Science Fiction/Romantic Science Fiction
Date Published: 7/5/2019
Publisher: Chandra Press
An asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Twins from another planet sent to stop it.
With a vibrant art movement, thriving music scene, and culture of change, 1960s Manhattan is pulsating with energy. Twins Mark and Jason appear human, but they have been given powers beyond anyone’s imagination. The city embraces them and they dive headlong into all it has to offer.
As the time for them to fulfill their mission grows near, the twins sense that something is wrong. Have they been sent to Earth to save it or to be eliminated? With the fate of both planets in the balance, and everything they’ve grown to love on the line, can Mark and Jason unravel the truth before time runs out?
If you enjoy a tantalizing journey into Manhattan in the 1960s, aliens among us, and rogue AIs, you'll love Soteria: The Crisis Forge.
Read a teaser:
As
her ship approached the planet, the ability to communicate faded. Tripton-4 was
a unique world; a small moon nestled within an array of giants, and the only
planet in the known universe to have an ocean above its atmosphere.
It
appeared to all who observed it from afar as a planet consisting solely of
water. From space, it looked foreboding, a violent planet with ominous storms
and tumultuous seas. Any onlooker could only imagine it as a planet inhabited,
if at all, by the simplest of life forms and surely unsuitable for
colonization. This illusion had protected the Triptonians for millennia,
allowing them to develop in peace.
But this
floating ocean had not always existed. The advanced technologies of the
Triptonians had enabled them to take advantage of the planet’s unique
positioning to create the anomaly. Their civilization had discovered the moon
thousands of centrons ago. Needing to flee a dying world, they saw this new
planet as an opportunity and a chance for a peaceful existence. They employed a force field on the surface
that was enhanced by the moon’s multi-level magnetic core. This, coupled with
the gravitational effects of the surrounding planets and duel suns, enabled the
aberration to occur: a floating ocean. The terraforming had taken generations
to complete, but theirs was a patient race. While leaving Tripton-3 had been a
difficult and heart wrenching experience for this playful and peaceful race,
the pride in their accomplishment in creating this new home was a source of great
joy.
Within
the ocean, an array of glowing and transparent organisms now swarmed like
luminous dancers. Their movements sent soft melodies into the atmosphere below
that were often heard by the population, cascading over the plains as well as
the crowded streets. In the morning hours, misty deep hums were heard, the
echoes of gentle movements of Sermathabees, the large, lolloping, transparent
beasts of the sea. As they moved, their breaths brought forth a deep hallowing
hum that rolled and sank.
Whoom-ba-ba-whoom-ba-ba-whoom…
The
sound would vibrate down through the water, enchanting those below as they
awoke to the day.
As the
planet’s two suns set, and the rays of light seeped through the clouds,
diffusely tinted magical colors would appear in the evening glow. Then the
population would hear the cries of the soaring Gulathabees, their giant wings
sending down warm breezes from the swirling waters above. With these lumbering
beasts, the population experienced a knowing state of tranquility, and lived their
shrouded peaceful existence for thousands of centrons.
Passing
through the ocean always brought unease to Allaceia, even though she knew that
her ship would be guided with complete safety through the protected channels.
While this allayed her fears, the awe of it all never diminished.
About the Author
Roberto Arcoleo was born in New York City, Queens to be exact, into a working-class Italian-American family. Roberto’s father was a hardworking, grumpy, and reserved restaurateur, his mother a warmhearted, talkative hairdresser.
Roberto was a bit of both. He grew up in Astoria in a two-bedroom ground-floor apartment with one younger brother, his parents, and an invalid grandmother. His early years were tumultuous and confused. Roberto never felt that he fit into the molds that were laid before him. His early extended family home life was chaotic, and his teenage years were worse. After the Catholic grammar school, he continued on to a Catholic high school. He hated them both.
As a teenager, Roberto felt more and more apart from his surroundings. He withdrew into his own world. To onlookers he seemed full of bravado, but he was timid and reserved at heart, always feeling out of place. He started lashing out at the world with violence as mark of distinction. He found a home within street gangs and hard drugs at fourteen. Roberto started living on the streets at fifteen, but was soon taken in by a schoolteacher uncle who lived on Long Island. His uncle held him captive from his own devices until he graduated high school. Later, in college, he studied psychology hoping to find answers. Still troubled, he didn’t find the answers he needed in the text. He gave up his clinical ambitions for more underground alternatives. The same uncle gave him his first camera, and he discovered photography.
Under a name other than Arcoleo, he obtained recognition as an artist. He received his MFA from Brooklyn college and later saw his art reviewed in the New York Times. Roberto’s work has been acquired by major collections. Among them Brooklyn Museum, the Chrysler Museum, the Museum of Fine arts in Houston and the Museum de l’Eysee, Lausanne Switzerland. He was the first artist working in photography to be given a one-person exhibition at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art; he was awarded a stay at the American Academy in Rome; and his work is presently in the National Gallery of Art.
He always had an urge to write and his late mother was always asking for his first novel. He told her he had to wait until he was called from a special place.
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