Captain Hawkins
by H.
Peter Alesso
GENRE: Sci-fi
BLURB:
Jamie Hawkins was
living on an obscure planet in the twenty third-century when on one fateful
night--his life changed forever. His heroic effort to save the lives of
innocent women and children, caught in the cross-fire of war, placed him
squarely in the cross-hairs of avenging soldiers.
Hawkins was stunned
when his rescue effort was seen as treachery. Unfairly convicted of treason by
a corrupt judge, he was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor on an
infamous penal colony.
Once in prison, his
courage and perseverance won him the admiration and trust of his fellow
convicts. While he was plotting his escape, an enemy attacked the
planet--giving this daring warrior his chance. Together with his fellow
prisoners, he launched a bold assault and high-jacked an enemy warship.
From then on, Captain
Jamie Hawkins and his ship the Indefatigable fought against a corrupt
government--only to discover a mysterious alien presence behind the war.
Excerpt:
“Sir,
I was working with the data techs trying to analyze the communication patterns
of the enemy fleet,” said Joshua, licking his dry lips, excitedly. “And I’ve
came across a very unusual signal.”
Hawkins
gave him an encouraging nod.
“It
was a burst of radio signals from deep space. I traced it to either a 4
billion-year-old star in a constellation 44.4 light years away, or to another
star in that same constellation, but much farther away. That means that the
radio waves have been travelling to us for at least forty-four point four
years.”
Hawkins
said, “Deep space radio signals have many plausible explanations, such as radio
interference from planets, or rogue signals caused by local planet microwave
devices.
“That’s
true, Captain. It could be just the effect of a natural space object like a
pulsating quasar, but it’s also possible . . . I think maybe . . . it could be
a message from another civilization.”
Now
smiling broadly, Hawkins said, “Given the unlikeness of that, why are you
concerned?”
“Because
it was not a one-off event,” said Joshua excitedly and then pausing to catch
his breath. “I’ve recorded a half dozen repeating signals from the exact same
source.”
Nodding,
Hawkins said, “That’s a little more interesting, but there are explanations for
that too.”
“But
Captain, the implications could be mind-blowing. Imagine, what if it was an
alien civilization, and they were far more advanced than us, and they were
trying to make contact? After centuries of fruitlessly scanning the stars and
finding no evidence that anyone else is out there, this could be . . . could be . . .”
Joshua
became paralyzed by his own imagination.
“Joshua,
even if this signal were not natural, it might still be the product of one of
Earth’s colonies—not aliens.”
“No
sir, I’ve checked. There were no Earth colonies in the vicinity of the signal’s
star cluster when we last had contact with Earth, fifty years ago,” said
Joshua.
Joshua
wanted to argue further, but couldn’t offer any additional proof for his cause.
Hawkins
said, “I agree, we should continue to monitor this frequency, but for now,
it’ll have to remain a mystery.”
It
was only a few days later that Joshua returned to argue, “I’ve been working to
decrypt the deep space signal using our AI computer with the help of a data
tech.”
Hawkins
was surprised, but also impressed with Joshua’s initiative.
“What
does a deep space signal have to do with our enemy’s Top Secrets communication
network?”
“Everything.”
“You’ll
have to explain that.”
“Let
me give you a metaphor for how I solved this puzzle, because it is a puzzle.”
“Go
on.”
“Think
of a portrait of a woman, say the Mona Lisa. Now consider a jigsaw puzzle of
the Mona Lisa—a picture of a woman cut into a thousand irregularly sized pieces
and spread out for someone to reassemble.”
“A
kid’s game.”
“Yes,
sir.”
My
Review:
Captain
Jamie Hawkins sets out to help innocence people at a hospital who are under
attack and soon after finds himself in prison for treason. After he is attacked
in prison and almost loses his life Jamie along with other inmates escape.
Captain Hawkins runs into a group of rebels who are fighting the government. Jamie
can’t resist stepping in and helping the rebels out once he sees they need his
help. Now he finds himself and escaped convict and a rebel too.
Captain
Hawkins was once a Marine and never thought he would find himself in the predicament
that he is in now but he can’t seem to mind his own business or keep from
helping innocence people. Captain Hawkins is very courageous man who will
always be on to stop and help the innocent in any way he can. He may be a big
Marine but he has a soft heart when it comes to kids like Joshua.
Joshua
is the one who sort of helped Jamie get where he is today when he showed up at
his house that eventful night asking Jamie to come to the hospital where his
mom worked to help save the people who worked there and the patients; innocent
women and children.
Will
Captain Hawkins, Joshua and the rest of the rebels win their fight against the
government? Will they make their voice heard? Will the stand that they are
making change anything? How many lives will have to be lost before they will
see a change in their future?
Captain
Hawkins will take you to worlds you have not visited to before. Captain Hawkins
will take you on the adventure of a lifetime. Come join Captain Hawkins on his
journeys through space. If you love Star Trek then you are going to love
Captain Hawkins.
AUTHOR BIO:
As
a scientist and author specializing in technology innovation, H. Peter Alesso
has over twenty years research experience at Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory (LLNL). As Engineering Group Leader at LLNL he led a team of
scientists and engineers in innovative applications across a wide range of
supercomputers, workstations, and networks. He graduated from the United States
Naval Academy with a B.S. and served in the U.S. Navy on nuclear submarines
before completing an M.S. and an advanced Engineering Degree at M.I.T. He has
published several software titles and numerous scientific journal and
conference articles, and he is the author/co-author of ten books.
Author
Links:
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