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.

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