After arresting his mother, Peacemaker Van Tudor and his crew of the *Fafnir* had taken some time off. They had also just finished with killing Dohlennz and were hoping that their problems with bad guys would ease up. And the were going through a period of mourning for their lost comrades, primarily Cantullin, the Conoku Captain of the *Iowa* and Master Gerhardt. Van Tudor has no idea as to how the Guild was to proceed with the loss of such a distinguished Master as Gerhardt. He had some rough times with the Master in the beginning, but both had learned to resolve their differences. Master Gerhardt has been a strict by-the-book taskmaster in the beginning which didn’t follow with Peacemaker Van Tudors style of getting the bad guys no matter what as long as he stayed within the law. Gerhardt had mellowed considerably later and Van had come to see some reasons for Gerhardt’s attention to regulations so much so they by the end, they were operating as part of a very good team.
But not he’s going and more bad guys are definitely showing up. They initially have a lead on one of Dohlennz’s deputies and are going after this guy. He’s stolen a derelict satellite for some unknown reason and is dragging it to somewhere for some nefarious purposes. But, Van Tudor plans to stop that action and arrest this guy or kill him if necessary. Due to the nature of the crimes Klezmir has committed, the second option would be very acceptable. Only the job had already been done for them. They found Klezmir’s ship dead in space still drifting with the derelict satellite towing behind it. Once forcing their way into the ship, Van and his small away team found a startling discovery. Klezmer and his crew had be welded to the bulkhead! That had to be a very painful way to die.
Perry, the AI bird, also noted there was a message scrawled on another bulkhead that basically told Van to release his mother from her prison on worse things were going to happen. This obviously was a message left by his mother’s gang known as the Ferals. There Ferals were supposedly Peacemakers of old that didn’t like the orderly and lawful ways that the Peacemaker Guild was following these days. They had been kind of tolerated in the past to do things that were not strictly by the book when it came to arresting or stopping criminals. If someone made themselves bad enough, the Peacemaker Guild would quietly turn over their case to a member of the Ferals and that criminal would cease to exist; no trial, no arrest, and no paperwork.
But that’s not the way the Guild needed to work now. With the Ferals doing that kind of law enforcement, they became almost as bad as the people they were after. While Van Tudor’s mother had been with the Ferals, she wasn’t one of the most extreme, although she had done her share of questionable deeds and that’s what put her in prison this time. But, of course there were other things going on. In particular, there seems to be a resurgence of the Sorcerers. They now seemed to be more intelligent than before, actually planning somethings out which were again causing the Peacemaker Guild problems. These disgusting bad guys were still involved with kidnapping entities and the transferring their consciousness into computer chips basically turning these once thriving intelligences into slaves. That was going to have to stop and Van Tudor was going to make that happen.
Still, Van had been requested to attend an important meeting back at Anvil Dark, HQ for the Peacemaker Guild. There he was asked quite directly if he would assume the position of Master in place of the deceased Master Gerhardt. Van knew there were many other senior Peacemakers to him, but the consensus was he was the best one to fill this job now. Yet Van Tudor said, “Maybe, but not now.” He wanted to think about it. His crew had their own opinions which he listened to, but so far he’s not made a decision. I wonder what will make him take up that position. It’s not happened in this book.
Another thing Tudor has been doing is taking care of Earth. He has slowly started introducing Earth to the fact that there are aliens out in space and they are coming to Earth. Yet, most humans, even when standing in front of an alien like Icky don’t even believe their eyes. Yet, the government may finally be getting involved and in the most stupid of ways possible. Read more in book 17, “Ghost in the Deep” available on Amazon now.