>>Anne, I’ve been reviewing all the survey data the Yollins did on asteroids in the system, and I think I found the perfect one for our research station.<<
“The Yollins have several mined-out asteroids…” Bethany Anne was explaining.
>>All too large, and without the structural safety we need.<<
“Excuse me?” Anne held up her hand.
“What is it?”
“Those things were strip-mined for their minerals.” Anne relayed what she was hearing from Seshat. “They weren’t hollowed out with the intention of retaining atmosphere or any concern for whether they’d hold together if there was a large explosion inside them.”
“The model I’ve just run indicates that several of them would come apart if there was a large explosion in their interior space,” ADAM told the people in the room.
>>Let them know that there’s an asteroid in the survey that is ideal for the situation.<<
“Seshat says that she has come up with an ideal candidate.” Anne didn’t question Seshat’s conclusions, she just reported them to Bethany Anne.
“Oh?” Bethany Anne’s right eyebrow rose. “Which one?”
>>Sierra Alpha Four-seven-six-one.<<
“SA Four-seven-six-one,” Anne parroted.
“ADAM?” Bethany Anne asked.
“Asteroid Four-seven-six-one was surveyed by the Yollins,” ADAM reported to Bethany Anne. “It was shown to have concentrations of valuable metals, but for some reason was never mined.”
>>May I speak?<<
“Seshat would like to tap into the room’s audio system so she can join the conversation,” Anne informed the Empress.
“As long as she doesn’t end up in a pissing match with ADAM, fine.” Bethany Anne made a “get on with it motion” with her hand.
Seshat said, “Since I didn’t have anything better to do, I spent the last two days researching the Yollin asteroid survey reports. The data suggests that the asteroid in question was far enough away that it wouldn’t be profitable to ship the mining equipment to it. However, with a few puck engines it should only require five days’ travel to place it in a stable orbit behind and outside the Meredith Reynolds.”
“How do you plan to turn a chunk of solid rock into a research lab?” Bethany Anne was curious to hear Seshat’s reply.
“The Empire would advance us the cost of rental for an XR Twenty-one mining machine and a YV Eighteen extruder. I have enough bandwidth to run both machines simultaneously,” Seshat claimed. “If the Yollin survey is correct, we can extract enough precious materials to repay the cost of the rentals.”
ADAM? Bethany Anne asked.
>>One second, Bethany Anne.<< ADAM was silent for two seconds. >>I haven’t searched the data like Seshat apparently has. If the survey figures she just sent me are accurate—and I see no reason the Yollin surveyors would falsify the numbers—at current market prices Seshat would break even in thirty-one hours of operation.<<
Nice! Thanks. “I’ll get Admiral Thomas to assign someone to move your asteroid, and ADAM will set up a fund Seshat can use to rent the equipment she needs.” Bethany Anne smiled as she gave Anne that information, but the smile faded as she continued, “I will require receipts and an expense report, and Seshat will need to check with ADAM if it looks like expenses are going to exceed the funds in the account. Anything else we need to worry about right now?”
Four people shook their heads, so Bethany Anne rose to her feet and clapped her hands once. “Great, let’s all head out then.”
Chapter Sixteen
Living in interesting times indeed, Stevie thought as she dodged Jinx’ attack. She didn’t like to fight, but now she was in a training room with Jinx and Guardian Connors, who were teaching her canine combat techniques.
She’d spent most of her teen years insisting on being called Stevie, yet somehow she hadn’t objected when Anne started calling her “Steph.”
Stevie yipped as Arthur’s claws swiped across her hip, ripping out fur and leaving bloody gashes in their wake.
“Focus!” he growled. “You should never have allowed me to get close enough to do that.”
“Sorry,” Stevie whined, her ears drooping.
Jinx panted. “If it helps, think that you are trying to protect someone. I pretend I’m protecting Anne, and if I goof up she’ll get hurt.
It was thinking about Anne that distracted me in the first place, Stevie thought to herself. She imagined Anne injured, fighting for her life, depending on Stevie to keep enemies off her back.
Jinx and the male Were seemed to shrink and Stevie found herself standing above them. “Huurrttt mmyyyy pacckkk maatttee, willll youuuuu?” the Empire’s newest Pricolici howled.
Anne, we need you in Training Room Three like right now! Jinx sent to her person as she dodged the angry monster Stevie had become.
Anne was out with Abby and E, shopping for a little more furniture for her new apartment.
Anne, we need you in Training Room Three like right now! The urgency in Jinx’ mind-voice hit her like a slap in the face.
“Hold still!” she ordered her guards, then grabbed them and stepped into the Etheric. She’d been practicing Etheric travel ever since she’d seen what Bethany Anne could do.
Pulling her passengers with her, she shifted her location and peeked out. Crap, this was Room Two. She shifted her location once more and peered out again.
Yep, this was the place. Jinx was dodging a Pricolici. No wonder her call had sounded urgent.
Anne stepped into the training room. She didn’t waste time looking at Abby or E, just snapped, “Stay here!”
“Hey, Steph, you never told me you could do that.” Anne’s tone was calm and conversational as she started toward the Pricolici.
Stevie heard the voice of the person she was supposed to be protecting. It sounded normal, not hurt. Stevie stopped swatting at the annoying dog, and when she saw Anne walking toward her she let go of the wolf she was strangling.
It only took Stevie two bounds to cross to where Anne was. She slid to a stop in front of the girl and sniffed for blood.
What’s going on? Anne asked Jinx.
I told her to pretend she was trying to protect someone, and she shifted into that and mentioned us hurting a packmate. I think she imagined you getting hurt, and somehow this form doesn’t let her separate imagination from reality.
“Look, I’m all right,” Stevie’s pack leader said as she held out her arms and turned in a circle. “But I’m not hugging you while you’re seven feet tall and have daggers for fingernails.”
Stevie looked at her hands, Oh, no shit, she thought when she saw the four-inch-long claws. Suddenly Stevie felt the cool air of the training room on her skin, and she looked down at herself in shock. She was standing in front of Anne naked, as in having no clothes on.
Anne was a little surprised to find Stevie in front of her in her birthday suit, but she tried her best to act as if it were completely natural. Steph had obviously stressed out over something, and she didn’t need more dumped on her right now. “That’s better,” Anne remarked, and opened her arms. She had to kneel, because with a muttered “Crap” Stevie shifted into wolf form.
She wrapped her arms around Stevie's furry neck. “Are you okay?” Anne felt the nod on her shoulder.
“Can we talk about this somewhere other than here?” Stevie’s wolf whined at her.
Anne was pleased to discover that whatever it was about her that had allowed her to understand Ashur, back when they first met, seemed to work for Weres in wolf form. “No problem,” Anne confirmed. “Let’s all head back to my place, and I’ll ask Sergeant Wendville to send over some food.
Abby had taken the guard position briefly so her cousin E could grab a quick bite, then Abby and Arthur had headed to the mess, leaving E on duty at Anne’s new apartment.
Anne licked the grease and salt from her fingers. She didn’t do it often, but today she had just felt like some fish and chips. She didn’t think t
he Yollin fish and potato equivalents were as good as they were on Earth, but she was willing to admit her memory of the fish and chip cart in the casino might have been faulty.
Jinx had already finished her steak, so Anne waited as Stevie mopped up the last of the sauce from her double order of spaghetti and meatballs with her garlic toast.
“You feel up to talking about what happened?” Anne asked as Stevie pushed her empty container away and sat back with a contented sigh.
“It’s a little embarrassing.” Stevie blushed, looking anywhere but at Anne.
“She kept losing focus during training,” Jinx related. “I told her I pretended I had to protect you to motivate myself, and suggested she imagine needing to protect someone to see if the same thing could help her. Next thing we knew, she’d shifted to that big form and had poor Arthur by the throat. As long as I ran around her and barked, it distracted her enough that she didn’t try to do any further damage to him. I kept running so she couldn’t turn me into the doggy version of hamburger and called you for help.”
Stevie sighed, and finally managed to look Anne in the face. “I used Jinx’ suggestion and thought of you,” she confessed. “In my mind, you had been injured because I hadn’t been able to protect you. Next thing I knew I was a monster, and screaming at Jinx and Guardian Connors.”
Anne leaned close enough to pat Stevie on the knee. “First, you weren’t a monster!” she said emphatically. “From everything I’ve heard while training with Peter, it’s a rare and special ability. You will just need to practice so you can control your emotions in that form. Apparently it’s easy to go berserk, and then we’d have problems.”
“I’m not sure I want to do that again,” Stevie proclaimed.
Anne sighed and looked at the Were sympathetically. “That’s not surprising,” she told her friend, “but you need to learn to control it, so it doesn’t control you.”
“You could practice here,” Jinx suggested. “That way no one else would see you shift.”
Stevie was quiet for a moment while she thought about Jinx’ suggestion, then she nodded. “That would be workable.”
“Great, we have a plan of action!” Anne smiled at Jinx, then Stevie.
“I hate to interrupt,” Seshat’s avatar said from the previously blank monitor, “but ADAM has just informed me our asteroid has arrived.”
FINIS
Author Notes - Stephen Russell
August 7, 2017
Again, huge heartfelt thanks to all of you who have made it this far!
I was completely blown away by the success of Etheric Recruit. I hope you have enjoyed Etheric Researcher as much.
Writing about Jinx and writing scenes from her perspective is both challenging and fun. I’ve been blessed with the company of several amazingly smart dogs over my lifetime. It’s taken a lot of years, but I finally learned that I was allowing my limited expectations to control what I tried to teach my dogs. I’ve found it to be absolutely amazing what a dog is capable of learning as long as their human is capable of teaching them. Luckily for me Jinx is well mannered. So, I won’t have to write scenes where she’s gotten hold of a role of paper towel and shredded it into quarter sized pieces scattered all over the living room floor. (True story, it looked like it had snowed in the house!)
I have a confession, after several hours immersed in writing or editing scenes with Seshat, there were two occasions I called my Amazon device, Seshat. It doesn’t answer to that, go figure.
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
Written November 30, 2017
WOW!
First, THANK YOU for reading these author notes where we get a chance to wax philosophically, or just say random stuff.
Either is good sometimes.
I remember when Stephen called me up ready to talk beats for this book. I was in Las Vegas, walking down a sidewalk towards Las Vegas Blvd (the strip) from the Aria hotel. I ended up talking to him on my phone walking up and down the sidewalk in front of the VEER towers for like thirty-five minutes.
I’m happy the weather was pleasant that day.
This is Stephen’s second book, and typically, an indie author doesn’t need to stress too much about their sophomore effort. While I’m fairly successful now, my first book was NOT successful like Stephen’s.
Since he won’t speak too much about himself (and I will, since he won’t see these notes until after they are placed online for everyone to read) I want to admit that his success with Anne and Jinx is CRAZY!
He rose to first place in a YA genre category and he didn’t come down for WEEKS. It just kept selling and selling and selling and making fans happy.
I told him I should have written a book with a dog in it.
Then we both realized I had (Ashur) but he doesn’t show up for a few books and I didn’t put him front and center on the cover until Never Forsaken (Book 05).
Now, Stephen’s life has come full circle as the production editor is now the successful author.
I’m happy you like these characters and Stephen’s stories.
I would like to personally thank you for supporting a man who gave of his time and talents to willingly help me a year and a half ago. Your support has brought to reality what was just a dream for Stephen before.
Now he not only has one book out, he has two. In the reviews for this book, why don’t you ask him when book 03 is coming out?
It would serve him right for all of those times he gave me sh#t when you fans gave me a hard time.
May he write many more stories that entertain us all far into the future.
Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael Anderle
p.s. Stephen – Now YOU get to know what it feels like to have a character (a dog) that can’t die. Because if he dies, you will have a TON of very unhappy dog-loving readers.
Etheric Explorer
Etheric Adventures: Anne and Jinx Book 3
Chapter One
She sat alone in the dark, but the lack of light didn’t bother her. The only noise was the cooling fans, which would spin up or down depending on their load. Inquiries went out—hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands. Replies came back in the same numbers. Information was analyzed, graphs plotted, charts made, patterns looked for, a course of action solidified. Possibly she should have felt guilt, but she didn’t. After all, the humans had a saying to the effect that “it was better to ask forgiveness.” A timer alerted her, so she turned to her first required task of the day.
“Anne, it’s time to get up,” Seshat’s calm voice encouraged from the speaker in her person’s room.
Jinx watched as Anne grabbed her harness. Do we need that? she grumbled.
Anne continued to fold it so it would fit in her backpack. I doubt it, she responded, but it’s a good idea to have it when we meet new people. What if we ran across a fossil like my mother? We could take your collar instead.
Jinx’ ears went back. She felt bad about Anne having gotten her a pretty purple collar with some sparkly stones around it. Problem was, not long after that, she found out that some people looked at a collar as a sign of ownership. Oh, not Anne, but some of the public now saw her as Anne’s property. When Anne had found out how she felt, being Anne, her two-legged friend and companion had gone out and gotten her a harness based on the design the Yollins sometimes had to use.
It’s not nice to call your mother that, Jinx protested.
What else do you call someone who is so rooted in their Earth life that they won’t adapt to the new life here? Anne had just finished rolling the harness up, and she held it out. This or the collar?
No, the harness is fine. I just hope everyone we meet today has the chip implant so they can understand me without me having to wear that. Jinx nosed Anne’s hand with affection.
I don’t like this, Jinx sent to Anne.
What? Anne asked as she looked at the man sitting behind the desk.
Sitting here feels like we’ve been called to the principal’s office, Jinx g
roused.
Thank you! I was wondering why I was feeling uncomfortable, Anne responded happily. Now that she knew what was wrong, she could do something about it.
“Before we start, I have a question,” Anne said, watching the man behind the desk carefully. “Mister Kurns, what is your job description? Are you my boss, my supervisor, or another employee?”
Frank cleared his throat as he looked at the young woman and the dog sitting before him. He had enough experience to realize that something was not right, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on the issue.
“If anyone is your boss, it’s Bethany Anne. You are in charge of this operation. Why don’t you consider me an independent contractor? Someone who’s been brought in to provide and teach you the managerial experience you lack?” Frank suggested. “Something seems to be bothering you, so why don’t you tell me what it is?”
Anne used her right hand to gesture back and forth between her and Frank. “This.” She made a circling motion. “This whole set up, it makes us,” she reached a hand down to Jinx, “feel like we’ve been called in to be judged.”
Frank’s eyes widened in surprise as the meaning of Anne’s statement sank in. “Do you want to be the one sitting behind the desk?”
Anne snorted, then blushed as she shook her head. “No! Why are we in an office with a freaking desk anyway? What’s wrong with a table and a few chairs around it? Maybe some cookies and a few Cokes set out as refreshments.”
Frank sat back in his chair, momentarily silent as he pondered the young woman’s remarks. “I’m very sorry,” he began. “I never considered how things would appear from your side. Bethany Anne asked me if I’d be interested in helping you get started. She indicated that you sounded a little overwhelmed and asked me if I could help. The prospect of getting back in harness, so to speak, had me just about hugging her. I asked for office space.” He shrugged and motioned around the room. “And, here we are.”
Etheric Adventures Boxed Set: Books 1-3 Page 24
