Starship Victory

The Starship Victory has a long history as the Galactic Union's most famous ship. Two centuries ago Captain John Fry cemented that legacy by discovering many weird alien races, insane space diseases and the strangest mystery in history: an exact duplicate of the planet Earth.

In the centuries since then many more Earths have been discovered out among the stars...

Meet the newest crew of the Starship Victory: Engineering Chief Golem is a neurotic, alcoholic android. The Executive Officer Elorg is a flamboyant musical cyborg. The head navigator, Ensign Brahma just wants to fit in with all the humans on the crew, even though he is an energy being from an extinct race of space gods. And Security Chief Kylie Hayes will do whatever she must to protect the Victory and it's crew from the vast array off dangers that it will inevitably face.

After a routine mission leads the Victory to a graveyard world it's crew is set on a path to explore that strangest mystery of all—the origin of the multiple Earths. But along the way they will face many challenges—deranged space gods, gender twisting diseases, suicidal civilizations, space zombies, robot pirates, and other threats too bizarre to describe.

Can Golem, Elorg, Brahma and Chief Hayes put aside their personal issues and discover the truth? Or is the galaxy doomed to never know it's true origins?

#1. The Last Boy on Earth

Ensign Brahma is the newest member to join the Starship Victory on her mission of peaceful exploration. The crew is nice enough, but he still feels isolated from them because, while the rest of the crew come from just about every species and culture in the galaxy, humans, Gamar, the Symphony of Life, Sparta and more, they are all still limited corporeal beings and Brahma is a space god. Perhaps his abilities and insights can help the Victory on her latest mission...

The Starship Victory is en route to check the technology level of a primitive world on the outskirts of the Galactic Union, but finds only a burned out cinder. A strange energy signature emanates from the planet below. Can the Victory face down whatever strange force destroyed this planet?

Also along for the ride are Engineering Chief Golem, a neurotic alcoholic android, Security Chief Kylie Hayes, who is tough as a neutron star, and the Executive Officer Elorg, a man from a race of musical cyborgs. Can the crew of the Victory discover the shocking secret behind the graveyard world below them?

#2. The Fairer Sex

Lieutenant Colonel Elorg is annoyed.

Holding a security cordon around a planet with a terrifying plague is bad enough, but why won't anybody listen to him? He is the second in command of the Starship Victory, after all. Why is the rest of the crew so certain that they'll find a quick and easy solution and be off for the next adventure within an hour? So Elorg is less than surprised when the plague escapes the planet and gets loose on the ship.

But there's a reason the crew isn't too scared. Most space diseases melt you, burst you into flame, de-evolve you into a gorilla or something. The only effect this disease has is that it turns you into a woman. Security Chief Hayes is already a woman, so she has no worries. Engineering Chief Golem is a robot and thus immune. But then that's another problem Elorg has. He's a cyborg and if his DNA changes too much his implants will reject him.

Soon he only has that mythical forty minutes in which to solve the problem, cure the disease and escape on his next adventure. Can he manage it? Or is the Starship Victory doomed with the curse of womanhood?

#3. Welcome to Earth-Vegas

Engineering Chief Golem is content enough to hide in his quarters with a bottle of robot hooch, at least until he gets an invitation to a game tournament on luxurious Earth-Vegas. Earth-Vegas, is of course the fabulous planet sized casino. Even the promise of debauchery isn't enough to get Golem to cash in his vacation time, at least until he sees the tournament's prize: the processor unit from his lost younger brother.

Once on the ground on Earth-Vegas, however, he discovers that acquiring that piece of technology will be easier said than done. He must face down his fellow gamblers, masters of every game of chance, and worse, a gang of pirates from the Asimov Network. Does Golem have any hope of winning his brother's brain?

Meanwhile, the Victory is enlisted to test a fancy new engine. And they're probably better off without their Chief Engineer, because he mostly got the job out of nepotism and the fact that he's a robot.

#4. Twilight of the Gods

Chief Kylie Hayes is on a mission. The civilization of Earth-763 is trying to commit suicide with a tool vastly beyond their technological level. They are a warrior world descended from the culture that would be known as the Norse on many other worlds and after centuries of strife their only desire is to call down their gods and end their world in one last glorious battle.

Chief Hayes must stop that at any cost.

She's been transported down to the world to stealthily acquire the impossible artifact that is destroying their planet. The Starship Victory cannot let it's presence in the sky above be known to the residents of Earth-763 without vastly altering their cultural development.

Can Chief Hayes get her hands on their ragnarok weapon? Or is she doomed to join the entire planet in the Halls of Valhalla?

#5. The Ship from Outside Time

A century ago the Starship Antiles escaped a doomed battle with a desperate last ditch escape and finally they have been found.

Engineering Chief Golem is pretty antsy about all this. He was sent to the Antiles to repair her terrible damage, but also because the crew would be familiar with some of the earlier members of his product line. And he is none too happy when he bumps into his brother's ex-girlfriend.

and worse yet, a contagion, hidden for a century aboard the Antiles breaks out on the Victory and infects Ensign Brahma, the resident god-like energy being.

With only the meager resources of the Starship Antiles can Golem figure out some way to contain the virus? To cure Brahma? Or at least defeat him?

#6. The Maniac Planet

The Starship Victory has awakened a dormant virus on Planet Athenia. For a decades the residents of Athenia have been reduced to blood thirsty psychotic monsters, but at least they have stayed contained. Now, however, they have kicked to action and begun cobbling together a fleet of the living dead from whatever spare parts they can dig up.

Colonel Dart, the Victory's commander, has always known this day would come. He has a destiny and it can only be fulfilled by finding the cure to the Athenian contagion. Security Chief Kylie Hayes is skeptical about all this, but Colonel Dart is her s uperior officer.

But events quickly turn sour when they set foot on the maniac planet. Can the Victory discover the terrible secret of Planet Athenia? Can Chief Hayes stop the colonel from putting himself in incredible danger? Or will his grand destiny save him after all?

#7. The Chasm in Space

After a disastrous mission gone wrong acting commander Colonel Hayes must put some old ghosts to bed. To do that she leads the Starship Victory through a smoldering chasm in the strata of space time itself and into the Underside.

The Underside is an area of the galaxy cut off from the rest of civilization. A war is brewing between the remnants of the Gamar Star Empire and the Church of Rand. Colonel Hayes doesn't want to get involved in this smoldering conflict, at least until she discovers that the family of the Victory's former commander still might be alive somewhere.

Can the Starship Victory tip the cosmic scales and bring order to the chasm in space? Can the Victory rescue the diaspora of space refugees?

#8. The Mystery of Earth-0

It's been a long year for the crew of the Starship Victory. Golem, the alcoholic android who runs the Victory's engineering section wants to retire. Brahma, the energy being navigator of the Victory has met the last few members of his race and his heart has filled with wanderlust.

They are about to solve the strangest question in the history of the Galactic Union—why are there so many duplicates of the planet Earth in the skies? An ancient artifact hinted at the presence of an secret progenitor world, but it was locked near the center of the galaxy, on the distant side of a chaotic machine civilization.

Now Golem's “brother” Robert, another android from his product line, has arrived with terrible news. A war has broken out among the machines and it's only a matter of time before one faction or another unlocks the terrible secret of Earth-Zero and creates the most powerful weapon the galaxy has ever known.

With no time to waste, Galactic Union command dispatches the Victory and the last few energy beings they can contact. Danger is multiplying everywhere. Can the Victory reach Earth-Zero before it's secret is revealed? And if not, can they stop a doomsday weapon that could conquer all reality?