The Clone Redemption

per hour, making it a twelve-hour flight to Mars and back, plus time for loading and refueling. With over fifty million people living on Earth, evacuating the planet did not seem possible.

In those first weeks after we captured Earth, I spent a lot of time thinking about Solomon, the planet on which so many people had died. We did not warn those people. We let them go about their lives completely unaware that death was around the corner.

Death comes quickly at nine thousand degrees. Those people might not have even had time to note the change in the temperature before they turned to ash. It was a comforting thought. Since we could not evacuate Earth, Cutter and I decided to keep its upcoming destruction a secret. It was Solomon all over again, only this time I was on the planet. Cutter remained safe on his ship.

Freeman and I spent days, then weeks, on edge. But, just like the Earth Fleet, the aliens never returned.

Miracles followed miracles in those days. Moses parted a sea, Peter walked on water, Earth survived to greet another year.

In the days after the first Avatari invasion, the Unified Authority sent its SEAL clones along with the Japanese Fleet to hunt down the aliens. When the Avatari never materialized, I decided that the SEALs had probably accomplished their mission.

Miracles never struck me as particularly miraculous when men died to accomplish them. The aliens never returned. Neither did the Japanese Fleet. If God was revealing His power, He allowed a lot of good men to die in the process.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

For any of you who are interested, I thought I might take a moment to talk about the construction of this book.

After writing the epilogue of The Clone Empire, I knew that The Clone Redemption would follow two story lines. If everything went right, the stories would wind themselves around each other like the strands of a double helix. My plan was to write both stories simultaneously; but as I began writing, I found it hard to switch from Harris to Yamashiro and Illych.

To make life easier, I decided to write two separate novels, then intertwine them. As I wrote the Harris side of the story, I created a calendar, then I referred to that calendar as I started writing about the Japanese Fleet and the SEALs.

I finished the first draft and polish of the Wayson Harris side of the book sometime in August and jumped into the other side of the book with absolutely no plan for where it would go. I knew that the Japanese had located the Avatari’s solar system, and that was it. So I started writing and let the story take me where it wanted to go.

I finished writing the Japanese side of the novel on October 7, had a short night’s sleep, and began weaving the two strands together on October 8. That is what I am doing right this moment.

I wrote this book with certain misgivings. As I started writing it, The Clone Redemption was meant to be the end of the Wayson Harris saga. The crafty Liberator clone has already lived three novels longer than I’d intended. I did not know in advance how the book would end, but I suspected that Harris would survive.

Now, though, I see intriguing possibilities. As Redemption ends, we are presented with a galaxy shared by three fledgling empires, all unsure if any neighbors exist. I’m not entirely certain about what happened at Terraneau, but I suspect there are survivors in the Scutum-Crux Arm.

I admit, I am intrigued. I like the idea of nations that have superior technology but lack the ability to renew it. Once their ships fall apart and their generators die, the Japanese on New Copenhagen will have a Bronze Age civilization. Ditto for anyone who landed on Terraneau. Back on Earth, Harris has factories, schools, and scientists; but what happens as his clones retire and die? Who will run the planet?

You can’t possibly think Tobias Andropov is going to honor the surrender!

If the stars line up, and my editors at Ace are willing, there may be more Harris stories yet. If my editors have not deleted these paragraphs from my notes, I would say those novels are a distinct possibility.

If they do arise, however, I doubt they will be titled The Clone [fill in the blank]. Harris and the SEALs would certainly play an integral role in any future endeavors, but there are no clone farms anymore; and I don’t imagine Harris has any interest in rebuilding them.

As always, I want to begin by thanking my editor, the lovely and talented Anne Sowards at Ace Books. There would not be any books without Anne’s help, and I wouldn’t know Anne if it weren’t for my agent, Richard Curtis. Thank you, both.

When I first came up with the idea of returning to the “Boyd Clones,” as they were originally known, I had meant to give them their own series. Then, as I wrote The Clone Empire , I decided to include them in the final pages. Had it not been for Anne, I could never have done that effectively.

Stephen King once wrote, “To write is human, to edit is divine.” Truer words may never have been written.

And speaking of editors, I want to thank the people who have helped me throughout the Harris adventure: my wife, my parents, and most especially my good friend Rachel Johnson. Also, I want to thank you, my readers. Harris would never have made it to a third book if it weren’t for those of you who took an interest. He and I will forever be grateful.

Steven L. Kent October 7, 2010