The following is an excerpt fromTo Sleep in a Sea of StarsbyChristopher Paolini(Eragon).
The novel publishes Sept. 15 and isavailable for pre-order.
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Kira lay where she was, stunned.
Credit: Lo Hunter
The impact had knocked the breath out of her.
She tried to fill her lungs, but her muscles wouldnt respond.
She gasped, desperate for oxygen.
Tor Books
After the first few breaths, she forced herself to stop panting.
No point in hyperventilating.
It would only make it harder to function.
In front of her, all she saw was rock and shadow.
She checked her overlays: skinsuit still intact, no breaches detected.
Elevated pulse and blood pressure, O2 levels high normal, cortisol through the roof (as expected).
She wiggled her fingers and toes, just to test that they worked.
With her tongue, Kira tabbed two doses of liquid Norodon.
She sucked the painkiller from her feeding tube and gulped it down, ignoring its sickly-sweet taste.
Grimacing, she rolled off the mound and onto all fours.
The ground was surprisingly flat.
Flat and covered with a thick layer of dust.
It hurt, but Kira pushed herself onto her feet and stood.
The movement made her lightheaded.
She leaned on her thighs until the feeling passed and then turned and looked at her surroundings.
For a moment she couldnt make sense of what she was seeing, the incongruity was so great.
The ground was flat.
The walls were smooth.
The ceiling was curved and dome-like.
And in the center of the space stood a .
A waist-high stalagmite that widened as it rose.
Kiras mind raced as she tried to imagine how the space could have formed.
A vortex of air?
But then there would be ridges everywhere, grooves .
Could it be a lava bubble?
But the stone wasnt volcanic.
The cave wasnt a cave.
It was a room.
Thule, she whispered.
She wasnt religious, but right then, prayer seemed like the only appropriate response.
A rush of fear and excitement swept through Kira.
Only one other alien artifact had ever been found: the Great Beacon on Talos VII.
Kira had been four at the time, but she still remembered the moment the news had become public.
Kira forced herself to breathe again.
She needed to keep a clear head.
Whatever the truth, the room was a find of historic significance.
Falling into it was probably the most important thing she would ever do in her life.
The discovery would be news through the whole of settled space.
There would be interviews, appearance requests;everyonewould be talking about it.
Hell, the papers she could publish .
Entire careers had been built on far, far less.
Her parents would be so proud.
Especially her dad; further proof of intelligent aliens would delight him like nothing else.
First she had to double-check she lived through the experience.
For all she knew, the room could be an automated slaughter house.
Kira double-checked her suit readouts, paranoid.
She didnt have to worry about contamination from alien organisms.
She activated her radio.
Neghar, do you read?
Kira tried again, but her system couldnt connect to the shuttle.
Too much stone overhead, she guessed.
It shouldnt be long before help arrived.
Shed need help, too.
There was no way she could climb out by herself, not without gecko pads.
The ceiling was over four meters high and devoid of handholds.
Through the hole, she could see a blotch of sky, pale and distant.
At least it hadnt been a straight drop.
Otherwise she would probably be dead.
Kira continued to study the room, not moving from where she stood.
The chamber had no obvious entrances or exits.
A pool of dust had gathered within the depression, obscuring the color of the stone.
As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Kira saw long blue-black lines cut into the walls and ceiling.
Technology?Sometimes it was difficult to tell the difference.
Was the place a tomb?
Of course, the aliens might not bury their dead.
There was no way of knowing.
Thermals up, Kira murmured.
No lasers, no artificial heat signatures of any sort.
Still, she had to assume she was being watched.
A thought occurred to Kira, and she switched off the scanner on her belt.
For all she knew, the signals from the gear might seem threatening to an alien.
Kira glanced at the blotch of sky again.
Neghar wouldnt take long to reach the formation.
Because once she was pulled out of the hole, Kira knew she wouldnt be allowed back in.
That didnt mean she was about to break protocol.
Preserving its current condition was more important than any personal ambition.
So she held her ground, despite her almost unbearable frustration.
If she could just touch the walls .
Looking back at the pedestal, Kira noticed the structure was level with her waist.
Did that mean the aliens were about the same size as humans?
She shifted her stance, uncomfortable.
The bruises on her legs were throbbing, despite the Norodon.
A shiver ran through her, and she turned on the heater in her suit.
Across the room, a knot of lines, no bigger than her palm, caught her attention.
Unlike elsewhere on the curving walls, the lines
Crack!
She yelped and stumbled forward, awkward.
Her legs tangled, and she fell onto her chest, hard.
The rock slammed into the floor behind her, sending up a hazy billow of dust.
It took Kira a second to catch her breath.
But nothing else happened.
No trapdoors opened up beneath her.
No lasers poked her full of tiny holes.
She pushed herself back onto her feet, ignoring the pain.
The pedestal was right in front of her.
Dammit, Kira thought.
She should have been more careful.
Her instructors back in school would have ripped her a new one for a mistake like that.
She returned her attention to the pedestal.
The depression in the top reminded her of a water basin.
Beneath the pooled dust were more lines, scribed across the inner curve of the hollow.
Or was it powered by an artificial source?
From outside the structure, she heard the rising roar of the shuttles engines.
She didnt have long.
No more than a minute or two.
Kira sucked on her lip.
If only she could see more of the basin.
She knew what she was about to do was wrong, but she couldnt help it.
She had to learnsomethingabout this amazing artifact.
She wasnt so stupid as to touch the dust.
That was the sort of rookie mistake that got people eaten or infected or dissolved by acid.
The dust flew up in swirled plumes, exposing the lines beneath.
Theywereglowing, with an eerie hue that reminded her of an electrical discharge.
Kira shivered again, but not from cold.
It felt as if she were intruding on forbidden ground.
Shed tempted fate far more than was wise.
Time to make a strategic retreat.
She turned to leave the pedestal.
A jolt ran up her leg as her right foot remained stuck to the floor.
She yelped, surprised, and fell to one knee.
Blinking back tears, Kira looked down at her foot.
A pile of black dust covered her foot.
It was pouring out of the basin, down the pedestal, and onto her foot.
Even as she watched, it started to creep up her leg, following the contours of her muscles.
She tore off her belt, doubled it over, and used it to slap at the featureless mass.
The blows failed to knock any of the dust loose.
The edge of the belt left a shallow impression in the dust but otherwise had no effect.
The swarm of particles had already reached the crease of her hip.
She could feel them pressing in around her leg, like a series of tight, ever-shifting bands.
Her fingers sank into the swarm of particles as easily as foam.
She scrubbed her hand against the floor, but to no avail.
Kira had difficulty saying the words.
Her mouth was dry, and her tongue seemed twice its normal size.
They couldnt stop the dust, though.
Kira felt the cold tickle progress up her arm to her elbow, and then past.
Can anyone hear me?!
Outside the suit, the dust flowed over her visor, plunging her into darkness.
Inside the suit, the tendrils wormed their way over her shoulder and across her neck and chest.
Unreasoning terror gripped Kira.
She jerked on her leg with all her strength.
Something snapped in her ankle, but her foot remained anchored to the floor.
She screamed and clawed at her visor, trying to clear it off.
The dust oozed across her cheek and toward the front of her face.
She screamed again and then clamped her mouth shut, closed off her throat, and held her breath.
Her heart felt as if it were going to explode.
The dust crept over her eyes, like the feet of a thousand tiny insects.
A moment later, it covered her mouth.
This wasnt supposed to be how things ended!
And all went blank.
