The Neptune Encounter is a science fiction book about inter-dimensional war. Man was still relatively young in the arena as a space faring creature but our destiny would prove to be one of significant importance to the fight against evil. Below are a couple excerpts from the book to give you a feel for the type of author I am.
1. The sun was shining brightly that early spring day on the Planet Vergil. The Trigean inhabitants were going on about their usual routine unaware of the void starting to open in their solar system. Children were playing in the park and song floaters were chirping away in the trees. The sound of a nearby waterfall could be heard over a slight rustling of leaves in the trees. The inhabitants of Vergil had never known of the word war except in their ancient history books. There had not been a murder or any other serious crime committed on Vergil for more than three hundred years. It was if the Trigeans had outgrown their evil traits, or possibly those traits were never in their hearts to begin with.
Vorla sat quietly under a Trigean tree enjoying the peaceful songs of the floaters. She was savoring her lunch while she watched the children play. A very young child that was playing nearby came up to her and asked how long until the spring festival? Vorla smiled and said, why it starts tonight. The young child smiled back and then ran off to resume her fun. Vorla stood up and was just about to head back to the star-port when suddenly their sun was slowly eclipsed by a large black sphere.
2. The alarms started to ring for deceleration stop that would bring weightlessness back until we were configured to standard shuttle mode. We were now in lunar orbit just around the moons crescent and sitting in orbit on the dark side of the moon was the Regulas. As we rounded the moon after confirmation from lunar control that included a two-ship fighter escort I saw her, the Regulas. I knew that we would not be able to see the Regulas on our scanners if she had her jammers turned on but we used optical cameras and there she was just sitting there two-thousand clicks out. Even at this distance you could still just barely see her without magnification. Chris asked me if I wished a magnification and I could feel my heart race as I confirmed his question by saying, "yes please." With a quick flash of our large monitor the Regulas sat there bigger than life with last minute cargo and shuttlecraft swarming around her like angry bees at their hive.
3. The anomaly started as a small shimmering of space about ten meters in diameter. The shimmering sphere blackened out all the stars behind it as if it was sucking the light directly from them, defying the very laws of our universe. First a small spherical probe penetrated out of the void and quickly scanned the interstellar space finding itself in one of our galaxies arms. A few seconds after the first probe had finished scanning the area it receded back into the void. The void expanded its size and a second probe penetrated into our universe. The second probe looked like the first except this probe was much larger. It accumulated any particle sample it could obtain and performed deeper and more intensive scans. After about ten minutes the second probe recessed back into the eerie shimmering blackness that it came from. The void then started to double in size every few seconds until it was about one kilometer in diameter. Within a few more seconds a ship started to emerge from the void it had created.
The ship was as black as black could be, giving no reflection but it actually seemed to attract and absorb light. It's shape was also spherical with other half sphere shapes placed on what must have been the top of it's hull into a group of three arranged into a perfect triangle from their centers. The half shapes were shimmering in rhythm with the anomaly. Within a few more seconds the shimmering on the three ship protrusions stopped and the void alimony disappeared along with the three protrusions. The black ship was now a perfect sphere and already knew where the closest star system was. Within a few seconds the alien ship shimmered for a few seconds before it disappeared from normal space.
4. The commander waited to make sure that the Dark-Ones were not just scouting again after their six-month disappearance. His wait did not take long. Immediately the nine-meter attack spheres split off in groups of three toward the closest drone fighters. The closest drone fighter waited to see what happened. All three of the small dark spheres opened fire on the Trigean fighter with their antimatter beams. The Trigean fighters' shields held, but not long enough for it to escape. Within a second the three beams collapsed it's shields and it was vaporized. Immediately the rest of the Trigean task force broke off into attack maneuvers. The three attack spheres along with the other two groups of three also changed their course for their next targets. The Trigean drone fighters split off into three swarm attacks, each group accompanied by a frigate the two remaining frigates stayed with the Victoria.
The closest of the smaller sphere groups was the first to attack. When in range both sides opened fire on each other resulting in the destruction of the frigate and seven drone fighters. The Dark-Ones lost two of their smaller spheres ships. After the first salvo of fire the remaining Trigean ships concentrated on the remaining sphere. After a few seconds of bombardment the weakened small dark sphere was vaporized but not after crippling several more Trigean drone fighters.
At the same time all three of the large dark spheres started toward the Victoria. The two frigates took positions on either side of the Victoria and all three started toward the three main spheres. Just before they were in range of the spheres the Victoria folded space and disappeared. She reappeared almost instantly behind one of the main Darkships and opened fire on it; the two frigates that were now in range also opened fire on the remaining two large spheres. After a split second the one main sphere being bombarded by the Victoria started to glow but before it was destroyed the other two large spheres projected a beam between them and the third one allowing extra power to be transferred between them. The other two large spheres being hit by the frigates simultaneously opened fire on the frigates penetrating their shields and destroying them within a second. That second of fire was enough to allow the Victoria's antimatter beam to penetrate and vaporize the one large one-kilometer dark sphere. Immediately one of the smaller attack groups broke of their engagement and joined the two remaining large spheres. The Dark-Ones basically reassembled their standard grouping of three but instead of three ships it was two large spheres accompanied by a group of three smaller ones. The three smaller spheres were in a perfect triangle with the center of their triangle as the point to form their basic triangular configuration with the two remaining large ones. Again forming a perfect triangle. The Victoria's captain spotted this weakness and requested the remaining frigates to attack the smaller group of three.
The Victoria folded space again to maneuver to the other side of the two larger spheres and waited for the remaining frigates and fighters to get within firing distance of the three smaller Darkships before she reappeared. The frigates opened fire at almost the same instant the Victoria reappeared and opened fire herself. The Dark-Ones responded with their own volley of fire that destroyed one of the frigates but not before it destroyed one of the smaller spheres. The other frigate lost power to its weapon system and maneuvered away before it could destroy the second of the three smaller spheres. The Victoria destroyed the third smaller sphere within a split second but not without getting damaged herself. The two main spheres had concentrated their combined firepower on the Victoria. She had been crippled and would not be able to fold space again. The captain new their fate was sealed and allowed the ship to self-destruct by a massive overload to their antimatter gun directed at one of the two remaining large Darkships. This overload destroyed the Darkship and also destroyed the Victoria in a blinding white flash as bright as a small supernova.
