Exploring RAN: The Third Volume of the Thrilling Oort Chronicles Saga
Author’s Lounge asked me to write about RAN: A Civilization in Hiding. Although this novel stands on its own, it is the third volume of the Oort Chronicles, currently four volumes, with a fifth to be released later this year.

The Oort Chronicles
Here is a brief summary of the first two Oort Chronicles. In today’s world, wealthy entrepreneur and engineer Braxton Thorpe suffers from incurable cancer and arranges for his head to be cryogenically preserved upon his death—an Icicle. He awakens a century later as an electronic upload—A Tensor Matrix.
Thorpe’s Journey: Defending the Solar System and Uniting the Galaxy
Working with colleagues, he moves out into the Solar System, where he discovers another electronic entity, the Oort, and learns about an existential threat to the Solar System. Aliens who attacked the Solar System in the distant past are returning to do it again. Working with the Oort and cooperating nations of Earth through the Oort Federation, Thorpe and his allies thwart the aliens’ scheme.
With the alien invasion behind them, Thorpe and his colleagues govern the Solar System through the Oort Federation. Its various players are Thorpe’s Phoenix, his colleagues’ Ogden Enterprises, and their collective nemesis, Isidor Orlov and his Udachny Enterprises. Thorpe and Orlov follow parallel paths to FTL drives using different technologies. Both groups travel to the alien star system, Aster, where Thorpe allies with the Asterians, and together, they overcome Orlov. Thorpe and the Asterians cooperate to open the galaxy.
The Third Oort Chronicle
“RAN: A Civilization in Hiding is hard, mind-stretching science fiction of the highest order.” Professor John B. Rosenman, Norfolk State University. An incipient space-faring saurian civilization that has hidden itself from the rest of the galaxy—told entirely from their point of view. We are the aliens. Humans and our Asterian allies have constructed a gigantic domed starship, Andromeda, and set out on a voyage of discovery toward a region of deep space called the Cosmic Microwave Background Cold Spot—first stop, the star Ran in the constellation Eridanus. We arrive as the saurian natives of the planet Arcan undertake their first crewed voyage around their moon, Lodan. During their transit behind Lodan, we surreptitiously transport their astronauts from their Apollo-like capsule into our starship. The first indication Arcan Mission Control has that something is amiss is when their capsule appears from behind Lodan without their astronauts. Their ensuing investigation tells them that aliens have abducted their astronaut team.
Through Arcan Eyes: A Hidden Civilization’s Journey to Integration
Thus begins an engrossing tale of a reptilian race that has deliberately kept itself hidden from the rest of the galaxy, fearing the military might of the civilizations they have observed by monitoring the uncontrolled electronic transmissions from these civilizations, and who must now integrate themselves with an advanced alien species—all seen through Arcan eyes.
The Arcan civilization consists of three distinct groups on three continents. In the words of Amred President Binecot Katengi, “Arcan has three significant cultures, Amred, Ceffid, and The Geroptic Nation. Amred is a free-wheeling society with a government limited to national defense and a police and court system. Ceffid is a totalitarian dictatorship with top-heavy bureaucracy. The Geroptic Nation is a backward theocracy that worships the sun, which they call the Great Dragon in the Sky. Their Prophet’s ultimate goal is to bring Amred and Ceffid under his rule and convert all of us to their bizarre religion.”
Alliances and Resistance: Thorpe’s Role in Uniting Amred and Ceffid
Thorpe and his crew find they have much in common with the Amred culture. Upon discovering the alien presence, the Ceffid dictator, Bopr Arclando, threatens war with Amred if Amred doesn’t share the aliens. Katengi convinces Thorpe to support a Ceffid resistance, and eventually, the Ceffid dictatorship is overthrown. A follow-on tribunal punishes the guilty, and Ceffid aligns with Amred.
Orlov, Thorpe’s nemesis from earlier in the series, appears and strikes a deal with General Nirurian Klarot of the Geroptic Nation. Klarot deposes the Prophet and prepares to attack Ceffid and Amred with Orlov’s help. Thorpe and crew are drawn into this conflict. Amred and Ceffid ultimately prevail, and hold another tribunal to administer justice.
When Andromeda brought the Arcan astronauts from their capsule onboard the starship, Kenred Zlaxiz and Jocara Porovik established a relationship with Thorpe’s people and eventually integrated into the Andromeda crew along with many other Arcan astronauts. They played a crucial role in overthrowing the Ceffid dictatorship and countering the Geroptic Nation.
Going forward, the reptilian astronauts from Arcan assume important roles in the fourth and fifth Oort Chronicles as they fully integrate themselves into Thorpe’s crew of Humans, Asterians, Oort, and now Arcans.
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