Chris Hechtl's Blog, page 7

The Roo Collective Snippet 2

 Here is the second snippet:

 

Lop Ear sighed heavily as he checked his zone.Nothing. It was getting near dark; his turn as sentry would end soon.

Mostof the warren was hidden in the shelters in the area and in the thocker andthumper trees. Temporary shelters were to be built in the night by the cutters.But they needed to do something about the food and shelter situation. Hisstomach rumbled.

Hehad given all of his food to his pregnant mate earlier, claiming he wasn'thungry. He didn't regret it; she had a litter in her belly and had to feedthem. If her body did not have enough food, the litter would die. Neither ofthem wanted that, but it might be for the best.

Itwas getting cold. He could feel the heat seeping through his clothes as thesun's warming rays fell lower on the horizon. It was bitter to want somethingthat for his entire life he had feared. To be out exposed was a terrifyingthing for most of the warren. It was no surprise that many of the elderly andeasily frightened had died of heart trouble from the stress and anxiety.

Itwas their second night out of the warren. The meager supplies in the shelterswere about exhausted. Something had to be done.

Helooked over to the warren. It was a crater; the giants had been busy diggingthe main shaft up over the day. He was again bitter, this time in anger at suchdestruction. So many of his kind had died in the attack.

Hefelt a touch and looked to see Shredded Paw. The sentry nodded to him. Henodded back and passed over the spear before he went off to relieve himself andthen head inside.

BlackSpeckle found him almost immediately. She gave him water to drink, which hedid. Once she was satisfied with that, she led him over to a small cove in theroots and pushed him down.

Hehad brought her straw and leaves. The leaves had been dry from the cooling airbut she'd nibbled on some and used the rest as bedding material for herself andsome of the does nearby. Fur lined the improvised nest. She pushed him down andthen climbed on top of him.

Hewordlessly protested and rolled to cover her with his own body for warmth. Shepoked him until he ended up on his side with her nuzzled under his arm. Hegently stroked her head and flat ears.

Shetwitched her nose and then closed her eyes and went to sleep. He soon followed.

~======~

Counternoted the shift change and nodded wearily. He was bone tired. He wasn't gettingmuch sleep, and his thoughts were beginning to slow. It was hard to keep up.There was so much sorrow.

Theystill didn't have a nose count on the losses. They had finally gotten in touchwith the far flung shelters. Some of his people had fled to there, others weresaid to have gone and moved on. They wouldn't know the full death toll for sometime.

Hewas already angry and saddened by it. A lot of his people had ignored thewarnings to head up and had instead followed instincts and burrowed deeper totheir doom. The poison gas that the giants had unleashed had killed them. Evenif they'd found a way to barricade themselves into a tunnel, the fog-like gasseeped through the ground itself.

Theday before they had seen the giants excavate the warren core. They had takenmany things from it. Some things were disdainfully thrown to the side. Bodiesthat were found were sent to the clearing and the Giant's Warren thing.

Hehad watched warily and sadly. It had hurt to see so many snuffed out socallously. Death was not unknown to the Roo and not just in singles. Sometimesfire or flood would take many. Sometimes disease or even fear would. But thiswas different.

Thoseother things he could do little about. A predator could be killed. Thesepredators though, they were too dangerous to fight. Roos survived by hidingfrom such monsters.

Hehad suppressed the urge to hold a memorial for the dead. He knew it hurt oneand all, but the thumping would have attracted the attention of the Giants.They had to be quiet and hope that the enemy stayed occupied with their spoilsand did not go looking for the refugees.

Helooked at the slowly sinking orb in the sky and then around them. This was thelongest he had ever been near the surface, and the tension gnawed at him likemany others. That and the cold, he had some clothing due to his advanced age,one never felt completely warm as you grew older, but this was different. Theydidn't have stout earth around them to keep the warmth in—nor nests, nor food.His stomach gnawed on his insides right on queue.

Hegnawed on his well-gnawed stick to ease the hunger pang for a moment.

Hehad sent out runners to the far-flung communities after Fast Thumper hadthunked out the warning in the tree. There had been muted answers from two oftheir nearest neighbors. Green Painted Rocks had sent a short reply and thenwent silent.

Nodoubt they did not want to give away their position. In a way, he couldn'tblame them.

Theyhad plenty of water. They had temporary shelter, though the trees and hiddenshelters would not last through the long cold. They needed a proper warren.They needed to break the community up and send them in convoys to theirneighbors soon or find a new nesting place.

Itwas already shaping up to be a harsh cold season. All of their supplies were inthe warren's chambers. Those that had been stored in the shelters for emergencyuse had been depleted.

Hunters,Defenders, Breeders, and Gathers had warily gone out to take in what theycould. Cutters had brought in wood but it was too dangerous to burn. They hadshifted their focus to gathering what nesting material they could to insulatethe hollows and roots that were being used as small nesting sites.

Itwasn't enough though. His people were packed into the tree and shelters. Theyhad little room to move within. Worse, some of the younglings were beginning tognaw on the roots out of hunger. The Does were drying up for lack of food toproduce nourishing milk. The younglings had to eat or they too would die.

Ina way it might be for the best,he thought grimly.

~======~

 

The Roo Collective Snippet 1

 So, it is that time again.

   Instead of kicking the Roo book again I decided to take the plunge and go with it. If you are curious, it is a one off science fiction novel (novella?) that combines 3 stories in Multiverse 5-7 with a final story. I had actually envisioned it as just 1 short story but when it kept growing I ended up splitting up and taking this approach. :)

So, if it feels familiar, you might have read part of it in one of those books.

Rea finished editing the last story. I generated a lot of AI art before I realized Amazon doesn't like it. So, I threw in the 3 pieces I did with minimum AI support and ran with what I've got. I'll post some of the AI art here.

So, first up... the beginning...

 

“Stomper!” a voice screamed as the thunder of feeton the ground began to carry the news across the warren. Everyone looked upfearfully to the ceiling as they passed on the message. They began to move,slow at first, but then in the opposite direction of the sighting and of coursedownward. Always downward, though such instincts could be counterproductive tosurvival in some cases.

The Roo began to bottleneck at narrow choke pointswhich caused a panic. Stampedes happened as the giant herbivores stomped closerand the dirt began to fall.

“Easy now, calmly, I said calmly,” the countersaid, trying to get people to move with care.

Then the first cave-ins were reported.

Lop Ear rushed through the group to the highcaverns. He went on all fours at one point, even bouncing off the walls to getaround people. A few times he bounced off people too. The ground shook withevery footfall. The air was cloudy with dust.

“You are going the wrong way!” a breedercomplained. He ignored the complaint. He got to a hatch, stopped to catch hisbreathing, and then removed the pins holding it in place. He lifted itcarefully and looked out. He went back and grabbed a spear, pulled the coveroff the tip and then went back to look.

Lop Ear snarled in anger as he poked his head upfrom the hole to see the Stomper. It was more than one; others were in thedistance but working the grove of trees upwind far from the burrow. It hadtentacles on the front and long heavy legs. The thing browsed the trees,ripping leaves and fruit off of them.

As tempting as it was to attack, he forced himselfto stand firm near the root of the opposing tree. It was too late; if he wentto attack the beast now, it could fall and destroy what he sought to protect.No, the warren would just have to cope with the disaster to come.

Each foot stomp shook the caverns. When one footcame down too hard, it went through the top layer and the beast stumbled beforeit recovered. It moved away, sidling away from the unstable ground.

The tree began to release toxins in the air todefend itself. The beast made a loud trumpeting sound as thorns began to prickits tentacles. The thorns were the tree's second level of defense.

After one more browse of tentacles, the beastmoved away and then towards a copse of trees upwind and thus avoiding thesmells the tree had released to warn others of its kind.

Lop Ear noted the direction and sighed. It wasthrough hard ground so the tunnels there should be safe. He watched until thebeast was beyond the third tree and then ducked down to see what the damage wasand if he could help dig some people out if they were still alive.

======

The defender went back down into the warren and tothe largest chamber near the collapsed tunnels. Doc was there triaging thewounded.  The brown and white spotted Roohad to listen to plenty of hearts with a hollowed-out horn, reassuring thosewho had been stressed by the disaster. He used pieces of volcanic glass tomagnify small things to see bigger.

Cloud eyes were common ailments of the old as wellas stress on their heart. Gas was another; those who ate too much of a certaindiet tended to get it and complain constantly.

A check of the stool and an order of medicinalherbs would fix someone up for a time.

None of that applied here though, so as soon as hewas certain the patient was in no danger of death, he moved on to check others.Occasionally, he had to bandage a wound or set a broken limb. Those Roo that hadbeen trampled he had to check. There were a few that had died in the crush ofbodies, and the diggers were ready to move them on to the next life. Theirfamilies cried as they sorted out their belongings.

He shook his head and moved on.

~======~

 

Bootstrap 5 is Publishing NOW!

 Okay, so, Bootstrap 5 has gone live.

About:

  Mitch Chambers andhis family have been busy dealing with the alien Memes and their growing colonyon an alien world. But they were dragged into saving Earth and then into agrowing conflict between certain powerful individuals and another group ofpeople led by Eugene Ryans who had settled on an alien world. Mitch is aproblem solver, so, when certain parties ask for his help they better be damn sure they want it, otherwisethey'll get more than they bargain for!

This is a crossover book between the Bootstrap Colony andPrincess Rescue series.

 

Yup, I did it. A full crossover between Bootstrap Colony and Princess Rescue. The ending... ooof. I'll just let you be the judge. What a ride!

B&N: To Be Continued...

Amazon: Intersection of Worlds

Bootstrap Colony 5 Snippet 5

 

 

Capital,Bootstrap Colony

 

Jacklynnoversaw the shuttle’s maintenance ninety-day tear down. The bird was on herwheels in the hangar; panels were opened up and various components were out orhad cables and hoses plugged in.

On top of afull life-support purge, they were doing a full cycle on the equipment. Theexterior tiles had all checked out. She was relieved by that; she didn’t wantor need to recreate the Columbia disaster.

The groundcrew was taking the shuttle down to the frame in some spots to do a fullinspection and swap out of some components. The engines were already out andwere overhauled. She wasn’t taking any chances, especially since they hadn’tgotten a chance to do that on Earth.

Fortunately,they had a new design for the rockets and jet engines. These were nearly 50percent 3D printed out of composite metals and integrated a lot of componentsand hoses, cutting down on parts. She liked the idea, though she felt it wasn’tquite fully tested. But there was a fix for that too.

She wouldtake the shuttle up for a test flight before the return trip. But first … shesaw her target in the hangar and wandered over to him.

“The BellBA609 civilian version of the V-22,” Jacklynn said as Mitch opened his mouth toask about the shuttle.

“Um, yeah?What about it?” he asked.

“I want one.Actually, more than one and parts and stuff,” she said.

He looked ather and laughed softly, shaking his head.

She put her handson her hips. “No, seriously.” She tapped her index fingers meaningfully.

He soberedand looked at her for a long moment, sizing up her determination. “Look, I getit but we don’t have the fuel and parts for it.”

“True.”

He looked ather again.

She had aninnocent expression on her face.

He groaned.“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”she asked innocently.

“That,” hemock growled.

She chuckled.“What? This?” she fluttered her eyes and then put on a sad, slightly poutyexpression on her face. He groaned again and her Cheshire grin broke out.“Don’t make me trot out the puppy eyes,” she said with a slightly jutted outlower lip.

“You? Puppyeyes?” He shook his head. “You have puppy eyes?” he chuckled.

They laughedtogether.

“Seriouslythough …,” he said when they sobered.

“I know it isa tough bird to fly and keep in the air. But think of what we can do with it!”

He sighed.“Yes, I realize that.” He shook his head. “I also have a feeling you won’t letthis go easily.”

She smirkedagain.

“Okay, misssmarty pants, how do you propose to get one or more over here?” hedemanded as he turned to her. This time it was his turn to have his hands onhis hips.

She startedto say something, stopped and then frowned as she mentally regrouped as theproblem suddenly unfolded in her mind.

“Well?” heasked with his own smirk.

“I’mthinking!”

He snorted.“Well, when you have an answer, let me know.”

She shook herhead and sighed.

“And I highlydoubt they’ll let us license it to build here. It would be horrendouslyexpensive. That is the best option but … I’m betting no.”

She groaned.

“We’d have tomake tools and dies, equipment …,” he shook his head. “In the meantime, why notbreak out the simulator program and see if they have a sim for a V-22. If theydo, try it in the simulator and see how it really handles here.”

She blinkedand then nodded. “You know it won’t be enough. I was serious about having it inour inventory.”

“I know. Butmaybe it will give you some thoughts on its cons along with the pros you are sofixated on. Crank the realism up and see how it handles then.”

“Okay,” shereplied with a nod.

“In themeantime, we’re moving along,” she said as she began to brief him on theirprogress. He nodded along as she showed him the reports.

>>>*<<<

Bootstrap Colony 5 Snippet 4

 So, an update from Goodlife: Shelley said that she'll have the manuscript back to me sometime later this week. :)

I'm also almost finished act 2 of the latest book. :)

On to the Snippet!

 

Montana,Earth

 

StewartYellowknife downed his drink and then poured another. He glanced over to theothers in the room and silently sized them up.

There were eightmen in the room. All were movers and shakers. They all owned a stake in variouscompanies. But a few stood out over the rest. When they spoke, everyonelistened attentively.

Their groupwas set to take over the world. It sounded melodramatic, like some sort of bad-actionflick, bad guy, but it was true. They were on the cusp of taking over anotherworld and with it securing control of Earth.

Or, at leastthat was the end goal. But to do that they needed to figured out how to solve afew problems. At the moment, it was Mitch Chambers and the new aliens.

He had beento the other world, the one that Eugene Ryans was on. It was rich withopportunities. He’d failed in his mission though; he had been sent to get Ryansto sign over control of his company to the Cabal. They could of course fake it,that was on the table, though Ryans had set up protections against that.

The fact thatthey were exploiting natives of the other world wasn’t lost on him. But it wasa new world, and this time he and the people he represented would be on top.Besides, the real exploiters were Ryans and his group. They were just going tomake sure everything Ryans had done was fixed.

At least,that was how he sold himself on the project. But first they had to get back tothe damn planet.

“We need tofind a way to get Chambers’ help. He’s on the fence,” Rajani said.

“Hell withthat,” Farook said. “I’d like to get my hands on the tech of those aliens,” hegrowled. “They are light years more advanced than we are.”

“Good luckwith that. So far no one can understand what they are,” Ian said with a shakeof his head.

The meetingwas at Senator Crandal’s place. The senator had unfortunately been stuck in DCfor a vote so he couldn’t attend. The others had decided to continue themeeting without his presence. By their rules, he would have to abide by thedecision of the collective since he hadn’t attended the meeting. They needed away to lay out their goals and the problems to achieve them.

It hadalready been determined that Chambers was the key to fixing the wormholeproblem. But how to do that was still on the table.

“How do weget leverage with him? We tried to get control of his company but failed. Itisn’t public,” Farook Aziz stated flatly. The Saudi didn’t look happy at thatstatement.

He had deep pocketsand was known as one of the money men of their corporation. The others in theircabal suspected he had ties to terrorist organizations as well as certainpowerful Middle Eastern governments. No one wanted to know how deep he was intothe various organizations. Just as they did not want the others in their cabalto know their own skeletons.

Yellowknifesuspected that Farook was a money manager for many shady groups. Eventerrorists and revolutionary groups needed funding. Some washed their money invarious ways, even going so far as to invest in various things that wouldgenerate a steady income to fund their causes.

They werenormally targeted by various secret agencies in the west. Farook, however, hadties to the Cabal so he was immune from such unwanted attention.

“There areother ways to gain control of his company,” Rajani Bakshi stated lazily. Heglanced to the shadowy figure in the corner of the room. A dark hand with ringson it made a slight motion as if to say yes and no.

Rajani wasfrom India with ties to various call centers and industrialists. He had ties tovarious governments in that region of the world.

“No,” Ianstated flatly.

“No? Justthat?”

“Too muchmedia coverage. If anything happened to his company, it would come out. Evenwith our control of some of the media outlets. We don’t need that sort ofspotlight.”

“There isliterally a gold mine there. Plus platinum, and then the biologicals …,” Farookshook his head.

“And don’tforget the hunting. How much would someone with deep pockets pay to go to analien world and see, let alone shoot and import back, an alien or dinosaur?”Ian McMaster said with a sniff as he poured himself another whiskey. He was apower broker. He had a slight Irish brogue in his voice but he was actuallyfrom Chicago. He had just cultivated the accent to hide his true past.

The dark manin the overstuffed chair in the shadows snorted softly. McMaster glanced hisway and then over to the others.

“If they canget asteroid stopped, won’t need another world.”

“You aren’tlistening. We have a golden opportunity here. One we can exploit for incredibleprofit. Two of them.”

“Oh?”

“Not justaliens …”

“They don’thave tech we can exploit.”

“True, tosome degree. What I am pointing to are entire worlds. Why go to space when we can jump to another world? Possiblytwo of them?”

“Ah …?”

“Mining andresources are tight. We’ve got bleeding hearts everywhere. Pollution, globalwarming, don’t step on the butterflies, that sort of thing. Think about it!Entire worlds! We could find gold nuggets like back in the olden days!”

“Which do usno good here.”

“Ourinvestors would beg to disagree. Especially if we shipped back some of it.”

“How? Andwouldn’t that affect the markets here?”

“So, we do itcarefully. Control it. We control what comes and goes. We’ll be the onesto control trade between three entire planets,” Rajani stressed.“Possibly more over time! Who knows what else we might find? A new material?New drugs?”

“ThatChambers character was making a killing selling materials from his world.Dinosaurs … the kooks and science geeks are eating it up!” McMasters said witha shake of his head. “Imagine what collectors would pay!”

Yellowknifesnorted. “That they are,” he said. There had been a recent story in the worldnews of scammers getting involved.

“Can youimagine tourism? Or emigration? A theme park on an alien world?” Farook stated.

Ian suddenlylooked thoughtful.

They all knewthat the money for a theme park wasn’t just in the park but also in everythingleading up to and from it. Logistics, travel, lodging, food, gifts, all sortsof money could and was made from any good theme park. They were revenuegenerators for an entire region.

Farookchuckled and shook his head. “Are you seriously thinking about a Jurassic Parkscenario? That didn’t work out well in the books or movies …”

“That’sfiction. This is real life,” Ian said dismissively. “Everything that happenswill be there. We’ll control the narrative here.”

That wascertainly true, Yellowknife thought. They had managed to control the narrativeabout Ryans and how he had killed American and UN personnel before forcingthose who had surrendered back home and then destroying his side of the gate.

That wasn’tgoing over well in many circles. The standing story that Ryans had turned outto be a power hungry tyrant who had raped and then married the local teenagequeen and was controlling her and her kingdom was holding up very well.

“True. Whatabout alien pathogens? Crashes? Another revolt?”

“Ah, that’swhere your mercenary friends come in. They will be our problem solvers.” Heglanced at the retired colonel in the corner.

ColonelGaylord Smith smiled ever so slightly as he shifted in the chair. The smile ofwhite, even teeth briefly lit up his dark face. “If it is a problem, we can solveit,” he said affably as he selected a cigar and began to roll it between hisfingers. It was Cuban, rather expensive. A humidor was nearby with severalcases of other cigars to imbibe with.

“There speaksthe true patriot. We can set up dog and pony shows about how we’re liberatingthe savages. Show us bringing modern education, healthcare, and such whilecatching and kicking out the bastards who took over their country in the firstplace,” Ian said with mock innocence and virtue.

The otherssnorted. It was a well-played game, one they all had experience in.

Yellowknifedidn’t say anything.

“Okay, I havemy reservations. If you can find a way to handle the alien pathogen problem …”

“We didn’tfind anything in Chambers according to the medics,” Rajani said.

“I stilldon’t want another Covid. Though many did profit from it,” Ian said, rollingover the other’s protest. “I definitely do not want to be saddled with theblame for bringing an alien pathogen over or whatever else. Like that wormthing.”

Farook nodded.“We’ll take it cautiously. But this is an opportunity. One with riches beyondbelief. Without risk there can be no reward.”

Yellowknifehad to wonder if there was an element of religious expansionism in Farook’smotives. He wouldn’t put it past the other man. Then again, it was said thatFarook’s only religion was money.

Ian held up afinger and then pointed to the colonel who was puffing on his cigar and wavingthe match off to snuff it out. “He’ll be the first to tell you that we needaccurate and up-to-date intelligence.”

The colonelsat back, lifted the cigar out of his mouth and blew a smoke ring.“Definitely,” he said. His voice was gravel and bass. “We definitely need tolook before we leap. But I’ve got my contacts working on it.”

The others inthe room nodded.

>>>*<<<

Bootstrap Colony 5 Snippet 3

 A happy early Mothers Day to all of the ladies out there!

 

Outback,Bootstrap Colony

 

A team ofscientists sat on the top and inside their vehicles as they observed thedistant herds of animals. From their vantage point, they were upwind and reasonablysafe at over a kilometer away. The herds were slowly moving on their migrationpath; individual herds had started to merge together into larger and largerherds. The scientists used binoculars, a scope, and drones to observe a T-Rexfamily as they interacted and hunted a nearby herd of Hadrosaurs.

The predatorswere the usual mix of ages. There were at least two adults and two subadults,plus some rambunctious teenagers and some juveniles. The youngest had the mostenergy and tried to hunt smaller game near the family.

A clack ofjaws and a look from mom made them stop and slink back to the tree line. Theirantics had gotten the herd looking in the direction of the predators, somethingthat the adults obviously did not want to happen.

“You’ll note thereis no sign of a beak on any of the animals,” Doctor Diego Fuentes said as hemanned the main scope and took a series of images with the camera attached tohis scope. He had been a zookeeper in Mexico before he’d been brought to thenew world. He had existed with his wife Dora in the south as ranchers underJack at Copper Town for several years. When the science community really tookoff at the Capital, they’d moved to the Capital base to take over the Zoo andwork in the university and museum.

He had startedout knowing very little English and having to rely on his wife or electronictranslators to communicate with the others. However, over the years, he hadpicked up enough English to communicate fluently, albeit with an accent.

He wantedscientific observations of the animals in order to better know how they willinteract in the Zoo and also to report back to the scientific community onEarth. The last thing he wanted was a report with his name on it making him alaughingstock in that community. He wanted respect.

“Yes, I’mcertain Mitch will appreciate that,” Sean replied in exasperation. Mitch hadobserved a family of T-Rex that had a growth like a beak on their snouts. He ofcourse hadn’t spent a lot of time with detailed observations at the time havingsuch a close encounter. After that he’d managed to keep encounters at a muchfurther distance which had not made for easy observation.

Other animalshad been observed with a beak-like structure on the front of their muzzles. Ithad been later determined to be a mix of coloration and keratin structures. Theanimals, however, had lips for the most part. Only a few dinosaurs were knownto have a beak like the ceratopsians and oviraptors.

Sean was ateen but had qualified as a vet, shooter, and rancher. He had agreed to takethe group out since he knew the area. That had saved security from sending anadditional detail to guard them.

They had yetto spot an elusive stegosaurus. There was one maddening video of an animal in amigration but none since. It was one of many questions they wanted resolved.Given that Stegosaurus were supposed to be extinct at the time of the Chicxulubimpactor, the asteroid that had killed the majority of the big dinosaurs andended the Cretaceous period, it was an anomaly that they wanted to resolvebefore presenting it to the scientists on Earth.

The vets andbiologists had set up camera traps and drones to monitor and observe animalpopulations in various locations. They too were mostly too far away to get alot of detail to resolve the “great beak debate.”

However, nowthat the team was closer, they had confirmed that not only did therapoddinosaurs have lips, but they lacked the beak structure that Mitch hadobserved.

Paleontologistson Earth had debated the existence of lips on dinosaurs for some time. Softtissue didn’t normally fossilize so it was theoretical for the most part. Theynow had definitive proof that, yes, they had lips.

The runningjoke about chickens with lips might hit a few people from time to time … rightup until you saw a Rex or other predator curl said lips to show the mouth ofsharp teeth hiding behind them. If anything they were even scarier.

Seeing a rexnibble a mate with those lips or display against rivals was something they wereexcited on reporting. The stuffy Doctor Fuentes was amassing all sorts ofevidence to show off to the scientific community.

DoctorFuentes wasn’t shy about calling that beak issue out every chance he could get,however. Sean wasn’t certain if it was to tweak Mitch, who wasn’t even there toappreciate it, or to just show that their fearless leader was in error andtherefore mortal. The good doctor wasn’t above being caustic about pointing outthe disparity in “proper documentation” between citizen scientists andprofessional scientists.

“I’m certainhe’ll be grateful that you’ve confirmed that observation, Doc. Though in hisdefense, he was right about the feathers, and the structure in the video wehave does confirm something on the muzzles of the animals he had such a closeencounter with, Doctor,” Marjorie Jordan said patiently. She was a vet tech outof the East Village. She’d been taking classes to upgrade her qualifications inthe capital and one of the courses was observing the animals in their nativeenvironment.

Steve Wasabisighed and shook his head at that. The teen was also a student from EastVillage and just starting on his career in veterinary medicine.

“We have notfound those animals though.”

“They couldhave died. If it was a parasite or abnormal growth, it could have made itharder for them to hunt and therefore detrimental to their long-term health,”Marjorie stated.

They were alltalking at a stage whisper, being out in the bush meant that they had to bequiet to not disturb the fauna and in some cases, flora around them.

“You arepitching theories without any proof,” the doctor said in rich disapproval.

“Actually, Doctor,I am using what little observational evidence we have to pitch a hypothesis,”Steve stated flatly. Doctor Fuentes and Doctor Mallard were a bit stroppy aboutthe difference between a hypothesis and theory. “But, I’ll welcome anyadditional evidence if and when it comes in.”

The doctorgave the student a bit of side-eye as if to show his disapproval and thensniffed and went back to glassing the predators.

Marjorieexchanged looks with the teen and then shrugged slightly and went back to theirown observations. Sean stifled a chuckle from his seat nearby.

Marjorie hadan old-fashioned clipboard with a cover. They’d tried using a tablet but thenew batteries didn’t have the life span. The screens were also not brightenough to handle the glare of being out in the open. So, the old tried and truemethods of paper and pen prevailed.

It just meantthat the students had to type everything up back in base camp and tag photosand video clips or other evidence with time codes and such for later peerreview, whenever that happened.

DoctorFuentes wanted to house a Rex at the new zoo. It would be a crowning jewel ifthey could accomplish it. It would most likely have to be more than one though.You can’t have a pack animal live in isolation, and it wasn’t good for theirmental health.

Getting soliddata on the habits and habitat of the Rex and other animals that they preyedupon was therefore important.

The greatmigration would be underway soon enough. They would get a rough count of theanimals as they passed the capital on their way south for the winter. Thestudents were excited but dreading it. Excited to see so many animals up closebut dreading having to film them. And also dreading having to take samples ifpossible.

Sean wasdubious about that idea.

They werealso dubious about having to go over every video feed and count animals. Seanhad been working with the computer geeks to create some sort of trackingsoftware to do it for them. Doctor Fuentes still wanted a personal check by thestudents.

They weredreading that most of all. It meant hours of boring viewing and note taking.

Marjoriechecked the time and noted an observation. The Rex adults were trying to find away to isolate an older Hadrosaur that was cropping at the branches of a bush.It seemed wise to them.

She wonderedidly if it dangled itself out there out of some Lemming response or asdeliberate bait to draw the predator's attention away from the babies in theherd. Certain birds were known to do that, act wounded to draw predators away.

She frownedand jotted the idea down and a note to herself to look up references if andwhen she brought it up with the class later.

They alljumped when the radio went off. “Turn that thing …,” Doctor Fuentes saidcrossly in Spanish before switching to English.

Marjorie hadalready turned the volume down and then plugged the jack of her headphones in.She cradled the headphones to one ear to listen to the report.

The doctorwas already back to watching the herds. “Hopefully you didn’t disturb thehunt,” he grumbled in a stage whisper.

“What is it?”Steve asked.

“Probablyanother radio check-in,” Doctor Fuentes grumbled, still intent on the herd.They were fanned out in a circle with the young in the center. Every otheradult was looking up from time to time to watch the area, calmly chewing theircud.

One of theHadrosaurs was near an embankment of sand and berries munching away. They’dalready proven that the animals had a crop and gizzard and collected sand andgravel in it to process the plant matter that it ate.

Marjorie putthe radio down once she’d heard the report twice. “The expedition is back.”

“Whatexpedition?” Doctor Fuentes asked absently. She pointed up. He looked up andthen frowned at her, clearly puzzled.

“The one toEarth,” she clarified.

Sean andSteve’s eyes lit with pleasure at the news.

“Oh,” he saidand then blinked as he caught on. “Oh!”

“Yeah.They’ll be coming down at the next window. Oh, and by the way, there is a stormcoming up from the south. Expect high winds tonight and then it to hit tomorrowsometime.”

The doctorsighed. “Always something interrupts us. I swear,” he muttered.

>>>*<<<

Bootstrap Colony 5 Snippet 2

 

 

IannaImperium, Colony World

 

For a guy whowas maybe a king, okay, prince consort? King Consort? He wasn’t sure nor did heparticularly care about the titles. But he should be happy. And he was, to adegree.

It was allabout fronts, Eugene Ryans thought as he looked out from the tower overthe battlements of the capital castle.

If he’d beena woman, it would be a storybook fantasy come true. Prince meets and marries awoman making her his queen. Except, in his and Diedra’s case, the roles werereversed. She was the queen, and he was the outsider. He wasn’t even from thisworld.

He lookedover to the kids playing with the nanny and smiled briefly. He went back tobrooding. It seemed the day for it—moody, overcast. Cold, he thoughtwith a slight pang for the poor serfs still stuck in hovels across the planet.

He glanced atthe reflection of his wife in the chair reading by the fireplace. That wassomething that he liked about her; she liked to read. She had taught herselfEnglish and read some of the books that the printers printed ferociously.

Especiallythe romances that the girls had put them up to printing, he thoughtin amusement. What was it with women and reading romances? He thoughtwith a slight shake of his head.

The slightmovement attracted his wife’s attention. She glanced up but then went back toher reading.

He noted themovement and went back to brooding. Okay, a recap woolgathering hethought with a mental snort at his inner narrator.

He had foundand captured the wormhole in the Atlantic with the help of Max and otherengineers and scientists. People had thought they were crazy, which was whythey’d kept it all quiet until they were ready to announce the gate was stable.

Then ofcourse the U.S. government had gotten involved. They had insisted on joiningthe expedition. He’d welcomed the military support, even if it came withstrings.

Fifteencivilians and fifteen military personnel of different stripes had crossed over.Unfortunately, some like Colonel Richards hadn’t made it. At each transit, thewormhole portal on this end of the wormhole had moved backwards along a cliff.The very last hummer had unfortunately come out midair, alla somethinglike a Looney Toon cartoon.

It might havebeen funny for the horrified watchers, a bit of black comedy except that agroup of people had been in the hummer. Colonel Richards had died along withhis driver and three others.

The explorershad been cut off from a quick escape. They’d been forced to go inland, to waitout when the wormhole would inevitably be attracted to the cliffs once more andreturn.

In returningto the original mission they had met their destiny. They had wandered into awarzone of medieval cultures clashing in a classic siege. Well, classic if youreplaced the animals with alien animals for the most part and if you mixed upthe architecture and weapons from different cultures on Earth.

Apparently,the wormhole had been bouncing around Earth for some time. It had sucked upthousands of people over that time period. Those that had banded together andsurvived in the alien world had learned to thrive … to a degree. But they’dbeen stuck in the dark ages of technology. Newcomers called gaijin werehighly prized for their new blood and knowledge.

The maincountry was called the Ianna Imperium, founded primarily by Romans with asmattering of other cultures thrown in. To the northeast was the kingdom ofDuluth settled by Vikings and Celtic tribes.

Sometime inthe past, the Imperium had begun to expand and eventually inevitably fractured.Two duchies were formed beyond the mountains to the north and south. A thirdtribe, Nuevo Imperium, had set up their own kingdom in the southwest.

The continentlooked vaguely like Great Britain. It even had an island off the west coast ofcomparable size to Ireland that was home to slavers and pirates.

Duluth, who hada bad winter, had decided to invade in the early spring of their arrival. Ithad turned into a full siege of the Duchy of Emory. The group of explorers hadtried to avoid it only to be drawn in when they stumbled on a group of Vikingsbusy raping and torturing a refugee party. The party’s survivors turned out tobe Princess Deidra and her sister Zara. Their little brother had been killed infront of them.

They’d had abunch of adventures getting the girls back to where they belonged. Along theway, they had lost more people, mostly to the local alien wildlife. He hadsaved the girls a few times. The others had jokingly coined the Princess RescueInc tag line.

In thecapital, Eugene had been told that he was to marry the elder princess andbecome king. The king died and well, he’d been stuck in a moral quandary.Abandon the girls to be torn apart by the local court or the Vikings or help.

He’d pitchedin to help and help they had. They’d made a deal with Deidra and her people toshare some of their knowledge. In doing so, they’d revolutionized the Imperium.They’d also slaughtered the poor Viking bastards.

Poor, he thoughtin disdain as he sniffed softly. Okay, maybe a few, but most had been all fullof zeal to loot, rape, and burn. He shouldn’t feel bad about stopping them nomatter what it took. It was his modern western ideals that such one-sidedslaughters should be limited.

He knew whereit came from, comic books, cartoons, and movies, and the idea that the herodidn’t go off slaughtering people. They had to have chivalry, a sense ofrestraint.

He snortedagain softly to himself. Funny how it was always expected for the good guys toshow restraint.

Well, theyhad to a degree. The surviving Duluthians had been patched up. Zara had beenput on their throne and sent there to get their house in order.

Eugene hadbeen intent on returning to Earth but it hadn’t worked out that way. A plaguethat had come from exposure to his explorers had swept through the Imperium.Worse, a fire had killed the queen leaving the two teenage princesses asorphans.

He’d sent histeam back, all that wanted to return to Earth anyway, and then settled in to bewith Deidra.

His lipstwitched. It didn’t have anything to do with falling in love with Deidra andvice versa. Such romantic crap only happened in those tawdry romantic novelsand movies the girls loved.

They had madegreat headway in slowly modernizing the Imperium. Zara had been sent to the northeastand Duluth to bring some of their tech there to help with their famine. But thelocals there had turned on her and taken her captive.

Eugene hadtried to stay out of conquest; it had been a part of his deal with the queenafter all. But he’d found himself with a commando unit rescuing Zara in thecold winter. Plus dealing with crap from Earth and other shit.

His chestheaved in a soft sigh. That was it. Earth was bugging him. That and dealingwith the other nation states on the continent. He was doing exactly what he didnot want to do.

Damn them, hethought as his jaw flexed.

He sawDiedra’s eyebrow quirk up a little. Either she’d read something interesting orshe was watching him closely. His fingers flexed a little.

No sooner hadthey gotten Duluth under control then spies from the two duchies had started toget blatant about trying to steal their tech. At one point, even kidnappingsome of his people.

He’d tried toquell such things by agreeing to send a diplomatic delegation to the southeastand the duchy of Calliope. But again, the natives there had broken their word,taken the delegates hostage, and then tried to squeeze them for informationabout how to make modern gunpowder weapons.

He wincedslightly.

Well, ithadn’t worked. Oh, they’d updated and upgraded their tech with what their spieshad given them, but it hadn’t been enough to stop his people. They’d invadedand taken the kingdom apart like a chicken. His people had been rescued andwell, Calliope was playing very nice right now.

They’dbetter, he thought moodily.

That stillleft their partner in crime, the Duke of Medicini, to the north of them. He’dplayed the duchess of Calliope against them and then left her hanging in thewind. Cold, he thought. Machiavellian, he added.

In otherwords, a smart ruthless bastard.

They had beencleaning up Calliope when humans from Earth had returned and seized the gateand the fortress nearby. They had killed some of his people.

His … well,their military had responded in kind, taking out the fortress and gate. He sawmotion and turned just in time to feel hands rub his shoulders and then wraparound his waist from behind.

“Hi,” hemurmured. “Done your book?”

“The chapterfor the nonce,” Deidra murmured. She snuggled against him. He lifted his armand she moved to snuggle under it and against his side. “What are you thinkingabout?”

“Just …getting my thoughts in order,” he admitted.

“We have toomany enemies,” she agreed.

“I know.You’d think they’d get smart and back off,” he grumbled.

“Tis fearthat makes them lash out in unexpected ways. Fear and desire to take what wehave,” she said as her tone darkened slightly.

“I know,” hesaid with a slight sigh.

Duluth was abit of a problem still, restless. For that matter, the Imperium was too. Theyhad the occasional lord who wanted more or wanted to play stupid games. Stupiddangerous games like assassination or the like.

Then therewas the restive natives of Calliope, and now Medicini. Factor in the humansfrom Earth and the pirates off the west coast and well …

He feltDeidra rub his back. “We’ll take on all comers together. And we’ll kick theirarses,” she growled.

Despitehimself he laughed. She was right. As long as they took on each foe one at atime, they could do it. If they had the right mix and had the right pieces inthe right places at the right time.

But damn themall, they’d do it, he thought as the kids came over and hugged their legs. Hechuckled and his rumble made Deidra respond. She tickled him and then theybegan to play with the kids, their problems of state momentarily forgotten.

>>>*<<<

Bootstrap Colony 5 Snippet 1

 Here we go!

Chapter1

 

MitchChambers, president of the Bootstrap Colony was getting heartily tired ofpolitics. It was a series of endless meetings that talked subjects to deathwithout really getting anything done. And trying to keep it all straight was achore.

Fortunately,he had only 2 weeks left before he and his pilot Jacklynn Smith departed forspace and their own world once more.

Theyhadn’t made much headway on the various fronts and agendas he’d set for them. Goals,he reminded himself. The asteroid, trade, immigration, and so on.

Thingswere moving faster now that he’d made it clear that it was a hard deadline.People were starting to actually pay attention to it. He was serious. The hilland certain parties seemed to focus better when there was a hard deadline. Whatwas the line about the prospect of a hanging focusing one’s attention? Hesnorted softly to himself.

Hesometimes wondered why they’d come to Earth at all. Oh yeah, the asteroid, andyeah, kicking humanity into the next phase of their civilization. Hell, ifthey just kept the asteroid from hitting it would be a miracle at this stage,he mused darkly.

Whenthey had arrived in orbit they’d made contact with the International SpaceStation. It had taken a lot of negotiating to get them to the ground safely.But after that the plan had been derailed for a bit as they’d been isolated andpoked and prodded. Certain authorities had made it clear that they were nolonger in control of the situation and that they wouldn’t honor the agreementsthey’d made.

Mitchhowever had an ace up his sleeve, the alien constructs called Memes that hadbrought him back to Earth.

TheMemes looked like flying squid jellyfish. Glowing ones, some tiny, someginormous. The one that was assigned to their mission had a tongue twistingname. He just called it MRE.

TheMemes were ancient alien AI energy beings that were programmed to bring floraand fauna under threat of extinction to a series of alien terraformed worlds.The colony worlds had near circular continents with different populations ofspecies on them.

Througha bit of luck and some shrewd guess work, hell, a lot of it related to hisbackground as a Sci-Fi nerd he had accurately identified what they were. Indoing so he had triggered a new program in the Memes and he and his people hadbeen reclassed as Inheritors. They were now helping him and the humans on thecolony he had tentatively labeled Bootstrap.

Whatthey were helping with was still in flux. Obviously moving back and forthbetween Earth and the colony was one big thing. But they had their limits.

Beforehe had left he had given Bob as much power and money as he had left over inorder to warn the population and get them to act. Bob had managed to get histransit recorded by the media. The major media networks had scoffed at it.

Boband his family had unfortunately died in a car accident so he couldn’t push theissue and get mankind mobilized. But he had managed to get certain parties toactually find the damn rock and do something about it.

Sofar they had tried three times and failed. It was becoming something of arunning joke. Which was one reason Mitch was there.

Mitch hadrealized he had to do something to resurrect his old company in order to lookout for his colony’s interests. He had ended up hiring Perry Jackson torepresent their interests and get things back on track. He sat down with Perryand his assistants for an afternoon and outlined their objectives.

Perry waskeen on stopping the asteroid of course, and was professionally interested inmoving people. But he warned that they had a lot of legal and technical hurdlesto cross. “Legal as in getting you legal immunity. Full diplomatic immunity,not the paper they gave you.”

Mitchfrowned.

“And then theother things to shield you and the company from liability. After that we canget into the nuts and bolts about how to fund that station you want, and set upa balance of trade.”

Mitch nodded.“One thing at a time I guess.”

“So, threethousand… nine hundred and seven people allowed? Why that number?” Perry asked.

“Not my call.The Memes told us that. It is based on the original number of people theybrought over. They brought ten thousand, only three thousand three hundred andtwenty-one of us survived. Since then we’ve had some kids born, and well… theywill allow that cap to ten grand. I’m hoping to change it, but we’ll see.”

Perry noddedand made a note.

“Still onthat subject, everyone who wants to apply has to pass a series of medicalchecks by them. Again,” he spread his hands apart in supplication. “Not mycall. Assumption, it is to make sure those that come over are viable for astable population and so on.”

“Not passingon bad genes?”

“Something tothat effect I believe.” Mitch nodded.

“Right,”Perry made another note. “On the subject of Ryans Corporation…”

Mitch cockedhis head.

“I’d tread carefully.”

Mitch nodded.“Anything in particular I should watch for? Land mines?”

“Oh tons,”Perry said as he sat back. “There is a shadow corporation, a series of shellcompanies that no one can trace. They bought up Ryans Corporation. All of thepublicly available stock I mean.”

Mitch frownedthoughtfully. After a moment he nodded.

“Beyond that,most people try not to get too nosy.”

“Ah?”

“They are thesort of people that do not play nice with being in the spotlight.”

“Cockroachesdo tend to scurry when you shine a light on them,” Mitch growled. In his mindhe was picturing giant centipedes like those he’d encountered in the backcaverns of his base a few times.

He had to bewary of them too. They too bit and could kill a person very easily. “Can youdig into them a bit? And their story?”

Perrygrimaced but then nodded. “You aren’t going public right?”

“Hell no. Notif I can help it. We’re big about being independent. Scrappy and independent,”Mitch replied with a sniff.

Perry nodded.“Good to know. I’ll look around. But quietly.”

“Thanks. Igenerally tend to look before I leap whenever possible.”

Perry gavehim a look and then snorted slightly.

>>>*<<<

Covers and AI

 Sitrep:

So, I finished a fourth book and it is in the hands of the first of the Betas. If anyone of the Betas wants to input anything on the current slate of books, let me know. 

The 4 books are:

Bootstrap 5: Intersection of Worlds

This is a crossover event between Bootstrap Colony and Princess Rescue Inc!!

The Roo Collective:

This is a collection of 3 stories from the Multiverse story with a final 4rth one finishing off the arc. This might get tired into something later... or be a 1 off universe. I'm not sure yet.

The cover was enhanced with AI at Seaart.com.

Shelby 8: Uneasy Truce

This cover has some AI enhancement with the minotaur at the bottom of the screen.

And finally on deck, the book I just finished, Tales of the Federation Reborn 6 World Builders:

I just finished that cover yesterday.

Special thanks to Chris "Mechmaster" Smith for helping me with all of these covers. (and all of my others too!)

I have been trying the AI to enhance some of my old covers. I will be uploading them to Amazon and B&N in the coming weeks.

As far as AI art, I am producing 1-3 images each evening. Some good, some so-so. Some I use to help visualize a character.

 

There are over 200 other images. Gah! lol

Eventually I'll get around to updating the Wiki. lol

I should be sending one of the above books (most likely Bootstrap 5) off to Rea next week. Expect it out sometime next month.

Cheers!

Expanding Horizons is publishing now!

 So, I just launched Expanding Horizons:

About:

  The Federation was reborn in the desperate fight to stop thepirates. Over the years the war escalated and eventually the Federation managedto push them to run. Now the hunt is on to find their hidden battle moon andend the threat to the galaxy once and for all.

  In the Tau sector the war with the Tauren Confederation isreaching its peak. Forces have been rushed there to end the threat once and forall. The Taurens have a brutal fleet aimed straight at the sector capital.

  However Admiral Irons has another problem. The transcendentbeings called Spirits have returned with dire warnings of more impending doom.The Federation needs to marshal resources to meet this threat that their bestscientists barely understand.

  Meanwhile the neighboring sector is heating up as an unholyalliance bears frightening fruit. It seems that the Federation is undergoinggrowing pains as it sees its Expanding Horizons…

Amazon: Expanding Horizons

B&N: ... to be continued. Sigh.