Ftl

Ethan Richards develops the warp bubble drive to travel ftl – faster than light, a lifelong dream. Russian and Chinese scientists help him and he almost killing himself in the process. The Russians and Chinese cooperatively compete with the Americans with different concepts to develop their own ftl means of space travel.

He meets Jade Powers, the Quantum Physicist for the project, but his shyness prevents him from starting a relationship with her until she decides to take matters into her own hands.

With the help of the assembled team, Ethan builds a warp bubble drive spaceship to test it. The drive requires Astatine, the rarest element on earth, to produce sufficient muons that power the drive. The element is prevalent on the Saturnian moon, Iapetus, making this moon the destination of the first space voyage of their ship, Destiny.

ftl – faster than light. Possession means power

Loki Mason, a business mogul always on the lookout for new means to increase his wealth and power, finds out about the Astatine deposit on Iapetus and its value for the ftl drive. He must possess the material and have monopolistic control of it. He infiltrates the team with a saboteur who delays the project, while he builds a spaceship himself to take him to Iapetus. Ethan’s best friend dies on the way, killed by the saboteur.

Ethan and Loki race to Iapetus to claim the Astatine deposit and control the future of ftl space travel. Both Ethan and Loki arrive at Iapetus at the same time and a standoff results, which can only be resolved with force. The stakes are high and Ethan must win. Who will prevail and at what cost?

ftl – faster than light is the beginning of man’s ventures into the galaxy and beyond.