Zero-Point Prop: Hard Science Fiction Thriller

by Hugh Watkins

Joseph Wright builds movie props for a living. He's good at it — the best in Georgia, maybe anywhere. A Georgia Tech engineer who ended up in Atlanta's film industry after a startup went sideways and took his marriage with it. He sees his daughter on Saturdays. He does industrial repair work when the prop jobs dry up. He gets by.

When a screenwriter hands him AI-generated specs for a sci-fi film's fusion reactor, Joseph builds it to spec. Every tolerance. Every detail. The way he builds everything.

Then it powers up for real.

Now Joseph is running secret tests on a soundstage at midnight, filling notebooks with equations, and missing weekends with his daughter. His best friend thinks he's having a bipolar episode. His estranged wife thinks the same thing. Federal agents are asking questions about the prop that Joseph can't answer without sounding insane.

The device works. Joseph can prove it — to himself. Proving it to anyone else might cost him everything he has left.

A near-future thriller about the collision of genius and mental illness, set in the machine shops and soundstages of Atlanta's booming film industry.

290 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 5, 2026