Surrender Serenity (Salin's Salvation, Book 1)

By Astrid Cielo

Their planet was dead and their race doomed...

When the elders of their civilization realized they had overtaxed the resources of their beloved planet, they sent ships with members from their race to other planets in the universe that could support life. They died with their planet with the knowledge that their people would live on.

He came across the Galaxy searching for the answer to a dying race...

Eon’s people always took care of their planet of Salin, having learned from their ancestors mistakes. When a virus ravages the female population leaving most females dead and those who survived infertile, their people search endlessly for a way to save their people from disappearing from existence, but nothing seems to work. Out of hope and desperate, a seer gives them one last hope, EARTH. Chosen by the council, Eon and his lifelong friend Kylan embark on a journey to the planet which may hold the key to their race’s continuation. He doesn’t expect to find her, a girl he dreamed of as a child.

She was just a nurse content with her job but always feeling as if she were missing something...

Serenity doesn’t understand why she is so attracted to this alien and why she isn’t hysterical when he kidnaps her and her best friend, Anna. He touches a part of her long dormant. When he takes her to his planet, the virus that their people thought had been defeated threatens to steal her life. In those moments between life and death, dreams plague her, telling her that all is not as it seems.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Astrid Cielo
• Release date: Jul 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476488073

Astrid Cielo

Astrid Cielo is a Mississippi girl who enjoys a variety of things. By night, she is a nurse in her local ER, and by day, she is spilling her imagination out on paper. Astrid began writing when she was a child her stories featuring a variety of characters. When she was in high school she wrote her first completed story and was published twice in poetry anthologies. Gathering her courage, Astrid self-published her first book, Surrender Serenity, Salin’s Salvation, Book 1 and enjoyed every minute of it. Now she balances her time between being a nurse (which she loves) and writing down the scenes that play out in her mind. She also plays World of Warcraft (which all of her friends think is weird)! Astrid would love to hear from you!

Book preview

Surrender Serenity

Salin’s Salvation, Book I

By: Astrid Cielo

Copyright © 2012 Astrid Cielo

All rights reserved.

Surrender Serenity: Salin’s Salvation, Book I

Astrid Cielo

Copyright © 2012 Astrid Cielo All rights reserved.

Smashwords Edition

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Prologue

16 years ago…

The sun’s rays caressed her face, her dark brown hair hanging in unruly curls down her back. She always liked coming to the field when she dreamed, she didn’t need her glasses to see, and the sun was always warm and inviting, never hot. This was her favorite place. The place she visited in her dreams. She looked around taking in the field of wildflowers with butterflies flittering amongst their colorful blooms, and the crisp blueness to the sky with fluffy clouds that framed the golden sun whose rays bathed this world in light. The field was surrounded by a forest of tall trees, its depth inviting her to play in its shade. There was the little creek with water that was the clearest she had ever seen and always seemed to be the perfect temperature. She twirled in the sunlight, her pale blue nightgown puffing out around her knees.

She picked the closest daisy, her favorite flower and looked into the line of trees, waiting for him. He always came. They had played together in her dreams since she was four years old, and though she did not understand his language, they always seemed to manage communicating with one another. He played any game her heart desired. They would lie in the flowers for hours in silence just looking at the clouds roll by. They would swim and splash in the little creek. They would play hide-and-seek in the forest. He would tell her stories and though she did not understand his words, his voice was soothing to her.

Her heart leapt for joy when she saw him emerge from the trees and she ran, her bare feet taking her to him. He had grown a lot since her first dream. She didn’t know exactly how old he was, but he seemed to be around her age. He was the most peculiar shade of red, where her skin was a pale alabaster with smatterings of freckles, his was clear and a ruddy, reddish color. His black hair fell softly around his jaw, his beautiful golden eyes, full of intelligence always followed her every move.

He looked her up and down as if taking in her nightgown and smiled, he always had liked this nightgown. She laughed as she closed the rest of the distance and ran into his open arms. He hugged her close laughing with her then spinning her by her hands her feet leaving the ground before setting her on the ground again. He hugged her close, once more. They broke apart and she ran to the middle of the field, as she had so many times before, waiting for him to hide. He always played with her, anything from tag to hide-and-seek. Sometimes he would bring her little gifts. She always hugged him for them, but wished she could keep them when she woke up. She counted slowly, One, two, three ….ten.

She turned looking around the field, knowing he hid in the forest just beyond. Her little bare feet ate the ground as she searched for him. His low chuckle led her to him, just beyond a tree. She chased him, her curly hair flying behind her. He made it back to the middle of the field, and she collapsed at his feet, breathing deeply, trying to catch her breath. He sat down beside her and held her hand. When she looked into his eyes, she frowned at the sadness reflected there. She sat up and faced him, never releasing his hand, she smiled at him and spoke, What’s wrong, little boy?

He smiled sadly, perhaps because he could not understand her, but he spoke to her regardless. His voice calmed her as it always did. She did not understand his words. She probably never would, and at ten she really did not care, she just accepted it. He pulled something from his pocket and placed it in her palm. A tear fell down her cheek as she opened her palm to stare at the stone with what she thought was a word inscribed upon its smooth surface. Her little heart breaking because a small voice was telling her that this was the last time that she would see him in her dreams, that this was goodbye. He wiped the tear from her eye with his finger and spoke to her. She nodded, even though she really didn’t know what he said. He kissed her cheek and pulled her to him. They lay in the grass side by side, hand in hand, as sleep claimed them.

Serenity opened her eyes, her tears wetting the pillow beneath her head. Opening her palm, she stared at the stone. She held it tight as she drifted back to sleep. She smiled to herself. She got to keep her gift.

Chapter 1

Present day

Eon looked at the view that he had only once seen in his dreams, dreams that told him to come here, to this planet, so far away from his own to find a race that was kin to them in some way. Legend stated that they had once been inhabitants of a beautiful planet with plenty of resources and life at their disposal. Their race became greedy, taking from their planet, without thought of consequence. After many, many generations of ill use, the planet began to die. In an effort to erase their mistakes and save their race, the people of the planet sent their people to different planets far from each other.

On Eon’s home planet of Salin, the people adapted to their planet, changing with the planet rather than altering their home to themselves. This did not mean that they forewent the knowledge from their ancestors. They kept the space travel that their ancestors used to colonize their home planet. They had scientists and healers, and their society flourished without taxing the planet’s resources with careful checks and balances that kept their planet viable. That was until a virus, the Blue Death, swept through their female population.

Eon still didn’t understand all of the specifics, but apparently, the virus attacked at the X chromosomal level. The scientists discovered that since males had a Y chromosome to fall back on then, they in essence escaped with just a minor illness. Kylan, his friend, had theorized that the difference in hormone production was the reasoning behind the male immunity.

The females were not so lucky. What females survived became sterile and those who did not survive suffered as the disease shut them down system by system. Eon considered that this the only time in his life that he was happy that he had no female relatives to have suffered in such a manner.

With the remaining females sterile and the last child born on their planet reaching his fifth year, the Council had decided alternative methods had to be used. In vitro fertilization didn’t work, because the virus had effectively destroyed all of the remaining female’s sex cells, thus eliminating that possibility.

After many useless experiments, the planet’s Council was at the end of its rope when a seer stumbled into the debate room and as if in a trance stated What you seek shall not be found, Salin isn’t the answer. Our people’s ancestors cry to me stating the cousins of Salin must be found. Seek the Terran colony, or we all will fade from existence. After which the older woman collapsed to the floor – dead.

Everyone assumed the Blue Death had returned, but the medical scans concluded that the elder female seer had died from heart malfunction. The Council took the seer’s words to heart, having the galaxy searched for their cousins. After much research and scouting, the