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Battered by administrative headaches, facing criminal indictment, newly appointed Supreme Commander Laurie Lachrer further compromises herself when she falls in love with a brilliant young engineer. Yet ninety-two light-years away, charismatic dog-aliens are preparing the Mysteries of the Dream.
Published by Sortmind Press eBook: paperback: cover design by Michael D. Smith |
Synopsis
Supreme Commander Laurie Lachrer finds herself overwhelmed by galling administrative headaches in her first six months as supreme commander. In addition to resistance throughout the United System bureaucracy, she’s being sued by Cassie Wolfduy, mother of the corrupt USSF airman Laurie was forced to kill in self-defense the previous May. Laurie is also politically stigmatized as an inept Commerist, subservient to former supreme commander Jack Commer. But all these troubles pale in comparison to her guilty attraction to subordinate Rod Morgan, the brilliant young physician/engineer on spaceship Pegasus I.
Meanwhile, Laurie’s protégé Mavis Wheeler captains Pegasus II to a planet 92.5 light-years away to initiate first contact with an alien race called the Counselors, who offer to introduce humanity to what they call the Dream Culture. But the Counselors, who’ve taken the form of six-foot Beagle-human hybrids to interface with Sol, also turn out to be eager and influential spectators at Laurie’s murder trial.
Main Characters
Supreme Commander Laurie Lachrer
Laurie takes up the responsibilities of Supreme Commander of the United System Space Force in May 2076, but by November she’s exhausted by the endless administrative hassles and the growing disrespect shown to her.
Lt. Commander Rod Morgan
Brilliant and upcoming physician/engineer at thirty-five, assigned to saucer Pegasus II, Morgan is tall and slender, with well-defined pectorals, prematurely gray hair, intense deep-set gray-blue eyes, and is seemingly irresistible to women.
Cardecu
Chairman of the Dream’s Committee of Six which formed on the planet Umbrae when the Counselors came into contact with Jack Commer’s son and dog Trotter. Like his fellow committee members, Cardecu has adopted a permanent Beagle-human shape to better interface with Sol.
Captain Mavis Wheeler
Stunningly beautiful at six-foot-one, the author of On the Use of Xon Technology as Electromagnetic Pulse Disruptor in Space Combat is appointed captain of USSF saucer Pegasus II, but soon finds herself disturbingly at odds with her mentor Laurie.
Carla Posttner, Ambassador to the Dream
Lt. Commander Cadagasgar Wirlmann
Sandy-haired, ruggedly handsome, graduating top of his class at the USSF Academy, Cad was unjustly demoted to a Detention Services goon, but was determined to win back his piloting credentials. He’s now Laurie’s copilot aboard Pegasus I and decides to show far more initiative than anyone thought him capable of.
Carla Posttner
She was jailed for her attempt to overthrow the United System in April 2076, but President Robert Easterling freed her a month later and reappointed her director of USSF Detention Services. But in league with Easterling, she repeated the power grab the very next month and was jailed a second time. Then she’s appointed ambassador to the Dream in her low-cut violet pantsuit, glorious brick-red hair coiling over her shoulders.
Commander John Perkins
Director of Detention Services and Laurie’s bête noire, Perkins sports a gray tunic, a thin black Sam Browne belt across his chest, and a huge black shattergun holster at his hip. He’s constantly in service to Carla Posttner.
Supporting Characters
Robert Easterling
Long-time enemy of Jack Commer, Senator Easterling declares himself president of the United System in May 2076, then finds himself captured and jailed with Carla Posttner.
Jonathan James Commer
Jack and Amav’s troubled son, bestselling author, Alpha Centaurian emperor, instigator of a rebellion, and eventually a bio-robot, JJC makes first contact with the Counselors at Xi Scorpii A, 92.5 light-years from Sol.
Trotter
An eight-hundred-year-old Beagle, Trotter is Jonathan James’s loyal friend. When he travels to the planet Umbrae, Counselor aliens feel Trotter’s telepathic outradiance and his tight bond with Jonathan James, and in response form themselves into a combination Beagle-human shape i
Jack Commer, former Supreme Commander
Seventy-two, rejuvenated to his mid-thirties. Jack is 6’1”, with powerful pecs and thick muscular arms. Moving with his wife Amav to the former Alpha Centaurian Empire star Procyon A, he finds there’s no peace to be had in his recent retirement.
Amav Frankston-Commer
Brainwashed in her twenties to be the consort of the corrupt Martian Emperor Sam Hergs, Jack’s wife Amav is now a renowned planetary engineer. She and Jack retired to Andertwin, an agrarian planet orbiting the star Procyon A, in May 2076.
Mandy Frederick
Former Martian Empress, President of the Sol Council in November 2076, Mandy appears human but is actually a reincarnation of the ancient Martian Empress Fra’lith.
Laurie 283
A Heroes and Villains of the Thirties robot version of Laurie Lachrer, Laurie 283 reluctantly assumes the post of Deputy Commander of the USSF in May 2076.
Mickey Mal Michaels
The Typhoon I turret commander, killed in 2034 and later constituted as a Heroes and Villains of the Thirties robot, Michaels becomes the author of Fathom the Doomboat Stars, the most astonishing science fiction novel ever written. He then disappears into unfathomable cosmological mystery.
Judge Guly Radfahrer
A top-level Marsport Criminal Justice System judge whose silver hair and booming voice mask inept, authoritarian malfeasance at Laurie’s trial.
Commander John West
Combat hero killed by Martians in 2034, reconstituted as a Heroes and Villains of the Thirties robot, Major West was director of USSF Public Relations until he found himself mixed up in the Easterling/Posttner treason. But his cybernetic genius was so valued that the USSF reset his software, and by November 2076 he’s a valued weapons officer aboard Pegasus II.
Cassie Wolfduy
A shrill, frizzy blonde with beady blue eyes, Cassie is the mother of Airman Wolfduy, killed by Laurie in self-defense. With assistance from Detention Service Director Perkins and the Anti-Spacer Foundation, her civil suit against Laurie gets upgraded to a murder charge in November 2076.
Commander Ywer
Former Martian chef serving as Laurie’s copilot aboard saucer Pegasus I. He could have become a Martian Star General, but has chosen to rise within the human ranks of the USSF.
Bloasphr
A human-Beagle hybrid Counselor from Umbrae, Bloasphr is Cardecu’s second-in-command and sometimes offers unwanted advice which Cardecu reluctantly takes into account.
Contents
Commander John Perkins of Detention Services
1. The Corridor
2. Wirlmann Assesses
3. Is Everything Ruined?
4. Umbrae
5. The Noble Counselors
6. The Robot Listens.
7. The Prison Pact
8. They Cannot Bear to See Captivity
9. The Trial
10. Team Wolfduy
11. A Jury of Understanding and Wisdom
12. Manifest Empathy
13. So How Did It Feel, Cassie?
14. The Wedding
15. The Cardecu Penalty
16. Shuttle Sperry.
Encar Wolfduy, corrupt Airman
17. Nobody Cares About Our Stupid Story
18. Reluctant Huntress
19. What Powers She Might Have
20. The Annulment
21. She Brainwashed Me, I Guess
22. Carla Has Had Enough
23. A Lesson for Renegades
24. Neutralization Brig Two
25. Halfway to Umbrae
26. How Does Reality Assert Itself?
27. A Word from a Fool
28. You Want to Marry My Copilot?
29. Pavlovian Politics
30. The Wirlmann Report
Blog History
Introducing The Benign Incursion, April 28, 2025
Book Info
Published December 2025
eBook (245 pages)
Amazon (ASIN B0GCDMWFX8)
Draft2Digital (ISBN 9798233063831)
Smashwords(ISBN 9798233063831)
paperback:
Amazon (ISBN 9798241139542)
Excerpt (Chapters 1-3 in PDF format)
All words and images (except actual cover art) copyright by Michael D. Smith