THE WAR WAS SIMPLE. THEN THEY TOOK OFF THE HELMET.
2253. On Surinam Station, the story of Commander Gordon Monihan is more than history—it is a legend. For apprentices Bindy and Bentley, the tale is a debate about glory and heroism. But the silent, watchful apprentice, Bem, hears something else in their Sergeant’s voice. He sees the cracks in the official narrative and understands what the others do not: the truth is far deadlier than the myth.
2203. For two decades, the Terran Alliance has fought the “Spacer” colonists of Galatea, convinced they are battling a monstrous, unfeeling hive-mind. To the Terrans, Spacers are not human; they are biological machines that must be destroyed.
The standing order is absolute: No Prisoners.
But when Lieutenant Lucian Aris captures the enemy commander alive, he breaks the sacred rule. He peels back the armor and finds not a monster, but a man.
Now, Monihan is trapped in a Terran cell, stripped of his connection to “The Verse”—the neural chorus that binds his people together. Plunged into a deafening, solitary silence that threatens to shatter his sanity, he becomes the prize specimen of Dr. Hayden, a xenopsychologist determined to dissect him to prove he has no soul.
Monihan faces a terrifying, no-win paradox:
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Prove his humanity: And face execution for war crimes.
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Fail to prove it: And be vivisected as a piece of military hardware.
As the trial of the century begins, Lieutenant Aris must watch the “enemy” he saved face a system designed to break him. In a war built on lies, the most dangerous weapon of all is the truth.
The Spacer is the gripping, psychological entry point to the Galatean Saga. A tense military sci-fi novella perfect for fans of moral complexity and character-driven drama.