Heat and Light: a Space Novel

Heat and Light: Future — Space — Time Gene "Hornblower" Bonner bought a ship because he missed the cold dark. He got considerably more than that. The ship has an AI that can jump instantaneously across the galaxy. The two academic passengers who boarded at Ambigon Station aren't human. And buried somewhere in deep space is a dimensional rift that, if left unclosed, will quietly unravel everything — the universe included. Whether that's enough to save themselves is another question. Hornblower Series — Book 1 EXCERPT Prologue After the fizz, after the pop, after the light, there was a fly in the thermodynamic soup we call the universe. A problem to end everything: you, me, stars, galaxies, and time. Working on it, I became ruler of the cosmos, King of the Hill, a prisoner of my decisions and actions. Cause and effect personified—no good deed goes unpunished. I want to be ten years old again. No worries. No authority. No responsibilities. Reset my life. They tell me they can make it happen but don’t recommend it. Hornblower CHAPTER 1 - A Sailor Went to Sea “What about this one?” I asked the salesman. Good old Georgie tried to fast walk us past an unusual ship. “It’s a prototype, a proof of concept. Arrived yesterday. The manufacturer is letting it go below cost.” Georgie looked unfocused; a tell he was using a heads-up display to read the sales brochure. Selling at a loss smelled like failure to me. I checked the spec sheet. It’s impressive, overpowered, oversized for its class, suiting me better than others on the lot, but I wanted to check under the hood. “Why?” He shrugged. “Guess they wanted it out of the way, make more production space available for standard stuff they build. It was tricked out to lure investors. No takers, I guess.” He turned to look at the ship, knowing this sale would bring him a commission to drool over if I was stupid enough to buy it. My last ship, a serviceable wreck, was sold as scrap more than a year ago. I’d been a rockhopper for eight years, a finder of valuable resources, working the fringes of newly colonized systems. My crew and I made the most significant discovery since before humans jumped away from Earth—a spaceship flattened between rocky asteroids joined over two billion years ago. It wasn’t human- built, proving we’re not alone, separated only by time. That’s why I’m here on Ambigon Station, the largest showroom in this third of the galaxy, to scratch an itch I can’t reach without a new ship. Read more