Pax Femina Series: Book II

About the Book

PAX FEMINA has enjoyed 75 years of success since the revolution. Crime is rare. War is a dim memory. Medical science has advanced dramatically. Health, education and welfare command the highest priorities. All nations are united under a single flag; royal blue with the logo of a golden preying mantis in its upper left hand corner. Earth has become a utopia - for women anyway. Males are second class citizens, relegated to low level jobs in labor or the Astronaut Corps.

The Moon, Mars and the Asteroids are being mined for mineral wealth, and a huge space station colony has been built and installed in geosynchronous orbit 26,000 miles above the Earth. Here, a system of power satellites have been established to gather solar energy and supply Earth with cheap, inexhaustible power. In addition, orbiting telescopes and research stations are established, some for low or zero gravity experiments. One of these stations is designated for the experiments of only one person, and is specified Top Secret.

Ed Kinslow II has succeeded in earning his Ph.D is experimental genetics, the only male in a female dominated educational system. He has also been inducted into the Astronaut Corps - the only male officer. This to the consternation of all males and to many of the female officers and crew members. Further, he has been assigned no department to command, instead he has been assigned by order of the Admiralty a mysterious mission to be performed under top secret conditions aboard the derelict “Old Freedom Lab.”

Kinslow falls in love with a young medical officer. When she learns of his secret experiments, to complete his ancestor’s theories and clone the first “Neosapiens,” she is astonished, but rallies to support him.

In an incident that saves the space colony from a disastrous encounter with a meteoroid, Kinslow’s status rises among the authorities. But a series of events erodes his status. Kinslow’s shuttlepod mechanic is discovered to be a man posing as a woman in order to gain better employment. The mechanic is denounced and sentenced to die for his crime. Kinslow and his fiancee are implicated in a conspiracy to hide the mechanic’s identity. When it is further learned what Kinslow’s experiments have resulted in, he is condemned by the colony’s captain. Jealous of his connections with Earth’s PAX FEMINA leadership, she conspires to eliminate he and his fiancee.

In a desperate attempt to escape, Kinslow learns he has more friends than he had realized. Two hundred and fifteen men and women, including a number of critical officers, hijack the colony’s shuttlecraft, agridomes, and the “Old Freedom Lab, arm them with thrust rockets and supplies, and await Kinslow’s escape.

Kinslow and his fiancee battle through the colony’s corridors and finally succeed in stealing a medical shuttle. They rendezvouz with the waiting mutineers and hold a critical meeting. A momentous decision is made. They elect to set course for the Jovian System - well beyond the vengeful reach of PAX FEMINA.

About the Author

R.J. Cantwell, PhD. Retired adjunct professor of Geology, Biology, Geography, and Anthropology, resides in Dunlap, California.