John T. Cullen has authored over 20 books, including The Generals of October (Simon & Schuster, 2004)—pulse-pounding political-military suspense fiction set in a near-future U.S. Constitutional crisis.
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John T. Cullen also writes screenplays, including one for Nebula Express (adapted from his SF novel) and the violent, darkly glistening, utterly strange tale of a serial killer in Scorpion.
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If you like what you read here, please send at least two other avid readers here so a growing readership can enjoy these books. That would be a great, painless, easy way to provide a huge assist. If you'd like to do more...click.
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Nebula Express
a science fiction novel
by John T. Cullen
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Cargo vessel F.E.S. Neptune Express (Federal Earth Ship, 50kTn, 16 parallel main ion-drive power plants housed in external silvered nacelles) was one year outbound from and halfway through her two-year journey to Neptune's moon Triton, when an emergency beacon began to send distress signals back to the Colfirio Inter-Planetary Exploratory Corporation base station on Luna.
A meteorite the size of a golf ball had torn through the outer skin and exploded, vaporizing important elements of the ship's delicate cargo maintenance systems. The ship carried nearly one million individual seed units for trees, vegetables, and other living matter along with growth matrix, soil, hydroponics, shelters, converters, and supplies to be deployed on a major new research station approximately 29 AU from the sun and 81 AU from the heliopause.
The stock, matrix, and growth supplies were vital to the survival of 7,000 colonists on Triton engaged in mining, research, and support activities. Without the successful transport of these materials, the colony would begin starving and suffocating within one earth year. The next mission would not reach Triton for five earth years, so the success of the Neptune Express mission was nonnegotiable.
The ship had been designed with redundant systems, and was staffed by crews of highly competent maintenance and repair experts. These dedicated engineers were often all that stood between life and death in the infinite and lonely void. With the ship halfway to her target, rescue was out of the question. She was leaking atmosphere. Water and other fluids were boiling away from torn conduits. Without skilled and immediate intervention, the ship would begin to implode silently and irrevocably one section at a time within a few earth days.
Acting heroically, and with some injuries and loss of life, repair crews stabilized the ship and kept her on course. They worked around the near-catastrophic impact point. They sealed off gaping holes, rerouted torn conduits, reconnected loose and dangerously sparking conductor cables, and guided the automatic systems through self-test and reoperability routines. With the crisis resolved, there was nothing more to be done but to keep a close watch on all operating systems and subsystems, patch any new leaks, repair any further damage, and pray for the rest of the flight to be uneventful. This required periodic excursions to the far reaches of the huge ship by the surviving highly trained and dedicated maintenance staff.
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If you like what you're reading, please send at least two other avid readers to this website.
—Thank you! …Your grateful author, John T. Cullen.
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Other gripping books by the author:
Copyright © 2005 by John T. Cullen. All Rights Reserved.
John T. Cullen has been a pioneer in digital publishing since 1996. He is listed by digital publishing historian Karen Wiesner as the sixth digital publisher in history, and the second person to publish serialized chapters on line (starting 1996). His web magazine Deep Outside SFFH was the first to be listed along with the professional pulps in Writer's Market (1999) and was at one time the oldest professional SFFH magazine in the world. John T. Cullen continues to explore new ways to adapt the primordial power of storytelling to emerging new digital opportunities as the Third Millennium springs to light.
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A Walk in Ancient Rome John T. Cullen (Simon&Schuster May 2005) innovative, acclaimed walking & teaching tour—explore every corner of the Imperial capital at its zenith almost 2000 years ago; learn its history—smell and taste the very air of Classical Rome.
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= Summer 2008 =
A Walk in Ancient Rome, Second Edition John T. Cullen (Clocktower Books 2008)—New! Many new maps; images from the unique scale model of AndréCaron of Quebec. Read this innovative book, with its acclaimed walking & teaching tour. Explore every corner of the Imperial capital at its zenith almost 2000 years ago; learn its history. Smell and taste the very air of Classical Rome. The new edition is bigger, like an atlas. Some people have carried the 1st edition with them to Rome, and found it greatly enhanced their experience.
Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado, 2nd Ed. John T. Cullen (Clocktower Books, San Diego, Summer 2008). John T. Cullen has tackled the mystery of the ghost at the Hotel del Coronado. He has assembled a dramatic new theory about how and why she violently died on the back steps of the hotel in 1892. A first-class ghost story and whodunit wrapped in one.
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