Tanager's Flight Snippet

Chapters 8&9

As ever, raw first draft, errors and all. Feel free to point any out!

The RCMP

The message, to Jem's surprise, was not in text. Instead, it was a tight-beam compressed video. Which meant, he thought, that it had come from not very far away. 

 "Greetings, Captain Raznick," in the video, Capt. Baker-Powe leaned forward, her hands gripping the bar at her control panel. Behind her, he could see the small bridge of her RCMP ship, personnel in uniform sitting at stations, busy with whatever they were working on. "I'm afraid this is a matter of some urgency, and discretion. So I took the liberty of ascertaining your route and timing. I apologize for the invasion of privacy, but it seems necessary and I consider us to be friends, so I hope you will forgive me.” There was a long pause. “If you will ping the space in the 16 quadrant I think you will get an answer soon. Please loiter until you receive a response."