The Colony on Callisto

Author

Danny Davis

Author Bio

Danny Davis is a retired college math professor. He writes just for fun. The Colony on Callisto is his first published novel. This is a story about space colonization. Danny’s scientific background helped with the writing. He has degrees in physics and math and a couple of years experience working on NASA’s Skylab project. He has also published in a prominent peer-reviewed science journal.

A few years ago, Danny got interested in apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic novels. He read novels in that genre by Cormac McCarthy, Stephen King, Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Justin Cronin, and others. This reading undoubtedly influenced the apocalyptic nature of The Colony on Callisto. Danny’s interest in literature ranges widely. He’ll read almost anything from Victorian and earlier periods. He is a special fan of Jane Austen, George Eliot, Charles Dickens, and Anthony Trollope. Some of his other favorite writers are Lauren Groff, Louis Bayard, and Kate Atkinson.

Asked what he likes about Victorian writers such as Dickens, Trollope and Eliot, Danny replies:

“The Victorian era was a time of significant repression for women. They had few opportunities in terms of education and occupation. They were usually dependent upon men for their very subsistence. Most of the time, this took the form of finding a husband, but once married, women lost almost all legal rights. A husband controlled everything, money, property, even his wife’s body. These Victorian writers, by sympathetically portraying the plight of women in this era, helped create a popular, progressive atmosphere out of which the women’s rights movement of the later Victorian period evolved. In my novel, The Colony on Callisto, my hero is Sara Marshall. During her youth, she is a victim of male domination, much the same as her Victorian predecessors. But in our modern day, she is also the beneficiary of the great strides that women have taken in achieving equal rights. Buoyed by those achievements and her own strength of character, Sara Marshall makes of herself a woman of considerable consequence.”

Danny lives on forty acres in rural Georgia with his wife, two stray dogs, and the occasional field mouse.

Description

“As Coach Griffin watched Sara Marshall run, he pondered the end of the Earth. Such pondering these days was the preoccupation of almost every adult human on the planet. Very few were not haunted in their every waking moment by the prospect of that awful event.”

So begins this exciting, apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic novel. Here is a brief summary:

The year is 2036, and Earth faces imminent destruction. In a desperate attempt to preserve the human species, thirty-two people are launched toward Callisto, an icy moon of Jupiter. Their success is threatened not only by hasty preparations and extreme physical conditions but, also, by formidable foes – both within and without – who are bent on their destruction. Sara Marshall was an Olympics-bound athlete and math professor before being selected for this mission. Reluctantly, she became caretaker of a five-year-old boy. Together they are the best hope for humankind’s survival.

“Insurmountable” is a word that applies well to the challenges that face Sara and the rest of her crew throughout this story.

— Sara is locked out of the spacecraft on take-off.
— They must land on a hostile new world without a pilot.
— Crewmembers disappear mysteriously.
— The only way for Sara to stop a madman is to expose herself to the vacuum of empty space.
— A princess faces execution, and there is apparently no one to save her.
— In the end, the adversary appears to hold all the cards and have every advantage.

This is a story of exploration, discovery, adventure, and heroism with surprising twists and turns along the way. There’s even a beautiful alien princess in the mix. But the heart of the story is family: its meaning, the universal need for it, and the sacrifices we are willing to make to preserve it.

From reviews:

“…witty, tender and compelling.”

“I enjoyed the unique characters and found myself wondering about them throughout the day.”

“… great imagery and wonderful characters.”

Book excerpt

The nuclear thruster created a small, constant acceleration and hence an artificial gravity effect onboard the spacecraft. This would help significantly with acclimating to the new environment upon landing on Callisto. The cabins of the lander spacecraft were cylindrical rooms, stacked on top of each other, and running the length of the habitable space. There were six of these. The cabin that housed the cockpit composed the sixth and uppermost level. This level was called the Control Room. Sara and Jack were housed in the level just below the Control Room, called Level 5.

The crew of Hope II consisted of fifteen men, sixteen women, and Jack. There were three married couples among them, and several less official pairings. An explicit mandate of extreme importance was issued: NO PREGNANCIES BEFORE ESTABLISHING THE COLONY. One thing that helped promote this mandate was a significant lack of privacy. The crew slept on pallets laid out on the floor. Curtains were sometimes drawn to provide a sense of individual space. However, sound insulation within a cabin was nonexistent. Because Jack saw and heard everything, couples made certain they avoided the Level 5 cabin.

No one acclimated faster to their new home than Jack. He loved the low gravity and took great advantage of it as he leapt, weaved, and scrambled up and down through the cabins. To help counteract the possible negative effects of the low gravity on his developing body, Sara had planned a strict exercise program utilizing the on-board treadmill and bicycle. But Jack found those machines boring, and Sara quickly realized he was getting plenty of exercise without them. So she gave up on that. At first, Sara tried hard to keep Jack out of other people’s way, but she gave up on that, also, because Jack simply refused to be restrained. Everybody got accustomed to Jack dashing past, often wearing a cape, and making blasting noises with whatever instrument of destruction he was pretending to have. All in all, Sara felt that her parenting skills had been tested and found to be lacking, but, on the other hand, no one enjoyed watching Jack’s antics more than she.

And so, Sara came to see herself as a parent, as Jack’s mother. Mary, in their last conversation, had been the first to observe and promote this idea. The feeling was never stronger than one night as Sara was putting Jack to bed. After the Circus Mouse story, he asked sleepily, “Do you love me?” Sara was surprised and a little embarrassed. She realized she had never told him that she loved him before. So, as she ran her fingers through his hair, she said, “Of course, Jack. I love you very much.”

“My mommy always told me she loved me.” Then after a moment, as he was dropping off to sleep, he added, “I love you, too …”

Sara watched Jack in his slumber for several minutes and gratefully embraced the small miracle that had just happened.