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    The Orpheus Equation: An Adventure at the Solar System's Edge
    The Orpheus Equation: An Adventure at the Solar System's Edge
    The Orpheus Equation: An Adventure at the Solar System's Edge
    Ebook34 pages28 minutes

    The Orpheus Equation: An Adventure at the Solar System's Edge

    By John Walters

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    About this ebook

    At the edge of the solar system an interstellar spacecraft is ordered by an unknown power to change course and fly to Pluto; when it refuses to comply the entire crew is mysteriously killed. An unlikely team goes to investigate and discovers a life-or-death conundrum stranger than anything they could have imagined.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Walters
    Release dateApr 20, 2011
    ISBN9781458151599
    The Orpheus Equation: An Adventure at the Solar System's Edge
    Author

    John Walters

    John Walters recently returned to the United States after thirty-five years abroad. He lives in Seattle, Washington. He attended the 1973 Clarion West science fiction writing workshop and is a member of Science Fiction Writers of America. He writes mainstream fiction, science fiction and fantasy, and memoirs of his wanderings around the world.

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      Book preview

      The Orpheus Equation - John Walters

      The Orpheus Equation

      By

      John Walters

      Published by John Walters at Smashwords

      Copyright 2011 by John Walters

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold reproduced, or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

      This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons places or events - except those in the public domain - is purely coincidental.

      * * *

      The Orpheus Equation

      About five billion miles out from Earth, Charles Houghkind, the captain of Alpha-Hope, was running a routine systems check when his wife appeared in the control room and told him to change course. Not only was she not one of the passengers, but she had been dead for over a year. At first he dismissed the appearance as a hallucination as a result of exhaustion, biological adjustment to deep space flight, and the tension of responsibility, so he didn't report it. But as the spacecraft got closer to the edge of the solar system a subtle apprehension that he couldn't put his finger on gave way to real fear, and he realized that his wife might have been right. He called the rest of the twelve-person crew together and told them who he had seen and what she had said. It turned out that each one of them had seen husband or wife, uncle or aunt, best friend or teacher or pastor or some other trusted loved one, and all of the apparitions had said the same thing: to turn about and head for Pluto instead.

      Aborting the mission due to ghost sightings was not an option for Alpha-Hope; they continued on their programmed flight path.

      Eventually Alpha Control received a video transmission of the crew's meeting. Soon afterwards a further transmission of medical data and video footage confirmed that everyone in the crew was dead.

      Realizing that if the public found out what had

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