Varakush

Varakush is the story of Chem, a down-and-out alien struggling to get by in a deep-space human colony. Mourning the loss of his father and brothers in a mining accident, Chem dreams of becoming a guardian one of the police officers of the domed city where he lives.

When he is the sole surviving witness to the violent kidnapping of a city VIPs teen daughters, Chem unexpectedly finds his dream job offered to him. All he has to do before he claims his badge is deliver the ransom to an abandoned mining site in the wasteland outside the city and retrieve the two girls from the mass murderers who hold them.

But why have the kidnappers asked for Chem by name? Why have they picked the mines where his family was lost for the ransom delivery? And why do they call themselves Varakush, an alien word that translates as freedom but means something more?


Varakush is a fast-paced tale blending classic elements of science fiction and hard-bitten crime drama into an intense adventure of secrets and suspicions, trust and betrayal, unthinking prejudice and unexpected love.