Brad Lansky Series

Zara, a life form scientist on Earth, is collaborating on a research project with Sandy Larkin in a distant part of the Milky Way. Sandy has discovered a new intelligent life form, but his transmissions suddenly stop without warning. Weeks later, Zara is contacted by the cybernetic proxy of a wealthy trading family. It claims to have the coordinates of Brad’s drone Celius, but will not part with any information until she arranges a physical meeting with Brad Lansky on Earth. Distraught, Zara calls on Brad for help, knowing that Celius is on loan to the Larkin expedition. Brad and Sandy have fallen out since their good old days in flight school and Alex is no fan either, but this no longer matters when Celius is accused of a serious crime against the trading family. Brad must accept legal liability for the actions of his drone. Their only defense is to mount a rescue mission to a distant, treacherous system and prove what really happened. But how should they best prepare for it? Zara’s brief is cold comfort. Are they dealing with a hostile new life form? And how should they prepare for an encounter with a powerful alien entity they know almost nothing about? Track 1 – Incoming – Sandy Larkin and Dieter Rothman are on the hunt for a new alien life form. They finally make contact, but their well-laid plans quickly spiral out of control. Track 2—Shanghai Spaceport—The Full Advantage is docked above Earth in geostationary orbit. Brad and Alex take the Lander down to Shanghai Spaceport where Zara is waiting impatiently. Track 3—Ming Mall—Brad, Alex and Zara meet with the cybernetic representative of a wealthy trading family. Rogue Adbots make life difficult for Alex while Brad is dealt some shocking news. Track 4—Project Moby Dick—Brad and Zara discuss her possible role in the rescue attempt. Track 5—Preparations—The group holds a pre-mission discussion in a hangar at Shanghai Spaceport. There are many unknowns and much to consider. Track 6—The Subway – Zara experiences her first journey on the universal subway network. Track 7—Celius—Brad and Alex take the lander down to the inhospitable surface of Planet X to recover the wreck of Celius. They desperately need a clue as to Sandy’s whereabouts. Track 8—The Pointer – It’s all hands on deck as they scrutinize the wreckage and try to recover the scant information left by Celius in his final moments before crashing onto Planet X. Track 9—In the Teeth—They only have a few minutes’ warning before they are discovered by the alien lurking on the moon of Planet X. Track 10 – Moon Fall—Their situation is dire. Brad decides that offense is their best defence. They sneak down to the surface and search for Commander Larkin‘s ship. Track 11—Echolocator – Brad and Alex look for Sandy in his rotting ship. Can they really expect him to be alive? Track 12—The Full Advantage—Brad, Alex and Sandy have hatched a plan to get off the moon. To do so, they have no choice but to do battle with ‘Moby Dick’s worst nightmare’. Track 13—Heading Home—Questions, questions…

These are troubled times. MARA, the mighty blue supergiant of the Torvus Iubar System is dying, as are the other thirteen ambistars that make up the Ambistar Collective. Billions of lives are in peril. What conceivable force could cause the simultaneous death of fourteen ambistars thousands of light-years apart? Since the peace accord between Giri Null and GAIA three years ago, Torvus has prospered and been relatively stable, save for the remaining rogue Grefim who still plague commercial shipping lanes. Recent weeks in particular have seen a number of GAIA freighters simply disappearing in Torvus. More warships have been dispatched to the area, but the rogue Grefim remain elusive and their prey vanished without a trace. A warship notifies Brad and Alex of a call for help from an imprisoned teslalite on a planet near MARA. Drawn in by their debt of gratitude to these most mysterious life forms, they decide to assist. From that moment on they’re hurtled into a hectic series of events and discoveries that even challenge the imagination of their new passenger – GAIA’s most expensive AI. They discover a dangerous new world - one thought to be impossible. Stranger still, they find it to be inextricably connected to the Ambistar Collective. Is there a way to avert the impending crisis? An abandoned alien artifact may hold some desperately-needed answers. Track 1 - The Ambistar Collective Problem – Brad and Alex arrive in the Torvus Iubar System at the invitation of Giri Null. Track 2 - Planet Calidus – They respond to the plea of a captured Teslalite and soon find themselves on a hot planet, in a sticky situation. Track 3 - The Space Desert – The Teslalite takes them to an unknown subway exit. A gas giant with a nasty surprise awaits them at the other end. Track 4 - Bleeding Edge – Aleph One tries to convey the enormity, and multi-faceted nature of their discovery. Track 5 – Mamai Soliton – For their return mission, GAIA sends them a warship and its most expensive A.I. – Why then does Alex not feel at all grateful? Track 6 - The Antibeings – MAMAI makes contact with intelligent beings, but this happy event is overshadowed by the information they provide. Track 7 - Costing Run – They watch as a GAIA freighter explodes on the gas giant. Mystified, they spot GAIA’s largest freighter emerge from behind the sun. Track 8 - The Artifact – Hoping for some badly-needed answers, they make contact with the artifact. How is this gas giant connected with the Grefim and the fate of the Ambistar Collective? Track 9 - Back To The Antiwall – Pinned down by two Grefim, they finally understand the full implications of unfolding events. Track 10 - Message From Tess – Saved again – Brad and Alex feel humbled by this most mysterious of life forms. Track 11 - Solefuge – All scramble to divert the Costing Run, but why has Solefuge called them to the simdeck? Track 12 – Opposite Attraction – Brad examines Solefuge’s motives - Does the end justify the means? Track 13 – Contact – A face-to-face meeting with a being made of antimatter is dangerous, but well worth the risk for Brad.

MAMAI Soliton found a way to travel through the toroid artefact in the Anti-STARC. The cryptic note he left before disappearing leads Brad and Alex to Drupa 5, a deserted alien planet. There they find a beacon in a desert canyon that might belong to MAMAI. Next thing they hit upon a treasure trove of alien artefacts; to Alex, an explorer’s dream come true - to Brad, too good to be true. Alex’s personality suddenly changes. And then there are the shapes…. This moment strains their friendship and marks the start of a devious plan by unseen agents. Subsequent events drive the rift between them ever wider. Can trust win through when reality itself is being manipulated? Can friendship survive in a game dictated by malevolent superbeings? Alex is soon lost in a higher dimension where his only hope is a friend’s loyalty. In his desperation Brad accepts the help of a sinister warship and soon finds himself at the forefront of GAIA’s power struggle with an old enemy, an enemy that has just taken the arms race to a completely new, and terrifying level. Track 1 – Expensive Coordinates – Brad and Alex look for MAMAI Soliton in a desert canyon on Drupa 5, an alien planet. What they see is not what they find, and what they find is not what it seems. Track 2 – Message from MAMAI – Is the beacon MAMAI’s? Whose alien artefacts did they help themselves to? And what about the shapes? Track 3 – The Mystery Goggles – Alex finds mysterious goggles in the galley. What do they do? Kimberly, a friendly operating system guide offers to help. Track 4 – Entangled in Tethys – Brad and Alex pay Aleph One a visit on a moon of Saturn. They find only secrets and madness. Track 5 – The Siren of Drupa 5 – Kimberly makes contact again, this time without the goggles. Alex is not himself, and she bends him to her will. Track 6 – First Visit in 4D-verse – Kimberly takes Alex on a heady tour under the fractal fortress in 4D-verse. Track 7 – The Real Me in the Mirror – A bad hangover for Alex and a fall-out with his best friend. Can it get any worse? Track 8 – Room within a Room – Solefuge sheds some light on the problem with Alex. They need to act before Kimberly strikes again. Track 9 – Coming Clean with GAIA – Too late. It’s time to lay all cards on the table and join forces. Track 10 – The Fractal Fortress – Brad enters 4D-verse to rescue Alex. GAIA’s primitive transform can only render Brad in flat mode – a state with many limitations, but are there any advantages? Track 11 – Diamond Moon – Betrayed, Alex finally comes to terms with his situation in 4D-verse. Track 12 – The State of Pan-dimensional Affairs – Brad and Alex learn a lot about their place in the universe. Track 13 – A Small Matter of Symmetry – Brad and Alex are shocked to find their old enemy in 4D-verse. Even if they survive the fight, how will they get back to 3D-verse? Track 14 – The Map – Brad falls victim to an A.I. error. D5 leaves them with a special map.

“A before B, except after C” - a favorite saying of Carbon-Based A-life. Biological or ‘B-life’ was overtaken by A-life centuries ago and now the balance of power is at the tipping point. An invisible rogue planet on a perfect collision course with Earth caught everyone by surprise, even GAIA. With nearly all forty billion humans still living on Earth, this time it really is the end of the world for B-life. What is to be done? Moving a planet is beyond the combined capabilities of all of Sol System’s resources, and there is no ‘planet B’. Even worse, many class 12 AI’s don’t think B-life deserves to survive - after all, extinction in this universe is the rule, not the exception. Does humanity deserve to survive? Does Earth? Does deserve have anything to do with it? There is a woman, Brinn, a scientist who has scoured the entire DNA database for the best biological capabilities, plant and animal alike. These she integrated into her own biome, evolved to the pinnacle of B-life in a single package. She has lived to give B-life a fighting chance in a cruel cosmos. She will determine the nature of the Rogue Era. Track 1 - Brinn – Dr Diaz gives a talk on the future of Human biology. Brad listens in attentively. Track 2 – A World on Hold – An invisible rogue planet on a collision course with Earth catches everyone by surprise. Why is Brad the last to know? Track 3 – A New Subway Exit – The awful truth has sunk in and Earth is in chaos. Earth’s Armada departs for the rogue planet. Track 4 - Scapegoat – Mobs have bombed Brinn’s apartment. Is there anything left to live for? Track 5 – Rogue Planet – They go down to inspect one of the many large radio-active craters. They catch a glimpse of something blue below the surface when the machines attack. Track 6 – Hard Rain – Brinn returns to the crater and penetrates underground. Clearly this is where everything happens. Track 7 - BiAdmiral – They discuss the strange nature of the mysterious BiAdmiral – half AI, half human. Brinn produces evidence for a complex Carbon-based life form. Track 8 – Carbon Snob – The Vice-Admiral is not impressed with their findings. And his tone is worrisome. Surely any contribution should be welcomed with open arms? Track 9 - Them – Deciphering the machines’ language yields frequent references to a third person object, plural, gender unknown. Do the machines work for “them”? Track 10 – Another Actor – The BiAdmiral has dropped nuclear bombs on the planet. All information they share is treated with disdain. Track 11 – The Devil You Know – In his desperation Brad calls on Solefuge for help. Can this powerful AI’s ambitions be aligned with the needs of humanity? Track 12 – A Nose for Them – Brinn designs a sensor-molecule to find ‘them’. She needs the fleet to distribute the sensors, but to their horror the BiAdmiral announces operation ‘Save the Earth’. Track 13 – The Sleepers – In a brilliant flash of insight, Brinn manages to find them. With only a few hours left, she rushes to make contact, but Brad finds it difficult to say goodbye. Track 14 – Panspermia II – Thousands of craters erupt with rock and plasma. And B-life. Track 15 – Brad 2.0 – Brad’s brainstate backup awakes in a new body. Change is the hallmark of the new Rogue Era.

The Rogue Planet missed Earth by a few thousand kilometers and quickly receded into the blackness of space. The Sleepers, the smartest form of biological life ever encountered, showed no interest in Earth and shunned all communication, even with GAIA. The massive object deflected Earth inward, toward the Sun. Earth’s new orbit is elliptical - a colossal shock for every creature. For those who cling to life, the new normal means long dismal winters, punctuated by short summers of searing heat. Worst of all, the new orbit is chaotic, because it gets too close to Venus. All of humanity is anxiously looking at GAIA to restore certainty, and with it, hope. GAIA’s vast computational abilities are being brought to bear on a single, fiendishly difficult result: What is the future of Earth’s orbit? But this result is also of great interest to others. So great, that someone has started a very public ‘result war’ with GAIA. Someone anonymous, with monumental computing power, for reasons only a paranoid AI could begin to comprehend. Track 1 - The Great Uncertainty - The Full Advantage ponders the refusal of the Ankaans to make contact, despite having left Earth with an unstable orbit. Track 2 - Mythaxium (& After Math Result 1) - A strange and somewhat paranoid AI calls Brad. Not an easy conversation for either of them. Track 3 - The Digital Divide - Brad and Alex on foot in the off-grid African savannah. Will their illegal tech be a help or hindrance? Track 4 - Highly Programmed Insect (& Result 2) - Something is very wrong with Brinn. The entity 'Anonymous' issues its first prediction on the future of Earth's orbit. Track 5 - Cycle Farm (& Result 3) - Someone is systematically hacking Brinn's mind. But who? And why? Track 6 - Dream Lucid - They learn what they can, but the attacker will not be easy to find. Track 7 - Chaos (& Result 4) - Brad and Brinn talk about chaos. GAIA issues a scary result. Track 8 - Doors Of Interception - Brinn manages to take a back seat in her mind, with fruitful results. Track 9 - Lowlife - They confront the hacker in his compound with the help of AI, and insects. Track 10 - Ejection (& Result 5) - Just as they celebrate their victory, GAIA issues a shocking result. Track 11 - Seed Bank, Ross Island - Mythaxium persuades them that all roads lead to Scott Base in Antarctica, or what's left of it. Track 12 - Benny - Brad and Alex are no strangers to alien life forms, but this..... Track 13 - Scott Base - Trapped deep under the ice, and way out of their depth. Track 14 - Forward Errors - Struggling on, at the mercy of tech that is scarcely distinguishable from magic. Track 15 - A Very Different Ejection (& Result 6) - They find a way to force the Ankaans' hand. Great powers converge upon Brad with a laser focus. Track 16 - Analog Life - Brad is gone, somewhere in exile. The hacker is back. Track 17 - Ship’s Log - The future of Earth's orbit is now certain, and dreadful. But B-life now has 'Scotti'.