by Chris Lowry
“So far. How are things down there?”
“I have some really bad news for you son,” Selkirk sniffed.
Rob felt a lump in his throat.
He was glad because the lump kept him from throwing up in his suit.
His stomach roiled and he felt empty in his heart.
“Ned's dead, son,” said Selkirk. “Ned's dead.”
Rob felt a moment of relief.
“Jodi?” he squeaked into the radio.
“She got shot. But she'll live.”
Rob sighed in relief.
“That's good,” he said. “I've got another question for you.”
“Shoot, metaphorically speaking,” said Selkirk.
“How does this thing land?”
Selkirk leaned back in the chair and pulled the microphone to his mouth.
“My friend, what have I been telling you all along.”
“Just press go?”
“Happy landings,” said Selkirk.
Rob pressed the GO again button and squealed as the rocket flipped over and retros kicked in.
The cobbled together shuttle lunar lander settled down on the edge of a crater between two Gray's saucers.
“Rob,” Jodi said on the radio.
“I made it,” he shouted. “I'm on the Moon.”
“Congratulations,” she smiled. “We did it.”
“Thank you.”
“Before you left, you were saying something,” she reminded him.
“Yeah,” she could tell he was smiling. “I said there's something I want you to know-”
The generator died and took the radio with it.
She glanced at the dark monitors and threw the microphone down in disgust.
“Damn it Jim,” Jodi seethed.
THE END
Thank you for taking the time to read MOON MEN. If you enjoyed it, please consider telling your friends or posting a short review. Word of mouth is an author’s best friend and much appreciated. Thank you. Chris
Authors note:
Thank you so much for grabbing a copy of Moon Men. If you read it all the way, I hope you liked it.
This is not the first novel I’ve ever written. If you want a copy of that, see the link for EPOCH on a page or two below and I’ll send it to you for free.
I wrote EPOCH when I was living in the first home I bought in Arkansas, a little three bedroom brick bungalow on a hilltop overlooking some woods. I was unemployed at the time and debating a move to California, which I would eventually make.
Like a lot of new college graduates back then, I was just thinking about what to do with my life. I didn’t want to go to law school, and I didn’t want to teach, the two things my degree in English prepared me to do.
There was one other thing, writing, but I expected to spend years trying to be discovered doing that. But at that time, I would get up, go to the gym, crank out some heavy lifting sessions, and come home to write for three hours. I wrote EPOCH in three weeks, spending hours in a Director’s Chair in front of a door set across two file cabinets as a desk.
While I wrote EPOCH, I also sketched out an idea for a movie. It was about a guy trained by aliens to represent earth in peace negotiations, and the government that tried to stop him.
That evolved into a screenplay that I wrote, moved to LA and pitched to a lot of producers.
They said it sounded good, they liked the story, but it wasn’t right for them at the time.
Flash forward to many years later. After spending some time in corporate America, I dusted off the script and turned it into a book.
That’s what’s in your hands. Some of the technology has advanced, and some stuff has shown up in other movies, which is the nature of Hollywood. Everybody reads the same articles, and sees the same films, so there are elements that are common.
I like the story though. I think I want to write a sequel to it. What happens when Rob comes back?
Think there’s room in your library for a series about a rebellion against the government while trying to fight invading aliens? Or maybe a war on two fronts, or three fronts. Against the Nordes, against the rogue government factions, against other yet to be named enemies?
I think there is.
Grab your copy of Epoch, and I’ll let you know when they come out this summer and the rest of this year.
In the meantime, I’m going to read some more books, I’m going to write some more, and I’m going to appreciate the hell out of you for picking this up and joining the adventure.
SUPER SECRET
SPACE MISSION–
A Sci Fi Comedy
By
Chris Lowry
Copyright 2016 by Grand Ozarks Media LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval systems.
Grand Ozarks Media
Orlando, FL 32707
Join me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisLowrybooks
Direct all inquiries to [email protected]
Follow on Twitter @Lowrychris
Have you joined the adventure?
Battlefield Z
Battlefield Z – Children’s Brigade
Battlefield Z – Sweet Home Zombie
Battlefield Z – Zombie Blues Highway
Battlefield Z – Mardi Gras Zombie (February 2017)
Battlefield Z – Bluegrass Zombie (March 2017)
Grab a free copy of EPOCH here
Sci fi fans are going to love this first novel in a new series released this spring. EPOCH begins the chronicles of a man called Templar, a warrior from the past kidnapped into a future he doesn’t understand by a scientist who wants to save the world. Only the wealthy are protected by Troops, mechanized warriors more bodyguard than police force, to keep them safe from the Mob.
Grab your Free Copy Here
Or visit www.Chrislowrybooks.com
CHAPTER ONE
The Nevada Sky stretched like a turquoise tent over the scrub covered Wasteland that look like it belonged on another world. The horizon was distant made surreal by shimmering heat lines playing like ghosts on the edge.
Through this harsh landscape a battered pickup truck puttered along a sand gritty Road. A battered pickup truck puttered along a sand covered Road through the harsh landscape. Washington Carver held one lanky arm out of the open driver's side window and tried to drive and read a folded-out map with one hand. The map bucked and whipped in the wind through the window.
“Man, where the hell am I?” he asked the steering wheel.
He peered over the edge of the map to watch the road and it caught in the Wind attacking his face and making a dash out of the open window. Carver made a grab for the map but missed as it Escaped and raced across the Hardy scrub land.
“Son of a bitch.”
He watched the map race away and thought about stopping. After a moment, he shrugged It off and kept driving.
Jake Dawes peered out from underneath his straw cowboy hat and watched the empty road. He had his thumb stuck out in a classic hitchhiker’s pose as the sputtering rumble of an engine echoed over the top of a rise. A smile creased his weathered young face as he spied Carver's truck.
Carver noticed the hitchhiker on the side of the road and perked up.
“What we got going on here? What? You want a ride? Hell no. I saw Deliverance. All you rednecks want to do is kill a brother. I ain't stopping.”
He waved as he passed Dawes.
“Hello Mr. Redneck. No you don't get to kill me today,” he muttered through a forced grin.
He made it one hundred yards further down the road before the back tire blew out on his truck. He hauled the wheel and pulled over to the side of the road still muttering.
“God damn it. What kind of luck is this?” He began searching the truck bed to pull out the jack and spare in the back. “He's going to come up here and of
fer to help and want me to give him a ride. Well I tell you what I ain't givin nobody a ride. I'm just gonna have to tell him to get the fuck-”
“You need any help?” asked Dawes as he strutted up with his backpack.
Carver glanced up with a fake grin plastered on his face.
“Hey man, how's it going?”
“You got a flat?”
Carver dragged the spare out of the truck bed and dropped the jack beside it on the asphalt.
“No way man. I'm just tired of driving on that tire. I thought I'd get out here in the heat and change it.”
“That's funny,” chuckled Dawes.
He grabbed the jack out of the dust without asking and began to set it up underneath the bumper.
“I can get it,” said Carver.
“I don't mind.”
Carver nudged him off the jack handle and begin doing it himself.
“Well I do. I can handle it all by myself thank you.”
He adjusted the jack to a different spot and began to crank. The metal ripped half the bumper off the truck with a horrible screech.
“Son of a bitch.”
“It doesn't go there,” said Dawes.
“I can see that, Carver shot back. Don't you think I can see that?”
Dawes took the jack from him and moved it back to a new place. He began to work the handle up and down and the truck lifted off the ground. Carver slapped his hands away from the handle.
“Man, give me that. You act like I don't know what I'm doing. I know how to change a tire. I know work. I am work.”
The sound of tires on sand cut through their conversation. They both looked up and watched as a flatbed truck top the rise and coasted beside them.
The back of the truck bed was full of redneck types. A bunch of bearded boys in overalls and straw hats glaring at Carver as they rolled past.
“Damn man, look like ya'll ain't never seen a brother before,” he called out. “Friends of yours?”
Dawes pushed his hat back from his head.
“I haven't had time to make friends.”
“Well send out some sort of redneck vibe or psychic code or something and tell them to get the fuck on.”
Dawes put a hand on his forehead and reached out with the other aimed at the departing truck. He creased his brow in concentration.
“What the fuck's wrong with you?”
“I'm telling them you're a friend and leave us alone.”
“Man pick up that tire. Come on now, you want to help?”
The truck full of rednecks slid around the bend and out of sight.
The desert sun was hot and relentless. Heat waves shimmered off the asphalt and the two men beside the truck were soon bathed in sweat. They worked in quick efficient silence, removing the lug nuts, wrestling the tire off the truck, and replacing it with the spare. Dawes screwed the lug nuts on with his thick fingers and Carver tightened them down with the tire iron.
The sound of wheels on gravel made them look up.
“Man, I ain't seen no one on this road all damn day and that's three of you in five minutes.”
“Yeah,” agreed Dawes. “Not the best road to hitch a ride.”
The blue pickup truck rolled into view. Dawes waved at two clean cut military men in the front seat. The passenger nodded back.
“Friends of yours?” Dawes asked Carver.
“Hell no.”
“You want to use your psychic code and tell them to move the fuck on?” Dawes smiled.
“Fuck you man,” Carver grinned back.
The Soldier's truck rolled out of view and the two men went back to work.
They didn't notice it disappear around a bend in the desert wash or roll between a set of rocks that jutted on both sides of the road, casting shadows that stretched to the west.
As the truck moved between the two rocks, the hillbillies from earlier popped up around the crags and crannies and opened fire with hunting rifles and shotguns. The soldiers danced and twitched as bullets ripped through the cab and punched into their bodies. The truck kept on rolling off the side of the road and through the desert scrub as the driver's foot became wedged in the accelerator.
Dawes glanced up at Carver as they heard the shots echo through the air.
"Think they had a blow out too?" he asked.
"Twenty blow outs?" Carver scoffed.
He rushed through the last of the lug nuts, giving each one a quick tight snug before he tossed the tire tool back into the truck bed and slung the flat in after it. Dawes watched him for a moment and when they locked eyes, the silence was almost a solid thing.
"You going to give me a ride now?” Dawes broke it.
"Damn," Carver sighed. "Hell, now I guess I have to."
He climbed into the driver's side door and leaned over to unlock the other for Dawes. At least he waited for the hitchhiker to settle in before he pulled out in a cloud of dust.
Carver's truck eased around the bend and passed the gaggle of hillbillies perched on the edge of the asphalt peering after a cloud of dust that stained the horizon. They stopped watching the dust and turned as one to stare with open mouths as Carver slowed down. He stuck his head out of the window.
"Hey ya'll, where all the white women at?!" he screamed.
He stood on the accelerator and flew past them and ducked back in the truck laughing.
"Think that was wise?" Dawes deadpanned.
"Them? Nah man, I'm just playing. They know that."
Dawes settled into the passenger seat and tipped his hat low, a man used to a thousand different seats in a thousand different cars. He put one dusty boot up on the dash so he could rest his arm across his leg.
"Why don't you just make yourself at home," Carver said.
"Don't mind if I do."
"Just don't go get them damn redneck cooties all over my fine leather," Carver continued as he dusted imaginary motes off the well-worn cloth seats covered with holes so the cushion showed through in several spots.
"You're the boss."
They drove in silence. It began to stretch and take on a life of its own, the noise of the wheels on the road and the wind roaring through the windows. The silence was too much for Carver. If he was alone, he'd sing to the radio but he wasn't about to sing with this cowboy in the car. The damn fool probably only liked country music, and while Carver did too he wasn't about to give the man some pleasure for his ears, not on the radio and not with his golden voice. Besides, he liked R&B too, the classics not any of that new shit where the guys were whining for the booty all the time. No sir, Carver liked it old school where a man pretty much told the woman how it was going to be. Baby, I'm gonna give it to you good, and you're gonna like it, cause when I get that feeling I need some healing.
He stopped as he started to hum the song.
Damn it he had to watch it. Next thing you know he'd be belting out some Otis and this damn redneck cracker probably never heard a word from Otis.
"You from around here?" he asked aloud.
"Just passing through," the cowboy muttered.
Trying to be tough, thought Carver. Seen too many damn Clint Eastwood movies and here this fool was in his truck accepting a ride from him and Carver just trying to be a good neighbor and the guy won't even talk.
"You don't say much."
"Are you from around here?" the passenger asked.
"Do I look like I'm from around here? Do I look like I got a red neck? Am I missing my teeth?"
Dawes lifted the brim of his hat and took a good look.
"What the hell you looking at?" Carver sniffed.
"What do people around here look like?"
"Shit man, I don't know. People. Your people. What else they gonna look like?"
CHAPTER TWO
General Sam Houston glared at a holographic monitor in a control room buried deep inside a bunker. The windowless box was a wall of monitors on three sides with a glass entryway that led down a utilitarian concrete hall. If no expense had been spared on th
e control room, no expense was used on the bare walls and floor that led to it.
Houston himself looked like he was chipped from concrete. A Marine before he reenlisted in the Air Force and NASA, he maintained the stiff jawed jarhead look on a face that could have been carved from stone. Thick brow, iron gray hair and ramrod straight demeanor kept few from making fun of his name. Scarred knuckles spoke to the fate of those who did.
The room was full of geeky technicians that scurried around checking the monitors and calculations with each other.
Two holographic projections occupied the General's attention.
He glared at a representation of a ten-foot-tall humanoid with alligator skin and a lizard head. It was spiked, scaly and hovered in malevolent silence over a holograph of one of the soldiers from the truck.
The second projection was a VR map of the solar system that glowed with eight planets plus Pluto. Houston didn't give a damn what the eggheads decided, Pluto was a Planet on his map.
That's the way he liked it. He even had them include what was being referred to as Planet Nine or the dark Planet. Even though astrophysicists only theorized its existence, Houston knew something was out there.
He always suspected they weren't alone in the Universe and he prayed every night that life out there would never find them here.
