The Wolfenheim Project was never simply about building a new colony. Oh, the colony was important. But Charles has never been one to play one game at a time. You see the Hurst family was rich, powerful, and very set in its ways. Charles wished to change that. When Wolfenheim launched from New Earth, many alliances within the family were revealed to my very prying eyes. We put that information to very good use.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act touched off four years of bitter war between Slave State and Free State forces as they fought to drive their opponents out of Bloody Kansas. Even the halls of power were not immune, and verbal sparring in the United States Senate turned into open violence. A Democratic Senator incensed by Free Soil rhetoric beat his Republican opponent to the Senate floor and continued to cane him until the cane shattered. It was only the beginning.
You know the saying about rats fleeing sinking ships? Yeah, that was actually based on reality. Rats got on actual water-sailing ships back in the old days. Don’t ask me. I don’t know. When a ship started sinking, the rats would charge up out of the cargo holds, swarming over anything in their path to get away. Hence the saying. Even the best security couldn’t keep them out. Now, the rats are intelligent. Those buggers can smuggle themselves anywhere. And have.
Some people wonder why we continue to explore other systems at all. We have enough room on the worlds we’ve discovered to live on for thousands of years without crowding after all. The vast majority of us never leave the world we were born on. But there are always those who wonder what is over the hill, or on the other side of the sea, on another world, or at another star. They are the people that want to see things with their own eyes. They are the explorers.
With the threat of Britain diminishing in the thirty years following our successful war with Mexico, we stumbled towards another war of our own making. Abolitionists demanded Slavery’s end. Slave States in turn threatened Secession, until we passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Local settlers would democratically decide if their territory would be Free or Slave. Sometimes I wonder if they recognized the powder keg they were holding a match to.
The Martian Affair on Amazon
Forge of War on Amazon
The Audacious Affair on Amazon
Angel Flight on Amazon
Angel Strike on Amazon
Angel War on Amazon
The Family Affair on Amazon
The Thunderbird Affair on Amazon
Wolfenheim Rising on Amazon
Wolfenheim Emergent on Amazon
The Gemini Affair on Amazon