The Discovery of Planet Xarloran

By Stral Holmes

A New outer space adventure novel Stral Holmes' new novel, "The Discovery of Planet Xarloran," turns out to be a truly fantastic adventure. Jeromy Stone, a local bookstore owner drives to his store as he does every day of the week in Manhattan, New York, USA, Planet Earth. However, an incredible chain of events takes place starting on one particular day. Mr. Stone encounters one catastrophic event after another and finally ends up in a strange world, a planet called Xarloran. Events that take place during his time on planet Xarloran brings Mr. Stone through a remarkable adventure. The new lifestyle along with living in a place where longevity is increased by thousands of years, renders Mr. Stone knowing that he's better off where he ends up rather than where he's been throughout his entire life on planet Earth. Follow Mr. Stone's incredible adventure in this exciting new outer space adventure novel. http://www.planet-xarloran.com/

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9781642981834

Book preview

Preface

The Discovery of Planet Xarloran plays out to be a truly fantastic adventure. The story takes place as Jeromy Stone, a local bookstore owner, drives to his store as he does every day of the week in Manhattan, New York, USA, Planet Earth. However, an incredible chain of events takes place starting on this particular day. The story begins with Mr. Stone leaving for work on a beautiful Monday morning. As the story unfolds, Mr. Stone encounters one catastrophic event after another and finally ends up in a strange world. As time goes by, he realizes that he’s better off where he ends up rather than where he has been throughout his entire life on Earth. If reading about traveling through time and space is essentially a prioritized concept, then this is a must-read!

Chapter 1

Jeromy Stone, a local bookstore owner, walks outside of his house, turns, and kisses his wife goodbye as he leaves to drive to his store. It’s a crisp sunny day outside on a Monday morning. Jeromy starts his car and begins to drive to work as the morning sun’s rays break through the trees and spill over onto the road. The bright sun forces Jeromy to put on his sunglasses to see clearly as he drives the short distance from his home to his store. While driving, he watches as a group of people make their way along the roadway near a large crosswalk and then cut right in front of him not even paying attention to the speeding car. A car, a small white car, comes careening up behind Jeromy. He gasps and is stunned by the car’s fast approach. The speeding car swerves to avoid hitting the startled group and hits a tree. Jeromy drives up behind the wrecked vehicle and jumps out to help the driver. He sees that blood is everywhere on the inside of the windshield and dashboard and immediately checks the driver’s pulse. She’s dead. Jeromy quickly calls the police and waits for them to show up. While waiting, Jeromy gets a call from his attorney. His corporate stock certificate is now ready, and he can pick it up any time. Jeromy says to himself, When it rains, it pours! He waits for the police to arrive as he checks his phone for messages. By now several onlookers gather to see the accident just before the police arrives. Then one onlooker shouts at Jeromy, You caused that accident! I saw you and I have witnesses!

Jeromy fires back, That driver came speeding around me and swerved to keep from hitting a group of people that cut in front of me! That’s when she hit the tree!

The onlookers then start to grumble and disperse as quickly as they appeared. Jeromy watches angrily. As they walk away, he thinks that they may cause a problem and hold him up even longer. A few minutes later, other people show up just to see the blood and wait around to see what the police will do. The police quickly drive up with an ambulance and fire truck following behind. The paramedics tend to the dead driver while Jeromy tells the police what happened. Forty-five minutes go by, and Jeromy is anxious to leave and pick up his documents at his attorney’s office before going to work. When the entire fiasco is finally over, Jeromy had lost more than an hour and a half. He finally drives away to his attorney’s office to pick up his coveted papers. He walks into the building and finds five Hispanic men wrangling with each other in the lobby. The five discontented men become increasingly boisterous as they yell at each other in Spanish outbursts. Jeromy looks around and sees other Hispanic men sitting in the lobby.

Is there anyone in this room who can speak English and Spanish? If so, please tell me what’s going on.

One Hispanic man among two others quietly sitting on chairs next to the door turns and looks at Jeromy. They can speak English but choose to fight and argue in Spanish. They’re angry about losing their jobs and being deported if they’re unable to obtain a green card and a social security number before the end of this week. Jobs are increasingly difficult to find, and poor people are hurting worse than ever, especially minorities!

The same Hispanic man turns and yells at the five Hispanic men who continue to argue and push each other, Take your anger somewhere else! Other people are in this room, and you’re creating a terrible scene! You could even go to jail and then be deported!

Jeromy’s attorney comes out of his office and hands Jeromy the papers that he told him that he could pick up.

Thanks for coming in, Jeromy.

He shows the five men into his office then turns to Jeromy again. Let’s talk later this week. Jeromy needed to speak with his attorney about the accident that he saw and about other important matters. He looks up at the ceiling and speaks to himself, Here we go again. I can’t seem to be able to get anything to go my way today. Everything is going wrong this morning, and I can’t even get ten minutes with my attorney! Returning to his car, he places the papers into his attaché case and drives away.

Finally arriving at his store, Jeromy parks the car where he always does and blankly stares outside into the sky. After breathing a sigh of relief, he grabs his attaché case then runs up the stairs to his store and opens the door to start his business day, shouting out loud, What a weird morning! I can’t believe how rude and belligerent people can be! I’m afraid to see what will happen throughout the rest of this week!

Walking inside his store, he discovers a large amount of water that’s been coming from under the washroom door. The water has saturated the carpet all the way across the floor to the opposing wall. Slamming his attaché case on the floor, he angrily shouts, That carpet was just installed three months ago and now I’ll need to have it ripped out and carpeted again! Jeromy slams open the cabinet door and finds that the water service hose to the sink faucet had ruptured, and water is spewing from the broken waterline. He quickly closes the valve to stop the gushing water then runs into his office to call a plumber listed within the emergency numbers on his desk. He finally locates and grabs the coveted book. He calls the plumber only to find out that it’ll take three weeks to have the repairs made and a new rug put in. Jeromy is furious! He doesn’t say a word as he stares at the soaking mess. He can’t believe what he was told, picks up a book, and angrily throws it against the wall. After thinking about the ruined rug, he thinks about the car that crashed after speeding around him from behind and hits a tree. He continues thinking to himself, I stopped to help someone today, even though she died. Now my entire rug needs to be replaced and I can’t get a plumber here to fix my water pipe! Jeromy kicks the lamp over by his desk and continues thinking to himself coercively, That’s what I get for hiring a cheap contractor to remodel my office! Jeromy sits on the edge of his desk with one hand on his knee. I wonder what else will happen to me today! This day is not going well for me at all whatsoever! After pondering his situations, he changes his mind about opening his store today and hangs the Closed sign on the front door then walks back into his office, turning on the television and gasps. He hears another troubling announcement again on the news, and without thinking twice, he quickly turns off the television. With that, he sits down in his office and listens to the local news on his radio and kicks a chair across the room.

I need to take a long vacation and close my store for a while. Too many things are going on and I’m just fed up with the way my life is going!

Standing up, he screams out loud in an ascetic voice, I need to get away! Walking around his desk, he puts his hands in his pockets and walks in circles. I wish that I could just escape this scene and live in a place where I’m not being controlled and without being taxed right into the ground! Stop the world—I want to get off! Walking over to the vacation section of his bookstore, he ponders a few books. I need to find a good vacation spot! He’s totally annoyed and frustrated. After a few minutes, he thinks back on what he and his wife were talking about earlier this morning before he left the house. They were both discussing the idea of taking a long vacation and talked many times about just getting away, and now would be a good time to go. Jeromy is becoming angrier by the minute and calls his wife, Vanda, to tell her of his dilemma.

Hi, sweetheart, my office smells like mildew, and the rug is soaked with water. I’ll need to have the entire rug ripped out and then get the plumbing fixed! We’ve decided on taking a vacation, but now I need have my store repaired! We can’t go anywhere until after the carpet is in and that’ll take three weeks!

Vanda doesn’t respond immediately. Just get this all over with and then we’ll make plans to go away for a while. Just the two of us. We need to go away to somewhere where it’s warm and pleasant and just forget about the news and conflicts around here locally and worldwide.

Jeromy acknowledges and hangs up the phone. He’s glad that Vanda isn’t as angry as he is. Sitting back in his chair, he kicks his feet up on the desk and ponders his next move. He remembers that he needs to renew his passport and grabs his attaché case off the floor containing his personal documents including his current passport, which will expire in two more months. Opening his attaché case, Jeromy glances at his passport picture and decides to take some new photos in order to accurately update his passport with a current photo of himself. He remembers the photo booth in the back of his store. Ah yes, my photo booth!

Chapter 2

I’ll take some pictures right here and then go directly to the currency exchange to send off for my new passport.

Jeromy neatly places the papers that he was reviewing back into his attaché case and locks it in his desk. He hurries to the $1 photo booth in the back of his store and quickly enters the booth, drops coins into the slot, and starts taking one photo after the other. To Jeromy’s surprise, he discovers that his last photo shoot in the booth immediately takes him on an out-of-world experience.

In an instant, he rapidly travels through space and time and, moments later, finds himself within a weird jungle. Sitting on the ground, he slowly stands up and turns in different directions.

Where am I! Jeromy tries to locate a path or road to take him from where he’s now standing but to no avail. He then walks through an overgrowth of foliage that he’d never seen before in all of his lifetime. Stomping angrily and brushing away branches and tall grass, he muddles through the jungle terrain for several minutes and talks to himself while trudging through the underbrush.

Where am I! he yells angrily out loud as he continues to stomp through the weird jungle. One terrible thing after another is happening to me! When will my bad luck end today!

His roaming continues for several minutes before coming across an opening revealing a beautiful grassy meadow consisting of hundreds of dome-shaped protrusions with openings in each mound all facing in the same direction. He walks up to the largest dome-shaped structure resembling a spacecraft center rather than just a dome and nervously goes inside. The decor is absolutely astonishing. Brightly polished gold overhead light fixtures encompass soothingly bright lights. Continuing gold handrails border along both walls of numerous hallways leading in all directions from where he stands. He’s totally amazed. From out of nowhere, a figure appears to be that of a strange alien with similar human characteristics, but different looking. This alien is obviously nothing like Jeromy had ever seen before. He notices that the alien has long snow-white thick flowing hair that continues into a full beard and mustache. His dark eyes are set deeply into his head, and his face is long and thin. He’s dressed in a heavy beige robe that fits him perfectly without a belt to keep it in place. The alien looks boldly at Jeromy and begins to introduce himself, Hello, Jeromy, you’ve arrived.

In amazement, Jeromy immediately straightens up in a protest stance. How do you know my name? And what do you mean I’ve arrived? Where am I, and how did I get here? Is this a sinister joke? If it is, I’m not amused! I’ve been having a very rough morning, and I don’t need any more surprises! Especially from some kind of a wacko displaced hippie! And what’s with this garb that you have on! Jeromy clenches his fists ready to fight as he steps forward to pound this alien into the ground! In amazement, the alien steps backward to keep a safe distance from this irate man.

I’m Vorlox Viorp, the leader of the Xarloranian community in the land of Arcianeze, which spans a vast number of miles on the planet Xarloran. My friendly colony of Xarloranians who reside here populate a beautiful area within this plush land, which is the largest territory that we currently know of on this planet. Xarloran is located in the Virgo SuperCluster, which is one of the largest clusters of galaxies within the entire universe. Xarloran is fifty million light-years from your planet in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Jeromy is now totally flabbergasted and becoming extremely angrier by the minute. "Are you trying to tell me that I’m millions of light-years from Earth? And how can I understand you? Why do you speak the same language as me? Why should I even believe you! The air here is fresh and clear and the sky is blue and sunny outside! I know that I’m still on Earth! Are you for real or what?" Jeromy pushes Vorlox on the shoulder.

You put me back where I was in my photo booth right now! Vorlox steps back against the wall, ready to retaliate. Jeromy continues, I have things to do and talking to you isn’t one of them! I need to make a phone call, and after I do, you’ll regret that you ever met me! Jeromy takes his phone from his belt and tries to call his attorney in Manhattan, New York, but only hears a loud crackling static noise. What’s going on here? Why can’t I call out!

By this time, Vorlox is becoming defensive and tries to calm Jeromy down. Please come with me, Jeromy, and I’ll show you something.

Jeromy settles down somewhat and angrily follows Vorlox down one of the hallways, which leads into a tremendously large open room resembling a planetarium. Jeromy gasps as he looks in disbelief at an enormous real-time view of a planet that’s slowly revolving in the midst of millions of stars! A low, loud continual roaring sound emits from the planet as it continually revolves. Jeromy’s experience is similar to that of looking at a movie screen hundreds of feet tall and wide. After viewing this incredible sight, Jeromy is unable to speak. He just stands there with his mouth opened. He feels like he could just fall right off onto the planet that he’s looking at from where he’s standing. Jeromy