ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. -- Will the world end December 2012 as the Mayans predicted?
No one knows.
But David Stevens, a retired AEDC Navy commander, doesn't see the end the way the Mayans predicted it.
Stevens has written a science fiction thriller book, "Resurrect," which explores the possibility of an apocalypse based on real world threats.
In Stevens' view, real world threats could be anything from a comet or asteroid impact, global nuclear war or artificial Intelligence to a pandemic biological war or a solar super storm.
The main character of the book, Navy Commander Josh Logan, tries to prevent his burning fighter from crashing into a neighborhood, but he is too late.
After being critically injured he's offered a new life with a genetically enhanced body and a mission to exploit highly classified military technology to stop a global cataclysm.
Logan will develop the world's most powerful weapon to save humanity.
The price of accepting this mission is he'll be dead to everyone he knows, including his wife.
Stevens was an F-18 pilot who survived hundreds of his own carrier landings.
His idea for the story came through personal experiences.
"As an adrenaline junky who loved science, I studied engineering and became a Navy fighter pilot," Stevens said.
Flying off aircraft carriers, I had some close calls. I knew my profession had a fatality rate of almost one in five, but like most twenty-year-olds, I was immortal."
Then, after several years in the fleet, I learned my roommate and close friend had died in an A-6 crash on a night, low level mission. I was no longer immortal."
Stevens' Navy career later shifted to engineering and flight test. The events that occurred earlier in his career prompted Stevens to design an Artificial Horizon Altitude Warning system for which he received a government patent.
"It was ranked number one for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) funding, but without credentials or resources, the funding, understandably, went to more established programs," Stevens said.
The intersection of these life events was a large part of the motivation for "Resurrect."
Stevens added, "I learned no matter how big the threat, unless we experience it directly, it's not real. This applies to pilots ignoring crashes, but I believe, it also applies to societies turning a blind eye to potentially cataclysmic disasters."
While "Resurrect" is fiction, it accurately portrays real threats facing humanity, ones that we can actually do something about."
The book is the first in a trilogy and is optioned for a movie by Producer Fred Miller. Miller is an executive producer of the Academy Award nominated movie "For All Mankind."
"Resurrect" received the Colorado Gold Finalist Best Action Thriller of the Year award by Goodreads website.
The second book is titled "Conceive."
Stevens said, "The final book's title is tentatively called "Darken" but is still under consideration."
The first book in the trilogy, "Resurrect," will be available online and in stores Nov. 1.
The book may be purchased in advance of the release at the book's website www.ResurrectTrilogy.com.
"I'm also taking ideas and even some of the names of people from my "Resurrect Trilogy" Facebook page to use in the follow-on books." Stevens said
The "Resurrect Trilogy" Facebook address is www.facebook.com/ResurrectTrilogy.
Stevens holds engineering degrees from Cornell University and the University of Michigan, with graduate work in human factors and astrophysics.
During the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, he served as the Navy Strike Operations Officer for the Persian Gulf.
Stevens spent a portion of his military career at AEDC between 1996 and 2001 and currently resides in Winchester, Tenn.