2 time Whitney Award Finalist Josi Russell returns with Guardians, the sequel to her science fiction space opera, Caretaker. Trapped on a hostile planet. Life on Minea isn’t all that the shiny brochures back on Earth promised the passengers of Ship 12-22. In order to survive, most of the population must slave away in the dark, unforgiving caverns of the Yyinum mines. Ethan’s position as governor proves to be less effective than he hoped as he clashes with the power-hungry companies that control the planet. While on a surveying ship, Ethan and the crew crash-land into the cavernous depths beneath the Karst Mountains, where a maze of tunnels and a slew of fatal dangers block their journey home. Above ground, a deadly epidemic sweeps the planet, and Ethan’s wife, Aria, is torn between searching the mountains for him and finding a cure. When a mysterious craft appears in the sky, Kaia and her father, Admiral Phillip Reagan, must prepare for a battle with a species they know nothing about. As their world descends into chaos, can these self-appointed guardians bring hope of survival to Minea? Buy Guardians today to find out! Josi Russell teaches creative writing and fiction courses as an associate professor of English for Utah State University Eastern. She lives in the alien landscape of the high desert American Southwest with her family and a giant tortoise named Caesar. Josi is captivated by the fields of linguistics, mathematics, and medicine, by the vast unknown beyond our atmosphere, and by the whole adventure of being human. Chapter 1 The bright disk of the planet Lucidus hung in the morning sky. Countless spires of striped karst limestone stretched away toward the horizon, standing like staggered rows of sentinels as far as Ethan could see through the low-lying morning mist. It was the day of the twice-yearly Lucidus festival, when the planet rose like an open flower above the settlements on Minea. It marked the changing of seasons from rainy winter to flourishing spring, and then, when it returned, from verdant summer to mellow autumn. To celebrate, Ethan Bryant and his family had come to the tranquil Tiger Mountain Park in the shadow of two striped towers. The park lay at the edge of the largely unexplored labyrinth of peaks known as the Karst Mountains, which stretched North and East of the city of Coriol, their home. Ethan and his wife Aria had brought their four-year-old daughter Polara and her baby brother Rigel to celebrate the coming of spring. The family’s walk through the park was made jovial by Polara’s running commentary and by Ethan’s spontaneous races with his little girl across the wide, grassy valley that lay at the foot of the peaks. The park was enormous, with three lakes joined by a river strung like a bracelet across its center. Crowds from Coriol surged around Ethan’s family, looking for a spot to rest and wait for the perigee of Lucidus, the highlight of the celebration. Having so many people around brought Ethan some apprehension. He had acquired telepathic abilities through his experiences on a planet called Beta Alora, and he cringed at the proximity of all these people and the swirling mix of thoughts they carried with them. Ethan’s telepathy hadn’t bothered him while he was in stasis on the way to Minea. In fact, it had probably made his trip less isolating because even in stasis he was connected with the minds of the nearly 4000 other sleeping passengers on his ship. But when he awoke and began his post-stasis life in the buzzing city of Coriol, he found thousands of thoughts invading his mind constantly. The fear, pain, anger, even the joy and contentment experienced by those around him had been overwhelming. Now, striding through the knee-high grass of the park, Ethan reached behind his ear to double-check the small rounded device that Kaia had created. She had been with him through the ordeal on Beta Alora and had gained similar telepathic abilities. She had invented the device—a thought blocker—to relieve the agony of having so many voices in their heads. The small implant consisted of two parts: one inside and one outside the skull. The device inside the skull sent electrical impulses through the brain, quieting the incessant thoughts of others. The outside part was a small, rounded button that attached with a strong magnet and activated the thought blocker. Ethan took comfort in the thought blocker’s secure attachment. He felt Aria slip her hand into his and took comfort also in how she always seemed to sense when he was feeling anxious. He looked around at the dusty Yynium miners and refinery workers, at the farm laborers, the colony officers, and the soldiers from Coriol Defense Headquarters. Their thoughts would be lighter on this day, with the festival in the air. On festival days, Minea almost felt like it had looked in the glossy brochures on Earth: a pristine new planet and an easy lifestyle awaiting them there. But Ethan knew that most days, for most of t