Redemption – Snippet 5
Redemption, The Boris Chronicles
By Paul C. Middleton and Michael Anderle
Snippet 5
Unedited
Leaving the bodies to be destroyed by the blast had been too disrespectful for Olaf. Maybe it wasn’t the battle wise decision. Maybe it would improve the enemies chance of tracking them, if there was enough of a trace to track after the blast.
Either way, it was still the right, the respectful, decision. Besides, while the digging was going on…
Everything paused as the sound from the earth shattering explosion hit them. Even at this range, sheltered by a hill, the sound of a catastrophically failing etheric reactor was impressive. The shaking of the earth as the shock wave passed was less so. Most of the energy would be directed up, even with the containment of the alloy hull.
“Andre, Richard, test those railguns. Aim for the blast site. Breaking it up will make investigating harder.” Olaf ordered. He’d known about half of his bodyguard most of his life. He was more comfortable going by first name with them.
An Amazon and two of his bodyguards were the dead. Nestor he knew, but he’d needed dogtags to identify the others. Marina and Timothy. He bowed his head, anger and grief mixing. If he’d not been so confident in the security of the shuttle, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.
Of course then it could have happened to others. No-one had really expected someone on planet to have a weapon that could take out a shuttle. At least not outside of Japan. Any other officer he could have sent would have only had a squad with them. Their chances of survival even if they had taken no casualties would have been lower still.
It had been the right choice to come. Or at least the best choice available.
There was a single whipcrack from the hilltop as one of the railguns fired.
The tears of grief and regret flowed down his face as he dug the grave. Slowly other started to help him. Within half an hour they had it as deep as it would go, about four feet.
Even with all their technology, even relative to life before the fall, certain injuries were truly fatal. A crushed skull. A charred hole through the chest. A bolt of energy through the eye. At least it would have been quick, Olaf consoled himself.
He carefully placed each body into the battlefield grave. Anatoly, one of the Weres, handed him a hip flask of vodka. Nodding, Olaf carefully poured some over each corpse’s lips. They would reach Valhalla with drink on their breath.
Then he threw the first spadeful of dirt into each grave before letting others complete the task.
He saluted as the three rocks were placed to mark the graves, the earth was stomped back into place and the turf put back over to hide them from casual sight.
Olaf would forever remember this moment as the moment he learnt a core soldiers truth. That loss and grief are at the center of war. He was coming to realise fast that glory was no balance to them.
He took a swig of the vodka before he handed it back to Anatoly, who took a swig himself before he put it away in his gear.
Olaf made an oath that moment. He couldn’t stop people dying to protect him because of who his father was. Either out of fear or respect. But he would become a man worthy of any who died for him.
One of the railguns was working. The other would still have to be lugged with them. Olaf would not let it fall into the enemy’s hands. For now, carrying it was better than slagging it with one of his few thermite grenades.
He had a feeling he might be happy for every weapon he had.
It was why the only weapon he’d left with the soldiers to arrive at Valhalla with had been their Tomahawks.
He knew they’d understand when the doorkeeper asked why they were so poorly armed.
Their comrades would put their other arms to good use.
Release the Dogs of War Audiobook Release!
Release the Dogs of War, The Kurtherian Gambit Book 10
By Michael Anderle
Book 10 in The Kurtherian Gambit Universe, Release the Dogs of War is now available in Audio!
Saved by Valor RELEASE!
Saved by Valor, Reclaiming Honor Book VII
By Justin Sloan and Michael Anderle
A dream of peace. A hand of justice. A time for closure.
Valerie has found her way full circle, heading back to Europe, where it all began. New enemies await, calling themselves The Gods, and the journey to put an end to the atlantic pirate problem means dealing with the local trouble makers as well as these false gods.
For Cammie and Royland, it also means bringing a boy to his home, and ensuring he has a safe place to live.
Meanwhile, Diego and Sgt. Garcia begin their journey to secure their side of America. While victory is close at hand, theirs is a world where cutting off hands seems just as likely as shaking them. Will they be able to convince the locals peace is worth having?
Saved by Valor – Snippet 3
Saved by Valor, Reclaiming Honor Book VII
By Justin Sloan and Michael Anderle
Snippet 3
Unedited
How the hell everyone had survived that, she had no clue. For what seemed like an eternity she just laid there, watching the rain. When it finally started to let up and rays of sunlight hit the airship’s balloon, she sat up and scanned the deck.
The ship was damn full, half of them at work, half just trying to get out of the way.
They saw her sitting up, and started to cheer.
“Enough of that,” she shouted, leaping up and pulling at her clothes, as if she could brush the water away. “You all did it.”
“But we lost the ship,” Reems admitted morosely.
She looked back at the storm in the distance. With her vampire sight, she was just able to see the shape of her ship where it had landed on the side of a hill, not far from the coastline.
For a long moment, nobody spoke. It as likely they were all waiting for someone, likely Valerie, to explode. This shouldn’t have happened. One little storm, and they lost their shit.
Truthfully she wanted to go off on her captains, to start kicking stuff and swearing. That ship had started to grow on her. Instead, she just continued staring for a long moment, letting them all consider what had happened and process it in their own way. Getting angry at someone and trying to point fingers wasn’t going to do any good now.
“Where is that, would you guess?” she asked, immediately followed by sighs or relief when the others realized she wasn’t going to kick their asses.
A man stepped forward, the boy Kristof next to him. They spoke in a foreign language for a moment, then the man said, “Not a clue, but the boy remembers seeing that land on his way over.”
Kristof nodded. “I distinctly remember that hill. I thought I’d never seen a hill so green in all my life.”
“Wait, you speak the same language?” Valerie asked excitedly. “You’re from the same area, then?”
The man nodded. “My family, it turns out, emigrated from near his town. Outcasts; left over some dispute long ago. But I know his country, and spent some time there as a teen.”
“Well, sir,” she beamed at Captain William, “you might just be the hidden puzzle piece we’ve been looking for.”
“And the islands?”
“My best guess? Judging by the size of the island, or what we saw anyway, I’d have to say the Faroe Islands. Not that I’ve ever been, but I’ve seen a map or two in my time.”
“Remind me to go back and get my ship someday,” Valerie commented, though she knew that was unlikely to happen. She really did like the carving, though, and the map, and would hate for those to fall into someone else’s hands.
She turned back to the sailor and asked, “Do you think you could find this city, or at least the general vicinity?”
He nodded. “Not exactly, but the area? I can at least ask around, get us there.”
With a laugh, she turned to the crew. “Does anyone else not realize we are headed to Norway? Now that you know, does anyone have anything they can offer?” The crew laughed, and she held her hands up. “That’s on me. It’s taught me an important lesson about making sure to share my plans with everyone involved.”
“We coulda told you that, boss,” Reems said. “Like, I would’ve loved to have known about the plan to send one of our ships down like that. I would’ve advised you to send this one instead.”
“Hardy-har-har.” Valerie looked at him. “Tell you what, we find another awesome ship, she’s yours.”
“Deal.”
Suddenly her eyes went wide and she ran to the rail, staring at her ship as if that alone would bring her back.
“What is it?” Cammie asked, stepping up next to her. “The comm device, it—”
“This one?” River asked, fishing it out of the pack at his side. “Why do you think I was late getting to the ropes?”
A smile spread across Valerie’s face. “You angel! I knew I saved you for a reason.”
He laughed. “You saved my life because you somehow knew I had this on me?”
“I’m an all-powerful, all-knowing vampire, don’t you see that yet?”
“Hmm, must be that my simple human eyes are incapable of seeing such B.S.”
Silence followed that remark, broken by Valerie’s laughter. “Boy, I’m liking you more every day.”
He smiled, then gave her the comm device and gestured to his wet clothes. “I’m going to check with William and see if there’re dry clothes for everyone on board.”
“Some of us’ll have to go without a spare,” one of the sailors interjected. “Tell him I said you can have mine.”
“If he doesn’t have the spares stowed away,” River replied, then walked off to the control room.
“We need to get all of you dry,” Valerie told Cammie, glancing around at the sailors. “I don’t want anyone getting sick on this trip and ruining all the fun sightseeing.”
“Sights?” Cammie laughed. “Ladies and gentlemen, on your left you have the lost airship of Valerie… Wait, how is it I don’t know your last name?”
“Vampires kinda get rid of the whole last name thing. Just something we do.”
“Huh.”
“I guess it has to do with separating ourselves from our pasts.” Valerie shrugged, turning to look toward their destination. “In a way, I get it. There’s so much I’d like to forget. The path lies ahead and all that.”
Cammie nodded, arms wrapped around herself for warmth. “Sure, that works. Makes sense, in a delusional sort of way.”
“Excuse me?”
“Not meaning offense, but everything we do, every choice, comes from who we are and what we’ve been through. Hell, some would even argue we aren’t really making the choice, that a combination of our past experiences triggers an automatic response.”
Valerie pursed her lips, then shook her head. “Something’s wrong with you.”
“Oh, something’s been wrong with me for a very long time.” She shrugged. “But I’ll take it, because it makes me who I am, and I happen to love that person.”
“You are kinda great,” Valerie replied with a wink.
“Hey, no winking at me anymore. Don’t think I haven’t heard about you and your carpet-munching ways.”
“What the fuck?”
“Sailors talk.” Cammie laughed. “Hey, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. You don’t think I’ve munched on a few carpets in my day? It was practically a carpet buffet back in the Golden City, though the buffet had much more to it than just that. That place was totally fucked up, honestly.”
“I’m not a… I’m not repeating it. But I won’t be reduced to some stupid label like that.”
Cammie eyed her a moment. “You exclusive now?”
“What?”
“Meaning, if you didn’t have the carpet, only…” She glanced around, her eyes stopping at one of the sailors standing watch, an arc rod hanging from his belt. “I’ll word it this way. Would you rather lie around on a carpet, or be out there wielding an arc rod?”
“That’s the weirdest metaphor I’ve ever heard.” She positioned her hand as if attacking with an arc rod, moving to hit her opponent, and then frowned. “You’ve had your mind in the gutter so long, it’s covered in shit.”
“Fuck you,” Cammie said with a laugh. “Just answer the question.”
“You want to know if I’m dedicated one way or the other now?” Valerie rolled her eyes, turning away from Cammie.
Her feelings for Robin hadn’t had time to subside yet, and it had never really been about the sexual side of their relationship. Sure she’d had those feelings, but that wasn’t the whole of it. Thinking back to Jackson, it was kind of the same way. He had swept her off her feet, made her feel something, and not just with his arc rod.
Finally she sighed and turned back to her friend. “I wouldn’t say I’ve made a choice, in that sense. It’s about who I have feelings for. Maybe in this world, we don’t have to make choices based on some physical aspect of the body?”
“Sure, sure… But which do you like more?”
“Oh, for the love of all that’s holy, can we change the subject?” Valerie scoffed. “I mean, really! This is pretty damn typical Cammie right here, and I thought you’d changed.”
“Me? Change?” Now it was Cammie’s turn to scoff. “No, no, no. And no. I’m still as charged-up as ever. Just, now my energy’s all flowing into one man.”
“More than I need to hear, I’m sure.”
Cammie frowned.
“But I’m happy for you,” Valerie added. “I mean, really. Cammie settling down? That’s something I never thought I’d live long enough to see, and since I’m some crazy powerful vampire now, that’s saying a lot.”
“Thanks,” Cammie replied with a chuckle. “Surprised me as much as anyone, but at least I’m not about to have a baby anytime soon.”
Valerie scratched her chin, considering that.
“What?” Cammie asked.
“It’s just… Have you ever wondered if we’re able? I mean, you’re a Were, and we all know there are no problems there. But vampires?”
“Now we’re getting into uncomfortable discussion topics.” Cammie started to walk away. “Think I’ll check on Royland. See about some combat practice with an arc rod.”
“Wait, seriously?” Valerie blinked, trying to understand her friend. “You can talk all day about what’s going on downstairs, but the minute I bring up children you freak out.”
“Sorry, can’t hear you over the wind!” Cammie smiled, then vanished belowdecks.
Valerie stood there staring after her for a moment, then noticed a sailor walking past.
“She could totally hear you,” the man said.
“Thanks, I figured as much.”
Valerie shook her head, unable to comprehend Cammie sometimes. She found herself talking with the sailor, hearing his story, then starting to tell hers. When she got to the part about her brother leaving her for dead outside Old Paris, she noticed half the sailors on the ship around her now, leaning on the rails or sitting cross-legged, listening like a bunch of school children.
“This isn’t very exciting,” she said, looking around at them. “I feel like the old woman with her stories.”
“No, please tell us!” the sailor said, and the others nodded with wide eyes.
So she gave in, continuing to tell them about her journey west to Old Manhattan and how she had liberated it and stopped her brother from invading.
“It started as revenge, you know?” She looked around at them, quite sure not a one of them would be alive without having felt that at some point in their pirate communities. “I felt betrayed, alone…and, I’ll admit, afraid. But that didn’t last long, because I knew that the people of America needed me. They had a vampire army, led by the second most powerful vampire I knew at the time, heading their way to kill or enslave them. I had to get over there before him, to stop him and see justice done. Little did I know, justice would soon become my driving force in this life.”
“So you intercepted him and put a stop to it?” the sailor asked.
“After a pirate attack on the way over, finding out that people were hunting vampire blood and putting a stop to a large portion of that, and making a few friends along the way, yes. I had a small army by the time my brother arrived, and with their help we took him out the moment he got there.”
There were several mumbles of excitement about this. Valerie lost herself for a moment, thinking back to the moment Michael had arrived, interceding to level the playing field between her and her brother. Without Michael, the fight would have been one-sided, and she was pretty sure she would have died. He liked to keep his secrets, though, so she left that part out.
“One would think a city would implode after witnessing a battle between vampires like you’re talking about,” the sailor said, frowning. “I mean, hell, how’d you keep everyone from losing their minds?”
Valerie thought about that. “Most of the population wasn’t around. It took place at night, and I remember lightning and rain, so they were probably inside. Most of the police and whatnot had suspicions, or there were the Enforcers. Many of them were actually part of the hunt for vampire blood.”
This brought on new questions and Valerie relaxed, diving into the rest of her journey. By the time she told them of her final take-down of the corrupt and evil CEOs, the sun was setting and the sky was covered in streaks of purple and orange clouds. She left out key moments, such as meeting Robin and what followed with her. This crowd didn’t need all the details, and the topic was certainly still too raw for Valerie to feel comfortable even hinting at.
She had excused herself and gone to the side of the ship to watch the sunset, leaving the others to discuss everything she had just told them. Some were skeptical about all of that being possible in such a short amount of time, but many of them were in awe.
A laugh snuck its way up and escaped. When had she gone from ultimate vampire warrior lady to storyteller extraordinaire? As long as it served to motivate them, she supposed it all worked out in the end.
“Land ho!” William shouted, stepping out of the control room and glaring at all of them for just sitting around. “You all want to get to work, or will we have naptime after story time?”
The sailors laughed at that and thanked Valerie for the tale before getting back to business.
“Story?” she asked no one in particular.
“Well, none of that really happened, right?” River asked. She hadn’t noticed that he was still there, leaning against a barrel of food stores. “I mean, it’s all pretty ridiculous.”
“Is it?” She smiled, nodding to herself. “I guess you’ll just have to wonder then.”
He frowned, then nodded. “Okay, I’m done wondering. You were pretty badass on the island, but everything you just told us? No way. Not believing it.”
“Hey, it happened. I did everything I just said.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” He winked and ran off, jumping out of her reach as she playfully tried to swat him.
“Get back to work!”
Stupid kid, she thought in amusement, and then turned to look out over the rail. They were sailing in smoothly, the land growing larger as they approached. Judging by the direction they had been traveling and assuming their guesses were right about what was where, this had to be it.
They had found Norway.
FROM JUSTIN >>> Oh, man! I really just want to throw you into the middle of the book, but I know that would be insane and give you way too many spoilers. So for now, this early intro stuff 🙂 This week in writing world I have reached the mid-point in my latest novel, but it’s almost at the same word count as a finished regular novel of mine. So… that’s good, right? Lots of words = more fun reading without knowing it’s going to be over as soon as you started.
Of course, some people just skim it anyway, right? No skimming allowed!
Also, I had sushi with Chris Fox yesterday. He’s a cool dude, and has some really cool scifi fantasy stuff coming out soon. So today, instead of my normal sharing of one book, I’m going to point you all to his page for this new Magitech Chronicles, and share some other sweet scifi fantasy books I recommend.
FIND THE POST HERE, along with links to my interviews with the authors on my Creative Writing Career podcast.
Find out more about Justin Sloan and his other books at http://www.justinsloanauthor.com
Saved by Valor – Snippet 2
Saved by Valor, Reclaiming Honor Book VII
By Justin Sloan and Michael Anderle
Snippet 2
Unedited
Over the Atlantic
Valerie’s ship had been struck and was, in all likelihood, about to be out of commission. But while the ship had grown on her, especially with the great logo her crew had carved for her on its side, the lives of the men and women sailing her were her responsibility.
She ran over to Captain Reems, chest pounding. “Where do you need me?”
“We don’t have a chance with that ship above us like that. Don’t suppose they have one of those comm devices or something?”
“You just brought me the one.” She looked up, noting the angle of the balloon and the trajectory of their ship. She sure hoped she wasn’t going to regret this. “Don’t worry, I have an idea.”
His eyes followed hers, then narrowed. “You can’t possibly be serious?”
“It’s our only chance, right?”
For a moment his lips twitched as if he wanted to argue, but finally he nodded. “Please don’t mess this up.”
“Believe me, I don’t want to be at the bottom of the ocean any more than you do.”
She got a running start, then leaped and grabbed of one of the ropes that led to their quickly deflating balloon. She put all of her power into shimmying up the side as fast as possible.
Gusts of wind blew and the ships shook, causing her to lose her footing more than once, but she held on tight with her right hand, refusing to give in. Whatever higher power was out there knew it wasn’t her time, whether that was gods, Michael, or simply herself. She shouted and pulled against the wind, clenching the rope with her other hand and then her legs. Rain pelted her as the storm started to catch them again.
“Hurry!” a voice shouted, carrying distantly in the wind.
Lightning flashed in the nearby clouds, lighting the dark sky, and for a split-second her mind went back to nights training with the Duke. Stormy nights, just like this, where he would have his closest few, his chosen, climbing buildings, shinnying across electrical wires that had long ago been removed from use, and crawling through mud. In part it had been to test them and train them for what was to come, but Valerie had always known that the larger part of his purpose was reminding them of their places beneath him.
Now she was at the top, in a sense; the most powerful being she knew besides Michael and Akio. Yet there she was, climbing some damn rope in the middle of a lightning storm over the Atlantic. She had to shake her head at the thought, wondering what sort of idiot got herself into such a predicament.
She finally reached the rain-drenched balloon at the top of their airship. It was losing air fast, though still maintaining its bearing, to a degree.
If it had been fully inflated, she wasn’t sure this would have been possible. With all her power, she thrust herself up and out, losing connection completely, and in that moment she could imagine simply floating away, never to be seen again.
Then she connected, grabbing the balloon, nails digging into it. Her muscles bulged as she pulled herself up over the edge until she reached the point where she could run along the top. It caved in slightly with each bounding step, and each time she imagined the next one would simply pull her into its folds.
Not ten paces ahead she saw the other ship. She could even could make out Cammie at its helm shouting orders, and then saw two sailors being lowered over the edge, preparing to cut her ship loose.
“HOLD!” Valerie shouted, her voice projecting over the storm. They looked up in shock, and one nearly had a heart attack. He slipped, the wind and rain doing their worst, and slid off toward the edge of the balloon.
Valerie threw herself forward, catching him with one hand as her free hand’s nails dug into the balloon to keep them both from sliding off.
With a heave, she had him back on his feet and they joined the other sailor.
“Not yet,” she told them when they were secure, then shinnied up one of the ropes they had left dangling over the side of their ship.
Cammie met her at the top, hand out to pull her up. Valerie took the hand, and was soon on the solid deck.
“What the hell do we do now?” Cammie demanded. “This is a complete shit-kerfuffle!”
“Shit storm,” Valerie corrected her.
“Too easy, so no. But what’s not easy is figuring out how to get us out of this mess.”
“I got this,” Valerie told her, darting toward the control room. “You just tell your men to cut us free on my mark.”
Cammie gave her a skeptical look.
“Have I ever messed up something like this?” Valerie asked.
“There’s always a first time.”
“Not for me.” Valerie reached the door and threw it open, then shouted back. “Get them ready!”
She waited to see that Cammie was conveying the order, then stepped in and closed the door behind her.
Judging by Captain William’s wide, confused eyes, she must’ve been quite a sight. Wind-swept, drenched hair going in all directions, she imagined. If she let her eyes glow red, she would probably have looked like some storm god.
Her ears adjusted to the relative silence, and she stepped forward. “Time for some quality bonding time. And by that I mean, do exactly what the hell I say. Got it?”
“Of course.”
“Good.” She gestured to the wheel. “Hard left when you feel us lurch, then I’m going to need you to bring us around so that we’re nearly even with my ship.”
His eyes lit up. “You meant to mount me!”
She frowned. “It’s ‘board’ you. Yes, we mean to board you.”
“Yes, same thing.” He blushed, turning back to the wheel. She knew he’d just realized what he’d said, and had to chuckle despite the annoyance at how her clothes were clinging to her. A glance down, and she completely understood why his mind would have gone there.
Opening the door, she waved to Cammie. “NOW!” She nodded to William, and then it all happened in a blur. The ship jolted free, then practically nosedived, turning as she went. After a moment she leveled out.
Men and women shouted, then another jolt was felt as hooks met the side of the ship.
Valerie came back out on deck, watching as the ship, with her awesome carved skull and the new map she’d been working on in the captain’s quarters, began to drop away.
“QUICKLY!” Eyes scanning the ship, she watched her men and women shinny over the rails. There was River, working to ensure that Martha was on a rope, but it wasn’t looking good for him personally.
She turned, looking for a hook and rope. There wasn’t time to act rationally, so she did the next best thing—she acted like a maniac desperate to save someone. She snatched up the rope and ran, swinging the hook as she did so, and jumped.
As she fell, she threw the hook so that it caught on the side of the ship, then held on tight as she swung down. With one arm, she scooped up River as her ship lurched onto its side.
Had someone not been on a rope at that point, they would have certainly fallen to their death.
Valerie jolted as the rope came to the end of its swing, but she held on tightly to both rope and boy, and then, as the started to swing back, she hefted him up.
“Hold on,” she shouted, glad to see that he did. “Everyone up, before the next gust gets us!”
When they were all safely aboard she followed, falling to the deck after she topped the rail. She was keenly aware of the inch of water she was lying in, but she was already so soaked at that point that she didn’t care.
“Will someone tell the captain to get us the fuck out of this storm?” she said, not bothering to raise her voice now. She knew they would be on it.
FROM JUSTIN >>> As we move into the final days of our pre-book 7 lives, I’m happy to bring you another snippet from the book to tide you over. There are some cool connections in this book to others in the KGU… did you notice any yet? Or guess at what might be coming? I think this is the most fun about writing in a shared universe – the cross-promotion and little “Easter eggs” we can place in the stories for you all to find.
To check out Justin Sloan’s other books – http://www.justinsloanauthor.com
RETRIBUTION – TAM 06 – Snippet 02 of …
UNEDITED
Chom-X9, Secret Base
The thin atmosphere on Chom-X9 was still. It had been several days since the electrical storm, and the scent of ozone remained in the air, in patches.
Shaa hurried back inside, bringing a little whirlpool of dust with him into the airlock. It was safe to be outside for a short time. Time enough to experience the vastness of space, and marvel at how far he had come. But to stay too long meant to suffer the effects of the low pressure and the lack of oxygen. Of course, being Zhyn, he was a little more robust than other species might be. But still. It wasn’t something he wanted to push.
The second door of the airlock opened and he stepped through, stamping the sand and dirt from his boots.
“Sir,” one of his subordinates acknowledged him.
Shaa nodded to him, and then made his way through the utilitarian corridors to the meeting room. He pressed the keypad and strode in.
The four engineers sitting around the conference room table stood as soon as they saw him.
“At ease, gentlemen,” he told them, his attention on other things. He wandered over to the window, looking out over the wilderness he’d just come from, as they reclaimed their seats.
“Sir, we have an update on the-” one of them began.
Shaa turned, waving his hand to silence him. “In a moment. First,” he commanded in his domineering tone, “tell me about the other entry points to the base. How secure are we, structurally, without those secondary doors having an airlock?”
A couple of the engineers looked at each other, trying to decide what to answer. They seemed to agree on who was going to answer, and the older looking one spoke up. “Sir, it is safe for now; but over time, the pressure differential, and, of course, the use of the other doors, will put the surrounding structure under stress. We should look at putting in airlocks as soon as possible.”
Shaa grunted. “Sooner than the automatic targeting defense systems for the building?”
The engineers all nodded emphatically, as if he had asked them if Zhyn needed oxygen to survive.
Shaa sighed. “Very well. Have work started on them immediately. Do one at a time, though.”
The engineer on the far right took a note to make it happen.
Shaa seemed ready to get down to business. He turned his attention to the four of them, and sat down at the table. “So, what of the anti space missiles?” he asked. “Did the storm take any of them out?”
The engineers proceeded with their update, and Shaa took a deep breath, fighting to maintain his patience in dealing with the minutia of setting up yet another base from scratch.
Gaitune-67, Base conference room
Molly breezed into the conference room, her mind still immersed in the numerous projects she had been running. Plunking her anti grav mug of hot water on the table, she closed her eyes for a second, trying to call up the relevant file for the conversation she was about to have.
Why are we here, Oz?
Zhyn mission debrief.
Right. Thank you.
…
I’m going to ask him about that damn letter, too.
You go for it, Tiger.
‘Tiger’. Ha! I’m LOL’ing in my head at you, Oz.
I’m glad I can provide some amusement.
Molly sat down, opened her holo, and hit ‘Call Connect,’ ready for when the General came on.
She sipped on her hot water trying to remember the high she would feel when she would sip on hot mocha. Alas, since her body seemed to have taken to rejecting it, it had been a while since she had truly enjoyed the stuff,. It was as though the nanocytes just didn’t want her consuming mocha – and so, under Arlene’s suggestion, she had given it up.
Life has a way of taking away the things I love the most, she mused flatly as she waited in the empty conference room.
The holo cube in the center of the table popped out and unfolded, creating a screen that opened out against the wall on the other side of the conference table.
Lance Reynolds appeared before her in his usual military attire, with a half-chewed cigar in his mouth.
“Bates!” he exclaimed. “Good to see you alive and well.”
“You too, sir,” she agreed, quickly getting to her feet and saluting.
The General returned the salute, and nodded for her to sit back down. “I hear the mission was a success?” he prompted.
“Yes, sir. We took out all targets and escaped without causalities,” Molly confirmed.
The General looked pleased. “Very good,” he gruffed. “You did a good job.”
Reynolds flicked through a holoscreen that cast a haze between him and the projection that appeared on Molly’s side of the holo feed. “Yeeees,” he said admiringly now, “looks like you did very well, according to Oz’s report.”
Molly sat motionless in her seat, watching him review the report.
Eventually he sat back in his console chair, and scratched the side of his head, and then his nose. “You won’t have heard yet, but we just got word that the responsible parties were dealt with. The Justicar called me this morning, and explained the situation. It seems their armed forces commander was going off-book without the Emperor’s knowledge or consent.”
Molly’s eye twitched a little. As the General paused to take a breath, she jumped in. “Sir, I understand this question may be beyond my remit, but… do we believe that?
The General started, and removed the cigar from his mouth.
Molly continued with her concern. “I mean, are we to believe that story, or do we have reason to be suspicious? They have a lot to gain by using this commander as a scapegoat, and then just rebuilding, unsupervised.”
Reynolds took a breath and placed the tobacco stick down on the console in front of him.
“Hmmm…” he said thoughtfully. “I took him at his word. He’s always proven to be an honorable man in all my dealings with him in the Federation.”
He paused, thinking for a moment. “But it’s a fair question. Tell you what, Bates,” he said, leaning forward again and poking at his screen. “How about I send my reports for you and your team to look over? Then you can share your thoughts with me, and include your… intuition.”
Molly’s gut tightened. She had the strange sense that she was being tested. “Of course, sir.” She hesitated, not quite knowing how to ask her follow-up question.
The General recognized her facial cues of concern, and paused, giving her space to speak.
Molly took a second and then frowned. “Am I to assume that you’re wanting something more than just a standard tactical analysis?”
The General’s face broke into a bemused smile. “Why, yes, Molly. I’m asking for your personal opinion… Based on data, but, also, I must admit, including any hunches and feelings you might get.”
He paused, considering what to tell her. “Arlene has informed me of your progress. It seems that even though your Vision Quest was cut short, you still proved to be quite the student.”
Molly felt her cheeks flushing and hoped the General didn’t notice. She couldn’t tell if she was feeling put on the spot to perform, or whether she felt proud of her new abilities. It was all just a little overwhelming. “Erm. Thank you, sir,” she said tentatively.
“I think,” she added quietly.
Lance chuckled and picked up his cigar, before poking the screen again. “Okay, those files should be with you now,” he told her. “I’d also like you to continue working with Arlene for the foreseeable future. She assures me you have talent, and that her methods are helping…” He flicked at his screen, “And that you’re still having some difficulties.”
His eyes scanned from side to side, reading other pieces of Oz’s report. “Looks like you got yourself into a hairy situation on the surface.” His forehead broke into a slight frown. “Good job Royale was there with you.”
Molly felt instantly embarrassed. She lowered her head. “Yes, sir. I got lucky. It won’t happen again.”
Lance was looking at her again. “Yes, hence my request for you to keep on with Arlene. I’ve known the woman for years. She is the best at this realm stuff…” His voice trailed off as he contemplated the direction of the meeting.
He seemed to get another thought, and so did Molly. They both started to speak at the same time, and then stopped.
“Sorry, sir. Please…” Molly gestured with her hand, allowing him to speak first. She placed her hand back in her lap, hiding it under the table, as she also tried to hide the storm of emotions that she’d been awash with since the meeting started.
The General sat forward. “I was just going to suggest that it might be worth you and your team coming over to the ArchAngel for a visit—given that you’re now part of the larger team.”
Molly’s face lit up. “Seriously?”
Lance was smiling the grin of a twenty-something who had just scored a hat trick. “Yes, of course. Besides,” he told her, “there is still much you need to learn to be effective out in the field. Plus, I have some people I want you to meet.”
Molly nodded enthusiastically. “I think we’d enjoy that. Very much.”
“Good,” the General said firmly. “I’ll have ADAM set up the details, but let’s make it sooner rather than later. I have one particular team member who doesn’t tend to stay put for long periods of time. I’d hate for you to miss him.”
“Of course, sir,” Molly replied. “We’ll make it happen.”
There was a slight pause in the conversation.
The General tilted his head. “So, what were you going to say?”
Molly remembered her trail of thought. “Ah. Yes. I was… er… I was going to ask about the letter. From Bethany Anne.”
Lance grinned a Cheshire cat grin again, clearly enjoying the situation. “Right. Yes. You’ve completed the mission. How about you have a look at it when you get here? Then you’ve got something to look forward to.”
Son of a bi-
That’s your commanding officer!
Bite me, Oz. Besides, when did you go all company-boy on me?
Oz’s chuckles reverberated in the lower edge of her skull.
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at Oz, not wanting the General to misinterpret the move and think she was reacting to him.
“Very good, sir,” she conceded politely. “As you wish.
The General placed his arms on the console, looking satisfied. “Good. Right, I’ll see you soon then, Bates. And see if you can’t persuade Arlene to take the trip with you. I’m sure there are folks here that she’d like the opportunity to catch up with.
He nodded his goodbye, and then clicked off the call.
—
FROM MICHAEL >>> This is IT! (Provided everything is going correctly) we will have RETRIBUTION released to Amazon tomorrow morning (Central Time US) and then we wait…
Hopefully not for HOURS 🙁
I hope your weekend is going FANTASTIC, those fans who are here in the Texas Area are dry and not hurt by the hurricane and generally speaking, life is treating you well.
For those asking, “yes” this book has the letter from Bethany Anne in it.
😉
Michael
Terry Henry Walton Short Story
Terry Henry Walton Short Story
Joseph & Petricia
Terry and Char stood on a Treasure Island shore, looking out on the bay. Ships were in various stages of coming and going. The engine droning did not detract from the peace of the scene.
“Civilization,” Terry said.
“Humanity has found its purpose again,” Char added.
“Yes. Beyond survival. That Maslow guy was pretty smart. Once the basic needs are taken care of, people can focus on other things. But there’s still a lot of scratching in the dirt to survive out there.”
Char shrugged.
The beachhead of civilization would expand outward, giving people more and more purpose. Like history had taught them, people would flock to the cities for a taste of the good life, until that good life was shared in the country, then people would emigrate from the congestion and the turmoil of the big city.
The farms were king, but they were close to the cities. They would be pushed out, farther away, as they had been before. Not yet, but someday.
Terry and Char held hands, accepting the silence of the moment, drinking in the earthly air. They weren’t sure when, but they’d soon board a ship, take it to the Annex Gate, and fly to another galaxy. They hoped to meet Bethany Anne, the Empress of the Federation. She would be busy, as Empresses tended to be, but TH could always hope. Char was more reserved. She wasn’t sure about meeting the Queen Bitch herself. Char had been the alpha bitch for over a century.
She was afraid of getting on BA’s wrong side with an errant thought. If Akio was there, he could vouch for her. She remembered her first exchange with the Queen’s Bitch.
That could have gone better. Terry had done everything except grovel at Akio’s feet.
She chuckled to herself. Terry looked at her, then returned to watching the small waves slap gently at the shore.
They both heard the sound of approaching footsteps. They were measured, but light. Terry didn’t need to turn around and look. He’d heard them before. Char sensed the etheric energy within them.
“Joseph. Petricia. Thanks for joining us,” Terry said. The Forsaken nodded, holding hands, and watching the bay.
“Have you guys gone crabbing recently?” Terry asked, finally turning to face his friends.
Petricia rolled her eyes.
“Not yet,” Joseph replied. She cocked her head and looked at him. “We may not.”
Char coughed to hide her laugh.
“I never took you for one to …” Terry fought valiantly to find the right word. Three pairs of eyes watched him intently. Char and Petricia’s looks became glares. Joseph started shaking his head. “Dammit! You never really liked crabbing, did you?”
“I have to admit that I did at first, then I didn’t, then I did again. It was nice being successful at something like that. And it wasn’t just me. Andrew was a natural. His joy at doing it was infectious. You’re right. It wouldn’t be the same going out now.”
Terry bit his lip, upset with himself for bringing it up. To Joseph, it had been only a few weeks since he last saw Andrew. To TH, it had been sixteen years since the Forsaken had died.
“We mourned a long time,” Terry started. “For Andrew, for Destiny Chase, for all those we lost. We’re finally in a position to move on. I will tell you this again, but I could not be happier that we finally found you. Alive.”
“Us, too. I’m all about being alive,” Joseph said, trying to keep it light, but his face darkened with his mood as he thought about his friend Andrew.
“Enough of this. It’s time to celebrate the next step in our journey. When Bethany Anne returns with her fleet, we’re going to board one of the ships, the FDG, both the tac teams and some of the regular warriors. I would you like you two to come with us to the stars, my friend.”
Joseph and Petricia looked at each other. She wasn’t sure. Too much had happened in too short a time. Joseph took a deep breath, closed his eyes and appreciated the moment.
When he opened his eyes again, he looked calm.
“The world descends into an age of madness,” he began in a voice free of doubt. “And an age of expansion. Like the wild west of the 1800s, people race into the great unknown of the new cities, the Wasteland to find their fortune. Alas, Earth holds no allure for one such as I, trapped between the good and the evil that is mankind.”
Joseph pulled Petricia close and hugged her tightly. His wide-brimmed hat blocked his face. Terry and Char watched as his tears splashed on the black leather covering Petricia’s shoulder. She sobbed in his arms, briefly, before stepping back, wiping her eyes with a delicate finger, and smiling at her husband.
She nodded.
“Sometimes, one must grieve in their own way. I wish I had a beer to share with you, so we could toast appropriately.”
“As do I. It’s never too early for beer, is it, Joseph?”
Char shook her head.
“We want you to come with us. Help us with whatever lies ahead,” Char added.
“Sounds good,” Petricia said.
“You heard the woman. Reserve us a window seat on the express train to the stars.”
Joseph offered his hand. Terry grabbed it and yanked Joseph into a one-armed man hug.
“I am ready to go, my man. Right now!” Terry exclaimed.
“Hang on…” Char started to say before slapping Terry’s shoulder. He laughed, picked her up, and danced on the bay shore.
“Where you go, we will follow,” Joseph whispered.
Check out Craig Martelle and his books at http://www.craigmartelle.com
RETRIBUTION TAM Book 06- Snippet 01 of …
UNEDITED
Chapter 1
Aboard the ArchAngel, Reynolds’ Office
The General was looking weary from being woken up in the middle of the night and looked bleary eyed over at Giles. “So, tell me again why you haven’t got the talisman?”
Giles scratched the back of his head, his tweed jacket opening up in a strange shape on one side, exposing his vintage-style shirt. His expression was one of sheepishness. “Er. Would you believe me if I said it involved a girl?”
Lance had wandered over to the drinks tray in his office and poured himself one. He ambled back to the sofa and sat down, his legs spread apart, resting his arms on his legs while studying the contents of his glass. “Yeah,” he sighed. “I would.”
Giles shifted awkwardly where he stood before deciding to join him on the adjacent sofa. “It’s okay, Uncle Lance. I know roughly where to find it again. It’s just going to take me some time to go get it.”
Lance looked up at him from beneath a somewhat furrowed brow. “How long?” he asked. He dropped his eyes back to the liquor, bracing himself for a ridiculous response.
Giles shrugged, and breathed deeper. “I dunno. It depends. I need to find the guy who hid it for me first…”
His voice trailed off as he realized how, to a practical man like Lance, this wasn’t a well (enough) defined parameter.
Lance didn’t react.
Instead, he just took a swig of the whiskey, draining the glass in one go. “Okay. Well, whatever it takes. I don’t like the idea of there being things out there that we don’t understand. Things that can potentially be used against us.”
He stood up and returned the glass to the tray on the other side of the room, and then turned back to Giles. “That said,” he continued, “I don’t believe there is anyone more capable of solving this puzzle than you. Let’s talk some more in the morning, but suffice to say, it looks like you have your next assignment.”
Giles stood up. “Understood, General,” he replied.
Lance nodded affably. “Go get some rest, dear boy. We’ll continue this at a decent hour.”
Giles bobbed his head and turned to leave.
“Ah, just one more thing,” Lance called after him.
Giles turned back.
“The woman, the one that was the cause of us not having this vital piece of intel…” Lance watched Giles’s reaction carefully as he spoke.
“Yeah?” Giles asked.
“Anyone I know?” The General asked.
Giles’s lips curled in a half smile, with a hint of admiration for the woman, and a touch of contempt for a certain thought about her that came to mind. “Some things are best left in the past Uncle,” he replied.
He turned again to leave, heading out of the door.
The General watched him go, shaking his head quietly to himself. “ADAM,” he called hitting his holo button. “Have my morning meetings postponed for a few hours. I’m going to sleep in to recover from this emergency meeting.”
ADAM’s voice came over the intercom. “Of course, sir. Did you not deem the conversation urgent and important?”
Lance nodded to himself. “No no, it was both urgent and important. I’m glad you woke me. And we’ll discuss our next moves in the morning when I’ve had time to process. And sleep.”
“Yes, sir. Sleep tight,” ADAM responded over the intercom.
The General wiped his tired face as he wandered across his office reception area. “You too, ADAM,” he responded.
Lance headed out of the office door, and padded down the corridor in his blue and white striped pajamas, covered over with his dark red bathrobe. He knew to his crew, he would look like a crazy man wandering around in his nightclothes, but most of them knew him. They knew that he was far from crazy. And that he didn’t care what they thought.
Just then, an ensign rounded the corner. “Good night, sir,” he chirped amicably, only just refraining from a salute — on account of the General not being in uniform.
“Good night, Thom,” the General muttered as he continued down the corridor, back to his quarters where he had left Patricia sleeping.
Gaitune-67, Safe house, Molly’s conference room
Paige gazed idly into thin air as she mused about the future. “I dunno,” she said wistfully. “When we have enough sales, I think we could have a few employees, maybe based on Ogg, who might want to take over the marketing.”
Maya grinned. “Bored with the marketing already?”
Paige shook her head, quickly returning to the conversation. “No. Not at all. I just want to make sure that I’m focused on my job, as well. I don’t want to leave the adventures we have here. Not for fame or fortune.”
Maya grinned. “Well, it’s good that the kinds of things you need in the business are things that you don’t need to do yourself.”
Paige grinned. “Yeah, especially now we have the perfect formula nailed – pun intended,” she said chuckling. “Molly’s done all the hard work,” she added glancing over at Molly, who was immersed in her holo.
Paige and Maya had stopped talking and were looking at her. Molly became aware of the change in the room, and looked up at them. “Sorry… did you…?”
Her eyes were on them, but she was still absent.
Paige laughed. “It’s okay. We were only mentioning the work you did for the nail formula.”
“Oh, right…” she acknowledged. Seeming to get another thought, she turned to Maya. “Anything useful on those Chaakwa files, then?” she asked.
The girls had been holed up in Molly’s favorite conference room all morning, working through their various things, and catching up with the routine since their mission defeating the Zhyn.
Most of the crew was pretty tired. It had been exciting, but also intense for all involved. Even two days later, Molly was happy to take it easy and just catch up on rest. Joel would have them running circuits and sparring the crap out of each other soon enough.
Maya closed her holo to give Molly her full attention. “Yeah. She has a bunch of leads that we can run down.”
Molly frowned a little. “Leads that she couldn’t pursue herself?”
Maya bobbed her head from side to side. “I’m not sure. Some. I don’t think she had the access she needed. Not the kind that Oz and Pieter can secure for us…”
“And?” Molly pressed, sensing some hesitation in Maya’s voice.
Maya narrowed her eyes, thinking. “Well, I have a funny feeling that she was holding back. Almost like she didn’t want people to know she was still looking into it.”
Molly stared off into empty space for a moment, before scratching the side of her face and scrunching up her nose. “Well, I guess I can understand that. I mean, if The Syndicate were anything to go by, who knows what lengths these particular goons were going to in order to keep themselves protected? It wouldn’t surprise me if they were tapping her holos, and… worse.” Molly’s voice drifted off again, before she gave a small shudder at the thought.
“Anyway, keep at it,” she instructed a little more brightly. “I’d like us to get these fuckheads dealt with so that Chaakwa can get on with her life in peace.”
Maya nodded. “Sure. On it, boss,” she affirmed looking back down at her holo.
Isn’t it time you started moving?
What for?
Your meeting with the General.
Oh, shit. Fuck.
Molly closed her holoscreens hurriedly. “Shit, I’d forgotten I have a debriefing with the General. I’ve got to go…” she explained quickly to the girls.
Paige and Maya looked up, semi-stunned by the flurry of activity from Molly’s direction. In a matter of seconds, she was packed up and out of the door. “I’ll catch you later,” she called back to them.
The door bounced closed behind her, and didn’t quite catch— opening slowly, and then settling ajar. Paige and Maya looked at each other.
“See what I mean?” Maya urged.
Paige shook her head. “Nooo…” she said slowly. “It’s just the same old Molly. Living in her head.”
Maya shook her head. “No,” she insisted. “Didn’t you see how she shuddered when she was thinking of what Chaakwa might be going through?”
Paige frowned. “So?”
“So,” pressed Maya, “I think she’s empathizing. You know, putting herself in other peoples’ shoes. At least, in terms of her imagination.”
Paige looked at Maya suspiciously. “That’s not what you’re getting at though, is it?”
Maya smiled gently. “Okay, you got me. No, honestly, if it were just that, it would be a feat of a personality shift, no doubt… I think it’s something more.”
Paige’s eyes lit up as she started to understand. “You mean like they were saying about her being able to tune in to other peoples’ energies.”
Maya pursed her lips together and nodded. “I think so.” She kept nodding. “I think she’s feeling how people feel, and then having her own reaction to it; like a…”
Paige smirked. “A human being?”
Maya grinned. “Exactly!”
Paige clapped her hands together in childish excitement, and her motions dissipated the holographic screens that had been arranged in front of her. “So, you think that she and Joel will finally get together, then?”
Maya grinned, and started back in on her work. “Let’s not get too carried away. I mean, it is still Molly in there, after all.”
Paige took the hint that the conversation was over, and set about retrieving her closed screens, still smiling excitedly to herself.
FROM MICHAEL >>> This might be in the new Author notes…or old ones, I’m getting confused!
Ell is on Zoom, a version of Skype (Video Call). I’m showing her three fingers (as in, I counted something three times.) If you read Ell’s comment’s in a British Accent, it is ALL the more humorous… 😉
Saved by Valor – Snippet 1
Saved by Valor, Reclaiming Honor Book VII
By Justin Sloan and Michael Anderle
Snippet 1
Unedited
Over the Atlantic
Flying in an air ship back to Europe was definitely something Valerie never thought she would be doing. Yet, here she was, on a ship with some of her closest friends. Their mission: to bring a boy back to his family and see what they could do about a group of bandits who had been taking people from their homes and collaborating with the pirates of Toro.
The trip was infinitely more glorious than the journey that had brought her to New York. Every time she passed the cargo hold, she remembered hiding out behind crates in that other ship with Sandra. That’s where they had met Diego, the Werecat who had sense stolen Sandra’s heart. Soon they would be a family, and Sandra had threatened Valerie to not miss the baby’s birth.
She planned on returning in time, but it wasn’t exactly like she could rely on plans in this crazy world.
Now she had the captain’s quarters, as Captain Reems had insisted. Cammie and Royland had come along, and were taking care of the boy, Kristof, in the only other room, leaving the captain to bunk with the rest of the crew.
He was still welcome, of course, and at the moment was sitting at the desk while Valerie sketched a map into the bulkhead with her vampire nails. She could have used a blade, sure, but it would have dulled the blade. With Michel’s power surging through her, those nails were dam powerful.
“So you’re saying we go north of the island?” the captain said, pointing to the section she had just carved.
She took a step back, looking it over. Basically, she had created a map that showed the coast of America and Canada, with her best estimate of where New York, Prince Edward Island, and the Golden City were. She also made little marks farther to the left, to indicate Cleveland and then Chicago, but didn’t bother making the distance to scale.
Then there was the ocean. She remembered how they had sailed from France, and Reems had made a couple of journeys to Spain in his time, so together they had been able to piece that together.
But everything north of there was conjecture. They knew there was land north of the path their journey from France took, because they had seen it on their way. It wasn’t like she hadn’t met people who had made their way across the water, immigrants from England, Scotland, and Ireland, so she assumed that had to be that. She wrote those three on the landmass, but had no idea how large it was.
They were currently over a landmass that she thought was likely either Iceland or some unknown islands north of Scotland. So far the journey had taken them two days—two days of smooth sailing through the skies, two days of sailors telling stories, singing songs, and even a bit of dancing one evening.
She had been quite surprised at the pipes on the one named William, but that boy loved to sing. It was nice, because that wasn’t something they seemed to get much of. She certainly hadn’t back with the vampires of Old France, except for one night she remembered going out and watching a family and wishing she had that.
Then Sandra had come along and, in a way, she had her family.
“The island could be small or damn huge, I’m not sure.” She took her pointer nail and made a large X to the northeast of the island. “And our destination is somewhere up here, to my understanding. In a land once called Norway.”
A knock sounded from the door.
“Enter,” Valerie called out.
Martha came in, her face pale. Considering the fact that she had been a pirate of sorts, sailing and working in the open air, which gave her skin a tanned, leathery quality, pale was saying something.
“The hell’s going on out there that’d make you look like a ghost?” Valerie asked.
“Storm,” Martha replied, glancing over at Reems.
Valerie turned to him now too. “Isn’t it your job to steer us clear of storms?”
“My job is to get us to X on that map.” He stood, putting on his leather vest and then a broad captain’s hat. “The crew needs to warn me of storms before it’s too late, so that I can then get us through. I hope that’s what is happening here?”
Martha gave him an apologetic shrug. “Seems the crew isn’t exactly used to the skies this far east. I mean, really the best crews, the ones that went out this way, they were all with the Prince, and likely died with the prince. We’re sailing with the best we’ve got, and that ain’t saying much.”
“Spare me the excuses,” Reems said, moving for the door. He paused, looking over his shoulder. “I imagine we’ll need all the help we can get it, if it’s bad enough to give Martha here the shakes.”
Martha roller her eyes, but sure enough, her hands were shaking. She quickly hid them behind her back.
“You weren’t ever really much of a sailor, where you?” Valerie said, grabbing up her own hat and strapping on a sword, just in case. For all she knew, they might find air ships out there with pirates waiting for the attack. Maybe Europe had evolved with pirates who controlled the storms just for this purpose, for all she knew.
“There were those of us on the island who sailed, and those who ran things,” Martha replied, following them out through the door and up the darkly-lit stairwell. “Since the running side of things required less killing and all that, guess which I chose.”
“Good for you then,” Valerie said. “Bad for us right now though.”
“If I could travel through time, I’d be sure to go kill a bunch of innocents for our better chance of survival right now.”
“Hmm,” Valerie paused at the top step, looking back with a smile. “Better to use it to go back a few seconds and decide against snark, so I don’t have to teach you a lesson.”
Martha’s eyes went wide.
“Joking,” Valerie said with a laugh. “The day I start hurting people for speaking their mind is the day I’m no better than those I’m out here to put down.”
“Good for me, because right now I’m feeling a lot of snark.”
“Right now I’m feeling you two need to shut up and follow me,” Reems shouted, opening up the set of doors that led to the deck.
Valerie nodded in mock submission and followed with a quick glance to Martha like, You made daddy upset.
When she saw the storm, however, all the humor vanished.
She might have been a damn powerful vampire, able to heal from most wounds, able to walk in the sunlight, and even kind of able to read minds. Well, she could sense emotions, anyway, and right now a hell of a lot of fear was floating her way.
The fear made sense. A bit of it might have even been originating with her. Hell, if this ship went down or she was blown overboard, she imagined she would be able to swim for a long time, but the freezing waters would be damn uncomfortable.
And there was a chance, she thought, that she might not make it. It wasn’t like she had ever tested herself to that extent.
On deck, men and women were securing barrels of food that had been out for consumption, bringing them below deck or securing what they had to with rope. Many were heading into their sleeping quarters, while two stood at the helm with their arms spread, hollering into the wind.
“Reems,” Valerie shouted.
Her voice must’ve carried over the harsh wind, because Reems stuck his head out and said, “Yes?”
“See to it that those idiots don’t go flying overboard.”
“You got it!” he shouted, voice barely audible, and then ran over to see to his men.
Valerie supposed it had to have happened sooner or later, considering what good luck they’d had so far.
The captain had just course-corrected and they were steering clear of the storm when a loud CRACK came from behind and they spun to see what had hit them.
Oh, no. In the chaos to control their own ship, they hadn’t been paying enough attention to where Captain William’s ship was, with Cammie and the others.
No more confusion about where it was anymore, because it hull had just struck their balloon, rending a massive tear in it.
“ALL HANDS!” Captain Reems shouted, pointing to the hooks and ropes used for boarding other ships in their pirate days. “Abandon ship!”
FROM JUSTIN >>> I can’t believe I have seven books going already! The real fun starts once they are on the ground, but… we’re not there yet 🙂 Hey, good news – nobody tried to steal my computer this time around! It has been a relatively calm writing period unless you count those sleepless nights from kids waking up way too much. I think they can sense the new baby coming and are trying to remind us that sleep is a luxury we don’t always get. Sigh.
I have some really cool art work coming for my new scifi solo series coming in September, so I can’t wait to bring that to you all. It’s going to be a hectic couple of months though, so if you find me passed out at some cafe or on a street corner, just toss a quarter in the hat and tell me to get back to writing, haha.
Check out Justin Sloan and his other books at http://www.justinsloanauthor.com
Might Makes Right, Snippet 4 of …
Leath System, Sanctified Ground, City of Truth
Torik, the Third of the Seven, looked at Supreme Fourth Maliki and asked, “How are our efforts to drive them from the Testing System going?”
“Stalemate, Your Holiness.” Maliki answered.
Torik nodded. It was the same answer he had received three times before. Now, with their most recent effort a week in the past, it was just another example of a waste of their resources.
His role was to handle resource management for the efforts to elevate—and incidentally modify—this race. The actual killing of participants in the Testing was designed to facilitate Prime’s effort to genetically enhance the Leath as a people. That the Leath believed their clan were gods was to be expected.
Because they effectively were. Power and ability to change whole races and worlds did put them into the godhood bracket. Clan K’gurth, and specifically their branch, were the future of Clan Phraim-‘Eh. Now they would explain to those who had cast them out why they reveled in the purity of Chaos.
The pure math that predicted the future.
“I will take the information you provide and consult with the Seven. We will have instructions before the next Testing for you to implement, Supreme Fourth.”
The Leath military head bowed and left the holy location. He always felt exalted when he spoke to any of the Holinesses. But why would he expect any less when speaking with gods?
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Military Bases Development Offices
Kevin was working at a large table, space displayed by a holographic projector above. Stephanie, beside him, was arguing with him as Bethany Anne, Lance and Bartholomew entered the Base Development offices.
Neither of them turned as the three started talking softly between themselves.
“Do they realize we are here?” Bethany Anne asked her father.
“Doubt it,” Lance answered. “Occasionally Kevin would get into arguments back in Colorado having to do with the base, and he could become laser-focused on the situation. Especially,” he nodded at Stephanie, “if it was a spirited debate over engineering versus proper base arrangement.”
The trio listened as the two deliberated the merits of the latest project they had been assigned.
“That,” Kevin pointed to a rather large asteroid and highlighting the huge chunk of rock, “is not going to work well for defense purposes. There are too many odd angles, and it would take a goddamned lifetime to install enough protective emplacements to cover all of the—”
Stephanie, the half-Japanese engineer Bethany Anne and her father had hired years ago, wasn’t budging an inch. “We can cut the peaks down!”
Bethany Anne thought she noticed Stephanie’s hand twitch as if she were considering empasizing the statement with a slap to the back of Kevin’s head.
“Why would we want to spend the time cutting this shit down,” he shot right back, “if we have three other selections, each of which is better?”
“I swear, If I have to force-feed you the reports on the mineralogy reports for options 21, 88 and 221B I will do it, page by page.”
Kevin looked at her, “I’ve read them. What I don’t understand is why the percentages matter, since the numbers don’t seem to be that far apart.”
Stephanie stopped a moment, mouth open. Closing her mouth, her eyes narrowed. “You read them?”
“Hell yes, I read them. I’ve learned to make sure I am prepared. Are you?”
Stephanie ran her tongue around her lips a moment. “May I?” She nodded to the display and Kevin waved a hand, offering her the opportunity to take over. She stepped up and touched the four rocks hovering above the table in the display, then spoke. “Reynolds, please get rid of everything but these selections and then provide me the top five types of rock which make them up by percentage, listing below each.”
The three watched, entranced, as the two continued their discussion.
“Left is my selection labeled one, the other three are options. Now, the difference,” she swiped a couple of controls, causing small space ship animations to start attacking all four rocks, “is what can create an unstable dissonance in the core of each asteroid. You will notice that Asteroid 21 has a dissonance frequency similar to Asteroid 88.” She pushed up the controls as Kevin watched, mesmerized.
“Granted, this isn’t the most likely event, but should someone attack 221B using two asteroids at points,” she lifted a hand to indicate, “A here, and B over there, the asteroid will crack. There is a small problem with it.” She pulled her hand back and crossed her arms over her chest. “We could engineer a method of reducing the risk.”
“But why take the chance,” Kevin finished. He was chewing on the inside of his lip, deep in thought. “Ok, you are saying it’s a small chance, and I agree. But,” he nodded to the asteroid she had listed as her first choice, “how are we going to get that hunk of rock prepared in a timeline that works worth a damn?”
“En route,” Stephanie told him.
“En route?” Bethany Anne asked, startling the two in front of her.
“Damn,” Kevin put a hand over his heart, “don’t scare a man like that, Bethany Anne. He’s likely to have a heart attack and need mouth-to—ooof.” Kevin finished, Stephanie having punched him in the ribs.
“If you don’t focus, I’ll give you mouth-to-mouth.”
“That was my intent,” he interrupted.
“You didn’t let me finish!” Stephanie eyed him.
“That’s right,” Kevin agreed, “and that is because whatever you have to say will be infinitely less enjoyable than my version.”
Bethany Anne wondered how, after all of these years, these two maintained both a working and a personal relationship. Stephanie preferred to keep the two separate, and Kevin preferred to annoy her.
Bethany Anne would have thought the ex-Army man would have been all prim and proper, but not so much.
“En route.” Stephanie ignored her husband. “My thought is we figure out the best solution for the external design for the mobile ESD and then emplace a field like we have here on the Meredith Reynolds to push attackers into a defined funnel, moving them away from locations we are concerned about.”
“To some killing fields.” Kevin nodded. “How long would that take?”
“Depends on how many and where,” Stephanie temporized. “If we can agree where the ESD beam will be set up, then we can—”
“Have we have heard enough?” Lance asked the others. “I know these two can continue like this for a while.”
“I’m good,” Admiral Thomas admitted. “I think they will have a satisfactory solution…sometime.”
Kevin put up a hand to pause Stephanie and turned to the three. “Give us three days.”
“Two,” Stephanie added after him. “He’s padding our effort here. We will have the core worked out by tonight.”
“The morning,” Kevin corrected. “She won’t be sure about her answers until she has slept and confirmed she agrees in the morning.”
Stephanie paused a moment before nodding. “Yeah, he’s right. Assuming I’m good in the morning, we’ll do the calculations and have our temporary solution to you before noon.”
Bethany Anne nodded. “How long until we are functional?”
Kevin and Stephanie looked at each other. “Twenty-four months?” he asked, and she nodded her agreement.
“Good.” Bethany Anne smiled. “You have eighteen.” Reaching out, she grabbed the two men and they disappeared.
A moment later Stephanie broke the silence. “We didn’t need twenty-four months.” She eyed her husband. “Why did you tell her that?”
“Because,” Kevin replied, “I know Bethany Anne. We really need what, about twenty months?”
She nodded.
“If we had told her twenty, she would’ve given us fifteen,” he finished.
FROM MICHAEL >>> we are one (1) day away from releasing Might Makes Right! WOOHOO 🙂
One of my sons is now ensconced at University of Texas (Arlington) and the second will be at Texas A&M (Texarkana) on Thursday…
Then, the nest is empty.
It’s feeling very weird, and very melancholic at times. I’m glad I’m not trying to write at the moment, because the emotions are are pretty up and down.
However, I’m not the first parent feeling these things, nor will I be the last I’m sure (and I hope – I’ve no desire for mankind to go down the tubes right now.)
Busy with boys birthday today, but we will be releasing to Amazon tomorrow (US – For my Australian fans 😉 )
Michael