Key to Space
Description
Sometimes Jess Worthy wishes he were back in the high school gym getting pummeled in dodgeball. Or stuck in final exams. Or dateless at the spring dance. Anywhere on Earth. Anywhere but the darkest, creepiest, deadest world in the galaxy. But the 14-year-old Oregon boy must solve the mystery of what killed every living thing on an eerie planet thousands of years ago - what could wipe out all life in the galaxy today. Including Earth. Nameless enemies from the vastness of space - both fantastically far and treacherously near - conspire to corrupt Jess, sabotage his quest, or simply kill him. And when he stumbles on the one thing they want more than anything else in the universe, they go to nightmarish lengths to take it from him. And he needs to keep it all a secret on Earth. But he's having some trouble with that.
More details
Person
David House is a human who resides in the capital village of a domain known as Oregon, a cool, cloudy, rainy region of a developing world called Earth. This planet is located in one of the backwaters of the galaxy, orbiting an unremarkable sun in one of the Milky Way's minor outer belts of stars.
His series of novels and short stories about secret human contact with an advanced civilization is no cause for concern at this time. However, House's subsequent books will receive further scrutiny for evidence of extraterrestrial knowledge.
The author's low-wage job in public affairs for a government agency makes him particularly vulnerable to financial enticement. He might write anything ? passing it off as "speculative fiction" ? in exchange for a few kilograms of gold. If necessary, the author will be acquired for interrogation and perhaps erasure of any sensitive information from his memory.
But thus far, no one on Earth is taking him seriously, and that is just as well.
