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This excerpt is a work-in-progress and subject to change. As such, the page is unedited and may contain errors. Any typos or mistakes are my own :)

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Chapter 1

Captain Elya Nevers held his breath as the Solaran corsair locked onto its approach vector. The small starship used its maneuvering thrusters to point its nose straight at the Telos ring gate.

Rippling like the surface of a lake, the shimmering circular portal oscillated between amaranth and silver. The ring that contained it was made of intricately interlocking asteroids forming a nearly seamless halo. At times illuminated by Elturis’s single white star, and at others shaded by the fractured planetoids of a dead world orbiting it like a dancing necropolis, the ring gate was half a mile in diameter.

Tiny by intergalactic dimensions.

But still large enough to fly through in a small starship.

Though the ring appeared to be made of reddish-brown stone, the material was actually an advanced alloy smelted by the ancient alien race of tree-dwelling, spacefaring engineers known as the Telos.

This asteroid field at Elturis-2 was all that remained of their homeworld. The last survivors had fled the galaxy. They shattered this planet and harnessed its destructive energy to create this wormhole to…

To elsewhere.

They also destroyed their planet to prevent it (and, presumably, the rest of their insights and technology) from falling into Kryl talons when they were gone.

Humanity had its own experiences with the Kryl. It didn’t help to bemoan the fact that the scourge existed. The Kryl were an interstellar menace who pillaged worlds to grow their hordes. He wasn’t shocked anymore to know that the Telos had created them.

Like small gods tinkering with powers beyond their ken, the Kryl turned on their creators and ultimately destroyed them.

Humanity, however, had overcome—at least so far. So Elya’s focus was no longer on fighting the Kryl, as he’d been trained to do, but on solving the mystery before him.

Where had the Telos gone? Had they survived to carry on the legacy of their civilization?

He had to know what was on the other side of this ring gate.

From another Sabre hovering off his left shoulder, Emperor Aeris the Fifth—Sovereign of Ariadne, King of the Colonies, Lord of Lords, and Sole Ruler of all Solaran Space—signaled the corsair to move ahead.

The small, arrow-shaped starship fired its engines and began to fly at full burn.

“Sire,” Elya said over his tightbeam connection with Aeris, “do you really think this will work?”

A hysterical cackle was the man's first response. Elya waited, used to this behavior. Hedgebot, sensing Elya’s tension, nervously circled between his boots. The astrobot had been with Elya since childhood and sometimes understood his emotions better than he did.

“Earth, no,” said Emperor Aeris after recovering from his fit of laughter. "I'm not sure at all, Captain. That’s why we call it an experiment!”

A feeling of dread formed in the pit of Elya’s stomach. They’d been at this for six weeks now. Fleet engineers collaborating with scientists from the Ministry of Xeno Affairs had thrown everything they could think of at the ring gate. They’d tried a dozen methods to strengthen the shields of Fleet vessels for their attempt to use it.

Not a single ship had made it through.

“Throttle’s wide open,” said Minister Aganaki, who operated the corsair remotely from the ring gate's control room atop the hidden asteroid base. “Max burn in three seconds. Activating shields now.”

Elya wished he were in the control room. He loved flying starfighters, but his current seat felt too close for comfort. The only reason he was out here at all was that Aeris had insisted on witnessing the impact firsthand, and whatever Emperor Aeris said went.

A near-invisible bubble expanded from the Corsair’s hull. This enhanced shielding modification had been configured after scientists from the Ministry of Xeno Affairs analyzed the violet surface of the portal. They told Elya it was difficult to study because no instruments could penetrate the portal’s surface. Their best guess was that it was made of solid-state photons, but the ring gate defied every spectrum of analysis, from X-rays to lidar scans.

The corsair raced toward the ring gate.

“Contact in thirty,” said Aganaki. “Twenty-nine.”

Elya muted his mic and spoke to Hedgebot. “How fast is it moving?”

The bot tapped a few controls on the wall, climbed onto Elya’s lap, and danced across the instrument panel on the other side. “Six hundred kilometers per minute,” Elya read from his HUD, “Seven hundred... Eight hundred. Earth’s blood, that’s fast!”

The Corsair slammed into the amaranth portal and exploded, flaring like a firecracker across the surface of a lake.

“Ripples!” exclaimed Minister Aganaki. “Did you see that? We finally hit it with enough force to see a visible effect!”

“Hardening the shields seems to have been successful,” said Emperor Aeris. “Did any part of the ship breach its surface?”

“Ah… Not according to our initial scan, Your Majesty. Further analysis is needed. I have a theory on how to harden it more. We need a way to pierce the surface before impact. Perhaps we could mold a sample of the alloy into a spearhead or javelin…” His voice trailed off.

“How long would that take?” asked Aeris.

“Not sure. A few days?”

Elya flipped his mic to mute. “For the love of Animus!” He ripped off his helmet and let it drop beside Hedgebot, who chirruped at him.

“Sorry, pal.” Elya leaned back in his seat and ran his fingers through his sweaty hair. “Gah. This is going nowhere fast.”

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