It involves a major discovery buried deep in an ancient lava tube on LaGuardia...as well as a startling anomaly that will forever alter the destiny of the known galaxy.
If you missed my announcement last week, Pets in Space® 5 is now available for pre-order at most major vendors. It will only be available for a limited time, and will once again support our Hero-Dogs charity with 10% of all royalties from both pre-orders and the first month's sales going to the organization. We've donated $15,300 in the last 4 years, and hope to make this another banner year.
Click here to see the vendors for pre-order.
Today I'm going to blog a bit about the history of the planet where Juggernaut is based (and attempt to do it without spoilers) to give readers a sense of the foundation for my upcoming story.
A Brief History of the Inherited Stars
This expansion occurred after the arrival of those whom the Draxians called the Firelords, a large and growing population with conflicting beliefs that both provided the Draxians the ability to settle other planets, and also gave them the desire to do so to flee an evolving culture of which many didn't approve. This societal upheaval resulted in the name of the planet being changed from Draxis to LaGuardia.
LaGuardia was based on the Spanish word for "watch tower" or "lookout" and the meaning behind the inhabitants--LaGuardians--essentially means "those who keep watch." It was also influenced by the family name Laguardia which descendants claim means "the guardian." Either turned out to be a very appropriate title for the planet that legend claimed orbited nearest to the spatial vortex that brought the colonists from Original Earth and centuries later also brought The Firelords.
More About Draxis
Early scientists theorized that the planet may have once supported life, but that all living beings had been erased in some sort of catastrophic event--like a gamma ray burst or solar flare--except whatever had befallen the planet didn't harm the atmosphere or oceans--only eliminated all living things and any evidence of their existence. Due to these factors, some scientists believed Draxis was a primordial planet that had not yet developed life. Others argued that the planet was too far along its geological timeline with conditions too perfect not to have evolving life, at least the microbial level. However, no fossils were ever found on the planet according to historical records.
Although Draxis had the climate to support life from Earth, what it didn't have was the ability to support food production in what was essentially sterile sand. The Draxian scientists and leaders addressed this by first establishing an artificial ecosystem and later transplanting it around their early cities in what they dubbed "fertile rings." These bands of established farmland were further enriched with organic materials generated by the population, and as the cities expanded, so did the fertile rings that surrounded them, slowly transforming more and more of the barren planet into viable farming and gardening land.
A greater variety of domestic animals were also later introduced, though they remained very rare and selectively bred. A few species also arrived on Draxis as accidental stowaways, which had both beneficial and disastrous consequences.
Check in next week to read about the worlds of the Alliance--the bad guys of the Inherited Stars universe.
Have a great week.
