Terry Clark grew up surrounded by his parent’s life’s work, the rescue and rehabilitation of cetaceans. Born just after first contact with the Galactic Union, he’s never known a time when aliens weren’t visiting Earth. At 10 years old, he had a normal life, until a visit from one of the aliens resulted in a ground-breaking discovery. The cetaceans have a developed and complex language…and it can be deciphered by the aliens’ translators. When Terry’s father begins using alien implant technology to test the boundaries of the cetaceans’ language and society, though, he goes too far, and the fledgling world government becomes involved. Without warning, the scientists are labeled as criminals, and the cetaceans are scheduled for termination. In order to save the cetaceans, the researchers have to flee off-world with them. In the Lupasha star system, Terry tries to begin a new life. While the world is ideal for the cetaceans, it’s difficult for their Human wardens. Even worse, the planet’s previous owners now want it back. As they don’t mind killing all the Humans in the process, Terry is trapped in a life or death struggle, which leads to a discovery that could change the course of humanity’s role in the galaxy. Welcome to the “Frontiers” series, the first young adult collection set in the wildly popular Four Horsemen Universe.

Sometimes, education is mercenary. Sixteen-year-old Colt Maier is enrolled at a prestigious mercenary training school aboard a converted space freighter. At least, Colt thinks it’s prestigious, until a bounty hunter hired by the Merchant Guild arrests the school’s faculty, leaving Colt and his fellow cadets in deep debt to a loan company. Facing the specter of indentured servitude should they fail to pay what they owe, Colt and his friends transform their former school into a legitimate mercenary company. Given one year to pay off their debt by the company’s smarmy loan officer, they take on as many contracts as possible, learning on the job how to secure their freedom. Unfortunately for Colt and his fellow young mercs, the loan company has no intention of letting them succeed, and it’s far more profitable for them to sabotage Colt’s efforts while collecting a year’s worth of payments…and then enslave the students, anyway. But there is more going on than a simple matter of indentured servitude, and as Colt tries to discover who has been foiling their efforts to earn their freedom, he uncovers a much bigger plot—one whose stakes might cost everyone in the school their lives just for knowing the secret.

Bjorn’s Berserkers was a respected and flourishing mercenary company. Founded by Bjorn Tovesson I, it was now commanded by his son, Bjorn Tovesson II. Commander Tovesson wanted nothing more than to eventually pass on the Berserkers to his son, Bjorn Tovesson III. But young Bjorn had a different destiny in mind. He didn’t want a future of fighting aliens and risking death on some distant planet. As a high school student, Bjorn had everything he could hope for—he was the star quarterback, he had a beautiful cheerleader girlfriend, he was surrounded by loyal friends, and top colleges were courting him. Despite his father’s protests and refusal to help Bjorn reach his dream, Bjorn had a future free of the death and loss inherent to mercenary life. One fateful afternoon in the Alaska wilderness changed everything, though, when a bear attack left Bjorn maimed. Bjorn’s dreams were shattered, and his life crumbled around him. Can he pick up the pieces and find a new way forward, while still trying to avoid the life of a merc? When his destiny comes calling, will Bjorn continue trying to escape it, or will he learn to embrace it?

Five years ago, a group of human researchers and their mercenary friends helped evacuate 26 cetaceans from Earth just ahead of their arrest. The world government didn’t approve of their giving the cetaceans pinplants, and it wanted to euthanize the dolphins and orcas in their care. After finding a home on the distant ice-covered ocean world of Hoarfrost, the humans and cetaceans settled in. Less than a year later, they were attacked when the planet’s previous owners, the aquatic Selroth, tried to regain possession of it. During the battle, Terry Clark was responsible for inadvertently uplifting the cetaceans, who then came to the aid of the Humans and helped defeat the Selroth. The BotSha and KilSha, as they are now known, have lived a quiet life on Hoarfrost for the last four years, learning what it means to be an intelligent species, while Terry has learned the life of a mercenary. But when they’re forced to give up Hoarfrost, Terry and his mercenary company will have to determine where they’re going to go and how they’re going to get the massive cetaceans to their new home. Unfortunately for them, they aren’t being forced to leave the planet so much as they’re being targeted for elimination. Ancient, infinitely wise, and powerful forces have discovered them, and they are out for blood.