Tag Archives: Gillian Andrews

Interdicted Space Tour

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Interdicted Space cover
Sci-Fi / Space Opera
Date Published: December 23, 2019
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The universe needs saving,
 
but is this makeshift crew really the stuff of superheroes?
Nivala’s first interstellar patrol is interrupted by extremely unwelcome visitors.  Mallivan may have to take them on board; he doesn’t have to like it.  His vociferous crewmembers certainly don’t.
He is right to be concerned. The youngest member of the team is in imminent, grave danger. People covet her privileged link to the mighty Chakran aliens, who can unlock spacetime itself.
 When she makes a brave and selfless decision, the situation becomes critical.  If they can’t reach her in time the galaxy will slide into self-serving chaos.  They must risk more than their own lives.
 
Will their rookie tour of duty also be their last?

Excerpt 

Both Zenzie and I were hit by the shot. We tumbled down the rest of the ladder to land in an ignominious heap at the bottom of the shaft. He swapped arms, reached in and snatched Zenzie from my prone body, pulling her out into the main corridor. One minute I was groaning because of her weight on top of me, the next I was groaning because I couldn’t feel her weight on top of me.

The arm reappeared, now reattached to a hand-held ultrapulse once more. The Vaer couldn’t even get his head through the hatch, so he was back to waving it about indiscriminately. My ears had not deceived me then. The Vaer had somehow got hold of the most advanced Terran weapons. I contemplated what that meant. Then, belatedly, I realized that I was about to be eliminated, so it didn’t really matter what that meant. There just might be a better way to spend my last few seconds in this universe. 

I waited for my life to flash by me. It didn’t. All I could think of was that they had Zenzie, and that the gun in my face seemed enormous at such close quarters. I felt sick to my soul. I had actually taken Zenzara to them. How stupid was that?

No final prayers had occurred to me either. The only thing that happened is that my heart flooded with useless adrenaline and the reptilian part of my brain screamed at me to escape. Yeah. Thanks. Would if I could. You try diving down a crawl tube immediately after being hit by an ultrapulse. I’d like to see you try it. I managed to shuffle a few inches to the right. It literally took all of the energy I had left, and I collapsed after I had done it.

The gun had prodded around the empty space but now had found my stomach. It prodded again, checking the consistency of the obstruction. I work out quite hard, so I like to think it was a good muscle tone. 

Not good enough to fool the Vaer into thinking it was an inanimate object. The gun settled directly at my sternum.

I closed my eyes and waited for the flash. I knew it would be the last thing I ever experienced. Damn! Not the way I had been hoping to go.

The flash, when it did come, seemed dimmer than I had been expecting. 

I waited for the pain to flare up, or to cease, or whatever death feels like.

There was a scuffling and the hand holding the weapon began to edge out of the hatch in jerky movement. Back, pause, back, pause. I took a cautious breath. It didn’t ooze out of any holes in my lungs, so I took another one. The breathing apparatus still seemed to work.

The arm and the gun finally disappeared out of the hatch. There was a slight pause, and then Seyal’s head appeared in the gap. She still had Segaton bound to her chest. “Captain? Are you all right?”

About the Author

Gillian Andrews is also the author of the award-winning Ammonite Galaxy series, and Kelfor, the Orthomancers. She is English but lives in Spain, and is passionate about Cosmology. She likes to write upbeat space opera with strong protagonists and complex aliens.

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Termination Shock Tour

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Book One of Interstellar Enforcement Agency
Space Opera (Scifi)
Date Published: First of December 2019
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In a galactic meltdown that threatens spacetime itself, the universe needs superheroes.  On offer:  a Spacelander with a slight attitude, an irritating protégée who talks back and vast alien beings who may span the cosmos but who have quite a problem communicating with other species.
 
 
 
The learning curve might be too steep.
Ryler Mallivan’s comfortable life as an upstanding young freighter captain has just imploded.  Avaraks are storming the training ship he is on and the bullets being fired are not blanks.  Interstellar war has broken out and unless he moves fast they will all be as stone dead as the instructor lying at his feet.
But this is one conflict they can never escape. The cause of the trouble is far closer than they know and will bring Mallivan and his ragbag fledgling crew under ferocious attack from all sides.
They are going to need all their wits about them if they are to stay alive. And they have to, because there is nobody else to save all their worlds from a doomsday weapon which is set to obliterate the entire cosmos.
 
Just how much can one lone spaceship do?

Excerpt 

We shuffled clumsily along the docking tube, though there was hardly room on either side for us to walk beside the gurney. However, as we finally exited the ship into the upper levels of a large hangar, it was easier to flank Zenzie.

 I was about to introduce myself to the private security guard that our lawyers had contracted when there was a commotion. Just as the gurney was being quickly ushered towards the hangar bay lift on our right, shouting broke out far below us.

 I ran towards the railing and peered over.

 The bay was enormous – big enough to allow for three docking bays one on top of another. That meant the actual space must have been over a hundred stories high. It was like walking outside onto a planet, it was so immense. I leant over the rail and managed to focus on the activities below me. My stomach churned at the drop straight down.

 From here the figures were tiny. There seemed to be many of them, however, and they were swarming up the steps alongside the lifts. That didn’t bother me. Even though they were heading directly for us, it would take them far too long to climb so many stories. We could be long gone before they reached us.

 

 “Turn back!” I shouted to those behind me. “Turn back. Back into the Aurynth!”

We all did a ninety degree swivel, just in time to catch the flash of explosives out in the accordion-like passageway which snaked from the ship to the airlock. There was a sharp tug on each of us as air raced past us, and then the failsafes on the airlock clicked in, and the hatch door swung firmly shut. The passage tubing writhed in open space, shaking those trapped within it free. I saw one or two Aurynth crew members float slowly off into the darkness. I was close enough to see the horrified expression on one. We all stared for a heart-stopping second, before Denaraz grabbed out at the gurney where Zenzara was lying. “We cannot get back to the Aurynth. We will descend a full level, to the next ship docked. I am authorized to requisition assistance from any Tyzaran vessel. Do as I say!”

 I glared at him. His solution didn’t seem a particularly safe option. I opened my mouth to express an opinion, but Zenzara struggled to her elbows and began to swing her legs off the gurney.

 “Quiet, Mallivan Bell,” she told me, ignoring the open mouth she had left me with. “There is no time. I sense something worse than—”

 A flash permeated the hanger and we all ducked. Some few milliseconds afterwards there was a deep booming sound. I swear Denaraz’s crests separated for a moment from his scalp.

About the Author

Gillian Andrews is also the author of the award-winning Ammonite Galaxy series, and Kelfor, the Orthomancers.  She is English but lives in Spain, and is passionate about Cosmology.  She likes to write upbeat space opera with strong protagonists and complex aliens.

Contact Link
Purchase Link
RABT Book Tours & PR

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Termination Shock Blitz

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Book One of Interstellar Enforcement Agency
Space Opera (Scifi)
Date Published: First of December 2019
 photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png
In a galactic meltdown that threatens spacetime itself, the universe needs superheroes.  On offer:  a Spacelander with a slight attitude, an irritating protégée who talks back and vast alien beings who may span the cosmos but who have quite a problem communicating with other species.
 
 
 
The learning curve might be too steep.
Ryler Mallivan’s comfortable life as an upstanding young freighter captain has just imploded.  Avaraks are storming the training ship he is on and the bullets being fired are not blanks.  Interstellar war has broken out and unless he moves fast they will all be as stone dead as the instructor lying at his feet.
But this is one conflict they can never escape. The cause of the trouble is far closer than they know and will bring Mallivan and his ragbag fledgling crew under ferocious attack from all sides.
They are going to need all their wits about them if they are to stay alive. And they have to, because there is nobody else to save all their worlds from a doomsday weapon which is set to obliterate the entire cosmos.
 
Just how much can one lone spaceship do?
 Excerpt
 
 Chapter 1
Sammy was glowering and Mel was looking down at the decking. Neither of them thought I knew how to lead a squad. They were right, but I wasn’t about to tell them so.
 Sammy cleared his throat with a sort of huffing sound. “They’ll send someone else, Rye,” he told me, trying to seem helpful and not denigrating, something he could use some practice at.
 I gestured with my M596 long barrel, making a huge effort not to sigh. “Just aim at the Avaraks, Sammy. Let’s get the job done.” I didn’t have to say the same to Bull Cunningham. He was in his element, eyes shining, carelessly notching up accurate shots at the enemy. Despite being a Terran Flatlander, he was one of those souls born to be a marine. He hadn’t got there yet, but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t take him too long. If I hadn’t had two weeks seniority on him he would have been leading this team now. He would probably have done it better.
 For a moment I considered handing the job over to him, but the small Tyzaran girl clutching at my uniform made me focus. She hadn’t been in our remit, but having found her huddled shaking in a doorway, I knew I had to try to save her. There was no way she should have been here. All the visiting Tyzaran dignitaries had been hastily evacuated twelve hours earlier. She had just leapfrogged to my top priority.
 The sounds of inter-vessel torpedoes hammering old Commorancy continued. The ancient hull plating was shivering with transformed kinetic energy, making it hard to concentrate.
 I kicked Wolseley’s legs out of the way. No man left behind, I thought fiercely. Yeah. Like that had worked out well. Our intrepid leader wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. He was missing most of his torso. I couldn’t have taken the remaining bits of him with us, even if I had wanted to.
 Major Wolseley hadn’t thought much of my insistent suggestion to fall back and regroup. He was old school. Gung-ho and give your all for the ship; what do you think we train you for, and so on. Rewards in heaven, I supposed. I’m a Spacelander too, but I didn’t believe in all that claptrap. He should be proving or disproving it pretty soon, I calculated. He must be hammering at the pearly gates about now. I hoped he found his misplaced stubborn heroism worth it.
 Unfortunately his rigid sticking to the rules had now left those of us remaining in combat with little choice. We could die or we could fight. Half the Avarak intruders had taken advantage of the delay to advance from the port side, trapping us in the corridor between the main engine room and the EM core, and we sure as fitz weren’t going to be retreating anywhere now.
 As for Captain Tevis … I didn’t think we would be seeing him anytime soon in this corridor. Not that I knew him. I knew of him. He’d been responsible for the death of one of my uncles. His specialty was keeping his own head down and persuading others not to. The captain would have more pressing work somewhere else on the ship. Somewhere more protected, my subconscious snarked. I tried not to think about it. Like it or not, I was now the de facto head of this decimated squad. I had better things to do than wonder where Commorancy’s just-give-me-my-decoration captain had got to.
 Mel’s eyes were sidling towards Sammy. She was wondering whether to mutiny or not.
 I cocked the firing mechanism and pointed my gun at her. She rolled her eyes, but at least that brought them back in my direction. She pushed the barrel of her own M487 XRS against her shoulder and squinted down the corridor at the invaders. The sound of her firing was just one more boom amongst the juddering metal which screeched its demise. If we didn’t clear this position soon we were lost. Tears were streaking down her cheeks. I wasn’t sure if they were of rage or fright. It didn’t matter. All she had to do was keep firing. If she didn’t I might shoot her myself.
 I turned to cover our rear. Poor old Commorancy was groaning like a collapsing whale. This ship wasn’t going to last much longer.
 A computer voice suddenly crackled into life over the ship’s loudspeaker system. “Abandon ship. Abandon ship. This is not a drill. Proceed to your nearest exit port and board the shuttles in an orderly fashion.”
 Thanks a lot. Would if we could. I guess the announcement was one step better than ‘we are about to abandon ship leaving the rest of you to die in this old bucket’, which is what our esteemed captain really meant.
 Mel wavered. My back was jammed up against hers. I could feel her gun go quiet as she processed the information. A bullet hit Sammy, who collapsed on the floor.
 I snarled backwards at her. “Keep firing, damn it! Don’t you even think about taking your finger off that trigger!”
 I felt, rather than heard, the gasp of outrage, but my words were effective. She started to return fire again. I squashed the Tyzaran girl between me and Bull. She was half our size. At least we could act as human shields for her. She was cringing at the sounds and the flashes of gunfire, her crest sticking out rigidly from her scalp in panic.
 I tugged at Sammy’s shoulder lapels, dragging and pushing him slightly to one side, where a small doorway gave him a little better cover. I couldn’t spare the time to look at him. I just kept returning their fire. The shuttles in the stern cargo hold might as well have been ten kilometers away. We were not going to get there in time. I was pretty sure our part in this newly born war was just about over. I was pretty sure our part in life was just about over.
About the Author

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Gillian Andrews is also the author of the award-winning Ammonite Galaxy series, and Kelfor, the Orthomancers.  She is English but lives in Spain, and is passionate about Cosmology.  She likes to write upbeat space opera with strong protagonists and complex aliens.

Contact Link
Purchase Link
 
RABT Book Tours & PR

2 Comments

Filed under BOOKS