Well, this series has gotten much better. I think the interaction between the crew members of *Star Treader* tucked inside the *Roswell* has developed far enough that they seem to be getting along more agreeable. Of course the Anypsian, Gray, always got along with everyone so he wasn’t anywhere near the problem as the rest of the crew. Still, Cole Riker, Captain Riker, has managed to solidify his crew which allowed them to escape their last dreadful predicament. They are still on a mission to find Gray’s homeworld and reunite him with his people.
They were currently traveling through a “warp tunnel” in the direction of Gray’s homeworld or at least they thought they were. Once out of the tunnel they begin to scan their surroundings to make sure there aren’t any hostile around which has been the case on some of these tunnel trips. Fortunately, there’s nothing initially found. But, they have to travel a bit in open space in order to connect with the next tunnel. Not to far a long in that trip they do have some sensor contacts. It appears to be a group of ships, all of which look like Gray’s ship! This is very startling. They didn’t expect to come across any of Gray’s people this far from their homeworld.
Further inspection of this group of ships finds them interestingly silent. Gray takes the lead in contacting these ships since he knows the language and protocols, but he reports that for some unknown reason, he’s not getting any replies back nor does he see any activity at all from these ships. As they approach closer, it does appear that these ships are just dead in space. Cole’s crew can’t detect any emissions from any of the ships except for one very, very faint emergency broadcast from one of the ships. So, they prepare to board the ship they think is the source of the broadcast with Gray and Cole initially going.
After some searching, Gray and Cole find a single Anypsian lying in what seems to be a medical pod. Gray asks the Anypsian what has happened to these ships, but the Anypsian starts asking strange questions. Suddenly, he yells out they must leave and go to the Library! With that effort, the Anypsian appears to die and a slug-like thing comes crawling out of his nose to flop on the floor. That’s all it takes for Cole to tell Gray to phase them out of there and back to the *Treader*. Once back aboard, they discuss what they saw with the rest of the crew. They also mention that the now dead Anypsian said something about the soldiers on the ship not being very good hosts.
After again scanning the Anypsian ships they no long find any kind of signal. They believe that whatever came out of the last Anypsian has died with Selina speculating that it must have been some kind of parasite living in the Anypsian and once it left that body and no others were available, it also died. She wants to go back aboard that ship and collect samples of the dead entity to find out just what it was. Gray also needs to know more about what happened to these ships and if they have any computer data that can identify a way to his home world.
Meanwhile Riker is wondering what the Anypsian meant by saying, “Go to the library.” He had some data they had acquired from their last deadly episode and noticed that they had mentioned something about passing a library on their trip. They also said the library wasn’t open to visitors, but there must be some way of using it or what was its purpose. So, without any other direction to follow, they set off for the Library.
Here is where they run into a sentient artificial intelligence that acts like a teenage kid. Here they meet Sunny and he’s going to set them off on a very dangerous mission not once, but twice. He’s also not a truthful about his activities as he should be and that could get Cole Riker and his crew killed very easily. They do come across some more of Gray’s people, but Gray has finally told Riker that the reason he was found where he was, was because he was a criminal and that place was where he was serving his sentence! So, now they don’t know how Gray’s people will react to them bringing him back. Will they just throw him in their prison and do the same for the crew of the *Star Treader*? Anythings possible.
This is a very interesting story and we learn more about the Anypsians than we have before. We also learn of other aliens that are not so friendly and one that is downright dangerous. Their mission to reunite Gray with his people is still not over. There’s a long way yet to go. More will follow in book 5, “Deracine Sun” now available on Amazon.