SAVANNA, Book Two in my Science Fiction series ‘Operation
Stargate’ has been released. It is now available from the following outlets:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Ei1Qaj
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/940056
Assuming the existence
of a Star portal on the planet Savanna to be a secret, the humans don’t know
that the Accilla, the Spiders, and other spacefaring races are fully aware of
it.
Jeremy Sheppard, a
newly appointed Captain of the Solar Space Force to the military outpost and
Dennis Collins, a civilian, must join forces to thwart a conspiracy to control
the Star portal.
Here is another excerpt:
Only one road ran from
the outpost to Crystal City. It was nothing more than dirt and not well
maintained. Sheppard was happy to be safe inside an armored vehicle as they
rolled across the rocky and pitted surface. He imagined the road would not be
in a good condition after a heavy rainfall.
It didn’t look
like there’d be any rain soon, and he was grateful for that. Looking out of the
window at the landscape and the sky, it was difficult to accept he was on an
alien planet. Savanna was much like Earth, starting with the vegetation, the
soil, the color of the sky, and even the gravity. Not all planets humans tried
to colonize were this ideal. Some were outright unpleasant, and yet, humans
attempted to tame them and make them livable.
Of course, there
were penalties to be paid. Over the centuries that’d passed since humans
finally joined the other spacefaring races, some of the planets refused to be
made into the image the humans visualized. Instead of the planet changing,
humans changed. Subjected to harmful radiation, humans adapted, genes mutated,
and the results were not always desirable. He remembered spending time on Deadrock,
aptly named for the number of settlers who died after one of the early
colonization ships crashed on a planet never designed for humans. Most of them
died during the first years, but some survived. They worked the land, they
built homes, and they adapted. Their descendants changed inside and outside.
When this lost colony was finally found, the humans living on it were barely
recognizable as humans. They were more alien than some of the real alien races.
“You’re awfully
silent, Captain Sheppard.” The trooper driving the vehicle broke into his
thoughts. His chuckle sounded almost amused. “Still trying to figure out which
mischievous devil chose you to join us on this planet of continuous fun and
excitement?”
“Colonel.
Wainwright called it Outpost Despair,” Sheppard said.
One of the two troopers
sitting behind Sheppard laughed. “That’s one of the nicer names we call this
outpost.”
“From what I’ve
seen this far, it isn’t that bad,” Sheppard said.
“You’re right, it
doesn’t seem so bad, at first. After being here for as long as some of us have
been, you will realize what seemed so nice is nothing but a variation of hell. The
boredom drives you crazy, and the realization you’re stuck here for good. No
assignments, no promotions, no action. You’ll get tired of seeing the same old
faces every day and listening to the same old stories, because there are no new
ones. A war could be raging out there, we’ll never know. The only excitement we
get is when someone new, like you, joins us.”
“You could always
resign and become a farmer,” Sheppard suggested.
“If I would have
wanted to dig around in the dirt, I would never have joined the military in the
first place. Besides, it isn’t as easy as it sounds to resign from the military.
Have you ever read the fine print? You’ll have to undergo a partial mind-wipe
to prevent you from spilling any military secrets, and you’ll lose any
privileges you may have, including your pension. I for one am not willing to do
that.”
“Neither am I.”
Sheppard turned around to look at the trooper. “By the way, I never caught your
name.”
“I’m Lieutenant
Edward Fox, and this guy with the red hair beside me is Randall Foster,
Sergeant Randall Foster, actually.”
“I’m Jeremy.” Sheppard
shook Fox’s hand.
“I’m Robert
McCallum,” the driver said with a little chuckle. “Just plain Trooper McCallum.
No special rank. Never made it.”
“Doesn’t make any
difference. Nobody gives a crap about
rank here anymore. We’re all on first-name-basis,” Foster said. “Or last name,
whichever you prefer.”
“I have no problem
with that,” Sheppard said. “What’s the assignment we’re on, anyway?”
“Supply run.”
McCallum smirked.
“What are we
getting?”
“You’ll see.
You’re lucky you’ve been chosen. You must have made an impression on the
Colonel. It usually takes him awhile to trust newcomers enough to make them
part of an important assignment like this.”
“I suppose I
should feel honored. What’s the story with Colonel Wainwright, anyway?”
“Nobody really
knows. He has his own demons to fight, like most of us.” McCallum glanced at
Sheppard sideways. “Like you, Captain Sheppard.”
When Sheppard
said, “I have no demons to fight,” all three men laughed.
“Of course not.”
Fox snickered behind him. “They sent you here for a little holiday. A long holiday, Captain Lilli-white.”
Sheppard stayed
silent. He didn’t get angry, because he didn’t sense any malice. They were only
having a little fun at his expense. So far, he hadn’t met many of the other troopers
on the outpost, but if all of them were like these three, it wouldn’t be too
bad, and he could accept his situation. Only one thing he couldn’t accept, the
fact he may have to spend the rest of his career on Savanna. That would really
be a form of hell.
