Earth Rise — Patrick Thomas

After three quarters of a century of no real violence, retired economics professor, horseman, martial artist, and firearms enthusiast Ray Taylor finds himself involved in a violent conflict between a corrupt business organization and a technically advanced alien world that totally oppresses its population through psychological domination, but has lost its ability to defend itself against an outside threat. Taylor is invited to join a student, Floyd Wells, and a fellow professor, Susan Kelly, on an archeological dig as a horse wrangler; needed because the site is ..".way back in the Rocky Mountains." Things start to unravel when he learns that the site is on the Moon and the Earth rises above its horizon, "Not the Moon or the Earth that we know. But a different Earth and Moon in another reality, another universe." The crowning problem: the project is financed by New Century Enterprises, a company known for criminal dealings with which Taylor has had problems before. Their interest is an ore unique to the alien Moon that, ..".will burn for days...Burned under pressure it lasts far longer..." and has ..".enough potential energy to create an atomic bomb equivalent without the radiation problem." Taylor finds himself facing the task of getting himself and his two "project associates" out alive and hopefully preventing New Century from getting their hands on a weapon capable of changing world order. Armed only with his forty five revolver, assisted by ..". the smartest horse in any world," and hampered by age ("Golden years be damned I'm not up to this.") Taylor has a problem.