Adam's Journey (The Aliomenti Saga - Book 8) Read online

  Will nodded. “Exactly. We’ve always said that our technology, dropped en masse on an unsuspecting public, would cause mass chaos and disruptions to the world. Would it, though? Or is that fear talking? We’ve thought that same thing with every new Alliance recruit, wondering how even those we’ve monitored for some time and identified as ideal candidates would handle Energy and teleportation and nanos and the rest. They’ve all had an initial shock, to be sure. But they all adapted quickly. What if the world at large is like all of the people we’ve hand-picked to help us in our mission? What if we need to act in a big way—not in small ways, but do something big and massive? What could we do now if we acted without fear?”

  Hope nodded. “I see what you’re saying now. The world at large has seen so little innovation since the Cataclysm, because every great mind feared that their invention would trigger the next Cataclysm, or something even worse. They’ve been afraid too, swallowing ideas as impractical or useless or dangerous. And so we lived in 2219 much like we did in 2070. That’s not human nature, is it?”

  Will nodded. “It isn’t. And that’s why I think we have to take on that new approach. To live without fear. To show the world that it’s okay to think big, to chase their dreams and great ideas to their conclusion.”

  Hope nodded, slowly at first, and then with greater enthusiasm. “I like this.” She tilted her head. “I know you, Will Stark. You already have a big idea in mind, don’t you?”

  Will winked. “More than one, actually. Some are smaller in scale to get us all—everyone on the planet—started. And that’s fine… we have to start somewhere, right? And then?”

  He turned and looked back out the window, at the stars still twinkling at the night sky, and pointed out the window. “And then we’ll aim a bit higher.”

  ~~~~~

  A Note from the Author

  One of the joys I’ve had in writing this series involved dropping in small comments and actions that I knew pointed to the existence of a second time traveler, someone who’d follow Will to the past and clean up the small messes and resolve seemingly minor coincidences. I knew the story would be told, but there had to be a reason we’d all want to read about it. After all, Convergence brought the end of the war between Alliance and Elites and a reunion of sorts for all Aliomenti, united in their anger toward the small group that eliminated their magic-like abilities in an instance. Would we necessarily have interest in another journey through time if everything wrapped up neatly, with no small surprises that begged answers as to how and why?

  And so, like Adam, I decided to bring Genevieve forward to the future. I’d use the opportunity of explaining how she got to the future and what she’d been doing since arriving as a way to explain how all of those little coincidences happened, how seemingly random comments meant far more than they might seem at first glance. And it provided an opportunity to show how our emotions cloud our memories; witness the number of times that Adam knew something would happen because he’d been told by those who lived through it, only to find those memories in error. The original village didn’t lose half their number to protest Elizabeth’s treatment; all of them knew old Adam and Eva weren’t siblings; old Adam’s confusion about things he’d said because he’d lied—he didn’t find his birth family dead after all… everything became clearer in letting someone else go back and watch, recognizing the events for their criticality to the future and giving those events the focus and attention they deserved.

  As a writer, you often make choices that hopefully offer greater readability at the expense of greater accuracy. I’ve been questioned and in some cases challenged about the fact that my characters, while living in early eleventh century England, speak in a modern English vernacular. They would of course do no such thing. I made a decision early on, though: allow the characters to speak to each other in a way that aided our ability to understand and know them, noting that those who can read minds and push thoughts to the minds of others can appear to be communicating with anyone in any language in any era. While I stand by that decision, it did provide a challenge in Adam’s Journey. Adam and Genevieve needed to talk aloud over wireless microphones without using Energy to enable that communication. Adam grew up speaking an older variant of English, a variety closer to Genevieve’s native dialect than our own, and I’d like to think that centuries of adapting to new languages and dialects, along with a general high capacity for learning, allowed him to learn enough of Genevieve’s native language to allow their required verbal communication. I hope you’ll agree that the approach provided for an easier reading experience.

  As I write this, I’m finishing up plot details for the fourth Ravagers book, Retaliate, and beginning that writing process. I’ve got notes jotted down for the fifth book in that series, which will wrap up the first story arc in that series. (Haven’t started the Ravagers? Grab the first book in the series, Activate, by clicking here.) After that? Well, if you’ve read both series you’ll know that the end of the Alliance/Elites war brought about an era of prosperity the likes of which the world had never before seen. The friends we’ve met, those gathered in the Starks’ living room to hear Adam’s amazing tale, will be a key part of bringing that about.

  And it will be quite a story.

  Make sure you’re signed up for the mailing list to ensure you hear as soon as it’s available.

  Until then? Happy reading, and thanks for all of your support!

  Alex Albrinck

  Planet Earth

  November 2016

  [email protected]

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