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About This Book
Jack was born at the beginning of the Rounder Wars and was owned, along with his mother, by the brutal looter/slave clan of the Hamiel.
As a young man Jack was involved with the overthrow of the groups leadership evolving into a cooperative effort led without the usual brutal punishments and perversions of times past by his mother.
Subsequent exploration proved that parts of the world, human population greatly reduced, had progressed and advanced pockets of survivors had been looking for him to continue the work of his father.
Jack was aware that his immunities and health were extraordinary, a blessing as many if not most of his young friends had already perished due to malnutrition, diseases and arduous work loads. Jack's mother had told him that he had inherited these traits from his father who had been exposed to the AI assigned to this solar system but he hadn't believed it at the time.
When a group of survivors at the University of Florida discovered that Jack, assumed dead but hope had never been lost, was alive they requested he join the effort to recontact the AI that ran the solar system. Jack's father had had his DNA strengthened for enhanced immunities and a long life readily apparent to the university staff and it was hoped the AI would recognize his attributes and unexpected contact shocks might be eased.
Jack and his crew, Jerome (also a surviving son with altered DNA) with Charlene and Jack's wife Hin-Yuin prepare to make the arduous journey to Saturn with technology of a near tomorrow.
They undergo pilot training at the launch base in the Gulf of Mexico before transferring to the massive orbital habitats and later onto the secret moon base.
They enjoy luxurious living on the moon beyond anything they had expected - who knew that the outposts would only require a few years before the infrastructure was viable enough to support luxurious accommodations and lifestyles beyond what anyone had imagined. The reason for secrecy was not military or subversive but simply to hide the quality of life found there - it certainly wasn't possible to emigrate all that would want to go there.
The Saturn explorer was a two mile long clunker of titanium and aluminum easily scoured from the moons surface. Even the fuel, more metallic than hydrocarbon, was easily obtainable. Massive transports were lifting from the moon for Earth filled with solar cells and electronics and H3 hourly yet the rockets were extruded and the propellants were extracted easily and automatically from the moons' regolith in infinite supply.
It was a bit more arduous for the quartet as they were assigned to the construction orbital for the Saturn launch, a space habitat of limited accouterments.
The massive machine would carry them to the planet in mere months and they were assigned protocols to meet with the AI. It was believed that the AI had set a test for the human race and once the race reached the outer planets the AI would provide star ships to move forward. It was understood that the AI had massaged the human genome over time to create a race of explorers.
NOTES.
The books Hard Jack, Hard Jack Junior, and Hard Jack III (12/2011) are stand alone adventures but can be read in series.
Hard because this genre is hard SF meaning all of the machines are within grasp and thoroughly described within engineering limits. No 'poof' star gates yet even the FTL drives are detailed as is the moon manufacturing.
The premise is that there may well be an AI out there and a blueprint is provided on how to move into our destiny along with a description of what that change will entail.
Further - the book is heavy in machinery description interspersed with human frailties and adventures. In an effort to bond with the characters their sex lives are graphically exposed. Some find this a distraction while others find it realistic but the book is a Hard R for sexual content while the violence is muted to actual possibilities.
As a young man Jack was involved with the overthrow of the groups leadership evolving into a cooperative effort led without the usual brutal punishments and perversions of times past by his mother.
Subsequent exploration proved that parts of the world, human population greatly reduced, had progressed and advanced pockets of survivors had been looking for him to continue the work of his father.
Jack was aware that his immunities and health were extraordinary, a blessing as many if not most of his young friends had already perished due to malnutrition, diseases and arduous work loads. Jack's mother had told him that he had inherited these traits from his father who had been exposed to the AI assigned to this solar system but he hadn't believed it at the time.
When a group of survivors at the University of Florida discovered that Jack, assumed dead but hope had never been lost, was alive they requested he join the effort to recontact the AI that ran the solar system. Jack's father had had his DNA strengthened for enhanced immunities and a long life readily apparent to the university staff and it was hoped the AI would recognize his attributes and unexpected contact shocks might be eased.
Jack and his crew, Jerome (also a surviving son with altered DNA) with Charlene and Jack's wife Hin-Yuin prepare to make the arduous journey to Saturn with technology of a near tomorrow.
They undergo pilot training at the launch base in the Gulf of Mexico before transferring to the massive orbital habitats and later onto the secret moon base.
They enjoy luxurious living on the moon beyond anything they had expected - who knew that the outposts would only require a few years before the infrastructure was viable enough to support luxurious accommodations and lifestyles beyond what anyone had imagined. The reason for secrecy was not military or subversive but simply to hide the quality of life found there - it certainly wasn't possible to emigrate all that would want to go there.
The Saturn explorer was a two mile long clunker of titanium and aluminum easily scoured from the moons surface. Even the fuel, more metallic than hydrocarbon, was easily obtainable. Massive transports were lifting from the moon for Earth filled with solar cells and electronics and H3 hourly yet the rockets were extruded and the propellants were extracted easily and automatically from the moons' regolith in infinite supply.
It was a bit more arduous for the quartet as they were assigned to the construction orbital for the Saturn launch, a space habitat of limited accouterments.
The massive machine would carry them to the planet in mere months and they were assigned protocols to meet with the AI. It was believed that the AI had set a test for the human race and once the race reached the outer planets the AI would provide star ships to move forward. It was understood that the AI had massaged the human genome over time to create a race of explorers.
NOTES.
The books Hard Jack, Hard Jack Junior, and Hard Jack III (12/2011) are stand alone adventures but can be read in series.
Hard because this genre is hard SF meaning all of the machines are within grasp and thoroughly described within engineering limits. No 'poof' star gates yet even the FTL drives are detailed as is the moon manufacturing.
The premise is that there may well be an AI out there and a blueprint is provided on how to move into our destiny along with a description of what that change will entail.
Further - the book is heavy in machinery description interspersed with human frailties and adventures. In an effort to bond with the characters their sex lives are graphically exposed. Some find this a distraction while others find it realistic but the book is a Hard R for sexual content while the violence is muted to actual possibilities.