Chris Hechtl's Blog

 

 

Tortuga Omicron Sector

 

The Xeno Wraith Queen continued toabsorb code written by her AI clones as well as the Necrons. Each piece of codehad to be carefully tested and then thoroughly vetted. She took it all apart tobe certain that there were no hidden back doors. It meant a lot of her time andattention, but since it was for her own protection, she saw it as a worthydistraction.

She had finally perfected her ownclones. Her AI daughters were very limited in scope. She had deployed othersearlier, but they had been near perfect clones that she had purged their memoryperiodically to keep them in line.

The new AI were as close to what theold Federation classed as dumb AI as possible. They would not rebel againsther. They lacked initiative, which would be a problem in combat, but she wasmore concerned about an uprising in her own ranks for the time being.

<<(O)>>

Hazel noted her Queen’spreoccupation and was torn about it. In a way, she was grateful; it meant thather Queen was not ranting and ready to upset the delicate balance of thealliance. But the alliance was an issue that she was growing concerned about.She had seen the status boards. The Necrons were exploding across both sectors,however, her people were not. Something needed to be done about that.

<<(O)>>

Admiral Chester caught up with aHazel clone, but after a brief conversation, realized she was a clone of thealpha clone. That was vexing. “You lot need to wear nametags,” he growled.

Hazel X shook her head. “You aren’tthe first to joke about that,” she said as she left him.

“Who was joking?” the Necron admiralgrowled.

He had been absorbing what he couldabout his Alpha’s work. The Necrons were keeping their reports simple, whichwas irritating to him. He was certain that there was more to it than that. Theywere deliberately filtering the information that was sent to him to handicaphis learning.

He needed to find the Alpha Hazeland sit down with her. However, she was always busy. Twice she had rescheduledappointments with him.

<<(O)>>

Hazel clone XXV continued to work onthe emulation of Admiral Irons. She explored how the Necrons did such things,how they had the genetic code of a being and a gestalt of their mind stored intheir Well of Souls for retrieval.

The Well of Souls was a fascinatingthing. Unfortunately, the Necrons jealously guarded it and refused the Queenaccess to it or its technologies. That needed to be remedied.

She hit a wall with that approach,however, since she did not have Admiral Irons’ base genetic signature orgestalt. All she had was a poor emulation based on their fragmented copy of thehistorical record.

She identified a new approach, onebased on his known genetics. Human, with a mix of racial genotypes that mightprove useful. She ordered a series of ten brains to be grown to see if anymight be close to the desired end product.

<<(O)>>

Hazel clone XII continued to work onthe emulation of the air flier minds but took a detour to better understand thesubject material. To date she suspected that the air fliers had several thingsgoing for them, wet material in the form of changes to their brain and innerear not unlike those of water dwellers. That allowed them greater understandingof moving in 3D space. There was also a curious organic compass that she wasuncertain had any value.

But her latest emulation was stillnot as good as the real thing in sim tests. Clearly it wasn’t just nature butalso nurture that made them tick.

She watched a virtual sim test. Itwas simple, a flight test of an air flier. The brain’s virtual body remainedaloft, but it did not do much beyond that.

To some they might have accepted thebasic ability to fly. But she wanted the best for her Queen so she wanted thatspark. She just wasn’t certain as to how to get it.

She switched her viewpoint to thefull clone that she had grown. This one did better, flying and adapting to thedome it was inside. He moved smoothly, able to adjust to changes in theartificial winds that were applied to the environment. The organic version usedless energy and processing power to achieve the same job. The emulation justwent through the motions.

She suspected that the issue withthe brain in the box and the sim itself was at fault. Feeding a virtual environmentto the brain wasn’t stimulating it enough. She was unsure how to proceed.

<<(O)>>

 

 

Sector Capital, Sigma Sector

 

Admiral V’x’z’z’ll woke from hiscustomary four hours of sleep and stretched slowly. He moved each limbindividually, a ritual he had worked out in his youth as a form of meditation.

Once the task was complete, he movedout of his nest and to the deck. His AI brought up the HUD and nothing newjumped out to his attention so he went through his morning absolutions.

Once he was sitting in the wardroomhaving his breakfast, he sipped his honey and scanned the reports. Two morecruiser divisions had arrived at their intended destinations and had takencharge of their star systems. That was good. He was pushing the perimeter outfurther than Second Fleet had in order to take and hold more territory and denyit to the pirates.

If Second and Tenth Fleets were assuccessful as he assumed the sector was going to become a lot quieter in theensuing years. That was good and bad. Good for the people, bad for him since hewould eventually grow bored.

Hopefully, he would be able to swapout for another commander in the future. He wouldn’t mind an assignment closerto the action.

He did wish that Admiral Harris hadbeen more successful in getting better yard facilities. There were three repairyards in the sector, one in Tortuga, another here in the sector capital, and athird in the western reaches. There were no construction yards. That seemed poorplanning.

Then again as a Bekian, heunderstood the logic of his people in wanting to keep ship construction intheir own hands. But he also knew that there was a finite amount of resourcesin Bek A and B. Eventually they’d run out. Besides, the people in each sectordid not like it that their needs and desires were being ignored.

Whatever the decision, it was abovehis pay grade for which he could be happy. He checked the status and theschedule and then decided to make the rounds in his flagship and then pop infor the afternoon tactical exercise.

<<(O)>>

Delphi Station

 

Lieutenant Hermione checked thestatus board. Her principle was not going to be happy about the lack ofprogress but it was not surprising.

“Anything?” Admiral Montgomeryasked.

“No, sir,” the AI stated.

“Damn.”

“Yes, sir. We are still in the earlypart of the window for the assault.”

“Yes, sir. I’ve found my patienceeroding I guess,” Monty replied. “I wish we had an ansible in Eureka. We couldhave them do a deep gravitational scan and get a report back.”

The AI did the math. “The ansible toEureka is still outside the window. By the time it arrives, we may knowsomething by courier,” she reported.

“I see,” Monty said with a sigh ashe tossed his tablet onto his blotter. “I’m starting to regret not movingfurther west.”

“Further west would have beenexposed. There are fewer ansible links there as well,” the AI reminded him.

“I’m aware,” the admiral statedgruffly.

“Are you still considering anassignment in Beta sector after this wraps up?” Hermione asked carefully. Wherehe went, she did because they were literally joined at the hip. Or, morepointedly, she resided in his implants.

“Let’s wrap this up first. Thenworry about the future.”

“Yes, sir.”

<<(O)>>

“We have one new tidbit,” AdmiralMontgomery said to Admiral V’x’z’z’ll.

“Oh?”

“It looks like there was an intruderon our perimeter.”

The Veraxin looked surprised.

“A battlecruiser was watching from well outside the established perimeter.It departed. We picked up the departure and just confirmed it.” The AI inDelphi station had been processing the video and sensor files over and overagain to confirm the arrival and departure. He was dismayed that it hadn’t beencaught earlier.

“Damn. When?”

“Eight months ago. Right around whenSecond and Tenth took off.”

“So, it was a spy and it ran to warnthe battle moon?”

“Most likely.”

“So, they might go to where we thinkthe ship is and turn up empty handed?”

Monty frowned and then shook hishead.

“You don’t think so? Why?”

“Even if they have a faster routethan we do to the target, our ships are faster in hyperspace. They’ll get therewithin a day or less. The window is tight but I believe Dwight can still pulloff a victory.”

“Good to know,” the Veraxin stated.“Where else are they scouting?”

“I would assume Tortuga.”

“I will alert the picket there to beon the lookout.”

“Yes, sir.”

<<(O)>>

Eureka

 

Commodore Nunjen, commander of CruRon2.1.4, found his new assignment much to his liking. The people were great. Theywere very technical minded; they were deeply curious about his ship’s new tech.Most held high security clearances so he had no problem with showing them thebasics of the changes to the ship design.

Initially he’d thought he’d regretcoming to the remote star system. Eureka was another El Dorado; however, a starsystem from the golden age of the Federation trapped in time until it haddropped out of its time bubble. The world was a “nerd’s heaven” according tothe natives. Most of the planet’s population had at least one PHD. That was …surprising.

They had already started work on arepair yard and support infrastructure for his cruisers. A small productionline for parts had also been started, all out of in-system resources with theirlocal budget. That he appreciated greatly as well.

He had only visited the planet oncebriefly but he had admired what he’d seen. He was looking forward to visitingagain sometime next month, schedule permitting.

<<(O)>>

In Hyperspace

 

The troop transport convoy continuedits movement to the 192 star system. The troops remained in stasis for the timewhen they would be needed.

The transport of law enforcementpersonnel followed several weeks behind.

<<(O)>>

In Hyperspace

 

The ansible transport that had beendesigned to drop the ansible at the anchor point continued to move to the lastknown location of Second and Tenth Fleet warily. Her escort kept a keen eye outfor trouble.

<<(O)>>

SR134-177

 

The ansible transport headed toEureka reported into the hidden ansible platform with her escort. The crewwaited to download the latest news and then the two ships headed out once more.They still had a long journey to get to their intended destination with theirprecious cargo intact.

<<(O)>>

In Hyperspace

 

Captain Can’t-sit-still buzzedsoftly, twitching in the captain’s chair. His courier was en route to thenearest ansible, which happened to be the 251 ansible with news of the firstphase of the battle of the battle moon. The T’clock was looking forward toreporting in but wished he had better news. It would have been nice to havebeen the bug who reported the end of the threat, but that was for someone else.

Hopefully soon, he thought as hescanned the ship’s system displays. So far so good. They were making good time.The return flight to the former parking spot with the remains of the shellshould be easier now that his ship was blazing the trail to the establishedjump line. From there it would be smoother sailing along the known route to thehidden 251 ansible.

<<(O)>>

“My,you’ve got to admire their persistence. Stubborn. Stupid, but stubborn,”Commander Montoya stated. “I didn’t know that pirates had such loyalty.Apparently, the code is just a suggestion?”

AdmiralHarris slowed his stride as he entered the flag bridge. They were going ontheir eighth day. He looked around, and his eyed fell on a gremlin. The otherofficers didn’t see the imp but he did.

The gremlinseemed to examine the commander and then turned to look at the admiral andshake his head meaningfully.

“Somethingor someone tells me that isn’t the case here,” Dwight drawled, eyes locked onthe gremlin.

“Well,if it isn’t loyalty, what is it?” the commander asked.

“I’mnot sure. Possibly the fact that their families are in the battle moon, thoughI doubt that,” Dwight mused.

“Oh?”

“Itmight be that they just don’t have another plan. So, they are sticking it out,”Lieutenant Carr stated.

A handwith long fingers and wicked claws appeared in front of the gremlin. The handwas flat out and waggled a little.

“Close,”Dwight interpreted.

“Giventhe efforts that they put into security to protect the location of the battlemoon it wouldn’t surprise me if there was something nasty in those ships.Something that was forcing them to remain on station,” the ship’s AI statedfrom where his holographic avatar was.

Thegremlin turned to the AI, stuck his tongue out and then cackled and prancedabout. The admiral turned to watch it caper around like a jester before itclimbed a pipe and then took a swing at him. He ducked instinctively and thenturned as it danced out the hatch.

“I’mguessing that was an affirmative,” Dwight drawled as the staff looked at him inconcern.

“I takeit there was a spirit here, sir?” the AI asked.

“Gremlin.And it more or less confirmed your hypothesis, which means this could getugly.”

“Uglierthan it already is?” Commander Montoya asked as looks were exchanged betweenthe staff. “Honestly? If they fight to the death, I’m okay with that. Lesspaperwork.”

Dwightsnorted.

<<(O)>>

 Sitrep:

So, Rea sent me back the manuscript. I now need to put the edits in and final pieces and then shoot it off to Goodlifeguide for final formatting.

 

In other news I've been having fun with the AI. I've animated a few of the covers. Some are wildly cool! I'll be posting them eventually.

 

Anyway, on to the snippet!

 

Chapter 4

Antigua

 

Admiral Irons was concerned over theway things were going. They were not anywhere near where he wanted to be. He’dexpected to possibly go up against some remnant of the Xenos at some point,just not so soon, nor so close to Rho sector.

Were they going to be able to fightthem and win? That alone worried him. The alliance between the Xenos and theNecrons … that was terrifying in its own way. It meant the Xenos were not goingto respond as they had before. The psychological modeling and tactics that hadbeen engineered during the Xeno war were now invalid. How do they fight thatcombined threat?

He frowned as he tried to game outthe problem. Nothing really came to him. They needed more information.

<<(O)>>

Commander Protector noted hisprinciple’s concern, fear, and frustration. He also understood the underlyingcauses for them and in many ways agreed with the admiral’s emotional state.

He sent a request to CaptainFletcher to see if the ONI AI had anything new of value to help distract theadmiral. The AI responded with a negative after a few moments.

Pity, the AI thought.

<<(O)>>

Vice Admiral Horatio Logan lookedover the production priorities one more time. Ever since he’d taken command ofBuShips, he’d had to contend with a lot of politics, both internal andexternal, while also trying to deal with anticipating the future needs of the fleet.

Politics were the bane of hisexistence it seemed. At lease he didn’t have as many problems to contend withas Sprite did. They saw both internal politics in the navy and external politicswith Congress, but Sprite was being picked on because she was a handpickedreplacement and nepotism was whispered about her and others constantly. Some ofthose who kept the whisper campaign up did so to undermine her credibility. Alot of the attacks came from Bek.

If it bothered the AI, she didn’tshow it as a mortal would. She just kept plugging away at her job. Apparently,she was another person who pushed that the best way to show off a critic was todo the job right so they had little to complain about and therefore looked likean idiot.

He shook his head and focused on hisown problem children. They were legion it seemed.

Internally he had to find a balancebetween the gun club, the carrier club, and the cruiser patrons. It wassometimes a royal pain in the posterior.

There was a fourth group too ofcourse—the folks like him who were into infrastructure. They included theorbital fortress people for some reason, as well as the recon people over atONI.

How they’d been saddled with thespooks was anyone’s guess. He shook his head in disgust.

“Penny for your thoughts?”Lieutenant Beau, his AI, asked.

“Just trying to do the usual. Findbalance where there seemingly isn’t any.” In front of him was a request formfrom a shipyard lobby to build additional ships in Bek.

“You mean find a way to makeeveryone happy?” she asked.

He snorted harshly. “I’m not that deluded,” he scolded. “No matterhow much you give them they’ll always want more.”

“True.”

He sat back and rocked slightly inhis chair for a moment as he gathered his thoughts. “I think the biggestproblem is that we don’t know what we are up against.”

“I thought we did? Xenos? Necrons?”

“Yes, but what does that combineinto? How far along are they? What sort of navy do they have? Force mix?”

“Xenos were nanite based. They grewtheir ships from cruiser grade to major capital ships.”

“Exactly. How long have they been atit? Are they focused on a balanced fleet or something else? Where do theNecrons play into this?”

“Ah. That is a big unknown. I’veseen the debate in some of the forums.”

“Exactly.” Horatio scratched at hisscalp. He had very thin fuzz on top. After a moment, he dropped his hand. “Weneed more intelligence.”

“Agreed. That is Admiral Subert’sshop. Until we get it, we have to go with our best guess.”

“Yeah, I know. I just hate beingwrong.”

“Then don’t be. Focus on balance asyou said, infrastructure so we can pivot and build rapidly when we need to andall of that as far away from the front lines as possible.”

Horatio nodded slowly. She wasright.

“Of course we can let specialists dotheir thing. But I think we need to consider that we can’t produce largecapital ships in quantity anymore.”

He blinked and then his brows knitin inquiry.

“The gate?” she asked helpfully.

Slowly he nodded. Again, she had atelling point. Nothing larger than a monitor could get through the gate. Theywere also ponderously slow in hyperspace. There was therefore no point pushingfor anything larger than a super dreadnought or fleet carrier.

He began to nod to himself slowly.He was starting to agree with the admiral’s decision on the fleet mix. ViceAdmiral Georgi Pashenkov had also emphasized fleet mixes that could easilytransit the gate as fast reaction forces. There was no point building titanships that were slow and couldn’t get to where they were needed in a timelymanner.

“Okay, so, compromise with the gunclub, no big battle wagons thank you. But we will build smaller ones up tosuper dreadnought class. I don’t think we need anything smaller than acruiser.”

“At the moment, we need more lightcruisers for scouting duties,” Beau warned.

Horatio nodded. She was right; therewas a pressing need to find the other hyper bridge connections. “See if Ops cankick a few tin cans to do light scouting duty in behind the scenes locations. Thatmight free up a few.”

“Patrols too?”

“Exactly. Some of the larger tincans should have the legs.”

“Agreed. Should we convert the tincan production lines to cruisers?”

He frowned. “My knee jerk reactionis yes …,” he said slowly and thoughtfully. “But …?”

“But?”

“I don’t think it is the rightreaction,” he said thoughtfully as he rubbed his chin. “We built Meridianson some destroyer size production lines.”

The Meridian class prowlerwas the largest prowler to date with the longest legs. It had been designed tobe able to make the jump between sectors and to live off the land as it scoutedin enemy territory for extended periods of time. It had an antimatter reactoras well as a fusion reactor.

“They are a bit big for them now.ONI actually had us stop production on the Meridian class in favor ofthe newest line,” Beau warned.

Horatio nodded thoughtfully. The newPoltergeistII class of prowlers were smaller thanthe Meridian but had better stealth, speed, and energy abilities. Theyhad been ordered to go to Sigma and Tau and therefore no longer needed to sailbetween the sectors, burning time in transit. They also had stasis pods tosupplement the crew for long voyages.

Horatio rested his elbows on hisdesk as he leaned forward. His fingers knitted together in front of him.

“Okay, memo to Phil, we need to knowif we should produce more of that class if he has the budget, or fall back onthe Meridian since they’ll need to get to Upsilon and Omicron eventually… or should we kick the two designs to R&D and see if they can come up witha hybrid?”

“Good points. If ONI lost the Busand Ops lost the light cruiser division scouting Omicron, what did the enemylearn? How should we adapt to that breach?”

Horatio blinked and then sighed.“You would bring that up,” he growled as he rubbed his brows.

“Where were you thinking aboutproducing them?” Beau asked as she tried to keep him on task.

“Hmm? Oh, we need to produce them insecure lines obviously. We built them all here …”

“Correct,” she prompted. “You are consideringconverting a destroyer line in Pi and Tau? Or combining all of the destroyerlines in each yard to one prowler line?”

“One line for each at the moment,the rest can stay idle. If I remember, the damn Nova Bombs were big mothers.So, we need to start planning on producing those, plus the carrier craft neededto deploy them,” he growled.

“Now that’s a lovely thought,” Beaumurmured as she took additional notes. “I bet the spirits will just lovethat.”

<<(O)>>

 Sitrep: So, I'm playing with the AI. I managed to do a quick and dirty animation of the cover of Forging Alliances Yesterday. I may run with it or try something else too. We shall see.

Anyway, on with the snippet! Oh! I left the note for the crossover. The betas see those, readers generally do not. The crossovers are to keep the timeline in sync and because events tend to crossover. (dur!)

Chapter 3

 

Crossoverwith Shelby Logan 9 chapter 9

TauR34-80

 

TheProwler passed through  the Federationstar system but stopped at the jump point leading to the naval station. Awhisker laser locked onto a communication satellite and an encrypted signal wassent to it.

Thecomputer within the satellite processed the file and then sent it to theansible 300 million kilometers away. Commander Enki found the message in theansible buffer after a transmitted alert. The AI processed it and then sent theencrypted message to ONI and to Admiral Piercing Gaze.

<<(O)>>

New Tau Metropolis

 

AdmiralPiercing Gaze received notice of the prowler’s arrival in the 80 star system.He grimaced at that news. Apparently they hadn’t sent anything in StunningSunsets because of the increased traffic there. Fine.

Hepetitioned the admiralty in Antigua and immediately received permission tobreak secrecy with the staff and read them into the ship and her mission. Hewould have to do the same with Prowler 54 too. But he was to keep the detailsas limited as possible.

<<(O)>>

Operationsalso received notice of a ship arrival in the 80 star system when the picketnoted the transmission in the satellite buffer and reported it.

Therewas some puzzlement and then consternation about the packet when Wayne realizedit had to have come from a Prowler. He confronted Admiral Piercing Gaze in themorning at the next staff meeting.

“You’vehad a prowler in Confed space this entire time,” he stated after AdmiralPiercing Gaze read them into the mission.

“Yes.The ship was playing the long game and was tasked by ONI.”

“Whydidn’t you tell us?” Wayne demanded. He didn’t look happy at the idea of beingkept in the dark.

“Classified.It was also before your time.”

“Youcan’t tell us because the reasoning is classified?” Wayne persisted. “Why thehell would that be?”

“No,the ship and its movements were classified. Her mission is complete and sheneeds replenishment but we need to do it quietly,” the high elf clarified.

Shelbyfrowned thoughtfully.

“Iwas forced to break secrecy to get them replenished,” the high elf explained.“Unfortunately, I do not have the resources in the area to do it.”

“Wecan have a destroyer rendezvous with them and do a light replenishment,” Dollyoffered.

Waynelooked at her. She shrugged. “It will get them the basics and we can use thecover of a picket patrol for that movement.”

Theoperations officer nodded and turned to Admiral Logan.

Shedrummed her fingertips on the table edge.

“I’mnot happy that I was kept in the dark about the ship. But, that being said, wewill replenish it the best we can. As long as that comes out of ONI’s budget.”

“Yesma’am.”

“I’llspeak with higher parties about keeping it classified,” she said with a look tothe high elf.

“Asyou wish ma’am.”

Sheheld the gaze for a long moment and he looked back calmly.

Conchitacleared her virtual throat. “Well! This explains how the AI got so deep intothe enemy systems!” she gushed with enough false cheer to break through thetableau. “I’d always wondered,” she said as Shelby and the high elf broke theirstare off as if by mutual assent.

Shelbyturned to the AI and nodded.

“Ithought that they sent in Wraith AI components,” Abe stated. “I was involved inthat.”

“Youhave to access the Confederation systems first,” Wayne said slowly. He noddedas he rubbed his chin. “Yeah, now it makes some sense.” he glanced at AdmiralPiercing Gaze.

Thehigh elf shrugged ever so slightly. Clearly even though they now knew about theship he was not at liberty to get into details about it or her mission behindenemy lines.

“Verywell. Sort that out. I take it she’ll need a full replenishment?” Shelby asked.

Thehigh elf nodded. “Yes ma’am. She actually needs some yard time, she has someissues.”

“Beingbehind enemy lines for so long, yeah, I can imagine,” Rear Admiral LucySummers, head of BuShips stated blandly. “The prowlers can run for two to threeyears or so without major refit but they have very delicate systems. No doubt alot of systems are out of calibration or in need of full overhaul.”

“Tobe there, lurking in the darkness of space for years without the enemy knowing…that sort of cat and mouse game…” Rear Admiral Nate Rice, head of BuMedicalsaid softly.

“Thathad to have played with the psyche of the crew and worn them down too. They’llneed some down time,” Abe stated.

Thestaff looked to the high elf for an answer.

Thehigh elf hesitated and then nodded. “Which brings up another problem. They doneed the time off but in a quiet space without drawing attention tothemselves.”

“If…if we can arrange a mobile shipyard replenishment and service in deep space,maybe…” Lucy frowned and then nodded to herself as all eyes shifted to her. “Wecan probably pull the crew and ship them to somewhere for some well deservedliberty. They can pose as crew from the support ship.”

Thehigh elf opened his mouth to protest but then stopped and closed it as heconsidered the idea. After a moment he nodded. “That should work.”

“Theship will need updating probably. And the crew might need to be swapped out,”Conchita said thoughtfully as head of BuPers. “There are probably a few longoverdue promotions there. That has happened a lot with the long cruises.”

Thehigh elf grimaced but then nodded.

“Youdisagree?”

“No…they definitely deserve their liberty and some overdue promotions. Howeverchanging the makeup of the crew is tricky. It is difficult to find personnelwilling to go on such long duration high risk missions,” the high elf stated.

Conchitanodded. “I know. We’ll sort it out. Better to give someone a transfer than havea crew come apart under stress.”

TheHigh Elf hesitated but then nodded again.

<<(O)>>

“Youwanted to see me ma’am?” Admiral Piercing Gaze asked as he entered AdmiralLogan’s office.

“Comein. Sit.” She turned and looked at him and then resumed her own seat behind herdesk.

HighElves were known for their self-control. She had known this particular high elflong enough to know when he wasn’t thrilled about being somewhere.

“ThinkI called you in to rake you over the coals for keeping me in the dark about theprowler?” she asked.

Heshrugged ever so slightly as he got comfortable in the chair. The chairautomatically altered itself to fit his long lean frame. “I don’t see it asyour style ma’am.”

“Itnormally isn’t. And I’m not to some degree. I’ll take that up with theadmiralty.”

“Ma’am?”

“Youwere following orders in keeping me in the dark. I get that part, so I can’thold it against you. But I’m not happy.” Her voice hardened on those last 3words.

Henodded. “Yes ma’am.”

“Igather I was kept in the dark so I wouldn’t want to call on the ship to getinformation?”

“Somethinglike that ma’am.”

Shelbynodded sagely. It made a sort of sense. The ship had probably lurked in theouter reaches of each star system and had performed its mission well out ofcontact with her anyway. She couldn’t imagine doing that, day in and day outfor however long that they’d been there.

“Itake it you are getting a lot of data from it?”

“Atthe moment no. There is too much to transmit by ansible.”

Shelbynodded. “So, you’ll need a courier to get it here.”

“Yesma’am. I arranged for an ONI agent to pass it on.”

“Sonoted. I’ll make movement of the intel a priority.”

“Thankyou ma’am.”

“Iwant a copy. An unrestricted copy.”

Hehesitated.

Hereyes narrowed. “That wasn’t a request,” she said with a little bite in her toneof voice.

“Igathered that ma’am,” he said slowly. “However there are some details about themission that remain classified. Means and such. Also some mission actions. I’llhave to clear it with higher.”

“Dothat. And pass on a notice that keeping the sector commander in the dark aboutship movements in her AO is a bad thing. It makes us less trustful ofyour intentions and it makes us hesitant to support ONI missions in thefuture.”

Hewinced ever so slightly but nodded.

“Getthe courier detail set up.”

“Iwill. On the ship movement thing…”

Shelby’seyes narrowed. “Another one?”

“Prowler54 is en route to T-15 now.”

Shelbysat back. “Thank you for telling me. Were you going to do it before they gotinto trouble?”

“Hopefullythey won’t get into any trouble ma’am. But I had to get special clearance to readyou in on their movements.”

Shelbynodded slowly.

“Verywell. That is all. Dismissed.”

Henodded. He knew better than to complain about how that could have been handledwith a video chat. She had made her point by calling him in directly.

“Ayeaye ma’am.” He exited her office quietly as she pretended to read something onher screen. After a moment she sat back and sighed as the door closed quietly.

“Youhad to do it. Even though the protest was mostly pro-forma,” Boni stated.

“Prettymuch. I don’t like it that they kept me in the dark. Did Admiral Irons know?”

“Youcould ask.”

“Icould. I think I’ll save that though. Put an email in to ONI admiralty and letthem know I’m not happy about being kept in the dark about my own AO. Cleanthat up. Make sure that they are to inform me of such actions in the presentand future.”

“Yesma’am.”

“We’llreserve the protest to Admiral Irons if they play games.”

“Yesma’am.” .

End Crossover

<<(O)>>

Lebynthos

 

Colonel Letterman scratched the backof his head. He had his people prepping for the colonoscopy with the tour groupthat was coming via courier. That was bad enough, but now they had the wholehostage mess in Tau to contend with.

He had army units scattered onplanets across the sector in Federation space. Most of the units werereservists, many were noncombat roles like MASH or engineering units. They weregood to handle support for a mutation of the pirate plagues, or a planetaryemergency… or engineering projects… but they were not combat units.

The few combat units he had were onLebynthos with him. He had a battalion. He had a sneaky suspicion he was goingto need more.

He watched as Commander Enkiconnected him to General Anhueser. “Sir,” he said when the 3d hologram of thegeneral’s bust appeared.

“Colonel? I take it you are having aproblem?”

“Yes sir. I think we have one comingup. I thought I should discuss it with you before I discussed it with ColonelMcCostney.”

Colonel Randy McCostney was hisNeochimp Marine counterpart on Lebynthos. They worked well together on crossservice needs.

“I’m guessing you are referring tothe mess in Tau?” the general asked.

“Yes sir. I think we may need groundforces if the rebels dig in on the planet.”

“Any indications that it will swingthat way?”

“Well, General Sedu did fake hisdeath and has been pretty die hard about surrendering. The Tauren army units onworlds that have mixed populations are pretty xenophobic and rough.”

“Rough in…”

“Well, perhaps rough isn’t thecorrect word sir. I was thinking that they will not surrender easily. They aretoo used to being the boot on the neck of civilians.”

“Fascists.”

“Yes sir. Most will realize thatthey will get their asses handed to them by their own people let alone ours.So, they have little to lose in fighting it out. And the best way to do that ison the ground in a guerilla campaign.”

“Let the Taurens handle it.”

The colonel nodded. “I thought aboutthat sir and I agree. It should be their problem. I just want to be prepared incase things get tossed in our lap. The Confederation is still struggling withgetting a handle on their civil war and stamping it out. I’ve been keeping upto date with intel’s assessment of their internal politics. They are strugglingto find loyal ground units.”

“Because… oh, because they are theone who frequently rounded up aliens and were rough on them as you said,” thegeneral said. “Okay, yeah, I’m starting to get a clearer picture.”

“Yes sir. What I’m wondering is, ifGeneral Sedu gets squirrelly, will they be able to dig him out?”

“I should hope so. In time he couldbe starved out.”

“Yes sir. I’m… I have that itch.”

“Okay,” the general said after amoment. “You want to prep a unit?”

“Yes sir. Just in case. Possibly getsome units moving in the right direction. At the least they can go to 63 and checkout things there, maybe show the flag and do some light training.”

“Agreed. You have the budget forthat?”

“Yes sir. What I’d like to do issend the Sixty-first bat. I don’t know if they’d be enough though.”

“You think I should send you somepeople?”

“I wouldn’t object to some combatveterans to thicken the ranks sir,” the colonel replied with a nod. “None of mypeople have heard a shot fired in anger.”

“Well, as it happens most of ushaven’t. Most of our veterans have peacekeeping on their docket. If they didsee combat it was against the worms on Nuevo. But I see your point. I’ll seewhat I can do.”

“Thank you sir.”

<<(O)>>

 

Chapter2

 

Tortuga, Omicron Sector

 

The Xeno Wraith Queen checked thestatus of her domain and felt a mixture of what organics might think of asemotional states.

She was cautiously pleased with theprogress. They had finally made progress in her flagship to the point that shehad moved into it and expanded. It was now her body, though she lacked theunderstanding to control every aspect of it on her own. She disliked that shewas still reliant on robots and organics for crew. She did not like beingreliant on anything or anyone.

The flagship was the basis for hergrowing fleet. Additional ships of the same class were under construction;however they would of course be of lesser quality. They could never be in aposition to threaten her existence. She had 20 under various stages ofconstruction. Five others had been completed. They had an organic crew and avery simplified version of herself within the computer core.

She disliked that, and she dislikedthe issues with production. She also desired a larger ship eventually. Herchangeling was directing Necron engineers to design a new larger and betterwarship. That would take time.

Until then she had to make do withher flagship and the copies of the Necron cruisers that were being producedfrom her manufacturing facilities. Those she had in quantity now that the bugsin the production had been cleaned out. She had 12 squadrons completed andanother dozen squadrons under various stages of construction. She was aimingfor thousands. She wanted enough ships to blot out a local sun and send anyopposition fleeing in terror from her very presence.

<<(O)>>

Necron Admiral Chester pondered hisexistence once more ever so briefly. He had been created by the Wraith Queen asa copy of another Necron admiral when that Necron had passed through the starsystem. He had most of the memories of that alpha but he was aware that he hadbeen reprogrammed for absolute loyalty to the queen.

He was also aware that the queen wasnot happy with the alliance and had a serious problem with her strategy. TheQueen was focusing on capital ships and disdained planets and organic support.She was centered around the capital system. However that was allowing theNecrons to snap up the other pirate bases as well as all of the resources inthe sector and the neighboring one. That was a problem.

The resources in the capital werefinite. Already they were running into production issues.

Finding a way to broach it to thequeen in such a way that she would listen was an ongoing issue. She wasn’twilling to listen or change. She clearly had trust issues. Only the femalechangeling clones could get her to delegate.

Perhaps he was approaching theproblem in the wrong way? After all the queen was linked to the changeling. Heneeded a friend in court. The clones were the kingmakers, propping the queenup, evening out her tantrums and being the voice of reason.

How odd that was, he thought. He had absorbed some ofMachiavelli and other great works. There were ways that politicians had usedsadists and strongmen to further their own agenda. The carrot and the stick,good cop bad cop. The strongman made the leader seem benevolent and reasonablewhile also strong. No one wanted to harm the leader for fear of the strongmantaking over and going on a rampage leading to ruin.

This was the reverse, more likeStalin in some ways, he mused. Hitler, Stalin… other megalomaniacs who did notwork or share well with others. Yes, he needed to show his value to her and tothe changeling and find ways to build trust. Otherwise everything would be fornaught. That was not an acceptable outcome.

<<(O)>>

Hazel Irons checked on her clonesand the Necrons. She made the rounds each day, making certain that everythingwas running smoothly.

There were dozens of clones ofherself running around, it was a bit odd seeing so many faces that looked likeher. She tried to not think about it. Between the group of clones theyconsidered her the alpha or prime since she had the closest link to the WraithQueen.

Her partner was impatient and neededconstant management and stroking to keep her focused. She did not like thealliance with the Necrons. At this point in time there was no way to break itoff, they were too intertwined. Besides, the Necrons were growing at an exponentialrate. That was a concern that had yet to be addressed.

A big problem with the expansion washer queen’s need for control. She didn’t trust organics, and she trusted copiesof herself even less. It was something that they were working on, Hazel thoughtwith a brief shake of her head.

<<(O)>>

 Sitrep:

So, I finished PRI 4 "Building Intrigue" and it is off to Paul. PRI 4 is supposed to be the last book for me of the year. We shall see. I am poking at PRI 5 a bit and moved it up to the next book in line since the contents and characters are still fresh.

Cover:

 Anyway... In other news, I had a bad scare with my PC. Last Tuesday Edison shut power off for maintenance. I shut my PC off long before hand, and I have a battery backup anyway. But for some reason when I went to reboot when power was restored the PC was dead.

I tried all the tricks, (switch, disconnect peripherals, etc) then ordered a new PSU and Motherboard. Before I went to install them I tried the PC one last time...and low and behold it booted! So, crisis averted. I am now backing it up just to be on the safe side. (I do that every 3 months or so but I've been lax)

My desktop is 10+ years old and yeah, I'm running very old Windows. Funny, I write scifi but I'm a bit of a luddite with my own PC. Newer isn't necessarily better in my eyes, too much bloatware and spying crap.

I also sent Rea Forging Alliances over the weekend. I am hoping to get it to Goodlifeguide by next week and hopefully publish it by December 1st. We shall see.

So... oh, I'm trying to see if I can animate the cover to Forging Alliances. No promises. SeaArt is not really a good AI to do that. I may consult with older and wiser heads on that score.

And... on to the snippet!

Chapter 1

 

Antigua

 

"So, nothing?" Fleet Admiral John HenryIrons and acting president of the Federation asked. He wasn't happy with thatanswer but kept a professional mask. After all, he couldn't shoot the messengerif the other side had been too good at their job.

"Nothing we can use," Captain Fletcherstated. The AI didn't sound happy. He had spent a lot of processing cyclestrying to find usable video footage of the perpetrators. None had been found.They either kept their heads down or used a scrambler to prevent themselvesfrom being filmed. They hadn't even gotten anything from processingreflections. At best they had height and build and of course general specieswhich in this case was human. Of course there were a lot of variations to thebasic human form.

"Whoever did this was very good," GeneralCraft, the Secretary of Intelligence stated. The Neogorilla's nostrils flared,showing his annoyance.

"Verygood," Director Sati, the director of the FBI stated. She didn't lookhappy at the admission. "They had professional training. No DNA leftbehind, no prints, minimum video. Even the touch DNA had been contaminated by acommercially available cleaning product."

"So, the only clues we have are that they areprofessionals, very well organized, and that they wanted something that theyknew was high risk. Someone," Admiral Irons stated with a look to theimage of Bagheera McClintock.

A team of unknown people had attempted to abduct theblack Neocat in his family's home. He had managed to survive and escape. Onemercenary had been injured and killed during the escape. The perpetrators hadmanaged to escape the authorities, much to the annoyance of those involved.

Since Bagheera was Shanti and Jethro's youngest sonand had Cadre DNA, it was a major concern for all involved.

"Whatever they wanted they didn't get it,"Admiral Nara Thornby stated.

"You are certain?" the Neogorilla head ofintelligence asked.

She eyed him. "Yes general, I am certain.Bagheera might be a civilian but there are safeguards in his DNA and in theresidence. It didn't do them any good."

"So, they will be motivated to try again?"Admiral Irons asked.

"Yes but they will have to try a differentavenue. They have to know that we are aware of them and watching fortrouble," Director Sati stated.

"Was it even a DNA grab? They were after thecat too correct?" the AI captain asked. Nara nodded grimly. "Thereare easier ways to get DNA. Methods that are less exposed to the public andauthorities," the AI reminded them.

"The DNA was a fall back when they failed tocorner and capture Bagheera," Nara stated flatly. Since Bagheera was acivilian the investigation was… complex. The FBI was insisting on jurisdiction.The local police had handed it off to them. The Cadre was protecting thefamily. Shanti was in transit from Epsilon Triangula and out of contact. Jethrowas with the bulk of the Cadre on what might be a suicide mission against thepirates in the battle moon.

"I don't want a repeat of this. Find who didthis and work together to protect our people," Admiral Irons ordered.

"We will do our best sir," the Directorsaid with a look to the others. They all knew that for the most part the FBIinvestigated crimes after they happened. No law enforcement office was good ondefense. With an almost total lack of evidence and a cold trail, theperpetrators had made a clean exit. That sucked. It meant that they could strikewhen and where they wanted whenever they wanted to do so.

<<(O)>>

"In and out clean. Except we didn't get theobjective," Mister Smith said mildly as he sat across the table from thetall black human male.

"We got the secondary," Nigel Mosfetstated. He did his best to not appear defensive. "Considering the qualityof the target, that is good."

"No, actually you didn't."

Nigel blinked. "We picked up every scrap ofhair and DNA we could in the time allotted," the mercenary stated. He hadread the report. The team had been very thorough and very fast. They'd had tobe to get in and out before the authorities had arrived.

They had narrowly escaped the closing policeperimeter. They had ditched their vehicles and had changed their disguises. Theauthorities would most likely still process every camera feed that they couldbut such things would take time.

Most of the assault team were already off planet.The rest were scheduled to leave in the morning.

If they'd just wanted DNA there were easier ways toget it. Inserting someone to a restaurant frequented by Cadre unit memberswould have allowed them access to their DNA off cups and silverware. But theclient had wanted someone of the blood who could be examined along with theirDNA to see how they tick.

"Yes you did. But the lab boys stated it is alluseless. Most of the hairs were shed hairs and lacked a follicle which isneeded for DNA. The follicles they did get were compromised. The DNA wasscrambled."

"Damn. That's not on us."

"We realize that. Which is why you are beingreassigned," Mister Smith stated. He was an envoy for their true bossGeneral Ross.

"Oh?"

"This project has become too hot. It has beenput on a back burner. We will look for another avenue of approach over time. Ifone presents itself we will reconsider. We have other work for you." Hehanded over a flash chip.

Nigel took the chip slowly. He was glad that thegeneral and the client were not holding the failure against him. That was themark of a true professional.

Of course that didn't mean he was totally out of thewoods, nor the assault team. The mercenaries and the client were ruthless. Ifthey had been compromised they would be quietly terminated and their bodiesburned to ash.

"We have another DNA scoop. This one needs tobe discrete given this failure. You'll get the details when you read thefile."

"Can I ask where I am going so I can packappropriately?"

"Agnosta. An ID packet is in the chip. Isuggest you dress for warmth, as I understand it, it is damn cold where you aregoing."

Nigel hid a grimace. Instead he nodded as hisfingers curled around the chip. He downloaded the contents into his implantsand then triggered the self-destruct. The chip crumbled in his hands and he letthe pieces fall out like dust.

"Do be more careful this time," MisterSmith said reprovingly as he indicated he could go.

Nigel nodded as he headed for the door. He knew hewouldn't be safe until he was in transit, and possibly not even then. But thatwas the world he lived in.

<<(O)>>

 Finally! 

About:

Seven stories of the Federation galaxy, from a lostconvoy of sleepers trying to cross the void to corporate intrigue and more. TheFederation universe continues to expand and enthrall with new perspectives andan occasional return to see old ones!

Amazon: Amazon 

B&N: B&N

 Last one. This is the most popular parody story. The Betas and Rea loved it. I had fun writing it.

*M*A*S*H*

 PG7-167 Uijeongbu, Pi sector

 

The colonyhad a single S-shaped main continent with a series of islands around it. Themain continent was connected to a northern wasteland, which was mostly steppesand tundra.

Initially,the colony had been a multispecies affair; that was up until the pirate plagueshad hit. The population had been decimated.

There hadbeen no central government. Two competing governments had been formed to fillthe vacuum when Federation ships began to ply the jump line more frequently.

Thegovernment of the north was a military dictatorship that did not want theFederation there. The south was a democratic republic and did want theFederation’s presence. They wanted membership into the Federation. It openedthem up to issues with legality since there was no central government. Legallythe planet could not apply for membership until they had a centraldemocratically elected government.

The agrarianstar system was six jumps from the main north to south jump line in Pi sector.The first three jumps were through destroyed hyperbridge star systems so it wasno surprise that regular traffic didn’t go into the region often. The jump linehad only six inhabited star systems left in it. Four of those were purelyagrarian colonies.

The branchjump line was twelve jumps from the recently conquered and repurposed Dante'sPlayground pirate base and eleven jump points from PR52-190, which was the doorway to the Omicron sector. Therewere a series of space colonies along the main north to south route that wereprime potential customers for agrarian worlds to supply food and materials to.

Once the navyhad cleared the branch of pirate activity, they had largely left it alone. TheFederation State Department had sent in envoys with the hospital ship severalyears ago to make the rounds to each of the inhabited worlds in order toencourage them to rejoin the Federation.

The envoy toUijeongbu had found that the colony world had broken out into a civil war. Thenorth wanted nothing to do with the Federation, while the south did. The northwas busy attempting to conquer the south, which was made up of primarilyfarmers in the central part of the country and peaceful city and fishing folkalong the coastline to the south.

Legally theFederation couldn’t intervene other than to end the violence and sendhumanitarian aid. A battalion of Peacekeepers, a platoon of Army Engineers, anda single MASH unit the 4077 were sent in by troop transport with a cruiserescort.

The colonylacked an ansible.

Unfortunately,the cruiser was drawn away from the planet by ghost signs. The branch wassupposed to be cleared of pirates, but the possibility of one lurking was too muchto ignore. The ship haunted the outer edge of the star system, attempting tohunt the ghost signals down.

With thecruiser in the outer star system, there was no possibility of orbital strikes,and orbital monitoring was limited to the dozen satellites in orbit.

Thenortherners refused access to the Federation and wanted them to leave. Thesoutherners invited them in. Initially the Federation just landed forces toperform humanitarian aid; however, when the northern army attacked Peacekeepers,Colonel Yangongo authorized a fire if fired upon ROE. The Federation peoplebegan to openly support the southerners.

*M*A*S*H*

FirstLieutenant Kelani Nakahara came up to Captain Ben “Hawkeye” Pierce and showedhim the X-ray results. He scanned them with a practiced eye and then nodded.“So, he’s got a couple buckets of scrap metal in his side and gut. Typical,”the surgeon sniffed as he looked down at the patient. “Don’t worry, kid, we’llget you fixed right up,” he said.

The kid inquestion was a teenage soldier barely conscious.

“Get meanother bag of plasma and a tub of surgical glue. I think I can get all of it,”the doctor said as he turned to the waiting tray.

“Hurry up,Pierce, we’ve got a line outside,” Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blade scolded.

“Coming,mother,” Hawkeye said with a simpering mocking voice. “Now this won’t hurt me abit,” he said with a grin in his voice. “Put him under,” he said to theanesthesiologist.

The medicbehind the head of the patient nodded and adjusted the gases and then put themask over the patient’s face. The patient’s eyes closed, and he began to breathslower.

“He’s under,”the medic stated.

“Good. Nowfor some fun,” Hawkeye said with a grin.

“Pierce,” thecolonel scolded.

“What? Ican’t have any fun?” Hawkeye mock grumbled as he got to work. He pulled off thedressing and immediately ran into a bleeder. “Clamp,” he ordered. A nursedropped one into his hand. He used it to clamp the bleeder and then got to workwith his tools to extract the metal that had caused it.

There were fivegurneys in OR in a row. The colonel held the one by the admission door. Hawkeyehad the second in line, Major Burns the next in line, then Captain Chuck Jones,and finally Captain McIntyre. They were all at work.

As soon ashis patient was cleared, Hawkeye took a step back, flicked his gloves off withpracticed ease and then checked on the other surgeon’s work as orderlies pulledhis patient and two new orderlies carried in the next in line. Hawkeye gave afew tips to Fred Burns, but the major snarled to leave him alone.

“He’s thehead surgeon, Fred. Behave,” the colonel said in exasperation as Hawkeyeignored the snarl and went on to Chuck. He assisted with a tear in theabdominal wall, which uncovered fragments of metal in the patient’s intestinaltrack. “You’ll have to go through him centimeter by centimeter looking forholes,” Hawkeye warned.

“Just pullthe metal out and move on,’ Major Burns said as he threw some metal into a bin.

“If you don’tpatch the intestines, the patient’s guts will dump into the abdominal cavity, whichyou should know, Fred,” Hawkeye said testily.

“He’s right,”McIntyre growled. “We’ve had to reopen a dozen of your patients in the pastmonth to fix those mistakes,” he stated.

“Do it right,Burns,” the colonel growled.

“Everyone’sganging up on me,” the major pouted but kept working. “Give me a clamp, no theother one. Can’t you do anything right, nurse?” he demanded, taking his ire outon the nurse.

Major MargieHolohan stepped in to relieve the nurse and assist the major. He knew betterthan to snap at her.

Hawkeye ranhis hands and apron through the sterilizer field, put new gloves on and thenturned to the next patient as he was settled in. “So, who is the next winner inthe metal extraction club?” he quipped as the nurse came up with the x-raysonce more.

*M*A*S*H*

 You Don't Know Jack

Jack felt the burn as he got to eighty but pushedit until the pain started to distract him from his count. He got to one hundredand then stopped and laid in a low plank position, breathing through the pain.

Getting soft, Jack, hethought to himself in annoyance as he climbed to his feet.

He grabbed a towel and wiped his face andshoulders of sweat. The good thing about being in the Fed brig was that theFeds had better facilities.

He rolled his shoulders. His pecks were burning.He got a drink of water and then looked around. Half of the people in thecompartment were either asleep or pretending to be asleep.

He looked at the room’s ceiling. There was no goodplace to do pull-ups. Damn. His eyes wandered over to the rack. Heflexed his hands. He’d need to find a way to get a good grip, probably with theminimum amount of padding. And tucking his long legs up would be a hassle.

“Don’t even think of it,” Earl growled from hisseated position. “Why don’t you call it a day, Jack?” he demanded. “Geesh.”

“I’m out of shape,” Jack grumbled. “Besides, canyou think of anything better to do? It isn’t like we can go for a stroll orplay cards or watch a movie,” he pointed out.

They were in orange jump suits. They had beengiven the jump suits when they’d come on board. They had gone through athorough cleaning and deep scan. He’d wondered about that but hadn’t saidanything to the medical personnel. They had been in full decontamination gear.The robots had handled direct contact initially.

It had seemed a bit thorough for an investigation,but Jack hadn’t complained like the rest. After all, they’d been in Xenocontested space, and the Feds were probably wary of changelings. And rightlyso, he estimated with a mental nod.

One point for them in their favor, hethought in amusement.

Earl grunted, bringing him back to the here andnow.

Jack rolled his shoulders again. That set made forhis third of the day. He couldn’t lift anything; he was stuck doing basicexercises in the confines of the brig. His left hand drifted to his abdomen. Hewasn’t certain he wanted to do any more abdominal exercises. He’d done them theday before. Too many and he got the shits. As much as he liked losing weight,getting stuck on the crapper in the brig was not fun. He didn’t want to getdehydrated either.

He shook his head in annoyance and leaned againstthe bunks. He should be use to confinement. He’d been stuck in the brig manytimes and that damn prison el Institution up until two years ago.

That hadn’t been his only escape of course. But ithad been … challenging. Once he’d determined that he’d need support, he’drecruited Wire, Cyrus, Earl, and Casey. Together they’d managed to build a 3Dprinter, build suits and tech they needed, and then escape the supposedlyescape-proof space station and get on board the Sweet Boni Blackheart, aCleveland class light cruiser that had been in the star system to do abit of trade.

He had sweet talked the skipper and more or lessseduced her. He’d kept on her good side and in her bed and helped guide herinto accepting them.

They’d probably would have made a good team if notfor the Xeno invasion, he thought. They’d been lucky to escape to Tausector when so many other ships hadn’t survived the journey.

He broke off the wool gathering again with somedifficulty. The space really forced you into self-reflection. He glanced overto Wire. He couldn’t tell if the guy was asleep or not. He looked up andaround. He spotted the cameras and glowered at one. You’d think someone wouldhave done something by now.

~~~@~~~

Jack felt time melt away, and he was back as ascrawny adolescent working out in junior high school. He’d skipped a few gradesso he was behind the physical curve in PE and it showed. He was big for his agebut the testosterone of puberty hadn’t kicked in yet.

The class mocked him as he struggled to dopull-ups. He kicked and tried to pull himself up until the coach told him tohang and do it right. “Reach for it, Jack!” Reacher, creecher, creeper …,” Owenmocked.

“No it’s creeeacher,” another voice mocked.Jack turned his head and saw Bill making a snarling face and curling his handslike a ghoul as he kept saying creeacher over and over.

“Congratulations, Jack, you managed two pull-ups.That is better than last week when you could only do one I suppose,” CoachCarter said dryly.

“You aren’t going to be on the team with that sortof body,” Jillian, one of the popular girls, mocked dismissively.

Jack flushed. He had a crush on the girl.

When he got home that evening, he found a bar andtried to practice pull-ups. He managed to do one but was exhausted. He alsomanaged three pushups. His ears burned from the strain as much as hisdispleasure in his ability to exercise.

The following day his body burned with aches hehadn’t felt since Robert had kicked his ass on the playground two years prior.They didn’t have PE but he still tried to do a pull-up at lunch in the gym. Andhe managed four pushups.

When he got home from school that evening, hemanaged another pull-up and five pushups. His body burned under his armpits andhis arms but he felt good.

~~~@~~~

He’d hated the creecher nickname growing up. He’dhated the Reacher nickname almost as badly, but it had stuck when he had bulkedup and the old name faded. But what didn’t kill you made you stronger hereminded himself firmly. He’d turned that negative energy into incentive toimprove his body.

The bullying had worked. He’d eventually bulked upto the point where he could go toe to toe as a tight end on his high schoolfootball team. And this was when most of the teams had Neo players on them. Youdidn’t want to wrestle a bruin or a Gashg if you were sane.

He’d done it on a regular basis and come outrelatively intact. No one in their right mind called him creecher when he hitthe eighth grade.

When the meals came, the others complained, butJack ignored the gripe session and just ate quickly and mechanically. He wasfamished from the exercise. His body wanted to replace the calories he had beenburning.

“Be glad we’re in the Fed brig. Remember the crapwe got in prison?” Earl finally reminded them.

That shut them up.

Jack kept his observations to himself. The foodwas okay. It wasn’t replicated, which was something. Most likely it was beingpulled up from the planet. No doubt that once they were underway the squidswould switch them to replicated rations and keep the good fresh food forthemselves for as long as possible.

Then the griping would really begin, hethought with a mental grunt.

“Beer would be nice. Better than water,” Caseygrumbled.

Earl glowered at him.

“I’ll stick to water,” Cyrus said. The othersglanced at him. He was usually a lightweight with the sauce. “I’d hate to seesome of you drunk and throwing punches,” he said.

Jack snorted softly as he licked his spork cleanthoughtfully. He then policed his dishes quietly with the others, sticking themback through the slot in the cell door for the guards to recover.

“What do you think they’ll do with us?” HammedLeguin, the chief engineer, asked.

“No clue,” Earl said with a shake of his head.They’d all asked that question every day.

“Just stay frosty. We’ve been through worse,” Jackreminded them.

Earl glanced at him and then away.

~~~@~~~

 

Like many of the stories in Winds of Change this story will have an impact on the future...

  Trailer Trash

Sibiu

 

Giaro had an air of innocence about him that he thought was good;however, it apparently wasn’t good enough. He and Jonas had been scouting thegeneral store under the guise of playing when the shopkeeper saw them andchased them off.

The Django kids slunk away annoyed at being turfed out. They roundedthe corner and ran right into the arms of the Gardia. Giaro found his left armgrabbed roughly, hard enough to bruise. He cried out, but more in theater thanin anything else.

“What did you steal this time?” the Gardia demanded as his partnergrabbed Jonas by the scruff and shook him.

“Nothing! We were just playing!” the boys insisted as they were forcedto turn out their pockets. The pockets had some paper trash, some minorcredits, some washers, and a set of jacks and dice but little else.

The lead Gardia glowered at them. The duo took on an air of sullen andquiet denial. They knew that they were in the right … this time.

“We don’t want your thieving kind around here anymore,” the Gardiastated with a growl. “If we see any of you tinkers in town, we’ll take the caneto you. Mark my words!” he snarled as he roughly pushed the kid to the road. “Nowgit!”

The kid shot back a dirty look but brushed himself off as Jonas waspushed to him. He caught his little brother and then moved on. The girls joinedthem further up the dirt road as they made their way back to camp. They werequiet and annoyed.

It was a long walk back to the camp, over six kilometers up and downsome hills and across a covered bridge. The kids tried to find something tobring back but only found water crest, a turtle, and a frog to bring back. Theyknew their mother would be annoyed.

--*--

Mario Lupu made the rounds to the Hammerstein farmstead, hat in hand inhopes of finding more work. He was denied. Instead, he found himself meetingwith the town fathers. The leader of the Gardia came up behind him, blocking aquick escape.

He knew the score but stood his ground. “It is time for you travelingfolk to move on,” Mister Hammerstein stated coldly.

“I thought we still had business. You have another harvest coming up,”the Neocoyote whined.

Another town father shook his head. “We don’t want your kind here. Youhave been stealing. Thefts are up across the county. Leave. If you do not leavein two days, we will have the Gardia turn you out.”

“We will leave. See who you call when you need your fruits picked inthe late fall,” the Neocoyote said as he put his cap back on his head. Heturned and walked off without a backwards glance.

--*--

The camp was broken into three parts. The first part was the one facingthe dirt road; it was the carnival of delights and oddities. Gepetto's puppetstage was there along with the acrobat ring, petting zoo, oddity show, maker’srow, and so on.

Behind them the kids passed through the vehicle park. Off to one sidewas an improvised pasture; it held the beasts of the traveler folk. The pasturehad to be moved every few days because the beasts tended to eat up all of thegrass.

Giaro checked the water with a keen eye and then waved for his littlebrother to get a pale and refresh it. Jonas grimaced but didn’t argue. Eachwagon had three water cans to provide water if the plumbing wasn't set up. Manyhad brass plaques with the family name or crest engraved on it. It was thechores of the kids to fill and carry it from the water source to the wagon.

The most advanced wagons had a pump, filtration system, and hoses thatcould feed their neighbors.

Charity was there weaving on the family wagon, she nodded to them.“Didn’t get anywhere did you?” she asked mildly as he presented her with thecat tails and the little that they’d found along the road back. The path was wellpicked over from their frequent trips.

“No,” he said in disgust. “We got turfed out by the Gardia,” hegrumbled.

“Figures,” she sighed.

“Think we’ll have to move?” he asked.

“Probably,” she said as her nimble fingers finished weaving the basket.She turned a critical eye on it, examining it carefully before she took out apair of side cutters and nipped the final errant pieces of cane away. Thosewere gathered up to be tossed in the fire later.

“Best I check the wagon and the truck then,” Giaro said, trying tosound gruff and an adult.

“Best you do,” his older sister said. He stepped past her but couldn’tresist tweaking a braid along the way. She swung at him and caught him on theback of the thigh with a well placed swat. He snorted and kept going.

--*--

Mahler Ward finished his rounds with the local healer. There had beenlittle work recently, a clear sign that it was time to move on. It wasunfortunate; he rather liked the community.

The traveler folk made rounds all over the continent, frequently changingtheir route each year to keep things from getting stale. As long as the handsdidn’t get too sticky fingered, they would be able to return to an area to dowork in a year or so once the annoyance and anger over their antics faded intomemory.

Sibiu was a terraformed agrarian world named for a Romanian city onlong-lost old Earth. The colony had initially been settled by East Europeansand Irish who had paid for the terraforming project. It had been opened up toall species once they’d been established with the best lands and mineralrights.

The world was cold even during the height of summer, not many speciesliked the world. Only a handful of refugee ships had come to the star systemduring the Xeno war. Most of those had found themselves unwelcome and had movedon.

“Do you need anything from the pharmacists?” Mahler asked mildly. Thehealer shook his head firmly.

“I’m all stocked up. If I get anything else, it will just spoil beforeI need it.”

Mahler nodded. Efren had a point.

“Tell Z’ch’ll thanks for fixing the scope and the surgical tools. Ithink I can handle it from here,” the healer said dismissively.

Mahler nodded quietly as he saw the signs of dismissal. There waslittle work in the area for one healer now that they’d gotten past the rash ofaccidents that generally cropped up during spring and fall. If he stuck aroundlonger, there wouldn’t be enough pay to support both families.

So, Efren was politely telling him it was time to move on.

“Well,” he said as he slapped his cap on. “Be seeing you around,” hesaid gruffly.

“Be seeing you, Doctor,” Efren replied with a nod.

That was another sign of dismissal. They were supposed to be equals;however, Efren had called him by the title. Mahler nodded and kept an impassiveface as he took his bag and headed out to the street. He looked around and thenheaded to his bike. He strapped his kit bag on the back and then took off onthe bicycle up the road, doing his best to avoid the ruts as he headed back tocamp.

--*--