Out There Series

When Sami, Alejandro and Brian rematerialize in Paradise, Arizona...no one is there. The worsening planet-wide water shortages have forced everyone to pack themselves into the major cities. The three friends trek across the desert to Phoenix to find Sami's mother, to search for Brian’s parents, and to warn the world that the TakTi are coming. It’s hell in Phoenix. Worse, they soon discover that KetaNim is already there. He is helping the demagogue, Todd Rover, become president of the United States and, so, pave the way to TakTi colonization. To make matters worse, SimSimKeta and her forces are arriving near the planet Jupiter. And SimSim is holding Sami’s father as a hostage to prevent her from meddling. Sami, Alejandro, Brian and their new friends (a gang of kids living in an abandoned underground station they call "Timbuktu") must do something about all of this. And they have only hours in which to do it. It will take everything Sami has learned from her experiences with the Adonae, the TakTi, and the Svaash to free Brian’s parents, to save her father, and maybe, just maybe, stop a global catastrophe.

Sami has helped her alien friend, Brian, and her human nemesis, Alejandro, to escape Earth. But she is not someone who likes to be left behind. Soon she, too, is on Adonae, a world of oceans and volcanic islands, and of staggering technological marvels. Sami soon discovers that on Adonae she and Alejandro are the aliens. Oh, and the planet also has a real problem with pirates. But the greatest danger to Sami and Alejandro is KetaNim, the ruthless ambassador of another alien race, the TakTi. He claims that the kids from Earth are dangerous and must be executed. While the ambassador conspires to take their heads, Sami and Alejandro get busy learning from the Adonae. Sami becomes a “scombro,” a reader of people; Alejandro a “quick eye,” a martial artist of the rope. They will need their new skills and growing friendship to keep KetaNim, and his vicious assistant, KetaGar, and the Adonae pirates from having their heads after all.

After the narrowest of escapes from Adonae, Sami and Alejandro land on TiWat, the home planet of their relentless enemy, KetaNim. TiWat is a bizarre and danger-filled world of forests and rivers. From the moment they arrive, Sami and Alejandro are running for their lives from the cruel ruler of the Southern TakTi, SimSimKeta. Keeping a half step ahead of fanged creatures, carnivorous plants, and dart-wielding warring clans, the two friends eventually hide out in yet another world, this one buried deep inside the mountains of TiWat. In this strange world of endless caverns they discover the odd and beautiful society of the Svaash... and Sami’s father. He is alive, but apparently brain dead. Her father is the key to SimSimKeta's secret, that the TakTi have stolen the technology of the Adonae and intend to invade Earth. Sami and Alejandro must escape TiWat. And not only to save themselves and Sami’s father. Now they must also warn humanity that SimSimKeta and the TakTi will soon be on their way to colonize Earth.

Sami Lightfoot is not so thrilled about her life in Paradise, Arizona. To begin with, there is the sixth grade, which is, well, school. Then there is the fact that the world is running out of fresh water, making everything drab, difficult, and scary. Worst of all is that her astrophysicist father has disappeared. Without a trace. So now it’s just Sami and her over-worked mother, and a big hole in her humdrum world. Then an alien boy named Brian—one of fifty-seven refugees from the (supposedly) doomed planet of Adonae—is plopped down in the seat beside her at school. And everything changes. Brian may be an alien, but he is soon the only friend Sami’s got. When the fear-mongering business tycoon, Todd Rover, blames the country’s problems on the aliens, the government orders them rounded up. But Sami and her frenemy, Alejandro, are definitely not going to let that happen to Brian. They spirit him away. But that is not enough, of course. They need to get him back to the safety of his home planet. Outsmarting police, parents, and a relentless and dangerous goon named Mr. Sombra, is one thing. But finding a way to transport Brian back to his home planet is something else. A big something else. All of this would be quite enough adventure for anyone. But, as it turns out, it is only the beginning for Sami.