Peacekeeper: Prequel
By Paul Haedo
Chapter One — selected excerpt

Chapter One

We were getting close to the target. The final moments before insertion are always the worst for the heart.

“Coming up on the target, Captain,” relayed the helmsman.

“Good! Head engineer, hot drop when ready,” ordered Captain Masker without delay.

“Yes, Captain,” replied the head engineer through the live wire.

The hum of the bulkheads started to change tempo at a rapid pace. The ship was preparing for the mission; she was as ready as she was ever going to be. The question that we should be asking, however, was: are we?

Our head engineer was good. He cut the FTL warp engines quickly and snapped us back into normal space in a flash. The bulkheads cried out one last time before silencing themselves as they returned to normal space.

“No syndicate activity so far,” relayed the head sensor officer, who spoke quickly for the entire sensor team.

© Paul Haedo. All rights reserved.
Author-supplied manuscript; opening selection beginning at paragraph 1. Paragraph numbering follows non-empty body paragraphs in the supplied file. Authorized short excerpt; full manuscript is not exposed.