You are here: home > sci-fi
Hand of Prophecy
A young female slave’s desperate quest for freedom amid a planetary system on the verge of war
The story begins at a bar in the town Kagda on the planet Naya. Yaeylie Frenna is the slave of Olney a veterinarian, assigned to the planet located on the frontier ruled by the Emirate. The Emirate had driven the Faraqui from this planet and its neighbors, including Traja some many years before. Now, the Faraqui appear ready to retake what was once theirs.
With the conflict between these two warring factions as the backdrop, Hand of Prophecy begins a tale of family conflict and a struggle for freedom of an enslaved Jatahn race of which Frenna is one. Once the favored slaves of the Faraqui, they are now indentured to the Emirate. Her chains are of biochemical construction. She has been infected by the Emirate with the virus, "a drug that create antibodies at an inhumanly rate," writes park.
It keeps the slave impervious to illness or injury and halts the aging process for a period of 20 years, after which time, the slave "fails" as the drug no longer works to protect but rather is completely depleted and the poor host is allowed to die a painful death. Only 18- to 20-year-old men and women are injected, and fitted with collars to mark them as slaves. The slaves are hostages held in servitude by the assurance that should they escape, their family would suffer.
With the rumors of Faraqui ships approaching the frontier, Renee, the bar’s owner and her slave Martine are about to evacuate the planet for a safer world. Martine is about to "fail" and Frenna who is Martine’s lover, must watch or put Martine mercifully out of her misery. It is at this point that Renee shows Frenna a colonizing virus that replaces the drug returning the immune system to normal function and permitting Martine to survive the failure.
In the process of joining Renee and Martine flight from Naya, Olney arrives to drag Frenna back into servitude but not before Renee has given Frenna several "slapneedles" of the colonizing virus. Frenna manages to escape from Olney and is picked up by a Faraqui nobleman as she attempts to find passage off planet. He takes her in his own space ship to neighboring Traja.
It is on Traja that Frenna struggle to free herself and join Renee and Martine becomes entwined with the struggle between the Faraqui Nobleman, Rasha, and his sister Troah. Troah is a Middatin prophetess who predicted the destruction of the Faraqui and for her prophecy, her people proscribed that she be killed. However, the brother charged with the execution has her put into slavery instead. She is injected with the drug, fitted with collar and exiled to Traja.
Rasha has put both Frenna and, before her, Troah in the servitude of Otis Tarda, proprietor of the Beryl, an arena in which gladiators equipped with belts that project holograms of huge ferocious personas about them fight. The contests resemble a future version of ancient roman gladiators armed with weapons. Only in this version with his or her projected 3-D image, each gladiator appear as towering giants. The fighters are enhanced to provide superhuman strength and protected from bodily wounds by the virus.
Troah, seething with hate, bides her time waiting for the moment she can exact her revenge. Meanwhile, Frenna attempts to convince the imprisoned fighters that they are not doomed to die from failure. All the while Troah argues that Frenna is yet one more false hope of freedom and life. Frenna’s one ally is Hallie, a first-string gladiator, who protects the medic—Frenna’s position at the Beryl.
The story moves to a swift cathartic ending as Otis the arena master attempts to hold one last match before the planet is evacuated in advance of full scale fighting between the Faraqui and the Emirate. Meanwhile Frenna plans her escape with Hallie and Troah. The ending is fast-paced and action filled as the story moves from the battle in the arena to the maneuvering beyond the arena.
Hand of Prophecy explores the range of human experience with everyday characters placed in extraordinary situations. You will like these characters as they struggle toward their separate ends.
|
i