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“If I have a spaceship, why wouldn’t I fly it to the stars?” Well-known singer Selena M and her friends are determined to fly into space on a hijacked alien spaceship, despite constant pursuit by the space forces of three different nations.
With the help of Wanda—a tubular AI robot with a quirky personality–plus a wildly diverse group of humans and aliens, Selena has to figure out what her next move should be, and who is really friend or foe.

Selena and her Spaceketeers are drawn to the stars, but it seems an impossible dream. The vessel must be re-outfitted for a human crew. In addition, beings from the Galactic Confederation are luring Selena, so they can grab back the vessel and keep their advanced technology from falling into the hands of a primitive world—Earth.
Can she make their impossible dream come true? And when will she ever get to sing?

Light-hearted, wry humor, impossibilities that make sense.

Sci fi with a sound track. You can listen to the songs Selena performs on our Sci-Fi Music page

How the book starts out

“Woo hooo, I’m flying a spaceship!” I whooped and hollered as I watched Star Choice sweep over the surface of the moon—from the safety of my darkened bedroom.

I couldn’t wait to share this with my friends. I got them all in my living room, pulled the blinds, and put my robot friend Wanda on the high chair. The translucent blue sphere grew from her head. Within it, the surface of the Moon rolled past, and the image of the blue Earth rose above its horizon.

There was a collective gasp. “How’d you do this? You can’t fly a spaceship!” Meg said accusingly.

“Guys, this is exciting! I’m flying a spaceship! I – with Wanda – have flown it to the moon. Where else can I go? Mars!? The stars?”

“Straight to jail I’m guessing,” chuckled Doc. “It won’t take them long to get onto this.”

“They already know,” I admitted.

Here’s an excerpt that introduces Selena’s antagonists

3. Hell’s Bells

[Transcript. Agency boardroom. 6:32 am. Arlington, VA]

– Hell’s bells! The spaceship’s gone. Just disappeared into the night. Poof! No readout. All the instruments disconnected.

– Get Hu on the line! Now!

– Yes sir. His line is engaged. Maybe he’s trying to reach us.

[phone ring]

– Hu, what in God’s name is going on?

– It’s that damn woman we had in our custody, then let go. She has caused it to take off.

– You had her in your custody, and then let her go. Doesn’t that sound like idiocy?

– Yes, sir, it does. I have no idea how she made this happen. We had no indication that it even had a means of propulsion. We were still working on that.

– So, she, or one of her alien agents, sneaked onto a secure base and hijacked a craft that couldn’t fly. Correct?

– No sign of anybody coming in, either openly or covertly. I believe she operated it remotely.

– So let’s see what we’ve got. We have a woman who plays guitar and sings in bars and nightclubs, and lives in some sort of hippie compound in Northern California, and she has somehow outsmarted the United States government and single-handedly flown a spaceship to the Moon? You better not answer this question yes!

– That’s the way it looks.

– Hu, you get your ass out there, find out how she did this, and regain control of the situation. Mach schnell, soldier!

– I’m not in the military, sir.

– We’re all soldiers on this quest. We’ve got to keep control of this machine. Am I making myself clear, Dr. Hu?

– General, I’m on it. As soon as I can arrange conveyance.

© 2020 Mike Van Horn