Or are they?

I will be the first to admit when this title popped in my head and I started writing it, I thought it would be a comedy, something along the lines of the humor in my Loki series.

Yeah, not so much.

Selena was too serious of a character right from the start. As the story progressed, I realized why she was so uptight. It took some prodding because she really didn’t want to admit that she’d done anything wrong. I’ll save that for the story.

But I did want to give you a preview.

Space Ninjas Aren’t Real hasn’t been run on my blog as a free story because I’ve been putting up Onesong instead. But now Space Ninjas Aren’t Real is up for pre-order and will be released on November 21, 2017 – just in time for reading while you are waiting for the turkey to cook this Thanksgiving.

Let’s go check out a sample of the story, shall we?

Space Ninjas Aren’t Real (excerpt)

by Dawn Blair

~1~

Selena Bennett stood at the large, cold, plastiglass window of the space dock and watched as shuttlecrafts flew to and from the larger spaceship, the Honeycomb. It would be her new home for the next couple of months. Thinking about all the supplies the shuttlecrafts were loading onto the ship, she glanced down at her small corduroy bag with only some clothes and essentials in it on the floor beside her. What she brought seemed puny and insignificant considering she was leaving the safety of her planet and heading into the deep unknown.

She wasn’t even sure what she was doing here yet.

The night apprentice had awoken her from her sleep and told her to pack a couple days’ worth of clothes and toiletries. They hadn’t said why, but that was common enough for a new mission so she hadn’t questioned it. As soon as she got into the waiting helicab, she was flown to Nordek One where she was told that the Assembly of Soulcolists had chosen her for a special mission. Maybe this had been their attempt to get her out into the world. As one of the newest graduates, she hadn’t been assigned anywhere and still lived at the academy. She took a rail shuttle to Nordek Four, where another ticket awaited her for Atmosphere Three, one of the main orbiting ports of entry for Chelious.

She was already a long way from home now.

Selena stared at the reflection of the people in the plastiglass. As her hand moved out to touch them, she seemed more solid than any of them. It was almost as if she was looking at them through the veil of another world or dimension. She caught her smile at her reflection, a dangerous thing for a soulcolist to do.

Was this what it felt like to be one of the fabled Black Nights? Her left hand sought the pouch hanging at her side to feel once more for the book that was inside, her ill-gotten treasure. She still couldn’t believe that she had taken it from the library after being summoned for this mission. The book’s energy had called to her. More than that, she had found not only the library door unlocked, but restricted area and the protected case unsecured as well. She had locked both doors upon leaving knowing that it would take longer for the missing book to be discovered. She wondered if it had been her own energy or someone, or something, else’s energy which had allowed her access into the library.

The fabled Black Nights.

She had always longed to know more. Now being away from the Academy, she could study at her leisure. If the guilt didn’t stop her first. She longed to take the book out now, but didn’t dare. Who know who watched her from the shadows? Would one of these ordinary people that reflected in the glass know exactly what the book was and how dangerous it was to be carrying outside? How much trouble would they know that she was in if she were caught with the book?

None, she reminded herself firmly. These people were mundanes who didn’t even like soulcolists, let alone believe in the fabled Black Nights. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, no one could manipulate energy unless it was magic, or gather the souls of the dead like a soulcolist. That was the extent of the acceptance of these people. They would probably think her book nothing but fiction.

Who knew? Maybe it was.

To get her mind off the book and out of her past crime, she focused on being here in the present. She pulled her tablet out and opened her files.

While being transported to Atmosphere Three, she’d been given briefing documents on the spaceship she was to board as part of her mission. The Honeycomb looked just like the picture.

With its wings closed, the diamond class ship looked more like a piece of paper, but when it opened up its wings and took on its diamond formation, the honeycomb material of its wings were designed to catch the solar light of every star around it to power the ship. The Honeycomb had been running testing missions, but on the last mission the science crew found something that had justified calling her in. The file hadn’t given any details, but for space explorers to want help from her kind of people, it must be of scary importance.

It meant someone was dead. Correction: it meant a lot of people must be dead.

“You must be the soulcolist,” a gruff, unfriendly voice said behind her.

Selena didn’t turn, but rather looked at the man’s reflection on the plastiglass. “I am,” she answered. “My name is—“

“I don’t need to know your name,” he interrupted. “Knowing what you do is more information than I ever want to know. Is that clear?”

***

Copyright © 2017 Dawn Blair

Cover and layout copyright © 2017 by Morning Sky Studios
Cover design by Dawn Blair/Morning Sky Studios
Cover art copyright © Zuboff | Dreamstime.com,  © Dvmsimages | Dreamstime.com

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Pre-order now!