Steph Bennion: Hollow Moon

“Quirinus O’Brien,” remarked the Maharani. “You seem to have come out of this more battered than that old ship of yours!”

“An audience with the exiled drama queen herself,” murmured Quirinus, recognising her silken tones. “Forgive me if I do not stand and curtsey.”

“Behave yourself!” the Maharani snapped. “You saved my son and for that I will be forever in your debt. That goes for each and every one of you here! You certainly managed to show those political miscreants a thing or two. I particularly liked your broadcast,” she added, addressing Philyra. “I forgive you for damaging my cyberclone.”

“The cyberclone!” exclaimed Surya. “We left it in Ayodhya!”

“All the more reason to return,” she replied. “I paid a lot of money for that.”

“You’re going back to Yuanshi?” asked Ravana.

“Hanuman and Ganesa are taking us on the Sun Wukong ,” Surya told her.

“We’ve hidden away in this asteroid for far too long,” said the Maharani. Behind her, Hanuman and Ganesa were at the door, but seeing the crush inside the room decided to stay where they were. “It feels right to end our exile on the eve of Diwali, assuming Kartikeya has not given in to Jaggarneth and cancelled it. Now Taranis has gone I may be able to make the foolish commander see sense and bring an end to this infernal petty war.”

“Good luck with that,” remarked Quirinus, but meant it. “Can’t say there’s much left for anyone here. Wak tells me the Dandridge Cole is a bit of a dead duck.”

“We’ll make it habitable again,” Wak replied firmly. The prospect of living anywhere else was not one he cared to think about.

“You’ll come and visit, won’t you?” Surya asked Ravana.

“Probably best if you stay clear of Yuanshi for a while,” Hanuman advised her. “Que Qiao agents will have realised by now that our mischief at the plantation was linked to the attack at Sumitra and will be on the lookout for someone with a special implant like yours.”

“I’m sure we could find you a safe port,” Ganesa added. “It was nice meeting you.”

Ravana smiled. “If I can, I will,” she told Surya. “Promise.”

“The shuttle from Ascension will be here soon,” said Wak. “There’s a few more goodbyes to get through before the day is out.”

“All my fretting over the music competition suddenly seems so trivial after all you’ve been through,” Miss Clymene said to Ravana and Zotz. “Although it’s a shame the trophy got damaged. The display cabinet at the academy is looking a little bare.”

“I forgot! I fetched it from the Platypus ,” Zotz told her. He reached into a pocket and handed her the battered cup. “I’ve knocked most of the dents out.”

“School is going to be such an anticlimax after this,” remarked Philyra.

“Back to reality,” agreed Endymion. “No more aliens and mad priests.”

“What was Taranis like?” asked Bellona. She still had Fenris’ Isa-Sastra and the bits she had read both mystified and captivated her. “I never saw him.”

“Count yourself lucky you never will!” exclaimed Ostara. “Mark my words!”

“I wish I was so sure,” Ravana mused.

She looked to where her cat lay curled asleep on top of the book she had taken from the priest’s lair. Her electric pet was badly in need of a recharge after vomiting bits of the priest’s spider walker all over the monorail carriage floor. The book’s last owner, the man who had named her demon king, had cheated death at least once before.

Destiny or not, Ravana had a feeling she and Taranis would meet again.

THE END

Barnard’s Star system

Epsilon Eridani system

Steph Bennionis a writer, musician and civil servant in Westminster, born and bred in the Black Country but now living in South London, England. Her science-fiction stories are written as a reaction to the dearth of alternative heroes amidst bookshelves swamped by tales of the supernatural. For every aspiring vampire or wizard, the world needs an astrophysicist, an engineer, or at the very least someone who can make the trains run on time.

A novel by Steph Bennion

On the forbidding planet of Falsafah, archaeologists are on the verge of a discovery that will shake the five systems to the core. Ravana O’Brien, snatched from her friends for reasons unknown, finds herself on another wild adventure, this time in the company of two alien greys, a cake-obsessed secret agent and a mysterious little orphan boy at the centre of something very big indeed. Their journey across the deadly dry deserts of Falsafah soon becomes a struggle against homicidal giant spiders, hostile machines and a psychotic nurse, not to mention an omniscient god-like watcher who is maybe also a cat. The disturbing new leaders of the Dhusarian Church and their cyberclone monks are preparing to meet their masters and saviours. But nobody believes in prophecies anymore, do they?

Paw-Prints Of The Gods is the sequel to Hollow Moon ; a light-hearted adventure for all young adults and adults young at heart!

Short stories by Steph Bennion

Three seasonal short stories from the worlds of Hollow Moon !

TO DANCE AMONGST THE STARS: Can the poor, down-trodden kitchen slave Ganesa find a Prince Charming in the shape of young, dashing space captain Hanuman? As they meet for the first time on the dance floor at the American Embassy’s Christmas Ball, she is the first to admit he’s not exactly her type in this tongue-in-cheek pastiche of Cinderella.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, MISTER WOLF: Christmas at the exclusive ski resort of Kirchel, with its concrete log cabins and artificial snow, was a tedious affair. But the robot security wolves that patrolled the dome at night were rejects from the brutal Gods of Avalon game show. When the power fails, Hestia and her friends would soon wish they had never ventured into the forest in search of park ranger Granny.

IT’S A BLUNDERFUL LIFE: It is Christmas Eve and revolution is afoot on Yuanshi. Pursued by armed agents, Fenris contemplates his fate as he prepares to end it all with a midnight leap from a bridge. Then a mysterious stranger arrives to persuade him that life is worth living, but can a Samaritans hologram really hope to convince him by showing the greatest blunders of his life?