Gateway: The Shaula Intervention - Anthropologist Susan Merniehm and Kiel Tarragot, a criminal investigator with the Investigator General Branch of the Coalition of Planets have had an on again - off again relationship for years. Thrown together when an explosion occurs at a remote mining site: Susan, to investigate alien artifacts and Kiel to investigate the suspicious accident. An officer of the mining company confounds Kiel's inquiry with an effort to sidestep questions about his illegal activities. The discovery of a fantastic apparatus, the Gateway, sends Susan and Kiel on an amazing adventure into the far reaches of the galaxy.
The Mission –The twenty-sixth century finds a large part of the galaxy in a state of near chaos. A weak central government, diverse alien societies, rampant crime and a general feeling of disillusionment become the backdrop of a convoluted series of events involving a diverse group of beings, each with their own agenda. Each individual brings their own struggle for a better life and are knit together like a giant spider web, each tugging a strand, pulling the group from one place to another, within the backdrop of scientific discovery and widespread corruption. The Mission is a story of mixed loyalty, clandestine schemes and the hope of a better life. A single, powerful businessman knits the group together with a secret plan that will ultimately benefit all.
A Matter of Time - The Coalition of Planets exists just below the North Equatorial pole, in the outer arm of the galaxy commonly called the Milky Way. The history of the Coalition had been deeply rooted in conflict. The year 2721 looks forward to a year peace. A mining accident leads to the discovery of a mysterious race from the center of the galaxy, the Shaula. They left behind a fantastic device, the Gateway. Examination leads to the discovery that this machine can transport people across the galaxy almost instantaneously. It is also discovered that the machine can function as a time machine. After an initial successful experiment, the Shaula appear at the Coalition research station. Claiming the use of the Gateway for time travel could lead to the disruption of what they termed the ‘Great Cycle of Time’, the Shaula destroy that part of the machine capable of temporal transport. A Matter of Time is the story of scientific exploration as well as criminal involvement with the goal of stealing the technology.
Solitude - Early in the twenty-fifth century, agent Adrianne Atwood is on an assignment that is taking entirely too long. She’s been tasked with gaining evidence on a rich, but criminal industrialist. She knows where he is but figuring out what he’s doing has become a complex puzzle. Engineers have terraformed a planet, called Solitude, the ultimate retirement local for the wealthy. Adrianne discovers that her target is conspiring to acquire the planet for himself. Helping her boss save the planet and its residents from the industrialist’s reckless plan begins overshadowing her mission. What appears to be natural disasters are revealed as the despicable results of the man’s strategy. Adrianne’s efforts, at last, generate the necessary evidence she needs.
The Yesterday Tree - Do you believe in time travel? What about extraterrestrials? Or both? Computer specialist Joe Rebman joins a team to investigate what might be man’s first contact with extraterrestrials. The alien nature of the craft, discovered at a remote location in the Arizona desert, raises concern for national security. The Pentagon sends Colonel Warren Anderson to the team. A group of college students on a field trip are discovered near the landing site. But they are not really students. They are time travelers from five-hundred years in the future with a mission to instigate the development of a worldwide genealogical database that 26th century doctors will use to track down and cure people with genetic mutations, saving millions from certain death. Warren believes they are invaders, while Joe believes their story and decides to help. The Yesterday Tree asks fundamental questions about how we might respond to extra-terrestrial contact and confronts the possibility of time travel.
Temporal Consciousness Transposition - Imagine you are offered the opportunity to travel to any time in your past. You can simply observe and remember or alter your life. Ben Tilifson has received this precise opportunity. Thinking it's a joke perpetrated by friends, he decides to play along. Except it is not a joke. During Ben’s first trip, he coerces his fifty-five-year younger self into speaking to a high school crush to whom he was originally too bashful to even say hello. The brief conversation changes his life forever. The girl introduces Ben to a friend that will become his wife. Ben decides to continue his travels. Fearful of doing anything else that might alter his own life, he decides to devote his action to save people from terrible accidents. Upon returning from his most recent trip, Ben discovers his life has been dramatically transformed. He is convinced he is somehow jumping between parallel yet different timelines. Recognizing the contradiction of time travel, Ben wonders what would happen if he reverses the action of his first trip. The surprise ending to the story presents a paradox that convinces Ben he has no free will.
GATEWAY: THE VUPECULAN WARS (publishing soon - Gateway book 2) This story continues the exploits of Susan, Kiel and many of their associates as they continue exploring artifacts left behind be the Shaula, including their fabulous creation – the Gateway. Their activities are interrupted when the Vupeculans, ancient rivals of the Shula and a much feared belligerent race, enter the part of the galaxy the Coalition of Planets calls home.