'The President's Daughter' is taking shape

 

The leading man

 Allow me to introduce my current Work in Progress. It's called The President's Daughter (until I change it to something else). It will be part of the Ptorix Empire series where the decidedly non-humanoid Ptorix coexist more or less peacefully with Humanity. But people being people, there are competing sub-groups among the humans. The Galactic People's Republic, a right wing, fundamentalist group which hates the Confederacy, has appeared in several of my Ptorix Empire novels and will be in this one.

The President's Daughter starts with a prologue where then-Senator Ghiborien, his wife, and his teenage daughter Isabella, are held hostage.

When we meet Isabella again twenty years later, her father is president of her home planet and she is traveling on a space cruise liner. Also on the ship is Darius Fletcher, a Confederacy officer injured in combat and destined for a desk job. He remembers Isabella from that hostage situation – he was there at the end, all those years ago. But Isabella has changed her name to Cilla and she doesn't want a reminder of that traumatic time.

Here's a snippet from where Darius confronts Isabella on the cruise ship. She's in a bar on her own and he goes over to say hello.

Darius slid off his stool and approached her table. "Miss Beckstein?"

She stared up at him, her lips an O. Then she smiled. "Oh yes. The man in the elevator who thought he'd met me before."

Darius gestured at the chair. "May I?"

She gazed down at the floor next to her chair, then shrugged "Sure. Where did you get my name?"

She was trying to be relaxed and casual but her shoulders were tense and her fingers grasped the stem of her wine glass a little too hard.

"It wasn't difficult."

"So… have you remembered where we met?"

He made her wait, sipping his zinger. "A few years back. I was part of a security detail, attending a hostage situation involving an up-and-coming senator and his family."

She knew. She put down her glass, working on controlling her expression. She did a good job, but he'd been watching for the tell-tale signs that he was right. "Sorry, but I don't see why you think whatever you're talking about has anything to do with me."

He leaned over the table toward her, his voice pitched low.

"Does your father know you're on this ship alone, Isabella? Or is your security incompetent or invisible or both?"

Something growled, low pitched and soft, the sort of sound he'd associate with dark caves.

Darius froze as the something sat up beside the woman's chair, a feline with a spotted coat and yellow eyes currently staring at him. He caught a hint of fangs.

She smiled as she put her hand on the beast's neck. "This is Maahes. He's my security detail. And my name's Cilla. I didn't catch your name?"

Darius sat back in his chair. That thing would rip a man's throat out without asking permission. But it seemed to settle down, its stare not quite so malevolent. "Darius Fletcher. I was a lieutenant back when we met. You lived in a pretty fancy place at Forest Glen. I… helped you back into the house for treatment."

Her nostrils flared. "And what are you now? I presume you're not a lieutenant anymore?"

"No."

"Why are you here? Has my father sent you to watch over me?"

Darius couldn't help the laugh. "No. I've been sent to Malmos to take up a new position."

"What position?"

It was none of her business and he didn't like to talk about it. An office job. He'd hated the hint of sympathy in the general's eyes when he'd been told. Until you're properly healed. Yeah, right.

"In the defense office. Believe me, it's a coincidence that we're on the same ship."

Her eyes narrowed. "Is it? Wouldn't you be traveling on a warship?"

He shrugged. "Why? It's just a redeployment. Besides, I’m on leave. This trip gives me an opportunity to visit a few places I've never seen." And time for his leg to heal. But that was his problem.

"I hope you enjoy them. So that you know, I no longer have anything to do with my father. I'm a private person and my name is Cilla Beckstein. It's a legal change." She stood. "The events you mentioned are not something I like to dwell on. Good evening."

***

There's him told. But it doesn't end there, does it? Of course not. There are a couple of mobster families, an abduction, a dangerous jungle, a daring escape and just when you think they're all safe... they're not.

 

Oh, and by the way, this is Maahes. I'll tell you a bit more about him next time.

 

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Cheers,

Greta

 

 

A New Adventure Begins #WIP #AmWriting

I'm trying something I've never done before, and that's to write a story that runs concurrently with a novel I've already published.

Well, it seemed like a great idea at the time.

And yeah, I think it's still a great idea. It's just proving to be a bit more of a challenge than I imagined. It also required re-reading portions of my novel Inherit the Stars, for context, as well as figuring out timelines and defining a chain-of-events that wasn't all that key to the original story, but became majorly important when looking at things from the vantage point of two new characters and their role in the overall series.

An entire adventure is now taking root from this one small passage in the novel.

[Scene set-up: Captain Drea Mennelsohn and the Specter crew are making a desperate jump from Calos spaceport on Banna to evade enemy agents. Edited for length and content.]

The G-forces tugged at Sair before the dampener neutralized them. Then all sense of motion ceased, but from the thunder of the drive he knew the ship was rocketing toward space. The pana-screen brightened and a three-hundred-sixty degree view of Banna, her fiery sun, and countless stars surrounded him. His gaze followed the screen around the complete arc. The two Bannan moons, one pocked with dull gray craters and the other rich with greens and blues, rolled across the screen to his left. Distant nebulas and galaxies flared against the velvet darkness of deep space. Tiny points of color moved against the blackness. Alliance ships.

Jaeo elbowed his arm. "Watch your monitor, not the view."

"The coyotes and the Wisdom have been vaporized," Drea announced, and in a private aside to Sair, "They had to be destroyed to safeguard the technology."

The Wisdom?" Sair questioned.

"My ship," Jaeo responded through gritted teeth.

____________________

The set-up for my new story is contained in those last three sentences. The destruction of Wisdom on the surface of Banna, and the series of events this triggers for two characters on the planet below.

StarDog, the story in the original Pets in Space anthology, took place about six months (moons) earlier and illustrated that Wisdom was no ordinary vessel, and its destruction was sure to cause havoc for the Network.

So far in the series, only StarDog has scenes that take place aboard the actual ship.

This is hero Taro Shall's first encounter with Wisdom when he escorts Adini Kemm to the vessel, so you can have a glimpse of the vessel in her heyday.

[Edited for length]

Two haras later, after checking in at Flight Authority, Taro helped Adini locate the ship captained by Gant, slotted in bay 1552 South.

After making a mostly wordless trek across the expansive spaceport, they found the vessel in her assigned hangar—an immaculate silver craft with a flame-in-pyramid symbol emblazoned on her hull that identified her LaGuardian registry. She might’ve passed as an upper-end passenger liner if not for the fact that she bristled with an array of weaponry.

“Expensive looking craft,” Taro muttered.

“Mennelsohn design,” Adini responded under her breath.

Taro gave a low whistle. Vessels blueprinted by Zaviar Mennelsohn weren’t easy to come by. Gant had to be quite wealthy. And that level of wealth wasn’t always gained via legitimate means.

***

Wisdom’s interior was even more intimidating than her outward appearance. She was a larger vessel than Calypso, with four decks of cleanly gridded corridors and cabins, a contrast to the rounded Manta configuration of Captain Jordan’s ship. Every aspect was polished and orderly. All of Gant’s crew were professionally outfitted in crisp black and gray uniforms and branded service hats.

Wisdom had the look and feel of a military flagship. Except LaGuardia wasn’t supposed to have a military. The planet had been stripped of its fleet two centuries ago, along with its Universal Peacekeeper status, when the Ithians had wrested control. 

_____________________

This new work-in-progress has given me the chance to delve into whole new facets of the Network vs. Alliance struggle, and to explore two new characters--I'm sorry, StarDog makes three!--in this tale of intrigue and adventure.

Coming in October 2019.

Have a great week.

Rescuing Romila is nearly there

Well... I've sent my finished book off to my editor to do her magic. There will be some more work, making the required changes. And then I'll float it on the Web Sea.

It has been a hard slog. I've said before, I don't find writing easy, but it is certainly satisfying to look back after a time and say, "I did that." I hope I can do that with this one.

I have changed the cover, and the title. Mystery of the Ice Warriors seemed a bit Enid Blyton. And really, although the ice warriors are important, there's more to the story that that. So now it's Rescuing Romila. It picks up on the first Morgan Misfits adventure, which was Kuralon Rescue. Another sort of rescue. The model on the cover is sort of how I imagine Toreni, the big ex-elite marine. Although the story is about the group, Toreni is one of the most central figures. Does that make sense?.

Here's the draft blurb - subject to change without notice.

The Misfits are off on another planet-hopping adventure.

Who can you trust – if not each other?

When Jirra and Toreni rescue Romila from a raid on her antiques business the Misfits start off on a mission to uncover a drug-smuggling operation. A new, very potent drug is on the market, hidden in statues of ice warriors carved on a remote world.

But all's not well within the team. Toreni and Chet have fallen out, Toreni has received an offer that might be too good to refuse, and Jirra has doubts about her future.  When the drug-smuggling operation morphs into something even more dangerous, the Misfits must resolve their differences. If they don't act together, and quickly, many lives will be at risk. Including their own.

Action and adventure, with a little bit of romance.

And here's a brief snippet -

 

Come and meet Puss

It must be something in the ether. When I decided to add a pet in space to my latest WIP, Pets in Space 2 wasn't a thing - as far as I knew, anyway. I needed something new to add interest to my couple from Eye of the Mother, Tian and Brent. I loved Linnea Sinclair's furrzels in Games of Command, I loved the Pets in Space stories, so I decided to introduce a non-human to the action.

Puss isn't a pet per se. She's certainly a feline in appearance. Having loved and been loved by a few Siamese cats in my time, it stands to reason Puss is like one of those Oriental cats - sleek, short fur, triangular head, lean body. She has emerald eyes, though, and she's almost completely black, except for a small patch of white on her chest. That's a sort of fingerprint for her species - every individual's patch is slightly different.

The species is alien. They're called auralfangs, and they have a few characteristics which set them apart. Their long tails are prehensile, wonderful for their jungle natural habitat. They don't purr, or meow. They communicate telepathically, in colors. Puss does an excellent job of understanding human speech, but naturally, she can't respond in words. She's smart, though. Here's a snippet from the first draft of the story. (First draft - please ignore typos and such)

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

"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."

Brent stretched out his hand 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 smiled. "Most felines do. Did you ever have a pet?"

He shook his head. "Not with a father like mine. Have you noticed she's never made a sound?"

He was right. She'd never growled or meowed, never purred. "Maybe the mental thing is how they communicate with each other." Puss broadcast green. So that was right. "She just said yes."

Brent's eyes widened. "She spoke to you?"

"No. But the waves of color mean things. Soft mauves and pinks are soothing, murky reds and deep blacks are fear, blue is anger?" She waited for the green approval signal and got it. "And green is yes. Puss understands our speech and responds in color and images." Another wave of exuberant green. "This is one clever Puss." Tian smiled as the feline blinked at her. One more thing to check. "You changed what those two people wanted?" Another flood of green.

Brent straightened. "She can do that? Would she do that to us?"

The flood of green changed to a soft, bright red. Let's take that as no.

Tian held the auralfang's gaze. "But you could?"

The green swirled. A flash of red intruded. Yes and no? The cat sent an image of the ice bear, a Dron, a Yrmak, all overlaid with the distinctive shade of 'no' red. Then an image of Wong, with the green of 'yes'. And then Tian and Brent, with green and red.

"Wow. And she's been sending you this stuff all the time?"

"You're getting this, too?"

Brent nodded. "What do you think it means?"

"It doesn't work on aliens." Green.

"It does work on humans." Green

"She could affect us." Green and red.

Tian sat back. "I don't get it."

Puss's tail switched from side to side, then she pounced on Brent's hand and bit.

He snatched his hand away. "Bad Puss. Don't bite."

Puss gazed steadily at Tian, then back at Brent's hand. The substitute blood oozed, but Brent wasn't hurt. In moments the marks faded and the skin healed. "You didn't hurt him." Green.

Okay. Try this. "You can't hurt him." Green.

Oh shit. "She knows we're cyborgs." Green. Triumphant green. Puss pushed her head under Tian's hand.

So there you have it. A very clever alien feline has joined the fray. If people like her, she might be in other adventures. We shall see. 

For the Greater Good should be out around September.