Dan Melson's Blog, page 6

First Draft Excerpt from Measure of Adulthood

We'd reached a portal. The Residence took up something over twenty cubic ithirds at the top of the arcology; the parking garage was at least a cubic ithird on its own. I didn't need to worry about most of the commercial or military volumes; only the actual family part of the Residence. All I needed to know was how to look up where stuff was, but one of the ones I knew was the portal near Ferugio's office. Security knew I had a guest, so no problems in the Family part of the Residence and we'd get Lemarcus his own access when we replaced his datalink. Earth had portals, too; Lemarcus didn't blink or hesitate as we walked through.We emerged about thirty ififths up the corridor from Ferugio's office, just a few seconds' walk. "Ferugio, this is my son Lemarcus Wilson di Juarez. He'll be staying with us - his training is my responsibility. I expect Scimtar will have created his security profile by now.""Yes, I've been given instructions," Ferugio over-topped me by better than half a head, but that didn't change my impression of him as a small, prissy little man. He spoke pedantically at the best of times, but he'd found a niche he could prosper in - he did know how to manage training. Despite the fact he hadn't mastered a lot of what Scimtar considered essential within his family, he knew what subjects in what order would produce a superior product - in other words, a newly minted adult ready to contribute to the family and with the best chance of surviving inter-family squabbles. "He's to have free access to general materials; only when it comes to instructor time or significant expendables will I be allowed to bill you.""The more I think about it, the more I think I'll be sending him to Paladin for Guardian training when the time comes, although that won't be until after he's regained his adulthood. Asto and I will likely work with him on auros, but the rest needs to wait."Ferugio looked shocked when I mentioned Lemarcus regaining adulthood. I have to admit Scimtar allowing someone who'd lost adulthood into the Residence was surprising, but perhaps he'd realized if he didn't Asto and I and perhaps our other legal children would likely have moved out. "Well then, we'll have to see about the adulthood modules first.""He'll need refreshers on Traditional and Technical before those. Living on Earth, seems he's let his proficiencies go.""Oh my, that is sad. As you say. Can't learn anything if he doesn't understand the languages they're taught in.""He'll also require a new datalink up to the task. His current model is insufficient to the task.""Why yes, I've got a validated spare here, already configured for him. Let's get to it." I didn't know if Ferugio had thought of that himself, but the day I caught Scimtar not being at least three steps ahead of everything, I'd be worried. I told Lemarcus in English, "Ferugio is going to replace your datalink with a better one. Hold still." Switching back to Technical, "Not that any datalink is going to be a bit of good until he gets some language the local service providers offer service in."He laughed, a dry chuckle. "Since he's not leaving the Residence until he's regained at least Environment qualification, not an immediate worry."Lemarcus, for his part, graduated from lost to outraged, "Look, I know you're talking about me. But it's rude to talk about people in languages they don't understand!" It was a good thing Ferugio was so practiced with datalinks - the new one was already emplaced."Then you should have maintained your proficiency in Traditional or Technical," I told him, "So we could find a common language. But Ferugio has never had a reason to learn English, and I need to discuss your status with him in order to determine your learning priorities. We were using spoken language out of deference to you. Would it make you feel better if the two of us switched to telepathy?""Don't be ridiculous!" he all but shouted in return."Then shut up and let me get this over with." Switching to Technical for Ferugio, "Best not to schedule him for anything beyond basic fitness until he's regained legal adulthood. I'll take care of any combat instruction I want him to have before then." Lemarcus' surface thoughts confirmed that while he might have some idea about a few Traditional words, he was completely ignorant of Technical. "He seems to understand a few words in Traditional; nothing in Technical.""That was my assessment as well, so we'll begin his instruction with Traditional.""Copy Asto and me with his schedule and assignments. He's not trained even in auros, so he's effectively Natural State for the time being.""You appear to have a significant task here.""We all know how to deal with big jobs, Ferugio. One bit at a time." To Lemarcus, "We're settled. Ferugio will get us a copy of your schedule presently. Asto and I will work on teaching you auros in the gaps.""Why you want me to work so hard?" he whined, "I been 'round two centuries; ain't never had to work so much.""You mean you've chosen not to work so much. The fact that you've had multiple fraud convictions speaks to how well that's working for you. I'm not going to allow you to be so lazy; the easiest thing for you will be adhere to the training schedule we give you. Asto will help me there.""When do I get to meet this Asto?"I gestured to the portal we'd emerged from. "We're headed there right now, along with four of your five siblings. Esteban is actually on Earth right now, meeting more of our Earthside relatives." "Any chance one of them might adopt me?" I didn't have to read even surface thoughts to understand what he really wanted. Lemarcus was a drifter, the sort who believed in coasting on minimum possible effort. Breaking him of that would be the most significant challenge of being his guardian. "Why should they? I already did.""Just that seems a lot closer to me, culturally.""Culturally and personally, the easiest thing to do would be enlist you in Planetary Surface Forces. Since they don't accept legal children, I'm going to figure out how to make you a productive human myself, with my husband's help, of course.""I'm a man, not a fucking insect!""Convictions for fraud and mindrape argue otherwise. Your species gives you a choice in what you produce. But you will produce something that your fellow humans are willing to pay for.""Some people have so much, they can afford to give me a little.""Nobody will stop them from donating if they want to. But nobody's going to force them. That would be coercion, and likely to lead to battery. You going for the whole seven?" There were seven actual criminal offenses in the Empire that concerned ordinary citizens, not including mindrape for operants and malfeasance for those in government. "I never had to worry about Mom helping me!""Then she should have told you 'no' occasionally. Better get used to it, because I will, and so will Asto.""You can't make me!" He tried to puff himself up to loom over me, trying to win with intimidation what he couldn't with emotion.I laughed in his face, or at least to his chest. "I can and will if I need to." I pointed to the outer, junior-most of my chest insignia. "This green triangle with the stick figure human? It means I'm a Fourth Order Guardian. I could make you slather yourself in honey and jump into a nest of fire ants while howling a Pryanti mating call. I can make you scream in agony any time I want, for as long as I want. I won't unless you make it the least unpalatable alternative, because I'm a civilized adult. But I could. More to the point, I can stop you by any number of means from momentary paralysis to killing you instantly if I need to, and there is nothing you can do that will make the slightest difference to any of them. If we're talking sheer physical power, I'm at least three times stronger than you even without adding what I can do mentally, and I've spent most of the last fifty Earth years under instruction from some of the Empire's best in every form of physical combat. You really want to push it to a contest of who can make who do what?"He'd shrunk back from me as I explained his situation to him, exclaiming "No!" several times as if his surface thoughts hadn't make his meaning completely clear to any telepath. He wasn't just a drifter; he was a bully and a coward as well. "I've realized how badly the system I gave you to failed," I told him, "I am sorry for that failure, but that's no excuse for not performing my duties as a parent, either then or now. Far as I'm concerned, you will always have the right to refuse me as your guardian, so any time you want to go back to Adulthood Services you let me know. But until you make that decision or achieve adulthood again, you will obey my orders and abide by my decisions. Is that clear?" Frankly, his position was pathetic. He could do what I told him, or he could be returned to Adulthood Services and sent to an exile planet. Yeah, I'd failed him fifty-five Earth years ago, or two hundred, but he had somehow passed the adulthood tests at some point, which meant he had to bear some of the weight of blame himself. Keeping my voice quiet and even, "I asked you a question."Finally, "I'll stay, for now.""Then let's go meet the rest of your new family." A few paces up the corridor, the portal awaited. The destination was our family apartment.Copyright 2023 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved.

Preparations For War Series Overview

The idea for the series is simple at its core: The fractal demons are well aware that the reason the Empire of Humanity is a match for them are the mental powers of operants. Suppose they decide they want some human operants loyal to them, allowing them to better infiltrate the Empire? So they kidnapped some humans from a peripheral world cut off from the Empire (Earth), took them to another world, and began breeding subservient humans.Preparations For War is a grunt's eye view of the long struggle between the Empire and the fractal demons. The viewpoint character, Joseph Bernard, begins as a vanilla human in unusual circumstances. While his aunt Grace is a powerful Guardian, mixing in Imperial society at the highest levels, Joe is still a low-level player at the end of the series. He's not in the Imperial military, but he works with ordinary people at the level of the individual soldier. The scope of his actions are personal, despite the wider ranging effects they may have. The most powerful person they deal with is at the level of leading a Calmenan city-state.Unfortunately for the demonic plan of breeding operant human stooges, demons are incapable of treating humans in a way which leads to contentment as slaves. Demons thrive off power and fear; the cannon-fodder manes are perhaps the least cruel - they'll simply grab a human and eat them within a few seconds. Some of the demonic nobles can make their victims last several weeks. So successes in their program were few and far between, and the allegedly successful operant lines they did produce were too conditioned to subservience to pass for Imperial humans.Eventually, the humans of the planet the demons used for the experiment learned to rebel with occasional success. Operant agaani humans, while not nearly the equal of trained Guardians in the Empire, could learn to fight the demonic combat castes, and independent human settlements began to sprout up, barely holding on as the demons were always trying to conquer them. Technology was primitive - barely iron age - and the threat of being conquered and enslaved again by the demons was always present. They had to keep producing workers and agaani or the demons would grind them down by weight of numbers. Those people had to be fed. Brutal, grinding poverty was the fact of life they all lived with, and the agaani became feudal overlords over the rest of the humans.In the first book, Preparing The Ground, Joseph Bernard is an Earth human on Earth's first attempt to earn some hard Imperial currency via discovering habitable planets. Earth has recently been added to the Empire, and needs ways of earning Imperial resources. Discovering habitable planets is one such way; one Earth corporation has gained a settlement in Imperial currency allowing them to buy a couple of small ships equipped with a timejammer drive, usable by non-operant pilots. After several successes, they stumble upon Calmena and are captured by a group of agaani. Fighting their way free attracts the attention of a nearby demonic hold, and they are taken prisoner again by a group of manes and terostes demons, along with most of the formerly 'free' humans, including a young Calmenan woman, Asina, with a young daughter. With Asina's help, Joe manages to break himself and surviving shipmates free, only to discover on departure that they've run afoul of an Imperial interdiction. Joe is sentenced to an indenture in the only Imperial base on Calmena, hidden high in a mountain range on the biggest continent. It's a stressful posting with not much to do other than work, and with nothing better to do, Joe participates in the hedonism of the troops he's stationed with. However, he happens to meet Asina upon her return to Calmena. She is now a trained Guardian, intending to bring technology and a better means of fighting to the humans of Calmena, and she recruits Joe to the task. They find a small, independent community of humans, and begin the task of giving them the tools to fight the human agaani and the fractal demons. Thus is N'yeschlass, (literally, 'no slaves'), the first free human town, founded. Building The People begins fifteen years later, as Joe and Asina hand over control of the operation they've built in N'yeschlass to a new team. After a short visit to Earth and into the main part of the Empire to visit Asina's daughter, they begin a new project to advance the free humans of Calmena: water transport. To this end, they found a new settlement, Windhome Bay, and starting with single mast shallow draft yampans, start teaching the locals about sailing. But the fractal demons have a new trick up their sleeve to overwhelm the new human communities, and they have to fight off an infestation of lemuure, which secrete a virus which gives lemuure control over their victims.The third book, Setting The Board, begins about seventy years later. After a break on Earth to raise three children, Joe and Asina are returning to Calmena, taking over an existing station in an agaani-run town on the fourth (smallest) of Calmena's continents. Their projects this time are marine diesels and primitive aircraft. First, however, they have to deal with the meddling agaani, and then they discover that the agaani leader has been collaborating with the fractal demons for personal benefit, as as soon as the human overlords have been dealt with, they are faced with a demonic invasion force for which there's no time to prepare.The final book, Moving The Pieces opens with the demons mobilizing their forces for assault on the Empire. As the die is cast, Joe and Asina (and the rest of the teams on Calmena) frantically try and complete preparations they'd hoped to have another twenty years or more to bring to fruition. The latest project is a few aircraft based upon Earth technology post World War 2. As Joe and his assistant test the latest prototype aircraft, Asina tries to prepare the people of Yalskarr for the massive onslaught coming through the demonic Gates, which may be aimed at the Empire but is sufficient to annihilate everything they've built on Calmena in passing.Preparations for War is a complete series. If I ever do anything more with the characters of Joe and Asina, it will be in an entirely different setting. They will never return to Calmena.

First Draft Excerpt from Measure of Adulthood

"Starting tomorrow morning, we're going to have you on the same course of study I underwent when I got here. You will spend six hours per day in four instruction blocks. Once you can pass the automated adulthood tests, we'll start training your operant abilities so you can learn how to really use what you've got.""Why should I do that? I thought you were rich?""By the standards of Earth, I am. But that doesn't mean I intend to support you in an eternal childhood. That'd be a waste and a failure on my part as well. Part of being a responsible adult is bringing your children up to be productive adults themselves. It doesn't have to be anything in particular. If you're happy in a menial position for the rest of your life, that's on you. But you will become self-supporting. You'll be fed, you'll be housed, you'll have access to education and anything else you need to become self-supporting, but once that happens, you'll be expected to furnish your own support. Anything else would be a failure by both of us."I could almost see his dreams of an easy life crashing before his eyes. "But you're rich!""You're expecting the Earth culture of the wealthy coddling and protecting their children. We don't do that here, as a result of which family wealth in the Empire generally accumulates. While on Earth, most wealth dissipated in the second generation, most Imperial families continue to build wealth, which contrary to the evil lies still common on Earth today, makes it easier for others to build wealth too. I've only been here fifty Imperial years, but the mean, median, and mode levels of wealth have all at least doubled in that time, and that's with a currency which has remained essentially constant." The Empire was feeling the strain of the war with the fractal demons, but the lot of the average person was still significantly above what it had been when I arrived from Earth."Why'd you tell me you're rich if I don't get any of it?""Because it's opportunity for you, if only you'll work. You don't have to worry about being charged for room and board, you don't have to worry about how you're going to pay for the education you need, you don't have to worry about paying for adulthood exams to be reinstated, and you'll have opportunities others won't simply because of exposure to wealthy people. If something comes up where you'll do as well as anyone else, why shouldn't they choose you? You want to live life on the edges, or do you want an opportunity to have whatever you want? The fact you're operant gives you easy steps up any ladder you want - if only you'll learn control and self-discipline. The difference in the effort isn't much. Do you want to be the poor schlub who's always worried about next month's rent, or do you want to be able to get into a position where your money earns enough to pay for everything you need and earning more is something you do because you want to, not because you have to?" What he wanted was obvious to me by now - to be paid for existing. But I didn't expect him to admit it out loud."I liked that monthly check I used to get.""For what? I don't see any incurable defects that mean you can't support yourself. The Empire doesn't subsidize sloth or wastrels - that's a shortcut to self-destruction and we know it. There are any number of charities that'll help folks get on their feet, get training for something that lets them support themselves and more, but none of them just hands over money. Nor will I or the family - definitely not the Scimtars and not even my Earth family." I saw the outrage bubbling in his surface thoughts and continued, "It's not about having the money to do it. It's about wasting your life. You may want to be a nothing, but we know you're capable of more. If you had a physical or mental defect, I'd heal you myself - or my husband would, or any number of charities - but the only defect I can see is moral. Which would be fine with us, so long as you didn't hurt others. However, you committed mindrape as well as fraud.""I didn't do anything wrong.""I read your file when I signed the Guardianship agreement. It was solidly documented by evidence and your own memory. I'm blue-gold rated, would you like me to check your mind to see if it's been altered? If true, you'd be helping us clean up corruption, and you'd be compensated for what happened to you. Of course, once I was in your mind I could see if you need mind surgery and see that it happened.""NO!" he shouted, "I'm fine. He stepped in close, looked down, tried to be physically intimidating, "You just leave me alone and get me what I need."I laughed, "That's what I'm doing. What you want may be to drift through life being supported by others, but what you need is someone who loves you enough to straighten you out." As he tried to loom over me even more, "Trying to intimidate a Fourth Order Guardian with physical size is pitiful. If you push it to violence, you'll never touch me, so there's no element of fear possible. If you learn what I want you to, someday you'll be able to look back and laugh at how pathetic you are. You'll also thank me. The alternative is I turn you back over to Adulthood Services now and off you go to exile for the rest of your life. Good luck as a peasant slave farmer.""I thought you loved me!""I do, but if you're going to act like an entitled child and refuse to learn, I'm wasting my time and I might as well get the pain over with. So what's it going to be?""Maybe I'll try.""Try what?""Learning what you want me to."I popped the hatch, "We're here. Climb down and let's get you a place to stay. Dinner is at eleven thirty - you will be expected to attend daily, to interact with the rest of the family. We'll introduce you to them tonight, but right now let's get you to Ferugio." Speaking of which, I sent Ferugio a message I was incoming with a new resident who needed a new datalink and a training schedule; he told me to come to his office.Copyright 2023 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpt from Moving The Pieces

So Armageddon was upon us.There was no point in contacting the rest of the Advancement teams; they'd all received the same message we had. They'd know what it meant, same as we did: The war we'd all been preparing for was upon us. Imperial Intelligence - the Eyes and Ears that were the reason for Bolthole Base's existence - had discovered that the demons were on the move, and their armies would be pouring through the Seven Gates soon, as well as any other means of access to the Empire they might have.Asina's hand tightened in mine. Thanks to our rapport, both of us knew the other was scared but determined. A few more years would have made an enormous difference, but we didn't have them. Might as well wish for something we could get, or at least hope for. Any chance of getting action out of the Guard before the demons actually show up? After so long together, most of our communication was telepathic.I can try, but without evidence to lay before the officers it's not likely to happen. Not to mention that without the other cities helping, all we'd be doing is making them a target.We don't need them to take the field early. We just need them to be ready to take the field. With modern transport, Calmenan troops can outmaneuver most demonic armies.But the homefront is easy prey for any demons their nobles Gate around our interdiction.Suddenly, I had a realization. We're talking here like we can defeat the demons in the field. If they're bringing the massive numbers the Empire has been finding in their rear areas, our strategy is going to have to be survival, not victory. Try to defend the people of Calmena, and make it easier for the demons to find prey elsewhere. Yalskarr was barely an isquare from the Karnel Gate, closest of the seven permanent Gates the demons had built upon Calmena. Humans could walk that far in four days easily. If they had a reason for haste, a day and a half. Demons would move faster.I think our only chance is defense-in-depth. Start hitting them right away, trying to channel them away from the city while we build defensive lines to make it more difficult to reach the city with large numbers of troops.So how do we get the Guard to cooperate? There's only a few square of them to defend the city. Their official complement as of right now was six legions of regulars and a dozen of reserves. A legion, true to Calmena's history with the demons, was a sixty-four of sixty-fours - the humans of Calmena used demonic base eight numbers for everything because the demons had kept them as slaves, laborers, and food sources for thousands of years before the first humans had escaped or broken free, permitting them no other way of doing things.A good question. It costs money for them to take the field, so they don't want to do it if there's any doubt. Similarly, it costs money to build defenses, even temporary ones. Hard to explain extinction was expensive, too, if you didn't have any evidence you could show them that it was coming. But it doesn't cost much money to get ready so the Guard is in the field immediately when the evidence comes. If necessary, we can guarantee them the funds. Calmena was still on a precious metals standard for money. There was paper currency, but it represented real obligations of the government to come up with actual metal. Given that we had Imperial converters, we could produce as much of any element as we wanted.Asina was right, as usual. Politics of any sort wasn't about good solutions - it was about making those in power happy. The only solution was to keep as much as possible away from government and therefore out of politics. Unfortunately, only government commands the resources for things like massive military. Even in the Empire, none of the House contingents could have challenged the Imperial military as a whole. Then better get to work on it. Do you want me involved?She shook her head. This isn't your area, and you don't know the people involved. I was the technical side of our partnership; she was administration, which included people. I'll let you know if anything pops up.Do you have time to see how much ammunition Bustere can send us?I think that's something you can do. You'd have better results batting your eyes at him than I would. She was teasing; although Bustere and his partner Kilman were gay. In the Empire, that was nobody else's business, but here on Calmena they pretended to be only business partners. It made little practical difference; since they were both operant, they could teleport to each other's homes unobserved. Yeah, it would have been nice if they could just go about their business, but in the face of keeping everyone on the planet from being eaten, sometimes you had to let other battles wait. I'll instruct Taman to shut up and pay the invoices promptly.Her sandy hair was shot with gray these days if you looked. My dark brown hair was too. Her skin had cosmetic sags and wrinkles to pretend to be aging as time passed. We'd been here in Yalskarr over a hundred twenty of Calmena's short planetary years. Crow's feet bordered her eyes. But the eyes themselves were still the lively green they'd been when we met. The great thing about being operant was we could keep age at bay where it mattered. We were as fit as the day we'd arrived, none of the decay or infirmities of age. Assuming we both lived through the coming war, we could look like young adults again in no time. That was a perk available to everyone in the Empire, but as trained Guardians, we could do for ourselves.It suddenly hit us: Whatever else happened, this phase of our life was coming to an end. We'd both been barely adult when we'd met - I'd been twenty-two, Earth age, and close as we could figure, she'd been a little younger. Four assignments here on Calmena with a break to raise a family on Earth - just over 150 Earth years since we met - and once the war was over, we'd be done with our mission on Calmena, too. She was the first to say it. Any ideas what you want to do when this is over? Copyright 2021 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved

Excerpt from Setting The Board

At that moment however, a warning whistle sounded. "What's that alarm?" I demanded of the closest worker. Short-long-short."I'm not sure. It started with short, so it's something about security." Right. If it had started with a long, it would've been safety related. The Calmenan operants hadn't really developed auros yet, and telephones hadn't been a priority, so there was nothing for it but to take off as fast as I dared for the main gate.Some kind of security warning! I'm on my way to the main gate! I informed AsinaShort-long-short is a location sequence, she replied, West Annex - your area! I'll be there soon as I can!I changed direction, rounding the end of the warehouse just in time to observe two indistinct figures disappear behind the west end of the same building. West end of the new casting-house. I'm coming in behind them to cut off escape.Tipaym na forton amash boy. Her response in Mindlord indicated she was coming around the building the other way, so we could trap them between us. It was a large building, but the entrances and exits were all on the south side, away from the outer fence and towards the water and the rail spur.I looked around. Nobody in sight - so I risked a short teleport saving me nearly an ifourth of distance. Without breaking stride I rounded the corner onto the west side of the building. The two figures in front of me looked like they'd dropped to all fours. Likahns, I confirmed to my wife. A thrall race from fractals having more than three dimensions, able to control their projection into a three dimensional instance, they were often used as scouts or reconnaissance because they could look like humans or various animals at a distance. I fired two shots, but wasn't sure I'd hit anything - kored didn't work as well on likahns. If I'd been able to use Imperial weapons, it wouldn't have mattered, but those were off the table in this setting, as three or four of our other workers were approaching from the waterfront or the rail spur.The fact the intruders were likahns told me that the demons were interested in what was going on. Likahns weren't independent agents. Where there were likahns, there were demons to control them.The likahns ran faster now they knew I was behind them. That was fine with me - they'd run right into Asina. I was stronger than her in terms of brute mental force, but my wife was more practiced and more deadly in just about everything. Unless they changed course to head straight for the waterfront through the four guards I could now see, they'd run right into someone more deadly than all of them put together. I knew she had just passed the opposite corner of our new casting building. The likahns could outrun humans, but the trap was closed. There was nowhere they could run that they would be safe from one or the other of us.I passed where the likahns had been when I shot at them. A small trail of ichor drops began at that same point. At least one of them is wounded.Good. A big slug like that would have done a lot of damage - and they were being forced to run. Their blood would be being pumped out the wound all the faster.Both perception and Asina warned me as I prepared to round the next corner - one of the likahns, most likely the wounded one, doubled back to attack me. In broad daylight I don't know what he thought he was gaining, but I had plenty of time to draw my sword and slice his apparent chest open and one of his legs off. No instant kill - I wanted a chance at his mind. The likahn made a noise somewhere between a scream and a yelp and collapsed. Yes, he'd been bleeding from a bullet wound already, and his ichor was coming out in a torrent. I paralysed him with auros and began ripping open his mind. Dying and desperate, he tried to fight me but I got the opening I needed when we both heard the three shots of Asina executing his partner, distracting him. It had been only four days since we arrived, but I pulled the confirmation I needed from his dying mind, then held him immobile as he bled out. Neither side took prisoners in this war. Well, the demons might, but when they did it was for food and slaves, not exchange.They were sent. There's someone on the human side working with them.Copyright 2019 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpt from Building The People

Good morning my love! Her message came, Peyer just called me from Bolthole. Tratruoh and Melise have arrived. They should be arriving tomorrow morning.Looking forward to seeing them again, even if it's only for a few days. We'd be introducing them to the locals, preparing the way for them to take over our work. If everyone in N'yeschlass knew we were leaving our possessions in their care, there shouldn't be any trouble. Then a vacation back in the Empire.You make it sound wonderful, but...We'll be fine. Born on Calmena, Asina had never had a vacation in her life. Even when she went to Earth to learn to become a Guardian, she'd never taken a break. We've been working twenty years without a break, and we've been paid well. We've got plenty of money to live for a couple sixties of years without working if we wanted. Even after making a donation back to the people that took care of you.I feel that I owe them.They're a charity, my love. You don't owe them. But it would be responsible to repay them, and virtuous to add enough so they can help more people.Thank you for understanding. 'You could feel it all over when Asina was smiling. I enjoyed the sensation every chance I got. Going to be home tonight?Only if there's an emergency. She didn't want her ability to teleport becoming generally known. It could only make our mission more difficult. She'd been helping the operant Calmenans learn to use their talents, but there was so much they didn't know, didn't have the background to learn yet. The plan is the western tributary tonight, back tomorrow night. As I already knew. But you can't blame a husband who misses his wife for trying.We didn't sign off so much as return to what we'd been doing, our link active in the background. It let us know that the other was well, and helped us stay close. It's hard to have a real fight with someone when you're constantly aware of how much they love you.I lit my forge, began stoking it. I was trying to copy an old European design for a metal framed heavy wagon, capable of holding more weight but requiring four to six horses (or in our case, swasses) to pull it. Once I got it down, I'd sell lessons in how to make them if the other smiths didn't pick it up on their own. Asina was checking on the customs inspectors and upkeep of the fort that would shelter the people nearby if there was need. I'd been there once; it was a finished adobe structure where keeping it from being torn down by the rains was a constant race between repairs and the rains. But clay was cheap and easy to work with, and even N'yeschlass was poor by the European standards of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth century. The rest of Calmena was even worse, but an entrepreneurial economy was improving things. When we'd arrived, the few scattered people of N'yeschlass had been unable to do anything more than live off the land in the fashion of the most primitive Indian tribes before the arrival of the Europeans. We'd shown them how to band together, and keep the slavers - human agaani and demons - from raiding for slaves. Now the people around here were the richest on the planet. Yes, our ability to leverage Imperial technology in secret had made a lot of difference, especially at the beginning. But creating a situation where people could work on their own behalf was a far more important factor. As a consequence, the city was both wealthy and powerful. If the city was menaced, the fyrd could muster a couple 3600s of armored pikes, and three times that many longbows. At least double the number of bows if the folk from the surrounding countryside joined the muster. Cavalry was still non-existent except for the demonic manes, but there wasn't a human agaani lord or demonic holding on the planet big enough to have a hope against the city's full muster. We were protected against the other members of the confederation by the fact that it was too risky. There were softer targets for expansion.It definitely wasn't the Empire. But the best place to be human on Calmena was N'yeschlass, and it was getting better.Copyright 2017 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved

Excerpt from Preparing The Ground

Now with new cover![image error]As we filed out, we were met by a guard of armed men. I'm no expert, but their armor didn't look like anything I've seen in the movies. Breastplate, helmet, and smallish shield, but they looked thicker than in the movies. Rustier, too. Most of the armor was worn over leather or leather-like clothing of some description. Every one of them had at least two pieces of edged weaponry on them, but they were mostly swords that looked longer and thinner than most of what you see in the movies, crossed like an X on their backs. Most carried a short sword or dagger on their hips as well, and they moved much more easily than I would have believed under that kind of load. A few had long spears with really heavy heads - I later learned that the actual term was "pole-arms." I hadn't really been exposed much to our military; most Americans aren't, but I started to wonder if it was just that they were used to the load or if there was something else going on. For some reason the whole show made me a little nervous. I was carrying a little Mark 7 disrupter Tia Grace gave me and showed me how to shoot and handle, but it's not imposing like that much metal, and I'd developed the habit of carrying it mostly because Tia Grace expected me to. I could hit something with it, but I was no trained commando.A line of the armored men came between us and Golden Hind, and I used my datalink to close the hatch so they wouldn't go in. We didn't really have a method of communication, so that seemed a smart thing to do in lieu of slapping their hands away from everything they weren't supposed to touch. All of the armed men were larger than average for this time and place, but even Will was taller than any of them. One of the armored men said something in a harsh, guttural tongue that sounded nothing like any of the languages I knew, but it sounded challenging. John Dulles tried to respond, "I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm sure it's nothing to get upset over." He spread his hands in that calming way that most Americans will use to reduce tension. The native leader gestured imperiously, come here. I felt a certainty it was not directed at me, but Dulles walked straight towards him, like a zombie in a trance.With unbelievable speed, the leader then drew his short sword and gutted Dulles. Dulles stood there for a moment as in disbelief, then crumpled, bleeding and bloody, onto the muddy ground.Simultaneously, his men cut us off from Dulles, fencing us in with suddenly drawn weapons. We didn't speak a word of their language but their gestures with their weapons were pretty much universal speak for stand right there and don't do anything to make me kill you.Copyright 2016 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved.

First Draft Excerpt from Measure of Adulthood

"Sol Minor Three Local, Starbird zeroeight twentynine fortyfour zeroone inbound bearing nineteen by zero, range four iprime, interrogatory enabled." I'd sent a message while walking to the portal from my meeting with Adulthood Services, and received a response detailing procedure. They should be expecting me. System Control had explicitly instructed me to remain outside the published exclusionary zone, which was unusual because that was a standard requirement where one existed. The habitat was in Solar orbit at a distance of one minute, roughly half the orbital radius of Mercury. Nothing came this close to Sol accidentally."Starbird zeroeight twentynine fortyfour zeroone, Sol Minor Three Local, contact. Proceed inbound under impellers only, beacon zerofour. You are number one, cleared to land bay zerofour."Evidently, they didn't get a lot of traffic here. I didn't hear another contact in the three minutes it took to reach the habitat. Most places, I could have been docked in fifteen seconds or less by Vectoring in, but they'd explicitly instructed impellers only. Since this was one of the closest things to a prison the Empire had, understandable. If you'd done something to merit being sent here, you arrived in stasis and generally left that way, too. Most controllers were military, but the entire station was probably military staffed - and if there were two full teams of eight, the station was overmanned. They couldn't afford not to be careful.The arrival bay was unusual as well - instead of a simple docking clamp with interior access, it was a large, well-lit bay in the tip of a long metal arm extending outside the main shield. I saw the firing head of a craser pointing straight at my ship from within the bay on the video feed. There was a single landing area marked on the floor of the bay. Essentially, 'put your ship down here or we shoot.' "Sol Minor Three Local, Starbird fortyfour zeroone landed.""Starbird fortyfour zeroone, shut down all power and bleed your capacitors. Station will provide restart." A large bondsteel hatch began to swing shut. It wouldn't prevent them opening the bay to space, but it would make a Vector out of the bay suicidal.Look, if I was planning a jailbreak, all this wouldn't have made it impossible - but it would make it more difficult. Likely to delay even me more than long enough for a response force to foil the attempt. "Starbird fortyfour zeroone, will comply." It took a few minutes, but once power was dead, "Starbird fortyfour zeroone, you have atmosphere. All persons must exit to the bay.""Starbird fortyfour zeroone acknowledged."Imperial Starships were built differently than our pre-contact visualizations. There were no actual windows on the Starbird, and the cabin wasn't on the surface of the ship. It was even possible, although difficult, to wiggle into or out of a spacesuit in the cramped cabin - I wiggled into a basic survival suit, just in case, although I didn't secure the helmet. The exit was on the underside of the ship.I was halfway expecting them to do something like electrify the hull, but they didn't. The same voice I'd been talking with came over speakers set in the wall. "Your ship reads clean. I understand you're here for a prisoner.""Yes.""Please identify.""Graciela Juarez," and followed with my official number."First key?" I reeled off the first of my confirmation numbers."We'll bring him out to you.""Standing by." I hoped it wouldn't be too long, as I didn't see anywhere to sit. Oh, well - one of the perks of operancy was physical endurance.It only took a few minutes. They brought in a stasis chamber, accompanied by two troops in combat armor, one of them a Second Order Guardian. "Sign receipt for custody," one of them shot my datalink a copy. I signed and transmitted back."He's all yours." I deactivated the stasis field and opened the door. Out fell a man most of a head taller than me, skin the same dark chocolate color I remembered on Gerry, dark brown hair almost the same color as mine, dressed in the pink and white stripes of someone in custody. The damper was attached in a mostly circular band around his skull near the top of his ears, perhaps two isixths in thickness. "This him?""Lemarcus Wilson," the Guardian in the combat suit repeated, and gave me his ID number.I made a quick genetic scan with perception. Because of the damper, it felt like I was stirring not quite set concrete - but this man was genetically my son. "Do you understand Technical?" I asked in Technical. It was possible to live in the Empire speaking only Traditional. Not smart, but possible. He looked at me blankly. I wasn't certain if he was disoriented or didn't understand. "Would you prefer Traditional?" "I can understand Traditional, but I prefer English. Who are you?"Joy. He had to have had enough comprehension of either Technical or Traditional to have passed the adulthood tests at some point - they were never administered in any other language. The Empire didn't care what local languages there were, it did business in Traditional, Technical, Mindlord, and Concept. Most people (including Guardians) used Traditional or Technical, and you really needed both. Traditional was more useful for art, Technical for precision. Letting your proficiency in either go was sabotaging yourself."Lucky for you I do speak English. But almost nobody else does in Indra System, where we're going. I'm Graciela Juarez, your genetic mother.""Where's Mom?""No idea, but you were in stasis almost a year. Nobody else was coming for you. Will you accept my guardianship, or would you prefer to go back into stasis for exile, where basically nobody will speak English?""I want Mom - Ashley Wilson!"I was an Investigator, so I had access to records. "She died three days after you were put in stasis. Her former husband is still alive, last reported in the area of Bakersfield.""Jim and I never got along. We put up with each other for Mom's sake. Shit!""That sort of language has very little tolerance in our home. We express our disdain more skillfully. What's it going to be, me or exile?""You threw me away! Why do you suddenly want back in?""Because you're still my child. Nor did I throw you away. I had real problems that might well have ended up hurting you, so I did what I thought was best for you - put you into a system that was supposed to be able to give you a better parenting than I could at the time. It was the law back then that adoptions were private, but I signed permission to share my identity with you and your adopters. Did you ever try to look me up? I would have been easy to find.""Why would I want to do that?""The point is your actions indicate you didn't want anything to do with me. But I've been out in the Empire for a long time now. I understand why responsibility delegated is not absolution for poor results, and I'm here because I love you, I believe I can do better now, and I want to help you. But you have the right to reject me as a guardian. Do you accept me as your guardian?""What kind of deal you offering?""No special considerations. I'm offering you myself and my husband as parents. You will have five siblings, one of which has just achieved adulthood. You will be a legal child, and be expected to behave thus until your adulthood is restored by an appropriate viceroy. There is a large extended family on both sides, and my husband's grandfather keeps a large residence in Sumabad which is home to his extended family, including us.""But I'm an adult! I'm over two hundred years old!""You're grown, but you are not a legal adult. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation in an Adulthood Services facility. Since the Empire has adjudged you unable to assume responsibility for yourself, you have a choice of accepting someone else or leaving the Empire. I've visited an exile planet - life there is ugly.""I'm in prison either way!"I laughed. "Only if you want to be. You go into exile, your chances of earning your way back into Imperial society drop to almost zero, and there will be nobody there to help you. Whereas my husband and I will attempt to channel you into the bounds the Empire demands of citizens, as I evidently should have done all those years ago. You're not paying attention! We're rich by the standards of Earth!" I knew that was a mistake as soon as I said it. I wasn't reading beyond the bounds with auros, but his surface thoughts changed completely. He didn't have to say he was attracted to rich - it was plain in his thoughts. Nothing wrong with that - who isn't attracted to having means? But it shouldn't be anything like enough on its own. I'd have loved Asto if he was living in a tiny cubicle in the middle of a building, barely scraping the essentials of life. For Lemarcus, his thoughts all became 'easy life!', and an easy life is not a meaningful one."All right, I'll give you a try."I shouldn't have let it stand. But watching the combat-suited observers, it wasn't their job to sit there and watch me argue with my son. "Climb in." I didn't bother telling him not to touch anything; instead I deactivated the manual controls and followed him up."Sol Minor Three Local, Starbird fortyfour zeroone requesting departure..."Copyright 2023 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved.

Furst Draft Excerpt from Measure of Adulthood

"Sol Minor Three Local, Starbird zeroeight twentynine fortyfour zeroone inbound bearing nineteen by zero, range four iprime, interrogatory enabled." I'd sent a message while walking to the portal from my meeting with Adulthood Services, and received a response detailing procedure. They should be expecting me. System Control had explicitly instructed me to remain outside the published exclusionary zone, which was unusual because that was a standard requirement where one existed. The habitat was in Solar orbit at a distance of one minute, roughly half the orbital radius of Mercury. Nothing came this close to Sol accidentally."Starbird zeroeight twentynine fortyfour zeroone, Sol Minor Three Local, contact. Proceed inbound under impellers only, beacon zerofour. You are number one, cleared to land bay zerofour."Evidently, they didn't get a lot of traffic here. I didn't hear another contact in the three minutes it took to reach the habitat. Most places, I could have been docked in fifteen seconds or less by Vectoring in, but they'd explicitly instructed impellers only. Since this was one of the closest things to a prison the Empire had, understandable. If you'd done something to merit being sent here, you arrived in stasis and generally left that way, too. Most controllers were military, but the entire station was probably military staffed - and if there were two full teams of eight, the station was overmanned. They couldn't afford not to be careful.The arrival bay was unusual as well - instead of a simple docking clamp with interior access, it was a large, well-lit bay in the tip of a long metal arm extending outside the main shield. I saw the firing head of a craser pointing straight at my ship from within the bay on the video feed. There was a single landing area marked on the floor of the bay. Essentially, 'put your ship down here or we shoot.' "Sol Minor Three Local, Starbird fortyfour zeroone landed.""Starbird fortyfour zeroone, shut down all power and bleed your capacitors. Station will provide restart." A large bondsteel hatch began to swing shut. It wouldn't prevent them opening the bay to space, but it would make a Vector out of the bay suicidal.Look, if I was planning a jailbreak, all this wouldn't have made it impossible - but it would make it more difficult. Likely to delay even me more than long enough for a response force to foil the attempt. "Starbird fortyfour zeroone, will comply." It took a few minutes, but once power was dead, "Starbird fortyfour zeroone, you have atmosphere. All persons must exit to the bay.""Starbird fortyfour zeroone acknowledged."Imperial Starships were built differently than our pre-contact visualizations. There were no actual windows on the Starbird, and the cabin wasn't on the surface of the ship. It was even possible, although difficult, to wiggle into or out of a spacesuit in the cramped cabin - I wiggled into a basic survival suit, just in case, although I didn't secure the helmet. The exit was on the underside of the ship.I was halfway expecting them to do something like electrify the hull, but they didn't. The same voice I'd been talking with came over speakers set in the wall. "Your ship reads clean. I understand you're here for a prisoner.""Yes.""Please identify.""Graciela Juarez," and followed with my official number."First key?" I reeled off the first of my confirmation numbers."We'll bring him out to you.""Standing by." I hoped it wouldn't be too long, as I didn't see anywhere to sit. Oh, well - one of the perks of operancy was physical endurance.It only took a few minutes. They brought in a stasis chamber, accompanied by two troops in combat armor, one of them a Second Order Guardian. "Sign receipt for custody," one of them shot my datalink a copy. I signed and transmitted back."He's all yours." I deactivated the stasis field and opened the door. Out fell a man most of a head taller than me, skin the same dark chocolate color I remembered on Gerry, dark brown hair almost the same color as mine, dressed in the pink and white stripes of someone in custody. The damper was attached in a mostly circular band around his skull near the top of his ears, perhaps two isixths in thickness. "This him?""Lemarcus Wilson," the Guardian in the combat suit repeated, and gave me his ID number.I made a quick genetic scan with perception. Because of the damper, it felt like I was stirring not quite set concrete - but this man was genetically my son. "Do you understand Technical?" I asked in Technical. It was possible to live in the Empire speaking only Traditional. Not smart, but possible. He looked at me blankly. I wasn't certain if he was disoriented or didn't understand. "Would you prefer Traditional?" "I can understand Traditional, but I prefer English. Who are you?"Joy. He had to have had enough comprehension of either Technical or Traditional to have passed the adulthood tests at some point - they were never administered in any other language. The Empire didn't care what local languages there were, it did business in Traditional, Technical, Mindlord, and Concept. Most people (including Guardians) used Traditional or Technical, and you really needed both. Traditional was more useful for art, Technical for precision. Letting your proficiency in either go was sabotaging yourself."Lucky for you I do speak English. But almost nobody else does in Indra System, where we're going. I'm Graciela Juarez, your genetic mother.""Where's Mom?""No idea, but you were in stasis almost a year. Nobody else was coming for you. Will you accept my guardianship, or would you prefer to go back into stasis for exile, where basically nobody will speak English?""I want Mom - Ashley Wilson!"I was an Investigator, so I had access to records. "She died three days after you were put in stasis. Her former husband is still alive, last reported in the area of Bakersfield.""Jim and I never got along. We put up with each other for Mom's sake. Shit!""That sort of language has very little tolerance in our home. We express our disdain more skillfully. What's it going to be, me or exile?""You threw me away! Why do you suddenly want back in?""Because you're still my child. Nor did I throw you away. I had real problems that might well have ended up hurting you, so I did what I thought was best for you - put you into a system that was supposed to be able to give you a better parenting than I could at the time. It was the law back then that adoptions were private, but I signed permission to share my identity with you and your adopters. Did you ever try to look me up? I would have been easy to find.""Why would I want to do that?""The point is your actions indicate you didn't want anything to do with me. But I've been out in the Empire for a long time now. I understand why responsibility delegated is not absolution for poor results, and I'm here because I love you, I believe I can do better now, and I want to help you. But you have the right to reject me as a guardian. Do you accept me as your guardian?""What kind of deal you offering?""No special considerations. I'm offering you myself and my husband as parents. You will have five siblings, one of which has just achieved adulthood. You will be a legal child, and be expected to behave thus until your adulthood is restored by an appropriate viceroy. There is a large extended family on both sides, and my husband's grandfather keeps a large residence in Sumabad which is home to his extended family, including us.""But I'm an adult! I'm over two hundred years old!""You're grown, but you are not a legal adult. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation in an Adulthood Services facility. Since the Empire has adjudged you unable to assume responsibility for yourself, you have a choice of accepting someone else or leaving the Empire. I've visited an exile planet - life there is ugly.""I'm in prison either way!"I laughed. "Only if you want to be. You go into exile, your chances of earning your way back into Imperial society drop to almost zero, and there will be nobody there to help you. Whereas my husband and I will attempt to channel you into the bounds the Empire demands of citizens, as I evidently should have done all those years ago. You're not paying attention! We're rich by the standards of Earth!" I knew that was a mistake as soon as I said it. I wasn't reading beyond the bounds with auros, but his surface thoughts changed completely. He didn't have to say he was attracted to rich - it was plain in his thoughts. Nothing wrong with that - who isn't attracted to having means? But it shouldn't be anything like enough on its own. I'd have loved Asto if he was living in a tiny cubicle in the middle of a building, barely scraping the essentials of life. For Lemarcus, his thoughts all became 'easy life!', and an easy life is not a meaningful one."All right, I'll give you a try."I shouldn't have let it stand. But watching the combat-suited observers, it wasn't their job to sit there and watch me argue with my son. "Climb in." I didn't bother telling him not to touch anything; instead I deactivated the manual controls and followed him up."Sol Minor Three Local, Starbird fortyfour zeroone requesting departure..."Copyright 2023 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpt from Working The Trenches

Jereya took absolutely no notice of the impending storm. I didn't believe for a moment she hadn't noticed, but she didn't show that she had. We trotted past several boomerang-shaped assault cruisers and empty, recessed berths in the white pavement intended to hold others as large raindrops started splattering on the pavement and on us. Within minutes, it had become solid rain with occasional sheets, and we were all soaked. She trotted on, apparently oblivious, as the wind began driving the rain into our right side. After perhaps fifteen minutes, we came to a portal, which she programmed and led us through.We emerged into the middle of a multistory building, kind of an atrium without glass. The light was artificial. Around us, snowflake-like, six wings of barracks in six levels. "This is Operant Training Barracks Two, your new home! Each bay holds one section in three squad rooms! The squads I am now assigning you to will be your place here until you are otherwise notified! The assignments have been made at company level and are not subject to appeal! Your squad leader has been apprised of your joining their squad and has your records! Your first assignment will be to stow your gear, change your wet disgusting clothes and report to your squad Leader! Move"My datalink informed me I was being assigned to Third Squad, Third Section, Fourth Platoon, First Troop. What that meant was I was in Bay Six on what Americans like myself would describe as the fifth floor. When I informed Asto of that, he said he was in Second Squad, First Section of the same Platoon, in Bay Four of the same floor. Well, it could have been worse. We'd known they wouldn't put us in the same squad, no matter what. At least he was only two bays over, when he might not have been in the same building or even at the same base. I saw a couple other recruits teleport up to their new assignments, and nobody called them on it, so I followed suit. I walked into Bay Six, found Third Squad's room, noted that one bunk of the sixteen bunk beds was empty, along with the corresponding footlocker. No sleep fields here. I used perception to check my bunkmate's use of her locker, peeled my wet field uniform off along with the underclothes, dressed in another outfit, identical to the first. My civilian clothes went under the stack of neatly folded clean uniforms on the right of my locker, then I went into the squad bathroom to wring out my soaked used set before depositing it on the left side of my locker. Perhaps eight people would be comfortable in that bathroom. Too bad it had to serve thirty-three. The squad room as a whole looked like it had all the privacy one could reasonably expect in building full of operants. Unless the double doors into the section bay were open, nobody could see in. Of course, being operants, everyone else around me had a sense of perception, too, and even if that had not been the case, there was absolutely no privacy from other members of your squad. I'd had a few years to get used to the fact that the Empire didn't segregate by sexes, or I might have been really taken aback. The only ripple from Asto at the notion was mild amusement at the fact I still wasn't completely acculturated on that point. It also looked like eating was permitted in barracks - there was a large, neatly stacked pile of Life bars, next to a similar, even larger pile of water cubes.That accomplished, my datalink told me my squad was doing something called obstacle course three. Well, I'd seen army movies back home, so I thought I might have some idea of what that entailed, and silently damned Instructor Jereya for telling me to change out of one soaked uniform in order to promptly soak another. I escalatored myself down to the main floor by jumping over the railing and slowing my fall with matris. It seemed the fastest way down. The portal refused my request, so I took off out the front door of the barracks at a run, headed for where my datalink told me my squad and its Leader were. I teleported twice when I could see far enough to make it worth my while. Even so, it took a good five minutes - about eight and a half Earth - to get to where I was going, by which time I was soaked again.Copyright 2014 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved.