The End

Acknowledgments

I owe thanks to so many people for their help with this book that I can’t remember them all. I could take the easy way out and say a general thank-you, but instead I will risk leaving someone out so I can publicly thank as many as possible.

The idea of writing about environmental engineers on the Moon came from my experience as Chief of Bioenvironmental Engineering and later as Deputy Director of Safety and Health at the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base. With that in mind, I must thank the colleagues I worked with most: Ted Evans, Paul Mattson, Jack Sprague (to whom I owe apologies, for I was a stupid new lieutenant), Dan Berlinrut, John Coho, Jim Unmack, Rick Riccardi, John Shirtz, Scott Allen, David Williams, and Sam Burrell.

Many of my other Air Force colleagues influenced parts of the book, notably Rob Robertson and my neighbor and good friend Dave Bergeron. Double thanks to Gill Paszek not only for his influence on the story but for his careful feedback on the draft manuscript.

Keith Phillips, with whom I was stationed at the 4th Space Operations Squadron, may recognize his contribution to chapter 11. The men and women of the Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff of the Air Force Executive Action Group will almost certainly recognize their part in chapter 16. And Rob Gray, whom I knew at the Air Force Flight Test Center, should recognize his contribution to chapter 24.

Tedd Roberts (a/k/a “Speaker to Lab Animals”), with whom I’ve had the pleasure of serving on various science- and space-related panels at science fiction and fantasy conventions, should recognize his contributions to chapter 21.

If you recognize a contribution you made that I have not acknowledged here, please accept my thanks and my apologies for not listing you personally.

For reading the novel (or portions thereof) in draft form and providing me with helpful feedback and encouragement, I owe tremendous thanks to Ada Milenkovich Brown, Edmund Schubert, Oliver Dale, Faisal Jawdat, James Galt-Brown, Diana Rowland, KeAnne Hoeg, Kristen Minervino, and Brian Ceccarelli. Double thanks to Allen Moore for his enthusiastic feedback and for letting me adapt an experience he lived through to the needs of one of my characters. Thanks also to Kevin Smith for help with the initial idea for the pico-scrub treatment. Thanks to Bryan Thomas Schmidt for his careful, considerate, and sometimes challenging editing.

Special thanks to Orson Scott Card, whose 2003 Writing Workshop showed me what was wrong with my first novel and whose 2004 Literary Boot Camp gave me the confidence to keep putting words on paper; to Dave Wolverton, whose 2008 Novel Writing Workshop provided excellent feedback on an early part of this novel and who graciously helped me craft the final product; and to Kevin J. Anderson and the staff at WordFire Press, for taking a chance on this story.

For putting up with me as I struggled to get it all down in electrons, and then on paper, I especially thank Jill and Stephanie and Christopher. You are tremendous blessings to me.

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.