Timeline Pirates

The discovery of the interworld gates in 2018 drove home the fact that a new world order was beginning. The appearance of the bodies of two adults and two children on the shore of Puget Sound in an uninhabited timeline made it apparent that criminals could use the new technology. Commander Eve Cummings who had recently been given command of the frigate, Isaac Hull, was given the assignment to hunt down the pirates who had killed the family and stolen its boat. When more depredations followed, Eve and her naval cohorts found themselves in pursuit of an elusive quarry in a welter of parallel worlds. The random opening of interworld gates complicated the Navy’s problem, and Eve’s former commander, retired Coast Guard captain, Thomas Weston was called on to command a research ship to investigate the random occurrences. Both found themselves confronting implacable human and natural enemies.

The opening of the interworld gates in 2018 created a host of problems. It became possible for criminals to hide in an infinite number of worlds. The discovery of the bodies of two adults and two children on the west side of Puget Sound in an uninhabited timeline by a yachtsman drove this problem home. The family had been murdered and their boat stolen. Problems had already arisen the year before with the appearance of warships from a timeline where the world had been made uninhabitable by a nuclear and biological war. Eve Cummings who had lost her legs below the knees in a confrontation with a rogue warship is given command of the frigate, Isaac Hull, and joins a task force headed for Hawaii. En route, a helicopter from her ship fishes a flier from the Pacific after his fighter plane crashes. The flier, Ron Madison, eventually becomes her husband. The disappearances of small boats in an uninhabited timeline cause the Navy to assign Eve’s ship and two other frigates to patrol in the timeline where the depredations are taking place. Complications arise when interworld gates start opening randomly. Thomas Weston and his wife, Wilma, encounter one of the gates on a trip to Hawaii on their fifty foot sailboat, Albatross II and rescue two pilots who come through the gate and crash in the ocean. They eventually arrange to leave them off in their timeline of origin. Weston is given command of a research vessel that carries a group of scientists who are investigating the appearances. The research ship departs from Portland, Oregon and takes a course toward the location of the gateway that Tom and Wilma had encountered the year before. Over the course of the following summer, they make a number of discoveries including people who can jump timelines without machinery. They also discover a couple of primitive civilizations in other timelines. Eve’s pursuit of the pirates is interrupted by an assignment to escort a transport load of colonists who settle in an uninhabited timeline. A number of events flow from the efforts to set up the colony. Eve and the colonists also encounter the timeline jumpers. The appearance of the jumpers makes the location of the colony untenable, and it must be moved out of their range. With that settled, Eve resumes her pursuit of the pirates. Eve pursues the pirates to a confrontation in which she allows herself to be taken hostage in hopes that they will release the people they have taken hostage. The encounter ends in a bloody confrontation between the pirate leaders. The source of the random gate openings is found to be a world under bombardment by meteorites. The random openings are stopped, and a massive rescue operation ensues as survivors of the bombardment are transferred to other timelines. Tom and Wilma along with many scientists are witnesses to the destruction of all life on the version of earth struck by the meteorites.

I was born on June 19, 1931 in the town of Wolf Point, Montana. We moved to Palouse, Washington in December 1937 and ended up in Spokane, Washington in 1941. I was born legally blind with 20/200 vision in my left eye and no vision in the right. I contracted polio in December 1937. I graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane in June 1950 and attended college at Whitworth College in Spokane graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in June 1954. I received the Master of Science degree in organic chemistry from New Mexico Highlands University in November 1955 and went to work as a research chemist for Southern Research Institute in Birmingham Alabama. Because of cuts in research grants, I was let go in February 1970. Patricia Herrod and I were married in April 1969. We have no children. From the fall of 1972 until May of 1976 I worked as a volunteer with Project Volunteer Power, an organization to aid the handicapped. My duties consisted of office work such as typing. In 1970 and 1971 I took some programmer training at Continental Commercial College and UAB. I learned COBOL, RPG, and FORTRAN. I also served on the mayor’s committee on employment of the handicapped from 1973 to 1981. In May 1976 I went to work for Southern Research Institute as a programmer and held that position until May 1982 when the section I was part of was abolished. I worked at setting up computer files for the Institute credit union for three months until August 1982 and went to work for the Social Security Administration as a Benefit Authorizer Trainee in September of that year. It was determined that I couldn’t keep up the pace working cases. During this time I bought a Radio Shack portable computer and programmed it with some of the benefit authorizer functions. As a result the management of the program center placed me in a programmer position with an entity known as the Management Analysis Branch. I programmed for the agency until my retirement on June 30, 2006. I went from a GS-5 position to GS-12 grade. I started writing my first novel in August 2006 and completed it in July 2007. I am using a self publishing company called Authorhouse. The title is Time Line Warriors. It can be described as a science fiction sea story involving parallel worlds, a Cape Horn cruise, and a lot of naval action. I started my second novel, Time Line Pirates, in July 2007 and completed it in July of 2008. The third novel which is called Children of Liberty was started in 2008 and completed in the fall of 2009. A friend named Cherie Colston sent a copy of the first novel to a friend who is a cameraman in Hollywood, and he suggested that I write a screenplay based on the novel. I completed that early in 2010, and it is being shown to producers. I have completed my fourth novel called A Gift of Liberty and am working on my fifth novel called The School of Worlds. All of my novels have the same background and many of the same characters.