The air felt electrified, making the tips of Isabelle’s fingers tingle. Bright sparks from Elmever’s hand illuminated the room, then an invisible wave hit the agents square in the chest, one after another. They collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

Eerie silence was straining Gavin’s nerves threadbare thin. In movies, there always was heroic music, then sounds of engines revving and gunfire. But stuck as he was in his cargo ship, witnessing the scene from afar, Gavin felt like someone filled his ears with wax. A flash of light bloomed across his vision, then the golden ship shuddered in the evident aftermath of being hit.

Fresh snow crunched underfoot as Zoey Norwood ran down empty streets of the small mining town of Kennecott, Alaska. Renovated to their snapshot-of-the-past glossiness, dark-red wooden houses stood watchful and quiet like sentinels. At nine in the morning, no one had braved the cold yet, and brand-new shops weren’t open, glaring at Zoey with their dark windows.

This drawing has been created by the Dana Derville creative team as potential cover art project for the sci-fi novel GRAY EARTH.