Minding Spot: The Pirates Cycle Series Book Blast & Giveaway!

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We are happy to be hosting Chris Gerrib's The Pirates Cycle Series Book Blast today! Leave a comment and you could win a complete set of his books!

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About the Series:

Title: The Pirates Cycle Series
Author: Chris Gerrib
Publisher: Cincinnatus Press
Genre: Science Fiction

When eighteen-year-old Janet Pilgrim’s boyfriend was killed in a training accident at the space academy, she thought she was going to be thrown out. Instead, she soon found herself shipping out as a junior astronaut on the forty-year old spacecraft Windy City bound for Mars.

But freighters and passenger ships aren’t the only craft plying the spaceways. When the Windy City is attacked by pirates on the way to Mars, Janet finds herself in more danger than she could ever have imagined.

The Pirates Cycle series is available at Amazon.

Book Excerpt:

A very solid clunk on the outer bulkhead awoke me from my after-watch nap. This was immediately followed by the general alarm. The ship’s Voice was reporting all sorts of problems, and as I rolled out of my rack the lights flickered off, and a second later about half of them came on again. As I listened to the Voice, I heard three alarms, any one of which was serious. First I heard a “loss of communication” alarm, then a “ reactor coolant leak #2 radiator” and finally a loss of pressure alarm for the #3 greenhouse.

The reactor coolant leak scared me the most. Our reactor was a pebble-bed unit, so it couldn’t melt. But if it got too hot, it would automatically shut down. No reactor meant no propulsion which meant we’d sail past Mars and out of the Solar System. Some uncounted tens of thousands of years later some unknown alien would find our bones. Maybe.

I jumped into a pair of coveralls and raced to the greenhouse. Everything seemed to be in slow motion, but it was really only a few seconds before I was at the pressure door to the greenhouse. As I looked in through the observation port, still struggling though sleep and shock, I couldn’t understand at first what I was seeing. Maybe I didn’t want to understand.

Practically all the plants had been sucked out of the compartment, and what few remained had been sucked clean of leaves. A couple of the water sprays were running, and the water coming out was boiling and freezing at the same time. I looked shipdown towards the outer hull. Something had cut a gouge almost the entire length of the compartment, slicing through the twin hulls like a hot knife through butter. There were scorch marks along the edges of the gash, which must have immediately vented the compartment to space.

A flash of red caught my eye. I blinked and saw Kate, drifting lifelessly against the far bulkhead. I stared at her in disbelief. There was a red streak of blood down her face from her nose, and her hair was matted with blood, whether from her ears or a skull wound I couldn’t tell. There was nothing I could do. I only hoped that she had passed out quickly from the loss of pressure. I pounded on the hatch for a minute, out of frustration more then anything else.

“Kate, where are you?” Alex said, his voice booming out of the announcing system.

I picked up the nearest ship’s phone and dialed the pilothouse. Ken answered. “Kate was trapped in #3 greenhouse. The aft bulkhead and hatch holding.” It took me a minute to notice that there was no answer. “Ken, status?”

“You’d better get up to the pilothouse fast, Janet.”

About the Author

Chris Gerrib admits to being a bit obsessed with Mars, but in a healthy way. Chris still has a day job as the IT director at a Chicago-area bank, and holds degrees in history and business from the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois University. He also served in the US Navy during the First Gulf War, and can proudly report that not one Iraqi MiG bombed Jacksonville, Florida while he was in the service. In his copious free time, Chris is a past President of and currently active in his local Rotary club. His three-novel series set on Mars, The Pirate Cycle, is being reissued by Cincinnatus Press.

You can visit Chris Gerrib’s website at http://privatemarsrocket.net/.

Giveaway

Chris Gerrib is giving away one complete paperback set of The Pirates Cycle (3 books) and two complete ebook sets!

Terms & Conditions:

By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive one paperback set and two winners will be chosen to receive one of two ebook sets.
This giveaway begins July 5 and ends on July 29.
Winners will be contacted via email on July 30.
Winner has 48 hours to reply.

Good luck everyone!