The Project Gutenberg EBook of Zeta Exchange, by Ann Wilson

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Title: Zeta Exchange
A Terran Empire story

Author: Ann Wilson

Release Date: June 9, 2008 [EBook #25748]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ZETA EXCHANGE ***

Produced by Al Haines

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ZETA EXCHANGE

A Terran Empire Story

by Ann Wilson

Copyright (C) 1992 by Ann Wilson

Deep Space, 2669 CE

Ranger James Medart was standing beside Captain Jean Willis' control
chair aboard the Empress Lindner, enjoying the peaceful trip back to
Terra after a surprisingly uneventful cruise. He'd kept busy enough to
avoid boredom, but there'd been no emergency calls, which made the
cruise almost a vacation. Pleasant as it had been, he found himself
almost wishing for the challenge of an emergency. Not quite, since an
emergency serious enough to require a Ranger's attention meant the
Empire was in trouble, and that part he didn't like--but the challenge
he did. Maybe he'd ask for a tour in one of the alternate universes
with an Empire just getting started, one that didn't have a full quota
of home-grown Rangers to cope with the many problems of a brand-new
Empire. He wouldn't mind visiting Sierra again; he'd had a hand in
selecting both its Sovereign and her Successor, so he had a personal
interest in its well-being.

He'd barely completed that thought when his surroundings disappeared.
He was nowhere, in some sort of timeless sensory deprivation--

--then he was standing in the middle of a pentagram surrounded by other
symbols he didn't recognize, facing a woman in a