by Bobby Adair
“Dylan,” says Phil, “I hate to interrupt, but we’re behind the planet now.”
I open up the crew comm so all can hear. “Everyone, use your suit g to compensate for the load. Penny, amp up the grav. Phil, make sure we stay in the envelope. We don’t want to get going so fast we fling ourselves out on the wrong tangent.”
“No worries,” answers Phil. “It’ll be right.”
“Good. I don’t want these Grays going home and warning their brothers about the storm that’s waiting for them here.”
Penny burns for several long minutes before Phil gives her the mark. With max-grav powering through the drive array, overdrive in fact. We have to roll Spitz’s probability dice and push to near forty g’s to make the timing work.
It’s a risk, with odds in our favor, but a downside none of us can afford. If the dice come up snake eyes, the Rusty Turd turns into a glittery vapor trail mingling with the dust over Trinity Base.
Phil powers up the grav lens.
The glowing specks of the Trog fleet are scattered through the sky a few thousand miles in front of us.
On Penny’s screen, I see her zero in on one particular speck, the Gray’s lifeboat.
Penny lets loose with the axial gun and rips through several hundred rounds. I hear the squad working in the forward sections, loading the magazines even as Penny is emptying them.
The speck of the Gray ship is growing incredibly fast as our speed soars.
Penny keeps firing as we start to catch up with the first rounds she shot.
More shots, those carrying the momentum of the ship speed added to that of the axial gun, find their mark, easily piercing the Gray cruiser’s deflective fields, which aren’t set at combat levels, but kept low so as not to disrupt the docking and offloading of fuel.
Our plasma slugs shred the hull, making the attack look embarrassingly easy.
Penny finishes with a long burst and pulls into a turn, just enough to keep from ramming the Gray cruiser as it blasts to pieces.
Over the comm, Phil announces the success to cheers as Penny eases off the power. No sense tempting fate when we don’t need to.
I congratulate the crew, and tell Phil to get Penny a bubble jump vector back to Cygni A and our tank ring. It’s time to go home.
THE BATTLE CONTINUES…
Please report any corrections to http://www.bobbyadair.com/typos
The Last Word…
And here we are, another book out the door. Another rent check that won't bounce. Yippee!
Sometimes, writing is straight-up fun. Other times, it's work. Most days, it's both. I'm not sure why, but this book felt more like work. I think it's because I had a lot of things going on tugging me in a hundred directions, keeping me from sitting down to scribble in peace.
As if to underscore that, I'm a long way from home as I write this. Kat and I are renting a room in Emeryville, basically Oakland, California, and I've been camped out in the Berkeley Public Library for four straight days trying to finish editing. We're here because Kat is doing an art thing in a studio next door to, but not affiliated with Pixar and will finish up tomorrow. We should have a few days to bounce around out here and be lazy before we head back to Austin.
I'm hoping to visit Alcatraz, and we want to drive down and spend some time at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. And whichever novel things come up in between. Like spending $4.75 on a slice of toast this morning for breakfast. Seriously!
Now, I admit, it was a piece of homemade sourdough dripping with browned butter (whatever that is) and honey. It was pretty good. But on the menu, it did say "Toast - $4.75," and I still ordered it.
Okay, so I've rambled way off the point. Sorry about that. But I'm just getting in character for the next Dusty's Diary book which I need to have wrapped up and sent off to the publishers in the next few weeks. So, please forgive me.
I tried some different things in writing Freedom's Fist, mostly with process, some with story structure. I like experimenting with new things and trying to find the sacred path to the perfect novel. Mostly, it feels like I'm wandering in the woods, tripping over ant mounds, but sometimes, the words hit the page just right, and I feel like I've taken a step closer. Please let me know what you think after you've read this one. Leave a few words in a review, or visit my FB page and tell me there.
Being so deeply involved in the creation of a book, going through round after round of rewrites and edits, it always gets to a point where I don't know anymore if what I've written is good. So, I depend on you. Good or bad. Detailed or sparse. Your feedback truly does help.
Oh, one final note. Kat usually edits my stuff because one thing I'm certain I have a talent for is creating typos. She's in that art thing I mentioned above, so she didn't read over this section. Please forgive me for my grammatical transgressions.
See you at the end of the next book.
Thank You!
Bobby
(And Likes on Facebook bring good karma!)
LIKE BOBBY ADAIR ON FACEBOOK
Amazing people who made this book happen…
Cover Design
Alex Saskalidis, a.k.a. 187designz
Cover Illustration
Illustration © Tom Edwards
TomEdwardsDesign.com
Editing, Proofreading, Book Formatting
Kat Kramer Adair
More about Bobby’s other writing…
Slow Burn Series (9 books), a best-seller!
Slow Burn is Bobby’s flagship post-apocalyptic zombie series, but so much more than a zombie book. Follow the adventures of Zed as he wakes up one morning to find that something’s a little different in the world. As the world is going to shit, Zed meets up with Murphy, and they try to navigate their new reality through a world of the “slow burns” before they are completely consumed by the virus. Great reviews, with over a million books sold, readers LOVE this one.
The Last Survivors Series (6 books)
A collaborative series with fellow zombie author T.W. Piperbrook, this series has a little more of a Sci-Fi feel, popular with folks who like Game of Thrones. It explores what happens 300 years in the future after the apocalypse, when man has rebuilt and gone back to an almost medieval society.
Ebola K: A Terrorism Thriller (trilogy)
A really great terrorism thriller with awesome reviews. It focuses on the devastating Ebola outbreak and the possibility of weaponized Ebola by terrorist organizations and nationalized resources like blood with Ebola antibodies. A more in-depth and complex observation of the real world. This series follows an American college student teaching in Uganda as the country comes under attack from the deadly virus as he tries to make his way back to the safety of his family back in the United States.
It’s also historically and medically accurate, so you’ll learn a little about the history of the disease as well…did you know that Ebola has been airborne in the US in the past? Or that it can survive in semen for 90 days or more after a person is declared “Ebola-free?” (This is Kat’s favorite!)
Black Rust, Black Virus (first two in a series)
A newer series from Bobby that also deals with a different post-apocalyptic reality. Christian Black is a bounty hunter charged with hunting down the infected…a “Regulator.” When caught in an unsanctioned kill, Christian sets about to clear his name. A fairly deep character, whose flaws are an important backstory to his adventurous life.
Dusty’s Diary: One Frustrated Man’s Zombie Apocalypse Story (first in a series)
Fun and crass…be careful if you’re easily offended! Has some great advice about what to pack in your post-apocalyptic bunker (don’t forget the porn!). Dusty’s Diary has an uncertain future…people like it, so I’ll probably write more in the future. This is a short story, and the next in the series is coming soon (but Bobby keeps saying this so you never know!).
Text copyright © 2017, Bobby L. Adair & Beezle Media, LLC
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under Intern
ational and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental. Well, maybe Tarlow…but the real Tarlow is way cooler than the character in the book.
