New Space Series Legacy of the Unsworn Sneak Peek!

I have been writing! Finally. I’ve recently had some personal challenges that have really prevented me from doing what I love, but I have started a new series while also at the same time continuing something older and beloved. This new series is about the descendents of my Unboundaried/Unbounded/Avowed/Unsworn. The working series title is Legacy of the Unsworn because at the end of my Unbounded series, it was the Unsworn who bucked the system and helped Erin and her team win the day. Her fifth great granddaughter is having her own adventures in space as goverment alliances begin to fail around them.

Background

I always wanted to write a space opera. I’ve loved watching Star Trek, Star War, Star Gate, Babylon 5, Firefly, and Battlestar Galactica. I love sci-fi books like those by Jack Campbell and others. It seems natural that I should want to write my series set in space. So now, I’m going to do it. Here is the prologue that I wrote mostly to center myself to the backstory. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. (I’m already on chapter four!)

Prologue

From the Unbounded Earth Histories

They had many names over the ages—Avowed, Unboundaried, Unbounded, Renegades, Unsworn, and, much later, Aeternai. Before mortals on Earth knew of their existence, they were also called vampires, fae, or immortals. They were indeed unbounded by time. Their two-thousand-year life expectancy seemed everlasting to the mortals whose relatively short lifespans burned and flickered out like the flame of the thinnest candle.

They were not, however, immortal, and they could be killed in two ways. The most common was the complete severing of the three focus points of mind, heart, and reproductive system. Starvation in a sealed room where they could not absorb nutrients necessary for life was another way, though this was essentially the same as the first, as true death would only occur after a complete breakdown of the focal point connections, perhaps decades later, after which there was no return.

Near their beginning on Earth, their advances in both the sciences and arts made them envied and desired—and also endangered, secretly sought by mortals who wanted to use and control them. So the Avowed left the surface, shielding their majestic city Sinalta and sinking into the depths of the ocean to live hidden for over three thousand years.

Some remained topside, living in secret among the mortals, having separated centuries before from the Avowed. These called themselves Unboundaried or Unbounded. Eventually the Unbounded divided into two groups, the Renegades who protected mortals, and the Emporium, a mega corporate conglomerate, who preyed upon and used them. Mortals called Hunters, themselves originally descended from Unbounded but not gifted with the Change, sought to kill all Unbounded. The Renegades won the war—but only after making themselves known to the mortal world and forging a temporary truce with Hunters.

Eventually, the Unbounded discovered the Avowed and raised Sinalta from the ocean. In the ensuing millennia, the Avowed had also divided into two factions, the Avowed and the Unsworn, whose rebellion, like that of the Renegades before them, protected innocent mortals born into the Avowed populace. In the ensuing battle to protect them, the Unsworn and Unbounded prevailed, and a new age began.

Using a combination of Avowed and Unbounded technologies of shielding and folding space, they built ships, finally leaving Earth in search of their origins, eager to leave behind the mortals who still either hunted or worshipped them. Refusing to completely abandon the mortals they had protected in secret for so many generations, they passed on their technology. This allowed the mortals to follow them into space, where they discovered other inhabited human worlds, whose histories also mentioned, albeit briefly, long-lived beings. Mortals multiplied and explored until it became logical for the Unbounded to establish the Galactic Unity Alliance to preserve the peace and protect mortals and Unbounded alike.

After several centuries of searching and more than fifty light years away from Earth, Unbounded and Avowed discovered not a world of long-lost Avowed or Unboundaried relatives but an uninhabited ancestral planet decimated by civil war. Only ruins of great cities and records of survivors leaving the planet in search of new homes remained. The Unbounded rebuilt, creating a system of governance that they hoped might, finally, stand the test of time. They gave the planet a new name for a new age: Aeterna.

Aeterna is now home, a refuge of peace for nearly a thousand years. The Avowed, Unboundaried, and Unbounded—all those whose DNA causes them to Change—have become only Aeternai. Their mortal offspring, which still result in fifty percent of their births, even with fertility manipulation, are called Aeternix. Both live peaceably on Aeterna, a private people, who prefer to remain apart from the rest of humanity, even while continuing to give aid to the Galactic Unity Alliance as needed.

Aeternai are revered throughout the galaxy for their wisdom, honored for their history of protection, and often worshipped as near-immortal gods. But they are also hated and feared—and not without reason. Some mortals, Hunters, still pass down the memory of secret hurts and knowledge of murders perpetrated by Emporium Unbounded on Earth who once strayed from their duty.

Few Aeternai choose to leave their new world. But now, whispers of unrest have begun to ripple through the galaxy, and the fragile peace Aeternai have long safeguarded teeters on the edge of collapse. Ancient enemies, long thought vanquished, stir in the shadows, and alliances threaten to crumble under the weight of forgotten grudges and new ambitions. For the first time in centuries, Aeternai must look beyond the serenity of Aeterna’s skies and decide whether to risk the sanctuary they’ve built to preserve the balance of the galaxy—or watch as the flames of discord consume the mortal planets.

Hope you are excited for this new series! Let me know in the comments!

Copyright 2024 Teyla Rachel Branton

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