Like a Fox on the Run

around in some kind of Jetson-esque cars and living on the moon, space travel would be as common as booking a flight across country, and yes, you’d probably even have a robot housekeeper (no, a Roomba doesn’t count). I certainly did. Yet here we are, almost fifty years since Neal and Buzz took their stroll across that hunk of rock out there. And where are we now? Stuck in low-earth orbit. The same place we’ve been for over forty years. We don’t even have a manned space program anymore. Our astronauts have to hitch rides with Russians. Talk about an insult to our national pride. And all the technology gleaned from what we’ve learned? Well, we’ve got titanium golf clubs, satellite TV, and oh yes, let’s not forget cool phones, some of which actually do look like the communicators on Star Trek. And what do we do with them? We play silly games on them, post what we had for lunch, and take pictures of ourselves in bathroom mirrors.
Just for one second, imagine what this world or this solar system might look like today, if we’d only pressed on. Imagine our economy if we had factories building ships to fly to other planets, where permanent settlements might be decades old by now. Imagine vacationing on the moon or in an orbiting hotel. What about taking a deep space cruise on a luxury liner? Who knows, maybe by now we would have the technology to send ships to other stars, or at least be working on it.
I might even have my Jetson car.
Alas, with all the progress we’ve made, such a future still evades us. It remains the stuff of books and movies. For now, everything is speculation, who knows where we will be in fifty years, or even a century from now. Will we be more assertive in such areas of space exploration, the colonizing of the moon and other planets? Or will we still be content to sit here on a polluted and overcrowded rock, distracted by all the latest technological play-pretties? Has the human desire to press the unknown been dulled by the instant gratification we are now surrounded by? Has our yearning to discover what’s just over the horizon, our need to explore, finally been appeased? I guess time will tell.
If we can’t do anything else, we can at least imagine. We can look into our mental crystal balls and try to foresee what lies ahead. Of course, none of us will see the same vision. Some will see a paradise while others may see Hell on earth. Some will see utopias where all problems will eventually be solved and humankind will live free of war, prejudice, disease and poverty. Many predict dystopian societies with cold, unfeeling populations, desensitized and morally sterile. Other see post-apocalyptic wastelands, a world laid in waste by our own hands through war, financial collapse and pollution, or even plagues of super germs. Right now, one supposition is as good as the next. Any of these things are capable of happening, maybe all, who knows. Your guess is as good as mine.
In the following pages, I present a future of my own creation. In it, you will find many of the same predictions others have made. You will also find a universe that, while grand and marvelous in many ways, is suffering from many of the maladies we have created, or are presently creating, in our time. It will be a time when humanity has reached for the heavens, yet even with all that he now possesses, in the way of technology and science, cannot solve age-old problems in its own backyard, nor can he seem to come to terms with the monster progress it sometimes becomes.
I hope you enjoy my version of it all, seen through the eyes of a simple man from Alabama. Of course, it will have a Southern perspective on everything. That’s something I take great pride in. Even so, it’s not simply a matter intentionally limiting myself, it’s more a matter of what I know best. Whether that’s good or bad, it’s the honest truth.
I sincerely hope I have not bored you already, and humbly ask you to continue just a bit further. I’ve never claimed to be a great author, but I do believe I’m a fairly decent storyteller. And I truly hope you find a good story in the following pages. I have tried to combine all of the things I love dearly into a good book: adventure, romance, action, a little shoot-em-up, some thought-provoking social commentary, and yes, even some steamy scenes. Be warned! This is not your daddy’s sci-fi Saturday morning radio serial. If some profanity and explicit scenes aren’t your cup of tea, this probably isn’t the book for you. Among all else, I respect each and every one of you as a reader. I would rather be open and honest upfront now than to have someone feel like they weren’t warned or were misled.
So, without further ado, I am shutting up. I hope you enjoy the story. It is my hope that this is the first of a series, one that will take us from the Deep South to deep space and all points in between. Of course, a lot of that, as with most everything, depends on you, the reader. I enjoy writing, but more than anything else, I enjoy sharing my stories. I also, dear reader, truly appreciate you for taking the time to read my work, as I know how precious a commodity it is in this rat race world we live in.
I truly hope to see you all down the road.
Let’s light this candle.
J Morgan Woodall
June, 2017

 
 
 
 
For Jennifer …


Prologue
Friday
April 26, 2165
0330 Hours CST
An undisclosed location just outside of St. Louis, MO
The specimen had been prepped and was now ready to