Novella
Number of words : 21000
Percent of complex words : 7.1
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 10.6
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.1
Flesch : 76.2
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.3
SETTING
Pax
Capital of Galactic Center
The Hub
Major city there.
Senya Dik
Sister planet to Nanta Dik, in Sector 9G.
CHARACTERS
Lloyd Durham
An ex-agent and current drunk.
Hawtree
An administrator in charge, uses his influence to prevent Dik requests to the Federation getting heard.
Susan Hawtree
His daughter, and a love of Durham's, involved in the accident that wrecked his career.
Morrison
Hawtree's parter, who oversees Universal Mineral operations in Sector 9G.
Baya
Durham's Mintakan girlfriend.
Willa Paulsen
Durham's ex-fiancee.
Varnik
A dodgy joint proprietor in on trying to set Durham up with Baya.
Wanbecq-ai
Female Nantavan agent out to get Durham.
Wanbecq
Her male partner.
Jubb
Ruler of Senya Dik.
Karlovic
Terran consul in league with Jubb, wanting to get evidence against Hawtree.
TECHNOLOGY
Servall
Robot domestics. Durham and Hawtree had them, the models differ.
Bitter Star
A created being that is an energy absorber, sucking in all around it until things freeze.
PLACES
Mintaka
A star.
Nanta Dik
World in Sector 9G where Durham's mission takes him.
VEHICLES
Margaretta K
Ship to Nanta Dik Durham has been booked for.
Varney
A tug of Morrison's.
RACES
Senyans
People of Senya Dik. Have four legs.
Nantans
People of Nanta Dik.
Darkbirds
Senyan aliens able to go insubstantial and stun on contact, they are not made of matter, and are a creation.
ORGANISATIONS
Universal Minerals
Rapacious mining company basically looting the Sector, with Hawtree providing the interference.
Federation
Political organisation of worlds in the galaxy.
PLOT
Lloyd Durham is a broken down ex-agent on Galactic Center, living with little in a cheap apartment, having blown his job and his fiancee, and a possible relationship with the woman he really loves thanks to a vehicular accident. Susan Hawtree is the daughter of a high ranking diplomat, who summons Durham for a mission. This lands him in the middle of something very serious.
First, Nantavan agents are after him, and then Senyan darkbirds - and Susan gets in the middle when she comes to say goodbye to him, little realising he isn't going home, but on a mission for her father. Nanta Dik and Senya Dik are the two inhabited worlds in Sector 9G.
Unknown to Durham he was supposed to get drunk and blab his mission, helping to start a war between the two worlds. This would be to the advantage of Universal Minerals, a mining company run by Morrison, with Hawtree as his partner running diplomatic interference and allowing him to get away with anything. The two Dik worlds have been in conflict in the past, so are manipulable.
Durham takes his mission seriously, and when he works it out thanks to talking with the Nantavan agents, and the Senyan leader he realises he should flip, and try and hang his boss and partner, and hopefully keep Susan alive. The Senyan planet is problematic in that they are not oxygen breathers.
One of the angles that Morrison had taken was rumours about a destructive force that legend said had terrorised the Nantavans in the past. Little does Morrison know that this is real, and the leader of the Senyans knows how to control it. Or hope he does. Because it is one giant energy drain, leaving those it affects frozen - and it can devastate planets.
With Morrison's agents and men able to provoke armed conflicts between Senyans of different sympathies. The Terran consul Karlovic, who has been working with the Senyans to try and work out who was the dodgy diplomat preventing their requests for aid from the Federation, must work with Durham. Their only choice now is to appeal to Jubb to unleash the Bitter Star, as the only thing that can stop Morrison. Before their air runs out. Of course, it may also destroy everything if they get it wrong and the darkbirds can't or won't control it.
4.5 out of 5
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