Balloon Ship Armageddon

Physician Amy Nortel recreates Jack Commer's murdered son Jonathan James as a robot of the Wounded, a race that destroys stars for kicks. Jack and his wife Amav arrest the Wounded doctor, but she kidnaps the Commers' robot dog and escapes in lovestruck pursuit of Jonathan James. Jack readies the untested Typhoon VII to chase both son and doctor, but finds himself saddled with cheeky, flirtatious robot Laurie Lachrer 283, now certified as superior to the human engineer she's modeled on. On a toxic waterworld in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 163,000 light-years away, Jonathan James rises to captain Balloon Ship Armageddon, ending millennia of combat between floating ships manned by deluded robot sailors. Yet he's terrified by the Holy Chamber in his cargo hold. Only deactivated robot dog Edward understands its ancient, inexplicable star map warning of an abrupt termination of the universe. Michael D. Smith was raised in the Northeast and the Chicago area, then moved to Texas to attend Rice University, where he began developing as a writer and visual artist. His Jack Commer, Supreme Commander and Supreme Commander Laurie science fiction series are published by Sortmind Press. In addition, Sortmind Press has published Smith's literary novels Sortmind, The Soul Institute, CommWealth, Akard Drearstone, Jump Grenade, Asylum and Mirage, The University of Mars, and Zarreich. Smith's web site, sortmind.com, contains further examples of his novels and visual art, and he muses about writing and art processes at blog.sortmind.com. With the shocking suicide of the Typhoon I, the most powerful military spaceship ever built, the four Commer brothers are reduced to two. After the horrors of the Final War, the evacuation of Earth, and an unexpected conflict with native Martian terrorists, is eldest brother Jack really fit to lead the United System Space Force? Yet despite stress bordering on hysteria he always seems to come up with the proper solution. Shy with women but easy with command as opposed to his passionate, guilt-ridden brother Joe, when promoted to Supreme Commander Jack passes over numerous ambitious admirals and holds onto power for decades with the newest rejuvenation technology. But has he ever really recovered from the responsibility of overseeing forty years of futile time war with the Alpha Centaurians?