Winds of Change Snippet 3

 Here is snippet 3:

ORCA

Agnosta

 

The fishing boat's bell clang gently with the rocking of the boat. The small crew on the trawler was too busy with a catch to try to muffle it.

Gobby Novak struggled with the line before getting it around a cleat. He gasped, flexing his gloved hands as he tried to get feeling back into them.

On the other end of the high tech polymer line was a Great White Shark. They were trying to catch it for an aquarium since the fish were not running at the moment. It was early spring, and the icebergs were flowing down from the north.

There were crabbers out there but the ship was too small to make a profit in crabbing anymore. Celtic Bimbo had once been new but was now showing signs of her age. It didn’t help that the captain spent most of his credits in port in the off-season.

The first officer checked the weather with an eye and then went back to watching the line. It was taught as it should be. The shark was firmly hooked in the corner of the mouth with a sturdy steel hook. He wished the skipper had gone for a better hook material, but this one was working for the moment.

The shark needed to wear itself out a little before they could get it alongside and get it into a sling. They didn’t want to stress it out though. Too much stress and the beast would go belly up.

~~~{^}~~~

Captain Brown steered away from a group of icebergs on the horizon. It was early spring and it showed. You could still see icebergs of various shapes and sizes everywhere floating south in the current. There was a storm front coming in a few days; he wanted to be back in the harbor by then.

His weathered hands held the pegs on the old fashioned wheel with practiced ease. He kept an eye on the line, keeping it just taut and clear of the stern. He didn’t want the beast to foul the screws. That was the last thing he needed.

Easy does it, he thought as he guided the ship with slight movements of the wheel and minor tweaks of the throttle.

He glanced in the mirror and then adjusted his cap. He was an Irish charming rogue according to the women he met. He had more salt in his hair than pepper these days. He couldn’t change, the sea and fishing was the only thing he’d ever known. He made a mistake and swung the ship into a rogue wave. The wave hit the boat and kicked a boom loose from its line. The line was old and worn and snapped with a cracking sound. The boom swung across the deck and knocked Ken into the water.

The splash alerted the crew that something was wrong. Ann leaned out the open porthole to see Ken flaying. “Man overboard!” she called out and then hit the alarm.

The alarm went off throughout the ship, setting off a klaxon and flashing strobe. The crew cursed as they tried to find Ken.

“Anyone got eyes on him?” the captain called out over his shoulder. “Sing out to me! Who has him?” he demanded.

~~~{^}~~~

Katina saw the human splash and went to investigate. The rest of the pod was intent on the shark that the humans had caught on the line.

Namu and the others in the pod told her to ignore the thrashing 2-leg but she took pity on the human and rose up under him. From her melon, her echolocation clicks determined that it was a male as her sixth sense penetrated his clothing.

“You shouldn’t be jealous, Namu. Is manhood is tiny,” she teased her mate. He gave her some side-eye and then clacked an echolocation burst at the 2-leg.

He sent a withering comment in primal dolphin and then swam off.

His mate sighed softly to herself and lifted the human up on her back. Her mate would never understand her fascination with the 2-legs. He didn’t care that her ancestors had actually liked working with them. They were endlessly inventive and had saved two of her ancestors from the tiny predators that attacked through their blood.

She could at least help the 2-leg out and temporarily sate her curiosity over the thing while also adding to the mystery of her species with them. It never hurt to have the 2-legs indebted to her kind and remind them of who the real rulers of the sea were.

~~~{^}~~~

Ken realized he was in trouble when he hit the frigid water. No one lasted more than a few moments in the cold seas without a proper suit and he didn’t have one on. He cursed his stupidity. The captain was cheap. He should have bought one in his last port of call but he’d stupidly gambled and drank most of his money away.

Now he was going to pay for his shortsighted stupidity with his life.

He spat the salt water out of his mouth as he bobbed and waved frantically to the ship. Something touched his leg and he frantically looked around. They’d been hunting a shark, and he’d heard that they would first tap their victim before they took a test bite. He flayed around as he tried to swim back to the boat.

~~~{^}~~~

“Secure that line!” the captain snarled as he held onto the old fashioned wooden wheel.

“Port side!” Ann called out.

“Yeah, yeah,” Captain Brown snarled under his breath as he yanked the wheel hard over to come back around to his hapless sailor. “Bet he didn’t think he’d be bait this morn,” he growled gruffly. “Next time tie the line properly!” he bellowed.

~~~{^}~~~

Gobby Novak the XO scrambled to secure the line as Paul tossed a preserver and line in Ken’s direction. The toss was bad, partly because of the swaying of the boat and partly due to the sudden turn. Paul dodged the swinging boom and tripped on the line.

Gobby snagged the line and wrapped it around his wrist to contain the boom. He was nearly yanked off his feet. Ann came up behind him and grabbed his waist to pull him back down. He breathed a sigh of relief as the cook assisted him in wrestling the wayward boom under control.

As they secured the boom line with a fresh replacement, Paul managed to struggle to his feet and pull the preserver back in to try another throw.

Just as Paul got the preserver to the side of the boat a geyser blast of air and water went skyward near the hapless sailor.

“Whale ahoy!” Gobby said. He stared gob smacked as the black shape emerged under the sailor and lifted him out of the water.

 ~~~{^}~~~

Ken felt the rubbery shape push him up and out of the water. Instinctively, he hung onto it as he shivered. Hypothermia was beginning to sink in. He knew he didn’t have much time left. If he lost consciousness, he was a gonner.

 ~~~{^}~~~

The captain stared at the sight of the black shape carrying Ken back to the boat. Initially he thought it was the shark that they’d been hunting, but he quickly realized from the blunt black fin that it was an Orca. It was curved and short, a female he judged. Where had she come from?

She must have been drawn in by the thrashing from the shark. He checked the line. It was still tied off to the cleat.

 ~~~{^}~~~

Namu saw the shark thrash as it tried to snap the line that connected the massive hook in its mouth to the 2-leg boat. In its maddened state, it lined up on Katina and the human. The alpha male went into overdrive and swam up to slam the massive great white from below.

~~~{^}~~~

One moment they were staring at the incredible sight of Ken being rescued by an orca, the next the shark fin had lined up on them and then an explosion of water and shark was thrust in a geyser upwards. The two-ton shark was thrown into the air with a massive male Orca’s jaws clamped around its torso.

Captain Brown stared thunderstruck for a long moment.

 ~~~{^}~~~

Ken felt the spray of water but he was beginning to lose consciousness. His grip began to slip. He coughed up water and moaned. Hands reached for his back. He heard muffled voices saying they got him, and he felt himself being lifted out of the sea.

 ~~~{^}~~~

“Show off,” Katina teased her mate in a series of clicks. “This one is about done in. They are so fragile. Not really meant to be in the sea,” she observed as she pushed the human to the side of the boat.

Namu ignored her as he shook the shark and tore at its abdomen savagely. The shark’s mouth opened and closed, exposing triangular serrated teeth that bit the water in impotent rage and terror before the glass black eyes faded.

The water was red with blood. The orca backed off and allowed the shark to drift before it went back in and used his flippered hands to rip the wound open further to get at the liver. He extracted it, took a bite for himself, then bit off a chunk and spat it out to the other orca as he took a piece off to his mate.

 ~~~{^}~~~

Gobby and Paul pulled Ken back on board. He shivered uncontrollably, half awake. Paul slapped the guy on the face to try to get him to remain awake as they tried to get him below decks.

Ann met them at the hatch and threw a blanket over Ken. “I’ll get some broth going. Get him in the shower. Don’t warm him up too fast or he’ll have a heart attack,” she warned.

“We know,” Gobby said testily as he pulled the sailor to the head and waiting shower. He could hear that Ann had already turned it on.

 ~~~{^}~~~

“Well, that was fun,” Namu said as he came up to his mate as she swam away from the ship.

“Did you at least save me a piece?” she asked.

“Of course,” he teased. He played with her for a bit, keeping it away from her before she began to get exasperated. When he sensed her mood shift, he kicked it to her with his flutes.

She gobbled the liver in a couple of bites and then nodded.

“Just what our growing child needed,” she said.

“You’re welcome,” he said as he swam back to the pod. They were chasing a run of seals that were fishing nearby.

 ~~~{^}~~~

Winds of Change snippet 2

Sitrep:  I got the manuscript back from Rea and I went and shot it off to Goodlife after edits. She said to expect it in a week.

Here is a snippet from another story:

Grease Monkey

Pyrax:

Admiral Chambers frowned as she read the orders. They came direct from Admiral Pashenkov so she couldn't dispute them, nor would she. She would miss Trajan though. He had turned out to be a good officer, a bit bent but not broken by the war. She was glad he had gotten himself sorted out and had found some peace. She hoped the order to go to the gate star system didn't break him. It would be a damn shame for the navy to lose his services.

She had to admit they were gambling a lot by sending him there rather than to Airea 3 and the long way. There was no guarantee that the Spacebees in Tau would be able to get the gate functional in time. From the reports she had read about the war fronts there, it wasn't good. Admiral Logan was pulling out all the tricks to stop the Taurens though.

~~~-^-~~~

Warrant officer Mack Ihejirika stared at the kid that had been assigned to him. He was the number one plane mechanic on the carrier. He had spent years perfecting his profession into an art and now they sent him another fresh kid straight out of the schools as an understudy.

The kid was stuffed with book knowledge. Who knows what they taught the kids these days. It was all recipe, follow-the-directions crap, not true art. The art of a true mechanic was in being able to diagnose a problem and solve it with the clues they had. In being able to find ways to keep them flying with “bush fixes” and even tuning them to do better than expected.

A true mechanic was hands-on. They could do anything from an engine teardown to reprogramming the sensors. There were of course specialists, but they were not the maestros of the trade like he was.

Technically, he had dozens of plane captains and mechanics on the ship. They answered to him and Lieutenant Eli Grande. But Eli wasn't a natural mechanic. He was another guy who had learned the trade from going to class rather than hands-on. He spent most of his times in meetings and doing paperwork.

To be honest Mack preferred it that way. Eli took care of the paperwork and logistics while he got his furry hands dirty. He could tune a fighter or bomber to fly at its best level, sometimes squeezing a bit more speed and efficiency out of the systems that designers hadn't expected.

“Ah, I'm Spacer First Class Rob Potlik,” the human kid said.

Mack sniffed and then turned away, ignoring the extended hand.

“Sorry, sir,” the kid said as he set his spacebag down and came to attention.

“Don't call me sir,” he muttered.

“Ah …”

“I said, don't call me sir. I work for a living,” the brown Neogorilla growled. He was a light brown and had a mix of gorilla and human features. Some of his ancestors had gene formed themselves to be more conformist to humans. He was annoyed at that but he was publicly indifferent to people seeing him as different. He rather secretly treasured being different. He liked to stand out.

“You fresh from the trade schools?” the gorilla asked as he watched the squadrons outside the window. Ordinarily you couldn't see the tiny specs in the black depth of space but the window was a smart window. It had icons around each craft with basic data like IFF.

Barb was mixing it up, running the squadrons through the ringer as usual. In order to stay on top as CAG, she had to have the best fighter. Her double O was having issues though. In fact most of the lead squadron had some gremlins in the OMS.

“Yes, … ah, Warrant Officer,” the kid said. “I was top of my class. I wrote a paper on …”

“Papers,” the gorilla sniffed harshly. “They interfere with art. I don't need a piece of paper telling me if I know how to do my job!” he turned to point a finger into the chest of the kid.

The kid flinched, looking a bit fearful, but he held his ground.

Mack was silently impressed. So, the kid did have some backbone. He had passed his first test.

He had come into the navy after spending time in the space racing league as a teen. He'd been something of a loner, all mysterious, never letting friends into his room. His parents had tolerated his talk of mechanical work as art.

He had bonded with Barb over their mutual past with the space-racing league. She had been in Pyrax; he had been in Bek. Two of the pilots in her lead squadron had been in the racing league in Antigua, another in ET, and another had recently transferred in from Bek.

They had all been flying since they were ten. In Barb's case, six. She and her brother Lyle had been flying shuttles too. She hated the things.

He growled as he turned to listen to the chatter. The kid seemed to relax with a “few” shoulders slumping. Mack snorted again and then grimaced when Barb began to complain bitterly about the sluggish response to her plane.

The kid looked up to the audio chatter and frowned. “Sir, there is a problem with the OMS? As I was saying …”

“No, there is a bump on my canvas!” the gorilla growled, turning a glower on the kid. “No one messes with my art! Until I know what to do with you, hands off, got it?”

The kid nodded in earnest.

~~~-^-~~~

Captain Atler checked on the new fighters and nodded. The crews were still shaking down with the new designs. They were good, damn near E class according to all reports.

An E class used an A.I. to balance the power supply load and shields. They were smart A.I. that tended to bond with the host pilot in a symbiosis.

Cobra fighters used dumb A.I. to do the same job. They weren't as effective as the smart A.I., but they got the job done. The new approach was an artificial neural network to balance the shields and reactor. It made the process almost instinctive for the system, taking a lot of the processor load off of the A.I. and freeing it up to better support the pilot.

The shields had also been reshaped. Any energy shield was simple; it was due to the natural effect of gravity curving back in upon itself. Fighters had flattened egg-shaped shields that made the network keep working to balance it. By incorporating the neural network and making changes to the fighters’ design and incorporating Lemnos force emitter tech, the designers had made more efficient shields.

The new naval fighters had dropped the need to be aerodynamic in favor of a space-only platform. The Marines, however, wanted to keep the aerodynamic design since they had to operate in the soup. They were taking on the old Cobras as they were phased out.

All of those changes meant that there were places things could break down and definitely hardware to learn about, explore, and find the breaking points. She would much rather it happen in a training exercise rather than in combat so she pushed the CAG to keep a rigorous training schedule while they still had the opportunity to do so.

~~~-^-~~~

Upcoming Books

 Paul, one of the Betas brought a post to my attention that someone wasn't sure what Forging Alliances was.

Okay here are the upcoming books so far:

Winds of Change (not World Builders, I goofed) is Tales of the Federation Reborn 7. It has stories from the New Federation series that will impact events moving forward.

Status: With Rea going through final edits now.

When will it come out? Expect it in Early October 2025

Forging Alliances is the first book of The Second Xeno War in the main Federation series. (the one with Irons and crew) There will be crossovers with the stories, Jethro 9-10, Shelby 9-10 and so on too.

 Status: Being proof read by the Betas.

When will it come out? Expect it in December 2025

 

Occupation Shelby Logan Chronicles 10 is the 10th book in the Shelby series.

Status: Being proof read by the Betas

When will it come out? Expect it in February 2026

 

What we Fight For is the 10th book in the Jethro Goes to War series. Yes that is Shanti on the cover, not Jethro. If you want to know more, well, you'll have to check it out. :)

Status: I finished writing it a week or so ago. Being proof read by the Betas. (if they finish the other books above let me know and I'll send you this!)

When will it come out? Expect it April 2026

 

Current project: Princess Rescue Inc 4.

Status: 13 chapters complete rough draft. Last book to be written this year.

When will it come out? Expect it June 2026. 

That is it for now!

Tales of the New Federation book 7 Winds of Change Snippet 1

 So, sitrep, Shelby 9 is selling horribly. I'm wondering if it was my choice of cover or material? Or market saturation?

I finished Jethro 10 and I am on the last book of the year, PRI4. I'm running on fumes however, we had a visit from the paramedics. (we're fine) Dad wasn't feeling well all night but bounced back once they did a check.

Book 7 is with Rea so....

Anyway.... on to the snippet!

 

Refugee Convoy

OO114-4, Omicron Sector, 734 years from present day.

 

Acting Commodore Leron Cabera was of course on hand to enter the key to trigger the bomb. The bulk freighter that had been commandeered to hold the bombs deployed the immense bomb and then backed away.

The crews of the ships watched as the bomb began its first stage deployment. It drifted clear of the massive ship into a polar orbit. Once it was settled there it began to kick out sub munitions that slowly began to spiral into the star. Once it was clear that there were no problems the ships got underway.

The small task force of 6 battered ships spent 3 days fleeing to the outer edge of the star system before the commodore sent a radio signal to trigger the final countdown on the bomb.

He had been given a small command along with his brevet promotion from lieutenant commander to commodore with a simple but ruthless order, they were to nova bomb the anchor stars of every hyperbridge in order to prevent the Xenos from returning to the ravaged sector. Not that it would do a whole hell of a lot of good he judged.

There was still a Xeno task force rampaging in the sector. Two naval task forces were supposed to nail it, but so far had failed miserably. Hundreds of star systems had been laid to waste in their attempts to kill the aliens. Both sides were popping stars or planets like candy these days. The fleet was whittled down to the bone. They were killing themselves trying to nail the bastards before the Xenos destroyed all life in the sector.

And in a moment they were going to pop another star, he thought as he looked at the camera showing the stern view. The ship’s hyperdrive was fully charged. The field was forming. He knew that they had the timing right, the gravitational sensors could see the wave of energy coming towards them.

At least this one doesn’t have any life around it, he noted. Small blessings.

He stood on the bridge as the nova bomb went off behind them in the O type star. His ship fled into hyperspace as the star went nova, tearing apart the star system behind it and flinging the contents of the star and debris far and wide.

The star had been an anchor star for a hyperbridge. With it gone the bridge would no doubt collapse. At least, that was the intent. Burning the bridge was the only strategy they had to keep the Xenos at bay. That had already been done to the Stargate in the sector.

Unfortunately, it also would prevent any friendly ships from fleeing towards them as well. There was no way to warn them either. The ansible network was down.

“This sucks,” the commodore growled as he stared at the plot. After a moment he straightened up and squared his shoulders and then nodded once. “On to the next I guess.”

“I agree sir, this sucks,” the ship’s XO said with a shake of her head.

The commodore l glanced at her image and then nodded. “Set course for the next on the list.”

“Aye aye sir.”

~~~<{[   ]}>~~~

In the OO114-4 Hyper Bridge

 

Captain Christina Archer was staring at the Omicron sector map, wondering where the safest place to deposit her chicks were when the ship trembled. She looked up in alarm, Fortune LV was a Mayflower XXX class titan colony ship. Ships that size didn’t just shimmy without something very bad going wrong.

“Report,” she barked as she straightened up and stood. Her back and neck bugged her but she ignored the pangs of pain.

“The hyperbridge is collapsing!” the urgent voice from the ship’s third officer said over the intercom. “Skipper we need you up here”! He said.

“On my way,” the captain said as she took off through her hatch and headed to the bridge. Fortunately it was a short jaunt. Her hand slipped into her jacket pocket and pulled out a scrunchy. She used the rubber band to tie her blond hair back in a pony tail as she got through the hatch and onto her bridge.

The ship shuddered again as she grabbed her chair. Horace turned at her arrival and jumped out of the way.

“We need to get through the wall or the bridge will collapse around us,” the navigator warned urgently from the overhead speakers.

“What will happen to us if it does?” a tech asked.

“Nothing good,” the navigator warned.

“Helm, alter course to port. Get us out of the bridge now,” the captain barked as she settled into the hot seat. “Warn all hands to brace for massive turbulence,” she ordered.

“We’ve got red lights on four node rings,” the engineering tech warned.

“It is going to get a lot worse once we hit the wall,” the helmsman muttered. “Taking her in,” she stated flatly.

“Set beacon to follow and relay. Then emergency stations people!” the captain stated firmly as she settled herself into her chair. There were some flickering lights and then a panel went down. The tech there cursed, tried to  get it back up but failed. She moved over to a vacant station rather than stare at a dead board.

The captain nodded in brief approval and then she was intent on saving her ship and convoy as the walls of the hyperbridge began to collapse around them.

~~~<{[   ]}>~~~