Dark Earth

Title:	Dark Earth
Cover Artist:	Don Semora
Genre:	Military, Sci-Fi
Series:	Earthfleet Extended Universe
Publication Date:	January 2013
Media Types:	Ebook
ISBN:	978-1301422661

Dark Earth is one of several books in the Earthfleet Extended Universe and covers the adventures of Grand Admiral Pendleton and his adventures in an alternate reality from the one we know.

Back Cover Blurb

Transported to another dimension, Pendleton and his crew are thrown headlong into a battle with an alternate Earth; one who is dark, evil, and thirsty for conquest. Faced with enemies all around and no way home, Pendleton must use his wits and cunning to undo the evil of the Sol Empire and restore this alien galaxy to peace once again. But with limited resources, few allies and far from home, can he and his tiny fleet make a difference, or will they simply be brushed aside by the fires of war?

Book Summary

The story begins with Joel Pendleton, now the Grand Admiral of Earthfleet sitting in his office with no retired former Grand Admiral Mike Clayton, and Dutch, Pendleton's Vice-Grand Admiral, as they discuss a variety of issues occurring around the galaxy. The Pront are especially becoming a problem of late, leading to no small degree of frustration for Pendleton. Sarah then appears as the men continue playfully bantering between themselves and mentions that Eric Rogers has the Sergenious ready to fly. Not long after, several of his aids arrive with a pile of data pads filled with more paperwork. Pendleton complains that he's had the job for six months and has been so busy he hasn't been out of the office the entire time. This then spawns an idea to have Pendleton take a cruise around the galaxy just to get away from the office for a while. So they organize a plan to have Dutch watch things at home while he's out touring the Galactic Core. Pendleton then takes the pilot's seat of the newly rebuilt Generation 3 Sergenious, for old time's sake, and pilots it out of Sol Space. However, as a safety precaution, Dutch follows them in the Prometheus and the Apollo, just to be safe.

As they're leaving, Zoahn happens to spot the Sergenious leaving the Mars Colonies and decides to follow them. Upon arriving on the bridge of the Prometheus he overhears a brief conversation between Dutch and Spire about Pendleton's plans. Things go fairly quietly for the next twelve hours until the Sergenious picks up a strange object on long range sensors. When they go to investigate the device activates, knocking everyone unconscious. When they awake they discover that they're no longer in their last location, but have arrived in another dimension, one where Earth is a conquering superpower and the center of the Sol Empire. As they begin to come to this realization, Basil explains to them that the Yandians knew about this, and that the device belongs to a race if inter-dimensional beings who visited the dimension near its beginning. Understanding this, the crews get to work trying to phone home to Earth using a trans-dimensional bridge. While this is happening, Zoahn cautiously scans the area for danger. As he does, Sarah detects him, and then transports to where he's at to confront him. It's at this point that it's revealed that Zoahn isn't actually a bad guy, but rather a deep cover operative pretending to be evil in order to protect Sarah, as strange as that sounds.

He then reveals why he was sent, and by who. Namely, Sarah's father to protect her. About this time the Prometheus makes contact with Earth and informs them of the situation, which then sets the Society on a course to finding a way to bring everyone home. However, as they're doing this they're detected by the local military, who sends ships to investigate. Shortly after this, Lars, who slipped onto the ship undetected, and had been sneaking around inside it, is caught and confronted by Spire about his actions. As he's doing this, Sarah is elsewhere in the ship, struggling with her emotions involving Mike. As this is happening, Spire receives a report that unknown ships are closing on them. So he heads back to the bridge where he's faced with five warships of the Sol Empire. After a brief but heated conversation the imperial battleships open fire on the Prometheus, but find that they don't have the firepower to harm it. Eventually they do summon enough firepower to start degrading the shields of the Prometheus, so Pendleton orders the ship to return fire, which it does, obliterating the battleships easily.

Elsewhere nearby, Pepperton Rollins is observing events between the Prometheus and the imperial battleships. He hopes to make them allies to help him in his war against the empire. Back in Earthfleet's home dimension, Phyland Renwal is greeted by Fidget and asked to speak with his uncle, Tenwar. They soon arrive in a secret meeting location and are given information about the device that transported the Prometheus and the Apollo to the other dimension. Fidget then heads out looking for information he can bring to his uncle. Over in the Imperial Earth dimension, Pendleton and the others work diligently to search out and find any sign of a device in that dimension similar to what brought them there, but have no luck. So they spread out to broaden their efforts. Zoahn, in particular, follows the Sergenious. As they make one of their sensor stops he decides to make his move, as he wants to force Sarah to reveal who she really is, after which he hopes that Mike will accept her. So he disables power in the entire system they're parked in, destroying all the local imperial forces and causing the local star to collapse in a small scale super nova. This forces Sarah to either reveal herself and save Mike, or else remain hidden, and lose him forever.

She decides to save him, stopping the nova blastwave with ease and protecting the Sergenious in the process. She then returns to the Sergenious to face her worst fears. But, to her surprise, instead of Mike hating or being fearful of her, he's actually far more open to her, much to her relief.

(This summary is a WIP, so please be patient.)