Star Nomad

  “Help me,” Leonidas said, “and I’ll help you with your quest.”

  “You won’t help me anyway?” Alejandro asked. “To return the empire to power?”

  “We’ll see. Maybe I’ll follow Malik’s example and go build a pirate fleet of my own.”

  “I highly doubt that.”

  “You don’t know me, Doctor. Do not presume.”

  “Very well, but—”

  A knock sounded on the NavCom hatch. Alisa flicked off the switch, spinning to face her visitor. Beck stood outside and held up a platter of food to the circular window in the hatch.

  Alisa almost waved him away so she could continue eavesdropping in private, but her stomach whined at the sight of that food. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten. Besides, that conversation had sounded like it was winding up. She was glad Leonidas had not outright agreed to help the doctor. Whatever Alejandro was up to, it couldn’t be good for the Alliance. As a former soldier and a current citizen, she ought to report everything she knew about him and his orb to the government. But that would take a trip to Arkadius, and she wasn’t going to plan any more stops until she had Jelena. Maybe later, she could try to find cargo that needed to head in that direction.

  Alisa opened the hatch to let Beck in. “They let you leave the grill?”

  “Just for a delivery.” He strolled in and set the platter on the console. There was food enough for three or four, and she thought he might want to join her, but he lifted a hand in parting. “Got the next round of steaks on. Just wanted to make sure you ate. When I sent you to round up the others, I meant for you to come back afterward.”

  “Thank you, Beck.”

  Leonidas appeared in the corridor behind Beck, and he jumped. “Damn it, mech. How can someone so big be so stealthy?”

  Leonidas’s eyes narrowed. Alisa remembered the way Alejandro had implied the gods thought cyborgs were an abomination and wished Beck would stop calling Leonidas a mech. Not that she had been any better a few days ago. But since then, they had been through a lot together.

  “Cybernetically enhanced sensors on the soles of my feet,” Leonidas said.

  “Really?”

  “No.”

  “Oh.”

  “You want something to eat, Leonidas?” Alisa asked, waving at the platter.

  “Hm.”

  “It’s not poisoned, I swear,” Beck said. “Since I had the captain in mind when I made that plate. And since poisons are expensive.”

  “I would detect them anyway,” Leonidas said. “I do have enhanced taste buds.”

  “To detect poisons?”

  “Yes.”

  “Huh. Bet you’d win a spice contest.”

  “A what?” Leonidas looked at Alisa.

  She shrugged at him. It sounded like something Yumi might do to her crops or batches or whatever they were called.

  “A blind spice tasting,” Beck explained. “You have to identify everything by taste alone, and they always have some exotic stuff.”

  Leonidas regarded him like something sticky one might find on the bottom of one’s shoe.

  “I’ll get back to my grill,” Beck said, waving to Alisa and easing past Leonidas while being careful not to touch him.

  Alisa wondered what Beck would think if she made that job offer to Leonidas and he accepted it. She had originally only been thinking of her own needs in considering it, but if Leonidas was working for her, he wouldn’t go off with Alejandro to help with a quest that might not be good for the Alliance. But would Leonidas be interested in the gig? And how would she pay all of these people if she managed to hire them?

  “You’re wearing a pensive expression,” Leonidas observed, as he reached over to pick up a piece of meat from the platter and gave it a sniff.

  “I was contemplating deep thoughts,” Alisa said, picking up a piece of meat.

  “Not inappropriate humor? Odd.”

  “Well, we’re relaxing over food. Humor wouldn’t be inappropriate now, would it?” While she debated on how to raise the subject of employment, or perhaps on how to gauge his interest first, she pointed to the food in his hand. “Are you going to try some? It’s not a raw liver, but it’s tasty.”

  He took an experimental bite.

  “I haven’t had a chance to say it yet,” Alisa said, “but I appreciate that you hauled Malik off me and that you were willing to fight him so that we could escape.”

  “There was never a question.”

  “That you would choose to save an Alliance pilot and a bunch of scruffy miners over someone you used to command?”

  His eyebrows rose, and she remembered that he had never spoken of his command.

  “While Alejandro and I were dodging the fire of irate pirates and overzealous attack robots, I saw some pictures on display in Malik’s quarters,” Alisa said. “You were all drinking beer in some bar.”

  “Ah.”

  “You know,” she said, watching as he took another bite, “the stories all say that cyborgs don’t need food or drink. Or alcohol.” There hadn’t been any mentions of colleagues sharing a beer either. Belatedly, it occurred to her that the words might offend him—he wasn’t as obviously proud of being super human as Malik had been.

  “Yes, we’re supposed to get by on engine oil,” he said, giving her a dry look. “We’re human, Marchenko. Until I was twenty, I was just like you. I played sports, ran around the neighborhood with friends, studied engineering at the university. We’re human. Fewer weaknesses perhaps, but all of the failings.”

  “I’m beginning to see that.”

  “That I have failings?”

  “That you’re human.”

  She expected him to snort, but all he said was a soft, “Good.”

  “So… engineering at the university, huh? I guess that explains one of Mica’s mysteries.”

  He lifted his eyebrows.

  “We were wondering who had been fixing the ship before we got on board,” Alisa said. “I expected that we would have to do a lot more repairs before we could get the Nomad in the air.”

  “It was the most promising vessel in the junkyard.”

  “Were you also going to pilot it if I hadn’t shown up?”

  “It crossed my mind. I’ve flown helicopters and air hammers.”

  “But not spaceships?”

  “No, but I was optimistic about my capabilities. And the effectiveness of the autopilot.”

  “The autopilot doesn’t know how to handle pirates,” Alisa said. “And it would have beeped incessantly at you if you tried to order it into an asteroid field.”

  “You’re saying I should consider myself lucky that you came along?”

  “Oh, that’s a given.” She grinned at him.

  He didn’t exactly grin back, but the corners of his mouth did twitch slightly.

  “Leonidas… do you want a job?”

  “A what?”

  Perhaps that hadn’t been the best segue. “It’s like what you were already doing this week, except with payment. You beat up pirates, smugglers, mafia, gangsters, and anyone else who gives my ship the squinty eye, and I’ll pay you for it.”

  He looked into her eyes as if trying to decide if she had been inhaling something from Yumi’s trunk. “Will you be paying me with stolen cyborg implants?”

  “No, those got left behind unfortunately. I would pay you a legitimate split from carrying cargo and passengers.”

  Leonidas clasped his hands behind his back and gazed at the starry blackness displayed on the view screen.

  “Even though you’re the sole reason my ship and my people were attacked again and again this week,” Alisa said, “I’ve come to realize that you’re more appealing as an ally than as an enemy.”

  “Not the sole reason,” he said. “I had nothing to do with the White Dragon ship.”

  “That’s true. You’re only mostly the sole reason.” She spread her palm upward. “Are you interested? I could perhaps be talked into taking you wherever you’re
heading next for your quest.” Alejandro hadn’t been willing to help him, but she would. Maybe that would make a difference to him.

  “I’m heading to Perun next.”

  “That’s perfect, since I’m heading to Perun next.”

  He snorted.

  “And after you finish your mission there?” she asked. “You’re too young to retire, and clearly if you fly around with us, you’ll get lots of opportunities to flex your muscles and shoot things. On account of my mouth.”

  “Of that I have no doubt.”

  Alisa raised her eyebrows and smiled. She wouldn’t push further, but hoped he would consider it even as she decided it was crazy that she wanted a former commander of the Cyborg Corps to join her crew.

  “Do I get to outrank Beck?” Leonidas asked.

  Her smile turned into a grin. “Probably. He may get laterally transferred to the position of chef. This bear is amazingly un-disgusting.”

  “An accolade like that on the side of his sauce bottles will make him a millionaire.”

  “Alas, I doubt he’ll put me in charge of his marketing.”

  “I’ll think about it,” Leonidas said.

  “Marketing slogans or the job?”

  “The job.”

  That was more than Alisa had expected.

  “Good,” she said.

  THE END

  Author Questions & Answers

  I was going to put together some fancy author notes where I talk about deep and important things, but I’m not really that deep. Or important. I just like to write fun stories. So, I asked some of the folks who got early copies of the manuscript if there was anything they would like to know, figuring other readers might be curious too. These are my answers to their questions:

  What made you switch from writing fantasy to science fiction?

  First off, there’s not a lot of science in these books (as I’m sure you hardcore science lovers will be quick to point out), and I really think of them as very similar to fantasy. With more space. And fewer dragons. So, it wasn’t a stretch for me.

  That said, I’ve been a fan of science fiction for a long time, longer than I’ve known fantasy existed. Oh, I guess I knew the Smurfs and Fraggle Rock (classics!) were “fantasy,” but I was in high school before I read The Lord of the Rings, and middle school before I stumbled across the Forgotten Realms and DragonLance books. Those were my introduction to secondary worlds with magic, dragons, castles, sword fighting, and the like.

  Before that, I watched Buck Rogers as a toddler, Starman as a kid, and I distinctly remember going to see Star Trek IV in the theater with my mom. Thanks to our fancy new contraption called a VCR, I had just about all of the episodes from the original series recorded (with commercials, baby), and I’d watched them over and over. By age eleven or twelve, I believe I’d read every Star Trek novel that was on the market at the time. Somewhere in there, I discovered the original Star Wars trilogy too. And taped them. Yes, with commercials. If you want a blast from the past, go back and watch commercials from your childhood.

  I loved the spaceships and the wonder in those early science-fiction adventures, but I loved the characters most of all. Isn’t it amazing how science fiction offers so much potential for exploring our humanity? Sometimes with characters who aren’t even human?

  I was generally more into science fiction on television than in novels (unless we’re talking TV-tie-ins), because so many of the SF books I picked up were plot/tech/idea-driven rather than character-driven, and the characters have always been my favorite part. Oh sure, there are plenty of exceptions, and Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series includes some of my favorite books ever. But for the most part, when I think of my favorite science fiction (the kind of stuff I’d want to emulate when writing my own stories), I think of television, where characters and dialogue are everything.

  Even though I didn’t read a ton of science fiction after discovering fantasy (where they had swords! And dragons! And sexy elf rangers!), I continued to watch the TV shows and still considered myself a fan of the genre. I did not care much for that stuffy Captain Jean Luc Picard when I was a kid (I learned to appreciate him later on), but I watched all of the Next Generation shows, and then there were Babylon 5, Andromeda, Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis, Firefly, and Battlestar Galactica. They all kept my interest in science fiction alive, and I always knew I’d try my hand at writing it someday.

  Why now?

  That’s a good question, because I’ve built up a readership of fantasy-loving fans through my Dragon Blood and Emperor’s Edge series (among others). Early in 2016, I distinctly remember telling myself that from a marketing and financial standpoint, I would be smart to write a spinoff trilogy in my Dragon Blood world next. Those books sold well in 2015, and I thought it would be great to satisfy the existing fans with new material and also possibly draw in new readers by offering another entry point into the world.

  But…

  In the Notes app on my phone, I type in all the story ideas that come to me while I’m busy working on other books. I figure that if I’m still excited about them in a few months, when I have time for new projects, then it’s worth thinking about turning them into novels. I had this one “note” that had blossomed to about 10,000 words, all poked into the phone, one letter at a time, usually while I’m out walking my dogs. It was called Fallen Empire. (Okay, for a long time, it was called SCIFI THING, but eventually, I renamed it Fallen Empire.)

  I kept coming back to it and adding notes and snippets of dialogue. Clearly, I was more excited about it than about my other story ideas, so I finally decided to go forward with it. So here you are, several months later, with the first book in your hands.

  What inspired this series?

  I’ve already talked about some of the shows I’ve enjoyed, so you can probably make some guesses. As much as I loved Star Trek, I saw myself writing about a scrappier crew on a scrappier ship and dealing with problems that couldn’t be solved simply by running to the law—or the Federation. Firefly was definitely an inspiration. I loved how that show had this dark, gritty universe, but at the same time, had so much humor in the dialogue and character interactions that it rarely felt “grimdark” (a trend that has never excited my laughter-loving soul).

  I’d definitely say Star Wars was an inspiration too. I must have watched those original three movies a hundred times or more as a kid. Leia was probably my first exposure to a strong heroine who didn’t take any crap from anyone. In almost everything else I was watching at the time, from the A-team to MacGyver, strong women were scarce. Star Trek only had poor Lieutenant Uhura with her three lines per show among the bridge crew!

  Lastly, and I think I’ve written about this before in author notes, one of my favorite episodes of the original Trek (after “The City on the Edge of Forever” and “Trouble with Tribbles”) was “Balance of Terror.” In addition to being a good story, it showed the Romulans more as the guys on the other side of the war rather than these caricatured bad guys. By the end of the show, we saw how similar Kirk and the Romulan commander were and that they could have been great friends… if they hadn’t been born on opposing sides of a century-old conflict. That’s a theme that’s always appealed to me as a reader and viewer (The Fox and the Hound was my favorite Disney movie as a kid!), and I find it fun to explore as a writer, too, the idea that there aren’t good guys and bad guys so much as there are regular people with beliefs and viewpoints that happen to put them at odds with each other.

  Will there be a romance in this series?

  Hm, maybe so… :)

  Don’t worry, guys and gals who are not into romance. There will be way more explosions than there will be kisses. Unless you like kisses. In which case there will be plenty!

  Will we find out why Leonidas was squatting in that junkyard?

  Yup!

  A few hints to what he was up to in the months leading up to that moment come out in the novels as we continue on, but I’ve also plotted out a prequel novella fro
m his point of view. It’ll explain much (and be an exciting adventure!).

  Right now, my plan is to release that this summer to those who are subscribed to the Fallen Empire newsletter (Make sure to sign up if you want to get a free copy.)

  I may actually keep it an exclusive goodie for subscribers, because, even though it’s a prequel, I think people will appreciate Leonidas’s story more once they’ve read the novels. It’s awfully spoilery, otherwise!

  Are Yumi’s medicinals legal throughout the former empire?

  Believe it or not, more than one person wanted to know the answer to this question (waves to Heather and Cydni). I haven’t decided, but I suspect the empire did not encourage a lot of recreational experimentation with things that might be dangerous. Or fun.

  How many books will be in the series?

  I don’t know yet!

  I have the first three written, and I’ve committed to writing at least five before assessing how things are going (i.e., if anyone is buying them and liking them!). Before, when I wandered outside of my typical fantasy genre, the results were underwhelming. I decided that if I was going to do it again, I’d write the first three books and release them back-to-back and follow up with a couple of more before giving up. I hope that will give me a good chance at gaining traction in a new genre.

  In the past, I’ve planned series where I imagined things going for eight books (at least!), but then they weren’t that popular with readers, which left me trying to figure out how to wrap things up much earlier than I had anticipated. So with this one, I’ve left myself some wiggle room. I can probably end things after five books if it’s starting to look like I had better jump back to fantasy if I want to pay the bills, but I have plenty of ideas and wouldn’t mind writing more books than that.

  Perhaps not surprising, since I’ve mentioned television shows as an influence, I see these playing out similarly to a season of TV. They’re fairly short books and definitely designed to be part of a greater story arc. I’m unlikely to do twenty-two episodes (that would be a long book series!), or whatever is typical for a season of television, but I could certainly see doing eight or ten if the interest is there.