Kneus: A Terraneu Novel (Book Four) Read online

  Kneus

  (A Terraneu Novel, Book Four)

  By

  Stormy McKnight

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  Copyright pending, Stormy McKnight

  Cover Art by Brandi Doane McCann

  Published by Stormy McKnight

  http://www.stormymcknight.com/

  Kneus is the fourth book in the Terraneu series. I would advise that the books be read in order, to enhance the experience. However, I do try to write them as stand alone as possible.

  Kneus is a work of fiction and the characters, events and dialogue found within the story are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, either living or deceased, is completely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or shared in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including but not limited to digital copying, file sharing, audio recording, email and printing without the permission in writing from the author.

  Table of Contents

  Kneus

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty One

  Keep Reading for an Excerpt

  About the Author

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  Chapter One

  Kneus was back on Earth. As he was running toward the port pad, dodging and weaving through the trees, he worried at the ominous shadows they cast along the ground. Turning to look over his shoulder he yelled at his brothers to hurry. They only had a few minutes before it lost power and wouldn’t be active again for another six months. He turned to see Kniam, Knollig and Knaleg all running with him. It seemed that no matter what it was always his brothers and him against the world. Even though those three had found mates, they were all still very close. There were women and children in Terraneu to protect now. The lives that they were building on Terraneu had to be defended at all costs.

  Just as they reached the port pad all four of them bounced off an invisible barrier. Landing roughly on his back Kneus gasped in pain. Groaning loudly he gingerly got to his feet. Walking with his hands outstretched he was able to reach a certain distance from the port pad, and then the barrier stopped him from preceding any further.

  “What is happening Kneus?” Kniam asked from his left. Knollig and Knaleg just stood stoically waiting for an answer.

  “I don’t know.” Kneus stated and for once he really couldn’t reason out what was happening. He could feel the panic rising in him as he frantically thought of a way off Earth. He was bombarded with images flashing in his mind of all the horrible things Earth humans did to each other, the wars, the famine, the death and loss. He felt again the pain and hopelessness when confronted on the port pad by Knaleg’s mate Catherine all those months ago. He had resolved to activate the port pad and if Catherine shot him then so be it, he was not going to stay on Earth one way or the other.

  His surroundings shifted and he was instantly engulfed in inky blackness. An icy coldness spread over his body and with it what felt like a steely fist was squeezing his heart. Just when he thought his lungs would explode from lack of air, he heard a voice that stopped his attempts at breathing.

  “We are coming.”

  Only three words, but Kneus felt the hatred and pure malevolence radiating from the speaker.

  “Kneus. Are you coming to the council meeting? We have been waiting for you.” His brother’s voice spoke telepathically to him.

  Jerking fully awake and bolting upright in bed Kneus raked his hands through his hair. Damp with sweat he wasn’t surprised to see how badly he was shaking. The dream was rapidly fading and he struggled to hold onto the memory of it. He needed to try and make some sense out of the imagery. Why would he be back on Earth when he was safely on Terraneu? The port pad to Earth was long ago deactivated so there wouldn’t be any more traveling through it. Also, his brothers Kniam, Knollig and Knaleg had not been on Earth with him all those months ago. It just made no sense.

  What his rapidly awakening brain shied away from the most was that voice. “We are coming.” Just repeating the words made a chill run down his spine. “We are coming.”

  His brother Knaleg had been attacked on Antilles almost six months ago. The leader of that group had left them alive for some reason, giving his mate Catherine that same warning. “We are coming.”

  Maybe his dream and that warning were somehow related?

  “Kneus?” Kniam was getting a bit impatient. “Is something wrong?”

  “No. I’m on my way.” He jumped out of bed and stretched his taunt muscles. They must have been flexing all night to be this tight. It was as if he had done one of Knaleg’s workouts while he slept! He had been slowly gaining back the muscle mass he had lost on Earth, but he hadn’t reached his prime form yet. A few inches over six feet tall he needed to gain another fifteen to twenty pounds to be where he was when he left Terraneu for Earth.

  “Sorry I just slept in. I will be right there.” He hurried through a shower and got dressed as quickly as possible in the usual clothing of a male on Terraneu: black pants, black vest and black utilitarian boots. He knew that the members of the council were anxious for any news about the research he had been working on with Gwen. She was assisting him to find a reason for why the males lost consciousness whenever they heard the name of the male they called the “mystery soldier” and the ship he was on. The council would also ask about how things were going with finding some way to use shielding and upgrading their weapons system. He only wished he had more to tell them but no matter how far back he searched in the archives he came up empty.

  As he rushed to get to the council meeting before Kniam became really impatient, and even with everything else on his mind Kneus couldn’t help worry about those three words.

  “We are coming.”

  Chapter Two

  Gwen tiredly rubbed her eyes, and then refocused on the data in front of her. She had been helping Kneus almost exclusive of her other duties, and they were still no closer to finding any answers than the first day they had started searching. She knew the male council was meeting today, and they would be asking Kneus for updates on their progress. She was all too aware of the urgency to locate something in this sea of information that would shed light on the reason for the strange blackouts the males suffered from. There just wasn’t anything to find. Everywhere they looked and everything they tried led to a dead end.

  She thought back on when the blackouts had happened to all the males attending the council meeting. Catherine, a fellow female council member and one of her friends had been giving a briefing about the attack on Antilles. A group from Terraneu had gone there to destroy the cloning facility and been set upon by unknown humanoids
. Catherine had been the sole person conscious for the whole of the attack since the males with her had been either stunned by the initial grenade blast, or in her mate Knaleg’s case, shot with a stun gun by a humanoid they were referring to as the “mystery soldier.” When Catherine said the name “Marcael” aloud the males had blacked out. Then it had happened again when she had said the name of the ship he had referenced, the Elyon.

  At that point in the meeting she had been asked to help find some answers by working with Kneus. In the weeks since then they had performed many types of experiments to try to see the full extent of the block. No matter what they tried, Kneus would lose all sense of awareness whenever Marcael’s name was spoken or written, and also when he heard or even saw the name Elyon.

  Sighing loudly Gwen stood up from the seat she was in and stretched. Her back ached from sitting for so long. She needed to check on Mairi and she figured this was as good a time as any to take a break. Leaving the Square of Four where the technology dome was located, she started to make her way to New Haven, the community just to the south for mated couples. Finding the first male she came across, a nice man named Jorren, she asked him to relay a message to Kneus telepathically for her.

  “Could you please tell him that I am checking on Mairi, and will return to the technology dome as soon as possible?”

  Jorren was very happy to do as she asked. Gwen almost laughed at how eager to help the males were when it came to a female on Terraneu. If that female was pregnant, well the males then bent over backwards to make sure that she was especially content and cared for. Mairi just happened to be mated to a council member, and she was pregnant so this male was especially willing to help.

  “I have spoken to Kneus for you Doctor Gwen.” Jorren hurried to assure her that he had relayed her message. “Kneus said that he will see you when you get there, the council meeting is almost over. Also, Knollig said to convey to you that his mate is probably at the swimming pond with—“

  Gwen hurried to interrupt him. “Thank you Jorren. I can imagine the list of whom she is with at the pond could be quite lengthy. Thank you for the help.” Smiling warmly one last time at the male she then made her way to the park to the east that held the soccer or football fields (depending on what Earth name you called the sport) then farther along the path to the entrance of the swimming pond.

  When she arrived she paused for a moment to enjoy the sight in front of her. There was the lazy river that ran around the perimeter of the entire site, weaving and winding its way around different levels of the swimming pond. She couldn’t see the section that was perfect for smaller children and beginning swimmers from the entrance, it was ahead and to the left of where she was standing but was blocked by a moderate skills swimming pool and waterfall. The deeper section, which accommodated adult or proficient swimmers, was to the right of the entrance and took up half of the whole site. There were four waterfalls of varying sizes in total, and multiple exits and entrances into every area of the pond. There was also additional grass and park like areas for lazing around in the sun on the perimeter of the water. There were little balls of fur called gnowlers that “mowed” the grassy areas of Terraneu, including the swimming pond, but they avoided the water and were nocturnal so she didn’t see them moving about. The only one she knew of that was halfway domesticated was one that visited Amber. She had nursed it back to health and named it Chewy and as far as Gwen knew it still visited her at night.

  Turning around to take it all in she let out a contented sigh. This was a huge tropical oasis and had been built solely for the purpose of entertaining the new females that had been brought here from Earth, and the family units that had resulted from the addition of females into the previously all male society. It was a really good idea too, it gave everyone a place to go on dates, hang out with friends and get some exercise.

  Smiling to herself at the energized feeling the sun gave her, she quickly made her way to the beginning swimmers area. When she arrived it wasn’t hard to spot her friends. There were no other children on Terraneu yet, and this swimming area didn’t get a lot of traffic. Once in a while community members would travel by in the lazy river and either yell a greeting or stop to play with the triplets for a few minutes. Otherwise it was usually blissfully quiet here. Amber and Cat were playing in the grass with the triplets, Knadyn, Knacayn and Brennae. Mairi and Jen were stretched out in lounge chairs relaxing and soaking up the sun.

  Her eyes swept over the group. The only thing that was missing from this picture were the males. Kniam, Knollig, Knaleg, Kneus and Thian. They were five members of the male council and four of them were brothers. All of the brothers were over six feet tall, darkly tan, black haired, and extremely handsome. There were slight genetic variations but all four of them had high check bones, full lips, and ridiculously long black eyelashes that perfectly framed smoking purple eyes. In her personal opinion Gwen thought Kneus was the most attractive. He had lost weight on Earth, but she noticed that he was slowly gaining it back. His musculature wasn’t close to Knaleg, but his arms, chest, abs and thighs were all nicely defined. His hair wasn’t too long, or too short brushing just at his shoulders. However it was the depth of emotion swirling around in those velvet pools of his eyes that held her captivated whenever they happened to lock gazes. It had been his eyes that had gotten her to sign up for McPherson Match Making to begin with. Kneus had modeled for the webpage and it was the pain she had seen in his eyes that had drawn her in. Was she ever drawn to the brooding, troubled type! It is what had kept her in the medical field after all those brutal years of schooling. She always seemed to be drawn in by the ‘walking wounded’ as her colleagues had teased. Dating had never worked out well for her on Earth, she would put all her time and effort into ‘fixing’ her boyfriends. They had put all their time and effort into sitting around her house and spending her money. It was after the latest breakup that Gwen realized she wasn’t just alone...she was lonely. So when she had seen Kneus on the website, and she happened to be chosen for a free dating vacation since she was a huge nerd, off to Scotland she had gone. Only Scotland wasn’t the final destination. If you were willing to accept the changes, the dating site was actually a way to find women to come here, to Terraneu. While the dating site had been a way to find women, the port pad on Earth had been compromised and for safety reasons shut down.

  Looking back at her new friends she silently visualized the couples in the group. Amber was the mate to the male council leader Kniam, the oldest of the brothers. Together they had triplets that were going on almost eight months old. Knadyn, Knacayn and Brennae. The boys took after their father with dark hair, larger builds and the hint of patrician features they would grow into. Brennae took after her mother with a smaller frame, light blond hair and delicate facial features. The toddlers still had blue eyes, but Gwen expected them to change to purple any time now.

  Mairi was mate to Knollig, also a member of the male council and brother to Kniam, Knaleg and Kneus. With her fiery red hair and green-purple eyes she was a strikingly beautiful woman. It was hard to believe that she was literally on her deathbed before coming to Terraneu. Now she was pregnant with twin daughters, and due any time now. The last scan performed on Mairi showed the twins were healthy and growing fast. With the technology here on Terraneu, Gwen was confident they would survive delivery even if they came early.

  Cat was mate to Knaleg. They were an odd couple if you gauged by size. Cat being just over five foot tall and the shortest of all the females, and Knaleg being well over six feet. Cat was tiny of frame, while Knaleg was massively muscled. They were however the perfect couple if you took into account other factors like deadliness, cunning, loyalty, intelligence and their love for each other.

  Finally there was Amber’s best friend from Earth, Jen. She had come to Terraneu with the first wave of women at Amber’s insistence. She was mated to Thian, the blunt one of the group. They didn’t have any children yet, but were working on starting a family.

 
The females were all on a council together, having been formed to help with women’s issues so they could take some of the pressure off the males. Gwen enjoyed working with them, and was also blessed to have the benefit of their friendship.

  Smiling again at being lucky enough to be living this new life, Gwen strode quickly across the grass to join her friends.

  Chapter Three

  It was the end of the meeting and Kneus sighed with frustration. A feeling he was sure that the other council members shared.

  “I am sorry. There is nothing we have found in all of our time spent searching.” He waved his hands at the computer system, “The information is in there somewhere, I just can’t seem to access it. Nothing has changed since Gwen and I briefed both councils last week.”

  Kneus paused to remember that meeting. He and Gwen had agreed on two things that both the joint councils should be told. The first thing they had worked out was what he and Gwen suspected and the computer simulations could confirm: The humanoids that attacked Knaleg and his group on Antilles had more than likely come from Earth. The when, where and how of that was unknown to them still. The computer could verify that the males of Terraneu would have the cobalt blue eyes that Catherine described if they were genetically programmed to utilize some type of ambient space radiation, instead of the two suns of Terraneu. What this meant was that the group that they had faced on Antilles was space faring, not tied to any one planet, their origins almost certainly Earth.

  The second thing he and Gwen had reasoned out, was the only explanation for this group to be searching for technology specific to what had been on Antilles, and was here on Terraneu, was that they had some knowledge of either the port pad system or of Kniam and this group having left Earth all those thousands of years ago. Either scenario did not bode well for them if the ‘mystery soldier’ spoke the truth.