We the People Snippet 1

First up, sitrep:
I finished The Gaia Project last week. I put the last minute touches on the cover and I'm off this week (more or less) for grads and parties.

I just sent Rea We the People and sent out a Beta blast for The Gaia Project.

FYI, the current schedule is centered around finishing the Founding time period this year. I've had complaints that I've got too many irons (series) in the fire and I need to cut back. So, we're going to knock out the Founding series and you'll see some more foundation work for the Ragnarok and Irons time. (and these books have more Easter Eggs!)

I've had another request for a print copy of my books. (and my family asked for 1 too when I mentioned it to them) The reason I don't print... okay, there are 3 reasons.

1: I have to format each book. Which costs $$$ per book. I don't trust the auto-formatting.

2: Amazon won't let me do a proof copy to make sure the bugs are out. (Some of you have seen that in my e-books) I don't want to be dinged because someone doesn't like a typo, or if something gets messed up in the print process. (like a missed highlight, or overrun, or whatever) They charge me for returns for that sort of stuff.

3: the profit margin is scary small. For my books (which are apparently big) something like Convoy would cost $15 for a paperback. I'd get $0.05 per copy in royalties, (yes, not kidding, 5 cents!) and lose money (I mean pay in) for over seas sales to the tune of $0.50 per copy in some countries, $1 in others.

So, no, not going to happen. I'd love to have a printed copy of each of my books (despite not having room in my library) but nope.
So, there you have it. When some of those factors change I'll reconsider it.

Anyway, here is the first snippet from We the People:

Chapter 1

April 4, 2284

 

Alpha-G7-449351 star system, Alpha sector

 

Station Commander Aeyrn Glock made her way through the station, nodding on occasion to those she passed but with a resolute face that forbade others to approach her. She had the expression of polite interest but I'm busy come back later was the subtext.

Just about everyone on the station got it. Well, almost everyone, Toshido was clueless when he had something on his mind. A bomb could go off next to him and he'd be single minded about something or other. Sho the station's massive chief engineer didn't give a damn, if he had a problem that needed her attention he brought it to her as he was supposed to do.

She ran a hand through her short cropped hair as she got into the lift. "Command center," she ordered. She needed a trim, but not quite yet.

Alpha-G7-449351 was a star system on the outer edge of the Alpha sector, near the edge of Gamma. It was along the Orion spiral arm and well away from the known areas that other species tended to inhabit or pass through, just what the client had specified.

She had once been a naval officer before she'd seen the light and gotten out. She had gotten an education though, and her brief career allowed her some perks. That included respect from those who were currently in the navy or those who still looked up to such things.

Other than Sho she'd been in LGM's field station department the longest. Well, no, that wasn't quite true, she thought, reminding herself that Ranginui had them both beat.

Ranginui was a dumb A.I. originally created to manage the station. As more and more computers were brought on to handle the process of terraforming, the A.I. had grown with it.

Ranginui had named himself after the Maoiri patriarch of creation also known as the Sky Father. Rather appropriate given that he was in the core of the space station orbiting their current project.

The station was massive, a series of cylinders and spheres over a 3 kilometers long with a crew of 600 organics. The crew was there to maintain and occasionally service and refurbish the network of satellites orbiting the planet in a dense grid.

Over the years since Lagroose Industries had started terraforming exoworlds, LGM and her competitors had improved the process. Lagroose had gotten lucky with Pyrax and a few of their other conquests. LGM preferred to rely on steady careful work and hard science and engineering to get the job done.

Which was where Commander Glock's people came in. Chief Sho managed engineering for her. He oversaw not only the station's engineering spaces but every maintenance shop and shed as well as the overhaul of every satellite, shuttle, tug, and barge they had.

Her lips pursed as she arrived at her destination. The doors opened and she paused to make sure no one was going to barge in on her as what had happened last week before stepping out.

She missed Jenny her daughter. Her daughter was a teenager and a handful for her parents despite already being in college at the tender age of 15. It was one reason why she'd accepted the posting despite the ban on children.

It hurt, missing Jenny, but it was what it was. Jenny was where she needed to be, and keeping busy on the station was fine with her. Since many of the stationers were in stable relationships she didn't have to worry about the dating scene.

Even if her mother and sister tended to twitter her about the lack of prospective replacements for Ben. She had no intention of replacing Ben anytime soon, and certainly not with some absent minded egghead or tech.

She nodded to the personnel near the door as she strode onto the command deck. A quick survey told her everything was fine, not that she'd expected anything different. On the left of the main screen was the planet statistics. The right was a series of graphs from the various satellites in orbit. Telemetry feeds that hardly made sense to most organics since they were scrolling so fast.

The main holographic emitter normally had an image of the planet. At the moment it had an image of the plot with a zoomed in image of a familiar looking naval ship.

"Talk to me," she ordered.

"IFF confirms it is Perth ma'am," Ranginui stated flatly.

"Ah," she said with a nod, not that she'd expected much else. Sure they were on the butt end of nowhere but there could always be the unexpected visitor in the form of a tramp freighter, alien, or someone else.

Someone not as friendly to see for instance.

Visits from the Confederation navy's light cruiser Perth were supposed to ease the anxiety of the crew and her corporate backers. Captain Stuart was so punctual they could practically set their watch by his scheduled arrival time.

"We're getting the usual canned greeting," the A.I. reported.

"Understood. Send them our regards and the latest report on the planet."

"Yes ma'am," the A.I. replied. It had taken him a bit of processing time to understand that particular bit of humor between the organics. Captain Stuart's open message asking about when the mountains would be open to skiing had finally clued him in.

(^)#(^)

Captain Klaus Stuart was not on his bridge when he got the reply from the station. Quite the contrary, since the reply would most likely take hours to get to his ship on the outskirts of the star system he'd gone about his daily business.

He was unsurprised by the weather report on the planet. Aeyrn had taken to twittering him about that, their shared little joke. Based on the current readings though they were getting down there. If it wasn't just a trick of the weather and the temperatures was average it looked like the terraformers might stay on schedule.

Which was good for them. It would also mean his routine visits to the planet might get more interesting in a few more years when they moved on to the next phase, bioforming.

It was always nice to see a planet turned from a lifeless mudball or iceball into a habitable world ripe for colonists. He knew companies like LGM loved the work. They certainly profited enough from it.

LGM and their competitors had perfected the art of terraforming planets, dwarf planets, and even large moons. If it was big enough and anywhere near the goldilocks zone of a star system they could turn it into a new Eden.

As long as the client's checks cleared that was.

With the current set up they could terraform a world in 30 years or less. It turned out that having a manned crew plus plenty of A.I. and orbital support helped. Of course it was easier to terraform a world that was already partially to where they wanted it to be. And it always worked out for the best if the planet had a magnetosphere and near 1 G to work with.

The stationers managed the entire system of satellites and robots. Technically an A.I. like Ranginui did most of the heavy lifting, the organics were there to keep things running smoothly or to interpret the data and add their own intuitive processes into the mix.

Once LGM handed off the planet the station and most of the satellites would be pulled out by a series of large freighters. They'd be staged somewhere, most likely a central depot to be refurbished before being returned to service and transported to the next candidate world to start the entire process all over again.

About half of the science and observation satellites would remain in orbit to keep tabs on the planet as it underwent its final metamorphosis. He'd read that LGM had been burned when a planet had backslid after a team had thought it was fully 'cooked'.

He checked the status. They had another three days before they arrived in orbit and could check in more thoroughly with the stationers. He knew that Aeyrn was looking forward to the break in the otherwise boring and dull routine.

He sat back in his office chair. It was a bit thread bare, he had rigger tape on one arm rest but it fit him. Trying to get another or even parts for it was a pain in the ass.

Sure, engineering could and frequently did make some replacement parts with their 3D printers, CNC machines, and other equipment in the machine shops. But the basic stock had to be accounted for. In the current penny pinching red tape mood of the navy, he'd rather put up with the lumpy thing and annoying squeak rather then get drowned in paperwork.

Just like he'd more or less resigned his career to being a patrol cruiser captain. It beat sitting in an office somewhere, or drummed out onto the street with little prospect for a job commanding a vessel.

He glanced at the ship status board and then stretched. Andrea was planning a series of drills in the morning so he might as well catch some rest while he could before they began.

(^)#(^)