Narc Series by Mel Keegan

In the 23rd Century, two NARC captains are sent to discover and eliminate the source of lethal designer drug Angel: only their love for each other helps them survive when one is captured and forced into addiction. [gay men] [science fiction]

Angel — a lethal synthetic drug so pervasive and deadly that it has built empires and torn down worlds. Equinox Industries is a commercial monopoly which has spent decades mining the gas giant, Zeus. Now, the company is challenged by a growing faction for its dirty environmental record, and Tactical in the fantastic city of Elysium -- on the moon of Avalon in orbit around the green-faced giant world -- suspects the mining giant of being the force behind the local manufacture of Angel... moreAngel — a lethal synthetic drug so pervasive and deadly that it has built empires and torn down worlds. Equinox Industries is a commercial monopoly which has spent decades mining the gas giant, Zeus. Now, the company is challenged by a growing faction for its dirty environmental record, and Tactical in the fantastic city of Elysium -- on the moon of Avalon in orbit around the green-faced giant world -- suspects the mining giant of being the force behind the local manufacture of Angel. The super drug isn't being smuggled into the system -- Colonel Vic Duggan shut down the Angel smuggling trade once and for all. Yet Avalon remains riddled with Angel, rotting with it from the inside out..Enter Jarrat and Stone, commanding the carrier NARC-Athena, the premier base ship in the paramilitary NARC force which is at war with the Angel syndicates. Lovers whose minds have been bonded together. Men whose lives have been changed forever by the drug, the war, and the sacrifices both have made, and must continue to make if they will pursue a job which has long been a vocation. In this second opus, the heroes of DEATH'S HEAD need their empathic powers as well as the twenty-fourth century's technology wizardry to stay one jump ahead of their corporate enemies -- to stay alive and at liberty. less

Jarrat and Stone are back yet again, and if the Equinox assignment looked something of a challenge, this one is going to be a rollercoaster. Aurora is a 200 year old colony opened up by sleeper ship and now booming. Its capital is the city of Thule ... so filled with Angel abuse that Tactical has accumulated vast bodies of evidence on "Scorpio"... moreJarrat and Stone are back yet again, and if the Equinox assignment looked something of a challenge, this one is going to be a rollercoaster. Aurora is a 200 year old colony opened up by sleeper ship and now booming. Its capital is the city of Thule ... so filled with Angel abuse that Tactical has accumulated vast bodies of evidence on "Scorpio". The syndicate has some very high connections, all the way back to Earth, but Tac Colonel Kris Janssen — last generation of an original pioneer family — has just cremated four officers who attempted to investigate the man at its head. Young Marcus Brand has been preserved in cryogenic suspension since the very early days of the Angel war, 25 years before this story. Wealthy parents bought a colonial "sleeper" ship's cryotank to preserve him when he overdosed on Angel. Eighty years old now, Marc's father sees a documentary on Harry Del and is so impressed, he contacts Del directly, wanting him to perform his miracles for Marc. But the technique remains experimental and Harry refers the request to NARC. As Harry applies for clearances to treat the Brand boy, Jarrat and Stone have just completed their official report on the Equinox Industries operation, and they are given their new assignment: the Angel syndicate known as Scorpio. Harry receives clearance to work with Marc. The cryo tank must be shipped to the secure NARC labs on Darwin's World. It's shipped out on a Starfleet tender, and halfway between Aurora and Darwin's, it's tampered with. Marc almost does not survive in suspension long enough to reach Del's lab. The Athena is en route to Aurora, where she docks with the tender. Jarrat, Stone and CMO Kip Reardon realise the truth at once. Someone has tried to murder young Marc Brand ... to keep secret something he knew 25 years ago. Perhaps secrets that could spell the end for Scorpio? The investigation takes Kevin Jarrat and Jerry Stone into the hearts of Aurora's super-cities, Thule and Inquanoc, but the seeds of rot lie as far away as Chryse, on Mars, in Earth's own backyard. less

Jarrat and Stone are back ... unexpectedly and outrageously ... with a whole lot of fun and thrills, when downtime becomes an explosive excursion into an industrial hell-zone... With the Scorpio syndicate closed down, Kevin Jarrat and Jerry Stone are on furlough, aboard the starclipper Pacifica and headed for an island resort in Rethan’s tropics... moreJarrat and Stone are back ... unexpectedly and outrageously ... with a whole lot of fun and thrills, when downtime becomes an explosive excursion into an industrial hell-zone... With the Scorpio syndicate closed down, Kevin Jarrat and Jerry Stone are on furlough, aboard the starclipper Pacifica and headed for an island resort in Rethan’s tropics. But when the clipper suffers engine trouble and must detour to the halfway station of Sheckley for repairs, the vacation dissolves into unexpected and unpredictable hazard. Stone is fascinated to take the ‘ten cent tour’ and experience the ‘gas can with lights’ where Jarrat spent his youth. The tour turns deadly when they run into escapees from Scorpio who recognize Jarrat as his undercover persona of Max Tyler, and the NARC captains find themselves making a flight right into Hades. Cut off from NARC, the carrier, backup and weapons, they’re on their own devices, surviving on their wits, and making it to that island resort starts to look like an impossible fantasy. A Pocket-sized NARC page-turner, falling between SCORPIO and APHELION; we've whimsically designated it 'NARC #3.5!' less

Jarrat and Stone are back, and if the Scorpio assignment looked tough, this one is the challenge of a career. Here is the NARC novel that was eagerly anticipated ... second-guessed ... demanded! ... since SCORPIO launched.All roads lead to the homeworlds. The Scorpio data-trail ... the Michiko dossier ... it's all pointing in one direction, and Jarrat and Stone can only follow it to Earth. Mars. They find themselves in the timeless cities of ancient worlds, which have grown dark, wicked... moreJarrat and Stone are back, and if the Scorpio assignment looked tough, this one is the challenge of a career. Here is the NARC novel that was eagerly anticipated ... second-guessed ... demanded! ... since SCORPIO launched.All roads lead to the homeworlds. The Scorpio data-trail ... the Michiko dossier ... it's all pointing in one direction, and Jarrat and Stone can only follow it to Earth. Mars. They find themselves in the timeless cities of ancient worlds, which have grown dark, wicked. Corrupt. For the outsider — the stranger, colonial, mutoid — it's a mean arena that can seem oddly alien, and is undeniably dangerous. For the 'Earther' headed back in, like Stone himself, it's not what one expected, nor a place where one would choose to be. The action takes the NARC captains to Chicago, Marsport and the incredible skycities of the Jupiter system — new-old worlds on what was once known as the high frontier. These worlds have become new battlefields, but Death wears the same old face.Aerosports and Angel packwar — the launch of a super-carrier — the death of a friend...Nothing is as it seems. Very soon Jarrat and Stone learn to trust only those they know and believe only what they see, as they and the key elements of the carrier NARC-Athena bend the rules to breaking-point — and beyond. less

THE ENDGAME OMNIBUS features three full novels, a whisker under 400,000 words in total, comprising the trilogy closing out the NARC series: SCIMITAR - BASILISK -ENDGAME. SCIMITAR (NARC #5) After NARC destroyed DEATH’S HEAD Jarrat and Stone did not expect to return to the colony of Rethan. Chance took them back in STOPOVER, when they were lucky to survive a lethal brush with elements of Death’s Head which had evaded the syndicate war... moreTHE ENDGAME OMNIBUS features three full novels, a whisker under 400,000 words in total, comprising the trilogy closing out the NARC series: SCIMITAR - BASILISK -ENDGAME. SCIMITAR (NARC #5) After NARC destroyed DEATH’S HEAD Jarrat and Stone did not expect to return to the colony of Rethan. Chance took them back in STOPOVER, when they were lucky to survive a lethal brush with elements of Death’s Head which had evaded the syndicate war. Tactical Colonel Pete Stacy knew full well, at least one key player from Death’s Head remained at liberty. Her name is Valda Hawass: immeasurably old, unspeakably brilliant, until recently anonymous in the shadows. Now, Hawass has picked up the threads of an old crusade -- the Athena is headed back to Rethan with explosive results. But Jarrat and Stone have more to worry about. Senator Bram Sorenson is rising as a homeworlds hero, championing legislation which will ignite the colonies in war and spell the end for NARC. Roots of disillusionment are taking hold within NARC -- change is in the wind, with Jarrat and Stone, Cronin and Ramos, caught at the epicenter. SCIMITAR is Part One of a massive story which continues in BASILISK, concludes in ENDGAME. Available in stand-alone paperback, and in the Omnibus ebook. (This segment: 96,700 words) BASILISK (NARC #6) Straddling the frontier, the hellish system belonging to an industrial corporation, the Montserrat Lode, is harassed by marauders from the wilderness beyond. Freespacers prey on Montserrat while the system is a perilous chaos better known as Tartarus. Tartarus has an Angel problem, fueled by the last great empire, Basilisk -- but for reasons of its own Montserrat is fighting to prove its rich lode sits in freespace, beyond colonial jurisdiction. Tactical is eager to invoke NARC, but analysts doubt NARC can fight in a place where vast populations are spread over trillions of kilometers and the system is vastly hazardous, even before freespacers strike from beyond the frontier. The new carrier Huntress is assigned, not to fight but to run dark, gather data upon which decisions might be made. When she vanishes utterly with Gene Cantrell and Mischa Petrov in command, Jarrat and Stone must take the Athena, follow her into hell. Death lies at every hand. NARC has never paid a price so high. Jarrat and Stone with recall the Basilisk encounter as a turning point … BASILISK is Part Two of the massive story which began with SCIMITAR, concludes with ENDGAME. Available in stand-alone paperback, and in the Omnibus ebook. (This segment: 110,350 words) ENDGAME (NARC #7) Drawing every thread together from across the whole series, ENDGAME weaves a tapestry from Darwin’s World to Aurora. Jarrat and Stone stand at the crux of events which will be written into history. The last great Angel empire has fallen, but the shadow of something more sinister, infinitely more far-reaching, falls across every city: Angeliberty -- Political tensions explode as homeworlds legislation promises death for millions of Angel victims. Only the Marcus Brand Foundation stands between the colonies, and war -- When Cassius Brand challenges Starfleet over the Mostov disaster, a scene on a Thule street will propel Jarrat and Stone in directions they never imagined -- Behind all this, the Jagreth Pioneer Company has launched the super-sleeper ship designed to open up a new world, beyond the reach of the troubled old colonies … but JPC’s façade of commercial hype hides an appalling truth. ENDGAME is Part Three of the massive story which began in SCIMITAR, continued in BASILISK. less