Absolute power has shifted to the corporations. Gone is the subtlety of operating in the shadows, or using the government as a proxy for their actions. With the middle class all but abolished, corporations rule from shrinking islands of power in the form of metropolises, while the rest of America falls to the Desert, a wasteland without law or order where the ignoble are cast.
Jaron Shen is part of Kamiken’s elite security force on a mission to capture sensitive equipment from a rival corporation. The team discovers what they are looking for is a small girl named Jessica Seymour. When the mission goes bad and they are ordered to kill her, Jaron refuses, turns on his team, and flees. Now he is on the run, hiding from one of the most powerful organizations on earth. Also, he talks to his dead wife.
It’s 2052 and the first known wormhole appears in lunar orbit. Earth sends a ship to investigate and the future of space travel changes forever. The Solar System develops in many ways over the centuries, but one thing remains constant: the wormholes continue to appear.
Here is a summary of my entry, Here, Then, Forever:
Travel to the edge of the solar system is now possible in months instead of years. The wormhole that came to be named Khonsu allowed instantaneous travel to Neptune. In the years that passed, a space station was built to orbit Triton, the blue planet’s furthest moon. A routine flight through the portal met with disaster when it never emerged from the other side. When it was found that Khonsu had suffered from a drop in the exotic matter to keep it stable, Aliza Navarro volunteered to pilot the Lago, a ship carrying an experimental missile in an attempt to repair it. She will be the first to travel through Khonsu since the accident, unknowing as to where it may lead.
The City, built upon an asteroid, is the last stronghold of humanity in a star system ravaged by a long-ago war. Now, centuries after the apocalyptic conflict, the City thrives — a utopia for the rich, built on the labours of the poor.
From the home of five million souls come twelve stories of adventure, love and loss. Take a leap with Tinashe Arcaid, super-rich brat who thinks adventure is a trip to the dangerous lower levels; crawl through tunnels with Chthenia, a child ‘apprenticed’ to a scavenger who dwells deep beneath the City; or have a drink with Sam Nero, private investigator, dealing with gangsters on the mean streets.
Life in the City can be harsh, but the alternatives are far worse.