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David McLeod

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  1. David McLeod
    I've not been able to contact any of the CSU authors for permission to use their characters (I'm not sure anyone is really very active, any more...pity, it's a great concept), so I've had to change the names to protect the innocent, as they say.
  2. David McLeod
    You're burning through this story! Thank you for all your posts, to date. I do want to acknowledge the inspiration of the Clan Short Universe on the boys from Clan Long. I've done so in the past, but want there to be no doubt about that. (Link to acannex.us from the Gay Authors site.)
  3. David McLeod
    Chapter 12: Science Ships The Millikan was nine months into its yearlong solar study when orders started arriving for the crew’s next assignments. A lot of the men would remain on the Millikan; they were “permanent party.” Younger crewmen would rotate to other assignments until they found the one they were best suited for. Even then, they’d be exposed over a career to a variety of different assignments. I pushed the captain to recommend another science ship assignment for me, but wasn’t sure i
  4. David McLeod
    Chapter 16: 0300 It was 0300 when Admiral Davis called me. Doesn’t that man sleep! I wondered as I knocked my communicator to the floor. Beside me, George mumbled sleepily. “Sir?” “Paul, will you take your fleet through the rift into Universe 1 and clean out that nest of vipers? You would have the task force that is at the rift, plus three destroyers, two cruisers, the troop transport Rodger Young full of Marines, and one more hospital ship, the Walter Reed. She’s empty of patients, now, and
  5. David McLeod
    Chapter 15: Senior Chiefs (The Real Power) Will and his team figured out how the veil worked. It was not, as I had once told Admiral Davis, involuntary. It was more subconscious, and automatic, like breathing. But, just as we could control our breathing when we thought about it, we learned to control the veil. As soon as we figured that out, we started revealing ourselves to more people. I invited the captain of the Honolulu, the second battleship in the task force, and two members of his staf
  6. David McLeod
    Chapter 14: Attack and Counter-Attack There was nothing unusual about the shuttle. The flight plan came from EGFC: Cardiff Field. The manifest from the fleet Comm-Electronic-Nanotech facility showed that the cargo was communicators. Both were correct and normal. The shuttle wasn’t. Paul? There’s a shuttle en route to the Charleston. Its orbital insertion angle is wrong; it doesn’t match the flight plan, Tobor sent. Details? Plot? I asked. Tobor was accustomed to working in an n-space matrix,
  7. David McLeod
    Chapter 13: The Funeral The next day, I asked Artie to come to my Ready Room. I sat on the couch, and asked him to sit beside me. That usually meant we were going to have a family talk. When we talked officially, I sat at my desk and he sat at a chair beside it. This was going to be an official talk, but I knew that he would need a hug before it was over. I was pretty sure I would, too. “Artie, you know, don’t you, that Corey’s people brought in kids who were too hurt to survive? And some who
  8. David McLeod
    Chapter 12: Treaty of Amity The morning after the admiral’s visit, Corey, Artie, and I spent an hour in private, talking and writing. At the end of the hour, we signed a document. I sent a copy to Admiral Davis with a note. Here’s what we came up with. There’s room on the bottom for the Fleet Council to ratify it. It would be in our best interests to do so. We want the people from U-Long as allies; we want the right people from U-Cal as allies. There is no higher authority on the right side of
  9. David McLeod
    Chapter 11: Metas “Captain, I wasn’t aware, either; however, I’m not entirely surprised, under the circumstances. Please bring the shuttle in,” I said. “Normal procedures, except this: clear the flight deck. I’ll meet him, alone. And please, keep the identity of the visitor limited to your bridge crew for the moment.” Now, Moultrie was clearly surprised, but acknowledged my request, and returned to his bridge. As soon as the door closed behind him, Danny and George protested. “You can’t go
  10. David McLeod
    Chapter 10: CERN-Higgs That afternoon, George asked for some private time; he was scared. It was George’s first visit to my quarters since we’d moved the flag to the Charleston just the day before. Even the luxury of the quarters didn’t penetrate. “George, something’s seriously the matter,” I said. I held out my arms, and he came to me for a hug. “They’re going to destroy the world!” he said. “Look.” It took only seconds for the story to unfold through the telepathic link. George, with the h
  11. David McLeod
    Chapter 9: Task Force Rift “Sir, they were put under your command,” the XO said. His voice was a whisper. “Their orders were to guard the rift, admit shuttles whose IFF passed fleet screening criteria, and stop, board, and inspect any other ships. There haven’t been any other ships. The captain of the Charleston started electronic surveillance as a matter of procedure. They were the first on station.” Damn Admiral Davis, anyway. He didn’t tell me, and I really don’t think I should have figu
  12. David McLeod
    Chapter 8: Code Red 5 “This is Fleet Captain Stewart. Code Red 5. Possible hostile forces in strike range. Request Honolulu, Kyoto, Charleston, Adelaide . . . . ” I read off the names of the ten closest armed ships: two battle ships, four cruisers, and four destroyers. “ . . . take station surrounding a point 10 degrees forward of L5. Pass through shuttlecraft with recognizable IFF; stop and board, or destroy all others. “Request USF Isaac Newton take station same point to monitor. And put
  13. David McLeod
    Chapter 6: Science Ship Galileo When the school year ended, I was ready for another science ship assignment. We had the core of the Geeks with Guns group. It took a bit of pushing to get them all assigned to space duty with me, but Admiral Davis signed off on my request. His signature was gold. The admiral was now Fleet Admiral and Chair of the Fleet Council. Sort of like World CEO and Chief of the Armed Forces rolled into one. He still interviewed me before I took over the Galileo though. It w
  14. David McLeod
    Chapter 5: Tobor We’d been at Sydney for six months when the duty Comm Officer came to my office with a data chip: blue with a white chevron meaning that the message was high priority and encoded. After he left, I inserted it into the USB port, and typed in my password. The message was from Admiral Davis, captured on his webcam while he was sitting at his desk. “Paul, for the past three days, Tobor has been randomly telling me—and only me—puerile jokes full of fifth-grade sexual innuendo. I wi
  15. David McLeod
    Chapter 4: Fleet School Sydney The admiral’s waiting room was unchanged except perhaps for a stronger odor of nervous sweat. That may have been my imagination. The aide was the same cold fish as the year before. “The admiral will see you, now, sir.” I saluted the admiral and sat at his gesture. The aide brought coffee for me. Uh, oh. This is going to be a long meeting, I thought. I sugared and creamed the coffee. Might as well enjoy it. “Paul, welcome back. I’ve reviewed your report. Well,
  16. David McLeod
    Chapter 7: Geneva 0300, December 31st The trill of the communicator woke Paul. He fumbled, and heard the gadget strike the floor. “Nova sol!” Now he was wide awake. He kicked off the covers and sat up. He found the instrument by the light of its LED. “Stewart here.” “Captain Stewart, this is Ensign Martin at Fleet Headquarters. Admiral Davis’s compliments and would you report to the USF Hope at your earliest convenience. A shuttlecraft will pick you up in . . . 26 minutes.” “That means earli
  17. David McLeod

    0300 Book 2

    David McLeod posted a story in Fiction

    The sequel to 0300 Book 1, formerly published as "Finding Danny," updated and revised.
  18. David McLeod
    Chapter 3: Finding George Our next assignment was to be the United Space Fleet cruiser Independence. She was a ship of the line, a warship. This would be my first line command, so I had to make a couple of visits to Geneva, including one very “sweaty-palm” visit with Admiral Davis, who now wore four stars and was the deputy chief of the fleet. That’s where we found George. He was in Admiral Davis’s waiting room. He looked like a puppy that had been whipped until its spirit was broken. Danny
  19. David McLeod
    Chapter 2: Cardiff Tobor and I arranged things so that after Danny and I completed our tour on the Goddard, I would get a shore duty assignment in Cardiff, Wales. Cardiff was the Fleet’s communication-electronics-nanotech research laboratory, and suddenly they needed a director. Well, once Tobor manipulated the personnel list, they did. And, I needed a primo shore assignment on my record, to help create the fiction that I should be promoted to Captain. (It worked. Tobor told me about my prom
  20. David McLeod
    Chapter 1: Finding Danny I was fourteen, and had just been promoted to commander. That was one step below captain, and captain was as far as I figured I could go without calling too much attention to myself. The boy I’d exchanged I love you with only a few weeks before had forgotten me, like everyone forgets me. There was no one I could share my sorrow with, but there was somewhere I could go: “the High One,” Denali. I took a shuttlecraft from Geneva. No one questioned me. They never did. When
  21. David McLeod
    Chapter 10: Haley’s Story—The Rising Road to Alborg Three times this day Jason sensed other travelers approaching. Three times, they had hurried from the road, sweeping away their tracks as best they could. “When you know someone’s coming,” Troy whispered to Jason as they lay in deep grass, watching a caravan passing. “Is that part of your magic?” Below them, barely visible, wagons pulled by oxen flanked by riders on horses passed. “I think so,” Jason said. “When I’m close, I can see more;
  22. David McLeod
    Chapter 11: The Funeral Although Saturdays were “free,” we had a few duties. After a late breakfast, Matthew and I cleaned our barracks room and then helped the rest of the squad clean the common areas. It never took more than a couple of hours, and we were able to spend the afternoon at play. We learned to play soccer and baseball. I liked soccer better, because I liked the running. Matthew was very good for a little kid at the batting part of baseball, but he couldn’t run very fast. If the we
  23. David McLeod
    Chapter 9: Arthur’s Story—Lateen Rigged “That’s the centerboard,” Golgi said. At first, Golgi had been reluctant to teach Arthur. “I’m only a boy, and you’re a tween,” he had protested. “But I need to learn!” Arthur had insisted. “If we’re to take the boat all the way to Hagen, I must know what to do.” Therefore, Golgi had become a teacher. “This box,” Golgi said, pointing to the tall, narrow wooden structure that stuck up from the keel, “holds the centerboard. When the water is shallow, w
  24. David McLeod
    Chapter 8: Haley—The Rescue The night had been stormy, and neither Haley nor Jason had rested easily. They had finally fallen asleep just before dawn. It was full daylight, perhaps two hours into the day, when they were awakened by noise from the road. They had camped on a bluff above the road. Slowly, quietly, they crawled to the edge of the bluff from which they could see the source of the noise. A man in a hooded, rust-colored robe belted with a rope stood gesturing to a soldier. The sold
  25. David McLeod
    Chapter 7: Robbie’s Story—Council, Ambush, and Death Casey picked up several of the chunks and shards of flint and examined them. “This one,” he said, more to himself than the others. Holding it carefully in the hem of his shirt as had Peter, and placing it on top of a relatively flat rock, Casey pressed a pebble against the edge of the long shard. He jumped as a piece popped out. “Knapping, isn’t it?” Robbie asked. “My older brother told me he’d teach me, some day.” “Yes,” Casey said as he
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