The Greater Good depends on your point of view

Ever since I wrote Eye of the Mother, I had in mind that the couple in that book deserved another story. Brent Walker was still a nice guy – but he wasn’t ordinary anymore. And Tian Axmar hadn’t been ordinary for a very long time. Besides, it would give me an opportunity to include Admiral Ul-Mellor and his lovely wife in a new story. I’d left a lot of unanswered questions in Eye of the Mother – most particularly what had happened to Tian before that book started. And I liked the idea of exploring how the two of them would fare in their brand new, rather different, relationship. They’re both Imperial agents, working for Admiral Ul-Mellor, dancing on that tightrope between the Yrmaks and the Empire – and finding out about life together.

Even so, I wanted to introduce a new character. I’ll admit I was encouraged by the success of the Pets in Space collections, and I’d loved the furzels in Linnea Sinclair’s Games of Command. But Puss isn’t really anybody’s pet. Although she resembles a cat in appearance and in some behaviors, she’s an alien species with more abilities than your average moggy. So she’s very smart indeed. Back in another life I was owned by several Siamese cats (and a few German shepherd dogs but that’s another story). I felt confident to be talking about cats and what they do.

I had the pieces for a new story – Tian and Brent, the mystery of whatever had happened to Tian before she met Brent, simmering conflict between the Empire and the Yrmaks. And Puss. One thing I wanted to weave into the story became the title - for the greater good. What constitutes 'the greater good' depends so much on the point of view of the person with the opinion. And not everyone will agree.

For the Greater Good

A Human settlement is destroyed and all signs point to an Yrmak raid as Imperial agents Tian Axmar and Brent Walker scour the site for clues. One thing they never expected to find was a survivor, a rare alien feline with unusual talents.

As tensions between Humans and Yrmaks ratchet to the point of no return, Tian and Brent must bring all their cyborg skills to bear as they follow a dangerous trail of deception and misdirection.

The feline, now dubbed Puss and strongly bonded to Tian, holds the key to many of the questions driving the investigation. Unfortunately, that bond drives a wedge between Brent and Tian’s working relationship, leaving Brent with second thoughts about his decision to become a cyborg.

As the evidence unfolds, it becomes clear that a devious plot to incite an interspecies war will strike at the very heart of the Empire. With lives at risk, there’s no time to waste. Racing against the clock, Brent, Tian, and Puss must stop the planned carnage, and this time for Brent and Tian… it’s personal.

 🌟

In this excerpt, Brent and Tian (and Puss) travel to Ootzpah, following the trail of stolen weapons. The local customs officials are the corrupt sort who won’t hesitate to gouge small traders. Two of them have just searched the ship, and they’re closing in for the kill, having recognized Puss as a rare, valuable species, worth thousands to collectors.
***

"What is this?" the fellow said, waving the bottle in front of Tian. He shook it, and crystalline particles scattered inside.

Rooban. Shit. "I don't know. It is not ours. You know it's not ours."

The fellow smirked, his gaze sliding to his companion. "Do I? It's Rooban. That's illegal here. Handling it is a criminal offence. It'll land you in jail for a loooong time. Oh yes it will."

Tian swallowed. How to shift his mindset? He knew the drug wasn't theirs, so reinforcing that belief was pointless. They didn't have time for this shit, but she couldn't do anything but play along for now. "Okay, we get it. What do you want?"

"Lydis wants your feline. Hand it over, and the Rooban will disappear."

Smiling, the woman stepped forward, her arms outstretched. "Come along, kitty. You'll love your new home."

Tian grabbed her arm and squeezed just enough to hurt. "She's not for sale." She longed to keep squeezing, cut off the arm's circulation, but soothing colors of pale blues and yellows flowed through her mind. Puss wound her tail around the woman's arm, attracting her attention. The avarice faded. Puss unwound her tail and jumped lightly down from Tian's shoulder. Tian let go.

Tomic stepped back, her eyelids fluttering, then gazed down at Puss. "It's just a feline," she said to her companion. "Just an ordinary feline. "

The man stared, frowning. "But you said—" Puss rubbed past the fellow's leg, brushing her tail against him.

"It's a common cat," Tomic repeated. They've got nothing else. We might as well let them go."

Tian reinforced the thought. Nothing to see here, no point in trying to gouge smugglers with nothing. Maybe come back later.

Nodding, the man dropped the bottle of Rooban into one of the many pockets in his trousers. He produced a chip and handed it to Brent. "You're cleared. For now." He waddled down the ramp, his companion behind him.

Brent sank into a chair. "What in hells happened there?"

"Looks like she can do what we can do, only better." Tian sat opposite him, while Puss took up a spot on the table between them. The auralfang's mental images were of reassurance. "We can reinforce a thought, but she touched them and they changed their minds. It was almost like watching a mind-wipe. Sort of like, 'this is not the auralfang you're looking for'."

Brent stretched out slowly and touched Puss. She pushed her head into his hand and he scratched under her chin. "She likes it." His lips stretched into a silly, goofy smile, like a little boy.

Tian raised an eyebrow. "Most felines do. Did you ever have a pet?"

"Me? No. My sisters had a cat, though."

"Did you ever think about taking the cat away from them and selling it?"

His eyes widened. "Huh? Of course not. They'd be furious."

She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him toward her. "Don't you ever, ever, think about selling Puss. Got that?" She grated the words, reveling in her own anger.

Raising both his hands, he said, "Hey. I just told you what we could get. Not that I'd do that. Honest, Tian. I'm fine with her."

Tian let go. She didn't completely believe him, but she'd made her point.

Puss sent out waves of approval.

***
For the Greater Good is available at  Amazon B&N Kobo iBooks




There’s certainly room for more Tian-Brent-Puss stories. That may well end up being my next project. That doesn't meet the definition of romance, I guess. But I think there's something romantic about learning to live with each other, despite the odds. Don't you?

Setting the Scene #amwriting #amediting

For over a year now I've been struggling with edits on a couple of novellas. I'm not sure why. By this stage - after seven years involved in publishing and 17 titles released - you'd think it would be easy.
But just lately, I've been trying to do the last few fixes on Reunion - a novella set directly after Keir and before Keir's Fall that I'd planned to release 18 months ago. Normally I have a rule of music for writing, silence for editing, but my addiction to music has meant I'm rarely unplugged from my mp3, and especially recently after going to see The Rasmus again live and playing them nonstop afterwards.
So instead I tried opting for some other kind of noise that would hopefully be less distracting, and perhaps even help me in my struggle. I went hunting for some background sounds, and since my story takes place near the sea and during a storm, that's what I looked for. Youtube turned out to have a plentiful selection of such things, mostly promoted as white noise to aid sleep. I have to admit the softer ocean sounds did tempt me more toward a nap, but after some experimentation I found what I needed.
Now that I'm making progress, I thought I'd share a snippet from Reunion along with the soundtrack I used as background to help me imagine the scene a little more clearly. When Quin falls ill on Lian-seh, Keir has to make a gateway back to their island of Kasha-Asor, but something goes horribly wrong...

He leaped through the opening, and the wind slammed into him and knocked him sideways into the waiting lap of the sea. Keir staggered, knee deep in the oncoming tide, then retreated back up the beach as the leading waves chased him. Cold spray drenched him in an instant. The gale sought to thrust him back into the water and slapped tendrils of his hair into his eyes, blinding him. No recognizable features met his gaze. The ocean had invaded the woodland, bending the trees almost flat while those behind thrashed in the tempest. The storm-ravaged landscape might have been a completely different planet for all he knew. Nothing familiar caught his eye.

He gulped air as if drowning again, shaking as the icy water and cold wind whipped his skin.

Where in all the hells have I sent myself? 

The beating rain tore all the warmth from him as he turned, desperate to find a familiar landmark. Behind him, the jagged, broken spur of rock he and Quin had climbed to see S’rano’s distant island stood above the worst of the chaos, its water-drenched black surface gleaming.

Keir wrapped his arms around himself, shivering.

But that is not where I directed the gateway...

Panic gripped him, stole his breath. He had focused on their hut, been sure of his target, however new to this talent he might have been. What power had sent him that astray?

The storm answered him with a blinding flash as lightning tore across the skies, matched by the earsplitting crash of thunder. The force of it drove him to his knees on the wet sand, and the sea took its chance to lash at him, almost pulling his legs out from under him. Gasping, soaked, Keir scrabbled for the safety of the nearby trees, but the ocean would not give him up so easily. It snatched at his ankles and ripped the sand from beneath his feet. Keir fell, clawing uselessly for a hold as another wave surged around him. As the ground shifted and washed away beneath him, sand and water filled his mouth. He choked, flailing for purchase, but the waves caught him, dragged him out, flipped him over. Hard rock smacked into his side then scraped his skin, tearing it as the sea threw him against the ridge of stone. For an instant, he surfaced, gasped a breath, before the water sucked him back under.

Blood pounded in his head, drowning out the crash of the sea and storm. His lungs burned.

No. Not again.

He fought to find the surface, to get air, but the water pitched him until he could not tell up from down. Debris and dirt filled his vision, blinding him. Rock and sand grazed his fingertips before that slim, painful hope of a handhold was wrenched away. He writhed in the ocean’s grip, defenseless as it spun him, held him under even when the bright blaze of lightning revealed the surface above him. The storm-driven sea played with him, as if delighting in his helplessness. He tore at it, legs kicking, fighting to escape. A cold numbness weighed him down and weakened his every effort to be free.

Then the water lifted him, as if tired of the game, and his head broke the surface. He gulped air, throat burning as he coughed up water. The stormy sea still raged around him, water whipping his face, driven by the winds. He thrashed his arms, trying to turn himself. Already, Kasha-Asor had become a dark blur so far away he had no chance of swimming back. The sea had taken him from the island in the space of a few heartbeats, the heaving waves still carrying him farther away. Soon, he would be beyond the safety of the curved bay itself. Once past that, he would also be past hope.

Once Upon a Space Station

Ah, I always love a great space station, don't you?

Up until now, humankind has been a neophyte in the art of building space stations. Our most ambitious project to date, the ISS--International Space Station--is the most recent of several orbiting platforms, including Skylab (1973-79) and the Russian Mir (1986-2001), the first modular space station. In 1983, in a partnership with the European Space Agency, NASA began to launch a series of Spacelab modules, that were eventually connected to evolve into the present-day ISS. You can read more about it in A Brief History of Space Stations before the ISS on the Popular Science website.

But the space stations we envision in science fiction romance are usually a thousand generations removed from these early experimental designs.


MONA Loa Station, a covert military
base, as pictured on the cover of Part II
of Inherit the Stars (serialized version).

Space stations play a major role in my work because they're a sensible offshoot of space exploration. Need an essential space hub, but the planetary bodies at the desired coordinates are hostile to human life? No problemo. Plant a space station in orbit and you have an instant galactic way station.

But what about the expense and difficulties of constructing an orbiting space station? Exponentially less expensive and traumatic than losing an entire colony to some natural catastrophe, I would think.

In the not so distant future, we could plant a space station in orbit around Jupiter (if we can figure out adequate radiation shielding) or Saturn to serve as a support hub for exploration or colonization of some of the more promising of their 100+ shared moons--Europa, Titan and Enceladus, among them.

But space stations don't actually have to orbit planets or even suns. If they're all about strategic defense location or optimum position for science and astronomy--like MONA Loa/Andromeda Station at various points in its history--then they can be 'anchored' to a specific location in space by using occasional retrorockets to keep them in their intended position. 


Andromeda Station, the re-named and
re-purposed MONA Loa, is the setting
for Farewell Andromeda 200 years later.

Of course, "a specific location in space" is all relative, because it's not like a point on Earth that can be defined by GPS. In space, everything moves and orbits and careens around the cosmos. It's like a gigantic galactic waltz with billions and billions of moving parts.

A non-orbiting space station would most likely be positioned according to relative landmarks--hmm, would that be "starmarks?"--in space, but those positions are not stationary. In terms of anchoring to any particular spot, it's all relative.

Or maybe the intent isn't to remain "anchored" at all. Space stations may have their own form of propulsion so they can be moved about under power and be deployed as superships or bases where needed.

Another locale in my series is Talstar Station introduced in Courting Disaster in the current Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2 collection. Talstar is most famous for being home to the Universal Flight Academy, but also houses the Headquarters of the mighty Carduwan Fifth Fleet.

Talstar will also play an important role in a far future Inherited Stars Universe story entitled The Shell and the Star, where Talstar's energy collection systems have powered the station for eons. Countless generations, in fact. Current plans are to release this new story in 2018.

Talstar Station is seen orbiting planet Veros
in this Courting Disaster graphic.

And you'll soon be introduced to yet another space station, one that exists not that far into our future and orbiting our own world.

In upcoming release, The Outer Planets, the mission launches from a major Earth-orbiting hub nicknamed ASP. That's an acronym, of course, and it stands for Armstrong Space Port. I think the tribute behind the Armstrong annotation is probably pretty evident. :)

I envision Armstrong Space Port as a sort of "Gargantuan ISS"--an orbiting space city with businesses, tourism, medical and research centers, and science and space launch facilities built for both government projects and private industry.

Space stations are, and always have been, a big part of science fiction. Here's a video of the "Top 10 Space Stations from Movies and TV" where you may recognize some of the iconic structures, as well get a glimpse of some totally new-to-you sci-fi locales.

By the way, I picture ASP as being most similar to Gateway Station. You may not recognize the name at first, but you're almost certain to recognize the scene. :)



Not sure that I agree with all the choices, but I do love #6 (of course!), #5 for its dynamics, #2 for being such a landmark Sci-Fi icon, and of course #4, arguably the most famous TV space station of them all.

But #1? Yeah, I don't think too many can argue with that. Its pretty much come to define the term "Space Station."

What are your favorites?

Have a great week!

WHAT I DID ON MY THANKSGIVING VACATION

I’m not sure how Thanksgiving got to be my favorite holiday of the year. I mean, stuck between the candy-extravaganza of Halloween and the present-orgy of Christmas, I don’t think I gave turkey-day much credit as a kid. But now, after being in charge of all holiday productions at my house for more than 35 years, I have to say the one day where all you do is cook, eat and enjoy people’s company is the best.

This Thanksgiving holiday at my house was no exception, especially since it almost didn’t happen it all. My youngest daughter had a baby in September (her first), and little Savannah was not ready for a seven-hour car ride to Nonna’s house just yet. My oldest daughter and her family had planned to spend the holiday with her husband’s mom. And my 92-year-old father-in-law no longer drives after a bad accident in the summer. Up until about ten days before Thanksgiving I was contemplating a trip to Cracker Barrel for the day.

But then my daughter’s mother-in-law had to work and couldn’t have guests, so daughter and her family hit the road for my house. We worked out transportation for my in-laws, and Thanksgiving was back on!

 

Reading is always on the agenda at Nonna's house.

Now, every family has its own turkey day traditions, from the food that graces the table, to the programs that light up the television. My Thanksgiving dinner menu was passed down from my mother (who learned it from the friends she lived with as a WWII war bride in Nashville, Tennessee), with just a few tweaks in recent years to accommodate gluten-sensitive members of the family. Usually my youngest daughter helps me cook; this year my 16-year-old grandson stepped up. 

We spent all morning in the kitchen bustling about while the first Christmas carols of the season played in the background, then sat down with the whole family to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (which had been recorded so we could skip commercials and particularly annoying lip-synching acts). We recorded the football games, too, so no one whined about missing anything during dinner.

When it came time to serve the meal, four generations of the family gathered around the table, with our friend Lisa, the town’s holistic veterinarian. And, as we loaded up our plates, we each shared what we were thankful for—turned out to be plenty, despite the year’s ups and downs.

Hubby and Grandson perform at open mike.

The Thanksgiving weekend usually involves decorating for Christmas around my house, but since my daughter’s family was going to be traveling home early we just relaxed. We had football to watch, of course, but there were other distractions. My husband and grandson entertained at the local open mike night. I fended off my grandson’s challenge at SCRABBLE, but went down to ignominious defeat at LIFE. We laughed at several silly Seventies martial arts movies courtesy of the El Rey Network’s Way of the Turkey Marathon and re-enforced family values by watching the Corleones defeat all comers in The Godfather. And, finally, after everyone had gone home, my husband and I joined the crowds oohing and aahing at the entries to the National Gingerbread House competition at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville.

Feeling Christmas-y at the National Gingerbread House competition.

Maybe you can see why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Family, friends, food and fun—what’s not to love? I already can’t wait until next year!

Cheers, Donna