Stuck at the Edge

By J Alan Erwine

Captain Jamieson and the crew of the SFS Lincoln have been sentenced to patrol duty in the Kuiper Belt after failing a mission that they had no chance of succeeding at. Now, as morale plunges on the ship, the young Ensign Al-Afadil makes a discovery that won’t only change the fortunes of the crew, but will forever change everything humanity knows about itself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J Alan Erwine
• Release date: Aug 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215592953

J Alan Erwine

J Erwine was born Oct. 15, 1969 in Akron, Ohio. Early in his life he was exposed to science, and specifically astronomy. From there on, J's passion turned to science fiction, a passion that's never died. Due to family issues, J eventually found himself in Denver, Colorado, where he still lives (well, right outside now.) From the time he could put subject and predicate together on paper, J has been writing stories. None of those early stories exist anymore (thankfully), but that passion for writing has never waned. After several years of rejection, the story Trek for Life was eventually sold to ProMart Writing Lab editor James Baker. It wasn't Asimov's, but it was a start. Since that time J has sold more than forty short stories to various small press publishers. In addition ProMart also published a short story collection of J's entitled Lowering One's Self Before Fate, and other stories, which is still available. ProMart also published a novel from J entitled The Opium of the People, which sold a few copies before going out of print. The relevance of the novel after the events of September 11th caused J to self-publish the novel, as he felt the story had a lot to say in the new reality we now find ourselves living in. Now, this same book has been re-released by Nomadic Delirium Press. Eventually J would become an editor with ProMart. Then, after the untimely death of ProMart editor James Baker, J would move on to ProMart's successor Sam's Dot Publishing. J also spends most of his time working as a freelance writer and editor. J's novel was voted a top ten finisher in the 2003 annual Preditors & Editors contest, and his short story The Galton Principle won a ProMart contest for best story over 5,000 words. In addition, a number of his stories have been voted "best of" in various issue of The Martian Wave and The Fifth DI… and have been included in Wondrous Web Worlds Vols. 2, 3, 4, and 6. In 2009, the Ephemeris Role Playing Game was released. J is the co-creator of this game, and has written numerous supplements for the game. J has now sold three novels and four short story collections, all of which are still available from various sources, including Smashwords. J currently lives with his amazing wife, three wonderful children, three cats, and a very quiet turtle.

Book preview

Stuck at the Edge

A Solar Federation Story

By J Alan Erwine

Published by J Alan Erwine at Smashwords

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Captain Rick Jamieson and the crew of the SFS Lincoln had been stuck in the Kuiper Belt for nearly nine months now, monitoring cometary fragments for possible threats to the colonies further into the solar system, and looking for any potential rebel activity that might rise up at the edge of the solar system.

So far, they had found no cometary fragments that posed a risk to anything aside from possibly another cometary fragment, and they hadn’t seen any signs of rebel activity, or any activity of any kind. In fact, they hadn’t even seen another ship since they’d arrived in the Kuiper Belt, but at least they hadn’t ended up in the Oort Cloud like they originally thought they were going to.

Still, to say that morale was low onboard the Lincoln would be an understatement. They’d basically been banished for failing a mission that was pretty much doomed to failure before they’d even set out on it. Three enlisted personnel and one officer were now in the brig for mutinous activities, and Captain Jamieson was sure there’d be more to follow. Hell, he’d felt like mutinying a few times himself. This was an unjust punishment for something that wasn’t their fault, but that was part of the