I’ve updated The Book page with a new selection – click here to read it. Here’s a quick recap and preview:

In chapter one, Louie found an agreement that seemed to show her boss is an alien, working for an organization that bought her company three years earlier. In chapter two, she confronted her boss, who showed her his true colors – the color of lime jell-o gone very wrong, as Louie discovers he is leading an alien conspiracy, using their little company to stage a poorly-planned plot for conquering other galaxies. Now, we find out a little about a parallel world – and a boy who will become a central player in determining the future of the human race.

Part Two, Chapter One: The Boy

On the boy’s planet, children who were orphaned, disabled, or otherwise different or unwanted entered a lottery to be sent away to another planet. The powers-that-be  knew they were destroying their home world, and were well past the time when they could reverse the destruction. They had to find another planet (or two or three) to colonize. But they didn’t know whether they would survive in these other places, at least past the first few minutes. So they instituted a kind of draft, in which unwanted children were put in the lottery. Those whose numbers were drawn were sent randomly to other points in the galaxy. They were outfitted with a tracking device so that researchers could track the state of their health – their vital statistics – and determine which other planets would be the best candidates for colonization. They were sent with useless old people, thereby solving problems related to maintaining orphanages and nursing homes at the same time.

When the boy turned twelve, his ID number was entered into the lottery, and it was drawn right away. The boy’s parents had both died in an accident, and he and his twin sister were put into the care of the authorities. She hadn’t spoken since their arrival at the orphanage, and while the adults thought it was because she couldn’t – they thought she was retarded – the boy always thought it was because she just didn’t want to.