Jump Gate IV: Jump Gate (The Jump Gate Series Book 4)

JUMP GATE IV – JUMP GATE, the story that has been formulating in my mind since I discovered sci-fi at the age of ten.That was the year I read Tom Godwin’s book, Prison Planet. Innocent Earthlings, captured as they fled alien invaders, are imprisoned on a planet with gravity one and a half times Earth-normal.There was a three-body problem affected by the three stars that causes the G- Zone (liquid water) to drift every few years to a cycle resulting in a decade of dry desertification, multiple decades of normalcy, then a decade of frozen polarization.So, I stole some of that. Heavy gravity and the three-body problem, though, of course, I inserted my own unique twists to each.Where Godwin’s characters lived on a metal-poor planet, mine has a heavy metals problem that prevents anything from growing if it is from Earth. Different DNA makes plant and animal life inedible. Almost everything edible on Terra, our new planet, is either imported or grown in multi-level greenhouses.There is interference from “The Home Office” when the CEO from Earth visits the colony. She is a rich, entitled ass. Ever had a boss like that? I have.There is an apparent Alpha species already living on the planet. They are not happy about our pioneers settling in, and we open our story mid-battle.But isn’t this supposed to be about a Jump Gate?Oh yeah. You bet. But our characters need motivation. In this tale, we have alien invasions, attacking both Terra and Earth. We have battles aground and more in space. Once we chase them away, how do we ensure they won’t be back? – Jump Gate!I’m not gonna reveal that trick as the Jump Gate requires both a transmitter and a receiver. There will be no “beaming down” in my books. Unlike TV studios, we have the budget to solve those problems.I spent four years in the US Navy myself, visiting the exotic countries of China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore, and of course, Vietnam. In this book, I get to build my own fleet. Not a military story in any way, but a couple of chapters of fun for me. A little boot camp. A little… field work.A battleship, a carrier, two cruisers, four destroyers, multiple fighters, and support ships. Only a couple of chapters where battleships stand back and pound at each other with heavy guns while our darting Mosquitoes take on a fleet of alien fighters. Oh, and the alien ships are saddled with crews using stolen tech they don’t know how to repair.Let’s see how that goes. Read more