writing progresses on Taroniah at Sea
due to an extended holiday this year (From 21st instead of 27th) Taroniah at Sea may not be released before the end of January – we’ll see.
Kyron the Conqueror will foll Taroniah.

I have no other complete new book to serialize so I am thinking of serializing my first book On The Rocks

any other suggestion are more than welcome though

Peter

“The ones that raided the train in India? Yes, my father was actually there helping mop up.”

“Well, here, one of the super soldiers ran the other way to all his fellows and managed to get away. He lived in India for many years before finally moving to Ostraya. He is my grandfather on the other side.”

“That would explain how strong you are.” The man shook his head. “Damn. Well, we have other Earths represented on Embassy with similar histories to your world, although in most, the genetic engineering was aborted or the subjects were sterilized. Generally, the ones that had a nuclear war had all the genetic engineering wiped out completely. I suppose you had better take me to your leader, as the saying goes.” He grinned at Andrew and then turned back to the other two. “You two had better go back. Can you tell Lon that you’ve discovered another Earthbook world and that I’m making diplomatic contact? He won’t panic too much, I assure you.”

Bonus scene

Andrew just managed to catch Jess as she was about to board the plane back to Nuzeeland. They had managed one glorious weekend away together since the end of the war. Most of the time, they had both been too busy with mopping up and then all the carry-on with Disco.

“Hey.” He said, smiling.

“Hi. Come to see me off?”

“Yes. Well, um, I came to see if you would come back.” He paused. “Permanently.”

She looked puzzled for a moment, then startled as he sank onto one knee.

“Will you marry me, Jess?”

“Um. God, I hadn’t even thought about that. Um. Yes!” He jumped up and hugged her, and then they kissed before she finally broke them apart. “I’ll need to go home, talk to my parents, and sort stuff out. And see what the Army thinks. They may not want to lose me just yet.”

“If they’re not keen on letting go, tell them to assign you to me, and I’ll give you advanced mentalist training. It’s not like they have anybody over there that can train you, given the way you Kiwis have been suppressing magic users for centuries.”

“I, well, I’ll try that if I have to. Actually, that’s not a bad idea, except I think I can maybe talk them into assigning me over here undercover to get lessons from you. Hmm, yes. If I have to, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll most likely use the need for training to act as one of the people assigned to Embassy, though. All those people with heaps of magic power or mentalist abilities.”

“Good.” They kissed again. “My only worry is that you’re a close relative. Do you know where you got your mentalist talent?”

“Oh. No, but I think it’s at least three or four generations back, so at worst, we’d be third or fourth cousins.” She frowned. “I will investigate once I get home.”

He smiled. “I love you.”

“I love you too, you lunatic.” She looked around. “I’ve got to go now. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

A quick kiss and she was gone. Andrew hoped soon was really soon.

Sorry – late again ….. busy start to the week

At that moment, it occurred to Andrew where he knew the name Wolfgang Oldham from. It was in his grandmother’s journal. Then the girl returned, and if he thought she was tall, the man who came with a was even taller.

“Hi. I’m Xen Wolfson from the Department of Interdimensional Security and Cooperation, Disco for short. Destiny tells me you’ve had problems with an invasion from one of the Japanese worlds from the Alliance, yes?”

“Yes, Tier Four Tomkya out of Tier Three Natori. Tomkya thought they could just move in and take over after the Plague hit their own world, and then later, Natori joined them when their Tier 2 was rendered incommunicado, and they were suffering from both the plague and the zivvy dissolver. We destroyed one gate early, leaving them with only one working gate. This limited the number of troops they could push through, and in any case, Tomkya didn’t have that large a population to start with. I gather the Japanese worlds are a lot harsher with local inhabitants when they take over?”

“Yes. Not that the Germans or the Russians are that much better, but we generally didn’t slaughter them completely, as happened on a lot of the Japanese worlds.” Roland answered when Andrew looked in his direction.

“Anyway, we killed a lot of them, thousands and thousands. They were using office workers and gardeners on the front lines as their losses mounted. It didn’t help that our mentalists were generally better than theirs once they got a bit of experience.”

“Destiny said you had mentalists, and I can tell you’re quite powerful.”

“Yes. There was a lot of genetic engineering going on before our nuclear war. In fact, some historians blame genetic engineering for the war. The first strike on American territory was at the Transworld travel complex, where they were using the tellies to power the first interdimensional gates. There are no surviving records of how far they got. In fact, there are very few records at all, but my grandmother left a journal where she mentioned a few details about what was happening when the war started. She had been injured and was in a hospital just far enough from the complex that she survived the nuclear strike.”

He saw the tall man and the girl following his account closely.

“That was about eight hundred years ago. My grandmother made her way through various countries and parts of the world until she finished up in Ostraya. She apparently died when I was young. I say apparently because she had faked her own death on numerous occasions over the centuries. In her journal, she mentions Wolfgang Oldham as being one of the other tellies working with the early transdimensional gates. Yes, I thought you would find that interesting.”

“This is another Earthbook world, Uncle Xen,” Destiny said, looking all excited.

Uncle Xen was looking thoughtful. “Do you know what your grandmother’s original name was?”

“AnnaKarina.”

“Oh, shit. Another one.” Uncle Xen said, looking alarmed.

“Have you heard of the Russian super soldiers?”