Space Cowboys & Indians by Lisa
Medley
Sci-Fi Adventure Romance
Series: Cosmic Cowboys Series, Episode
1
Amazon: $2.99 http://amzn.to/1QFLrOV
Kindle Unlimited: FREE
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Space Cowboys & Indians blurb
How
can the chance of a lifetime go so horribly wrong?
Mining
Engineer Cole Hudson signed up for NASA astronaut training, but after
washing out short of getting his gold wings, he retreats to Alaska
where he stakes out a gold claim. When billionaire
entrepreneur Duncan Janson offers him an opportunity to join a mining
team on an asteroid, Cole jumps at the chance.
But
nothing is as it seems. Former NASA reject and rival classmate, Tessa
Hernandez, is also a member of the team, and from the beginning of
the mission test flight, things go wrong. They soon discover they’re
not the only ones on the asteroid. As they try to escape, they are
pulled through a wormhole and back to the early 1800s New Mexico
desert where aliens and Apaches may be the least of their problems.
BUY
SPACE COWBOYS & INDIANS
Excerpt:
Chapter One
Alaskan
gold mine, the Hudson Claim - the near future.
“Goddamn
it, Hudson. The washplant is down again.”
Cole
ground his molars together before he could unleash the torrent of
swears coursing through his brain in reply. Of course the washplant
was down. Again.
This
claim would be the end of him.
“Show
me,” Cole said.
His
foreman, Todd Cargill, held up four shredded washplant screens with
holes the size of bowling balls, useless now for the first step in
screening for gold.
Cole
squeezed his eyes shut and wondered for the eleven-millionth time
this summer why the hell he’d come to Alaska.
Redemption, he
reminded himself.
Wasn’t
worth it.
“That
was my last replacement screen. Be a week before the supply plane can
bring us more,” Todd said. “No use running dirt until it’s
fixed. This way, we’re only making mud.”
Most
expensive mud he’d ever not made. A week in the bush with no work?
He’d have to pay the crew, regardless, or he’d lose the whole lot
of them. Hell, he still owed them from last month. They were running
out of summer to mine, and they’d barely collected any gold so far.
“Shut
it down. I’ll call in the order.”
“What
do you want me to tell the guys?” Todd asked.
“Tell
them—”
The chop,
chop, chop of
helicopter blades slowly pounded across the sky until the beast came
into sight on the horizon. What the hell was a chopper doing out this
far?
The
copter landed on the flat several hundred feet from their dredge,
stirring the dust up from the broken ground and tailings. Covering
his face with his arm, Cole coughed into his elbow and waited for the
cloud to settle. The copter blades whirled to a stop, and his small
crew left their work detail to gather around him and see what was
going on.
A
white-haired man, maybe fifty, maybe older, emerged from the
helicopter cabin, quickly followed by two men wearing sleek black
suits, wrinkled from the tactical firearm harnesses strapped snugly
across their chests. They were loaded for bear.
That
wasn’t what concerned Cole. He knew he was in for trouble the
second the guy’s thousand dollar cowboy boots hit the turf. The man
swatted at the swirling dust on his white shirt and designer jeans
then brushed his hands through his shoulder-length hair three or four
times, shaking it out like the mane of a horse. He cranked up a smile
as he made a beeline for Cole.
“Mr.
Hudson?” the man asked.
“I’m
Hudson.”
“You
look exactly like your NASA application photo, Mr. Hudson. Haven’t
changed a bit in the past five months. It was five months you were
detained. Yes?”
Todd
coughed loudly beside him. “Okay, I think we have things to do.
Let’s go, boys.” Todd urged the crew back toward their office
trailer.
Cole
was going to have to give his foreman a raise. Right after he beat
the dandy in front of him into a bloody pulp.
“Who
exactly are you, and what the hell are you doing here? Surely you
didn’t fly that deathtrap all the way out here just to insult me in
front of my crew. Or did you? You with Montoya?”
The
man appeared bewildered for a moment. “Oh my. Let me start over.
I…this wasn’t the impression I intended to make. I’m afraid I
started off badly. I’m simply so excited to find you. Out here.”
He motioned toward the distant tundra. “It’s a very, very long
way out here.” He flashed another smile at Cole and offered his
hand. “Duncan Janson. You might know me from the airline ads?”
Cole
stared at the man’s smooth, tanned hand. The guy had never worked a
day of hard labor in his life if those hands told the right
story—that much was obvious. He knew exactly who he was, now.
Billionaire airline owner and profiteer. What he didn’t know was
what he was doing on his little piece of Alaska.
“You
answered the first question. Now answer the second,” Cole said,
purposely not taking the offered hand.
Janson
pulled his hand back then clapped them together, clearly proud of
himself. “I’m here to offer you a job.”
“I
have a job.”
“This
would be quite a different job. Well, maybe not all that different.
You’d still be mining, but you would also have a chance to partake
in some of your other passions.”
Clouds
slid past the sun, and a gust of wind stirred up a dirt devil near
the copter, cooling the air noticeably.
“What
is it you think you know about my passions, exactly?” Cole asked.
Janson
twisted his expensive Rolex around his wrist nervously. “Was it not
your passion for space that led to your gambling problem? Trying to
raise enough money to continue in the program? Which led to your
legal issues, which led to your detainment and now self-exile here in
this godforsaken place? Isn’t your work here an effort to earn
enough money to finance your first two passions? It’s a bit of a
vicious circle, it seems.”
Cole
could feel his blood pressure rising. This asshole was on his last
nerve five minutes after meeting him and about one more sentence away
from a shallow Alaskan grave.
“What
if all of your skills could be utilized to fulfill each of
those…passions? You’d be paid well. Very well.”
“Is
this prospect legal?”
“Yes,
but it’s not without risks. I want to hire you to do some mining
for me.”
“Where?
You have a claim in Alaska?”
“I’m
afraid my claim is quite a bit farther away from here. Your gambling
problem and detention might have gotten you booted out of NASA’s
space program, but your personal problems are not a deterrent to me.
Your other skills and expertise are exactly what are needed for my
project.”
Skepticism
scratched at the back of his mind, but Cole couldn’t deny he was
intrigued. He hated Janson’s manner, but he could take his money.
No problem. Hell, this job might be the financial boost he needed to
finally make this claim profitable.
“How
long is the job, and where is it?” Cole asked.
Janson
smiled again, clearly certain he’d already sealed the deal. “I
expect the job to take around six months. All expenses paid, of
course. With an option to renew for a second mission after that, if
you are so inclined. Your season here is winding down? Am I correct?”
Considering
the ruined washplant screens? Yeah, winding down would be a kindness.
“You
didn’t tell me where the job is,” Cole pressed.
“Ah,
that’s the best part, Mr. Hudson. The job is on Amun. It’s an
asteroid. I want you to mine it for me.”
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
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.
Twitter https://twitter.com/lisamedley
Website http://lisa-medley.com
Google + https://plus.google.com/u/0/
Thanks so much for hosting me today :D Shine on!
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