From the publisher
This is Book 5 of the highly rated Koban Series. When the enemy discovers their hidden home, Mirikami is forced to lead 117 Kobani ships in a desperate attack against 3,000 Krall ships and uncounted warriors. Armed with a 22,000-year-old computer virus, and sheer courage, they must disable every enemy ship and weapon. The last time this tactic was tried against them, the Krall eradicated the entire Olt'kitapi civilization. That's just one foe the Kobani face. The PU president rejects diplomatic recognition of the new Galactic Federation, and diplomat Mirikami is ordered arrested for genetic crimes and for provoking Krall attacks on Hub worlds. To reveal the president's duplicity in a secret deal with the Krall leader, he accepts a life or death challenge fight with an old enemy, right on the capitol steps, with news cameras rolling. Then, proving the galaxy remains a dangerous place, the huge Thandol Empire, a former Olt'kitapi enemy, forcefully announces that its elephantine rulers intend to annex the Orion Spur. That happens to be where both the Kobani led Galactic Federation, and Human Space reside. Naturally, the Kobani decline the Empire's violently phrased demands, doing it in their typically harsh and forceful manner. In leading up to that confrontation, the Kobani learn the basis of the Empire's claim to Federation Space, and it predates the Krall conquests. The prior owners may have a claim. The Empire's initial punitive reaction to Kobani rejection reveals they have a pain causing nerve weapon, used for crowd control in the Empire. This mild sounding weapon proves to be devastating to those with organic superconducting nerves. Life on Koban could be wiped out by a riot control ship.Book 1 Koban, Book 2 Koban: The Mark of Koban, Book 3 Koban: Rise of the Kobani, Book 4 Koban: Shattered Worlds.
About the author
I was born in 1942, so I'm an autumn rather than a spring chicken. I live outside of Tampa, Florida with my fabulous wife Anita, and one remaining son at home, Montana. I have three older boys, Mark, Gary, and Anthony, all of whom have married and presented us with terrific grandchildren. My early reading interests were arguably all sci-fi related, from Doctor Doolittle, Captain Marvel, to Superman. I read hundreds of books by the science fiction greats growing up, and thousands of fair to not so greats in dual novel paperbacks and magazines. My education gravitated to science, starting out as a physics major and my depression era folks told me I'd never make a living as a theoretical physicist (probably right, and Cosmology wasn't a career field then), so I moved to Electronics Engineering. I did most of that in the aerospace field for MacDonnell Douglas Corp, in St. Louis, Mo. I worked on the F4 Phantom project, and briefly on Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), before the fickle fates of government finance forced contract cancelations. I devoted (read: I was drafted into) two years' service for the US Army from 1965 to 1967. A great two years, and the Army, caring not a whit for my electronics background, offered this draftee a job as an Air Traffic Controller. Cool! After discharge I spent a short time back at MacDonnell Douglas before the contract reductions laid me off, and was hired by Emerson Electric (1968), working on the design of a neat heads-up fire control system for the Army's new Cheyenne Helicopter (to be a 270-knot hybrid fixed wing/rotor craft). Never heard of it? The fickle fates of Army finance is why this time, plus Lockheed didn't keep the airframe part from crashing and burning at a crucial point in development. I taught Electronics for about eighteen months (near starvation wages after the high pay), and finally decided to try my hand at actually supporting my family again. I hired on with the Federal Aviation Administration as an Air Traffic Controller in 1970. Thanks Army! I spent exactly forty years in federal service, deciding in 1979 to use my technical background to work on writing features for the software of the FAA's Terminal Automation Systems. Retired from the FAA, I now work as a consultant for the FAA, supporting a software feature I helped create. I finally decided to try my hand at writing what I love to read, Science Fiction.
