Glitch

What does the 21st century hold for us? Find out here, with Kate's predictions surrounding a story of one fantastic discovery. Stretching from advances within our grasp, like self-driving cars and a private space industry, to rewilding a depopulated prairie with cloned mammoths, you'll glimpse a future rooted in today's science.

At Spaceport America, routine calibrations on a spacecraft lead mission controller Rob Shay to an incredible glitch in space which opens a path to an unknown star system.Rob must convince his client to divert to a new mission - creating a sentry at the glitch before it's lost among the solar system's un-cataloged asteroids.Not everyone wants to see humanity travel beyond Earth, governments try to claim the mission, and business concerns derail exploration.

Rob struggles to stay with his mission, but when bigger problems rock the nation, he and his friends worry about staying employed. Along the way, share social changes with Rob, from binge-watching his favorite entertainment to an all-religions mall. At least Rob gets some sympathy from his ex-girlfriend who runs a telescope-for-hire business. Too bad she's in Australia. Join Rob in our near-future - today.

I'm a retired Cold War Warrior. I worked for over twenty years at the Rocky Flats Plant, which was part of the nation's nuclear weapons complex. During the Cold War, I was a Chemical Engineer in a plutonium recycling and purification facility, where I helped troubleshoot and improve the processes and did some research and development work as well. After the Cold War fizzled out, I switched to environmental engineering and project planning. I've held plutonium in my hands. Not many people can say that. When the lengthy decommissioning of Rocky Flats was nearly complete, I moved to work at the copper mines around Silver City, New Mexico, where Native Americans collected copper long before the Spaniards entered Mexico. Today I live in southwest New Mexico, at the edge of the Gila National Forest, which includes the world's first wilderness area, with my husband, dog, three cats, and four llamas. I enjoy hiking and bird-watching, and, as a volunteer firefighter, have fought wildland and home fires. Now that I've adding writing science fiction and poetry, I think I'm well on my way to achieving my life goal: to become an eccentric old woman.