Perseus Spur. Julian May. 1999.

‘I was living in pleasant anonymity under the name of Helmut Icicle, taking smart as sports- divers out on holocam trips around the reefs of Kedge-Lockaby. Fourteen thousand light years aaay from civilisation, K-L’s a free soil planet way out in the boondocks, and that’s the way I like it: it makes life easier if no-one asks nosy questions. 

‘So one minute there I was, subbing around Brillig Reef; the next thing I know, some giant sea-toad has eaten my house and I’m caught up in a galactic conspiracy! From gently coaxing an aging submersible around the shores of K-L to piloting a state-of- the-art Javelin starship may seem like a big jump: but when it looks as if the future course of human civilisation is under threat, it’s a hell of a motivator’.