Outskirts Press, INC.

What happens when the future invades the present?

Tom was only 13 years old when he vanished without a trace, so it is not surprising that the stranger who shows up 36 years later claiming to be Tom is thought to be an imposter. But what if he is the boy grown to be a young man, returned not from the past but from the future—a future with faster-than-light spacecraft, death-dealing ray guns, humanoid robots, menacing aliens, bug-eyed monsters, heroic spacemen, captivating spacewomen, megalomaniacal madmen, sentient dinosaurs, and bioengineered cats?

If Tom is telling the truth, an interstellar conflict whose origin lies centuries in the future has spilled over into the present—and the past, present, and future are entwined in a riddle for which there appears to be no answer. The Solar Patrol is a blend of space opera and hard science fiction set in the past as it never was and the future as it used to be.

The Solar Patrol is a tale of a future once imagined.


Unsolicited Reviews:

“The Solar Patrol is more than your typical science fiction novel. It attempts to answer such timeless questions as, ‘Is being in the eighth grade worse than being thrown into the midst of an interstellar war?’” – Unsolicited reviewer

“The author’s depth of character development is unsurpassed, especially with regard to cats.” – Neutronium (Cyber-cat)

“The exobiology found in Miller’s novel far exceeds that of most science fiction. Want to know what a bilaterally inverted Polluxian Snerg Blat is, then read this book.” – Another unsolicited reviewer

“I read the book and I still don’t know what a bilaterally inverted Polluxian Snerg Blat is. Perhaps the author will get around to explaining it in the next book of the series?” – A disgruntled unsolicited reviewer

While this exchange of fire was taking place, Tom was desperately searching for a weapon. He spied the first guardian’s ray rifle next to the smoldering hulk of its former owner. The boy threw himself on the floor, managing to snatch up the weapon as he slid across the smooth surface of the deck. As he did so he felt a spasm of pain shoot up his arm, a result of the damage he had done to his hand when he had struck one of the mutant mice. Ignoring the pain and coming to a stop, he flipped over on his back, dragging the gun with him. Both the boy and the muzzle of the weapon he held now faced the surviving alien. As he lifted the gun, he almost dropped it as the throbbing hurt again flashed up his arm. His whole body seemed to shake as he attempted to aim the space rifle at the mouse-like monstrosity that was now directing its attention back to Sarah. Tom had never used a ray weapon before, yet his reflexes responded to it as if he had practiced with one for years. An old oriental saying that his father had taught him touched his mind. “The bearing of weapons changeth the mind of the bearer.” The boy no longer felt helpless. Instead confidence and courage seemed to surge through his body. With a grunt, he leveled the gun at the grinning mouse from hell just as the thing was attempting to get off a shot at Sarah. He squeezed the trigger. The rifle emitted a loud zap. The weapon’s recoil surprised the boy, not only because he had not expected any, but because the force of impact was so great that, at first, he thought it had broken his shoulder. The alien froze. A large hole appeared in its chest right about where the heart would be had the creature been human. Tom immediately squeezed off three more shots, each squeeze of the trigger slamming the weapon’s stock against his aching shoulder. Three more holes appeared, forming a neat diamond shape on the chest of his antagonist. The fiend dropped its weapon and collapsed to the deck.