The Star Queen — Robert A.V. Jacobs

The passenger liner the Star Queen, suffered mysterious damage to its jump engines and emerged from hyperspace, close to the sun, at half light speed on a collision course with Earth. Distress signals were sent out as the ship scorched into the Earth?s atmosphere to explode devastatingly just before impact. 600 years later, and 600 light years away, the distress call is intercepted by a warship of Her Majesty?s Star Fleet. The distress call is a radio signal, presumably because of an FTL coms failure, and it is soon realised that its origin is the start of the twentieth century. A race of incorporeal beings called the clouds from another reality had come to a period in their time when their society needed t o expand. This was achieved by absorbing another race which had reached the correct point in its development. Humanity was chosen, and they watched and tested. Some humans with special abilities, unknown to the Clouds, discovered the watchers and preparations were put in hand to resist any forced integration. Discovering that humanity had a greater aptitude for scientific advancement than they did, they became afraid that, when the time came, humanity would have become so powerful, that if it resisted, it could destroy them. So a pre-emptive strike was launched. As the war rages in its unstoppable fury across the galaxy, one man, James Oxford suffers a loss so great, so devastating, that the only thing left in his life is revenge. So he embarks on a mission to bring peace to his soul, and if he can?t, then he intends to take as many of the enemy with him as he can.