DeepStorm OutTack

[Written with over a decade of scientific research]

An international team of researchers is assigned to live and work in the newly built Near Earth Territories – each vessel greatly more spacious than the largest ocean liners, which they dwarf. 

Least qualified among the scientists is Sashia, a paraplegic who surprisingly becomes a rock on which they all depend. Doctors Mei Sai Ling and Steve Nord form the scientific team’s backbone, headed by Professor Mark Madison and assisted by FayWell, the enigmatic Artificial Intelligence to the fleet. Tending their medical needs is Doctor O'Malley. 

The subject of their research is natural disasters that began at the turn of the millennium and now threaten to trigger a recurrence of the event that caused the Cretaceous extinction. Climate change was just the beginning. 

News coverage becomes increasingly grim as refugees fleeing disasters swell mass migrations. Civil strife grips the globe; new styled warlords escalate a battle with United Nation Security Council forces in space. The Territories fleet, escorted by the biggest and best US Navy battle-carrier, becomes a primary target.

Our species is outgrowing the home planet. The Territories fleet is predominantly manned by designer-babies now in young adulthood. Designed to reside permanently in space, they are the beginning of a new branch of human species, transformed from terrestrial to extraterrestrial beings.