Redacted Affairs, page 1
part #1 of Rise of the Peacemakers Series
Redacted Affairs
Book One of Rise of the Peacemakers
By
Kevin Ikenberry & Kevin Steverson
PUBLISHED BY: Seventh Seal Press
Copyright © 2019 Kevin Ikenberry & Kevin Steverson
All Rights Reserved
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License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it wasn’t purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
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Cover Art by Ricky Ryan
Cover Design by Brenda Mihalko
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For My Girls.
– Kevin Ikenberry
This one is for my wife, Stacey. She'll tell you, there is some of me in the
personalities of several of the characters. She's probably right. She usually is.
– Kevin Steverson
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Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
About Kevin Ikenberry
About Kevin Steverson
Connect with Kevin Ikenberry Online
Connect with Seventh Seal Press Online
Excerpt from Super-Sync:
Excerpt from Book One of the Salvage Title Trilogy:
Excerpt from Book One of the Revelations Cycle:
Excerpt from Book One of The Fallen World:
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Chapter One
Peacemaker Academy
Ocono
“I’m telling you, Jyrall,” Larth said, “you gotta try it.”
“I will not,” the big Besquith answered while looking over and down at his weasel-like partner.
Larth, a Zuparti, had been born without fear. The lack of natural paranoia inherent in his species labeled him as insane among his race. In fact, he had actually been diagnosed as such on more than one occasion. Rumor was the Peacemaker Selector, Hak-Chet, threatened Larth’s prior schoolmaster with investigation by the Enforcers while requesting Larth by name four years ago. Jyrall knew Larth didn’t believe that, but like most stories around the Peacemaker Academy, there was likely more truth to the story than not. Whatever the cause, Jyrall’s unlikely best friend walked at his side through the corridors of the Academy. Around them, giddy classmates of all known races jostled and called out to each other as they headed to the Accessions Briefing. Today they would learn their initial assignments beyond graduation. The final two weeks of their tenure at the Academy had officially started.
“I will not dip perfectly good fish into a tomato puree. Ever,” Jyrall said for the third time, shaking his head. “The entire galaxy knows the wonderful concoction known as tartar sauce is the only acceptable sauce for fried fish. It must not be desecrated with…what did you call it? Gatch-up?”
“Ketchup…it’s ketchup!” Larth exclaimed. “Besides, who made you the galaxy’s leading expert on fish?”
“I am a connoisseur of the Earth product, fish, I’ll have you know!” Jyrall laughed. “I have been consuming them since the day of my birth.”
“You’re as crazy as I am.” Larth laughed and licked the last of the ketchup from his paw. Occasionally, Jyrall believed his partner and friend’s diagnosis was spot on. Like now, for instance. Larth was truly crazy. There could be no denying it. The little Zuparti laughed. “Even if your Gamma gave you a thing for tilapia.”
He referred to the fact that the Gamma in Jyrall’s clan had fed him fish as an alternate to meat due to allergies when he was a pup. When his clan Alpha had ordered the pup, who could not eat properly, discarded, his Gamma had refused, feeding him fish and formula from Earth, and raising him with the rest of the pups in his clan. It had been the only time he knew of that his clan’s Gamma had openly disobeyed their Alpha. Since it was so out of character for the Gamma, the Alpha had allowed it, resulting in the largest Besquith in the clan. When a pup had no competition for food, he grew quite large for their already large race.
While the allergy had long since been cured and was irrelevant now, the thought of eating meat still turned Jyrall’s stomach. He couldn’t eat the way the rest of his race ate because of it, and as a result, was considered as insane as his partner. There were plenty of other ways to take in the necessary proteins to maintain one’s health. Jyrall’s preference was fish. As far as he was concerned, the contribution of fish from Earth was as important as any other system’s contribution, regardless of what it was. Art, medicine, and technology were all good stuff, but a good fish sandwich was hard to beat. Especially with tartar sauce on it.
“Well, explain your love of fish tacos, then?” Larth asked, knowing he had his partner dead to rights. “Or is that just because it’s Peacemaker Francis’ favorite food?”
Jyrall rolled his eyes. “Gods, you are insane.”
“You won’t eat ketchup, but you’ll eat salsa? It’s the same thing, Jyrall. Admit it.”
“Salsa is not gatch-up!” Jyrall exclaimed. He looked up away from his partner in time to see Captain Dreel step into the next intersection. Dreel was large for a Besquith himself, but he still had to look up at Jyrall. The captain stared at them with his paws resting on his hips, waiting for them to approach.
Captain Dreel had been one of their best, if not intermittent, instructors for their first three years at the academy. Among other subjects, he had been instrumental in hand-to-hand combat training, and the Besquith had tossed them both around many times. Later, as they progressed, Larth had been able to hold his own for a surprising amount of time before being defeated by the instructor. Size did matter in some things. In that same line of thought, Jyrall had been able to beat the smaller Besquith instructor by the end of year two at least half the time. He remained their favorite instructor, though they had seen less of him of late. The situation with the Mercenary Guild and the siege of Earth had pressed the senior Peacemakers into more complex, secretive duties.
“Sir,” Jyrall said. “I didn’t expect to see you until the graduation ceremonies in two weeks.”
“We were just on our way to the Accessions Briefing, sir,” Larth said. “We’ll know our first assignment this afternoon. We planned on getting front row seats since we’ll be there early. You know, ‘Early is on time. On time is not,’ and all that.” Larth was quoting the instructor in front of him about arriving to his lessons.
“It is,” agreed Captain Dreel with a pleased sigh, “for some things. For others, exact timing is crucial. One of those times is right now. Follow me.” He turned around and headed down the corridor he had come from, away from the lecture hall assigned for the afternoon’s briefing.
With a shrug to his partner, Larth said, “Roger that, sir,” and turned and followed him.
Jyrall followed closely behind the Zuparti. “What exactly does ‘Roger that’ mean?”
“You really should watch more GalNet shows,” Larth answered, “especially the old ones from Earth. It means ‘yes,’ ‘affirmative,’ and sometimes ‘hell yes,’ I gathered.”
“Then why didn’t you just say that?” the big Besquith asked, shaking his head and grinning.
They followed Captain Dreel deeper into the corridors of the Peacemaker Academy until they stopped at a door. It wasn’t the door to the office of the head of the Academy. It was the door to the guild master’s campus office. Neither of the soon-to-be Peacemakers knew why they were there. Guild Master Rsach hadn’t been seen on campus for a long time. Rumor had it the entire High Council had been out of sight for a while. The persistent rumors said they were in hiding, and that Rsach probably wouldn’t be attending the graduation ceremonies, either, for security reasons. Even with Enforcers patrolling the exterior of the Academy, and the whole of the planet’s security forces created from the ranks of Peacemakers, present and past, Guild Master Rsach was too much of a target in the rapidly disintegrating Union. No guild master had ever missed graduation.
Captain Dreel paused before opening the door,
To their surprise, Guild Master Rsach stood by the central desk in the dimly lit office. He put his slate down and motioned for them to come in. “Jyrall. Larth. Please, come in. You’re just the two I came to see. Let me congratulate you both on graduating from the Academy.”
“Thank you, Guild Master,” Jyrall said.
“Thank you, sir, but graduation isn’t for a couple more weeks,” Larth blurted.
The guild master rippled several arms and looked toward Captain Dreel. Dreel held a small cube with three green dots glowing steadily. The anti-listening device was elSha made and part of the standard Peacemaker deployment kit. The lights indicated it was working, effectively jamming every possible listening frequency. Any interested parties would have to be inside the office already if they wanted to hear the conversation. Dreel nodded at the guild master, and the Jeha continued speaking.
“Not for you two.” The guild master turned his millipede body and reached out with several arms to pick up some items from his desk. “Much like your confirmation mission, the situation has changed. Your iridium badges, please,” he asked.
Jyrall and Larth each reached into an inner pocket. Larth reached into the angled pocket of his candidate coveralls. Jyrall’s was on the vest he wore in lieu of the standard coveralls, as there were none large enough for him. Each of them took out the temporary badges they had carried since the incident on the Marloch Trading Station the year before. They’d stopped a potential terrorist attack from happening on Earth, and the guild master had declared it to be their commissioning mission, well ahead of schedule. It wasn’t the first time a mission of its type had sufficed for a commissioning mission, but none of their classmates or instructors, other than Dreel, knew about it—nor would they ever. Like their classmates about to embark on their own missions, Jyrall and Larth retained the badges to be traded for Peacemaker Coins during the graduation ceremony and the actual Peacemaker Badge they had each designed and could not wait to hold.
Can this really be happening?
With trembling paws, they handed their iridium candidate badges to the guild master. He twisted again and placed them on the desk. He turned toward them again, and there was a ripple of pride through his body.
“I am greatly honored to commission you, Peacemaker Jyrall.” Rsach placed a coin on the Besquith’s hand. Jyrall nodded, afraid to speak. In that moment, feeling the coin on his palm, all he wanted to do was roar in celebration.
“I am greatly honored to commission you, Peacemaker Larth,” Rsach said, repeating the ritual. Jyrall saw his friend’s eyes glisten as his paw clasped the coin tightly. For the first time, Jyrall looked at the coin as if he’d never seen one before. Centered on the coin was the suspended diamond sigil of the Peacemaker. Most outsiders believed a Peacemaker’s badge was the source of the greatest honor. They were mistaken. The coin was part membership card, part diploma, and all honor. Since the first Peacemakers, the coin was the true mark of the Peacemaker’s commitment to “Secure and Protect” the Union. The badge was the necessary symbol of authority on the lawless frontier.
They both looked up after studying the coin for a moment, each lost in their own thoughts. The guild master held out matching platinum badges for them. Jyrall tilted his head slightly in question, but reached out to take the badge, as Larth was doing. The badges weren’t the ones they’d designed. Each Peacemaker got to design the image of the tree on their badges. Usually, it was a tree native to the planet a Peacemaker hailed from.
The two badges, like the coins, had the sigil of the Peacemaker Guild tree on them. With an intake of breath, Larth realized what the badges meant. “We will be assigned directly to you, Guild Master?”
“You are, Peacemaker,” Guild Master Rsach said. “I have a mission for you two. You are designated partners from this moment forward. Is this agreeable to you both?”
Jyrall spoke first. “I am honored to share the duty with my friend, Guild Master.”
“I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way,” Larth said softly. He looked up at Jyrall and winked. The Besquith returned it.
“Then officially partnered you are. This decision suits you both,” Rsach continued. “You will go immediately to the Parmick System. There’s a mining outpost on the planet Parmick, once owned by a legitimate business. The mine has recommenced operations, but we don’t know under whose direction. You will investigate the situation there. We’ve lost contact with the local Peacemaker, so we’re no longer receiving the intelligence we need. The occasional loss of communications with an individual Peacemaker is to be expected; however, the barracks commander reported electromagnetic interference as the cause of disruption via StormWatch this entire time. I cannot immediately risk sending a Blue Flight to the barracks to talk with the commander there, and the situation on Parmick is serious enough that it requires direct investigation now. That’s where the two of you come in. No one knows who you are. No one will be expecting you. If you follow the procedures you applied on Marloch last year, you’ll likely gain more intelligence faster than we could if I sent Enforcers to the colony.”
“Yes, sir,” Jyrall said. “Will we be briefed on the full situation as it now stands before we depart?”
“We could study the brief while our supplies and gear are drawn and a ship is assigned to us,” added Larth, thinking ahead to the next several weeks.
“It will be loaded onto your ship,” assured Captain Dreel. The Besquith hesitated for a moment and glanced at the guild master. “Honored Rsach, I would ask that the Peacemakers know our greatest concern. Whether or not it has any bearing on Parmick, I believe they need to know the whole situation.”
Rsach studied them both for a moment. Jyrall couldn’t help but wonder if the guild master was still measuring them, even with their new assignment. He turned to Dreel. “Captain Dreel, you are correct. I value your judgment.”
“Thank you, Guild Master.” Dreel nodded solemnly.
The Jeha stepped closer to Jyrall and Larth. His voice was little more than a whisper. “What you need to know right now is, Kr’et’Socae escaped from the detention center on Kleve several months ago. We have suppressed that information for obvious reasons. He was confirmed to be on Araf and was behind the recent attack on Victoria Bravo.”
Attempting to keep their surprise in check, both silently nodded their heads. Kr’et’Socae was the only Enforcer to be decommissioned and imprisoned for murder. The escaped Equirri was a formidable opponent in his own right, yet the physiological enhancements an Enforcer often received made him even more dangerous.
“His location is unknown at this time, and the silence from the mining outpost and the regional barracks doesn’t ease my mind about the situation on Parmick,” said Guild Master Rsach. “You two, watch each other’s backs and get us the information we need. Go pack your bags and meet Captain Dreel at the starport. You leave immediately via Blue Flight. Do you have any questions?”
Jyrall shook his head, but Larth said, “Why us?”
The guild master made a sound somewhere between surprise and admiration. “You truly have no fear, Peacemaker.”
“It’s the most obvious question. Is it what we did on Marloch? The fact no one knows us? Or something else?”
Rsach glanced at Dreel, and there was a deep, rumbling chuckle from the captain. “This is a situation where one Peacemaker might not be enough, Larth. Until we know more, it’s better that we send a pair of highly intelligent, seasoned Peacemakers. Given the situation, we cannot be sure our Peacemakers aren’t being watched by the Mercenary Guild in their sectors,” Dreel replied.
