Remarkable. Right there among the best space adventure stories.
DSM Boone is an asteroid-capture vessel tasked to lasso and bring in a rock thrice its size but over a hundred times its weight. Greg Daniels, the ship’s captain and a veteran of numerous lassos, is acutely aware of the dangers of these contract missions, but he’s got a crew that he trusts to get the job done.
The captain’s ongoing asteroid capture contract was moving along normally, as planned. Until things didn’t. The most critical self-assembling graphene micro-bot technology the vessel used for lasso operations, played up and then shattered, taking out the electronics on an investigating piloted two-person vessel as well as the comms on Boone. As lives literally hang by a thread, the already dire situation escalates.
Meanwhile, things on Earth aren’t going David’s way. FFM, the space mining company he operates, which owns DSM Boone, is being framed of using insider information illicitly passed on by ISC, the global space mining regulator. Somehow, someone has manipulated the situation to make it a believable scenario. David needs to find out how, and locate a mole in his organization, if there is one. The pincers are closing in on FFM.
How can Greg correct deadly and potentially irrecoverable situation, way out at the asteroid belt? What’s David going to do to secure his company against competition that’s supported by their government?
Mike Coville has crafted a captivating story in Lasso. It’s gripping from start to finish.