Witch Of The Federation IV (Federal Histories Book 4) Read online

  Witch Of The Federation IV

  Federal Histories™ 04

  Michael Anderle

  This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2019 Michael Anderle

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  Cover Art by Jake @ J Caleb Design

  http://jcalebdesign.com / [email protected]

  A Michael Anderle Production

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  First US edition, December 2019

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-64202-674-0

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Creator Notes - Michael Anderle

  Books by Michael Anderle

  Connect with the author

  The Witch Of The Federation Book IV Team

  Thanks to our Beta Team

  John Ashmore, Larry Omans, Mary Morris, and Nicole Emens

  Thanks to our JIT Readers

  Dave Hicks

  Deb Mader

  Debi Sateren

  Diane L. Smith

  Dorothy Lloyd

  Jeff Eaton

  Jeff Goode

  Larry Omans

  Misty Roa

  Peter Manis

  If We’ve missed anyone, please let us know!

  Editor

  The Skyhunter Editing Team

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  To Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  To Live The Life We Are

  Called.

  Chapter One

  “Nothing?” A bolt of dark lightning pounded into the command deck and left a smoking hole.

  Wiring sparked and the lights dimmed before the power was rerouted and the damaged connection isolated. A dozen alarms beeped as the consoles flickered, and technicians ran to repair the problems.

  The communications officer jumped in his seat. “Yes, sir. Nothing. The last surveillance torpedo shows some kind of magical conflagration—”

  “That Witch!”

  “We have not been able to see if the destruction came from her actions alone or if the Meligornians contributed in some kind of cooperative spell. The energy was Meligornian in origin but there was not sufficient analysis to identify the wielder.”

  “Regardless, Meligorn still stands and remains undamaged.”

  The communications operator gulped. “Yes, sir.”

  “And nothing—nothing—remains of the attack squadron.”

  “That is what the torpedoes show, sir.”

  Energy rolled over the Teloran high commander’s form and his subordinate cringed when he turned toward him. “Get me the captains.”

  “Yes, sir.” As he hurried to comply, he hoped that would be the end of the high commander’s focus on him.

  “Tell them the discussion is urgent and their attendance mandatory. Their commands are at stake.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The captains were assembled in less than a quarter-hour, each one displayed on a screen in the high commander’s office. They stood rigidly before their commanding officer, showing him the respect they should if they wanted to live—which was a pity. He’d have enjoyed killing them.

  He shrugged the possibility away and asked, “Have you seen the results?”

  “Yes, High Command.”

  None of them asked which results. They knew. Meligorn still stood and the attack fleet was obliterated. Eight ships of the line, thirty destroyers and countless single-pilot fighting ships gone…and the world still existed.

  “Do we go back?”

  They stiffened. To go back would put them behind the schedule set by Home Command. The penalty would be exorbitant.

  Their heads moved as they looked at one another and each one tried to come up with an answer the others would approve of. None could see beyond the power that masked their faces, however. They certainly could not see when their superior officer smiled.

  He decided to make it easy for them.

  “I would prefer not to.”

  Only one dared protest. “But the Meligornians—”

  He screamed when their leader focused and black flame surged around him.

  The high commander spoke to the others. “The Meligornians are powerless to stop us. Their fleet is almost non-existent and what remains of it is badly damaged. They pose no threat.”

  With a snap of his fingers, he extinguished the power burning slowly through the protesting captain’s armor and flesh. It satisfied him that his subordinate should suffer, but he had no time for the power struggle that would follow if he killed him outright, not right now.

  The captain sagged and the high commander stared at the screens. “I will not tolerate dissent.”

  As the injured officer fell to his knees, the other two saluted hastily and touched their foreheads and their chests to signal complete obedience.

  “Dismissed.” He made a sharp gesture with his ha
nd, and their screens went dark. Then, he turned to the kneeling Teloran.

  “Tend to your wounds and verify that my assessment is correct. Communicate your task and its results to me alone. If word of it escapes, you will burn for a century before I dismiss the flame.”

  The captain touched his hand to his forehead and moved it to his chest as he lowered his forehead to the floor. “It shall be done.”

  “You have three cycles.”

  “Home.” The word came out on a breath as Meligorn filled the viewscreen.

  Lars turned to look at Stephanie. “I thought Earth was home.”

  She rolled her eyes. “It is, but this is home, too.”

  “And Dreth?” Vishlog rumbled and she sighed, thinking about that world with its jagged mountains and harsh climate. Oddly enough, a piece of her thought of that as home as well.

  “Yes,” she told the warrior. “There is part of me that thinks of Dreth as home too.”

  For a moment, he studied her as though trying to discover some trace of mockery. When he didn’t see any, he smiled. “Good. It would be bad for a citizen of three worlds to decide one of those worlds was not her home.”

  “Mmhmm.” She nodded and her gaze drifted to the screens. She was already thinking of what she’d like to discuss with V’ritan.

  The ship’s captain interrupted her thoughts. He looked up from his console. “They’re expecting us.”

  Stephanie smiled. “Skip us in, Emil.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She rolled her eyes. “What did we talk about on the way here?”

  “How you wouldn’t argue with me in front of the crew?” he asked, and his eyes twinkled with mischief.

  “Uh-uh.” She shook her head.

  “The state of affairs in Siberia?”

  “Seriously? ʼCause I’ve never been there and neither, I’d guess, have you.”

  “How about ‘Ma’am Stephanie?’”

  “How about Captain Kiss-Ass?”

  Some of the crew snickered, and he grinned and pretended to throw his hands up. “Fine! I will try to remember…Stephanie.”

  “That’s better.” She smirked and turned to the screen. “How soon can you get us home?”

  “Let me check.” He glanced at the pilot. “Jonathan?”

  “Cameron tells me we can do one more jump but if we try two, we’ll be asking for a tow—and that’s if we’re not all sucking vacuum.”

  Emil’s face clouded. “That bad?”

  Jonathan Wattlebird gave the captain his most solemn nod. “I’m afraid so, sir. Cameron was adamant you should know.”

  “Thank him for me—and check that one more jump is truly okay.”

  “Will do, sir.” He came back with an answer seconds later. “Only one, sir.”

  The captain winced as the chief engineer put a call through on his internal comms. “And tell that madman it's gentle flying—no barrel rolls, corkscrews, sudden acceleration, sudden deceleration, wiggles, jiggles, or flourishes. He’s to fly our Ebony as close to gliding as he can get.”

  Jonathan watched the captain’s face. “You tell that overprotective sonuva…gun, I do know how to nurse them in.”

  This time, Cameron’s reply was audible to all. “I don’t doubt the amount of practice he’s had, only whether he remembers how it’s done.”

  The pilot raised his lip in scorn. “You tell him to keep an eye on his readings and his panties well and truly unbunched.”

  “I can unbunch ’em when we’re docked on and you’re on the station.”

  “Yeah?” he quipped in response. “Well, I bet you’ve had considerable practice at doing that, too.”

  Stephanie gave a groan of exasperation. “Please, get me home and my ship safely docked without any more holes in her.”

  He smirked. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Everyone’s a smart-ass.” She turned to the captain. “What kind of repairs are we looking at this time?”

  “Well, apart from the damage to the engines, we popped a couple of seams with some of the maneuvers you had us make in that last battle. And then there was the damage to the hull itself.”

  “We were hit?”

  “Yes. Something got through the armor and put a dent in the hull.”

  “You’ve sealed a whole section.”

  “Right. Well, it was a little more than a dent, but we lived and that’s all that matters. Either way, we need patchwork or replacement sections.”

  “Can the Meligornians do all that?”

  “Most of it. We still have the work they couldn’t do on the engines, but the Navy says they’ll send a repair ship with our reinforcements, and they’ll have what we need.”

  Some of the tension went out of Stephanie’s shoulders. They stiffened again, though, when she thought of something else. “Any news from the sniffers and early detection drones?”

  He shook his head. “Not yet. It’s as quiet as the grave out there.”

  “Good.” Her face took on a faraway look, and a layer of darkness settled over her eyes.

  Emil cursed his choice of words silently. A grave was exactly what that section of space had become for the Telorans—and what some of the sections in this system were to those who’d served in the Meligornian and Dreth fleets. There were bodies missing that would never be found.

  “Prepare to jump,” Jonathan warned before he could think of anything to say.

  He waited until Stephanie, Lars, and Vishlog had returned to the auxiliary seats behind the captain and ran his hands over his console. The world blinked and the ship slowed.

  Wattlebird’s hands flitted over his controls and he frowned. “I’ve lost power.”

  As he spoke, Cameron’s voice came over the intercom. “I thought I told you to take it easy.”

  “You know I did,” he protested. “What did you do down there? Flash it your ass?”

  “I beg your pardon?” the chief engineer sputtered.

  “Well, if I’m flying as slow as a kid on their way to school it has to be something you did. Check your logs—and you owe me a drink.”

  Silence greeted his tirade before Cameron came back on the line. “I found it. What’ll you have?”

  “So it’s not my fault?” The pilot sounded as though he couldn’t believe it himself.

  “Not this time. I was serious when I said she only had one safe jump in her.”

  “And how close were you to being wrong?”

  “Not close enough to worry about?”

  “I take it your report’s on the way?” the captain asked.

  “Sorry, Captain, I can’t be in two places at once and right now, the Knight needs me more than you need a report.”

  “How bad is it?” As Emil asked, the emergency alarms started, and the Ebon Knight’s AI commandeered the communications system.

  “This is a precaution. All personnel are to move to the emergency pods. I repeat. This is a precaution. All personnel are to move to the emergency pods.”

  As soon as she’d finished speaking, Cameron answered the Captain’s question. “We have a little smoking, some sparking, and I’ve had to isolate the batteries from the engine system so we don’t lose any energy, but it’s nothing that can’t be fixed.”

  To Jonathan, he added, “But keep your hands off the controls. I’ve called for a tow.”

  Four hours later, the Ebon Knight was tucked safely in the repair dock and the crew assigned temporary accommodations on Space Station Alerus. Emil joined Cameron and Jonathan in their quest to find the best beer on the station with a warning that they all had to meet the work crews in the morning.

  He turned to Stephanie before he left. “I take it you have plans?”

  She started to shake her head when their attention was caught by the familiar teal and gold worn by members of the Meligornian royal household. The headshake turned into a nod. “I’m about to. I’ll leave you to your night out.”

  “And I’ll contact you as soon as I know what we’re looking at to keep t
he Knight flying.”

  “Thank you, Cap…er…Emil.”

  He grinned broadly as she turned to greet the emissaries.

  They came straight to the point. “The Garghilum Afreghil wonders if you are free to come to dinner tonight.” The court’s messenger glanced at the team. “With your team.”

  “Of course,” she told him. “We would be honored.”

  It was the right thing to say, and the messenger relaxed and smiled a welcome. “The Afreghil also extends an offer of accommodation at his private residence to you and your team while you are on-planet if that is convenient.”

  Stephanie smiled in return. “Hartuitus Baskilor—I am honored and grateful.”

  “We are able to wait while you collect any belongings you’d like to take with you.”

  She looked at the team and they all shook their heads. “We’re good. We have everything we need.”