Sneak-Peek 2 for Poor Man's Fight 6! (Patreon)

Hey again!

This month's short story is on the way, but will probably take a couple days to finish and revise. Round 2 of Moderna knocked me on my butt and then knocked my wife on hers a couple days later. (GET YOUR SHOTS! You might feel yucky for a day, but then it passes, and it's way better than getting covid!) However, the story WILL arrive, and soon.

It's another Good Intentions short, and it's, um. Well. It's a lot of sexytimes. Also I'm not entirely sure if this one will be canonical or not.  :)

MOVING ON TO SNEAK-PEEKS! Progress continues on PMF 6. As noted before, this book kicks off with the wedding of Madelyn Carter, and naturally that means a wedding reception... and of course, the boss Madelyn invited to her wedding is an entire Union Fleet admiral with way too much of an interest in a certain civilian in the wedding party...

“Tanner’s got a lot of fight in him,” said Roberts. “That’s alright. Jake isn’t wrong about the military and civilian work being similar, though. Every job has its compromises. No system is perfect. That’s not enough to walk away from your calling." He turned his attention back to Tanner, who kept thinking he should get up and walk away from the table whether it was rude or not. But Roberts kept talking.

“You stopped a genocide on Minos, son. Not alone,” Roberts added with a nod to Lynette, “but you know how much worse things would have been without you. And it was only by luck that you were present. What if you’re back in school for the next crisis?”

“There’s always another crisis," said Tanner. "Probably half a dozen crises happening right now. That’s life.”

“Sure. The waste of potential I see here would seem to qualify. You belong in service, Tanner. You know it.”

“Are you saying all this for my benefit or for the benefit of the Fleet?” Tanner frowned.

“Oh, if you’re interested in the Fleet, we’d be happy to have you.” Roberts smiled like he’d been waiting for that opening all along. “You could walk right into a commission at this point.”

“Do you ever experience night terrors, Joe?” Tanner asked. “Jake, how about you? I mean full immersion, life-on-the-line stress in the middle of the night for no reason at all. Or have all that same stress in the middle of the day, because you smelled the wrong thing or the gravity system in the elevator feels kinda like your old ship. Are you on any drugs to manage anxiety? How much time do you spend in counseling in a week? Probably not even an hour a month to check in and get signed off for your jobs, right?

“The reason I can talk about this without shaking or crying or shouting is because I’ve worked at it, and because I got away from the source,” he said. “I don’t belong in the military. Anyone’s military. I don’t want to belong.”