Dreamer (eBook)

Linda Patricia Cleary (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2026 | 1. Auflage
328 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3178-2092-3 (ISBN)

Infos

Ash is over it-life on the run with her genius parents, endless space jumps, and zero real friends. All she wants is a place to belong... and maybe a date that doesn't happen through a glitchy chatter bubble. But when a pit stop on a Martian moon turns into a full-on disaster, Ash finds herself stranded and forced to team up with a crew of chaotic teen outcasts just to survive. Between telepathic super soldiers, a blue alien boy from her dreams who might actually be real, and a strange prophecy that seems to have her name all over it, Ash quickly learns that some destinies can't be outrun-and the future of the galaxy might just depend on her figuring out who she really is.

Linda Cleary is an American mixed-race writer who grew up on U.S. military bases across Asia with her single father, where escape plans and gas masks were just part of daily life. Now settled in the Bay Area with her husband, daughter, and dogs, she writes fantastical stories-often set in space or alternate realities-that explore identity, belonging, and the meaning of home. She's also a voice actor, artist, and musician.

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The year is 2347, and Ash Bennett has had enough. Life with her brilliant, secretive parents means constant running-new colonies, new rules, and strangers who never become friends. She dreams of settling somewhere she might actually fit in, maybe even scoring a date that doesn't involve a glitchy chatter bubble. But when a quick stop on Phobos goes from routine to disaster, Ash's fragile world implodes. Stranded and hunted by enemies she doesn't understand, she's thrown together with a ragtag crew of teens just as lost as she is. There's Isaac and Isabel, telepathic twins caught between uncovering the truth about their missing parents and outrunning the Mind Squad agents they once thought were a myth; Edan, a street-smart survivor who just happens to be the prince of the space pirates; Moon, a savant who speaks code more fluently than feelings; and Xai, a mysterious blue alien boy who lingers in Ash's dreams and who might be far more real than she wants to believe. As Ash wrestles with grief, trust, and the colossal power flickering to life inside her, she stumbles into a prophecy that feels way too personal. Being the "e;chosen one"e; isn't what Ash signed up for. All she's ever wanted was a chance to stop running and just be a regular teenager on some boring moon colony. With telepathic super soldiers closing in, betrayals around every corner, and a galaxy-shaking secret in her hands. Ash must decide whether to keep running or finally stand and fight. Because some destinies can't be outrun. The Dreamer is the first book in The Black Stone Cycle, a thrilling YA sci-fi saga about found family, hidden legacies, and the messy, exhilarating journey of discovering who you really are. Fans of Firefly, Skyward, and The Expanse will feel right at home among the stars.

Textauszug

Chapter One:
Ash

“Wake up, Ash,” a voice crackled next to her head. She sat up and opened her eyes, struggling to remember the details of her dream. This was the third one this week. Was she trapped in a storm? She had fallen asleep at her strada console again, and a holographic face flickered on the panel in front of her: A smiling, square-jawed man with bright green eyes ran his pixelated fingers through his cartoonish blonde hair.

It was Hugo, the ship’s computer, that her father had modeled after her childhood hero: Hugo Darkstar—pioneer, adventurer, warrior, and intergalactic hero!

She sat up and gazed at the amber mass of rock floating in the center of the screen. Phobos. She watched the moon rotate momentarily before reading the small text underneath. Named after the Greek god, Phobos, meaning fear.

Fear. That’s what she had been feeling the past few days. She didn’t want to be here and wasn’t sure why.

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Long trips on the ship always dried her out like a lizard. . . not that she had ever seen or touched an actual lizard. She wished her dad would program more moisture into the ship’s environmental system, but he didn’t want to waste water.

“Morning, Hugo.” Ash yawned and stood up. “Mom and Dad up yet?”

“Yes, your mother arose two hours, seventeen minutes, and forty-seven seconds ago,, and––” Hugo started.

“I don’t need the exact times, Hugo. When do we land?” she asked, slipping into a cobalt blue jumpsuit crumpled on the floor.

“If there are no complications or delays, approximately forty-three minutes and–” Hugo began.

“Yeah, I get it,” she said, waving her hand upward, causing his face to flicker away.

Ash saw a small white chatter bubble blinking on the strada screen’s lower right-hand corner. Her stomach twitched when she saw it was a message from HanSolo to Ashes2Ashes. She must’ve fallen asleep in the middle of their chat. HanSolo was a friend she had made a while back in her favorite chatbox, Ship-Talk. She was first impressed with his nick. Not too many kids her age knew about Star Wars, let alone Han Solo. She couldn’t blame them; it was centuries old and had actual puppets performing with the actors. She loved old and cheesy things.

Most chatbox people used toon versions of themselves or AI-generated pictures, but HanSolo’s picture seemed like a real photo. In the pic, he laughed and rested his hand on his short, light brown hair. Ash focused on his lips a little too long. Glitch, do I like him? Not that it mattered if she did. He was most likely light-years away, and you couldn’t really trust anyone you met on the strada. It was fun chatting with him, even if there was a good chance his pic was a lie. She could have her fantasies.

HanSolo: If ur going to be stuck on Phobos u should ck out the blasty flight sim place there. Battle Core!

She sat up and tapped her fingers on the keyboard, thinking of what to say.

Ashes2Ashes: Sorry, passed out! I doubt my parents will even let me off the ship. Such noids. Nervous about everything. “Fun” is not part of the plan.

She stared at the screen, waiting to see if he would respond. There was no activity on his end. She stood up to get ready but plopped back down when she saw him typing.

HanSolo: Glitch, I’m sorry. Maybe I’ll fly over, drag you out of the ship to take you. Battle Core is blasty.

Her stomach fluttered at the thought of actually meeting him. She felt her lips curling up into a big smile as she typed.

Ashes2Ashes: I would love it if you kidnapped me and we ran away together. For a date, I mean, not forevs.

She hit send, then immediately felt stupid for sounding so desperate.

Ashes2Ashes: What I meant was, I’d love to be dragged off this laggy ship. Kidding, not kidding.

She watched the blinking cursor, feeling like an idiot. What was she doing? Flirting in chatboxes was not who she was.

HanSolo: I might be closer than you think. He inserted a flashing winky face.

Her gut flip-flopped this time as she tapped out her response.

Ashes2Ashes: Stop teasing. Gotta dash. About to land. Chatter l8r.

Ash plopped onto her unmade bed and pulled on her favorite black boots. She couldn’t waste her energy dreaming about a boy who probably didn’t exist, whisking her away on some flight sim date. She fell back, knocking Mr. Moon onto the ground, and stared at the metal ceiling, where her father had painted thousands of tiny blue-and-white stars. It had taken him days, she remembered. She couldn’t help but smile.

Her dad was a genius. He had designed their ship—the only one of its kind—out of a rare titanium-based black composite material and equipped it with an untraceable interstellar travel drive. It was fast. To make it even faster, he was experimenting with Faster-Than-Light drive technology and planning to incorporate it into the ship’s engines. So we could get nowhere more quickly? Ash snorted and rolled her eyes. She was so tired of traveling to nowhere.

The ship was named “The Starling” after a bird species found on Earth. There were no more birds on Earth now—there wasn’t much of anything alive on the planet. Ash had only seen a few real birds in her life.

When she was younger, she had visited a nature dome, a large preserve where green engineers tried to recreate Earth’s old environment. They grew plants and trees, built rivers, lakes, and waterfalls, and cloned a few animal species. She had fed pigeons in a park and watched ducks swimming in a pond. It had been a long time since she’d done anything like that. They never stopped anywhere these days.

Ash stood up and noticed the familiar hum of the engine under her feet. She went to her desk to grab the lase-blade that she always wore in the side pocket of her boot, slid it in, and left her room.

The Starling wasn’t very big. It only had two private rooms and a few smaller bunks for guests, which were always empty. There was a kitchen, which her mom had insisted on painting orange, and an open dining area. The living space was the largest room on the ship. Her dad had picked up two vintage brown sofas with soft cushions, and Ash often fell asleep on them after a night of vid marathons, wrapped in her favorite green quilt.

She passed by the dark, empty medical bay. Silhouettes of two cots in the middle of the room cast shadows on the shiny floor. In her mom’s science lab next door, rock and soil samples were scattered across clear trays. Nanoscopic images of crystals and bacteria flickered on the monitors. A kaleidoscope of colors and shapes danced across the screens, vivid against the plain white walls.

While her dad focused on exploring as far into space as possible, her mom traveled inward to uncover the tiny universes within our own. Laurel was part of a team of scientists studying the debris around a wormhole near Proxima Centauri—the same wormhole that the Collective had traveled through many decades ago.

Everyone who studied general galactic history knew the basic story of Earth’s Bane. The EsserKai and Qureegers were Earth’s ill-fated second and third contacts. They arrived and, without warning, declared war on humanity.

The decimation of Earth followed shortly after. The war’s end came as suddenly as it had begun, and humanity survived. No one knew exactly why the Collective stopped the fighting, but most believed it was because Earth’s specially trained pather soldiers—Mind Squad Agents—devastated the enemy ranks, marking a turning point in the war.

After a peace treaty was signed, many Kai and Qreeg stayed in the galaxy because the journey home was long and dangerous. Humanity focused on survival and recovery, but maintaining peaceful relations between the different species proved to be a complicated societal issue.

The aroma of Insta-Caf and toast wafted down into the hallway. Ash’s stomach growled. She hurried to the top landing but froze when she heard her parents’ voices coming from the kitchen. She tiptoed through the hall and leaned against the wall to listen.

“Tàitài, I’m starting to get worried. She’s been acting odd the past few days, and I don’t think it’s just shi ji sui de nuhai type of thing,” her dad said. Ash was annoyed that her dad was gossiping about her and reminding her that he spoke Mandarin way better, even though he was a full-on white guy. What was he saying about her, something about being a girl? That’s all she could understand. “She told me last night she didn’t want to stop at Phobos.”

“You’ve never been a teenage girl,” her mom tried to joke, but the strain in her voice was clear. Ash wanted to storm in and announce her presence. How dare you...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.1.2026
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3178-2092-3 / 9798317820923