Short Story Excerpt: FOR THE BIRDS

 

The Early Years in the adventures of the AFV Defender, before Genys was captain and M'kar was Chief of Talents, and Treinna was head of Linguistics/Communications.

M'kar's royal status on Nisandros, her psionic training with Master Reydon and Infrenx class, and teaching self-defense and Nisandrian culture classes at the Academy resulted in her leaping ranks when she graduated from Basic and went to her first ship in the Fleet. Instead of ensign, she was a lieutenant junior grade. Her Talent, a strong animal-focused psi rating along with the ability to sense emerging psionic Talents in others, was rare enough that the top-line E&D ships had first priority in requesting her. This high ranking also gave her some freedom in requesting her first posting. She knew exactly where she wanted to go.

Genys Arroyan and Treinna and Jasper Lore were all serving on the Defender by this time. They petitioned Captain Rob Hollis to request M'kar. Fleet had learned decades ago that the most efficient crews had strong personal relationships, preferably with some history between them before being assigned to the ship. Having friends already on board went a long way toward granting M'kar's request to be assigned to the Defender, with direct report to Chief of Talents Lt. Cmdr. Culver.

Fleet was coming to depend on the ship and crew's misfit luck to pull off miracles and find answers that everyone else felt sure had been blown to stellar dust. So when the Defender got orders taking them far from their assigned exploration-and-patrol route to assist a diplomatic team, no one immediately questioned the change in orders. It was becoming standard practice. 

This story is available for sale as a short story ebook at Ye Olde Dragon Books, and on Nook, Kindle, iTunes, and most other ebook sites.