STAR SQUAD - Frag Chapter excerpt
CHAPTER ONE Peter Michaels stuffed a Boston cream donut into his mouth in three bites, then licked the chocolate icing from his thick fingers on his left hand while his right worked the mouse on a computer. Technically, he wasn’t supposed to have food in the analyst lab, but since he was the only analyst on duty who was going to tell on him. Besides, he was putting in nine hours today, even though the director had cut back overtime, which meant he was working for free. Free meant he could eat a donut if he felt like it. The day was routine so far, just reviewing a set of digital stills that New Horizon had sent back from a pass around Pluto. He fed the images into a computer that began a routine of scanning and combining three sets of data to form one picture. Peter took a moment to marvel at the wonder of it. Here he was on earth preparing to look at pictures of the ninth planet in his solar system, a feat achieved in his lifetime....