Book excerpt: A million years ago, Verdan’s moon was struck by an immense asteroid and smashed to bits. The shock wave generated by that collision struck Verdan with such force, it caused a disjunction in time and space, and the planet momentarily existed in two dimensions. Before their combined gravitational attractions could pull them back together, massive chunks of moon and asteroid slammed into one of the Verdans. The devastation to that world, the two spheres were no longer copies of each other and could not reunite. They would evolve independently. Touch Time is a story of a handful of pilgrims, scientists and technicians, who had come out from Adrian for work and adventure and had chosen to remain on Verdan, despite the difficulties imposed by that planet’s challenging environment. But a new danger threatened those colonists. Without prior notice or a heads up, Adrian suddenly reversed a prior decision to shut down the base there. Instead, they intended to take control of that world for the purpose of preparing it to receive the influx of migrants soon to come there. To put their plan in motion, Adrian sent a military unit out to secure the base and quell any resistance from the original colonists, and there would be resistance, for a while. The Pilgrims knew, in the end, they’d be no match for the number of invaders Adrian would send to put them down. Unless they had some place to go, a sanctuary, they’d have no future. But known to only a few, there might be one place to go, if they had the courage to get there in time.