First Ascent

Orbits in ruin. A tether to space. Uncover the truth or die trying.

When an unlicensed oil rig appears offshore of Ecuador, a military helicopter is sent to investigate. The floating platform has no markings, no drilling rig, no workers, and it’s surrounded by a curious bank of fog. As the crew attempts to land, a dark void opens and swallows the helicopter without a trace.

Sahalie Spark is the host of a popular TV show, Don’t Believe It! Each week, she debunks another baseless conspiracy theory or takes a light-hearted poke at misinformation infecting our unfiltered media. Like most, she dismisses the story out of Ecuador as nonsense, but when a Korean billionaire offers exclusive access, Sahalie connects the dots. It’s not an oil platform, it’s a tether into space, and it could be the solution to the debris catastrophe that has crippled spaceflight for years.

The platform’s owner is accommodating enough, but he seems to be hiding something. Answers are elusive, and danger lurks. With a worldwide audience glued to their screens, Sahalie will need to uncover the truth hidden among the recesses in this vertical railway to space.

From the author of the Quantum Series comes an exciting new novel that begins in real science and pulls readers toward the unsolved wonders of our universe.