Chris Hechtl's Blog, page 10

Beyond Pi Snippet 2

 Sitrep: I received the manuscript back from Rea and passed it on to Goodlifeguide. Shelley said she'd get it back to me in a week. Fingers crossed.

In other news, I managed to get a little work done on my R2. Unfortunately, the work bench is now occupied so I am back to a holding pattern there.

I have been working on Expanding Horizons. It is slowly coming together.

Anyway, on to the snippet!

 

Port Royal

 

Vice Admiral Horatio Logan staredpensively at the reports. His eyes didn’t really see them; he was deep inthought. After a moment, he tossed his stylus down that he liked to fiddle withand then sat back in his chair.

He was a sleeper, someone who had beenborn during the era of the old Federation. He had served in the navy during theXeno war and had been marooned in deep space near Pyrax. Centuries had passedbefore he had been picked up and sold to the Anvil space station in Pyrax.

He had spent a lonely century there untilhe’d married and had a single daughter Shelby. He had aged terribly, but whenAdmiral Irons had turned up like a breath of fresh air, he had been reborn likethe phoenix of legend, undergoing a full anti-geriatric treatment and officerupgrade.

He had held the fort for the admiral inPyrax for years before the admiral had settled in Antigua and the real work hadbegun to restore the Federation while simultaneously fighting off theHorathians. In a way, the pirate threat had been a spirit send; it had been anexternal threat for everyone to rally around. The escalation to xenophobia thatthe late pirate emperor had imposed on the galaxy had ramped up the threat andnearly overwhelmed them before they got the upper hand.

He had several adventures but now he wasin Pi sector, holding the sector while building the gate complex and then doingsome strange shit. Now he was spinning his wheels. Well, more or less,he thought with a pang.

He was tempted to get another cup ofcoffee but held off. He’d had four cups already and although he had an ironconstitution courtesy of years of sucking down navy coffee and his implants, hedidn’t want the caffeinated beverage at the moment. Though it did help to clearhis thoughts from time to time.

The first units that had come through thegate had been Vice Admiral Blechley’s TF 1.4 fast reaction force. Two supercarriers, a squadron of battle cruisers, and a couple squadrons of cruisers anddestroyers plus support ships. It had been made clear that they were on loan.That was how Admiral Irons had gotten around the limits Congress had imposed atthe time.

Not that they were in place anymore. Arecent naval appropriations bill had clarified the status of Seventh Fleet andthe other paper tigers around Federation controlled space. After the attack onthe Sigma gate complex, Congress launched their usual committees andinvestigations. They had been horrified by the parlous state of the defenses atsome of the gate star systems. They had pointed fingers at the navy but hadbacked off from demands of someone’s head when the media had flipped the scriptand pointed out that Congress had savagely cut back on the navy’s budget.

Well, that was changing now, for good orill. He knew the jury was out on which it would be. He welcomed more hulls forhis deployments. And he was amused that Congress had been irked that Blechleyhad left to conquer Tortuga under their orders, yet also irked that she wasn’tthere to defend the gate star system.

Which meant that they’d have to agree todeploy more ships and build a proper budget for Seventh Fleet.

Which was a welcome thing as far as he wasconcerned. Seventh fleet had just the one shipyard in New Cornwall. CommodoreVestri Sindri had gotten it up to building modern battle cruisers but had beenstopped short of building them in quantity or building larger units. They hadspent the past ten years building up the infrastructure in the star system, themanufacturing processes, and thus laying the groundwork for when the leashfinally came off.

Which it had for the most part. Theyfinally had permission to go to full production in New Cornwall. He wasgrateful for that. Now they just had the little matter of finding the warmbodies to populate the ships.

Fortunately, the gate was here and open.He knew that veterans would be coming through the gate and shipped on to NewCornwall to take possession of those ships. Depending on how things went on theTau and Sigma fronts, some of those ships might even ship to Rho or even acrossthe sector and into Sigma to help out there.

He had Blechley for a limited time.Shannon was a good officer but looking for more. Admiral Irons had made thatpart clear. Two years, which meant she could punch out Tortuga and possiblyDevil’s Anus in the north and then return. By then ships should be comingthrough that would be assigned permanently to Seventh Fleet to replace her.

In a way, it was good. Blechley would gether combat ticket punched, and he would have two out of three of the remainingpirate nests in his AO taken out. He would have to follow up with pickets tosecure the star systems though, which meant more cruisers.

Then there was the problem of the damnpirate plagues. He shook his head over that one. At least the enemy commandershad stopped trying to spread the disease. The prowlers that had been dispatchedto scout behind the enemy lines and sow sabotage had reported that the enemyhad not cut their own throat and destroyed the civilian populations they weretrying to exploit. Far from it, they had occupied many of those worlds and evenstarted to get their manufacturing up and running again. There were two reportsof industrial equipment being returned to worlds in order for them to beinstalled and used. That was a surprise to him.

The occupiers were not gentle in theirtreatment of the population, nor their demands for tribute. But the civilianswere alive at least for the moment. With luck and a bit of grit from Blechley,the pirates would be driven out and the populations could be mended andrestored.

His biggest headache at the moment was thenorthern pirate base, the ‘Dante’s Playground.’ The Prowler Meridian hadscouted the pirate base. It had the remains of a battle moon quadrant thereacting as a hellish orbital fortress and base. A dreadnought had also managedto get there, and worse, the enemy had a bone yard and a lot of incentive tosort themselves into one hell of a threat to his northern border.

So far, his people had managed to fend offa couple raiding parties from that direction. They had been quiet since then sohe had to wonder if there was a bottom to their resources.

He might need to send another scout tofind out, he mused.

>>><><<< 

Lieutenant Beau noted her principle wasthinking and allowed him to do so without interruption. It meant the paperworkwas not getting signed, but for the most part, he was just signing off ondecisions that had already been made.

Admiral Logan was a good partner. Sheappreciated him, and she knew that he appreciated her. She ran a scan throughthe document lists and then moved the priority ones to the top of the pileagain. The electronic shuffling would not be seen by her principle.

If she had to guess at the train ofthought he was going through, he was either concerned about the strategicsituation in the sector, his daughter’s safety in Tau, politics, or the overallstrategic situation. Those came in the order of likelihood. Of course, he mightbe having paper fatigue and a desire to “play hooky” and work on some engineeringproject. He was an engineer after all.

She had received stories from other AI whohad principles with similar mindsets. The most famous of course was AdmiralIrons. They made for excellent leaders because they led by example. They dug inand were not afraid to get their hands dirty. They also cared about theirpeople. But they were not the best administrators and did not care for officepolitics or petabytes of reports and such things.

That was where she came in. She acted asan electronic assistant; she handled the bulk of the paperwork among otherduties. She filtered the reams of paperwork to spot glaring errors for him toact upon. But she couldn’t shield her principle from all of it nor would she.She also knew his strong sense of duty would invariably lead him back to workin a few more seconds.

As if on cue, the human admiral picked hisstylus up again and began to fiddle with it as he got back to work.

>>><><<< 

Beyond Pi Snippet 1

 So I sent the manuscript off to Rea. 

 

Port Royal

Vice AdmiralHoratio Logan stared at the schedule. So far so good but they were hanging inthere by the skin of their teeth and tips of their fingernails.

He snorted at histhought. He had started the project with the factory ships Ptah, Io11, and the engineering spaces on the various ships in the Hero's Riseflotilla. Oh, and the mountain of material that had come in from Rho. Buildingthe industry to build the Dyson shell and the industry to build the gate hadbeen a bitch. But there was a reason he'd released Io 11 and Ptahto other duties; they were no longer needed. The industry wasself-sustaining at this point.

Well, with a bitof help from shipments from Rho of course. Like the convoy that had recentlycome in. Six more large and eighteen smaller force emitters had arrived. Theywere halfway to building the gate at this point and he was happy.

It had only costthem a half a dozen moons, an unknown number of asteroids, and a couple ofdwarf planets, not to mention a lot of the stockpiled material the pirates hadstolen and hoarded to get there on his end.

He checked thelatest news. Beau would of course highlight anything relevant to his command orto the sector. There were a couple of dozen entries; the couriers had picked up news along the route to him butnothing about Port Royal or the gate. That was a relief.

One damn leak wasall it had taken to ruin his day almost five years ago he thoughtblackly. He didn't want another—hence, the additional security at the jump points.

Ships nowunloaded at the jump point, transferring their contents to orbital warehousesunder the guns of the picket and orbital fortresses there. The orbital fortswere Mulberry class affairs, one command fort at each jump point thatcontrolled an array of mines and weapon platforms.

He wanted, nay,craved more, and he'd get it in time, but for the moment he was stuck with whathe had. The other forts had been redirected to New Cornwall. He had the StateDepartment and Admiral Irons signing off on it to thank for that.

Politics he thought inannoyance.

"My, you arein a mood," Lieutenant Beau, his A.I., observed in asoft contralto in his ear.

"Alittle."

"Why? Aren'tyou happy we aren't in the news?"

"No news isnot necessarily good news. But in this case, I'll take what Ican get I suppose. At least our people are taking the security classificationseriously. Finally," he growled.

It had only takena couple of court-martials and captain's masts to get the point across. Most ofthe leakers had acccepted NJP or Non-Judicial-Punishment and a removal of their security clearance for the leak. Forfetier of pay, reduction inrank—none of that would get the secrecy of the star system back.

At least they'dgotten the media to censor the information from feeds that were sent tononincorporated worlds. ONI and SIS were keeping an eye on them to make sure ofit.

It wouldn't beforever. He knew it, and they knew it. But until they took down the pirates in hisArea of Operations it was technically still classed as a war zone. Hence, the legality of the censorship.

He shook his headas he rocked his chair a little. "Just moody I guess. It started withannoyance over the leak and then went to politics."

"Ah. So,situation normal?"

He snorted."Something along those lines. I'd like to get a handle on state. Or betterstill, get someone to sit on them and or duct tape their mouths shut so theywill stop dipping into our toy box. I don't have the ships to deploy in endlesssupply like they seem to think," he growled.

"Agreed andunderstood, sir," Beau said in a sympathetic tone ofvoice.

"In otherwords, preaching to the choir and you've heard it all before. Sorry."

"That's whatI'm here for, sir, sounding board among other jobdescriptions," Beau replied with a smile in her voice. He knew it wasdesigned to get him to buck up a little. It did help.

His command hadits share of mixed luck over the past five years, but he had toadmit it was better than what was going on in Rho and Sigma.

Rho had sufferedthe battle of Horath and the seeming end of the Horathian threat. To him andother naval personnel, it was a painful thing; they'd lost a lot of good freinds in the nova bomb. A lot werestill classified as missing in action too, though hopes of any of them turningup five years later were dim at best.

Admiral Irons hadweathered the political storm from it but it hadn't been easy. It had left alot of scars, but the admiral was hanging in there, grimlydetermined to see it through. It being the reestablishment of the Federation asa galactic government and civilization, the end of the pirates, and a few otherthings along the way.

One of which washis project for his sins.

He was a sleeperlike the admiral, having grown up during the golden age of the Federation over sevencenturies ago. He'd fought in the Xeno war and had been lost in an escape podwhen his ship had fallen short of getting to safety in Pyrax. He'd drifted forcenturies in sleep. When he'd awoken, it had been overa century prior. He'd been a borderline slave, chief engineer of the miningstation Anvil.

He'd had beenlonely and nearly driven insane by his implants wanting him to suicide. Buthe'd doggedly persisted in what he percieved as his duty to keep the lights onin the station. He'd met and married a beautiful woman, had a daughter, mournedhis wife, and had been nearly killed trying to keep things together just beforeAdmiral Irons had shown up to save the day.

He'd reenlistedwhen the pirates had threatened to attack. They'd salvaged ships like Firefly,built a task force that had captured the enemy task force, then used theirresources to build a growing shipyard and naval complex before Admiral Ironshad been forced out of the star system.

He'd been stuckin command for years until Admiral Irons had set up a capital in Antigua. Thenhe'd had a series of misadventures in Bek, another last minute save by AdmiralIrons, and then he'd been sent here.

Where he wasstill trying to hang onto things.

Sigma on theother hand was a mess. Fifth and what was left of Second Fleet were out theresomewhere, hunting for “Catherine Ramichov, pirate empress” and her fleet aswell as her salvaged battle moon. So far, no such luck finding either.

Her father hadstarted a course of genocide, unleashing plagues first in Rho, then Tau, Sigma,Pi, and quite possibly beyond. Rho had stamped out the plagues, but the other sectors were still struggling.

Well, he had itout and most of the populations vaccinated in Federation controlled space.Unincorporated space and neutral star systems were a different story.

He held commandon his space station Command One. From here he could see and direct theprogress on the two titanic projects under his control. But he had anothermission too, one that had so far failed utterly.

He had beentasked with clearing his Area of Operations of pirates. That had turned out tobe easier said than done. Part of it had been due to bad luck, another to alack of resources, and a third reason was the meddlings of politics.

Four years ago, he had felt confident enough to reform the Hero's Risetask force and dispatch the ships to Tortuga. Unfortunately, they hadn't gottenfar and had been brought back due to a collision with a rogue grav wave. Theescort carrier and several other ships had hit it and suffered engineeringcasualties onboard. There had been twenty-six deaths, and thirty-nine injuredon Hero's Rise alone. Murphy, the spirit of mischief, chaos, and badluck, had certainly put in an appearance that day.

They had nearlylost the ships; they'd lost grav nodes and had suffered hulland internal damage. The task force had dropped out of hyperspace to make whatrepairs they could. They had limped back to Port Royal at low octaves of Alphanearly a year later.

It had beenanother black eye for the navy to handle right after Horath. The media had goneinto a bit of a feeding frenzy over it.

He hadn't beenable to follow the attack up with a proper one since. The attempts to scoutTortuga with prowlers had so far failed. He'd finally signed off on a long shotto try it from another angle.

It was going tobe months before they got there and months more before the intel got back tohim. Only then would he allow another mission to be planned and launched.

It bothered himto let the pirates have all that free time. They had a mothball yard and plentyof motivation to do something about it. But for the moment, his hands were tied.

"Just …moody I guess," he said again.

~~(O)~~

Lieutenant Beaumonitored her principle's vital signs and realized she wasn't going to be ableto cajole him any further at the moment. She searched for a bit of good news, but there wasn't anything there for the moment. Not even a letterfrom Shelby, the admiral's daughter. Pity about that.

She had beengrown within the admiral's implants when he'd upgraded to flag officer. She'dbecome a smart A.I. after the events in Bek. She wished she'd been moresentient then; she could have and would have helped him insome capacity to endure his captivity better. At least, she liked to think shecould have done something.

At the moment, she was realizing that helpless “feeling” again. She hoped it wouldn't last and that Horatio would see theglass as half full again soon.

~~(O)~~

Multiverse 6 Book 80 has published!

 Yup, Book 80! EIGHTY!!! Wow. I still remember when I wrote my first 2 books and told people I had 3 more planned and they were tripping out. Now, 80 in, with 4 more completed and in the hands of the betas... mind blowing.

Anyway, as I said, Multiverse 6 dropped.

About: 5 science fiction short stories, 1 in the PRI/Bootstrap universe, 1 in the Roo collective, and 2 in the Wandering Engineer/Federation universe. And one of those introduces Ember!

 

 Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CH1LG2WZ

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/book...

MV 6 Snippet 5

 Last one.

This one I saved for last. It is in the Engineering Universe and well, introduces someone new to the mix.

A New Addition to the Family

Antigua, Capital of theFederation

 

Theair car was a 911 sports model, red with a black interior. It was about twentyyears old and drew the eyes of everyone around it. The pilot, Daryl Struckerwas a kid fresh out of high school and training to be an air mechanic. He hadbeen told to take the air car out for a spin about two kilometers out and thenback.

Hehad taken it out and monitored the computer hooked up to the air car computer.When nothing showed up in the diagnostics, he decided to open it up and have alittle fun. Obviously, the owner thought the knocking sound was somethingimportant but it was probably jitters Or something that had been sucked intothe intake and then blown out.

Hewas thrown back into his seat as the jet turbines spooled up to their maximumpower. He let out a gasp of thrill and hung on for dear life.

Whathe failed to appreciate was the sudden kick as a fitting let go and one engineon the passenger side went offline. The computer didn’t compensate in time andthe sudden loss in lift made the airframe roll.

Invertedhe scrambled to right the craft but he was less than two hundred meters off theground, far too low to be pulling stunts like a full afterburner run. The aircar had lost lift and the inverted frame actually changed its aerodynamics tosend it hurtling into the ground.

Rightinto the middle of a residential neighborhood.

Darylmanaged to scream and yank back on the stick in an attempt to correct.

Itwas the wrong move. The air car skipped off the pavement on the road, through afence and then right through the living room window at 2294 Palm Olive Drive.

Thecrash and hydrogen fire killed the pilot and the family who had just gone downfor a nap.

Firefightersarrived on the scene within minutes. A pump truck managed to stay aloft anddump it’s foam onto the fire before it was forced to land and switch to thefire hydrant and straight water.

Thefoam had done its job though, smothering the fire and depriving it of oxygen.The rest was beaten down by the drenching of water.

Rescuepersonnel had suited up and busted into the home. They were appalled to seehalf melted toys and a couple of plastic highchairs. They went room to room andfound the body of the mother cat under a blanket. There were no signs of lifeinitially.

Whenthey heard a mew, they turned back and looked. Hands pulled the body aside tofind three kittens: two male, one female. The female was alive and scared.

Thekitten was carried out to an ambulance. They put her on oxygen as the policeofficer and supervisor taped off the area and dealt with the media and neighbors.A full investigation would begin right away.

Asad looking social worker arrived. She had read the file on the ride in andfound the kitten with the paramedic. “That was fast,” the paramedic said.

“I’mabout to go on vacation,” she said. “I was actually on my way home when I gotthe call. The boss said someone else will follow up.”

“Oh.”

“So,this is Ember?” the woman said as she examined the terrified kitten. The kittenhunched up in a defensive ball.

“Ember?That’s … ironic?” the paramedic said.

“Why?”the woman asked. “What’s wrong with the name Ember?”

Theparamedic pointed a free hand back to the house.

Thesocial worker looked past the fire truck to the still smoldering house. “Oh,”she said simply.

===#===

MV 6 Snippet 4

 Sitrep: So, I finished the cover to the Roo Collective:

That book is a collection of the 3 stories with the ending of the saga. It is currently a one off, though I toyed with ideas to expand it. Who knows what the future might hold? After all, Bootstrap Colony and PRI were both supposed to be 1 offs...

Anyway, on to the snippet!

The following is in the aforementioned PRI/Bootstrap universe. It actually takes place during the last PRI book.

A Pirate's Life

Captain Ahmad used the spyglassto check the rigging of the prey ship carefully in order to gauge theirintentions and course of travel. Not much had changed from his last inspection.

The ship was Caliopean. It wasslow; his ship was lighter and faster.

His lips curved in a smile atthat. They’d eat well tonight, he thought. If the other managed to try to avoidhim, perhaps in the night or in the early morning. The longer they made himwait, the more they’d suffer later.

His professional eye turned tohis black sails. They were taut. The winds were right; he would overhaul theprey soon enough.

He put the spyglass carefullyaway in the well-oiled, leather-lined wooden case. He closed the lid andlatched it shut.

~~~\^/~~~

 

Offthe coast of Argos

 

Ginger Lewis wasn't quite boredwith her assignment with the Coast Guard. She had served as the instructor forthe two pilots and had certified them qualified to fly the bird. She was juston hand to enjoy some stick time since one of the pilots had overindulged theevening before.

Below, the endless sea was there,sparkling occasionally in the sun. The further out from the coast they went theless traffic they saw. She did pick up on the current; you could tell the differenceby the color change in the water. There was also a section that had to be somesort of thermal break, though she wasn't certain.

They hadn't brought any sciencegeeks who studied the seas. That was probably a good thing considering some ofthe things she'd seen. Like the alien Plesiosaurs that had been using theirlong necks to grab pterosaurs out of the air or seals off the beach or whateverwas in the depths that snacked on them.

She hoped fervently that the birdshe was in never went in for a water landing.

The bird was a modified DC-3variant colored in white and red markings. It had sensors all over it to getinformation about the weather. There were extra antenna and radios in order tosend signals out. They could also boost signals from ships. A long line fromtheir rudder to an antenna behind the cockpit windows was a large antenna.

The bird also had gear to drop toships in distress and of course protection against lightening. Its ice and coldweather gear was crude though, so they knew that they were going to berestricted on the amount of flying they did in the winter and in inclementweather.

Ginger was taking notes. She hada lot of recommendations for the Coast Guard and their next budget submission.They were due a budget at least equal to this year's thanks to the lobbying ofthe sea communities. She knew another bird was planned, but there were peoplewho wanted a heavy lift long-range chopper.

She had her doubts about thatcoming through so she was hoping they'd settle on making improvements to whatthey had and expanding with lighthouses and buoys and such.

“Ship,” a voice said over theVOX, making her blink. She oriented on the voice. “Clipper,” the voice said. Itwas the cargo master.

“Which side?” she demanded as shekeyed her mike.

“Ah, left, I mean  …”

“Got it,” she said as she bankedslightly and picked up the shape of a clipper. “Two ships,” she corrected. Oneship was smaller and chasing the first. It had black sails.

She spiraled the bird around themin an orbit as they picked out details.

“The point ship is flying thecolors of the Grand Duchy of Caliope,” her copilot said after some study withthe binoculars.

“Document it?” she asked.

He grimaced but then fumbled thecrude camera Max had sent along to try to zoom in and get a shot of the shipfor their records.

“I think the trailer is apirate,” the cargo master Ducky said. She called him Ducky because he had aname that started with a D and he was cute when he blushed.

“It's not one of ours, and it'snot from Medicini,” the copilot said. He started to bumble around noisily.Ginger took her eyes off the ships to see her copilot digging out a small bookfrom the small drawer between their seats. It was on the back of the throttlecontrols.

He flipped through it and thenlooked through the binoculars and then at the book. He checked a few things.

“Get some pics,” Ginger remindedhim.

He grimaced but did so.

“Not Medicini. It's not Dulutheither. I don't know who they are.”

“They aren't friendly,” the cargomaster said. “Both ships have all of their sails out, even a couple of extrafrom the look of things. But the black ship is steadily gaining ground. Thesailors on the Caliopean ship don't look happy.”

“Crap. Take the bird,” Gingersaid.

Her copilot took his yoke. “Ihave the bird,” he said shaking it. She felt the shake and let go. She reachedover and took the book and binoculars off his lap and used them to study theships.

“Nope, not happy. Are they wavingat us?” she asked.

“I guess so,” Ducky replied.

She tried to fumble thebinoculars in front of the camera to add an extra lens to them but it came outblurry. She grimaced and gave up on that idea.

“What do we do?”

“We don't have a weapon on thistub other than the flare guns,” Ducky complained.

“If we'd set her up as a gunship,then our range would have been a quarter what it is,” Ginger stated.

“Okay, so, what do we do?” Duckyasked. “Sit and watch?”

She thought about it and thensmirked. “I don't think so.” She put the binoculars and other items in thedrawer and then took the controls. “My bird.”

“Your bird,” the copilot echoedformally.

“Ducky, strap in. We're going tohave a little fun,” Ginger said.

“I know that voice,” Ducky saiddubiously. Ginger giggled as she tipped the plane in a hard bank and lostaltitude as she spiraled down.

“You are insane!” her copilotsaid, gripping the oh-shit bar and side of his seat as she dipped down andbuzzed the pirate ship. Ginger snorted.

She banked away and then did itagain a moment later, this time going a little lower.

“Keep an eye on the altimeter andthe fuel,” She ordered.

“Two hundred meters, fifty-five,”he stated instantly.

She buzzed the ship again from adifferent angle, even lower and the wind from their travel hit the sails andthrew the ship off course and nearly capsized her.

The Caliopean ship got away asthe pirate pulled their sails in and drifted rocking.

“You're welcome,” Ginger said,waving to the Caliopean ship as they waved up to her.

She turned to look at hercopilot. “Well! That was fun!”

He gaped at her and thenchuckled.

The aircraft spiraled away andthen she remembered to report the incident over the radio.

~~~\^/~~~

Captain Ahmad was frightened bythe encounter but also furious. He glared in the direction of the departingflying thing. He had just barely managed to reef his sails in order to keepfrom capsizing. He got his ship back under way and then went below to his cabinto draw and write what he had seen while it was still fresh.

The crew kept a low profile forsome time afterward, not willing to set him off and feel the lash of his tongueor his quirt.

~~~\^/~~~

MV6 Snippet 3

 Sitrep: So, I have a naughty rambunctious hellion on my hands. She is getting into stuff she isn't supposed to, loves to destroy paper products, toilet papered my bedroom this morning (again), and also ripped my nose open trying to jump me while I was walking down the hall. (she can really leap!) 

She was trying to tackle us this morning. (We're over 6 foot kitty, not gonna happen!) I got her back by scarring her so she wanted revenge. She ran across the living room as I was going down the hall, leapt over the couch and was I guess aiming for my shoulder but I turned and she got my nose and chest instead. Lucky me.

So, yeah, we have our hands full. She just turned 6 months. I'm shuddering to think of what she is going to be like at Christmas! If you hear me whimper it's probably because she knocked the tree over one too many times. sigh. 

I finished the Roo book so I'm waist deep in the cover art for it.

Anyway, on to the snippet!

The Stray

Premise: This is the first story (there is a second in MV 7) of a new side group that may or may not play a role in Expanding Horizon. (whenever I get around to writing it!)

Endor XXIII, Beta Sector

 

ChiefPetty Officer Joe Thompson finished shutting the systems down in the shuttleand then checked on the others as he climbed out of the pilot seat. Ben hadalready abandoned the copilot seat to get busy with overwatch. He had tosqueeze past PO Sia Clarkson as she finished gearing up. She had been helpinghim with shutting the bird down and setting up the satellite relay. They onlyhad a few more minutes in the window before they needed to be on the move.

PORandy Guetta had already wrestled the camouflage net out of the bird throughthe rear hatch. Joe grabbed his bag and gear and checked his weapons beforeholstering his pistol and putting his vest on. He finished gearing up silently,checked with a bounce to be sure nothing jingled and then went out to lend ahand.

Thetigress was already outside helping Randy pull lines to get the camouflage netsover the bird. The bird had a smart skin to help camouflage it but it wasn’tenough. The nets helped to break up the shape. The engines and landing spotwere cooling; in another hour it would be down to ambient.

Well,not quite. The nets helped to bring the reflective heat from the bird down abit too but it wasn’t quite perfect.

Hewas tempted to burn the time to add some tree limbs and brush over the bird butheld off. They needed to get going. They had a tight window to get to the port.

Themore he thought about it the more he thought the mission was a fool’s errand.They were supposed to do a snoop and poop, just get to the outskirts of theport and then snoop around. Try to access any data remotely, plant some bugs,gather intel, and then back to the ship if they didn’t pick up anything ofvalue intelligence wise.

Hehad already nixed Randy’s idea of hitting the bars. Endor had only the onespace port and the forest moon wasn’t heavily populated. No doubt the localsknew each other. The pirate cruiser about to make port in orbit may or may notbe a known regular customer.

Eitherway their boss First Lieutenant Jordan Peal had nixed going into the port andbeing seen. This was just a basic recon, nothing more.

Theirteam had been assigned to look for a way to get into pirate ports as well asmonitor their space traffic. He had a single fire team with him; the rest of thesquad were on their Meridian class Prowler running the ship with theirAI and the boss.

Jordanwas ambitious; she hoped to be the one to get her hands on a complete Horathiannavigational database from a ship. That was their ultimate goal, to find the pirate’s“El Dorado” and cut off the head, their so called “Pirate Empress.”

Sofar, no such luck though. Which was why they’d been dispatched to the border ofSigma Sector and Beta to try looking for clues in that direction.

Whatthey had found was that the pirates had been fleeing in that direction. Sigma,Beta, and Alpha sectors were wastelands. The Xeno war had gutted the threesectors worse than any other. That meant stops like this one, on a habitablemoon, was highly prized. There were few places a ship could go to getprovisions and fuel.

Technicallythey had pushed their orders. The LT thought of it as using his initiative totry to find the damn base and put an end to them once and for all. The teambacked the play but they were a long way away from support.

Hewordlessly shouldered his rifle with the sling and then grabbed a line thatRandy tossed over the nose of the bird. He walked the line back to a tree andtied a rock to the end. He whirled it a few times and then tossed it over abranch and then the rock dropped down. He untied the rock and then yanked onthe rope. The net was pulled over the bird and his end was in the air above tohelp give the shame more of a natural texture.

Itwas something that SEALs trained for, to be out on their own running missionsin enemy territory. But it was still a new experience for some people. If apirate ship came around, they could only run. If the team was on the moon,they’d have to go to ground and hide until the prowler could come back forthem.

Therewas a pirate ship coming he reminded himself. That was why they’d pushed themission. The LT wanted them to get in and then out. But it was turning out tobe easier said than done.

Obviously,they couldn’t land their shuttle at the port without being noticed. That meantthey’d had to come down like a meteor and land in a clearing in the otherwisedense forest a hundred kilometers out from the spaceport.

Hetied the line off and then looked around. The trees were massive, towering-likeskyscrapers. They were covered with moss. The ground had ferns and overgrowth.

Therewere stands of various tree species. The big boys were truly massive though,over ten meters in diameter at the base. The moon’s light gravity allowed thetrees to grow big and tall. Obviously, no one had been interested in doing anywood cutting for some time.

Eitherthat or they just lacked the tools to do the job, he thought absently as heunslung his rifle and nodded to Randy.

Theother human nodded back and examined the area. The tigress triggered the hatchto close and continued to work on covering the tire tracks from their landing.

Joehad put the bird down in the clearing but he’d then gotten the bird under asmuch cover near the edge of the clearing as possible. That way it wouldn’tstick out. He’d managed to get the shuttle’s nose almost completely undercover.

TheTigress hand signed a question about moving out. He held up a fist to wait andthen scanned the area as he got his bearings. There was no need to report in;he’d already done that upon landing with a burst transmission.

Hisimplants allowed him to identify magnetic north as well as the direction of thespaceport and the nearest town. There was a trail road connecting the two. Theywould have to travel on the trail for some point in order to pick up speed andstay on mission.

Randyscanned for PO Ben Sully in futility before ruefully giving up. The chief couldhave told him it would have been a wasted effort. Ben was damn good at hiding.

Theteam had read the ansible dispatches many times from across the sector beforethey’d gone on the hunt in the jump line up into Beta sector. They knew theywere years out of date though. The last reports were that an old SEAL team hadbeen found in Pi sector and that Admiral Horatio Logan had taken command ofthat sector. He was building a Stargate there and another was underconstruction in Sigma and a third in Tau. Supposedly there were matching gatesunder construction in some secret site in Rho to connect them all.

SecondFleet was still puttering around in the core of Sigma Sector, locking it downand trying to run the damn pirate battle moon’s location down. AdmiralMontgomery was their nominal boss in ONI for the sector. He’d dispatched themon a long-term mission. For all they knew, they might have found it by now andthey were on a fool’s errand.

Thenagain, the enemy had taken a lot of precautions to protect the location of thatbase. So, it might still be hiding somewhere.

Thisthen was on them. Everyone else was making their mark on the growing Federationand the return to civilization in the galaxy. This was on them then.

Hehand signed to the team and pointed. Randy grunted as the tigress took point.Randy took rear guard since he was the biggest and had the most gear. The chieftook the center spot and they moved out.

Benwould catch up and cover them from the flank as he usually did.

Asthey moved, their gear began to adapt and change to the colors of the forestaround them. Their implants began to alter their personal smells to blend in.Occasionally one of them would pick a piece of moss or fern and add it to theirgear in passing.

===#===

MV 6 Snippet 2

 Sitrep: So, Goodlifeguide got back to me. They will hopefully get the manuscript back to me in 7-10 days. So expect it to drop sometime the week of the 21-26. 

Guardianship:

Preface: Guardianship is an odd what if story. No it doesn't have anything to do with the Boostrap universe.

PolarBear Encounters took a full bus out to the best place to find the most bears inthe shortest amount of time.

Thebest place turned out to be the town dump just outside of town and downwind ofit. It was dangerous for people to bring trash there. The bears roamed the areamore and more since the ice had melted. They were in search of an easy meal.

Thetourists traveled in a tall bus with giant monster tires. The monster truckallowed them to pick through the spring mud and keep the majestic predators ata safe viewing distance.

Theypulled up near midmorning and watched the bears tear into the dump. The guidethrew out rancid meat for the animals to eat in order to attract them forbetter viewing.

Camerasflashed as people took pictures. Some gasped as the bears stood on their hindlegs and leaned against the side of the bus to try to get at the humans.

Therewere nervous chuckles as the guide and driver assured them that they wereperfectly safe. “Just don’t do anything stupid, people. Keep calm, treat itlike a memorable moment. Take your photos while you can but don’t reach out ofthe vehicle.”

“Keepyour hands inside the vehicle or you’ll lose them?” one tourist quipped.

“Somethingvery much like that, yes. Though they might hang on and haul you out in onepiece,” the driver said dryly.

Suddenlythe animals were just gone.

“Wheredid they go?” one woman asked.

“Iknow they can blend into the snow but  …,”her husband said as he looked around. It was late spring and most of the snowwas gone. “What happened? Did we scare them off?”

Thedriver looked to the guide. Both looked confused. The guide took his ballcapoff and scratched his scalp. “You know, that’s a damn good question.”

===#===

TanyaBaker, a junior zookeeper in the primate care facility, was nursing baby Nashain a rocker. The orangutan baby had been abandoned by her first-time motherTisha.

Thesmall eyes and tufts of red fur were endearing. It had taken a lot of time toget the baby on a schedule. She was finally putting on weight. They had anorangutan doll for her to cling to when she was sleeping. But first she had toget the little tyke down. Nasha was fighting that impulse though and so Tanyawas resigned to being stuck with her for a longer period than before.

Atleast she was nursing and not hyper and wanting to play. That would come intime when the baby was older and less clingy.

Shewanted to rig a sling to carry the infant around with her but she had to cleanthe cages next. That would mean a lot of moving and bending, something thatwasn’t good to do with a four-kilogram baby hanging from her front.

Shewanted to close her eyes but held off. She’d been teased by some of the otherstaff about it already once. Pretending to sleep on the job sometimes got theinfants to sleep but not always. Usually the full belly and the motion of therocker would lull them into a nap.

Justas if on cue Nasha yawned and released the nipple. She wiped her mouth onTanya’s shirt and then her eyelids drooped.

Tanyagave her a smile behind her mask. They were wearing masks to prevent anycontamination to the apes. She saw the baby’s eyelids droop further and felther cross her mental fingers that this time it would take.

Justthen there was a gasp down the hall. She looked up and then heard a cry ofalarm. Then Nasha was gone.

Shelooked down in shock as the weight was just gone from her arms.

“Whatjust happened?” she demanded, voice rising in alarm.

“What?What happened?” Doctor Khalid Shaen asked as he came into the room. “Where isNasha?”

Tanya’seyes were wide. “She was in my arms and then she wasn’t!” she said bewilderedas other staff came and reported that the other primates had disappeared.

Radiocalls went out to the head of the department and to security.

===#===

DoctorSean Jamba hugged his coat to his body as he watched the inevitable. It waschilly, the whales had led the Japanese vessel on a chase. The environmentalistsin the nearby boats had been forced off the chase to refuel. That would betough in the rough seas.

Obviously,the hunters were taking advantage of the lack of defenders to strike. Hewatched a deckhand uncover a harpoon on the catwalk attached to the bow of theship. He loaded it and began to aim.

Hesaw the harpoon go out and then just drop into the ocean. He thought it odd,but then he saw the whale breach. He imagined screams. He knew those monitoringthe hydrophones were probably cringing.

Butthen there were no more spouts of breath. He frowned and then thought theanimals had dived. He leaned over and checked the fish finder.

Thedeck hand on the nearby ship looked confused as well. A winch reeled in theharpoon line. It was slack so it came up fast. Everyone was surprised to see itcome up empty.

“Wheredid they go?” the captain asked. “I mean, they didn’t dive, they justdisappeared! We saw cavitation on the sensors and then nothing.”

“Really?”the doctor asked in confusion.

Thecaptain nodded.

Thedoctor came into the ship’s bridge to see the recording for himself.

===#===

Dolphinsthat had been rounded up in a cove off the coast of Taji Japan suddenlydisappeared as if in a wave just as the sun crested the horizon in a brilliantdawn spectacle. The hunters who had been waiting for the police to chase offthe film crew of environmentalists were angry. Initially they thought sabotagebut a check of the nets found no holes in it.

Boatteams went out again to round up another pod but no dolphins were found in thearea.

===#===

MV 6 Snippet 1

 So, I received the manuscript from Rea Wednesday. I've been a bit busy, and to be honest, wrapped up in finishing the Roo saga.

So, as to snippets, I'll do 1 from each story. I'll clean the book up and shoot it off to Goodlifeguide this weekend. :)

On to the snippet!

A Matter of Survival

 

Lop Earsighed heavily as he checked his zone. Nothing. It was getting near dark; histurn as sentry would end soon.

Most of the warren was hidden inthe shelters in the area and in the thocker and thumper trees. Temporaryshelters were to be built in the night by the cutters. But they needed to dosomething about the food and shelter situation. His stomach rumbled.

He had given all of his food tohis pregnant mate earlier, claiming he wasn't hungry. He didn't regret it; shehad a litter in her belly and had to feed them. If her body did not have enoughfood, the litter would die. Neither of them wanted that, but it might be for thebest.

It was getting cold. He couldfeel the heat seeping through his clothes as the sun's warming rays fell lower onthe horizon. It was bitter to want something that for his entire life he hadfeared. To be out exposed was a terrifying thing for most of the warren. It wasno surprise that many of the elderly and easily frightened had died of hearttrouble from the stress and anxiety.

It was their second night out ofthe warren. The meager supplies in the shelters were about exhausted. Somethinghad to be done.

He looked over to the warren. Itwas a crater; the giants had been busy digging the main shaft up over the day.He was again bitter, this time in anger at such destruction. So many of hiskind had died in the attack.

He felt a touch and looked to seeShredded Paw. The sentry nodded to him. He nodded back and passed over thespear before he went off to relieve himself and then head inside.

Black Speckle found him almostimmediately. She gave him water to drink, which he did. Once she was satisfiedwith that, she led him over to a small cove in the roots and pushed him down.

He had brought her straw andleaves. The leaves had been dry from the cooling air but she'd nibbled on someand used the rest as bedding material for herself and some of the does nearby.Fur lined the improvised nest. She pushed him down and then climbed on top ofhim.

He wordlessly protested androlled to cover her with his own body for warmth. She poked him until he endedup on his side with her nuzzled under his arm. He gently stroked her head andflat ears.

She twitched her nose and thenclosed her eyes and went to sleep. He soon followed.

~======~

Counter noted the shift changeand nodded wearily. He was bone tired. He wasn't getting much sleep, and histhoughts were beginning to slow. It was hard to keep up. There was so muchsorrow.

They still didn't have a nosecount on the losses. They had finally gotten in touch with the far flungshelters. Some of his people had fled to there, others were said to have goneand moved on. They wouldn't know the full death toll for some time.

He was already angry and saddenedby it. A lot of his people had ignored the warnings to head up and had insteadfollowed instincts and burrowed deeper to their doom. The poison gas that thegiants had unleashed had killed them. Even if they'd found a way to barricadethemselves into a tunnel, the fog-like gas seeped through the ground itself.

The day before they had seen thegiants excavate the warren core. They had taken many things from it. Some thingswere disdainfully thrown to the side. Bodies that were found were sent to theclearing and the Giant's Warren thing.

He had watched warily and sadly.It had hurt to see so many snuffed out so callously. Death was not unknown tothe Roo and not just in singles. Sometimes fire or flood would take many.Sometimes disease or even fear would. But this was different.

Those other things he could dolittle about. A predator could be killed. These predators though, they were toodangerous to fight. Roos survived by hiding from such monsters.

He had suppressed the urge tohold a memorial for the dead. He knew it hurt one and all, but the thumpingwould have attracted the attention of the Giants. They had to be quiet and hopethat the enemy stayed occupied with their spoils and did not go looking for therefugees.

He looked at the slowly sinkingorb in the sky and then around them. This was the longest he had ever been nearthe surface, and the tension gnawed at him like many others. That and the cold,he had some clothing due to his advanced age, one never felt completely warm asyou grew older, but this was different. They didn't have stout earth aroundthem to keep the warmth in—nornests, nor food. His stomach gnawed on his insides right on queue.

He gnawed on his well-gnawedstick to ease the hunger pang for a moment.

He had sent out runners to thefar-flung communities after Fast Thumper had thunked out the warning in thetree. There had been muted answers from two of their nearest neighbors. GreenPainted Rocks had sent a short reply and then went silent.

No doubt they did not want togive away their position. In a way, he couldn't blame them.

They had plenty of water. Theyhad temporary shelter, though the trees and hidden shelters would not lastthrough the long cold. They needed a proper warren. They needed to break thecommunity up and send them in convoys to their neighbors soon or find a newnesting place.

It was already shaping up to be aharsh cold season. All of their supplies were in the warren's chambers. Thosethat had been stored in the shelters for emergency use had been depleted.

Hunters, Defenders, Breeders, andGathers had warily gone out to take in what they could. Cutters had brought inwood but it was too dangerous to burn. They had shifted their focus togathering what nesting material they could to insulate the hollows and rootsthat were being used as small nesting sites.

It wasn't enough though. His peoplewere packed into the tree and shelters. They had little room to move within. Worse,some of the younglings were beginning to gnaw on the roots out of hunger. TheDoes were drying up for lack of food to produce nourishing milk. The younglingshad to eat or they too would die.

In a way it might be for thebest, he thought grimly.

~======~

Schedule

The Schedule:

So, I'm a bit ahead of the game, I've gotten 4 books off to the Betas. I just sent 1, Multiverse 6 off to Rea.

For those in the know, they might be scratching their heads since that wasn't next on the schedule. Well, I made an executive decision and changed the schedule. Twice.

So, next up is: Multiverse VI

 There are 5 stories in there. 1 PRI story, 2 Federation/Engineer stories, and a few others. It is short but has some... well, you'll see!

I'm shooting to publish that book this month.

After that is Horatio Logan Chronicles 5 Beyond Pi;

Which is in parallel with Fortunes of War and will... well, you'll see. 😜

After that we have Academy:

Which is another collection of short stories of officers and some of their experiences as cadets.

Added into the queue is Multiverse VII which I finished last month:

Multiverse VII has 5 more stories, all scifi including 2 more Engineer/Federation stories.

After that we'll have the Roo Collective (Working title) novel. That one is a compilation of the Roo short stories in MV 5-7 with the ending of that saga tacked on. I'll be diving into that sometime this week.

After that will be Expanding Horizons, which is Pirate Hunt 3 (Irons) and then back to the schedule.

So, now you know what I'll be producing for the next oh, 5-6 months. 😏

I'll start posting snippets for MV 6 this week. (If I remember!)

At the Crossroads, Jethro 8 has published!

 Sitrep:

So, we had an unfortunate delay (out of my control) but we're back on track. J8 has been published as of this morning. 

  Brittle, battered, and bruised but unbroken fromtheir harrowing escape of Horath's destruction, Jethro and Bast had to maketheir way home. There they had to meet the litter he'd never met and make upfor a decade of lost time with resentful kittens grown in body but not inmaturity. It was supposed to be a time of healing and bonding but something orsomeone was hunting them…

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CB6ZBC5G

 B&N: