I’m diligently working away at the first book in my fantasy series.  While the story I am writing is uniquely mine; all the books I’ve read before have influenced my ideas. The books I loved showed me what to aspire to, but the ones that left me less than satisfied showed me things too.  This post though is about the first book I ever read, and the influence of its author on me, A Spell for Chameleon, by Piers Anthony.

  I was twelve years old, in the sixth grade at West Millbrook Junior High School, in Raleigh, N.C.  My father had tried, without success, to get me to read anything besides the comic books I loved so much.  He had a small library at home that I had full, if unappreciated, access to, and literally no desire to explore.

  One day I picked up a different Piers Anthony book that seemed to have an interesting cover.  When I asked my father about it, he said it was a great book, but it was part of a series.  If I wanted to read that one I should really start at the beginning.  I hadn’t even known books came in a series like that.  The cover for Spell for Chameleon was almost as interesting anyway.

  I started reading.  It was not as easy to turn the pages in a print book as in an issue of Spiderman fighting the Hobgoblin, but once I started reading, I couldn’t stop.  It took me almost a month to read that first book, and I learned a lot more than just what was in the pages.  I like to think I had a good vocabulary and reading comprehension, but I still had to look up some words, and research what other things meant.

  I read the book in the early ’80s, so there was no Google, Alexa or Siri to answer questions on demand.  That meant a dictionary, encyclopedias at school and the most dreaded source for information, my dad.  He knew I was reading at least, and that made him happy.  I wasn’t thrilled that he had been even remotely right, but I digress.

  The next book took about three weeks to read — the one after that took about two weeks.  By the time I neared the end of the series (up to that point) I was able to read a paperback novel in about a week.  I am slightly dyslexic (more with numbers than words), but there were few tests for it when I was young, and no practical treatments existed for me.

  The important take away was that I could read.  I and started to learn.  Not the lessons from school, but a whole body of knowledge beyond the sugar cube castle projects and wrote arithmetic I hated.  I learned about places I’d never heard of, people I wouldn’t read about in school for years to come, and adventures that made Luke and Han seem tepid in comparison.

  It also set me on the path to writing, one that I have found my way back to after years of neglect.  I feel like crafting a good story and sharing it with others is living my best life.  I couldn’t have done that without joy reading those first books gave me.

  I had the author of those first books to thank for that.  He has continued to write that series along with others, some I enjoyed some I did not.  If you have never read any of the Xanth or Apprentice Adept series, I highly recommend them both.

  Perhaps I was bound to read something I liked eventually and go on to read the hundreds of titles I’ve devoured since then. If I had not enjoyed that first book, or had half a dozen more to read in the series while I found other authors to experience, I might not have become the reader or writer I am today.   For that reason alone, I owe a great debt to Mr. Anthony.  Of course, I also owe Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, Frank Herbert, and Harry Turtledove thanks.  None of them got me started on this path though.  When I’m published (whenever that may be) it will be because of those who showed me the infinite possibilities books represent.  Perhaps I will not be a great light for humanity, but at least I will be a true follower of my chosen path.

I am still kind of new at writing and self-publishing (especially self-publishing). I have stories on Amazon and a nifty website to publish articles like this, but there are still lots of things I have yet to learn to do.  One thing I am not new at though is world-building.  I am a thirty year plus veteran at bringing the backstory to life.

It began when I was thirteen years old, with an old briefcase typewriter that I still keep in my garage.  The typewriter was only half of the process for me even then; I had to draw maps of my new worlds.  My first story and the accompanying map was about the kingdom of Azroth (Only coincidentally similar to Azeroth of World of Warcraft fame that came to the gaming community some twenty years later).  I still remember how difficult fighting with the correction ribbon on that typewriter was, and how proud I was of the single-spaced unevenly inked page and a half I wrestled out of it.

After several other abortive world-building efforts, I came upon a game that helped propel my efforts for years to come.  In a surprise twist, it wasn’t Dungeons & Dragons.  I’d had a couple of poor gaming experiences with AD&D by then, and wanted something else.  Although role-playing games were not exactly new by then, I had no idea of how many choices I would face.

I already devoured Marvel comic books by then, so ‘Advanced Marvel Super Heroes the Game’ fit me perfectly.  With that system and the Book of Ultimate Powers, I made hundreds of characters, fictitious locations and even brand new worlds for their adventures.  I pushed MSH as far as I could by the time I got to high school.  However, to this day, I have never played a single Marvel Super Heroes game.

Although I didn’t know it yet, I had bigger ambitions.  The seeds of the stories for my Renegade Galaxy series came from MSH but took almost a decade to sprout.  In the meantime, I got married.  After our honeymoon, I created the fantasy world of Atan, more extensive and realistic than Arda from Lord of the Rings.  best of all, it was all mine.  It still sleeps in the dozen or so notebooks and maps I never finished.

Still, I fixated on the idea of writing a game from those science-fiction ideas I had in high school.  Despite my efforts at learning to program, I never wrote a single piece of code for a game.  Instead, I wavered between new fantasy worlds and fleshing out the locations for my would-be sci-fi game settings.

Life has a way of interfering with unfinished things; at least it does for me.  I had a ten year enlistment in the Navy to get through, a marriage and divorce to see through, work of one kind or another, lots of failed relationships, the birth of my son, buying and keeping my first house, more health problems than I thought I might survive and a second marriage to concentrate on.  Writing or creativity, in general, took a back seat to all of that for a long time.

I managed a bar for a few years in the little Iowa town I call home.  I only spent a few hours a week there, but as anyone who has run a business can attest, it consumed more than those few hours.  Only when the bar unexpectedly closed was I able to focus on a new story I had just begun, about the Return of Magic to the real world.

That work in progress is still my main focus today, but I have taken a break from it once in a while to work on the original sci-fi series I began in high school, Renegade Galaxy.  I did not know it was a series of short stories and novels then, but I have seen the width of material I cobbled together over the years and have outlined a few dozen interwoven stories for that version of Humanity’s future.

Therein lies my problem though.  I am incredible at setting up a vivid world for my characters, full of wonders and mysteries to explore. I can show the world through their eyes, think their thoughts, speak in their voices, but for what?  I have spent so much time and effort building those worlds that I struggle to give meaning to the trials and tribulations I inflict upon the characters I created.

My only solace is improvement.  I am getting better.  One of the greatest joys for me as an author is learning to tell my stories better.  I love applying lessons from Ben Bova, Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, or Stephen King to hone my craft and give new meaning to the intricately detailed worlds I have built over the past thirty some years.

I suspect some of you reading this can relate to some or all of this.

Feasible Missions – Part Four

Lunar vs Martian Colonies

  In this final installment of the “Feasible Missions” series, we’ll compare and contrast the two most plausible colony options currently available to our species.  The Lunar colony models and the push for a sustainable Martian colony are both regularly in the news.  Which one is better for us, or for the space programs talked about in earlier articles?

The answer to that depends in part, on the space program asking the question.  First, as we’ve discussed before, the moon is closer to home and that is a big plus.  Mars may ultimately prove to have more resources, but it is much farther from Earth.  For either of the colonies to be successful, we need more than resources and overcoming distance.

For robust national space programs, like NASA, the European Space Agency or the Russian successors to the Soviet space program, the answers may be very different from SpaceX, Bigelow Aerospace or the fledgling efforts of asteroid mining companies like Planetary Resources.  A program with thousands of employees, multiple work sites on Earth and annual budgets worth billions of dollars will have a different approach.  Smaller and necessarily more targeted programs will have to compete with the larger well-established programs on every level.

That brings us to an idea I have touched on before.  One single approach to colonization is not necessarily in the best interests of our species survival.  Several attempts in more than one direction are intuitively better for our chances of survival than putting all our proverbial eggs in one basket.  Although beyond the scope of this article, Lunar, Martian, Asteroid Belt and a variety of proposed orbital stations should be developed either in concert or as stand-alone projects.

The main concern in all of our would-be colonies is sustainability.  Humans have a hard enough time sustaining life on Earth, let alone in the vacuum of space, where the entire environment is out to kill living things.  The means to achieve a sustainable presence beyond low Earth orbit is twofold.  We need technologies that do not yet exist, and a pioneering social approach to colonization not seen on Earth since the mid-nineteenth century.

The technologies are solutions to problems we have talked about in previous articles.  We need construction processes, viable environmental systems, radiation shielding, power supply systems, communications systems, and agricultural solutions that we have yet to make substantial progress towards.  A lack in any of these primary infrastructure technologies will significantly impact life expectancy and quality of life.

The other component, a pioneering mentality, is no less important.  Far from the comforts of civilization, colonists will have to rely on one another to face the perils of their new home, regardless of which colony is attempted.  Far from the often romanticized wild west of American history, colonies in space will require detailed social planning and harmony to survive.

I propose, rather than focusing our efforts on a Mars versus Moon contest, we instead look at an integrated approach for three specific feasible objectives.  Our first priority should be the once proposed Deep Space Gateway renamed LOP-G (Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway) by the current NASA administration as a point to marshal resources for any further expansion.  From the gateway station, we can send other missions to Mars, the moon, and further into the solar system.

Coincidentally, this is the current exploration plan favored by most national space programs to date.  The 14 member International Space Exploration Coordination Group which includes NASA, ESA, JAXA (the Japanese space program), CSA (the Canadian space program), and the Russian Roscosmos.  This station, the successor to the International Space Station will be a testbed for emerging technologies needed for further human exploration of our solar system.

 

In part one and two of this series we looked at what space missions current human technology could undertake right now, and then focused on what options Earth’s moon might provide.  So far, we have established that there are still technical challenges to overcome, but the prospect of lunar colonization has been within reach since the days of the Apollo missions.  In this part of the article, we will focus on Martian colonization options and the challenges they present.

Visiting and eventually staying on Mars has been a goal of manned spaceflight since the dawn of the space age.  Werner von Braun believed a human exploration of Mars was essential to the American space program.  Other plans to explore or colonize Mars still use many of the basic concepts from his proposed mission.

Missions to Mars do not always end as mission planners might like, lost spacecraft, landers, and rovers are more common than operational machines.  Missions from the European space agency, India, Japan, China, and Russia, have joined earlier missions by the Soviet and NASA space programs, with varying degrees of success.  The emerging private space sector also has plans for Mars missions, with SpaceX planning a permanent Mars base sometime in the 2020’s.

The first challenge Mars presents is the distance of the aptly named red planet from Earth.  The Moon is much closer and we have sent people there and back already.  Mars does not share that history.  We have sent probes and robots to Mars, even proposed a sample return mission, but we have never sent real live human beings there.

The distance is a challenge for several reasons, among them: exposure time, communications lag and self-reliance.  While all of these challenges are obvious, the impact of the inability to have real-time communication may not be.  The mission will be increasingly out of sync with mission controllers on Earth, and subsequently slower to respond to changes in mission objectives due to unforeseen circumstances.

Space travelers will also be entirely reliant on one another and whatever supplies they take with them.  While eventual resupply might be possible over the course of a long-term mission, immediate response to losses in transit or on the surface of Mars will be impossible.  The colonists will have to improvise with what they have on hand.

Most proposed human spaceflight missions to Mars expect a travel time of about nine months to and from the red planet.  This flight time introduces the next challenge to colonizing Mars, in the form of radiation exposure.  Energetic particles and ionizing radiation continually bombard Mars and the space between there and the Earth just like the Moon.  Technologies to minimize exposure during transit and while on the surface of Mars must be developed beyond our current ability for colonization.

Mars is only about a third the size of Earth and has about a third of the gravity we are used to.  The long-term effects of low gravity and weightlessness are another challenge to colonization.  A number of medical conditions could develop for colonists, and there are currently no means to combat these conditions.

Medical care in transit or on Mars is also a challenge.  Humans are prone to illness and injury, and our bodies have evolved healing strategies that work well with Earth’s gravity, air pressure, and atmospheric makeup.  Effectively treating inevitable disease or damage will require us to develop ways to recreate those conditions, especially if surgery is necessary.

Building the colony structures on Mars presents similar challenges to building on the Moon.  Underground structures versus above ground structures, radiation shielding, energy production, life support and all the requirements for a sustainable human presence are the same.  Only the greater distance or Mars from Earth multiplies the cost, the time required and the possibility of loss.

In the final part of this article, we will compare and contrast a Lunar versus Martian colony.  Which one is most advantageous for a continued human presence in space and for the continuation of our species?  Those answers and a modest proposal from the author will sum up “Feasible Missions – Part Four”.

 

In the first part of this series, we briefly investigated the current obstacles to space exploration.  Now we will turn our attention once again to what we can do.  We have already demonstrated our ability to go to and return from the Moon, as well as deploy robotic missions to Mars.  To colonize the Moon or Mars, we will have to do much more than that, but the technology to go there and return already exists.

From the earliest days of the space race after World War Two, the Soviet space program and their American counterparts at NASA have planned and proposed permanent outposts throughout our solar system.  Most of those plans are beyond the scope of this article, but there are a few worth looking at.  A permanent base on the Moon appeared to be the next logical step in the American space program since the Apollo missions demonstrated our ability to put astronauts on the moon and bring them home.

The Soviet space program felt the same way and devised a plan to build just such a base years before their counterparts at NASA could beat them to it.  Known in declassified documents as the Zvezda Moonbase, the Soviets intended to use the installation first as a military command post then expanded the concept for future development of their unrealized Lunar Expeditionary Complex.  The goal overall was to create a sustainable human presence on the Moon before anyone else could, this was all part of the canceled N1-L3 lunar program overshadowed by the success of the American Apollo Program.

NASA also seriously studied building lunar outposts from the Project Horizon proposal to build a US Army fort in 1959, through the similar US Air Force Project Lunex in 1961, to a sub-surface base proposed in 1962 in the Sea of Tranquility.  None of those proposals went very far, and with the cancellation of Soviet lunar exploration plans, the urgency to build an outpost on the moon waned quickly.

New interest in lunar exploration and settlement has come about slowly but surely as more national space programs and commercial interests have developed around the world.  Robotic missions and new proposals from China, India, SpaceX, and Space Adventures has spurred a reevaluation of colonization of the Moon.  Even the European Space Agency has been studying where to place permanent outposts for decades.

All of these proposals take the good with the bad when it comes to outposts on the Moon.  On the one hand, the Moon is close to Earth, and we have over fifty years’ experience visiting, orbiting and returning from the Moon.  On the other hand, as one of my favorite books about colonizing the Moon warns, “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.”  The Moon has long day and night cycles, temperature changes go from about -178 degrees Celsius to over 126 degrees Celsius between day and night, gravity there is about one-sixth of what we are used to on Earth, and the surface is awash in abrasive moon dust while it is constantly bombarded by radiation and micrometeoroids.

Most modern proposals for a colony (or colonies) on the Moon advocate for some kind of underground construction, either by covering the colony in lunar regolith (dust, soil, broken rock, and other materials) or finding and building in undiscovered lava tubes left over from long-dormant volcanic activity.  These methods provide increased protection from radiation, micrometeoroids and air leaks from the colony.  The tradeoff here is in increased construction complexity and potential difficulty in later expansion.

The alternative proposals are a variety of prefabricated surface modules, locally sourced modules constructed in-situ or a mixture of the two.  Any surface structures would still require increased shielding from radiation, micrometeoroid impacts, and temperature extremes.  Both the underground and surface options still have to contend with energy requirements through either solar or nuclear power or a blend of both.

In part three of this article, we will look at Martian colony options.

I believe like many others, that if humanity is to survive, let alone flourish, we need to expand beyond our home world.  We need to push beyond Earth’s orbit, to develop the technologies to live there and embrace the incentives to reach for the stars.  We have taken some steps along that path, but there is much more to do.

With what we can already do in mind, what are some feasible objectives for our current space programs?  Governments and private groups regularly send robotic probes and satellites into space.  We also have the international space station in orbit with dozens of supply and personnel missions to keep it flying.

What we do not have is a human effort beyond the safety of Earth’s orbit.  There are practical reasons for that, but we must overcome these obstacles if we are going to become a spacefaring civilization.  In the United States, the technical challenges have kept safety minded NASA from planning such missions.

The first two problems we face are radiation and impact damage.  Earth’s magnetic field and its Van Allen radiation belts provide protection to human spacecraft from all but the strongest radiation and larger space debris.  Beyond that envelope of protection, space is an unforgiving environment.

Radiation is everywhere in our solar system.  From the constant stream of the Sun’s solar wind, to bursts of x-rays, gamma rays and exotic particles flung in our direction from distant sources, there is no shortage of sources of exposure for spacecraft and their inhabitants.  The technical problem we face is how to mitigate the effects of that exposure over the course of the months or years a mission might take to complete.

Impact dangers are also a major concern for space travel.  Even a tiny particle, traveling at great speed can do significant damage to a spacecraft and the often-sensitive instruments onboard.  There are a few more ideas about impact mitigation than radiation, but the cost of producing such protection and sending enough of it into space to be effective has presented challenges too.

Beyond Earth’s protection, there are two real candidates for human habitation, Mars and the Moon.  Humans have already been to the Moon and back, but so far, we have only sent robotic missions to Mars.  For us to colonize either there are still many technical obstacles to overcome.

In order for us to live in any semblance of comfort, we need at the bare minimum:  Sustainable habitats, life support, food, and water.  For us to thrive on a new world we must do more than the bare minimum.  Historically, a few hardy pioneers often blaze a trail for the rest of us to follow.

Habitats have to provide protection from both radiation and impact damage, as well as extremes in temperature and very low or no outside atmospheric pressure.  Habitats are more than just shelter though; they also provide a place to work, to grow food, and to raise families.

Life support has to cover not only the immediate needs of air, food and water, but also the long-term needs for health and well-being.  While we cannot plan for every contingency, there are some things people will need.  Colonists will need health care, some of them from the cradle to the grave, without ever setting foot on mother Earth.

Growing food and recycling available water will be even more important to colonists than to those of us on Earth.  In addition to plants that exchange Co2 for oxygen, livestock for food and locally sourced medicines will be essential for long-term population growth.  Also, while there may be ice deposits throughout the solar system, recycling water that is already inside a colony is far easier than harvesting and processing more.

Part two of this article will examine the two most likely destinations for the first human colonies, The Moon and Mars.  We will also look at the proposed, “Deep Space Gateway Station” and what other infrastructure might be necessary to keep those colonies growing until they are self-sufficient.  The future of humans in space is still largely unwritten, but we can guess at a few trends if we continue down the path ahead.

If colonizing space is the inevitable future of humanity, the vision of that future is still taking shape.  So far, we have seen three evolving versions of Humankind in space in real life.  First, we saw a military style space race between the Soviet Union and the United States of America.  Then, the United States followed with a civilian space agency in reply.  Today, we also have a growing number of private space companies competing for access to what has always been the purview of nation-states.

Each of these versions of humans in space can achieve the goal of colonization, but each is also inherently different in the details of that effort and how best to achieve it.   Military, civilian or corporate, ah that is the question.  Which, if any is best for our species?  Perhaps the answer lies in how each approaches its goal.

The military option squarely focuses on command and control.  Every sensor, craft, pilot and passenger has a well-defined purpose, position and function.  Any deviation from the plan is cause for concern and a response proportionate to the danger posed by the deviation.  If the need arises, a dispassionate response can and will be executed as quickly as possible.  Emphasis on executed.

A civilian option, the kind the United States embraced for the last sixty years, mitigates the emphasis on control with an institutionalized emphasis on safety.  Redundant systems to prevent critical failures, payload protection to safeguard equipment, and above all else, crew safety is the focus of NASA and agencies like it around the world.  The main drawbacks of this approach are overly cautious designs, missions, astronauts and the changing leadership of the government that supports the agency.

With private companies taking a greater role in government space operations around the world, the third option open to our species is still in its infancy.  SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Bigelow Aerospace, and Virgin Galactic, are only a few of the notable corporations aspiring to a greater presence in human space flight.  These companies have specific goals and react quickly to emerging technologies to help them achieve those goals.  Their main obstacle so far has been the enormous amount of funding required for sustained profitable operations.

So then, we have distilled the three versions of military space operations, civilian government space agencies and private space companies into their core principles of control, safety and profit.  Which of these is best for the future of humanity in space?  Each has strengths in comparison to the others, but no single approach seems any better overall to advancing our species along the path to a multi-planet civilization.

Perhaps, and this is entirely from my personal experience having served in the military, experienced the bureaucracy of civilian government agencies, and having run a business, all three have a place in our future.  Each will continue to evolve as we develop the technology, infrastructure and the capability to explore and live beyond Earth’s atmosphere.  What that future looks like will likely be a blend of all three approaches and perhaps something else entirely that we can scarcely imagine today.

The future of our species, if we have one at all, will be beyond the pale blue sky we see every day.  To make that possibility a reality, there is much work, research, and development ahead.  Those who seize the chance to do that work now will prosper in ways we can only begin to imagine.

Survival – Man-made or natural disasters still threaten our existence.  A large stray space rock, a shaky finger on a nuclear arsenal, or any number of cataclysmic events could doom our species to extinction.  Colonizing other worlds would allow us to escape that fate.

Expansion – One of our basic human impulses is to expand.  We have expanded about as far as we can on Earth, the only ways to continue expanding is down into the crust or out into space.  The challenge of moving out into the vastness of space is in part, its own reward.  Conquering that challenge will also provide tangible benefits to everyone on Earth.

Resources – Our resources on Earth are finite, our planet only contains so many chemical, mineral and biological resources.  When those resources are exhausted, the civilization they support will inevitably collapse.  We can only expect sustainable growth by tapping the infinite resources space has to offer.  Two American based companies, Planetary Resources, and Deep Space Industries are leading a growing field of international private companies who are already tackling the technical and legal aspects of mining asteroids and near-Earth objects.

Research and Development – To achieve any lasting presence in space we need better ways to do things.  We must address practical techniques for resource extraction, reliable communications over longer distances than ever before, command and control functions, crew safety and environmental controls.  We must find solutions to all this and more before large-scale industrial applications can become a reality.

Technology – The space race spurred a new age of technological growth, far beyond the direct applications developed for space travel.  More research into longer duration space travel will do the same today.  Pushing the boundaries of existing and emerging technologies will have benefits on Earth that we can scarcely imagine right now.

Colonization – Humans face a number of challenges in colonizing Mars or the moon.  Radiation shielding, low or zero gravity and sustainable habitation are all technical hurdles we need to overcome to settle anywhere beyond our home world.

Exploration – Some of the greatest moments in human history embraced exploration of the unknown.  Sailing to the New World, circumnavigating the globe, or boldly going where no one has gone before have thrilled our species for millennia.  Losing that sense of discovery diminishes us as a people.

Economics – The practical implications of harvesting materials from space to improve conditions on Earth, or sustain a new habitat on another world are no small consideration.  Precious metals, unrefined construction materials and the raw materials for life are all abundantly available and almost within reach right here in our solar system.  The people who find a way to bring those materials to market will change the future of our species forever.

The future is now – read, research, and spread the word!

Get your copy before the hourglass runs out!  Escaping Utopia makes more sense if you read them both, but either one is a good short read…

Watch my new book trailer on Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxBHfGC5dr8&feature=youtu.be

Escaping Utopia is available for Pre-order on Amazon!  The next part of the Renegade Galaxy series goes live on July 8th!!!  If you haven’t read the first part yet, Renegades of Orion will be free as an introduction to the series on July 8th as well!

Enjoy this Renegade Galaxy video I am working on in the link below…

https://www.powtoon.com/embed/gd0q58LjNe9/

Greetings fellow Human Citizens!  During this unprecedented era of peace and prosperity throughout our many thriving worlds and far-flung outposts, the shining jewel of Humanity pushes ever farther into outer space.  As our valiant space fleet and unstoppable armies push the dark brood of insectoid monsters of Vrax away from their colony world of Thelna, a wide vista of opportunities has opened for loyal citizens who want to explore the Greater Milky Way!

Humanity has known for many years that we are not alone in our galaxy, but in an effort to alleviate the fear many of our citizens feel about alien civilizations, the newly created Office of Space Tourism has developed this official Human League Guide to Alien Species.  We have included all the information at our disposal both from official League sources and with direct cooperation from the United Nations Space Exploration Agency’s Caravel deep space expeditions.  This guide also includes assessments of known hostile aliens, specifically our nearest neighbors, the xenophobic and aggressive Vraxian Swarms.

 

K’tohan Imperium – A reptilian feudal society. They appear to be the second civilization to achieve interstellar space-faring status. The K’tohans reproduce rapidly and have the largest number of colony worlds along with the most powerful space fleet in the Milky Way.  Their technology is some of the most advanced in the galaxy and they have a well-established military hierarchy.  While we have never directly met representatives of the Imperium, we have learned they are notoriously territorial and tend to shoot first and ask questions of the wreckage.

 

Urshurn V’laam Theocracy – These mammalian creatures, roughly analogous to human-sized mongooses, live in a devoutly religious society that has recently declared their intent to convert the entire galaxy.  Their whole civilization revolves around devotion to the sacred flames of their temples, through which they and their priestly rulers commune with their ancestors in the afterlife.

Despite their reverence for tradition and spirituality, they also have many practical technologies and have been an interstellar civilization for almost as long as the K’tohans.  The legends of the Urshurn V’laam precede them, as their technologically adept ancestors sent various forms of their religious texts into space in hopes of converting civilizations ignorant of their spiritual truths.  Their worship is rich in ritual and symbolism, and they have both a supreme religious text and a supreme religious leader.

The copies of the text Humankind have decoded is called “The A’te Duhm, The Book of Holy Flames.”  It recounts the history of a distinct tribe of their people blessed above all others, who received “The flame that cleanses without burning.”  This tribe and their new leader, the prophet Resara, united the many kindreds of their people against a dreaded enemy, the serpentine Or’ferimar (Savage Serpents).

 

Vraxian Hives – The menacing giant insectoid swarms of nightmare.  They are xenophobic, the Vraxai do not communicate, trade with or tolerate the presence of other space-faring civilizations in what they consider their territory.  They are largely dependent on biomechanical technologies that are roughly analogous to other civilizations.

Our knowledge of the Vraxai is, unfortunately, more intimate than any other civilization, as we have been at war with these fiends since their surprise attack and complete destruction of the poorly defended Free Chinese colony world of Paradise.  The giant insects of the swarm have been our sworn enemies since before the Shackleton Crater Treaty founded the Human League.  We created this guide due to the Human League’s recent overwhelming victory over the murderous insects at Thelna.

 

  Vasbaph*Klarn Consortium – An avian mercantile society, they are traders found throughout the galaxy.  Much like the Human race, scarce resources on their homeworld forced the Klarn to reach out to the stars.  Their love of flight and business-oriented culture flourished as they wandered further into the galaxy.  Klarn trade delegations are found all over the Milky Way.  These charming bird-like creatures have even visited the Human worlds of Utopia and El Dorado.

 

  Chelicar Protectorate – Our nearest galactic neighbors after the monstrous Vraxai, they are a partially cybernetic arachnoid civilization.  The Chelicar are connected to one another in a series of planet-wide networked democracies they collectively call, The Protectorate.  Although they were once fierce, cannibalistic predators, they are now peaceful scientists, engineers, and artists who have given up natural procreation and tied themselves together with an artificial neural network to work and act in concert.

 

  Vermos Magistratum – The grey skinned, oval headed and black-eyed Vermosites may be the inspiration for many legends of alien contact throughout the Milky Way.  Traders from the Klarn Consortium, as well as diplomatic messages received from the Chelicar Protectorate,  indicate the Vermosites have visited those civilizations in one way or another.  The Human League has yet to establish direct diplomatic relations with the Magistratum, but we advise travelers to proceed with caution when encountering the diminutive aliens.

Klarn sources indicate they govern a strict police state operating under their “Code of Social Policy.”  The Vermosites are inquisitive and playful creatures who may even have visited Earth many years ago.  They are natural telepaths, possess many advanced technologies and have at least as many colony worlds as the Human League.

 

  Daegon Dominion – The Daegon rule the longest uninterrupted society to develop in our galaxy. Under the benevolent rule of hereditary Emperor Miralon Mordathun, the Daegon are a stable and cohesive society.  Their people have long life spans but are slow to reproduce.

The Daegon Dominion is the most obscure civilization in the galaxy.  Their people are found throughout the Milky Way on private quests and individual explorations.  They were the first species to achieve interstellar status and the first contacted by the cyborg Hands of Infinity.  The Daegon are a mystical people, absorbed in some quasi-religious movement called Enir, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of all living things.

The Daegon are rumored to be able to change their physical appearance in some way not understood by other civilizations.  Their military consists of a volunteer militia, which is mostly an infantry force, and the Order of Astral Knights, a long-venerated monastic society of warrior-clerics.

The Daegon are the galactic leaders in artificial intelligence and are so far, the only civilization to grant citizenship to artificial intelligences that achieve sentience.  Artificial constructs, robotic assistants, drones, and androids are commonplace among the Daegon.  Their almost symbiotic relationship with artificial intelligence allows them to remain competitive with other civilizations despite their slow reproductive rate.

 

  Oroal Polity – A highly organized society of several distinct varieties of sentient rodents.  They are the newest civilization to achieve interstellar status according to the Hands of Infinity.  Their technologies are mostly primitive, but they are an industrious civilization.  The Polity strives to grow more capable all the time.

Their location within the Milky Way is between the aggressive K’tohan Imperium and the recently aggressive Urshurn V’laam Theocracy.  Either civilization could overpower the less advanced Oroal if they chose to do so.  The Polity is well aware of this and is constantly trying to improve their space fleet, defensive structures, and technologies.

 

Hands of Infinity – A cyborg society unlike any other civilization in the Milky Way, made up of specimens from every known sentient species.  Most of the little we know of the cyborgs comes from our first contact with them in orbit over humanity’s first colony world of Alpha and limited knowledge exchanges with Klarn trade missions.  They are an enigma to all who have encountered them and hint at an unknown intelligence that created them in the distant past.

The Hands of Infinity only interact with the other nine civilizations during their first contact mission when a civilization colonizes a planet outside of their home solar system.  Subsequent introductions of new civilizations to those who already have interstellar status are broadcast from their four terminal space stations.  No one knows who created the Hands or what their ultimate purpose may be.  They operate or are connected to the enigmatic Marker Beacon navigation system around neutron stars throughout the galaxy and maintain enormous Terminal space stations at either end of the only two known wormholes in the galaxy.

 

Space Pirates – A rag-tag group of malcontents from various civilizations, more of a nuisance than a real danger to well-defended systems.  Rumors of a growing alliance of pirate groups is at best an exaggeration.  The Human League discounts all reports of would be space piracy as criminal and terrorist acts of known criminal syndicates like the once infamous Mirror Family of Utopia.

Rumors persist of Neutral Worlds not affiliated with any of the known civilizations and likewise beyond their reach.  The Office of Space Tourism has found no evidence of any significant colony besides those under the direct control of one of the nine known civilizations.  Though it is highly unlikely that some small band of colonists might attempt to settle beyond the reach of government-sanctioned systems, loyal citizens should report any evidence to the contrary to League officials immediately.

Victory through vigilance, Citizen! 

This is a sneak peek at the new cover!

Renegades of Orion is a tale of action packed excitement, betrayal and survival, set in a shared universe with dozens of worlds colonized by humans and alien civilizations. The story is an introduction to the struggles of people and conflicting ideologies that propel decades of strife and reconciliation throughout human held space, the vast neutral territory surrounding the galactic core, and the alien civilizations who also seek to master the galaxy that humans alone call the Milky Way.

Space is vast, and the humans of Renegade Galaxy know that it is teeming with life.  From the nine known interstellar civilizations to countless worlds where life of one kind or another has evolved over millions of years, the galaxy is still largely an untamed wilderness.  Civilizations with the technology to expand into new solar systems do so in order to thrive and survive, sometimes in direct competition with each other.

Meet Vicky Legrande, shuttle pilot, covert resistance fighter and a direct descendant of the original European settlers on the human colony of Orion Prime.  Orion Prime represented a shining achievement in human colonization efforts with cooperation between three Earthling factions, the United States of North America, the European dominated United Nations and the prosperous nation of Free China.  Unfortunately, the promise of new territory and resources also led to corruption, greed and domination of the colony worlds by all of the Earthling factions.

Learn about generations of Earthling oppression on Orion Prime and throughout human held space.  Discover how that tyranny led to the rebel mission to steal the United States of North America’s newest warship, the Artemis.  Find out if her team of revolutionaries succeed, or if the dreaded Earthlings ruin their carefully crafted plan.

Vicky, her team and the rebellion are just one force at work to shape human efforts to explore and expand in the galaxy.  Fear of hostile aliens, exotic planets, some with abundant life similar to Earth, and the growing pains of competing Earthling factions drive human colonization efforts.  The rebellion against Earth, violent smuggling rings and wildly different ideas of right and wrong all come into play in this first installment in the Renegade Galaxy series!

Humanity no longer only looks to the stars from Earth, but from almost a dozen colony worlds and many minor outposts!

Escape is possible, survival is another story…