Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set J.N. Chaney (books for new readers .txt) 📖

is debrief you. We can learn from this and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Now control your emotions, channel your aggression, and let’s get back to the Orion.”

The man didn’t wait to see if his words would be obeyed. He made a tight turn and walked back to the ship.

I didn’t disagree with him, but this soft side of me that was beginning to grow felt for Meenaz. I knew what she was going through. Not everyone was an apathetic son of a gun like this character barking orders and me. Part of me hated him for seeing what he did to Meenaz.

She slumped forward, tears still streaming down her face. Ricky and Doctor Allbright went to her before anyone else did. I could hear their words as they placed their arms around her.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Doctor Allbright said.

“Let’s get you back home,” Ricky said.

Boss Creed picked up Ira once more. This time, he held the kid in his arms like he would a sleeping child and slowly moved on.

I found myself walking side by side with Stacy. Her gait matched mine perfectly. I could tell she wanted to ask how I was but waited until I broke the silence.

“Who’s that guy?” I asked, motioning with my chin to the man now leading our group. “He walks like a suit and talks like someone who’s been in the military.”

“Captain Ezra Harold,” Stacy said without a hint of joy in her voice. “He’s the highest-ranking Civil Authority Officer that made it through the crash. He’s organizing the rest of the Civil Authority Officers now. I don’t know him, well, except for the fact that he has a reputation as a hard-nosed suit.”

“You don’t say,” I said, still figuring out how I felt about him.

“Give him a shot,” Stacy said. “We’re all trying to figure this out.”

I just nodded as we moved forward. What remained of the Orion loomed in front of us. Half of the moon-shaped ship, from the middle up, was what remained of mankind’s greatest achievement to date.

The Orion was one of twelve seed ships destined to bring Transients to new worlds ripe for colonization. Only one thing. Our ship was sabotaged by an insane group of cult members calling themselves Disciples.

When we crashed, the Orion’s captain stayed onboard to land the ship on the planet. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have anything of the Orion left. Escape ships and pods ejected from the Orion before impact. Survivors were scattered around this god-forsaken planet.

Our group walked the rest of the way to the ship in silence. When we got close enough for the guards at the perimeter to see us, Stacy started the conversation again.

“Arun wants to hold a meeting. She wants you to be there,” Stacy said, waiting to see what my response would be.

“Do I have a choice?” I asked.

“You always have a choice, Dean,” Stacy said.

I remained quiet for a minute. My eyes traveled over to where Boss Creed carried the kid in his arms, then to the group of surviving colonists around the Orion carrying out their daily tasks.

Some worked on building a massive wall around the perimeter of the open Orion hull, others ran errands to and from the ship.

Most of these people weren’t survivors. They hadn’t been hardened by the world yet. They were colonists, families, too young and too old to be a part of this. The middle-aged adults did the best they could. We understood we had all stepped in it together.

“Yeah, I’ll come,” I said.

3

The Orion lay cracked open like some gigantic metal egg. It lay on its side, never to rise again. The room I found myself in was the bridge of the ship. It had been repurposed and set up to be a kind of meeting room. The entire level now rested on its side with the massive screen of the ship pressed against the ground.

It was strange to traverse the room as it was. We walked on what used to be the wall as our ground and what used to be the floor was now our left-hand wall.

I was the last one to enter through the elevator shaft. Arun, Iris, Stacy, Captain Harold, and Doctor Wong were all there already, discussing our next plan of action.

They stood around a portable holo table. Everyone greeted me with smiles and hellos, except for Captain Harold, who gave me a single hard nod. It didn’t bother me. This guy didn’t know me from Adam.

“It’s been three days since we’ve landed and what do we have to show for it?” Captain Harold picked up the conversation once more. “I need more resources to build the wall around the open section of the Orion. First and foremost, we need protection, then we can go about on expedition missions to explore and aid other possible survivors.”

“We can certainly discuss that option,” Arun said in her always-diplomatic way of speaking.

I had only seen the Eternal lose her cool once before when we were interrogating a Disciple saboteur on board the Orion. Right now, she was back to her normal composed self, clean grey uniform, white hair pushed back behind her white ears. Her bright blue eyes looked down at the circular holo table in front of us.

“Before we go on to make decisions on what to do next and where to go from here, I’d like Iris to give us an update on the current situation of our resources,” Arun said, looking from the holo table to the Cognitive that stood with us.

Iris looked like Arun herself, short hair with white skin and a grey uniform of her own. Despite this, you could immediately tell she was different. A faint blue glow wafted off her, clearly calling out her artificial intelligence origin.

“In the last few days since our crash, all of our efforts have been in getting our water and food supply up and working again. Shelter hasn’t been a problem since we are able