A Nine Star Nebula Mystery/Adventure Series

"I signed aboard the Tzaritsa Moon as her second engineer. I ended up a toaster repairman. I was very lucky." – Rafe d'Mere, from The Secret of the Tzaritsa Moon. The Secret of the Tzaritsa Moon marks the long awaited return to the Nine Star Nebula of the Bright Black Sea. This story takes place in the Alantzia star system, the most remote of the eight solar systems. The Alantzia system is known for its many little worlds, moons, and rocks that are reputed to be more like the "lawless" drift worlds than the staid worlds of the Unity. Old spaceers convinced Rafe d'Mere that to fully appreciate the exotic romance of the Alantzian experience, he needed to ship out on one of the small planet traders which call on the eccentric little worlds of the system. So he did, signing aboard the Tzaritsa Moon, under the name Rye Rylr, as her second engineer. On the passage to Fairwaine, Rafe's swift response to a critical engine failure saved the Tzaritsa Moon. And his life. However, the failure was deliberate, part of a pirate prince's plan to keep the Tzaritsa Moon from arriving in Fairwaine orbit. And when it did, thanks to Rafe, the pirate prince was not happy. At best, Rafe might expect his memory of the incident to be erased. Erasing Rafe would, however, work just as well. So Rafe needed to get clear of the Tzaritsa Moon and get very lost on Fairwaine until things cooled down. However, while doing so, he crossed orbits with a thief. A girl with a pretty face, who may, or may not, have been a covert agent of the Patrol. She was rather evasive on that point. But she was determined to discover why the pirate prince wanted the Tzaritsa Moon destroyed. And Rafe found that he couldn't resist helping her. She had a pretty face. The Secret of the Tzaritsa Moon is a cozy SF mystery adventure. It features Rafe d'Mere, ex-Patrol contraband suppression and repair tech, now a spaceer engineer, and Vaun Di Ai, who seems to be a Patrol Lieutenant JG, Intelligence Analyst 2, who had, somehow, escaped her desk job to be an acting covert agent. The story is set mostly on the moon of Fairwaine, and in one of its old fashioned, nonconforming societies. One that uses toasters to make toast. C. Litka writes old fashioned novels with modern sensibilities, humor, and romance. He spins tales of adventure, mystery, and travel set in richly imagined worlds, featuring casts of colorful, fully realized characters. If you seek to escape your everyday life for a few hours, you will not find better company, nor more wonderful worlds to travel and explore, than in the novels of C. Litka.

The small resort town of Pine Cove has its little secrets. And one very dangerous one. It takes Patrol Lieutenant JG Intelligence Analyst Vaun Di Ai to discover the dangerous one. It would. In The Secrets of Valsummer House, sequel to The Secret of the Tzarista Moon, we once more return to the Nine Star Nebula of The Bright Black Sea in a new mystery adventure featuring Patrol Lieutenant Vaun Di Ai and the spaceer, Rafe d'Mere. Rafe d'Mere is still repairing Pine Cove's toasters, bots, and appliances, when a possibly illegal robot arrives in a bugged crate, to be collected by an unidentified customer – eleven years after it was shipped. A few days later, a rather mysterious lady arrives in Pine Cove "on (undefined) business." And between these arrivals, Intelligence Analyst 3, Lt Vaun Di Ai, turns up to tick off some boxes on the case forms, and follow up on a few leads in the Seven Syndicate case. She assures Rafe that she has strict orders to do nothing but boxes to tick or risk her career in the Patrol. In her own words, she's merely an IA3 "on a field trip." Nothing to worry about. But knowing her, of course he does. With good reason. This Nine Star Nebula Mystery Adventure is an old fashioned "whodunit" story. Together with old and new Pine Cove characters, Di Ai and d'Mere follow a tangled web of clues to discover just how the Seven Syndicate came to own the long lost weapons armory of the mercenary company once known as Bright Dark Solutions. And, maybe, just maybe, discover who is the boss of the Seven Syndicate. C. Litka writes old fashioned stories with modern sensibilities, humor, and romance. He spins tales of adventure, mystery, and travel set in richly imagined worlds, with casts of colorful, fully realized characters. If you seek to escape your everyday life, you will not find better company, nor more wonderful worlds to travel and explore, than in the stories of C. Litka.

"I'd like to believe that I can take the rough with the smooth. I didn't complain about the hundred petty inconveniences of the Iron Kingdom. Not too much. It was the werewolves, super-humans, and mad scientists who hauntedits black forests and ruined castles that got to me. Still, what did I expect in the company of Vaun Di Ai?" – Rafe d'Mere from Shadows of an Iron Kingdom.   Rafe d'Mere and Vaun Di Ai return in this sequel to The Secrets of Valsummer House. Rafe d'Mere, after turning the Fix-it-all Shop back over to its owner, follows his heart instead of his head. Concerned after not receiving a radio-packet from Lieutenant JG Vaun Di Ai for months, he sets out for the planet of VanTre to assure himself that she's fine. There, he finds that she has resigned from the Patrol – an unthinkable act on her part. So, with some help, he follows her to the small, airless planet of Ironlode, merely, he tells himself, to find out what she's gotten herself into this time. It was danger, of course. Danger in a Gothic inspired throw-back society. A primitive, almost feudal society where mythical werewolves, the size of large bears, were said to roam its dark forests. As d'Mere discovered, they were more than imaginary. And even so, they weren't the most dangerous creatures that inhabited those forests. Di Ai, d'Mere, and Di Ai's new colleague, the all too handsome and charming (in d'Mere's opinion), Tarvis Byn, set out to find the secret of these monsters.   Shadows of an Iron Kingdom is the third book in the Nine Star Nebula Mystery/Adventure series. Set in the same universe of The Bright Black Sea, these stories chronicle the early adventures of a character we first met in The Bright Black Sea, Systems Tech, Rafe GilGiles, a man of a hundred names. C. Litka writes old fashioned stories with modern sensibilities, humor, and romance. He spins tales of adventure, mystery, and travel set in richly imagined worlds, with casts of colorful, fully realized characters. If you seek an escape from your everyday life, you will find no better company, nor more wonderful worlds to travel and explore, than in the stories of C. Litka.

It is always the captain's fault. So when a shipping container is offloaded to the wrong lighter – hijacked by the local crime syndicate – Captain Sing of the Rendezvous Moon knew she's be blamed, even though they had followed all the proper procedures. She had no intention of being blamed. She intended to track down the hijacked container. Red Tew, her chief engineer, volunteered to accompany her as "muscle" and invited Rafe d'Mere to tag along as well, since he was an old hand at dealing with the pirate princes of the Alatzian System. Because he was an old hand in dealing with the pirate princes of the Alantzia, Rafe had no desire to have anything to do with pirate princes. But what could he say, but "I suppose so," when invited along?   Captain Sing, Tew, d'Mere and his companion the crow Kee head down to Teire to locate the cargo container before its contents can be divided up and sent on the lawless drifts. There they are joined by an equally determined Lasha Nin, the office manager of the actual owner of the cargo. Together they trace the cargo through the busy space port of Teire, much to the annoyance of the pirate prince behind the theft. And so, before he knows it, d'Mere is once again looking down the barrel of a pirate prince's darter. Pirate princes play for keeps.   The Aerie of a Pirate Prince is a 40,600 word long story – a long novella or a short novel.   C. Litka writes old fashioned stories with modern sensibilities, humor, and romance. He spins tales of adventure, mystery, and travel set in richly imagined worlds, with casts of colorful, fully realized characters. If you seek to escape your everyday life, you will not find better company, nor more wonderful worlds to travel and explore, than in the stories of C. Litka.