Pristine Earth Sinister Planet – Tony Harmsworth

Firstly, Mark and the team return to the Pristine Earth that they discovered at the end of their Trappist-1 adventure, only this time they are fully prepared, with researchers, scientists and a military contingent for emergencies.

They are surprised to find no humans on the planet, the closest relatives being chimpanzees and gorillas. As the exploration continues, an entire group of scientists suddenly vanishes. The alarm is raised and Mark, accompanied by the military sets out to investigate. They, too, unexpectedly vanish without trace. Something or someone is kidnapping the people from Earth. Who, or what, is the enemy? This is the shorter of the two stories and it moves on to a surprising conclusion.

In the main story, Sinister Planet, another team is 500 lightyears from Earth at Kepler 186F, also known as Pangu. Mark’s geology buddy, Roy Williams is leading the expedition. The planet has a massive amount of civilisation infrastructure, but the explorers cannot find any people. Did they die out? Did they leave? The buildings and roads are all deteriorating as if abandoned for decades. When Roy’s team decide to return to orbit, the engines refuse to fire. Some unknown force seems to be stopping their escape.

It becomes even more sinister when they are joined by astronautic engineers who can get the tank engines to fire, but not when attached to the Rimor (shuttle). Strangely, the whole stack can be fired, but not if there are any astronauts on board. How can this be? The force is strangely targeting the humans. There are now seven astronauts on the surface with no way to return to orbit or to home.

The sole remaining crew member of the Orion, Carol Appin, returns to the solar system to bring the news to NASA. Mark’s team are tasked with solving the mystery. If they fail, they’ll be permanently marooned on Pangu.

Pristine Earth Sinister Planet