Book excerpt: When the Standing Ones sent us on a journey to explore the darkness far from the sun’s light, I never expected to find monsters there. Like something out of the scary tales my son so loved, they captured us while I slumbered. I woke with my crew, locked away in a cold thundercloud colored cage. The others looked to me for escape but all my plans had ended in failure and pain, so much pain. At the same time, the monsters began to take them away one by one. Pushing past those failures and the pain, I plotted my escape, I was born problem solver after all. I needed to warn my people of what awaited us among the stars and to see my boy again. To do so, I’d have to discover more about these monsters and their ways, revolting as that seemed.