Chris Hechtl's Blog, page 19

Up for Air...

 Sitrep:

  So, Shelby 5 Juggernaut is complete and in the hands of the first Betas. I'm waiting on the last feedback for MV5 before that goes to Rea. We should see that by the end of the month.

Speaking of MV5, it is relatively short. (and for once doesn't have a Christmas story in it) I am going to try to add some artwork to the interior. (pics) we'll see how it goes.

  Shelby 5 is supposed to be (yeah right!) the last book I'm writing this year. I've got 3 books in the queue now. So, time to get caught up on projects.

  I've already started various Christmas projects. I'm into painting in the evenings. Some are okay, some... meh. But it is a fun diversion. Better than falling asleep in front of the TV or going nuts channel surfing to stay awake!

 Oh! Check this out!

 https://www.amazon.com/New-Era-Samair...

Guess who did the cover art? 😀 Simple but cool.

 Oh... speaking of covers:

 Hopefully the next post I'll start posting snippets of MV5! 

That's it for now!

Parabellum... prepare for war! Now!

 

  The Confederation-Federation war kicks off as the Confederation sends fleets of ships to conquer the Tau sector. Admiral Shelby Logan and her loyal crew saw the potential war coming and began to prepare.

  Confident in an easy victory the Tauren fleets sail into Federation territory. But the Federation Marines, sailors, and even citizens are grimly determined to prove them wrong and fight back.

  Across the sector the Federation must prove the old adage 'Si vis pacem, para bellum'. If you want peace, prepare for war.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GJ5R2XP

B&N: ---

Parabellum Snippet 3

 So, I'm in the process of uploading and publishing the manuscript but I hit a snag with B&N. They are lagging horribly. Still loading... (I've had 2 games of spider solitaire)

Anyway, while I wait, here is another and most likely the last snippet:

 

Minox IV

 

“So, you are telling me there is nothing, not a damn thing you can do to fix the situation?” President Ramhorn, leader of the Tauren Confederation demanded as he leaned on his fists and stared at his cabinet ministers. “That is unacceptable!” he fumed, nostrils flaring in barely suppressed rage.

It had been several weeks since the message from the human President Irons and the sudden cessation of their ansible. The leading experts in ansibles had no idea how he'd done it initially.

Now they knew something, but only because the A.I. network monitoring the system had reported a major security breach.

He had been frightened, angry, and shaken by the demonstration of power by the humans. That they had managed to tap into his people's ansible network and pass on a message like that said a lot about their abilities … and a lack of security on the part of his own people. It gnawed at him; if they were deficient there, what else were they going to find lacking?

“The ansible hardware is toast,” Director Ren stated, voice flat. “We now believe they used viruses to get past our computer security and into our network. They triggered the self-destruct packages once they passed on their message,” he said. He shook his head. “There is no way to get the hardware back online. The muons are gone.”

The president turned a look on him. “Gone?”

“Gone. If a split muon touches something else, they poof, are gone out of existence. The hardware is cooked too. Centuries of investment gone. As an act of war, it was a pretty damn good one. It is hurting us on a lot of levels,” he said.

The other cabinet ministers winced but didn't dispute that.

“At the moment, my people are working on getting new ansibles going to nearby star systems. It is a process though, and it will take time to get each ansible to its location. The further away they are, the longer the time it will take to get them there,” the communication director said.

Director Blacksight winced internally. Ren was new to the cabinet, his predecessor had been the female Flax. She had wilted under the president's raging tantrums and resigned just before he'd publicly fired her for the fiasco.

She had taken the brunt of the blame and heat for the fiasco but it wasn't all her. His people had quietly determined that the enemy had performed the hack by getting into the ansibles in their space. They didn't know which ones specifically, but it explained how Irons had managed to get into the network at all.

What he'd done before he'd made his presence known was keeping the director up a lot at night lately. How long he'd had access was another big question.

“Obviously our cyber security was lacking,” Ren stated.

“Obviously,” the president stated as he sat down in his chair heavily.

“We're working with the best techs to overhaul it and find where the enemy got in to prevent it from happening again. During this process, we've run into some nasty things that the Feds left behind in our net.”

“Ah?” the president asked, eyeing him coldly.

Ren was made out of sterner stuff than his predecessor. The president was slowly reshaping his cabinet to an all-male one. He had made it quietly known to his closest supporters that he thought cows were weak and would wilt under the stress of the job.

In truth they just got tired of his tantrums and blame game Director Blacksight thought. It was why he was in the room instead of his boss Admiral Clear Sight. She'd excused herself by “being stuck in transit” to get out of the meeting.

“We are still trying to get a handle on the level of presentation and the data stolen,” the communications director said, shooting a look to the Director of Intelligence. “We don't know their level of penetration into the military and intelligence side. But during the process of investigating and repairing the damage, our cyber security experts have run into a series of viruses and bots. They were left in our network …,” he paused as the president sat up straight and glared at him. “To, ah, try to further penetrate our systems and do more sabotage.”

“You intercepted them though?” the president asked.

“Yes, sir. And we now know what they look like so our A.I. are scrubbing their firewalls and looking for more. We are introducing cyber vaccines to protect against similar attacks in the future.”

“Ah. But you can't guarantee you got them all?” the chief of staff asked carefully.

“We can barely detect them. We're working on it, but we're going to have to go through all branches as well as the civilian side to make sure we cleared it all out. We are working with cyber security both in the government and in the civilian sector to take steps against it.”

“Fix it. Fast,” the president growled.

Director Blacksight nodded. The president turned to him. “What did they get?”

“We don't know. We do know that they gained access through the ansibles outside of the Confederation.”

The president's nostrils flared and his eyes lit with rage. “Your shop I believe?” he asked coldly.

“Yes, Herd Leader. One or more of their ships must have intercepted a signal going to an ansible platform. From there they located it and hacked it.”

“I see.”

“They are very good. How they got around our security is still being investigated as is how they got in so deep. The ansibles outside the Confederation are, or I should say were, extremely limited on bandwidth. Obviously, they found a way to get around that.”

“Obviously,” the president said scathingly. He sat back and drummed his massive fingers on the edge of the table.

The director didn't hold his breath or squirm. He was a professional political animal; he knew better than to show signs of weakness. He'd owned up to his part of the failure but refused to be cowed or surrender. If he did, he'd be out on his ass or worse before the meeting was over.

The president continued his scowl. The intense frustration he emanated was palatable to all in the room. He wanted to call them incompetent but he knew better. He could feel some of the frustration emanating from them too.

“Obviously, we can't deny we've suffered a major setback,” he said evenly. “The war that was to unite our people and push our boundaries out is now an issue.” He turned to the admiral.

“We have had a major command and control setback. Not just with command and control of our forces and bases but also with gathering intelligence in the Federation,” Admiral White Skin stated evenly. The admiral was a rare albino breed of Tauren. He was a brilliant strategist and politician and had managed to outmaneuver Broken Tooth and others for the coveted CNO slot. “We are trying to compensate with couriers but there is a major time lag involved with using them. We were also very short on them to begin with so we are pressing destroyers into service where we have to.”

The president nodded.

“At the moment, we know that Admiral Hard Nose has taken 77 and moved on to Triple Threat with the intent of taking it and then holding it until we give the go-ahead to move on.” He used his implants to trigger the holographic emitter.

The lights dimmed and the star chart of the sector came up on the table in front of them. A blinking icon where jump lines on their eastern border was shown.

“We have consolidation and follow-up forces moving into that area now, but they may have been stalled by the ansible strike,” the admiral stated.

The president looked ready to demand if he knew or not but stopped himself. He knew that the admiral did not know so asking the stupid question would have made him look foolish.

“In the north, Admiral Ela is taking the long road to 95 to ambush the enemy's pirate hunting Task Force 4.4. After that he is to check in and then move south to secure the north and consolidate with Hard Nose.”

The blinking icons indicated the locations for a moment and then more appeared in the southeast.

“In the southeast, Admiral Brewster was moving out ahead of Admiral Broken Horn. His last report was that he was taking 80 while Admiral Broken Horn had just departed Purple Nights. The main battle line has several major capital ships so they are slow in hyperspace.”

The president grimaced but nodded.

“I have forces moving to support all three fronts, including carrier task forces. All are of course out of contact,” the admiral stated with a shake of his head. “I received a single courier from the north checking in but that is it at the moment.

“There is a spot of good news,” Ren interjected. All eyes turned to him. “I was reminded of the war front last night. We moved some of our spare ansibles in the direction of the eastern and southeastern fronts in preparation of supporting our forces in the field if they were out of contact with an existing platform.”

“Go on,” the president ordered.

“We checked, those ansibles were not harmed. So, there are sixteen ansible cores moving in the direction of the fronts. I'd like to send a courier to run the transport down and have them drop off the ansibles in the Confederation instead.”

The president sat up straighter and nodded. “Good. Forgot to mention that earlier?” he demanded.

“Yes, Herd Leader. We moved on rather quicker than I expected,” the communication director said, indicating his notes.

“Anything else I should know?”

“Not at this time. I do need your authorization to stop the transports.”

“You have it,” the bull growled with a nod. “Get that going now.”

“Yes, Herd Leader.”

“We have another issue with the lack of the ansible and not just the political issues—the economy,” Cron, the Director of the Treasury, stated flatly. “We are already staring down a recession,” he warned.

There were quiet grunts around the room. “We went from gaining new markets and gaining new customers and supplies to this. It is going to hit hard.”

“We're working on getting the ansible up,” Ren stated defensively.

“The longer it is down, the harder this will hit our economy. We may be looking at a bad recession,” Cron said again.

“I've frozen the markets to keep the stampede to a minimum. Cooler heads will prevail.”

“That is a temporary fix. It is staving off the inevitable slide as hedge funds and others wait to sell off what they can to protect themselves,” Cron warned. “Once that happens, the others will follow and it will be a cascade effect.”

“Then we will trigger another shutdown. A cooling-off period.”

Cron nodded and flapped his ears. “If this goes on too long, it will hit the budget like a bomb as well.”

“At the worst time in a war too,” Admiral White Skin said just loud enough to be heard. “Damn, Irons timed it good.”

“You don't have to admire him,” the president growled.

“I can admire a foe and respect him. Not taking him seriously will lead to disaster. It is what led us to this point to begin with,” the admiral stated.

The president's eyes flared and then narrowed. Director Blacksight's face was expressionless. Other professional politicians around the table had their own masks up. “What do you mean?” the president demanded.

“We need to reevaluate the political calculus involved,” the admiral said flatly. “We built our strategic picture on a series of assumptions that are now invalid.”

“For instance?”

“We didn't believe that the Federation would react in time. Now they have struck back and hard. We also believed that they would fold once we were on the warpath and took over the sector. Now that assumption is invalid.”

The president scowled.

“I'm afraid the quick and clean war that we thought we had is about to become anything but,” the admiral said quietly.

“It gets worse,” Director Blacksight said, surprising even himself. The president's eyes cut to him. He cleared his throat and then continued. “Irons indicated they knew about our xenophobia and final solution plans. That indicates a level of penetration we didn't anticipate. Couple that with the surprise attacks and it will have a different impact than we expected.”

“What do you mean?”

“When the strategic simulations were run, we anticipated their morale would crack and break when they were overwhelmed. Now we know that isn't true. Worse, we handed them a major reason to fight. Fight, and fight hard, pulling out all the stops to find a way to win.”

“How can they handle a war on two fronts?” Cron demanded.

The director shrugged. “They are doing it anyway. Our last intelligence about the war with the pirates was that it was winding down. They had political issues to deal with. Our attack and our final solution will unite them behind Irons again and he'll use that.”

“Did the envoy ship get out?” Cron asked. “Did you get anything from them?”

“No idea,” Blacksight replied. “We can't contact the ansibles and don't know. They might have stopped the ship at any point in her journey. With the ansible network down, they can't report in on anything they picked up in their intelligence-gathering mission either.”

“Frack.”

“It gets worse,” Admiral White Skin said humorously. They looked to him again. He flapped his ears. “We can't get at their vitals to stop their ship building. They have a long voyage here, but they are now committed to it. We have at least a year or more to get to the clusters to put the cork in the bottle. But we have to do it with a large fleet before they send reinforcements. With our coordination down, that is questionable. Factor in any resistance from the forces they have in the sector now and it may not be possible.”

“Then make it possible,” the president said firmly as he got up and stormed out.

>>><><<< 

Parabellum Snippet 2

 Sitrep:

Lol I think some of those comments were doubles. 

 

Early access program: I thought about that with Amazon and other programs. Amazon bugs me about it monthly. The problem is I have my own style of writing. Ordinarily a write will block out a novel's plot in a rough form then start at the beginning and move forward. I don't. Well, I do the first part, but I also throw scenes in willy nilly as they come to me. I then go and organize them later. When I start writing I start cleaning the mess up and I hit areas that are easy.

As an example, Juggernaut. I don't officially start it until next week. (I am supposed to be resting and working on other projects this week) but I've been poking at it when I'm stuck inside. I have finished chapters 3-4 and 7 so far. We are past 80 pages. (Spread out all over the manuscript with partially completed chapters everywhere)

Several times I started somewhere in the middle, wrote chapters up and down and then got back to the beginning of the book half way through writing.

Lately I've been writing 1 perspective at a time while the characters are fresh. So, Federation chapters, then go back and hit the Confed or other chapters... what can I say, it works for me. :)

 So, you see, early access wouldn't work for me. At least, not until I've finished a good chunk of act 1. Usually the betas will point out to something I missed and I have to go back and fix something or other or add some detail. Keeping it all sorted can be a pain. 

Okay, Red is terrorizing me with a plastic strip (like any little kid, she'd rather play with a box or scrap than an actual toy!) and I need to get going to run errands.

Here is the snippet, I'll get on to publishing when we get back:

 

The following day each department presented what they'd worked on over the evening. Shelby praised them for a good start.

Operations still had issues with fighting a delaying strategy. Trying to use cruisers to delay a full battle line was the equivalent of fighting a wildfire with a garden hose. Worse, they had to do it on multiple fronts.

“We have ruled a few things out like hyper mines. We can't build enough in time to make a difference,” Commodore Brad Gomez said.

“Oh? I'd think you'd want them. They were good for Second Fleet,” Commodore Piercing Gaze said turning a regal look on the Operations officer.

“They were, but it took a lot of production time and ability from the Federation in Rho,” Brad explained. Piercing Gaze nodded in reply. “Building the things is not an easy feat. Placing them is tricky too. Each requires sensors and hyperdrives. They are the equivalent of a corvette each.”

“Ah.”

“More along the lines of a hyper capable gunship,” Shelby said. “That's the engineer in me speaking by the way,” she said when the commodore opened his mouth to object. “Hyper sustain engines are easier to fabricate than an actual hyperdrive,” she said. He nodded. “But the point is they are costly and take too long to make and deploy. It would be interesting to see their reaction.”

“They'd bypass the area,” Brad countered.

“Which would take time. Which is what we want,” Shelby said.

Brad nodded. “But they can bypass them by coming out on a different vector too or jumping short of the minefield.”

“Again, that takes time,” Shelby said. “We need a lot of weapons in a short period of time since we also have to factor in transport to the front.”

“Okay, scratch that off the production list,” Brad said.

“Correction, we have hyper mines or will have them shortly,” Boni interjected.

“Excuse me?” Shelby asked as she turned to Boni's avatar on the table. “Run that past us again?”

“I was going to point it out as well,” Commander Abe 1001010 stated. “But I would hardly call the delivery time short. More like two years,” the A.I. retorted.

“I stand corrected,” Boni said with a curt head nod of her avatar.

“Well, one of you spit it out,” Brad demanded testily, looking from one A.I. to the other.

“I don't have any in inventory,” Commander Dolly Merall, the head of G-8 Logistics, said peevishly, accessing the tablet laying on the table in front of her. Her ears were back, and she clearly wasn't happy at being sandbagged in front of the boss and the rest of the staff.

Shelby's hands were together. “Explain,” Shelby ordered, pointing her index fingers at Abe and not her own A.I.

Abe nodded. “Yes, ma’am. You will have them in your inventory when Task Force 3.5 gets here,” he stated. That earned a surprised look from the group. “Bulk freighter Seven-Zebra-Seven-Four-Echo is on the books as a munitions ship, one of six in the fleet train. She has a full load of hyper mines from Pyrax,” he stated.

Dolly's Neocollie ears perked up as she entered the reference number for the ship and the inventory manifest came up. She looked up and nodded.

“But we don't have them here yet.”

Task Force 3.5 was the shiny lining on an otherwise crappy situation. Well, that and Task Force 3.6. When the storms of possible war had begun to be clear, Shelby had warned Admiral Irons and he, through the auspiciousness of the Admiralty, had dispatched the two task forces several months apart. TF 3.5 had been a scratch force of carriers and cruisers with a large fleet train. They had made it to Airea 3 and jumped shortly before things had come apart.

TF 3.6 had jumped a few days ago. They had a lot more ships and were even slower. But they had gotten orders to split their force and leave the slower ships to lumber on at their own speed.

There were four convoys and the two task forces en route to Tau like a series of freight trains. In fact there was a convoy Rho-28 that had arrived and was halfway to the capital with a load of gate components. She had an escort as did the convoy behind her, but the route to the capital had been declared secure so there were no escorts on the other two convoys coming.

Shelby rather regretted that since it meant less ships for her to strip and hold with her for the use of Fourth Fleet. She was feeling a distinct puckered feeling she didn't like.

There was another issue, a convoy or task force traveled at the speed of their slowest ship. Both task forces were saddled with large fleet trains. The first had been a quick sweep, but the second had been a more thorough fleet train.

She had already planned to have the faster warships split off from the lumbering fleet train and race ahead the moment they got to Tau. But that took time. At the moment, they had eleven to twelve months in hyperspace to get to Tau and then another eleven months to get to the capital.

That was the hard window they had to deal with. Which meant they had to make the best of a bad situation.

“Well, no. But they are on the way,” the A.I. stated firmly.

“Okay, so, we can factor them into our planning when they get into the sector and to a place we can get our hands on them,” Shelby said with a nod. “Though one load …”

“Some are better than none, ma'am,” Boni murmured.

“Correct. I don't know how effective they'd be. As a bluff …,” she considered the problem but then shrugged it aside for the moment.”

“That rules out conventional mines as well. They can be avoided in subspace,” Brad warned. “So far the sims show them only giving us a few weeks at best.”

“True, but we can use them in a one shot, and we can make decoys to force them off least time courses or to employ mine sweeping,” Shelby said as she grappled with the slight change in subject. That earned a few thoughtful looks.

“Mines are munitions with extra sensors. We can turn them out by the shipload,” Commodore Rupert Shakespeare said with a nod. “We have all that antimatter we can skim off of Tortuga to play with.” That earned a few malicious grins. They had already planned on changing most of their ordinance over to antimatter. “But every mine we make is one less missile,” he warned.

“It also means ships will be needed to deploy them to the front,” Dolly warned.

“True. And we can make missile pods and other munition sets to lace into fixed defenses too,” Shelby said as she made a note.

“True,” the BuShips commodore said with a shrug. How they used the weapons was less of a concern to him than the time and material needed to make it and the time to get it to where they needed. Technically, all of that was Logistics' problem not his.

“Pity we can't use more decoys. Seed one for one with the mines or ten to one. Just enough for the other side to have to avoid them or mine sweep,” Commodore Piercing Gaze suggested thoughtfully.

Brad looked up and over to his fellow Bekian and then put on a thoughtful look. “Put that suggestion in our box of ideas,” Shelby said with a nod. The Operations officer blinked and then his A.I. nodded.

“Can we use some stealth? Stealth mines to throw them off their game?” Brad asked suddenly. “That could slow a fleet to a stop, right? And if we couple that with the decoys, it will really give their movement fits.”

Shelby smiled slightly. “Now you are thinking out of the box.”

“We don't have mine layers,” the Neocollie warned.

“No, but we have all of those freighters,” Brad said.

The JAG Commander Sharp Turn made a buzzing sound the equivalent of someone clearing their throat to get the other's attention. “Just as a heads-up, if we employ them that way any civilian freighter that carries war material will make for a legitimate target,” the Delquir said apologetically.

The room was quiet.

“Then we'll have to do our best to make sure they don't come under fire,” Shelby said with a grim nod. “Now … I realize the impulse is to use the mines to defend occupied star systems, but it occurred to me that we can use them more effectively in the destroyed systems that are a bit messy to navigate easily …”

>>><><<< 

Parabellum Snippet 1

 Sitrep:

   So, you know those days when things just gotta go wonky? Toilet leaking (check!) Lil Red being a lovable witch this morning... (check!) people showing up & scammers calling while you are on said toilet (Double check!... no, wait, don't do that! It stinks very much badly in there at the moment! I mean... never mind) 

lol

  Anyway, I just checked my e-mail and Goodlifeguide got Parabellum back to me. So, I guess I should have started posting snippets earlier! Oops?

  So, here is the deal. I'll start posting snippets. 1 per chapter for 4-5 chapters. If I get say, 10 comments I'll stop and toddle on over to Amazon and B&N and publish the book. Otherwise... Saturday? Sunday? Monday? That was my original plan anyway.

On to the first snippet!

 

New Tau Metropolis

 

Rachel Trejo smiled her patented smile as she sat at the anchor desk for Knox News Tau affiliate. Her producer Nellie, “ole Nellie,” Jurgens gave her a thumbs-up.

She nodded ever so slightly back and then turned to her guest as the queue went off. “So, before the break, Professor Falks, we were discussing the disagreeable situation with the Confederation. We have seen the transmission from the confrontation between the Federation government and Ambassador Iro. You were about to share your thoughts?”

Professor Falks was a professor of political science at the New Tau Metropolis University. He was a self-styled liberal and pacifist. He had been one of her talking heads during the peace talks between the Federation and the Confederation.

He was also one of the few who had taken to vehemently protest the move to war and who was willing to defend his viewpoint on camera. He tended to look like an ass though, and she was starting to enjoy playing devil's advocate to his position.

She knew Vice Admiral Shelby Logan as well as Ambassador Fred Muggs and the other players in the drama that was unfolding in front of them. She had gotten a feel for them and knew they were on the level with what they said. They wouldn't say it unless they could prove it.

On the flip side, the onetime she'd landed an interview with Ambassador Iro, the Tauren lead diplomat from the Confederation, she'd gotten the willies. He'd been stiff and hadn't at all been happy with being in the same room with her. The vibes she'd gotten had told her something was off. The information that the Federation had released had proven those feelings out.

To say that the news that the Confederation was Xenophobic was shocking. Some media outlets had tried to play it off, but the release of information about the Confederation's policies towards other species had been appalling. The public outcry had turned into a landslide of support to go to war. The Confederation's attack on the Federation border had sealed the deal as far as war was concerned.

“Yes, well, it is unfortunate, a very unfortunate situation,” the Neochimp professor temporized. He tugged on his polka dot bowtie slightly. “As was the declaration of war that the Federation Congress had put forward. They are acting rather hastily.”

“But it has been made clear that the Confederation has moved against the Federation. Their fleets have crossed the border at two points and are capturing our worlds.”

“Yes, well, I still think it is a misunderstanding and that we squandered an opportunity for peace.”

“How is that, Professor, when they blew the talks up from the beginning?” Rachel asked as she cocked her head. She could see Nellie shaking his head and his lips thin in a frown but she ignored him. Pete Knox might have an ax to grind with the administration but the administration had been playing straight with the public from day one. That much was clear.

“Yes, well, I think more methods of defusing the situation could have been attempted. The standing saying is that if both sides are talking than they aren't shooting at each other.”

“As I understand it, the fleets were moving and attacking our border even as talks were underway still, Professor,” Rachel reminded him. He scowled, not liking being put on the spot. “I also understand their talks were a thinly veiled attempt to drive a wedge between the people of Tau and the Federation as well as an espionage attempt?”

“I don't honestly know much about those two subjects.”

“But you did watch the talks? Didn't Ambassador Iro try to drive a wedge between the government and the local governors?”

“Well … yes. I initially thought it was to find allies in our government,” the professor admitted.

“Ah, I see,” Rachel said, eyes gleaming slightly.

She was excited by the war for the ratings and the sudden importance of the Tau desk in the media conglomerate. Careerwise, it was a big kick. But it came with a lot of risks. Hopefully, the risks were worth the reward.

“What about the information about the Confederation genocide ongoing in their territory?” she asked.

He scowled. “I don't have any independent confirmation of that information. If it is true, it is appalling. I would normally say it is their territory and every government has the right to police its own people as they see fit. But I see it also as another squandered opportunity.”

“Oh? How so?”

“If they are so isolationist and xenophobic, why not offer them an out and take those people off their hands? Thus solving their problem and making it a humanitarian one. One we can build political bridges on later.”

“Feeding their isolationist tendencies doesn't sound like a good thing, Professor,” the young woman said with a frown.

“It may not be. But with continued work we could help them get over it. In time we could facilitate reparations in the future.”

“But it would open up a humanitarian crisis on the border.”

“True, but we could deal with that.”

Rachel noted Nellie's hand motions to move it along.

“Unfortunately, all this talk is moot,” she said. The professor blinked. “They didn't allow anyone to escape their borders for centuries, and there is no history of the Confederation deporting them. The few refugees that did escape were hunted down by their espionage services.”

The professor scowled. “Again, we have little proof of that.”

“Given that the government received it and received independent confirmation of it at other locations and even detected the enemy's ansible network in our space, Professor, shouldn't we give them the benefit of the doubt?”

He frowned but then shrugged.

“In time we will of course gather more information,” Rachel said with a firm nod. “We at Knox News are monitoring local media reports as they go into a frenzy. We are aware of the fleet moving on Triple Threat as well as elsewhere in the south. If you, our loyal viewers, have the ability to escape that area, we strongly urge you to do so. If you find yourselves trapped on the planet, we urge you to find a safe place to hide…”

>>><><<< 

Princess Rescue Inc 3 Cover

 So, Rea just sent me Parabellum back this morning so I'll be posting snippets in a bit.

Before I do that I wanted to release the cover to PRI 3:

PRI 3 is in the hands of the proofreaders now.

 FYI: There has a been a schedule change. I pushed Bootstrap Colony 3 back to next year. Shelby 5 Juggernaut is up next. (I've already started poking at it and finished 2 chapters)

Sitrep

 So, I've been puttering around as usual.

I finished Shelby 4 Parabellum, it's been in the beta's hands for a while. I need to poke one in particular to get it moving again. I'm shooting for it to come out this month.

Here is the cover:

 

Multiverse 5 is finished as well. It is in the hands of 2 of the betas.

The cover:

I am looking to have some images in the book for the first time. We'll see how that goes.

  I am 2/3rds finished Princess Rescue Inc 3. (I finished the second act this morning despite feeling the blahs) I even started the cover already. (though I am missing 1 piece of it) I am hoping to have it done in 10 days or so.

  In other news, I haven't made any progress with the piracy issue. As usual I kicked it for a bit to write. (My usual escape) I did look into the Patreon and some of the other things some people recommended a little. Thank you. I'm just slow on progress. (Procrastinating) lol

  I finally got my parents to get the second Covid shot. I am relieved. Dad in particular has been an issue, extremely reluctant (procrastinating, gee I wonder where I get that from!) and he's in some of the worst criteria too. (Fat, over 70, possibly diabetic, heart condition, BP issues, breathing issues... ugh!) But, he got the second shot Sunday, and the lucky old fart got away with just a mild headache and mildly sore arm!

   Now I just need to get some of the reluctant anti-vaxxers in the family who are procrastinating to get it done too. They know who they are, and they know I've a reputation as an... encourager (read nag) to keep up. :)

Jethro 7 The Long Road Home is out!

 

  The fall of Horath had Warrant Officer Jethro McClintock and most of the surviving members of his Cadre unit scrambling for survival. They managed to jump away into hyperspace just before the energy wave of the wrath of a dying star caught up with them.

  Marooned in space, the survivors must find a way to continue their survival or die in the long night. There was no quick way home.

  Jethro's family back home has to make do without him. But, one way or another, that black cat and his friends are going to pull out all the stops and take the long road home.

Or die trying.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BK66DB8

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-...

Jethro Snippet 3

 Sitrep: I received the J7 manuscripts back this afternoon. I will start the final publishing process in the morning. 

Since you have to wait 1 more day, I figured I should give you another taste of what you are up against.

 

UFN-80P

 

Survival mode meant cutting way back on life support, lighting, and the same. Anyone who didn't have a job to do had to remain in a given location and try not to use up resources. Energy usage was cut. The captain worked up and transmitted a mayday with their logs, but after that everything was shut down except passive sensors.

Meanwhile, the chief and techs did an inventory. The captain had ordered an in-depth inventory down to the last nut and bolt. They took that to heart, hoping to find something, anything that had been overlooked that might come in handy.

They all knew that they were in serious trouble. They were trapped on a ship built for 27 crew and 50 cadre with 266 souls in deep space with little power far from home. Crowded was an understatement; hot bunking was the norm in any and all quarters except the captain's chamber. It became clear within a day that there was no hope of rescue; by the time the signal that had been transmitted got to someone, they would all be long dead.

In other words, they were on their own.

~~~-^-~~~

The captain assembled the officers and engineers. “I want options, folks.”

“The signal we transmitted will get wiped out when it heads across the space where the nova occurred. Don't count on it getting to Finagle, Garth, or anywhere that we know the Federation is at,” the ship's A.I. stated flatly.

“So TFP?”

“TFP is over sixty light years away,” Ensign Kelsi Hatfield said with a shake of her head. She was a bit glum. She had run the numbers over and over and knew them in her sleep. No matter how she tried to twist them they were screwed.

“Obviously, we need to get back into hyperspace,” the captain prompted, looking at the engineers. The chief grimaced.

Chief Yoji Koda, also known as Lieutenant Commander Koda, was her XO and chief engineer. He preferred to go by the title of chief though. He was a pretty good wrench turner; though as an XO, he let the ship's A.I. take on his share of the paperwork a bit too much for her tastes.

“We can get back into hyperspace if we draw every molecule of hydrogen from every resource in the ship including from material and from our own bodies,” the chief said with a frown.

“And that will do what?”

“We'd be in the lowest band and octave of hyperspace for a short time. How long depends on the energy we can collect with the hyperspace collectors. But we won't have much energy to move the ship in hyperspace or to go up or down a band.”

The captain grimaced. Every crew member knew that there was little energy to collect in the low octaves of alpha band. The compression ratio was too low. The higher you went up the octaves and of course bands, the denser the energy and the more likely you can run the ship's systems off of the energy you collected alone.

“Okay, so, that's a problem. How far can we get?”

“Um …,” the ensign ran the numbers and then shook her head.

“That bad?”

“Maybe another two light years.”

“Oh. Yeah, that's bad.”

“It gets worse. There would be nothing left in the ship or even our bodies. That is why I didn't propose it before.”

“Okay, so, that plan is out. Next option?” the captain asked briskly.

“That … we are looking at the space we're in. The nearest star isn't even really a star.” The ensign pulled up a star chart of the region. “We are approximately 4.5 light years from this,” she said, sounding a bit dubious as a star system with a long alpha numeric string came up.

“Brown dwarf. Not good,” the captain said.

“Worse, it is a Y class.”

“Y class?” the chief echoed.

“Devoid of material to be used for anything including fuel. It is a very dim brown dwarf.”

“Oh.”

Brown dwarf stars were known as brown death. They were essentially failed stars, Jethro noted as Bast supplied him with the information. They sometimes had dust clouds since they didn't have enough gravity to get them to form into planetoids. Those that did form were usually dwarf or mercury class planets devoid of usable resources.

No wonder no one had gone there since it had been scouted centuries ago.

“Any port in the storm,” the captain murmured. “Okay, how do we get there?” she asked.

“We've got enough fuel to burp the sublight drives. We can get us up to point 5 C,” the chief said, crunching the numbers.

“Concur. But the burn would have to be short,” the ship's A.I. stated.

“How short is short?” the ensign asked. She blinked when they showed her the numbers. “Oh, that short. Yeah, we'd need everything we could for the shields and for braking,” she said with a nod.

The captain frowned as she stared bleakly at the numbers. At that speed, they would take nearly ten years to get to where they were going. Even when they got there they'd have little left for fuel and energy in a star system devoid of material.

“We'll brake at the start of year six,” the ensign said.

“Are there any other star system candidates?”

“At this point, the nearest habitable world is TFP, Tiny Freakin Planet,” the A.I. said. The star chart came up on their tablets and an icon blinked. “But it is seventy light years away through a minor nebula.”

“Oh.”

Jethro winced. The idea of spending one hundred and twenty years in stasis to get that far? The admiral had done it out of necessity in Senka but …

“To leave our families that long?” the chief asked softly.

The ensign looked wooden. She seemed about ready to cry.

“To get there we'd drain the ship dry. But there is another problem related to both issues; we don't have enough stasis pods for everyone.”

The captain frowned. “Okay, it looks like we're going to have to go with this option. So, list the problems and then break the problems down into solvable chunks. We'll build off of that.”

“First up is the stasis pod issue,” the chief said grimly.

~~~-^-~~~

Jethro 7 Snippet 2

 So far nothing from Goodlifeguide. I'll keep checking my inbox. :)

 

Antigua

 

Shanti had been about to go into work when a text told her that she could report in and do work from home. She was grateful; the kittens were a handful for Red now that they were mobile. They seemed to be growing in spurts. They also had recently started to talk, though their understanding was mixed.

She was still struggling with the news about Horath. It wasn't helping her work at all. She couldn't focus worth a damn sometimes.

She felt a tremor as her doorbell rang, and she checked the video feed. She saw two familiar forms there, both in formal uniforms.

She felt her eyes tear up and felt a sinking sensation but forced herself to get up and go to the door.

General Lyon was there with Admiral Thornby. They had their covers off and tucked under their arm. “I'm sorry to …,” she closed her eyes, willing her ears to close too as she heard the formal words of apology of loss. She'd expected it, dreaded it the moment she'd heard about the final battle in Horath. The general had been good to send an official notice when word had broke a few days before; she'd been on auto pilot since then, hoping it was just a mistake.

“Come in,” she said as she stepped aside. They each stepped past. Red saw them and teared up instantly. Her distress set the kittens off.

~~~-^-~~~

Nara and General Lyon were quiet for a while but then began to talk on the ride back to the base in their government air car. "This sucks. It is the hardest thing, to tell people we don't know. That we may never know their fate."

"I know. Being in limbo is a terrible thing. Torture," Nara said with a sad face. “Is it too soon though?” she asked.

“They are overdue. We don't know if they got off the planet, to the ship …,” the general grimaced. “There are too many variables. The odds of their survival drop the longer they don't report in.”

“I have been running the scenarios in simulations, trying to see what the decision tree they were faced with and then reconstruct what might have happened,” Mars stated.

“And?” Nara prompted.

“It's not good. If they had to delay to get off the planet, which we expect, then they had to take one of a dozen courses away from Finagle or any known jump point in order to have even a small chance at survival. The longer they waited the lower the odds of survival were. To be honest, they might have waited too long. Given that there are last messages from Warrant McClintock and others, I believe they knew it too.”

Nara closed her eyes in pain. They were silent the rest of the way to the base.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw the flags being flown at half-mast.

~~~-^-~~~

Zuhura closed her eyes in pain as she felt her mom and younger siblings in the room. She had come home when she'd gotten the call from Admiral Thornby. They were all quiet and in mourning, just sitting on the couch and chairs glum. The younger litter were piled around their mother. Her tail was wrapped around two of them. One of the kittens had his thumb in his mouth. After a moment, Red sighed and slapped her thighs, startling them. “Well, I'm going to go find something to eat.”

She opened her eyes in surprise and looked at the small domestic cat. Red flicked her ears. “What?” Red asked.

“Really? At a time like this?” one of her younger siblings said in an accusing voice. It was surprising to hear that voice. They might be physically small but they had recently learned to talk. They seemed to share some sort of link that the other litter lacked. Zuhura had twigged on it when Red had noted that they seemed to learn collectively, almost like a hive mind. One would pick something up and the others would learn the trick without experiencing it within hours. Words were picked up fast.

“I'm hungry?!” Red said defensively. “Besides, if I don't eat, I get a headache and upset stomach. I'm not going to make myself sick. I miss the big lug, but I know he wouldn't want that.”

“No, he wouldn't,” Shanti murmured. She opened her eyes and stroked the kittens gently. “We'll eat or not.”

“So, that's it? Life goes on?” Zuhura asked softly.

“At the moment, yes,” Red said with a nod. “We don't know for sure he's dead. We may never know.”

Zuhura saw her mother stiffen.

“If he comes out of this scrape, we can razz his fanny for a long time for giving us a scare,” Red said with a buck-up tone in her voice. “Until we know for sure, I'm going to keep the faith.”

Zuhura nodded slowly. She looked at her mother who was also nodding. Of course her mom was, well, mom. She took care of them, and her instincts were coming into play there. “I'll give you a hand,” Zuhura said as she followed Red into the kitchen.

~~~-^-~~~