Morning Song: A Seeders Universe Novel Read Free Page B

would have to be very careful around her because all he really wanted to do was play connect the dots with his tongue on those freckles.
    He forced himself to take a deep breath, clear that thought, and turn his attention to Chairman Ray and his black-haired wife Tacita. She had done a quick look of the lodge and nodded, then moved over to the couch and sat down, saying nothing.
    Roscoe knew her reputation as being cold and brilliant. It was rumored that she and Chairman Ray had been a team for over a hundred thousand years. He couldn’t imagine being with one woman for that long. He couldn’t imagine living that long, actually. In fact, that number just sort of numbed him, it was so large.
    As they all got seated, Roscoe kept his attention on Chairman Ray, but noticed out of the corner of his eye that the redheaded woman had now noticed him and was staring at him. He didn’t dare let himself look at her.
    He wanted to, but he didn’t dare.
    “This is our command team,” Chairman Ray said. “Welcome. You’ve all been briefed on what we face, so first let me do some introductions and reasons why I have asked you to be part of this.”
    He turned to Fisher. “Chairman Vardis Fisher and his partner and wife, Callie Sheridan. Both of them are more educated than most anyone you will ever meet. They will run the science part of this mission, from mathematics to the social sciences. We have no idea what we might find when we get inside that ship, so we need to be ready for anything and they have two of the most diverse and nimble minds I have had the pleasure to meet.”
    Both Fisher and Callie nodded to that, clearly slightly embarrassed.
    Chairman Ray went on. “Their ship and two other scientific ships will be support and they will lead the scientists.”
    Then Chairman Ray turned to the redhead. “This is Chairman Maria Boone.”
    Roscoe looked at her, but she had her golden eyes focused on Chairman Ray.
    “Chairman Boone is the leading authority on the history of the original Seeders,” Ray said, “and she and her ship cut a tracking research trip short and returned from the edge of the Local Group boundary to help. Since that old ship is an ancient Seeders’ ship, we’re going to need her entire crew of experts to unravel what we find.”
    Then Chairman Ray turned to Roscoe. “This is Roscoe Mundy who doesn’t know it yet, but has become Chairman Mundy of a ship called The Huntington . It has just reached orbit above us.”
    Roscoe managed to not jerk from surprise, but instead nodded a thank-you to Chairman Ray.
    Roscoe had had no intention of becoming a Chairman of his own ship this soon. In a few hundred years of more experience, maybe, but not yet. But it seemed he was being given a gift for the moment. He just hoped he was up for the task.
    “The Huntington is the heaviest-armed Seeder ship ever built. It was recently finished and stored in the First Sector, waiting for a moment when it would be needed. So Chairman Mundy will be in charge of all military and security forces we might need going into that large ship. He is one of the clearest-thinking military brains we have.”
    Roscoe nodded to that. He had been briefed on that part of the mission, just not being a Chairman of his own ship. Nor had he expected the compliments coming from Chairman Ray.
    “Four other Seeder military ships will be joining us from the Andromeda Galaxy,” Ray said, “as soon as they can get here, which will be in about two weeks.”
    Roscoe nodded, suddenly totally overwhelmed. He had no doubt he was going to have to recruit a few mortals from Sector Justice into the Seeders, with permission, of course, to help on his ship. He had no idea how to do any of that.
    Seeders Justice was a fairly new policing organization that had formed in the Milky Way Galaxy. It had a lot of great people in it, experienced people he could trust.
    Chairman Ray then patted the leg of his wife. “Tacita and I will be in overall command of this