Mother Lode

by Zach Hughes

After a five-year mission to the edge of the known universe, Erin is ready to return home. But her mission has stolen too much time away, and Erin returns to find her father dead and herself heir to a mining tug and a set of coordinates that may lead to vast wealth. Erin takes to the stars and discovers a mystery far older than the human race. Original.

Genres: Science Fiction

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 3, 1991

About the author

Zach Hughes is a pseudonym of American writer Hugh Zachary.

Reviews

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ex officer in a ship which circumnavigated the galaxy comes home to find her father and winds up with an old tramp space ship and a treasure map. Her followup adventures include dealing with assayers who try to cheat her, space claim jumpers and a first contact with some very unfriendly aliens. A nice little uncomplicated science fiction novel.

[Lianne Burwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has been in a box for years. Then I pulled it out and gave it a reread. Amazingly, I still like it, all these years later.

Erin returns from a deep space mission that lasted years, only to find out that her father died a few days earlier, leaving her with a house mortgaged to the hilt, a space mining ship, a dog named Mr. Mop, and a map to an uncharted system with lots of gold for mining.

Unfortunately for Erin and the partner she takes on, it also contains the fossil remains of the first alien species ever found, and those fossils are completely dead.

Anyway, how can you not like a book where a Yorkshire Terrier gets to save everyone?