Part of Series
To Jake Bayard’s amazement, he meets a Homo habilis: a five-foot, hundred-pound, hairy hominid that was supposed to have gone extinct 1.65 million years ago. Philip is no moronic precursor to man but a member of the elite, extraterrestrial Institute, needing help leaving Earth. The problem is that Philip is a liar, a sneak and a diabolical genius using the Traveler for his own ends. Out in the stars, Bayard discovers a conspiracy backed by ancient military tech and run by the little hominids bent on conquering everything, including Earth. What can one Marine stranded on a deadly alien planet do against an army of technologically superior soldiers? Bayard is about to find out. THE INSTITUTE is the fourth tale of a gung-ho Terran taking on the masters of an insidious and ancient alien conspiracy.
Author
You can visit Vaughn at www.vaughnheppner.com I was born in Canada and remember as a small boy crawling in my snow-fort. I closed my eyes, and when I tried to open them, they were frozen shut. I didn't panic, but wiped away the ice crystals, unglued my eyes and kept on building my tunnel. Those were great days! I moved to Central California before seventh grade and couldn't believe I lived in a land where oranges grew on trees and you could pick grapes from the vine. I used to wonder what I wanted to do with my life, what kind of work specifically. I was miserable not knowing and bordering on desperate. Then one day a friend gave me his typewriter. I began working on a novel. A different person told me it was much easier on a computer, so I bought one and began getting up at 4:30 A.M. each morning before work, writing for three hours. My eyes were unglued once again as the pang of misery left my gut. I knew exactly what I wanted to do: write. So now that's what I do, I write, and write, and write, and I love it.
