Marshal Melinda McKee: Adventures of the League Space Patrol, #7

By Frank Carey

After the death of her boyfriend, Niall Thorvald, a Space Patrol Captain finds herself the marshal of a colony at the edge of League space. Still reeling from her loss, she and her team must face the threat of an ancient warbot still fighting an age-old war. Her assignment: stop the bot before it can wreak havoc on her new home but sometimes, no matter how hard you try, things just go to Shit.

If you like tech-heavy sci-fi, relatable characters, and stories of family and redemption, you'll love the seventh book in Frank Carey's Adventures of the League Space Patrol series. 45 pages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Frank Carey
• Release date: Apr 23, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386540618

Frank Carey

Frank Carey has been formally writing and publishing works of science fiction since late 2013. Over the years prior, he had dabbled in various forms of writing including haiku poetry, but that all changed when he and his wife, Jo, decided to try their hand at writing and self-publishing. Since then, he has written and published a collection of flash fiction and short stories, two anthologies, a pentalogy, and a trilogy. All his work, to date, has been in the science fiction genre. Most of his stories take place about two centuries in the future when Earth joins the League of Planetary Systems. Many of his protagonists are strong females. He is an inveterate pantser who believes the story will go where the story wants to go. Frank’s background includes degrees in physics and extensive work as a scientific programmer and technologist.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Red shot a bot bearing down on Ariel while Samson tore another apart. She looked over and watched Max jump into one of the bots and use it to shoot the ones around it. Where the hell's our backup? Max yelled using the bot's speaker system.

The sheriff and her deputies are inbound. They're five-minutes out, Ariel yelled.

Samson! Red yelled, Seal that mine entrance!

Sure enough, Marshal, the metal man said as his right hand morphed into a grenade launcher. Fire in the hole! he yelled before launching three shells into the opening in the rock wall. There was a deafening explosion followed by tons of stone debris filling the entrance. When the dust cleared, they were alone except for the bot Max was wearing. She appeared as the bot deactivated. What now, Marshal?

Red kicked the dead bot, knocking it to the ground. We go find Mother and finish this.

CHAPTER TWO

Red walked out into the sunlit area in front of the Prosperity Spaceport and took a deep breath. Behind her, her two companions—Ariel, a Luma necrue, and Maxine Wabash, an Alue—looked around at their new home. Hey, are those Wecks? Maxine asked as she spied some quadrupeds tethered nearby.

No. Wecks are sapient. Those are draft beasts known as trotters. They're kissing cousins to Earth horses and Ventosian Lorses, though only the gods know how that could happen this far out from Earth and Ventos Prime, Ariel said as if he were reciting from an encyclopedia. For that matter, one wonders how the Weck ancestors became so horse-like considering the distance between their home world and Earth.

Maybe the Logash had something to do with it, Red said. They did seed this part of the galaxy after all.

Hello? Marshal Melinda McKee? a tentacle-waving Alturan said as she slid over to where they were waiting. Like all proper Alturan ladies, this one wore ribbons—in her case paisley ones—around her three eye stalks.

Yes, I'm Marshal McKee. And you are?

Mrs. Casey Strang, Prosperity's Assistant Mayor.

Ah, Mrs. Strang. These are my deputies, Ariel and Maxine Wabash.

Charmed, Ariel said as he kissed the back of one of Casey's tentacles.

My, you are a charmer.

Howdy, ma'am, Maxine said as she doffed her hat, an honest to God Stetson from Earth. Love the ribbons.

You are so sweet. It's wonderful to finally meet all of you in person. How was your trip?

Relaxing, Red said as a breeze billowed her crimson tresses.

Marshal, though I don't have hair, I do appreciate color. Is your hair naturally that shade.?

Yes, ma'am. I thank my parents every chance I get.

Amazing. I've called ahead and had your things delivered to the Marshal's office. Can I interest you in a walking tour of the town? It's not far.

Red stretched. I would love one. How about you two? Coming along?

They both nodded, so the four of them, led by Casey, strolled through the streets of Prosperity while Casey kept up a running commentary.

Casey, our briefing indicated that Prosperity was a shipping hub for processed beast and salvage material, Red said.

Yes, most of Maeve is range land where we raise mostly beast with a smattering of specialty animals such as Kobe beef, turkey, and several exotics. All animals are free range and dispatched painlessly. We follow all League protocols to produce meat-based food.

What about salvage? Does that have something to do with the wrecks? Max asked.

Exactly, Deputy. Millennia ago, a war was raged within this system by two long-dead opposing forces. The result was something akin to an asteroid belt where the asteroids are ship wrecks. The League estimates it will take from 1,000 to 2,000 years to harvest all the wreckage. By then we hope to have new enterprises in place.

There was a mention of something called planet fall? Max continued.

The Asteroid belt is rather dynamic, so it occasionally intrudes into Maeve's orbit. At those times, wrecks are caught in our gravity field and reenter. If there's enough mass, the wreck will land on the surface. When that happens, local salvage teams go out and strip the wreck bare.

Aren't you worried about wrecks raining down on the town? Ariel asked.

"The town is ringed by repulser towers built from stasis-field-reinforced adamantine steel