Previews, Excerpts & Deleted Scenes category listing. ­ The Archives of Varok

Two varoks walked in silence, away from the ancient ruins that clung to the southern cliffs of the island Leahnyahorkah, overlooking Varok’s Misted Ocean. Mahntik felt sleek and beautiful in her walking tights and tunic, ravenous as a panther on the hunt, eager to consume the varok beside her—Gitahl, with a mind dark and strong, a dangerous but vital thorn on her varokian tree of life.

“I’m shutting down the ship’s gyros so you can watch Jupiter, Shawne,” Conn called to the passenger cabin through the intercom.

I left the control deck, floated to the back of the ship and pulled our three-year-old daughter into my lap so we could watch Jupiter’s storms pass below. Where was the warm planet from the home sky of Orram’s memory? There the storms were beautiful, but now, seeing them so close and so real, I found them too horrendous to fathom. They made me realize how far from Earth we had come.