ORBIT: Book One: Civility in Space

By T. K. Reilly

What do an android, nine student astronauts, their avatars, the moon, and thousands of satellites have in common? Only they can protect the future and only because they are in orbit!

Join Commander Roy Sherwin and his team on the Satellite Observation Outpost: Copilot, Cosmonaut Maxim Chernov; Seismologist April Kuboto; Launch Engineer Fergus McClure; his sister, Dr. Claire McClure, MD; Propulsion Engineer Li Ming, Physicist Anya Lande; and their VR instructor, android Professor SID in their final year of training for a mission to Mars.

Share their urgent quest to analyze and interpret forces at work on Earth's surface and in orbit around it. Use science, including astrology, meteorology, physics, biology, geography, and medicine, along with math, theology, social intelligence, mindfulness, and virtual reality to reveal the source of mysterious lunar surface movement. Explore the real-time complex balance of Earth's regenerative powers that ensure it continues to sustain human life.

For the first time in history, humankind cannot learn from the past to protect the future!

Experience action in orbit on the Satellite Observation Outpost with Roy, Max, Claire, Gus, April, Ming and SID as they work to interpret and improve conditions on Earth while planning for the future and human life on Mars.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781636306056

Book preview

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ORBIT: Book One

Civility in Space

T. K. Reilly

ISBN 978-1-63630-604-9 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63630-605-6 (Digital)

Copyright © 2021 T. K. Reilly

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

The ORBIT series of SCI-FI books for young adults is dedicated to civility. May it cover the world, travel with us into space and abide with us in our artificial intelligence.

Chapter One

It all began when Satellite Observation Outpost Commander Roy Sherwin noticed movement on the horizon in Area Three at the top of the moon. He spoke into his communications headset, Did you see that, Max? The first words uttered in hours broke working silence on the Outpost.

Huh, what? Did I see what? replied his copilot cosmonaut, Maxim Chernov, turning away from his video game in the VR lab.

They’re on the move again! Roy announced. Tell Viktor in Kazakhstan. See if he knows something!

Viktor Popov, Russian Academy of Cosmonautics Chief of Operations, advisor to the Outpost team, and Maxim’s uncle, immediately received a request for confirmation of activity in Lunar Area Three, also known as Mare Marginis, Sea of the Edge.

The following simultaneous sightings were later reported by team members April and Gus who were not on the Outpost at their satellite traffic deck instrument panels that night.

*****

It was a clear night for observation in the Tsukimi reflective moon pond.

Vacationing at her parents’ home on the Big Island in Hawaii, Pacific Rim seismologist April Kuboto quietly addressed her revered elder, Great-grandfather, tell me about your ant farm. Are the ants marching tonight?

Oh yes, little one. He replied. Each month, when the moon is full, they make haste over the top and into the shadows. He handed her his magnifying glass and pointed, saying, Look here.

Leaning in, April gasped in astonishment at what she saw.

*****

With eyes on the sky through digital telescopes, astrophysicist Fergus McClure, Gus, plots orbits for satellites and helps deliver them about two hundred miles above the Earth for his father’s company, Launch for Less, a US commercial space launch site. Operating in the Canterbury