Desperate Measures

One day in the not-too-distant future, a wormhole opens up on the outskirts of the Terran solar system. For the next twenty-five years, it comes and goes at regular intervals, spilling mysterious transmissions into local space. The Terran Security Council rushes to establish a foothold on the far side of the wormhole-ostensibly to explore this new part of space, but in reality to forge a first line of defense against a possible alien invasion. A planet suitable for ice-mining is found. A manufacturing seed is launched, but the seed fails to germinate. TSC taps Chief Awinita 'AJ' Johnson for the unenviable job of getting the seed back on track even though she is burnt-out and long overdue for long term leave. Soon after she and a small team of volunteers are deposited on Farside for a three-month stint, they discover that the planet is inhabited. Although the elusive, blob-like natives are not the aliens of TSC's nightmares, they threaten the success of AJ's mission nonetheless. AJ must find a way to deal with them and her frightened crew without compromising her own deep-rooted convictions. Desperate Measures is a fast-paced work of science fiction that begins with an incidental contact and then plunges into the complications that crop up on both sides of that encounter. It's a story about politics, expediency, and the drive to survive versus a desire to evolve. It looks at the decisions that people under pressure make as well as the leaps of faith that they sometimes take.