Space
Cadets
by
Laurence Moroney
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE:
YA Sci-Fi
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
After
conflicts in Korea, Pakistan and the Middle East turned nuclear, the
world stood on the eve of destruction. Realizing that we only have
this one precious planet containing all of humanity, the United
Nations pulled us back from the brink, and started a new,
multinational effort to conquer space. Many years later, the peak of
achievement for any young person is to be admitted to the Space
Academy. Previously available only to a precious few, it has recently
opened enrollment to anybody who can meet their strenuous entry
criteria. Space Cadets is the story of the first African-American
girl, Aisha Parks, to enter into the academy, where she learns that
the more some things change, the more they stay the same, and despite
the honorable intentions of the academy, there are some dark secrets
being kept – secrets that could be the end of us all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt:
Chapter
10. Returning Home
So
they found life.
Ironic
that the North Korean was the first to do so, eh?
This
isn’t a time for levity.
I
know. But given that life was found so easily and so quickly on that
planet, it tells us that surely we’ll find more advanced lifeforms,
and soon.
The
bigger question is, why was the life we found there so primitive?
Following
Soo-Kyung’s discovery, the mission changed. The scientific pods
were to stay, along with an attachment of Phaetons, but the Explorer
was to return home and restock. Stellar Cartography was working
around-the-clock to find routes to other stars, given that life being
found here meant that, of course, the Galaxy must be teeming with
life, and most of it must be more complex than the basic lichens they
found.
Aisha
was still confused about one thing. Once they had broken orbit, and
were cruising back to the Explorer, she had to ask. “Why did you
ask me to stop?”
Soo-Kyung
signaled for them to close external comms. She clearly wanted to keep
the conversation private amongst the three of them.
“Once
I knew that it was life,” said Soo-Kyung. “I realized that we
hadn’t sterilized ourselves. Every further step we took could
potentially contaminate, and perhaps kill, these primitive lifeforms.
We’re carrying bacteria, spores, and who-knows-what-else with us
that would be terribly invasive to the native species.”
“So
why did they let us walk on the surface?”
“I
guess they just assumed that there was no life there. That it was a
dead planet.”
Something
about it just bugged Aisha. “They didn’t ask us to stop,” she
said. “They allowed us to walk on the surface. You’d think they’d
know better. It was you who was smart enough to realize that we might
impact any life there.”
“Maybe
they were too busy?”
“Or
maybe they didn’t care,” Aisha said, realizing how ominous it
sounded.
“Guys,”
said David. “We just discovered life. Don’t you realize the
implications? At least immediately?”
“What?”
“You
think they’re going to just release this broadly on Earth? Look at
all the wars that have been fought over religion. Between the
Caliphate and my country for one. They can’t let this information
loose on Earth. We’re not yet ready.”
“But
we rushed into discovery.”
“Now
I know why they kept Explorer a secret, building her on the far side
of the moon.”
“But
we’ve been asked to do things differently,” said Soo-Kyung, for
once having some emotion in her voice. “And one of the things I
want to do differently is share information like this equally amongst
all people. And yes, I understand the irony that it’s me saying it,
but wars like those in my country happened because of a few people
keeping key information from the masses. I can’t let that happen
again.”
“I
don’t think we can stop them,” said David.
“What’ll
they do?”
“Boot
us out of the Academy and send us Earth-side, of course. Anything we
have to say can be easily discredited.”
Aisha
sighed. David was right and she knew it. She just hoped that
Soo-Kyung did too.
“So,”
she said. “We toe the party line. We keep this all a big secret. We
play along until the time is right, where we can take control, and do
what’s right for the world.”
Soo-Kyung
was exasperated. “Isn’t that what they think they’re doing?
Doesn’t that just make us the same as them?”
Seamus
interrupted with an external comm. “Folks, Captain has ordered you
back double-time.”
“Why?”
“We’re
going home.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR
Bio and Links:
Laurence
Moroney is the author of more books than he’s prepared to admit.
After several best selling programming books, his first Young Adult
novel “The Fourth World” became a #1 book on Amazon Kindle,
spawned two sequels “The Million Year Journey” and “The Legend
of the Locust”, and is currently being shopped around studios for a
potential movie. “Space Cadets” is his latest, a cutting edge
science fiction novel, based on real science that starts a new series
charting out humanity’s course to the stars. He’s presently
working on the sequel “The Quiet World”, which he hopes to finish
in 2015. For his day job, Laurence works as a Developer Advocate for
Google, where he is constantly counting his blessings for being part
of the best workplace in the world…
Find him
here:
Space
Cadets Blog: http://join-the-cadets.blogspot.com/
Space
Cadets Website: http://www.join-the-cadets.com/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/lmoroney
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Laurence-Moroney/e/B001ILFKMS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY
INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE
Laurence
will be awarding a signed copy of Space Cadets to a randomly drawn
winner (US ONLY) via rafflecopter during the tour.
1 comment:
Thanks for hosting!
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