Bootstrap 5 is Publishing NOW!

 Okay, so, Bootstrap 5 has gone live.

About:

  Mitch Chambers and his family have been busy dealing with the alien Memes and their growing colony on an alien world. But they were dragged into saving Earth and then into a growing conflict between certain powerful individuals and another group of people led by Eugene Ryans who had settled on an alien world. Mitch is a problem solver, so, when certain parties ask for his help they better be damn sure they want it, otherwise they'll get more than they bargain for!

This is a crossover book between the Bootstrap Colony and Princess Rescue series.

 

Yup, I did it. A full crossover between Bootstrap Colony and Princess Rescue. The ending... ooof. I'll just let you be the judge. What a ride!

B&N: Intersection of Worlds

Amazon: Intersection of Worlds

Bootstrap Colony 5 Snippet 5

 

Chapter 5

 

Capital, Bootstrap Colony

 

Jacklynn oversaw the shuttle’s maintenance ninety-day tear down. The bird was on her wheels in the hangar; panels were opened up and various components were out or had cables and hoses plugged in.

On top of a full life-support purge, they were doing a full cycle on the equipment. The exterior tiles had all checked out. She was relieved by that; she didn’t want or need to recreate the Columbia disaster.

The ground crew was taking the shuttle down to the frame in some spots to do a full inspection and swap out of some components. The engines were already out and were overhauled. She wasn’t taking any chances, especially since they hadn’t gotten a chance to do that on Earth.

Fortunately, they had a new design for the rockets and jet engines. These were nearly 50 percent 3D printed out of composite metals and integrated a lot of components and hoses, cutting down on parts. She liked the idea, though she felt it wasn’t quite fully tested. But there was a fix for that too.

She would take the shuttle up for a test flight before the return trip. But first … she saw her target in the hangar and wandered over to him.

“The Bell BA609 civilian version of the V-22,” Jacklynn said as Mitch opened his mouth to ask about the shuttle.

“Um, yeah? What about it?” he asked.

“I want one. Actually, more than one and parts and stuff,” she said.

He looked at her and laughed softly, shaking his head.

She put her hands on her hips. “No, seriously.” She tapped her index fingers meaningfully.

He sobered and looked at her for a long moment, sizing up her determination. “Look, I get it but we don’t have the fuel and parts for it.”

“True.”

He looked at her again.

She had an innocent expression on her face.

He groaned. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?” she asked innocently.

“That,” he mock growled.

She chuckled. “What? This?” she fluttered her eyes and then put on a sad, slightly pouty expression on her face. He groaned again and her Cheshire grin broke out. “Don’t make me trot out the puppy eyes,” she said with a slightly jutted out lower lip.

“You? Puppy eyes?” He shook his head. “You have puppy eyes?” he chuckled.

They laughed together.

“Seriously though …,” he said when they sobered.

“I know it is a tough bird to fly and keep in the air. But think of what we can do with it!”

He sighed. “Yes, I realize that.” He shook his head. “I also have a feeling you won’t let this go easily.”

She smirked again.

“Okay, miss smarty pants, how do you propose to get one or more over here?” he demanded as he turned to her. This time it was his turn to have his hands on his hips.

She started to say something, stopped and then frowned as she mentally regrouped as the problem suddenly unfolded in her mind.

“Well?” he asked with his own smirk.

“I’m thinking!”

He snorted. “Well, when you have an answer, let me know.”

She shook her head and sighed.

“And I highly doubt they’ll let us license it to build here. It would be horrendously expensive. That is the best option but … I’m betting no.”

She groaned.

“We’d have to make tools and dies, equipment …,” he shook his head. “In the meantime, why not break out the simulator program and see if they have a sim for a V-22. If they do, try it in the simulator and see how it really handles here.”

She blinked and then nodded. “You know it won’t be enough. I was serious about having it in our inventory.”

“I know. But maybe it will give you some thoughts on its cons along with the pros you are so fixated on. Crank the realism up and see how it handles then.”

“Okay,” she replied with a nod.

“In the meantime, we’re moving along,” she said as she began to brief him on their progress. He nodded along as she showed him the reports.

>>>*<<<

Bootstrap Colony 5 Snippet 4

 So, an update from Goodlife: Shelley said that she'll have the manuscript back to me sometime later this week. :)

I'm also almost finished act 2 of the latest book. :)

On to the Snippet!

Chapter 4

 

Montana, Earth

 

Stewart Yellowknife downed his drink and then poured another. He glanced over to the others in the room and silently sized them up.

There were eight men in the room. All were movers and shakers. They all owned a stake in various companies. But a few stood out over the rest. When they spoke, everyone listened attentively.

Their group was set to take over the world. It sounded melodramatic, like some sort of bad-action flick, bad guy, but it was true. They were on the cusp of taking over another world and with it securing control of Earth.

Or, at least that was the end goal. But to do that they needed to figured out how to solve a few problems. At the moment, it was Mitch Chambers and the new aliens.

He had been to the other world, the one that Eugene Ryans was on. It was rich with opportunities. He’d failed in his mission though; he had been sent to get Ryans to sign over control of his company to the Cabal. They could of course fake it, that was on the table, though Ryans had set up protections against that.

The fact that they were exploiting natives of the other world wasn’t lost on him. But it was a new world, and this time he and the people he represented would be on top. Besides, the real exploiters were Ryans and his group. They were just going to make sure everything Ryans had done was fixed.

At least, that was how he sold himself on the project. But first they had to get back to the damn planet.

“We need to find a way to get Chambers’ help. He’s on the fence,” Rajani said.

“Hell with that,” Farook said. “I’d like to get my hands on the tech of those aliens,” he growled. “They are light years more advanced than we are.”

“Good luck with that. So far no one can understand what they are,” Ian said with a shake of his head.

The meeting was at Senator Crandal’s place. The senator had unfortunately been stuck in DC for a vote so he couldn’t attend. The others had decided to continue the meeting without his presence. By their rules, he would have to abide by the decision of the collective since he hadn’t attended the meeting. They needed a way to lay out their goals and the problems to achieve them.

It had already been determined that Chambers was the key to fixing the wormhole problem. But how to do that was still on the table.

“How do we get leverage with him? We tried to get control of his company but failed. It isn’t public,” Farook Aziz stated flatly. The Saudi didn’t look happy at that statement.

He had deep pockets and was known as one of the money men of their corporation. The others in their cabal suspected he had ties to terrorist organizations as well as certain powerful Middle Eastern governments. No one wanted to know how deep he was into the various organizations. Just as they did not want the others in their cabal to know their own skeletons.

Yellowknife suspected that Farook was a money manager for many shady groups. Even terrorists and revolutionary groups needed funding. Some washed their money in various ways, even going so far as to invest in various things that would generate a steady income to fund their causes.

They were normally targeted by various secret agencies in the west. Farook, however, had ties to the Cabal so he was immune from such unwanted attention.

“There are other ways to gain control of his company,” Rajani Bakshi stated lazily. He glanced to the shadowy figure in the corner of the room. A dark hand with rings on it made a slight motion as if to say yes and no.

Rajani was from India with ties to various call centers and industrialists. He had ties to various governments in that region of the world.

“No,” Ian stated flatly.

“No? Just that?”

“Too much media coverage. If anything happened to his company, it would come out. Even with our control of some of the media outlets. We don’t need that sort of spotlight.”

“There is literally a gold mine there. Plus platinum, and then the biologicals …,” Farook shook his head.

“And don’t forget the hunting. How much would someone with deep pockets pay to go to an alien world and see, let alone shoot and import back, an alien or dinosaur?” Ian McMaster said with a sniff as he poured himself another whiskey. He was a power broker. He had a slight Irish brogue in his voice but he was actually from Chicago. He had just cultivated the accent to hide his true past.

The dark man in the overstuffed chair in the shadows snorted softly. McMaster glanced his way and then over to the others.

“If they can get asteroid stopped, won’t need another world.”

“You aren’t listening. We have a golden opportunity here. One we can exploit for incredible profit. Two of them.”

“Oh?”

“Not just aliens …”

“They don’t have tech we can exploit.”

“True, to some degree. What I am pointing to are entire worlds. Why go to space when we can jump to another world? Possibly two of them?”

“Ah …?”

“Mining and resources are tight. We’ve got bleeding hearts everywhere. Pollution, global warming, don’t step on the butterflies, that sort of thing. Think about it! Entire worlds! We could find gold nuggets like back in the olden days!”

“Which do us no good here.”

“Our investors would beg to disagree. Especially if we shipped back some of it.”

“How? And wouldn’t that affect the markets here?”

“So, we do it carefully. Control it. We control what comes and goes. We’ll be the ones to control trade between three entire planets,” Rajani stressed. “Possibly more over time! Who knows what else we might find? A new material? New drugs?”

“That Chambers character was making a killing selling materials from his world. Dinosaurs … the kooks and science geeks are eating it up!” McMasters said with a shake of his head. “Imagine what collectors would pay!”

Yellowknife snorted. “That they are,” he said. There had been a recent story in the world news of scammers getting involved.

“Can you imagine tourism? Or emigration? A theme park on an alien world?” Farook stated.

Ian suddenly looked thoughtful.

They all knew that the money for a theme park wasn’t just in the park but also in everything leading up to and from it. Logistics, travel, lodging, food, gifts, all sorts of money could and was made from any good theme park. They were revenue generators for an entire region.

Farook chuckled and shook his head. “Are you seriously thinking about a Jurassic Park scenario? That didn’t work out well in the books or movies …”

“That’s fiction. This is real life,” Ian said dismissively. “Everything that happens will be there. We’ll control the narrative here.”

That was certainly true, Yellowknife thought. They had managed to control the narrative about Ryans and how he had killed American and UN personnel before forcing those who had surrendered back home and then destroying his side of the gate.

That wasn’t going over well in many circles. The standing story that Ryans had turned out to be a power hungry tyrant who had raped and then married the local teenage queen and was controlling her and her kingdom was holding up very well.

“True. What about alien pathogens? Crashes? Another revolt?”

“Ah, that’s where your mercenary friends come in. They will be our problem solvers.” He glanced at the retired colonel in the corner.

Colonel Gaylord Smith smiled ever so slightly as he shifted in the chair. The smile of white, even teeth briefly lit up his dark face. “If it is a problem, we can solve it,” he said affably as he selected a cigar and began to roll it between his fingers. It was Cuban, rather expensive. A humidor was nearby with several cases of other cigars to imbibe with.

“There speaks the true patriot. We can set up dog and pony shows about how we’re liberating the savages. Show us bringing modern education, healthcare, and such while catching and kicking out the bastards who took over their country in the first place,” Ian said with mock innocence and virtue.

The others snorted. It was a well-played game, one they all had experience in.

Yellowknife didn’t say anything.

“Okay, I have my reservations. If you can find a way to handle the alien pathogen problem …”

“We didn’t find anything in Chambers according to the medics,” Rajani said.

“I still don’t want another Covid. Though many did profit from it,” Ian said, rolling over the other’s protest. “I definitely do not want to be saddled with the blame for bringing an alien pathogen over or whatever else. Like that worm thing.”

Farook nodded. “We’ll take it cautiously. But this is an opportunity. One with riches beyond belief. Without risk there can be no reward.”

Yellowknife had to wonder if there was an element of religious expansionism in Farook’s motives. He wouldn’t put it past the other man. Then again, it was said that Farook’s only religion was money.

Ian held up a finger and then pointed to the colonel who was puffing on his cigar and waving the match off to snuff it out. “He’ll be the first to tell you that we need accurate and up-to-date intelligence.”

The colonel sat back, lifted the cigar out of his mouth and blew a smoke ring. “Definitely,” he said. His voice was gravel and bass. “We definitely need to look before we leap. But I’ve got my contacts working on it.”

The others in the room nodded.

>>>*<<<

Bootstrap Colony 5 Snippet 3

 A happy early Mothers Day to all of the ladies out there!

Chapter 3

 

Outback, Bootstrap Colony

 

A team of scientists sat on the top and inside their vehicles as they observed the distant herds of animals. From their vantage point, they were upwind and reasonably safe at over a kilometer away. The herds were slowly moving on their migration path; individual herds had started to merge together into larger and larger herds. The scientists used binoculars, a scope, and drones to observe a T-Rex family as they interacted and hunted a nearby herd of Hadrosaurs.

The predators were the usual mix of ages. There were at least two adults and two subadults, plus some rambunctious teenagers and some juveniles. The youngest had the most energy and tried to hunt smaller game near the family.

A clack of jaws and a look from mom made them stop and slink back to the tree line. Their antics had gotten the herd looking in the direction of the predators, something that the adults obviously did not want to happen.

“You’ll note there is no sign of a beak on any of the animals,” Doctor Diego Fuentes said as he manned the main scope and took a series of images with the camera attached to his scope. He had been a zookeeper in Mexico before he’d been brought to the new world. He had existed with his wife Dora in the south as ranchers under Jack at Copper Town for several years. When the science community really took off at the Capital, they’d moved to the Capital base to take over the Zoo and work in the university and museum.

He had started out knowing very little English and having to rely on his wife or electronic translators to communicate with the others. However, over the years, he had picked up enough English to communicate fluently, albeit with an accent.

He wanted scientific observations of the animals in order to better know how they will interact in the Zoo and also to report back to the scientific community on Earth. The last thing he wanted was a report with his name on it making him a laughingstock in that community. He wanted respect.

“Yes, I’m certain Mitch will appreciate that,” Sean replied in exasperation. Mitch had observed a family of T-Rex that had a growth like a beak on their snouts. He of course hadn’t spent a lot of time with detailed observations at the time having such a close encounter. After that he’d managed to keep encounters at a much further distance which had not made for easy observation.

Other animals had been observed with a beak-like structure on the front of their muzzles. It had been later determined to be a mix of coloration and keratin structures. The animals, however, had lips for the most part. Only a few dinosaurs were known to have a beak like the ceratopsians and oviraptors.

Sean was a teen but had qualified as a vet, shooter, and rancher. He had agreed to take the group out since he knew the area. That had saved security from sending an additional detail to guard them.

They had yet to spot an elusive stegosaurus. There was one maddening video of an animal in a migration but none since. It was one of many questions they wanted resolved. Given that Stegosaurus were supposed to be extinct at the time of the Chicxulub impactor, the asteroid that had killed the majority of the big dinosaurs and ended the Cretaceous period, it was an anomaly that they wanted to resolve before presenting it to the scientists on Earth.

The vets and biologists had set up camera traps and drones to monitor and observe animal populations in various locations. They too were mostly too far away to get a lot of detail to resolve the “great beak debate.”

However, now that the team was closer, they had confirmed that not only did therapod dinosaurs have lips, but they lacked the beak structure that Mitch had observed.

Paleontologists on Earth had debated the existence of lips on dinosaurs for some time. Soft tissue didn’t normally fossilize so it was theoretical for the most part. They now had definitive proof that, yes, they had lips.

The running joke about chickens with lips might hit a few people from time to time … right up until you saw a Rex or other predator curl said lips to show the mouth of sharp teeth hiding behind them. If anything they were even scarier.

Seeing a rex nibble a mate with those lips or display against rivals was something they were excited on reporting. The stuffy Doctor Fuentes was amassing all sorts of evidence to show off to the scientific community.

Doctor Fuentes wasn’t shy about calling that beak issue out every chance he could get, however. Sean wasn’t certain if it was to tweak Mitch, who wasn’t even there to appreciate it, or to just show that their fearless leader was in error and therefore mortal. The good doctor wasn’t above being caustic about pointing out the disparity in “proper documentation” between citizen scientists and professional scientists.

“I’m certain he’ll be grateful that you’ve confirmed that observation, Doc. Though in his defense, he was right about the feathers, and the structure in the video we have does confirm something on the muzzles of the animals he had such a close encounter with, Doctor,” Marjorie Jordan said patiently. She was a vet tech out of the East Village. She’d been taking classes to upgrade her qualifications in the capital and one of the courses was observing the animals in their native environment.

Steve Wasabi sighed and shook his head at that. The teen was also a student from East Village and just starting on his career in veterinary medicine.

“We have not found those animals though.”

“They could have died. If it was a parasite or abnormal growth, it could have made it harder for them to hunt and therefore detrimental to their long-term health,” Marjorie stated.

They were all talking at a stage whisper, being out in the bush meant that they had to be quiet to not disturb the fauna and in some cases, flora around them.

“You are pitching theories without any proof,” the doctor said in rich disapproval.

“Actually, Doctor, I am using what little observational evidence we have to pitch a hypothesis,” Steve stated flatly. Doctor Fuentes and Doctor Mallard were a bit stroppy about the difference between a hypothesis and theory. “But, I’ll welcome any additional evidence if and when it comes in.”

The doctor gave the student a bit of side-eye as if to show his disapproval and then sniffed and went back to glassing the predators.

Marjorie exchanged looks with the teen and then shrugged slightly and went back to their own observations. Sean stifled a chuckle from his seat nearby.

Marjorie had an old-fashioned clipboard with a cover. They’d tried using a tablet but the new batteries didn’t have the life span. The screens were also not bright enough to handle the glare of being out in the open. So, the old tried and true methods of paper and pen prevailed.

It just meant that the students had to type everything up back in base camp and tag photos and video clips or other evidence with time codes and such for later peer review, whenever that happened.

Doctor Fuentes wanted to house a Rex at the new zoo. It would be a crowning jewel if they could accomplish it. It would most likely have to be more than one though. You can’t have a pack animal live in isolation, and it wasn’t good for their mental health.

Getting solid data on the habits and habitat of the Rex and other animals that they preyed upon was therefore important.

The great migration would be underway soon enough. They would get a rough count of the animals as they passed the capital on their way south for the winter. The students were excited but dreading it. Excited to see so many animals up close but dreading having to film them. And also dreading having to take samples if possible.

Sean was dubious about that idea.

They were also dubious about having to go over every video feed and count animals. Sean had been working with the computer geeks to create some sort of tracking software to do it for them. Doctor Fuentes still wanted a personal check by the students.

They were dreading that most of all. It meant hours of boring viewing and note taking.

Marjorie checked the time and noted an observation. The Rex adults were trying to find a way to isolate an older Hadrosaur that was cropping at the branches of a bush. It seemed wise to them.

She wondered idly if it dangled itself out there out of some Lemming response or as deliberate bait to draw the predator's attention away from the babies in the herd. Certain birds were known to do that, act wounded to draw predators away.

She frowned and jotted the idea down and a note to herself to look up references if and when she brought it up with the class later.

They all jumped when the radio went off. “Turn that thing …,” Doctor Fuentes said crossly in Spanish before switching to English.

Marjorie had already turned the volume down and then plugged the jack of her headphones in. She cradled the headphones to one ear to listen to the report.

The doctor was already back to watching the herds. “Hopefully you didn’t disturb the hunt,” he grumbled in a stage whisper.

“What is it?” Steve asked.

“Probably another radio check-in,” Doctor Fuentes grumbled, still intent on the herd. They were fanned out in a circle with the young in the center. Every other adult was looking up from time to time to watch the area, calmly chewing their cud.

One of the Hadrosaurs was near an embankment of sand and berries munching away. They’d already proven that the animals had a crop and gizzard and collected sand and gravel in it to process the plant matter that it ate.

Marjorie put the radio down once she’d heard the report twice. “The expedition is back.”

“What expedition?” Doctor Fuentes asked absently. She pointed up. He looked up and then frowned at her, clearly puzzled.

“The one to Earth,” she clarified.

Sean and Steve’s eyes lit with pleasure at the news.

“Oh,” he said and then blinked as he caught on. “Oh!”

“Yeah. They’ll be coming down at the next window. Oh, and by the way, there is a storm coming up from the south. Expect high winds tonight and then it to hit tomorrow sometime.”

The doctor sighed. “Always something interrupts us. I swear,” he muttered.

>>>*<<<