Maiden by Charles Brass

After decades of hibernation, Crystal Maiden wakes in a time no longer her own. Injured, captive, her only allies are enemies from the past. Her Creator’s rebellion against the Brethren’s oppressive rule has failed. Compelled to continue the fight, she must learn how to co-exist with those who, for her, were enemies mere days ago. Then somehow overpower their captors. Afterward, they might repair their crippled ship and escape.

But their captors turn out to be former allies of the rebellion. Their plight is dire, as they, too, face annihilation at the whims of the Brethren.

Now, Crystal stands at a crossroads. Join these new friends and continue her Creator’s rebellion—likely doomed to be a short-lived effort. Or return with her rescuer and trust her influence with the Brethren is strong enough to protect her—and turn her back on the very essence of her existence.

Category: Science Fiction – Adventure

Eight-year-old Peruka hears music no one else hears. Besides causing her pain, it distracts her to the point her life becomes at risk. Isolation and home schooling have helped. Unfortunately, she’s not growing out of the problem, as her doctors have hoped.

When her Mammy falls ill from a chronic disease, Peruka reluctantly joins her pappy as he seeks a new employment contract, meaning a trip to a city… or two, where the population is on edge because of a recent uptick in violence. She promises to behave, to be a good girl. But in certain locations, the music of the city is overwhelmingly loud and discordant.

Then a riot separates her from her pappy, and soon she faces her greatest challenge when into her defenseless mind seeps an alien song, threatening the millions of human lives trapped in Brethren Space…