Tomorrow the Stars— Today, World War III! Dr. Neil Anson Clemons was born at the very moment that men first landed on the moon and always strived to become an astronaut and reach the stars. Becoming an astronaut and traveling to the stars are not easy tasks. Neil devoted his life to staying physically fit as any astronaut should be through martial arts and mentally fit by studying and becoming one of the world's foremost experts in quantum physics and gravitational theory. Now he and his team have achieved a breakthrough, both in building a warp drive, and finding a new energy source powerful enough to make the drive more than an interesting theoretical concept. With the help of attractive and outspoken southern astronaut, US Air Force Colonel Tabitha Ames, the US Government is convinced to fund the Top Secret warp project, including assembly in orbit of the first faster-than-light probe. Unfortunately, forces working behind the scenes have much darker dreams, and have infiltrated the Top Secret program. They do not hesitate to blow up a space shuttle, attempt to kill Neil and Tabitha, and use the stolen warp technology to start what they expect to be a short, devastating, and victorious war with the United States. But Dr. Clemons has ideas for using his warp drive technology completely unsuspected by America's enemies, and repelling the all-out attack is only the beginning of a titanic struggle to reach the stars. Warp Speed is lightning-paced science fiction adventure built upon authentic science in the grand tradition of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and E. E. "Doc" Smith. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). Travis S. Taylor —"Doc" Taylor to his friends—has earned his soubriquet the hard way: He has a Doctorate in Optical Science and Engineering, a Master's degree in Physics, a Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering, all from the University of Alabama in Huntsville; a Master's degree in Astronomy from the University of Western Sydney, and a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University. Dr. Taylor has worked on various programs for the Department of Defense and NASA for the past sixteen years. He's currently working on several advanced propulsion concepts, very large space telescopes, space-based beamed energy systems, and next generation space launch concepts. In his copious spare time, Doc Travis is also a black belt martial artist, a private pilot, a SCUBA diver, races mountain bikes, competed in triathlons, and has been the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of several hard rock bands. He currently lives with his wife Karen, daughter Kalista Jade, two dogs Stevie and Wesker, and his cat Kuro, in north Alabama.
Steven Montana, computer whiz and hacker extraordinaire, was attending college in Ohio when his world fell apart. A swarm of huge meteors fell all over the world, on Europe, on the United States, and in particular on Steven¿s home town in California. In an instant, his family and all his friends were gone. Eventually, he learned that the ¿meteor¿ onslaught that had orphaned him had actually been a brief and still secret war between the U.S and its enemies (as told in Warp Speed ) using a new warp drive technology that was more secret than top secret. Another secret was that U.S. had been sending faster-than-light ships to other star systems. Most secret of all was that unfriendly aliens were observing the Earth, and while U.S. spaceships were not quite in a war with the unknown aliens, they were shooting at the intruders. Whether any of these answers would do Steven any good was an open question because he learned them only after his was abducted by those very same aliens and was held prisoner on one of their ships orbiting Saturn. At first, he was one of three human prisoners, but he had just seen the aliens completely dissect one of the three, and it looked like either Steven, or the Russian girl who was his fellow prisoner, were scheduled to be the next alien lab experiment. . . .