First Mission: The Ghost Ship (Part 1) #Amalgaverse Your ship has encountered a derelict freighter transmitting a cycling distress call, and after some debate you have decided to board it by flying a puddle jumper directly into the hangar bay.  The bay is exposed to space and a fair distance from your target, the freighter's bridge, but it offers a more secure getaway since the energy pulses off a nearby anomaly are playing havoc with the ship's transporters.  All the same, Scotty is standing by should the near arise. Now, you must decide on your away team. Two accomplished pilots, possessed of the ATA gene that allows them to man the jumper, will lead.  Who is going with them? Pick a row, A through D. Choose!

First Mission: The Ghost Ship (Part 1) #Amalgaverse Your ship has encountered a derelict freighter transmitting a cycling distress call, and after some debate you have decided to board it by flying a puddle jumper directly into the hangar bay.  The bay is exposed to space and a fair distance from your target, the freighter's bridge, but it offers a more secure getaway since the energy pulses off a nearby anomaly are playing havoc with the ship's transporters.  All the same, Scotty is standing by should the near arise. Now, you must decide on your away team. Two accomplished pilots, possessed of the ATA gene that allows them to man the jumper, will lead.  Who is going with them? Pick a row, A through D. Choose!

It's been a year since our last interview, long before the series announcement. Join Joseph Mallozzi LIVE for what will certainly be an interesting discussion, and come prepared with a question to ask for free. Saturday, 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. piped.video/live/g0qwYETCpEw #SaveStargate

Today, I am recommending four essential works by Edmond Hamilton, who earned the nicknames World Saver, World Destroyer, and World Wrecker for his pioneering galactic space operas. "What’s It Like Out There” (1952): An astronaut returning from a mission to Mars visits the families of those who perished on the journey in a short story that was deemed too bleak to publish when it was first written in the 1930’s. The Star Kings (1952): WWII veteran John Gordon becomes embroiled in interstellar intrigue when his mind is swapped with that of a far-future galactic prince, whom he must then impersonate. The Best of Edmond Hamilton (1977): Edited and introduced by his wife and fellow SF author, Leigh Brackett, this collection gathers 21 stories over 43 years, and closes with an afterword Hamilton wrote months before his death. City at World’s End (1950): A small American town is hurled into a dying future Earth in one of Hamilton's most moving and humane stories. Check out the quoted thread for the recommended works of Theodore Sturgeon, Alfred Bester, Bob Shaw, Clifford D. Simak, Algis Budrys, A.E. van Vogt, C.L. Moore, Cordwainer Smith, C.M. Kornbluth, D.G. Compton, Thomas M. Disch, Alice Bradley Sheldon (James Tiptree, Jr.), John Brunner, Judith Merril, Hal Clement, James Blish, Jack Williamson, Katherine MacLean, Fred Saberhagen, Jack Vance, Leigh Brackett, Edgar Pangborn, R.A. Lafferty, William Tenn, Kate Wilhelm, Avram Davidson, James H. Schmitz, Eric Frank Russell, Brian W. Aldiss, Carol Emshwiller, Wilson Tucker, Chad Oliver, Zenna Henderson, Pauline Ashwell, Frederik Pohl, Henry Kuttner, Barrington J. Bayley, James P. Hogan, C.J. Cherryh, Margaret St. Clair, Keith Laumer, Charles L. Harness, Howard Waldrop, Rosel George Brown, Gordon R. Dickson, Robert Sheckley, Fredric Brown, Kit Reed, Joanna Russ, H. Beam Piper, Daniel F. Galouye, Sydney J. Van Scyoc, Tom Godwin, Andre Norton, Harry Harrison, Vonda McIntyre, John Christopher, John Wyndham, Michael Bishop, Doris Piserchia, Bob Buckley, George Alec Effinger, Olaf Stapledon, John Varley, Miriam Allen deFord, Raymond F. Jones, Suzette Haden Elgin, Richard Cowper, Bruce Sterling, Josephine Saxton, Mack Reynolds, Phyllis Gotlieb, E.E. “Doc” Smith, Sterling E. Lanier, L. Sprague de Camp, Fritz Leiber, George Turner, Octavia E. Butler, Philip José Farmer, Somtow Sucharitkul, Charles Sheffield, Sonya Dorman, Clark Ashton Smith, Norman Spinrad, Naomi Mitchison, Suzy Mckee Charnas, Barry N. Malzberg, Paul Preuss, Lloyd Biggle Jr., George S. Schuyler, Damon Knight, Nancy Kress, E.C. Tubb, John Sladek, Joan D. Vinge, Ward Moore, Marta Randall, Robert L. Forward, Ian Watson, Brian Stabelford, Keith Roberts, David R. Bunch, Michael G. Coney, Frank M. Robinson, Christopher Priest, Vernor Vinge, Lee Hoffman, Wilmar H. Shiras, Lucius Shepard, David I. Masson, Mildred Clingerman, Leigh Kennedy, Ernest Hogan, Jack Womack, Kenneth Bulmer, Mark Clifton, Kage Baker, Murray Leinster, Evelyn E. Smith, and Kris Neville.

First Mission: The Ghost Ship (Part 1) #Amalgaverse Captain’s Log, supplemental. We've answered a distress call at the coordinates flagged by our long-range sensors, and found a ship gone silent. Automated beacon still cycling, running lights dark, and no one responding to our hails. A freighter drifts before you, drive cold, cycling a fragmented distress call on a loop. The ship sits at the heart of a spatial anomaly venting irregular pulses of raw energy. You’re going aboard. The only question is how. Scotty offers to beam the away team aboard in a lull between the anomaly’s pulses. It’s the quickest way in and puts everyone directly on the freighter’s bridge. But the pulses are intermittent, and he warns: “If ye have to leave in a hurry, I’ll move heaven and earth to pull ye back, but I canna swear it’ll be the very second ye shout for it.” Sheppard pitches flying the puddle jumper straight into the freighter’s hangar bay, where they can park it for a clean getaway. The bay is open to space and it’s also a ways from the bridge, but John will take that trade: “Sure, it’s a bit of a hike, but I’d still sooner have the jumper at my back if things go sideways.” Garak favors accessing the ship through a hull breach that sits at the midpoint between the bridge and the hangar. Take the jumper, then enter through the rupture by EVA. Garak nevertheless admits: “It’s slow going, leaves you terribly exposed, and yes, it could get everyone killed. Which is why it’s the one approach someone who may be on board would least expect. And in my experience, the only arrival worth arranging is the one no one thought to prepare for.” McKay isn’t a fan of any of these options. He points out: “Two involve open vacuum and the third requires us to be reduced to a data stream in the immediate vicinity of an unquantified spatial anomaly. These are the three worst ideas since the Matrix sequels!” He suggests skipping this one. Whose advice do you follow? Choose! [Check below for our Previously On recap and crew manifest - or click through the quote tweets for every stage in our adventure]

Today, I am recommending four essential works by Kris Neville, who distinguished himself in SF before drifting away from it for a steadier gig writing industrial texts. The Science Fiction of Kris Neville (1984): Gathering eleven of Neville’s strongest stories. Bettyann (1951): An alien orphan, raised on Earth, faces a difficult decision when members of her species arrive to “rescue" her.  Neville later folded this story, and its sequel, into a novell. “The Forest of Zil” (1967): Explorers land on a forested planet and plan to clear cut it for their settlement, only to discover the forest has other plans. "From the Government Printing Office” (1967): A three-year-old boy struggles to understand the adult world that has already decided his future in this unsettling look at how society raises its children. Check out the quoted thread for the recommended works of Theodore Sturgeon, Alfred Bester, Bob Shaw, Clifford D. Simak, Algis Budrys, A.E. van Vogt, C.L. Moore, Cordwainer Smith, C.M. Kornbluth, D.G. Compton, Thomas M. Disch, Alice Bradley Sheldon (James Tiptree, Jr.), John Brunner, Judith Merril, Hal Clement, James Blish, Jack Williamson, Katherine MacLean, Fred Saberhagen, Jack Vance, Leigh Brackett, Edgar Pangborn, R.A. Lafferty, William Tenn, Kate Wilhelm, Avram Davidson, James H. Schmitz, Eric Frank Russell, Brian W. Aldiss, Carol Emshwiller, Wilson Tucker, Chad Oliver, Zenna Henderson, Pauline Ashwell, Frederik Pohl, Henry Kuttner, Barrington J. Bayley, James P. Hogan, C.J. Cherryh, Margaret St. Clair, Keith Laumer, Charles L. Harness, Howard Waldrop, Rosel George Brown, Gordon R. Dickson, Robert Sheckley, Fredric Brown, Kit Reed, Joanna Russ, H. Beam Piper, Daniel F. Galouye, Sydney J. Van Scyoc, Tom Godwin, Andre Norton, Harry Harrison, Vonda McIntyre, John Christopher, John Wyndham, Michael Bishop, Doris Piserchia, Bob Buckley, George Alec Effinger, Olaf Stapledon, John Varley, Miriam Allen deFord, Raymond F. Jones, Suzette Haden Elgin, Richard Cowper, Bruce Sterling, Josephine Saxton, Mack Reynolds, Phyllis Gotlieb, E.E. “Doc” Smith, Sterling E. Lanier, L. Sprague de Camp, Fritz Leiber, George Turner, Octavia E. Butler, Philip José Farmer, Somtow Sucharitkul, Charles Sheffield, Sonya Dorman, Clark Ashton Smith, Norman Spinrad, Naomi Mitchison, Suzy Mckee Charnas, Barry N. Malzberg, Paul Preuss, Lloyd Biggle Jr., George S. Schuyler, Damon Knight, Nancy Kress, E.C. Tubb, John Sladek, Joan D. Vinge, Ward Moore, Marta Randall, Robert L. Forward, Ian Watson, Brian Stabelford, Keith Roberts, David R. Bunch, Michael G. Coney, Frank M. Robinson, Christopher Priest, Vernor Vinge, Lee Hoffman, Wilmar H. Shiras, Lucius Shepard, David I. Masson, Mildred Clingerman, Leigh Kennedy, Ernest Hogan, Jack Womack, Kenneth Bulmer, Mark Clifton, Kage Baker, Murray Leinster, and Evelyn E. Smith.

Choose your first #Amalgaverse mission! Captain's Log - Stargate Unknown: I have commanded starships through Klingon ambushes, Romulan incursions across the Neutral Zone, and temporal anomalies that would unsettle lesser officers, but none of it prepared me for this. The Enterprise-D has been refitted, re-crewed with the finest officers from across multiple realities, and given a new mission: explore this strange new universe, and find a way to get everyone home. The hum of the warp core fades as the Enterprise-D drops out of warp, and the star field ahead resolves from streaking lights into cold, fixed points. Ops reports four near-simultaneous contacts within the first ninety seconds of arrival. CONTACT ONE - A subspace signal, heavily degraded, cycling on the Federation emergency frequency but fragmented beyond standard universal translation resolution. It's coming from bearing 227 mark 14, approximately 350,000 kilometers off the port bow. Long-range sensors confirm vessel drifting cold - no running lights, no drive signature, no signs of life. (The Ghost Ship) CONTACT TWO - A scrambled tight-beam transmission interception by the communications array, passing through this sector on an encrypted Ferengi commercial channel. Ops has partially decoded the manifest: a shadow auction for Artifact Omicron-8, provenance heavily redacted. Its appended energy signature matches no commercial technology on record. It reads, partially and imperfectly, like an illicit subspace weapon outlawed under the Khitomer Accords. (The Heist) CONTACT THREE - Starfleet priority channel, addressed directly to Captain Kirk. Locate and extract Harven Zax, a dangerous intelligence broker, currently aboard a disabled Vespian cruiser at coordinates 188 mark 44, and deliver him to a rendezvous point at the edge of the Expanse within seventy-two hours. He is wanted, arguably, dead or alive, by three different groups: the Romulans, the Orion Syndicate, and a Klingon Great House. (The Delivery)   CONTACT FOUR - A lateral sensor sweep reports a complete absence of subspace comm traffic from Kirin Station Outpost Gamma-3, a Federation research installation on the Expanse's rim. Gamma-3 has a crew of twenty-three and files automated status reports every four hours. The last confirmed report is sixty-three hours old. The station's emergency beacon is not active. There is no debris field. Simply... silence. (The Fracture) The bridge is dead quiet. Four crises. One ship. No back-up. You must decide where we set course first. What say you? Choose! And cue our Opening Theme...

Today, I am recommending four essential works by crossword constructor Evelyn E. Smith who made her mark on SF with satirical short fiction before moving on to gothic romance and, eventually, her Miss Melville Mysteries. "Once a Greech” (1957): A spaceship crew adopts an adorable alien as a mascot, only to discover that its extraordinary life-cycle has some unexpected consequences. "The Vilbar Party” (1955): A reclusive, teddy-bear-shaped Saturnian professor takes the first exchange professorship to Earth braced for hostility, only to be smothered by the adoring attention he crossed the Solar System to avoid. The Perfect Planet (1962): Artemis, a planet settled centuries ago by sun-worshipping health faddists and quietly run by its women, becomes the mark for a hard-selling corporate takeover, in a wry early-'60s satire on wellness cults and salesmanship. The Blue Tower (1958): A poet caught between loyalty to humanity’s benevolent alien guardians and a conspiracy against them finds himself facing an impossible choice in this sociological satire. Check out the quoted thread for the recommended works of Theodore Sturgeon, Alfred Bester, Bob Shaw, Clifford D. Simak, Algis Budrys, A.E. van Vogt, C.L. Moore, Cordwainer Smith, C.M. Kornbluth, D.G. Compton, Thomas M. Disch, Alice Bradley Sheldon (James Tiptree, Jr.), John Brunner, Judith Merril, Hal Clement, James Blish, Jack Williamson, Katherine MacLean, Fred Saberhagen, Jack Vance, Leigh Brackett, Edgar Pangborn, R.A. Lafferty, William Tenn, Kate Wilhelm, Avram Davidson, James H. Schmitz, Eric Frank Russell, Brian W. Aldiss, Carol Emshwiller, Wilson Tucker, Chad Oliver, Zenna Henderson, Pauline Ashwell, Frederik Pohl, Henry Kuttner, Barrington J. Bayley, James P. Hogan, C.J. Cherryh, Margaret St. Clair, Keith Laumer, Charles L. Harness, Howard Waldrop, Rosel George Brown, Gordon R. Dickson, Robert Sheckley, Fredric Brown, Kit Reed, Joanna Russ, H. Beam Piper, Daniel F. Galouye, Sydney J. Van Scyoc, Tom Godwin, Andre Norton, Harry Harrison, Vonda McIntyre, John Christopher, John Wyndham, Michael Bishop, Doris Piserchia, Bob Buckley, George Alec Effinger, Olaf Stapledon, John Varley, Miriam Allen deFord, Raymond F. Jones, Suzette Haden Elgin, Richard Cowper, Bruce Sterling, Josephine Saxton, Mack Reynolds, Phyllis Gotlieb, E.E. “Doc” Smith, Sterling E. Lanier, L. Sprague de Camp, Fritz Leiber, George Turner, Octavia E. Butler, Philip José Farmer, Somtow Sucharitkul, Charles Sheffield, Sonya Dorman, Clark Ashton Smith, Norman Spinrad, Naomi Mitchison, Suzy Mckee Charnas, Barry N. Malzberg, Paul Preuss, Lloyd Biggle Jr., George S. Schuyler, Damon Knight, Nancy Kress, E.C. Tubb, John Sladek, Joan D. Vinge, Ward Moore, Marta Randall, Robert L. Forward, Ian Watson, Brian Stabelford, Keith Roberts, David R. Bunch, Michael G. Coney, Frank M. Robinson, Christopher Priest, Vernor Vinge, Lee Hoffman, Wilmar H. Shiras, Lucius Shepard, David I. Masson, Mildred Clingerman, Leigh Kennedy, Ernest Hogan, Jack Womack, Kenneth Bulmer, Mark Clifton, Kage Baker, and Murray Leinster.