Watch the Sky

Phil Boles lives on Roye, a backwater colony at the edge of human space, and he owns something valuable: the last Geest War gun on the planet. When alien threats resurface and Earth demands a military presence, Phil and his neighbors see their chance. They fabricate evidence of a weapon, spinning a hoax to draw Earth's protection to their forgotten world. But the lie grows teeth. As the fabricated crisis spirals and alien hostilities intensify, Phil must live with the consequences of his invention. The question becomes less whether the hoax will work, and more whether he can live with what it's made him. Schmitz writes with sharp unease about colonial ambition and the easy commerce between deception and survival. This is science fiction that understands how quickly stories become real, and how dangerous that can be.