The Anzu: Beyond the Wormhole

By Mary S. Sheppard

Even through the multi-species crew is facing 4 years of travel, after the wormhole catapulted them 15,000 light years across a spiral arm of the Milky Way - all is not lost.
The mission of the Anzu remains the exploration of space and the crew remains upbeat as they go about their normal tasks: implementing a basketball association, and visiting a planet. In addition, the ENG team, inspired by Jamez' concept, is enhancing the engines, which could cut the return time down to a more tolerable 2 years. Now if everything could go as planned.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mary S. Sheppard
• Release date: Nov 3, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370100880

Mary S. Sheppard

In my new series Samantha Keene, energy analyst extraordinaire, lead a pretty much run of the mill existence. There is always work, family and more work, but when she takes a vacation to the U.K. she is suddenly plunged into a different world, one filled with spies, intrigue, and romance and so the limited series starts.

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The Anzu: Beyond the Wormhole

Mary S. Sheppard

Copyright © 2016 Mary S. Sheppard

Smashwords Edition

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and it may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Photo credit: Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC/Caltech)

Table of Contents

The Mission and the Aliens

Chapter 1: New Engines

Chapter 2: Burn Out

Chapter 3: A Break

Chapter 4: Basketball Team

Chapter 5: CCN Comes to Help

Chapter 6: Not Jamaica

Chapter 7: Searching for Jamez

Chapter 8: Answers

Chapter 9: Doing without Jamez

Chapter 10: Jamez

Chapter 11: Progress

Chapter 12: Next Planet

Chapter 13: Waiting to Arrive

Chapter 14: Basketball Game

Chapter 15: The Vial

Chapter 16: Dr. Nurture

Chapter 17: The Green Planet

Chapter 18: Loose Ends

About the Author

Other Titles by Mary S. Sheppard

The Mission and the Aliens

The Zandu Mission Statement:

A multi-species crew will participate in the exploration of space. This includes but is not limited to planets, moons, galaxies, and space anomalies.

The spaceships: The Zandus built all the spaceships and four are configured for human crews. Each ship is divided into seven Sectors: Engineering, CCN, Security, Technical, Medical, Food Services and Science. CCN includes Command, Control, and Navigation. The Food Services Sector is where the food is created but food is dispensed through converters in many places on the ship, including the bar and the lounges. There is also the area where the crew rests and that is referred to as their quarters.

The Anzu has ten engines, eight are used for propulsion and two are used for life support systems (although they can provide some propulsion). Altogether the engines can attain 3 parsecs per day (9.7 light years) at full throttle.

The crew: Beside humans, there are four species currently on board the ships, the Zandus, the Lolas, the Thebes and the Shapers. All are intelligent, biped, two- armed species that breathe some mixture of air (to be adjusted individually), and can live and work with other species in close proximity. There are 148 on board.

Zandus - from planet Zolog: usually between 1.2 and 1.5 meters (4 to 5 feet) in height, their bodies are mix of organic material and energy. They are roundish in shape, and their skin is a luminescent white. They have two arms and can attach mechanical implements on the ends of those arms depending on task. They can be female or male.

Nutrition: mineral shakes once per day, can have alcohol

Examples: Chief, the captain, Dr. Nurture, Tetchy, NavOne, Mat3

Lolas - from planet Dracon: Larger than most humans, their reptilian skin can be green, blue, or purple (the color does not necessarily mean male or female). They have two large webbed feet, three eyes, two arms and two hands with five digits on each hand. As a species they work hard and usually play even harder. Lolas can be female or male.

Nutrition: eat most anything cold.

Examples: X, Z, CC, TT, DD

Shapers - from planet Forom: Adults range between 1.5 and 1.9 meters. In their natural shape they have two eyes, two arms, and two hands with four digits each. They can change their shape, but there is a limitation on how much they can change. So an additional arm or eye could be formed, but it would not work like the others. On the ship they usually show themselves as a mix of Lola and human. This species has females and males.

Nutrition: energy pellets twice per day.

Examples: Jamous (Jamez), Denabulus (aka Denab), Tomous

Thesbes - from planet Thesbeen: This is an all female species and is usually taller than 1.7 meters (5 foot 8). Their slender bodies have 2 arms and 2 hands with four digits each. Their faces have delicate features, two large round eyes, which come in various colors, and mostly have long wavy hair. They can read the auras of many species, including humans and Lolas, and can determine when someone lies. They need to sleep more than other species on board, preferring ten to twelve hours. Thesbes are usually the experts in the field they work in. There are seven Thesbes on board the Anzu.

Nutrition: berries and seeds several times per day.

Examples: Hazel, Tania, Kaci

The RTC, or Right to Change, is a group of insurgents that don’t want the species to mix. They believe that the ‘higher’ species are getting ‘polluted’ by interacting with the less developed species. Some in the group believe that the development of the more advanced species will stagnate if they are in contact with the less developed and others are especially afraid of any genetic mixing. They wanted the right to change the mission statement of the space ships so those unfit species would not be include in the voyages.

When the Anzu went through the wormhole, they were transported 4601 parsecs or 15,000 light years away from their sector in the Milky Way Galaxy. This story starts at 4575 parsecs from home.

Chapter 1: New engines

How could this be? Questions raced through Alec’s brain. He couldn’t believe that the Thesbes had been on Earth. How long had they been there? Had other alien species been there as well? What had they been doing? Had they met him while he was on Earth and was it the reason they had accepted him as a member of the crew over the thousands of other applicants?

Kaci had told him she had lived on Earth and then she told him nothing else. Of course he had had questions, but she said she was tired and she promised she would explain later. She asked him to leave so she could rest and of course he had to.

She had just been released from the Medical Center and she was still recovering, so he didn’t want to push her for answers and he knew he would have time to talk with her later.