The last time we left Captain Cole Riker, he and his crew had barely managed to escape from a not so friendly seed ship. That seed ship, the *Nereus*, was governed and controlled by a megalomanic, August Walton and a deranged AI named Doris. Riker had attempted to get Walton to provide his ship and crew with a slip tunnel back to known space, but Walton had other plans. So, Riker and his crew had to fight their way off the *Nereus* and now have landed on Empyria.
They knew that some of the former residence of the seed ship had been banished to this planet for whatever reason(s) Walton deemed useful. They had set up their own living conditions and now were segregated in two different camps. One camp had a fairly large city that seemed well organized and had setup a farming community that grew crops for not only those on the planet, but the annual harvest requirements laid on them by Walton. Not meeting the harvest quota resulted in attacks by the seed ship upon the community and that was something no one wanted.
So, Riker and his group needed to contact one or the other of these groups. Riker was determined to go back aboard the *Nereus* and end Walton’s tyrannical rule. But, he need more people than just his crew. While he had a very capable crew, they were just not enough to capture and defeat a seed ship the size of a small planet. Still, they did know that the *Nereus* was not as populated as thought. A lot of people that Walton didn’t like were put in permanent sleep stasis while the majority of the population remained in stasis until Walton felt a need for addition people. He only kept those people around him who almost worshipped him as a god. That Riker wasn’t going to tolerate if at all possible.
Upon landing in the *Roswell*, Gray’s ship, they were met by a contingent from the large city. One of the individuals invited them in to meet with the governing council while the other individual was obviously in-charge of security and didn’t seem all to happy to have Riker and his crew anywhere around the city. Still, they met with the ruling council. The meeting wasn’t as productive as Riker had hoped. He did find out that there other camps that resided in the mountains were considered outlaws and had rejected the Councils governance. Eventually, Riker got tired of the Council delaying any commitment to help in his going back to the *Nereus* so he made an attempt to contact the mountain camp.
Here he found the twin sister of one of the people that had helped them escape the *Nereus*. Her name was Kame and she was the sister of Nadia. While she didn’t have a lot of people, they all were dead-set against the status quo that had settled on the planet against the *Nereus* and Walton. So, after awhile, Riker and his now larger group came up with a plan. Not a very good plan, but at least they had something and if it worked, it would put an end to Walton and his deranged AI. Now to implement the plan, the hard part!
The story was very interesting and exciting all the way through. There is just enough humor throughout the book that doesn’t go overboard or doesn’t seem out of place. Riker can be a thoughtless Captain at times, but he has plenty of people around him to put in back in his place which is good.
I’m looking forward to reading more stories in this series. The next book (4), “[Bad Omens](https://amzn.to/47gmzaE)”, is available on Amazon now.