I Work On A Starship

A related collection of short stories, incidents and anecdotes from my job as Senior Stardrive Tech on the "Lupine." All true, of course,

In a futuristic military adventure a recruit goes through the roughest boot camp in the universe and into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry in what historians would come to call the First Interstellar War

The Starship Spotter was created more than two centuries ago in the early years of deep space travel to serve as a reference guide to assorted space-going vessels. Captains of the spaceships of the United Earth Space Probe Agency used this invaluable tool to help their crews to distinguish friend from foe in the unexplored reaches of the cosmos. When the services were merged to form Starfleet, the Spotter as a paper book disappeared from use. Only recently rediscovered, the newest editions of this historic volume have until now been the sole purview of the students of Starfleet Academy. Each year a new class of Starfleet cadets carefully reviews and revises the contents. The ships displayed in the Starship Spotter are chosen as a tribute to the crews who have served on them and the valour shown, regardless of the ship's affiliation. Although only thirty ships could be selected, the cadets feel that these ships reflect the noble history of space exploration and travel. We proudly present to you the Class of 2383 edition of Starship Spotter.

Starship-101 successfully landed on Proxima Centauri-b about twenty years ago, marking humanity’s first interstellar settlement. But with radio messages taking over four years to traverse the vast darkness of space, this fledgling colony has been isolated from Earth. Enter the Clason twins – Tarvin and Harden – the galaxy’s preeminent Superposition Navigators. These brothers can bend the quantum space-time continuum to their will, instantaneously transporting people and cargo across the stars. To revive supply lines and reintegrate Proxima Centauri b into humanity’s network of trade, the Clasons have been contracted to lead a modern resupply mission. Their quantum technology will provide the colony with the latest gadgets and gizmos from home. And the Navigators have another task – returning Starship-101 itself. That aging relic is now a valuable antique, the first testimony that humans can thrive beyond our solar cradle. Join the Clason twins as they quantum-jump across the cosmos on this historic mission of reconnection!

In the Dead Suns Adventure Path, the players take on the roles of members of the Starfinder Society, a loose association of scholars and adventurers who travel the galaxy uncovering the secrets of the past. When a fragment of an ancient alien superweapon surfaces in the depths of hyperspace, its discovery sets off a race to find the extraterrestrial doomsday device. Hopping from planet to planet in both the civilized Pact Worlds and beyond, the heroes must contend with both the undead Corpse Fleet and the nihilistic Cult of the Devourer, each of which seeks to acquire the alien artifact for its own purposes. Can the heroes find and destroy the superweapon before their enemies seize control of it, or will the Pact Worlds' sun go dark and cold, a harbinger of dead suns across the galaxy?

Starship’s Mage is set in a future we would never have predicted: where humanity’s far flung interstellar colonies are tied together by the Protectorate of the Mage King of Mars and the magic of the Jump Mages. Damien Montgomery is a newly-trained member of this elite order. Unable to find a ship to take him on, he joins the crew of a freighter as desperate as he is – without looking hard enough at why they’re desperate. Thus begins an adventure that will take him to the edges of known space and to the limits of his own magic. Starship's Mage: Episode 1 is a 20,789 word novella, the first of five in a serial story. Episodes 2 and 3 are out now!

In a galaxy tied together by the magic of the elite Jump Magi, Damien Montgomery is a newly graduated member of their number. With no family or connections to find a ship, he is forced to service on an interstellar freighter known to be hunted by pirates. When he takes drastic action to save the Blue Jay from their pursuers, he sets in motion a sequence of events beyond his control – and attracts enemies on both sides of the law! Starship’s Mage was originally released as five separate episodes.

In this thoroughly satisfying and completely disorienting novel based on a story line by Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Terry Jones recounts an unforgettable tale of intergalactic travel and mishap. The saga of "the ship that cannot possibly go wrong" sparkles with wit, danger, and confusion that will keep readers guessing which reality they are in and how, on earth, to find their way out again. At the center of the galaxy, a vast, unknown civilization is preparing for an event of epic proportions: the launching of the greatest, most gorgeous, most technologically advanced Starship ever built-the Starship Titanic. An earthling would see it as a mixture of the Chrysler Building, the tomb of Tutankhamen, and Venice. But less provincial onlookers would recognize it as the design of Leovinus, the galaxy's most renowned architect. He is an old man now, and the creation of the Starship Titanic is the pinnacle achievement of his twenty-year career. The night before the launch, Leovinus is prowling around the ship having a last little look. With mounting alarm he begins to find things are not right: unfinished workmanship, cybersystems not working correctly, robots colliding with doors. How could this have happened? And how could this have happened without his knowing? Something somewhere is terribly wrong. On the following day, in an artificial event staged for the media, the Starship Titanic will leave its construction dock under autopilot and, a few days later, make its way to the terminal to pick up passengers for its maiden voyage. Although the ship will be deserted during its very first flight, it is nevertheless a major event, watched by all the galaxy's media. Hugely, magnificently, the fabulous ship eases its way forward from the construction dock, picks up speed, sways a bit, wobbles a bit, veers wildly, and just before it can do massive damage to everything around it, appears to undergo SMEF (Spontaneous Massive Existence Failure). In just ten seconds, the whole, stupendous enterprise is over. And our story has just begun. Somehow three earthlings, one Blerontin journalist, a semideranged parrot, and a shipful of disoriented robots must overcome their differences. It's the only way to save the Starship Titanic ("The Ship That Cannot Possibly Go Wrong") from certain destruction and rescue the economy of an entire planet-not to mention to survive the latest threat, an attack by a swarm of hostile shipbuilders. . . .