Page 1 of The Death Striker's Partner
Chapter 1
Foreword
Copyright A© 2024 by Millie Lowelle All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the Author. The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred. Book Cover by Indy Miller Edition 2 2022
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Welcome to the first book in the Operation Colonise series. At the start of this book, you meet the main characters of this series and their name will be at the top of each chapter so you know from whose point of view the story is being told. Without giving spoilers already, the storylines for the main characters split off into their own adventures.This book, The Death Striker’s Partner, will follow Hannah Blac’s romance story on Thelia.You will pick up Billie’s story in book 2, The Royal’s Bumblebee, and Charlie’s story in book 3, The Emerald Boa’s lover.
Without further ado, enjoy The Death Striker’s Partner. ^_^
Chapter 2
The natives call it Thelia
Hannah.
Okay, it’s nearly time for my group to go through.I sat with my hands on my knees and tried not to look as anxious as I really am. I’m definitely an imposter from what I hear the others talk about in idle chatter around me. Surgeons, soldiers, and specialists from every field imaginable filled the waiting room with me. They all have at least one degree or vital trade mankind needs to establish successful colonies out here. Me? I’m here because my sister is one of these people and demanded I came too, or she wouldn’t leave Earth.I didn’t even really get a choice in the matter. One day I was serving vegan frappuccinos, and the next I was being bundled up into a fancy car and driven to the colony training facility in the Nevada desert. I went red in the face telling them I wasnotgoing to let them turn me into a human icicle and launch me out towards a far-off galaxy. In the end, Billie had to come and speak to me herself and convince me to say yes. I mean, I didn’t have a partner or kids to leave behind or even a cat, but I wasn’t leaving my sister behind for anyone. Why the private security jerks that picked me up couldn’t havetold meBillie was the one who insisted I came along too in the beginning, I don’t know. She begged me, and Billie has never asked me for anything. I knew she’d been working for the government as some sort of analyst for a while, but space exploration? After I signed a non-disclaimer the size of a doorstop, the scariest gag order imaginable, we had firm words about what she’d kept from me. She was only a year younger than me but since our parents passed away I took the role of big sister way more seriously. I thought I knew everything that girl did, even after she went off to college and became headhunted for her programming skills. I think I’d rememberanyconversation involving Billie and outerspace…
I look around the waiting room. It’s plain. Dull metal walls with plain white plastic chairs and two doors into the room. Behind the rows of chairs with me and all the other anxious passengers is the door that we all came through after being discharged. In front of us is another door leading to orientation. That’s what the medical officers told us anyway. Upon discharge, we were given a ticket and told to wait for our umber to be called up. My ticket was burning a hole in my pocket and said G-3, for group 3 I assume.
“-whole new life. I can hardly believe it.” I smile as I listen to another colonist oozing with excitement at the adventure awaiting them.
“It’s a tropical planet, AU 471?”
“The natives call it Thelia.” That was news to me. Natives? I don’t remember the planet having a name or a native race. I remember it having a mostly tropical climate from the training, though. I remember joking with Billie that I’d finally get to drink from coconuts and work on my tan. I chuckle to myself, remembering the serious way she answered me and without any hesitation.
“Hannah? It’s a miracle we’ve found another planet capable of supporting life. Especially within our space fairing capabilities. The likelihood of finding anything even remotely similar to a coconut is so statistically insignificant it’s negligible.”
That was my Billie. She’s always been more comfortable interpreting 1s and 0s than conversational humour.
“But they’re friendly, right?”
“So friendly. I’m looking forward to seeing their approach to architecture engineering to see-” We were all at various stages of post-cryo acclimatisation, from what I could see and hear. By looking around I could tell who hasn’t been long out of the thawing room. They were still pale and rubbed the stiffness from their limbs groggily. They didn’t tend to speak, and if they did, they were still mumbling with numb lips. The ones who had been hours from discharge were like me. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Eager to get out of these white sleep suits and through orientation. I drummed my fingers on my knees and looked up at the announcement screen. G-2 was still being displayed from the last group and had been for the last 30 minutes, from the clock display in the corner.
“This is taking forever.” Some guy tapped my shoulder and I turned curiously to see him smiling at me. “I hate being bored. I’m Charlie O’Hara. Immunologist.” He offered his hand and I dutifully shook it. He was the first person to try and talk to me, and I was bored too, so why not? He had prince charming dishevelled blonde hair. You know, like fantasy knights used to have with no parting and that constant windswept look. His eyes were piercing blue, his cheekbones were high and his lips plump and teasing as he smiled at me.
This dude wasn’t in my league on so many levels. Immunologist? Yeah, too smart for me. His face was way too pretty and he was way too smooth. I’m not bad looking, with my messy block fringe and my long black hair, pale skin, and brown eyes, but I’m also not delusional. Mentally I put Mr good looking Immunologist into the acquaintance box, with the possibility of upgrading its location to the friendship zone, but no further.
“Hannah.” I didn’t other telling him my specialism because I don’t have one. Having the luck of the draw of having a super-smart sister doesn’t count. Though at times I feel like I need a degree to keep up with having a conversation with Billie. I’m not qualified to do much more than make a decent cup of coffee and balance the books. I like to think I’m street smart, but I’m willing to bet that won’t count for much on an alien planet. Speaking of which? “Did I hear that right? One of the others just said that the AU- 471 has natives and they call it something? As in, they can talk?”
“Oh, you must have been on one of the earlier ships.” Charlie chuckled and his eyes twinkled with amusement. “Just before my cryo-bus headed out we got word back that the pioneer team had made first contact and negotiated a settlement agreement with the indigenous people of Thelia.” I turned in my seat with excitement. In my training beside Billie, we were told AU- 471 was a perfect Super-Earth. Four times as large as our planet and the right distance from its sun to have the right temperature, an atmosphere, magnetic field, atmospheric pressure, and water reserves to be easily terraformed upon arrival for humans to colonise. Earth was past breaking point for our current population, despite our best efforts to deal with climate change and adopt renewable energies. Too much damage was already done, and we humans just kept on breeding. There were space station colonies established within our solar system long before this expedition, and it was so costly that a private company was footing the bill. Allico Inc ran this outfit, this the AI printed on all of our white sleep suits. They had government investors of course, but Allico Inc pulled all the strings.
“You’re right I was in the second wave of ships. I remember being told that we’d dock at a waystation set up by the pioneers and the first wave of colonists as the rest of the fleetarrived.” I had to wonder how long I and Billie had been frozen here and waiting for the rest of the Allico ships to dock before being thawed out.
It also hadn’t escaped my notice that Billiewasn’there with me.
“Third-wave myself.” Charlie shrugged with a smile. “Thelia is everything we were promised, but the pioneer team found a sentient race already living on the planet. It was touch and go for a while but apparently, we won them over with tech and got a deal.”
“They’re not as advanced as we are?” In my head, I started to think of little green men wielding clubs and wearing loincloths.
“It didn’t sound like it in the mission brief. They were especially interested in our medical capabilities and surgical tech.”
“Oh.” I nodded with interest. “At least they didn’t ask for guns?” I chuckled. In every SciFi film I’ve ever watched, weapons are the thing the lesser species ask for. Not medicine. “That bodes well?”
“Agreed.” Charlie looked up at the screen and whispered ‘yes’ beneath his breath. “Finally.” I checked for myself and saw G-3 in large pixels on the screen. I got up with the rest of the group three and we were herded by green arrows on the walls towards an auditorium. I groaned, seeing a woman in a pristine grey suit, her hair in a bun, and a slide show on the screen behind her.
“Yay another lecture.” I muttered sarcastically to myself as I took a seat near the back, and Charlie followed me with a snicker.
