Chris Hechtl's Blog, page 8

Expanding Horizons Snippet 3

 Last snippet and then I'll publish the book probably this afternoon or tomorrow sometime.

 

SG7-171,Sigma sector

 

Dracoidly listened to the report on the hunt for the missing spook. They had finallyarrived in the 171 star system and found a message in the hidden buoy from theadmiral. Apparently, Golden Goose had dropped him off at this locationand then moved on.

TheONI lieutenant took his sweet time sorting it out before releasing some of theinformation. The admiral had altered his appearance shockingly. He wastraveling under the alias Harold Walter White, somewhat appropriate accordingto the lieutenant though he didn’t say why. That set them off to go to theplanet and take a look while the ship stripped the buoy of ship traffic throughthe star system between the admiral’s last message and their arrival time.

>>><><<< 

SergeantHoly Winters stuffed her hands in her pockets as she picked up the trail whereAdmiral Michael Briggs had left off. She browsed the bar district. They had analias and face to use as a description though they were strictly forbidden tomention them to anyone.

Whichmade finding someone who didn’t want to be found all the harder she thought in annoyance.

“Thisis impossible,” she muttered.

“Maybewe should put a bounty on his head?” Ari asked.

Thesergeant turned to her with a “You aren’t serious” look on her face.

“Look,I know it is a risk, but I’m thinking we put up a paternity bounty or somethingthat fits with his profile.”

Thesergeant shook her head. “Spooks do not like any attention drawn to themselvesor a public record. They slip in and out.”

“Allright, fine, how the hell are we supposed to find him if we can’t ask or showhis picture?”

“Noidea,” she muttered.

>>><><<< 

Dracopicked up news in a bar about two big fellas, Jacob and TJ, who paid well fortips about spacers. Usually, the spacer went missing sometime shortly after.

Therewas speculation that they were killing them. Others said they had shanghaiedthe poor sod to their ship, just one missing man among many.

Hegot a name of the ship they traveled on, a nondescript Clydesdale classfreighter called FX-9915A. He bought a round of drinks for his informantand even paid his back tab. That got others talking about the duo in hopes ofgetting a free drink. He didn’t begrudge them, even if they just confirmed whathe already knew. He didn’t care; it was all on ONI’s dime anyway.

Angieconfirmed the ship in their briefing files and then uploaded the tip to theship and the waiting ONI lieutenant.

Theygot an acknowledgment of the report as well as a request for more information.

>>><><<< 

Onthe cruiser, Captain Howard listened to a briefing. The lieutenant confirmedthat the freighter FX-9915A was identified as a pirate. “We have norecord of them in the official database outside of this area. I amcross-referencing port of calls they might have made in the area as well as thetiming of their movements.

“Beaware they might have changed their ID codes and name in different ports,” theship’s AI warned.

Thelieutenant paused and then nodded.

“Checking,I have found four other ships that match the general description of FX-9915A,”the AI reported.

“Putit on a map with time codes. The same for the known appearances of the ship,”the captain ordered.

TheAI did so and then with his own initiative drew lines between the locationswith time codes. There was a big hole though in some of the lines.

“So,somewhere in this given area?” the captain asked as he made a circling gestureover a volume of space. It was in the search zone of the El Dorado. Dozens ofships were searching that volume of space.

“Yes,sir.”

“Well,we might have narrowed down the search zone or we might have a red herring. I’mcurious as to which this will turn out to be.”

“Sir,what happened to the admiral?”

“Damnedif I know. All I do know is that he’s now rather thoroughly on his own,” thecaptain said with a resigned shake of his head. “He’s gone where we can’tfollow.”

“Yes,sir.”

>>><><<< 

Dracowasn’t surprised when they were recalled a week after being deployed to theplanet. He was a bit surprised that the captain wanted to move around the areaand strip the hidden spy drones and message buoys in the empty star systems inten star systems. All with an eye to picking up the Clydesdale’s trail.

Hewondered if they were going to try to catch and board the ship. Apparently,that was still up in the air after their debrief.

“Goodwork. You did well. Time to hit the hay again. We’ll wake you when we find atarget for you,” the captain said simply.

Dracoexchanged looks with his squad and then they got up and headed to the stasispod compartment.

>>><><<< 

Expanding Horizons Snippet 2

 I received the manuscript back from Goodlifeguide this morning. So I will be publishing it soon.

On to the snippet!

 

SenatorRussell was briefed about the possible scouting mission. He of course passed iton to his circle of supporters and allies within the senate.

“Wewere already counting on cutting the navy’s budget with the end of the war. Nowthe damn Spirits sticking their head into things, and now this?” SenatorCalliat demanded. She was new blood and had a lot of heat to go with herfreshman status.

Shehad come to prominence recently after the successful rescue of the Cadretransport. That was how her domestic media back home was spinning it.

SenatorRussell was dubious about the mission, but even more dubious about standing inits way. He didn’t want to be the one on record for getting in the way ofsomething prudent only for it to bite him in the ass later. He hated I told youso’s and was still smarting from getting his hand slapped for diverting so muchof the military’s budget to his pet Army friends.

“Whatdo we do?” Senator Falconi asked. He wasn’t in it to block the scouting so muchas to get some favors out of ending his own opposition to it. Those always camein handy later.

“Theusual. Float some rumors about blocking it or not letting it get out ofcommittee. Maybe even hold the entire military appropriation block up if wehave to.”

“Ah?For?” Senator Falconi asked.

“Fora briefing at the least,” Senator Russell stated. “We’ll play it by ear fromthere.”

Theothers nodded.

>>><><<< 

VicePresident Jeff Randall as president of the Senate picked up on the flack goingon through his staff. He was actually expecting it; it seemed that some peoplewere just ornery. A block of senators had set themselves up as the oppositionto whatever path the administration set out on. Two senators threatened toblock any appropriation bill for the budget to scout the neighboring sectors.They were still wrangling over the issue with what the Spirits had said aboutenergy and all that.

Heshook his head. He understood the sentiment in theory; they were afraid thatthe navy would find trouble. Or they were just cynical enough to believe thatthe navy was trying to justify its high spending levels.

Eitherway it was within their right to demand a briefing from the navy over thesubject and a plan. He passed on a mild email to Admiral Pashenkov to supportthe move.

>>><><<< 

AdmiralPashenkov was still trying to put the fires out when he received the demand fora briefing. “We’re still in the planning stage,” he commented when he was askedfor an initial Admiralty reaction.

“Sir,do we send this to the president?”

“No.I don’t think this needs to rise to Admiral Irons’ desk just yet.”

“Yes,sir,” his AI replied.

Hefrowned as he looked out the window to the shipyard in the distance. He couldsee the flicker of lights as tugs and ships moved around in a coordinatedballet. He finally flicked his ears at his own reflection.

“Dowe have a plan yet?”

“Sendat least a division to each sector to scout while the local commanders set up aseries of pickets, ansibles, and a naval base near the jump line, sir. It isrough but at the moment we don’t have more. We’re letting the local commandersknow and let them choose the ships involved.”

“Ah.”

“Ifwe do it this way, they can get moving on the project sooner. We can wranglethe budget as they get ships moving.”

Thewolf’s ears went flat briefly. “I know. If we waited until the politicians gotoff whatever stick they are on and let us do our jobs, it would be ratherchilly in an infernal place,” he drawled in disgust.

“Yes,sir. The demand?”

“Ihate giving into threats like that. But they have a point. Get our ducks in arow and then set up the briefing.”

“Yes,sir. Direct with you or with someone else?”

“Notdirectly with me. Find a captain and have them handle it.”

“Ayeaye, sir.”

>>><><<< 

Expanding Horizons Snippet 1

 Sitrep:

I am still plugging away at Shelby 8. I am almost at the act III mark. Fun. I am also still plugging at AI art on SeaArt. You can check some of it out there under my name.

Eventually I plan to update the Wiki. Hopefully before June. No promises!

 In other news I'm also making some progress on my SC Viking as well as my J5. I am hoping to get 1 long term project completed before June.

 

 Anyway, I have been working on the AI art enhancing and remaking some of the covers. Expect to see the update hit Amazon and B&N sometime in the near future. (After I finish Shelby 8 most likely!)

 

 So, Rea sent me back Expanding Horizons yesterday. I changed the schedule to put that book out next. So, in a couple of weeks we'll see Expanding Horizons published, and then in May the Roo book, and then Bootstrap Colony 5 in July (?) and then Shelby 8 and so on and so forth. 

On to the snippet!

 

Antigua, Capital of the NewFederation

 

FleetAdmiral and acting President John Henry Irons sighed under his breath as hecame into his office and took a seat. He looked up to the ceiling and then overto the two glowing beings floating nearby.

Ashe studied them, he noted they turned slightly to seemingly look at each other.He couldn’t tell a face from, well, any side actually. They were amorphous,mercurial, he thought. Their bodies were blobs that changed shape. They hadtendrils of energy that were sometimes tentacles, sometimes hair, and sometimes… other things. Even with his enhanced senses, it was hard to keep track.

Theywere beings of energy, of that he could attest. They had no mass yet werethere. Looking directly at them without eye protection was equivalent oflooking into the sun. Proteus had to filter his vision so he could see them andthe room clearly.

Whenthey testified on the hill, it had been hilarious. The clerk telling them toraise their right appendage had been fun. Threats of a subpoena … and theultraconservatives having tizzy fits and trying to insinuate that they weredelusions or constructs … all fun but exhausting.

TheSpirits had crashed many inquiries about them and apparently privatediscussions too. They had been at various press conferences—they or theirgremlins.

Nowthe gremlins were beings he could see, though just the eyes and hands most ofthe time. Only very rarely a toothy grin under the eyes, usually when someonedid or said something stupid. The teeth were, again, made out of energy. Sometimesthey were dark, sometimes bright. They tended to have smoky contrails aroundany part that he could see.

Hehad to wonder if it was for show or not. He had to wonder about a lot of thingsas of late.

Noone else could see the gremlins. Even the cadre had trouble picking them up.Security was having fits over them. He didn’t understand why. They’d beenaround for ages, and it wasn’t like they’d known then. Well, they had known;they just hadn’t believed.

Nowthey did and well, some people were just a trifle upset over it all. In anyother day, he’d be amused. At the moment, not so much.

“Forgotyour coffee?” one of the energy beings asked. He knew that most people stillhad a hard time classifying them as Spirits. Technically, they were evolvedpeople, a merging of the life orders into a higher consciousness of pureenergy.

Orso history said at any rate.

“No,why?”

“Youseem perturbed,” the voice said. There was something … almost holy about thespirit voices. There were echoes in the voice, something that reverberated deepdown. It had a female timber so he classed it as the female Murphy, Luscious.

“Nomore so than usual.”

“Ah.Politics?”

“Prettymuch. The bane of my existence,” he sighed.

“Well,speaking of perturbed, Eve is really pissed at you by the way. I’d avoid her ifat all possible.”

“Oh?Why?” He frowned thoughtfully at her. Eden was one of the spirits, the firstmodern one if the histories were right. She and her AI counterpart had mergedin an unsanctioned experiment gone wrong. Or, from her point of view, veryright.

Eachspirit took on a hobby as he thought of it. In their case, it was a callingaccording to them, a job much like the mythological gods of Terra and otherspecies. The Murphy twins were in charge of chaos and luck in all forms. Theirgremlins were their agents.

Evewas the spirit of creation or one of them at any rate. The list went on and on.

“Thenovas.”

“Inother words, this mess is partially your fault,” Murphy said in a dark voice.

“Ah…?” He frowned and lifted his right eyebrow in curious inquiry.

“Toparaphrase an old movie quote, scientists are always preoccupied whether or notthey could that they didn’t stop to think if they should,” Murphy said.

Theadmiral blinked and then his eyes narrowed.

“Specificallythe nova bomb,” Lady Luck interjected as if her brother had not said anything.

AdmiralIrons blinked. “Okay, I admit I had a hand in making it, but the idea wasalready out there. It had been dreamed up for many, many years.”

“Butyou made it happen.”

Theadmiral’s lips puckered but he remained silent as he digested that.

“Evewas seriously pissed when you navy blokes came up with weapons that coulddestroy planets. Then you come up with a way to blow up a star? Destroyingeverything in the star system?” Lady Luck seemed both awed and yet annoyed.“You did one up on Shiva, destroyer of worlds.”

“Oppenheimer,”Admiral Irons murmured as he caught the reference. He frowned and then shookhimself.

“True.But I admit that the idea has been out there for centuries as I just said. Inmy defense, my plan had been to trap the enemy fleets and blow them awayin strategic strikes in unpopulated star systems not … that.”

Heglanced to the side of his desk where his AI appeared as holographic avatars.

“And he didn’t intend for the enemyto get the weapon,” Lieutenant Commander Protector stated, coming to hisdefense.

“Andall paths to a certain infernal place are not paved with good intentions?”Murphy asked.

AdmiralIrons winced slightly. He had thought he’d faced his demons over hisinvolvement with the Nova bomb. Apparently, they were coming back to haunt himonce more.

“Noone ever intends for the other side to get a weapon. But they have to contendwith the outcome if and when they do. Such as during World War I when gasweapons were introduced on the battlefield,” the male Murphy stated flatly.

AdmiralIrons grunted and nodded slightly, conceding the point.

“Admiral,you of all people should know half of research and development is knowing atechnology is possible. Seeing someone use it makes it possible for the otherside. They have to have a counter and their own version to level the playingfield,” the female spirit stated.

“True,”he conceded with another nod.

“Inyour defense, you were not in charge of security. The Xenos did have troublegetting it but eventually, they managed to do so after you went into stasis.”

Theadmiral nodded again. “Thanks … I think.”

“Destructionis so much easier than creation. All species go through that phase. Fire … oh,shiny! Learn how it burns by torching something before using it to create,”Murphy complained.

“Youalways loved fireworks,” Lady Luck said. “And you are the one that loveschaos,” she reminded her twin just as some of the cabinet and staff entered theroom.

Themortals looked from her to Murphy and then back, again arrested by theirpresence.

“True,”Murphy replied. “I still do. And yes, I still revel in destruction. That partof me never changed.”

“Isee we’re nearly all here. How about we get this show going then?” AdmiralIrons suggested as Admiral Sprite appeared on his desk in holographic form andother beings appeared in the same manner or in person. “I know we have a fullagenda …”

“Veryfull. You need to get your house in order. I know it will never happencompletely, but it does need some sorting out on multiple fronts before we canget serious about the star problem you mortals created,” Murphy said.

AdmiralIrons grunted and nodded once more.

“Andno, we can’t tell you anything. We’re forbidden to tell you the location of thepirate bases, or what’s going on in a neighboring sector … or across the galaxy…”

“Quitteasing them and giving them hints bro. They are having trouble sleeping atnight as it is,” Lady Luck scolded.

Murphymade a shrug gesture but the gremlins around him seemed to smile a feralCheshire grin.

AdmiralIrons exchanged looks with some of the other morals in the room. “File thataway under things we’ll have to look into I suppose,” he said with anothersigh.

“Yeah,”Admiral Sprite drawled. She still seemed fascinated with the Spirits.

>>><><<< 

Bootstrap Colony 1 is in PRINT!

 And now the main reason for this string of blogs, Bootstrap Colony 1 is in print!

  Yeah, I took the plunge. The economics still suck but we'll give it a shot. I am only putting books that are 300 pages or less in print that will break even or sell well.

I did a minor refresh of the cover with the help of Mechmaster

You can find it on Amazon

  I ordered 2 author proofs. The first came out rather dark so I lightened it a lot (the above pic) and when that one came in I ran with it.

If it sells well I will be reinvesting some of the money into getting other books into print. The next up is New Dawn (as mentioned in a previous post) then Jethro Goes to War, and possibly others. They have to be under 300 pages and had sold reasonably well in the past. 

If this endeavor works out I'll try to have more books in print from the point of publishing. 😁

AI Art!

 It never rains but it pours. Well, at the moment it is pouring and has been since Sunday here. Fun.

Anyway, Mechmaster convinced me to try AI art to enhance my covers and character art. I went to SeaArt.com Sunday and dug in a little.

I redid the cover to New Dawn.

I like that Irons. He's definitely different!

I will be trying to get that book into print in a month or 2 barring any hiccups or issues.

Since I was having fun...

and then Shelby Logan:

And Admiral Subert:

Admiral White didn't come out so hot.

Horatio Logan came out stunning. I'm still reworking this for a refresh of the original cover to Full Circle:

Here are Catherine and Elvira:

I tried Jethro and other Anthro (Neo) characters with bad results. I'll try again some other time. (when my credits refresh)

Sprite is another one that got badly mangled. 

I'll be refreshing the WIKI sometime as well as some of the covers to some of the books. Eventually.

News!

 Sitrep:

I didn't want to step on the MV 7 launch but...

A lot to unpack. I finished Bootstrap Colony 5, and I've been poking at the cover for the past few days.

 Since I am at it the next book is the Roo one:

Which I may try to enhance with AI later. Maybe, we'll see. I'll get to the AI thing in a moment.

Here is the cover to Expanding Horizons:

I'm going to post 2 more blog posts here...

Multiverse 7 has published!

 

Four fresh stories from the universes I play in. The Roo, Princess Rescue, and 2 from the Federation Universe!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CSMB2YNB

B&N: ---

Multiverse 7 Snippet 4

 Sitrep:

So, I just finished act 1 yesterday. I'm going to switch gears today to do the homework for it before sending it off to the Betas. :)

In other news I just received MV7 from Goodlifeguide. I'll be publishing it today or tomorrow!

I also sent the original Bootstrap Colony to Goodlifeguide so she can get a jump on the formatting for print. That has me nervous.

I'm still struggling with the back cover artwork.

On to the final snippet!

 

The following story is from Scamp, a follow up to the Federation story in MV6! Boy it was fun to write! 😄

 

EosXVIII, Sigma Sector

 

The Meridian class prowler,Batmobile, checked in again with the natives as they made their finalapproach and settled into orbit. They were masquerading as a small trampfreighter and were essentially on fumes. The captain had decided on stopping atthe planet over the other two stops in the cluster because they had not visitedit yet. There had also been recent unknown ion trail traffic to the other stopsso she’d skipped through SG5-235 rather than stopping and potentially gettingcaught.

It had meant they were runninglow on fuel though, and after a year of traveling from Beta sector, the crewcould use some fresh provisions and a relief to bulkhead fever. But there wereinherent dangers in lowering their guard.

They had found the hidden spysatellite and the AI had downloaded the dump of data. The skipper and AI werestill processing it. That didn’t matter to the rest of the crew at the momentsince the last ship had departed the star system just under a year ago. Theyhad a job to do, secure fuel and provisions; otherwise, they were going to bestuck in the star system for a long time.

The colony was in a cul-de-sacstar system. Named for Eos, Greek god of the dawn, it had a large ocean withsome unusual properties. That and a desire for a change in diet had helped theskipper chose their destination.

The mission was tricky; they weresupposed to maintain their cover in what was suspected to be a pirate alliedstar system.

Nothing that team members of theSpecial Warfare Group couldn’t handle of course.

===#===

Chief Petty Officer Joe Thomsonchecked the shuttle status as they came out of LOS. So far so good, now heneeded to get the hull temperature down so they could move on to the next phaseof the plan.

He glanced at the camera feed inthe rear. It was filled with trade goods and two of his teammates. He glancedto the copilot seat where Petty Officer Randy Guetta was going through theusual routine with the shuttle’s systems.

Because they were essentially inpirate space, most of the nonhuman team members were used for support insituations like this. Those that did get dropped had to hang back out of sightand therefore out of mind. They usually shrugged it off.

“Drop in three mikes fourteenseconds from … mark,” he announced over the PA.

He got two acknowledgments andthen sent a brief SITREP to the ship upstairs. He then took the yoke and begana series of S turns to bleed off some of their excess speed and thermal energy.

===#===

Mayor Lyle Tenaka was on hand forthe landing. Sheriff Jim Santos was off doing a patrol with his deputies,something about an owl bear raiding a chicken coop at Crawlies. He’d look intoit later.

He had let the commissioner knowabout the arrival. Commissioner Fenrir Malforth had been appointed by thepirate Empress to oversee trade with the planet. He was officially there as herrepresentative. There had been a cave-in at one of the mines after the rains sohe’d stopped there before coming to town.

Given that the rains had washedout some of the roads, he might be delayed a day or more. He hoped so at anyrate. The commissioner was a cold bastard. Scary, he thought with awince. He was also paranoid about the visiting tramp freighter for some reason.

They occasionally did see acivilian freighter or used to until the regular traffic with the pirates. Hesuspected that they had run off most of the civilian traffic or caught itbefore the Feds had shown up in the star system. So far he’d only seen threevisits by their ships, all cruisers. None had stayed longer than a week. Thelast had been two years ago.

They were looking for thepirate’s main base. He wasn’t sure he wanted them to find it. At the moment,trading with the pirates was lucrative. It was actual trade too, not tribute,which explained why he was reluctant to mention it to anyone, especiallyoutsiders.

He checked the weather andgrunted. He expected a series of storms to roll in by the end of the week asusual. He was pretty sure the ship would want to leave by then so the tradeshould be short and sweet.

===#===

As soon as they were below fifteenthousand meters, the chief went into a series of S turns to seemingly bleed offspeed. Which he was doing but he had another purpose for the maneuvers.

When the hull was safe enough,the rear hatch opened and Sully and Sia waddled out. Sully went over the rampas the light turned green, Sia a beat behind him. A line attached to the tigerdrew a package out with her.

They dropped below the shuttleand the ramp closed. Chief Thompson and PO Randy Guetta remained at thecontrols of the shuttle. They returned to the normal mission profile as thesniper team popped their chutes and then performed a water insertion belowthem.

===#===

Sully kept his hands crossed infront of himself and his body straight as a pencil as he dropped out of hischute and into the cold salt water. Plasma from their reentry had made thingshot initially, but the cold dip was a shock to his system.

Both SEALs had used a single-usesmall deflector to ward off the heat and plasma but they’d still felt a bit ofit. They’d had to be well clear of the wake of the shuttle before they coulddeploy their chutes. It wasn’t quite a classic HALO drop but it felt like it.

The package that had beenattached to Sia deployed after bobbing back to the surface. It inflated into arib, an inflatable small boat.

“Hurry up before the damn sharkscome to investigate the splashing,” Sully grumbled. PO Ben Sully was a Neochimpand the team’s best sniper. He was, however, a typical chimp and therefore hatedwater.

It was amazing though what onecould put up with if you were dedicated enough. He managed to get into the riband rolled to the side to make room for his much larger partner.

“No claws,” he warned.

“Teach your mother to suck eggs,”PO Sia Clarkson, the Neotiger engineer and spotter growled. She was there tohandle the communications for the sniper team as well. She clambered into theboat just as a fin broke the surface.

“Screw you,” she growled at thefish, holding up a one finger salute as Sully got the small motor going. Sheoriented on the coast with her implants and pointed in the direction they hadto go. “Six kilometers that way,” she said.

“Copy that,” Sully said.

They secured their gear and thenthe quiet motor roared to full power. They laid flat on the rib’s sides as theboat headed inland.

===#===

Scamp was grateful to be awake,so grateful he tried his best to be as helpful as possible around the ship.

He had been given basic civilianimplants with a jack during his physical exam. He knew that they could trackhim on the ship and off. It was not used when they played hide and seek though.He was particularly good at that game, whether he was seeking or hiding. TheSEALs were a bit chagrined to know he could smell them out even with theirimplants.

He had been awake for two monthsand was growing up a bit. The chief said he was maturing, which he attributedto regular schooling and his time on the ship.

He was allowed to be awake whilein port as long as he stayed out of the way and did his chores and schoolwork.He was determined to become a SEAL when they finally reached the Federation. Heeven worked out in the small exercise room and had passed a basic firearmssafety and marksmanship class.

He had a series of chores to do.Everyone had chores, so he wisely didn’t complain. His included checking shipsystems, watering the plants and caring for them, cleaning, and doing chores inthe galley. He was too young and not an official member of the crew so hecouldn’t stand watch. Not that he didn’t sit in a few times.

They did occasionally tease himabout nodding off. They were right and he was embarrassed but took it in goodstride most times, including the pranks some of the SEALs occasionally pulledon him when he did take a nap.

He did like that the choresrotated and that he could and did get back at the SEALs who pranked him onoccasion. They had a wicked sense of humor and enjoyed a good joke, even when theywere the butt of it. He’d also learned to not complain about being occasionallysingled out.

He rounded a corner and dippedinto the storage room off the tiny sickbay. The lights came on automatically.

He noted the cyborg woman in thestasis pod. He stared at her for a long moment before he turned, made a checkon his tablet, and then scampered off.

===#===

Multiverse 7 Snippet 3

 Sitrep:

So, plugging away on Bootstrap 5, I'm closing in on finishing up the first act. Slow going, but I'm getting there.

In other news, the cover for Bootstrap 1 revamp is good but the backflap needs work. I've been working on it in the evenings. Render times have skyrocketed with the increase in level of detail which is... driving me crazy at the moment. Mechmaster is patiently working on it with me. :)

Hopefully I'll have something better to show soon.

Oh! Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

On to the snippet!

 

The following is the start of the first Federation story called Skyworld. It was fun to write and puzzle over.

 

Skyworld

 

The lighthouse was anivory pillar on a jagged steep column of rock. A suspension bridge connected itto another rock spire, and another bridge from there connected it to the rockwhere the main house was.

Stairs spiraled downaround the rock. At one point, the wood and plastic stairs had a railing; thewood had dried out and at some point either given way or been sacrificed forfire material. Now the only safe way down the stairs was to cling to the rockface and pick your way along the steps. You took your life into your hands eachtime you used them. Forget trying to climb up or down the stairs in high winds.

Ben Sereph, the chieflighthouse keeper, noted fog rolling in. It was to be expected. The barometricpressure was high but the temperature was dropping quickly. He checked the foghornto be sure it would work. He also checked to be sure he had enough padding topack the ears of the family to drown it out later.

Fog was the scariest timeto be in the air; any sane flyer either flew above it or grounded themselves.If they were going over the deeps, they chanced a predator seeing their shadowand lunging at them in a breech.

Clouds at least were notas bad most times. Fog was a form of cloud, but it could be so thick youcouldn’t see your hand in front of your face. It would roll in just below thelighthouse giving it an ominous sea of cotton all around it.

Seeing a breech wasspectacular as long as you weren’t the victim of it. He had seen his fair shareof them over the years as the lighthouse keeper and before when he’d been aflier himself.

He flexed his right arm,keeping his left to his side. His left arm had been badly damaged in an injuryand had healed wrong. The wing skin was bumpy and had holes in it.

He was a chimera, adescendant of a genetically engineered human who had turned themselves into aman-bat. He had hollow bones and short legs. A flap of skin had once beenbetween his legs. That too had been damaged, and the doc had trimmed it toallow him to get around easier without having to knuckle walk anymore.

It did allow him to wearpants, which was warmer in the cold wet air. But he still missed … he twistedhis face and looked away in pain.

His homeworld had been aminor gas giant in the goldilocks zone that had been terraformed by acorporation during the Federation. The man who had orchestrated the move wasnamed Drake Tugarin. He was still around; when he had retired, he had changedhis body form into a were dragon. He was over nine hundred years old and atitan. He slept a lot more, and his mind wandered, but he still thought ofhimself as the governor of the star system.

No one was stupid enoughto dispute it. At least, no one within biting range of the dragon at any rate.

During the Federation time,the planet had served as a tourist trap in the region. Ships would stop by fortheir abundant supply of hydrogen, water, and oxygen. Cruise liners would bringloads of passengers to experience the color of the natives and the hospitalityof the hotels that were there to service them.

Hotels, resorts, and ofcourse casinos. All designed to pamper the guests and keep them content whilethey willingly signed over vast sums of money in the casinos or doing eventsand other scatterbrained things.

There had been fishing,air sailing, diving, flying, and especially racing.

Most of the residents hadworked in the hospitality industry in company housing. They had to fulfillevery job imaginable to keep the place running smoothly.

When the fall of theFederation came, many star systems were overwhelmed helping refugees. When thepower, food, and tech inevitably ran out, they had to scramble to find ways tosupport themselves.

Their home planet had aspace station at one point. Operative word there, had. He looked up to the blue sky bleakly. At one point, they’d hada massive space station that ships could unstep their hyperdrives and dockwith.

That had changed when adamn changeling had gotten on board. The governor had ordered the station to bedestroyed by setting off an improvised fusion warhead. Millions of people haddied. But better they died cleanly in the hellfire of a nuke over getting eatenalive by nanites that had been set loose within the confines of the station.

He shivered a little. Andbetter still that the nanites hadn’t found their way to the planet’satmosphere.

Some of the resorts andhotels had fallen over the centuries. Many of those had been kept up byantigrav. When the tech failed, so did the platform. Small platforms hadmanaged to use vast dirigibles to keep afloat but they were fire hazards.

There was no real groundfor people to settle on and spread out on. The ground they did have was thetops of spires and mountains that were far below. No one could survive livingon the ground; the air pressure was just too great.

Over the intervening yearsif one thing or another didn’t kill you, a person saved up and got off the damnworld. They were still a crossroads for ship traffic. There were four jumppoints that lead to other star systems. They were one of the few places it wasconvenient to refuel.

Of course that meant theywere essentially a watering hole. Which meant predators in the form of the damnlice, bedraggled pirates lurked. They had driven off a lot of the traffic.

He hated the pirates witha passion. They hadn’t taken his wing, which had been his own damn fault. Butthey had killed many people. Worse, they took what they wanted and threatenedto destroy the few places left that people could cling to.

Those people that couldget out had done so over the years. Many young people took off if given halfthe chance. They had lost a lot of institutional knowledge in the process.

That and the populationhad shifted.

He checked the light andcleaned a section of the glass with a rag. There was a bit of crud, probablyfrom the airborne bacteria and plankton. Cleaning the light was a constantheadache; the light tended to attract animals and insects. With the small ones,came the larger ones and so on and so forth.

He checked the instrumentsand then used a quill pen to mark down the time and readings for the almanac.He was careful to not use too much of the ink. It was made from a flying squidthat was tough to catch.

He put the quill in thecontainer and then turned away. The journal laid open for him. The papersruffled by the light breeze. He glanced at it and then outside.

His wife should be backany time, he mused thoughtfully. Hopefully before dark, he thoughtdarkly. She knew better than to push it. Hell, hopefully before dusk, that waswhen the predators really came out to hunt.

Damn you, Serena, getback here, he thought with a mental growl. Motion at the house out of thecorner of his eye attracted his attention. He turned and saw their eldestwaving. He grunted and lifted him up off the stool and made his way out of thelighthouse and to the bridges linking the lighthouse to their small home.

===@===

Serena felt contentment asshe sighted home. It was still there, still a part of the landscape. Like therocks the house and lighthouse clung to, just there.

She was tired from herlong flight and heavy payload, but wise enough to not go straight in. There wasa narrow stretch that she could run but it went right over the depths. Instead,she banked away and took the safe way in. It meant the setting sun was at herback.

The depths were alreadybeing obscured by the rolling fog, like a blanket being pulled over it. Ben’sgoing to be irked at my tardiness, but I had to catch that last thermal,she thought with a mental shrug.

It wasn’t her fault thathe couldn’t fly. He had been young and stupid enough to fly too close to therocks. He’d paid for the mistake with a shattered wing arm and shredded sails.The fire a few years ago hadn’t helped.

At least we didn’t losethe house, she thought as she banked ever so slightly, conserving altitude asshe tried to sail into the narrow landing platform attached to the house.

She felt the packages andmail weighing her down. It was all strapped to her harness. She might have overdone it, but it might mean they may not have to go out for groceries again fora full week.

Maybe.

Besides, they’d gottenpaid, which was great. It had been past time to stock up. The larder wasgetting low and the kids were heartily tired of eating lichen and what theadults could catch in the nets. A treat was in order.

She did a spiral once homewas in sight. She hated and loved this part. The depths were near the edge ofthe platform; the winds were just right that had to go over them in order toland. In order to do it, she had a trick though.

Like a falcon she tuckedher wings in tight and pointed her nose to the platform in a steep dive. Sheflew fast over the depths as she lost altitude and then unfurled her wings toback wing at the platform edge.

A sudden gust of windthrew her timing off. But a hand reached out to grab her harness just beforeshe went backwards over the edge.

She smiled as sherecovered her balance, tucking her wings in her knuckles to the ground forstability. Her long fingers tucked up against her arms.

“You need to be morecareful with an unfamiliar load, mom,” Charlie said as he let go of herharness.

“Nice to see you too,son,” she said as she kissed him on the head.

“I take it work was good?”

“You could say that,” shesaid with a grin as they got away from the edge of the platform to avoidanything being tempted to come up to investigate. Once clear she undid a few ofthe packages and handed them over to him.

He wrapped one around hiswaist and then slung the other over his shoulder. She tisked and attached it tohis harness.

He clicked his mouth butdidn’t object. He knew better.

They negotiated thestairs, sticking to the cliff side. “Your father needs to get another ropehere. Two of them,” Serena complained.

“You say that all thetime. But you know he can’t leave this place. So, it is up to you to buy them,right?”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “Tootrue.” She was tired and hungry. Her hunger was a product of her exertionsflying. She had low blood sugar and needed to refuel. “What’s for dinner?”

Her son snorted. “Whatelse? Stew. Dad was brooding in the lighthouse all day so we only checked thesmall traps.”

“Damn,” his mothermuttered.

“He did check them in themorning; there wasn’t much. I netted a crab off the east side.”

“You did?” she asked,clearly pleased.

“Yeah, it made for goodcrab sandwiches,” he said.

She smiled. At least heand his siblings had been fed.

One of the things that hadattracted her to Ben was his inability to fly. She’d never told him that, infact she’d never told a soul. He was moody and brooded a lot. She knew it andknew why. But the reason he couldn’t fly was why she had taken him as a mate.He could mind the kids while she continued to fly and work.

It wasn’t something youever admitted to your earthbound mate, however.

He did have his moments.He was great with their children when he was in a good mood. Even when he wasin one of his moods he never took it out on her or the kids. He just shut down.Usually the antics of one of the kids would break him out of it.

Once they were at thelanding around the house, he turned. “One day I am going to make this bigger soyou can land here,” he indicated the platform.

“Sure you will. With whatwood?” she retorted.

He shrugged as she openedthe door and they stepped inside.

As expected the house waswarm but darker than outside. The windows were small and patched. Two werecovered with muslin rather than glass. They still had pieces of glass in them,but they didn’t do much. When it was cold out, they were the first to beshuttered.

A dried log of lichen wasburning in the fireplace. It was a light fire; a pot of stew simmered next toit on a forked rod.

A spoon and poker leanedup against the sooty fireplace. She flicked a look of disapproval at the spoonbut then went back to surveying the room. All was right as it should be.

William was entertaininghis two sisters. Sunny was enjoying gliding off the stool. “Mommy mommy!” shecalled out in excitement.

Serena smiled tenderly andhugged her daughter. Eliza hugged her from the outside. “So, what’d you bringus?” the impetuous elder daughter asked slyly.

Her mother chuckled inresponse and ruffled her hair.

“So, where is yourfather?” she asked.

“At the lighthouse. Fog isrolling in. We had some plankton hit it. No pitting,” William told her. “He waswaiting for the evening check-in time before he set the foghorn.”

Serena nodded.

“We need to do somethingabout the western wind turbine. It’s not anchored well,” William said.

Serena nodded again. “Theproblem is …”

“Getting to it. And havingsomething to anchor into. Yeah, I know,” he said. “But if we don’t do somethingsoon one good gust and that will be all she wrote. It’ll fall into the depths.”

She grimaced. “The linemight stop it.”

“If the weight doesn’tsnap it. Or pull the box down with it,” William retorted.

Serena nodded again. Sheknew that. She was just tired.

Charles helped her to gether packages sorted out. The mail went to her desk by the window. The rest wasquickly sorted out. She kept her surprise for later under wraps.

Charles went out to wavetheir father in as she settled down to eat some stew. The kids were pleased andtold her about their day. She was tired but listened to them as she ate.

When Ben came in, she feltthe gust of cold air but was sleepy. She smiled as she cuddled with Sunny.“Hi,” she said.

“Hi, yourself,” he saidwith a nod as the door closed behind him. Charles followed him in with a net.He dumped the contents in the sink and then began to sort it out. Ben went andkissed his wife’s forehead and then went to help his eldest deal with thecatch.

Once the catch was sorted,he reset the trap with a bait fish and then went out and dropped it.

“Where was that one?” sheasked Charles while his father was gone.

“North. He checked thetraps on his way in.

“Oh,” she said with atired nod. “Anything good?”

“A couple of crustaceans.There are some bones and wings of flying fish. He should have checked the trapsooner.”

“Or you should have,” sheretorted. He grunted but said nothing.

“So, school is done?”

“Mom?”

“Yeah?”

“Go to bed,” he repliedwith a chuckle.

She snorted. She didappreciate the warmth of the chamber. He placed a blanket over her shoulders.She felt gratitude.

He went back to sort thecatch just as Ben returned. Ben gave her another kiss and then she tiredly toldhim about her day. He sat across from her and listened to every word, somethingshe deeply appreciated and treasured.

===@===

Multiverse Snippet 2

 Sitrep:

So, I'm plugging away at Bootstrap Colony 5. It is slow going but I'm picking up speed as I get back into the rhythm.  

I have also been making some progress with the revamp of the Bootstrap 1 cover. The base cover is done, I'm going to work on the lettering and the back flap in a bit.

In other news, Goodlifeguide let me know they'll have MV7 back next week sometime.

On to the snippet!

The following is from the PRI story Dragon Carrier, which is a follow up to the PRI story in Multiverse 6.

Dragon Carrier

Tuanku Cayao stared out at the bricklayerserecting a smokestack and considered how far they had come in such a short timeperiod. It was all due to the gaijin in the Ianna Imperium.

Well, to be fair they had set the spark and alarmhad fanned it into competition, a sense of urgency to do something or get leftbehind or worse, get invaded and have their lives and freedom ruined or cutshort.

In one of the rarest moments in history, the twelvepirate clans had banded together like never before. They had opened theirarchives to the makers like Dirk Wheeler to compile what they already knew butdidn’t understand with what they had seen from the Imperium’s craft. Dirk hadmentioned that seeing something done was halfway there to actually doing itthemselves.

Well, they’d known the realm of possibility fromtales from his home world of Patria, Earth. He had left there at thetender age of eleven from the seas near Indonesia thirty local years or annusas they called them ago. The years didn’t quite match up on the alien world,one of many differences between the two planets.

They had seen and heard the stories, seen samplesof craft and technology that survived to get to the island. But none couldunderstand enough to implement the technology, at least not until a group of gaijinhad come across with a seemingly complete computer database of technology.

Seeing was believing though, and when a piratecaptain had seen an Ianna aircraft buzz his ship and prevent him from catchinga prize, it had sparked the lords to do something.

That and well, the stories of the Imperium usingthat technology to utterly destroy the army of Duluth and conquer it in shortorder. They had to upgrade if only out of an urgent need for self-defense.

Knowing something could be done was great, butthey hadn’t the understanding of things until Dirk dug into the archives. Thatand they picked his brain. He hadn’t expected the changes that had been wroughtin such a short time.

They had alcohol fueled motors now. They had crudeelectricity with little understanding of how it worked; he only remembered somuch to help. The materials were an issue of course; he knew they couldn’treplicate a microchip when they were still struggling to produce the basics ofother components.

Teasing his memory helped to break through logjamsof things that had been described in journals from gaijin. That wassomething he liked. His adopted people had bought or taken in gaijinfrom various cultures, and they had been paid to write down what they knew.

Unfortunately, less than a tenth of that knowledgehad been applied up until now. But now they were making a great deal ofheadway.

Dirk Wheeler’s Maker Clan had been working toinnovate before the Imperium had grown in importance. His clan had engineeredgliders and flying beasts. They had implemented many other things. Adding newtech was just pushing things faster.

He looked over the top of the building whereworkmen were covering over the truss sections with plywood. Plywood had beenaround for a while but they now made a lot more of it. Dirk had introducedworkshops and other facilities and a better shipyard. The building he waswatching grow was a new workshop being built where a group of old workshops hadbeen torn down two hafta ago.

Even though he and an elderly Chinese lady hadfilled in important pieces, they still had many left glaringly open to puzzleover. The Chinese lady had passed away recently but not before finallyrevealing the secret to gunpowder to the clans.

He heard shots and turned to see puffs of smokewhere men were drilling at a gun range. They had flintlock pistols and riflesat the moment, but it was far better than bows, crossbows, and swords. They hadto use flintlocks since they were recreations of the few originals that hadsurvived as prizes in collections and could use the black powder. The chemistsin the Abbas Clan knew of smokeless gunpowder and guncotton but lacked therecipe to make them at the moment.

The fact that the Imperium had both wasn’t lost onthe clans. Their spies were working with the Duke of Medicini to redress thebalance there and elsewhere.

Pierre Fouche, lord of his own clan, was steeringthat effort. He was dealing with Duke Medicini as well as managing the spyefforts in Ianna with Cheung Leung’s support.

Already they had received some useful bits, likepamphlets on vaccines and a tattered children’s book with pictures of gaijintechnology. It was proving useful but maddeningly vague.

Perhaps more would come in soon.

~~~\^/~~~

Captain Ahmad felt his ship rock as the two boatslined up. He was in his old clipper. He wanted to use the newer vessels but hislord had decreed that those ships had to stay close to port. They did not wantto tip-off their hand that they were moving away from sailing vessels so quickly.

He understood it, but the newer ships were faster.Perhaps they could find a way to work some of the new gadgets into his oldship? That would be nice. A motorized winch would be ideal. The same for stovesand things. He made another mental note to look into it as the breeze pickedup.

A lookout called out a sail sighting and he turnedin the indicated direction. “About time,” he muttered.

The small fishing vessel came alongside warily.Once they were alongside, a plank was extended between the vessels and he wentaboard.

The fishing captain was ready to do business. Heoffered papers and things that had been handed out in his small village. Theyhad been crumpled at one time but smoothed out. “You do not need them? Or didyou make a copy?” Captain Ahmad asked as he looked the material over. Therewere new pamphlets, a paper on events, and another book.

The fisherman looked away. It became clear butunsaid that he couldn’t read. Most of the fishing families couldn’t read.

“They want to put our children in a propereducation,” the fisherman said and then spat over the side of the boat. He wascareful to do it in the offside away from the clipper out of respect or fear.

Captain Ahmad nodded. It was typical in thefishing villages. As soon as the children were old enough to mind themselvesthey worked clamming or in the docks running messages or carts or gutting fish.You learned what you could. If the family wasn’t too tired, they would dosomething during the long winter or hire a tutor if they were well off. Thepoor didn’t care, however.

Most families inland liked having kids becausethey did chores and helped out with the farm. They were accidents though. “Theymight as well pay for their own upkeep. My eldest son will be coming out withme next trip,” the fisherman said.

“Ah,” Captain Ahmad said as he nodded and handedover a small pouch of coins. It was a bit ironic that the coins had come fromthe Nuevo Imperium vessel that they had captured and looted. The crew didn’tneed such things anymore.

“Thank ye kindly, sorr,” the fisherman drawled ashe made the small pouch disappear. His eyes gleamed.

The two captains conversed; Captain Ahmad wascareful to question the man in different ways about points of interest thatPierre’s men had given him to follow. When he was certain of the answers, theyparted ways.

Once he was on board his ship, the captain wentbelow and came back with a massive fish. He tossed it to a deckhand on theclipper. “My thanks!” he said.

The deckhand took it with a grin. “We’ll be eatingwell tonight!” he said.

The crew cheered.

The captain snorted. Once the fishing vessel wasunderway again, he ordered his first officer to set course for home and thenwent below to his cabin to write up everything that had been said while thememories were fresh.

~~~\^/~~~