On October 30th, 2013, James R. Burke--a fellow writer and colleague of mine--published his first novel Kelly's Reef. Though by no means a sci-fi story, it does have some rather great sci-fi plots and plenty of action to satisfy the reader. Synopsis: On a medical rescue mission to Djibouti, North Africa, Dr. Jake
Matthews, TJ, a supply officer, and Charlie, a master chief who “fixes”
things for the government, encounter a plot to use Blue Death as a
bio-weapon. Kelly, the resident CIA station chief, sends them on a
daring mission to save a local terrorist who has the answers.
Back home on Guam, Jake discovers women are becoming pregnant at an
alarming rate-and all pregnancies are abnormal. Somebody thinks it’s
related to blue globes Jake found while scuba diving on a local reef.
That somebody is after the globes, and is killing everyone involved.
What is it about Blue Death and the blue globes Jake discovered that
is damaging pregnancies? What is in the water that is wreaking all the
havoc? What does the government knows and isn’t revealing? From
Djibouti, to Guam, to Cozumel, Jake searches for answers.
Loosely based on adventures aboard the USS Carl Vinson and while
stationed on Guam, the author brings to the reader the possibility and
plausibility of using the natural human reproductive system as a
bio-threat to mankind.
Part 1 Djibouti:
Commander Jake Matthews is a navy physician stationed on the USS Carl Vinson. He and Lieutenant Commander Thelonious Justis (TJ) receive orders for a secret medical mission off the coast of Somalia. In route, they rescue Master Chief Charlie Albright, wounded by a Somali warlord. Charlie is a "fixer" for the government. Aboard the UNNS Swordfish, a navy "research" vessel spying on Somalia, Jake discovers there are two female crewmembers that became pregnant and spontaneously aborted. What is concerning is that one is a lesbian and had no male contact and the other had a tubal ligation years prior. Jake also sees mysterious blue globes loaded into a metal camera case. Jake repairs Charlie's gunshot wound and them meets Kelly. Kelly is the local CIA station chief, who also runs a house of ill repute to gain Intel on the local terrorist cells. It's revealed that Jake's real mission in Djibouti is to treat a local terrorist who has Blue Death, a potential bio-weapon. Kelly's World Famous Bar and Grill blows up and the group has a gun battle in the streets of Djibouti before escaping. Jake transports the case of blue globes and Alzera back to the aircraft carrier, but Alzera dies in route, before revealing his secret.
Part 2 Guam:
Hanna Sanders is a nurse who works with Jake. She is also the twin sister of Emily, Jake's wife. She, Jake, and Charlie are scuba diving at night to visit Auraka, a two-headed green eel known to Jack and Charlie. An earthquake and a tsunami hit. Jake and Charlie rescue Hanna, trapped underwater. During the rescue, Jake discovers more of the blue globes similar to what he saw in Djibouti. Some have ruptured and released a blue substance into the ocean. Over the next several weeks, Jake learns that women are becoming pregnant at an alarming rate and most are abnormal. Jake, Charlie, and TJ have an unexpected reunion aboard the Swordfish where they learn that everyone involved with the Djibouti mission is missing or dead, and that Blue Death causes abnormal human reproduction. The original samples Jake was transporting have disappeared. Hanna is pregnant, but she can't be. She has quadruplets--all abnormal. She undergoes surgery to repair the problem. Charlie, who plans to marry Hanna, receives orders for a mission to Cozumel. Jake has the globes analyzed and finds they contain an extraterrestrial virus, based on a faulty DNA translation table. Someone else knows and threatens his family, but before he can get everyone safe stateside, his wife Emily finds she is pregnant as the result of exposure to the alien virus. Commander Birdina Hawke (Hawknose), an antagonist with a personal grudge, hates Jake. He suspects her of being the letter writer and after Blue Death. Someone kills her, and Jake becomes the prime suspect. Jake and TJ find evidence that she was selling Blue Death to a biotech company. An emergency calls Jake back to labor and delivery late one evening. While gone, someone attacks his wife and mistakenly kidnaps Hanna, the twin sister. Investigators discover her body. Jake suspects Hawknose, but her death occurred a week before the attack. The murder weapon is the same one that killed Hawknose, and belongs to Jake. Jake and Emily escape the solitude of an island resort hotel only to have Kelly reappear. She tells Jake that she and Charlie know who killed Hanna and Hawknose. She also explains that Blue Death is part of a UFO event in 1947 (Roswell). That object broke into four pieces. The government has known about Blue Death since then, but when Alzera found it, they were able to backtrack the other two chunks to Guam and Cozumel. Charlie, currently in Cozumel, has located the final source of Blue Death. Kelly and Jake hatch a plot to trap the killer and destroy Blue Death. The next day, Jake's house is broken into. The military police accuse him of the deaths of Hawknose, Hanna, and a civilian guard. Jake makes a run for it and the military police shoot him.
Part 3 Cozumel:
This section opens with Kelly and an unidentified person describing how Charlie found the last site and plans to dive on it. TJ knows, and plans to join the dive. Last scene is on a dive boat on the reef of Cozumel. Charlie and TJ find the site, which is a fake site made up to look like part of a UFO. Back onboard, Charlie accuses TJ of being Hanna's killer, wanting the fame and glory of proving extraterrestrial life Jake reappears from below decks to accuse TJ of the kidnapping and explains that he faked his own death to trap TJ. They explain that the dive tank TJ used had a carbon monoxide mixture and he is going to die. TJ is sick, vomiting, and thinks he has the bends. TJ pulls a gun as Kelly also comes up from below deck. Jake emptied TJ's gun while they were underwater. Kelly's operative, who is acting as a boat hand, shoots TJ in the leg and they throw him overboard. Kelly congratulates them on successfully uncovering TJ and asks for the last of the globes. Jake turns the table on her. There are no other globes, the site was a fake, TJ took Ipecac to fake having the bends, and that Kelly has been behind this all along. Jake realized she was lying to him because of a poker tell and a mistake she made during the reunion. She confesses and orders her associate to shoot Jake. He shoots her instead, because of loyalty for Jake saving his wife's life in surgery earlier in the book.
Throughout the story, there are subplots: why Hawknose hates Jake, the threats from the letter writer, and the building suspicion that Jake is responsible. The reader also learn about the evolutionary biolgoy of DNA replication and taht a translation table difference cannot occur on this planet. Action scenes include a chase through Somalia, a bombing in Djibouti, a medical emergency on a small airplane in a storm, the undersea rescue following the earthquake, and an emergency cesarean section. A cast of quirky characters and Jake's sense of dark humor enliven the story.
Part 1 Djibouti:
Commander Jake Matthews is a navy physician stationed on the USS Carl Vinson. He and Lieutenant Commander Thelonious Justis (TJ) receive orders for a secret medical mission off the coast of Somalia. In route, they rescue Master Chief Charlie Albright, wounded by a Somali warlord. Charlie is a "fixer" for the government. Aboard the UNNS Swordfish, a navy "research" vessel spying on Somalia, Jake discovers there are two female crewmembers that became pregnant and spontaneously aborted. What is concerning is that one is a lesbian and had no male contact and the other had a tubal ligation years prior. Jake also sees mysterious blue globes loaded into a metal camera case. Jake repairs Charlie's gunshot wound and them meets Kelly. Kelly is the local CIA station chief, who also runs a house of ill repute to gain Intel on the local terrorist cells. It's revealed that Jake's real mission in Djibouti is to treat a local terrorist who has Blue Death, a potential bio-weapon. Kelly's World Famous Bar and Grill blows up and the group has a gun battle in the streets of Djibouti before escaping. Jake transports the case of blue globes and Alzera back to the aircraft carrier, but Alzera dies in route, before revealing his secret.
Part 2 Guam:
Hanna Sanders is a nurse who works with Jake. She is also the twin sister of Emily, Jake's wife. She, Jake, and Charlie are scuba diving at night to visit Auraka, a two-headed green eel known to Jack and Charlie. An earthquake and a tsunami hit. Jake and Charlie rescue Hanna, trapped underwater. During the rescue, Jake discovers more of the blue globes similar to what he saw in Djibouti. Some have ruptured and released a blue substance into the ocean. Over the next several weeks, Jake learns that women are becoming pregnant at an alarming rate and most are abnormal. Jake, Charlie, and TJ have an unexpected reunion aboard the Swordfish where they learn that everyone involved with the Djibouti mission is missing or dead, and that Blue Death causes abnormal human reproduction. The original samples Jake was transporting have disappeared. Hanna is pregnant, but she can't be. She has quadruplets--all abnormal. She undergoes surgery to repair the problem. Charlie, who plans to marry Hanna, receives orders for a mission to Cozumel. Jake has the globes analyzed and finds they contain an extraterrestrial virus, based on a faulty DNA translation table. Someone else knows and threatens his family, but before he can get everyone safe stateside, his wife Emily finds she is pregnant as the result of exposure to the alien virus. Commander Birdina Hawke (Hawknose), an antagonist with a personal grudge, hates Jake. He suspects her of being the letter writer and after Blue Death. Someone kills her, and Jake becomes the prime suspect. Jake and TJ find evidence that she was selling Blue Death to a biotech company. An emergency calls Jake back to labor and delivery late one evening. While gone, someone attacks his wife and mistakenly kidnaps Hanna, the twin sister. Investigators discover her body. Jake suspects Hawknose, but her death occurred a week before the attack. The murder weapon is the same one that killed Hawknose, and belongs to Jake. Jake and Emily escape the solitude of an island resort hotel only to have Kelly reappear. She tells Jake that she and Charlie know who killed Hanna and Hawknose. She also explains that Blue Death is part of a UFO event in 1947 (Roswell). That object broke into four pieces. The government has known about Blue Death since then, but when Alzera found it, they were able to backtrack the other two chunks to Guam and Cozumel. Charlie, currently in Cozumel, has located the final source of Blue Death. Kelly and Jake hatch a plot to trap the killer and destroy Blue Death. The next day, Jake's house is broken into. The military police accuse him of the deaths of Hawknose, Hanna, and a civilian guard. Jake makes a run for it and the military police shoot him.
Part 3 Cozumel:
This section opens with Kelly and an unidentified person describing how Charlie found the last site and plans to dive on it. TJ knows, and plans to join the dive. Last scene is on a dive boat on the reef of Cozumel. Charlie and TJ find the site, which is a fake site made up to look like part of a UFO. Back onboard, Charlie accuses TJ of being Hanna's killer, wanting the fame and glory of proving extraterrestrial life Jake reappears from below decks to accuse TJ of the kidnapping and explains that he faked his own death to trap TJ. They explain that the dive tank TJ used had a carbon monoxide mixture and he is going to die. TJ is sick, vomiting, and thinks he has the bends. TJ pulls a gun as Kelly also comes up from below deck. Jake emptied TJ's gun while they were underwater. Kelly's operative, who is acting as a boat hand, shoots TJ in the leg and they throw him overboard. Kelly congratulates them on successfully uncovering TJ and asks for the last of the globes. Jake turns the table on her. There are no other globes, the site was a fake, TJ took Ipecac to fake having the bends, and that Kelly has been behind this all along. Jake realized she was lying to him because of a poker tell and a mistake she made during the reunion. She confesses and orders her associate to shoot Jake. He shoots her instead, because of loyalty for Jake saving his wife's life in surgery earlier in the book.
Throughout the story, there are subplots: why Hawknose hates Jake, the threats from the letter writer, and the building suspicion that Jake is responsible. The reader also learn about the evolutionary biolgoy of DNA replication and taht a translation table difference cannot occur on this planet. Action scenes include a chase through Somalia, a bombing in Djibouti, a medical emergency on a small airplane in a storm, the undersea rescue following the earthquake, and an emergency cesarean section. A cast of quirky characters and Jake's sense of dark humor enliven the story.
