The Zabolov Gambit

By Charley Marsh

A stalled negotiation leaves a translator clone with only two options: succeed or die.

 

Translator clone Thalia Blueheart can learn and speak any language in the known universe, but her skills aren't doing her any good. Both the Motomaks and the Crenicians want total control over a new bio-energy source and are willing to annihilate anyone who gets in their way–namely, each other. The lone Zabolov at the negotiation table has yet to speak and offers her no help.

 

Translator clones live notoriously short lives. They either succeed at their assignments and live or they fail and are sent back to the lab to be destroyed. There are no second chances.

 

Thalia doesn't want to die. Her daring solution surprises everybody and changes her life in a way she never dreamed possible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charley Marsh
• Release date: May 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393302247

Charley Marsh

In her younger days Charley Marsh’s curiosity drove her to climb mountains, canoe rivers, and explore caves and wilderness areas from Maine to California. She's been shot at, caught in a desert flash flood, and almost drowned off the Maine coast. Once she tobogganed down a 5,000+ foot mountain.  Life is always an adventure if you have the right attitude. Charley never set out to be a storyteller, but looking back on the elaborate lies she made up as a troubled teen she can see that she always had the makings. Now, in the immortal words of Lawrence Block, she happily “makes up lies for fun and profit.” If you would like information regarding Charley’s new releases or simply want to contact Charley visit: https://charleymarshbooks.com/

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The Zabolov Gambit

The Zabolov Gambit

Charley Marsh

Timberdoodle Press

Copyright © 2020 by Charley Marsh

The Zabolov Gambit

All rights reserved.

The Zabolov Gambit is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and places are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. For more information contact the publisher: https://www.timberdoodlepress.com/

First Published September 2019 in The Expanding Universe Volume 5, Edited by Craig Martelle

Published 2020 by Timberdoodle Press LLC.

317 South 4th Street #366

La Crosse, WI 54601

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Cover art copyright ukt2/Pixabay

The Zabolov Gambit

Conference rooms galaxy-wide were all the same.

Windowless, gray-white walls, ceilings, and floors. One long, steel-topped table in the center of the space, ten seats to a side because centuries earlier someone had determined that nothing ever got resolved if there were more than twenty participants. The twenty seats adjusted to fit every size and body type–not all attendees were humanoid.

The foot of the table held a non-adjustable seat for the translator. Today that seat was filled by Thalia, a young, attractive, ebony-skinned female with bright green eyes and a recent attitude problem.

The opposite end had no seat because the head of any table was the position of power and everyone at a