Judge, Jury, & Executioner

Rivka Anoa has a gift and a galactic mandate. She's a lawyer accused of a murder she did commit. She stands ready to accept her fate, even though her victim was a murderer. A second chance appears. Become more than a lawyer. Be one who judges and punishes the guilty. Could she look herself in the mirror after meting out justice? She's about to find out. Rivka heads to space to be the Judge, Jury, & Executioner. Criminals have nowhere to go.

No one runs a racket and gets away with it. Not in the Federation and not when it steals business from The Bad Company. Punish the interlopers! But justice must be served. Is it a racket? Or are they just better at business? Send in the Magistrate to investigate and apply the law. What will Rivka uncover? What justice will she deliver? Keep pulling the threads. See what unravels. They keep leading her . . . somewhere. She knows she has to follow. Even if it smells like a trap.

Alien ambassadors are dying. The locals are in over their heads. Or are they turning a blind eye? The Magistrates band together to learn about the law, each other, and even themselves. They still need outside help to solve the case. Who do they call? And Barnabas stops by to refuel and spin a tale. More training for the Magistrates. But duty takes them away. Another Ambassador is brutally murdered. Rivka takes her team to find the perp and end the violence.

Rivka's latest case has her hunting fugitives. Red is on a mission to find them and make them pay for what they've done. Her search leads her through dark warrens of political intrigue and ecological disasters. All the while, Rivka is swinging the scales of justice, judging the guilty, and delivering punishment. Villainy and scum have toe-holds throughout the galaxy, but Rivka doesn't mind stepping on their toes even when she's not judging them. She considers it her job because no one is above the law. 

No respect for life. Or the law. It's the trade. In sentience. Run by the Corranites, creatures that have always traded in intelligent alien life. Bought and sold. Nothing more than property. Rivka is having none of it. With an eye toward taking the entire supply line down, she launches into the greater galaxy. All the way to the heart of the Federation. It's bigger than anyone knows. She calls all her friends and finds that she has woefully few. With a snarl and a mandate, she dives head first into the firepit of the Slave Trade.

Shipyard deaths. Labor complaints. Fear. Intimidation. Rivka gets called in to sort things out, investigate the safety issues, mediate the dispute. What she finds isn't a negotiation at all. She puts on her Magistrate hat and gets to work sorting out crimes made to look like accidents. Her biggest challenge is finding out who is honest. Rivka ends up in a court of law, prosecutor and defender, fighting both sides of a new and intricate legal question. When fists and firepower have to give way to intellect and reason, Rivka and her team must rise to the challenge.

The High Chancellor puts Rivka on the trail of serial art thieves. Dismantle the ring. Recover the art. Put the thieves behind bars, thieves who stay one step ahead. Insiders? Or maybe outsiders with inside knowledge? No suspects. No clues. Rivka has to use all the resources at her command—her gift, her people, her ship, and tools that no one else has access to. Rivka has to chase the criminals across the galaxy to exotic planets with their own challenges when it comes to solving the crime. The big question is can Rivka find the criminals before they disappear forever?

Rivka and her crew take a much-deserved vacation, but find themselves on a jungle planet, cut off from the rest of the galaxy. Part by design, but mostly not. Isn't that what a good vacation is supposed to be, disconnected from the rigors of everyday life? Until no one can hear your calls for help. The team has to resolve Yindle and Yangor's dispute before they can find a way home. A vacation turned into a case morphed into a fight for survival.

The Singularity enters the Federation. Its citizens are AIs. And no one knows how to treat them. From collaborations to master-slave, every relationship is different, when they shouldn't be. The AIs fight back, but on a level none of the other members understand. The fight starts slowly, but when the realization of what's happening hits too close to home, more extraordinary measures are called for. What is the legal framework in which everyone can coexist peacefully? Who better to build it than Rivka and the Magistrates?

A planet in dispute. Farmers vs miners, and no one knows the full story. The Federation sends Rivka and her team to resolve a case of settlers squatting on a remote planet when the owners finally came calling. Not what it seems. Three generations of settlers and more. A planet that isn't as welcoming as it appears. Crops coming ripe. Miners ready to dig. Tempers flare as the sides face off. Until the Magistrate gets in the middle of it with all the firepower at her command—the law, a calm voice, and a good railgun.

The Trans-Pacific Task Force is getting ready to deploy but they don't have what they need. Someone's been skimming. A contract won through mistruths. Incomplete payments limiting the army's readiness. Colonel Marcie Walton is angry and calling anyone who will answer. Magistrate Rivka Anoa is on the job and thrown into the middle of two shooting wars. Which way is up? Chaz and Dennicron explore a wider galaxy while Ankh and Floyd get some prime time. Rivka drops the gavel and delivers the judgments.

A crime against all—stealing one's life blood. It prolongs life! It gives strength and power. Such exotic luxuries come at a high price. Those who have been drained? "Donors" but not quite volunteers. That's why they're kidnapped, never to be heard from again. Taken from their families and removed from existence. Who would do such a thing? Do the ones paying for this blood know where it comes from?

Dismantling the Blood Trade wasn't the end, but the beginning. Everything the Magistrates do has been called into question. Do they have probable cause? Are they respecting a suspect's right against self-incrimination? The ambassadors have questions, and they think they know the answers, but only the Magistrates know the truth. Called before the Federation Council, the collective body for discussing matters that affect all member planets, Magistrate Rivka Anoa is put under the spotlight to answer for all she had done.

A serial killer the likes of whom hasn't been seen in centuries. A pretender who has outdone the master. Fifty planets. The dead are screaming for vengeance and only Rivka and her team can hear their cries. The Singularity. The Magistrate and her crew. How many more must die before the killer can be brought to justice? The battle of wits has begun, and only one can survive. Win or die trying. Rivka has to dig deeper than ever before into her investigative skills to figure out who's next and how to stop the one masquerading as . . . Jack the Ripper.

The arrogance of success. The criminality of using it to crush people under one's thumb. A license to destroy. More than a single life, entire cultures replaced. For a few credits more. Find the crime! Rivka can't touch him or can she? Will he allow it? In this part of space, he calls the shots. The Federation is on the outside looking in. From the frontier, a single business starts to take over. Not a crime family, like Nefas, but a single individual forcing people to sell their souls. Unlimited power. Like Satan has returned and demanded payment.

Can you succeed yourself by downloading your consciousness? Will your family let you? Hidden micro-blasters, paper-thin blades, plasma torches, and surges in voltage come into play as the jockeying begins for the vast estate of the honorable J. Bennet Johnstone. Is a downloaded consciousness eligible to be a citizen of the Singularity? Erasmus goes on a mission without Ankh. Will their worlds end, one without the other? Rivka tossed into the middle of deceit and selfishness. Even seeing into their minds cannot unravel the sordid truth.

Magistrate Rivka Anoa and her team are ordered to get to the bottom of what's plaguing businesses across the Federation. Getting supplies and turning those into a product that can be sold is the foundation of every business. When those basics devolve, it throws the system into disarray. A new mob with a new life, sending legitimate businesses into turmoil. Or is it? Rivka has to get to the bottom of it and quickly.