Symbiotica - Dystopia (Book 5)

By Alexander Nassau

"She should have been happy. More money than she could ever imagine with all the luxuries and security it afforded and a new best friend in her life in the shape of her alien partner, Ella Carr had everything she wanted. Regardless very little had changed in her life. Stuck between two worlds with neither of them accepting her, she never felt more alone, especially with her ex lover living on another planet now.
With a dark political change sweeping Earth and governments becoming increasingly fearful of anything different, the group make a decision to ensure their future safety. Two new facilities are planned, one in Japan and the other in England giving the group options in case things take a more sinister turn and it is up to Ella and Brie to break ground on the UK operation.
Travelling back to Manchester to establish the head office, Ella still feels lost, but it's not long before she's reluctantly dragged in to her old life once again. With her friends in grave danger Ella must balance her secret against her duty to the people she loves as she is pulled in to a dark underworld of money and violence.
Meanwhile back in the United States, Sheriff Lofthouse is faced with a dark dilemma. Her former partner from New Oxford City Police, Sarah Ash is still in a coma after the injuries she sustained in the line of duty and she faces an uncertain future when those who were charged with her care abandon her and Sellie has to come to terms with the fact her best friend is dying. Sellie must decide if she is to let her go or to take more radical action which could put everything she has worked towards in her life in jeopardy.
Will Sellie get Sarah the help she needs possibly at the cost of her own career and freedom, and will Ella be able keep her secret while saving her friends and finally find a place where she can be happy?"

Dystopia continues the 'Arbiter's Journey Saga' in this fast paced and thrilling second instalment as Ella finds herself fighting a dark criminal underworld with the lives of her friends hanging in the balance. Now rewritten and extended with far more detail and character development Dystopia also now features an entirely new story as you follow Sheriff Lofthouse as she is faced with a terrible decision that could very well end her career as she fights to save her best friend's life.
Now twice the book it used to be with 33,500 words of new content this Ultimate Edition of Dystopia brings an entirely new angle to the world of Symbiotica as the prelude to the Dystopian Detective Series. It also includes the Proteus Unhinged Mini Story 'Sight Seeing' as Koli is let loose on the city of Manchester.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alexander Nassau
• Release date: May 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370951116

Alexander Nassau

November News: I know it has been a while and this is probably a surprise, but I have finally released a new book. Alphius Prime - Of Beasts and Monsters is an epic fantasy style book set on the world of Alphius Prime more familiar with my fans for being in Symbiotica and Proteus. Set in a medieval world you follow the epic journey of Echo Sana and her rather unusual family she was adopted by... unusual in that they are Kinar Beasts. There is a free preview to be had, so take a look and I hope you enjoy! I am pleased to see that I am currently rated as a 4.5 out of 5.0 Author on Good Reads. Thank you to those who took the time! It is really good to see the appreciation my fans have and that does spur me on to do even better for you! If you have any questions I am on Good Reads so throw me your thoughts and I will be happy to answer! Thanks for reading! _________________________ Finally, I am very pleased to say I actually produced a proper website and blog. Covering all my titles, with artwork, sneak peaks and so much more, it is the best place to find out exactly what I am up to and what books are coming soon. Like me on facebook now too! The link is easy enough to find on the page. Enjoy your reads! Alexander Nassau is an established science fiction author and artist with many well known mainstream works to his name, best known for his detailed and strong character driven stories. With a keen scientific mind and a strong attention to detail, he also is a commercial artist with a strong creative drive. Living in the UK, he spends his down time with his family and has something of a passion for classic Volkswagens.

Book preview

Symbiotica - Dystopia (Ultimate Edition)

The Second Book in the Arbiter's Journey Saga

and the prelude to The Dystopian Detective Series

Second Extended Edition

Copyright © 2017 / 2018 Alexander Nassau

Published by Alexander Nassau at Smashwords

ISBN: 9781370951116

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

"For Jenn.

I know you have the attention span of a flea and bore so easily with people, but nearly a decade ago this wonderful crazy German came in to my life. You made me laugh, you always surprised me and no matter how fickle your attention span is, you always came back to say hi. I found a friend that day and one who still means the world to me."

Please Note: This book was previously book 7.

Due to changes in the first five books becoming a trilogy, the numbers have been reordered. Also note that this book has been significantly reworked to create the Ultimate Series.

If you already own this book you can download a fresh copy for free from your retailer.

See More from the Author on my Blog

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Previously

Prologue

Chapter One - Sunshine and Showers

Chapter Two - Lost Friends

Chapter Three - Bad Movie

Chapter Four - American Nightmare

Chapter Five - Dark Games

Chapter Six - Contentions and Concerns

Chapter Seven - Cards on the Table

Chapter Eight - Serve and Protect

Chapter Nine - Showdown

Chapter Ten - The Long Road

Chapter Eleven - Another Fine Mess

Chapter Twelve - Dystopia

Epilogue

Preview of The Dystopian Detective

More Books from the Author

Proteus Unhinged - Sight Seeing (Mini Story)

Authors Retrospective - New Beginnings

About the Author

PREVIOUSLY

This is a story that needs a little background before you can start to understand it.

Realistically it should only begin roughly two years ago, but its roots lie back in the mists of time, over three hundred years before on a world far from here.

That world was Alphius Prime, a world not that dissimilar from Earth really, but there were some differences. The biggest one was that the dominant intelligent life there was not of a singular mind, but that of a partnership between two species, a host and a symbiote. Now I could explain how this partnership worked and about the history that led to this union between these two races, but suffice to say it was a fair and peaceful relationship that saw their world over thousands of years turned in to a Utopia.

Right up to the terrible moment they discovered their sun was on the verge of collapsing which would lead to all life being extinguished. As you can imagine that bit came as a nasty surprise.

Still, with time against them they all pulled together, created a fleet of living ships to carry their population to safety and to find a new world they could call home. To everyone's deep surprise they actually succeeded and with only days left, the fleet was nearly ready to depart.

Right up to the moment the planet closest to the sun was torn apart by tidal forces from their star which led to the sun collapsing ahead of time. Maybe you are starting to see a pattern here.

Of the five ships created only the smallest escaped, a ship called Koli which had only ten bonded individuals onboard. Those individuals never gave up hope, but everything was against them. They searched the stars, found a new world they called Beletrix and started the process of building a new home for their people in the hope that someone survived, but as the years passed their people never came. In the end they went back to the stars as their need grew desperate.

The symbiotes lives were long, thousands of years but their hosts were a different story. Even with their healing abilities, they could only live for five hundred years at the most and for some, time had already run out as they found themselves alone and resigned to synthetic life giving bodies.

With things at their darkest and their lives almost over, their quirky ship, Koli did something naughty. Using the last of her energy, she jumped them to a small world on one of the galaxy's spiral arms where they found what they had searched for. A race of creatures not only capable of accepting them, but also within their population a small number who had the telepathic gift they required to survive.

The survivors with the last of the energy almost gone travelled down to this new world in hope that the humans they had chosen would accept them and that is where this story, on Earth at least, starts.

Kind of depressing in a way, but don't worry, things get better.

It didn't take long for them to track each other down, reunite and much to their surprise their ship survived and was brought down to their new home, a facility called the Foundry. Thanks to a little bit of forward planning, these Vu'kno as they called themselves had ensured their human hosts quality of life, selling technological advances to a dozen companies globally, giving them more money than they knew what to do with, but as the last two survivors came home, they came with a message from Alphius Prime, sent three hundred years before. The message was a distress call from Terrik, the flagship of their fleet. They had beyond reason survived and were stranded in their home star system, most of their crew having been put in to stasis.

Finally knowing there were survivors they mounted a desperate rescue mission back to their home world where they found Terrik heavily damaged with over three hundred survivors on board. Using some pretty mind blowing technology, they got the survivors back to Earth and to a new facility they had created on an abandoned Island in the Caribbean, a place called Myra Island. There were tragic costs to their actions though but overall they were proud of what they had achieved. With the help of the United Nations, they rehomed their people, but things never go that easily.

With the cat out of the bag, and an alien species with mind bending technology, some governments around the world started playing shadow games, trying to steal their technology for their own sinister ends. They put up with it for a time, but eventually they could not ignore these incursions and a plan was made to return to the world Koli's crew had settled on for a time, the world called Beletrix.

However as the dust settled after Alphius Prime mission Koli revealed a secret that changed everything. Although they had assumed all their ships had been destroyed by the plasma storm, it seemed one of their Titan class ships may have escaped, a ship holding a third of their population, over twelve thousand souls aboard however they had no idea where this lost ship could be, even if they survived.

With pirates raiding their home world, Koli in critical condition following her rescue efforts and Terrik now resigned to an avatar body, the survivors realise that they needed to form a plan, one which would see Koli restored to heath and able to reach for the stars once more, but also to give Terrik a new body and a new life. They got a little more than they expected though in the wonderful and unexpected miracle they named Lunar, Terrik's twin sister. They returned to Beletrix and started to relocate their people and also defend their former home world from these pirate and everything was progressing as expected.

Then out of the blue a brand new Proteus ship arrives on Earth they realised to their surprise that survivors from the lost Titan class ship had found their way home. Further to their surprise this new ship, Saya was the first naturally born member of the Proteus family and they were begging for their help to cure a plague that had afflicted their people and rescue them from the world they had settled on.

Cutting that very long story short, they succeeded, curing the plague and relocating the survivors to the great city of Verlon on Beletrix. With thousands of survivors now restoring their civilisation, things were not so bleak as they start the long process of rebuilding their world.

Which only left what was still happening on Earth.

Earth for those who had taken human hosts was their home and while there had been tension, they could not deny that humanity had a lot to offer them, so roughly forty survivors bonded to their human partners remained here along with Koli, the eldest of the Proteus ships, who had adopted Earth as her home.

With Beletrix and Earth having a vibrant trade, these alien are living amongst us, unseen by most.

And I suppose that is the story so far, but things on Earth aren't perfect and they change all the time. One political change has our friends worried though and sometimes you need a change of scenery, even if Northern California is quite lovely.

PROLOGUE

She hated flying, even if it was first class. Looking out of the window to the featureless dark clouds below her, it had been the longest ten hours of her life, but somewhere under that grey murk that always seemed to shroud her country was her home. She should have been happy to be finally coming back to the place so familiar to her, but she could not find the joy and all she could do was wonder where she had gone wrong.

Around her she could feel the minds of the other passengers pushing in on her like a relentless wall. It was probably one of the few times since she had bonded with Shomis that she had been thankful to lose her telepathic abilities and not have the incessant hum of other peoples random thoughts in her mind.

It had been nearly two years since Shomis had come in to her life, her strange alien symbiotic partner who had changed her world forever. Before Shomis she had been a loner, working in a strip club earning a living and doing what she needed to do to survive. It could have been said her life was going nowhere. After all the studying she had done, learning professional dance and performing arts at University the best she could find was entertaining business men and over eager kids as she sold her fantasy to them. For them it was exotic and sensual but for her, it was nothing more than a job. That said it was a little more, the other staff at the club family to her and for some of them that went deeper.

Then one fateful night, walking home from the club she had met someone strange who had changed her life, turning it inside out. She had listened until the sun came up as this stranger told her of her life and offered her the chance for a new world, a new direction that would quite literately be out of this world. She had agreed to accept Shomis even considering all the potential draw backs.

Shomis was unique amongst her kind, although not in a good way. When she was younger she had contracted a virus, almost always fatal for her kind. Faced with a death sentence, Shomis and her friends worked toward finding a mythical cure for her condition and the truth of this cure had its own cost. Rather than fight the virus, she had accepted it, made it part of herself and had survived but the cost of her survival was grave. Making the virus part of her own biology had left her living life as a fluid creature, her hosts also suffered the same fate.

She had with practice learnt to control the disease consciously and as a result she had gained abilities that surpassed any of her friends, capable of changing her form in the most unnatural ways. There was however a stigma attached to Shomis and now herself. Many of her own kind saw Shomis's abilities as unclean and diseased, even if she wasn't. She had lived her life on Alphius Prime shunned by her own kind, dealing with the prejudice from those around her.

Even after Alphius Prime's end, she still had to suffer the indignity as they searched the stars, and while those onboard accepted her, they still kept her at arm's length. That was until they got to Earth and she accepted Shomis in to her life.

It was difficult at first. The idea of becoming a shape shifter was most appealing, but the truth was most of the time it was a hindrance. How could you possibly curl up in bed and sleep when your body reverted to a liquid state as you slumbered? Most people simply woke up with a bad hair day, but she woke up quite literately all over the place.

She had learnt to control it with her partners help and for a time they had been happy. Part of the gift of bonding with her had been the unexpected money she had come in to. Her alien benefactors had procured quite the sack of cash to ensure their hosts were well cared for and had what they needed to survive. She had bought her parents a new house, given them everything they could have possibly needed. While she didn't have to work, she continued her job working in the strip club, safe in the place she had known since University.

Then one fateful day, she came in to the club, that crazy German who changed her life again.

Sabine had bonded with Tirania, someone Shomis did not like, but she had come begging for her help, the grave news that the whole group needed to know. She had found there had been survivors of the disaster on their home world, a desperate plea for help from the darkness.

She hadn't thought twice and they set out on an adventure that took them all over the world searching for their friends. However during their time together, to both of their surprise they grew close, so close in fact that by the time their adventure came to an end, they were lovers. Those were happy days for her. She had never been this close to anyone before in her life and she loved her. Even Tirania had let go of her mistrust and prejudice and fallen for Shomis.

Then came Myra Island, the new home for the survivors of Alphius Prime and they had both worked like maniacs to prepare and when it was all over, they had both kept busy and happy, but after that mission's success came news that shocked both of them. Koli had learnt that one of the Titan's escaped the end of Alphius Prime with over twelve thousand of their kind on board, a third of their race and they were out there, somewhere.

For them this news was a shock and they secretly worked together to try and find their lost family. Stuck in this little bubble, they were happy though, right up to the day reality sank back in.

A new and unusual ship arrived on Earth bringing old friends and lost family. Saya's arrival on Myra had brought the wonderful and troubling news of the survivors of Alphius Prime lost on a hellish world and was it at that moment her bubble burst.

They returned to Beletrix, the home world Shomis and the crew of Koli had found hundreds of years before, back to the empty city they had built for the survivors. Everyone pulled together, got things done and before she knew it Myra Island was no more, its inhabitants now living with the survivors of Neo Alphius on Beletrix, their civilisation returning to its former glory.

When the dust settled, she realised how little she had seen of Sabine, and when over dinner, Sabine told her Tirania had been offered the head of Stellar Dynamics at the Lyrr Institute on Beletrix, heading up the whole department she had been happy for her.

But where did that leave her?

There wasn't a scientific bone in her body and Shomis was a guardian and warrior.

Somewhere down the line there were the odd crossed words, minor fallings out and while she was happy for Sabine, she could not see where she could possibly fit in. The choices were to continue Shomis's vocation, guarding a world that did not need protecting, or to simply do nothing and be driven out of their minds.

Sabine and Tirania left for Beletrix and so their relationship ended with nothing more than a whimper as she remained on Earth, the home she knew and loved.

Tie had kept her busy for a time, trying to stop that lunatic from causing chaos, but she had to quietly admit to herself that perhaps Tie was doing it more as a friend. Shomis and Verish may have been lifelong adversaries but she knew they were secretly close, even if neither one of them wanted to admit it openly.

Life though had a habit of throwing curve balls. With everything going on in the world today, those who remained had decided to make contingency plans. Earth was becoming a place that almost felt alien to her, a surprise really considering everything she had been through.

So here she was, stuck in a flying tin can travelling back to where it all began.

The damp and unforgiving streets of Manchester, her home back in England.

CHAPTER ONE

Sunshine and Showers

This was definitely Manchester she knew and loved. Driving through the city, she had been roasting but as she pulled up and opened the door, she was in the middle of a torrential downpour. The British weather was something her friends would never really understand. Trying to explain to an American who was used to weather that could be best described as clockwork why the British had such a fascination with the weather was next to impossible. In all her time at the Foundry it was linear, perhaps even boring. When it was sunny, it was sunny and when it rained, it really rained however you could almost time the weather to the second. In the UK weather was somewhat haphazard. One minute you could be sunbathing, the next second it was snowing and if you tried to describe that to anyone who wasn't from England would only invoke a 'you're kidding' reaction. The only person who really understood this strangeness was Brie. She grew up down south and while she was definitely a southerner, she understood all too well the fickleness of British weather.

Looking up at the Pennies in the distance, viewing in their breath taking mountainous beauty she was happy to be home though. The United States was lovely, but everything was all on such a grand scale. In three hours she could drive from coast to coast here, traversing almost every terrain you could think of from snow capped peaks to sandy beaches. Three hours in the US was effectively a trip to the shops.

She sighed as she turned her attention back to her surroundings, taking in the derelict industrial complex she had just driven to. This was the legacy of Manchester's past, a glorious future reduced to decay and rubble. It looked like a diseased carcass crumbling in to the ground however for their needs it was a prime location really.

The group had been growing concerned by recent events in the US, in particular around the growing isolationist view of the new political establishment, more specific the growing hatred and fear of anyone different. Looking at her friends, it was clear that Symbitek was a true international company. While Mel, Jo, Jenn, Flip, Pippa and Poly were American, the others weren't. Kat, although technically American had dual nationality having grown up in England and moved to the US when she was younger. Both herself and Brie were British, Tie was Chinese, Eve and Chloe while American had deep Japanese roots, Jess was Australian and Carrie was Jamaican. Add to that their alien partners, there was a growing sense of unease hence a new idea was put on the table.

Symbitek was looking at ways of branching out, developing technologies that could benefit humanity while at the same time earning some money. With the ongoing trade their people had, the requirements of Beletrix had been putting a