Back in 1996, Rob and I went on a date, and since we'd always been good about communicating about family, finances, dreams, etc., we decided to write a story together instead. Rob was involved in Artemis at the time, which was talking about how to establish a commercial presence on the moon, and I was writing a series on different religious orders for women for Montana Catholic, and our interests coalesced into what we call the Rescue Sisters universe.
This takes place roughly 100 years in the future, and humankind has started colonizing the solar system, with orbiting cities, huge stations at the LaGrange points (stable points between heavenly bodies), settlements on Mars and mining ops in the asteroid belt and some of the moons. This was the frontier time, and one great man, R. Charles Hawkins would change everything by creating a gravity generator. However, in the process, he would suffer from a terrible accident that left him crippled and unable to enjoy his own invention. He died young as well. His widow, Gillian, would turn to the religious life and convince the Vatican to allow her to start a new religious order in space doing search and rescue operations--The Order of Our Lady of the Rescue, or the Rescue Sisters.
In the 200 or so years of RSU time in which we've written, we've seen the spread of man as far as the moons of Jupiter; a multi-national/interplanetary corporation ColeCorp has risen; there was a terrible war around Saturn--the Ring Wars. A genetically engineered group of people called zerogs have formed their own separate society. Ruling over the culture of spacers is the Spacer's Code, a set of maxims for living in space. A kind of godless cult has arisen of people who believe in the Code above all else.
Rob and I have had a lot of fun with this universe, mixing plausible space tech with the Catholic faith. St. Gillian's apparition comes to rescue spacers in trouble; there's a miracle of multiplying Sacramental Hosts on an asteroid station; trio of Rescue Sisters save a pilot from a ship full of snakes. These stories led to our editing the anthologies Leaps of Faith, and Infinite Space, Infinite God I and II.
I just finished the first Rescue Sisters novel, Discovery (September 2011) in which that same trio is part of a mission to the Kuiper Belt to explore an alien ship. When they discover a device that can show you your soul, those that experience its power change--some for the better, some for the dangerous worse.
What's been even more fun is that others have asked to write stories in this universe. Fred Warren has already had two stories published with Rescue Sisters. I hope you'll check them out.
Stories:
"Leap of Faith" in Leaps of Faith, http://leapsoffaithsf.com
"Our Daily Bread" in Infinite Space, Infinite God I, http://isigsf.com
"Antivenin" in Infinite Space, Infinite God II, http://isigsf.com
"Beatitude" by Fred Warren in Residential Aliens, http://www.resaliens.com/2011/08/beatitude/
"Of All Things, Seen and Unseen" by Fred Warren in Residential Aliens, http://www.resaliens.com/2009/10/of-all-things-seen-and-unseen/
Karina's Rescue Sisters Universe
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