As we left our last book, the farm in Iowa, home to Peacemaker Van Tudor and his entire family for the past many, many years was under threat of being confiscated! Yes! Some Army Colonel from a nearby Army base had come to war Van that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) backed up by DHS was coming to take them all away for allowing illegal aliens entry to the United States. It seems by Van landing the *Fafnir* or *Frankie* on his own property with his crew, who were definitely not US citizens, was breaking the law! Of course the Army Colonel was promising to make all this legal trouble go away if Van would only surrender his ship! That wasn’t going to happen.
So, Van had sent part of his crew into orbit in the *Fafnir* and he was waiting his fate at the farm. Sure enough, on the appointed day and time, a whole caravan of black sedans and an Army truck came storming out to the farm. While the ICE Agents didn’t appear to be enthusiastic about their job, especially with Icky standing on the porch, they did serve Van with the legal papers which placed him all everyone on the property under arrest and confiscated all the property and anything on it. While this was going on, another large helicopter arrived and from this one popped another Colonel although this was an Air Force Colonel. He approached Van, the ICE Agents, and the Army Colonel and told them they had to cease and desist. His explanation is in the book, but it did cause the ICE Agents and the Army Colonel to pack-up and leave with everyone else staying in place. The AF Colonel told Van that this solution to his problem was only good for 30 days so something has to be figured out in the meantime to protect the farm and others when they visited the Earth.
So this was just another headache to add to Van Tudors problems. Van noticed that a lot of his problems were now focusing on his desire to protect Earth. There were a lot of shady characters that were more than willing to turn the Earth into a test bed for new ungodly weapons of alien origin. He had the battleship *Iowa* stationed in orbit near Jupiter and was building Cantullin Station also near Jupiter and those two should be capable of protecting Earth, but Van was pleasantly surprised when his newly reformed Mother came to him and stated that she and a number of her friends (read Ferals) were willing to stay in orbit above Earth and act as protectorates until something permanent could be worked out. This pleased Van to know end and he was glad to see his Mother working for something good for a change.
So Van went back to Anvil Dark still trying to track down some nefarious activities that seemed to be circulating around Pont Alus Kyr, a medical research facility that Van had been to on numerous occasions. The facility, on the surface, appeared to be just what it was, but the security around the facility was terrible and several questionable things had happen while Van had been a Peacemaker to make him uncomfortable with the place. Now at while at Anvil Dark, Van met with Master Volffin and another Peacemaker named Casaril. Van was aware that the other Masters and the Guild were still awaiting his decision on becoming a Master. He also found out that Peacemaker Casaril was an up-and-comer who could just as easily slip into the vacant Master slot if Van did turn it down. Van didn’t believe Casaril would be any different than a lot of the past evil Masters who were out for themselves. Yet, he still refrained from accepting the job.
Van felt he had things to do out in the field and he was afraid that being a Master would tie him to a desk at Anvil Dark. He had discussed his thoughts with his crew at length and most thought that he would be an excellent Master especially when they needed new leadership. Still Van was hesitant. And that’s the way this book continues. Van is still not convinced that he wants to be a Master. He has other things to do and also wants to make sure Earth enters into this galactic community the right way. He’s also found out that there were significant reasons his Grandfather had turned down is opportunity to become a Master and it wasn’t because he didn’t want the job.
Yet, we’ll have to wait for the next book to find out if, in fact, Van Tudor does become a Master or stays a Peacemaker. Book 18, “Distant Warning” is available on Amazon right now.