Switched, Too excerpt

Switched, Too by Diane Burton, available June 10^th

Blurb:

 

Be careful what you wish for . . . you might get it.

Down-sized astronaut candidate Scott Cherella leaps at the chance to go into space. He just has to pretend to be an Alliance of Planets starship captain. His lifelong dream quickly becomes a nightmare when sabotage erupts. To save the ship and crew he has to depend on an uptight, disapproving colleague.

The only time Veronese Qilana broke the rules, tragedy resulted. She vowed never again. Now, to protect the real starship captain, she'll have to deceive the crew by helping the imposter. They must work together to uncover the saboteur and get the crew safely home. In doing so, they discover opposites really do attract.

      Excerpt from Switched, Too

     Scott Cherella forced himself to stay calm while all hell broke loose. He barely recovered from being yanked off Earth, sliced-and-diced into microscopic particles by a transport beam then reassembled aboard a starship—all particles, hopefully, in their appropriate places.

     He took a deep breath and willed his excitement not to show. The command center was larger than he expected, approximately three hundred square feet in area, wider across and sloping from aft to fore. Holy Moley. He couldn't get over it. He was on the bridge of a starship.

     He quickly scanned the room. The science station was aft and to port, communications starboard. Just as the diagrams indicated. Helm was fore and center. Directly in front of the helm—navigation—position was an enormous viewscreen. Oh, my God. Space, up close and personal. His self-control not to react was getting good exercise.

     “Mr. Klegznef," he addressed the First Officer who vacated an elevated chair in the middle of the room, behind helm, as soon as Scott entered the bridge. “What is our status?”

     “Sir.” The gray-skinned giant could give lessons in military bearing. Ramrod straight, heels snapped together, Klegznef stood at attention behind the captain's seat. From his proprietary grip on the back of the seat, he obviously thought it should belong to him. At Scott’s pointed stare, Klegznef took a small step back. “A ship approaches. It has not responded to a hail. Its identity is deliberately obscured. Its intentions appear hostile.”

     “Hail the ship again, Officer Cabbeferron,” Scott said. “Ascertain its purpose.”

     “Yes, Captain.” The Communications Officer with long blond hair and hexagon markings on her face barely looked up. Instead, her three-fingered hands flew across the flat-screen panel spread out in front of her, adjusting here, tapping there.

     "No response, sir," Cabbeferron said unnecessarily since the entire bridge crew heard the silence.

     "Its intentions are clear, Captain," the First Officer said in a voice that reminded Scott of Darth Vader. That coupled with the demeanor of Frankenstein's monster made Klegznef formidable. "Its shields are up and weapons online. Give the order to fire before it fires on us."

 

Diane Burton is the author of the Switched series. Book 1, Switched, is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. Switched, Too will be released June 10^th. The final book in the series is slated for release in 2013. Readers can follow Diane on FaceBook, GoodReads, her blog, Twitter and her website.