Showing results by author "C. R. Daems" in All Categories

Anna's nice comfortable world is in turmoil. Because of their success in destroying the foreign Raiders, Anna, Kris, and Adrian were promoted to full commander, and the project team was disbanded. Kris and Adrian were given NIA offices to manage on Stone Ring and Westar, and Anna is being pressured to move to Eastar to manage the NIA station.

Anna's success as the Eastar NIA station chief has catapulted her into the position of Director of NIA Stations. Anna is uncomfortable with the promotion and bored. She has a master chief secretary, a lieutenant aide-de-camp, and 15 commanders and their staff to do the work. But she suspects not all of her commanders are happy with their new, very young admiral or are doing their jobs. But she has no way to observe those commanders as their stations reside on distant systems.

An insidious cabal has decided to change the direction of the United Alliance of Stars (UAS) with a coup d’etat - but not through a military takeover. They have devised a subtler coup: the manipulation of the Committee, the 15-star system that sets policy for the UAS. The UAS Committee enlists their de facto troubleshooter, Anna Paulus, to shut down the cabal, but they insists she leave the NIA and manage UAS Committee Security. For Anna it’s a nightmare scenario, leaving her safe world for a completely new environment dominated by macho men with years of combat experience.

The ruling Anixians believe Kayla is the "Wingless and Featherless" savior prophesied by Grey Seer hundreds of years in the past. As a consequence, they have given her the problem of saving Anixia from the multiple warlike races inhabiting the Milky Way. Unfortunately, Kayla is quick to realize she is in charge of a strategy with no chance of surviving contact with the three warlike nations currently known to exist: Tullizor, Soofir, and Jumanu. If that weren't enough, too many of the humans on Anixia believe stealing a cruiser and returning to Earth would make them rich and famous.

Ryana, a worthless girl-child, is sold to a mysterious woman who takes her to the home of the Shadow Sisters who are prized for their abilities as spies and assassins. She survives years of training in spite of being unconventional: adopting poisonous bats as familiars - something no one else would dare to do; choosing the blow dart as her weapon of choice - a weapon the Sisters don't teach; and relying on intuition rather than logic. As she completes her training, the Shadow Sisters are under attack and send Ryana out to find out who is killing Sisters and why.

To everyone’s astonishment, the party girl and can't-make-up-her-mind Megan not only survived the Hill, the name for the Kazak School, but loves her job and enjoys learning about the lives of the VIPs she is assigned to protect. The most exciting part is the cat-and-mouse game with the Assassins and terrorists intent on killing her clients. Megan the Wolf - sociable, sexy, sly, and lethal - is the newest Kazak Guardian.

Nisha has trained since a young child to develop her Qi—internal energy—with the goal of becoming a Qi'advisor. She is still a student at the Qi'temple when the unimaginable happens: war breaks out and she is chosen to be a Qi'advisor to a duke, although untried. Rhybac's king is dead, the kingdom in chaos, and warriors out of the Sands are circling for the kill. As a Qi'advisor surrounded by greed, treachery, and civil war, she must risk her life to reveal what others cannot or refuse to see. The fate of Rhybac, its people, and even its enemies are in her young hands.

A hundred years ago, a treaty joined the seven provinces under a king and created a system of equal justice for nobles and commoners. Under the treaty, the Sisters of Astraea were proclaimed the judicators of the land because they could tell truth from lie - a gift of a golden viper bestowed on the Sisters by the God Naga.

You have glioblastoma, an incurable brain cancer, and have less than a month to live. What price would you be willing to pay for a cure? Any price? Are you sure? Kayla, a 17-year-old teenager, and others with an assortment of lethal medical conditions are about to find out the price of life.

What would it be like to be able to tell any individual's future - everyone except your own? Reene sees it as an opportunity to help people and agrees to accept the legacy from her grandmother. Of course, the true extent of the gift must be kept secret or chance being enslaved and at the will of the government, criminals, or someone with money and power. Besides her best efforts, a mysterious group discovers her gift and decides she can help them attain their goal - one with global consequences.

Demons are running loose in Chicago, killing, kidnapping, and hunting the last of their century old adversaries. After what were thought to be dogs kill her mother and attack her, Annette discovers she is the last female descendant of a line of women who, for over a century, fought and died fighting Countess Lenuta, her sons, and their packs of 978-1541292338. Aware that Countess Lenuta and her sons see an opportunity to kill her, the last of their century-old adversaries, Annette must choose to hide for the rest of her life or accept the legacy of her ancestors.

The Jax Contract Committee, JCC, has released Rivka to take assignments, and her first involves her in a plot by several Systems within the Helix collection of systems to destroy the Jax. As the plot spreads, she is given assignments to combat the threat. Soon she becomes the JCC's problem solver for ill-advised and potentially ruinous contracts the JCC is forced to accept, including one by the United Freelands who is seeking revenge on her for their embarrassing defeat on Suryah.

The Padang Commonwealth Alliance has been invaded by aliens called the Sytorians. The war is in its tenth year, and the Padang Alliance is losing a war of attrition. Initially, the two nations' cruiser-kill ratios were equal. Today, the Sytorians destroy three Padang cruisers for every two Sytorians cruisers. The Padang admiralty is having a difficult time finding replacement crews for those injured and killed. Particularly experienced fleet and squadron commanders.

The quiet, unflappable Rivka is truly a black mamba in a mouse's skin as kings, queens, and raiders are about to discover. Because of Rivka's successes, the Jax Contract Committee continues to accept more of the lucrative, non-standard projects, and General Issak continues to shamelessly call on Rivka to solve his impossible problems. As a result, Rivka increasingly finds herself in stormy, unchartered waters. The inhabitable universe is about to discover the mouse is cute, but the mamba's bite is deadly.

Today, people and groups who disagree on an issue are less likely to send threatening letters, hold demonstrations, or riot. They are more likely to hire professional assassins to resolve the issue. The government has experienced an increasing number of assassinations: members of Congress, government agencies, and VIPs. Desperate, Congress directed the creation of an Anti-Terrorist Group and gave Home Land Security two and one-half years to produce the first anti-terrorist agents.