Light Of The Home World (Unknown Country Vol 3‪)‬

Sul-Anroth!

Lt. Commander Mac Crowe’s team of stranded astronauts and friendly aliens has been split! Chased by the hideous Aranu right into an ambush by the reptilian People, he’s escaped. But the cost is great. A tenuous line separates Mac from his enemies. A line of skulls set on sticks that defines a place called the Rayattl. A place of superstition and death and a place the aliens fear to go. The Rayattl offers a dubious sanctuary for Mac, but also separates him from his alien councilor and his friends Cam and Rebecca. And while Mac is safe, they are not, left on the outside with the Aranu and the People. Mac must solve the mystery of the Rayattl and escape to find his friends.

The commander of the reptile warriors, has other ideas. He needs to capture Mac and present the human to the chief of his tribe. Only then can he survive the wrath of his leader. For the commander was in charge of the ambush that left the son of his chieftain dead on the field. But he is a self-serving being and thoughts that no lizard should have flow through his mind. The commander watches the Rayattl and thinks… what if?

Dr. Rebecca Carver, late of the International Space Station Unity, is torn by her loyalties. She longs to go back to the Rayattl and Mac, despite the dangers. The Aranu still chase her and now the People are on her trail. Her alien companions want to take her farther from the man she loves. Take her to the doubtful protection of their clans. The aliens swear Mac is safe and the clansmen will come in force to his rescue. After all, Mac is the Drakil-at’sakaal, the one called for in legend., and the legend tells that he must first be lost to become what he is destined to be. Rebecca's choice may rip her small group apart.

Mac and Rebecca are being driven by events out of their control. Enemies abound and are more numerous than even they imagine. And the Aranu are as nothing compared to what now hunts the humans. A foe greater than the People and the Aranu combined is on a mission of religious crusade. An army that will destroy them all in their need to kill the one person whose death will restore their god. Lt. Commander Mac Crowe!

Light! Distant. Alien. Human.

Each a description from the books of Unknown Country, and each entwined one to the other.
For the alien ship, Vi-t-ry, it is a search, as much for self as for home. A journey of awakening and rediscovery. To bathe under the strange and alien Light From A Distant Star. One that illuminates and watches over a race known as human.

For Niloc-al-teal, the Light Of An Alien Sun shines down upon him. Streaming life giving radiance, flowing down from the one under which he was born. A clansman, a thinker and warrior; unaware of his history, his duty, or his legacy. Great loss drives Niloc, pushing him toward a destiny in the service of an alien being. One who is strange and unknown, and yet as familiar as the stars above the clansman’s head. His is a journey of self-discovery and that greatest of all tests; faith.

For Lt. Colonel James Macintosh “Mac” Crowe, the only sunlight he wants to see is a quiet sunrise on Earth and from his own sun. The one called Sol. That, however, is a few thousand light-years distant. Instead, the shipwrecked astronaut has become the central figure in an ages old legend. One dreamed up on an alien world he never imagined existed. To some he is the slayer of a god. To some a friend, and for others a leader. But to Niloc, Mac is nothing less than the Light Of The Home World.

Light! Distant, and Alien and Human.