BEYOND THE ORION NEBULA

The Alidonian System of Worlds is in turmoil. Princess Arianne Alidan runs away from her cousin, Prince Alimar Alidan (Prince Narbonne)-the leader of a rebellion trying to dethrone her father-setting course for a hidden base located beyond a nebula in an unexplored region of the galaxy. But her fleet gets thrown out of course by a cosmic event. When the fleet comes out of hyperspace, badly battered, they take refuge in an unknown-to-them solar system, with a habitable planet, The Waterworld. An intelligent race thrives on that planet, although they’re in disarray and there’s a huge technological gap with the Alidonian race. But the illness of Princess Arianne’s sister, Princess Amelie, forces the Alidonians to set up a base on the newly discovered planet. After unmanned probes gather data, the Alidonians made a decision to send an expeditionary task force, led by Major Balesh, into The Waterworld. Hacking civilian and military data bases at will, the visitors develop a cover for their activities. Major Balesh, under the name of Boris Baleskii, visits a realtor in New York City and purchases a property in the Adirondack region, near Lake Placid, built on land where an abandoned Alfa F missile silo rests, a remnant of the cold-war era. Over there, the Alidonians assembled a manufacturing facility for Winter Sports Clothing and Gear to cover their main activities, mainly, to provide a resting place for Amelie, in a full-natural gravity environment. The Alidonian mother world, an Earth size moon orbiting a gas giant, is gravitationally locked to the planet. That makes life possible in a narrow band with perpetual winter weather. The Alidonians are expert skiers; their clothing and gear are especially design and built for the extreme conditions present in the high elevation ranges of their world,. Arianne and Amelie are excited that they’re so close to world-class skiing runs at Whiteface Mountain. Once Amelie recovers, they go in a skiing trip with Napleon, Arianne’s man-machine bodyguard. Their downhill speed is so high that a ski instructor, Gus Schneider, wants to find out the identity of the reckless skiers. During a brief encounter, Gus and his cousin, Dr. Roger Friedman, an astrophysics working at Harvard University for Project BETA (Billion Channel Extra Terrestrial Array), searching for radio signals by extraterrestrial intelligences, try to establish a conversation with the two stunning girls but are rebuked. Later, when Amelie formally meets Gus Schneider, a former air force pilot, at a glider park, she accepts an invitation to go gliding with him. Once in the air, she takes control of the craft, expertly guiding it to a place distant for its original destination. While they wait for Noemi, an Alidonian hybrid escorting Amelie, a conversation ensues and Amelie learns about the Rogue Pilots Club, a loose worldwide network of former military pilots, mechanics and electronic technicians. Amelie gets an invitation to attend a gathering of members of the club at Gus’ father lodge in Lake Placid. Upon telling her sister what she has found out, Princess Arianne devices a scheme to fortify the remnants of her fleet, with manpower provided by members of the club, hoping for a rendezvous with her people, and confront Prince Narbonne in a final and decisive battle.