excerpt from computer science technology book Connections. Connections AMAZON Chapter 1 Connecting Information “The ultimate search engine would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want.” said Larry Page[1]. We live in the information age. As society has progressed into the post-indu strial era, access to knowledge and information has become the cornerstone of modern living. With the advent of the World Wide Web, vast amounts of information have suddenly become available to people throughout the world. And searching the Web has become an essential capability whether you are sitting at your desktop PC or wandering the corporate halls with your wireless PDA. As a result, there is no better place to start our discussion of connecting information than with the world’s greatest search engine ─ Google. Google has become a global household name ─ millions use it daily in a hundred languages to conduct over half of all online searches. As a result, Google connects people to relevant information. By providing free access to information, Google offers a seductive gratification to whoever seeks it. To power its searches Google, uses patented, custom-designed programs and hundreds of thousands of computers to provide the greatest computing power of any enterprise. Searching for information is now called ‘googling’ which men, women, and children can perform over computers and cell phones. And thanks to small targeted advertisements that searchers can click for information, Google has become a financial success. In this chapter, we follow the hero’s journey of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin as they invent their Googleware technology for efficient connection to information, then go on to become masters in pursuit of their holy grail ─ ‘perfect search.’ The Google Story Google was founded by two Ph.D. computer science students at Stanford University in California ─ Larry Page and Sergey Brin. When Page and Brin began their hero’s journey, they didn’t know exactly where they were headed. It is widely known that, at first, Page and Brin didn’t hit it off. When they met in 1995, 24 year-old Page was a new graduate of the University of Michigan visiting Stanford University to consider entering graduate school; Brin, at age 23, was a Stanford graduate student who was assigned to host Page’s visit. At first, the two seemed to differ on just about every subject they discussed. They each had strong opinions and divergent viewpoints, and their relationship seemed destined to be contentious. Larry Page was born in 1973 in Lansing, Michigan. Both of his parents were computer scientists. His father was a university professor and a leader in the field of artificial intelligence, while his mother was a teacher of computer programming. As a result of his upbringing in this talented and technology-oriented family, Page seemed destined for success in the computer industry in one way or another. After graduating from high school, Page studied computer engineering at the University of Michigan where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree. Following his undergraduate studies, he decided to pursue graduate work in computer engineering at Stanford University. He intended to build a career in academia or the computer science profession, building on a Ph.D. degree. Meanwhile, Sergey Brin was also born in 1973, in Moscow, Russia, the son of a Russian mathematician and economist. His entire family fled the Soviet Union in 1979 under the threat of growing anti-Semitism, and began their new life as immigrants in the United States. Brin displayed a great interest in computers from an early age. As a youth, he was influenced by the rapid popularization of personal computers, and was very much a child of the microprocessor age. He too was brought up to be familiar with mathematics and computer technology, and as a young child, in the first grade he turned in a computer printout for a school project. Later, at the age of nine, he was given a Commodore 64 computer as a birthday gift from his father. Brin entered the University of Maryland at College Park where he studied mathematics and computer science. He completed his studies at the University of Maryland in 1993 having completed his Bachelor of Science degree. Following his undergraduate studies, he was given a National Science Foundation fellowship to pursue graduate studies in computer science at Stanford University. Not only did he exhibit early talent and interest in mathematics and computer science, he also became acutely interested in data management and networking as the Internet was becoming an increasing force in American society. While at Stanford, he pursued research and prepared publications in the areas of data-mining and pattern extraction. He also wrote software to convert scientific papers written in TeX, a cross-platform text processing language, into HyperText Markup Language (HTML), the multimedia language of the World Wide Web. Brin successfully completed his Masters degree at Stanford. Like Page, Brin’s intent was to continue in his graduate studies to earn a Ph.D. which he also viewed as a great opportunity to establish an outstanding academic or professional career in computer science. The hero’s journey for Page and Brin began as they heard the call ─ to develop a unique approach for retrieving relevant information from the voluminous data on the World Wide Web. Page remembered, “When we first met each other, we each thought the other was obnoxious. Then we hit it off and became really good friends.... I got this crazy idea that I was going to download the entire Web onto my computer. I told my advisor it would only take a week... So I started to download the Web, and Sergey started helping me because he was interested in data mining and making sense of the information.”[2] Although Page initially thought the downloading of the Web would be a short term project, taking a week or so to accomplish, he quickly found that the scope of what he wanted to do was much greater than his original estimate. Once he started his downloading project, he enlisted Brin to join the effort. While working together the two became inspired and wrote the seminal paper entitled The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine[3]. It explained their efficient ranking algorithm, ‘PageRank.’ Brin said about the experience, “The research behind Google began in 1995. The first prototype was actually called BackRub. A couple of years later, we had a search engine that worked considerably better than the others available did at the time.”[4] This prototype listed the results of a Web search according to a quantitative measure of the popularity of the pages. By January 1996, the system was able to analyze the ‘back links’ pointing to a given website and from this quantify the popularity of the site. Within the next few years, the prototype system had been converted into progressively improved versions, and these were substantially more effective than any other search engine then available. As the buzz about their project spread, more and more people began to use it. Soon they were reporting that there were 10,000 searches per day at Stanford using their system. With this growing use and popularity of their search system, they began to realize that they were maxing out their search ability due to the limited number of computers they had at their disposal. They would need more hardware to continue their remarkable expansion and enable more search activity. As Page said, “This is about how many searches we can do, and we need more computers. Our whole history has been like that. We always need more computers.”[5] In many ways, the research project at Stanford was a low budget operation. Because of a chronic shortage of cash, the pair are said to have monitored the Stanford computer science department’s loading docks for newly arrived computers to ‘borrow.’ In spite of this, within a short span of time, the reputation of the BackRub system had grown dramatically and their new search technology began to be broadly noticed. They named their successor search engine ‘Google,’ in a whimsical analogy to the mathematical term ‘Googol,’ which is the immensely large number 1 followed by 100 zeros. The transition from the earlier Backrub technology to the much more sophisticated Google was slow. But the Google system began with an index of 25 million pages and the capability to handle 10,000 search queries every day, even when it was in its initial stage of introduction. The Google search engine grew quickly as it was continuously improved. The effectiveness and relevance of the Google searches, its scope of coverage, speed and reliability, and its clean user interface all contributed to a rapid increase in the popularity of the search engine. At this time, Google was still a student research project, and both Page and Brin were still intent on completing their respective doctoral programs at Stanford. As a result, they initially refused to ‘answer the call’ and continued to devote themselves their academic pursuit of the technology of search. Through all this, Brin maintained an eclectic collection of interests and activities. He continued with his graduate research interests at Stanford and he collaborated with his fellow Ph.D. students and professors on other projects such as automatic detection. At the same time, he also pursued a variety of outside interests, including sailing and trapeze. Brin’s father had stressed the importance for him to complete his Ph.D. He said, “I expected him to get his Ph.D. and to become somebody, maybe a professor.” In response to his father’s question as to whether he was taking any advanced courses one semester, Brin replied, “Yes, advanced swimming.”[6] While Brin and Page continued on as graduate students, they began to realize the importance of what they had succeeded in developing. The two aspiring entrepreneurs decided to try and license the Google technology to existing Internet companies. But they found themselves unsuccessful in stimulating the interest of the major enterprises. They were forced to face the crucial decision of continuing on at Stanford or striking out on their own. With their realization that they were onto something that was important and perhaps even groundbreaking, they decided to make the move. Thus our two heroes had reached their point of departure and they crossed over from the academic into the business world. As they committed to this new direction, they realized they would need to postpone their educational aspirations, prepare plans for their business concept, develop a working demo of their commercial search product, and seek funding sponsorship from outside investors. Having made this decision, they managed to interest Sun Microsystems founder Andy Bechtolsheim in their idea. As Brin recalls, "We met him very early one morning on the porch of a Stanford faculty member's home in Palo Alto. We gave him a quick demo. He had to run off somewhere, so he said, 'Instead of us discussing all the details, why don't I just write you a check?' It was made out to Google Inc. and was for $100,000."[7] The check remained in Page's desk un-cashed for several weeks while he and Brin set up a corporation and sought additional money from family and friends ─ almost $1 million in total. Having started the new company, lined up investor funding, and possessing a superb product, they realized ultimate success would require a good balance of perspiration as well as inspiration. Nevertheless, at this point Google appeared to be well on the road to success. Page and Brin have been on a roll every since, armed with the great confidence that they had both a superior product and an excellent vision for global information collection, storage, and retrieval. In addition, they believed that coordination and optimization of the entire hardware/software system was important, and so they developed their own Googleware technology by combining their custom software with appropriately integrated custom hardware, thereby fully leveraging their ingenious concept. Google Inc. opened its doors as a business entity in September 1998, operating out of modest facilities in a Menlo Park, California garage. As Page and Brin initiated their journey, they faced many challenges and along the way. They matured in their understanding with the help of mentors they encountered such as Yahoo!’s Dave Filo. Filo not only encouraged the two in the development of their search technology, but also made business suggestions for their project. Following the company startup, interest in Google grew rapidly. Red Hat, a Linux company, signed on as their first commercial customer. They were particularly interested in Google because they realized the importance of search technology and its ability to run on open source systems such as Linux. In addition, the press began to take notice of this new commercial venture and articles began to appear in the media highlighting the Google product that offered relevant search results. The late 1990s saw a spectacular growth in development of the technology industry, and Silicon Valley was awash with investor funding. The timing was right for Google, and in 1999, they sought and received a second round of funding, obtaining $25 million from Silicon Valley venture capital firms. The additional funding enabled them to expand their operations and move into new facilities they called the ‘Googleplex,’ Google's current headquarters in Mountain View, California. Although at the time they occupied only a small portion of the new two-story building, they had clearly come a long way from a university research project to a full-fledged technology company with a rapid growth trajectory and a product that was in high demand. Google was also in the process of developing a unique company culture. They operated in an informal atmosphere that facilitated both collegiality and an easy exchange of ideas. Google staffers enjoyed this rewarding atmosphere while they continued to make many incremental improvements to their search engine technology. For example, in an effort to expand the utility of their keyword-targeted advertising to small businesses, they rolled out the ‘AdWords’ system, a software package that represents a self-service advertisement development capability. Google took a major step forward when, in 2000, it was selected by Yahoo to replace Inktomi as their provider of supplementary search results. Because of the superiority of Google over other search engine capabilities, licenses were obtained by many other companies, including the Internet services powerhouse America Online (AOL), Netscape, Freeserve, and eventually Microsoft Network (MSN). In fact, although Microsoft has pursued its own search technology, Bill Gates once commented on search-engine technology development by saying that “Google kicked our butts.”[8] By the end of 2000, Google was handling more than 100 million searches each day. Shortly thereafter Google began to deliver new innovations and establish new partnerships to enter the burgeoning field of mobile wireless computing. By expanding into this field, Google continued to pursue its strategy of putting search into the hands of as many users as possible. As the global use of Google grew, the patterns contained within the records of search queries provided new information about what was on the minds of the global community of Internet users. Google was able to analyze the global traffic in Internet searching and identify patterns, trends, and surprises – a process they called ‘Google Zeitgeist.’ In 2004, Yahoo decided to compete directly with Google and discontinued its reliance on the Google search technology. Nevertheless, Google continued to expand, increasing its market share and dominance of the Web search market through the deployment of regional versions of its software, incorporating language capabilities beyond English. As a result, Google continued to expand as a global Internet force. Also in 2004, Google offered its stock to investors through an Initial Public Offering (IPO). This entrance to public trading of Google stock created not only a big stir in the financial markets, but also great wealth for the two founding entrepreneurs. Page and Brin immediately joined the billionaire’s club as they entered the exclusive ranks of the wealthiest people in the world. Following the IPO, Google began to challenge Microsoft in its role as the leading provider of computer services. They issued a series of new products, including the email service Gmail, the impressive map and satellite image product Google Earth, Google Talk to compete in the growing Voice of the Internet (VoIP) market, and products aimed at leveraging their ambitious project to make the content of thousands of books searchable online, Google Base and Google Book Search. In addition to these new ventures, they have continued to innovate in their core field of search by introducing new features for searching images, news articles, shopping services (Froogle), and other local search options. It is clear that Google has become an essential tool for connecting people and information in support of the developing Information Revolution. Having established itself at the epicenter of the Web, Google is widely regarded as the ‘place to be’ for the best and brightest programming talent in the industry. It is fair to say that, since the introduction of the printing press, no other entity or event has had more impact on public access to information than Google. In fact, Google has endeavored to accumulate a good part of all human knowledge from the vast amount of information stored on the Web. The effective transformation of Google into an engine for what Page calls a ‘perfect search’ would basically give people everywhere the right answers to their questions and the ability to understand everything in the world. Page and Brin could not have achieved their technological success without having a clear vision of the future of the Internet. Page recently commented in an interview that he believes that in the future "information access and communications will become truly ubiquitous,” meaning that “anyone in the world will have access to any kind of information they want or be able to communicate with anyone else instantly and for very little cost.” In fact, this vision of the future is not far from where we are now.[9] Page also noted that the real power of the Internet is the ability to serve people all over the globe with access to information that represents empowerment of individuals. The ability to facilitate the improved lives and productivity of billions of human beings throughout the world is an awesome potential outcome. And the ability to support the information needs of people from different cultures and languages is an unusual challenge. Page stated in an interview that “even language is becoming less of a barrier. There's pretty good automatic translation out there. I've been using it quite a bit as Google becomes more globalized. It doesn't translate documents exactly, but it does a pretty good job and it's getting better every day.”[10] Even with translation and global reach, however, there remain significant challenges to connecting the people of the world through advanced information technology. One of the challenges is the potential for governmental restrictions on the access to information. Encryption technology, for example, inhibits the power of governments to monitor or control such information access. However, a 1998 survey of encryption policy found that several countries, including Belarus, China, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, and Singapore, maintained strong domestic controls while several other countries were considering the adoption of such controls.[11] The phrase ‘Don't be evil’ has been attributed to Google as its catch phrase or motto. Google's present CEO Eric Schmidt commented, in response to questions about the meaning of this motto, that "evil is whatever Sergey says is evil." Brin, on the other hand, said in an interview with Playboy Magazine, “As for ‘Don’t be evil,’ we have tried to define precisely what it means to be a force for good — always do the right, ethical thing. Ultimately ‘Don’t be evil’ seems the easiest way to express it.” And Page also commented on the phrase, saying “Apparently people like it better than ‘Be good.’”[12] Page and Brin maintain lofty ambitions for the future of information technology, and they communicated those ambitions in an unprecedented seven-page letter to Wall Street entitled An Owner's Manual' for Google's Shareholders, written to detail Google's intentions as a public company. They explained their vision that “Searching and organizing all the world’s information is an unusually important task that should be carried out by a company that is trustworthy and interested in the public good.”[13] In response to questions about how Google will be used in the future, Brin said “Your mind is tremendously efficient at weighing an enormous amount of information. We want to make smarter search engines that do a lot of the work for us. The smarter we can make the search engine, the better. Where will it lead? Who knows? But it’s credible to imagine a leap as great as that from hunting through library stacks to a Google session, when we leap from today’s search engines to having the entirety of the world’s information as just one of our thoughts.”[14] At this junction, Page and Brin find themselves in a state of great personal wealth and great accomplishment, having created a technology and company that is profoundly affecting human culture and society. The two computer scientists have traveled far in their hero’s journey to carry out their vision of global search, having developed skills and capabilities for themselves as well as for Google and the Googleware technology. As they succeeded, their search technology became a key milestone in the development of the Information Revolution. Their journey is not over, however. Before continuing their story, let’s digress into the historical context. The Information Revolution Over past millennia, the world has witnessed two global revolutions: the Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. During the Agricultural Revolution, a hunter-gather could acquire the resources from an area of 100 acres to produce an adequate food supply, whereas a single farmer needed only one acre of land to produce the equivalent amount of food. It was this 100-fold improvement in land management that fueled the agricultural revolution. It not only enabled far more efficient food production, but also provided food resources well above the needs of subsistence, resulting in a new era built on trade. Where a single farmer and his horse had worked a farm, during the Industrial Revolution workers were able to use a single steam engine that produced 100 times the horsepower of this farmer-horse team. As a result, the Industrial Revolution placed a 100-fold increase of mechanical power into the hands of the laborer. It resulted in the falling cost of labor and this fueled the unprecedented acceleration in economic growth that ensued. Over the millennia, man has accumulated great knowledge, produced a treasury of cultural literature and developed a wealth of technology advances, much of which has been recorded in written form. By the mid-twentieth century, the quantity of accessible useful information had grown explosively, requiring new methods of information management; and this can be said to have triggered the Information Revolution. As computer technology offered great improvements in information management technology, it also provided substantial reductions in the cost of information access. It did more than allow people to receive information. Individuals could buy, sell and even create their own information. Cheap, plentiful, easily accessible information has become as powerful an economic dynamic as land and energy had for the two prior revolutions. The falling cost of information has, in part, reflected the dramatic improvement in price-performance of microprocessors, which appears to be on a pattern of doubling every eighteen months. While the computer has been contributing to information productivity since the 1950’s, the resulting global economic productivity gains were initially slow to be realized. Until the late 1990’s, networks were rigid and closed, and time to implement changes in the telecommunication industry were measured in decades. Since then, the Web has become the ‘grim reaper’ of information inefficiency. For the first time, ordinary people had real power over information production and dissemination. As the cost of information dropped, the microprocessor in effect gave ordinary people control over information about consumer products. Today, we are beginning to see dramatic change as service workers experience the productivity gains from rapid communications and automated business and knowledge transactions. A service worker can now complete knowledge transactions 100 times faster using intelligent software and near ubiquitous computing in comparison to a clerk using written records. As a result, the Information Revolution is placing a 100-fold increase in transaction speed into the hands of the service worker. Therefore, the Information Revolution is based on the falling cost of information-based transactions which in turn fuels economic growth. In considering these three major revolutions in human society, a defining feature of each has been the requirement for more knowledgeable and more highly skilled workers. The Information Revolution signals that this will be a major priority for its continued growth. Clearly, the Web will play a central role in the efficient performance of the Information Revolution because it offers a powerful communication medium that is itself becoming ever more useful through intelligent applications. Over the past 50 years, the Internet/World Wide Web has grown into the global Information Superhighway. And just as roads connected the traders of the Agricultural Revolution and railroads connected the producers and consumers of the Industrial Revolution, the Web is now connecting information to people in the Information Revolution. The Information Revolutions enables service workers today to complete knowledge transactions many times faster through intelligent software using photons over the Internet, in comparison to clerks using electrons over wired circuits just a few decades ago. But perhaps the most essential ingredient in the Web’s continued success has been search technology such as Google, which has provided real efficiency in connecting to relevant information and completing vital transactions. Now Google transforms data and information into useful knowledge energizing the Information Revolution. Defining Information Google started with Page’s and Brin’s quest to mine data and make sense of the voluminous information on the Web. But what differentiates information from knowledge and how do companies like Google manipulate it on the Web to nourish the Information Revolution? First let’s be clear about what we mean by the fundamental terms ‘data,’ ‘information,’ ‘knowledge,’ and ‘understanding.’ An item of data is a fundamental element of information, the processed data that has some independent usefulness. And right now data is the main thing you can find directly on the Web in its current state. Data can be considered the raw material of information. Symbols and numbers are forms of data. Data can be organized within a database to form structured information. While spreadsheets are ‘number crunchers,’ databases are the ‘information crunchers.’ Databases are highly effective in managing and manipulating structured data.[15] Consider, for example, a directory or phone book which contains elements of information (i.e., names, addresses and phone numbers) about telephone customers in a particular area. In such a directory, each customer’s information is laid out in the same pattern. The phone book is basically a table which contains a record for each customer. Each customer’s record includes his name, address, and phone number. But you can’t directly search such a database on the Web. This is because there is no ‘schema’ defining the structure of data on the Web. Thus, what looks like information to the human being who is looking at the directory (taking with him his background knowledge and experience as a context) in reality is data because it lacks this schema. On the other hand, information explicitly associates one set of things to another. A telephone book full of data becomes information when we associate the data to persons we know or wish to communicate with. For example, suppose we found data entries in a telephone book for four different persons named Jones, but all of them were living within one block of each other. The fact that there are four bits of data about persons with the same name in approximately the same location is interesting information. Knowledge, on the other hand, can be considered to be a meaningful collection of useful information. We can construct information from data. And we can construct knowledge from information. Finally, we can achieve understanding from the knowledge we have gathered. Understanding lies at the highest level. It is the process by which we can take existing knowledge and synthesize new knowledge. Once we have understanding, we can pursue useful actions because we can synthesize new knowledge or information from what is previously known. Again, knowledge and understanding are currently elusive on the Web. Future Semantic Web architectures seek to redress this limit. To continue our telephone example, suppose we developed a genealogy tree for the Jones and found the four Jones who lived near each other were actually brothers. This would give us additional knowledge about the Jones in addition to information about their addresses. If we then interviewed the brothers and found that their father had bought each brother a house in his neighborhood when they married, we would finally understand quite a bit about them. We could continue the interviews to find out about their future plans for their off-spring – thus producing more new knowledge. If we could manipulate data, information, knowledge, and understanding by combining a search engine, such as Google, with a reasoning engine, we could create a logic machine. Such an effort would be central to the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the Web. AI systems seek to create understanding through their ability to integrate information and synthesize new knowledge from previously stored information and knowledge. An important element of AI is the principle that intelligent behavior can be achieved through processing of symbolic structures representing increments of knowledge. This has produced knowledge-representation languages that allow the representation and manipulation of knowledge to deduce new facts from the existing knowledge. The World Wide Web has become the greatest repository of information on virtually every topic. Its biggest problem, however, is the classic problem of finding a needle in a haystack. Given the vast stores of information on the Web, finding exactly what you’re looking for can be a major challenge. This is where search engines, like Google, come in ─ and where we can look for the greatest future innovations to come when we combine AI and search. Larry Page and Sergey Brin found that the existing search technology looked at information on the Web in simple ways. They decided that to deliver better results, they would have to go beyond simply looking, to looking good. Looking Good Commercial search engines are based upon one of two forms of Web search technologies: human directed search and automated search. Human directed search is search in which the human performs an integral part of the process. In this form of search engine technology, a database is prepared of keywords, concepts, and references that can be useful to the human operator. Searches that are keyword based are easy to conduct but they have the disadvantage of providing large volumes of irrelevant or meaningless results. The basic idea in its simplest form is to count the number of words in the search query that match words in the keyword index, and rank the Web page accordingly. Although more sophisticated approaches also take into account the location of the keywords, the improved performance may not be substantial. As an example, it is known that keywords used in the title tags of Web pages tend to be more significant than words that occur in the web page, but not in the title tag; however, the level of improvement may be modest. Another approach is to use hierarchies of topics to assist in human-directed search. The disadvantage of this approach is that the topic hierarchies must be independently created and are therefore expensive to create and maintain. The alternative approach is automated search; this approach is the path taken by Google. It uses software agents, called Web crawlers (also called spiders, robots, bots, or agents) to automatically follow hypertext links from one site to another on the Web until they accumulate vast amounts of information about the Web pages and their interconnections. From this, a complex index can be prepared to store the relevant information. Such automated search methods accumulate information automatically and allow for continuing updates. However, even though these processes may be highly sophisticated and automatic, the information they produce is represented as links to words, and not as meaningful concepts. Current automated search engines must maintain huge databases of Web page references. There are two implementations of such search engines: individual search engines and meta-searchers. Individual search engines (such as Google) accumulate their own databases of information about Web pages and their interconnections and store them in such a way as to be searchable. Meta-searchers, on the other hand, access multiple individual engines simultaneously, searching their databases. In the use of key words in search engines, there are two language-based phenomena that can significantly impact effectiveness and therefore must be taken into account. The first of these is polysemy, the fact that single words frequently have multiple meanings; and the second is synonymy, the fact that multiple words can have the same meaning or refer to the same concept. In addition, there are several characteristics required to improve a search engine’s performance. It is important to consider useful searches as distinct from fruitless ones. To be useful, there are three necessary criteria: (1) maximize the relevant information, (2) minimize irrelevant information, and (3) make the ranking meaningful, with the most highly relevant results first. The first criterion is called recall. The desire to obtain relevant results is very important, and the fact is that, without effective recall, we may be swamped with less relevant information and may, in fact, leave out the most important and relevant results. It is essential to reduce the rate of false negatives ─ important and relevant results that are not displayed ─ to a level that is as low as possible. The second criterion, minimizing irrelevant information, is also very important to ensure that relevant results are not swamped; this criterion is called precision. If the level of precision is too low, the useful results will be highly diluted by the uninteresting results, and the user will be burdened by the task of sifting through all of the results to find the needle in the haystack. High precision means a very low rate of false positives, irrelevant results that are highly ranked and displayed at the top of our search result. Since there is always a tradeoff between reducing the risk of missing relevant results and reducing the level of irrelevant results, the third criterion, ranking, is very important. Ranking is most effective when it matches our information needs in terms of our perception of what is most relevant in our results. The challenge for a software system is to be able to accurately match the expectations of a human user since the degree of relevance of a search contains several subjective factors such as the immediate needs of the user and the context of the search. Many of the desired characteristics for advanced search, therefore, match well with the research directions in artificial intelligence and pattern recognition. By obtaining an awareness of individual preferences, for example, a search engine could more effectively take them into account in improving the effectiveness of search. Recognizing ranking algorithms were the weak point in competing search technology Page and Brin introduced their own new ranking algorithm ─ PageRanking. Google Connects Information Just as the name Google is derived from the esoteric mathematical term ‘googol,’ in the future, the direction of Google will focus on developing the esoteric ‘perfect search engine,’ defined by Page as something that "understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want." In the past, Google has applied great innovation to try and overcome the limitations of prior search approaches; PageRank was conceived by Google to overcome some of the key limitations.[16] Page and Brin recognized that providing the fastest, most accurate search results would require a new approach to server systems. While most search engines used a small number of large servers that often slowed down under peak use, Google went the other direction by using large numbers of linked PCs to find search results in response to queries. The approach turned out to be effective in that it produced much faster response times and greater scalability while minimizing costs. Others have followed Google’s lead in this innovation while Google has continued its efforts to make their systems more efficient. Google takes a parallel processing approach to its search technology by conducting a series of calculations on multiple processors. This has provided Google with critical timing advantage, permitting their search algorithms to be very fast. While other search engines rely heavily on the simple approach of counting the occurrences of keywords, Google’s PageRank approach considers the entire link structure of the Web to help in the determination of Web page importance. By then performing a hypertext matching assessment to narrow the search results for the particular search being conducted, Google achieves superior performance. In a sense, they combine insight into Web page importance with query-specific attributes to rank pages and deliver the most relevant results at the top of the search results. The PageRank algorithm analyzes the importance of the Web pages it considers by solving an exceptionally complex set of equations with a huge number of variables and terms. By considering links between Web pages as ‘votes’ from one page to another, PageRank can assign a measure of a page’s importance by counting its votes. It also takes into account the importance of each page that supplies a vote, and by appropriately weighting these votes, further improves the quality of the search. In addition, PageRank considers the Web page content, but unlike other search engines that restrict such consideration to the text content, Google consider the full contents of the page. In a sense, Google attempts to use the collective intelligence of the Web, a topic for further discussion later in this book, in its effort to improve the relevance of its search results. Finally, because the search algorithms used by Google are automated, Google has earned a reputation for objectivity and lack of bias in its results. Throughout their exciting years establishing and growing Google as a company, Page and Brin realized that continued innovation was essential. They undertook to find new innovative services that would enhance access to Web information with added thought and not a little perspiration. Page said that he respected the idea of having “a healthy disregard for the impossible.”[17] In February 2002, the Google Search Appliance, a plug-and-play application for search, was introduced. In short order, this product was dispersed throughout the world populating company networks, university systems, and the entire Web. The popular Google Search Appliance is referred to as ‘Google in a box.’ In another initiative, Google News was introduced in September of 2002. This free news service, which allows automatic selection and arrangement of news headlines and pictures, features real time updating and tailoring allowing users to browse the news with scan and search capabilities. Continuing Google's emphasis on innovation, the Google search service for products, Froogle, was launched in December of 2002. Froogle allows users to Search millions of commercial websites to find product and pricing information. It enables users to identify and link to a variety of sources for specific products, providing images, specifications and pricing information for the items being sought. Google's innovations have also impacted the publishing business with both search and advertising features. Google purchased Pyra Labs in 2003, and thus became the host of Blogger, a leading service for the sharing of thoughts and opinions through online journals, or blogs (weblogs). Finally, Google Maps became a dynamic online mapping feature, and Google Earth a highly popular mapping and satellite imagery resource. Using these innovative applications, users can find information about particular locations, get directions, and display both maps as well as satellite images of a desired address. With each new capability, Google expands our access to more information and moves us closer to Page’s Holy Grail: ‘perfect search.’ At this junction, Page and Brin have finally completed their hero’s journey. They have become the Masters of Search; committed to improving access to information and lifting the bonds of ignorance from millions around the world. Pattern of Discovery Larry Page and Sergey Brin were trying to solve the problem of easy, quick access to all Web information, and ultimately to all human knowledge. In order to index existing Web information and provide rapid relevant search results, their challenge was to sort through billions of pages of material efficiently and explicitly find the right responses. They were confident that their vision for developing a global information collection, storage, and retrieval system would succeed if they could base it on a unique and efficient ranking algorithm. The process of inspiration for Page and Brin became fulfilled when they completed their seminal paper entitled The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine which explained their efficient ranking algorithm, PageRank. In developing a breakthrough ranking algorithm based upon the ideas of publication ranking, Page and Brin experienced a moment of inspiration. But they didn’t stop there. They also believed that optimization was vitally important and so they developed their own Googleware technology consisting of combining custom software with custom hardware thereby reflecting the founder’s genius. They built the world’s most powerful computational enterprise, and they have been on a roll every since. Page stressed that inspiration still required perspiration and that Google appeared destined for rapid growth and expansion. In building the customized computer Googleware infrastructure for PageRank, they were demonstrating the 1% Inspiration and 99% Perspiration pattern. The result was Google, the dominant search engine connecting people to all of the World Wide Web’s information. Forecasts for Connecting Information For many of us it seems that an uncertain future looms ahead like a massive opaque block of granite. But just as Michelangelo suggested that he took a block of stone and chip away the non-essential pieces to produce David, we can chip away the improbable to uncover the possible. By examining inventors and their process of discovery, we are able to visualize the tapestry of our past to help unveil patterns that can serve as our guide posts on our path forward. Page and Brin invented an essential search technology, but their contributions to information processing were evolutionary in nature – built on inspiration and perspiration. One forecast for connecting information is that we can expect a continued pattern of inspired innovation as we go forward in the expansion of search and related technology. Discoveries requiring inspiration and perspiration: In considering the future for connecting information, we expect that improved ranking algorithms will ensure Google’s continued dominance for some time to come. Extrapolating from Google’s success, we can expect a series of inspired innovations building upon its enterprise computer system, such as offering additional knowledge related services. Future Google services could include: expanding into multimedia areas such as television, movies, and music using Google TV and Google Mobile. Viewers would have all the history of TV to choose from. And Google would offer advertisers targeted search. Google Mobile could deliver the same service and products to cell phone technology. By 2020, Google could digitize and indexed every book, movie, TV show, and song ever produced; making it available conveniently. In addition, Google could dominate the Internet as a hub site. The ubiquitous GoogleNet, would dominate wireless access and cell-phone. As for Google browser, Gbrowser, it could replace operating systems. However, our vision also concludes connecting information through developing more intelligent search capabilities. A new Web architecture such as Tim Berners-Lee’s Semantic Web, would add knowledge representation and logic to the markup languages of the Web. Semantics on the Web would offer extraordinary leaps in Web search capabilities. Since Google has cornered online advertising, they have made it progressively more precision-targeted and inexpensive. But Google also has 150,000 servers with nearly unlimited storage space and massive processing power. Beyond simply inspired discoveries, Google or other search engine powers could find innovations based upon new principles yet to be proven, as suggested in the following. Discoveries requiring new proof of principle: Technology futurists such as Ray Kurzweil have suggested that Strong AI (software programs that exhibit true intelligence) could emerge from developing web-based systems such as that of Google. Strong AI could perform data mining at a whole new level. This type of innovation would require a Proof of Principle. Some have suggested that Google’s purpose in converting books into electronic form is not to provide for humans to read them, but rather to provide a form that could be accessible by software, with AI as the consumer. One of the great areas of innovation resulting from Google’s initiatives is its ability to search the Human Genome. Such technology could lead to a personal DNA search capability within the next decade. This could result in the identification of medical prescriptions that are specific to you; and you would know exactly what kinds of side-effects to expect from a given drug. And consider what might happen if we had ‘perfect search?’ Think about the capability to ask any question and get the perfect answer – an answer with real context. The answer could incorporate all of the world’s knowledge using text, video, or audio. And it would reflect every nuance of meaning. Most importantly, it would be tailored to your own particular context. That’s the stated goal of IBM, Microsoft, Google and others. Such a capability would offer its greatest benefits when knowledge is easily gathered. Soon search will move away from the PC-centric operations to the Web connected to many small devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. The most insignificant object with a chip and the ability to connect will be network-aware and searchable. And search needs to solve access to deep databases of knowledge, such as the University of California’s library system. While there are several hundred thousand books online, there are 100 million more that are not. ‘Perfect search’ will find all this information and connect us to the world’s knowledge, but this is the beginning of decision making, not the end. Search and artificial intelligence seem destined to get together. In the coming chapters, we will be exploring all the different technologies involved in connecting information and we will be exploring how the prospects for ‘perfect search’ could turn into ‘ubiquitous intelligence.’ First, ubiquitous computing populates the world with devices using microchips everywhere. Then the ubiquitous Web connects and controls these devices on a global scale. The ubiquitous Web is a pervasive Web infrastructure allows all physical objects access by URIs, providing information and services that enrich users’ experiences in their physical context just as the Web does in cyberspace. The final step comes when artificial intelligence reaches the capability of managing and regulating devices seamlessly and invisibly within the environment – achieving ubiquitous intelligence. Ubiquitous intelligence is the final step of Larry Page’s ‘perfect search’ and the future of the Information Revolution. References: [1] Prather, M., “Ga-Ga for Google,” Entrepreneur Magazine , April 2002 . [2] Vise, D. A., and Malseed, M., The Google Story, Delacourt Press, New York, NY, 2005 [3] Brin, S., and Page, L., The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine, Computer Science Department, Stanford University, Stanford, 1996 [4] Brin S., and Page, L., “The Future of the Internet,” Speech to the Commonwealth Club, March 21, 2001, [5] Vise, D. A., and Malseed, M., The Google Story, Delacourt Press, New York, NY, 2005 [6] Vise, D. A., and Malseed, M., The Google Story, Delacourt Press, New York, NY, 2005 [7] Technology Review, interview entitled “Search Us, Says Google,” 1/11/2002 [8] Kevin Kelleher, “Google vs. Gates,” Wired, Issue 12.03, March 2004. [9] Brin S., and Page, L., “The Future of the Internet,” Speech to the Commonwealth Club, March 21, 2001, [10] Ibid [11] Cryptography and Liberty 1998, An International Survey of Encryption Policy, February 1998, from http://www.gilc.org/crypto/crypto-survey.html [12] Playboy Magazine Interview, “Google Guys,” Playboy Magazine, September 2004 [13] From Google's Letter to Prospective Shareholders http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/markets/marketfeatures/10157519_6.htm l [14] Playboy Magazine Interview, “Google Guys,” Playboy Magazine, September 2004 [16] Quotes from http://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html [17] Vise, D. A., and Malseed, M., The Google Story, Delacourt Press, New York, NY, 2005

New release "Fallout of War: Ukraine Year One" available on Amazon. New Releases In the tradition of Herman Wouk's sweeping historical war epics, Fallout of War follows Lieutenant Commander James Fairbanks, a career naval submarine officer assigned as a military attaché to the American embassy in Kyiv in late 2021. Fairbanks arrives in Ukraine with his wife, Lucy, a State Department analyst, just as tensions with Russia reach a critical juncture. A thoughtful, disciplined officer known for his strategic acumen and unvarnished assessments, Fairbanks quickly becomes immersed in the complex political and military landscape of Eastern Europe. Fairbanks tours the Chernobyl exclusion zone, where he meets Ukrainian special forces conducting training exercises amid the haunting ruins of the 1986 disaster. These encounters with hardened Ukrainian soldiers, many of whom fought in the Donbas since 2014, give Fairbanks his first understanding of Ukrainian determination and the existential nature of their struggle. Through a series of diplomatic functions and intelligence briefings, he develops relationships with key Ukrainian officials and eventually meets President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose evolution from entertainer to wartime leader forms one of the novel's central character studies. On the Cusp of Superintelligence captures pivotal moment when the race to artificial general intelligence transformed from a research project to an engineering sprint. On December 20, 2024, OpenAI quietly released a three-minute video that marked the moment when artificial general intelligence shifted from "someday" to "soon.” Their o3 model had achieved 87.5% on the ARC-AGI benchmark, a test specifically designed to resist pattern-matching shortcuts and measure genuine reasoning. Just months earlier, the best AI systems struggled to break 32%. The average human scores 85%. It reveals how multiple paths to AGI are converging simultaneously, each backed by billion-dollar labs with fundamentally different theories of intelligence. OpenAI bet everything on scaling—that intelligence emerges from processing enough information with enough parameters. Their progression from GPT-3's 175 billion parameters to o3's breakthrough validated their conviction that the path to AGI is a straight highway that needs to be extended far enough. Meanwhile, DeepMind, led by neuroscientist Demis Hassabis, pursued a portfolio strategy combining hierarchical reasoning, self-improving Gödel machines, multi-agent systems, embodied intelligence, and scientific discovery. Their synthesis approach suggests that superintelligence might require not choosing between paradigms but orchestrating them into unified systems. Anthropic took a different path, prioritizing safety through Constitutional AI, building alignment into the architecture rather than adding it afterward. Their Claude models demonstrated that capability and safety need not be mutually exclusive. In 2019, Giuseppe Carleo and his team pioneered the application of machine learning to quantum physics. This book is an introduction to how AI revolutionizes quantum field theory (QFT) , from scalar fields to complex gauge theories describing quarks and gluons. The narrative unfolds in three acts. First, readers discover the mathematical kinship between neural networks and quantum fields—the renormalization group maps onto information flow through neural layers, while gauge symmetry provides blueprints for AI architectures. The second act examines how AI addresses each type of quantum field. For scalar fields, neural networks identify exotic phases that traditional methods miss. For fermions, architectures like FermiNet achieve chemical accuracy while sidestepping computational barriers. For gauge fields, flow-based models conquer critical slowing down that has limited simulations for decades. Key breakthroughs include MIT's gauge-equivariant flows, which reduce autocorrelation times by a factor of 100, DeepMind's solution to 30-electron molecules, and the discovery by transformers that million-term scattering amplitudes can be expressed as a single equation. The final act envisions AI not just calculating but creating physics systems like MELVIN, designing quantum experiments that no human has imagined. Language models solve bootstrap equations. Neural networks propose routes to grand unification. The book culminates in a convergence of quantum computers and classical AI—a partnership that could crack QFT's deepest mysteries. By teaching AI nature's symmetries, we're creating systems that reveal patterns invisible to human analysis—AI intelligence is offering a different way of interrogating reality. Written as an introduction for physicists curious about AI and ML, as well as for AI and ML experts interested in fundamental physics, the book strikes a balance between rigor and practical implementation, offering both conceptual frameworks and tools for the quantum field theory revolution.

Excerpt of book Midshipman Henry Gallent at the Academy. Midshipman Henry Gallant at the Academy AMAZON 1 Threadbare Still a boy, not yet a man, Henry Gallant dug his stiff fingers deep into his pockets. He shivered as the bitter-cold wind clawed through his threadbare clothes . “Do you see it?” asked the elderly woman beside him, pulling her shawl tight around her. The overhead streetlamp offered little illumination as they squinted down the dark, winding dirt road. “Not yet,” said Gallant, standing on his tiptoes. The woman was a head shorter than him with a careworn face that the chill air made rosy. Her elegant features revealed that she had once been a beauty, and while time had weathered her, she had aged gracefully. Gallant stomped his feet impatiently while his mind was already racing, considering the prospects for his future. She asked, “Will you visit me when you get liberty?” “Of course, Grandmother,” he said, but he had no idea when that might be. “You know I’ve always tried to do my best, ever since . . .,” Gallant took a deep breath and wrapped his arms tight around his chest. “They were heroes, you know,” she said softly. “I know,” he said as the painful memory boiled up. She had told him many times about the meteor that struck the family outpost on Phobos when he was a child. His parents had only seconds to seal him in an escape pod and couldn’t save themselves. The picture his mind conjured up was of their selfless act. Since that ordeal, he had become obsessed with controlling his emotions. He had learned to set his own rules of behavior, things he would allow himself to express and things he wouldn’t. He kissed her gently on her forehead. “You gave meaning to my parents’ sacrifice by caring for me all these years.” Her work as a clerk by day and a seamstress at night had been taxing but necessary to make ends meet. She said, “You have been a blessing to me. Your freelance programming helped us manage.” She brushed back a tangled lock of brown hair from his forehead and said, “I wish I could have done more to mend your clothes.” “There’s nothing wrong with them,” he said. He stretched his arms wide as proof, but he was careful not to tear open a seam. “They’re perfect.” Anxiously, he stared down the road, wishing the bus had wings. Several minutes later, he said, “I think I see lights.” She brightened. “You’ll soon have a brand-new uniform.” While the bus approached, his grandmother continued to give him last-minute advice and encouragement, but he couldn’t concentrate on her words. As he looked into her eyes and saw her love, he could only feel guilt at leaving her alone. He planned to send her his meager midshipman’s allowance. It wouldn’t be much, but it was all he could do. It will be all right , he thought. The bus sputtered to a stop in front of them. A creaking door opened. Gallant barely had time for a quick hug and kiss before getting aboard. He carried a small bag that contained a change of underclothes and a few toiletries. He made his way to a rear window seat and waved as the bus departed. He watched her figure wave back as it faded into the shadows. The darkness seemed to swallow her like a living thing. Gallant sat next to a woman holding a small spaghetti-armed child. He remained quiet, staring straight ahead. The night was dark and cold along the remote, meandering mountain road. During the first hour of his journey, he worried about leaving his grandmother alone in their tiny mountain cabin. Although it was set in a pastoral valley with a natural spring, it lacked many modern conveniences. Besides his financial contribution over the years, he helped her by taking care of daily necessities. He cleaned the solar panels and maintained the storage batteries. Unfortunately, home delivery in rural areas had not yet taken hold, so he undertook the long jet-flyer trip to the nearest store. Now she would have to manage on her own, and her arthritis had been acting up. How will she manage without me? His emotional baggage shifted during the second hour. While he bounced around in the obsolete vehicle, self-doubt crept in. All his weaknesses, failings, and fears blossomed full form into his mind. He had never been aboard a spaceship, wasn’t a legacy, and didn’t even know a space officer. Most likely, he would be hazed, ridiculed, and driven out as undesirable within a week. His frown deepened with each passing mile, and he began to wish he had never applied for admission to the academy. Finally, he considered getting off and catching the return bus. I’m getting too good at predicting adverse outcomes, he thought. Gallant decided that untrustworthy emotions wouldn’t control him. Instead, he would let his logical mind guide him. He tried to calculate his chances of success. Then, after weighing the pros and cons, he thought, I must be bold. He straightened his spine, lifted his head, and vanquished guilt and fear. Either I make it, or I die trying! That’s all there was to it. Everything changed after that. As daylight trickled over the last hill, the road broadened into a smoothly paved highway. The sun’s resilient brightness lifted his spirits. He couldn’t wait for the adventure to begin.

H. Peter Alesso wrote a self portrait to reveal his history and experiences that helped him on his writing journey. My Story I love words, but that wasn't always the case. I grew up with a talent for numbers, leading me to follow a different path. I went to Annapolis and MIT and became a nuclear physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Only after retiring was my desire to tell stories reawakened. In recent years, I have immersed myself in the world of words, drawing on my scientific knowledge and personal experience to shape my writing. As a scientist, I explored physics and technology, which enabled me to create informative and insightful books, sharing my knowledge with readers who sought to expand their understanding in these areas—contributing to their intellectual growth while satisfying my own passion. But it was my time as a naval officer, that genuinely ignited my imagination and propelled me into science fiction. After graduating from the United States Naval Academy and serving on nuclear submarines during both hot and cold wars, I witnessed firsthand the complexities and challenges of military operations that seamen face daily. This allowed me a unique perspective, which I channeled into creating Henry Gallant and a 22nd-century world where a space officer fought against invading aliens. Through this narrative, I explored the depths of human resilience, the mysteries of space, and the intricacies of military conflict. My stories let me share the highlights of my journey with you. I hope you enjoy the ride. 1/9 Contact First name* Last name Email* Write a message Submit

Excerpt from the eighth book in the Henry Gallant Saga, Rear Admiral Henry Gallant. Rear Admiral Henry Gallant AMAZON Chapter 1 Far Away Captain Henry Gallant was still far away, but he could already make out the bright blue marble of Earth floating in the black velvet ocean of space. His day was flat and dreary. Since entering the solar system, he had been unable to sleep. Instead, he found himself wandering around the bridge like a marble rattling in a jar. His mind had seemingly abandoned his body to meander on its own, leaving his empty shell to limp through his routine. He hoped tomorrow would bring something better. I’ll be home soon, he thought. A welcoming image of Alaina flashed into his mind, but it was instantly shattered by the memory of their last bitter argument. The quarrel had occurred the day he was deployed to the Ross star system and had haunted him throughout the mission. Now that incident loomed like a glaring threat to his homecoming. As he stared at the main viewscreen of the Constellation, he listened to the bridge crew’s chatter. “The sensor sweep is clear, sir,” reported an operator. Gallant was tempted to put a finger to his lips and hiss, “shh,” so he could resume his brooding silence. But that would be unfair to his crew. They were as exhausted and drained from the long demanding deployment as he was. They deserved better. He plopped down into his command chair and said, “Coffee.” The auto-server delivered a steaming cup to the armrest portal. After a few gulps, the coffee woke him from his zombie state. He checked the condition of his ship on a viewscreen. The Constellation was among the largest machines ever built by human beings. She was the queen of the task force, and her crew appreciated her sheer size and strength. She carried them through space with breathtaking majesty, possessing power and might and stealth that established her as the quintessential pride of human ingenuity. They knew every centimeter of her from the forward viewport to the aft exhaust port. Her dull grey titanium hull didn’t glitter or sparkle, but every craggy plate on her exterior was tingling with lethal purpose. She could fly conventionally at a blistering three-tenths the speed of light between planets. And between stars, she warped at faster than the speed of light. Even now, returning from the Ross star system with her depleted starfighters, battle damage, and exhausted crew, she could face any enemy by spitting out starfighters, missiles, lasers, and plasma death. After a moment, he switched the readout to scan the other ships in the task force. Without taking special notice, he considered the material state of one ship after another. Several were in a sorrowful dysfunctional condition, begging for a dockyard’s attention. He congratulated himself for having prepared a detailed refit schedule for when they reached the Moon’s shipyards. He hoped it would speed along the repair process. Earth’s moon would offer the beleaguered Task Force 34, the rest and restoration it deserved after its grueling operation. The Moon was the main hub of the United Planets’ fleet activities. The Luna bases were the most elaborate of all the space facilities in the Solar System. They performed ship overhauls and refits, as well as hundreds of new constructions. Luna’s main military base was named Armstrong Luna and was the home port of the 1st Fleet, fondly called the Home Fleet. Captain Julie Ann McCall caught Gallant’s eye as she rushed from the Combat Information Center onto the bridge. There was a troubled look on her face. Is she anxious to get home too? Was there someone special waiting for her? Or would she, once more, disappear into the recesses of the Solar Intelligence Agency? After all these years, she’s still a mystery to me. McCall approached him and leaned close to his face. In a hushed throaty voice, she whispered, “Captain, we’ve received an action message. You must read it immediately.” Her tight self-control usually obscured her emotions, but now something extraordinary appeared in her translucent blue eyes—fear! He placed his thumb over his command console ID recognition pad. A few swipes over the screen, and he saw the latest action message icon flashing red. He tapped the symbol, and it opened. TOP SECRET: ULTRA - WAR WARNING Date-time stamp: 06.11.2176.12:00 Authentication code: Alpha-Gamma 1916 To: All Solar System Commands From: Solar Intelligence Agency Subject: War Warning Diplomatic peace negotiations with the Titans have broken down. Repeat: Diplomatic peace negotiations with the Titans have broken down. What this portends is unknown, but all commands are to be on the highest alert in anticipation of the resumption of hostilities. Russell Rissa Director SIA TOP SECRET: ULTRA - WAR WARNING He reread the terse communication. As if emerging from a cocoon, Gallant brushed off his preoccupation over his forthcoming liberty. He considered the possibilities. Last month, he sent the sample Halo detection devices to Earth. He hoped that the SIA had analyzed the technology and distributed it to the fleet, though knowing government bureaucracy, he guessed that effort would need his prodding before the technology came into widespread use. Still, there should be time before it becomes urgent. The SIA had predicted that the Titans would need at least two years to rebuild their forces before they could become a threat again. Could he rely on that? Even though he was getting closer to Earth with every passing second, the light from the inner planets was several days old. Something could have already transpired. There was one immutable lesson in war: never underestimate your opponent. A shiver ran down his spine. This is bad. Very bad! Gone was the malaise that had haunted him earlier. Now, he emerged as a disciplined military strategist, intent on facing a major new challenge. Looking expectantly, he examined McCall’s face for an assessment. Shaking her head, she hesitated. “The picture is incomplete. I have little to offer.” Gallant needed her to be completely open and honest with him, but he was unsure how to win that kind of support. He rubbed his chin and spoke softly, “I’d like to tell you a story about a relationship I’ve had with a trusted colleague. And I’d like you to pretend that you were that colleague.” McCall furrowed her brow, but a curious gleam grew in her eyes. He said, “I’ve known this colleague long enough to know her character even though she has been secretive about her personal life and loyalties.” McCall inhaled and visibly relaxed as she exhaled. Her eyes focused their sharp acumen on Gallant. “She is bright enough to be helpful and wise enough not to be demanding,” continued Gallant. “She has offered insights into critical issues and made informed suggestions that have influenced me. She is astute and might know me better than I know myself because of the tests she has conducted. When I’ve strayed into the sensitive topic of genetic engineering, she has soothed my bumpy relationship with politicians.” He hesitated. Then added, “Yet, she has responsibilities and professional constraints on her candidness. She might be reluctant to speak openly on sensitive issues, particularly to me.” McCall’s face was a blank mask, revealing no trace of her inner response to his enticing words. He said, “If you can relate to this, I want you to consider that we are at a perilous moment. It is essential that you speak frankly to me about any insights you might have about this situation.” She swallowed and took a step closer to Gallant. Their faces were mere centimeters apart. “Very well,” she said. “The Chameleon are a spent force. After the loss of their last Great Ship, they are defenseless. They agreed to an unconditional surrender. They might even beg for our help from the Titans. Their moral system is like ours and should not be a concern in any forthcoming action. However, the Titans have an amoral empathy with other species.” He gave an encouraging nod. She added, “Despite the defeat of Admiral Zzey’s fleet in Ross, the Titans remain a considerable threat. They opened peace negotiations ostensibly to seek a treaty with a neutral zone between our two empires. But we can’t trust them. They are too aggressive and self-interested to keep any peace for long. One option they might try is to eliminate the Chameleon while they have the opportunity. Another is to rebuild their fleet for a future strike against us. However, the most alarming possibility would be an immediate attack against us with everything they currently have. They might even leave their home world exposed. But that would only make sense if they could achieve an immediate and overwhelming strategic victory.” Gallant grimaced as he absorbed her analysis. She concluded, “This dramatic rejection of diplomacy can only mean that they are ready to reignite the war—with a vengeance. They will strike us with swift and ruthless abandon.” Gallant turned his gaze toward the bright blue marble—still far away.

Excerpt from book 3 of the Henry Gallant Saga, Henry Gallant and the Warrior. Henry Gallant and the Warrior AMAZON Going Up 1 Lieutenant Henry Gallant plodded along the cobblestone streets of New Annapolis—head down, mind racing . . . My orders say take command of the Warrior immediately . . . but no promotion . . . Why not? He pondered the possibilities, but he already knew the answer. Though he had steely gray eyes, a square jaw, and was taller than nearly everyone around him, what distinguished him most was not visible to the naked eye—he was a Natural—born without genetic engineering. Is this my last chance to prove myself? By the time he reached the space elevator, the welcoming breeze of the clear brisk morning had brightened his mood and he fell into line behind the shipyard personnel without complaint. Looking up, he marveled: That cable climbs into the clouds like an Indian rope trick. When it was his turn at last, the guard scanned his comm pin against the access manifest. The portal light blinked red. “Pardon, sir. Access denied,” said the grim-faced sentry. “Call the officer of the guard,” demanded Gallant. The officer of the guard appeared but was no more inclined to pass Gallant through than the sentry was. The guard touched the interface panel and made several more entries, but the portal continued to blink red. “There’s a hold on your access, sir.” Trouble already? Gallant thought. Then he asked, “A hold?” “Yes, sir. Your clearance and authorization are in order, but SIA has placed a hold on your travel. They want you to report to SIA headquarters, A.S.A.P.” “I need to go to the shipyard and attend to important business before going to the Solar Intelligence Agency,” clarified Gallant, but even as he said it, he knew it wouldn’t help. “Sorry, sir. Orders.” Gallant noticed the four gold stripes of a captain’s sleeve. The officer was waiting to take the next elevator. “Captain?” he said, hailing the man before he recognized him. Captain Kenneth Caine of the Repulse marched to the guard post, frowning. “What can I do for you, Gallant?” Of all the luck, he thought. Caine was the last person he wanted to impose upon, but it was too late now. Several uncomfortable moments passed with the three of them standing there—Caine, Gallant, and the officer of the guard—staring at each other, waiting for someone to break the silence. Finally, Gallant addressed Caine: “Well, sir, I’ve received orders to take command of the Warrior, but apparently all the T’s haven’t been crossed and my shipyard access has a hold from SIA.” Caine’s frown deepened. Gallant turned to the officer of the guard and said, “Is it possible to allow me go to my ship and complete my business? I’ll report to SIA immediately afterward.” The officer of the guard fidgeted and squirmed. He understandably did not like being placed in such a position while under the scrutiny of a full captain. Caine shrugged. Gallant was puzzled for a moment, wondering how to win Caine’s support. He tried the officer of the guard again, “Perhaps, you could send a message to SIA headquarters stating that you informed me of my requirement to report and that I agreed to attend this afternoon after I assume command of my ship. I’ll initial it.” Caine nodded. The guard brightened visibly. “That should be acceptable, sir.” He made a few entries into his interface panel and the portal finally blinked green. Gallant stepped through the gate and joined Caine. Together they walked to the elevator doors and mingled with the group waiting for the next available car. “Thank you for your help, captain,” said Gallant. “I’m sorry to have troubled you.” Caine merely nodded. Unwilling to miss the opportunity to reconnect with his former commanding officer, Gallant asked, “How’ve you been, sir?” Caine’s frown returned. “Well, personally, it’s been quite a trial . . .” Gallant resisted the temptation to coax him onward. After a minute, Caine revealed, “I lost a lot of shipmates during the last action.” He sighed and took a moment to silently mourn their passing. “I’m sorry, sir,” said Gallant, who was sensitive to the prickling pain in Caine’s voice. Gallant then took a long look at the senior officer. He recalled a mental image of his former commanding officer—solidly built and squared shouldered with a crew-cut and a craggy face. In contrast, the man before him now was balding and flabby, with a puffy face and deep frown lines. “Humph,” grumbled Caine, recognizing Gallant’s critical stare. “You’ve changed too. You’re no longer the lanky callow midshipman who reported aboard the Repulse nearly five years ago.” “Thank you, sir,” said Gallant, breaking into an appreciative smile. Caine returned the smile and, warming to the conversation, he said, “We had a few good times back then—and a few victories as well—a good ship, a good crew.” A minute passed before Caine added, “As for the Repulse—she’s suffered along with her crew . . . perhaps more than her fair share. As you know, she’s has been in the forefront of battle since the beginning of the war, but when the Titans attacked Jupiter Station earlier this year, we took a terrible beating—along with the rest of the fleet.” Caine’s face went blank for a few seconds as he relived the event. “ The Titans used nuclear weapons to bombard the colonies. The loss of life was staggering. Jupiter’s moons are now lifeless, scorched rocks. The colonists fled on whatever transport they could find and they’re now in the refugee camp on the outskirts of this city,” said Caine. Then, trying to sound optimistic but unable to hide his concern, he added, “We gave the Titans some lumps as well. It’ll be some time before they can trouble us on this side of the asteroid belt.” “So I understand, sir.” SWOOSH! BAM! The elevator car doors opened with a loud bang. Caine stepped inside. Gallant grabbed the strap and buckled himself into the adjacent acceleration couch. A powerful engine pulled the glass-encased car along a ribbon cable anchored to the planet’s surface and extended to the Mars space station in geostationary orbit. A balance of forces kept the cable under tension while the elevator ascended—gravity at the lower end and the centripetal force of the station at the upper end. The tiny vehicle accelerated swiftly to seven g’s and reached orbit in less than ten minutes before braking to docking speed. Gallant enjoyed a spectacular view as the car sped through the clouds. Below him was the receding raw red and brown landscape of Mars spread over the planet’s curvature; above him was one of man’s most ambitious modern structures; —a space station, replete with a shipyard that housed the newest space vessels under construction including Gallant’s new command, the Warrior, as well as ships in need of repair, including the Repulse. Gallant tried to pick out his minute ship against the much larger battle cruisers nested near it, but the rotation of the station hid it from view. “Repulse is completing extensive repairs. She’ll be back in action before long. I have a fierce loyalty to my ship and I know she’ll acquit herself well, no matter what comes,” said Caine. “I’m sure she will, sir,” said Gallant. “I haven’t congratulated you on your first command, yet” Caine said, extending his hand. “You’ve earned it.” “Thank you, sir,” said Gallant, shaking hands, while a thought flashed through his mind, If I earned command, why wasn’t I promoted? “Do you have any idea of your first assignment, yet?” “No, sir. It could be almost anything,” said Gallant, but he was thinking, Probably involves the Warrior’s special capabilities. Caine said, “At least you’ll get a chance to strike the enemy.” Gallant said, “We still know so little about the aliens’ origins or intentions. Since they’ve taken Jupiter, they’ve expanded their bases from the satellites of the outer planets. They’ve also penetrated into the asteroids. That puts them in a position to launch raids here.” Caine said, “I once asked you, ‘What’s the single most important element in achieving victory in battle?’” “Yes, sir, and my answer is the same: surprise.” “Yes,” Caine said, “but to achieve surprise, it’s essential for us to gather more intelligence.” “I agree, sir.” “Tell me, Gallant,” Caine said, as he shifted position, “are you aware there are many people who hold you in contempt? They still doubt that a Natural can serve in the fleet.” Gallant grimaced. “I’ve always done my duty to the best of my ability, sir.” “And you have done admirably, from what I know of your actions, but that hasn’t fazed some. I’ve heard little about your last mission.” “I can’t discuss that mission, sir. It’s been classified as need-to-know under a special compartment classification,” said Gallant, as he thought, I wish I could tell you about the AI berserker machine. I can only imagine what’s in store for the Warrior. “Nevertheless, I’ve heard that Anton Neumann was much praised for that mission. He was promoted to full commander and given the cruiser Achilles, though, I wouldn’t be surprised if his father’s influence played a role in that.” Gallant said nothing, but stared down at his shoes, Neumann always wins. Caine grunted and then said, “Neither of us is in good standing with Anton’s father.” Caine and Gallant had previously run afoul of Gerome Neumann, President of NNR, Shipping and Mining Inc., and an industrial and government powerbroker. Gallant nodded. Upon arriving at the space station platform, the elevator car doors opened automatically and once again banged loudly. SWOOSH! BAM! A long, enclosed tunnel formed the central core of the station with twenty-four perpendicular arms that served as docking piers. The tunnel featured many windows and access ports to reach the twenty-four ships that extended from the docking arms. The two men chatted about the war news while they rode a tram along the tunnel causeway. Finally, Gallant left Caine at the Repulse and continued to his new command. A swarm of workmen buzzed along the Warrior’s scaffolding, cranes hauled machinery to and fro, and miscellaneous gear lay haphazardly about. An infinite amount of preparation was under way, servicing the ship in anticipation of her departure. Gallant gaped . . . There she is. He leaned forward to take in every line and aspect of the ship. Despite the distractions, he saw the ship as a thing of exquisite beauty. The Warrior featured a smooth rocket shaped hull and while she was smaller than her battle cruiser neighbors, she weighed thirty-thousand tons with an overall length of one hundred and twenty meters and a beam of forty meters. She was designed with stealth capability, so she emitted no detectable signals and remained invisible until her power supply required recharging. Her armament included a FASER cannon, several short-range plasma weapons, and several laser cannons. She was equipped with an armor belt and force shield plus electronic warfare decoys and sensors. The ship’s communications, navigation, FTL propulsion, and AI computer were all state-of-the-art. The crew of 126 officers and men, was highly trained and already on board. When the Warrior traveled through the unrelenting and unforgiving medium of space it would serve as the crew’s heartfelt home. The brief, relaxed sense of freedom that Gallant had enjoyed between deployments was coming to an end; his shoulders tightened in anticipation. He stepped onto the enclosed gangplank and saluted the flag that was displayed on the bow. Then he saluted the officer of the watch and asked, “Request permission to come aboard, sir?” “Permission granted, sir,” said Midshipman Gabriel in a gravelly voice that was totally at odds with his huge grin, dimpled cheeks, and boyish freckled face. Was I ever that young? thought Gallant before he recalled he was only a few years older. Boarding the ship, Gallant’s eyes widened as he sought to drink everything in. He was impressed by the innovative technologies that had been freshly installed. The novelty of his role on this ship was not lost on him. Upon reaching the bridge, he ordered Gabriel to use the ship’s intercom to call the crew to attention. “All officers, report to the bridge!” Gabriel ordered. When the officers had gathered around him a minute later, he said, “All hands, attention!” Drawn together on every deck, the crew stopped their work, came to attention, and listened. Gallant recited his orders, “Pursuant to fleet orders, I, Lieutenant Henry Gallant, assume command of the United Planet ship, Warrior, on this date at the Mars’ Space Station.” He continued reciting several more official paragraphs, but from that moment forward, the Warrior was a member of the United Planets’ fleet and Gallant was officially her commanding officer. With the formal requirements concluded, Gallant spoke over the address system: “At ease. Officers and crew of the Warrior, I’m proud to serve with you. I look forward to getting to know each one of you. For now, we must outfit this ship and prepare to do our job as part of the fleet. There are battles to be fought, a war to win, and the Warrior has a key role to play.” Satisfied with his brief statement, Gallant nodded to Gabriel. Over the address system Gabriel announced, “Attention! All hands dismissed! Return to your regular duties.” Gallant stood before the officers on the bridge, addressed each by name and shook their hands, starting with the executive officer and then the department heads; operations, engineering, and weapons; followed by the junior officers. His first impression was that they were an enthusiastic and professional group. “I will provide prioritized work items for each of you to address in the next few days as we prepare for our upcoming shakedown cruise. For now, you can return to your duties. Thank you.” Gallant entered the Combat Information Center and pulled on a neural interface to the ship’s AI. The dozens of delicate silicon probes touched his scalp at key points. It sensitively picked up wave patterns emanating from his thoughts and allowed him to communicate with the AI directly. Gallant formed a mental image of the Warrior's interior. While Gallant could use the interface for evaluating the ship’s condition, the controls remained under manual control. He hashed out his priorities for his department heads to work on and sent them messages. He ordered them to address the myriad of items he had been mentally considering for hours. While he would have liked to have had a discussion with each officer individually, that would simply have to wait. It was time to get back to the space elevator. Gallant frowned in frustration at being pulled away by his appointment: I’d better hustle to SIA.

Excerpt from the second book in the Henry Gallant Saga, Lieutenant Henry Gallant. Lieutenant Henry Gallant 1 RUN AMAZON Gallant ran—gasping for breath, heart pounding—the echo of his footsteps reverberated behind him. He hoped to reach the bridge, but hope is a fragile thing. Peering over his shoulder into the dark, he tripped on a protruding jagged beam, one of the ship’s many battle scars. As he crashed to the deck, the final glow of emergency lights sputtered out, leaving only the pitch black of power failure—his failure. He lay still and listened to the ship’s cries of pain; the incessant wheezing of atmosphere bleeding from the many tiny hull fissures, the repetitious groaning of metal from straining structures, and the crackling of electrical wires sparking against panels. Thoughts flashed past him. How long will the oxygen last? He was reluctant to guess. Where are they? The clamor of dogged footsteps drew closer even as he rasped for another breath. Trembling from exhaustion, he clawed at the bulkhead to pull himself up. His hemorrhaging leg made even standing brutally painful. Nevertheless, he ran. The bulkhead panels and compartment hatches were indistinguishable in the dimness. Vague phantoms lurked nearby even while his eyes adjusted to whatever glowing plasma blast embers flickered from the hull. As he twisted around a corner, he crashed his shoulder into a bulkhead. The impact knocked him back and spun him around. Reaching out with a bloody hand, he grasped the hatch handle leading into the Operation’s compartment. Going through the hatch, he pulled it shut behind him. He started to run, then awkwardly fought his own momentum, and stopped. Stupid! Stupid! Going back to the hatch, he hit the security locking mechanism. It wouldn’t stop a plasma blast, but it might slow them down, he thought. At least this compartment is airtight. Finally, able to take a deep breath, he tried to clear his head of bombarding sensations. He should’ve been in battle armor, but he’d stayed too long in engineering trying to maintain power while the hull had been breached and the ship boarded. Now his uniform was scorched, revealing the plasma burns of seared flesh from his left shoulder down across his back to his right thigh. He had no idea where the rest of the crew was; many were probably dead. His comm pin was mute, and the ship’s AI wasn’t responding. He had only a handgun, but, so far, he didn’t think they were tracking him specifically, merely penetrating into the ship to gain control. Gallant tried to run once more, but his legs were unwilling. Leaning against the bulkhead, like a dead weight, he slid slowly down to the deck. Unable to go farther, he sat dripping blood and trembling as the potent grip of shock grabbed hold. The harrowing pain of his burnt flesh swept over him. Hope and fear alike abandoned him, leaving only an undeniable truth; without immediate medical treatment, he wouldn’t survive. I’m done. Closing his eyes, he fought against the pain and the black vertigo of despair. He took a deep breath and called upon the last of his inner resolve and resilience . . . No! I won’t give up. Exhaling and opening his eyes, he caught sight of a nearly invisible luminescent glow of a Red Cross symbol, offering him a glimmer of hope. He stretched his arm toward the cabinet. “Argh.” He heard a cry of agony and only belatedly realized it had escaped his own lips as he strained to pull away twisted metal from the door to a medical cabinet. Reaching inside, he grabbed a damaged medi-pack. Painstakingly he used the meager emergency provisions to stop the bleeding and to infuse blood plasma. His limited mobility prevented him from reaching awkward areas, but he managed to insert an analgesic hypodermic into his raw, blistered flesh. Next, he crudely bandaged his suffering body. He relaxed momentarily as the medication coursed through his veins, working to stifle the worst effects of shock and blood loss. His parched throat demanded . . . Water. He looked at more cabinets but was unable to make out their markings in the dark. Stretching his fingers, he opened the nearest one, groping for something familiar inside. No. He opened the next. No. And another. Yes. Finally, he snatched a half-buried survival kit. Greedily he drank and even managed to take a few bites of an energy bar. A surge of adrenaline helped him shift his position to sit more comfortably as his mind came into sharper focus. As he examined his surroundings in the faint light, he spotted an interface station. He was about to reach up and patch into the ship’s AI to get an update on the ship’s defensive posture when he was disturbed by the dismal clangor of footsteps. He held his breath. Are they coming this way?

The Science Fiction series "The Henry Gallant Saga." The Henry Gallant Saga COURAGE is only a word . . . until you witness it. Then . . . it is contagious. Henry Gallant is the only Natural left in Earth's genetically engineered space navy. Despite overwhelming odds and the doubts of his shipmates, Gallant refuses to back down as he uses his unique abilities to fight for victory at the farthest reaches of the Solar System. Follow Gallant as he finds the spine to stand tall, vanquish fear, and rain violence upon the methane-breathing enemy aliens. The nation needs a hero like Henry Gallant. He fights! For fans of Horatio Hornblower and Honor Harrington.

Author H. Peter Alesso presents excerpts from his published portfolio and research projects. H. Peter Alesso Portfolio Past, Present, and Future. " Oh, why is love so complicated?" "It's not so complicated. You just have to love the other person more than yourself." Not everyone who fights is a warrior. A warrior knows what's worth fighting for.

Excerpt from the seventh book of the Henry Gallant Saga, Henry Gallant and the Great Ship. Henry Gallant and the Great Ship AMAZON Chapter 1 An Unfortunate Turn of Events As soon as the morning watch settled in, Captain Henry Gallant walked onto the Constellation’s bridge. The Officer-of-the-Deck rose and vacated the command chair without speaking. The voyage had lasted long enough for the crew to become accustomed to his routine. Habitually, during the first minutes of the day, he examined the ship’s vital operational parameters from his bedside monitor before going into CIC for a detailed task force sitrep. Blips from the combat space patrol (CSP) were visible on the main viewer. The speakers broadcast communication traffic from distant Hawkeyes. Once he had satisfied himself that all was as it should be, he appeared on the bridge and assessed the more mundane needs for the day. The OOD handed him a list of completed tasks and those that demanded his approval. During this activity, he was lost in contemplation, and no one dared interrupt his train of thought. Only after dictating his orders for the day did he relax and give a word of encouragement to the OOD. Then he disappeared below decks for his daily walkabout, where he gauged the temperament of the crew. The hour exercise through the spacecraft carrier allowed him to maintain his fitness. This ritual was the most efficient use of his time since it also allowed him to observe ongoing maintenance and repair activities. On the one hand, the number of administrative duties clamoring for his attention limited his time; on the other, keeping in sync with his ship’s pulse was vital to making good decisions. It brought a faint smile to his lips when he resolved to shift more of the clerical burden onto his XO. Margret Fletcher had a talent for paperwork and was known for her no-nonsense adherence to the regs. Even though he overloaded her of late, she had responded with her usual zeal. As he passed through compartment after compartment, he dictated audio notes into his comm pin about items that needed attention. He marched along the corridors and stepped through the open hatches, ever mindful of the crew’s attention. Although immersed in his process, the crew discerned that his military instincts were on full alert. He would notice the slightest failure of attention to detail as the men and women went about their jobs. Occasionally, he heard a laugh or good-natured ribbing. That was well. A crew that could laugh while working would faithfully execute their duties. He enjoyed the sameness of each day; it reassured him that his world remained rational. It had been two days since the Constellation had poked her nose into the Ross star system. Gallant congratulated himself on making the deployment from Earth so rapidly. It had been a long and arduous two-month grind, but Task Force 34 was finally ready to relieve Task Force 31 as guardian of this system. He shifted his mind back to the disturbing initial surveillance reports that had perplexed him for the last twenty-four hours. Task Force 31 was not visible, which by itself, wasn’t alarming. A planetary body might block their light, though they weren’t responding to radio signals either. Again, they might be on the other side of the star, and the speed of light wasn’t being accommodating. Another calculation percolated into his consciousness. He had sent Hawkeyes out on a sweep of the system. So far, nothing was amiss, but there was confusing radio chatter from the planets indicating that some horrific event had occurred recently. Gallant returned to the bridge in time to review the latest recon update. None of the information was reassuring. He noticed an anomaly in the data that prickled the hairs on the back of his neck. Though the statistics were mysteriously thin and precariously riddled with contaminated inconsistencies, they were coaxing him toward a disturbing conclusion. He worried his premonition might be correct and ordered the CIC to conduct an AI simulation analysis. It wasn’t long before Commander Fletcher stepped onto the bridge. “Good morning, Captain,” she said. Then with a frown, she added, “I have the results.” Gallant spun in his command chair and cast a concerned eye on her. She held a tablet by two fingers out in front of her as if she had found it in a vat of something vile. “Morning XO,” said Gallant, taking the device. Swiping through the screens, he absorbed the information while his heartbeat rose. He wanted to remain calm to reinforce his reputation as imperturbable. He didn’t want Fletcher or anyone else to suspect that he could lose his composure. But he was bursting to rush into CIC. He wanted to review the raw data to verify that it was accurate, but he knew that the analysts would have been meticulous in developing this report. She interrupted his concentration. “You were right, sir.” “Ha—h’m,” he said, clearing his throat. He took a deep breath and forced himself to appear relaxed. Fletcher shook her head and prodded, “Looks like an enormous debris field—possibly with escape pods.” She pointed to the area spread deep throughout the star system’s heart, halfway between planets Bravo and Charlie. The OOD and the chief of the watch inched closer, craning their necks to get a peek at the tablet. Gallant recalled the disturbing image of the original data. Understanding flooded over him. He visualized what must have taken place, and it took an enormous effort to suppress his emotions. She scowled. “No sign of Task Force 31.” Still, he didn’t respond. She muttered, “That doesn’t necessarily mean . . .” Everyone on the bridge gazed expectantly at him. Like a father who returns home to find his front door smashed open, he ordered, “OOD, open a channel to all ships.” A moment later, the OOD reported, “Channel open to all ships, Commodore.” “To all ships, this is Commodore Gallant; set general quarters, assume formation diamond 4.4.” “Aye aye, sir,” came the response from each ship. The task force split into four strike forces. Captain Jackson of the Courageous led the first strike force designated 34.1. It was followed one light hour behind by 34.2 and 34.3, led by Captain Hernandez of the Indefatigable and Captain Chu of the Inflexible, respectively. They kept a light-hour separation from each other. Finally, Gallant led Constellation and Invincible in 34.4, another light hour behind the rest. The cruisers and destroyers were split amongst the strike forces. The dispersed strike forces looked like a baseball diamond with the Constellation at home plate. It took several hours to complete the maneuver. Satisfied that the ships were sufficiently far apart for the majority to survive a blast from the Great Ship’s super-laser, he ordered, “Task Force change course to 030 Mark 2, all ahead full.” Gallant waited anxiously on the bridge for the entire twenty-four hours it took for the task force to crawl across the Ross star system. Some telltale blips appeared on the scope interspersed within a belt of asteroids. When they were finally close enough, they saw the remains of many half-dead ships. They began picking up distress signals of countless escape pods. Officers and watch-standers on the bridge stared at the viewscreen, trying to glimpse the wreckage. Gallant’s eye estimated the number of blips. They could only be the remnants of Task Force 31. It was worse than he imagined—a terrible loss of life. “OOD, prepare med-techs. Send the search and rescue teams to recover the escape pod survivors.” The initial action report was sent by the senior surviving officer, Captain Raymond. It was sketchy. It couldn’t be called a ‘battle’ report since not a single ship of the task force had fired a shot. After a brief visit to Constellation’s sickbay, the officer reported to Gallant’s stateroom. Raymond was not quite fifty, but his balding head, sunken eyes, and beaked nose made him appear older. His long black mustache with grey flecks drooped, making him appear to frown. His uniform was in tatters, and he had several bandaged injuries that had been tended to by the ship’s surgeon. His thickset body was powerful, but he stood slumped over, pain etched across his face. “That’s the scorched wreck of my ship, the Dauntless,” said Captain Raymond, pointing to the viewscreen. The broken battlecruiser, along with the crippled remnants of four cruisers and a dozen destroyers, were all that was left of Commodore Pearson’s Task Force 31. “Commodore Pearson orders were to hold the system at all costs. Admiral Graves had assured him that the Great Ship would not appear. He was told that it would have to protect the Chameleon home planet in the Cygni star system against the Titans. At least that was President Neumann’s thinking after he found out that the Chameleon had only the one Great Ship left.” “The United Planets has been in negotiation with the aliens for over a year,” said Gallant. “Was there no progress?” There was anguish in Raymond’s voice. “None. And the Chameleon were angry.” He paused, dropping his gaze. “The governor told them to shove off, no deal was possible. After that ultimatum, things turned ugly.” Gallant frowned. “Take your time and start from the beginning.” Raymond’s words were clipped. “Task Force 31 had one carrier, four battlecruisers, and two cruiser-destroyer squadrons between planets Charlie and Bravo when the Great Ship appeared. They demanded that the United Planets evacuate the star system. Well, you know Pearson, no way that was happening. He sounded battle stations and ordered his ships to disperse to present a minimal target for the Chameleons.” When Raymond hesitated, Gallant prompted, “What happened next?” “The action was a disaster—a complete shock. The Chameleon looked at the dispersion as a threat and warned him to stand-down, withdraw, or surrender. After a few minutes, they fired.” He cast his eyes down. “The single blast was so devastating that it destroyed nearly all our ships. The blinding light and searing heat crippled my Dauntless and disintegrated most of the task force. The crippled remainders launched escape pods and waited for a follow-up salvo that, mercifully, never came. We hobbled out of the way. I sent a message to the governor on Charlie.” Raymond swallowed hard and furrowed his brow. “The governor’s response was to call it ‘an unfortunate turn of events.’” “I learned later that the Chameleon had threatened to make peace with the Titans if we didn’t yield the system. They must have since it gave them the freedom of action to leave their home world unprotected and deal with us.” He handed Gallant a flash drive. “This contains a plot of the action and the recordings of the communications between our ships and the governor. I’ve stuck my neck out to get this information on the record. You should collect and check the wreckage along with my observations.” “I understand. Some powerful men in the admiralty will be worried. I will describe the action in a detailed report to be sent to Earth,” said Gallant. He worried about how to keep Task Force 34 from suffering the same fate as their predecessor.

Excerpt from Captain Henry Gallant book within the HEry Gallant Saga. Captain Henry Gallant AMAZON Chapter 1 Streak Across the Sky Cold night air smacked Rob Ryan in the face as he stepped out of the Liftoff bar—a favorite haunt of pilots. He was still weaving his way through the parking terminal looking for his single-seat jet-flyer when a familiar face appeared at his elbow. Grabbing his arm, his friend said, “You shouldn’t fly. Let me give you a ride.” Ryan straightened to his full six-two height and shrugged off his friend’s hand. “I’m fine,” he said, swiping a lock of unkempt brown hair out of his eyes. “Don’t be pigheaded. There’s a difference between self-reliance and foolishness.” He pushed past his friend. “Nonsense. I fly better when I’m . . . mellow.” As he left his buddy behind, he noticed a young woman who had come out of the bar after him. He had spent the past hour eyeing this smokin’ hot redhead, but she had been with somebody. Now she was heading out on her own. She glanced at him and quickened her pace. A thought penetrated the fog in his mind. I’ll show her. At his Cobra 777 jet-flyer, he zipped up his pressure suit, buckled into the cockpit, and pulled on his AI neural interface—all the while imagining a wild take-off that would wow the redhead. He jockeyed his jet along the taxiway onto the runway. When the turbo launch kicked in, the black-and-chrome jet spewed a cloud of exhaust and dust across the strip. He jammed the throttle all the way in and gave a whoop of pure joy at the roar and explosive thrust of the machine. The exhilaration—a primitive, visceral feeling—increased by the second, along with his altitude and speed. His love of speed was only matched by his almost unhealthy fascination with flying machines—too fast was never fast enough. For a few seconds, his mind flashed back to his very first flight. The thrill only lasted a few minutes before the mini flyer spun out and crashed. Without a word, his father picked him up and sat him back down in the seat, restarting the engine with a wink and a grin. Clearest of all was the memory of his father’s approval as he took off again and soared higher and faster than before. Now he sliced through the crisp night air in a military jet that had his name engraved on the side. He ignited an extra thruster to drive the engine even hotter. Riding the rush of adrenaline, he pulled back on the stick to pull the nose up. Atmospheric flying was different than being in space, and for him, it had a sensual rhythm all its own. As he reached altitude, he pulled a tight loop and snapped the jet inverted, giving himself a bird’s-eye view of the ground below. But instead of reveling in admiration as expected, he found himself fighting for control against a powerful shockwave as a Scorpion 699 jet blew past him. The blast of its fuel exhaust was nothing compared to the indignation and shame that burned his face. It was the redhead. Damn. She’s good. His pulse raced as he became fully alert. Determined to pursue her, he angled the ship across air traffic lanes, breaking every safety regulation in the book. Instinctively his eyes scanned the horizon and the edges around him, watching for threats or other machines that might interfere with his trajectory. Pinwheeling in a high-G turn, he felt the crush of gravity against his chest, yet still, his hand on the throttle urged ever more speed from the machine. He lost track of the Scorpion in the clouds, and in mere seconds she maneuvered behind him. He tried to shake her using every evasive maneuver he had learned in his fighter training but couldn’t do it. His eyes roamed the sky, watching for potential dangers. The night sky was dark, but several landmarks lit up the ground below him. Earth’s capital, Melbourne, glowed with activity to the north; a mountain range stretched across the horizon 50 km to the west, and an airport lay to the south at the edge of the ocean. As he scanned the skyline, he noticed a radio-telescope antenna. Impulsively he dove toward it, the Scorpion on his tail. At the last moment, the redhead broke pursuit to avoid the antenna, but in a moment of reckless folly, Ryan crashed through the flimsy wire mesh, no more substantial to his Cobra than a wisp of cloud. “That’ll need a patch,” he chuckled. But once more, the Scorpion blew by him. He watched it roar away as if he were in slow motion. As the redhead curved back toward him for another pass, he gritted his teeth in frustration. With thrusters already at max burn, he punched the afterburner to create his own shock wave and turned head-on into her path. “Damn!” he screamed as the other ship twisted away. His golden rule for staying alive while flying was “never yield but always leave yourself an out.” Folly had made him reckless, and he knew his reflexes were sluggish, but he was pissed at himself for letting this pilot provoke him. Recovering his reason, he leveled off and threw down the skid flaps to reach a more reasonable speed. The jet took the torque and inertia strain, and the flashing red lights on his display turned yellow and then green. Despite his irritation, he allowed himself a faint smile when his AI read the Scorpion’s registration: Lorelei Steward. Good sense advised that he throttle back, but pride won out. Spotting the Scorpion silhouetted against a cloud, he jammed the throttle forward yet again. Finally, behind her, his smile broadened. She wouldn’t slip away this time. She pulled her jet into a violent oblique pop, rolled inverted until the nose pointed to the ground then returned to upright. He stuck with her, move for move. Abruptly she angled for the nearby mountain range. He chased her, low and fast, through a pass and down into a twisting canyon, rolling and pitching in a dizzying display of aerobatic skill. He kept close on her six until they blew out of the ravine. In a desperate ploy to shake him, she turned back toward Melbourne’s airspace and headed straight into a crowded flying highway. Ryan was so close behind that it took a few seconds before he realized her blunder. She had turned into an oncoming traffic lane. The cockpit warning lights lit up the cabin as Ryan dodged a stream of oncoming vehicles. Up ahead, Lorelei ducked under a passenger liner that swerved directly into his path. Time slowed to a crawl as he foresaw his fate—he could escape by pulling up—but that would force the crowded passenger liner to dive and crash into the ground. “Damn it all!” he yelled and dove—leaving the liner a clear path to safety. Through the neural interface, his AI shrieked, TOO LOW! PULL UP! TOO LOW! PULL UP! He used every bit of expertise he could muster to twist, turn, and wrestle his jet into a controlled descent. His vision narrowed as the lights of city and ships gave way to a line of unyielding rocks zooming toward him. In a blink, he ran out of time—and altitude. BRACE FOR IMPACT! The Cobra plowed a trough a hundred meters long across the desert floor. Ryan sat in the cockpit, stunned and disoriented amid the flames and wreckage until his lungs convulsed from the dense smoke. An acidic stench and the taste of jet fuel assailed his nose and throat, rousing him from his stupor. Fumbling to unbuckle the safety harness, he held his breath until he could release the hatch and climb out of his ruined machine. Shaking hands searched his body for broken bones. To his relief, he was intact . . . if he didn’t count the ringing in his ears and the blood that coursed down his face. The maxim from flight school ran through his mind: “Any landing you walk away from . . .” But as he limped away, his beloved Cobra burned into a twisted mound of molten metal, its nose buried in the dusty red ground. He shook his head at the wreck. “Captain Gallant is going to have my ass.”

Excerpt of short story collection book, All Androids Lie. All Androids Lie AMAZON THE GAME Kateryna said, “Hold still, Dear,” as she wiped the dirty smudge off the corner of Maria’s mouth. Maria asked, “Why is everyone so excited?” Kateryna said, “They’re scared of the loud noise.” “What is it?” “Fireworks. See the bright flashes exploding in the night sky,” said the girl’s mother. Maria nodded. “It’s the start of The Game,” lied her mother. “I told you all about it. Don’t you remember?” Maria shook her head, puzzled. “Everyone in the city plays, and there are terrific prizes.” Kateryna added, “What a pity you’re only four. You can’t play. I’m sooo sorry. You might have been great.” “What’s the game?” “It’s a big, big game of tag. Everyone in the city will run to escape. If you’re tagged, you lose. Everyone wants to win. It’s too bad you can’t play.” “Why can’t I play?” Kateryna said, “You’re only four. You’d get tired, cry, and make a fuss.” “I won’t. I won’t make a fuss.” “You would have been good at this game. The prizes are spectacular. Including that new doll, Laura, that you wanted so badly.” “If I win, I will get Laura?” “Yes, and lots more.” Outside, people were running and shouting. “There are candies, treats, games, and other toys for the winners. But you could never win. You would cry and quit.” “No, Mommy. I’ll be good. I want to play and win the prizes.” “I’m so sorry, Dear. The game is long and hard, and I don’t think you’re strong enough.” “Oh, Mommy, I really, really want to. I promise to be good.” Maria looked as if she was ready to throw a tantrum. “None of that, or you will lose immediately,” scolded her mother. “Please?” she asked with the most adoring smile. “Well, I don’t know,” said her mother. “There are many people who can tag you, and you must run away from all of them.” “I will. Please?” Kateryna looked appreciatively at her fair-haired daughter. The prekindergarten teacher told her that Maria was her star pupil because she was so advanced with her numbers and letters. She loved her toy piano and played well with the other children. Kateryna could see herself in the child, not just in the likeness of her face and features but in spirit and desire. Normally, a good-natured and happy-go-lucky sort of woman, she felt she could rise to any challenge. And now, she faced her fiercest test. “If I let you play, there can be no quitting. Do you agree? Pinky Swear?” “Yes! Yes! Pinky Swear,” said Maria jumping up and down. Static from the radio crackled behind them. The news announcer said, “This city has been a center for trade and manufacturing for key businesses along the Black Sea coast. But now its magnificent architecture and unique decor are being wiped off the face of the earth.” With steely determination, Kateryna suppressed her fears and shut the radio off. As the explosions drew near, she calmly said, “Let’s get ready! “Keep these documents safe,” Kateryna said, tucking the papers into Maria’s coat pocket. “They are the game tickets with your name. The rules of the game are strict. And you must reach the winning flag without being tagged. You must stay close to me and don’t talk to people. Do you understand?” “Yes.” “Whenever I say run, you run. Or else, the bad men will tag you.” Maria nodded. She put a scarf around Maria’s neck and buttoned up her coat. Then she pulled up the collar before being satisfied that she would be warm. “My gloves,” squeaked Maria. “Here they are.” As they left their apartment building and stepped out onto the street, they saw people leaving their houses in panic. “Are all these people playing the game?” “Yes. See how much fun they’re having. I told you it was a popular game. You must be tough to play. Are you tough?” “Yes. Mommy.” “Are you?” her mother asked with a raised brow. The skinny four-year-old put her hands on her hips, stood like a superhero with her chest out, and shouted, “I’m tough, and I mean it!” Fairly bursting with laughter, Kateryna said, “Okay, then. Let’s go,” Kateryna gripped the girl’s hand firmly and said, “This way.” As they hurried, there were loud explosions throughout the city. When they reached the train station, shells were bursting high above. “Gosh! Everything is happening so fast.” “Be patient, Dear.” They managed to squeeze onto a packed rail car, but the train was slow and made many erratic stops as if it were engaged in a game of dodgeball. Soon Maria complained, “The people are scary.” Kateryna touched the girl’s cheek and said, “Be brave. We’re on a great adventure. You must be bold.” But after two hours, Maria scowled and said, “I’m cold.” As Kateryna rearranged the girl’s scarf and coat, deep frown lines bit into her face threatening to become a permanent mask. She removed the girl’s gloves and rubbed the tiny hands. Then she planted a kiss on Maria’s rosy cheek. Maria pouted, “I’m hungry.” “Maria, you’re a troublesome thing.” Kateryna took a package out of her pocket and unwrapped a Kanapky sandwich for her. The girl took several bites and then looked disinterested in the rest. She sulked, “I’m thirsty.” “I don’t have any water,” said her exasperated mother. “But if you’re going to be a nasty girl, we will have to quit the game and go home immediately.” “Mommmm,” whined Maria. Nearby, a very old, cantankerous-looking woman, rumpled and wrinkled as a walnut, said, “Here, I have an extra.” She handed Maria a small water bottle. “Thank you. That’s generous of you,” said Kateryna with relief. After another hour, Maria pressed her face against the window, peering into the night as February’s frost crept along the windowpane, forming the jagged lines of an ice blossom. Suddenly, the train bounced and rocked. Pieces of steel and glass flew about. People screamed in pain. A bit of shrapnel cracked the skull of a nearby man. It made the sound of a champagne cork popping. THUNK! “Mommy, that man is bleeding.” “Shhh. It was an accident. He will be taken care of. We must keep moving.” They fled the train and the bombardment area. Kateryna gripped her daughter’s hand tightly and pulled her along as quickly as possible. When they reached a military checkpoint, a soldier told them it was safer to travel on the back roads. “He’s dressed like Daddy. Is Daddy playing too?” “Yes, Darling,” said Kateryna, holding back a tear. “I’m afraid he is.” “I’m scared, Mommy.” Gathering her courage, Kateryna said, “Don’t be frightened, Maria. Remember, it’s only a game. And we’re going to win. Just don’t let them tag you, okay.” “Huh ha.” In the early morning hours, the rosy glow of the sun kissed the horizon just as they reached the top of a hill. “Can we rest, Mommy? I’m tired.” “Not yet. See that bunker across the field? That’s the finish line. When we get there, we’ll win the prize.” “Oh good,” said Maria, perking up, but she could barely move. Kateryna picked her up and carried her. But after going only a hundred yards, Maria exclaimed, “Huh, oh. Mommy are those the bad men?” pointing to men with guns chasing them. Kateryna looked over her shoulder and said, “Yes, Maria. They are very bad men. Evil does not sleep; it waits for a chance to catch you. So, we must hurry.” She put Maria down and said, “See that bunker ahead. That’s the finish line. That’s where you turn in your ticket. Hold it fast to your chest.” Then she leaned closer and whispered, “I love you, Dearest,” though the sentiment seemed more like goodbye. “I love you too, Mommy,” said Maria clutching her ticket. The child’s words wrapped around Kateryna like a thick warm blanket. She yelled, “Run, Maria, run!” The noise from the blasts was terrific and the flashes of the overhead lights cast eerie shadows on their path. Cold breath steamed from their mouths as they huffed and puffed. Gripped by the full force of her worst fears, Kateryna yelled, “Run, Maria! Don’t look back! Run!” Maria ran with all the might and passion a four-year-old could muster. Finally, when she reached the bunker, a giant armor-clad soldier pulled her to safety. Maria jumped up and down and shouted over the din, “Did we win, Mommy? Did we win?” Then, suddenly, and loudly, Maria let out a cry that tore through the night. She sobbed unrelentingly, even as she stuttered out several snot-thick breaths. In the open field, just a dozen yards from the bunker, her mother lay face-down, sprawled out like a discarded rag doll.