Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

       I'm not going to inflict another goofball poem rewrite this year on everyone. But I am going to finally upload my annual 3D Christmas card:

 

     The image was made from stuff and poses I bought or got for free from Daz3D. The gorilla, chimp, polar bear, and snow leopard were made by Rawart.

If only all wars were waged this way...

 

Have a safe and happy holiday folks!

Ghosts From the Past

Okay, here is the cover:

     I didn't put Irons in the shot. (he is on the shuttle) The boatbay is from Renderosity, as is the shuttle. (remade by me) The asteroid base is also from Renderosity. (both parts of it)
The characters, cart, and props are from Daz 3D. I put my own touches on everything. (including the boat bay textures and layout) Let's see, there is a Panda, Dog, 3 humans, and the chimeran in the foreground. Oh, and someone or I should say, something else...

Special thanks to Mechmaster for helping me get the textures right.

Write up:

    Fleet admiral John Henry Irons has been busy. After waking in the Senka system he has crisscrossed the system, having a series of adventures and ups and downs along the way. He's made some new friends and met old ones. He has also made some powerful enemies.
    But the call to war is inevitable. Those who thrive on destruction wish him and the civilization he is trying to rebuild ill will. The boot of oppression is already on a part of the sector thanks to the Nazi like Horathian pirates. Admiral Irons must lead a rag tag group of former pirate slaves and military personnel back to one of the few places he hopes will help stem the pirate tide. Once there he'll have to face the politicians, then dig up his one ace, a secret from his past.

But some ghosts should remain buried...

This will conclude Irons Wandering time period. I had planned on a time skip but well, events were taken out of my hands. You'll see when you get to read it.

I just passed the manuscript to Rea today. I am still waiting on feedback from a few of the betas. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we'll get it out before the end of this year. Hopefully. Maybe.

Next up is my annual 3D Christmas card. :)

Progress Report

    First off, I hope those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving had a good holiday. We did, even though I was exhausted by the time it was over. I now have a ton of fried turkey (all dark meat) leftover. I'm getting tired of turkey Panini's already. And my darling sister made off with the leftover butternut squash... this time with my blessings. :)

    I bought a bunch of stuff for future cover art and other projects from Renderosity and Daz during their Black Friday sales. Sad, I was buying that stuff instead of other stuff. (Okay, I did get some virtual Christmas Shopping in but not much.)

    Dad is sick so I've pretty much stopped any work on the cover art to GP, (as well as some discussion on the website and other projects) and have just been logging the corrections the guys have been sending me for GP for the past couple of days. If I can get dad to EAT and DRINK then we think he'll bounce back faster. But he's pig headed and just wants to sleep. Grr... Now you know where I get that trait from. :P We got him in to the doctor's today. Hopefully the meds will kick in and he'll start getting healthy again. He's going to be underfoot (Funny that since he's bigger than me at 6'8"!) for the rest of this week. Then he and the brat pack are off for Christmas break... whimper... ugh.

   The good news is most of my holiday decorations are up... except 1 stupid set of icicle lights I need to exchange and then get back up on the roof. Joy. At least the tree and my 2 town scenes look good. :)

   Oh, I almost forgot. I changed 'New Beginnings' to Battle Lines. The betas know why. Have fun trying to get it out of them on the FB group, they don't know much of the plot. I was driving myself 'coo coo' as my sister likes to say working on rewriting it from the ground up during Thanksgiving and decorating the tree Friday. ....That isn't really good news since I now have to rewrite the treatments for other books too and find somewhere I can stick the original plot of New Beginnings in somewhere.. :P
Buut... it should be a lot more... interesting to write. I will finally be able to write the space battles I've wanted to write!

 

Happy Holidays everyone!

To Touch the Stars Publishing... NOW

That's right, GoodlifeGuide got me TTTS back early and I just finished uploading it. I had intended for the book to come out 18 days ago, sorry about the wait.
Description:
     Decades after Mario and Luigi Irons led mankind to settle the red planet a new family began to take center stage. Jack Lagroose, his wife Aurelia, his friends and family, and others like him work together and sometimes against each other as they try to bring mankind kicking and screaming to the stars. Love, heartbreak, loss, genetic engineering, starships, AI, sabotage, terraforming, and all sorts of other things are tucked into mankind's past, present, and future.

And right under Jack's nose an evil lurks and waits for it's chance to rise and take center stage...

Yup, yanked that from my blog post with a few tweaks. It works.

The history of the Neos, starships, all sorts of stuff are in that book. It is also a framework for a dozen short stories I have in my files...

I will post the links when they go live. Most likely by late tonight or early tomorrow.
EDIT: LIVE ON AMAZON:
http://www.amazon.com/Touch-Stars-Founding-Federation-Book-ebook/dp/B00PRA4HI4/ref=sr_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416289547&sr=1-13

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/to-touch-the-stars-chris-hechtl/1120792407?ean=2940150642133&itm=1&usri=2940150642133

   In other news, I finished act 2 and I am waist deep in act 3 of Ghosts of the Past. I am also dealing with various edits from some of the betas who have read act 1. I am hoping to finish the rough draft this week but people around me are getting sick again so... :P

Oh! A welcome to Joshua Lyons into the beta group. He's working with Jory and minion Mike to clean some stuff up while pitching ideas at me. And yes, btw, I did get the ship name ideas and the name ideas for the admiral's steward. Thank You to all of you who participated.

Progress report

Okay let's see here...
     I am up to chapter 20 in Ghosts of the Past. That's the 1/2 way point. (right around there) I am going to try something new, send the first act to the betas who are interested in it when I get to chapter 22. Hopefully by Wednesday. 321 pages so far and climbing by my usual 10 a day. :)
I tried this before with Darion and TTTS but it didn't work out so well. Maybe the 2nd time is the charm? We shall see.

     In other news, Jory, Mike, and Brandon have all signed off on TTTS. Thomas, Poon, and Tim are still out standing. (though Tim did finish reading Lewis and Clarke) Darion sent me what he had read so far. Everyone's busy, and it's going to get worse the closer we get to the holidays. One of the other reasons I wanted to get the ball rolling on GP edits now if I want to get it out next month. (which I do)
   I just (seriously, just now) sent Rea TTTS. So, the ball is rolling there. As soon as she gets it back to me (10-14 days if not sooner) I'll take care of any edits she has for me to resolve, see if the out standing guys have input, then send it off to Goodlife for the final format. I am hoping to get it out the week before Thanksgiving if not sooner. I am not sure. It is 420+ pages long so far. I still haven't added the appendix, TOC, and other stuff...

 

To Touch the Stars tells the story of Jack Lagroose, his wife Aurelia, his friends and family, and others like him as they try to bring mankind kicking and screaming to the stars. Love, heartbreak, loss, genetic engineering, starships, AI, sabotage, terraforming, and all sorts of other things are tucked in there. 

And right under Jack's nose an evil lurks and waits for it's chance to rise and take center stage...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Oh, I cleaned up the cover to First Steps after Rea sent me back the manuscript. (It's been reformatted by Goodlifeguide.com too) I uploaded them last week, and yes, bumped the price up to compensate for all the pain and suffering in dealing with it. :) Amazon is discounting it for a short time I think....

There are 2 challenges going on at the FB group. Check them out when you have time. And no boys, I am NOT going to get an account no matter how much you keep pestering me about it!

    Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to call a certain man about a water leak in a bathroom...

TTTS snippet 3

Quick news, I finished the short story "Lewis and Clarke" Which will (hopefully) accompany Ghosts of the Past (at the end of the book). I also finished 99% of chapter 1 finally. :)

On to the snippet!

To Touch the Stars

Chapter 1 continued

 

Mario wool gathered as he sat in his chair. He was amused and slightly disgusted by the image he presented to the family of an ancient man too stubborn to die stuck in an arm chair. Well, at least it wasn't a rocking chair he thought, stroking the fur of the coonie in his lap.

He considered Adam. Adam was... he sighed thoughtfully. He caught the look Sydney shot his way but just wiggled his fingers and ignored it. Geronimo purred in his lap, lulling him a bit. Adam... his latest get rich quick scheme was laughable on its face. He'd heard it for decades. The kid did have a point about being so resentful that they had gone into other investments though, but there was an old rule about lending money to family or friends Mario thought. You didn't if you wanted to keep them on good terms in the long run. Or you gave the money to them as a gift, not a loan.

They'd done that with Wanda's grand nephew... old what's his name. He was one of the reasons that Mario was so leery about backing Adam. The bastard had come to friends and family, leaned hard on them to invest on his scheme to go to the asteroid belt to mine during the initial gold rush era 74 years ago he thought. When he'd played out the family he'd turned to a ponzi scheme, using the money he'd gotten from the family to pay off the initial investors. Not one questioned it, no one realized he hadn't launched a thing! Not until Mario had heard about it and blown the whistle on the bastard. He and Wanda had thrown down with a massive fight that had lasted days until the investigation had proven Mario right. Mario had relearned an important lesson... well two of them. One, and I told you so was not good for a marriage. And two, being right didn't help him either with Wanda, she'd resented the situation for weeks. He sighed.

The mess there and all the investment schemes that hadn't panned out fell like a house of cards eventually, souring many people on investing in space for a few years. Those had been lean years for Mars, the moon, and the belt. In fact, the moon had been temporarily abandoned for a brief period before investors and astronauts had gotten it back on track by volunteer work and the proposed L-5 colonies.

At least some of their investments in the miners had paid off Mario mused. Luigi had put some of his own money in, but only as a full on shareholder or investor. He'd insisted on a stake, either a piece of ownership of the craft or whatever they found and pulled out. He'd been careful too, doing his homework and researching not only the players involved but also their resources, additional financing and equipment. He'd spent long hours acting as a consultant to squeeze every bit out of their plan too which explained why all but one project had succeeded wildly.

Both Mario brothers hadn't bought in to the crowd funding schemes. They were supposed to be the evolved version of investing. What they really were was bubkis, Mario thought darkly. You get the promise of an end product, or some sort of gratitude. Your name here crap. He'd learned once when one project he'd thought for sure would get off the ground had failed miserably not to get near the projects.

Two of the Irons family had gone to the belt. One was still alive, Irena, married and working in the Ceres cantina which also served as one of the centers of business and other things for the small mining town. Or so he'd last heard. She'd asked for a single hand out to grubstake a couple buddies, and another to get her side business playing outfitter going. The loan to her buddies had failed, but the outfitting business was still going strong. She was making money buy the bushel, sending back a tithe to the family electronically. She didn't quibble about it either. Betsy had, after all, it was her daughter, but Mario had convinced her to use the money as additional seed money to look after the kids. That had mollified her.

The hand had been out to other descendants of the original Mars explorers as well. In fact for decades they had been favored by Mario and Wanda over most anyone else. Only Luigi bet on people who had a good business plan. The Longfeathers and their Mars Aerospace Company, they had needed seed money as well as funding and help getting Latisha Sominall and her family back to Mars.

Briefly he remembered the Han family. The daughter of their friends and colleagues Chung Yin and Li Han had emigrated to Mars when she'd gotten her medical degree, then she had set up her medical practice with help from the Irons family. She'd moved other Chinese and Asians to Mars, then they'd set up their own community away from the central communities. That hadn't sat well with some of the colonists.

He put the thought aside as he refocused on some of the other investments made over the decades. Some investments had been in time, support, a friendly word, money, or other resources hadn't panned out... or they'd gone their own way and conveniently forgotten the helping hand they'd been given. That was fine, Mario and Luigi hadn't done it to collect favors like some sort of mob boss. Well, they did collect favors but... he sighed again annoyed with his train of thought. He really was getting old, he thought in disgust.

He refocused his mind on Lagroose industries and how the small seed investment, really a loan Luigi had insisted on giving Jack had grown into an incredibly powerful oak. Jack had been a good kid, but something in him had gotten to Luigi. That spark, the drive. He hadn't been a big talker, he'd been a do-er. He still was for that matter. He had a gift for synthesis, the ability to see things others were blind to and pull them together into a working system no one had thought of before. To conceptualize something, he wasn't an innovator but he could see past the blind spots others had. His family had been into law enforcement and animals for years but he had that trustworthy face and gift for getting it done, the zest for life the young had... Mario shook his head. He was getting maudlin again he reminded himself.

It had come at just the right time he mused. The genetic engineering scandals had lit a fire under Jack's mom to push her son into space. Brian Dagle had been friends of their family, he'd called Luigi. Mario didn't know all the details but he did know whatever Jack had said when he'd fast talked his brother it had worked and been worth it, he'd gotten his ticket off the planet as well as his initial seed money to start his business. They'd been scrupulously honest about the whole thing, making certain it had been written up legally as an investment. The family had shares in Lagroose industries, shares they held to the current day.

Geronimo's tail flicked in annoyance at his distraction so he directed his hand to keep petting. After a moment the purring started once again. He smiled softly. Some things never changed he thought in amusement. Nor should they.

Jack, he frowned. Jack had bought some of their shares out, he remembered. Not totally, but a lot. Luigi had agreed to give him his vote on the board too since Jack had to contend with politics in his business. Mario was all for that, he didn't want to have to deal with the extra headache. Lagroose industries was a megacorp, a diverse conglomerate of high tech operations scattered throughout the solar system. They were hands down the largest corporation in human history, beyond Google, Microsoft, the works, he thought, stroking the coonie.

They weren't just into industry... or at least not just metal industry, he thought, then felt a flush of annoyance at how he'd thought that. He really should write a memoir or something, do something to pass the time. He frowned. People had been after him to do that very thing for years, he remembered. He'd resisted because he thought it was stupid. He for one wasn't interested in reading some old fart's memories.

He shook his head. Geronimo stretched out a paw, spreading his toes and then yawned. He snorted at the animals cute antics. The coonie got up, turned around, then resettled himself. The tail tucked in and then his breathing softened once more.

“Glad that's settled,” Mario murmured. He sat back, rubbing his chin. He needed a shave, he thought. “Oh yes,” he murmured thoughtfully.

Jack was a legend. It had started long before his epic beanstalk project, building a skyhook on Earth. Or the follow up, when he'd had to deal with his fame and the antics of Emerite Space Initiative. ESI was gone now, long digested by Lagroose without a hint of a burp.

As he was thinking, he smiled wryly at his mental poke at himself. Jack hadn't let much grass grow under him. He'd diversified, buying into genetic engineering projects, making cloned tissue... he ran a hand over his chest briefly. He owed Jack for his own cloned organs. He wasn't sure if he should be grateful or not.

Jack hadn't done all that investing in medical technology purely for greed and profit. No, he'd seen the hoops the medical industry was going through on the ground, the fliverous lawsuits, the hemming in on both sides over everything and anything. He hadn't been interested in it until his uncle had been critically injured. Only Jack and his prosthetic initiative had saved his life.

Mario looked back over the past... how Jack had set up his company, doing buy outs and such but always dealing fairly with friend and foe alike whenever possible. He'd been the one who had stepped in when the space colonies had been on the verge of bankruptcy and turned them around. He'd built L-5 colonies, Moon base expansion projects, tapped the sun for plasma for his company's research and energy needs, and was currently working on terraforming Venus and more. Much, much more. Adam could learn a lot from Jack, Mario thought.

He was aware, well, sort of aware... not really officially aware... he smiled to himself. He was aware of some of the other projects Jack was involved in. Genetic engineering was far beyond the basics of organ replacement for one. He knew because Hope Reshenkov, sister to Sydney had worked on the first dolphin and aquafarm projects for a number of years. She'd signed an NDA but that hadn't stopped her from whispering things to Sydney when she'd come home. Things both ladies had thought he'd missed since at the time he'd pretended to be snoozing. It was fine, technically he was on the board even if Jack held his proxi vote. What annoyed him was that Jack didn't bother to brief him on such things. Or the board, though he couldn't blame Jack in that instance. Oh he knew the more people that knew a secret the less secret it was, but it bothered him.

The dolphins explained why Jack had imported so much fish for a number of decades but hadn't explained the fruits and investment in zoos, primate research centers, the frozen genome projects, or the import of dogs and cats. He stroked Geronimo again. Well, okay, maybe the cats were explained by the coonies and their ilk. The designer pets Lagroose exported were popular on Mars.

They were also heavily involved in the growing use of AI. Mario was fairly certain Lagroose had some of the best AI, but not necessarily the best. There were at least 2, maybe 3 other specialized software companies that might have them beat.

He frowned, then shrugged. The AI weren't his problem. Robots now... his eyes lit with a bit of fire as he pulled out his tablet and looked at a website Lagroose had set up. Some of the bots were androids in all but name. Some were droids. What they didn't advertise was their nanotech.

No one knew Jack had offered an extremely dangerous reverse aging method that relied on nanotech to Mario. He'd also offered some conventional other methods his company offered to rich clients. Mario had politely refused them all. He'd earned his years. He also firmly believed in not standing in the way of his kids and grandchildren. They needed to be their own people, not his shadow. They deserved to stand on their own two feet in the sun and damn well earn their own respect.

Lagroose industries and others moving rocks around or building bases inside them. Lagroose wasn't shy about breaking massive rocks down for its orbital smelters. There were still some Earthers who protested that, but they were largely ignored.

Mars orbit was aswarm with rocks, stations, and other facilities. Over the past 2 decades Lagroose and Pavilion had begun to shift their operations to Mars due to the favorable laws and atmosphere. The space around Earth was hostile in many respects. Also, companies like Lagroose were building their newest space stations with their new force emitters as a means of creating artificial gravity.  Or at least that was the plan. So far they had stuck to building centrifuge stations when the station wasn't burrowed into a convenient rock.

Lagroose had facilities all over the system, just about every planet had some outpost even if it was unmanned. Some of their largest were the research centers in belt as well as their smelting stations and shipyards. There were rumors in the media of stations outside the solar system. Mario knew them to be true but he refused to break any confidences over them.

Ceres had been enshrined as a landmark as had many of the dwarf planets. In order to appease the grounders the megacorps had avoided them. But a few had been settled anyway but independent outfits. Many grounders didn't know that Ceres had a small mining town burrowed inside the rock. If they only knew just how far Irena and her friends had gone...

All in all, Jack had been a worthy investment. Mankind, the solar system.. human civilization had benefited greatly, perhaps even more than what Luigi and Mario themselves had done he thought. Definitely more, he thought. Sure they'd blazed the trail for people like Jack, but Jack had been the one to see the opportunity and seize it.

He wondered if Adam would if someone believed enough in him. But he had to prove himself. The kid was still too flighty. He danced from one project to the next. He refused to accept blame when he was let go from a project. Mario had his own contacts, he'd learned that Adam had gone in all excited and full of energy, but when he hit a problem he imploded, it was like he hit a wall. He just gave up, refusing to focus on the project. He then went on to look for new things and became a liability to the project. But woe if anyone told him that! He sighed as he realized, even in his advanced age he wasn't willing to come out and do it. He was blunt to the point of rude, but... but not with his grandson. No.

Jack, he thought. Jack might have something, even a shit tech job for the kid. He wasn't sure if he wanted to call the favor in, but if it straightened him out... he made up his mind to do it before the purring lulled him into a doze.

 Oh, I also did this, another Thundercat image. I may touch it up in post at a later date.

 

News update

Okay, small update.
I finished the cover to To Touch the Stars, I'll post it later.
   Jory finished proofing TTTS despite his fender bender, he gave it a thumbs up. Unfortunately Thomas had a mishap so had to start over. I've dangled it out to a few of the other betas with a mixed reply. :)

    Oh, don't hold your breath that the book will be out this month. I wish, but I know the betas need time, and I know Rea will need 2 weeks, I'll need a day or 2 to go over what she sent back, and Goodlife will need 7-10 days on top of that. My revised schedule is mid November if I am lucky. Hopefully sooner. I had hoped to get this done back in August. I seriously underestimated the summer heat. It made it very difficult to write. (Okay, yes that's an excuse)

Here is some eye candy, I also finished my first Thundercat project.

    Everyone cat related is there, this is my neocat version of the Thundercats. The 3 snarfs are gen 1-2 neocats who act as scouts. The rest are soldiers and officers. I've been picking up the 3D pieces to this for months. I'll use it somewhere I know, and I've already got a story (one that is growing) in the works.
I copied the following straight from my deviantart page: (cause I'm lazy)
   Obviously kudos go to Rawart and Dariofish for the base models. Also Stonemason for the awesome background and car pile, as well as Dreamlight for putting them together. The clothes and weapons are all over the place, too numerous to list here. I remember complicated eve, bonesmasher, magus, dragon master, mos invasion, magus, slicer, voyager, war hammer, war dog, war vixen, urban paladin, future wildness, and others off the top of my head.

    I blended stuff from the various shows and comics with my own ideas. I also threw in a couple of my own ideas for cats too.
    This is my interpretation of the cats in my universe. In my universe they are a unit of neocats, genetically engineered feline soldiers who fight in the 1st AI war.
From left to right:
Wilykit with the RPG (wildcat)
Pumyra behind her. (puma)
Bobcat kneeling in the foreground there
Behind Pumyra is Leopora (snow leopard)
Corporal Bengali with his hammer.
Sergeant Panthro in the deep background
In front of him is Snarfer (red, yellow, and white neo domestic cat with harness)
Beside Panthro is Cheetahra
Ocelo with the 2 knives and shades in the foreground (ocelot)
Lieutenant Lion-O in the center of course
Snarfette washing a paw in front
Lynxo (Canadian Lynx) with cybernetic eyes
Slightly behind and to the right of Lion-O is Wilycat. He liked assassin games too much.
General Claudus with the ax
An irradiated and slowly dying Master Sergeant Jaga with the staff
Snarf looking on
Sergeant Grune with the mace looking like a mountain
Jaguara with the rifle
Serv, also with a rifle in the foreground. (serval)
Caspiana (tiger) with the shoulder pauldrons beside Jaguara
Behind her is Lieutenant JG Tygra
The white neolioness with the bow is Corporal Naginata
Behind her is Panthera
and to Naginata's right is Lieutenant Colonel Tygus standing at ease.

  They were dressed and posed in Daz 3D, rendered in Cinema 4D. I may do individual or smaller group shots at a later date. (count on it) Oh, I did the fur in post in both Gimp and Jasco's photoshop. (yes I'm not that great at it, and my new graphics tablet didn't work out as planned)

Okay, so maybe I adlibbed a bit up there. :)

    In other news: I have stuck my toe a bit more into Ghosts of the Past. Enough to bump the page count up to 94 pages and more than half of that are still notes. (1 page of notes usually translates into 1/2  a chapter) I still have a lot of work ahead of me however. Not only research, but also going over my new notes and revising the manuscript, (the plot needs updating. I wrote it back around Fools Gold so it needs a thorough update) plus getting reacquainted with some 'old friends' I haven't written about in a while will take time. Then there is Darion's hyper tables, plus the notes on aliens and ship specs...  I am hoping I'll get it done by mid November. Hoping. Ha! Keep your fingers crossed.

Bootstrap Colony 2 Second Chances

I just (just now) got BSC2 back from Goodlifeguide.com. I shall upload it tonight or tomorrow, so expect it to be published by Amazon and B&N within 24-36 hours.

 

    Mitch Chambers wasn't the only person transported to survive on the new world. The Meme aliens transported thousands of other humans and animals from all over the Earth as well. Each group had their own idea on how to adapt, survive, and thrive. Mitch and his family must find these people and then learn to live and work with them in a greater community all the while trying to survive and map their new home. Dinosaurs, alien creatures, and the weather are just some of their problems. But their most terrifying threat may come from within their own ranks...

I'll keep you posted, and I'll add links here when I get them. :)

Oh, TTTS is past 300 pages! Yes! :) (Edit 2: now 311 but I'm stuck)

EDIT 1: I just finished uploading them. (4:15 PM Pacific time) Look for Second Chances or the cover above. Not Bootstrap Colony 2.

EDIT 2: Here are the links, sorry I didn't put them up yesterday:

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Second-Chances-Bootstrap-Colony-2-ebook/dp/B00NF1XY7M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410373342&sr=1-1

B&N:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/second-chances-chris-hechtl/1120323997?ean=2940150710290&itm=1&usri=2940150710290

To Touch the Stars snippet 2

Okay, for those of you who are like me and not on the FB group:

Act 1

Chapter 1

 

The red planet still revolved, Mario Irons thought, staring off into space. He, Betsy, Wanda, and Luigi had done well. Their descendants on Mars had become involved in just about every engineering project worth doing on the planet over the past century. Power plants, city construction, you name it he thought in approval. And those that still had the wunderlust genes had moved on, back into space to be engineers on the sublight ships that plied the space lanes around the solar system. They'd pushed the frontier ever onward and outward.

He smiled a slight smile as he stared at a mural. They'd done well he judged, he was proud of them. Well, most of them, he thought. He still had a few issues, a few bad apples that needed straightening out. None had gotten into crime, but he still wished they'd sort themselves out. He sighed a heartfelt sigh.

“Thinking deep thoughts?” Sydney Reshenkov Irons teased. He snorted. Sydney was so much like her grandmother Tess Mario reflected, with her eyes and smile. She'd followed along in her grandmother's footsteps too, unlike her father and sisters. They ran the family's growing aquafarm business.

“Another day, another new thing. But sometimes, I wish the news wasn't so... Earthy,” he said, indicating the tablet in his lap with his gnarled hands.

She looked over his shoulder at what he'd been reading and then patted him on the shoulder. “You and me both Gramps,” she said. “You and me both.” The planet's government was getting increasingly mired in the politics of the system and problems with minor sabotage of the planet's terraforming and space program. The headline alone, 'Mars Gov passes felony law on sabotage' may have seemed okay, after all, it was excruciatingly frustrating to see work that had gone on for decades be destroyed. But the article was all about how unfair it was to prosecute people for using their constitutional right to protest by any means. “I read that this morning before breakfast and wished I hadn't. “Don't they know if they insist on breaking the law then they should be willing to pay the consequences for it?” She asked.

He snorted. “Heh, don't try telling them that. People have been pulling this kind of shit for decades,” he grumbled. He turned with wise eyes to see the other adults gathering. He nodded to Jeremy, Opal, Ellen and a few others. Adam he glanced over and then gave him a nod. He was surprised but pleased that some of the kids had come in too. “Another chat?”

Sydney looked over her shoulder, hands resting on the finial on his chair. “It looks that way. The future I think. Or what we're going to do. Or what the kids will get a chance to do.”

“You even label the topics of the conversation?” Mario asked, shaking his head.

“No, well, sort of. It's nice if we all come prepared and on the same page,” Sydney replied. He shook his head.

The family had moved to a compound in a canyon South East of the ancient first settlement. It was all one level which made it easier to get about in for Mario and the other elderly family members.

Mario had resisted moving from the ancient habs and his underground base for years, it was home to him where a lot of great memories were. It was lonely however, only a handful of the family could be with him. Most had come for visits but they could only stay overnight when they were on vacation. The industry in the area had moved away when Capital city, also known as Mars city had been constructed.

Mario had busied himself with taking care of his old place. But as he aged the maintenance became increasingly harder and harder for him to do. Just getting in and out of a suit was an exhausting chore. He had only been convinced of the wisdom of the move when he had fallen down a ladder and broken his hip. Fortunately the health implant he had immediately alerted medics to his situation. His lengthy recovery and rehab had allowed the family to quietly turn over the base to the Mars historical society and move the family into the new compound.

Mario had pitched 3 shades of a snit but the deal had been done. He'd even threatened to drive himself back and become a squatter. The kids had told him to go ahead, they'd love to stuff and mount him for the museum. He'd backed off when he'd seen the portraits of his wife and family one of his grand kids had painted on the wall. They'd also recreated the portraits his wife had done, a bit smaller but still full of love and life. They had brought tears to his eyes when he'd seen them.

He'd finally been mollified when Sydney his eldest grand daughter in law had made up a white lie about how his late wife Wanda had asked them to do it before she'd died, but it had taken a long time to get it just right. Now they had room to grow as well as support the far flung clan members who returned during family reunions.

Now things were changing on Mars, as it seemed the planet always did. Mars was constantly in flux, and not just because of the ongoing terraforming or growing population. Politics were getting ugly on Earth, and some of the rancor was spilling over into space and had reached Mars.

Infighting over the various terraforming projects and the planet's own space program was expected. People were passionate about the projects after all, and everyone was entitled to their opinion... and exercised the right to express it, sometimes loudly. Sometimes too loudly, Mario thought sourly. He wished a few of the pissing and moaning crowd would move on or find another topic to bitch about.

Seven year old Isley Irons, Reno Irons, and their 4 year old cousin Amelia Irons sat proudly at the feet of their parents. Isley looked around but the other cousins were either playing or off doing homework, chores, or out and about. All her cousins were young, they were of course all under age, but they were also on their best behavior for the family meeting. They'd been warned if they wished to be treated like adults they had to act and listen like adults do. Isley had refrained from pointing out that they should apply that to Uncle Adam then too.

Isley was heartily sick and tired of hearing about politics and wanted out, off the planet if possible. She'd realized the previous year that the Irons family was being marginalized, either they were being brushed aside or they were being locked out of the good assignments. Adam pointed that issue out again as the meeting started. “There are so many of you and nepotism is a real concern,” Adam Irons quoted angrily. “We need to keep the position open for other people with fresh experience,” he air quoted.

“Which is true. There are only so many jobs on planet to go around Adam,” Jeremy Irons reminded him. “Unless you create your own by starting a new community or business,” he said.

“Which you need money to do,” Adam said. He practically sneered. The family had made it clear they wouldn't bankroll the various start up's he'd pitched to them over the years. The last one he'd tried by wheedling it out of grandad Irons. His grandfather... his grandfather of all people had told him to look into getting a start up loan. Like he didn't trust him, he thought with burning resentment. It was unfair. He opened his mouth to say something but Opal was already talking.

“...is only so much one can do. Market saturation is pretty high. Coming up with something from nothing... even the service industry is saturated. You are competing with the old sweats who push you out or the new kids coming out of the schools,” she said, indicating the kids at their feet with a flick of her fingers.

Other family members recognized that was a serious problem Isley realized as she looked up at the suddenly grim faces around them. It wasn't her fault, that wasn't right. She almost forgot her standing order to listen and not interject her comments.

“What are we going to do about them? It's not just our generation, but the next?” Ellen asked softly. Aunt Ellen was one of Isley's favorite aunts. She was a hands on kind of gal, just like all the Irons. But she made no bones about drafting someone, even a 'sprout' into helping her with some project around the compound that needed fixing or upgrading. Isley had learned a lot in the past year about plumbing and electrical work.

“Some of the family have gone on to become engineers on sublight ships. But even that's changing,” Jeremy said.

“They could follow you, Sydney, and others into research I suppose,” Opal said, crossing her arms. “I mean, it's a thought.”

“There is always teaching too,” Sydney suggested. She winced when Mario scowled. Too late she remembered his repeated acidic statement that those that do, did. Those that couldn't taught.

Isley resented that. She was a student, the idea of being stuck in a class room the rest of her life... gah. Pass, she thought. She wanted something bigger. Something brighter. “There has to be something for us, something more. I know we're not big on research and stuff but...” She shook her head, then remembered the injunction to be quiet.

Her father eyed her with scant favor. Before he could say anything Mario waved a hand. “Let the kids talk. They are the future. It's their future we're talking about right? So, what do they want to do with it?” He asked.

Jeremy paused and then frowned thoughtfully. After a moment he nodded to Isley.

Isley gulped and then stood. “I want more. More than Mars. I don't want to be stuck in a class room,” she said wrinkling her nose. “Or behind a desk drawing stuff. I want to be there, seeing new things. I want to get my hands dirty doing it,” she said, glancing at Aunt Ellen. The older woman gave her a thumbs up. “We're Irons, I want to make it happen, not watch others do it.”

“That's not true young lady and you know it. But we do err on the side of making an idea work. Translating the theory into reality,” Sydney Irons said in rebuke. Isley hung her head a bit. She understood the girl, she wanted desperately to step out of the family's shadow. Well, to do that she'd have to go big. She'd have to... she frowned and then nodded slowly. She'd have to go interstellar. She turned her head to look at some of the other adults. Elderly Mario Irons nodded in understanding. He of all people instantly understood she realized.

The Irons family had been involved in hyperdrive research since it's inception. They had also been involved in the design of most of the inner system tugs and sublight ships and stations throughout the solar system. Adam Irons scowled bleakly. He was the family black sheep, everyone had them it seemed. In his case he was a bit of a slacker, moving from one project to the next, never settling down. The same could be said of his love life, he never settled. He'd had some spectacular break ups when he'd neglected to let one partner know he'd moved on. “I think we're a victim of our own success. We see a project and dig in. People know that. That's why a lot of us get hired, for that reputation of digging in and getting it done. Sometimes we fail. That's human, and to be expected, though others see it as not living up to expectations. It's bull.”

“But you did it here on Mars Gramps,” little 4 year old Amelia reminded the elderly Mario. Personally she was amazed the old patriarch was still alive. He'd outlived his brother Luigi, both of their spouses, and one of his own children and two grandchildren. This despite getting an unhealthy dose of radiation in the initial colonization phases of the planet. He'd survived testicle, skin, and prostate cancer, he'd had his liver, bladder, and kidneys each replaced twice, one lung, part of his trachea, cataracts, had two bone marrow transplants, and was checked every three months for aggressive tumors that occasionally popped up on his heart, skin, and in his brain. But despite all that he was still lively and spry. It was a testament not just to the advances in geriatric medicine and cloning technology but also to the human spirit and will to survive.

He looked over to her and tugged on a wrinkled earlobe thoughtfully. “True, but a lot of factors were involved there,” his gravel voice said. His eyes were a bit cloudy but there was kind wisdom there in the recesses.

“What bothers me is when they get us in on the ground floor or when they run into problems, pick our brains, then kick us to the curb,” Adam grumbled. “I've had that happen to me twice.” He looked away, thoroughly disgusted.

“That's because you take those consult jobs dummy. You should invest what you've got into a project and stick with it,” Sydney retorted. Opal nodded.

“Like what?” Adam demanded. “All the good stuff is taken,” he grumbled, now disgusted with them all. “Or too expensive. We're high risk investment too. I can't get a loan,” he said, shaking his head. “And the family won't give me one,” he growled darkly.

“Quit whining,” Mario muttered. “There are ways to get around any problem. Over, under, through. Luigi was great at that,” he said, then closed his eyes and leaned back to relax. He fought the urge to go down memory lane, the trap of missing his brother and family. God he missed them.

“I think we need to take a break for a bit,” Sydney Irons said, looking at her father-in-law knowing the signs. Other adults nodded as they got up or stretched. Isley bit her lip, looking at her gramps. Amelia hugged him and he patted her arm and softly told her he was okay. Isley nodded in relief.

“The problem with wanting glory is it's blinding. I don't think either of the Mario brothers were focused on that when they came here to Mars,” Sydney said slowly. She glanced at the old patriarch as he stared off into space, lost in his memories. He was doing that increasingly more and more as his body slowed down. It bothered her. Her own father and grandparents hadn't lived as long as Mario had so advanced geriatric care wasn't something she was familiar with. She made a note to look into it. She made another note to keep Mario in the loop. He seemed to focus more when his experience was drawn on.

“No, no they didn't,” Adam admitted. He frowned. He had to admit he had been interested in glory, in the short cut. Mario had tried to warn him that he couldn't trade on the family name, he had to earn respect on his own as an individual. Now he was struggling to deal with his own reputation. He shook his head. “I think they saw it not really as a great adventure, but as a problem that needed a resolution. They saw it,” he smiled a bit, “ from an engineers perspective.”

“You mean an engineering problem which could be solved. Yes, they did that,” Opal murmured thoughtfully. “Luigi was great with people and theory. Mario was the hands on man. I know that frustrates him now,” she said, indicating Mario. Sydney looked over to Opal and then nodded.

“You kids need to find your own paths. We're going to help, but it's too... easy for us to try to steer you in a direction we think is right. It's natural. Sometimes it's a safe occupation but...” Ellen shrugged. “Sometimes not.”

“True miss Fusion reactor tech,” Opal teased.

“That's assistant power chief now,” Ellen said. Opal's eyes widened as Ellen grinned. “I passed the tests last month. It doesn't become official until Asura transfers to the plant on Diemos.”

“Wow. She got a promotion?” Opal asked.

Ellen nodded. “An overdue one, but not in house. She was hired by Lagroose industries. I think she wants to get to their Mars skyhook, but I don't know if she'll make it.”

“Maybe,” Opal mused. “If she can hack it...” She shrugged, setting the thought aside. She made a note to send Asura Smythe Tennison a congratulations letter. She wondered how Bill and Fargo were going to handle it. Would they move with Asura to Diemos? Or would she commute? She was curious. Fargo was a bright kid, borderline autistic, which was a concern. The Tennison's hadn't screened for that when Fargo had been conceived, fortunately they'd skated by, just under the threshold when he'd been tested. It was frightening though. Today's generation of kids were incredibly intelligent. Gifted, beyond anything an ordinary parent from years ago would think was possible.

“We're not really suited for the terraforming projects,” Adam murmured.

“We're Irons, we can do anything we put our minds too,” Ellen said. He looked her way. “Okay, I admit, I'm not at all interested in terraforming myself. The mechanics...” She shrugged. “Maybe. But the Mars government banned nanotech and some of the harsher methods of terraforming, so it's down to bioengineering plants and animals while working on other means.”

“I'd love to move a comet or asteroid,” Adam said.

“You mean you'd love to see it hit,” Opal teased. He shrugged. Jeremy, Sydney's husband grinned. She eyed him as well. “Men,” she said in disgust, shaking her head as she eyed her fellow ladies. “Not far from the fire and throwing rock level of evolution even now,” she said in mock disgust.

“Oh, I don't know,” Ellen replied, playing with her lower lip. “I wouldn't mind seeing it myself.” Opal shot her a wide eyed 'et tu' look that made her chuckle. “Seriously. I saw the first one Luigi managed to do, and the follow ups they did later on.”

“And you want in on that when they hit Venus?”

“No, that's not going to happen. They rocks are already in motion. The first hit a decade ago remember? No, pass.” There were several hundred rocks of many sizes lined up to hit Venus over the next 50 years. Each was on a course to hit the planet to help move it from it's current orbit outward just as the ones that had hit Mars had been carefully plotted out to move the planet's orbit further inward, closer to the sun. There was quite the scandal from people on Earth who were terrified of a mistake that would put Venus and Earth on a collision course. Since Mars hadn't hit Earth they didn't have much to worry about in Ellen's opinion.

Mars was shaping up to be a nice place to live. Not quite Earth, at least not yet, but getting there. When it did get to the loose water stage things would happen quickly. Another two decades and the terraforming board assured the public that it would happen. When it did their homeworld would turn into a gorgeous paradise.

“Then...”

“Well, Europa is off limits, Titan's a mess of politics and jurisdiction, I'm not sure,” Ellen said.

“You'd give up your career... your advancing career...” Sydney looked at her.

Ellen waved that thought aside. “No, I said I wouldn't mind seeing it.”

“Well, I for one wouldn't mind having a hand in doing it,” Adam said.

“Well, you could always apply to Lagroose or one of the other outfits. They are eventually going to need terraformers,”vo Sydney said. “When we go interstellar.”

“Which will be in a century from now,” Adam said in disgust. “I'll look like him when they are ready,” he said.

“Oh, I wouldn't bet on that,” Sydney said, shooting her husband a smile. He chuckled.

Adam eyed them both as Opal got up to deal with an issue with the kids. “What aren't you telling us?” He asked.

“Just that... it might be smart to take a long hard look at Lagroose. And maybe get your foot in the door, even if you have to start at the bottom as a tech.”

“That... is interesting to know,” Ellen murmured thoughtfully. Sydney turned to stare at her. Ellen shrugged. “Hey, I'm interested in seeing the stars too. And like I said, the idea of seeing a rock hit...”

Jeremy nodded. “You might get your chance. We all might,” he rumbled.

-*-*-^-*-*-

The kids talked after the meeting as they did their chores and got ready for bed. They filled in some of the cousins who'd missed the meeting... really there wasn't much to tell. But the gossip was something to talk about. When they were done Amelia, Isley, and Reno all fell on the kitchen and the last of their assigned chores.

Amelia was still too young and short to unload the dishwashers so Sydney had assigned that part of the task to Reno and Isley since they were taller. Amelia had to fill the machines since she could easily reach into the sink with a handy step stool. She had also figured out the controls after Isley had shown her so she could turn the ultrasonic machines on.

Isley had no problem with the assignment, she'd had her time handling the dirty dishes up until a year ago. She'd hated it until Aunt Ellen had told her it was a lesson. She'd wondered about it until Ellen had clued her in by getting her hands filthy tearing down a grungy air plant and not complaining about it. That had driven the point home enough to stop her from complaining. And she'd found, once she'd accepted the task she'd done it for a while before they'd given her more responsibility.

“It's not fair that I have to load the dishwashers,” Amelia grumbled. Reno tugged one of her pigtails in response to the whining. She turned and kicked him in the shin. Isley tisked tisked as Reno chased her out. At least it got her out of her hair long enough for Isley to clear the lower level of 2 of the 3 machines. Honestly, having them all lined up in a row and having 3 kids on them was stupid. They were tripping over themselves trying to get the machines loaded and unloaded.

Reno came back with Amelia under one arm. He set her down after swatting her bum and then steered her back to work. She scowled, but then snuffled and looked at Isley. Isley snorted in lordly disdain. “Don't look at me. I'm busy. The sooner we get this done the sooner we get to go play,” she said.

“Yeah, a whole hour until we have to get ready for bed,” Amelia muttered.

“It's better than a half hour,” Reno reminded her, swinging back into action. He took the plates Isley had thoughtfully stacked in front of the cabinet they were supposed to go into and put them away. Isley nodded and kept moving. Once she had the last lower deck done she straightened and then moved on to the uppers. The uppers were easier, just cups.

“What are we going to do?” Amelia asked thoughtfully. “I mean, career wise. I've already decided I want to get into medicine. What about you two?” She asked, looking from Reno to Isley.

“You are pretty young to figure that out so quick,” Reno said, sounding like he didn't believe her. She glowered at him. He spread his hands. “Just saying. Remember how you change your mind about ice cream?”

She snorted. “This is different,” she said. “And it's not like we can't change our minds like you said. Even when we have a career going, no one said we can't stop learning and exploring other things! Look at Uncle Adam! Or Aunt Ellen! Or my mom!”

“True,” Isley mused, taking little Amelia's thoughts at face value. She didn't like how Uncle Adam was being compared to Aunt Ellen, but they were siblings. They had to have something in common after all.

“I want to help people. Make them well. I'm not sure what sub-field, but the idea of being a doctor like great great auntie Han.”

“She's not really our aunt. She's not related to us by blood,” Isley said.

“I know that,” Amelia said testily as they finished with the first machine. “I don't think we have enough for a full load on the third machine,” she warned.

“Cool,” Reno said.

“What about you? What are you going to get into?” Amelia asked, eying the sturdy 10 year old male. Reno had black hair and yellow eyes. The eye color was due to some random gene swap, or so Reno said. “Engineer, medic...”

“Not a whole lot of options there,” Reno said. “I'm going my own way. I'm looking into being an interior designer. I thought about an architect, but...” He shrugged.

“An...” Amelia sputtered, doubling over with hilarity as she covered her mouth with a tiny hand. “You can't be serious!” She giggled.

“Go on with you,” Reno growled, pushing her onto her rump. She fell, then rolled, kicking her feet in the air laughing. “It's not funny!” He raged.

“It's fine Reno, whatever you want to do. At least it's different.”

“You know, some of us were scientists at one time. Great granny Betsy. Wanda too. We can do other things if we put our minds to it,” Reno said hotly.

“I get it, power down,” Isley said, one hand up to restrain her cousin. He glowered at the still snickering Amelia as she got to her feet. “Something tells me it's not the entire picture though,” she said. He looked at her. She spread her hands. “Somehow I haven't seen you arranging furniture or researching fung shui techniques,” she said mildly.

“Well, no,” he said slowly. “I was thinking on stations, bases, and ships. I'm not sure about ergonomics, maybe furniture design, but that's been done to death. I'm not big on color coordination...” He frowned thoughtfully.

“Sounds like you are more interested in architecture or interior space design then the actual decorating,” Isley said as Amelia studied her cousins thoughtfully. Reno gave Isley a long look then a short choppy nod as he finished with the last of the dishes.

“Think about it Reno,” Isley said as he turned to leave, shoulders and back stiff. “And don't get so uptight about it,” she said.

“I'm sorry, I...” Amelia looked at Isley as Reno left without a backwards glance. “He's really sore,” she said.

“Yeah,” Isley sighed. “You know it's not nice to mock people that way. He let a part of himself go, showed us something. He was vulnerable and you blew it kid,” she said.

“Sorry,” Amelia said, face falling.

Isely eyed her and then shook her head. Since when was she some wise adult? She snorted. No, she had a lot of growing up to do. And obviously a lot of thinking in the future. From the sound of it, so did her cousins. They were determined to do it right. They wanted out, away from the accusations of nepotism which was good. They'd have to grit teeth and really buckle down to make it work out right though. One a future designer, another a doctor, and another an engineer. That was good enough for her.

“Come on, let's get this finished,” she said, poking Amelia. “When we've got some time you can show me your virtual doll collection. Have you gotten your doctor avatar leveled up yet?”

“No, I'm stuck. But I'm working on it,” Amelia said as she swung back into the chore. Isley smiled as she listened with half an ear as Amelia prattled on excitedly.

-*-*-^-*-*-

   BTW, even though I am not in the group doesn't mean I'm not aware of some of the discussion points. My faithful... should I say minion? hmmm...Yo, Mighty Mike, do you have a twinky costume? Minion Mike? lol... anyway, I ghosted in last night briefly, they are intriguing. :) You'll get some of those answers soon enough. And yes, Io 11 will make more appearances. Interesting ideas about having her turn privateer. I'm not sure if that is viable or not... hmmm....>:D

   In related news (to the snippet) I passed chapter 22 and I'm also past 250 pages. (255 I think, I'm too lazy to check) It is coming along though I keep tripping myself up with all these story references and the whole time thing. I'm also keeping TFAIW (The First AI War or 1AIW or just AI war) up to date with the occasional idea or scene. I've also tweaked a few things in GP too. :) AI war will make up for a lot of... well, you'll see. Eventually.
   ...And Rea told me she should have BSC2 back to me by next week definitely. (possibly Monday or earlier).

That's it, for now!

Bootstrap Colony 1 republish

    Okay, Goodlifeguide sent me the manuscript back early (I wasn't expecting it until this weekend) so I republished it this morning at both Amazon and B&N. I'm still too lazy/inept/busy, whatever excuse you want to use to get involved with Smashwords still, sorry. :)
    I bumped the price up to cover the cost of the editing and stuff. I'll try to remember to drop it back down once I've recouped the investment. :)
  
   In other news, those of you at the FB group may have noticed another snippet post. TTTS, I'm going to post it here in a day or so. And no, TTTS is not another goofy Mario story. You'll see!

There. Done. Must. Have. Caffeine!

GP Snippet

FYI you will see this snippet again as a sneak peek at the end of BSC2. (GP is... evolving a bit so I don't want to post something that might change. This part won't.)

Ghosts of the Past:

Here is a clipping from the first chapter:

 

Sprite came up from her record research to find the Admiral elbow deep in a repair project. She was concerned he was back sliding, forgetting his duty to the big picture. She would have to do something about it she thought. First she pinged Lobsterman for a quick status update and then made an ahem sound.

“Yes, what is it Commander,” The Admiral asked, clearly distracted.

“Admiral a moment.”

“I'm a bit busy here,” he said, pointing out the control runs to the tech. “Can it wait?”

“I'd actually like to talk to you about what you are currently doing,” she said.

“See this ODN cable with the green and white fittings? It has a candy cane stripe. That's a data line. Part of the subnet actually. If you plug your tester here into this port...” He plugged a tester into a junction. Red LED's began to flicker madly. “Okay, we have activity, but it is unstable. If it was stable we'd see the top light which is the net light be constantly on. Something is hinky here. It could be software related or hardware. Now, we push diagnose on the tablet, and the tester probe links to the tablet in your hand and will give you a reading.”

The Veraxin looked down at the tablet and then up. “It is hash.”

“That's the code sample,” Irons frowned, looking over the bug's shoulder to see it. He could always access the wifi signal directly but he wanted his student to learn it himself. He recognized the code string. It wasn't jumbled, but if you weren't a native coder you wouldn't understand it. “Okay, I'm guessing you aren't a coder?”

“No sir. I took the basic course, but I barely passed it. I was planning on taking another when I was transferred to Firefly.. and well...” The Veraxin shrugged and motioned third level chagrin and embarrassment with both sets of upper arms.

“Okay. Well, you can call a coder in, or we can do a test run of the line with someone else. Basically they hook up another probe to their end of the Optical Data Network line and then you hit test. Your probe would send a series of pulses down the line to their kit and then you would pool the results. But we've got a clean line here, so either something is hashed up in the code, or in the hardware.”

“Okay. And how do we figure that out sir?”

“Well, since you aren't a coder, you have two choices, pull in someone who is, or pull hardware, swap it, and then put it on a bench and check it later. But since someone might be using this computer node, say, an AI, we don't know what is going on. So...”

“So call an expert in sir.”

“Got it. You do that, I'll just check in with the Commander for a moment,” Irons said. He got up and patted the Veraxin on the upper shoulder and then went off to the corner for a modicum of relative privacy.”

“All right Commander. What is it?”

“Admiral, you should be focused on the big picture not doing grunt work.”

Irons frowned thoughtfully but didn't reply.

“You have to delegate situations like this. Not just the basic repair, which by the way is code, the line is fine we're using it, but also the training.”

“He lacks confidence. He's young. He's getting it.”

“I know that sir, but you shouldn't be the one to have to deal with it. We need you doing your job. There are people to make certain he does his.”

“And I seem to recall the chain of command is a bit messed up right now,” Irons replied.

“True. And yes, this ship is damaged.... but...”

Irons held up a hand. “Status of the fleet?”

“Unchanged since last update four hours ago.”

“And the same can be said for the past day and week correct? There isn't a lot I can do as an Admiral in hyper.”

“There is paperwork.”

“Which you should be handling as my chief of staff. You and the AI. I'm currently acting Captain until we find someone to fill the slot, so my responsibility is to this ship and crew too Commander.”

“What about planning for the future Admiral?” Sprite pointed out. “And yes, I am the chief of staff, so my job is to keep you on task and on the mission.”

“Okay, first of all, I refuse to plan anymore than we already have. The basic outline is there, I don't need another endless meeting rehashing the same old dog and pony show again. Been there, done that. There is only so far you can take planning.”

“Admiral, Prior Planning...”

“Yeah yeah, prevents piss pour performance. But I can't coordinate with the other ships in hyper right now, so we can't be on the same page.”

“True.”

“They are each taking their course heading and speed from Maine. Which means Maine needs to be functional.”

“Yes sir, but...”

“My ass, your ass, is riding on the line here. I can do a lot getting this ship functional again while also bonding with the crew and assessing them.”

“I see...”

“I want to make certain this is done correctly Commander. I don't want someone snipping a line to oh, say the hyperdrive.”

“Um, okay, good point.”

The Admiral smiled sourly. “So we're good?”

“Yes, you can go play hooky as long as you eat your veggies and attend at least the morning meetings,” Sprite replied, clearly exasperated.

The Admiral exhaled noisily and ran a hand through his hair. “Glad we've cleared the air.”

“I just thought you were backsliding. Going back to old habits, burying yourself in small problems and leaving the big picture alone.”

“I can't do much about the big picture while in hyper. I refuse to worry about it anymore than I already have, some things are just out of my hands right now. I can't change that until we get Maine sorted out. One problem at a time Commander.”

“Aye sir. Don't rub it in,” she growled. “...Admiral.”

He snorted and went back to work. After a moment Sprite flipped back into the net and decided a check with Lobsterman on the other work parties might be in order.

Maine had a lot of damage to repair, and unfortunately, her chain of command left a lot to be desired. It was something they had attempted to work out prior to leaving B101a1, but Firefly had been tasked to return to Pyrax in a certain window, and the Admiral had wanted to clear out to B100 omega in order to facilitate repairs better there, refuel the fleet with his automated refinery he had left in orbit, and to send a relief force to Hidoshi's World to follow up the one led by Lieutenant Lewis.

Maine had a navigator, ops officer, Tactical officer, and some very junior officers, but she lacked a properly trained Chief Engineer, Captain, and XO. To be fair, most of the ships in their fleet had similar manning issues.

The fleet had a dedicated core of former slaves turns sailors and Marines as well as transferred personnel from Firefly. To thicken things up they had two hundred former slaves from the Horathian fleet, many still on the ships they had been enslaved on. Each and everyone had volunteered for the posting. The Admiral had taken the most experienced of these to thicken the ship's companies, but each ship was still undermanned, with what was barely a skeleton crew on many.

Things were definitely going to be interesting, the AI thought. Now that they had gotten over the emotional high of liberation, many were starting to strain under the pressure of the work load. Oh, many of the organics had dealt with living and working on a damaged ship for most of their lives, but in this case they had to deal with training along with residual psychological trauma issues. It was only a matter of time before someone somewhere broke. She just hoped it wouldn't be too bad...