Theirs Not to Reason Why 5: Damnation

PRAISE FOR THE THEIRS NOT TO REASON WHY NOVELS

HELLFIRE

“With all the setup over, we now move into the opening skirmishes of the new Salik War, and Ia returns with full force at the helm of a story that is both highly entertaining and extremely involving in equal measure.”

—
The Founding Fields

“This exciting addition to a fantastic space opera series continues to provide a mesmerizing multilayered read.”

—
Night Owl Reviews

AN OFFICER’S DUTY

“Fast-paced with terrific battle scenes and deep characterizations.”

—
Genre Go Round Reviews

“An engrossing military SF series.”

—
SF Signal

A SOLDIER’S DUTY

“Reminiscent of both
Starship Troopers
and
Dune
 . . . Successfully balances its military and science fiction elements.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“Full of suspense, danger, and intrigue, this new series shows a lot of promise. Fans of military science fiction will definitely want to check out this surprising and exciting novel.”

—SciFiChick.com

“If you simply want a book where a female character sinks and swims based on her own insights and courage as well as precognitive powers all the while knowing that the fate of a galaxy will be determined by her actions, this is the book for you.”

—
CSI: Librarian

PRAISE FOR JEAN JOHNSON AND THE SONS OF DESTINY NOVELS

“Jean Johnson’s writing is fabulously fresh, thoroughly romantic, and wildly entertaining. Terrific—fast, sexy, charming, and utterly engaging. I loved it!”

—Jayne Ann Krentz,
New York Times
bestselling author

“Cursed brothers, fated mates, prophecies, yum! A fresh new voice in fantasy romance, Jean Johnson spins an intriguing tale of destiny and magic.”

—Robin D. Owens, RITA Award–winning author

“A must-read for those who enjoy fantasy and romance. I . . . eagerly look forward to each of the other brothers’ stories. Jean Johnson can’t write them fast enough for me!”

—
The Best Reviews

“[It] has everything—love, humor, danger, excitement, trickery, hope, and even sizzling-hot . . . sex.”

—
Errant Dreams Reviews

“Enchantments, amusement, and eight hunks and one bewitching woman make for a fun romantic fantasy . . . Humorous and magical . . . A delightful charmer.”

—
Midwest Book Review

“A paranormal adventure series that will appeal to fantasy and historical fans, plus time-travel lovers as well . . . Delightful entertainment.”

—
Romance Junkies

Titles by Jean Johnson

Theirs Not to Reason Why

A SOLDIER’S DUTY

AN OFFICER’S DUTY

HELLFIRE

HARDSHIP

DAMNATION

The Sons of Destiny

THE SWORD

THE WOLF

THE MASTER

THE SONG

THE CAT

THE STORM

THE FLAME

THE MAGE

The Guardians of Destiny

THE TOWER

THE GROVE

THE GUILD

SHIFTING PLAINS

BEDTIME STORIES

FINDING DESTINY

THE SHIFTER

Specials

BIRTHRIGHT

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) LLC

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

USA • Canada • UK • Ireland • Australia • New Zealand • India • South Africa • China

penguin.com

A Penguin Random House Company

DAMNATION

An Ace Book / published by arrangement with the author

Copyright © 2014 by G. Jean Johnson.

Excerpt from
Dawn of the Flame Sea
by Jean Johnson copyright © 2014 by G. Jean Johnson.

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

Ace Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group.

ACE and the “A” design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,

a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC,

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-698-18243-1

PUBLISHING HISTORY

Ace mass-market edition / December 2014

Cover art by Gene Mollica.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The original story for part four of the series Theirs Not to Reason Why ended up being too large and too cohesively written to edit down or contain in just one book yet still be manageable. (My fault totally!) The first portion has been made available in the novel
Hardship
. That story now resumes in
Damnation
.

Each book can be read without too much difficulty on its own, as the break chosen between the two was a natural pause between two major story arcs. However, this is a five-part (five-book, no longer four-book) story, so it may be best to read all of them in order. With that in mind, I have elected to include a recap of what happened in the previous novel (book four,
Hardship
), so that readers of this book can be brought back up to speed quickly and smoothly, whether it’s been a few months since you read the last one or if you’re picking this book up for the first time and are wondering what’s going on.

. . . Naturally, this section will contain spoilers for the previous book. Feel free to skip straight to the start of the current story, if you’d prefer.

—

On June 3, 2498 Terran Standard, Ship’s Captain Ia of the Terran United Planets Space Force, Branch Special Forces, was dropped off by Feyori companions on the jointly held Terran-V’Dan colonyworld of Dabin, home planet of her first officer, Commander Meyun Harper. Her crew had been transported to the colonyworld days earlier, while Ia oversaw the destruction of her previous ship, the TUPSF
Hellfire
, to keep it out of enemy hands. Her intent upon arriving on Dabin was to advise not only Captain Roghetti of the TUPSF Army, who had been sharing an encampment with her displaced crew, but the head of his Army Division, Brigadier General José Mattox, on how to push their enemy, the amphibious Salik, off the blockaded and embattled planet.

However, the brigadier general and his staff at Army HQ turned out to be under the psychic influence of a Feyori named Ginger, who, in the guise of a heavyworld-adapted dog, had been adopted as a sort of mascot by the Headquarters staff. The energy-being constantly influenced Mattox and his staff to ignore Ia’s precognitive-based battle plans, while her cofaction partner, another local Feyori named Teshwun, hid all the changes on the nearest stretches of the timeplains from Ia’s precognitive view, making everything look as if it were proceeding according to plan, up until the actual moment when observed incidents did not match at all with what was being seen on the timeplains.

This disparity led to Roghetti’s encampment being ambushed and both Companies being routed, forced to flee under heavy fire by Salik forces. Ia, injured and frustrated by her inability to predict the immediate future, divided the Company, placing most of it under Commander Harper’s command. She then took herself off to disrupt the enemy’s attacks, reasoning that the Feyori would focus on getting the Salik to follow and attempt to destroy her as the bigger threat to their plans, rather than her Company.

Joined by Private Mara Sunrise, a covert-ops soldier demoted and disgraced for a politically awkward incident before becoming a member of Ia’s crew, Ia eventually made her way to Army HQ. Shortly after arriving, she discerned and revealed Ginger to be an actual Meddler and not a mere dog. Ia then directed Mattox and his officers to revise all their current battle plans. Unfortunately, Mattox was still under the Meddler’s influence and resisted.

Taking a break from the frustrations of Army HQ, Ia experienced an epiphany of how to counteract the Feyori influence on the timeplains. Once their control was flung off, she zeroed in on their location and demanded to face her ultimate Feyori enemy, Miklinn, in a leadership challenge. When he finally appeared, the Meddler refused at first to duel her; only when he started losing followers did he agree. Ia boldly faced him as a matter-based Human, and abraded away the years of his life via her psychic abilities, killing him.

She then took vengeance on Teshwun as well for daring to Meddle in her area of control, Time itself, as well as for the loss of several of her crew members, deaths caused by his temporal interference. The rest of the Feyori were warned that there was no more neutral with her, only faction and immediate cooperation . . . and that any further attempts to counterfaction her would end in that Feyori’s death, as she now had the ability to reach through Time itself to grab and destroy any Meddler who dared to interfere. Chaining Ginger to the timestreams to force the Feyori into fixing and bridging all the problems her interference had created on Dabin, Ia returned to Army HQ.

Mattox continued to thwart and ignore Ia’s efforts at correcting the battle plans, to the point where he gave her, an officer in an entirely different Branch, a direct order to depart Army HQ. Seizing on this illegal move, Ia filed a formal charge against the brigadier general, accusing him of being unfit for combat duty despite knowing this would cause her own actions to undergo strict scrutiny as the accusing officer. After heavy interrogation into her motives and actions by the Space Force Command Staff, Admiral-General Christine Myang removed Mattox from command of the Army Division on Dabin, promoted Ia to the rank of four-star General and peer of the Command Staff, and placed her in charge of the mess on that colonyworld.

Stunned but willing to run with it, Ia implemented several battle plans to make up for the damage done by Ginger and Teshwun, including the widespread use of Dabinian passion-moss spores not only on Dabin, but on other colonyworlds as well, as the inhaled moss spores affected Salik physiology much in the same way that onions would affect Terran dogs and cats. At the end of the book, the V’Dan Fleet arrived in force to break the Salik blockade isolating Dabin from the rest of the Alliance. A local reporter, Denora de Marco, requested a brief moment to interview General Ia. Afterward, Ia and her crew boarded the lead V’Dan vessel to be transported by their allies to their newly commissioned ship, the TUPSF
Damnation
.

On July 27, 2498 T.S., while still aboard that same ship, Ia conferred via comm link with the Emperor of V’Dan regarding past and future plans, then agreed to give one of the V’Dan crew members precognitive advice on his son’s future life.

—

I selected
Hardship
to end at this point as it brought the Dabin half of the story arc to a natural, reasonable conclusion.
Damnation
begins a few weeks later, after Ia’s new ship has been crewed. I wanted to keep the original name for the novel attached to the second half, as that is technically when Ia and her crew take control of the TUPSF
Damnation
and begin the second half of the story.
Hardship
’s title was therefore selected as a nod to the difficulties Ia and company experienced while stuck planetside between ships.

On a side note, there was a brief moment of merriment when my editor asked me during our phone conversation to clarify whether it was one word, as in “difficulties,” or two words, literally “
Hard Ship
.” Since there was no actual, physical vessel involved during this first half of the divided book, I reassured her that no, I meant the one-word version, meaning “difficulties.”

. . . I was concerned that readers might not want to pay for two books, but I really could not find any way to cut out any scenes beyond the few I already had removed in the initial editing process. I was also concerned that they wouldn’t want to pay the high cost of an extra-thick, awkward-to-hold, and potentially-falls-apart-under-its-own-weight single-novel version. But within minutes of posting the news of the split to my Facebook page (Fans of Author Jean Johnson; links can be found at my website, JeanJohnson.net), I received several joyful responses from readers who told me they would be more than happy to buy both books rather than just one big unwieldy volume.

Of course, I know there will still be some grumbling from others, despite this immediate and gratifying reaction. My only defense is that my publisher Ace, my editor Cindy, and I as the author all want to bring you the best story I could pull together without butchering it to pieces on the editing table. Instead of a manuscript massacre, it’s been rendered into two parts neatly cut in half. So, presto chango, here’s my cape and magician’s box and saw. Now, let’s put the final pieces of this story together.

For my usual acknowledgments, I would like to thank yet again Cindy and the staff over at Ace for being so kind about my health-problem-related delays, for being willing to split rather than reduce this story, and for supporting me throughout my military science fiction debut after having first launched me through Berkley into a successful paranormal romance career. My thanks to Buzzy, NotSoSaintly, Stormi, and Briemh for their help in pre-editing; to Mai, Syraethial, and Squiglemouse for their last-minute advice on a very important if seemingly very minor detail; and to everyone in between. My biggest thanks go to the managing editor and the staff at The Berkley Publishing Group and Ace for turning around the edits on this last story so that I could go off to the UK and Worldcon without dropping my responsibilities due to the timing of everything. They are awesome, hands down. You readers never see any of this stuff because you always get the final, polished product, but they’re there and they’re working their hardest for your entertainment, the same as I am.

And, of course, as always, this entire series is dedicated to those who have been, are, and shall be willing to place their lives on the line to protect those around them, most especially every person who has served in a military. Thank you.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, in conclusion of the tale of Theirs Not to Reason Why, Ia’s long, hard fight to save her galaxy from the destruction three hundred years into the future, well past the point where most everyone in this story will be long dead and gone . . . I give you
Damnation
.

Enjoy,
Jean