Smells of food drifted in from the hallway. I followed my nose to the canteen, where civilian passengers occupied every table and spare bench along the perimeter.
I found my team with my father and Erith at one of the tables. My father held Emi on his lap. She held a biscuit in both chubby hands and was chewing on a very soggy corner of it.
“Give her some porridge,” I said.
“She already had some. She can really eat. That young lady reminds me of you when you were this little.”
I went to the serving area and collected my ration, including a serving of highly red-coded mushrooms.
The pilot had turned on the large screen at the far end of the room. It showed Earth and the Moon as two bright dots in a dark sky.
When I was about to return to the others, Asha came into the canteen. The way he strode in my direction, I knew that something was up.
“We’ve got contact with Nations of Earth,” he said.
I snorted. “And now they want to talk to me?”
But I dumped my breakfast on the table with a sigh, and followed him to the hub, a room shrouded in semidarkness with screens along the walls. More than half of them idled in sleep mode, since the ship had shut down its military operations.
Asha guided me to a seat and handed me an earpiece.
There was no visual, he said, and the signal was not very good.
He was right.
Through the crackling of static, a clear voice said, “I hate to have to talk to you, Mr Wilson. You’ve presumed far too high a status without justification.”
“What’s changed?” It was the least snarky response I could muster. Once I would have attempted to be polite to the office of president, but Dekker had shown me how much of a wasted effort that was. You made connections with people, not positions. If the people weren’t up to your standard, then it shouldn’t matter what position they held.
“I am talking on behalf of all the people on this planet, which I hope you would feel some kind of responsibility towards.”
That was Dekker all over. Trying to guilt trip me.
“Just tell me what you want. It’s late in this process. We’re on our way out. If you’d started talking to us earlier, maybe we could have avoided this situation altogether.”
“I don’t ask this lightly. We need help. Any help you can get. From anyone at all.”
And then the link dropped out.
I sensed someone was standing behind me. I looked over my shoulder and found Ezhya there.
“Any idea what this means?” I asked.
“Something happened. Maybe they discovered the five extra ships. They realised they can’t fight this enemy without us. It’s war.”
* * *
Thanks for Reading
Thank you for reading Ambassador 11: The Forgotten War. As the author of this book, I would hugely appreciate it if you could return to where you purchased it to write a short review. Thanks so much!
The next book in the series is Ambassador 12: The Unfolding Army.
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About the Author
Patty Jansen lives in Sydney, Australia, where she spends most of her time writing Science Fiction and Fantasy.
Her story This Peaceful State of War placed first in the second quarter of the Writers of the Future contest and was published in their 27th anthology. She has also sold fiction to genre magazines such as Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Redstone SF and Aurealis.
Patty has written over thirty novels in both Science Fiction and Fantasy, including the Icefire Trilogy and the Ambassador series.
pattyjansen.com
More By This Author
Quick link to all Patty Jansen’s books
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In the Earth-Gamra space-opera universe
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RETURN OF THE AGHYRIANS
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Watcher’s Web
Trader’s Honour
Soldier’s Duty
Heir’s Revenge
The Return of the Aghyrians Omnibus
* * *
The Far Horizon (For younger readers)
* * *
AMBASSADOR
Seeing Red
The Sahara Conspiracy
Raising Hell
Changing Fate
Coming Home
Blue Diamond Sky
The Enemy Within
The Last Frontier
The Alabaster Army
Red Crystal Desert
Lost Forest Secrets
The Forgotten War
The Unfolding Army
* * *
Hard Science Fiction
In the ISF-Allion universe
Shifting Reality
Shifting Infinity
Charlotte’s Army
Juno Rising
* * *
SPACE AGENT JONATHAN BARTELL
Contamination
Observation
Extermination
Permutation
Elevation
* * *
PROJECT CHARON
Re-entry
Originator
Survival Mode
Swarm
* * *
Epic Fantasy
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GHOSTSPEAKER CHRONICLES
(formerly For Queen And Country)
Innocence Lost
Willow Witch
The Idiot King
Fire Wizard
The Dragon Prince
The Necromancer’s Daughter
Ghostspeaker Chronicles Books 1-3
* * *
DRAGONSPEAKER CHRONICLES
The Bastard Prince
The Wizard Priest
The Dragon King
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Epic, Post-apocalyptic Fantasy
* * *
ICEFIRE TRILOGY
Fire & Ice
Dust & Rain
Blood & Tears
The Icefire Trilogy Omnibus
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MOONFIRE TRILOGY
Sand & Storm
Sea & Sky
Moon & Earth
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Short story collections
Out Of Here
New Horizons
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Self-publishing (Non-fiction)
Self-publishing Unboxed
Mailing Lists Unboxed
Going Wide Unboxed
Indie Writer Unboxed
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Visit the author’s website at http://pattyjansen.com and register for a newsletter to keep up-to-date with new releases.