Teaser for Empire and Earth

The technology can move ships millions of light-years in quantum time, keep people young and healthy indefinitely, or destroy planets almost without noticing. But people are still human - or a little bit more.

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I know you're trying to figure out how to interest other people in Earth, he told me, There won't be an official response, but have you considered asking for private assistance? Just because the Empire won't do something official doesn't mean it won't allow individuals to take action. M'Dorna's Hypothesis applies; all forbiddance and official requirements contribute to the overall load on the Empire, while there is only so much benefit possible from government services. Anyone sane wants to keep the balance as positive as possible.

I hadn't really thought about it before, but the Empire did allow private armed forces. To be precise, it didn't try to outlaw them, and all the major families kept at least some troops of their own. I didn't know how big Scimtar's forces were, but I was pretty certain they were numerically superior to every army on Earth put together, and there were families with even larger private forces. The question is, why should any private forces help Earth, or me?

You're still looking at it wrong, love. The families hire forces for specific purpose, but there are individuals who have plenty of money to live for a while, and might decide they want to help. Other people might want to bring back dogs to sell, so they do help Earth because without Earth, there are no dogs. But even if grandfather probably won't help you with people, he might be persuaded to lend or give you some obsolescent equipment. He's not the only one. Others might well contribute money instead of time. Perhaps an existing charity can be persuaded to assist in some fashion. Talk with mother when she gets back; she'll probably have some good ideas.

Anara is gone?

She and father went on a scouting trip; they've got an improved module of the Interstitial Vector. It's not a major breakthrough in itself, but they think it might generate the data for a significant improvement. They might be getting within a few iterations of something commercially viable.

That would change the entire universe when it happened, but my concern at the moment was what shape Earth would be in when the Empire got officially interested. Can we ask Anana? Your grandfather?

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Empire and Earth is Book Three in the four book Rediscovery series, copyright 2014. It is available in e-book and paperback from both Amazon and all the Books2Read retailers and library services.