Unknown Place, Unknown Universe

Three rookie space cadets crash on an unknown planet while alien society fractures!

While a dissident Anubian scientist struggles to control time, he discovers that his wife will betray him. His favourite student discovers a way to see into the past but finds himself surrounded by the enemy.

Stone, son of Iron Cross winner Jake Nanden, a nerd and a feminist from the Space Fleet Academy crash-land on an unknown planet in an unknown star system with jackal-headed aliens hard on his tail, after falling through a worm hole, in this gripping science fiction thriller.

The primitive natives are friendly but as their exploration of the colonized planet progresses, the new arrivals uncover a shocking secret. Stone must grapple with some deep metaphysical questions to gain control of the situation.

Meanwhile, two rebel alien scientists battle against an alien Imperial Empire, which is stretching out its grasp toward Earth.

Will Stone and his companions find a way to fix their starship and escape in time to save Earth from the growing threat of invasion from the Anubians?

If you like Stargate, Flight of the Phoenix, Stephen Baxter, Arthur C. Clarke or Greg Bear, you will just have to read this breath-taking part two of the epic Iron Series.

Also available as an eBook in DRM-Free formats (epub, SonyReader - LRF, Kindle .mobi, Palm Doc PDB, PDF, RTF and Plain Text) at smashwords.com/books/view/144764

Character interview with Jake Nanden.

Name (s): Jake Nanden
Age: 34

Please tell us a little about yourself.
I am 5'11', dark hair, short - Army cut, slightly curly. Green eyes.

Describe your appearance in 10 words or less. Getting middle aged, slightly paunchy with drying skin - like paper in places - except my mech arm. That's synthetic skin on there and as smooth and supple as the day it was sprayed on. I even had mine tattooed but don't tell anyone.

Would you kill for those you love?
I kill every day - most days - to keep my culture intact. I would say that is killing for those I love. Of course there is a moral code... And as a soldier the moral code is almost everything. After a while... killing... it sometimes seems to be the only thing you have left. Family are too far away.

Do you like animals?
I love animals. Their love is unconditional. You can never quite be sure with humans, can you?

Do you have a family?
Ha! Ha! Yes. A test-tube. No seriously my mother - Mary, my sister Justine and a dog - a collie called Frisky. My adoptive dad was the famous robotics designer Robert R. Nanden but he's dead. My mother was his assistant and pretty accomplished at that!

Can you remember something from your childhood which influences your behaviour? I am not sure about any of my childhood memories. They are probably all implanted. I am a replicant. The first memory I am sure about is playing on the grass with my adoptive mother watching me playing cricket.
She shouted out, "Jake! You are such a talented cyborg!"
Even at my tender age, I knew a replicant was not the same thing as a cyborg and I knew that she should know, as her first husband had been a famous robot designer. Her words had always stuck in my head.
But anyway, adoptive parents of replicant children are always told to create some vivid experience for their kid in the first few days so that the imprinting takes properly.

Do you have any phobias?
Mirrors. Can't stand them. They make me sweat and... well, I'm very nervous around them. I avoid them.

Please give us an interesting and unusual fact about yourself.
I write books - well, I am writing my first; a detective thriller. It's kind of Raymond Chandler-ish. I call it Chandleresque. My adoptive parents are first generation J5 - that's a space station - so they kinda inherited a USAC accent.