J G Clements

The McKinsie Fleet J G Clements

"Old Man" McKinsie got tired waiting for NASA. So he launched over one hundred 'one man' rockets into orbit. Staying in orbit they rafted together to form a permanent Earthstation, fixing satellites and the like to earn a living. Until one of them, Jim-88, found something out past Mars. With a great secret uncovered, Earth had to grow up quickly and learn to defend itself. Fortunately, they were going to have help. The Crekie have been watching Earth knowing that this day was coming and had tried to get us ready. The Recruiter has been helping them sneak humans off Earth for over twelve years to help man the first-contact ships. They had thousands and thousands of ships waiting, only needed Sentient minds to man them. The Swarm are creatures of methane and cold. They destroy planets by dropping 5-mile diameter asteroids on them, causing extinction events. In order stop the asteroids in time, they had to be spotted far enough out to give the beam weapons time to break them up. Earth had to learn that warfare in space was like submarine combat: Silent, stealthy, cold. Your ship had to be as cold as the other orbiting bodies or it stuck out like a sore thumb. Whoever saw the other guy first, lived. Faster-than-light travel was possible, but only when a ship could get far enough out of a gravity well to erect a jump-field. But if the Swarmers detected you, they'd fight to the death: No Swarmer had ever broken off from a fight. Now two very different men are trying to save the Earth from destruction in two very different ways.