Hi there, lovely readers!
Yes, it has been a while, but I have been busy writing an exciting soft sci-fi, romantic thriller for you that will be released at the end of the month. Yay!
Here's the tagline:
Escaping Terra was straightforward. Returning will be dangerous. Leaving again might be impossible.In a universe where governments try to control those possessing any kind of psi ability, life is a risky business. Since Ella fled eight years ago, vanishing into interstellar space to escape an arranged marriage to a brutal aristocrat, her psi powers have developed, and she takes suppressors to avoid detection.
ORIELLA’S ODYSSEY
By
TEAGAN
KEARNEY
PROLOGUE
Lady Oriella Giuliana
Orca, head down, eyes on the sandaled feet of the white-robed acolyte in front
of her, entered the cell at the Blessed Dream Sanctuary. The small room was
exactly as she expected: pale limestone walls, a narrow bedframe of dark
polished wood with a thin cotton mattress—no pillow—and a small dresser of the
same wood. As the second child and first daughter of Rubin Galba Orca, the Princeps
of Ezkerea space, Oriella was accustomed to the highest standard of luxury, but
that would, if the Goddess allowed, soon be in the past.
“It’s late, my lady. You must be
tired. Shall I unpack your bag?”
The young neophyte spoke in such
hushed tones, Oriella barely heard her. “No, thank you.” She slung her carryall
onto the bed. “I can manage. Are you allowed to tell me your name?”
“Of course, my lady. I am Nedra.
Please press the button if you need anything.” She pointed at the small
indentation in the wall. “Apologies, but we use as little of modern technology
as possible.” The girl bowed and left, closing the door gently so she wouldn’t
disturb the monastic silence.
Oriella sighed with relief at being
alone. She noted the octagonal window was too small and too high to be of any
use in an escape but, on a sunny day, would brighten the room. She supposed the
Order didn’t want residents or guests distracted by the outside world though
set in its own grounds there was nothing to see but grass, manicured to within
an inch of its life, trees that gradually became forest and cultivated
flowering borders. Neither visitors nor renunciates had much need of anything
else as they would spend their days praying, meditating, attending lectures on
the Divine One or performing one of the many services needed to keep the
sanctuary running.
After she stowed her traveling bag
in the top drawer of the dresser, she took off her boots and lay down on top of
the white cotton sheet and closed her eyes. The thin mattress provided little
cushioning, and her shoulder blades pressed into the bed’s hard surface. She
ignored the discomfort and concentrated on the slow in and out of her breath in
an attempt to calm her frantic mind.
If her plan failed, her father
would have a trackable device implanted, she would be constantly surrounded by
guards and servants, never have a minute to herself or be given any choice
other than ‘do you prefer the red or the blue outfit’ for the rest of her life.
She had lowered her eyes the last time she spoke with him, not wanting to see
the cold expression in his pale blue eyes as he regarded her. In addition, Ilario,
her future husband, would have total control over her once the joining ceremony
was completed: an alliance that cemented the two most illustrious families on
Terra.
She shuddered, her thoughts,
whirling and chaotic, as her mother's words came to mind. “My daughter, we are
descended from a long line of warrior women: Warriors know when to advance and
when to flee. Retreating in the face of overwhelming odds is not shameful.
Withdrawing to gather your forces in order to strike harder at the enemy later
is better than defeat.” Her mother's silver-gray eyes had glittered as she
pulled her eldest daughter close, hugging her tightly. "You must promise
me one thing though."
Oriella inhaled the scent of
frangipani—her mother’s favorite fragrance.
"Anything, Mother."
"Promise me you will
survive."
Oriella had raised her hand and
wiped away the tears on her mother's cheeks. "I swear, Mother, on your
life and mine, that no matter what happens, I will live.” She’d pulled away
from her mother's embrace, running off to join her twin siblings, Sabina and
Seb, in a game of gravball.
As the weeks passed, she realized
that her mother’s words had opened two roads in her mind; to obey, please her
father and sacrifice her future or disobey, try for freedom and save herself.
The former meant becoming a willing vessel, albeit an empty-minded vessel, but
a life without choices didn’t appeal. If she attempted the latter and failed,
she would spend the rest of life paying a very high price. Either way, whatever
decision she made would have serious consequences for herself and her family.
She would miss her mother, a woman
who had navigated the shark’s pit of intergalactic and Terran politics for
decades with poise and tenacity. Without her mother, Rubin would never have
risen so high. Oriella knew her mother would pacify her father, giving her
precious time that could make the difference between success and failure.
She would experience no such pain
of separation from her father or her elder brother, Julius. The heir to the
throne, whose entire existence was devoted to pleasing their father, had shown
no sympathy, oblivious to any objections or resistance she might have about
being sold off to the highest bidder. Quite the opposite. He had, in fact,
taken her aside and berated her, saying how disappointed he was at her lack of
enthusiasm for the chance to serve the family through such an advantageous
alliance. She should be filled with joy at the opportunity to serve. The fact
that she, the next-in-line after him, would be safely removed from ever
stepping into his shoes, fueled his desire to see her gone. Theirs was not a
happy, loving, supportive family.
Yet she would miss Sabina and Seb
terribly. Sabina followed her everywhere imitating every move she made.
Sometimes she heard Sabina instructing her twin bother, Seb, using the exact
words and intonation she had used. Seb was without the cruel, avaricious nature
her father possessed and which her older brother had inherited. Life without
Ana's sweetness and Seb's lively curiosity would create a hole impossible to
fill.
Oriella was only seventeen, but she
had grown up in the heart of Ezkerea power. Tutored her entire life by the best
teachers in every subject, including galactic politics, she had planned her
escape with military precision. It was child’s play to send a message appearing
to come from her mother to the sanctuary and a second anonymous ransom demand
to her father that would arrive in twelve hours. Every second counted if she
wanted to escape.
Light footsteps tapped along the
corridor. As the door opened, Oriella kept her breathing steady.
"My Lady." Nedra’s timid
voice broke the silence.
Oriella listened. No sounds from
the monastery’s inhabitants. Good. "Is it time for meditation
already?"
"We have received a message
for you."
Oriella sat up, taking in the young
woman’s bowed head.
Nedra crossed the room and handed
her an ancient communication device, avoiding eye contact. "Tap the screen
and the message will appear. When you have finished reading, tap again and the
message is deleted."
" I thought there was no
communication with the outside world."
"Only for emergencies, my
lady.
"This must be serious
then." Oriella took the device and tapped the screen as instructed,
reading quickly. "Oh! I have to leave. There is a family emergency."
She gazed at Nedra, her expression an appropriate mixture of bewilderment and
concern.
"I'm sure everything will be
fine once you get home. A transbot awaits you outside. Do you need help with
packing?"
Oriella tapped the screen and
waited until it faded to black before handing the antiquated machine to the
young woman. "No, thank you. I can manage." Goddess, help me, she
prayed as the dread of being caught warred with the joy that her plan was in
motion. She shoved her feet into her boots and grabbed her bag from the dresser
before being escorted through the hushed corridors to a side gate.
Once on board the transbot, the sanctuary
receding in the distance, she rummaged inside her bag, withdrawing a tiny
device half the size of her thumbnail. The next time Seb played war games with
his friends, he would be wondering where he’d put his disruptor. Oriella took
two seconds to delete all records of her presence and the time and destination
of her journey from the transbot’s memory. Her father’s agents would find the
vehicle, but not immediately. By then, if all went as planned, she would be
off-planet and long gone.
A memory of her last meeting with
Ilario surfaced, when he’d informed her that the date for their official
joining ceremony would be announced shortly. When her mother first informed her
about her father’s plans for her, she had been flattered but, after researching
her future husband’s history, she discovered rumors of his brutality were rife.
Stories of dead women beaten and battered, followed him no matter how much
money his family threw at victim’s relatives to keep his reputation
untarnished. Her findings had made her furious with her father. How could he pass
her over to this brute without consulting her as if she were a possession to
give as a present to anyone he wished?
Her tutors had always remarked on
her intelligence; she was quick to learn and absorb new concepts, to make
connections. She knew that a career in academic, scientific research of some
kind would not be hers but they were fields she would have excelled in.
Instead, she was being given to a monster to bear his children.
She recalled a recent meeting where
Ilario had taken her hand, squeezing hard and looked at her, not meeting her
eyes but examining her body as if she were an object he was considering
purchasing. He’d leaned in close and, his tone cold, informed her, "I will
enjoy training you to be an obedient wife." His lips had grazed her cheek,
and she suppressed the urge to jerk her hand away from him in disgust and
revulsion. She had shown no response to his intimidation, but had resolved
there and then that she would not submit to living at the mercy of another,
especially to someone who had none.
As the transport sped toward the
spaceport, crossing the island’s central plains, a faint pinkish pre-dawn light
rimmed the eastern horizon.
Oriella stared out the window,
attempting to imprint every detail into memory: the lushness of the palm trees,
their leaves and branches waving in the breeze, bushes loaded with fruits and
berries and, everywhere, bright, colorful flowers. Was there another planet as
beautiful as Terra? In all the habitable planets in the universe, was there
another that rivaled the beauty of the cradle of humanity? She wanted to
remember how beautiful her world
looked this
morning. She had no expectation of ever seeing it again.
Her shoulders slumped. She shrugged
off the burgeoning sadness as a nervous impatience raised its head. Her
breathing quickened as she spotted a shuttle rising into the blue sky, its pale
trail dissipating as she watched. The slim spires of the shuttle port’s control
towers came into view. She shivered, partly in anticipation, partly in fear as
she raced toward her future and freedom.
1
~ SERENDIPITY
The high-pitched
distress beep of the search bot startled her awake. “Attention Pilot Ella.”
Eight years practice
and her response was automatic. “Yes.”
“A metonite
deposit has been discovered, but my probe is stuck.”
“Understood, and
I’m on my way.”
Typical spider bot
to get jammed. The small meteorites she was currently checking were full of
crannies. This was the third time today.
Five minutes
later, her spaceskin yanked on in record time, the stars wheeled above, tiny
pinpricks of light piercing the blackness. Ella shifted her gaze away from the
distant pinwheels and vast, gauzy gas clouds to beyond the Far Reaches.
Humanity had failed to achieve success in exploring the space beyond the
asteroid belt, and nothing illuminated the dense darkness.
Her current assigned quadrant was
at the eastern end of the distant asteroid belt where the long-dead remnants of
a sun and its star system looped in barely detectable trajectories. Standing
alone on a piece of rock two hundred square feet or so far from anyone and
anywhere, she experienced the temptation to let go and drift away. Out here, on
the edge of the known galaxy, it was evident how unimportant human concerns were
and how little they mattered to the workings of the universe. Her forebodings
and anxieties were reduced to the minutest of electrical impulses and she
gained a sense of perspective, understanding the smallness of her life. Her
mind stilled, awed, as she drank in the immensity of the universe.
The bot’s pesky cheeping brought
her back to the reason she’d left the control pod. A quick tug on the line
reassured her that she remained attached to the space pod, and her datband
informed her she was safe inside her spaceskin for another sixteen minutes. She
bent and tugged the spider’s exploratory probe loose as its other probes flexed
and retracted.
“Okay, off you go.”
The bot scuttled off over the
uneven terrain, its sole imperative to locate metonite deposits, driving it
onward.
Back inside the tiny space vessel,
the spaceskin tossed to the floor, she flicked a glance at the results of the
spider’s search and a smile split her face. She clapped her hands. The Goddess
had blessed her.
The little bot had detected a
significantly sizeable vein of the precious ore. Within seconds, she programmed
the mining drone and watched the chunky container detach and float across to
the asteroid, its shovel-like claws extended, ready to excavate the valuable
deposits. She grinned. This was the first time she’d fulfilled her quota in
less than a week. Her last trip had taken the full rosta of thirty days out,
and she’d barely filled half her quota, but this was a lucky run. Her credit
balance would appreciate the extra bonus that came with an early return and,
for once, she appreciated that the mining corporation found it cheaper to hire
humans than wait for AI replacements to arrive at the faraway galaxy.
On the scale of profitability for
jobs for space monkeys, drone miner rated right up there; however, it wasn’t
living, it was a means to survive. The work wasn’t physically hard, but living
in a twelve foot by ten gray metal box containing a control panel and pilot’s
seat, a pull-out bed, separate kemshower booth and toilet until you fulfilled
your quota or thirty days had passed—whichever came first—with four days at
Base between rotations, required a particularly numbing mindset. At the end of
every four months, miners had three weeks of downtime on Lexington Prime.
Although the planet was in Nirdayee
space, it was a collaborative venture between the three ruling intergalactic
governments as Mihireti and Ezkerea mining companies had originally discovered
rich deposits of the valuable ore. A brief war over who had the rights to mine
the Far Reaches ended in an uneasy compromise between the three territories
which had lasted over one hundred cycles.
The nearest suitable planet,
Lexington Prime, had only one city, also called Lexington Prime, which had
started life as the hub for the refining and administrative management of the
asteroid mining operation. As the mining industry grew, import and export of
goods also expanded, until what was once a small colony was now a thriving
city. Advertised as the farthest planet from the center of the known universe,
it also attracted a fair number of tourists, most who stayed only until they
could find the next transport back to where they came from.
This trip was her last before her four-month
rotation was up, and her next period of leave planetside was due. She couldn’t
get on the shuttle soon enough.
She wiped the sweat off her
forehead with the back of her hand, grateful for the few minutes she’d had
outside. She’d welcomed the break, regardless of the fact that she’d lose
consciousness within seconds without the skinsuit’s protection. It was a
standing joke that despite scientific advances, a comfortable temperature
inside the pod was an impossible feat to achieve. Fortunately for Ella, having
grown up in a tropical climate, she preferred the temperature to err on the
side of too warm rather than too cold.
She checked the time. It would take
the drone at least another two hours to complete excavation and another three
days to return to Base. She squashed the impatience needling her mind. There
was nothing she could do; ore carriers were slow, lumbering space craft built
for transporting heavy unrefined rocks, not speed.
She closed her eyes and let her
mind wander. A sudden vision of a sleek vessel, hanging motionless in the dark
emptiness of space, appeared before her and vanished. She froze. She didn’t use
psi blockers when she was out drone mining. There was no need, but on the
station, she used low level ones to suppress her abilities, and ones with more
potency when she visited Lexington Prime. Psi hunters were the most formidable
of the Nirdayee secret agencies, and while in their territory, the possibility
of their presence in a crowd at a spaceport or walking down a crowded concourse
couldn’t be ignored.
The last time her foresight showed
her the future, she had fled, and that was over two years ago. Leaving Kaz, the
soulmate she’d never expected to meet, had been the hardest thing she’d ever
done, but the vision had been clear. If she’d stayed with him, he would die.
Her hand rose and she rubbed the medallion she wore next to her skin. Even now,
thoughts of him had the power to make her heart ache. Once, their bond had been
so strong that thoughts of him would precede his appearance. She wondered if he
ever thought about her anymore or had tried to find her. Don’t think or
fantasize about him, she scolded herself. He’s certainly not going to appear
out here on a piece of rock hurtling through space. Doubtless, he’d severed
their connection long ago. She looked out of the viewscreen at the nothingness
of space beyond the Far Reaches. By leaving, she had given him life and, in
return gained darkness, inside and out. But she could not have chosen
otherwise.
Maybe it was time to return to
Mihireti space, where psis had freedom, and find a planet and settle down? A
frontier planet, recently colonized with low restrictions and less
surveillance, would offer the cover she needed. But, then again, every time she
attempted to establish herself somewhere, after a while fever struck and the
urge to keep moving lured her back into space. The ever-present unease that one
day her family would discover her whereabouts drove her constantly to seek out
new planets. There was comfort in the vast distances between one destination
and the next where it was easy to disappear.
Perhaps when she was on Lexington
Prime she’d look for work on a cargo transport? She had her pilot and
engineer's accreditations. She blew out a breath, resolved to take the
three-week break then decide when she could view the situation with fresh eyes.
It was easy to make impulsive decisions when desperate after a few weeks out in
the belt and a long spell of sensory deprivation.
Known simply as Base, the miners’
home was a massive asteroid that had been excavated and transformed into living
quarters for the miners. Sealing the interior, installing life support and
recycling systems, providing quarters for miners to sleep, eat and exercise was
child's play for a civilization that terraformed planets. As the familiar sight
of Base expanded on the pod’s screen, Ella felt the buzz of anticipation.
Tapping the appropriate code into the console, she stretched and waited until
her docking request was acknowledged and the station AI took charge of the ore
carrier. Leaving the AI to berth and supervise unloading the container, she
followed its instructions and piloted her control pod to the allocated dock.
The instant she heard the buzz of
the docking completion signal, she grabbed her bag, smacked her palm against
the exit panel and strode into the dimly lit tubeway leading from the docking
station to the asteroid's living quarters.
Maybe the time had come for a
change. The monotony drove many miners to leave after one or two rotations; and
if that didn’t get you, claustrophobia, not usually a problem for space
monkeys, could affect even the most hardened. Miners with decades of experience
had been known to develop symptoms similar to the locked-in syndrome of coma
patients. The need to stand on a planet, gravity pulling at your limbs, above
you an open sky, the feel of the wind, rain or sun’s heat on your skin, no
matter how harsh, existed in every cell. Without the stimulus of others, the
human organism survived, though it didn’t flourish. Rather, it favored entropy
and terminal decline. Like other experienced miners, Ella monitored herself for
symptoms. Lexington Prime, she thought, here I come.
Ten minutes later, after a rapid
kemshower—you didn’t linger unless you wanted to see half your epidermis
disappear down the drain—and enjoying the feel of clean clothing against her
skin, she headed to the dining hall.
Tonight the rec hall was busy.
Despite the capacity to accommodate five hundred workers, schedules rarely
allowed for more than a few dozen or so to be at the facility at the same time.
The dining section occupied a quarter of the cavernous area; the rest was for
recreation: a gym where you could find equipment for whatever workout you
desired; holosim booths to provide whatever you fancied in the way of
entertainment. Every wall was covered in bright primary colors to provide
relief from the monotony of staring at empty darkness for weeks on end.
Ella moved toward the buffet, a
missile homing in on its target. Out on rotation, concentrated protein bars and
fortified nuggets packed with the essential vitamins and minerals kept the
miners functioning at a reasonably healthy level because too many dead miners
would affect mining quotas and put off new recruits. Not that there was ever a
shortage of desperate down and outs willing to sign up in exchange for more
credits than they’d accumulate in a lifetime elsewhere.
The first meal upon return, thanks
to the supplies brought in from Lexington Prime, while not as good as a
home-cooked one, was hot and bore a resemblance to something you’d eat
planetside. She grabbed a tray and chose a spiced mashed root plant and a
casserole, both reconstituted yet more satisfying than anything she’d eaten in
a while. She took the plate and a mug of synjuice, spotted Milenka and Jeb on
the far side of the hall and headed toward them.
Jeb, a hard, dried shell of a man
and another of their circle, sat at the table griping. “Is this a decent way to
earn a living? Mining the god-forsaken depths of nowhere. They should offer
convicted criminals a chance to halve their sentences and bring them here to
work.”
Drunk one night in a small,
darkened bar on Lexington Prime, he’d spilled his story to Ella between long
pulls of the bar’s special homebrew. He’d killed someone, a man who had
threatened his family, and had to disappear from his home planet. His family
was safe, and he sent money—there were ways to send it so its origin was
impossible to trace—but there could be no open contact between them, nor could
he ever go home. He had left his beautiful wife and three lovely children
behind and, as he talked, he'd been oblivious to the tears streaming down his
face.
Milenka called him a tough ol’
coot, but Ella thought his story tragic. Even though she knew from experience
there was plenty of suffering in the universe, surely the Far Reaches had a
greater concentration of harrowing stories than any other place in the known
worlds.
"Just in, are you?"
Milenka was striking with red hair and a fiery temper to match, lashing out
violently when provoked. She’d shown Ella around when she first arrived, and
the two of them struck up a friendship immediately. Ella, like most spacers,
accepted offers of friendship—until a reason to end the relationship arose—but
she and Milenka had enjoyed more than a few wild nights on furlough when their
schedules aligned.
“Shush, you pair. I want to hear
this.” Jeb pointed at the giant datscreen on the wall.
The regular announcer, wearing his
professional I-care-what-you-have-to-say expression, faced an older man in a
Nirdayee military uniform, whose red jacket was almost hidden by the large
number of shiny medals on his chest.
The interviewer leaned forward. “So
tell me, General Shevoki, why are you bringing in this new measure now? Are
psis really such a danger to the rest of us?”
“No, of course not. But we do need
to know how many of our people are infected.”
“And when are you planning on
implementing these tests?”
“As soon as possible. We’ll start
in the central planets and move outward until even those in the Far Reaches
will be screened.”
The two men sat in cushy armchairs,
as if they were friends having a cozy chat, rather than notifying the universe
they were declaring war on psis.
Suspicion of those with psi
abilities had been with normal humans since the gene created to combat old age
and disease by scientists two millennia ago spread throughout the three
territories. The Nirdayee sought to control their psis; Mihireti space had
always allowed them freedom, treating them as equals while policies around the
subject in Ezkerean territory changed every time a new ruler took power.
Ella wondered if the interviewer had
any abilities that he didn't want others to know about as she watched him
continue his questioning.
“And what will you do with those who
test positive?”
The general softened his tone.
“Nothing harmful, of course. We wouldn’t harm our own people, but depending on
the level and particular psi skill, they may be incorporated into the military.
Some have valuable skills which we want to develop.”
“What test are they talking about?”
Milenka interrupted.
Ella shrugged, feigning
indifference. “Who cares.” This was a new development. The Nirdayee military
would most likely twist and find a use for most psychic abilities. They
wouldn’t reach this distant corner of space for a while, but she would have to
be vigilant. The general had made it clear by mentioning the mining colony that
there was no escaping the long reach of the government. She’d run away from her
family on Ezkerea eight years ago, too long not to spot a large red flag when
she saw one. Her earlier thoughts about relocating seemed premonitory in light
of this development.
“Maybe we’ll find out next time we
go down to Lexington Prime,” Jeb snorted. “Though I’m sure any psi with a jot
of common sense will clear out of Nirdayee territory ASAP.
Ella picked up her spoon and
grinned, "Well, guys, I'm off to Lexington Prime tomorrow and I’ll give
you an update if I see any Nirdayee thugs with immobilizers at the shuttle
port." She shoveled the food in fast, barely chewing before swallowing. "Philosophical
question," she looked around the group. “How bad is your life when this
reconstituted mush tastes better than anything you remember eating?”
Jeb jabbed a finger at the screen.
“And here’s another joker. Wonder what this fake’s got to say for himself?” he
said to no one in particular, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the stream of
data below the talking image.
Ella’s skin crawled and the hairs
on the back of her neck and arms stood on end as the next item began and the
face of her brother, Julius, appeared on the screen.
