Michael J. Martinez – författare

Lieutenant Commander Shaila Jain has been given the assignment of her dreams: the first manned mission to Saturn. But there''s competition and complications when she arrives aboard the survey ship Armstrong. The Chinese are vying for control of the critical moon Titan, and the moon Enceladus may harbor secrets deep under its icy crust. And back on Earth, Project DAEDALUS now seeks to defend against other dimensional incursions. But there are other players interested in opening the door between worlds . . . and they''re getting impatient.For Thomas Weatherby, it''s been nineteen years since he was second lieutenant aboard HMS Daedalus. Now captain of the seventy-four-gun Fortitude, Weatherby helps destroy the French fleet at the Nile and must chase an escaped French ship from Egypt to Saturn, home of the enigmatic and increasingly unstable aliens who call themselves the Xan. Meanwhile, in Egypt, alchemist Andrew Finch has ingratiated himself with Napoleon''s forces . . . and finds the true, horrible reason why the French invaded Egypt in the first place.

Josef Stalin is dead. In the aftermath, the Soviet Union is thrown into crisis, giving former secret police chief Laverentiy Beria exactly the opening he needs. Beria''s plan is to secretly place his country''s Variants-ordinary people mysteriously embued with strange, superhuman powers-into the very highest levels of leadership, where he can use them to stage a government coup and seize control of the USSR.America''s response comes from its intelligence communities, including the American Variants recruited for the top-secret MAJESTIC-12 program, who are suddenly thrown into their most dangerous and important assignment yet. From the halls of the Kremlin to the battlefields of Korea, superpowered covert agents face off to determine the future of the planet-a future their very existence may ultimately threaten.

It is a new world, stunned by the horrors that linger in the aftermath of total war. The United States and Soviet Union are squaring off in a different kind of conflict, one that''s fought in the shadows, where there are whispers of strange and mysterious developments. . .Normal people across the United States have inexplicably gained paranormal abilities. A factory worker can heal the sick and injured. A schoolteacher bends emotions to her will. A car salesman alters matter with a simple touch. A former soldier speaks to the dying and gains their memories as they pass on.They are the Variants, controlled by a secret government program called MAJESTIC-12 to open a new front in the Cold War.From the deserts of Nevada to the palaces of Istanbul, the halls of power in Washington to the dark, oppressive streets of Prague, the Variants are thrown into a deadly game of shifting alliances. Amidst the seedy underbelly of nations, these once-ordinary Americans dropped in extraordinary circumstances will struggle to come to terms with their abilities as they fight to carve out a place for themselves in a world that may ultimately turn against them.And as the MAJESTIC-12 program will soon discover, there are others out there like them, some with far more malevolent goals. . .

It''s 1949, and the Cold War is heating up across the world. Operating in the shadows, the Variants - once ordinary US citizens, but now imbued with strange paranormal abilities and corralled into covert service by the government''s top secret MAJESTIC-12 program - find themselves on the front lines of an international crisis.In Syria, Variant agents have been sent to support a coup by a pro-American army officer. In Washington, a shocking suicide has them fighting for their very freedom. And at Area 51, the operation''s headquarters, the strange interspatial phenomenon which originally granted Variants their abilities has yielded disturbing discoveries.All the while, dangerous figures flit among the shadows, and it''s unclear whether they are threatening to expose the Variants for what they are . . . or completely destroy them. Are they working for the Soviet Union, or something far worse?

In the year 2135, dangerous alien life forms freed in the destruction of Saturn''s moon Enceladus are making their way towards Earth. A task force spearheaded by Lt. Cmdr. Shaila Jain is scrambling to beat them there while simultaneously trying to save crewmember Stephane Durand, who was infected during the mission to Saturn and is now controlled by a form of life intent on reopening a transdimensional rift and destroying the human race. But Jain doesn''t realize that the possessed Stephane has bigger plans, beaming critical data to other conspirators suspiciously heading not for Earth, but for Venus...In 1809-a Napoleonic era far different from our own-the French have occupied England with their Corps Eternélle, undead soldiers risen through the darkest Alchemy. Only the actions of Lord Admiral Thomas Weatherby and the Royal Navy have kept the French contained to Earth. But the machinations of old enemies point to a bold and daring gambit: an ancient weapon, presumed lost in the jungles of Venus.Now, Weatherby must choose whether to stay and fight to retake his homeland or pursue the French to the green planet. And Shaila must decide if it''s possible to save the man she loves, or if he must be sacrificed for the good of two dimensions. In the dark, alien jungles of Venus, humanity''s fate in both dimensions hangs in the balance-forcing past and present to once again join forces against an ancient terror.