The Life of Jensen, by William Barton
An Exodus II Story, 88,600 words.
Nikolai Jensen is what you might call an international criminal, trading in illicit goods all over the world, but espcially drugs, gems, and sometimes a bit of human trafficking, mainly in Africa and South America. By being careful, he's built a good life for himself, with a wife and three children, and homes in North Carolina, Uruguay, and Mozambique. He's a rich and powerful man who survives by simultaneously being utterly ruthless, and keeping his head down so as not to attract the attention of anyone with a dangerous military at their disposal.
One day, into this cushy and interesting life comes a transcendent disaster, when little blue cyclops beings from the planet il Xad land on Earth and announce that we're being dispossessed, our planet handed over to some alien monsters named the Wezwax. But never fear say the Blue Men, humanity will be transported to twenty-five refugee worlds over by the Galactic Core for resettlement. The price? Well, the Blue Men have hench-things named the Kamûd who will be allowed to strip the Earth of its mineral wealth before the Wezwax arrive to crush our cities into dust. Oh, and any humans left on Earth will be treated as indigenous animals by the Wezwax.
Jensen decides he's not leaving for a FEMA-controlled tent city on some swamp planet improbably named Norumbega, so he's decided to build an impregnable and undetectable redoubt deep under a played-out lead and silver mine, where he and his family can survive in comfort. That's when the plot takes an unexpected turn for the worse. When Jensen decides it's time to take his family to safety, his wife Luisa runs away to another planet with their gardener, taking the kids with her. What's worse, the gardener kills his dog before they leave.
So, Nikolai Jensen boards a Kamûd freighter bound for Norumbega, determined to find them, take back his children, and get some kind of revenge on his wife and her lover. This is his story.
Genre: Science Fiction
An Exodus II Story, 88,600 words.
Nikolai Jensen is what you might call an international criminal, trading in illicit goods all over the world, but espcially drugs, gems, and sometimes a bit of human trafficking, mainly in Africa and South America. By being careful, he's built a good life for himself, with a wife and three children, and homes in North Carolina, Uruguay, and Mozambique. He's a rich and powerful man who survives by simultaneously being utterly ruthless, and keeping his head down so as not to attract the attention of anyone with a dangerous military at their disposal.
One day, into this cushy and interesting life comes a transcendent disaster, when little blue cyclops beings from the planet il Xad land on Earth and announce that we're being dispossessed, our planet handed over to some alien monsters named the Wezwax. But never fear say the Blue Men, humanity will be transported to twenty-five refugee worlds over by the Galactic Core for resettlement. The price? Well, the Blue Men have hench-things named the Kamûd who will be allowed to strip the Earth of its mineral wealth before the Wezwax arrive to crush our cities into dust. Oh, and any humans left on Earth will be treated as indigenous animals by the Wezwax.
Jensen decides he's not leaving for a FEMA-controlled tent city on some swamp planet improbably named Norumbega, so he's decided to build an impregnable and undetectable redoubt deep under a played-out lead and silver mine, where he and his family can survive in comfort. That's when the plot takes an unexpected turn for the worse. When Jensen decides it's time to take his family to safety, his wife Luisa runs away to another planet with their gardener, taking the kids with her. What's worse, the gardener kills his dog before they leave.
So, Nikolai Jensen boards a Kamûd freighter bound for Norumbega, determined to find them, take back his children, and get some kind of revenge on his wife and her lover. This is his story.
Genre: Science Fiction
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