The Morcai Battalion [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Diana Palmer (Author), Todd McLaren (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 2007

Drama and excitement explode in this new, expanded version of New York Times bestselling author Diana Palmer's legendary first book, The Morcai Battalion.A ragtag band of humans from the Terravegan colonies fights the Rojok invaders and their ship is destroyed. Rescued by the Centaurian commander of the terror-inspiring Holconcom, the humans must learn to live with their hostile alien counterparts when they are captured by the Rojoks and thrown into the galaxy's most horrible prison camp. The female exobiologist has to save the life of the alien commander in order to save her captain, her comrades, and herself.A rocket ride full of action, humor, and sacrifice.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Diana Palmer is a pen name of Susan Spaeth Kyle, a former newspaper reporter with sixteen years experience on both daily and weekly newspapers. She began selling romance novels in 1979 and now writes as Diana Palmer for three New York publishing houses: Mira Books (mainstream romances), Silhouette Books (contemporary series romances), and Fawcett Books (historical romances). She has well over one hundred books in print, translated and published around the world. Todd McLaren was involved in radio for more than twenty years in cities on both coasts, including Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. He left broadcasting for a full-time career in voice-overs, where he has been heard on more than 5,000 TV and radio commercials, as well as TV promos; narrations for documentaries on such networks as A&E, Discovery, and the History Channel; and films, including Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Children were crying all around the chief exobiologist of the SSC starship Bellatrix and the woman in her green Terravegan uniform wanted to cry with them. In ten years with the Tri-Fleet's Strategic Space Command, Lieutenant Commander Madeline Ruszel had never seen such wanton slaughter.

Terramer had been a trial peace colony in the New Territory of the galaxy, populated by clones of races representing one hundred twenty federated planets. A Rojok squadron had managed to reduce it to a smoldering ball of dust in a matter of minutes. An unprovoked attack against a defenseless continent of colonists. A dream of peace gone black in the sleep of treachery. She glared at the turmoil around her. The legendary code of ethics of the Rojok field marshal, Chacon, had gone up in smoke, along with ten million colonists.

She finished the sutures in a quick cytoplasm job on a young Jebob national and gave him a reassuring smile while she checked his vital signs with the bionic mediscanner built into the creamy flesh of her wrist. The scanner, standard SSC issue, contained its own diagnostic tools, medication synthesizer and modem. Her patient's thin, blue-skinned face tried to return the smile, but even her strongest painkillers hadn't assuaged the agony of the massive radiation burns on his young body.

She stood up and eyed her medic teams."Let's speed it up!"she called to them, brushing a long strand of auburn hair away from her sweaty temple."I want this group of pilgrims evacuated in ten minutes!"

She avoided the pressured glares of her team."I know, I know," she murmured,"what do you think we are, a bunch of bloody magicians?"

They were working against time trying to patch up what few survivors the shoot-and-strafe air attack had left. Human and alien children wept softly in a nightmare chorus, looking for parents they'd never see again. The children, she thought, were the worst. The radiation was most damaging to young flesh, and of a kind the Rojoks hadn't used in the early days of the warfare. It was highly resistant to conventional treatment.

She joined Dr. Strick Hahnson at the prefab communications dome that the engineering squad had assembled in minutes, and leaned wearily against the transparent hyperglas.

"We're running out of morphadrenin," she told the husky blond human life-science chief. "Some of these younger ones won't make it, regardless. Strick, what in God's name did the Rojoks hope to gain by this?"

"Ask their commander-in-chief, Chacon," he replied harshly.

"We've got worse problems. The comtech can't get through to HQ and I can't find Stern."

She glanced up at him. "He went scouting for the sci-archaeology group. I had hoped he'd take some ship police with him, but you know the captain. Strick, the Jaakob Spheres were on that ship, not to mention two VIP Centaurian diplomatic observers. The Rojoks may have taken more than lives here."

He nodded wearily. His blond hair was wet with sweat, and damp splotches made patterns on his green uniform. He looked worse than she felt.

"How many casualties?" he asked.

"About three hundred wounded to lift, if that's what you mean; and those are just the aliens under my jurisdiction. Human survivors number about two hundred more."

"Where are we going to put them?" he asked idly, glancing up at the gleaming orange sky where radiation danced in pale blue patterns. "What about that message, son?" he asked the young comtech in the dome.

"The interference isn't clearing, sir. I still can't get through." The boy's head lifted."And I can't raise Captain Stern, either. He doesn't answer my commbeam."

Strick glanced down at the scowl on his slender companion's face. "We'll give him five more minutes."

Her pale green eyes swept over the carnage and the ruins of the small jem-hued shops and marble streets to the wooded area beyond. "If anything's happened to those Centaurian diplomats…" She sighed heavily."The Council would have had a bloody war of its own holding the Holconcom back, in any case. Now, with two of their own people involved, there's no way."

"Which means we'll finally have a half chance of winning this damned war," he told her.

"Amen." She watched the medics loading casualties into the self-propelled transparent ambulifts. "Watch my boys, Strick. I'm going to find Stern."

* * *

Holt Stern strode out of the green tangle of the forest into the clearing where the main settlement had been. He brushed against a spiny moga tree and a ripple of pain shuddered down his arm. Holding it, he glanced around the camp at the neat rows of prefab medical domes where his medical specialists were concentrated.

The personnel were familiar. He knew them. But something about the maze of green uniforms worn by the Strategic Space Command disturbed him. His lapse of memory disturbed him more. It was as if his past life were gone, and only the present remained. And the throbbing in his temple was especially unpleasant.

A rustle of leaves made him freeze at the edge of the forest.

He turned to find the face that went with the husky feminine voice. Madeline Ruszel paused beside a drekma tree. The exobiology chief was flushed with fatigue. Beads of sweat ran down from the mass of auburn waves at her temple to the corners of her full young mouth. She frowned up at him, marring the Grecian delicacy of her face.

"Are you okay?" she asked professionally.

"Yeah. Sure. I just took a pretty hard blow on the temple. Fell over some wreckage." He glanced toward the forest and a hand went to his brow. "I found the sci-archaeo group. Their ship crashed about seventy meters away. Better send out some lifts. The Rojoks left them in pretty bad shape."

"Crashed?" Her pale eyes widened. "Stern, the Spheres?"

"I didn't take time to check," he said flatly. "The diplomatic observers are damned near dead. Better get moving before they're all gone to glory."

"On my way." She eyed him. "Stern, the observers—two of them were Centaurian, weren't they?"

He took a minute to answer. The sound of the word gave him sudden chills."I only saw one. Like I said, I didn't take time to check too closely. Move out, will you?"

She started to say something, but she turned suddenly and broke into a run toward her medics.

Stern strode quickly toward the comtech's hut. "Report, Mister," he said.

"Still no luck, sir," the boy replied."Even with my boosters I can't even weed out the interference between here and HQ. There's no way to get a message home until it lets up."

Stern's eyebrows jerked. He turned his gaze to the camp, carelessly observing the medics. Sensations tugged at his memory, but they were too vague to grasp. The sight of the bodies, mutilated by massive doses of radiation, didn't affect him at all. Not even those of the children. Why should it? he thought. They were only clones. Duplicates of a dozen alien races whose originals didn't have the guts for a colonization attempt in the New Territory.

"Sickening, isn't it?" Dr. Strick Hahnson asked, ambling up at his elbow. "The last hope of a war-torn galaxy, gone down into the dust of treachery. How long did it take those ten planetary federations to agree to this? Five, ten years? It only took the damned Rojoks one solar hour to atomize it."

"Stow the poetry," Stern told him. "This is a rescue hop, not a—"

"Sir!" the comtech interrupted. "I've got a bogie! She's two AU and closing like a trambeam!"

"Configuration?" Stern asked quickly. "Is she a Rojok, Mister?"

"I can't classify her, sir." The comtech searched his readout screen.

"She's making speeds I don't believe, and she scans too light to be a standard warship."

Stern sighed angrily. "Well, can't you make identification from her commbeam?"

"She isn't carrying one, sir. Her signals are too quick for my analy-banks. I'm sorry, Captain, but this one's beyond my experience. I've never read anything like her."

"Keep trying." Stern raised his eyes upward. The skies were brighter than ever with spreading blue glowing radiation. Megabeam radiation, settling on the scarred surface of the planet.

"Hurry it up!" he called to the medics. "Leave the Jebobs and Altairians for now—we'll send a relief ship back for them. Concentrate on the casualties that are ready to lift!"

He turned away from the shocked looks of the medics and back to the comtech. "What about it, Jennings?"

The young comtech shook his head. "She's positioning to assume orbit, sir."

"Beam Higgins on the Bellatrix. Tell him to throw up his screens and prime his main batteries. As soon as he can make a visual ID, I want it. And if she's a Rojok—" he thought for a minute "—if she's a Rojok, tell him to get the hell out of here and get the data to Lawson at HQ. Got that?"

"Yes, sir."

Stern strode out through the makeshift medical prefabs, where specialists in sweat-soaked uniforms were fighting time and the lack of supplies to save life.

"Stern!"

He whirled at the urgency in Madeline Ruszel's normally calm voice, putting a hand to his temple. The pain was back. The tall young officer slowed down from a run just in time to avoid colliding with him.

"We've got it…the sci-archaeo group," she panted."The medtechs are bringing them in now. Stern, you'd better come with me."

"Strick," he called to Hahnson, "get your people together. Jennings," he told the comtech, "I want an ID on that bogie the second you get it. Okay, Maddie, let's go!"

"It's the Centaurian boy," she said when they were out of earshot. "He's wearing the blue and gold colors of Alamantimichar."

Stern felt his neck hairs bristle. "The Royal Clan? My God!"

"That's not all. His sister was with him, according to the ship passenger roster, and she's missing. And so are the Jaakob Spheres. Two of the sci-archaeo scientists were subjected to mind taps. They're little more than vegetables. Two others are missing. The Centaurian boy's much worse."

His hand went to his dark, wavy hair."There'll be hell to pay now. Those Spheres contained the DNA of every member race in the Tri-Galaxy Council. If the Rojoks have them…"

"The possibilities are endless." She stopped at one of the ambu-lifts. ... --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged edition (December 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400105838
• ISBN-13: 978-1400105830
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,906,639 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Palmer's writing but new genre, December 1, 2007

By 

M. Dade "melntrav" (Munster, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Morcai Battalion (Hardcover)

This is definietely Diana's writing and her wit but a new genre for most of her fans. It was a little difficult at the beginning to read and understand all the plot and characters but it gets better as it moves through the story. I am looking forward to reading more about these characters.
Ms Palmer writes that she started this book when she was a teenager and this is a dream for her to get the book out and in a way she wanted. I liked the story and want to know more.
One thing I think I should mention, I read the other reviews and here is my take, Diana Pamler is very up front about this is a different story then her normal (its sci-fi not western romance) and that she started this one as a teenager. Review the story on those merits not against her other work, she says it is different. They are not comparable, dont try. This is a pet peeve of mine if you feel you must judge something do it on its merits not against something that is irrelevant.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable but not for hard core Palmer fans I think, February 20, 2008

By 

wandering reader (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Morcai Battalion (Hardcover)

As referenced by another reviewer. Ms. Palmer is probably thinking danged if I do danged if I don't. If you are looking for a typical boy meets girl, they suffer through trials, and end up happy, or a western setting... you are bound to be startled by this book. It IS a departure. That said, I was an old time Diana Palmer boy meets girl fan for many many years but I do admit that after a while I became accustomed to her writing style and left to seek different pastures. I was slow to return to Ms. Palmers world but I believe in trying different things so I checked this one out from the library. I was VERY happy I did so. Yes, the book does show its age from its original publication era in the technology area (lots of modem references) but being from the age group who remember modems first being introduced I was not bothered. I think you should approach this book from the standpoint of, it isn't the same old Diana us Harlequin girls new and this is not the hard core sci/fi novel you may be expecting. It is delightfully in the middle. I agree that there was some fact repetition and some passages could have been eliminated but I read this with the following in mind. It was a first sci fi effort (I believe) it is a quick refresh of a much older book and don't expect a boy & girl cowboy story. With that in mind. I enjoyed it. I look forward to the next books.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Childish, December 4, 2007

By 

HHK "Fantasy/History Fan" (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Morcai Battalion (Hardcover)

This book was written when the author was 17 years old and has now been republished. The story is interesting - strong female doctor and strong but silent hunk who reminds me of Mr.Spock. However the writing is childish and repetitive. Apparently there are more to come in this series with updated story lines so things may get better with the next books. But who knows how long we have to wait to find out what happens next. Borrow this book or wait for the paperback, it is not worth the hardcover price.