Terradox Quadrilogy
Craig A. Falconer
Terradox Quadrilogy
© 2019 Craig A. Falconer
This edition published September 2019
Terradox Quadrilogy is a collection of four previously published novels:
Terradox © 2017
The Fall of Terradox © 2017
Terradox Reborn © 2018
Terradox Beyond © 2019
and a brand-new prequel story:
Terradox Zero: Before The Crash © 2019
The characters and events herein are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Reader’s note: Terradox Quadrilogy was written, edited and produced in Scotland. As such, some spellings will differ from those found in the United States. Examples of British English include using colour rather than color, organise rather than organize, and centre rather than center.
At the author’s request, this book has been made available free of all DRM.
Contents
Books by Craig A. Falconer
READING ORDER
Terradox
Part I
Day One
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
ten
eleven
twelve
thirteen
fourteen
fifteen
sixteen
seventeen
eighteen
Day Two
nineteen
Part II
twenty
twenty-one
twenty-two
twenty-three
Day Three
twenty-four
twenty-five
twenty-six
twenty-seven
twenty-eight
twenty-nine
thirty
thirty-one
thirty-two
thirty-three
thirty-four
Day Four
thirty-five
thirty-six
thirty-seven
thirty-eight
thirty-nine
Day Five
forty
forty-one
forty-two
forty-three
forty-four
forty-five
forty-six
forty-seven
Part III
forty-eight
forty-nine
Day Six
fifty
fifty-one
fifty-two
fifty-three
fifty-four
fifty-five
fifty-six
fifty-seven
fifty-eight
fifty-nine
sixty
sixty-one
Day Seven
sixty-two
sixty-three
sixty-four
sixty-five
sixty-six
sixty-seven
Day Eight
sixty-eight
sixty-nine
seventy
seventy-one
seventy-two
seventy-three
Day Nine
seventy-four
seventy-five
Day Ten
seventy-six
seventy-seven
seventy-eight
Day Eleven
seventy-nine
eighty
eighty-one
Day Twelve
eighty-two
Day Thirteen
eighty-three
eighty-four
Day Fourteen
eighty-five
The Fall of Terradox
Part I
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
ten
eleven
twelve
thirteen
fourteen
Part II
fifteen
sixteen
seventeen
eighteen
nineteen
twenty
twenty-one
twenty-two
twenty-three
twenty-four
twenty-five
twenty-six
twenty-seven
twenty-eight
twenty-nine
thirty
thirty-one
thirty-two
thirty-three
thirty-four
thirty-five
thirty-six
thirty-seven
thirty-eight
thirty-nine
forty
Part III
forty-one
forty-two
forty-three
forty-four
forty-five
forty-six
forty-seven
forty-eight
forty-nine
fifty
fifty-one
fifty-two
fifty-three
fifty-four
fifty-five
fifty-six
fifty-seven
fifty-eight
fifty-nine
sixty
sixty-one
sixty-two
sixty-three
sixty-four
sixty-five
sixty-six
sixty-seven
sixty-eight
sixty-nine
seventy
Terradox Reborn
Part I
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
ten
eleven
twelve
thirteen
fourteen
Part II
fifteen
sixteen
seventeen
eighteen
nineteen
twenty
twenty-one
twenty-two
twenty-three
twenty-four
twenty-five
twenty-six
twenty-seven
twenty-eight
Part III
twenty-nine
thirty
thirty-one
thirty-two
thirty-three
thirty-four
thirty-five
thirty-six
thirty-seven
thirty-eight
thirty-nine
forty
forty-one
forty-two
forty-three
forty-four
epilogue
Terradox Beyond
Part I
one
two
three
four
five
six
Two years later
seven
eight
nine
ten
eleven
Two weeks later
twelve
thirteen
fourteen
fifteen
Part II
One year later
sixteen
seventeen
eighteen
nineteen
twenty
twenty-one
twenty-two
twenty-three
twenty-four
twenty-five
twenty-six
twenty-seven
Part III
&nbs
p; twenty-eight
twenty-nine
thirty
thirty-one
thirty-two
thirty-three
thirty-four
thirty-five
thirty-six
thirty-seven
thirty-eight
epilogue
Terradox Zero: Before The Crash
1. Holly
2. Rusev
3. Yury
4. Grav
5. Dante
Author’s Notes
Books by Craig A. Falconer
Not Alone
Not Alone: Second Contact
Not Alone: The Final Call
Not Alone: The Contact Trilogy (Nov. 2019)
‘Not Alone 4’ (title TBC, Dec. 2019)
Terradox
The Fall of Terradox
Terradox Reborn
Terradox Beyond
Terradox Quadrilogy
Funscreen
Sycamore
Sycamore 2
Sycamore X
Sycamore XL
Cyber Seed Quadrilogy (Oct. 2019)
For Mickey
and Ben.
READING ORDER
Welcome to my Terradox Quadrilogy!
This collection is arranged in the recommended reading order, with the four novels followed by the prequel short story:
1. Terradox
2. The Fall of Terradox
3. Terradox Reborn
4. Terradox Beyond
0. Terradox Zero: Before The Crash
I’ve arranged the collection in this way because this is the order the series was written and published in; as the ‘default’ option, I wanted to provide new readers with the original Terradox experience.
The prequel provides some new insights into the main characters and their relationships prior to the beginning of the first novel. In a sense I think of it like a ‘DVD extra’, with the novels as the main feature.
Although I do recommend starting with Terradox itself, please note that ‘Terradox Zero’ doesn’t contain any spoilers of future events — so you can certainly skip ahead to read it first if you wish.
Thanks for checking out the Quadrilogy. Now, it’s time to buckle up and enjoy your trip to Terradox!
Craig A. Falconer
Scotland, September 2019
Terradox
Part I
Day One
one
Holly’s wristband buzzed for the second time in quick succession, rousing her from a welcome but all-too-short afternoon rest.
She rolled over in her bunk and double-tapped her finger on the wall beside her pillow. The image which filled the embedded screen relayed to Holly that her current journey — this final journey — had just entered its final three days.
Her finger drifted to the lower right corner of the screen and tapped the word Earth. Even after so many trips, it remained impossible for Holly to get used to how insignificant her fragile home planet and its 4.2 billion fragile souls looked from this distance. With every passing day, the dot grew paler and less blue.
A quick tap on the words Station Interior then brought forth the live feed which always raised Holly’s spirits. The Venus station looked more than welcoming — it looked elegant; it looked chic; it looked precisely how Holly had always thought the future was supposed to look, rather than what it had become.
Ten seconds of footage from the station was enough to give Holly the energy she needed to play waitress for the next ten minutes. Running these mealtime errands ranked among the most menial elements of the chaperone role she had taken on to earn her place on the station alongside those chosen for their scientific prowess and those whose wealth had been sufficient to purchase a one-way ticket.
Holly took her chaperone duties seriously but wanted only to get her last batch of distastefully wealthy passengers to the station in one piece; she didn’t want to get to know them, and she certainly didn’t want to be their friend.
Because this would be the Karrier’s final Venus-bound trip for the foreseeable future — and quite possibly ever — there was a lot more precious cargo on board than ever before. The fact that the vast majority of the Karrier’s living quarters had been stripped and converted to storage bays for this final journey slashed the number of passengers and made Holly’s life far easier; the Karrier wasn’t quite a ghost ship, but it sometimes seemed that way. And although some of the cargo onboard was highly sensitive and some was extremely volatile, the responsibility for its safety lay with one of her colleagues.
When it came to passenger safety, on the other hand, the buck stopped with Holly.
She closed her door and came face to face with the digital picture of herself which faced out into the corridor, identifying the room as her quarters.
As usual, the very old photograph made Holly briefly reflect on the irony of how far she had travelled on this Karrier in the last six months, contrasted against the fact that she had never even left Earth’s orbit during her several years as the poster-child of the long-since defunct public space program.
And, as usual, Holly quickly shook these thoughts aside. Those days were half a lifetime ago, and the last thing she could afford to do was look back.
Rusentra’s dining machine may have been a mundane invention compared to the vast orbital research station the corporation had assembled around Venus, or indeed the breakthrough in propulsion which enabled these quick and comfortable cargo missions, but the machine still amazed Holly every time she used it.
On the outside, it looked like a standard old-fashioned vending machine. But on the inside, this machine processed its sole ingredient into any of 200 distinct “meals” with nothing more than a minuscule amount of the right flavourings and colourings. A perfectly presented and uncannily convincing plateful typically appeared within thirty seconds. For some reason, though, diners tended to prefer their food when they didn’t know what it was made of.
The Karrier’s longstanding security officer hit the nail on the head with a succinct quip during his first night on board: “Two hundred choices, and they are all algae.”
Though Holly couldn’t pretend to understand the ins and outs of the machine, she knew that several distinct breakthroughs had been necessary. First came perfecting the algae’s macro-nutritional profile and fortifying it with the myriad micronutrients necessary for human health. Next came the genetic modification which allowed the algae to not merely survive but to thrive in the absence of a light source, enabling small-scale cultivation within the machines themselves. According to Ekaterina Rusev, Rusentra’s founder and one of Holly’s current passengers, this biochemical progress had been a walk in the park compared to nailing the texture. Eyes and tastebuds proved relatively easy to fool, Rusev said, but even slight errors in texture had elicited physical disgust among test diners.