Oasis

by Tosh McIntosh

Oasis is a novel of the alternative past that begins approximately 30 years prior to present day, based on three questions.What if the 1984 NASA Space Station Freedom project had not been transformed into the International Space Station in 1993? And what if chaos born of overpopulation, environmental pollution, unceasing warfare, climate change, and a series of increasingly virulent pandemics had put Earth on an unalterable 30-year collision course toward a final global apocalypse? How might these events might have changed history?In the real historical timeline, the space race is born in the 1950s as an extension of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union.After an impressive string of "firsts" for the Soviets in the early '60s, the Americans solidify their technological supremacy through the Apollo program and plant a U.S. flag on the moon on July 20, 1969. The Soviets are unable to respond in kind.The next step for the U.S. is development of a space shuttle designed to supply Freedom. Budgetary cuts, design changes and ballooning costs halt advances in the Freedom program while space shuttle development continues. With the collaboration of Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada, the Freedom project becomes the International Space Station.In the alternative history of Oasis, squabbling among ISS members, Russian budgetary constraints, and a series of technological problems cause Russia to drop out. The ISS project is terminated, and increasingly dire predictions for the future of mankind remove US government hesitancy with regard to completion of Freedom and implementing changes in the space shuttle program.Construction of Oasis begins, and in July, 2012, The United States Space Command proves viability of the project to the point at which shuttle missions provide a steady stream of supplies in sufficient quantity to support Oasis and the Moon Colony #1 project.As the story begins in April, 2017, might not the world look like this?The United States has stemmed the tide of self-destruction. It has clean water, food production capability meeting its needs, and a stable population. Other industrialized nations are attempting to do the same, but with varying degrees of success. For the underdeveloped countries, however, the prognosis is not good, with starvation, disease, war, and pestilence exacting a grim toll. It is this widening gulf of disparity which has created the current quintessential have and have-not dichotomy of the world.Traditional military and border patrol functions have been combined to provide protection from illegal immigration, but the task is becoming increasingly more difficult. It is a defensive posture of dubious longevity.Construction of Moon Colony #1, an infinitely sustainable human habitat in space, is publicly dedicated to testing the feasibility of recycling all consumable resources, but is privately considered to be the key to survival of the species Homo Sapiens.U.S. Space Station Oasis, is a massive spin-gravity structure, home to about 3000 crew members and their families, all of whom volunteered for an indefinite period of duty with the understanding that they may never be allowed to return to Earth.Thirteen-year-old Toby Williams, the only human ever conceived and born in space, lives with his parents on Oasis.

604 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 14, 2020

About the author

Tosh McIntosh's Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology is analogous to the turn signal on a classic, 1960s automobile owned since new by the kind of inconsiderate driver we all love to hate. It's never been used.

Following graduation from the University of Washington in Seattle, Tosh entered the Air Force with the intention of serving a four-year commitment as a pilot before deciding what he really wanted to do with the remainder of his professional life. One ride in a jet trainer consigned that plan to the scrap heap.

Twenty years of flying jet fighters (including two combat tours) remain the highlight of his aviation career. Another twenty years as a commercial airline and corporate pilot and current enjoyment of sport aviation in light aircraft have embedded within him a passion for sharing with others his unique perspective of what it means to be an aviator.

Pilot Error is his first novel in a planned series that will interweave a life-long fascination with writing and thousands of flight hours in pursuit of one goal: to create stories that entertain and put readers up close and personal within his world of the cockpit.