The
Astronaut’s Princess
Cosmic
Cowboys Series
Episode
2
Lisa
Medley
Genre:
Science Fiction Romance
Publisher:
Big Cedar
Date
of Publication: 02/16/16
ASIN:
B01AKHG5KG
Number
of pages: 111
Word
Count: 33K
Cover
Artist: Sweet ‘N Spicy Designs
Book
Description:
Astronauts,
Aliens, and Apaches? What could possibly go wrong?
Working
for a billionaire space entrepreneur has its perks: a nice paycheck,
free room and board, and all the space flight hours a guy could want.
But everything has a price. Astronaut Noah Wright has survived an
alien attack, time travel and a wormhole, but the Apache princess he
brought back through time may be the death of him.
Ela,
only daughter of Chief Itza-Chu of the Mescalero Apaches, finds
herself out of place and out of time. Everything she knows of her
early 1800’s life has vanished. Her savior and protector, Noah, is
kind, but he’s not her family and certainly not Apache. Her only
wish is to get home, but returning through the wormhole that brought
her to the future threatens more than her past, causing her to have
to rediscover what home really is.
Excerpt
Chapter
One
SpaceXport
Base Antigravity Bay, New Mexico – the near future
“Use
the grab bars, Carlton. You’ll never make it to the cargo bay
without using the grab bars,” Noah Wright instructed through the
intercom to a struggling member of his astronaut training class.
These
folks were engineers and scientists, yet the very basic, common sense
tasks were somehow the most difficult for them to grasp.
“Stop
spinning, Ramirez. What are you? A trapeze performer?” Noah turned
the dial on the antigravity control panel. “Prepare for gravity.
That’s it for today.”
The
class of five settled ungracefully to the ground.
Rookies.
This
team tested what remained of his patience. The only saving grace was
the first crew was already working on the hotel pod construction.
This group? These guys wouldn’t have lasted two months in the NASA
program. Noah pinched the bridge of his nose, willing the headache
pounding behind his eyes to go away.
Not
my circus. Not my monkeys.
Except
they were.
The
door behind him opened, and Noah closed his eyes tighter, not
turning. “Captain? You have a call from sick bay. It’s Ela,”
the intern said.
Of
course it’s Ela.
Ever
since they’d returned through the wormhole with the Apache
princess, his literal and metaphorical headaches had begun.
Technically, she wasn’t his responsibility. His morality insisted
otherwise. He’d been at her bedside for weeks after their return,
nursing her back to health. She had begun to recover quickly from a
severe case of measles after the first round of vaccines. Considering
the shape she’d been in when they’d arrived home, she wouldn’t
have made it another week in her time. Hell, she wouldn’t have made
it in his time, forty years ago. They even had a vaccine for cancer
now. Medicine had come a long way. Physically, she’d recovered. But
mentally? Emotionally?
Apparently
being dragged more than two hundred fifty years into the future from
her 1800s New Mexico home and tribe was going to take longer to
adjust to.
Hell,
he got it. He did. When they’d landed in the desert and into the
past, he’d been overwhelmed and confused. He was currently one of
three people on Earth who understood her predicament, but that didn’t
make her any more cooperative.
You
could take the princess away from the Apaches, but you couldn’t
take the Apache out of the princess.
“Captain?”
the intern repeated.
“I
heard you. I’ll be there in a minute.” The door clicked closed
behind him, and Noah took a deep breath. He waited for the training
class to clear the hallway before he made his way out. Conversation
was the last thing he wanted at the moment. Well, maybe second to the
last. Making the long trek to the sick bay for an earful of Apache
was currently topping that list.
So
far she’d lived up to his every expectation of the title of
princess.
Curt.
Rude. Demanding.
And
90 percent of the time, he didn’t understand a word she said.
Noah
wound his way through the complex, past the construction bay where
his transport shuttle was currently being filled with supplies and
construction equipment. The ground crew walked with clipboards, doing
their final flight checks of the supply-laden transport. Cole and
Tessa were already aboard the first of the launched hotel pods, now
anchored to and floating near the Moon, readying it for his arrival.
Their
employer and benefactor, Duncan Janson, had carried on without them
the six months they’d been assumed lost in space after their
asteroid mining debacle. And when they’d returned with an alien
ship shelled with platinum and a fuel hopper full of asteroid
samples? The boon had provided the financial boost Janson needed to
launch the next phase of his plan for space tourism.
“Captain,”
a voice called from behind him.
Noah
spun around abruptly. “What now?” he bit out.
The
look on the intern’s face tweaked at Noah’s conscience, but he
didn’t apologize. The kid was on his last nerve.
“Never
mind. I’ll take care of it.” The intern slunk away, avoiding
further eye contact.
Good
plan.
The
overhead page requesting his presence in the sick bay nearly pushed
him over the edge. For a second, he considered walking out of the
building, getting into the Bombardier, and driving across the desert
until the blasted thing stopped.
Instead,
he lowered his head and pounded across the campus to the sick bay.
To
his Apache princess.
I did a
lot of research for my Cosmic Cowboys Series and came across tons of
crazy posts. But this little video is so weird, I had to share it.
You see,
the main impetus behind the Cosmic Cowboy Series is that a
bazillionaire wants to be the first to offer space travel and build a
hotel on the Moon. Along the way to fulfilling his dream, lots of
things go wrong. Things like wormholes and time travel and aliens
and…well, I’m not going to give it ALL away.
Did you
know that there have been several companies working toward those
goals of space tourism and moon hotels? Every few years, another one
announces their intentions. Remember the promises of jet
packs?
I’m still waiting on those.
Check
these out:
Are you
ready to sign up? Perhaps an armchair adventure would be better?
About
the Author:
Lisa
has always enjoyed reading about monsters in love and now she writes
about them, because monsters need love too.
She
adores beasties of all sorts, fictional as well as real, and has a
farm full of them in her Southwest Missouri home, including: one
child, one husband, two dogs, two cats, a dozen hens, thousands of
Italian bees, and a guinea pig.
She
may or may not keep a complete zombie apocalypse bug-out bag in her
trunk at all times, including a machete. Just. In. Case.
Tour giveaway One $10 Amazon Gift Card
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks so much for the excerpt and giveaway
ReplyDeleteThank you for informing me about this book.
ReplyDeleteI'm never sure what to think about a time travel book. sounds like this book might address some of the inherent issues though.
ReplyDeleteI liked the excerpt, thank you.
ReplyDeleteSounds amazing, I appreciate you sharing!
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds great and I would love t read it. ty.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading the excerpt and learning about this book. This book sounds like quite an interesting read. Looking forward to checking out this book.
ReplyDelete