Books (The Complete Quadruple Trilogy)
Free Worlds 1 (A Worlds Apart Anthology)
Nine stories that can serve as an introduction to the Worlds Apart Universe or a continuation for those who have read the books. (It's a dessert topping *and* a floor wax). It's got a happyface cover to let you know it's fun. Also, it's free for download (not because I love you but because I am pretty sure you'll get into it enough to pay for the non-free stuff. It's the meth-dealer theory of e-book publishing). New, Improved Retcon edition available in Kindle and Paperback.
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Worlds Apart Book 01: Meridian
This is where the madness begins. 2,000 years after the fall of the Galactic Commonwealth, the remote colonies of Sapphire and Republic have recovered the technology for starflight and set out to rediscover humanity’s lost worlds. The mighty Pathfinder Ship Pegasus is launched on a 300 year mission of discovery. The first lost colony they rediscover is called Meridian, and its inhabitants seem to be transforming into weird insectoid hive creatures. (Hostile insectoid aliens = interesting {except when used in satires of militaristic fascism}). And while the landing team deals with that, the ship’s AI evolves sentience and tries to kill everybody; as AI's are wont to do.
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WA BK 02: EdenWorld
EdenWorld has beer-colored seas, amber skies, and is inhabited by griffins, minotaurs, vampires, werewolves and other fantastic creatures who have enslaved the human population. Bill Keeler and his landing party visit this strange world and are sent off along a highway paved in golden stones to meet the powerful ruler of a mythical kingdom. Along the way, they encounter a skinny, mentally deficient crop guardian, a malfunctioning robot in need of lubrication and a replacement power cell, and an anthropomorphic lion with cowardice issues.
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WA BK 03: Boadicea
On the planet Boadicea, there are 20 women for every man. So, naturally, men have no rights and are kept in guarded enclaves and brought out only for breeding purposes. Boadicea is basically a planet governed by the Women’s Studies Department at Wellesley. Their planet is also on the path of invasion from the Aurelians; the most ruthless and seductive race in the Galaxy. The crew of Pegasus must try and convince them to give up their pacifist ways and fight the Aurelians; or lose their entire planet.
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WA BK 04: Winter
Imagine you could live forever, but you have to live on a planet where its always pretty much February in Minnesota. That's what this one's about; a planet where winter last forever and no one ever dies. When First Officer Phil Redfire is accused of murdering an immortal, he must face trial under Winter’s Kafkaesque legal system; a system where the truth is irrelevant, and innocence is not a defense. Meanwhile, Prime Commander Keeler risks his life to meet with one a mad general from the Old Commonwealth who may offer clues to the greatest mysteries of the galaxy if he doesn’t lose his temper and lop off Keeler’s head with a sword first.
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WA BK 05: Aurora
Aurora is a planet whose super-strong electromagnetic field and weird biaxial rotation create constant atmospheric light displays across the whole planet. There are no countries and no nations, just "Synerplexes," amalgamations of huge corporations based on commercialized sex and violence. Culturally, it’s like Las Vegas and Florida had a meth-baby together and abandoned it on the southwest side of Chicago. Two of Aurora’s massive Synerplexes --- Megakill Armaments, Ammunition, Rockets, Recreation and Soup (MAARRS) and Supah Al-Fareek --- are on the knife's edge of total war. All it will take is a little push to spark a nuclear conflagration. And the crew of Pegasus is right in the middle with their shovin' gloves on.
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WA BK 06: Crucible
Coming to the rescue of the Pathfinder Ship Lexington Keeler, the Pathfinder Ship Pegasus comes under attack from hostile, unknown aliens. Keeler is in a decaying orbit around a devastated planet and is mere hours from smacking down on the surface. And the aliens that attacked them are waiting in ambush. Now, both ships are in peril. In the middle of the whole mess, TyroCommander Lear loses her gawdam mind and instigates a mutiny against Commander Keeler. Also, there's an animated corpse, an alien nymphomaniac, and a hostile artificial intelligence on the loose.
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WA BK 07: Yronwode
Yronwode was one of the "Iron Worlds" of the Old Commonwealth; an escape-proof planet for the galaxy's most dangerous and incorrigible criminals. When Commander Keeler and his landing team went to the planet, they didn't know about the "escape-proof" part. The planet has ingenious defenses designed to guarantee that a trip to its surface is one-way. Trapped on the planet, they find themselves caught in the endless war between the tribes of prisoners and the descendants of the missionaries that followed them to the planet to save their souls. Then, things get *really* weird. Keeler finds himself the Chieftain ("I am K-Rock") of a group of violent, primitive tribesmen whom he begins nicknaming. Eddie Roebuck becomes pontiff of the planet's main religion; which gives him supernatural powers. They're on a collision course for a violent showdown that could possibly decide the entire future of the planet.
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WA BK 08: Hellfire
The Pathfinder ship Pegasus is running out of fuel. The red giant sun 200 200 Fornax has abundant reserves of Tritium fuel, controlled by the Crucial Fuels Consortium. Their last refining station is under constant assault by Solarite Space Pirates. So, the crew of Pegasus cuts a deal. They will salvage an old fuel ship from the sun's atmosphere and in return for playing decoy while the Crucial Fuel crew escapes, they can keep its load of precious fuel. Simple, right? Nah, it totally goes sideways for them. Later, some of the crew crash on a mysterious island with smoke monsters and a weird village and everybody starts acting strange. Well... strange in different ways than the usual weirdness.
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WA BK 09: Gethsemane
The planet Gethsemane is well and truly f**ked. A rogue moon has entered its system is on a collision course that will obliterate the entire world. The Gethsemanians had thirty years to prepare for this and, with some alien assistance, built a 'Gateway' to evacuate them to somewhere else. They say it's a gateway to the afterlife. (It's been said that everyone wants to go to Heaven but no one wants to die; Well, the Gethsemanians seem to have found a loophole.) Commander Keeler and TyroCommander Redfire want to go through the Gateway and see if it's for real or if it's one of those sci-fi deals with a bizarre and horrifying twist. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew struggles to evacuate the last of the planet's children; who cannot enter the Gateway. For completely deranged reasons, the surviving Government of the planet will do anything to stop them.
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WA BK 10: Eventide
Book 10 improbably mixes Shakespearean parodies, treatises on capitalism, and ... Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan?!?!
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WA BK 11: Charlemagne
Pegasus has been chasing a beacon signal across the Orion Quadrant for the past five years, stopping to visit at a crystalline world "where the light eats people" and another colony abandoned except for a mysterious corpse. Finally, they arrive at the source of the signal, a StarLock called Charlemagne. While they've been gone, 200 years have passed and the New Commonwealth of the Galaxy has established Charlemagne as its base of operations. Also, they want to decommission Pegasus and send the crew home. Not everybody in the crew wants to go, and some of them are willing to take extreme lengths to prevent it from happening.
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WA BK 12: Earth
Pegasus arrives at Earth (or have they? Two moons? This could give rise to fan theories, if I had fans.) Somewhere in the Solar System (which was renamed the Terrastar System as part of a Rebranding effort in the 29th Century) there might possibly be a Superweapon that will utterly annihilate the Aurelians, or allow the Aurelians to utterly annihilate the human race depending on who gets to it first. Meanwhile, the crew gets to pick through the ruins of the once-proud Terran civilization. In doing so, they run across some rogue AI's who, naturally, try to kill them.
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