User:Rdburns2002
| File:Cover+front-only-chapbook.jpg Cover of first edition (hardcover) | |
| Author | Robert Burns |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Rick Lee |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Swimmng Kangaroo Books |
Publication date | 2008 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 368 pp |
| ISBN | 978-1934041697 |
Plot
Introduction
In the mid-21st century, a form of bird flu has killed billions and turned most of the rest into mindless, stumbling zombie-like invalids. The few humans who had immunity now face the threat of a comet on a collision course with Earth. Settlers from the Moon colony were spared the disease, but face their own threats to survival: radiation-induced mental illness, a limited gene pool and shrinking resources. The Moon settlers have launched a last-ditch mission to Earth to salvage human DNA and other crucial materials before the comet strikes. The salvage crew find the biggest threat to the mission is neither the zombies or the comet, but insanity within their own ranks.
Synopsis
Kristen Norman copes with an attack of clinical depression as she and a team of moon colonists await the start of a mission to return to plague-stricken Earth. The team's mission: to save the human race.
All but a handful of Earth-bound humans have been killed or turned into zombie-like invalids by a mutated forms of bird flu know as Low-Path and High-Path. Isolated by politics and limited resources, the moon colony was spared infection, but the colonists have their own health problems. High levels of radiation have damaged the DNA of the limited gene pool. The same radiation has damaged Kristen's and other's minds as well, resulting in high instances of mental illness.
The moon colony desperately needs resources to survive. The Earth, with nearly all the population dead or dying, is a large warehouse waiting to be raided. The moon needs genetic re-engineering equipment, pharmaceuticals, scientific equipment, seed stock, and, most of all, new human genetic material. They have been promised the later by Deep Throat, one of the few surviving Earthbound humans. Deep Throat has a large sperm and ova bank that she is willing to donate to the cause.
To get to the Earth and back, moon engineers have bankrupted the moon's resources to build a spaceship design resurrected from the 1950s, THE ANITA. In essence, the Anita is an atomic bomb machine gun. For propulsion, the Anita ejects small fusion bombs from the rear end like a hen laying eggs. The bombs are detonated 100 meters from the ship and the force of the blast propels it. With such brute force, the Anita, in theory, can land its huge bulk on the Earth and take off again with its cargo hold filled with millions of tons of salvaged supplies.
But the moon men have been too long in building the Anita. A rogue comet, named KALI, was recently discovered to be on a collision course with Earth. The planet-killing impact is less than two weeks away. The Anita's technology is unproven in a planetary atmosphere, and the ship was hastily completed in order to beat Kali to the punch. While Kristen copes with depression the old-fashioned way — with pharmaceuticals — her teammates Jimmy Olson, and Jorge Blaca and Gayle Ring are also dealing with introspective mental states as they await the final stage of the Anita's approach to the Earth. All four are in currently in The Ark, a small tug-boat tender to the Anita, when the unthinkable happens. An explosion of mysterious origin depressurizes the Anita, killing nearly everyone aboard. With no time to re-staff the Anita, Jimmy, Kristen, Jorge and Gayle must conduct an abbreviated, hurried mission to Earth. The goal is to at least rescue the frozen sperm and ova and key genetic engineering and therapy equipment before Kali strikes.
A rescue mission by Jimmy and Jorge finds only five aboard the Anita who survived the depressurization: Crystal Karen, Tisha Smith, Bobby Randel, Daniel Kaplan, and Abraham Badr.
The Anita lands successfully, but as the mission on the surface proceeds it becomes obvious that explosion and the death of the crew was sabotage. Shortly before the Anita lands, Hannah Alman, seventeen years old and a survivor of the Low-Path plague, is taking refuge in the Dallas Zoo. Hannah is rebelling, out on her own, truant from a small commune of survivors living near Fair Park in the southern part of the city. She is not aware that her commune is about to be destroyed by the Anita's landing.