and determinedly neutral. It was all going well until Zoe Arete and Peter Minyas find the inconvenient body and then the even more inconvenient invasion finds them.
Zoe and Peter are taken hostage by the old enemy, the Sikulans. This is particularly bad news for Peter as they have a big grudge against him from the last Sikulan War. Even enemies, however, can sometimes also be friends. Peter and the Sikulan commander, Grigori, have a lot of painful memories and tangled loyalties to work through.
In the aftermath, the Delian survivors flee across the sands and mountain to rally the few Eirenians prepared to fight back.
The crisis makes the rest of the galaxy hold its breath. Not everyone was comfortable with the shifting political power structures and the prospect of Eirene sparking a new multi-planetary war of the civilisation-destroying kind is all too real.
As both sides settle into an attempt to contain the conflict to a proxy guerrilla war, there are big questions to be asked about how this ugly stand-off between these two dangerous rival powers could be allowed to happen. The old enemies know and understand each other better than anyone else, however, and this could be the key to disaster or to hope. While political manoeuvring and strategic manoeuvring take place off Eirene and the fighting on Eirene settles into stalemate, no-one forgets that the place is so vital because of all the planets technologically dependent on her. There is a great deal to win or lose.
In the end, it is Zoe and Peter who will break through the deadlock in a climactic encounter in which they will risk all that they are and know and have learned to save Eirene and the galaxy. But will it be enough?
Throughout this part of the Delos story, people are faced with big choices. What responsibility will they take? To whom do they owe loyalty? What will they risk? What will they tell? What price will they pay for peace?
Book excerpt
After nightfall they moved out into the city, and worked their way towards the communications centre the Sikulans had based in the local news broadcasting centre. The Sikulan uniforms were consigned to Lincoln’s care, while Zoe and Peter, wearing easy, light-bending night-battle suits and hoods, masked their skin and bestowed about them the weapons they would need.
The city was eerily silent in the curfew, with only the jarring noises of Sikulan patrols by ground, air and river, until in the distance came a whump and a ball of flame lit the sky. A hoverflier coming in to land had blown up as it made contact with the liquid explosive Peter had scattered invisibly on the landing pad. Now there was satisfactory noise and hurry, as troopers were turfed out to deal with the blazing aircraft.
Zoe grinned, “Perfect,” she mouthed at Lincoln. He supposed he had to believe her. They moved on, silent as ghosts, through the lanes and gardens towards the sprawl of buildings and courtyards that held the news station. Eirenian architecture made initial infiltration so easy. Following instructions, Lincoln left them at the house with the jasmine Erik had described to them, the scent intoxicating in the soft night air. He would plant a couple of heat-emitting devices designed by Philanema to confuse the sensors while Zoe and Peter moved in.
The guards at their point of entry were hardly alert. All Janni Newman’s best efforts had hardly produced enough of a problem for them to take too seriously, and even the evening’s explosion had not really unsettled them. Backs flattened against the wall, knees bent in supple balance and readiness, Zoe and Peter slithered crabwise along the edge of the secretarial block. The pattern of the place was firm in their minds, and the disposition of the guards, one of whom turned round and stared out, some extra sense prickling at him despite the ease of his duties so far. He stared straight at Zoe and saw nothing as, black into black, she merged into the quietness of the night. He turned back again.
“I’d feel happier with full floodlighting,” they heard him say.
Without moving the rest of her body, Zoe’s hands went to her waist. She detached a cord with weighted balls at either end and sensed, rather than heard or felt, Peter remove his knife from its sheath. She touched his hand to sign which she would take then, as he moved away, as smoothly as a whisper of wind across a field of grass, she began to whip one end of the cord in a circle. They both began to edge foward until the jumpy guard caught the almost subliminal sound and felt the wind of Zoe’s weapon. He whirled round, she threw, and the weighted cord whipped round his neck, garrotting him as he stood. Peter’s knife took the other in the throat, and they both died silently.
Author Website
http://www.radisol.com/janemccaa/index.htm
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