Jeremiah Dixon is the galaxy’s greatest asteroid geologist and surveyor. No one in the known universe can root out the valuables in space rocks like him. Dixon and his crew aboard the ISS Delaware have mined every type of mineral and rock in the known universe, and their talents are in high demand. He’s also prone to have a drink or two while visiting the nearest way station brothel and gambling away his earnings, but his vices are a small inconvenience for his services. Dixon knows surveying and he knows rocks. He’s the best, and he makes his clients rich.
Regent Charles Mason is the preeminent astrological mind in the Interplanetary Imperial Syndicate. No one can navigate the heavens and predict the shifting space lanes better than Charlie Mason. He serves at court to Syndicate Emperor Barnard VII as Astronomer Royal, the Ambassador to the Independent Union of Saturn Moons, and oversees the flow of Centignicite for the Imperial Syndicate. Centignicite is the only energy source powerful enough for interplanetary space travel and its value has no limit. Without it, mankind would no longer be able to travel the stars. Aside from the Emperor, himself, Charlie Mason is the most important man in the galaxy.
Meanwhile, on the inhospitable planet called Philadelphia-767, a dispute over the mining rights of the largest-ever deposit of liquid Centignicite, also called hundred-year fire, or simply, the fire, threatens to boil over into all-out war between the two wealthiest clans in the syndicate. Both families will stop at nothing to control the fire deposits on Philly-767 and the immense wealth that comes with it. The Baltimore Clan and the Penn Conglomerate have their own private armies ready to destroy the other at any moment.
Emperor Barnard sends the unlikely duo of Charlie and Jeremiah, along with the crew of the Delaware, into a fire-storm of rivalry, betrayal, and family intrigue to settle the Philadelphia-767 boundary dispute and secure the fire deposits for the Syndicate before the clans tear the galaxy apart in a civil war!
The Line will be a swashbuckling science-fiction space adventure unlike anything I’ve ever tried to write before, and I look forward to completing the story. It will be chock full of space pirates, mysteries, a gut-wrenching betrayal, an unlikely love story, a steadfast friendship, and a particularly nasty case of Neptune Fever, informally known as Vulcan’s Revenge! I can’t wait to share it with you!
Lyle S. Russell 