The Hyperspace War is publishing... NOW!

I received the manuscript this morning and here we go!

  Forces were at work pushing the Federation together. A common threat in the form of the Ghost Armada solidified support for amalgamation into a unified galactic government. President Washington had to deal with the transition into a new form of galactic government, integrating new species while combating a seemingly invincible and merciless foe. The various alien and Terran species have to pull together like never before in order to combat this threat capable of destroying entire planets...

All the while fighting a war on another plane that they barely knew existed...

As usual I'll post the links when they become available.

On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WV5R87V

On B&N... I think: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1133129451?ean=2940163123506

Happy reading, it's an interesting ride!

The Hyperspace War Snippet 3

Sitrep: Goodlifeguide said they'd have the manuscript back and ready for publishing by the end of the week.
Expect it out by this weekend.

Loose Ends is done, the cover is done (I'll post it later) and I've passed it to the Betas.

  In other news, my CR-10 is down, I had problems so I decided to bite the bullet and get an all metal hot end. Dummy me I went with a cheap Chinese knock off and it bit me. I'm returning it today and a better one is coming in.
  I also bollixed the wiring on one of my other printers, I tried to fix a broken wire again and goofed by putting too much solder on. It wired 4 connections together and I can't get it cleaned off. I'm trying to figure that one out now. I may need a new wiring harness, or at least cut the wires and rewire them to a different connector.
  So, between that and someone else monopolizing the workbench, and the heat, I haven't gotten any progress on the droid or other projects. :P
So, this hasn't been a productive week... yet.

I think I'm going to have a character do that just to make someone else feel my pain. lol

Chapter 3

 

Epsilon 131 Base

 

Orders were cut and passed for a light cruiser to picket the Third Earth star system. Commodore Butterworth received the orders and scowled blackly at them. It was the last thing he wanted to see; he only had a single six ship squadron scattered on patrols. Losing one of them would turn his carefully crafted schedules into hash.

But, orders were orders. Which didn't mean he had to like it nor did Captain Roper Calvert when he cut the orders to the light cruiser captain.

“Sir?” the captain said when the call went through.

“That was fast,” the Neodog flag officer said dryly. The yellow lab flicked his ears. “Read the orders that quickly, did you?”

“Sorry, sir, it's just …”

“It's just you don't think Gloucester can handle the job, Roper?” They had served together for a few years, and the captain had eaten at the commandant's table when his ship was in port.

Roper's lips twitched but he didn't flare or otherwise growl. “No, sir. We can handle it. I'm just wondering about why we're stuck on babysitting duty when there is a war on.”

The lab nodded his head. “Fair enough. Since you didn't read why the planet is quarantined, let me give you the 4-1-1 on the nature of the mission and the reason for the quarantine since I don't have anything better to do,” he said.

That did get Roper to flush slightly. “I can read about it, sir.”

“No, this one I think you should hear from me,” the Neodog said, yellow eyes flickering. “You've been through Third Earth, right?” Roper nodded.

“Well, somehow, in some way, a legacy of Earth's past came back to haunt the colonists recently. We don't know how it showed up there, or why, or what it means, but a very dangerous … let's call him a general with a war crimes history showed up out of the desert.”

“Showed up? A war crimes offender? And we can't just pick him up?” the captain asked, wrinkling his nose.

“Not when you think about it. This guy fought and died in the last war on Earth,” the Neodog said softly. That made the captain sit up straight. The Neodog nodded. “That's right. It seems he died on Earth. We've confirmed that six ways to Sunday. But now, he's back haunting the very people who were sent on the suicide mission to kill him.”

“Earth … the last war … war crimes … you mean a creature of Skynet?”

The Neodog's ears flicked. “Now you are catching on. Any other problems with the assignment, Captain?”

Captain Calvert shook his head emphatically no. “No, sir, we'll get it done. I'll need supplies though since I'm under the understanding that we can't land.”

The commodore nodded. “I think we can arrange to stuff you to the deck heads,” he said with an amused ear flick. “Just don't tell the bean counters.”

The captain cracked a smile. “I won't if you won't, sir.”

“Well, as it happens I have to but you'll be long gone by the time they take notice … hopefully. Just don't go hog wild.”

“I'll try to leave the caviar behind, sir,” the captain said with a gracious nod.

“Yes, definitely leave the fish eggs,” the dog said, scratching behind one large floppy ear. “Anything else?”

“No, sir. We'll get on it.”

“Good. Get underway soon. Out,” the flag officer ordered and then cut the channel.

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The Hyperspace War snippet 2

Oops!
Looks like I forgot Blogger doesn't like copy and paste text. Guess I need to go back and fix that.

Anyway, sitrep: I just got the manuscript back from Rea and sent it to Goodlifeguide.com

I'm struggling with the cover art for Loose Ends. Turns out a wicked cool model I bought is in the MAX format and I can't convert it. (it is too big) I'm trying to work with the seller now.

Oh, I got Avengers Endgame and watched it... and then the Youtube stuff, then watched the ending again last night. Still love it!

And on to the snippet!

Chapter 2

 

Sol Star System

 

Interim President Jorge Washington tucked his hands behind his back as he looked out the window. For the moment, he was in the Confederation Executive branch office while the new Federation government was being set up. A lot was in flux but things were starting to settle down.

The Neochimp's fur flared briefly and then settled down. He wasn't sure how to handle some of it. The war, the amalgamation—it was all happening at once. He could multi-task with the best of them, but this was going to be tricky.

)=+=(

Koshy Ahura, deputy undersecretary of the State Department tugged on an ear as he considered the email. His old boss was out; a new Veraxin boss was on his way in. His old boss was going to stay in the Confederation government; he had a feeling she was going for some sort of position to take over the presidency with the hopes that the Federation fell apart.

He wasn't so sure about that. Then again, she could be jockeying to place herself in a position for a future Federation run. She had, after all, gotten a lot of credit for the Federation initiative, even getting the Nobel Peace Prize for it. It was her baby so it coming apart would reflect badly on her too.

One thing he did note was that she wasn't trying to pull anyone with her. Which made sense given that the Confederation government was splintering. Most of State was going over to the Federation. He wasn't sure about some of the other branches.

The navy would more or less have to become the core of the Federation military if they were going to have any hope of surviving the coming war.

He glanced at the screen replaying the latest news report. The image of the giant ship made him shiver a little.

May they live in interesting times indeed he thought with another shiver of dread.

)=+=(

Admiral Ian Kepler, chief of Naval Operations of first the Confederation Navy and now the nascent Federation Navy, was surprised when he received the first reports of the first warships in movement.

Given the delicate political nature of such things, he decided it would be wise to consult the president and pass the buck. President Washington listened politely and then nodded. “You are asking for permission?”

“Yes, sir. I want to know how fast are we pushing this amalgamation?”

“As fast as we theoretically can,” the Neochimp president stated. “I'll send credentials if needed. I'm surprised you didn't run this past the rest of the chain of command though.”

Ian grimaced. “To be honest, I considered it, sir, but we don't have a secretary of defense or secretary of the navy. Both positions are up in the air.”

The president nodded gravely. That was certainly true. Both positions were being hotly debated as were the other seats in his Cabinet and elsewhere in the administration. He wasn't even sure how long he would be able to hold onto his current seat given that it was an interim posting. Usually people were voted out after a while from such things unless they made a big positive splash.

He didn't even want to consider the implications of a campaign trail at the moment. As a Confederation presidential candidate, he'd made the rounds to some of the largest colonies but mainly focused on building a solid core in Sol where the largest population of Terrans still resided.

Now that was all up in the air. He was going to have to appeal to the masses.

He cleared his throat when he realized the admiral was staring at him expectantly. “Sorry, on another train of thought I guess. You were saying?”

“We can transmit a pass to the borders. But what do we let through and how fast? Are we to share our navigational databases? All of it?”

The president frowned. This was really a test of the Federation he realized. “All of it. Put our people on board if you have to. Send the credentials. Yes, send the navigational updates if they need it. Some don't.”

The admiral frowned but made a note. “So, for the record we're all one big happy family?”

“I know; I don't like the idea of alien ships moving through our star systems, especially alien warships. But it needs to be done. We need to set up a system. And we need those ships. We need to get our collective acts together. We've got a common enemy.”

The admiral nodded again. “Yes, sir. We've got the first customers now, a quartet of Tauren ships. One is a battleship.”

“Then start there since the Taurens are our allies and a satrap. We'll see how things go from there,” the president stated.

“Understood, sir.”

“But tag each of those ships. We need to fingerprint them and know where they are going at all times.”

“Understood,” Ian said with a nod of relief at such cautious wisdom. He'd already planned to pass those orders on but official recognition of them was even better. It meant he would be covered if it got out and someone got their noses out of joint over the lack of trust.

“Trust has to be earned,” the Neochimp president stated. “Trust but verify. But we have to start somewhere.”

“Yes, sir.”

“How are you on integrating the Federation Navy?” the president asked.

Ian snorted. “Barely started, sir. I have to admit, the jarheads have it easier than we do.”

“For good reason, they take anyone who can handle the job. Equality of opportunity not outcome. If you can handle the basics, you are in.”

“Yes, sir. We're working on that here. But not all minds think alike.”

“Then they need to learn and adapt just like you do. And there are places for all. If you have to keep them separate on separate ships, so be it.”

“We're exploring that option too, sir. Some are pretty damn alien. The bugs for instance. Some are big like the Taurens.” He'd heard some off-color jokes about Taurens and the size of their hands in comparison to other parts of their anatomy.

He personally never wanted to meet those same giant hands balled into fists in a bar or elsewhere. It'd be nice to pawn the Taurens and others off on the jarheads but the bulls had capital ships and were willing to help.

“Keep me posted,” the president said with a nod before he signed off.

“Will do,” the admiral said under his breath as the screen cleared and then reset to his usual status wallpaper. “Will do,” he echoed, sitting back and thinking about the problem.

)=+=(

The Hyperspace War snippet 1

Sitrep:
Okay, I'm down to 1 story left in the next book, an anthology of Founding of the Federation stories.
I recently sent the last full manuscript of that series to Rea Friday.

In other news, my landlord passed away suddenly, so we're scrambling to figure out what is going on with our home. Fun. That may interrupt my writing plans in the future for I don't know how long. :P

I actually finished the cover before releasing The Gaia Project but decided to sit on it. :)

The ships are from CGtrader.com. They are all the same high poly ship, I just played with them a bit.
The planet I bought from CGtrader.com or Daz3D, I forgot where. I retextured it.

Anyway, on to the snippet!

Chapter 1

Esby's World Psi Sector

 

Kenny Minogue had been more worried about his mother finding out he had gotten into her secret stash of sugar cookies over the light in the sky. But as the 7 year old started to pick up on the distress of the adults he started to bite his lip and realize something big was going on.

“What is it?” he asked, looking at his mother. She seemed to fret over what to say, another thing he'd noticed.

He was smart for his age, a product of the medical advances of the time though he didn't quite understand all of that fully. What he did understand was that he read at the high school level and was taking a college history class.

His parents were both teachers, they certainly kept him busy with homework. That kept him out of trouble most of the time and away from the bullies who were out in the growing town and who had a thing for picking on the kids related to teachers.

“Nothing honey,” she finally said. Her voice was foggy with tears. She came over and hugged him and then looked up to the window.

“Is it the light in the sky?” he asked, turning to the ship lights. Night had fallen and the sky was aglow, not just from the stars but also the glowing ships as they came up over the horizon. Big ships, very big.

“In a way,” she said gently.

“We should tell him,” his father said.

“What good will it do?” his mother asked with a sniffle. She started to sob. Instinctively Kenny's throat tightened up and he began to snuffle. Whatever was distressing his mom had to be bad.

“I think he knows something's up,” his father rumbled as he wrapped his arm around them both.

“Come on,” his mother said after a long moment. “Why don't we go read your favorite story,” she said. “And we'll break out the sugar cookies.”

“I already had a few,” he admitted.

His father chuckled. “I know, I cleaned up the sugar on the counter,” he said.

The boy trembled in trepidation. “Hiding your own evidence no doubt,” his mother accused, glowering at them both. She couldn't quite scowl though, and she looked sad. “Go get ready for bed,” she urged, stroking his hair. “I'll get the cookie jar.”

“The whole thing?” Kenny asked, eyes wide.

“Something tells me a belly ache tomorrow is going to be the least of our concerns,” his father said cryptically as they went to his room.

)=+=(

Governor Decker looked balefully out to the night sky and the glowing ships as they made what he assumed was their final run. He knew what was coming, everyone did. He'd sent everything he could, every scrap of information to every satellite in orbit or throughout the star system. His IT people had programmed the satellites in orbit to go out on a ballistic course and then run silent, silent electronic witnesses to the destruction that was about to come to their world.

There was nowhere to run. He could hear the sounds of breaking things, yells, and screams in the street. The panic was dying down as people went through the various stages of death. Acceptance was last and he knew someone somewhere should add acceptance but resentment to the order. Not that he cared.

He took a long swig from the bottle and then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. The rotgut wasn't as good as genuine Kentucky shine but it was the best his planet had yet to produce. It was one of their prime exports.

Not that anything like that mattered anymore. Nor the bills, their planetary mortgage, or any of that.

“Some day we're going to find a way to pay you back for this you bastards,” he snarled, fists clenching before he turned and threw the bottle to smash into the wall behind him. He'd never given into his impulse to destroy something when he was enraged until now. It felt... good but useless he thought.

He turned and considered the glass and instinctively he wanted to clean it up. When he checked himself he had to laugh. It was a bitter honest laugh, one fraught with grief over what would never be.

He wiped at his eyes in time to see his wife in the doorway. The kids were nearby, all scared. He turned back when a bright something flickered in his peripheral vision, then back and huddled with them. “Don't look,” he urged as energy tore at them and the wind howled. Blinding heat and light consumed them and they knew no more.

)=+=(