Colonel Daniel Drake was a name known to every man, woman, and child for he directed the project that would fulfill humanity’s oldest dream. The building of Argos had cost him everything including his family but, for the hard-driving colonel, nothing would stop this first expedition to the stars. An endeavor that, oddly enough, some on Earth seemed willing to sacrifice anything to stop.

Initial attempts to sabotage the ship did not prevent the departure of the expedition to Tau Ceti but things went downhill from there. Fortune quickly took the expedition on a strange turn that, unknown to their homeworld, would send them ninety-nine million years back in time on an adventure they were completely unprepared for. However, the fates smiled on them for, at their point of departure, they’d been saddled with the addition of the young and rather shy Doctor Sandra Shieve.

At first, the stern Colonel Drake saw no need for a geophysicist but he soon discovered their survival would fall squarely upon her shoulders.

A Word from Philip Nolen

Dear Listener
“99 Mya” is an extensive rewrite of a work originally published in 2015 under the name ‘Terrence Zavecz’ and using the title, “Crucible of a Species”. This is one of my favorite stories but much has changed since that publication. In this improved adventure, you will find a great expansion of the storyline, enough to qualify as a small novel of its own. I’ve changed many of the situations, expanded the character arcs, and included a new, surprise ending. As to the tale itself, there is just enough hard fiction to make it seem magical and yet hold back from the nebulous fantasy and impossible scope of ‘Space Opera’. Many of these concepts are already found in research labs around the world. It is my hope you will enjoy this fictional world of tomorrow, the magic of which will be little more than daily life for our children.”

philipnolen.com/CrucibleUniverse.html