The Interstellar Slingshot

About the Book

Two thousand years after humans landed on the Moon, hundreds of populated space colonies and unmanned stations are in orbits around the Sun, the planets, and above and on the surfaces of natural satellites out to the solar rim.  Humankind is in its glory.

Grandeur, however, carries a price.

The past's history of reckless consumption of nonrenewable, limited minerals, metals, and other vital natural resources has caught up with reality: The Solar System's reserves and manmade substitutes are at the brink of depletion. There are no sanctuaries.

The final option is mining the Alpha Centauri star system, four light years distant, and teleport its useable substance through a wormhole across interstellar space to the Solar System.

The solar community is politically divided into two independent regions and the outer rim of the Asteroids Belt is the border.  Inter-regional relationships are tense.

Before the Outer Region seceded from the former United Planetary System the central government on Earth directed the construction of wormhole mining and teleport stations above Pluto.  The plan was to launch the Alpha Centauri terminal using Pluto’s momentum along its aberrant outbound orbit into interstellar space.  Timing the launch is critical to its success.

The Inner Region is organized as the United Inner Planetary System (UIPS).  The Outer Region, beyond the Asteroids, consists of independent entities formed into a loose federation The Independent Nations of the Outer Region (TINOR).  Despite their tense relationships, the UIPS and TINOR collaborate where their vital interests demand interdependence, such as in interplanetary commerce, communications and teleportation infrastructure, and space safety and rescue.  TINOR military forces are fragmented; not so in the UIPS.

Reen Narval, a criminal outcast from a colony in orbit above Callisto, rules Planet Pluto as a ruthless despot.  He profits from but deeply resents Inner Region construction in Plutonian space and harasses the nearby Slingshot project to delay its completion, hoping, thereby, to destabilize and weaken the Inner Region government.  He conspires to exploit TINOR's military forces to achieve his ambition to become the absolute ruler of a new order throughout the solar community.  The other leaders of TINOR, unaware of Narval's criminal background cooperate with him in the hope of gaining political prestige, power and riches for themselves.

Jess Curtin, a former space freighter captain from Earth's moon, leads a covert task force of Inner Region agents to Pluto.  They are charged by the President of the UIPS to thwart Narval’s scheme to delay the completion and launch of the Slingshot terminal; no holds barred.

Jess and his cohorts Myra, Hodak, Adari, Kumiko and Zolan penetrate Narval's organization and create conditions for a showdown.  A space battle erupts along the solar rim between the UIPS and TINOR war fleets.  A TIMOR assault on Slingshot was timed by Narval to coincide with a conference near the Asteroids among the two Regions' Heads of State.  Narval agreed to the conference and attends convinced that news of his military victory will demonstrate his power and clear the way for his assumption of power.

Review (Excerpt):

Reviewed by

The Write Lifestyle

Brenda Gayle, Reviewer

Excerpt: [Complete revew at    http://www.geocities.com/theritelifestyle/ ]

The main characters are well written and secondary characters are very active.  You can't be sure whose side a couple of them are on, which adds to the suspense.  Dialogue is well suited.  Description of life on Planet Pluto is vivid and fits into events throughout the story.  

The Interstellar Slingshot is a different kind of science fiction story, one which I can imagine on a movie theater scr

About the Author

Meyer "Mike" Moldeven was a civilian technician and logistics systems analyst with the United States Air Force for 33 years from shortly before World War Two until his retirement in 1974. He served as a senior survival equipment specialist in the Pacific Area during the war. He returned to the Air Force logistics center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio in 1948 as an equipment analyst and technical writer. He then spent several years at an American base in North Africa preparing logistics plans to support U S Air Force 'Cold War' operations throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East. During early United States post-Sputnik initiatives to develop a national space program Mike critiqued USAF-NASA-industry proposals for a future U S Air Force in space. Among the studies in which he participated were long-range military infrastructure and capabilities for Space Logistics, Operations, Maintenance and Rescue (Project SLOMAR) and 'Moon Base' (Project LUNEX).