Inigo Press

My series Terraformed Earth is the story of Earth in the third-third century. The climate has been restored but humanity was nearly wiped out. The handful of humans who remain live only by sufferance of the Young, their gene-modified masters.

Ignatius Ryan, a Jesuit priest, arrives in orbit over this Holocene after a millennium in cryosleep aboard a spacecraft on a cometary orbit. Descending to Earth, he finds a society rich in life but devoid of compassion. There is no trace of the Church that banished him into the future.

Hoping only to survive, Ignatius finds himself compelled to find a way to give this world hope before humanity is snuffed out completely.

in Terraformed Earth – Departure, Ignatius is revived from cryosleep and his cancer cured. But a theological controversy leads him to Rome. There a scheming Cardinal anxious to erase the controversy decrees he must go to the distant future. Before he departs, the Pope tells Ignatius that, in this time of worldwide chaos, the Church may need him to go. Ignatius leaves behind a world he no longer understands, uncertain whether he will ever belong anywhere again.

In Terraformed Earth – Creation, as the human population reaches ten billion souls, a group of genetic researchers modify their own children for extreme intelligence and a lifespan of centuries, hoping they will find a solution that has eluded their elders. They do, but the side effects are killers.

In Terraformed Earth – New Millennium, Ignatius returns to a paradise with little place for humanity. Morna, a survivor who is not who she seems, seduces him and shelters him from the Young in the forest outside the city of S’Loo. As Ignatius interacts with his world, he cannot avoid teaching lessons in compassion to Morna’s fellow survivors. The Young fear the impact of his antique ethics on their world and want him dead. As he struggles to survive, he hopes to build a new world for the daughter he never imagined.

In Terraformed Earth – Discovery, Ignatius and Morna seek shelter with their daughter Iris in the hidden city of Kaycee, far from the influence of the Young, the gene-modified rulers of the Seventeen Cities. But the reach of the Young follows them to Kaycee as well. When they discover a tribe of humans living in the Ozark forest, entirely outside the Young’s tightly controlled society, they feel compelled to return and convince the Young not to repeat the genocide of the past.

The Terraformed Earth series is available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats. It is also enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.

Two years ago i January I posted about my series Terraformed Earth and its focus on climate change. I have since published two novels, Terraformed Earth – New Millennium and Terraformed Earth – Discovery. I’m now working on a third novel in the series, Terraformed Earth – Evolution.

Terraformed Earth focuses on Ignatius Ryan, a Jesuit priest banished to the future in a theological controversy. He arrives at a pristine Earth with little sign of human civilization. An ancient genocide, whose story is told in Terraformed Earth – Creation, virtually eliminated humanity. The survivors spent a millennium remediating the climate to create an environment rich in life but devoid of compassion.

I’d love for you to join Ignatius on his journey. You can find the series on Amazon.

As 2024 dawns, I wanted to get back to regular posts on this blog.

The first thing I’d like to do is announce two new Kindle publications in my Worlds of Sol series.

Fire in the Belt is a prequel to my novel Asteroid Gambit.

Earth is in trouble. Mining and manufacturing in space are mitigating climate deterioration, but the number of mineable near-Earth asteroids is dwindling. Most are rubble piles unsuitable for resource extraction.

Will Lafontaine wants to use nuclear warheads to move mineable asteroids to Earth from the Belt, but his old-fashioned boss refuses to innovate. His co-worker Amanda offers to help, but he doesn’t trust her agenda. The shady investors he finds to finance the project demand results above all else, and the next launch window for a trip to the Belt is looming.

Will is running out of time.

Can he and Amanda find a way to work together to validate his concept and expand Earth’s reach to the Solar System? Only pride and stubbornness stand in his way.

A beta reviewer said this about Fire: The world-building is just incredible. There were times I thought you must be writing from personal experience in that world (that doesn’t exist), that’s how good it is.

Ryan’s Debt is another story in the Worlds of Sol series about Pat Ryan, a UNS Marine whose lover and fellow Marine, Jacqueline, is mortally wounded protecting him in a firefight. Before she dies, she asks him to go to Mars and help her daughter, who lives in an independent farm in the Martian outback. He musters out of the Marines and goes to Mars, where he learns the farm is far from independent. If he wants to keep his pledge, he’ll need all his combat training just to stay alive.

If you read these or any of my other stories, please leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. Reviews are the lifeblood of indie authors.

I have more WiP novels I hope to publish in 2024. Stay tuned.

My Kindle short Red Queen’s Gambit, part of the Worlds of Sol series, is now live on Amazon.

Jill, captain of asteroid freighter Sleipner on a routine cargo run from Mars to Ceres, is shocked out of boredom when Odin, the ship’s AI, detects an unknown ship on an interception course.

Odin informs Jill they are not carrying innocuous Earth soil for the gardens of Ceres declared on the manifest. Instead, the cargo hold contains nuclear warheads for deorbiting asteroids.

The approaching ship radios Sleipner to prepare to be boarded. Jill and Jimmy, Sleipner’s pilot, take refuge in a hidden safe room.

When the pirates blow the airlock, evacuating the ship’s atmosphere, they know their lives are on the line.

With four pirates systematically searching the ship for cargo and crew, and time running out, Jill and Jimmy must find a way to neutralize the invaders and retake Sleipner—if they want to survive.

Worlds of Sol

Check out all the stories in my Worlds of Sol series.

Worlds of Sol

Blue Origin is another private company that is upending the old model of spaceflight—government control and funding. Like SpaceX and numerous smaller companies, Blue Origin is focusing on resources in space for Earth. Perhaps one day they’ll turn their attention to resources for use on space itself.

From Blue Origin’s web site

For the Benefit of Earth

Blue Origin was founded with a vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. Blue Origin envisions a time when people can tap into the limitless resources of space and enable the movement of damaging industries into space to preserve Earth, humanity’s blue origin. 

Learn more at Blue Origins

No, not Buzz Lightyear, Elon Musk. Well, maybe not so different.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has a big vision: he wants to “colonize” Mars and has put a ton of money into the program. He’s not just a visionary, he’s an entrepreneur who’s built a company that can sustain itself. In its early stages it has relied on government procurement for tech development and first contracts. But its vision is far wider.

No one needs to be told that SpaceX can point to multiple amazing accomplishments: vertical return and reuse of lower stage Falcon 9 rockets, Dragon capsule resupply to the ISS, Falcon Heavy, Starship. If humanity is to reach beyond Earth for more than science projects, we’l need these and more developments from SpaceX, Blue Origin, and a rapidly expanding cluster of other private space companies.

This is the first of a series of posts on SpaceX and its vision of humanity in space. Let’s start with their vision.

SpaceX Mars Program

NASA is nearing the first flight of the Artemis program, their initiative to return to the Moon for the first time since Apollo 17. This is the first in a series of posts to update readers on NASA’s progress in the program.

For now, here’s a summary of the program.

Artemis.

NASA is currently exploring visits to both the Moon and Mars. This is going to require new technology based on our current knowledge and performance. No more ship’s computers with less power than an Apple Watch. Traveling this far beyond our planet will require imagination as well.

My science fiction series Worlds of Sol envisions regular transits between Earth and Mars. But this isn’t easy. SpaceX has a good chance to mount the first expedition to the red planet, but we need a whole industry in space to realize our future.

My stories assume the use of a cycler. Reaching Mars is a discussion on this site of an innovative concept for travel between Earth and Mars. Check it out.

Most of what I write is science fiction. Occasionally it’s military sci fi in the near future. (See Hunter). But I have been quietly compiling a set of stories about my time as a Naval Aviator in the ‘60’s,70’s, and ‘80s. I intend some day to collect these into a book, but time is always in short supply.

One of my favorite stories is about a time when I was flying off USS Wasp (CVS-18) in atrocious weather. Returning to the carrier, I was low on fuel and couldn’t find the carrier in the fog. Read Smoke Light Approach to see how it turned out.

I posted this and other stories on Quora, an on-line discussion forum. As of November 1, 2022, this story has been seen by 156,500 members of Quora and upvoted by 1,969 of them. I hope you enjoy this story as much as they did.

Halloween is a night when aliens can roam free in the United States, mingling with the costumes worn by humans. In my new holiday first contact story, this has cosmic consequences.

On Halloween Joao Santos, NASA Chief Astronaut, receives a subpoena from the First Court of Trans Lunar Crime. The charge, killing an alien, seems like a joke. But the bounty hunter who comes for him is definitely not joking. It delivers Joao to the far side of the Moon to stand. trial. 

Joao refuses to plead guilty and asks for legal assistance. The alien version of Legal Aid doesn’t inspire confidence. Joao needs to negotiate a galactic bureaucracy that moves at the speed of flowing molasses and the corruption of its legal system if he wants to regain his freedom. The unexpected value of the Martian land his son bought him for his birthday may provide him a loophole to wiggle through—if he can somehow get back to Earth.

Buy Night Court on Amazon now..