Published: March 2021
Publisher: Indies United Publishing House
“H2LiftShips, a tech manual for a future”
-Imagine a world, exactly like ours, but different-
It’s cold, rocky and a little dark.
Solar Sail cargo ships ply the commercial space from Earth to the distant Asteroids. Trading foodstuffs, coal, and nuclear engines for pure steel alloys, ZeroG Wool, and bioGel computers.
Anti-Dystopian SciFi, because we have too much Dystopia right now.
Just regular sentients making a living in the void around our Sun: Earth, Luna, Mars/Phobos, and Asteroid belt. Gig work is the norm, jumping from job to job, trying to earn enough for air, food, shelter, and waste treatment.
The ships’ crew; Captain Graciela, Jack, Tang, and an Octopus work with a boost crew to cross the empty divide before getting the laser boost at the Lagrangian station.
Meet, barter or run from multiple sentient societies on the asteroids, many a variation on Earth’s history.
Gambling at the Luna Casino and in Las Vegas and a trip across the desert for tasty carne asada burritos round out the journeys.
Gigging the Void, is this our Asteroid Future?
No: Aliens, Monsters, blasters, pyrotechnic computers, Anti-Grav powered rockets.
Yes: Solar Sail ships, nuclear-powered boost lasers, coal to smelt steel and the only alien is the Octopus First Mate.
Other Books in the H2Liftships series:
The back-story for H2LiftShips, following our intrepid sentients in the void, the Luna Casino, and the Asteroids, with a little old school schooling and celebrations. This is where we fill in the answers to some of your questions: · How did an asteroid citizen, born and bred, learn to drive a sports-car on Earth?· What happens to you after being abandoned on a divorce asteroid?· Why is Jack so afraid of prison? What traumatized that poor little puppy?· Are the bioGels sentient? And are they plotting against their owners?· What does it take to be a SolarSail Captain?· Do octopuses really think that they are better than the terrestrials? o (spoiler, yes they do).
You all knew we would settle on Luna and start mining the Asteroid belt.
Mars, dry, dusty with thin unbreathable air, is just a prison planet with the added hell of lawyers and accountants in charge.
Asteroid groups, separated by distance and time, are unified in their desire for independence. Each one picks a governance style to meet their needs and desires.
We join Ponos, an injured asteroid miner, now on a 75km diameter chondrite asteroid, the quadrant’s administrative center, working hard to get by as a certified workologist.
No matter what regime is in charge, Gig workers have to jump from job to job, trying to earn enough for food, shelter, air, and waste disposal.
WELCOME:
Join humans, simians, canines, and octopuses in our new future, gigging the void.
About The Author
Retired scientist, writing SciFi
Been around the microscope a few times:
Anaerobic Microbiologist exploring Lignin Degradation
Public Health Microbiologist/Lab Director
Software Designer (Laboratory Information Systems)
Writer of many of protocols, procedures and instructional manuals for clinical labs and software programs (these documentations were frequently treated as SciFi by the users).
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