Out of the Gray (Preview Chapters)

Introduction by Rica Miller

When I was five years old, my adopted mother used to tell me fairy tales to help me fall asleep. In them, you always knew who was right and who was wrong. It was clear-cut, just as the fact that good always won in the end.

In real life, there are a lot of people who walk a gray line, believing that it will keep them safe. Some stay on this line for so long they even forget who they are—sometimes for the better but more often for the worse.

You see, the gray is nothing more than an illusion. Whether you know it or not, your decisions are always sliding you in one direction or the other. Then one day something wakes you up, and you realize where your choices have brought you.

Whether good won out this time or not will be a matter of your perspective. The reality is choices were made on both sides to get us to this point, and harder choices will have to be made to determine what happens next. The problem is you’ve only been getting one side of the story—the side the EIP wants you to know.

I know what it's like to be afraid. I didn't even know I was a Hannarian until a year ago, so I do understand. I just want you to know that there’s nothing to fear from them—from us. What's going on right now isn’t what you think.

Whether you decide to trust me or not, you still need to get out of the gray—out of that fog of indecision that's clouding your thinking.

If you don't, we are all going to lose.

Introduction by Alex Verin

I was raised to believe that the Hannarians were Earth’s enemies only pretending to be our friends. For a long time, I believed it. Then I overheard some things I wasn’t supposed to hear.

My family has been a part of the Earth Independence Party for nine generations—almost 180 years. My grandfather was one of the first EIP senators elected to the U.S. Congress in 2270, and my father followed with one of the youngest representative seats twenty years later. Until recently, everything about my life had revolved around facing an enemy that doesn’t age and doesn’t yield—and just the thought of failing my family terrified me almost as much as Hannaria’s Ambassador.

I’ve read a lot about my ancestors, and I believe they were people of honor and integrity—that they didn’t help form the EIP just for millions of innocent people to die and for it to be taken over by corrupt politicians and power-hungry terrorists. I know a lot of people are going to see what I did as a betrayal, but I did what I believed was right—and I wouldn’t take it back despite the consequences I now face for my actions.

I know the Hannarians have the potential to be dangerous and have at least the capability to take over Earth, but what I’ve seen has made me realize something greater than my fears of them.

What if we’re becoming something worse?

Chapter 1--Alex Verin
Johnson Building
Washington, D.C.
November 9th, 2300

“Forgive me for being blunt, but I’m going to tell you what half of this room is thinking,” Dad said as he crossed to the center of the floor and faced the Ambassador. “You offer us these medical scanners—wanting nothing in return—and they have the ability to create detailed images of our anatomy right down to the DNA level. The only assurance that this information won’t later be used against humanity is your word. I’m sorry, but how stupid do you think we are? I want real answers for once and not some act that you’re doing this out of the kindness of your Hannarian hearts. What do you hope to gain from all of this?”

Several spectators up in the balconies and a few on the floor clapped as Dad sat back down, but they were restrained claps like people weren’t sure if they wanted the Ambassador to know their position. Out of all the EIP senators and representatives in the room, Dad was the only one who ever talked to him like this. Everyone else was afraid to do it.

Still seated at his table, the Ambassador glared as his eyes flared to a bright blue—something that always happened when Dad was hitting a nerve with him. Instead of responding however, he leaned forward on his elbows until his eyes faded back to normal again. The silence in the room lingered to the point of being awkward. Dad’s friend Fred Keller coughed to clear his throat, but I noticed he was smiling at the Ambassador’s reaction.

“Can I please just get out of here?” I whispered to Mom, who was seated next to me in an upper balcony. “I’ve heard them argue back and forth so much it’s like watching the same rerun every year. They should just prerecord themselves and send in the videos so we can all go home and be done with it!”

Mom nodded, and I looked out at the floor again. It could have been my imagination, but at that moment I thought I saw the Ambassador look up at me and smirk at my comment. I shuddered at the possibility that he could have heard me from that distance.

The Ambassador started to say something, but then he hesitated as he looked over at Dad. Then he smirked again and blinked, making his eyes glow bright again as he stood up. Without saying a word, he walked up to Dad’s table and leaned forward to where the palms of his hands were resting on top of some of Dad’s files. A few news photographers moved in closer, the sounds of their flashes breaking the silence again for a couple of seconds. I froze in place because this was something I’d never seen the Ambassador do before. Dad seemed taken aback as well.

“If getting this passed through deception was my goal, don’t you think I’d have made up a much better lie?” the Ambassador asked in a sarcastic tone as he stared down at Dad, who stayed seated. “You want answers, Verin? How about I’m getting tired of coming back here year after year—decade after decade—and watching millions of your people suffer and die! Now I’m not going to stand here and try to extort Earth out of something we don’t even need just to give you and your party more fuel to make us out to be monsters! We just want to offer our help—nothing more, nothing less. You need to start paying attention to the people outside these walls you’re being paid to represent—I can’t put it more bluntly than that.”

A lot more people clapped for him than they had for Dad, but most of them were in the same balcony section. It made me wonder if the Ambassador’s bodyguards were being required to clap out of obligation, but I knew that was wishful thinking. This vote was going to be close.

Despite the efforts of Dad and other EIP representatives and senators, several major issues had been shifting in Hannaria’s favor since the approval of the Destiny space station project in 2290 when I was four years old. The station was now two years from being completed, and Dad was already losing sleep over it. If this medical scanner issue passed, I wasn’t sure what he’d do.

As the Ambassador walked away from Dad and sat back down, I took my opportunity to exit. I was careful not to let the large wooden door slam behind me and tried to be quiet for my first few steps down the hallway. Then out of boredom, I slid down the wide polished stair rails to the basement floor where I knew there was a break room used by the maintenance personnel and security guards.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs and looked, the room was empty with the exception of a lanky blond-haired boy sitting at one of the tables. He glanced up at me for a moment then went back to what sounded like a game on his DMR.

“Glad to see I’m not the only one laying out,” I said as I fed my first two dollars into the drink machine. “Are your parents here for the diplomatic meeting, too?”

“Yep,” the boy replied in a distracted tone, not bothering to look up at me.

I fed the final dollar into the drink machine, but it shot it back out before I could select a button. I pulled it out, tried to smooth it out by running it back and forth on a corner of the slot, and tried again. The machine spat it out again. Then I pushed the change button to get my first two dollars back so I could try the machine next to it, which of course didn’t work either.

“Oh, come on!” I yelled, pounding the change release button with my fist.

“Do you need another dollar or something?”

I turned around to see an amused expression on the boy’s face, like my losing battle with the drink machine was now more entertaining than his game.

“Sure—if you have one,” I replied and then stepped back away from the machine.

He put down his DMR and walked up to the machine, running a keychain debit card through the reader. I pushed the button for Pepsi, and a plastic bottle fell into the tray below.

“Thanks. Here, you can have this one. It’s kind of wrinkled but still good.”

“Keep it,” he replied, shaking his head at me as I continued to hold my dollar out to him. “Really, don’t worry about it.”

“Thank you,” I said as I shoved the dollar back in my pocket and then reached down for the bottle.

As I looked back up, I happened to catch a glance at the kid’s remaining balance. It read $39,674.81—panning across the display twice since the machine didn’t have enough digits to show the entire thing at once. I realized he was probably a senator’s kid—either that or his parents didn’t know he was secretly tapping his college fund. Even with all the power and influence Dad had, I had a grand total of sixteen bucks in my pockets—including the dollar the kid had just told me to keep.

“So, what’s your name?” I asked as I decided to sit across the table from my new wealthy friend.

He put down his DMR again and held out his hand, “Andrew Wallace.”

“Alex Verin,” I replied, noticing as I shook his hand that my last name also seemed funny to him. “I take it our parents know each other?”

“Yeah, they do,” he said with a laugh then shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know if either of our fathers would approve of us talking to the other side—but hey, I won’t tell if you won’t. It’s a free break room.”

I remembered Dad mentioning a senator from Ohio named Mark Wallace in a negative light because he’d sided with the Ambassador on the Destiny project. He was about the same age as Dad, so it fit that Andrew looked about the same age as me if not a little younger.

“Republican?” I asked, knowing that would confirm it, but Andrew shook his head.

“Let’s just say Dad is very much in favor of this vote going through, and I agree with him,” he replied. “What about you? What do you think?”

I hesitated and thought for a moment, not wanting to start an argument with him.

“I think it’s a complicated issue,” I said then took a drink and twisted the cap back on the bottle. “I mean, there’s a part of me that wants to trust the Hannarians, but there’s just so much they haven’t told us. I don’t think we should rush into things.”

“You’re going to be a great politician one day,” Andrew replied in an almost disappointed tone as he looked back down at his game. “That sounded good as opposed to just saying you’re unsure…”

He wasn’t the first person to tell me I’d be a natural politician, but he was the first person to say it outside of my own family and teachers. I wasn’t exactly happy that my future seemed so locked-in, even to people I’d just met.

“Please, don’t even say that,” I groaned, and judging from his expression this made him my friend again. “At this point, the last thing I want to go into when I get out of school is politics. It’s just a lot of talk and nothing getting done…”

“Tell me about it,” Andrew replied then rolled his eyes. “I know because of my family that I’m going to end up more involved, but I’m not looking forward to it either. Dad doesn’t even like it, but he cares enough about Earth to put himself through all the motions.”

“Yeah, same here,” I replied. “My parents keep dragging me to these things thinking I’m going to carry on this weird multi-generational fight against the Hannarians or something. I don’t think we even have a chance with the way things are shifting now. I mean, why even go through the trouble when by the time I have a political position the other guy will have a two century head-start on me? Plus the worst part about it is the Ambassador doesn’t even have to outdebate us. He just has to outlive us until he gets what he wants. That’s kind of unfair if you ask me, but I guess that helps your dad’s side, right?”

Andrew paused for a second and pushed the button to turn off his DMR. Then he laid it on the table and looked up at me.

“Is that why your father doesn’t trust Hannarians?” he asked, his eyebrows knitted forward like he was concerned. “Because of the lifespan difference?”

“No,” I replied, beginning to think Andrew knew almost nothing of the real situation. “Dad doesn’t trust them because he believes they’re powerful enough to take over Earth if they’re given enough cooperation from us. It may not be his generation or ours, but that’s what he thinks will happen if we don’t keep blocking them. It’s like the vote today over the medical scanners. Yes, they can maybe detect some diseases early and help us create better medications, but they could also be a step needed for them to take over—like a Trojan horse. People on your side aren’t thinking about that.”

“I don’t think Hannaria’s government is ever going to take over Earth, Alex,” Andrew said in an overconfident tone as he stood up, walked back over to the drink machine, and ran his debit card through again. “If they did, it would’ve happened a long time ago—trust me.”

“But how can you be so sure of that?” I asked in frustration as I turned around in my seat to face him again. “How can you really know whether they’re not just tricking us and biding their time?”

“Because we just know,” he replied as he picked up his drink. “It was nice meeting you, Alex. I have to go. I want to see how the vote goes this time.”

It was then that he smiled for a second—smirked—and my brain pieced together what he’d been trying to tell me the entire time. By the time I had figured it all out, he was almost out the door.

“Hey, wait!” I said as I ran up behind him. “What I said—I didn’t mean I—”

In mid-sentence, I grabbed his shoulder to get him to stop and found myself whirled around and pinned up against the corner of the stairwell. Both of our drink bottles rattled to the floor, and Andrew’s began fizzing as the soda leaked into the grout lines between the floor tiles.

He was holding me at least two feet off the ground with only one arm, his irises burning blue behind what looked like black contact lenses. The overall effect somehow made him look more demonic than his father, who at that point I feared more than anyone or anything else in the universe.

My entire body froze up. All my brain processed was that I was going to die the next move or breath I took. My heart made up for it, however—pounding so hard I thought it was going to shoot out of my chest and take off without the rest of me. I wanted to beg Andrew not to hurt me, but the words wouldn’t even come out. So I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable.

Chapter 2

“What is wrong with you?” Andrew shouted as he shook me until my eyes opened again. “Hasn’t Adam taught you anything? If I wasn’t…”

He trailed off angrily in another language I didn’t understand, and as I looked at him I realized there was no way I was strong enough to fight him. Given the strength it was taking to hold me up in the air, I knew he also had the capability of just snapping me in half.

I also didn’t see anyone else around, not that any security guards would’ve been able to do anything—except to maybe shoot him, which for all I knew would just make him angrier. So I said the only thing I thought might get him to let me go.

“If you kill me, you’ll just prove my family right. You wouldn’t want to do that, would you?”

His eyes dimmed, but he still held me against the wall for several minutes before he seemed to calm down. Then he looked up at me again. With the contacts, his eyes appeared to be a normal human blue again.

“Listen to me, Alex,” he said in a tone like a parent telling a child not to touch a hot stove. “Never grab me or any other Hannarian from behind like that again. Do you understand me? We can’t sense you like we can each other.”

He let me drop back down eye-level as I nodded, and I noticed he was actually a little shorter than me. Then he backed away a few steps so I wasn’t cornered, waiting a moment before he picked up our drink bottles from the floor and handed mine back to me. His was now only half-full, and he seemed annoyed that he’d stepped in the puddle it had made.

“You go first,” he said as he nodded at the stairs then walked away from me to grab a dry towel off a nearby cleaning cart. “If I’d known your father has taught you nothing about us, I wouldn’t have turned my back on you.”

For a moment I was still too terrified to move. Andrew noticed this and sighed as he laid the towel on the floor and stepped on it.

“You don’t even know what you did, do you?”

I shook my head, and he backed up a few more steps. Looking up the stairwell first to make sure no one was coming, he took his contacts out. I figured he could still catch me if I ran, so I decided just to stay where I was.

“We have a type of biological self-defense system,” he explained as his eyes got brighter. “Think of it like glow-in-the-dark adrenaline, only for us it’s always flowing in a secondary bloodstream. That’s why our eyes glow all the time, even when we’re not upset or afraid. When you grabbed me, you triggered that system. My reaction was involuntary.”

After listening a few seconds my brain started working again, and I understood what he meant. It was all an accident. Andrew even seemed more concerned about me than angry.

“So you’re not mad at me?” I asked as I pointed to the break room. “Even after all the things I said back in there?”

He shook his head, and I was even more confused. He should have been furious, but he wasn’t.

“I’m trained to stop myself the moment I realize what’s going on,” he replied. “As far as me pinning you to the wall, I didn’t even have to think. My body just reacted. It wasn’t something I wanted to do to you, and like I said before—if I had known, I would’ve just let you go up the stairs first. Does that make sense?”

I nodded, but something else didn’t make sense. Andrew had used my dad’s first name like he knew him, and it was obvious he thought I knew a lot more than what I did. I knew his dad’s name from hearing it at the meetings, but even if I could say it right I’d have still used his title.

“My father knows you can do this?” I asked as I walked to the base of the stairs, and Andrew nodded. “He’s never mentioned it to me, and I’ve asked him dozens of times just why your eyes glow. All he’s ever told me is it’s a way of telling your emotions—that you’d all be horrible at poker.”

Andrew smirked again as he put his contacts back in.

“That’s a half-truth,” he replied as he blinked a few times. “Dad has told him and your grandfather Nathan a lot trying to help them understand us, but so far it hasn’t worked out well. I know your dad must not have told you much, but I shouldn’t be interfering like this. He’s your father—I get that, and I know why you think the way you do. I just don’t like that Adam would neglect to tell you something so basic that it could impact your personal safety—not to mention my family’s safety. That’s all.”

I stared at him for a moment, debating on how much I should say to him. I knew I shouldn’t have been talking to him at all, but unlike everyone else in my family there was a part of me that did want to understand them.

“Look, I want to be very clear to you that I’m not my father,” I said as I started up the steps sideways, keeping my attention on him as he followed behind me. “Dad wants me to be like him, but we’re different. I’m not saying I fully trust you or something, but I do think your father at least seems sincere in what he says. Whether your emperor and government are manipulating him into doing this and the Destiny project may be a different story but…”

I stopped because Andrew was shaking his head like the theory was way off. I wasn’t even going to mention the other main EIP theory—that his father was a spy sent here to discover Earth’s vulnerabilities so they could be exploited later.

It was strange to notice the resemblance between the Ambassador and Andrew now that I knew they were father and son. Even after almost two centuries of contact with Earth, the Ambassador still looked like he was in his early twenties. Minus his contacts and if his hair wasn’t spiked, Andrew looked like a younger version of him. My thoughts began to wander to whether he could even be a clone, like maybe the Hannarian government was just growing the same guy over and over again. With them living on Kydena instead of Earth now, it wouldn’t be a hard thing to pull off if they had the capability.

“As far as Hannaria’s government and the Emperor,” Andrew replied, snapping me out of my thoughts. “You’d be surprised just how indifferent they are to Earth. Why do you think after this long our grand invasion force only amounts to about thirty of us on Earth at any given time?”

He did have a point, though I now wondered how many Hannarians could be on Earth pretending to be human—maybe enough for some hidden invasion force? I fought not to shudder in front of him.

“So if this vote on the medical scanners has nothing to do with something Hannaria’s government wants, then why is your father pushing it so much?” I asked, continuing when he didn’t give me an answer. “Look, I’ve been going to these meetings ever since I was old enough to walk, and the majority of the time your father just sits there and listens like he’s bored. The only times I’ve seen him even try to change votes is anything that involves the Destiny project and the medical scanners. Are you saying this is all personal?”

Andrew smirked and nodded.

“I’m impressed, Alex. You’ve picked up on that quicker than most of Earth’s officials, including your father.”

“But why?” I replied. “I mean, I get that Destiny will cut your travel time and maybe get a few more humans and Hannarians talking to each other. I don’t get the medical scanners, though. What does your father have to gain from them?”

He stopped as we reached the top of the stairs.

“I know you’re going to find this hard to believe, but Dad does care about Earth and the people here,” he replied, but then he hesitated a moment before he continued. “It’s just sometimes he has to act in such a way that people won’t take advantage of him, even if it means seeming intimidating and dangerous at times. He’s not perfect, but I do respect him for not giving up on this. I’d like to see him win this time just so he’ll quit blaming himself for all the years this hasn’t worked out right. We’d better go. They’re going to vote in about ten minutes.”

At that moment, I actually felt a little jealous of him—the son of my worst nightmare. The genuine admiration on Andrew’s face for his dad just didn’t fit what I’d been taught my whole life. I already knew the Ambassador wasn’t a saint, but I was beginning to realize maybe he wasn’t a demon either.

Andrew began to walk down the hall, and I knew better than to try and stop him this time.

“Andrew?”

“Yeah?” he asked as he turned around and continued to walk backwards, the sound of his shoes still sticking to the floor echoing down the hallway.

“What’s your real name?”

“It’s Andrew—I’m named after the human doctor that delivered me,” he explained. “It also made going to school on Earth a lot easier than having a name like…”

He rattled off something very fast in his language, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I walked over to the wooden door that led to the balcony where I’d been sitting and hesitated. Then I looked up and down the hallway to make sure nobody else was there to hear what I was about to say.

“Andrew?” I yelled down the hall.

“Yeah?” he replied again, this time like he was getting annoyed with me.

I hesitated for a second, but figured I might as well say it.

“Tell your father I said good luck—at least on this one.”

“Thanks,” he said just before he went around the corner. “Sorry for not wishing your father the same!”

I opened the door, and when I walked inside the floor was still in recess. Dad was there, leaning up against the balcony railing and talking to Mom. He smiled when he saw me.

“Better not let them catch you with that soda up here,” he said when he noticed the bottle in my hand. “I take it you got bored and didn’t want to watch your old man in action? You know your mother and I don’t pull you out of school just so you can wander around the halls. You need to be getting something out of this, Alex, or we need to stop.”

Dad was only forty-three, but the stress of his position had made him go gray early. It didn’t seem to bother him, though. He’d told me once that he had no idea how old the Ambassador really was, but it always helped him to think like he was debating an eighteen-year-old. It lessened the intimidation factor for him, and sometimes the approach even seemed to work.

“Sorry, Dad,” I replied as I sat down on an arm of one of the aisle chairs. “If it makes you feel better, I already have the arguments memorized—and I’m learning how to observe the Ambassador’s behavior. I don’t think he has a real pattern to what he tries, though. Everything just seems to be trial-and-error, which I guess is still smart considering he has all the time in the world to find some technique that will work.”

“You’re right,” Dad said and then sighed. “I know what he did today was effective. I hope he doesn’t realize this, but he debates better when he loses his composure a little. He’s becoming frustrated to the point he’s showing it now, but I may be able to use that next time. This time it’s going to be close, though.”

To Dad, politics was both his sport and obsession. He studied his opponents to the point he almost knew them better than they did themselves—their mannerisms, personality, and even the wording they used in debates. He then formed counterarguments against them based on his observations. Whether it was a natural ability or something I’d learned from him, I could also pick up things about people if I watched them long enough. I just didn’t want to use the skill to manipulate people, which was what I’d seen Dad do to his political enemies and sometimes even his friends.

“I thought you’d be back a lot sooner, Alex,” Mom said as she turned to look at me. “Where did you go?”

I didn’t see any point in lying due to Dad being able to tell. Plus I was curious of how much my parents knew about Andrew.

“I ran into Andrew Wallace downstairs in the break room,” I replied as casually as I could. “We talked a little.”

Mom seemed upset by this, but Dad just shook his head.

“Funny, he was Andrew Reynolds when I first met him,” Dad replied as Mom shot him an annoyed look. “Steph, we can’t keep babying Alex like this. Do you realize how much I knew about them when I was his age? The Hannarians aren’t going to be courteous and wait until he’s eighteen to start testing him. They didn’t with me. We’re going to have to tell him everything.”

“We need to talk about this,” Mom said as she looked back at me. “Maybe if they don’t think he’s a problem, they’ll leave him alone.”

Dad shook his head again like that wasn’t a possibility.

“Alex, what exactly did Andrew say to you?” Dad asked as he looked at his watch. “On second thought, you’re going to have to fill me in later. I have to get back down there. We’ll talk when we get home, all right?”

I nodded, and Dad patted me on the back as he left to go back downstairs.

I walked down the balcony stairs to a front row seat then folded my arms, resting my chin on them as I leaned on the railing. From that angle, I could see almost the entire floor and most of the other balconies. I managed to spot Andrew and a woman who must have been his mom sitting in a balcony closer to the East entrance. She had brown hair instead of blond but physically appeared to be in her twenties like the Ambassador. There were a lot of other people around them, who I guessed had been clapping earlier. I wasn’t sure if they were Hannarian or not, but they didn’t look like bodyguards.

Down on the floor, the Ambassador was in his chair with a DMR in his hand. I was too far away from him to see any text, but I recognized from the colors on the screen that he was bringing up transport shuttle schedules. I thought this was strange.

“Mom, did you happen to notice whether the Hannarians brought their ship here or not?” I asked.

“I think I saw it on the way in,” she replied. “Why?”

“Just curious,” I said and left it at that, thinking maybe they were having engine problems or something.

The Ambassador was the first to announce his vote, something that was allowed since this was a diplomatic meeting and not an official U.S. House and Senate vote. The way these things worked was the President would be notified of the results of the diplomatic meeting, and then the final details of the agreement would be passed through Congress and taken to yet another vote. Though it was still slow, this seemed to resolve issues faster than it had been tried in the past—since at these meetings everyone could at least speak on a more informal basis.

There were of course a few other Hannarians working with countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Australia—but the Ambassador was still in charge over everything and was present at any votes. Technically, every country on the planet had access to the same offer of help from the Hannarians, but everyone was looking to see what everyone else was going to do first. This had caused a worldwide deadlock on many issues that had lasted for almost the entire time the Hannarians had been in contact with us. No country wanted to be the first to give in on the medical scanners because of the idea that they were some sort of trick.

The representatives were next after the Ambassador with their votes. For the first half, it was beginning to look like it was going to pass, and the Ambassador put his DMR away and leaned forward in his seat in anticipation.

I looked over at Dad on the other side of the floor, and he didn’t look happy. By the time his turn came, the issue would have passed if Dad had voted for it. Instead, he voted against, and then it defaulted to the senators to break the tie. It was a similar situation with them—a 50-50 split until almost the very end. It came down to three votes.

Knowing what I did, I felt bad as the Ambassador leaned forward in his seat, hung his head down, and just stared down at a stripe of navy blue carpet in front of him. On the other side, people were coming up to Dad to shake his hand and congratulate him.

About a minute later, Dad finished talking with his friends and walked over to the Ambassador, who still had his elbows resting on his knees and his head down in his hands.

“Better luck next time,” Dad said in a loud voice as he passed by him.

Then I watched in horror as Dad slapped the Ambassador on the back—hard.

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Out of the Gray is the first book of the Hannaria Series, featuring Alex Verin and Rica Miller as narrators. It is currently available in Kindle, nook, and paperback formats. Purchasing through the following links also supports Writing.com:

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Sci-fi novelist Patricia Gilliam is the author of the Hannaria Series: Out of the Gray (April 2009), Legacy (Nov 2009), and No Good Deed Goes Unpunished (June 2010). Beginning her career as an online content writer, she has written over 1,000 non-fiction articles and 40 fiction short stories since 2006. She has been a preferred author on Writing.com since 2007, offering free help and resources to the site's community.

Outside of writing, she and her husband Cory are broadcast camera operators for the Christian television show Power of the Word in the Knoxville, TN area. In 2009, they adopted a rescue greyhound (racing name Lucius Malfoy) and are active volunteers for the local adoption group.

Book 4 of the Hannaria Series, Something Like the Truth, is in progress with an expected release in early 2012.
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To preview chapters from Legacy, continue to this link:

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Legacy (Preview Chapters)  [13+] Book 2 in the Hannaria Series by Patricia Gilliam