Mother Heart — John Schettler

Mother HeartBook II in the Dharman Series TrilogyBy John SchettlerEnsign Lydia Gates is perhaps the most important Human being alive, yet she is lost, missing in the menagerie of strange evolving life on Dharma VI. Ryan, Caruso and CLEM return to the planet's surface to begin the search for Gates, but she has already been discovered by another survivor from the original research team, Dr. Elena Chandros. Together they commune with a vast entity buried deep beneath the surface of the planet - Mother Heart. The mystery deepens when CLEM secures a sample of the Colony Virus in his containment chamber, and discovers a strange alien consciousness vying for control of his own system! The effort to save the last survivors of the Dharma Colony is further complicated by the arrival of AFA Director Simonsen, a sinister bureaucrat with an agenda of his own. Ryan soon learns that the AFA has made a decision about the crisis on Dharma VI that will have far reaching consequences.