Dive into trouble! Aliens, AIs, conspiracies and strange science. Thelma and Max need more than a little help from their friends to survive the Space Rodeo!

Buy link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VYG46DQ/

On the galactic frontier, the Federation’s wildest (and most scientific) citizens have gathered to ride in the Space Rodeo. The Navy is in charge—of the arena. But beyond the naval perimeter, there is only Interstellar Sheriff Max Smith to keep the peace. Fortunately, he has some extraordinary allies. And enemies. And then, there is his girlfriend.

Thelma Bach attracts trouble like the bunyaphi attract feuds.

She should have been safe, riding for an urself inventor in the Space Rodeo. So how did she end up in the middle of a mercenary corporation’s devious designs for galactic war?

Buckle up for a thrill ride of bandits, shadowy government agents, cyborgs, AIs and strange science.

Excerpt from Chapter 1

The human mind isn’t meant to look at itself. Staring out from her own eyes, Thelma Bach saw herself crouched on the floor of the spaceship Otua’s bridge, balanced on the balls of her booted feet with one hand down to brace herself. The image wasn’t from a mirror or hologram. It was really her.

She screamed and tore open the buckle of the harness that secured her in the captain’s seat. She landed in a crouch and spun, one hand going down to steady herself as she saw her own horrified face staring back at her from the chair.

Then the time dual-location of that spar of the comet helix collapsed and only a single Thelma remained. She’d have appreciated the resumption of standard physics a whole lot more if she hadn’t just torn free of the safety harness.

“Rat farts.” She spat the old asteroid miner curse as the Otua twisted and dived, overstraining the ship’s rudimentary artificial gravity system. With nonstandard results.

She lunged for the captain’s chair, and had scarcely gotten herself seated when an elephant sat on her chest. She forced her hands to keep moving, to refasten the harness, as blackness swallowed her vision.

She regained consciousness three minutes later. The artificial gravity system had restored itself. “Just breathe. That’s all you have to do. Just breathe.”

The Otua was fitted out with monitoring systems far more complete and efficient than its artificial gravity system. Every bit of data from riding the comet helix was captured. Thelma was simply the sentient body required for the Navy to allow the Otua’s participation in these first weeks of the Space Rodeo.

She glared at a camera. “Jerome, you owe me a ginormous favor.”

Closing her eyes, she concentrated on her body’s recovery. She was fit. Jerome wouldn’t have asked her to be the human pilot for the ride if she wasn’t, but the experience had been extreme. In a few minutes she’d open her eyes and check her current location. Meantime, the ship’s autopilot would guide her away from danger. Jerome had designed the Otua to function independently. It was only the Navy’s ruling that for the first month of the Space Rodeo only ships with an organic sentient aboard could ride the comet helices that had forced Jerome to acquire a human pilot.

As an urself, Jerome couldn’t pilot the Otua in the Space Rodeo himself. Urself physiology was such that the sudden dives of the ride were likely to trigger involuntary hibernation. Since the Navy required that pilots in the Space Rodeo report their experiences navigating the comet helices, urselves were barred from participation.

On the other hand, a human blacking out for three minutes from gravitational forces was apparently considered interesting. Thelma smiled wryly at the scientist conducting her post-ride debrief.

The man didn’t smile back. “Returning to your experience of viewing yourself during the time dual-location moment, how would you describe your emotional response?”

…

Space Rodeo is the second book in the Interstellar Sheriff series, available on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited. Book link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VYG46DQ/

P.S. For those of you desperately waiting for the next book in the Faerene Apocalypse, First Magic will be out October 28. You can pre-order your copy 🙂 Book link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VW5NWTN