ABANDON STATION
Dyson Bridge, #1
by
V.G. Harrison
Sci-Fi
PUblisher: Mocha Memoirs Press
Publication Date: January 24, 2024
Page count: 101 pages
SCROLL DOWN FOR GIVEAWAY!
SYNOPSIS:
A thunderous explosion echoes through the vastness of space. The Bridgeway Space Station is rocked by a catastrophic blast, sending Chief Engineer Meridia Vail and her international crew spiraling into an alternate dimension. They awake to find themselves stranded on an Earth trapped technologically in the past.
As the gravitational forces of this backwards planet wreak havoc on their metabolisms, Meridia races against time to locate her missing crew members before they meet an ominous fate at the hands of this archaic world order’s military forces. Piecing together clues, she discovers that the Bridgeway somehow survived the interdimensional jump too, but is trapped in a rapidly decaying orbit that threatens to demolish this entire parallel Earth.
In a nail-biting showdown, Meridia must leverage the unmatched technological power of the Bridgeway to bargain for her crew’s release from detainment before all-out war erupts between the planet’s primitive defenses and the unimaginable alien spacecraft looming above.
With millions of innocent lives hanging in the balance, she gambles on an audacious attempt to escape her captors.
READ AN EXCERPT:
An alarm whooped through the station. Those who weren’t needed for the maneuvering efforts were enjoying dinner in the main cylinder’s mess hall when we got jolted from our plates. So much for my Kobe steak with mashed potatoes and peas. Everything that was white had been doused in red, flashing lights. An announcement came over the speakers that we had to report to our emergency stations.
“What’s going on?” I asked as Szilvia Rager hurried by so fast it fluffed up her platinum blond pixie cut. I rushed to catch up to her in the hall.
“It’s the shuttle. It’s helping to tow the station and the telescope into place, but it’s also bringing us in slower than expected because there’s a malfunction in one of the engines.”
“Can’t we—?”
She shook her head. “No time. We need to do a course correction with the thrusters on the Nexicon before that solar storm hits. It’s moving twice as fast as before because the Dyson net drifted too close to the sun and got caught in the blast. The net energized the storm, so that monster is practically on top of us now.”
“Let me guess.” I followed her down the corridor stairs. “Nobody factored that into their calculations. Not that they had enough time either.”
“If they had left it up to me, this wouldn’t be a problem right now.”
Her head was so big it was a miracle she could fit through certain parts of the station. Szivlia had tried for years to do a long-term rotation in space, but never made the cut. I think it had more to do with her telling one of the station managers to pull their mouth out of their secretary’s backdoor and maybe that would increase their attention span. Had she not been an Einstein-level mathematician, she would’ve been looking for a job outside the space program. Ever since then, she had been relegated to ground crew unless someone of high authority requested her presence onboard. It was a good thing she still had a few friends around. I was more of an acquaintance.
On the shuttle, my emergency station would’ve been the midsection crew compartment. On the station, it was engineering since my background was mechanical engineering with a materials science minor. I hated to break the news to everyone, but if something went wrong on the space station, they were better off contacting the person who designed it. I had only scratched the surface of the station’s engineering capabilities.
I left the cylinder and floated down to Engineering. There, I went to the EHUs to make sure they were still intact.
“Everyone, stow your stuff and strap in,” Captain Kasongo said over the intercom. “This is going to be a bumpy ride. Riddhi, adjust your course on the telescope’s thrusters by six degrees starboard.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied.
I made my way toward the EHUs. I did one last check before deflating the first one. If there was a drag on the station, I didn’t want it to be because of the habitats. I flew to the second one and did the same. I watched through the porthole from the side as it shrunk back down and sealed itself inside the deployment canister.
When I got to the last one, a lurch tipped me forward and tossed me head over heels into the back of the habitat. I hit the soft wall and bounced toward the ceiling. By the time I got my bearings, I noticed a silent bright light outside the window. I didn’t think it was possible to see a solar flare.
Fire whooshed up around the porthole.
REVIEW:
5 stars!
Excellent start to this new sci-fi series!
Abandon Station is the first book in author V.G. Harrison’s new Dyson Bridge sci-fi series, and while only a little over a hundred pages in length, it is a tense, dramatic story that slowly reveals an alternate vision of Earth rich with detail.
The story is told from the perspective of mechanical engineer Meridia Vail, a likable and smart yet vulnerable main character. The opening includes a spirited exchange between Vail and her divorce attorney, representing her interests back on Earth in the dissolution of her marriage to her cheating skunk of a spouse. What follows is the exciting cause of the crews’ current jeopardy and subsequent efforts to return to their own time and dimension.
The author’s writing style is engaging and easy to read despite the complexities of the technology and the situation. I was quickly absorbed by the story of Meridia’s and the crews’ plight. I enjoyed comparing their actual world and society to what they encountered on their ‘new’ Earth. As this book ends on a cliffhanger with their fate still up in the air, I look forward to the next installment and hope it appears soon!
I recommend ABANDON STATION to science fiction readers who enjoy tense stories involving an alternate Earth.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Amazon best-selling author, V.G. Harrison enjoys creating smart heroines who are more comfortable dealing with things like Fine-structure constant and quantum entanglement than the fallout from their conflict. She loves to write stories that leave her audience so engaged they can’t sleep at night, thinking about the possibilities.
V.G. holds a Bachelors in Biomedical Engineering and a Masters in Information Technology. When she’s not writing, she’s an IT manager for a healthcare information systems company.
Her ever-growing list of hobbies include astronomy, attending comic cons, keeping an eye on the cryptocurrency and stock markets, hydroponics gardening, hiking, and connecting with her daughter, Collie, on a cool level. Building Lego sets at night with milk and cookies on the side come in handy for that.
| Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter (X) |
GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!
V.G. Harrison will award a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner.
Boys' Mom Reads! 