Border Patrol

by Rod A. Galindo, Jeni Frontera (Editor)

Something lies in wait at the furthest reaches of our solar system, where our sun's magnetosphere and solar wind no longer hold the deadly background cosmic radiation at bay.

Seven brave explorers on an international endeavor have followed Voyager 2's path, chasing the ancient probe far beyond the orbits of Pluto and her sister dwarf planets Eres, Haumea, and Makemake. The date is May 7th, 2177. What began as an unremarkable day in the sixth year of their incessant mission becomes one the crew of Explorer Two may not live to forget.
And one that the population of the Pale Blue Dot they call home never remember.

The date of this novelette’s release, August 20th, 2017, is in honor of the 40th anniversary of Voyager 2’s launch ,on August 20th, 1977. Soar on, little bird. Soar on.

150 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 19, 2017

About the author

Rod A. Galindo is a child of the ‘70s and ‘80s. He holds a B. A. in Psychology from the University of Kansas, and will probably work for the U.S. Government ‘till the end of his days. Two of his offspring are cyber-smart teenaged boys to whom he goes for all technical quandaries, and the other is a sharp-witted German Army (Bundeswehr) Soldatin who is as dangerously clever as she is beautiful. He also fills in as full-time father to a special little social butterfly who never really had a dad to call her own.

“Major” Galindo (retired) has nearly thirty years of service under his belt in the U. S. Army, both Active Duty and in the Kansas Army National Guard. As both an enlisted man and an artillery officer, he has served in Operation Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq, Operation Noble Eagle in Kansas, Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq, and Operation Inherent Resolve in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Rod has traveled all over the planet and back again, but calls Kansas City home. Enjoy his shiny art or delve into his literary musings at RodWerks.net or RodGalindo.com.

Reviews

[NoNo JoJo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Preface: I received a free copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.

This short story is rather, well, short, so there's not a lot to say...except that I'm not super sure it qualifies as a story. It's more a glimpse into a larger novel, rather than a story that can stand on its own. There's no real climax or resolution, the story just sort of...ends. It's a shame, because the meat of it is a neat idea, the characters are likable enough, and the aliens are delightful...but none of that really makes it worth a purchase. Again, it doesn't feel complete, and it really leaves everyone's fates up in the air. I can't really go into more detail without spoiling things, but I would have really liked to explore the "not 100% the same" idea, especially when the couples meet up again. There's so much potential with having all these married couples in what ends up happening to them, but the story ends before we ever really reach that point. (Side note, how did X character not notice the changes to her legs in the hours between when they woke up and when the final conversation happens?? That made no sense to me.)

Overall, it's a pleasant read, but not worth spending money on. I hope the author will someday expand this into an actual novel.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book from Hidden Gems in exchange for an honest review.

I had a really difficult time getting into this story. From the beginning it is bogged down with nicknames and overly long explanations of the characters, and technical terms and information. The page space would have been better used to flesh out the story. The actually interesting events in the story seemed secondary and needed to have a lot more time spent on them. Things that happened were never fully explained and the end of the story makes no sense. It just ends, with no explanation of what really happened. I wanted to like this story, but just ended up being disappointed.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an okay read. You're dropped right in at the start of the action, but I would have liked to have "witnessed" the beginning of the mission (maybe a prologue?) - just a few extra pages to set the characters (too many, too quickly) before it all hits the fan...
I found the humour a little forced and there was too much. It spoiled my enjoyment of the actual story.
However, the writing is good and the idea is brilliant. 3 stars.

I voluntarily reviewed this book after receiving a free copy.

[Join the Penguin Resistance! · Rating 5 out of 5]

An entertaining and imaginative short story involving a long-term space exploration...and totally unexpected Alien First Contact. The science is fascinating and the crew is humanized, including the tongue-in-cheek humorous Android Science Officer.

[Gaby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Border Patrol was a fun, fast-paced short story. The author chooses to start right in the middle of the action, which was a great way to convey the urgency of the following plot line—one drawback, though, is less time to differentiate one character from another before the crises begin and the characters begin hailing each other from different parts of their ship. I don’t often say this, but this is one short story I almost wish had been longer.

I received a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Wyatt Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very short story about a group of astronauts planning to rendezvous with Voyager 2. A nice mix of characters, science and story-line though I did find the premise of the long-lived aliens, quarantine, biblical stories, evil human empire a bit hard to swallow. I did like the Star Wars transporter dilemma included at the end.

Overall an enjoyable short story and it really couldn’t have been much longer and didn’t need to be much longer.

I received this book as an ARC and chose to write a review.