Dreams Defiled

The second book of the First Contact trilogy is a multiple dystopian tragedy that is set in a future Earth Corporate Federation and on a more independent Mars. Five people have made their first contact with aliens, and received a message they did not want to hear. The story is of personal sacrifice, the characters' rise and subsequent fall, economics, settling on a new and unforgiving planet, the problem of very powerful aliens, the quest for power, the improper use of power, of greed, and of pointless ambition in a dystopian future.