Awakened By Fireflies

By Kimberly Clifton

The year is 2059, 40 years after the Reign of Blood wars began, which had through ego and arrogance decimated the world’s population to a fraction of what it had previously been.

After the Global Community Force brought peace to what remained, a few generations have passed, knowing only the absence of war, technological advancement, and the prosperity among those in the new capitals of commerce and civilization. Global Force expansion has stretched outward from the planet and established lunar mining colonies, as well.

The people of Earth felt they had evolved past the destructive natures that had destroyed their planet’s past, and all records of pre-Global Force days had been destroyed to ensure they were not repeated. However, without studying their planet’s past, they might risk having to re-learn them.

This is the setting in which we begin to follow Kate's story, as she navigates love and life in a city where things are not always as they seem and happiness can come where you least expect it.

Main Characters

Kate Meanders – daughter of two lunar scientists on the colony of Alphaz. Top of her engineering class, she has been elevated to work at the regional capital Diatria, where she has been working for a year.

Captain Richard Rowan – A playboy, project-manager at Kate’s location, responsible for the construction and repair of items tasked to Diatria, often too busy chasing women and partying to get anything done.

Mayor McKinsey – Longest running mayor in Diatria history, under whose reign economic success and glamour had abounded for his city.

Becca Lasiter – News Reporter at New Diatria Press, one of the leading newspapers in the region.

Rachael Meanders – Kate’s cousin living on Earth, away from the busy city of Diatria in Exliting Falls province.

Ben Jones – Rugged and grounded friend of Rachael’s with an inviting heart and surprising past

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kimberly Clifton
• Release date: Jul 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463679104

Kimberly Clifton

Kimberly Clifton’s past provides her a wide array of experiences from which to draw in the creation of her books. At various times, she has experienced corporate corruption, bitter divorce from an uncaring ex, bankruptcy, Federal government employment in Boston, and being the stay at home mother, raising an ADHD daughter. She currently spends her non-writing time with her loving new spouse and her three children. Her interests in science fiction/fantasy, romance, espionage, and world affairs makes every book a page turner, where you never know what might come next but are happily satisfied at the end.

Book preview

Awakened By Fireflies

Copyright 2018 Kimberly Clifton

Published by Kimberly Clifton at Smashwords

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

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

About The Author

Prologue

Setting

The year is 2059, 40 years after the Reign of Blood wars began, which had through ego and arrogance decimated the world’s population to a fraction of what it had previously been.

After the Global Community Force brought peace to what remained, a few generations have passed, knowing only the absence of war, technological advancement, and the prosperity among those in the new capitals of commerce and civilization. Global Force expansion has stretched outward from the planet and established lunar mining colonies, as well.

The people of Earth felt they had evolved past the destructive natures that had destroyed their planet’s past, and all records of pre-Global Force days had been destroyed to ensure they were not repeated. However, without studying their planet’s past, they might risk having to re-learn them.

Main Characters

Kate Meanders – daughter of two lunar scientists on the colony of Alphaz. Top of her engineering class, she has been elevated to work at the regional capital Diatria, where she has been working for a year.

Captain Richard Rowan – A playboy, project-manager at Kate’s location, responsible for the construction and repair of items tasked to Diatria, often too busy chasing women and partying to get anything done.

Mayor McKinsey – Longest running mayor in Diatria history, under whose reign economic success and glamour had abounded for his city.

Becca Lasiter – News Reporter at New Diatria Press, one of the leading newspapers in the region.

Rachael Meanders – Kate’s cousin living on Earth, away from the busy city of Diatria in Exliting Falls province.

Ben Jones – Rugged and grounded friend of Rachael’s with an inviting heart and surprising past.

Chapter 1

Life doesn’t always turn out the way you anticipated. Kate knew that. She did. There are always minor changes you have to do along the way to your dreams. But, what do you do when you get closer to your dreams and find them more like nightmares?

Kate grew up on the moon mining colony of Alphaz, where it was always dark and depressing. It was forever away from anything close to real civilization. If it weren’t for the industrial walls and lack of atmosphere, the culture could have been from 500 years ago. People just lived to exist, and Kate wanted so much more than that.

Then, there were her parents. Just like all the other parents of the town, they got up, went to work, came home to scraps of food, and went to sleep. They had imported the lifestyle of their parents on Earth to the moon. She never knew how anyone could live like that. All she knew was that she couldn’t.

That is what drove Kate to achieve. Some people sought achievement to get money or things or to satisfy their ego need for self recognition. She just wanted to escape … ANYWHERE. It didn’t help that, whenever she saw footage from outside the colony, she could see the bright shining rock of Earth staring at her and TAUNTING her with what she couldn’t have. Or, COULD she?

So, partially from this drive and partially from boredom, she joined every organization she could at her school, growing up, and won academic contests. Winning academic contests definitely didn’t help with friends, who through jealously would make her life hell with names, rumors, and more. However, THAT only served to drive her on to leave, even more.

After graduating, she got a scholarship to study Engineering at the Blane College Center on EARTH. YES! She had her ticket away from her valley of the dead…finally. A few years, later, that opportunity led her to be hired by the Global Community Force at the regional capital of Diatria, which she had only read about in books or seen on videos, growing up. She had made it to happiness. Or, had she?

Chapter 2

"Becky, has Captain Rowan returned my call, yet?.

Not yet, Ms. Meanders.

Kate scowled at this and muttered under her breath. This is one part of the job on which she WASN’T trained….how to get your clients to care about their own projects.

Captain Richard Rowan was in charge of the exploratory and research facility unit on Diatria. Among other things, it was tasked to come up with alternative power sources for the colonies. Their contract by the Global Community Force was to empower production increases by increasing the quality of life of the colony inhabitants. This was what drew Kate to apply for this position, recalling her own experience growing up in one of those communities.

Well, see if you can get ahold of him, again.

Yes, Ms. Meanders, Becky chimed.

Kate hated having to get onto Richard to get things done. She joined to be a professional, not a professional nag for someone like hounding a disobedient child. Richard was the same level of worker as she was. Indeed, he was OLDER than her. Shouldn’t he be the one mentoring her in her new relatively new job? However, in her first year since joining the Global force, the main thing she noticed was just how uninspired everyone was at doing their job.

RING

Hello?

Hey beautiful, came