{"id":8091,"date":"2019-01-05T00:01:28","date_gmt":"2019-01-05T06:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jackofharts.com\/?p=8091"},"modified":"2019-01-03T05:23:56","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T11:23:56","slug":"the-thunderbird-affair-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/?p=8091","title":{"rendered":"The Thunderbird Affair"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/jackofharts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/The-Thunderbird-Affair-200-x-259.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jackofharts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/The-Thunderbird-Affair-200-x-259.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"259\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8074\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hyperspace flickered and rippled, sending out whips of rainbow light in every direction as it fought normalspace for dominance.  Jack couldn\u2019t count the number of ships he\u2019d seen entering or leaving hyperspace, even with his boots off, but very few of them had generated a lightshow this impressive.  The ship emerged from hyperspace slowly, like a great whale feeling its way to the ocean surface, taking care to keep from breaking anything like a hapless ship that might be too close.<\/p>\n<p>Jack wondered at the thought that had wandered through his mind as he watched the ship come into focus.  One last blast of petulant hyperspacial rainbows flashed out in protest before falling back to where they belonged, leaving Jack alone with one of the largest ships he\u2019d ever seen in his life.  His eyes rebelled against the visual scale of the ship, unwilling to admit that its apparent size could be accurate.  It couldn\u2019t possibly be that large.<\/p>\n<p>But then he began to pick out individual weapons turrets on the ship\u2019s flanks and it almost began to make sense.  And if he thought of those engine pods and other odd protuberances of similar size running up its flanks as heavy cruisers that were just bolted on, he began to understand the true size of the leviathan.  It wasn\u2019t as large as Columbia, but Jack had seen very few ships larger than this new arrival.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJack?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not them,\u201d Jack said, before feeling the oncoming storm strengthen in the back of his mind.  \u201cBut they are involved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUpdate the drones.  Flag \u2018Bogey White\u2019 and \u2018Bogeys Yellow.\u2019  Send one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Betty and Jasmine nodded to each other and seemed to relax as the drones began to flash between \u201cBogey White\u201d and \u201cBogeys Yellow\u201d on the display.  Unknown starship in the area.  Hostile action improbable.  Unknown starships in area.  Hostile action probable.<\/p>\n<p>Jack\u2019s eyes flicked over to watch the drone with his own eyes.  It turned, flashed out through the rainbow, and Jack\u2019s message to Sunnydale was on the way.<\/p>\n<p>The Thunderbird Affair is now available at the following retailers:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B07MDNJ6CT\/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&#038;ie=UTF8&#038;qid=1546107065&#038;sr=1-1\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/books\/1130046985?ean=2940155921042\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Barnes and Noble<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/book\/the-thunderbird-affair-jack-of-harts-short-story-2\/id1447910212?mt=11\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">iTunes<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/the-thunderbird-affair-jack-of-harts-short-story-2\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kobo<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smashwords.com\/books\/view\/914204\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Smashwords<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hyperspace flickered and rippled, sending out whips of rainbow light in every direction as it fought normalspace for dominance. Jack couldn\u2019t count the number of ships he\u2019d seen entering or leaving hyperspace, even with his boots off, but very few[&hellip;]<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/?p=8091\">&darr; Read the rest of this entry&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diaries","uentry","postonpage-1","odd","post-author-medron-pryde"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8092,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8091\/revisions\/8092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}