Shelby 9 Snippet 1

 Okay here we go!

FYI: I am doing away with the intro and going with a "Where we Left Off" instead.

Chapter1

 

In Hyperspace

 

UFN-54Pcontinued its journey to Confederation space without incident. The PoltergeistII class was a recent arrival in the sector. It had taken the opening ofthe gate to allow the small ship to get to the sector quickly and efficiently.

Mostof the prowlers had been assigned to Pi and Sigma fleet. First Lieutenant HerodHiggins, aka HH was her ship captain. He had initially been put out over beingpassed over for Sigma. Sigma was where the action was, most of the prowlers hadbeen assigned there to try to find the damn pirate base.

Hehad to admit, they hadn’t had much luck. According to the community they hadbeen trying for decades but couldn’t stick to the tail of a ship when theylatched onto her long enough to divine out where they were going. The bastardswere aware of the trick and if they so much as smelled the hint of a tail theychanged course at random intervals.

Apparentlyenough data had been compiled… and some other intel to give them a clue. Wordwas Batmobile had turned up after going AWOL in an unauthorized missionto the neighboring sector. The prowler had been sent to verify where the battlemoon was lurking.

Thenthere was Pi sector. Over a half a dozen prowlers had been sent there. Word wasthat something was coming to the north in Upsilon and ships were being sentthere. He knew that the prowler The Bus had been sent into Upsilon wellover 2 years ago to scout. He wished them the best of luck.

Noneof that mattered as far as his mission was concerned though. The crew… andcaptain for that matter might have been... dismayed at being sent toTau, but they’d been sent with a purpose. His lips twitched ever so slightly atthe thought. Sure, it had been after the Confederation had fallen, but they hadbeen sent to scout the Confederation and verify that they were playing ballwith the Federation and sticking to their side of the agreement.

Whichwas good considering that the Taurens were not playing ball and had reportedlybroken out into a civil war. He shook his head gently. It looked like his shipwas sailing into a combat zone after all. Lovely.

Well,they were going to have company. Admiral Hunter’s Ninth Fleet was trailingbehind them. His mission was to pop into enemy controlled space, have alook-see, and see if they can find their missing people, then get out and getthe intel to Ninth Fleet ASAP.

Thatwas the plan at any rate, he thought as his practiced eye checked the status ofthe ship in a casual scan of the systems. All nominal.

“Carefor a game captain?” Sparkles, the ship AI asked.

“Sure,”he said with a shrug as he turned to the AI’s avatar. “It beats doingpaperwork.”

“Yesit does sir,” the AI replied as the 3D chessboard materialized.

>>>~<<<

TauR15-1 Purple Nights

 

Secretaryof State Moira Sema sat on the shuttle and idly looked out the window withoutreally seeing the view. She had decided to remain in Confederation space withUndersecretary Fred Muggs to continue the confederation talks. Given theinsurrection and potential for civil war on their side, she had decided it wasimperative to remain and not be unavailable in hyperspace for periods of time.

Itwasn’t that she didn’t trust Fred, quite the contrary. He wouldn’t be where hewas if she didn’t trust him implicitly. But having her on hand as well gavethem double oomph to try to salvage the peace treaty with the Confederation andbuild a lasting peace in the region. Neither of them wanted it to come apartwith the potential civil war in Confederation space… that could and probablywould easily spill over into Federation space.

Thedelay was delaying their return to the sector capital as well as theSecretary’s delay on her return to Antigua. But they were making some headway.It was glacially slow, but she felt like they were building up trust with theirTauren counterparts.

Theyneeded something more though. Minor acts or exchanges to thaw things furtherand help bridge the gap that was there. Those acts could be orchestrated butwould be better if they were natural.

Untilsomething broke they just needed to keep at it. As long as the two sides weretalking they weren’t shooting, she reminded herself. That was one of theprimary axioms of State Department and she held to it firmly.

>>>~<<<

FredMuggs nodded in approval at the site of the proposed embassy. It worked outwell. It was not an ideal site, it was far from the capital city and spaceport,and it was away from the towns. But it was on land that was cheap; they hadbought ten hectares of land that could not be used for farming because the soilwas too rocky, heavy clay like, with too much heavy metals and salts for thefavored crops of the planet.

Theywere paying a premium price for the land, but again, that was fine. They wouldmake it work.

>>>~<<<