Interview & Review for an Amazing Saga – Europa Quanundocii by P R Garcia

Posted on September 2, 2016 by fundinmental

Europa Quanundocii by P R Garcia is the second book in the amazing saga of the Oonocks, an alien race trying to survive on earth. To see my review for the first book, Europa Awakenings, go HERE.

Sometimes the second book in a series will be a letdown, but no worries here. The story just keeps getting better and better and if you would like to know what happened to Atlantis, you will want to read the Europa series.

To many, red roses mean a deep, passionate everlasting love. They also portray beauty and courage. So appropriate for the cover of Quanundocii!

Goodreads / Amazon

MY REVIEW

Europa Quanundocii by P R Garcia is the second book in the Europa series. This science fiction, action/adventure, romance is as amazing as the first. It picks up where the first book left off.

Europa is named after one of *******’s moons and may be the Oonocks only chance for survival. At ten years old, Europa met Kiijon and a bond was formed. Neither knew what their meeting would bring in the future, but when they were brought together again ten years later, the stars aligned and their fates were sealed.

Danger stalks Europa at every turn. Her friends, lovers and soldiers are willing to lay down their lives to protect her. She is royalty, yet she is giving, loving, naive, not acting as if she is better than anyone or looking down her nose at them. She is humbled by them. She doesn’t demand loyalty, but it is freely given. The characters surrounding her all have their special place in the story. I just wonder if they will all survive.

Quanundocii is the ultimate union, the bond of one soul, one body and one heart. Together they are invincible, but apart their life is filled with heartbreak, unbearable pain, maybe even death. Whenever there is the danger of extinction for the Oonocks, Quanundocii demands that two will unite as one and save them all, defeating the evil threatening them.

Quanundocii is one of the most fantastic love stories I have ever read. The highs reach the skies and the lows make me want to weep for the characters.

I started Quanundocii one afternoon and couldn’t put it down. My eyes were crossing and I still didn’t want to quit, but finally I had to . I got up the next morning and began reading at 8am. I only stopped long enough to grab coffee and use the restroom, finishing at 1pm.

Quanundocii is such a unique and fantastic story with writing that makes the story flow so smoothly I race through the pages, yet I don’t want to reach the end. All the time I know danger is lurking…what will it be…where will it rear its ugly head? Europa learns her true destiny and brace’s for the battle with Jeffra’s followers.

I received a copy of Europa Quanundocii from P R Garcia in return for an honest review.

Animated Animals. Pictures, Images and Photos 5 Stars

INTERVIEW WITH PAM GARCIA

I am so excited to have Pam Garcia back with me today. She is a woman after my own heart. I love the sun, sea and sand, and if you read her bio, you will find that we have a lot in common. Her series speaks to me…deeply…so read on, and you will know why.

1 Your characters are complex and it did not take me long to become fully invested in the outcome of their lives. Of course, a lot of us may choose Europa as our favorite character, but I am curious who you would choose and why?

Actually, I have two favorites: Jeanip for the original 6 book series, and Swaybuk in the 3 book sub-series. Both are very dear to me.

Jeanip is the ultimate protector, abandoning everything in his life to protect those he is keeping safe. No sacrifice is too big, no act too small if it means keeping Europa and the others happy and free from harm. I have thought of killing off Jeanip several times, but I just couldn’t do it. I felt doing so would be betraying his loyalty and dedication. His one flaw, in my eyes, is his excessive dedication to the protection protocols and etiquette rules. He adheres to them no matter the cost, even his own life. Yet, it is that flaw that makes him so enduring to me. Jeanip, like most Oonocks, knows only one thing – a deep love. He harbors no hate, covets no things, holds no grudges. He often gets very angry, leaving his fist marks in table tops when he pounds his fist in outrage, but he is always forgiving. He is also a prankster and a loyal friend, as shown in his interactions with King Enok, Chancee and Monarch Earon. He is the best of what an Oonock is. The best that is inside some humans as well.

ME (sherry): I am so glad you mentioned Jeanip. I love that man and would feel honored to have a protector like him. He is my favorite character. I would be crushed if you killed him off. 😥

Swaybuk is almost a carbon copy of Jeanip, but his devotion is to Prince EJ. He stepped forward as the young prince’s protector the first day he met him and never left his side. Prince EJ became the son he never had, and he gives the prince every ounce of fatherly love he possesses. And that love is Swaybuk’s major flaw – something that is dealt with in book 8, The Shadow of Apathy. Like Jeanip, Swaybuk takes his protectorship to the next level, becoming a teacher and a leader, helping the prince to be the best that he can be.

2 I know your dream is to see Europa on the big screen. If Europa’s story was optioned for film, have you imagined what actors you would like to see play Europa, Terrance, and any other characters?

To tell the truth, I can’t watch anything without wondering if some actor or actress would be perfect to play one of the characters. So far, I haven’t found many. Medaron would be played by Angelina Jolie. Kiijon would be Theo James. Kiijon is supposed to be the most beautiful Oonock ever born, and I think Theo would fit that description. Aidan Turner from The Hobbit would do well also. Sam Elliott might make a good Jeanip, but his role in Westerns might take away from the character. I can see Chris Hemsworth in that role also. For some reason, I think it will be on unknown to play the all-important parts of Europa, although I can see Zoe Saldana or Jennifer Lawrence in that role. Liam Hensworth would make a good Earon.

Me (Sherry): I think Sam Elliot is a perfect match for Jeanip. I am not a big movie buff, I am a TV addict, so some of the others I don’t know. But I am sure my readers could help you out. 😆

3 A lot of authors listen to music as they write. Do you have a play list, and if Europa was optioned for film, have you thought who you would like to write the musical score?

I listen to music most of the time while writing. In fact, I’m listening while I write this. I mostly listen to movie orchestral productions with no lyrics. I find lyrics to be too distracting. My favorite is The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey. I also listen to King Kong (2005). Star Trek into Darkness and Thor, the Dark World. All great sci-fi movies with intense sound tracks. I like their energized pace and find the more intense the music the more intense my writing is.

4 Your novels contain many magical characters with diverse powers. If you could shapeshift and have a power, what would you choose?

Without a doubt, I’d transfer into a whale, probably a humpback. I have such a love for these noble creatures and was privileged to witness their antics first hand while working as a naturalist on the whale-watching cruises. To swim with them, explore the vastness of the ocean and travel below to see all the sunken boats and ancient cities not yet found would be a dream come true. Humpbacks are such gentle giants and they have a great fondness for playing, more so than the other whales. You will see a humpback slap their pectoral fins repeatedly, stick their tails up in the air and swirl their tail or slap the water, breach 5-40 times in a row (sometimes even more). They just seem to love life and are having fun doing it.

Me (Sherry): I have been whale watching in Cape Cod many times. I was so lucky to see a mom and baby, and that baby was having the best time ever, jumping all over the place. It’s ‘funny’, but out of all the magical characters in your story, I too would be a whale, for many of the reasons you stated. Also, not many creatures mess with them…other than humans.

As for my power, it would be to heal. Can you imagine if you could repair what is broken in people, take away their cancer, mend their broken bones, rejuvenate burned skin and eliminate their pain? What a gift that would be. But, just as in the books, it would have to be a gift closely guarded. There are too many people in this world who would want to exploit such a gift or keep it only for themselves.

5 On a personal note: Your bio intrigues me as much as the series. If you could wave a magic wand and fix one thing in the world of water, what would it be?

If I had a magic wand, I would eliminate greed in the world. Greed is the cause for so many of our problems today: global warming, deforestation, species lost, plastic waste and even war. Throughout mankind’s history, it has been the desire for power and riches that have enslaved both man and animal, ripped out forests, slaughtered innocent animals, make a life-saving drug jump from $100 to $1200 a pill. One day, greed will be mankind’s downfall.

While I do believe greed is our greatest evil, I don’t think even a magic wand could take it from within us. So, on a more realistic note, I would eliminate plastics, a plague on the twentieth century. When I grew up, we didn’t have plastic everything. Milk came in glass bottles, as did soft drinks, juice, condiments, sauces and so forth. Coffee came in tin cans. Fruit came in a brown bag, as did your groceries. Thanks to plastic, we have become a world of “throw away” items. Easier (and often less expensive) to throw something away and buy a new one then fix what’s broken. The plastic that has been, and that is still, being dumped into our oceans is killing those beings who live there. Many animals strangle to death from the packing strips and beer-can rings that become wrapped around their necks. Often mistaken for jellyfish, marine life consume large quantities of floating plastic bags and Mylar balloons thinking it is food. Even the whales are not immune. Not long ago, two sperm whales washed up on shore. When a necropsy was done, it was discovered that their stomachs were filled with plastics. The animals literally starved to death with full stomachs. Scientists did a study on one of the Hawaiian Islands where a number of the sea bird chicks born that year had died. When they examined them, they again found huge amounts of plastics in their stomachs – lighters, toothbrushes, bottle caps, doll parts, toys, plastic forks and spoons, tiny containers, pen tops. These items were floating in the ocean and the parent birds thought they were fish, swooped down and grabbed the plastic piece and flew back to their chicks to feed them. These chicks, as with the whale, starved to death with full stomachs. How sad. It is estimated that eight million tons is plastic is dumped into our oceans each year. And, by 2025, it is estimated that the amount of plastic will rise to one hundred and fifty-five million. If we stopped the use of plastic, or if everyone would recycle, this problem could be eliminated.

Me (Sherry): I totally agree with everything you are saying. Us, as individuals, can do our part my recycling and not using plastic when we can get away from it. BUT, until those in power decide to do something about it, I, too, think the use of plastic will continue to grow.

As you can tell, this is something I feel very passionate about. In closing, I will leave you and your readers with an American Native saying:

When the last tree has been cut down,

The last fish caught,

The last river poisoned,

Only then will we realize one cannot eat money.

You have wowed me with the interview, Pam. I don’t do a lot of interviews, but this one is, by far, the best. Your passion shines through and I love that. I can hardly wait to continue more of the series. Thanks so much and I look forward to hosting you again…soon. 🙂

GOODREADS BLURB

Europa has accepted and embraced the truth that she is from a sentient, aquatic race from *******’s ice moon, Europa, who migrated to Earth 6000 years ago. Her enemy, JeffRa, who was determined to end her and her brother’s life, has been defeated. But JeffRa’s death only released a new ruthless leader, more determined, more blood thirsty, more hateful than JeffRa himself. This new leader is determined to fulfill JeffRa’s vow of revenge and dreams of watching the life drain from Europa’s eyes. Using all his resources and Terrian troops, he hunts for the Oonock monarchs. The Orbs have protected the Oonock race for hundreds of millions of years. In times of imminent destruction, they have united two Oonocks in the Quanundocii, the most sacred and purest form of Oonock love which unites two individuals so completely together, that they can defeat death itself. Only the Quanundocii can save the Oonock race. It has only occurred only four times in Oonock history, the last being Enok and Medaron. But Medaron’s death broke the Quanundocii and left the Oonocks vulnerable. A new Quanundocii is needed. Europa must be united in the Quanundocii if the Oonock race is to defeat the Terrians. But she cannot do either while a human. The Orbs begin to change her, to rebuild her into what she was meant to be – a true Oonock. But their remolding soon puts her life in jeopardy. If a way cannot be found to stop any accidental transformation, she will flow out and die before anyone can help. Can she stay alive long enough for the transformation to be complete? Can she be united in the Quanundocii and save her people? Or will the Terrians win this time? She has already lost so much, so many of the people she loved. Who else will be lost before this nightmare is over?

ABOUT P R GARCIA

When asked who I am, I usually tell people I am a not-too-grayed-haired old lady who, at the age of 61, was inspired to write a book. The book turned into two, then three. In three years I have written nine and am presently working on book ten. All are full length novels, averaging 464 pages each.

In 2008, I moved from Michigan to Southern California. Since I grew up along Lake Erie, I had a love for the water, so it wasn’t long before I could hear the ocean calling to me. I began to volunteer on the whale watching boats as a naturalist through Birch Scripps Aquarium and the San Diego Natural History Museum. It is there that I expanded my knowledge of cetaceans and other marine life, a knowledge and love I carried into the books.

MY DREAMS

To see my story play out on the big screen before I leave this world. My other dream is to receive at least one hundred reviews on the books. I welcome both favorable reviews and those with criticism.

For more information about the books, or me, visit my website: prgarcia1.com. There is an index on the web site showing the characters, as well as a listing of places and Oonock terms. I have a YouTube video on EUROPA Awakenings at https://youtu.be/EvSVloULZ2I

I just recently updated the cover of EUROPA Awakenings to better reflect the story. The cover now shows the red-haired Europa, with her sanctuary, Saint’s Isle, on the right had side, and the presence of a large whale’s tail on the left. The whale is key to her survival, but you’ll have to read the story to find out who he is. The first chapter was also updated, so you will note that the paperback holds a release date of 2-27-2016, while the eBook maintains the original 12-9-2013 date. They are both the same book. Due to the significant changes in Chapter One, the paperback required a new ISB Number and a new release date.

EUROPA Awakenings can be ordered through any bookstore or online on Amazon. For exciting news about the ocean, cetaceans or important environmental issues, you can follow my Facebook page Europa Awakenings, which is just shy of 1300 likes.

Check out her website here.

BOOK IX of the Europa Series has just been released. Check out this gorgeous cover and if you are as passionate about our oceans as Pam, I feel this series will speak to you too.

To see all my Giveaways, go HERE.
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Review – Icy Passage by @AnnGimpel

Posted on April 7, 2016 by fundinmental

Antarctica…Brr, cold just thinking about Icy Passage by Ann Gimpel. So, I’ll put on some warm clothes because the adventure is about to begin. Could this be a Twilight Zone episode? Add me to Goodreads now

Icy Passage by Ann Gimpel

Dream Shadow Press

110K words

Release Date: 2/29/16

Genre: Supernatural thriller romance

MY REVIEW

Icy Passage by Ann Gimpel is a paranormal, science fiction romance that I would recommend for adults. I find it funny that tourists travel there, buying kick knacks and such. I can think of so many other places I woud go, like a warm sandy beach with palm trees.

We start right out with trouble at the US base, McMurdo, in Antarctica. Micah’s study was running wild, causing two deaths. Archaea – pyro karyotes, microorganisms. You don’t need to know all the technical details to know something hinky is going on with them. Are they sentient? Help is on the way in the form of Brynn and Kayna.

Kayna is an MD, but she also has special abilities, paranormal abilities. She has a raven for a spirit guide. I love how she describes herself as a flaming bitch, saying what she thinks as she sees it. Her curt manner rubs people the wrong way at times. Sounds a bit like me.. LOL

Brynn’s getting on a ship with his archaea, leaving South Georgia Island, heading to McMurdo. Kayna is on the same ship, heading to the same place. What follows is predictable, but I am so happy to be on the journey with them anyway. I couldn’t help but chuckle when they first met. The immediate attraction goes both ways.

Kayna is strong, loyal and committed. Brynn is the hero, the knight in shining armor we would all want by our side in times of danger. He accepts on faith that there is more than meets the eye, conquering his fear, willing to fight to the death to save her. I love that Brynn is a supernatural fan, so he fits right in.

Her dead father has his own agenda and they will come to blows.

Chris is a great guy, flawed, but friendly, like the little puppy that follows you around, wanting to be your friend. He became a character that I admired and looked forward to seeing.

As if the archaea aren’t enough of a problem, World War III looms on the horizon. How far will the United States and Russia go to make their point?

Celtic and Chinese lore and mythology converge, creating a wonderful paranormal fantasy. An icy world, days without sun, WWIII and nuclear weapons, the Shama’s dragon spirit, magic, traveling between here and the Otherworld.

The writing makes this combination of genres read as if it could really happen. Even some of the less desirable peripheral characters step up to the plate when challenged. The romance is hot and steamy, loving as if there may be no tomorrow. Maybe it is more than their hearts and bodies talking to each other. Maybe it is their magic too.

If you think everything is connected, this book will make you a believer.

Check out Ann Gimpel’s bio. Could her camera contribute to her inspiration?

I received a copy of Icy Passage by Ann Gimpel in return for an honest review.

4 Stars

ABOUT THE BOOK

Tumble into the icy danger of Antarctica with a blazing hot romance. Mittens and fan required.

Book Description:

Fresh out of residency, Dr. Kayna Quan opts for a tour in Antarctica. Money is short, so she hires on as medical officer aboard a Russian research vessel headed for McMurdo Station. Primed for almost anything, she plays her paranormal ability close to the vest.

Stationed on remote South Georgia Island for two years, Brynn McMichaels is eager for a change. When cultures of the single-celled organism, archaea, overgrow their bins in his lab and begin shifting into another form, he worries he’s losing his mind and talks with scientists at McMurdo, but they have problems of their own—bad ones. Brynn agrees to help. The weather’s too uncertain to send a plane, so he hitches a ride aboard Kayna’s ship and brings his mutant culture colonies along.

Attraction sparks, urgent, hot and powerful, between Brynn and Kayna, but her disclosure about her magic is a tough nut to crack. It doesn’t help that her dead father is stalking her. Lethal cultures, bizarre illness, and McMurdo’s refusal to let them land force Brynn and Kayna into an uneasy alliance. Will their fragile bond be enough to thwart the powers trying to destroy Earth, and them along with it?

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Excerpt from Icy Passage:

Chapter One

Micah Greenwich sucked air as he pushed up from his squat, a weight bar balanced across his shoulders. He did one more squat before a wave of dizziness threatened to bring him to his knees. Gasping, he shucked the bar onto pins protruding from the back of the squat rack and grabbed one of the metal stanchions for support. A headache pounded behind one eye, and he felt nauseous.

“What the fuck is wrong with me?” he muttered, still clinging to the metal cage shoved in a back corner of the gym at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. No one was in the gym. Not at this hour. Granted, the perpetual night for part of the year, followed by perpetual day, yielded some odd circadian rhythms, but Micah rarely had competition for any of the gym machines or weight equipment late at night.

He glanced at the weight plates balanced on the ends of the forty-five pound bar, thinking perhaps he’d misjudged and put too much weight on it, but that wasn’t the issue. He shrugged. Maybe he was getting sick. Something was going around. So far, he’d been lucky during his brief stint at the southern end of the Earth and had avoided the colds and flus McMurdo residents passed among themselves like candy.

He wiped sweat from his face with a ratty towel and decided to call it a night—at least for working out. He still needed to stop by his lab. Because he was the newest and greenest microbiologist, he’d been assigned archaea, the most ancient single-celled life form on the planet. His cultures had taken a decidedly odd turn, though, a couple of weeks back—growing like mad and not looking like any prokaryote he’d ever seen. While he might have started with archaea, what was in his bins didn’t look much like them anymore.

Another wave of nausea battered him, and he folded his arms around his midsection, wondering if he was going to vomit. Saliva flooded his mouth, but he choked it back. Even though he didn’t feel like doing anything beyond finding his bed, he left the gym and made his way three buildings over to his lab. McMurdo was a series of prefab buildings with interconnecting doors and insulated tunnel-walkways, so you didn’t have to go outside into the weather. Antarctica never got particularly warm, and nights were always bitter.

He glanced out a window at an inky sky shot with stars, and a reluctant smile split his face. It might be minus something outside, but it was beautiful too. He’d always loved wild, remote places, and Antarctica was about as wild and remote as it got—shy of signing up to be an astronaut, which was a long-standing dream of his.

Micah frowned, wondering if the astronaut gig was even possible. The United States had cut their funding for the space program rather dramatically. Besides, he needed more in the way of credentials to even be considered for something like that. With another swipe at his still sweaty face—the more he thought about it, the surer he was he was coming down with the flu—he pushed open the door to his lab and froze, not believing his eyes.

“Britta?” he called. “Marguerite!”

The women didn’t answer. They sprawled face down on the floor in front of his main workbench, clearly passed out. Wondering if they’d gotten into the high-grade, ethyl alcohol he used to preserve things, he called their names again, louder this time. The longer he looked at them, the weirder he felt. They were too still. Sudden fear gripped him, making the nausea worse.

“Jesus fucking Christ. Why me?” he muttered, and raced to the women. He bent, grabbed Britta’s shoulder, and shook her. When she didn’t respond, he flipped her over and stared at her cherry red face.

Fighting a deeply sinking feeling, he turned Marguerite over. She looked just like her friend and roommate. Micah squatted next to them and laid his fingers across their necks, searching for a pulse.

Nothing.

He placed his ear over their hearts, willing there to be something, anything, before he started CPR. Still nothing. He ground his teeth together, unnerved. How could there possibly be two dead women in his lab?

Even though he was pretty sure it wouldn’t do any good, he tilted Marguerite’s head back and breathed into her mouth before doing chest compressions. When he looked over at Britta, he understood he had to have help and lurched to his feet. Snapping up the wall phone, he punched in the after hours code for the clinic. As soon as one of the nurses answered, he screeched, “Send help now. Third micro lab.”

His headache worsened. So did his twisting, roiling guts, but he went back to the women. He didn’t need to be a doctor to recognize death. Despite the futility, he alternated CPR from one to the next. Five long minutes passed—but they felt like five years—before the door burst open.

“Christ!” One of the docs—Stewart maybe, Micah was too rattled to take a good look—pulled him off Marguerite. A tall, broad-shouldered woman Micah didn’t recognize examined Britta.

“Looks like carbon monoxide poisoning to me,” the female medic said flatly. “This one’s well past CPR.”

Dr. Stewart rocked back on his heels. “Yeah, her too.” He trained his blue eyes on Micah. “What happened?”

Micah shook his head. “Damned if I know. I just got here. I had dinner in the mess hall, worked out in the gym, and then I swung by here to check on my cultures.”

The woman narrowed her eyes and half-crawled to where Micah sat on the floor. She folded her fingers over his wrist and took him in with practiced hazel eyes. Her reddish hair was short, almost in a butch cut. She pressed her lips into a harsh line, frowning.

“I’m Ariana,” she said, letting go of his wrist. “One of the nurse practitioners. How have you been feeling?”

“Bad,” he admitted. “Think I finally succumbed to the community disease everyone else has.”

Dr. Stewart joined them and squatted next to Micah. He ran a hand down the side of Micah’s neck and listened to his chest with a stethoscope before exchanging a pointed glance with Ariana. “Where’s the CO meter in here?” he asked.

Micah gestured behind him. “On that wall.” He twisted to look at it, but the indicator light was green—safe. Maybe it was defective. His scientifically trained mind arranged informational bits into an unpleasant pattern. “The women,” he said. “If I’d been firing on all cylinders, I’d have figured it out as soon as I looked at the color of their faces. They died from carbon monoxide poisoning, didn’t they?”

“Probably.” Dr. Stewart said cautiously. “But it’s conjecture at this point.”

“That cherry red color is a dead giveaway,” Ariana said with conviction. “Nothing else will do that.”

“We’ll wait for an autopsy before we make statements like that.” The doctor eyed his colleague coolly.

“Yes, Doctor. Sir. King of all things medical.” She set her lips in a thin line, clearly biting back further sarcasm. “Meantime,” she ground out, “I’m pretty sure he—” she jabbed a finger at Micah “—has whatever killed these two.” She stood and punched numbers into the wall phone. “I’m calling security.”

Dr. Stewart sifted his hands through his untidy, blond hair. “Tell them to alert maintenance. Until we figure out what killed these two, we’ve got to get out of here. Now.”

Micah straightened. “Wait a minute,” he sputtered. “The meter says it’s safe. For all we know, Britta and Marguerite got poisoned elsewhere and just happened to be in here cleaning when they collapsed.”

Dr. Stewart got to his feet and hauled Micah upright. “For tonight, we’ll put you in the infirmary and run tests to check if your hemoglobin’s been compromised. I’ve got to alert the boss and talk with base security. We’ll to get to the bottom of this.”

“But my lab—”

Dr. Stewart made a chopping motion with one hand, and the rest of Micah’s protest died unspoken.

Ariana hung up the phone and nodded at Dr. Stewart. “You take care of the boss. I’ll deal with security and maintenance. Need to get the gas sniffer in here to make sure there’s not a leak.”

Micah tried to focus, but the room spun crazily. He really was wiped out. Much more tired than a thirty-year-old man had a right to feel.

“Can you walk?” Dr. Stewart nudged him.

Micah focused bleary eyes on the physician. “Yeah. I think so.”

“How are you feeling?” Ariana asked the doctor.

He shrugged. “Normal. But it takes time for exposure to take a toll. Micah probably lives in this lab, except when he’s asleep.”

“Yeah, but,” Micah pointed out, “those women didn’t. They clean all the science labs. Maybe one of the other ones is the problem.”

The doctor folded an arm around Micah’s waist supporting him, and led him out of the lab. “I’m on it. By the time you wake up, we’ll know more.”

Micah staggered through the door, flanked by Dr. Stewart and Ariana. “What are you going to do about the women?” he asked.

“You were there when I alerted base security. They’ll take care of them,” Ariana assured him. “For tonight, focus on getting well.”

* * * *

It hadn’t been just that night, though. Micah spent the next three days in the infirmary sucking bottled oxygen. When that didn’t clear his red blood cells fast enough, the doctors ordered chelation treatments. In the meantime, he had a chance to think, and he didn’t care for what he came up with. Besides, it was so fantastic, no one would believe him.

Maintenance had given his lab, and the other three microbiology studios, a clean bill of health, which meant he could go back to work tomorrow. Even more disturbing, the entirety of the science wing where the dead women cleaned showed zip in the way of evidence of a gas leak. In the interest of thoroughness, maintenance had checked the female dorms too, and found exactly nothing. Autopsy was conclusive regarding cause of death, but no one could figure out how the women had been exposed to a big enough dose of carbon monoxide to kill them.

The same was true for him—major exposure to something pigging up his hemoglobin, but without an identifiable source. Another few hours without medical intervention and he’d have been just as dead as Britta and Marguerite.

Armed with that knowledge—and a phalanx of unanswered questions—Micah spent his downtime in the infirmary mapping out a series of tests to run on his strange archaea colonies. He had suspicions, but needed facts before he presented them to Jack DeVoe, the man in charge of McMurdo operations. If he went to him now, Jack, who had a Ph.D. in biochemistry, would laugh him right out of his office. And there would go Micah’s hopes of earning his chops, so he could go on to something more prestigious than working at McMurdo Station.

ABOUT ANN GIMPEL

Ann Gimpel is a national bestselling author. A lifelong aficionado of the unusual, she began writing speculative fiction a few years ago. Since then her short fiction has appeared in a number of webzines and anthologies. Her longer books run the gamut from urban fantasy to paranormal romance. Once upon a time, she nurtured clients, now she nurtures dark, gritty fantasy stories that push hard against reality. When she’s not writing, she’s in the backcountry getting down and dirty with her camera. She’s published over 30 books to date, with several more planned for 2016 and beyond. A husband, grown children, grandchildren and wolf hybrids round out her family.