Orillion Prime

By Adrian Holland

An epic space opera, adventure...
This thrilling twelve part series combines aspects of mythology with new technology, as the human race evolves into its true Galactic Human form.
A black market in alien artefacts has blighted the ‘Terran Sector’, and smuggling operations are yet another headache for Mulligan to contend with. When a leading archaeologist disappears under mysterious circumstances, combined with an equally mysterious accident, it only adds to his problems.
Instead of spending two weeks on a ‘pleasure planet’ he now finds himself having to deputise for an injured colleague. It was bad enough having to watch the departing transport, let alone being left in the middle of nowhere. But the true purpose of his mission soon becomes apparent, when he is sent a disc containing some vital information. Can he solve the mystery, or more importantly, can he save his holiday...
Revised Edition

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adrian Holland
• Release date: Dec 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781909466050

Adrian Holland

Adrian is primarily known for his artwork and book cover designs, although he is also an author. Originally, from Solihull, West Midlands, England, he now lives in Rural Cheshire.Adrian has now written over 40 books mostly Science Fiction, although he has also written in other genres including Spiritually Influenced, Mystery, and Fantasy.All of his work can be viewed on his website: www.amazola.co.uk

Book preview

INTERSTELLAR

A Series of Science Fiction Adventure Stories

6: Orillion Prime

Adrian Holland

Published by AMAZOLA

The right of Adrian Holland to be identified as the Author of the work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.

This Book is a Work of Fiction. Names, Characters, Places and Incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © Adrian Holland 2011

ISBN 978-1-909466-05-0

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior per-mission of the publishers.

For further information please contact the official website at

www.amazolapublishing.com

Cover design by Adrian Holland

I was very close to both of my parents who were my best friends, and I have lost count of the number of happy times we shared, and all of the creativity and laughter. Like my beloved father Joe, my mother Margaret was so special, and my total inspiration. I would therefore like to dedicate this book to their memory.

Contents

Introduction

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Introduction

Following Earth's provisional membership of what was known as the Galactic Council, Earth people, or Terrans as they were referred to, were allocated their own sector of the galaxy.

The only condition attached to this agreement was that they would now be responsible for their own people, whom it was hoped would soon settle down into life within the collective.

A new Inter Galactic Security Service was launched to police all of the new settlers who were pouring out from Earth to colonise the many planets which made up the Terran Sector. Equipment and supplies along with spacecraft and bases were made available, and after a period of basic training they were ready to commence.

There may have been high hopes from the Galactic Council, although human nature being what it was, it was inevitable that there would be those who failed to live up to their lofty ideals…

One

All systems go!

The voice of the autopilot rang out, as the small space shuttle left the docking pylon. Mayberry sat at the controls making a few minor adjustments before heading towards the star gate. It was her first solo run, and she was looking forward to starting her new assignment.

The event horizon was soon visible as she approached the far side of the moon. It was all very exciting, and this was only the second time that she had been trough the star gate. The first occasion was when she was part of a training exercise, crammed into the cockpit with the instructor and a bunch of new recruits.

Space itself suddenly opened up with a rush of spectacular translucent colours. It was an incredible sight and took her breath away, as she shot across space travelling through hundreds of light years in a matter of minutes. The experience was so wondrous, that she failed to notice the energy fluctuations on the dials in front of her. A sudden surge of power began to build up in the circuits, and just as she emerged on the other side there was an explosion.

A brilliant flash of light lit up space behind her, as the star gate closed. For a few moments she naturally assumed that it was part of the normal exit process, until her instrument panel started flashing and warning alarms went off all around her.

The small space shuttle then began to vibrate, and the engines started to stutter, jarring her in her seat. Mayberry froze for a few seconds, not knowing what to do, until her training kicked in. Instinctively, she switched to manual control as the ship began to tilt.

Computer, damage report!

There was a moment’s silence before it spoke.

Main engines off line!

The reply reverberated around the front cabin, with the effects of the explosion distorting the speakers. This sent an icy chill down her spine as the lights began to flicker, and the distress beacon activated automatically.

Mayberry checked her instruments, which were registering a fault with the main drive unit, and more seriously, a steady loss of life support.

She sat there in shock wondering what had caused it, and more importantly what she was going to do about it?

The shuttles had been provided by the Galactic Council, and as far as she knew they were supposed to be very reliable. They had been modified to make them easy for Terrans to pilot, with the auto pilot and onboard computer doing a majority of the work.

Something had obviously gone wrong, and not being an engineer, she did not know what it could be, or more importantly, how she was going to fix it!

The instrument panel indicated a steady loss of air, and so she unclipped herself from the pilot’s seat, moving to the rear cabin where there was a locker which contained the space suits.

Warning, oxygen levels down to 57%.

The computer relayed the information, as he slipped her right foot into the flexible material. Mayberry’s left quickly followed, as she pulled it up to her waist, slipping her arms into the one piece suit.

With a little shuffle she soon had it in place, and reached for a helmet, slipping that over her head until it clipped into place.

Warning, oxygen levels down to 42%.

There must have been a serious hull breach as life support was beginning to fail, and she could feel the temperature begin to drop. It would not be long before she would be reliant on the suit, and that only had enough air to last her for a few more hours.

What had promised to be a simple assignment was rapidly turning into a disaster, as she slumped back into the pilot’s seat. Mayberry then reached for the communicator, switching it to an open channel.

Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. My engines are off line and I'm losing life support…

Two

The second moon of Orillion Prime was bathed in the first flickers of light from the lunar day, as pale shadows were sent chasing across its rugged landscape. Its cold barren features looked so peaceful, in contrast to Mulligan, who stood by the observation window pondering the personnel files that lay scattered over his desk. Shrugging his shoulders, he began to rummage back through them again, before turning to the observation window once more.

A transport barely visible carved its way through the dawn at regulation speed, its image fading on the edge of the radar screen. It already seemed like an eternity since it left the docking bay, passing over the observation area, before banking sharply as it climbed out of the complex.

There goes my holiday!

With that he took a bite out of a large sandwich that obscured the centre of his desk. He was really looking forward to his two weeks on a pleasure planet, and now he found himself posted to the middle of nowhere!

Sighing deeply, he turned to the observation window once more, looking out at the tiny complex, which sat huddled at the base of a small crater. His large frame towered over the desk as he held the sandwich between his big powerful hands, taking another huge bite out of it. He had been lucky to scrounge that from the cabin crew, as he had arrived in the middle of the night and the complex was virtually deserted.

Mulligan would have been relaxing on the transport, maybe even dozing, with the prospect of a well earned vacation. Sighing once more, he sat back down at the desk finishing off the last crust. He was in no mood for personnel files, especially so early in the morning, and looking at his watch he decided to catch the news update on the view-screen.

Pressing the button to activate