Lag Delay
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Los Angeles-based aerospace engineer Grace Parkowski uses virtual reality gear to remotely pilot a pair of humanoid robots, exploring the surface of Venus as part of NASA’s ILIAD expedition. On her first remote mission, she encounters an unexplained presence - a fire-breathing dragon - that abruptly pulls her out of the environment. That anomaly is solved as a simple software bug, but classified data in the error logs open up a puzzle that isn’t as easily explained. She and her boyfriend, U.S. Space Force captain Mike DePresti, begin an investigation into her mission, but each answer they find only generates more questions - why are the military and intelligence community involved in what should be a routine NASA program? Subsequent virtual trips to Venus continue to be plagued with errors, and Grace fears for her job. Convinced of a cover-up, she breaks into a secure room only to realize that her work is connected to a top-secret government program called Constant Braid. When government agents murder Grace's supervisor before he can reveal the truth, Grace and Mike go on the run. From sunny Los Angeles to arid Barstow to the launch mecca of Cape Canaveral, the two are chased by shadowy agents of unknown origin as they attempt to unravel the truth. Lag Delay is complete at 98,000 words. It is standalone, but I have sequels planned with the same characters. I have been through multiple beta reviews and am working to clean up the prose and dialog. It is current in a security review and once that is complete I plan on self-publishing it on KDP as my first novel.