Retribution Snippet 2

I skipped ahead a bit;

Chapter 2

PO Blake Hale grinned as he saw the image of the planet on the view screens. The skipper had assented to putting it up where everyone could see it. It was a blue pearl, precious to them even if it had a hint and air of danger about her that belied a planet's normal innocence.

"Nightingale. A prettier planet I haven't seen me in a looong time," he drawled.

"We've been away for years but don't expect much to have changed. These hicks can't find their ass with their elbows."

"I don't care. I just want a fresh steak, bake potato, and a woman who can pretend to be loving for a whole evening," Blake drawled.

"Well look at you, a whole evening? You wouldn't last five minutes," Oswald said.

Blake scowled. "Wanna bet?"

"With what? Skipper is taking all our creds to get food and fuel so we can get on to the next stop."

"Frack," Blake muttered. His vision of liberty was rapidly fading.

"There goes your lady friend. Don't worry, I've got a good pic and you can always use your five fingers like you've been doin," Oswald tormented.

Blake held up his hand then dropped all but 1 telling finger in return. Oswald smirked back at him insufferably.

"We've got a healthy reserve even with the skipper skimping and saving with us on ballistic. Just getting the stink out of the air would be nice for a change," Oswald said.

"Fat chance on that. I know Bruno's trying but no way can he get the fish smell out. We're stuck with it until we get home."

"Joy," Oswald muttered. He tapped at his controls then frowned. "Hey, something odd here," he said.

"Odd?"

"As in out of place. There is an IFF orbiting the gas giant. Two of them. I just picked them up." Oswald wrinkled his nose. "It's too far to get a reading with our sensors though."

"Ships?"

"Possible. One probably, but what is the other? It's pretty low in the atmosphere..." he frowned as he pecked at his controls, working his fingers around the broken or sticky keys as best he could. When he finished his inquiry he hit the execute button then sat back and rubbed his fingers together to get some of the stickiness off. Angelo and his damn sugar kick he thought with a corner of his mind as the computer broke the IFF down further.

"Yeah," he grunted. "One's a tanker, the other one is get this, a gas refinery!"

"You don't say!" the PO said, now curious. "When the hell did they get the tech for something like that?"

"The tanker? I don't know."

"Anything more?"

"IFF says to quote 'inquire when we make orbit. Payment is expected.' Unquote," he said.

"Shit. Frack, no way can we afford it."

"I doubt it. Skipper wants enough fuel for one or two jumps. If this is refined... you think HE3?" He was referring to Helium 3. "Or Deuterium?"

"No fracking idea. It'd be nice though. Expensive I bet. I'll let the skipper know," the PO stated.

"Yeah, you do that," Oswald sighed. He leaned back and stretched as he watched Blake type out an email or log entry. Their ship had been in transit for a decade and a half. That was a hell of a long time to be away from home. He'd heard of longer voyages, and they'd damn near become one of those that never came back.

But the big gamble was about to pay off. Or would as soon as they got back to friendly space. Was the skipper planning to take them to Pyrax? It was possible; they'd gotten word that the Gather Fleet had been assembling a conquering fleet to sweep through the sector just before they'd left Horath.

It'd be nice if they'd already gotten to Nightingale. Then no bill, no worrying about exposure. But he doubted it. He frowned and then absently ran the calculations. He ran a second set when he realized he'd gone the southern route. That just made the frown deepen. It was possible, probable even. He just wasn't sure. It all depended on the fleet and which way her Commanders jumped and what star systems they had prioritized to take.

Either way they'd find out when they got into orbit in 2 weeks.

:::{)(}:::

Captain Levinson of the Horseshoe Crab class Frigate Descartes cursed the luck when his sensor watch reported the arrival of a new ship. The ship had jumped in from B443 so it had a questionable origin. He'd just started a new war game with Captain Yu on Loch, Descartes' sister ship in order to pass the time.

He was frustrated, he knew it. So was Troy. They knew the crew was frustrated by their situation too. But they didn't have a choice; they weren't going to abandon their post. Ever since they'd run down that Horathian fleet they'd learned to appreciate the duties of being on a picket... however boring it was when no one else was around.

Now the usual crap about actually liking the boredom over the brief moments of excitement came into his mind. He did his usual best to brush them aside.

"Skipper, we've been getting a lot of interference from the solar storms in the area. Our signals may not punch through right away. Not until we get clear of them at any rate," PO R'll reported.

"Do your best," the captain ordered. "Pass on our compliments and order them to heave to and prepare to be boarded once we've got an intercept course. I want to do this and get back to our war game," he growled. Yu had kicked his ass in the last 2 passes and it was dead even. He was determined to make it game and set, match on this go around, not a draw.

"Aye Aye Sir," the Veraxin rating replied. She tapped at her controls with her truehands and passed the order on to the civilian ship as well as their authority to pass on such orders.

"Let Loch know what we're doing. Tell them to tag along. We might as well refuel at Bertha before we go back to the games," Captain Levinson ordered. The tanker was the real reason he felt safe enough to play the war games in real life. And hell, if they broke something maybe it would get the navy to cough up the relief they'd been promised and regretfully delayed for so damn long he mused darkly.

"Aye Aye Sir."

:::{)(}:::

Retribution Snippet 1

Hi,
So, the editing is humming along nicely. Only 2 people left who haven't turned in their notes. As soon as I get Tim's feedback I'll be shipping the manuscript off to Rea. (yes despite the rants in some of the reviews on Amazon I am sticking with Rea) :)

Anyway, I thought it was time to post some snippets.
I have an Intro before Chapter 1 but I'm skipping it here since I just jotted it out. A little bit of intro for this though, the book starts off similarly to Pirate Rage. You'll see what I mean later on. But if you haven't read Tales of the Federation Reborn you might want to skip reading this and go pick up a copy first. ;)

Act I

Chapter 1

Petty Officer third Class Kelsea Travere slowed her pace and cocked her head as she noted the skipper was at the navigational station. She frowned thoughtfully. "Something wrong skipper?"

The Captain didn't look her way, just kept working at the console. When she was finished she plugged a chip in and then turned. "No, nothing is wrong."

"Um..."

"Captain something's going on with the computer," PO Blake Hale said from his post manning the ship's sensors. "I just lost all the log files... there is a script going on... do we have another virus?"

"Indeed we do," the captain said as she noted the 100 percent mark on the screen in front of her. She pulled the flash chip and then placed it on a chain. The chain went around her neck. "I just deleted our navigational data," she said.

"Um..."

"The only record I've kept is with me. And I've encrypted it," she said.

"We're only going to exit in Nightingale ma'am."

"That's not the only reason I'm doing it."

Blake frowned thoughtfully as Kelsea came over to relieve him. He rose from the chair and she slipped in his place.

"We're exiting hyper in a few minutes ma'am. Why did you do that? It might throw our heading off a bit since we no longer have the way markers behind us to compare too," Blake said carefully.

"My business," The captain said tightly, eyes narrowing.

Kelsea frowned as she put the arm of the chair down and then logged in to the computer. She checked the status board and nodded.

"Paranoid much ma'am?" Blake asked, not ready to let the subject go.

"Just being careful. I don't want our find to be taken from us," she stated.

"I like the sound of the 'us' there ma'am," Chief Faver stated as he came in to the compartment behind them.

Captain Bellerose eyed him, sizing up his loyalty. She wasn't certain if the chief or anyone else had made a copy of their log. She hadn't seen a copy mark in the file... but then again that was easy to delete. He hesitated then seemed to ignore her look as he went over to the electronic box connected to the helm station.

"A problem chief?" Kelsea asked.

"Some signal noise we're trying to run down and clean up. The software filters keep pointing to a hardware issue."

"Okay," Kelsea replied thoughtfully. The chief was hopefully on to something Marengo had the occasional filter issue from time to time that haunted the crew. More so now with their new additions to the ship's bridge network. She watched out of the corner of her eye as the chief hooked up his gear to test the data lines. It sucked that they'd run electrical lines not ODN. They hadn't had any spare ODN lines long enough for the project.

It also sucked that the lines ran through the ship's hatches. At least the chief had been smart enough to drape it rather than have it as a trip point. Only the tall people had to watch out for it.

But what interested her the most about his temporary distraction was that he was watching the skipper intently. And from the occasional look she managed to sneak to the skipper, she was also aware of the subterfuge going on.

"As you were people," the captain said. "I'll be in my wardroom," she said as she stalked out of the compartment without a backwards glance.

The chief seemed to exhale like air coming out of a balloon. Kelsea shook her head and then went back to refining the sensor data for the transition out of hyper.

:::{)(}:::

Kelsea's day wasn't quite over when she got off shift. She picked up her dinner, and then went to the compartment where the aliens were. She had a stable stomach, but the stench hit her right when she came through the airlock Doctor Cloutier had set up to prevent it from fumigating the ship.

"You're turn? Thank the gods, Maevus said, shaking her head as she got off the stool. She handed Kelsea a tablet and darted through the hatch before the other woman could say anything.

She juggled the tablet, her drink and plate until she got to the stool. She heard a soft moan but ignored it. She took a seat and started to read out loud in between bites.

It was all a part of the service apparently; the boss lady wanted everyone to get familiar with their prizes and to read to them. It wasn't quite out of a mommy complex, the doc insisted seeing humans in a nonthreatening light would help them with their interactions. And tone mattered apparently. So, hence the reading. It was also an attempt to keep the aliens sane, something that was a worry of the doctor.

They knew the aliens couldn't understand them, nor vice versa. The skipper had thought to set up the life support, harvested from a Gashg habitat, but she hadn't factored on the need to communicate with a species that didn't understand them in return. Doctor Cloutier had also overlooked the problem and he kept muttering about their universal translators.

Whatever. It didn't matter. An order was an order, so Kelsea stood her shift like everyone else. She refused to barter to cover other shifts for other people though, no matter what they offered her in return. She wasn't that much of a masochist thank you very much she thought acidly. She glanced at the clock and then took a sip of tepid water. There was a sputter in the tank. She glanced at it, then back down to the tablet.

She was so not amused when she realized she was reading Moby Dick.

:::{)(}:::

   Oh, BTW, I am switching up my next book. I decided to go with Enemy of my Enemy (Horatio's Adventures 1) over the Founding anthology book I'd planned on working on. I've been writing scenes off and on in EE, Gathering Storm, J5, and Shelby's Adventures for the past couple of days. After a bit of thought I figured I'd stick with what is fresh on my mind and roll with it. We'll see how it turns out.

Retribution Cover

Okay, here goes.
  I haven't had a lot of feedback on the cover yet from the betas. Just a couple of missives. I thought I'd put it here so everyone can get a peek.

  I had intended to do a scene with elements I bought from Renderosity, but again went with a bridge scene. (in this case a certain furry admiral's flag bridge) the 'windows' are nothing of the sort btw, just vid screens to look like windows. :) (Who would be silly enough to have a flag bridge or any other bridge on the outer hull where it is vulnerable??)

  The ships are a mix of my own and stuff from Renderosity and Daz 3D. The characters are all Daz3d. The set was made with Stonemason's Sci-fi kit 1-2 and his interior lab set. Sharp eyes will notice I borrowed elements from the Pirates Bane set as well. (I'm lazy) :)
  The rear admiral is the fuzzball with his back to the camera. In the foreground is Lieutenant Kelly Guadino his Neogorilla Intelligence officer, and Lieutenant Garfield, his TO. (yes I got lazy and used the tiger material) In the background are Lieutenant Jojo, Kyle, Alec, and the rest down below are various ratings and noncoms. :)

  Now that the cover art is done I'm catching up on my To-Do list one item at a time. I don't know if I'll hit them all, I doubt it, I never do. I'm feeling lost when I'm not in write mode, like I'm floundering around without purpose. It is hard for me to just kick back and relax I guess... though I should. I have a ton of movies to watch (Jurassic World and The Force Awakens are 2) plus a DVR that needs clearing out, plus Mike Kotcher's books to read, and other books to read... ugh. Then there are all the projects, Duncan and Jory have been assisting me with the Wiki, Mike Boos has been working on star system maps, (very cool ones, better than mine!) and Tom is waiting patiently for me to get my act together to re-start the website. Then there are all the other projects I've had on back burners. Character bios and images, ship images, Smashwords, Google books, the wiki, the 3d map I started, fixing books... buying and trying StarCraft II Nova... Mario Maker... finding a house...

  See? It's more work 'relaxing' than it is to write! ROFL

  Anyway, I am not sure if Mike Boos or one of the other Betas put the 'Galactic Sector Map' up on the wiki or Facebook group yet or not. The background was 'borrowed' from Galaxymap.org I think. I'm considering using it to map out the Tau and a few of the other sectors so they are rooted in 'reality'. The map gives a rough idea on what I intended for the galactic sectors and will play a larger role once I get into the bigger stage. The sectors are roughly aligned along the galactic arms. There are No Go areas that are marked.
  If he hasn't I think it is okay to post it now. I think. Maybe.... Ah heck, go for it Mike or Jory!'

  EDIT: I finally got around to uploading my books to Smashwords now that they are offering free ISBN's. I have 10 up so far. I am holding off on the rest until some are edited by Rea and reformatted by Goodlifeguide.com. That may take some time however. I'm trying to figure out their 'free' ISBN premier package now.