Morgan Selwood - a real top gun

 

 In the last couple of weeks we've had posts about 'top guns' and top guns they were, indeed. But I doubt any of them could beat Morgan Selwood.

She's a Supertech, which is a nickname for a BI – a biological intelligence. You might call her a cyborg, but the 'human' element is very much to the fore. She is an enhanced human with a super computer in her brain and she's capable of controlling a battle cruiser by herself. As it happens, she's also a gun pilot – when she gets the chance.

And she does, in most of the books she's in. In Morgan's Choice she impresses her captors with what she's able to do with one of their stolen shuttles and in Morgan's Return she has to battle with another Supertech.

This is a scene from Kuralon Rescue. Chet, Toreni, and Jirra are in small freighter Trader's Dream trying to make their escape from Kuralon but they have been intercepted by a J-43 patrol ship, which is shortly joined by a J-500 Hunter, a heavily armed cruiser. Fortunately, Jirra was able to contact Morgan earlier and she has just arrived on the scene in the luxury yacht, Vulsaur. Here's what happens next – slightly edited to remove extraneous bits.

***

"Are you there, Jirra?"

Vulsaur, with Morgan at the controls. Jirra could have screamed with joy. But it wasn't over yet.

"We've been intercepted by the J-43. Shift drive's destroyed, one main engine gone, environmentals damaged."

"Understood. Oops, looks like the J-43 has seen me. I'll get back to you."

The J-43 moved sideways, then fired three missiles. Promolus appeared to know what she was doing. Jirra had seen that maneuver before. Enemies had little time to react and the way they moved was usually predictable. Jirra almost felt sorry for the captain. Vulsaur fired two intercepts and destroyed the third missile with energy blasts. Fragments vaporized on Trader's Dream's shields, providing a short-lived light show. If Promolus wasn't worried now, she ought to be. Vulsaur fired forward thrusters, slowing down. Morgan had probably given the patrol ship a chance to retire with dignity. For a moment, Jirra thought the gesture had been accepted, but then the J-43 jagged sideways again. The new blip on the proximity display explained that.

Jirra guessed the newcomer was the J-500 even before the display confirmed. They thought they'd trap the arrogant civilian in the middle, did they? Jirra chuckled. Two ships against Vulsaur with Morgan Selwood at the helm? Still no contest.

A movement beside her made her glance around. Chet, still in the silver survival suit.

"What's happening?"

Grinning, Jirra gestured at the screen. "The J-500 is coming to play. They think they can finish off a civilian yacht. Although I think the J-43's captain may have some other notions."

"A civilian yacht? How can it be a match for a Hunter?"

"That's a lot more than a civilian yacht. It's fast, maneuverable and bristling with weapons. And Morgan Selwood is at the controls."

Chet shook her head. "Against two ships?"

"You don't know much about her, do you?"

"Not a thing. Except a few stories about the Yogina and Ravindra."

Vulsaur had a flexibility the other ships did not possess. Morgan had built her with flexible nozzles on her thrusters, so she could move diagonally more easily. The J-500 fired four missiles at Vulsaur's stern, the J-43 fired three missiles at her bow, attempting to stymie and maneuver. They must have thought they had her. Morgan destroyed the bow missiles with counter missiles. She fired her upper thrusters, dropping the ship. Three of the four stern missiles exploded on Vulsaur's shields in a sparkling display of writhing blue energy. Vulsaur dodged beneath the fourth, which could not match her change of direction. The J-43 was exposed. Promolus tried desperately to avoid, dodging sideways. Too late. The missile impacted the patrol ship's bow. Debris poured out with the pressure of the air venting into space. Jirra almost cheered. If they had any sense, they'd back off while they still could.

Vulsaur had slipped in behind the Hunter. Morgan fired one missile, waited until the counter missile came back from the J-500 and fired a second missile before dropping beneath the ship.

"Wow. She's good, isn't she?" Chet said. "Or is that the ship's systems dodging at the last minute?"

"Both. Morgan overrides the systems so she can leave her dodge to the last possible moment."

Chet stared. "She's better than a computer?"

"She is a computer. In a way." Jirra pointed at her head. "She has a computer in her brain. She's quite capable of handling all the systems on a battle cruiser on her own."

Chet was silent for a long time, absorbing that information as she watched the three ships in their deadly dance. "Why hasn't she blown them apart?"

Jirra glanced at Chet. Siena had asked a similar question, phrased in a very different way.

"What's Morgan like?" she had asked.

"Incredibly smart, a brilliant engineer—"

Siena had waved a hand. "As a person. I know she's not really a person, but you know what I mean."

"Yes, she is really a person. I think if you painted her skin brown," Jirra had raised her own arm to illustrate, "she wouldn't be any different to us. Apart from her eyes, and contact lenses would hide them. She's a wonderful dancer and she can be lots of fun."

"Because although she's got that computer in her head, she's a living, breathing, woman with all the same emotions as you and I. She probably thinks they're just doing a job and doesn't want to kill them. But I don't think the Hunter is listening. And I think the captain isn't thinking straight. If he proceeds with that vector, he'll impinge on the J-43."

The Hunter raked Vulsaur with energy weapons from its flank. The yacht's shields sparkled with a brief blue glow. A missile followed. That wasn't silly. The captain expected to weaken the shields and pierce with the missile. But Morgan dropped the yacht out of the way seconds before impact. This time, she set Vulsaur up at right angles to the Hunter's underside. Three missiles, each sent within seconds of each other, slammed through the Hunter's shields and into its engines. The shock waves from the explosion rocked Trader's Dream.

Chet cheered, both fists raised above her head. Jirra knew Morgan Selwood wouldn't be doing that.

The Hunter continued in a straight line. With the main engines gone, so was the power to the thrusters. Jirra leaned forward. "Grief. If Promolus doesn't shift her ship soon —"

The ships collided in absolute silence, the hulls bending and crumpling and twisting under the pressure. The smaller ship's shattered nose rose over the Hunter's bow. The larger vessel split the J-43 down its underside, until the Hunter reached the engines. The explosion tore both ships apart.

***

That's a space battle, so different from what would happen in atmosphere. That is, not like the attack on the Death Star in Star Wars 😀.

Find out more about the Morgan Selwood series here. 

 

The birth of Morgan's Misfits

 

One of the problems with writing a romance is that readers expect a happy ever after or at least a happy for now ending to the book. Once you've done a HFN, you might be able to do another book for the same two characters, ending in a HEA. But once you have a HEA, that's it. The story is finished. That's why there are so many series which give room for multiple romances with different characters, such as mail-order brides, dating agencies, mates for warriors, and so on.

I hit that HEA wall with Morgan Selwood after I finished Morgan's Return. How to keep that setting alive and tell more stories?

I settled on a series of books starring a group of strong, independent women who didn't quite fit into their strict, stratified society. I'd already hinted at that in Morgan's Return, where Jirra has an illicit affair with another, married, officer who is not of her class. That gave me a start.

Let me explain. In Manesai society there are four classes:

• Mirka - These people are the leaders. Military command officers, presidents and senior politicians will be found in their ranks, as well as police.
• Vesha - Vesha form the business class. Merchants, traders, layers, accountants, and the like. Some of them are very wealthy.
• Hasta - These are the technical people. Engineers, technicians, chemists, scientists, doctors.
• Shuba - The working class. Laborers, foot soldiers, farmers.

Genetic engineering has made it impossible for people from the four classes to create offspring with a member of another class. Manesai culture is heavily based on the Indian caste system. But even if it wasn’t, point a finger at any part of the world and you’ll find classes, castes, restrictions on marriage and the like. The daughters of merchants would marry the sons of other merchants. Princes married princesses. Common serving men didn’t bother lusting after the daughter of the house. Although, in male dominated societies, men in authority thought nothing of having a bit on the side with the serving wench. Marriages were (and still are) very often arranged by the families. And folks, this is still, by and large, true. I have simply taken one small step further in my science fiction and had idealistic genetic scientists make matches between classes childless. A place for everyone and everyone in their place. That’s sure to make for a peaceful society. </sarcasm>

Since humans are essentially tribal and we love to belong to groups, each class has developed sub-classes. Shuba are the foot soldiers, but one group was deliberately modified to make them bigger, stronger, more fearless than the rest. They are the Fleet's elite troopers who also fill civilian roles as security police and body guards. Admiral Ravindra is a member of the Darya sub-class within the Mirka. It is an elite group which produces most Manesai admirals. And the children of admirals (of course) tend to marry the children of admirals.

My three Morgan's Misfits are Jirra, who is a Hasta ex-Fleet engineer, Chet, who is Mirka and was a detective, and Toreni, who was an elite Shuba trooper.

• The trouble is, Jirra is in love with a Mirka (and married) Fleet officer.
• Chet lost her job as a detective and her lover through the same engineered incident.
• Toreni wants to be a chef, not a soldier.
  

The three ladies come together in the first of three books - KURALON RESCUE. Jirra is on the run. Her parents have hired an assassin to kill her after she refused to marry the man they had chosen for her. As she's packing up to leave, her friend, Siena, begs to come along. Jirra reluctantly agrees.

In this scene, Jirra and Siena are in a space ship, having escaped the bounty hunter by the skin of their teeth. Siena discloses to Jirra why she wanted to leave her home.

***

Siena gulped down a large mouthful of wine before she spoke again. "Jirra, come with me, please." She was begging, her eyes pleading. "I'm no soldier. You've just shown me I don't know it all. I'll admit, I was hoping you'd come. You'd understand, surely. I love Anton. I want to marry him and have children. He's going to die in that awful place. Please?" 

Tears glistened in Siena's eyes. Jirra felt her pain, so much the same as her own, a black hole of hopelessness. What would she, Jirra, do in the same situation, if it was Prasad in some hell hole? "Doesn't he have family?" she asked at last.

"There's nothing they can do. They'd be under surveillance. That's if they're still alive." Bitterness colored her words.

"Siena, that bounty hunter –"

"Will follow you wherever you go. But now the trail's muddied, yes? He won't even know you're going to Crossmar, let alone Kuralon. And if I have to find another ship or another pilot, they wouldn't know me, they probably wouldn't help me."

With her elbow on the table, Jirra rested her chin on her fist. Her heart said do it, but her brain pleaded for sanity. She'd be walking into an unknown situation without a real plan. Suicidal came to mind. Then again, what did she really have to live for? She couldn't have Prasad and she didn't want anybody else. She didn't believe in gods and religion, but she did believe that sometimes serendipity showed up and shoved you in an unexpected direction. It had happened to her when she'd accepted the chance to learn from an alien. Her few friends had distanced themselves, but she'd ended up on the trip of a lifetime, a historic trip across the galaxy to search for the Manesai's ancestral home. The little voice in her mind sang its siren song. Follow your heart. You never know where that might lead you. Her decision must have been transmitted in her facial expression because Siena smiled before Jirra said a word.

Laughing, Siena leaped up from the table, ran around to where Jirra sat, pulled her out of her seat and hugged her so tightly she gasped. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

***

 

You can find out more about Kuralon Rescue here