We’re back with Alex Racine and Renée de Guirnon, his constant companion, but things have changed slightly. As you’ll recall, Alex has an idea that he wants put into effect, but he has to have a lot of resources to make it happen. He knows of a planet, Celus-5 that would be and ideal starting point for what he wants to accomplish. He just needs to get a peace treaty/settlement with the two known sentient species that inhabit the planet.
He believes he can accomplish that by making it more hospitable for the Dischnya to live on the surface in accommodation much more modern and civilized than what they have now. He agrees to build settlements for the Dischnya as long as they observe peace between all inhabitants of the planet; namely the Swei Swee, and humans. The Swei Swee have been hunted down and killed as food for the Dischnya when they did not know the Swei Swee were actually sentient beings. The Swei Swee prefer to inhabit the oceans and seldom venture out of the water and only wish to have their original cliff side homes near the beaches as they had in the past. There is possibly a third sentient life in the dark forest although no one who has ventured into that forest has ever come out to tell what they found. “Z” is tasked by Alex to do just that; go into the forest and find who is living there. His adventure is quite reveling and dangerous to even a SADE.
So, once the peace comes to the planet and the humans decide they can live there, they do rename the planet Omnia as far as the Harakens are concerned. Someday in the near future, all of the different races will have to decide on a common name for the planet if they chose to do so. Now he must figure out how to start building lots of things. He has the habitats for the Dischnya, which will include school of leaning and a Military Academy to teach the Dischnya warriors how to fight with humans and SADES. Since peace has come to the planet, the Dischnya warriors find themselves out of a job, but Alex believes he might very well need their skills in the future.
This book is a fascinating description of a lot of leadership and direction do without a heavy-handed approach by Alex. He is the central focus of everything and everyone wants to please him. There’s no specific reason except that he has become a really nice guy and people just love his benevolent nature. But, do not take that mild nature as passive. He intends to build powerful warships in large numbers when the ability to do so comes to Omnia. And that’s really all this book is about; getting prepared for what he wants to do next. Most of his senior staff have already guessed that Alex Racine has a undying hatred for the Nu’ll. They believe he wants to seek them out and destroy them or at least stop them from attacking other sentients. And they all are in agreement that it needs to be done and will be done if Alex Racine wants it done.
There is much more to this story than I have put in my review. You’ll, of course, have to read the book to find out how all of this works. But, I still think it’s just a great story on how people can get along and build something far greater than they ever expected they could. I’m looking forward to “Vinium”, the next book in the Silver Ships Novel series.