Here it is!

That was fast! Available right now at an Amazon site near you, it's Bard Conley's Adventures Across the Solar System! It's 366 pages of science fiction action and excitement in a pulp style. Click on the cover image to go directly to the site. Here's an excerpt for you to chew on.

“I’m approaching the target,” said Conley.

“Confirmed,” said Titania in a clipped voice. “Start being careful, Bard.”

“I’m always careful.” Her answering snort was eloquent. Conley stopped before the designated ore. “Time to gets your attention,” he muttered. “Stand by for cryonic deployment.”

“You’re a go, Sarge,” confirmed Liam.

Timing was crucial; he needed to cool the ore enough to draw the creature’s attention, but still keep enough cryonic fluid to stop the creature once it arrived. His suit’s cryo-deployment was minimal, only for the most dire of emergencies.

“Ten-second burst at twenty-five percent capacity,” he reported.

“Timer ready,” replied Titania.

“Activating.” He pointed the metallic hose at the featureless ore, spraying it with a strong dose of the cryonic fluid. The hot metal hissed and sparked as the cryonics played over it, and for a moment there was a patina of frost covering the expanse of wall. The natural heat of Mercury returned, only a moment later, however, and the frost disappeared. Within thirty seconds, the wall’s temperature was back to its normal levels.

“Knock, knock,” muttered Conley. Nothing happened.

“That’s one minute,” reported Titania. “Still no contact.”

“Another ten-second burst, forty percent capacity,” said Conley.

“Be careful,” warned Titania. “You won’t have enough left if you do it three times.”

“Then we’ll have to hope it takes the bait this time. Activating on your mark.”

“Stand by…Mark!”

Conley sprayed the wall again, opening the hose a little wider. The spray coated the wall again, freezing it faster. He heard a beep in his helmet, and shut off the spray to admire his handiwork.

“Temperature rising again,” reported Titania. “Five hundred Kelvin...Eight hundred Kelvin...One thousand Kelvin...HOLY—SIX THOUSAND KELVIN!” she shouted. “Power up your resistors now!”

Conley mashed his thumb and ring fingers together and felt he hum of the suit’s built-in cryonic field. The improved version would last him at least five minutes, based on the readings received from Titania’s encounter with the creature.

But that had been only four thousand degrees Kelvin.

Even as he activated the suit’s heat resistors, he saw the white-hot glow of the heat-creature emerge from the wall he had been spraying. Despite the tremendous bulk of the cryonic tank, Conley dodged to the side as the creature lunged at him. Slowed by the tank, he nevertheless avoided being engulfed by the monster. He stumbled over an iron protrusion in the floor, but kept his feet even as the creature attacked again.

Conley felt the suit’s hum of power as the creature poured its heat into the suit’s cryogenic system. The temperature was already rising dangerously high, and he knew that he wouldn’t have nearly as much time as they had anticipated.

“Get out of there!” shouted Titania, but it was too late; the creature had engulfed him. Despite the suit’s heat resistors, he was already starting to sweat.

He tried to bring the nozzle of the cryo sprayer to bear, but the creature extended an energy appendage and melted the hose, sealing it up and keeping the coolant inside the tank.

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