Captain Hawkins
by H. Peter
Alesso
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Sci-fi
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Jamie
Hawkins was living on an obscure planet in the twenty third-century when on one
fateful night—his life changed forever. His heroic effort to save the lives of
innocent women and children, caught in the cross-fire of war, placed him
squarely in the crosshairs of avenging soldiers.
A former
marine, Hawkins was stunned when his rescue effort was seen as treachery.
Unfairly convicted of treason by a corrupt judge, he was sentenced to life
imprisonment at hard labor on an infamous penal colony.
Once in
prison, Hawkins was mistreated by a paranoid warden, but his courage and
perseverance won him the admiration and trust of his fellow convicts. While he
was plotting his escape, an enemy attacked the planet—giving this daring
warrior his chance. Together with his fellow prisoners, he launched a bold
assault and high-jacked an enemy warship.
From then
on, the exploits of Captain Jamie Hawkins became legendary.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT:
“Sir, I was working with the data techs trying to
analyze the communication patterns of the enemy fleet,” said Joshua, licking
his dry lips, excitedly. “And I’ve came across a very unusual signal.”
Hawkins gave him an encouraging nod.
“It was a burst of radio signals from deep space. I
traced it to either a 4 billion-year-old star in a constellation 44.4 light
years away, or to another star in that same constellation, but much farther
away. That means that the radio waves have been travelling to us for at least
forty-four point four years.”
Hawkins said, “Deep space radio signals have many
plausible explanations, such as radio interference from planets, or rogue
signals caused by local planet microwave devices.
“That’s true, Captain. It could be just the effect
of a natural space object like a pulsating quasar, but it’s also possible . . .
I think maybe . . . it could be a message from another civilization.”
Now smiling broadly, Hawkins said, “Given the
unlikeness of that, why are you concerned?”
“Because it was not a one-off event,” said Joshua
excitedly and then pausing to catch his breath. “I’ve recorded a half dozen
repeating signals from the exact same source.”
Nodding, Hawkins said, “That’s a little more
interesting, but there are explanations for that too.”
“But Captain, the implications could be
mind-blowing. Imagine, what if it was an alien civilization, and they were far
more advanced than us, and they were trying to make contact? After centuries of
fruitlessly scanning the stars and finding no evidence that anyone else is out
there, this could be . . . could be . .
.”
Joshua became paralyzed by his own imagination.
“Joshua, even if this signal were not natural, it
might still be the product of one of Earth’s colonies—not aliens.”
“No sir, I’ve checked. There were no Earth colonies
in the vicinity of the signal’s star cluster when we last had contact with
Earth, fifty years ago,” said Joshua.
Joshua wanted to argue further, but couldn’t offer
any additional proof for his cause.
Hawkins said, “I agree, we should continue to
monitor this frequency, but for now, it’ll have to remain a mystery.”
It was only a few days later that Joshua returned
to argue, “I’ve been working to decrypt the deep space signal using our AI
computer with the help of a data tech.”
Hawkins was surprised, but also impressed with
Joshua’s initiative.
“What does a deep space signal have to do with our
enemy’s Top Secrets communication network?”
“Everything.”
“You’ll have to explain that.”
“Let me give you a metaphor for how I solved this
puzzle, because it is a puzzle.”
“Go on.”
“Think of a portrait of a woman, say the Mona Lisa.
Now consider a jigsaw puzzle of the Mona Lisa—a picture of a woman cut into a
thousand irregularly sized pieces and spread out for someone to reassemble.”
“A kid’s game.”
“Yes, sir.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and
Links:
As
a scientist and author specializing in technology innovation, H. Peter Alesso
has over twenty years research experience at Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory (LLNL). As Engineering Group Leader at LLNL he led a team of
scientists and engineers in innovative applications across a wide range of
supercomputers, workstations, and networks. He graduated from the United States
Naval Academy with a B.S. and served in the U.S. Navy on nuclear submarines
before completing an M.S. and an advanced Engineering Degree at M.I.T. He has
published several software titles and numerous scientific journal and
conference articles, and he is the author/co-author of ten books.
Website
Address: http://www.hpeteralesso.com/Default.aspx
personal
links
Goodreads
Address: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/413852.H_Peter_Alesso
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Jamie-Hawkins-1296787840384241/?ref=bookmarks
Link
to book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M8HVGS3
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and
RAFFLECOPTER CODE
The author will be
awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter
during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
