Chris Hechtl's Blog, page 11

Jethro 8 Snippet 6

 Most likely the last snippet before the book publishes:

 

Kathy's World

 

Shantiand Lil Red were met at the spaceport by Rah and Lil White. They exchanged cheekrubs and embraces and then went about chasing the men folk who had come tocarry the luggage.

"Justour luck Red went shopping," Lil White's husband groused good naturedly.Red pretended to try to kick him but he was out of reach.

"Loveyou too, sis," he teased mockingly. She shook a fist at him.

"So,which way is Jethro coming?" White asked as she looked at them.

"Ah…"

Abear stepped over the diminutive cat and kept moving. Red shook her head."Talk about a low bridge."

"You'retelling me! That was a kilt too and he needs to wash his undies!" Whitegrowled, loud enough for her voice to pitch across the concourse.

Thebear turned back and looked at her while other people around him sidled awayslightly.

Redsnickered. The bear looked ready to argue but he saw Rah in her planetaryconstable uniform and thought better of it and let the embarrassment drop.

Shantishook her head at the byplay. "Always taking swings above your weightclass I see," she said.

"Always,"White agreed with a snort and ear flick. "And quit stalling."

"Iwasn't stalling; you changed the subject," Shanti said as they waited fortheir luggage. "To be honest, I don't know."

"Well,if they did a jump from where they ended up to Nuevo Madrid, they'd shavemonths off the journey."

"Andrisk themselves on an unexplored route? I'll wait just fine. I've waited thislong," Shanti said with an ear flick. White looked at her searchingly andthen nodded once. She reached out and patted her friend with a gentle hand.

"Thereare two routes. The southern one is fourteen jumps but has two long ones in it.The northern one loops up and back as it dances around Horath." Shegrimaced at the reminder. "It's two jumps longer but they could movefaster. It all depends on who is driving."

"Ah."

"Themilitary wants them back, so they'll figure it out," Red said with an earflick. "Not that they are getting many of them back anytime soon. Jethrosaid he's taking a lot of his accumulated time off." She looked up with awicked grin to Shanti. "I understand they have time to getreacquainted."

"Whichmeans we'll have to make ourselves scarce," White chuffed in amusement.

Shanti'seyes lowered in embarrassment.

"That'sokay. We'll figure something out. I have been away for a while; you can show meall the changes. Did they build a theme park yet?"

"No,nothing like on Antigua. But there are ski resorts and other places. Plenty ofplaces to camp and there are carnivals that travel around," White answeredas the luggage arrived.

 >>*<<

Shantifound out as they waited for the luggage that they had arrived a week to tendays ahead of Jethro. That was good. It would give her some time to settle in,but it was bad in that she was supposed to report into her job in two weeksfrom her landing. She’d have little time to spend with him before she had toget back to work. She resented that a little, but it was what it was, there wasno changing it now.

Thetwo cats had been woken up from stasis in orbit on the ship and then yawned asthey were hustled out to the waiting shuttle. Despite the jostling from theturbulence, Red had curled up and nodded right off again.

Therewas news on the video screen, one part to get them up to speed and one part todistract them from the ride down. She knew she’d have to absorb it eventuallybut wasn’t really listening to it with her full attention. She used herimplants to check her email … did she get email through the ansible? Probablyofficial correspondence and short messages on occasion from Jethro or thefamily if they paid for it but anything else had to go by courier or not atall.

Whenthey got to the luggage area, she noted Lil White was wearing a shawl. Redhugged her, nearly knocking her sister over in her exuberance. “What’s with thegranny look?” she asked at arm’s length a moment later.

“Iam a grandmother. Besides, I’m cold,” White complained as shehugged herself. She was a short-furred cat like her sister so the cold got toher quickly.

Redblinked and then nodded. She looked a little sad though and stroked her sister.White leaned into her, as much for comfort as for additional shared warmth.

Theyhad to wait on the luggage arriving and then sort it out with the otherpassengers. Once they had everything, they had to haul it out to the curb andthen find a way to get it into the van along with themselves.

Therewas so much luggage that in the end they had to strap some of it to the roofrack. They had to go around the loop to keep from getting a ticket while theywent and found rope and straps to buy from the local shop. Shanti almost brokedown and tried to find a service to have it all delivered to the house. Shehadn’t anticipated the last-minute addition of her FBI wardrobe and gear wouldbecome such a complication.

Oncethe van was loaded, they crammed into the vehicle. White and her husbandBrandon sat in the front passenger seat. They rode home and initially admiredthe sights as the sun set. Rah and Red sat in the back with Shanti as Rah’smate drove. He willingly brought them through a fast-food drive thru to allowthem to get takeout and then continued their journey.

>>*<<

Jethro 8 Snippet 5

 

 

SG3R211-94 Sigma Sector Capital

 

Suqinoted her family was in transit so there was a natural delay on emails. Thatsucked. It was coming to an end though; they would be hitting their homeworldsoon.

Onher next ground-side leave, she had four days off because it was a holidayweekend. She wished Hurranna was around, but the cat had been stuck in atraining exercise and her carrier was on the other side of the star system forthe holiday. That sucked.

Thestar system had been pirate controlled until it had been liberated. When theFederation had come in, the massive habitats had been restored and additionalspace stations built. There was even a dedicated ONI station called Delphi.

Thenatives had consolidated on a moon colony that had massive domes on it. Insideit didn’t look at all like you were indoors. The designers had done their bestto make it as large and impressive as possible. It was helped with the factthat the moon had an ocean, near 1G gravitational field, and a molten corewhich spun and generated its own magnetic field. There were some talks amongthe natives about possibly terraforming the moon into a habitat like herhomeworld Kathy’s World.

Sheended up getting dragged to a recently opened theme park by a group of Marines,one was Blainey, an old friend from boot. She hadn’t interacted with “The B Blainey”much in boot but apparently Blainey fondly remembered her however, the “cat.”

Blaineywas a husky human woman, not a heavy worlder, but she definitely worked out.She had a chiseled face and had a reputation of being in bar fights. She hadbeen masted twice and nearly lost a stripe after one altercation. Her nose wasjust a little out of position due to a couple lucky hits.

Theygot through the lines to get in relatively quickly. They traveled in their civies,and she thought everything was fine. There were an inordinate amount of humansin the group, but the planetary population had been hit by the plagues as wellas pirate genocidal hunts for years before it was liberated by the Federation.

Oneof the first rides they got on was a Ferris wheel. It was giant and hollow core.It was driven by massive wheels on the ground. The hollow center allowed tworoller coaster tracks to pass through it. The passengers on the Ferris wheelrode in cars that moved in and out as the wheel rotated.

Whenthey went up, she found out it was timed so the cars would tip and then rushtowards a coaster just as it came through the hollow and then the car wouldswing up and away in the nick of time. It was a scary experience but excitingand fun once she realized it had all been carefully engineered for the frightexperience.

Thesecond pass, the rush and tip of the car were expected. The roller coaster wason its way back and that track corkscrewed in a wild maneuver.

“Weare so going to try that coaster next,” Blainey gushed girlishly.

Suqisighed internally but nodded.

  >>*<<

Hurrannahad some idle time since it was a holiday weekend. She hated that they werestuck on the other side of the star system, but she wouldn’t have missed theflight time with the training operation for anything in the galaxy.

Shecouldn’t get actual time with Deja, so a video conference was the next bestthing. They were doing it under the pretense of debriefing after the previousexercise. The talk quickly shifted to Jethro and Ox’s survival though.

“Tohave survived that,” Deja said as he shook his bullet-shaped head. As a selkie,he could cut through the water or space with incredible ease.

“Yeah.I bet if they’d had you along, they would have been back in half the time,”Hurranna said.

“Maybe,”Deja said thoughtfully. He still had a chip on his shoulder about being draggedinto a helm position. Fortunately, the Federation navy now had plenty of peoplelike him who could do it now.

“Noifs, ands, or maybes about it,” Hurranna said with a snort and ear flick.

“Maybe,”Deja said again and then wiggled his whiskers as the lynx shot him a reprovinglook. “Like I said, maybe. Too many variables,” he said with a slight shrug.

Shecocked her head but let that one go.

“Heardanything from them?” Deja asked.

“Igot the email from Jethro. Short and sweet and to the point, a thanks and yup,still kicking,” she said. They both looked at each other in amusement. “Ox …nothing. Then again, word is he is in terrible shape.”

Dejanodded and looked concerned. “I thought they had AI and nanites and stuff tokeep them alive?” he asked.

“Yeah,I heard the same thing. It is probably why they are alive,” Hurranna said. Dejalooked at her and then nodded slowly.

Jethro 8 Snippet 4

 Sitrep: So, Rea sent me back the manuscript this morning. I just got through the edits (while Ember was asleep on one arm, lol) and shot it off to Goodlifeguide.

So, clock is ticking down to when we go live and publish. :)

On to the snippet!

 

Antigua

 

Aweek after finals concluded Shy came to Cleo with a problem. Cleo had the same problem,and she contacted her brothers who were scratching their heads on what to do.

Shegathered them at a park picnic site and sipped her drink as they finally showedup. As usual Baggy was the last one in.

“So,what are we going to do?” Shy asked.

“About?”Baggy drawled.

“TheUniversity is shutting down for the summer semester. They canceled all in-personcourses; everything else is online.”

“So?”Baggy asked. He was down to the one course and another he had to repeat becausehe’d gotten dinged for poor attendance. It wasn’t his fault; he’d overslept toomany times because he’d been up gaming.

“So,they are shutting the dorms down too,” Cleo said firmly.

“Um…,” he blinked.

Cleorolled her eyes to the other siblings. “Check your email,” she sighed.

“Um…”

“Igot it too. My floor’s dorm monitor said we don’t have to go home but we can’tstay here,” Ruabelk said, clearly aggrieved. “This sucks!”

“Yeah,”Baggy said as he accessed his email. His eyes widened. “They can’t do this!” hecomplained. He looked up.

“Foundthe email I take it?” Cleo asked mildly.

“Yeah!And it’s not fair! And so what if I’m below the minimum and my grades suck! Istill need a place to stay!”

“Ah,huh. So, that game career thing isn’t working out for you? And what do you meanminimum?” Cleo asked.

“Ah…,” he scowled. “Okay, so I overslept a few times,” he grumbled.

“Uhhuh,” she said as she eyed him. “Mom’s going to love you for that one,” shesaid.

Hiseyes went back but then he perked up. “She’s not here,” he said defiantly.

“Right.Which is a problem. Unless you don’t mind living on the street?” Cleo asked.

“Crap.”

“Wecan’t get into a frat until the fall when they take in new applicants,” Shysaid. They turned to her. “I checked. I was looking for options.”

“Oh,”Ruabelk said with then sighed. “Most of the kids on my floor are either goingback to family or going on trips. I thought about that but …,” he waved a hand,“no money.”

“Yeah.Once we’re out of class, the money dries up,” Cleo said.

“What?”Baggy demanded. “No money? Since when?” he demanded.

“Thescholarship is for one year. We have one semester left. We can only draw on itfor stuff for school and food.”

Bagheerascowled.

“Noschool and the money gets suspended.”

“Guessit’s time to find a job?” Shy asked. “I also checked in with Zuhura; she can’ttake in any of us since she lives on a restricted base.”

“Frack,”Ruabelk said. “I was about to suggest her.”

Shyshook her head. “She’s got a small apartment anyway. It’d get a bit crowdedwith four us on her love seat.”

“Crap,”Ruabelk muttered. “Crap, crap, crappity crap.”

“Yeah.”

“Whatabout … the house?” Bagheera asked.

“Whatabout it?” Cleo asked as she eyed him.

“Idon’t know, go and get it back?” he suggested weakly.

“Andhow do we do that?” Cleo asked in exasperation. “Go knock on the door and tellthe nice family now renting it that, sorry, we need to throw you out because weused to live here?” she asked.

Bagheera’sears went flat.

“Thatdoesn’t cover how we’re going to live either,” Shy said.

“Whatabout mom’s car?” Ruabelk asked hopefully.

“Shesold it.”

“Ah,forgot that,” he mumbled.

Bagheeralooked disgusted. He’d been saddled with mass transit and absolutely hated it.He had hoped to get the car. Now that scheme was ruined too.

Therewas a long drawn-out silence. It was finally broken when Cleo hit bottom withher straw and began to suck air through her straw noisily. She shook the drinkmaking the ice clink and then set it aside.

“Yeah,going with mom on that trip is more and more appealing. Pity we didn’t while wehad the chance,” Cleo sighed.

“Wecouldn’t. We had finals,” Shy said.

“Well,we’ve got four days to figure out a miracle.”

“Amiracle?” Bagheera demanded. “Can’t we get an extension to stay in the dorms?”

“Maybefor a little while. But we would have to find something. As I see it, we’d needa shit ton of money to rent an apartment together. Down payment, all that,”Cleo said.

“Okay,look into that. Maybe we can do it together?” Ruabelk asked as he perked up.

“Ah,first we need the money, plus a proof of income. That means a job we’re eachworking,” Shy said.

“Startwith the money,” Cleo said. “How do we get it? And rental history? I remember momtalking to the leasing company about finding the right people. We don’t have ahistory.”

“Ah… I think we need to talk to Zuhura. See what she can think of,” Shy saidslowly. The others reluctantly nodded.

>>*<<

Jethro 8 Snippet 3

On to Chapter 3:

Chapter3

 

Antigua

 

ShantiMcClintock found out that it would take 8 months for the courier to pick itsway around the western reaches of the sector and get back to the capital. Itwould take 3 months for the ship to get them to Kathy’s World so she let thecubs enjoy their first semester in college.

Theywere going to travel in stasis in military shipping. She was firm about themgoing, though she had to work on a couple of the cubs who put up a fuss. Someof them were refusing to commit to going. That bothered her. They were all incollege at the Antigua University. Bagheera was struggling though.

Sheshot an email off to Lil White and her husband to alert them that they were allcoming, but didn’t have a hard ETA. She would follow that up later.

Shewas looking forward to the trip.

  >>*<<

“Rebuildingthe Cadre got a shot in the arm,” Warrant Morris said with a grin as he lookedat the numbers. “We just got the better part of a platoon, or will when we getthem back here and sorted out.”

“Iknow,” General Lyon said with a thoughtful nod.

“Thefinal butcher’s bill will have some impact. I do admit getting the veteransback will be great,” Mars stated.

“Iknow,” the general said again.

“We’llhave to bring them up to speed with the Cadre 3.0 program,” Mars stated.“They’ll need updating.”

“We’llhave time for that. How are they medically?” General Lyon asked as he looked toRear Admiral Nara Thornby, the naval officer in command of the medics in theCadre program.

“Bad.Some worse off than others like Ox and Jethro,” Nara said as she consulted hernotes. She had made a few based on what the medics had sent from TFP.

“Thatbad?”

“Yes.They will need extensive time to recover. Their suits are all compromised; theyhad to strip them for parts. Their AI have downgraded a lot. That is a problem.They tapped out their bodies for nanites and nutrition. Some didn’t eat ordrink for months.”

GeneralLyon winced as some around the table sucked in a shocked breath.

“Howis that even possible?” Lieutenant Feathersnake asked.

“Theyexisted on willpower, their implants, and rotating in and out of stasis,” Narasaid. “From the sound of it, a lot of will power.”

“Ibet.”

“Oxis the hardest hit. A few of the Cadre went into stasis immediately and wereonly woken to donate nanites to help with the ship maintenance. They aren’tthat bad. But all of them are going to need trauma and psychologicalcounseling. Not just for grief over the friends they lost, but also for thetime they lost too,” Nara stressed. “The galaxy kept moving while they drifted.Some of them got left behind. I know two of them are going to have additionalgrief issues since some of their family died when they were in stasis.”

TheGeneral nodded sagely.

“Thegood news about their armor is that it is now ripe for the Cadre 3.0 upgrade,”Willow said. She was clearly excited to meet some of the legends of the Cadre.“When they get here I mean.” She frowned. “Can’t we send them updates? Youknow, some packages to help them along while they are in transit?” she askedplaintively, turning to the admiral.

Narafrowned thoughtfully. After a moment she shrugged. “There is only so much wecan do to heal their bodies. They need time, proper nutrition, physical therapyto get back into shape, and time for their minds to heal.”

Thegeneral noted the emphasis on time and nodded.

“WarrantMcClintock made it clear he is going to be taking an extensive leave to be withhis family,” Mars said. Commander Enki had passed that tip on to him.

“Understandable.Understandable for all of them and all leaves are approved,” the generalstated. “We can get them checked out as they settle in.”

Naranodded and made a note.

“So,no hit in the arm when they get back?” Morris asked, clearly disappointed.

“No,it’s going to take a while. But I’m for one glad they are back at all,” thegeneral said finally before moving on to the next item of business.

>>*<<

ZuhuraMcClintock was still coming to grips with her father’s survival. The entireCadre was excited and all smiles about the survival of an entire platoon oflegends. Her father had seemingly done the impossible… again.

Shehad visited with her mom and helped her to arrange the trip to Kathy’s World.But Shanti had mentioned some stiffening resistance from some of the cubs. Shewondered if her mother could let them go and be adults yet or if she was goingto put her foot down.

Shehoped for their sake that they went and met their father to get to know him,and vice versa. But she knew that they would never make up the time lost.

>>*<<

LilRed was the most excited of all of the cats to see Jethro. Shanti was amused byher excitement. She had always shared a special relationship with Jethro, onethat Shanti had come to accept.

“Itis going to be like old times!” Red said, jumping from the back of the couch tothe table and then back.

Shantichuffed and shook her head. Shy got into the act and chased Red, making herscamper with delight and her old youthful exuberance.

>>*<<

Cleopatrawasn’t certain what to make of her father’s miraculous survival and upcomingreturn. She was reluctant to go to Kathy’s World. Her mother was leaning onthem hard now that the date of departure was coming closer.

Shehad wrapped herself up in the University initially. But she hadn’t liked theculture and some of her professors. She hadn’t liked being in the studentdorms, they’d been hell. No privacy, the smells had made her gag… she shook herhead in annoyance.

Sheknew that Shy had a similar experience with her freshman year. They had droppedclasses to the minimum and were regrouping. The university refused to let thembunk together. They had gotten hints that an extended sabbatical might helpthem prioritize their futures.

Shehated being pressured. But she did like the idea of an adventure to theirmother’s homeworld, it could be fun but her entire life, her friends were allon Antigua. She had finals coming up. She needed to focus on that. Things mightchange between then and now.

>>*<<

Jethro 8 Snippet 2

 Sitrep:

I was supposed to take time off around my Birthday (and Carlos' birthday. Happy B-day again dude!) but it has been nigh on impossible. Ember is extremely co-dependent at this stage. (I can't even use the potty without her trying to break the door down!)

So, I've been puttering around with another Roo story for Multiverse 7. "Didn't you just finish Multiverse 6?" I hear some ask. Yes, you would be right. I bumped MV7 up the list since I seem to be only able to write in short bursts.

Today has been particularly trying, the little monster tested my patience to the absolute limit. She messed me up many...many times as I was trying to get thoughts down into the story and wrap it up. She finally decided to cuddle in my arms to fall asleep. A few minutes ago she crawled out of them to slither into the night stand in a nest she's created there. She's welcome to it.

So, I'm getting caught up on things while I have a brief (all too brief!) breather. Here is the snippet:

 

Chapter2

 

TFP

 

WarrantOfficer Jethro McClintock found out that they were to travel back to Antigua instasis aboard a fast courier. One of the fastest couriers had been in Finagleabout to jump into Sigma when they had arrived in the TFP star system, whichstood for Tiny Frickin’ Planet. He heard that the captain and crew were tryingto break all records to get to them and pick them up, he was grateful for that.

Forthe return journey the courier would have to reroute around the destroyedHorath star system, but apparently the navy was taking that into account in theplanning of the movement.

They’dhad their dinners and the navy had broken them up into various groups. Thelocal JAG had thrown around phrases like ‘isolated persons during operations inhostile territory’ so they were being treated initially like rescued POWs.

Itmeant debriefs to go along with the time being poked and prodded by medical. Hehad been offered his choice of a special counsel to request. He didn’t know ofanyone he specifically wanted. The local JAG, a lieutenant JG who seemedexcited by their arrival hinted that she could act in that capacity.

Hewasn’t certain he wanted it and had a feeling she just wanted to ride along toget out of the terminally dead end posting. He brushed the inquiries off untilshe dropped them with a slight air of disappointment.

>>*<<

Jethro’sinbox began to fill up with congratulations from old friends and colleagues asnews spread of their survival. Admiral Shelby Logan, Admiral Irons, AdmiralHoratio Logan, Gunny Schultz, General Forth, General Lyon, and many others paidtheir respects.

Shelbywasn’t shy about wanting his services. He wrote back that he was going to takea prolonged leave of absence to be with his family. She sent him a big thumbsup in reply.

Hewas still coming to grips with the news of the Federation since they had beenlost. A lot had happened. He received daily emails from Shanti and Zuhura.

Bothladies warned him to not expect much from the new litter. He did in fact get aget well email from Cleopatra and Shy, but nothing from the boys for days.

>>*<<

Basthad continuous issues with her processors and the armor. The armor wascompletely offline, only the helmet and torso remained. It had been stripped ofparts and nanites. It was effectively an inert shell and she felt… damaged.Off.

Shehad backed up as much as she could in Jethro’s implants and created artificialDNA packets for long term storage but she was not certain how much she hadlost. She had regressed further. All of the AI had in the time they had lost.

Theyhad also stripped their host bodies of nanites. One of the first things theydid was get more material to make more nanites. But the process took time togrow more and distribute them throughout their host’s bodies.

Thehosts also needed a lot of medical repair, which divided their time. She wasinitially happy for the medical intervention. Jethro had become severelydehydrated and deprived. Only his iron will had kept him fully sentient.

TheAI’s regressions hadn’t gone unnoticed by their hosts. They kept asking aboutit and the AI could only shrug such concerns aside. Their armor had been packedaway so they couldn’t access it to begin repairs even if they had nanites tospare.

Inevitablya few of the concerned Cadre members found their way to Ox, their residentengineering expert. He was spending a great deal of time in medical, far morethan most.

“I’llwork on it,” Ox said, voice rough with fatigue.

Jethrolooked concerned. “We’ll work on it you mean.”

Oxfrowned in puzzled confusion.

Jethrostamped on the dismay he felt at his friend’s look. “I can’t be away from myarmor remember? Right now it’s offline, sleeping,” Jethro gently touched thearmor with his fingertips. “But it will be reforged and woken once more.”

Oxgrunted and then nodded.

“Untilthen it’ll go with me to Kathy’s World. Bast and I will do what we can to getthe minimum up and running until we get back to Antigua.”

Oxnodded again. He looked tired and concerned.

“Hey,you and I both learned under the same tutor remember?” Jethro asked. Ox snortedsoftly in memory. “That’s right. So, I can get by. But, I’d appreciate any tipsand tricks you come up with when you get back to Antigua.”

“Counton it,” Ox said roughly. He nodded and then relaxed.

  >>*<<

SG3R211-94 Sigma Sector Capital

 

WarrantOfficer Hurranna got a call from Suqi and wondered what was going on. When hership was in orbit she put a video call in.

“Sokiddo, what gives?” Hurranna asked. She could clearly see excitement in theother cat’s face.

“He’salive!” Suqi gushed, eyes bright as she bounced on her rack.

“Who’salive?” Hurranna asked, wrinkling her nose. She was a lynx, her bloodline was abit muddied but she leaned heavily to the Canadian Lynx form. She had been agraduate of F platoon and had served the Marines in a variety of roles beforefalling in love with being a fighter pilot.

Shehad risen through the ranks to become CAG of her own ship on her own merit. Herold friend Deja was also a CAG but he’d been pressured recently to either takea teaching post or mustang to officer.

Shehad been a bit lonely and had latched onto Suqi and Sabu when she had found outthat they had been deployed to the sector. She acted as their impromptu auntand she was grateful that they accepted her in that role.

“Dad!”Suqi nearly screamed, briefly rushing the camera before sitting back down.

“Dad?”Hurranna asked, clearly confused.

“Dad!He survived! They survived! He got out! They just turned up at a placecalled TFP!”

Hurrannastared dumbly at her.

“Imean most of them made it out. Ox made it too he said. Not everyone though,Letanga didn’t make it. But I talked to him! Live!”

Hurrannacontinued to stare. Feelings welled up inside her. Denial was first, thenrelief, shock, consternation, and then excitement and exuberance.

Ithit her in waves and she felt almost orgasmic when the elation started. Thetears came too. “He’s alive,” she said, covering her muzzle with her hand.“Alive.”

“Yeah.Oh, I’m sorry I did it like this but I couldn’t wait!” Suqi said.

Hurrannanodded.

“Yousaid Ox too?”

“Yeah,I’ll play the video for you. They’ll be on the news soon I bet,” Suqi said.

Hurrannawatched fascinated as Jethro appeared and talked to his family. She smiled awatery smile. She’d have to tell Deja, she really should soon. At the momentshe just felt incredible at the miracle that had unfolded.

  >>*<<

Jethro 8 Snippet 1

 Okay, a little late, but here we go:

Chapter1

 

Sigma Sector

 

WarrantOfficer 1 John Draco tightened his hands into fists and then slowly relaxedthem. It was the only movement he allowed for. He was trapped in a coffin goingwho knows how fast as it crossed the void.

Histeam had used boosters to boost up to speed on course for the objective. Therewas a concern about the thermal flare so they had to cut the boost phase welloutside of long range sensors and then take the rest of the ride in stealth.Once the boosters flame out they are jettisoned. Travel the rest of the courseon ballistic.

They’dspent a long 3 days in space getting to their target. He’d slept some, suckedon the tube of suit food, and ran the plan through his mind over and over. Itwas a cruiser, a new design but they had the detailed blueprints and specs onfile. So far no surprises.

Thebiggest thing was not to spook the target. If they got even a whisper of anaval vessel in the star system they would have jumped into hyperspace and ranfor it. Hence his team’s present occupation and mission. He was prayerful thatthe enemy wouldn’t get wise. He’d hate to bounce off their shields or see themjump away. It was a long damn walk home.

Someof the team had a whisker laser party going up until the last 18 hour stretch.He’d cut them off with a curt order. He didn’t want to chance the lasers beingspotted. Besides, the griping about the suit chow and lack of bathroomprivileges had gotten old anyway.

Forthe past 6 hours he’d watched the target grow larger and larger on his HUD. Hewas pointed directly at it head down, so everything was fed into his HUD. Datascrolled, but the main things he picked out because his AI Angie highlightedthem for him. The ship class and fingerprint were a match. The interior map wasoverlaid over the hull. Objectives were highlighted.

Oneminute before burn the AI transmitted that in a whisker laser burst to eachsuit. He then braced himself as the AI handled the final maneuvers.

Theship didn’t see them coming. She didn’t have her sensors on high alert sincesupposedly nothing was in the star system to object to its presence.

Thesquad of suits endured a hard braking burn just as they came up on finalacquisition, the flare of IR making it suddenly obvious something was up. Theypassed through the layers of defensive protection in rapid order though, and hefelt a sense of relief as the inertial dampeners eased up. A lot of their powerhad just been sucked up by that maneuver, but it was worth it. No other suitcame close to being able to do what they did. It was why they had the suits.

Theteam reoriented to feet down and made a hard land onto the hull. Those withclaws dug in, two bounced off the hull, one heavy suit dented it. Harpoonshelped to get the wayward suits back on track and on the hull.

Radarand lidar on the ship opened up, searching the heavens for the sudden flares ofthermal energy. It was too late however. Draco unshouldered his rifle andchecked the safety by muscle memory, barely aware of the action. The suitsmoved and silently took out cameras as they moved to the designated airlocks.The warrant boarded the ship at the lock and then cycled anxiously through it.

Thiswas the time when he most worried about something going wrong. It was a chokepoint, totally in the control of the crew.

>>*<<

Theskeleton crew on graveyard watch heard the odd sounds of bangs through thehull. A few looked up and around in confusion and growing alarm. They began toquestion what was going on. Some however just shrugged it off.

>>*<<

Eachsuit went through an airlock. Some doubled up, some had their own airlock. Theyall had their objectives and knew the mission, the floor plan of the ship wasuploaded in their computers and their AI would keep track of their position andthe position of the others. Once on board, they ejected their flight packs,pulled out their weapons, split up into pairs, and began the process to takethe ship intact.

Theyhad no robots with them. Their flight packs had been on the ragged edge ofperforming the mission without the additional mass. They would make do withoutthem.

Eachboarder had stunners and blunderbuss with rubber bullets and shredder hollowpoint rounds. They could select the round as needed from 2 magazines. The wholepoint of the limited weapon mix was to limit the damage to the ship and crew.Rounds that could pass through flesh into the thin interior bulkheads could dopotentially disastrous things. That was strenuously avoided as much aspossible.

Eachboarder had a selection of stun grenades and micro cameras in their kit. Theyhad a very narrow window to get in and get as much done as possible before theywere detected. That was their golden time, precious beyond measure.

Atevery major computer terminal a device was plugged in to hack the network. TheAI linked through the remote WIFI link and got to work while also managing thehost’s suit, the tactical updates, and secondary weapons. They quickly set uptheir own network to coordinate the movement of the Cadre team and direct resourcesagainst opposition forces.

TheAI had their own objectives. They dedicated less than 30% of their processingpower and attention to their principles for the initial boarding action. Someof their mission objectives were critically time sensitive if they were goingto survive. They were in the golden hour of a boarding action. Every minutethat passed without the enemy becoming aware was a precious thing beyond value.

Likeany predator it was critical to take the prey and minimize any opposition toprotect yourself and certain objectives. Once the prey was aware they wouldinvariably thrash and panic. They had to prevent the worst of that.

Thesquad’s AI hacked into the ship’s computer and communication network within asecond. Multiple Cadre AI quickly overwhelmed the ship’s AI. “Their AI isgetting better,” Angie observed as the Horathian AI was cornered behind aseries of firewalls around its core and then went down.

“Didyou secure the priority target?” her host demanded.

“Negative.”The AI paused and noted activity in the primary and backup navigational suite.The suite power went offline abruptly and with a sense of defiance and finalityto it. “And it doesn’t look like we will. There was a secondary AI embedded inthe navigational suite. It just triggered a self-destruct.”

“Damn.”

“Agreed.”

“Switchup. Secondary objective is command and navigational personnel. Tertiary ishelmsman and engineering teams.” Klaxons went off and lights flared but it wasa life support alarm. The AI were following the script and locking the shipdown and evacuating the air in select compartments. That would prevent crew whowere not suited up from using those paths.

Withinseconds the crew were chopped up into isolated pockets of resistance. Some weretrapped in their barracks without weapons wondering what the hell was going on.The pounded on airlocks only to find a vacuum on the other side.

TheCadre were fully suited however, so a little vacuum wouldn’t bother them.

“Agreed.Hopefully they don’t have their own self-destruct packages in their implants.”

“Nodoubt they do.”

“Well,either way we still have a ship to capture.”

>>*<<

Meet Ember

 Sitrep:

So, Jethro 8 is in the hands of Rea. I'll start posting snippets tomorrow.

In the meantime, meet Ember!

 We picked her up from the shelter May 3rd. This little monster has quickly worked her way into our hearts. She keeps us on our toes. I had to shift the schedule to go with another short story novel in order to work my schedule around her. She likes to nap in my lap or arms for hours which makes writing impossible. Boy is she persistent when she wants a nap! lol

She got to me so much that I wrote a story around her which you will see in Multiverse 6!

So, Jethro 8, Horatio 5, Academy, and Multiverse 6 are done and in the hands of Rea and the betas. I'll start the next book next week or the week after. (Though I've been poking at another story for Multiverse 7 over the past 2 days)

 Oh, the covers:

 So, we have a lot to unpack and explore in the future!

Tauren Invasion Publishing Now!

 

The Taurens are coming! The Taurens are coming!

The Taurens invade the Federation unexpectedly. Here are the planet invasions from all of the Tauren Invasion books with a bit more. :)

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C41NSBH9

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

Tauren Invasion 5

 Sitrep:

First off, this was cool:

 I've seen them 3 times in person and countless times from my house. I still get a kick out of them flying over and rattling the windows. :)

I wish some of the other photos had come out. Oh well, next time!

Second: Goodlifeguide got Tauren Invasion back to me this morning. I will work on publishing it tomorrow.

On to the last snippet!

Chapter 5

 

Lebynthos

 

LieutenantO'Hara scowled as she read the latest report. The army and marine intelligenceofficers and staff, what little they had of them in the sector had been tappedalong with army and marine squads to help Federation law enforcement to trackdown Tauren spies. FIS and FBI and other agencies were of course involved. Theywere also tapped to track the enemy's lines of communication to their hiddenansible platforms in some of the star systems.

Easiersaid than done she thought as she scannedthe files. A big part of the problem was that she was one person on one planet.There had been a handful of students who had studied intelligence with theMarines but none had her level of training. To her chagrin she was the seniormilitary intelligence officer in the entire sector. Well, the ground forcesone, the spook in charge of the navy side was busy trying to get a handle onthe Confederation space tech and industry.

Theidea that she was the head of Marine and army intelligence in an entire sectorwas both a heady and scary prospect for her career. It meant everything wascoming down to her. Luckily, she was just one cog in a greatermachine; law enforcement and the civilian spook agencies were takingthe lead in the hunts.

Thatwas fine with her; she was trained to find spies but only during a combat oroccupation situation. Finding embedded spies was a different sort of animal.They still leaned in her direction though, primarily because many were learningon the job and it was a daunting task to find so many spy cells scatteredacross the sector.

Fortunately,they had a starting point, something she'd pointed out to every spook and lawenforcement she'd spoken with in conferences. Getting them over the idea of itbeing impossible had taken time.

Many ofthe planets lacked any sort of tracking on their immigration and definitely notgoing back generations. That meant they had to get creative. Where others hadwrung their hands in frustration, she had taken the second half oftheir mission and put it first.

Theembedded spies had to be communicating somehow after all. They either had dropsto a channel out of the star system to one that had an ansible, or they had anansible in the star system to communicate with. They were useless if theycouldn't get their intel out in a timely manner.

Findingthose lines of communication were therefore key to finding the spies. Whichmeant looking for the communication systems.

She'dworked with the communication techs over the course of a week to get a generalidea on what they should be looking for.

Theyhad started with a system that could find a spot in space and transmit a signalto it. The signal had to be strong enough to punch through an atmosphere on aplanet. Most likely the transmissions were short, pulse laser or narrow bandburst transmissions. Encrypted obviously.

In astar system that had no space presence, the spies had to beon the ground obviously. Which meant they had to transmit the signal throughthe atmosphere to a specific spot in the night sky as the planet rotated, androtated around its parent star. The ansible platform was orbiting somewhere toobut passively, and it had to be in space that was clear of anything that mighthit and hurt it.

Back tothe ground side part of the equation, all of the communication equipment andthe sensor equipment to find the ansible had to have computer support and allof that meant power. Hydro, solar, wind, whatever—itmeant a power fingerprint.

Thosethings gave them an initial list of things to look for. They took it a stepfurther in looking at what it would take to transmit a signal and where thatsignal could go. That was when someone brought in a navy spook briefly.

The ONIspook had pointed out that the ansible platform was most likely well off theestablished jump points since if they were close they might be spotted by aship. Unless they were completely solar powered, they had to havesome sort of nuclear power, either fission or fusion. They couldsupplement their power with solar, but that would give away a reflectivepresence.

Nuclearmeant neutrino spoor for the navy to find. It also meant onboard computers andmost likely a self-destruct package. But it also meant at some point theplatform had to be maintained by a visiting ship.

Thathad led to speculation about the maintenance ship. The navy was looking intothat and trying to pull records of ships was a fun thing she was gratefully notinvolved in. They had a database to compare it to though, one compiled to get ahandle on interstellar traffic and identify pirate activity. Hopefully,something nice would come out of that, though she had her doubts.

Therewas a hit though recently, several and one solid lead. The picket in the PlatteCluster had found a platform. The navy and spooks were handling the platform.There wasn't much said about that side. They had intercepted a series ofsignals to the platform and were busy decoding the signals. Better still,federal law enforcement was en route from the Trajan cluster.

Thenavy had pinpointed a series of targets on the planet. A recon drone had beendeployed in orbit, and they had identified a mountain home with a larger thannormal energy signature that was transmitting signals to the platform.

At themoment, they were hands off. The orders from on high were tomonitor the coming and going from the cabin and get IDs on everyone involved.

Therehad been no hits in Delos and Samos but a promising lead in Mykonos. That ledto a bit of frustration; it was one jump away from her and only two jumps from thecapital. It was also one jump from Tortuga. The navy wanted that sourcecocooned quickly, no doubt because whoever was there might be passing on intelabout convoys to and from Tortuga.

Thebiggest problem was that they didn't have enough agents and teams to go around.There were federal agents on some of the larger populace star systems, but notmany agents, and those that were there were involved in their own spy hunts,not to mention other cases.

She hada sneaking suspicion that the powers that be were scratching their heads on howto do something about this situation. They couldn't just ship people from Rhoin either, which meant in-house. So, in a couple of months she expected thatshe might get tapped to travel again.

Untilthen she would do the best she could, which meant watching from afar and givingadvice and looking for needles in very big piles of hay scattered across thesector.

~~{}~~

CaptainJG Mya Halice read the latest report and nodded. From the look of the exitpolling, Sparkling Seas was taking itself out of the running forthe Pele refugees. That was fine. She had a backup plan in place. As soon asthe vote was official, she'd execute it and redirect the platoon and team to 77.If they timed their arrival right, they would get there a week to amonth prior to the arrival of the refugee ships.

Thatwas, if the ships were loaded in a timely manner. They were still en route toPele and wouldn't be there for weeks, and knowing civilians they'd want to packeverything up to and including the kitchen sink for sentimentalreasons or tradition or an heirloom or whatever.

Shedidn't care. Honestly, there were enough ships to hopefully handle the load.They had a set weight and size limit on cargo though, and the community leadershad agreed to it in advance.

Shefelt for those people, but hopefully, once they were landed in a new home,the spirits would be kinder to them.

In themeantime, she still had the preparations for war to contend with.The Army Corps of Engineers had dispatched teams to work on evacuation centersand plans. The official reason was to help with natural disasters and they weregoing to stick doggedly to that cover story for as long as possible.

Itdidn't hurt that it was true. The primary purpose of those places would be tobe used in case of a natural disaster such as a hurricane, wildfire, flood, orwhatever. The threat of war was still just that, a threat.

Best tobe prepared, she reminded herself before digging through the reports. Gettingher people into position to make something of a difference was a big issue atthe moment. Getting people to take the plan seriously was second.

Theevacuation centers were supposed to be a funding match program. So far thegovernors had yet to come up with their side of the funding. She had a sneakingsuspicion they were going to play fast and loose and then expect the Federationto take up the slack. When the shit hit the fan, if, she remindedherself, they'd whine and boo-hoo and the Feds would have to fund the rest.

Sheshook her head. Sometimes she really hated politics.

~~{}~~

Tauren Invasion Snippet 4

 

Chapter 4

 

TauG9-77

 

“My such a fuss!”Admiral Richards said in a mock dismay voice as the black bear cub continued tosquall. “What's all the hubbub about, bub?” she asked in a teasing voice.

She winced whenthe bear cub squalled again and then looked about him blearily. Bear cubs couldbe extremely loud like this little fellow. He was complaining at being handledand probably the parlous state of his stomach.

He was clearlydehydrated and would not take to a bottle. According to the report his motherhad been found dead in her home. He was half the normal weight for a cub hisage. According to the report his stool had splinters of wood, cloth, and bitsof carpet in it. Not much there to eat in his room apparently.

She watched aNeodog nurse cuddle with the bear cub, walking him around and trying to soothhim as she checked the contents of his stomach and intestinal track with anX-ray scan. She sighed in relief after a moment; it was clean of debris andobstructions. “Well, that's a relief.”

She turned backto see that the nurse had even gotten the little guy to suckle. She smiled atthe glow of pleasure from the dog. The cub seemed to take to the bottleurgently.

“How did youmanage that?”

“I dabbed alittle honey on the tip and warmed the bottle. He liked the sweet flavor apparently,”the nurse murmured. She looked around. “We need a rocker,” she said.

Helen nodded.“Pediatrics, where this little guy belongs, at least as long as we're here,”she said.

“Yes, ma’am. Willhe be going down to the planet?”

“As soon as theyfind someone to take care of him,” Helen replied as she finished writing up herreport. “Weight daily. Keep an eye on how much he eats. Stool cultures daily,especially if there are any signs of infection.”

“Yes doctor.”

“Watch for gas,”the admiral said as she went on to the next patient.

That was the nicething about visiting worlds; she was getting plenty of practice with differentspecies. There were three groundside medical sites set up. They were shiftedevery ten days. The public was continuously informed about the sites. So fareverything was looking good though, no signs of the plagues.

That was arelief.

She left the ledlined X-ray suite and moved past the isolation room and then on to the nextbay.

The planet wasagricultural in nature, but they'd recently suffered a series of miningaccidents. Apparently with contact with the Federation, the planet's industryhad re-opened some of the mines. They had run into problems though.

A rash ofaccidents had been a major concern and a reason to invest in safety measuresand training. The crude air compressed chisels in the mines were known aswidow-makers for a reason. And explosives were dangerous, black powder evenmore so when not handled properly.

Silica dust wasanother big problem and not just for the miners. It got on their clothes andnot only caused respiratory issues with them but also their family.

Half of Site Bwas dealing with the respiratory issues while also dealing with injuries andlosses in hearing. She made a note to look into finding a way for the nativesto use hearing protection.

“An ounce ofprevention is worth a pound of cure,” she muttered.

“So, what do wehave here?” she asked, stopping at a bay where a man was sitting on the edge ofthe bed. Only the worst cases were sent up to the ship.

“Pineapple bitme,” the guy said a little too loudly. “You really feel it in your chest,” hesaid and then began to cough.

She eased himback into his seat. He was missing some fingers on one hand and had a badlymangled arm. The wounds were months old. Someone hadn't set the bones right.

“I can't lift thegear,” he said over and over.

She shook herhead. She'd seen a picture of the air chisels after she'd asked how some of theinjuries had been done. They were fifty kilogram monsters that frequently brokedown. It was very gritty dangerous work.

“We'll fix youup,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. She looked to the ward nurse andthen went over to consult with Doctor Bently. He quietly pointed out that theywere going to surgically repair the bone and brace it. His hearing could berepaired but what was the point if he was going to go back in and destroy itagain?

“No clonedtissue,” he said with a frown. “We don't have the time to do the fingers,mores' the pity.”

“Straightenwhat's left, fix the eyes and hearing and ribs,” Helen said. “Do what you can.Triage,” she murmured.

“Yes, ma’am,” hesaid with a nod.

“Do the hearing.When he recovers, make sure someone gives him information about hearingprotection.”

“I doubt he canread. But we'll give it a go, ma'am.”

“Good,” she said,patting him on the arm before moving on.

It was like thatall over the ship and at the ground stations. Fortunately, they didn't have todeal with the plagues this time, so work like this was a welcome change.

She made a swing throughtwo more wards and then checked out the cloning tanks.

The cloning tankswere reserved for critical organs since their time was limited. That meanthearts, lungs, livers and so on. One cloning bank was for making blood andblood components. Another for skin and muscle grafts. It still amused her thatthey had to explain that they needed to take blood and other samples in orderto make it. The people were ignorant but settled down once you patiently gavethem knowledge.

She looked up toa line and frowned as she read it. The lettering was a bit flaky. LOX, LiquidOxygen. The LOX and liquid nitrogen were being fed into the equipment in theICU and surgery suite where they would be converted into usable forms for thepatients. She made a mental note to ask about the painting.

LOX was notsomething to be played around with. It was stored and run through an evaporatorto be turned back into a gas. But it was very flammable and explosive. Everypiece of equipment was marked and the machinery sealed to prevent a sparkreaching the materials within. If a compartment had a fire, it went intolockdown and vented to space to kill the fire.

“Ma'am, we havean issue with the water filtration at site C. The mayor in the town is givingour people a hard time about it,” Florence reported.

“They don't wantit anymore?”

“No, they do.They are replacing pipe that had scale and crap. The water is not potable. Theproblem is that they want the shuttle to remain past the scheduled lift-offtime.”

She frowned. “Howmuch of a delay are we talking about?”

“Indefinite,” theA.I. replied. “And yes, I told them that isn't going to work. They said they'dappeal to the governor.”

“Go ahead. Thoseare navy shuttles.”

“There is talk ofa sit-in. I believe they want us to offload the equipment.”

“Not going tohappen,” She replied with a shake of her head. “We need that gear.”

Some of theshuttles could filter water and even provide power to a given area. But it wasa temporary fix.

“They are alsogiving us flack about material.”

Helen sighed. “Ofcourse they are.”

Due to ignorance,most people just didn't understand how the replicators worked. They weretantamount to magic. They didn't care how they worked; they just expectedresults. They didn't understand that you need material to use as a substrate inorder to turn it into the object you wanted to replicate.

“Call the mayor,”she said as she strode into her office.

“Done. He'sonline now, ma'am.”

“Mayor … Garcetiis it? This is Admiral Richards.”

“Finally! Someonewho knows what they are doing! I've been telling your people I need thatequipment to stay in place!”

“I understandthat. You have to understand our time on your world is limited. Our time inyour region is limited. Other areas need help and support too.”

“Not as badly aswe do!”

“Sir, twolocations on this world have been hit by hurricanes. Thousands lost their homesand have no access to fresh water or power.”

“That is theirproblem.”

“No, it iseveryone's problem; otherwise, people start dying,” Helen said with a frown.She wished she could see him. Then again, maybe not, at the moment she wantedto ring his neck. “Now, have you put an order in for a new filtration plant?”

“We have. Butthere is a delay.”

She inhaled andexhaled. “Okay? So, are you looking at alternatives?”

“Your people saidtheir engineers can whip some parts up with a replicator or a small filterplant.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, but theyneed material they said. I don't have it!” he said peevishly.

She shook herhead. “Mister Mayor, it doesn't all come from the press of a magic button. Westill have to adhere to physics.”

“And that means?”

“Simply put,energy can't be created or destroyed, just transformed. The same for matter. Wedon't create it from thin air. We take matter and convert it into what isneeded.”

“I still don'tunderstand.”

“Okay, simpleexample, a chair. You want the chair made out of, oh, wood.”

“Okay.”

“You feed thereplicator power for the machinery and nanites and wood. The machinery takesthe wood, and the nanites turn it into the chair according to the design youchose.”

“Oh.”

There was a longpause. Her lips pursed as she hoped he was finally catching on.

“The same if itwas made out of metal or other things.”

“You said ittakes energy,” he said.

“The machinerytakes energy to run to process the material. Energy is needed to power themachinery to grind the material up. Energy is needed to power the nanites andthe containment fields.”

“Oh. I thinkthat's good,” Mayor Garceti said.

“I do too.”

“So, when can youdo it? You can have your shuttle back when we get it.”

Her eyesnarrowed. “I hope you didn't just threaten to hold a naval shuttle and crewhostage, sir,” she said sternly. “We take a very dim view of such things. I canand will take action,” she warned.

“Ah, no, not whatI meant,” the mayor said hastily.

“You provide thematerial to our people. We'll get you a basic filter system. We have blueprintsfor simple bush filter systems. You'll need to change the filters often butthat should get you through this crisis until your new system is back online.”

“Okay, yeah, Iguess that works.”

“Find thematerial and get back to my engineers with it. They have a list.”

“Okay, okay.Fine. Geesh,” the guy said and then hung up.

Helen shook herhead.

“Some people,”Florence sniffed. Helen snorted and then went back to work.

~~{}~~