Meet USAF Engineer Master Sergeant Briggs. The poor chap thought he was in for a dull birthday off-duty, but then he gets a mysterious gift from Area 51. Before he knows it, he's got Madison and her loquacious parrot, Sir Rupert, literally falling out of time and into his lap. Talk about a surprise party!
Operation Ark is both a Project Enterprise story and a Pets in Space® story. It was first released in Embrace the Passion: Pets in Space 3, which is now off sale. The rights to all the stories reverted to the authors, which is why I am able to release it as a standalone story.
So basically, the reason I wrote it was for Pets in Space® 3, but I also wrote it because it was the story I wanted to write after Lost Valyr: Project Enterprise 7.
I called it Operation Ark because there is a Noah’s Ark theme to it. Sergeant Carolina City has been tasked with getting some freed prisoners back to their home worlds. These prisoners —while sentient—are not humanoids. In fact, they are more similar to animals in our world, than humans. And just like humans, some of them have secrets that cause problems for Sergeant City.
There is also a mysterious caticorn that attaches itself to Sergeant City. Yes, you read that right. A caticorn. City isn’t sure the caticorn is sentient, though she suspects it is, and that is also has a secret.
Because I love the romance, there is also a guy, reformed space pirate who has been living with robots for so long he is not sure how to be human enough to get the girl.
Secrets, enemies that seek their destruction, pets, plots, romance, and space battles. And of course, there is a happy ending.
Here’s the blurb:
She’s a USMC Sergeant deployed to the Garradian Galaxy.
He was raised by the robots who freed him from slavery.
It’s a match made nowhere anyone can figure out.
They clashed as enemies but joined forces to defeat a common foe. Now they’re tasked with returning some freed prisoners to their homeworlds. In the next galaxy. With an alien, a robot, and a caticorn. It was a bar joke without a punch line, though Carolina City has a feeling it is out there—like the truth.
Kraye isn’t eager to return to his galaxy where the dark secret of his past lays in wait, but he’s willing to risk it in hopes that Caro can teach him what the robots couldn’t: how to be human.
Together they must face a dangerous journey, a lethal enemy with a score to settle, their unexpected desire, and an uncertain future if they make it out alive.
Can Caro and Kraye navigate the minefields—both emotional and space based—to land a happy homecoming for the sentient animals in their care? Can the man raised by robots learn how to kiss the girl while the starchy Marine decides if she is willing to bend the rules for a happy ever after? Don’t miss Pauline Baird Jones’ newest Project Enterprise story!
(This book was previously published in anthology Embrace the Passion: Pets in Space® 3, which is no longer on sale.)
Operation Ark is on sale at all the usual vendors and I hope you’ll check it out (if you haven’t already read it, of course).
Perilously yours,
Pauline
