Gibraltar Earth

It is the 24th Century. Humanity is only just beginning to gain a toehold out among the stars. While exploring the New Eden system, the crew aboard Stellar Survey Starship Magellan encounters a pair of alien spacecraft. A skirmish ensues and both sides exit the battle with heavy losses. In picking through the wreckage of one of the alien ships, the human crew stumbles upon a survivor with a fantastic story. The alien hails from a million-star Galactic Empire ruled over by a mysterious race known as the Broa. As masters of this region of the galaxy, they permit no challenge to their empire. But as yet the Broa are ignorant of humanity's existence. Armed with this vital information, the human race must decide how best to proceed. Do they cease all astral voyages and retreat to their corner of the universe, quaking in fear at the thought of the Broa's discovery of Earth? Or...do they take a more aggressive approach?

Michael McCollum was a successful engineer for 45 years with Honeywell,where he was Chief Engineer in the valve product line. He also worked on the precursor to the Space Shuttle Main Engine, a nuclear valve to replace the one that failed at Three Mile Island, several guided missiles, the Space Station, and virtually every aircraft in production today.
In addition to his engineering, Mr. McCollum is a successful professional writer in the field of science fiction. He is the author of a dozen pieces of short fiction and has appeared in magazines such as A nalog Science Fiction/Science Fact, Amazing, and Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. His novel, Thunderstrike!, was optioned by a Hollywood production company for a possible movie. Several of his books have subsequently been translated into Japanese, German, Russian, and English (as opposed to American).